Wartime's Scars [ATLA, Katara & Zuko, PG]

[invoking_urania]

Title: Wartime's Scars
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
Words: 550
Notes/Warnings: Post-series, with the spoilers that entails. Written for 31_days 08/01/13: 'he traded one eye for wisdom and the other for hope'. Also mentioning Ozai's canonical treatment of his son and war crimes.
Summary: Katara makes Zuko an offer.
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender copyright Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko/Nickelodeon and this derivative work was created without permission.

"You know, I'm sure Master Pakku would be willing to let you visit the Spirit Oasis," Katara said. "Because you helped end the war."

It took Zuko a moment to realize what she meant. He put a hand to his face, touching the stiff, raised scar tissue surrounding his eye. Katara had once offered to heal it, as a sign of trust... but they had been interrupted, and he had chosen to take Azula's offer of everything he thought he'd wanted, rather than following his uncle and the Avatar, and the wisdom exile had taught him. Since that water and Katara's waterbending had been what preserved Aang's life, it had worked out in the end.

At the time, though, it had felt… complicated. Because, at the time, he'd wanted his father's approval, and to be a good son, a good prince more than anything. More than having not to bear the mark of his father's cruelty for the rest of his life, more than having two good eyes, more than the possibility of friendship and a life full of people who liked him, more than even Uncle. It took having everything he wanted to realize it wasn't worth what he'd lost.

He could have always had that life, had he refused to speak up to protect those troops… his people. And remianed silent as his father and sister proposed more and more atrocities against the other nations, asked more and more scacrifies for their people while they sat safely away from the fray.

Zuko shook his head. "I used to think it was a reminder of how I disgraced my father, so I wanted it gone. But now… I think it reminds me of duty."

"Duty?" Katara asked.

"My father gave me this scar because I dared to question him in public. Because he wasn't doing his duty as Firelord: the war was getting our people killed as well as other nations' people. Our soldiers, and all the factories we built for the war polluted our water and air," Zuko said. There was more: the attitudes that the Fire Nation was somehow better, more deserving of ruling the world than other nations, firebending training that depended on being angry all the time, nobility that had grown rich from conquered territories. Enough to spend a lifetime healing. "If I want to be a better Firelord, to really change things, I have to remember not to let my pride get in the way of my duty, like my father did. Or to remember all the people I met, that I could have easily spent my life working among them." Once the thought of spending his life serving tea was his worst nightmare, but now he understood there were far worse things than working for a living.

It was what his uncle had been trying to teach him all along.

Katara nodded. "I understand. I think Master Pakku will too. But the offer is always open."

"Of course," Zuko said. If there ever was a point in his lifetime that the Fire Nation's leaders didn't need the reminder, perhaps he'd reconsider.