Steam Will Rise

8. Legacy

"What did you do when you were on your own? Where you able to keep up with your traditions and ceremonies?"

Zuko lie back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. "I kept some, others I wanted to forget."

"Well when you're Fire Lord you can forget them. Not everything from the past needs to be carried over into the future."

"Speaking of the past do you believe what your Gran-gran said about us?"

"I do. I feel strange about it, but I still believe her."

"I guess I do too. Having a child that can bend all four elements scares me. If our child grows up to be like my father or sister imagine how much damage they could do to the world."

"That won't happen Zuko. We already had this talk you're not like your father."

"Because I got away from him, but what if I didn't?"

"You still wouldn't be like him."

"How can you know that?"

"Because of what you told me about speaking out about the right thing at the wrong time."

Zuko sat up and stared into the mirror above Katara's dresser for a long time. "That's how I got this scar."

Katara reached out to touch his scar but then pulled her hand away.

"It's OK. You can touch it, it doesn't hurt any more." He was partially telling the truth, although the physical pain was gone, the way in which the scar came about would always hurt.

Her hands were soft and gentle when they touched his face. Slender fingers traced over the entire surface of the scar. He couldn't look at her directly as she touched him so he looked into the mirror instead. She didn't look disgusted as he thought that she would, but she didn't look at him with pity either. He didn't know her well enough to give a name to the look on her face, but it made him feel at peace. When she had touched every part of his scar there was to touch her hands rested on his cheek a moment before she folded them back up into her lap. He wished she would have kept her hand there on his cheek. It wasn't until now he realized how touch starved he was.

"My father did it during an agni kai."

"Your father burned you, Zuko I'm sorry." Katara started to cry and Zuko gave her shoulder a squeeze."That must have been so awful to go through."

"It was, but what as more awful was for the longest time I thought I deserved it."

Katara shook her head. "No! Nothing you did could ever justify your father burning you, nothing."

"Well, my father thought teaching me a lesson justified his actions."

"What lesson could he have possibly thought he was teaching you?"

"To honor him. He challenged me to an agni kai because I dishonored him by speaking against his plans, and the honorable thing would have been to fight him, but he was my father I couldn't hurt him."

"Not hurting him was the honorable thing to do Zuko, so how could you ever think our child would turn out like your father?"

"My uncle told me evil and good will always be at war inside of me. He said it was my legacy, so I guess war is my legacy."

"Maybe your great grandfather's actions did leave you with a legacy of war, but you can make peace your legacy by ending it, and where you are now is more important to me than where you used to be."

"Maybe that's what my uncle was trying to tell me, but I've always been a slow learner. Sometimes I still feel like I don't know where I am."

Katara reached out and took Zuko's hand. "You're safe here with me, and with a family that will never hurt you."