Chapter Text
The sun burns onto the sand of Ember Island beach at noon. The coast is packed with tourists and locals alike. The air is filled with childish screams, cheers from volleyball games, and the squawking of seagulls. Summer has hit the Fire Nation like never before with record highs in temperature and number of heat waves. And still, the tourist-magnet of an island is booked up to the brim in each of its resorts, hotels and inn’s. The humid, suffocating air does nothing to stop every soul on the island from rushing to the scorching sand of the beach.
None of it is new for Zuko and Suki, the two had grown up together crawling, then steadily walking, then running along the shores of the island. Every summer, they watch as the coast is littered with people and then as the school year draws near and the heat fades out to monsoons the liveliness departs.
This summer is no different, except that Zuko has begrudgingly found himself a job and Suki is desperate to get them both to enjoy their last bits of freedom before they throw themselves into the reality of adulthood.
A few metres off from the life guard’s post, Zuko and Suki stand by the ice cream booth as the auburn haired girl quickly devours her sweet cold snack— though it does nothing to stop all of it that is melting onto her hand.
“Wanna try?” she tilts the cone to the boy.
He shakes his head, “No eating before duty.”
She rolls her eyes, “It’s not eating. It’s ice cream”
“Listen, I can’t risk it, okay? Chit Sang’s always patrolling around and he does extra checkups for me,” he scowls.
“Maybe he thinks you have ulterior motives,” Zuko raises a brow in question, “You look like the epitome of evil.”
“Hey!”
She gestures widely with her free hand to show him the beach as if he hadn’t seen enough of it already, “The sun is shining, the waves are up, there’s food trucks everywhere, everyone is having fun! Meanwhile, you’re standing like two steps away from your job, cursing the world and glowering at little kids that run by.”
“I am not,” he seethes.
She gives him a pointed look.
“Ok, maybe I am. I don’t like beaches. There’s too many people. Just because I hate humans infesting a tiny area, like little ants to cotton candy, doesn’t mean I’m evil.”
Suki bites at the waffle cone and mumbles through her full mouth, “God, just let loose, it's our last summer before university!”
“Not if letting loose costs me my job.”
“You’re so infuriating you know that?”
“Yeah but you don’t have any other friends so you’re stuck with me,” he grins.
Suki gives him a twisted smile, pulls his hand into hers and crushes the remainder of her cone into his hand, sweet sticky and slightly warm ice cream spilling all over his skin. That earns her a lot of yelling but she definitely thinks it was worth it.
It’s much later, when the sun is dipping into the horizon and the beach is painted in deep reds and oranges, that everyone begins to retreat home. Zuko sighs out, slumping in his high life guard’s chair and watching over the water. He likes this much better, as the day ends the crowds lessen and the world goes quiet. He can finally hear the waves crashing against the sand and it’s so much more satisfying with no one else around. He conjures a flame into his hand, watching it dance in his palm and he smiles when he notices that the colours match the sun set.
The tranquility doesn’t last for long.
A huge wave takes over the water and when it comes down the spray is so great it douses the flame in Zuko’s hand. That gets his attention. He looks up and sees a girl. She’s on top of the sea, balanced on a board of water that looks so solid he can’t believe its liquid. When the water settles completely, out pops another head. The silence of the beach is disturbed by this drenched boy’s yelling. The girl's hands push and pull at the sea as she laughs to herself when her water whips bend to smack the boy in the face. His hands come out from beneath the water to grab at her but she evades him easily, simply gliding away.
And then she turns, eyes meeting Zuko while her smile still dances on her face. She’s backlit by all the beautifully warm colours of the sun and he thinks the scenery still doesn’t compare to how breathtaking she looks. Warm brown skin, brown hair that looks softer than clouds, and round eyes bigger than he’s ever seen. She looks away a minute later and he can’t tell if he’s going insane or if there really is a pink blush growing on her cheeks.
Zuko blinks, jaw slightly open in shock, like he’s seeing a mirage.
“You’re done right? I have to get the car home by nine or my Dad is gonna throw a fit since it’s a rental,” Suki’s voice comes up behind him.
He nods dumbly in response.
Suki asks him something again but he can’t seem to understand much when the girl in the ocean is gliding away again, this time pulling out shapes from the water and scattering them in the air like fireworks.
“Hello?” Suki’s face comes into his vision as she’s climbed the ladder to his chair to push into his personal space to get his attention.
He snaps his head to her.
“Oh, yeah,” he clears his throat, “Yeah let’s go.”
She turns her head to look at the only two people left in the sea, the boy conveniently now submerged into ocean.
Oh no. Zuko groans internally.
Suki’s smirk greets him when she turns around.
“So…” she draws out the vowel.
Zuko pushes her off the ladder.
“Oh you’ve got it so bad!” She laughs out, unfazed by her fall.
“No. No I’ve got nothing.”
“Zuko, it’s ok to have a crush,” she placates, getting up and patting his shoulder once he finally descends and grabs his things.
He shoves her hand off, “I don’t have crush! I don’t even know her!”
Suki shrugs, “But you think she’s cute.”
Zuko doesn’t respond, trudging through the sand and over to the far side of the parking lot.
“I don’t hear denial.”
“I wish they would ban you from this island.”
“I live here!”
“Yeah so do I and you’re making my life hell.”
“God, you’re so melodramatic, you should just join the acting troupes.”
He gives a dry laugh in response, “You’re the funniest person I know.”
She follows behind him still laughing about the girl they spotted, too satisfied with herself at how easy it is to make him squirm. Zuko thinks its good that the heat of this summer has left everyone completely baked: its easier to hide his blushing face, if anyone notices. And he knows Suki definitely will.
When she drops him home after their routine Thursday night sushi run, he all but collapses onto his bed from exhaustion.
The next three days — because his wonderful boss is nice enough to schedule Zuko on weekends too — are almost as tiring as before. For some reason, children are much more susceptible to drowning and screaming out bloody murder because of sharks that don’t exist, on days meant for relaxation. Zuko ends up jumping off his chair and diving into the water about twenty-five times, and only one of those times is an actual emergency.
For a change, Sunday proves to be mentally taxing, instead.
“Are you just going to sit there and stare out at the sea the whole time.”
“That’s kind of what I’m getting paid for, Azula, yes.”
“I need to talk to you.”
Zuko’s eyes are searching the coast for the girl that hasn’t escaped his mind even after so many days, “Mhm go ahead."
Azula notices his gaze and spares a glance over her shoulder, but catches eyes with Ty Lee and a gathering of boys that has amassed around her. She huffs and snaps her head back to her brother.
“You’re eighteen.”
“Yup.”
“You graduated.”
“Yeah?”
“Well now that you’re going off to uni, it makes you cool.”
“Who said that?”
“That’s just how it works.”
“Sounds stupid.”
“Well, yes, it’s a stupid social principle but it’s one that even I’ve picked up on.”
Zuko lets out a breath, “Okay, so what are you trying to tell me?”
“I need you to make some friends.”
He scrunches his brows, looking down to her, “What?”
“Uncle’s going to Caldera city this weekend for work so I’m throwing a party—”
Zuko cracks a grin, “Since when are you the party person.”
Azula narrows her eyes at him throwing a small flame in his direction as he dodges.
“Is this what Uncle’s weird friend from the Pai Sho club meant when he said the world is ending?”
“Shut up!” she exclaims.
Zuko thinks it’s very strange for his sister to get so worked up over a little teasing.
“Ty Lee said to do it.”
Ah, there it is.
“And if I’m throwing a party there needs to be cool people. Older kids. Or else it’s just some stupid high schoolers having a sleep over.”
“No.”
“You’ll come and you’ll bring your stupid friends or I’ll tell Uncle where the scratch on his car actually came from.”
Zuko’s eyes widen.
“Azula—”
“See you there!”
The boy shakes his head, trying to rid his mind of his sister’s ultimatum.
His eyes trail back to the water and then he sees her. The water bender from yesterday. Her hair is dry as she walks forward a few steps away from the coast and he figures she had only just showed up. He spots the boy she was with trailing behind her but staying on the sand as he yells out something about not being ambushed again.
The girl leans forward to lay on her belly and lands onto a board of water she forms in a split second. She continues paddling out until she’s far enough that Zuko can barely make out her tiny little figure. She waits. And then as a huge wave begins to approach, she readies herself. The mass of water folds over itself and he almost panics when he doesn’t see her. Then she emerges from the tunnel of salty blue, feet pressed onto her board, hands up for balance and hair blown back by the wind. Her laughs of joy are so loud they make it to Zuko’s place on the coast. She ride the wave, weaving up and down. The water falls and she paddles around.
Then she surfs again. And again. And again
He tries his hardest to pull his gaze elsewhere, every once in a while, thinking to himself that he is probably very obviously neglecting his duties and also must just look like a creep.
But when she starts bending he can’t look away. She likes to make shapes of water around her, even as she surfs through those curved walls of sea. She drags little slops up beneath her so she can soar in the air when she exits the tunnels. When the wind settles for a while she sits upon her board, bending the water in front of her into little marine animals. And when the wait is too long she even tries to conjure up her own waves.
In all the people that have ever graced the pristine beaches of Ember Island, this is the first person Zuko can’t take his eyes off.
“I can feel you pining from all the way down here.”
“You have to ruin everything for me, don’t you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I ruin your personal yearning time,” Suki smirks up at him.
Zuko scowls but his eyes are still on the coastline.
She throws a beach ball at his head.
“What the hell?” he says, finally snapping his head down to her.
Suki stands a few steps away from the ladder, a mint green wrap hugging her body and yellow rimmed sunglasses resting on her head.
“Have you just been watching her for the past six hours—”
“She only showed up like a two hours ago!”
“So you were counting.”
“No!”
Suki takes a deep breath, “Why don’t you just go and talk to her.”
His eyes bulge out of his head, “No way.”
He turns back to look at the shoreline. She’s walking back over to the boy that was yelling at her before. When she sits onto her beach mat, Zuko notices an older man with them. He pieces together what he can make out from far away and notices their slight resemblances.
The girl seems to have gotten into an argument with the boy, she bends the water of her hair and drops it over him. He yelps. She laughs, then squealing as she jumps up to avoid the handfuls of sand he is throwing at her face. She races off along the beach, jeering at him as she runs into the ocean again and pulls the water around herself.
Zuko sighs.
“Is it bad if I want her to drown?”
Suki throws a hard punch into his calf.
“Ow! I meant to save her!”
“You are so socially inept it literally pains me.”
“And yet you spend all your time with me.”
“I was cursed.”
Zuko rolls his eyes at her and throws his head back on the chair, groaning like he’s in agony from whatever stupid infatuation he’s developing.
“I’m not good at this stuff, you should be more understanding.”
She stays quiet for a moment, scrutinizing him, looking behind herself to see the girl returning to her mat, and then smiles.
“Come with me.”
She grabs his hand and pulls him off the high chair. He falls face first on to his hands and knees but she pulls him along anyway. She’s much stronger than him, dragging him away even when he plants his feet into the sand. Every strong step Suki takes pulls him closer to the surfer girl.
“Suki, no!”
“Suki, yes!”
“I’m on my shift!”
“You can look at stupid kids cry about seaweed down here too.”
“Chit Sang is gonna—”
But it’s too late, they’re here. The girl and boy turn around at the sounds of their voice, eyebrows raised from the commotion.
Zuko swallows. She is so much more beautiful up close. Her long dark brown hair is drenched in salty water again and it frames her face perfectly. Her blue eyes perfectly mirror the sea that she spends hours surfing through and Zuko thinks he sees them light up as they search his face.
Suki claps a hand onto his shoulder after long moments of silence that she expected him to break.
“I’m sorry, he has the social capabilities of a child kept in a basement his whole life.”
The girl and boy quirk up at her comment.
“This is Zuko. He’s the brooding life guard that hates his job.”
He shrugs her hand off his shoulder, “And this is Suki, the parasite that crawled out of the sea and stuck on to me.”
She sneers at him.
The boy lets out a chuckle, “I’m Sokka and this is my sister, Katara.”
“Oh yeah, Zuko knows Katara,” Suki jeers.
Katara’s eyes widen, “You do?”
Suki changes the subject quickly, “We’re locals. Are you guys vacationing?”
The two nod and the girl gives a smile, “Yeah! We’re here for our senior summer.”
“Yeah my genius sister managed to skip a grade so I couldn’t even get a year away from her.”
“Where are you guys headed?” asks Suki.
“Ba Sing Se University. We haven’t been to the city yet so it’ll be completely new to us.”
“That’s crazy! We’re going there too.”
“Woah, y’know I heard most Fire Nation kids stick to…”
The conversation seems to dull out of his ears when Zuko’s eyes meet Katara’s again. She’s not listening either, eyes watching him. She gives a small smile. It falters a little after a few seconds and he remembers that he probably just looks like he’s giving her a dead blank stare.
How do you smile again?
He struggles to pull his cheeks up. Whatever comes out of Zuko’s attempts to grin must not be too horrific since Katara hasn’t gotten scared yet.
She steps to the side, looking for him to follow and Zuko does.
“So, life guarding huh?” her eyes trail his tee, and — if Zuko isn’t completely delusion — his arms too.
“Uh, yeah, ahah.”
Katara nods slowly, giving a tight lipped smile at the bland response.
She looks away, chewing on her bottom lip.
He told Suki he was bad at this. How could she betray him like this?
“What made you wanna do it?”
“Huh?
“Life guarding.”
“Oh, uhm…”
I’m broke and Uncle won’t pay me to work at the Jasmine Dragon because he thinks ‘building character’ is more valuable than a salary.
“My life doesn’t matter if someone else is in danger, I would die trying to save them.”
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Katara blinks for a moment and then lets out a laugh, “Are you always this intense?”
Zuko breathes out a sigh, “No, no… The heat is getting to me.”
She smiles again and he thinks the embarrassment he always manages to put himself through is worth it. She’s cute, really cute. If he weren’t so bad at this kind of thing he’d be able to invite her to hangout after his shift but he’s Zuko: being smooth never works for him. And he doesn’t want to give up his chances with her just because he can’t get a normal sentence out.
His chances yeah… Whatever that means. He tells himself he won’t be telling Suki about that thought, as if she doesn’t already know how stupidly quick he’s gaining feelings for Katara. He’s kidding himself thinking that she won’t be forcing him to go chase after his ‘summer love’ or whatever other stupid phrases she’s picked up from the chick flicks she forces him to watch every weekend. This is going to be a long summer, but maybe if he gets to talk to Katara just a little more, he’s ready to die because of his friend’s teasing.
The blowing of a whistle pulls Zuko out of his trance. His eyes blow wide.
“Fu—”
“Zuko!” comes Chit Sang’s voice.