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You wish to know why the sun sets everyday? Well, that’s a silly question, it’s to be with the ocean of course!
Zuko is the sun. He’s the warm beams that tickle your skin and the bright light that guides your path. He is always bathed in a healthy glow that follows him across the sky.
Yue is the moon. She is the gentle light that keeps you safe in the darkness and is stunning enough to take your breath away. She crosses the sky with her entourage of stars, her beauty only further enhanced by them.
Together they rule the land with kindness. After Zuko travels from one end of the sky to the other, Yue begins her journey across, and so is their endless cycle.
Whenever you see both the moon lingering in the sky with the sun, that’s when Zuko and Yue are talking. They are the best of friends, so they make sure to catch up from time to time.
Now, the ocean is Katara. She’s just as dangerous as she is beautiful. She is the mighty bringer of storms and the kind tamer of seas. No one commands her, and if they dared try… Well, let's just say they'd meet a rather grim fate at her hands.
As ruler of all, Zuko loves his subjects very dearly. He showers flowers in the glow of his rays and kisses his creatures in warm light. He offers the beauty of his sunlight wholly and unconditionally. Nothing you do will ever make Zuko hide his sunlight away.
Katara, however, is not so forgiving. She passes judgment on all who tread through her vast waters. If your heart is pure, she will guide your voyage to safety. If she finds cruelty where kindness should be, she will drag you down to the bottom of her endless depths. There is no escaping Katara, but if you've done no wrong, there is no need to fear.
She is the reason ships are so guarded. Boarding a ship is opening yourself to her judgment, passing your fate into her hands. Each member that boards must have her favor, lest all be subjected to punishment at the hands of a hellish storm.
The loss of his people was greatly distressing to Zuko. There is nothing that could take his love away. He does not possess the ability to pass judgements as Katara does.
Blinded by his love for humanity, Zuko went to confront Katara for stealing people away.
***
“Why are you swallowing my people up in the sea?” Zuko demanded.
Katara’s eyes stared into his and suddenly he could see the cruel nature of the ocean in them. The tossing fury of the waves, the crushing pressure of its depths, the bitter cold beauty, all locked within.
He was lucky he was a god. Otherwise he’d get so hopelessly lost in those eyes he would drown.
“Someone has to serve justice,” she said, her voice sharper than the edge of a blade. “Not all people are good.”
“They can handle that themselves.”
She glared at him with such fury he felt its burn in his chest, threatening to consume him, twist his heart into an apologetic one, but he was determined. His people did not deserve such a fate.
“Are you blind to their corruption? Their greed? Their deeds done where prying eyes cannot see?” she spat out. “You look down on them from the sky and you miss all of that?”
“I—” Zuko tried to argue, but he found no excuse.
“Hmph.” Katara folded her arms and turned her back to him. “Just as I thought.”
Her hair flowed behind her, billowing out like it was beneath her waves. Her gown hung off her like water spilling from his palms. It glittered like the sea when his light struck it, woven from every temperament of the vast ocean and every color it held. It carried everything from the deep blues of sorrow to the smooth calm of the sky to the iridescent glee of sea green.
“I never really thought about it,” he confessed. “I… I just didn’t notice.”
Katara’s fists clenched at her sides. “I can’t stand by and allow people to suffer.”
“Some of those people are good," Zuko insisted. "Some of them have families."
"I…" Katara glanced over her slumped shoulders. Her eyes were much softer, the waters on a calm day, beautiful and soothing to behold. "I know. But I cannot stand by and do nothing. I suppose I am doing exactly what you are in a way. I'm no better than you are."
"We have opposite problems. I do too little and you do too much. Maybe we could compromise," he suggested. "You could continue, but spare the good. Carry them back to shore."
Katara turned to face him, stroking her chin. "I think that could work. I didn't expect you to be as smart as you were bright."
"That sounds like an insult."
She let out a small chuckle. Her smile peeked out, sparkling. "It wasn't exactly meant as one."
Zuko stretched out a hand to her with a smile. "Then I will take it as such."
Katara accepted his hand, hers as smooth as the rocks her waters weathered. "It was nice to finally meet you," she said after she took her hand back. "You're much easier to look at when you're not in the sky."
Zuko's face burned. He muttered something about how nice it had been to see her too and swiftly fled before he could further embarrass himself.
***
And so the sun and ocean became friends after that. Every night, while Yue was performing her duties, Zuko went down to the ocean to speak with Katara. We can only imagine what they spoke of, but they enjoyed their time together.
Zuko began to paint for Katara. Before he got too busy with his duties, he would set to work, just above her waters, to pay her tribute with a masterpiece. He painted her the soft purple of wisteria and the gentle pinks of sakura blossoms. He carved the glow of a hearth with warm oranges and etched the yellow of joy across the heavens for her.
If Katara likes his work, she will reflect it back at him. Now, she always likes Zuko's art. It moves her, shows her glimpses into moments her waters don't let her see. Her waters are a mirror to show him her kindness in return.
Zuko began to paint for her at sunset in the short time before he went to see her. Katara greeted him with a smile and a delighted compliment every day. Their routine felt natural, like they had done it always.
His colors grew as his feelings did. Passion swept up into the sky as vibrant pinks, purples, deep and longing, his racing heart translated in bold, burning oranges.
Zuko had fallen for the beautiful ocean goddess he'd once scorned.
***
"Yue, what do I do?"
Her hand covered her mouth as she laughed.
"It's not funny!" Zuko complained.
"Of course not." Yue tucked her hand away into her flowing sleeve.
Zuko glared at her.
"I don't think you'll like what I have to say."
"Are you going to tell me to tell her I have… feelings for her?"
Yue smiled. "It is the only way to make anything happen. You must be honest."
"Or I could pretend nothing is wrong." Zuko folded his arms.
"Your sulking isn't going to convince anyone," Yue pointed out.
Zuko groaned and held his face in his hands.
"Listen," Yue said, her voice as gentle as starlight, "you've already got her affections. She admires you from the sea every day, she waits for you to join her after the day is done, and she mourns your absence at dawn. You have nothing to fear."
"Then why am I afraid?"
"Because you're vulnerable."
Zuko flinched. Her milky eyes bore into him with the intensity of the full moon.
"Go on and tell her," Yue urged with a kind smile as she began to fade out of the sky. "You won't regret it."
He wasn't entirely convinced, but when had Yue steered him wrong?
***
"I love you."
He ripped the band-aid off.
Katara made no movement.
Zuko was going to kill Yue.
"You ruined my plan," Katara said after a moment.
"I'm… sorry?"
She walked towards him, gliding like a swan across the surface of her waters. She took his hands in hers and stared into his eyes. "I was going to take you somewhere nice and I was going to look at you just as I am now. I would have waited a moment before I told you that you've given me a peace I didn't think I could ever possess. I was going to tell you that I'm in love with you."
Zuko felt his face burning. "I kind of wish I'd waited now."
Katara laughed. "Maybe this is better. Now I know I can do this."
Her slender hands cupped his face. She drifted closer and eyed his lips.
Zuko felt every bit of air between them.
Katara’s eyes shut. She closed the distance, her lips touching his, the gentleness of the ripples of her waters in her kiss.
He welcomed her lips. He warmed her like he warmed the earth in the mornings. He held her the way his people dreamed they could hold a beam of his sunlight. He loved her the way he wanted to.
They pulled away from their chaste kiss only to stare at each other in delighted disbelief.
"I love you," she reminded him. "Truly, I do."
"I love you," he said back to her. "Wholly and completely. I love you in the darkest of your bone-shattering storms and the brightest of your mending waters. There's not a piece of you that I cannot love."
Katara's face flushed red. "You mean it."
"I do," he agreed.
"Your people fear me."
"They do." He held her cheek in his hand, tangling it in her hair. "I do not fear you. It is only the loss of you I fear."
Katara's eyes were caught on his lips, a fish on a hook, for a dreadfully long moment.
Then she crashed her lips into his with the passion of a tidal wave, pulling him hopelessly out to sea in the riptide.
If there was a shore, Zuko wasn't going to even bother trying to find it. He dove further, pulling her against him. Any distance was too much.
There was a chill to her lips, one that sent a shiver down his spine, but he was warmth. His lips fit perfectly with hers and moved together in beautiful harmony.
It hurt when she pulled away to breathe. She rested her forehead against his.
"If you'll have me, you will always have me," Katara promised between breaths. "I will hold you in my heart. I will think of you in all that I do. Every turbulent wave and every glass-smooth horizon will all have a piece of you. The shades of my waters will have my heart in them."
Zuko smiled. "I couldn't ask for anything more."
***
You can still see Zuko painting the sky for his dearest love and Katara’s mirror image of it. Their love is etched into the warm beaches, written in the storms that shake the land, and echoed in humanity.
This tale of Zuko and Katara is one of lessons.
Seek a love like theirs. One is that is complete and undying. One that inspires and mends. One that brings joy.
It is their love reflected in all things. There is nothing else more beautiful than love, love of any kind.
But there is no story of love that has ever been and no story of love ever to come that will rival the glory of the sun’s endless setting to be with the ocean.