2seasons (n)- periods of the year
The freezing water cut into his limbs like the night at the North Pole when he'd dived in frigid waters for an entirely different purpose.
Zuko pulled himself out of the water and onto the frozen tundra. The Southern Water Tribe. Using stealth that hadn't left him in the nearly seventy years since, he ghosted over the snow, the crunching of the crystallized water lost in the wind and his own echoing heartbeat.
He marked the building he wanted and stuck to the shadows until he reached it. Surprisingly, there was still training going on at this late hour.
A young girl, no older than thirteen, was waterbending back and forth like a master. This must be Korra.
Zuko pulled his hood up to better conceal the identifiable scar. "You've been training hard," he said suddenly. The girl spun around, shooting the water at him, but Zuko had anticipated it. He sidestepped it as easily as if she'd told him she was going to do it. That certainly caught her off guard.
"How'd you do that?" the young Avatar demanded.
"Hard training," Zuko replied. He heard a soft noise behind him, almost like a giggle suppressed too late. He turned around and there she was. Eighty years old and as beautiful as ever.
"Korra, that's enough for today. Head on home, now."
Korra nodded and bowed. "Good night, Sifu Katara."
Zuko smirked as Korra left. "It's been a long time since an Avatar called you that."
"Not really," said Katara. "Aang called me that until his dying day."
There was the hint of grief still in her voice and Zuko suddenly felt uncomfortable. Maybe it was still too soon. But he'd come this far...
"I miss him," he admitted. And he meant it. Whatever Aang had done to his family, to the world, to Katara, he had been Zuko's friend for the entirety of his life.
"It seems they all went at once, didn't they?" Katara asked. "Toph. Suki. Aang. Sokka. Our generation's fading fast."
"The pair of us have years ahead still, I'm sure," Zuko assured her. "But it's not a lifetime, like what we had at the end of the war." He still remembered the feeling. It was so... peaceful. The war was simply over. The entire world seemed wrought with possibility and every last citizen couldn't wait to go see what their opportunities were. Together, Zuko and his friends provided that opportunity in the form of a new nation. They'd dedicated their lives to it's protection and for what? The world's problems were never ceasing. Crime. Poverty. Disease. It was like fighting a many-headed serpent. Every time you cut off one, another took its place.
Now that Zuko was old and full of regret, he just wanted one thing. He knew what he had to say. He'd wanted to say it every day of his life.
"I would have done things differently, if I could. With Uncle and the fall of Ba Sing Se, of course. But also with you."
His heart was racing, but Katara was listening aptly. Was that surprise in her eyes? Zuko tried to ignore it.
"You were the last in the group to accept me, but you were the one I wanted to accept me the most," Zuko said. "Imagine? Me, Fire Lord, and you, a waterbending master, wife of the Avatar."
Katara stared wide-eyed.
"But even after I'd discovered my destiny and lived it, I still felt guilt. I knew Aang had won you over and that you would only ever love me as a friend. It was the brotherly thing to do, I think- backing off. But-"
"Zuko, stop," Katara interrupted. "I know where you're going with this..." She seemed scared almost. Zuko hadn't seen that side of her since she was fourteen. It was... heartbreaking.
Katara closed her eyes and composed herself. "I still only love you as a friend."
Even though Zuko had known that was what she was going to say, he still felt the hurt. Why did he have to try? To prove to himself that he could?
"I'm sorry, Zuko."
"Don't be," he said quickly. "It's not your fault. And it shouldn't be your problem."
He turned to go, hoping she would call out to him, say something. Don't leave me with the last word, please, he thought.
But she did. He left.
He kept walking.