Title: A Little Bit of Trust

Author: Dracori

Summary: It’s hard to give back the trust that was once broken. Especially for Katara. But seeing both sides can give a better understanding to why that trust was broken…and why it could not easily be mended.

Disclaimer: All characters of Avatar: the Last Airbender belong to Mike and Bryan.

Rating: PG

Warning: TWAT spoilers.

A/N: Alright, here’s the deal. It hadn’t been my intention to watch TWAT (-snort- twat…) early like most people already did. I can’t stand it when people can’t wait a week or two to see new episodes, but I’ve heard rumors that new episodes may not air in the U.S until February. And I didn’t go looking for the episode. I logged onto YouTube and up there in the “Videos being watched now..” section, there it was, and I just couldn’t turn away. I caved. I was weak, I’ll admit, and I’m going to try not to give into temptation anymore. Avatar is worth the wait.

But after watching the episode, and rewatching Katara’s death threat to Zuko over and over again, this little idea for a short fanfic sprouted. I don’t think the writers would have added in that death threat if Zuko wasn’t going to slip up somehow. Somehow I think Aang might accidentally get injured during training and Katara is going to go batshit. I just feel like if Katara had a better understanding of what Zuko’s been through, and why he sided with Azula back in Ba Sing Se, she wouldn’t see him as the cold-hearted bastard she does right now.

A Little Bit of Trust

Zuko watched Katara leave with a look of regret, fear, and hopelessness. As the door was angrily slammed shut, Zuko’s shoulders slumped slightly and his head was turned downward. He had known from the start that Katara would be the one least trusting of him, especially after what had happened at Ba Sing Se. It was more personal for her, and he couldn’t blame her. He knew he deserved the threat, so he said nothing.

Sighing, Zuko turned and sat down on the bed, looking towards the picture of his beloved Uncle Iroh. “This may be a bit more difficult than I thought, Uncle.” Granted, Zuko knew there was most likely going to be tension between he and the Avatar’s friends, the Avatar included. But now with a death threat looming over him, he feared the actual training sessions. Zuko figured it’d be best to possibly stall a little and just practice breathing exercises and meditation with the Avatar for the next couple of days, as it was impossible to injure himself while he practiced breathing. Maybe then Katara may possibly warm up to him a little more in that time.

OoooooooO

Four days later…

“Can we please start firebending now?! Please?!” Aang begged, actually getting down on his knees.

“Aang, I thought you weren’t too thrilled with the idea of learning firebending,” said Sokka as he polished off his boomerang, observing the session from a distance with a lacking interest.

“Well, I really wasn’t at first,” the monk replied. “But…I learned my lesson the hard way. I was determined I’d never firebend again, but I have no choice, and I know now that I have to have better control.”

Zuko rubbed the back of his head, occasionally glancing nervously at Katara, who was watching the session with a hardened look. He could see “I’m watching you” written all over her face. “Well,” he began as he looked back towards his pupil, “the fact that you’re so eager has me worried, but then again we have been practicing balance and breathing for the past couple of days now.” The Prince sighed, giving in. “Alright, we’ll start working with fire now. You said you’ve actually practiced firebending before, right?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, well then let’s just pick up from there. I want you to try and create another fireball in your hand, and once you do that, carefully alter its size, but not drastically. Small to big, big to small. That’s all I want you to do. Understand?”

Aang nodded, closing his eyes and holding out the palm of his hand. He took in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, opening his eyes.

“Just concentrate,” said Zuko. “Just try and drown out all noises around you.”

“It’s kind of hard to do that with you talking to him!” Katara shouted out to him, her glare hardening. Zuko simply ignored her outburst and continued observing Aang as he tried to create a fireball.

“Hey, Katara, chill out,” Toph cut in. “Sparks is just doing his job.”

“Whatever,” Katara snapped as she took a seat next to the earthbender and started digging in their supply bag for the bag of nuts they had, her eyes never leaving Zuko as she did this. She hated how he never made eye contact with her, never seemed to acknowledge her.

“I did it!” Aang cried excitedly as he finally managed to create a small ball of fire in his hand, though his smile instantly faded when the horrible memory of burning Katara’s hands came back to him. He instantly hovered his free hand over the lively flame, as though afraid it would without warning shoot out in all directions and set anything flammable ablaze.

“Alright, good. Now try to make it bigger, but not extremely. The point of doing this is to master control.”

Aang nodded, taking another deep breath. Keeping the memory of his last firebending experience in mind as a reminder, he slowly enlarged the ball of fire by a very small portion. His nervousness caused small beads of sweat to dot his brow. He didn’t want to make the mistake he did months back when he had no regard for what firebending could do.

Once the fireball had reached a size that Aang feared surpassing, he started sizing it back down to its original size, then repeated this technique again and again. Zuko smiled in approval.

Both Sokka and Toph had informed Zuko that Aang had mastered both water and earth pretty quickly, and Zuko knew that if Aang could master earth, his natural opposite, at a relatively fast pace, he’d surely master firebending in no time. In fact, firebending would probably be the easiest for him by far. It was just a matter of mastering control, and it was understandable for someone Aang’s age to be impatient and want to get too far ahead of himself. But luckily that wasn't a major problem with the young airbender.

OoooooooO

“Alright, very good lesson,” Zuko said, bowing to Aang, who did the same. “We need to work through all the basics first, practice defense and offense, and then start the advanced set.”

“Great! How long do you think it‘ll be before I‘m a master?” Aang asked excitedly.

“At the very most, a few weeks, hopefully. But you can’t get ahead of yourself. It’s very easy to get too eager and fire is the most dangerous element to learn when you’re too eager.”

“Trust me, I know that now.” Aang turned and ran towards Katara, who he saw getting the cooking pot set up to start cooking lunch. “Hey, Katara! Did you see me?! I managed to keep my firebending under control this time!”

“That’s great, Aang,” Katara replied dryly. “Haru, could you bring me a few blocks of wood from that pile over there?”

“Sure thing, Katara.”

“What’s the matter, Katara?” Aang asked as he took a seat in front of the waterbender. “You’ve been kind of…grumpy these past couple of days.”

“Yeah, I’m not so sure I can call you Sweetness anymore,” Toph chimed in.

“It’s nothing. I’ve just been having trouble sleeping these past couple of nights. It’s probably the new beds.”

“Nice try, Katara. Besides, we’ve slept on hard earth. How could you possibly have trouble sleeping on a bed?” Toph asked.

Katara clenched her fists in frustration. “What’s the big deal?! So I’ve been in a bad mood the past couple of days! You guys have been in bad moods before, too! I wasn’t on your case!”

Everyone immediately shut their mouths. Haru nervously approached Katara with three logs secured in his arms, too afraid to open his mouth.

“Thanks, Haru,” Katara mumbled, taking the logs, though not even bothering to glance at the earthbender.

Zuko went to take a seat on the opposite side of the group, near where Sokka was residing. Strangely, the two boys had hit it off pretty well once Zuko had become a part of the group. The first day was a bit shaky, but it didn’t take very long for Sokka to start warming up to the firebender. Both boys were somewhat glad to have another boy their age to interact with. Sokka had even been overly excited to see that Zuko was very skillful in sword fighting, and had begged the Prince until he was blue in the face to teach him how to fight with broadswords.

The other boys, Haru, The Duke, and Teo, didn’t seem too bothered by having a firebender in the group. They knew Aang needed to learn firebending, and they didn’t know the Prince personally, so it wasn’t much of a bother to them. Though they had been a bit surprised that this particular firebender was the Fire Lord’s son, Zuko was carrying his own weight and was even helping out quite a bit, so in their eyes, he was a friend and an ally, and they really saw no reason (for the moment) not to trust him.

“Sokka, can you come over here and help me start the fire?” Katara asked.

Sokka looked from Katara, then to Zuko, and then back to Katara, and then back to Zuko again, scratching his head. “Umm…Katara?” he began, jerking a thumb to Zuko. “Firebender. Hello?”

“Oh, this coming from the guy who doesn’t believe in all that silly bending magic? I thought you’d be thrilled to start the fire to prove that you don’t need that silly firebending magic to start a fire,” Katara spat rather nastily. Sokka looked rather taken aback by the snippy response. Zuko just kept his eyes on the ground, ignoring the resentful exchange.

“Well…yeah. Ordinarily, I’d agree with you, but my stomach is gnawing at my backbone here. And for the past few days I’ve been starting the fire…but seriously, we’ve got a firebender. Why spend like five minutes trying to get a fire going when Zuko can do it in two seconds?”

“Fine! Let him start it!” Katara yelled, throwing up her arms and scooting away from the small pile of wood.

“Katara, relax. Alright, Sparks, get over here and start the fire so we can start cooking this grub. I’m starving here,” said Toph, motioning for Zuko to come over. The Prince sighed and pushed himself to his feet. He kept his head down and eyes on the stone ground as he made his way over to the rest of the group, too afraid to even make eye contact with the waterbender. It was almost heart-wrenching. He knew Katara had a right to be mistrusting of him, but he had honestly hoped within three or four days she would start warming up to him, if just a little bit. But it only seemed to be getting worse. It seemed like every day she was getting nastier and nastier. And Zuko wasn’t the only one who was suffering; the rest of the group was getting tired of putting up with her sour attitude as well.

Zuko knelt down on one knee and ignited the tip of his index finger, then reached out and set one of the logs aflame. “See?” began Sokka as he made his way over to sit with the group and wait for lunch to be served. “Sometimes it’s good to have a firebender handy.”

Katara didn’t seem to hear her brother’s remark. She busied herself with filling the stew pot with water and setting it over the fire, but while doing all this she always found time to shoot a rather icy glare to Zuko, who every time was busy looking off somewhere else, not even seeming to acknowledge her or anyone else in the group. The disgruntled waterbender looked around at the rest of the group with a now more curious expression. Teo and The Duke were engaged in some kind of conversation, as were Toph and Haru. Sokka was busy teasing Aang, and Zuko was just off in his own little world. It infuriated her. Why was it that she was the only one who seemed to be bothered by the Prince now being a part of their group? It almost made her feel like she was the bad guy in all this.

It was understandable that Toph didn’t see much of a reason not to trust Zuko. After all, she hadn’t been there to endure all the trouble he had caused them, as well as for Haru, The Duke, and Teo. But Sokka and Aang didn’t at all seem too bothered by having him around. They acted as though he had always been part of their group.

‘He betrayed you. Aang and Sokka weren’t there. You’re not just worried about him hurting Aang, you’re worried about him betraying your trust again.’

OoooooooO

Two days later…

“Morning, Sifu Zuko,” said Aang cheerfully as he approached his teacher, who had already been up for over an hour and had spent his time alone meditating.

“Good morning,” he replied as he quickly got to his feet.

Katara, who had been following a short distance behind Aang, winced as the young monk addressed Zuko as ‘Sifu’, but she kept her mouth shut and went to take a seat on the stone floor some distance away, where she could observe Zuko closely without getting in the way. Haru would probably be waking up any moment, and then the rest of the group would probably be piling out one by one. Toph and Sokka especially weren’t exactly the morning birds of the group.

“So, what are we going to do today?” Aang asked excitedly.

“Well, we’re going to start moving into defense soon, but before we do that, I want to try something first.”

Zuko quickly created a stream of flames with both his hands, then began moving it around in all directions, over and around his head, instantly fascinating Aang. “My uncle taught me that the best way to become a great bender is to first understand the other elements and the type of techniques they use, because understanding each element can make you better understand yourself as a bending master. So, we’re going to follow the techniques of the waterbenders.”

Katara’s ears instantly perked up after hearing this. She didn’t even acknowledge Sokka and Haru when they came out to join her, nor did she return their ‘Good morning.’

“Push and pull. This is how the waterbenders control their element, and this is what I want you and I to do. I’ll push the fire towards you, and you’re going to pull it the rest of the way, and I want you to push it back to me. Doing this will also better your control over the fire.”

Aang nodded, readying himself. Zuko calmly sent the fire towards him with little to no force at all, which Aang easily pulled towards his torso, and then quickly sent right back to his teacher at the same, calm flow as it had been presented to him. They did this for a full thirty seconds before Zuko suddenly created another stream of flames and sent it Aang’s way. The airbender hadn’t been expecting this, which had obviously been Zuko’s intent. But Aang knew this was part of the lesson, so as soon as he sent the first stream of flames back to his teacher, he didn’t have a moment to spare before he had to quickly take control of the new stream of flames Zuko had unleashed on him. Several minutes passed without a slip up and Zuko unleashed a third wave of flames on him.

Fifteen minutes into the session and the rest of the group had finally woken up and gathered around to watch Aang and Zuko practice, Katara being the most keen on the two.

“Alright, very good.”

Aang had started to break into a mild sweat. Passing the fire back and forth to Zuko had been easy at first, but he should have known that Zuko would have made it harder for him, but the fact that he hadn’t messed up gave him some reassurance that he was indeed learning very quickly.

“Okay, now we’re going to start practicing offense and defense. This helps better your reflexes. Dodging is one way to do it, but sometimes it’s best to take control of your opponent’s attack and send it right back at them, which is a strategy both earthbenders and waterbenders use.”

Zuko immediately began to circle Aang, his hands in front of his face. Aang mimicked him, his heart beginning to pound rapidly against his chest. Katara watched with predatory eyes from a distance, her heart also in her throat.

Without warning Zuko lunged forward and punched the air, sending a ball of fire sailing towards Aang at rapid speed, but Aang had been ready for it and stepped to the side, outstretching his hands and taking control of the fire easily. Spinning around once, he fired the shot back at his teacher, who easily deflected the attack. “Good,” he said, nodding once. He repeated his actions, this time sending one shot right after the other towards Aang. The airbender was able to dodge the first two and deflect the third, but he didn’t have time to dodge the fourth and it grazed his bare arm, causing him to cry out. He fell to the ground, a small burn covering the tip of his shoulder and a small portion of his arm.

Before Zuko could even blink, he found himself slammed against the wall of the temple, a thick sheet of ice securing him. Looking to his right, he saw a furious Katara rampaging towards him, popping open her second water pouch and preparing for another attack, but before she could do this, a slab of rock jutted out in front of Zuko, courtesy of Toph.

“Wait, Katara!” Sokka called out, getting to his feet.

“Wait for what?! You saw what he did to Aang!”

“Katara, you’re overreacting,” said Toph. She went over and helped Aang to his feet.

“Yeah, Katara. It’s really not that bad,” agreed Aang calmly, holding out his arm for her to see, trying not to show any signs of pain, though the burn still hurt pretty badly. “See? You can easily heal it.”

Katara went over to Aang, momentarily forgetting about Zuko and used the water she had conjured up for her attack to heal Aang’s burn. While doing this, Zuko managed to melt the ice holding his body against the wall and slowly approached Katara once on his feet again, though keeping his guard up in case she tried to attack him again.

“Stay back!” the waterbender yelled angrily once she noticed Zuko approaching them.

“Look, I’m sorry,” the firebender began. “But it was bound to happen. I’m not meaning to burn him, but it’s likely to happen in every session.”

“He’s new at this! You’re moving too fast!”

“Moving too fast? I’ve been working with him for almost a week and we haven’t even started the advanced set! We’re moving at a steady pace!”

Once she managed to finish healing Aang’s arm, Katara turned on her heels and approached Zuko, her eyes narrowed. Zuko held his ground, his expression as equally hard.

“Your attacks were too close together! He didn’t have time to avoid them! You did that on purpose because you knew he‘d get hurt!”

Seeing that Zuko was getting angry, Sokka stepped up and tried to pull Katara away before it got out of hand, but she swatted him away as though he were a pesky fly and stepped right back up to the Prince.

“He’s going to get burned every once in a while,” Zuko tried to reason again as calmly as he could, though his fists were tightly clenched. “I got burned all the time when I was still in training.”

“Oh yes, I can see that clearly,” Katara spat, eying the scar on Zuko’s face. At that point it got extremely quiet. Zuko’s face went from that of anger to shock at hearing these words. Taking a step back, he looked from Aang, to Katara, then turned and retreated back to his room without uttering a single word. It wasn’t until he was out of sight that Katara realized everyone was staring at her.

“What?!”

“Umm…don’t you think you were kind of hitting below the belt on that one?” asked Sokka.

Katara looked furious at that point. “You saw what he did!”

“Katara, it wasn’t that big a deal,” said Aang.

“You didn’t honestly think Twinkle Toes wasn’t going to get burned a few times when he started training with Zuko, did you?” asked Toph.

“Yeah, I got hurt all the time when I trained with Toph,” Aang added.

“I can’t believe how trusting you all are of him. It’s like nothing he’s done matters anymore.”

Katara stormed over to Haru, The Duke, and Teo, who had been watching the squabble silently, not wishing to get in the middle of it. “You saw what happened! What do you all think?”

Teo shrugged. “I don’t know. Not expecting to get burned when you’re learning firebending is like expecting to not possibly fall when you’re climbing a mountain.”

“I get why you’re upset, Katara,” began Haru, “but it looked like an accident to me. Injuries are part of the process.”

Katara threw her arms up. “What’s the matter with me?! I can’t expect you all to understand! You weren’t there! You didn’t see all the horrible things Zuko has done! He burned Aang on purpose!”

“Katara, you’re overreacting!” Toph yelled.

“You don’t know him!” Katara yelled back.

“Maybe I don’t. But you know what? I don’t think you do either!”

“I know him perfectly well! He’s manipulative, cruel, and above all that, he’s the Fire Lord’s son!”

Toph stomped her foot, causing the concrete to tremble slightly. “Look, Bittersweet! You can’t judge a person based off where they come from or who their parents are! Zuko obviously knows he’s made a lot of bad choices, and he’s trying to make up for it by teaching Aang firebending and helping to put an end to this war! And you’re making it extremely difficult for him! If he were really planning on turning on us, then why in the world would he be teaching us all these fighting techniques that we could easily use against him?!”

“She’s got a point, Katara,” said Aang softly. The waterbender shot him a glare, but didn‘t respond.

“Remember when I almost left when you guys were harping all over me? Well don’t be surprised if Sparks decides to pack his things and hit the trail, too! And I can‘t say I‘d blame him, either!”

After this, Toph turned and went to lean against the wall, her arms crossed and a sour look on her face. Katara looked from Sokka to Aang for a moment, almost preparing to snap at them again, but then turned and started making her way towards the bedrooms, growling angrily. “You all just can’t understand,” she snapped.

OoooooooO

Katara opened the door slowly, feeling rather stupid that she was apologizing to Zuko of all people, the one person who had given them the most trouble. But the moment she found her way to his bedroom door, she had instantly realized that Sokka had been right, she had hit below the belt.

She poked her head in and found Zuko on the opposite side of the room, staring out the window in silence. Upon hearing the door creak as it was pushed open, he turned his head slightly and glanced at Katara, then instantly turned back to look out over the gorge.

Katara rubbed her arm nervously as she stepped into the room. “Look, I-”

“It wasn’t an accident,” Zuko cut in. “Which is what makes it so hard to talk about when people ask me how it happened.”

Zuko’s voice was surprisingly calm. Katara had figured that he probably would have chewed her head of, judging by how taken aback he seemed when she had made the reference to his scar.

“I’m sorry. I went too far.”

A short silence.

“I know why you hate me. I’d hate me, too. You have a right not to trust me.”

“Yeah, I do,” Katara said, the anger resurfacing in her voice. “Back at Ba Sing Se, I honestly thought you had realized that what you had done was wrong. You made me believe you were actually hurt and confused! And then you…” Katara shut her eyes tightly, tears welling up. “I felt betrayed! I felt like a fool for even believing you! And let me tell you something else!”

Zuko whirled around. “No! Let me tell you something!” He took two steps towards Katara. “I was hurt! I was confused! For three years I thought my destiny was set in stone! I thought that all I wanted was my honor! And the only way I could do that was to capture the Avatar. But all I ever really wanted was for my father to accept me! I didn’t want him to think of me as a failure anymore! But during all that time, my uncle kept trying to tell me that I had the capability of finding my own destiny.” Zuko turned and went back over to the window.

“I can honestly say that I almost did side with you and the Avatar back at Ba Sing Se.”

“Then why didn’t you?!”

Zuko sighed. “Because I listened to Azula. Both her and my uncle put me on the spot, and it was that moment that I had to choose my path, but it was one of the most difficult decisions I had ever made. I felt that if I had sided with Azula, I would have been betraying my uncle, the one person who has been a real father to me all my life. But I felt that if I had sided with Uncle, then I would have been betraying my whole country. Have you ever had to make a decision like that? Have you ever had to make a choice that no matter what you chose, you‘d be letting someone down?”

Katara’s face softened as she looked towards the floor. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Back when Sokka and I first met Aang…Sokka didn’t really trust him. He thought Aang might have been a spy for the Fire Navy,” she added with a laugh. “When we brought him back to our village, Aang and I decided to explore an old Fire Navy ship that had been left from the first attack on our village, back when the war was still in its infancy. Aang accidentally set off a flare, which I’m guessing is what led you to our village.”

Zuko nodded. “I remember.”

“Both Sokka and my grandmother had told Aang to leave since they felt he was a danger to our village…and I almost left with him. I was going to go with him to the North Pole to find a waterbending teacher, but I knew if I did, I would be betraying my village…and my family. It was so hard. Even though I had only known Aang for one day, I felt like I was betraying him, but I also felt like I was betraying a part of who I was--a waterbender.”

After a short silence, Zuko turned slightly, though still not facing Katara fully. “It wasn’t just a matter of not wanting to betray my country…I was still holding on to false hope that my father would welcome me home with open arms.” He sighed. “I never thought I’d look at my banishment as a learning experience, but I do. I saw first hand what this war was doing to the world. It was hard for me to see the innocent lives it had corrupted and destroyed, and to see the anger and fear the world had for my nation…it made me sick to my stomach. The hardest was learning that I had been lied to all my life.” Zuko suddenly let out a soft laugh. “I think my banishment, ironically, is the only thing I can thank my father for. It made me realize my true destiny.”

Katara slowly approached the Prince and gently forced him to turn around and look at her. Very softly, she said, “How can I be sure you won’t betray us again?”

“It’s best that I betrayed you then, and not now.”

“Why?”

Zuko turned away again. “Because…had I sided with you back in Ba Sing Se, there would have always been that ‘what if’…and chances are, I would have betrayed you and handed you and the Avatar over to the Fire Nation in one last hope of pleasing my father. But my father made up his mind about me a long time ago. He will always look at me as a failure, always think I’m worthless. It’s been that way ever since I was a child. There’s no changing that, and I know that now. When I went back to the Fire Nation with Azula, a part of me knew I had made the wrong decision and it ate at me and ate at me day after day. It wasn’t until I sat side by side with my father in his war room that I realized I had made the wrong decision, and saw that I was living a lie. I knew then that it was time I made things right.”

Katara looked rather disbelieving of Zuko’s words. “It’s so hard for me to believe you,” she said, looking towards her feet.

“I understand.”

Katara slowly brought her attention back up to meet the Prince’s soft gaze. Though her heart wasn’t sure of his words, she still saw the sincerity in his eyes. She saw regret, and pain, but at the same time determination. Toph had been right. Damn that little girl. How was she always right?

“What else don’t I know? Are there other things I need to know?”

Zuko could see that she was eying his scar again. His hand slowly traveled to his face, where his fingertips caressed the marred flesh. “Yes…there is. Many things. But not now. If you wish to know, I’ll tell you, but right now I must focus on teaching the Ava…er…Aang firebending. We can talk another day,” the Prince said as he bowed to Katara politely. “Perhaps you can tell me more about yourself as well.”

Zuko turned and began to exit the room, leaving Katara staring at the empty space where Zuko’s body had seconds ago occupied. “Well, for starters…my name is Katara,” she said, slowly turning to face the retreating Zuko.

“I know,” Zuko replied as he stopped at the doorway. He smiled for just a second, and then left in silence. Strangely enough, Katara felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and a strange sensation coursed through her entire body, which she knew was the feeling of relief. She felt like she could now breathe easier while Zuko trained with Aang. She wasn’t quite certain she was ready to forgive him, but she felt like she didn’t need to breathe down his neck anymore out of fear of hurting Aang.

For now, all she could do was hold on to that little bit of trust.

End