Author's notes:
My very first Zutara and some of my first attempts at humor! It took me forever to finish it but I'm happy with it. Its slightly AU and it may have a sequel if I can think of a good plot line.
Please review, I don't care if it's a complement or a criticism I would like to know how you think I did. Remember, your two cents count!
Much thanks to my beta MoonClaimed!
Wei had to admit that in all his twenty years as a Dai Li agent he had never seen anyone quite so strong willed as this young rouge. He kept going on and on about firebenders and, though it was very annoying, Wei had to commend his ability to resist the brain washing.
But the rouge's mind eventually gave in, like they all did, and he began to spill his deepest, darkest secrets. He told of lost family and burning fire, of small children and desperation, but mostly he spoke of deep hate and grave mistakes. Wei had heard it all before, in one way or another, so it meant nothing to him. This was just part of his job.
All this was only procedure, really, just to make sure the rouge was not a true danger to the public or a dealer in illegal goods or something. What he found, however, was far more interesting.
"He knows the Avatar?" Long Feng turned to look at his second in command. Wei smiled slightly as he nodded. "Interesting . . . If the boy should start to become a nuisance we could use him. Keep him in custody for now." He turned back to the fire place. "Dismissed."
Wei paused a moment. There was something he wanted to say but wasn't sure if it was out of bounds.
"I said dismissed, Wei." Long Feng stated firmly without even looking as his second again.
Wei decided to risk it. "Sir, pardon me, but what about the firebenders the prisoner spoke of?"
"The rouge was raving, I doubt it's true."
"Even so, sir, he was very sure it was true. I think it would be best if we were safe rather than sorry. There is always the possibility that they are spies." Wei said.
Long Feng was silent for a moment. "You have a point, no one will miss a pair of refugees anyway. Take care of it, Wei." Wei frowned. Such lowly work shouldn't be done by the Dai Li, but he figured this was his punishment for speaking out. A leader can't have his subordinate feeling too free, even in situations like this power had to be maintained.
Wei bowed. "Yes, sir."
"And make it look like an accident." Long Feng added. "The Avatar is enough trouble. We don't want to make the City Guard to get noise as well."
Wei spent the next two weeks tailing the old man and his nephew in the Lower Ring, learning their daily schedule and forming a plan.
He noted that the old man tended to only go out during the day and stay out in the open were there were people about. This was not unusual; as someone who was older he would be a prime target for thugs. The old man was obviously taking precautions. Wei knew it would not be easy getting to him.
His scared nephew on the other hand, did not seem as concerned as his uncle. He did not seem to worry about staying out after dark and always took short cuts through deserted back alleys. He probably thought he could take care of himself if something should go wrong.
The boy's cockiness would be the death of him.
"This is half of it, you get the rest when the job is done." Wei smiled to himself as he handed the sizable bag of gold to the five suspicions looking men. It had not been hard to find people in the Lower Ring who would take on this kind of job; it had been even easier when he had mentioned that the target was a possible firebender. They were refugees too, after all, and were probably craving revenge for all that had been taken from them.
As the Dai Li agent saw the thugs leave, he felt he had accomplished his mission. Spy or not, what threat was an old man? He could not get far on his own anyhow.
Zuko hated living in Ba Sing Se, he hated working in a tea shop, and most of all he hated having to run all these errand! He always had to run to the market for tea cups, tea leaves, or other such useless things. It probably wouldn't be so bad if the places he when to actually had what he needed. Usually he would have to go to five or six shops all over the Lower Ring just to find one thing! It was so frustrating!
Really he wasn't being to fair to all those shop owner's he yelled at day after day. It wasn't their fault that the Upper and Middle Rings always got the first pick of things, but Zuko's whole life wasn't fair, so he really didn't care how fair he was being to anyone at the moment.
Today had been one of the worst. He had to of been out since six that morning and now it was probably seven at night! Uncle always told him that if he didn't find everything before dark he should just come back, but if he did then he would just have to start all over again the next day! Beside, no matter what Uncle thought, Zuko could take care of himself.
Zuko stopped and sighed in frustration, placed his bag on the ground, and leaned against the wall of the alley to rest a bit. He must have walked all the way to the other end of the Lower Ring and back, and he still had a ways to go.
'It's not too much farther.' Said an overly optimistic voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Uncle's. He told it to shut-up.
As he rested he became aware of the sound of footstep. Zuko opened his eyes and saw the shadowy figures of two men walking toward him. One man appeared to have a sword and the other had a board with nails sticking out of it.
Zuko was not stupid, he could take care of himself, but it was best to avoid confrontation.
Zuko grabbed his bag and turn to run but only got a few feet before three more men jumped out from behind the corner, blocking his escape root.
Zuko growled to himself. Damn! It was like they knew he was coming! He took a fighting stanc and waited. The thugs approached causally, examining him and his stance carefully, which he thought was odd. Most thieves would just demand his stuff. Zuko had no time to contemplate, though, because all the men suddenly rushed him.
Katara was hopelessly and miserably lost.
All she had been doing was putting up Appa posters in the lower ring. That wasn't too hard. She had assured both Sokka and Aang that a master waterbender could easily take care of herself. She had taken out two cocky thugs all by herself already! But somehow, some way, she had gotten turned around in this miserable place and now it was dark!
This was just great, she was sure she would never hear the end of it from Toph and Sokka.
Katara looked up at the sky and tried to figure out which direction she was heading, but it was pointless. The stars here were different than the ones down south, and she recognized none of the constellation. She sighed and continued to wander, hoping that she was going the right direction.
"It's a good thing it's a full moon tonight." She muttered to herself. "I can at least see where I'm going."
Blood leaked out of Zuko's side and formed a slow moving, warm river down his pant leg. 'Damn them,' the prince thought as he braced himself against the wall and took hold of the dagger before carefully beginning to pull it out.
During the fight he had found an opportunity to escape and taken it. He did not like it, but it had been that or firebending. For back alley thugs they had been good, especially at group combat. Zuko would not be suppressed if they were Earth Kingdom deserters. Considering the accuracy of the man who had thrown the dagger at him just as he was turning the corner, they probably were.
Zuko angrily cast the bloody dagger aside before turning his attention to the wound. Gritting his teeth he lit his fingers on fire and slowly placed them over the bleeding wound. Zuko's hiss of pain was mixed with the sickening sizzle of flesh as he cauterized the wound.
Zuko, as a firebender, was familiar with burns and considered them to be one of the most painful injuries a person could have. It did not tear the flesh like a knife did, but destroy it, melt it, . . . eat it. Burns brought back painful memories for Zuko but he had no choice in the matter, it was burn the wound closed or bleed to death.
Zuko, still braced against the wall, finally pulled his hand away and took several deep, pained breaths. The sound of footsteps behind him pulled his mind out of the fog of pain, but only little. He had thought he had lost those thugs somewhere in the maze of alleyways but maybe not.
Zuko forced himself to move. Though it hurt his side terribly, he started to run, trying his best to block out the pain. He had no idea where he was or where he was going, but he had to get away.
His vision began to blur, his breath became labored, and his feet became as heavy as lead. 'Because of the pain.' He thought.
All the while the fog in the prince's head just kept getting thicker and thicker, making it more and more difficult to think strait.
Katara had to admit that she was nervous, but really, anyone in her situation would be. It wasn't that she was afraid of the dark; that was silly! The South Pole spent months in the dark every year! It was just that she was all alone in a strange place . . . and in the dark.
She sighed and rubbed her arms, both to keep them warm in the chilly spring night and to reassure herself. She turned a corner and suddenly froze, a small amount of fear ran down her spine.
In front of her was a person, a man maybe, leaning with one hand against the wall. She could not make out most of his features because he was hunched over, with his head pointing down, and even with the moon out it was still rather difficult to see. She could hear him panting, though, and see that his arm was shaking weakly.
When Katara's mind had finally registered his state her fear changed to concern. She decided to stay cautious, though, just in case. She slowly began to approach the figure, uncorking her water skin as she did so.
When Zuko felt his muscles begin to give, he finally stopped to rest. He sat down on the ground with his back against a wall, but after several minutes he started to register that something was terribly wrong.
The things he had copped up to the running and the pain were not changing. Now that the wound was not being aggravated the hurt should have lessened some, but it hadn't, in fact pain was beginning to spread through every part of his body. He noticed that all his limbs, not just his legs, kept getting heavier and weaker. The fog in his head was also unnaturally thick.
Zuko's mind was confused, and he couldn't tell why was this was happening but did know what was happening; he was dying. The well trained warrior part of himself told him so.
Slowly and painfully, the Prince was dying.
Panic hit Zuko like a brick. He forced his screaming muscles to lift his body to its feet. He needed help, he needed to get somewhere that would help. He couldn't call for it, no, those thugs or some other shady characters would find him then.
He tried to move forward but quickly lost his balance. He braced his weight against the wall and kept trying to move forward but each step was tortured.
Zuko did not want to die; he was still young with so much he needed to do. He had never earned his father's love, or thanked his uncle for going into exile with him, . . . or fallen in love. He had only had his first kiss a few days ago for Agni's sake!
But now it hurt to breathe too. His legs were too heavy to move anymore, and he realized that he felt very, very cold. He was going to die here, all alone in some dirty alleyway. His uncle probably wouldn't even find him, it was a big city after all, his body would just rot here or someone would come along and have the heart dump him in some unmarked grave.
Zuko finally lost his will to fight the fog and pain, his legs gave way, and everything went black.
Katara jumped when the man suddenly keeled over. She waited a few seconds but when he didn't move again she threw caution to the wind.
She was kneeling at his side in mere seconds, franticly searching for a pulse. His neck provided one to her relief, but it was faint and his skin was unnaturally cold and clammy. Then she noticed the large red stain running down the side of his clothes.
She flipped him over to get better access to the area, pulled her water out, then hesitated.
Zuko.
His hair was a little longer then it had been in the abandoned town, but the scar was unmistakable . . . but so was the look of agony. She had seen it before, when his uncle had been injured. It was a different kind now but it was similar enough to remind her.
She stopped hesitating and began to look for the wound. It didn't matter that this was Zuko, that he was her worst enemy, that he was from the nation that killed her mother, or that he was apparently still trying to capture Aang. He was suffering and he needed help; that was all that mattered to her.
Katara found the injury quickly but was surprised by it. She held back the bile that threatened to come up. Apparently he had treated himself and, though it looked absolutely disgusting, it had been a good idea.
Why was he still in bad shape then? Was he bleeding internally?
Katara place her water over the wound to check. For a second the water glowed blue but then she stopped herself.
That feeling.
In the healing huts up North they had taught her much. One of those things was that different injuries sometimes required different types of healing. Things like simple wounds on the flesh were not like the more serious ones on the organs, and had to be treated as such. This knowledge meant nothing, though, if one didn't know the feel of these wounds, so Yugoda had taken her to several different patients.
One of these patients had been bitten by a Tundra Rat-Viper. His feeling was similar Zuko's now, only Zuko's was far, far worse.
'He was poisoned.' Katara thought as a wave of dread wash over her. No one could heal poison. The damage it does to the organs, yes, but the poison would just damage it again. There was the chance that one could keep a person alive long enough for it to be washed out of the system but that could take anywhere from hours to days.
As Katara slowly moved the water across Zuko's body she realized that even if she had days it would not help. This poison was very aggressive; it attacked almost all the organs. It would take too much time to heal them all, at least one would fail long before she got to it.
Briefly she considered the spirit water, but that would not work either. It would only prolong his life, not save it.
Katara slowly pulled back the water and stared that the Prince. She couldn't help him. He was going to die.
His breaths sounded so loud to her, but they were so weak. Every time he exhaled he made a small noise, something between a rasp and a wine. His face, she saw now that she had time to examine it, wasn't just twisted in agony alone. She was sure she saw despair mixed in with the pain.
This boy was so different than the proud, angry Prince she was used to.
Part of her wanted to run. She didn't want to see this. Katara didn't want to see him die, especially not like this. One death, her mother's, had been too much for her already.
But she couldn't leave him. How could she let him die all alone in some strange place, despite being Prince Zuko for crying out loud.
Suddenly Katara felt like crying. She tried to choke it back but failed. She closed her eyes to keep the tears from flowing . . .
And then snapped them back open again. She stared at Zuko, but she wasn't really looking at him.
For the brief moment her eyes were closed she had sensed water, not her water, but another source. One right where Zuko was laying. Tears forgotten she closed her eyes and concentrated, searching for the water again. Yes, it was right there.
Katara opened them again, this time keeping track of the water, Zuko again. Of course! People had water in them! All life did! Why hadn't she felt it before? Well . . . she had never looked before . . . and she was currently stressed . . . it was a full moon too, her powers were enhanced.
None of that mattered though, because if she could control the water in Zuko's body . . . maybe she could save him.
The first thing she did was reopen his wound with a sharp ice dagger. Then she reached both her hands over his body and focused on the poison in order to pull it out of Zuko's body through the cut. This was not easy. She tried to determine and separate the poison from the rest of the blood but in the end a lot of blood still came out with it. That was not good.
This was a new and unpracticed technique, she really shouldn't be applying it at all, but she had no choice.
In the end Katara decided that removing all the poison would drain Zuko of too much blood, so she stopped short. As she healed the cut she prayed to Yue, La, and even Agni, that she had not pulled too much blood or left too much poison in him.
With the immediate problem taken care of Katara went about healing his organs, and the blood vessels she had accidently damaged while trying to save him. He really couldn't afford to lose much more blood.
She didn't know how long it took her but finally her effort paid off. The pain in Zuko's face relaxed away and his heart rate, which had been uneven, finally stabilized.
Katara had done it. She had saved him.
She realized, however, she still had a problem. She was now not only lost and alone, but lost and alone with an unconscious, firebending prince.
Katara couldn't possibly carry him anywhere, he was far too heavy, and she couldn't leave him here, he was completely defenseless. Besides, letting him have free range of Ba Sing Se again didn't seem like a good idea either. She'd have to take him back with her.
Katara sighed; it looked like she had to wait until he woke up. She shuttered to think of what the Prince would do when he opened his eyes and saw her, but she figured his state would prevent him from doing anything she couldn't handle.
She would also have to do quite some explaining when she arrived back at the house with the Fire Prince in toe, though.
This was going to be a very long night.
To get her mind off all her current problems Katara stared surveyed the Prince again.
He was pale, but that was to be expected. He was shivering now from both the chill and lack of blood, but that was also an improvement from how still and lifeless he had seemed before.
Time crawled on and she continued to watch him shiver before deciding that she at least try to make him a little warmer. She reached over and took both his hands in her's. She tried to ignore the fact that she was touching Zuko's still cold and clammy skin and focus on rubbing some warmth back into his fingers.
Katara felt uncomfortable and awkward, but when it started to look like the Prince wasn't going to wake up and discover her anytime soon it became a good distraction.
'Cold.' That was the first thing that crossed Zuko's conscious mind. The second thing was that he felt wet. The third thing, however, was more pleasant; his hand were comfortably warm, unlike the rest of him.
Zuko opened his eyes but his head was still recovering from the poison so it took him a while to register what he saw. He stared at the water tribe girl blankly for about a minute. She seemed to be absentmindedly playing with his hands. Realization hit and he yanked his hands away with snarl.
She jumped to her feet in surprise and quickly backed away from the angry Prince.
For a moment Zuko thought he saw a blush on her face but was distracted when his attempt to get up resulted in his head starting to spin and his collapse back to the ground.
"Careful," The water girl hissed "you'll hurt yourself."
"What did you . . . do to me." Zuko growled at her as he rolled on to his side to try again.
"What I did?" She laughed bitterly. "What I did was save your life."
Zuko's head was still confused, and he had just discovered that his body ached when he moved it. He painstakingly pulled his knees underneath him in order to steady himself before giving her sideways glare. "What?" He rasped.
"You were poisoned," she said as she glared back at him with her cold blue eyes, "if hadn't come along and removed it you would have died."
The word 'died' brought everything back to him. Zuko turned his head away so she couldn't see the look on his face. He was ashamed of himself, saved by a water peasant, what kind of fire prince was he? Oh . . . right, the banished kind.
After using the Breath of Fire to quickly raise his temperature a few degrees he switched all his focus into the task of getting to his feet. He reached his hand out to try and use the wall to help lift himself up.
Katara watched Zuko struggle to stand and felt a wave of concern wash away the bitterness the Prince's attitude had built up.
She walked over to him, placing herself between him and the wall. "Let me help you." She said with a sigh as she leaned down.
Katara was caught completely off guard when Zuko angrily shoved her against the wall. "You should know better . . . then to save your enemy . . . peasant." Zuko had used her as a handhold to lift himself to his feet and he was glaring at her dangerously with his bright, gold eyes.
For a moment Katara was indeed frightened by him, but she got over that rather quickly. "Oh, please." She said as she gave him a simple shove. Zuko nearly fell over but quickly regained his balance. "You are in no position to be threatening anyone." He stared at her with a look of shock. Weather it was from her change in attitude or the fact that she had so easily pushed him back, she was not sure. "You, Prince Zuko, have lost too much blood. Your muscles are weak and your body is tired. I bet you can hardly light a candle let alone throw a fireball. Oh," she added as she pulled her water out and let it glisten in the moon light, "and if you hadn't noticed, it's a full moon tonight. You do remember what happened last time you challenged me during a full moon, don't you?"
Zuko's shock turned to hatred and he snarled but said nothing.
"Good boy." Katara said with a smile as she put the water away but left it uncorked just in case. "Now, do you know were the main road is?"
Zuko thought it was amusing that the peasant was lost, but knowing that teasing her might have unwanted consequences he kept his mouth shut.
He had, in fact, known where they were now that he could think strait and they made their way to the main road in thankful silence.
Walking was annoyingly tiring for him, though, and he had been forced to stop and rest several times. At least he didn't have the same problem in staying standing that he had when getting up.
He was relieved when they were finally at the main road because he thought he would finally be rid of the peasant, but that was, unfortunately, not the case.
He had turned to head back to Uncle when the girl stopped him. "Hey! Where are you going?" She said from behind him
"None of your business." He replied bitterly. All he wanted to do now was go to bed and forget this whole mess.
"Oh, no you don't," She answered. "you're coming with me."
Zuko's blood ran cold. She was going to turn him in. Damn, he should have guessed it. He turned to glare at her while carefully weighing his options.
Katara was furious. 'How could I have let him get away! How!'
Apparently he could still throw a fireball, though it had been a weak one. He had used it to distract her while he fled down another alley. She had tried to follow him but when she saw that the path split in three different directions she had given up then and there. Zuko obviously knew this part of the city far better than she did and trying follow him would have only gotten her lost again.
Katara did the only thing she could do then: go back to the house.
She fumed the whole way back. Criticizing herself over and over again for letting the weakened prince get away.
"Pff, it's about time Sugar Queen."
Katara jumped at the sudden noise. "Toph!" she hissed "Don't scare me like that!"
The master earthbender laughed manically as she stood up and joined Katara on her way home. "You're one to talk! You had Twinkle Toes and Snoozles running around franticly! They thought you were in some kind of trouble."
Katara felt a small wave of guilt wash over her. "I got lost."
"I know," Said Toph cockily, "I kept telling them you were fine and that you were a big girl but they wouldn't listen to me."
Katara smiled to herself as she considered asking Toph why she was out here sitting on the side of the road when dawn was only two to three hours away, or why she had bags under her eyes.
Katara opened the door to the house and a wave of relief washed over her. She was finally back after that horrible night. She was tired, but she swore the first thing she was going to do was take a hot bath. She was going to scrub the daylights out of her hands to, because she found herself disgusted by the fact that she had actually touched that spoiled prince.
"Hey, Snoozles!" Toph called out with a manic smile plastered on her face, already prepared to gloat, "Sugar Queen is back!"
"It's about time!" Katara knew by the sound of his voice that she was going to get a nice long lecture. She sighed; it looks like her bath would have to wait. "We were worries sick about-" as her brother came into view Sokka's angry face suddenly switched into one of horror. "Katara!" He yelled, suddenly rushing towards her.
Katara was surprised by Sokka's sudden change in attitude, and apparently so was Toph. "What? What is it?" The blind girl said, sensing from Sokka's voice that something was wrong but unable to determine what.
"Katara!" He repeated, as he began to franticly pat her down like he was looking for a canceled weapon. "You're bleeding!"
"YOU'RE BLEEDING!" Toph yelled, utterly panic stricken. The younger girl's worry was now no longer hidden under any kind of mask. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!?"
Katara was utterly confused, but then she noticed her clothes. Most of her knees down were stained completely red, while above that there were numerous large red spatters and smears that reach halve way up her mid section. It must have when she had been kneeling down next to Zuko. She had, in her rush to save him, simply dropped the discarded blood on the ground, somehow she had not realized it had gotten on her. Perhaps because she was so tired, and because it was all mostly dry now.
'Zuko' she thought, and for the first time since the beginning of their small battle in the alley she was actually concerned about him. 'I'd forgotten he had lost so much blood . . .'
"Sokka," Katara said.
"It'll be Ok, Katara! It'll be Ok!" Her Brother rambled as he looked for the nonexistent wound.
Toph was cursing somewhere in the background, asking over and over what she should do, but Katara was not paying attention.
"Sokka!" Both her brother and Toph finally stopped and looked up at her. "I'm fine." She said, before adding distantly; "It's . . . It's not my blood."
There was a tense pause in the air. "Well, who's blood is it." Sokka asked nervously. He didn't like the tired and worried look in his sister's eyes. What could have happened that had gotten her covered in blood? Did he want to know?
"I'm going to take a bath." She said, obviously ignoring him. Neither of them tried to stop her or attempted to peruse the question again that night.
In the bath Katara weighed her thoughts.
Should she tell her friends about Zuko? She realized that they had to be on the alert but there was a good chance that Sokka, and maybe Aang, would want to tell the authorities. Katara didn't want that to happen because she knew that Prince Zuko, son of Fire Lord Ozai, would surely be executed. Sokka really wouldn't care and though Aang would she might have a hard time convincing him that the Earth Kingdom would, in fact, kill the prince unjustly. Sometimes she thought the twelve-year-old saw too much good in the world.
Katara was despairing a little in the bubbles when she heard a squeak.
"Katara?" Aang's voice called out nervously.
"Hey, Aang."
"I'm glad you're back safe." He said and she could tell that the others must have told him what happened. "Do . . . do you want to talk? About . . . what happened?"
There was a deafening pause in the bathhouse. ". . . No, no I don't."
Zuko looked at the sky and couldn't believe how close to dawn it was. He must have been out for a very long time.
As soon as he was sure the water tribe girl was not following him he had left the alleyways as quickly as possible and swore he was never going to take them again.
He had finally made it back to his and his uncle's place and found he was absolutely exhausted. Zuko had only made it this far running on adrenalin and now all that had happened was finally catching up.
All the lights were on when Zuko entered groggily. He shut the door behind him with a loud crack and he heard Uncle's footsteps.
"Lee! I was worried sick-" Uncle came in holding a tea pot, which quickly dropped to the floor and shattered. "Zuko!" He gasped, forgetting the fake name completely. He ran over to grab is nephew like he was expecting him to keel over any second.
"I'm fine, Uncle." Zuko growled as he pushed his uncle away, which completely shocked Iroh. Zuko did not realize that he was as pale as a sheet and covered in blood. His mind had become disoriented for the second time that night, only this time from exhaustion.
"You're . . . not hurt?" Iroh asked worriedly.
"No," He growled again. "I'm tired." His eyes then fell on the broken pot and he looked at it like he hadn't seen it before. "Uncle, you spilled the tea."
Iroh could probably tell by now that his nephew was slightly out of it. "It's fine Zuko, I'll clean it up later. It's more important that we get you to bed now".
Somehow, being more precious to Uncle then tea made Zuko feel really good inside.
Iroh had to force his nephew out of his clothes because he just wanted lay down and go sleep right then and there.
Iroh would not let that happen, though, because he wanted to make absolutely sure that Zuko was not hurt. He may not appear to be in any pain but that was not enough for an old man who had already seen one son die.
To the old General's relief Zuko was indeed fine, not counting the fact that his nephew looked and felt like one of the walking dead. He did need to be helped onto the mat though, as it seemed that his muscles were very weak.
He sighed and turned around to go clean the mess in the other room when a cold, damp hand reached out and grabbed him. Iroh looked down at Zuko who was gazing at him with a look he had not seen in his nephew since he was small. "Uncle?" His voice was raspy and tired.
"Yes, Zuko, what is it."
He paused as if he was contemplating something. " . . . Nothing." He grumbled before laying his head back down.
Iroh stared at his exhausted nephew as he began to doze off and silently thanked Agni that Zuko had come back to him alive.