Title: Five Injuries Katara Never Healed

Author: Artemis Rae

Rating: This usually hangs around K+, but may skirt T, a little bit.

Fandom/Claim: Katara, Avatar the Last Airbender – written for the Livejournal Community 5Nevers.

Warnings: Blatant Kataang shipping in several of them; all are about drabble length. Five AU situations - none are supposed to be related.

My usual disclaimer applies: I don't own Avatar and only do this for my own enjoyment. And also because JoJoDancer keeps making me.

01. Femur

She had lost so much blood, but that wasn't the most important thing – the most important thing was that she hadn't lost her water skin. Mostly useless in battle at this point - one arm was tucked carefully against her body, and she was listing dangerously to the right - all she could do was move numbly from soldier to soldier, both friends and enemies, healing when she could and attempting to give some sense of peace when she could not.

The body of a young man lay in front of her, his left leg twisted out at an obscene angle. Katara hobbled towards him, noticing Toph out of the corner of her eye. The blind girl was pointing to the ground, not earthbending but yelling, up in the Earth Kingdom general's face, clearly intent on making some sort of point.

Katara couldn't hear her over the ringing in her ears, and, reaching the soldier, dropped down to her knees in front of him.

She never heard Toph's cry; her weight hit the ground, which shifted suspiciously underneath her, and then all Katara felt before she died was fire.

02. Manus

She found Aang staring at his palm interestedly.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, leaning over his shoulder.

Aang's face instantly went red. "I cut myself," he mumbled. "Must have done it practicing with Toph or something..."

"Let me see." She moved in front of him, taking his hand in both of hers and bringing it close to her face to examine the wound. It was just a small, jagged line, enough to sting but also heal up itself within a day or two.

She glanced up, her offer to heal it anyway dying in her throat as her nose bumped his and they both realized how very close they were to one another.

"Uhm... your hand..." she murmured.

"Yeah?" Her eyes closed automatically.

She had no idea what she'd been planning on saying. His lips brushed hers, just barely, just enough to send a shock through her body. She dropped his hand, the cut and her ability to heal forgotten.

03. Epidermis

There was intense, horrible pain going up both arms and through her shoulders and neck. She had thought it hurt when Aang had accidentally burned her but that couldn't even compare to what she felt now; her skin was alive, on fire, trying to crawl away from her body and away from the heat.

Aang, one arm encased in rock, had looked at her in horror before pushing her away, towards the shore of the lake and away from the battle – she gave him one brief thought, worrying about his ability to take on three at once – but then the edge of the water caught her foot and lunged in further. The cool water hit her arms, and she couldn't help the shriek of pain that rose up even as she dove under, waiting for the soothing blue glow to come.

Except it didn't, and as she floated back up to the surface of the water she caught sight of the moon, the orb glowing an unnatural, blood-red color in the darkness.

"Oh…" she thought before she passed out.

Sokka had warned her about the lunar eclipse.

04. Skull

The gust of wind came suddenly, out of nowhere, interrupting the constant stream of chatter, capping itself off with a hard thump and the cracking sound of a fracture snaking up the wall. Katara spun around, one hand immediately making that familiar motion to her side for her water skin –

But the eight year old merely rubbed the back her head, determined she was relatively unscathed, and then picked herself up, laughing the whole way. Easily forming an air scooter, there was another gust of wind as she zoomed past her mother, heading outside to find her friends.

Katara sighed. The girl was just like her father. Really, she was going to have to talk to Aang about teaching her to control those things.

05. Heart

"Ask me."

She could feel Sokka's eyes on her, could hear Toph shifting nervously behind her. Zuko sat in front of her, slouched against the wall, one arm dangling limply with blood pooling beneath him.

"Go ahead," she challenged. "Ask me. You know I can help."

A defiant glare remained in his eyes despite his situation – it was the same spark that she had seen before, when Aang had asked him, begged him, to help him defeat Azula and the Fire Lord.

"Katara-" Her brother took a hesitant step forward and gently took her arm. She wrenched it from his grasp and settled it at her side, the cap to her water skin swaying promisingly in the wind.

"Ask me."

Zuko closed his eyes, as if mentally weighing his options, and, with a deep sigh, murmured, "Heal me."

"I'm sorry?" Katara asked.

"Please heal me," Zuko ground out between gritted teeth. "So I can rise up and destroy my sister- and end this war-"

He left the end of his sentence off: "-like Aang couldn't."

Katara fumbled with the end of her water skin, the grin curling up involuntarily on her face. Zuko's eyes went wide with disbelief.

"No."

I'm particularly fond of the last one, though I'm sure to hear a comment about Katara being OOC...

This was just a short thing I was prompted to do one night. After this we'll have updates to both Gauntlet and Escapades, and then I'll be focusing on Shadows for the home stretch.

Hope you guys enjoyed it!