Zutara Week DENIM

Zutara Week: Day One.
Prompt: Denim.

I don’t get how Uncle convinced us to do a carwash. All I remember is sitting on the porch with the gang complaining about our lack of money. Well, everyone but Toph cause she’s loaded.  The kitchen window must have been open, Uncle’s always in there and it’s right next to the porch. He came out and suggested we do a carwash. Well hell, seemed like a good idea at the time.

Ok, maybe I’m really happy he suggested it.

We’ve been planning this for about a week. Toph and Sokka made these outrageous posters and put them all over the place. Aang and Suki took on finding a place to do it in; we managed to snag the local ice cream store’s giant parking lot. They had about four hoses we could use, and plus, Pakku works there. Sokka managed to win him over with a bribed visit from his and Katara’s grandmother. I’ve been trying really hard not to think about that…

What have Katara and I been doing? Well, let’s just say we’ve been doing the heavy lifting. For the past week or so we’ve been slowly building a supply of everything we’ll need. It’s been fun, what with racing around in shopping carts and getting yelled at for knocking over this guy’s cabbage cart. I’ll honestly say I’ve had a blast.

But you want to know what my favorite part of this past week has been? You really wanna know?

Suki and Katara went and got a crapload of new clothes. Most importantly, really hot jeans. My god, these things are amazing! I’ve been walking behind Katara a lot this past week just to look at her gorgeous butt. I really don’t want her to kill me, but she has an amazing rear.

Ok, I’ll stop mooning over Katara’s ass. I have to get ready for the car wash to start anyways.

“Catch!” came a voice behind me. I turned just in time to get smacked in the face with a wet sponge.

“Damn, I have great aim!” the woman said again. I wiped the suds off my face and promptly felt my jaw hit the ground. There was Katara in full battle gear. She was wearing a deep blue bikini top, had her hair up in a ponytail, and was wearing my personal favorite pair of jeans.

Like the others they were tight as hell. They only went down to midcalf—I think they were called capris—and were embroidered with lilies and dragons in red.

“Thanks, Katara, I feel so much better about this afternoon,” I said sarcastically. She just laughed and took the wet sponge from me, plopping it back into the full bucket she was carrying. Another bucket rested at her feet, so I grabbed it and we walked over to the wall where the others were lined up. On the notices we had said we were going to start at noon and go through six. I had six fun-filled, extremely wet, hours ahead of me.

And did I mention the really hot pants?

Soon Toph and the others joined us. All the girls wore bikini tops, Toph and Suki were wearing cargo shorts though. I caught Aang and Sokka glancing at their butts a few times. Maybe I wasn’t the only one…

Before this goes on, I should probably admit something. I am amazingly, out of control, fantastically in love with Katara. The one hitch? She doesn’t know it.

I’ve always been good at hiding my feelings. It was almost mandatory in the family I left behind. Ever since eighth grade I’ve been in love with Katara. I didn’t realize my own feelings at first. I was jealous when she was looked at by other guys—being on the swim team does give you a great body—and I just couldn’t leave her side during the summer. When I got to the tenth grade I finally admitted to myself that I loved her.

Well that’s all good and dandy, but you’re probably wondering why I never admitted it to her. Well how the hell am I supposed to know if she returns my feelings? Guys are insecure about girls too, you know! Besides, I remember her telling me about how she used to like that Jet kid. I’m the exact opposite of Jet, and so can not be in her interest range.

The first car of the day pulled up, a red minivan that looked extraordinarily familiar.

“Uncle! What are you doing here?” I asked as he stopped and opened his window. He just laughed.

“Why, Zuko, I’m here to get my car washed! Isn’t that what you lovely people are doing, right?” Katara ran over and greeted Uncle. He stepped out of the car and handed her a twenty dollar bill.

“No, Uncle, we can’t take this! You’re family. You get a free wash,” Katara said, trying to give Uncle back the money. He makes everyone call him “Uncle”, just to let you know.

“Just think of it as bait on the hook. When people see that there is a car here getting a phenomenal bath more people will come. You’ll have plenty of people in no time.” He took the bill from Katara and put it in the money box we had set on an old crate. Then he told us that he was going to say hi to Pakku and went into the ice cream parlor.

"Well, let’s wash this car, guys!” Aang cried out, grabbing a bucket and attacking the car. We all laughed and joined along. The car didn’t take us very long to clean and Uncle soon came out with a box in his hand.

“Your grandmother brought this by the house earlier, Sokka. Said you might enjoy a little music,” Uncle told Sokka as he handed him the box. We all crowded around him to see what was inside.

“Sweet!” Toph called, taking out a pair of speakers. Immediately she whipped out her iPod and plugged it in, picking a song and turning the volume all the way up.

“What have you done? Oh that’s the sound of my gun.” Of course, we automatically reverted to the ‘80s.

“Woohoo, Janie’s Got a Gun!” Sokka cheered as Toph put the speakers by the cash box. Uncle laughed and went to move the car, saying how he wanted to continue a game of Pai-Sho with Pakku.

By now everyone was dancing. I was just standing on the sidelines watching and laughing. The song ended and another car drove up. That’s how most of the day went. Song, car, song, car, song, car. It was a hell of a lot of fun. Plus, those jeans got tighter as we all got soaked. Damn, I really was trying to keep pure thoughts.

Around three we took a quick break. Heading into the parlor we found that Uncle and Pakku had made us sandwiches and milkshakes. We quickly claimed our meals and went back outside.

Another car had pulled up while we were inside. It was a red hot convertible that was sickeningly familiar.

“Hello Jet,” Katara hissed beside me. I glanced over to see her face openly hostile and her fist clenching around her sandwich. Jet was leaning against the side and had his trademark toothpick hanging out of his mouth. Has anyone ever told him how ridiculous he looks with that thing?

“Hey babe,” he leered as he pushed off gently from his car and walked forward. Katara handed her food to Sokka and walked forward. He didn’t seem to sense the impending doom about to befall him, but hell, I wasn’t going to warn him.

When Katara was only a foot for him she raised her hand and smashed it extremely hard into his face. Something crunched and Jet went down. Toph, Suki, and her brother cheered while I just watched in amazement. That was one hell of a left hook!

“That’s what you get, you asshole! Try slipping some drugs into my drink again and trust me, we will have words. Now get in your ridiculous car and leave before I mess up that ugly face of yours some more.” Katara was fuming mad as she stood over him, hands on her hips. He stood up and glared at her. His nose was a bloody wreck. His hand shot forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him.

“Talk to me like that again, bitch, and I’ll make sure you don’t have the pleasure of memory loss of what I’ll put you through,” he whispered violently. She shivered slightly but glared at him.

“Well if that’s the only way you can get a woman then maybe you should look into men. I heard that Long Feng had a new pretty boy that you would be interested in.” Jet’s hand shot up and slapped Katara across the face. I was moving before I even thought.

I tackled Jet and knocked him to the pavement. I punched him twice in the face, then grabbed his shirt collar and roughly jerked his face towards mine. His eyes were slightly glazed over, and blood was running quite profusely from his nose.

“You touch her again, talk to her again, even look at her again, and I will make sure you don’t get up. Ever,” I spat. He tried to glare at me threateningly, but his face was such a mess he just looked pathetic. I wrenched him from the ground and shoved him into his car. He looked at Katara behind me.

“I see you got yourself a new playmate, whore. Well, don’t worry, he won’t be protecting you much longer. He’ll realize you’re just a—” My hand flashed up and punched him resoundingly in the chin. His head snapped back and he moaned in pain.

“Would you like to die now, since my words obviously had no impact on that incredibly thick skull of yours?” He looked at the murder I had written on my face and nearly pissed himself. He pushed himself backwards and flipped into the car. Straightening himself, he put the keys in the ignition and quickly drove away.

I glared after him for a minute or two until I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. Turning I saw Katara looking at me worriedly.

“You ok, Katara?” I asked. She laughed shakely.

“Well now I am. Damn, have I ever told you that you can be extremely scary when you want to be? I thought for a minute you were going to kill him!” She wrapped her arms around my waist in a tight hug. My arms went instinctively around her shoulders, holding her to me and trying to calm down.

“God damnit, Suki! You can let me go now!” Came a muffled voice behind us. I looked up from Katara to see that Suki had Sokka in a headlock. She glanced down.

“Are you going to behave? Or do I have to threaten you?” Sokka swore under his breath and said something I couldn’t hear. Suki looked thoughtfully at him for a moment and then let go of him. Sokka stood up to his complete height and rubbed his neck, wincing. Then he walked towards me and Katara. He grabbed her shoulders, did a visual check that she was ok, and promptly squeezed her to him.

“Katara. Next time, I get to punch him, ok?” He asked, but I could tell he wasn’t really asking. He didn’t wait for her to answer before he looked at me. He locked gazes with me and I can’t exactly tell what he was looking for, but I guessed he found it. Sticking a hand out to me, he sighed.

“Thanks, man. That meant a lot to me.” I took his offered hand and shook it.

“It wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her anyways, Sokka,” I said honestly. Katara wriggled out of Sokka’s remaining arm and once again turned towards me. There was something in her eye as she took my hand and examined it.

“Well, at least you got out of this unscathed. Thank you, again, I was in some pretty deep crap.” I just wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Katara looked up at me and a single tear ran down her face.

I guess you can say I just lost it.

I bent down and pressed my lips to hers. I felt her gasp against them, but that only lasted a second because she soon responded and gave me a kiss I will remember for the rest of my life.

We pulled away unwillingly and looked at each other. Katara smiled happily.

“Well now, maybe you should do that again, I’m still a little teary-eyed.” I just laughed and bent down again. This time I slipped my hands into her back pockets. I nearly jumped when I felt her do exactly the same thing. She simply smiled against my lips.

“Ok, I’m really quite happy Zuko just beat the shit out of Jet, but I really don’t want to see you two make out right about now,” Toph called from the crate she was sitting on. “And besides, we have a customer.”

She was right, a porsche had pulled up while the drama had erupted. Now an elderly woman I recognized from school walked up to us.

“Madame Wu!” Aang called. She smiled to us all as she paused.

“Was I right, dear?” She asked Katara. Surprisingly, Katara blushed and nodded.

“Well I always am. Now, would you care to wash down my baby? I was told that you were the people to come to.” We quickly grabbed our buckets and jumped to wash the car. Madame Wu laughed and went into the ice cream parlor. I wrapped an arm around Katara’s waist to stop her. She looked up into my eyes questioningly.

“What did Madame Wu mean by, ‘was I right’?” I asked her. She blushed again.

“I went out to get the mail this morning and she was running. She stopped to tell me that today was the day to wear the dragon jeans. I would be getting a lovely surprise if I did.” I looked at her in shock and then started laughing. I collapsed onto the ground, laughing. I didn’t even know why I was laughing anymore, I just knew that denim was my new favorite thing.