Gradual Changes

No Words...Almost

No Words . . . Almost

If you were to stop him at any given time on any given day and ask him "what is your relationship?" he could not answer. Not because he would not know who you were referring to, nor because he was shy about it. Simply because he had no knowledge on how to describe it. There were no words for his relationship with her.

He had no actual need of her. She did not do anything in particular that no one else could. Nor was there any desire to have her around. On the contrary, he often found times that he wished that she wasn't around so he could have some peace. She was continuously getting him to do things that he never imagined himself doing. Like walking through a mall carrying sacks upon sacks of decorations and prizes for a Halloween party.

"Tell me again how you got Sokka to agree to this."

Katara just turned and smiled at him. She was wearing a purple, sleeveless mid drift and a pair of hip hugger blue jeans. How she could stand the cold weather in that outfit was beyond him, but it was nice to look at. He on the other hand was wearing a pair of black pants with a black shirt sporting a red spiraling serpent dragon. She did not seem like she was going to answer his question any time soon, so he tried another.

"Are we almost done?"

"Aw, c'mon!" she said in her song like voice. "We almost never go out and do things like this!"

"For a reason," Zuko replied as he glanced around the crowded shops. He hated crowds. He was not the social butterfly that Katara was. Yet another strange thing that should have kept the two of them apart entirely.

"We haven't even gotten our costumes yet," Katara pouted. How could she be so annoying and so cute at the same time? If it were anyone else, Zuko would have just dropped the bags right there and left. But it wasn't anyone else. It was Katara.

"What costumes? I never said I was going to wear a costume."

"But it'll be fun!" she laughed as she wrapped her arm around his. "I've already got a good idea what I want to do."

"For your costume, or the one you're going to try to force me into?"

"Both!"

As Katara pulled him towards yet another shop, Zuko found himself wondering why she spent so much time with him anyway. When they had first met, it would have been an understatement to say that he was a complete jerk to her. He was a complete jerk to everyone back then. People shied away from him even more after the "accident" with his father that left him marked. Things only got worse when his mother died at father's own abusive hands. Zuko's uncle had taken Zuko and his sister Azula in back then. Azula seemed unaffected by the whole situation. So unaffected that Uncle Iroh had begun sending her to counseling. That just made being around people even harder. Except Katara.

Even after all of the cruel responses he gave her kind greetings; even after all of the vicious things that he said to her; and even after he lost his temper and actually struck her, Katara never turned her back on Zuko. She refused to watch him amble on down that dark, lonely, self-destructive road. She helped to save him from becoming his father.

"Oh! Go try this on!" Katara's voice interrupted. Apparently she had dragged him into a clothing store, because she was holding up a pair of rather uncomfortably tight looking black pants.

"You're joking."

"Nope. Now get!" she pushed as she took the bags from him. Zuko's mind returned to its earlier wanderings when he shut the changing room door behind him with a sigh.

If she had chosen, Katara could have spent her time with other people. Toph and Aang were the first to come to mind, but there were others. She had many would be suitors, much to Zuko's annoyance. This was one of the other things about her that baffled him. Even though she was so popular with the guys at their school, he never saw or heard about her ever going out with any of them. Sure there were a few times that he had blown up at one or two of them, but surely there were still boys that asked.