Avatar The Last Airbender|Zuko/Katara|2009 Halloween contest
Title: Ofrendas
Author: zstar/xlovelylightx at zstar_fanfics
Word Count: 2, 078
Genre: Romance, Humour
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Spoilers?: None.
Pairing(S): Zuko/Katara
Characters: Zuko, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Aang
Challenge: halloween contest at katara_zuko
Rating: PG for mild horror
Summary: “Some friends you are!” The water tribe boy huffed over their stifled giggles and roughly brushed off the grass stains he acquired during his fall. “I don’t need your sweets anyway!” Sokka smirked as he stuck his nose in the air in mock superiority. “Because I know my kind and loving sister will share her sweets with me, right Katara?” He blinked when he received no reply “Katara?”

When Katara goes missing, Zuko and Sokka search the woods for her. (Takes place sometime after TSR.) 
Disclaimer: The characters and the show they come from do not belong to me and I make no profit from this fanfic. This is all for my own amusement!
Author's Notes: I'd like to thank mewsrissicat for beta reading this fanfic because without her the grammar in this fanfic would have been awful. *laughs* Enjoy and leave feedback if you can.


Ofrendas


Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, went Sokka’s finger on the desk. “Oh!” Before long his palms violently crashed against the very same table. “When are they gonna get here?!” The poor, poor water tribe boy groaned as he longed for the sugary, sweet snacks that waited for him in the pit of Toph, Aang and Katara’s goody bags.

“Just be patient.” Zuko murmured over his book, immune to the lure of candy. “They’ll be back soon enough.”

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, went the door. “THEY’RE HERE!” Sokka squealed- Zuko’s prophecy came true!

Running with the zest and vigour of a kid in a candy store, Sokka eagerly slammed the door open to welcome a badgermole and a sky bison. “Hand over those goodies!” He cried before his attempts to steal the animals’ goods were stopped by the palm of badgermole’s paw on Sokka’s forehead. “Toph!” Sokka groaned as his feeble arms reached for the pumpkin basket like a haunted tree whose branches came to life. “Learn to share!”

“I’m sorry,” Toph smirked, enjoying his squirming. “I don’t believe you went to the trouble of making a costume or made a two hour trek around town.” The sky bison and Zuko chuckled with her in agreement.

“That’s because I knew I’d cramp your style!” Sokka smiled, backing away to lure Aang and Toph into a false sense of security. “I don’t have a special affinity for any particular animal, unless they’re going to be my next meal!” He leapt forward, “SO SHARREEEEEEEEEEE-” only to fly past Toph and Aang like a gliding air-bender and fall face first into the front yard. “OW, OW, OWEY!” His complaints made him the butt of his friend’s amusement once again.

“Some friends you are!” The water tribe boy huffed over their stifled giggles and roughly brushed off the grass stains he acquired during his fall. “I don’t need your sweets anyway!” Sokka smirked as he stuck his nose in the air in mock superiority. “Because I know my kind and loving sister will share her sweets with me, right Katara?” He blinked when he received no reply “Katara?” and walked in a circle to search for a lady painted in red, when there was still no reply. “Katara?”

Where had his sister gone?

~~~ 

Katara swore she could hear her name echoing in the wind as the breeze sighed and the trees groaned against the weight of their breath.

“I really should have taken Sokka with me.” Katara continued on through the dark, dark path, desperately trying to ignore the wheeze of the woods and the ugly, gruesome faces that leaped out of the carved surfaces of the trees. “At least he could have talked the ghosts and ghouls to death.” Not that she believed these woods were haunted. True, on her journeys with the Avatar she had encountered many things of a spiritual nature, but she had no reason to believe that angry spirits lived here.

Another strong, screaming gust of wind disagreed with her, “My hat!” Katara didn’t hesitate to chase after the crucial part of her costume back down the pathway, until her hat’s efforts of escape were halted by yet another demented looking tree. “At least you guys are good for one thing.” Katara thought aloud as she stopped and took the garment from one of the tree’s many hands. “You are probably the ugliest looking tree here,” she noted with amusement. “But I guess looks aren’t everything, right?” Katara giggled, unaware that her cruel, teasing remarks were really, really unappreciated by her hat’s rescuer - until those long, thin fingers brushed against her shoulder.

Now Katara wasn’t one for screaming but she also wasn’t one who was used to dealing with the supernatural, especially if they were vengeful and supernatural. Her lips opened to scream, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Only to realise that she was not one to go down without a fight. Katara threw that wrinkly, long hand off her shoulder as soon as she remembered: ‘Hey, I’ve beaten up soldiers scarier than woodland ghouls!’ and leapt toward her attacker with the same kind of ferocity she displayed in the battle field.

That resolve was Zuko’s misfortune. “Katara!” The poor victim screamed as the crazy water tribe girl lunged[, knocking] him onto the ground. “Katara stop, it’s me! Zuko! ” He shrieked as Katara kept pummelling him as if he were a punching bag.

“Shut up! I know this is just a stupid spirit trick!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “You’re just PRETENDING to be Zuko so I let my guard down! Well let me to tell you something forest spirit, you don’t spend the last couple of years being the friend of the Avatar and not know the difference between a human and a spirit!”

Zuko grunted angrily. “Would a spirit know about this scar I got saving you from lightening?!” Without ceremony the Fire Lord lifted up his shirt to show Katara his mark of bravery, putting a full stop to Katara’s onslaught of attacks.

“…Oh.” She said, resting her arms at her sides upon realising that she and her friend were safe from ghosts and ghouls, for tonight. “Sorry.” Katara's face heated with a slight blush on her cheeks upon realising she had just made a total fool of herself. Ghosts and ghouls in this part of the world indeed!

Zuko could only reply to her amusement with a cross face. “What the hell are you doing out here? At this time of night?” He crossed his arms. “Sokka and I have been looking everywhere for you!”  

Katara winced. “So I guess Toph and Aang’s sweets failed to distract him, huh?” She sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry anyone. I just needed to come out here to…” She paused. She moved her pumpkin basket out of Zuko’s sight. “Take care of something.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“It’s stupid.” Katara snapped. “You wouldn’t care.”

“I wouldn’t?” Zuko raised an eyebrow again, now with a smile. “Come on Katara, tell me.” He said getting off the ground, to move closer to Katara’s basket.

The water tribe girl noticed this move and shoved said basket even farther away from Zuko. “No.”

“Yes!” Zuko smirked, eliminating the space between them again.

“No!” she moved again.

“Come on!” he continued his pursuit.

“I said no, Zuko!” Katara stubbornness continued.

“Just a peek-” which was matched by the banished prince‘s.

“Zuko, CUT IT OUT!” she screamed as he toppled over her.

“LET ME SEE!” Zuko cried as his arms spun around her like a spider’s web, trapping his prey.

“NO!” Katara shrieked laughing, because Zuko’s spider arms were now tickling her for her secret, unaware that they were being watched.

“Do you two realise that fornicating in the woods is illegal?” A bright flash of light nearly blinded them both. “My father could have you sent to prison!” These words of authority, Zuko and Katara soon realised after recovering from temporary blindness, did not belong to a real angry spirit they had feared finally made its presence known, but belonged to a twelve year old bird.

Well, twelve year old boy dressed as a bird, accompanied by several other similarly dressed children.

“We were not fornicating!” Both Zuko and Katara cried to their feet in the face of the little boy’s accusations though their flushed cheeks and disarrayed attires did not help their claims of denial.  “And where on earth did you learn THAT word?!” Both members of the couple narrowed their accusing eyes at the children with their hands placed on their hips. This trick usually helped them when the wanted to shame another member of the gang into shame and forgetfulness.

“Sexual education.” Bird boy shrugged. “These days the school is teaching us all about the birds and the bees.” The other children nodded their confirmation. “So if you guys weren’t, you know, making babies, what WERE you doing?” He shone the light in their faces again, with a suspicious glare directed towards both members of the guilty party.

“Yes, Katara.” Zuko betrayed their front against the little trick or treaters to finally get to the bottom of the water tribe girl’s peculiar behaviour. “Why did you drag us out here in the middle of no where?”

Now that all eyes were on her, Katara would have gladly faced the frightening, penetrating stares of the trees.

Katara sighed in defeat. “Not that it’s any of your business,” Katara bitterly began. “But I was planning on spending the rest of Halloween with my mother.” Out of the pumpkin basket she pulled out what seemed to be a portrait of her mother, a drawing which she had saved after Kaya died in the raid at the South Pole. Katara would have worried that Zuko thought she was mad, If it were not for bird boy’s exclamation.

“Hey, you’re making an ofrendas!”

“And ofren-what?” Zuko blurted out.

Bird boy rolled his eyes. “An ofrendas is a little alter where you put food, candles and other stuff over the grave of a dead person you knew when they were alive.” And added to himself, “EVERYONE knows that.” The little children giggled at Zuko’s ignorance.

“I KNEW THAT!” The fire bender crossed his arms, embarrassed at having been outwitted by the child.

“Then why did you ask what it was?” Bird boy continued to agitate Zuko for pure amusement.

“Uh-I-I was testing you!” Zuko said. “Making sure you knew that kind of stuff! Important stuff!”

The children rolled their eyes at the Fire Lord’s frivolous attempts to regain his dignity and Katara could only place a hand over her mouth to stop herself from making Zuko’s humiliation all the more apparent. “Okay, since we know you guys aren’t breaking any rules, we’ll leave now.” Bird boy smiled at Katara. “Tell your mum I said happy Halloween!”

“I will.” she grinned back as the trail of children followed the path back to the village, leaving her and Zuko alone once again.

“So…” Zuko eyed her with suspicion once the children were gone. “You weren’t going to invite me to your little picnic?”

Katara grinned. “I wasn’t going to invite anyone until I found out you were stalking me!” she giggled. “Sokka’s not really a believer in these kinds of traditions and I didn’t want to depress Toph and Aang on their favourite time of the year - so I decided to come alone.” She frowned. “Plus, if mum doesn’t come back from the dead tonight, I’d rather not be reminded of how silly I was to believe that there was such a thing as “The Day of The Dead”.

If Zuko’s heart were a jackol lantern it would have glowed bright orange with empathy. “Katara, I lost my mother when I was ten years old.” He reminded her, placing both hands on her shoulders so she would look and see how sincere he was as he said this. “There’s no way I would call you stupid for taking part in this,” Zuko took a minute to remember the word. “Day of the dead.” He smiled. “I actually think it’s a neat way of celebrating Halloween.”

Again, Katara felt stupid. Of course Zuko of all people would understand. He had lost a mother, he had hoped beyond hope that he would see Ursa again so there was no need for Katara to feel childish for her attempts to make contact with her mother. “Then may I invite you to dinner with me and my mother?” So Katara decided she would love to have Zuko by her side as she waited for the legend of “The Day of the Dead” to reveal itself to be true or false. Besides, she consoled herself, if mum didn’t show up at least she would be having a picnic by candlelight with a good looking guy!

“I’d be delighted to meet her, if this...” Pause again. “Day of the Dead” thing is true.” So Katara took Zuko by the hand and lead him to the perfect place she found for her mother’s ofrendas...

... forgetting that Sokka was still looking for them.

“Katara? Zuko?” The water tribe boy’s voice echoed in the dark, dark woods as he clutched onto his lantern, his only source of light, for dear life. “Anybody?” It would be a long time before Sokka could face the dark without quivering in his shoes again. So much for Halloween being his favourite holiday!





AUTHOR'S NOTES: An ofrendas is one of the mexican traditions for halloween, for more information go to this website (where I got my information):

http://www.jackolanterns.net/mexicanhalloween.htm

The inspiration to take the Mexican angle at Halloween? In a Halloween special I saw the family had a mexican stowaway for halloween and he mentioned that at Halloween, his people left candy on their loved ones grave stones and it seemed like an event that would take place in the Avatarverse.