"It's getting worse out there," Zuko said darkly listening to the wind howling around them like a ravenous beast. It ripped at the edges of the low tent, rustling it as the ice and snow hissed against the canopy. He tightened the knots on the enclosure, but the cold air leaked in through the tiniest of cracks. He glanced back over his shoulder at Suki, who was busy laying out furs on the bottom of the tent to insulate them from the cold.
Her nose was red, her breath visible in the air. There was a shiver in her shoulders as she smoothed down the white furs and looked up at him.
"How b-bad?"
"Pretty bad," he said regretfully. "I'm sorry. I thought we could make it. You were right."
"I accept your ap-pology," she said carefully, her teeth chattering. They'd argued in the snow for a half-hour that morning about whether or not they could make the journey through the frozen wasteland to the center of the snowstorm that had been raging in the South Pole for past two years, without abatement.
The Southern Water Tribe had warned him away; that it was too dangerous a trek, that the storm intensified the more one tried to penetrate it. Men had been lost trying to find the center of the ever-storm, but somehow, Zuko had wanted to try.
His curiosity had been piqued, to say the least.
Now here they were, trapped in the storm, no closer to finding out the truth than anyone else who had tried. And what was worse; he'd dragged Suki into it. She'd advised him not to attempt it, but he wouldn't be dissuaded, and once she saw how adamant he was about it, she had resigned herself to going too, if only to protect him.
She hadn't been particularly happy the entire trip. He knew she wasn't a fan of the cold in the first place, but being dragged to what was, by all accounts, certain death, had put a permanent frown on her face. He didn't like seeing it. Suki was usually a beacon of warm, gentle happiness, a little sun that he could count on, even on the darkest days.
He felt badly about dragging her out her, even worse knowing that they had failed, worst still that, despite her protests, she had still felt compelled to come with him.
"So what are we going to do?" he asked as she pulled her fur-lined hood down and fluffed out her static-filled hair. Suki turned her eyes on him and shrugged.
"W-wait it out, or at least wait for it to get lighter. And then walk the hell out of here like we sh-should have done this morning," she said sourly. She'd been shivering non-stop since before they'd managed to put the tent. Even with the fire he'd set in the tiny brazier wasn't enough to increase the temperature in the tent. The air outside had to be twenty below, and dropping.
"I said I was sorry."
"I kn-know," she said, rubbing her hand down her wind-chapped face. "I know. I'll try not to say I told you so. But I told you so."
"I'm sorry! I just... Ever since I heard about the snowstorm, it's interested me! Why is it raging? Where did it come from? What's at the center?"
"Probably nothing!" Suki exclaimed. "Probably more snow and ice and tundra. And if w-we got to the center of it, two idiots with frostbite and the ability to boast about the w-world's most useless accomplishment! WOW! We saw the center of a snowstorm! What a g-g-great vacation!"
Her sarcasm was scathing. Zuko stared at her as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You're starting to sound like Toph."
Suki tossed his heavy pack at him and he caught it with both hands. "I w-wish I was more like Toph! She wouldn't have put up with this bullshit. She w-would have tied you up until you came to your senses!"
"I didn't ask you to come!" Zuko burst out. "You could have stayed in the Southern Water Tribe. You insisted on coming with me!"
"Did you honestly think I was going to let you walk out into a fucking blizzard alone? S-seriously?" Suki stuttered hotly, glaring at him. "I w-would have gone out of my mind thinking about you out here. Who knows what could happen out here! I couldn't stop you from going, Zuko, that became really clear to me, but I could damn w-well make sure you came back!"
"Well, I guess you wouldn't be much of a bodyguard if you didn't. I'm just your charge, the guy you have to babysit all of the time. You wouldn't be here if I didn't pay you," he said bitterly and she looked up at him with pain in her eyes, and he immediately regretted his words.
"If you think that's the only reason why I followed you into the wild, straight into a d-d-deadly snowstorm, then I'm not sure I even want to be your b-bodyguard any longer."
Zuko let out a cold, steaming breath and pressed his palm to his forehead. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."
"Let's just get some s-s-sleep. I don't really feel like t-talking to you right now," she said, kicking off her fur-lined boots and climbing into her thick sleeping bag. She rolled over and faced the bellowing tent wall, effectively ending the conversation.
Zuko stared at her for a long moment, regretting everything. He wanted to tell her how much he appreciated having her by his side, how much he truly valued their friendship and valued her. The words wouldn't come. As usual, she confused him. He never knew what he was doing wrong, but he was sure that he kept doing it, and that she just kept getting more and more exasperated with him.
He took off his heavy, wet boots and set them out to dry, then crawled into his own sleeping bag. Despite the sub-zero temperatures outside, he wasn't that cold. In fact, he felt a little too warm, lying there in his thick shirt. After sweating uncomfortably, he sat up and took it off.
The movement made Suki half-turn in her sleeping bag, eying him as he tossed his sweater aside.
"Sorry. I'm too hot," he mumbled to her.
"Are you s-serious?" she said, lifting an eyebrow. "How are you not freezing to d-death right now?"
"It's my chi," he said apologetically. "I always run a little hot anyways. Are you okay?"
"I'm f-freezing my ass off and I can't stop s-shivering," she said and then snuggled down in her blankets. "Thanks for the shitty v-v-vacation."
"Suki..."
She didn't say anything, though he could see her shoulder shaking as she shivered. She drew in on herself, practically pulling the blankets up over her head. Her breath came in cold little ghosts as he laid on his side and watched her.
A full-body shiver took hold of her and he felt a small pop of panic in his chest.
"Suki, it's too cold."
"T-tell me something I don't kn-know!"
"No, it's too cold. You're going to freeze to death," he said, alarmed. He sat up and touched her arm, but all she could do was shiver. "Suki..."
"W-what are we going to d-d-do?" she said, and he saw how blue her lips were getting. "Set the tent on f-f-fire?"
"No, I need to warm you with my chi," he said, unlacing his thick sleeping bag. He crawled over to her and she watched as he reached for hers.
"W-what are you d-d-doing?"
"Saving your life," he said shortly.
"N-no... I'm m-m-mad at you," she protested, but made an exasperated sound as he fit himself into her sleeping bag. It was a tight fit, but he managed it, rolling Suki over to face him.
"Be mad at me tomorrow. Right now, just let me warm you up." She seemed to be too cold to protest his logic, and one touch of her cold, shaking hands to his warm chest seemed to convince her. She moaned and burrowed against his bare chest seeking the heat that spread out of the heart of his body, fueled by his bending. Her cold fingers slid between their bodies and she pressed them to his chest. She was so cold, it was a shock to his system.
Using one arm, he threw his sleeping bag over the top of them and then burrowed down beneath it, putting his arms around her.
She was shivering, moaning as her whole body was wracked with muscle spasms.
"It's okay, you're going to be okay," he said against her forehead, bending his knees and pulling her body between his legs. She pulled up legs and tucked her feet between his thighs. Her face dug into the crook of his neck and he felt her breath on him.
It was strange, to be lying there with her, holding her body to his. The terror he'd felt when he'd noticed how cold it was getting, and how much it was breaking down her ability to stay warm, faded into a curious, warm feeling in his chest.
He watched her brow smooth as her shivers slowly faded out, his warmth seeping into her bit by bit, the temperature inside of her sleeping bag rising. Zuko stroked her back, her hair. He let just the smallest amount of heat fill his mouth and breathed on her cold cheeks. She moaned and moved closer to him, half-dozing, her eyes fluttering open and closed until she truly slipped into sleep.
He lifted one hand, stroking her cheek, a rising emotion in him that seemed to blindside him.
The wind raged around them, the storm howling, trying to tear their meager shelter away from them. He held on tightly to her, dozing a little, but all too aware of her body intimately curled up against his.
He wasn't sure what woke him; the soft light of dawn on the tent roof, or Suki stirring against him. Whatever it was, he awoke all at once, and found himself staring into Suki's blue eyes.
"Hi," he mumbled softly, stroking her back.
"Hey," she said sheepishly. "Kinda warm in here."
A slow smile spread on his lips. "Good. I thought I was going to lose you last night."
"You're never going to lose me, Zuko," she said seriously.
He stared at her, studying her face for a long moment as the tension between them rose. "Why did you follow me?"
"You mean you still don't know? Can't you guess?"
But he did know, or at least he thought he did.
She reached up and brushed his hair back behind his ear, and he caught her fingers, blowing his warm breath on them. Then he kissed them each, one by one.
He felt Suki tremble against him and knew that it wasn't from the cold. He sat up on his arm a little, as they stared at one another in the dim morning light. The wind was still howling, but the storm had abated enough for them to trek back out of there. They would have to leave soon so that they didn't lose the light.
But, for a moment...just one moment...
He lowered his mouth down to hers and kissed her softly. There was curiosity in his kiss, a question that his stubborn nature demanded be answered. As Suki's lips slid against his, chapped but warm, the answer became all too clear to him, and that rising emotion in him reared, overtaking him completely.
It was all too clear now. Why she had followed him on his fool's errand, why she had risked her life to keep him safe. Why he had held her all night, a sense of rightness in him at the feel of her body against his, a rightness he had never guessed at until last night.
He stroked Suki's cheek, moaning into her kiss, losing himself in it.
He had come to unravel the mystery of the ever-storm, but had found something much better, a discovery that he should have made a long time ago. No wonder she had been so exasperated with him.
When pulled away, he looked into her eyes and smiled. "Am I getting warmer?"
"Scorching hot," she whispered and drew him back down for a kiss that seemed to never end, just like the storm that had driven them together.
(end)