And so let it be written, so let it be done.

Day 28: Rival Teachers

Day 26: Drunk

Day 31: Reincarnation

@zutaramonth

Cheers and thanks to all the awesome mods and their work to make this month possible. (Even if I'm late with the last three, they're done though)

And there we have it, until next year! Cheers!

WIP Zutara Month Challenge: Brightest in the Dark

So this will be a moment to share a bit of a moment I hinted at in my Ghost of a Waterbender fic but I have a cute head cannon for Katara and Zuko and maybe write a snippet later.

But as for this, this is a little head canon that Zuko likes to call Katara his firecracker. Mostly because Katara reminds him of one when they were traveling to find Yon Rah. A firework that snaps and pops, but also produces the most beautiful lights in the darkest of nights. And you can only see them in the dark, so that is why she is the brightest to him. And since then Katara has not minded when he calls her firecracker.

Also, this HC came from this amazing song by Cami Cat of the same name: Firecracker also a bit of a coincidence that the characters look like Katara and Zuko. I know it was not intentional, but still, it helped a lot.

That being said, here is the snippet of what I had in mind when Zuko calls her it the first time:

"We are only here to get some provisions," she said as she was serious. "We can't get caught up in the fun. And don't try to tell me we can wait for the show. We will not." She snapped a little, but Zuko could tell there was a bit of sadness that they could not stay for long.

He nodded as he agreed, following her into the village festival time to look for food. It looked like they were celebrating something from the excessive amount of fire works being sold around the village and fire sticks and fire crackers. All to light the night up. Katara was determined to keep going but she could not help but stare ever now and then smiled at it.

Zuko was watching her as he was amazed she finally let a smile slip since she has been scowling and upset most of their trip. And rightfully so. But he could see her change from this hard exterior before shinning brighter than any star in the sky.

Katara looked at him and then it turned sour again, but Zuko was still smiling as she asked. "What are you smiling about?"

Zuko chuckled. "I think I know what makes you interesting," he said. "And in a good way, mind you." He affirmed before getting smacked in the arm by her.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You are like a firecracker," he said.

Katara raised an eyebrow as she was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Firecrackers are very much like the name suggest: fast, resilient, a bit quick tempered when mad, but they shine the brightest in the dark."

Katara was not sure what to think of it. It felt like he was trying to compliment her but not saying it out right. "So... is that good or bad?"

"You tell me, miss firecracker."

Katara blushed as she did not expect his teasing to hit her like that. And her heart skipping a beat. He was so lucky they were in a Fire Nation village, otherwise she would soak him. But to hide her face, she turned away. "Come on, we need to go."

"As you wish," he said and dropped it for now. But Zuko found a new name he was more than happy to call this fiery waterbender that has fire to his own heart.

One more, but it will be a bit. But I promise, it will be a good one.

The pokey game is wild ;) Zutara prompt for today: Accidental kiss

Sokka's face kills me. XD

Finally submission for Zutara month 2024! I came up with this a bit late but I will admit, I am excited to see where this goes, hope you all enjoy the prequel!

Catching up to finish Zutara Month.

I'm still going to tag but if I'm too late, I'm sorry and just ignore me!

Day 27: "Shall We?"

@zutaramonth

Last three coming!

Zutara Month Day 9: "You're Married?!"

The council had been at a standstill for what felt like hours. As firm as Zuko stood on the issues of importance, he had ended up making several accommodations for the high-ranking officers and nobles who were slow to accept change, and even slower to accept it from Ozai's traitor son. One general, in particular, had been making snide comments all day about Zuko's interests being compromised, using the phrase, "in bed with the Avatar," in a way that made Katara's skin itch every time she heard it. She couldn't tell if Zuko didn't notice the implications of what the man was saying, or if he was merely trying to keep up the pretense of social norms. He had become almost scarily good at doing such, bowing and smiling in a way that made Katara almost suspect he had been possessed by some interloper from the spirit realm, it was so unlike Zuko, although he had learned from Iroh. But the other members of the council definitely noticed, and the man's comments were increasingly earning titters from several of the Earth Kingdom ambassadors, even though their reasons for disliking Zuko were on opposite ends of the political spectrum. It seemed that no matter who he tried to please, Zuko was making enemies in every corner. Even when Katara tried to turn the conversation back to what we are doing, reminding the officers that this plan was for a new world that would benefit the Fire Nation as much as the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes, they ignored her.

"The only thing I can't quite figure out," the general who had been making the rude comments all morning said, "is whether our Fire Lord here is the Avatar's pet, or whether the Avatar is his catamite."

That brought an equal amount of scandalized gasps as it had stifled laughter, but both were just as damaging. Katara couldn't take it anymore, and from the look of things, Zuko had finally reached the end of his patience as well, his face red and - was that steam coming out of his nose? Oh, no -

Katara hastily grabbed his hand in an exaggerated gesture, which had the effect of startling Zuko out of his fuming and forced them all to look at her. Good.

"How dare you," she began, "make such crass comments about my husband."

"You're married?!"

That certainly brought gasps from around the room, but no laughter this time. Zuko was standing very still next to her, his eyes wide.

Just go with it, she mouthed to him, squeezing his hand in reassurance in what she hoped looked to the rest of the council like a loving gesture.

Zutara Month 2022

Day 2

Prompt: Cave of Two Lovers.

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Ok... So I have never written fanfic before, but I got this idea during Zutara month. Being a teacher, I thought it might be fun to put one of my favorite ships into a teaching situation. Maybe this is silly, but I would love some feedback just to see what I should change? Or is it worth pursuing? I'm not sure. Also, what do I call it?

Zuko was excited to be back. He might not be a student anymore, but the White Lotus School had been his home for many years, and it held many fond memories. Ursa had enrolled Zuko a year or so after their father had been arrested, with the help of their beloved Uncle. Azula was enrolled a year later. 

His Uncle Iroh had stepped up and helped both him and his sister after his abusive father was taken. His father had incited a riot and was trying to start a revolution to undo integration. The old ways had died nearly a century ago, but his father, grandfather, and great grandfather felt that firebenders and fireblooded families should not be integrated with what they considered “riffraff”. But after he had burned Zuko's face because he had made a new friend that Ozai deemed an “enemy” Ursa had left quickly, and Iroh had taken them in. A few weeks later, Ozai was in jail for inciting violence elsewhere. 

Zuko had been nervous about joining the most prodigious integrated bending school in the country. He was worried he would get judged for his scar and that others would find out about his father and assume terrible things about him. Only 12 years old and completely alone out on the coast of the old Earth Kingdom, he was thrilled when he made a friend with a young water nation boy. Sokka had been a breath of fresh air helping him feel at ease, making him laugh, eating practically nonstop, and even though he wasn't a bender, he desired to be a fierce warrior. 

This was one of the main reasons he was so excited to come back to teach. This school had really blazed the trail on integration. Not only was every student taught about the culture of their ancestors, but about each other's culture, which helped open more doors to friendship. Even non-benders could come and study many different things. Sokka and Zuko had quickly signed up for sword classes with Master Piandao, though they ended up leaning towards different styles eventually, and of course Sokka had practically fallen all over himself to join the multicultural cooking classes all 6 years at school. He had pressured Zuko into joining him the first few years at least. 

As Dean Bumi showed Zuko around to all the different classrooms in the school (though he didn't really need the tour), so many good memories were going through his head. As they passed the culinary room, he remembered all the times he snuck fire flakes or spices into Sokka's food and laughed at his watery eyed reactions. As they passed the training rooms, he remembered many a sparring session with Sokka, then later sparring with other benders of all kinds. The two that came to mind first were Toph, who, during her 3rd year, Zuko's 6th, had absolutely handed him his ass. The other was Katara, whom he had sparred with several times despite her being two years younger. They had been pretty evenly matched. The final tally when he had graduated was Katara 5- Zuko 4.  Toph became a good friend pretty quick, always greeting him with a punch to the shoulder. Katara was a friend from the moment she arrived at school, since she was Sokka's sister, though she tended to hang out with Yue most of the time. 

He hadn't seen Toph or Katara or any of their friend group since him and Sokka had graduated from military boot camp, about 6 months after graduating from White Lotus. It may have been 5 years ago, but he could still remember almost everything about that day. He and Sokka hadn't seen anybody else for three months during that time, and it had been nice to see them all there. Azula had been so proud of him and gave him a rare hug. Despite his father always pitting them against each other as kids, and even Zhao (his awful firebending teacher for his first two years and Azula's 1st) doing the same, they had a good relationship. They had probably been lucky that Dean Bumi had walked in unannounced to a class and heard Zhao's abusive language during Zuko's 2nd year. With short notice, Uncle Iroh was asked and graciously accepted the job. Iroh had only planned on teaching that year, but enjoyed it so much that he decided to stay until Azula graduated. Zuko’s bending grew quickly under his uncle's tutelage, and soon, his sister and him were also fairly evenly matched. 

Toph got to him and Sokka first and punched them both in the shoulder and commented on their military uniforms. Katara had looked so beautiful in her blue dress and boots, but he had quickly quashed that thought. She was his best friend's sister and was dating an earth bender named Haru at the time. Plus Aang, who was Toph’s best friend in her class,  was waiting anxiously for Katara and Haru to break up, much like it had been with Jet. He wasn't sure if it would go Aang's way, but he had come to really like the kid, and besides, who could completely deny the avatar. There was only one every generation, and Aang was funny, capable, talented, and often thoughtful, though immature. 

After the graduation, Aang had insisted that they go have some fun before him and Sokka would be shipped off to their first military posts. They had all met at the beach an hour later to celebrate. Aang and Toph had somehow snuck some old Fire Nation wine to the beach, which Katara and Yue greatly disapproved of, but still enjoyed. Katara and Yue had fun soaking unsuspecting beach bums with their bending, while Toph and Aang had quite the sand bending competition, trying to outdo each other's newest sand sculpture. Sokka and Zuko had both been irritated with Katara's and Yue's water antics, though Zuko had been a bit pleased with how Katara's eyes had scanned his soaked body. Later on in the evenin, Zuko and Azula lit up a massive bonfire and they all sat around and drank from the bottles of wine. When Haru arrived late, Zuko had shoved down the tiny bit of jealousy that reared its head as he watched his arm snake around Katara's waist. He glanced over at Aang and was relieved that he was better than Aang at covering his emotions. Beside, he was an adult now and Katar was still in school, who knew when he would see her again. When his cousin,  Lu Ten, arrived late, he broke up the party and made sure all these silly drunk children got home safely. As he had been driving, Yue had loudly whispered to Katara that his cousin was cute and Katara had agreed. He tried to remember to keep his jealousy in, but 10 seconds later Zuko's heart flipped when Katara agreed with Toph that Zuko and Lu Ten kinda looked alike. He argued with himself that she was just drunk and probably didn't really think that. When they dropped off Sokka and Katara at hom, she gave him a hearty, giggly hug and made him promise to watch out for Sokka while they were out saving the world. He had blushed greatly and stammered out the promise. He and Sokka left the next day. They had gotten lucky enough to stay in the same company for 8 months before Sokka was moved to a different group where he could focus more on his engineering ingenuity. 

Zuko was immediately brought out of his reverie as Dean Bumi walked him into the health office. The health clerk was Yue! She looked up to greet the new hire and did a double take, looking up from the paperwork she had been dutifully filling out. 

“Zuko!?” she said, beaming up at him. 

“Hi Yue! I didn't know you were working here now?” Zuko said, stunned. 

“I didn't know you had been discharged! But I guess it has been a bit over 4 years, huh? I thought if Sokka decided to stay in, you might as well.” 

“We haven't been together in the military for a bit now. He's been stationed in the Caldera, working in a company of engineers for the last several years. We've seen each other off and on, but it's been a little different with me outranking him after our first year or so. We still text every so often. He seems pretty happy.” 

“Well good, it's good to see you, and I'm glad to hear you are still friends,” Yue said with a wistful look in her eye. 

“What about Katara, are you still friends too? What's she up to nowadays?” Zuko tried to sound as conversational and casual as possible. Sokka hadn't kept Zuko up to date on his sister really, only mentioning her occasionally. 

“Of course we're still friends. You haven't seen her yet?” Yue asked with a small blush. 

Bumi interrupted before Zuko had a chance to reply, “No, we haven't yet visited Master Katara's classroom. We will after we visit the earth bending class.” 

Zuko was trying to process that she was a teacher now. That she was here! That he was going to see her shortly! The last time he had seen her and Yue, they had still both been kids, and now they were both here, all grown up and teaching/healing the next generation. He wondered how Sokka had never mentioned this or how he had never seen it on Katara's social media? But then again, Katara would post on social media rarely, and it was usually more about the progress that still needed to be made into the integration of all women, regardless of their ancestry. It had been a fight she had been making since coming to the school. 

Master Pakku was still somewhat set in the old ways and often pushed the female waterbending students more towards the healing arts than anything else. She had been surprisingly determined to change things for a little 12 year old girl. She worked hard enough to be one of the very rare female students Master Pakku allowed into his higher bending classes. Once she was in Katara immediately created a club where she taught every other female waterbender who had been pushed elsewhere all the skills she learned in his class. When Master Pakku had tried to get her in trouble for creating an unsanctioned club she had asked for a sparring match between all Master Pakku’s top male benders and her little club of girls. The girls did their best and took out a few of their male contenders, but it was ultimately Katara who took on the last 5. She took them all out with a fancy move she claimed she had learned from watching Zuko firebend. After that Bumi fully sanctioned her club and Master Pakku started integrating at least a few more girls into his upper bending classes. The misogyny of the whole situation was something he had heard many a rant about during their school lunch hour and he had always been relieved it hadn't been something Azula had to deal with. 

After Zuko and Bumi had left Yue's office all Zuko could think about was seeing Katara. Suddenly, instead of living in his memories as he walked through the nostalgic halls of their old school, he was wondering to himself what she looked like now. Was she still dating Haru or had Aang finally gotten a chance? Would he have a chance? Should he even think about taking a chance? She was still his best friend's sister and now his coworker, maybe there are too many lines to cross anyway. 

Zuko was so in his own head, barely listening to Bumi's tour comments, that he was surprised when his arm was punched. 

“Earth to Zuko!” Toph mocked him. “Are you there, Zuko?” 

Zuko just gawked at Toph and then slowly smiled and sarcastically asked, "Do you greet your students this way too?” 

“Of course not, Sparky! That greeting is only ever for my favorite people. You, Twinkletoes….” Toph looked off thoughtfully, “and Snoozles whenever I might see him next?” She looked at Zuko questioningly. 

“I'm not sure when Sokka will have his next leave.” Zuko said knowingly. Perhaps Sokka had been too focused on his crush on Yue during his last 2 school years to notice that Toph had a massive crush on him. Zuko had sometimes wondered if that was the only reason Toph had insisted on being his friend. 

“Well next time you talk to him, tell him his sister and his best friend deserve a visit.” Toph said.

As he and Bumi walked out, he smiled wondering if he, as Sokka's best friend, was who she was really concerned about. He was positive that Toph would still be flirty with Sokka if he ever came back for a visit. 

Being a firebender, Zuko hadn't really been in the earth, air, or water areas of the school a whole lot during his school days. However, as he walked into one of the waterbending classrooms he suddenly understood why the school had been built on the coast instead of in the neighboring city of Ba Sing Se. He had always appreciated being on the coast when his friends would drag him down to different parts of the beach during the weekends, but he had never realized just how close some of the school buildings were to the water. As they walked into the room he could see the French doors at the back of the class were propped fully open to a gorgeous view of the ocean. He couldn't quite see the beach below the small cliffs, but he could see the staircase that would lead students down to the water. Bumi led him out the doors and 30 yards down the stone path to the staircase. As he looked down to the beach, he could see her, working on her waterbending forms. The students who would arrive next week were surely lucky to be learning from such a capable teacher… a beautiful teacher. He swallowed hard as she turned around and caught sight of him and Bumi. Her face broke out into a smile and her blue eyes made all thoughts of what he might say disappear. 

“Hey Zuko! What are you doing back here?” Katara said as she walked towards him barefoot. 

“He's going to be teaching our next generation of sword masters and helping the firebending teacher on occasion,” Dean Bumi answered for him when he couldn't seem to form any words despite him opening his mouth. 

Finally, he stammered out, “Katara, it's good to see you again.” 

WIP Zutara Month Challenge: Shall we?

So... this is where I have not much to add to this one, but if I had to make an idea up on the spot, I guess it would be this:

Katara and Zuko are at some party and everyone else is watching the everyone paired up to dance or just mingling. But they are not really feeling social at the moment. But then a song comes up that they both know and can dance to. Katara does not want to dance as the last time she danced, it was interrupted.

But Zuko smiles as he is soft and sweet has he offers her hand and walks her out from the crowd so they are not disturbed. With a "Shall we?" Katara is swept away.

And maybe a funny moment would be the dance gets interrupted again with some rouge Fire nation people trying to disrupt the fun. And Katara smirks with a eagerness to fight saying to Zuko: "Shall we?"

And ends with maybe another chance to enjoy the quiet of the night finally over and in each other's arms.

Short sweet and simple. We will see if I ever make it one day. But almost done!

WIP Zutara Month Challenge: Rival School Teachers

So, another prompt that I cannot really do justice, especially as I know there are amazing people that do this prompt justice. Especially with keeping it within the realm of the canon. Like rivalry over how to teach Aang that leads into a sparring match - you know who I am talking about if you are reading this ;)

But as for anything I can offer? Well maybe a small idea to through to the world in a No War AU - where Zuko and Katara become mentors and top students of their respective schools. But then are asked to come together to make a new school to unify the nations and since they are the top, they have to work together.

But again, I throw this to the world for someone to have fun with it.

Two more to go since I completed the Time Travel one. See you all later!

WIP Zutara Month Challenge: Drunk (Part 2)

So here is part two. Again, as mentioned in the other one, this will be talking more mature themes. You have been warned!

As for the next idea is for a WIP I call: Thank you, Cactus Juice!

The premise of this is Zuko being a bit high/ drunk on Cactus Juice. I had an old set up of Sokka making it when they were older which I will share but I think I might rework to something else. (It gets into more mature themes to read at your own discretion!)

WIP Zutara Month Challenge: Drunk

So, for this one, I need to split it into two ideas. Maybe two posts Because while I can make it rated tean, I will admit this idea made me think of a fic idea I have stored away for a rainy day, but it is an adult fic. But yeah.

So for the first idea, I thought about being drunk on adrenaline. Like Katara gets to ride with Zuko on Druk for the first time and it is like a rush. Or drunk on fighting together for the first time while looking for Yon Rah. Just being caught in the moment then needing the thrill to do something together and or maybe leading to a kiss as they are hyped up on emotions.

So this is part one, the next post will come soon that is more mature so stay tuned!

Originally for Zutara Month (Day 11 & 18) but life got in the way!

Katara, We Have a Problem

Zuko: Hey, Katara. You know how you’re getting married to Aang in a few days?

Katara: Yes.

Zuko: *Hands her photos* There might be a problem.

Katara: *Eyes widen* Where did you find these?

Zuko: I was packing up my stuff for the wedding and I haven’t traveled in a while-

Katara: Zuko, focus!

Zuko: They were in one of the small pockets.

Katara: Which means this is from-

Zuko: Our trip from 3 years ago? Yeah.

Katara: How could this happen?!?

Zuko: If I recall, we were very drunk-

Katara: I know the events leading up to it Zuko! I meant who forgets they got married in Vegas?!?!

Zuko: …

Katara: *Huffs* What?

Zuko: The suitcase also had our wedding rings.

Katara: Zuko!

Hehe still with the guilty pleasure. Zutara Alter ego prompt pt. 2 Zuko version. Love how he came out in this hehe.

Final chapter of Zutara month done. I posted this two days back but figured I’d update tumblr two. Any feedback appreciated.