Zutara Week 2 - Day 3

I don’t own the Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters.


Day 3 – Trim


“No!” The firebender yelled while he ran through a building. He only came to a halt when he reached the last terrace of the Western Air Temple. He whirled on his heels when Katara – still in a run - lifted the scissors in her hand. “Woo stop, stop!” He yelled, raising his hands between them as he took another step back. She finally stopped too with flushed face.

“I said…” He took deep breaths to calm down his racing heart then waved with a cough. “No one. Will cut off my hair.”

The waterbender clenched her fists beside her – upon the handle of the scissors… “Look, we told you what the plan was, and then you agreed if one of us wins against you, then you will…”

“One! I said one of you, not all of you!”

“But we did not attack at the same time.” She said with a hand on her hip, and on a voice, which showed that this detail made her clearly feel justified. But then a triumphant smirk appeared on her face. “Oh, so you don’t want to accept it because it was I who sent you down, right?”

Zuko’s face darkened. “You could only do that because Toph was about to send spikes through my feet. Spikes!” The tanned skinned girl only rolled her eyes. “She kept on murmuring ‘revenge’ the whole day and just when she stopped for a moment so that I could at least get some air in my lungs, you sneak-attacked me! What was I supposed to do?”

“Keep your promise after you let your guard down!” Katara shouted.

The prince crossed his arms. “I saw the stars in midday! It does not count!” He complained on, which made her loose her temper.

“Damn it, quit whining!” Her eyebrows snapped together furiously as she took a step towards him, making him start to retreat. “If I managed to shave off Haru’s moustache then I will trim your head too!”

Zuko scoffed. “Well that was not too hard, the poor guy was so scared of you he would have done anything to ease you.”

“That’s so not true.” She said then her hand suddenly reached out without the scissors to grab him, but he easily jumped away. “Hold still already, it’s just a little hair!”

“As if…!” She tried it once more with the same results, which made her grunt. “Look, you don’t get it, in the Fire Nation hair is more than just hair.” They both stopped for a moment so he had time to go on. “Its length does matter, ok? With short hair…” For some reasons Katara started laughing so hard that he almost did not finish. “I would be like the lowest p… servants!” He directly avoided the word peasant, but as she just laughed on and he understood what he said he instantly reddened. “That’s so not funny…”

The waterbender finally took a deeper breath, drying one of her eyes before slowly speaking. “Ok, I’m cool now, so let me repeat it…” As she started walking again, he stepped backwards too. “Because Aang cannot master firebending in this small amount of time…”

“Well, we could still try!” He popped in.

“That’s why we need someone who is by the way a master firebender, and make them look alike. So that when the time comes to invade the Fire Palace…”

“And…” His eyebrows furrowed. There had to be something else… “And what about the scar?” He blurted out, pointing at the side of his face. “You cannot seriously believe that such a familiarity would not be seen by the fire lord before…!”

“That is the reason why we tried to use make-up on your face to…”

“No way!” His eyes narrowed. “I’m not going to let Sokka draw fake eyelashes on my face again!”

Katara tried but could not suppress a giggle gaining a glare. “Oh-okay… I will do it this time, all right?” Zuko hesitantly stopped, why she offered him a smile. “I’ll take care of it ok? And I won’t make jokes this time, I swear. The scar, the hair,” She lifted up the scissors while he let her finally get a hold of a hair-lock from before his eye. “And the arrows.” This was what suddenly surprised him more, squirming out of her hands just before she could have started anything.

“The arrows?!”

In the meantime he took one last step backwards, but as she had managed to force him to the edge, he peeked down to see there was nowhere to run from here. When Katara lifted her hand with her ‘weapon’ again and her eyes locked with his, he found himself saying. “I’m not afraid of you…”

The waterbender’s lips curled into a smirk. “Really? You definitely don’t sound like it.”

Zuko felt as a drop of sweat slowly made its way down his temple. He did not think he was going to need his last card, but… “Katara, please…” The girl’s hand stopped as she looked up at him. His using the ‘p’ word had been too rare. “I… don’t want to be bald, I have…” He started before bowing his head, going on. “The one time my head was shaved was when I’ve been banished. It’s… really not a good memory…”

He peeked up at her from the corner of his eyes, but not to his joy instead of understanding, the girl only crossed her arms with a semi-dark look. “So tradition, Zuzu? And bad memories…?” He swallowed as her voice rang differently. The next moment it changed as if she had started a fairy tale. “Then let me tell you a little detail I’ve forgotten to mention before…”

“About a certain tree incident,” The prince looked at her with his only eyebrow raised before she suddenly pointed at the necklace in her neck. “Do you know what this means?”

Her voice became half-taunting again, and his shoulders slightly slumped as guilt hit him for a second time. “I… I’m sorry.” He said, and though he did not sound the same like in the caves of Ba Sing Sei, he was honest enough… - to get himself out of this situation, at least. “I did not know then that it belonged to your mother.”

“No Zuzu, that’s not it.” A glint in his eyes showed that the nickname was just as annoying this time, than in any other time. “This necklace…” She let her hand touch it before saying the words really slowly. “Is given to girls only after the marrying age…”

“Which means… what?” He asked confusedly before her eyes turned icy.

“By boys.” She said, but after a minute he only blinked, making her hiss. “It’s a betrothal necklace!” His good eye rounded. “You’ve basically asked me to marry you right in front of a group of drunken pirates and your uncle while I was tied to that tree!”

His mouth opened, but without a sound it closed again while even his ears pinked. Not like she could have avoided a blush, but she did not let anything else change in her expressions.

For an extremely long moment he only held her stare while she started stomping the ground with one of her feet. Then the hard wind finally reached them from behind, and moved his hair in his face then back…

In the end his shoulders slumped as he bowed his head completely so that she could surely reach it everywhere. “Just don’t cut my neck, ok…?”