Disclaimer- If Avatar was mine, I think I'd be able to afford my own car.
A/N: Sequel to Aftermath, because I can't ignore suggestions from reviewers.
Reclamation
Sun moved from behind a cloud as they continued to walk. Katara could feel herself shaking from the wave of mingled emotions she had just experienced and focused on calming herself. Zuko's hand held hers in a firm, reassuring grip and every so often his thumb would brush the back of her hand as a reminder that he was there for her.
The further they walked from the battlefield, the bodies they encountered became fewer and fewer. The grass under their feet became greener, and the trees in the area stood tall and proud, not having been cut down for fuel for the battle. Katara still felt her stomach churn uncomfortably at the sight of each new cadaver, but one figure finally made them both stop dead in their tracks.
Princess Azula lay in front of them on her side, supposedly unconscious and potentially dead. The princess' dark hair had fallen from its normally elegant topknot, and there was a large amount of grime on her skin and clothes. One of her legs looked broken and her nose was bloody.
Katara looked at Zuko, whose face was paler than normal from shock. He also looked confused and conflicted, unsure of whether to help his sister or leave her to her fate. She squeezed his hand gently; its grip on hers had slackened for the first time since they started walking.
"What do I do?" His voice was strained with warring emotions and his eyes were wide and scared.
"I don't know…but I can't make this decision for you. She's not my sister." Katara knew what she would like to do if Zuko wasn't with her, but kept that thought to herself.
He nodded in acceptance of the truth and continued to stare at the unconscious princess. Katara held her breath and waited, shivering when a breeze blew across the field where they stood. Her stomach twisted and knotted itself inside her for the anguish he was obviously going through; it was also impossible for her to read what he was feeling as they stood by side, which further exacerbated her worry.
Just when she was considering asking him what he wanted to do, he moved from her side and knelt next to his sister. Katara followed the example, kneeling near the princess' head and keeping quiet. More gently than she believed possible, he placed his hands on his sister's shoulder and moved her from lying on her side to lying on her back.
"Azula? Are you awake?" His voice was soft and concerned.
She regained consciousness almost too quickly; blinking and shaking her head in confusion, Azula met her brother's eye. One of her hands came to rest on her forehead while she tried to regain her bearings.
"Zuko…is that you?" Her voice was faint, but with an odd quality to it.
"It's me. Are you okay?" A chill crept up Katara's spine, though she was unable to determine the source. This scenario didn't feel right, particularly Azula's unconsciousness and supposedly faint voice.
"I can't walk. Her brother was responsible for breaking my leg." She jerked her head angrily in Katara's direction. Not for the first time, the water tribe girl found herself doubting the princess' truthfulness. The mention of Sokka made her heart twist painfully.
"That's in the past now. Katara, do you think you can heal her?"
Something about this entire situation was wrong. Azula was being too nice, too human to be trustworthy. Her eyes were wide with supposed desire to be healed. Katara knew she couldn't refuse.
"I can."
"Why are you doing this, Zuko? After everything I've done and tried to do to you, I'd have thought you'd hate me by this point."
"You're my sister. I think you might be the only family I have left. And after all, if you don't have family, what do you have?"
He spoke so earnestly and so emotionally that it made Katara's heart hurt. Tears jumped to her eyes and as she blinked to clear them, a flash of light caught her eye. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw a knife in Azula's hand. The blade was slowly leaving its concealed spot on the ground and rising to sink itself into Zuko's flesh.
Faster than she thought possible, Katara had seized the princess' wrist in her hand, yanked Sokka's dagger from the belt of her clothing and pressed it against Azula's throat. She was immensely relived she had ignored Zuko's protests when she went back to retrieve her brother's dagger.
"You evil bitch." Her voice dropped to a low growl and shook with rage. It all made sense now. The princess' feigned unconsciousness and confusion were all meant to lure him into a false sense of security.
"Katara, what are you doing?" Zuko's voice was shocked and his eyes were angry.
"She has a knife; she was going to stab you. Show him, Azula." She repositioned the blade of the knife against Azula's throat and released her wrist. The princess shot her a look laced with malice and contempt, and then tossed her blade on the ground by her side where Zuko knelt.
"Azula…why? I was going to help you."
"You always were pathetic, Zuzu. I was going to teach you a lesson about trusting people but your girlfriend stopped me. Don't ever forget that if she wasn't here, you'd be paying the price for your weakness right now."
Making sure the knife was firmly in place, Katara raised her eyes to meet Zuko's gaze. His amber eyes were bright with unshed tears and gleamed in shock. Question after question passed from him to her but the primary one was 'why?'. It was obvious he was having difficulty grasping that his sister would try and kill him when he was willing to help her.
"Come on, Katara," he found his voice and stood, offering her his hand. "Let's get out of here."
There was something incredibly unsettling to her about leaving an injured human behind, but the same injured human had just tried to kill someone she cared deeply for. Katara nodded, took his hand and stood, being careful to put Sokka's knife back in her belt.
Hands entwined, the pair walked away from the hurt princess and didn't look back. Now Katara could feel Zuko shaking as they moved and squeezed his hand to comfort him. He smiled in appreciation for the gesture, and then looked to the sky.
"We should find somewhere to sleep soon. The sun's starting to set."
She looked up at the sky and saw he was telling the truth. The sun was beginning to drop below the horizon, and its rays were casting streaks of pink and gold into the sky like molten ribbons that issued from a golden orb. It was beautiful and breathtaking and a reminder that life would go on. It would go on no matter what happened and no matter how horrible things got.
Feeling comforted by this knowledge, she nodded and the couple kept walking. The sun set completely and soon the sky turned dark blue, with the beginnings of twinkling white stars spangled throughout it like an enormous blanket. They soon came upon a wall of rock that Katara guessed had been part of a mountain. The rock was gray and speckled and most importantly had a hole in the side that looked large enough to serve as shelter for the night.
Relief swept over both of them as they entered the cave. No sooner had Zuko built a fire in the cave's center then rain started to fall outside. The night turned darker and soon they saw a flash of lightning and heard the low rumble of thunder.
Exhaling in exhaustion, Katara sat down before the fire on the hard cave floor with her knees bent in front of her. She rested her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. The weight and impact of everything that had happened during the day finally hit her with titanic force. She squeezed her eyes shut but tears still leaked out and fell down her cheeks. Among other things, today she had seen someone die, nearly killed herself, and saved a life. It was almost incomprehensible.
The sounds of someone moving and sudden additional warmth alerted her to the fact that Zuko had sat down next to her. She raised her head out of her hands and leaned into his shoulder instead. He shifted slightly and put his arm around her shoulders. The two were quiet for a long time, with only the occasional thunderclap breaking the monotonous sound of the falling rain.
More tears fell from Katara's eyes but she didn't bother with wiping them away. She simply pressed her lips together firmly to keep from crying and totally breaking down. The memories of Sokka's death along with Suki and her father's dead bodies were all getting to be too much for her. The blood from the innumerable cadavers she had passed swam in the front of her consciousness like it was right before her eyes rather than in her mind.
The worst part of it all was the memory of how she had felt before nearly driving Sokka's dagger into her skin. It had been a horrid mixture of pain, hopelessness and despair. She never wanted to feel like that again.
A sniff from next to her reminded Katara that she was not alone. Zuko was still sitting with her, and if her hearing was true, he was crying as well.
"Zuko are you ok?" Her voice was thick with emotion as she spoke.
"Yeah…I'll be alright." His voice was heavier than hers and his chest heaved with the effort of restraining his emotions.
Katara turned her face towards his in time to see him wipe his own tears away and was deeply touched. She reached up with one hand and gently cupped his cheek. Their eyes met and a few tears fell from his eyes, which she gently wiped away.
"I'm sorry about this."
"What are you sorry about?" His statement completely threw her off.
"Losing it this way…when I saw you with the knife I just wanted to help you…but now I can barely help myself."
This second statement touched her and almost made her cry again. Instead she leaned up and gently kissed his cheek.
"It's okay to be upset, Zuko. We've been though hell today. I don't even know how I'm managing to hold it together right now. I can't stop thinking about Sokka, or my dad…" her voice broke and she clenched her jaw to keep from crying.
He squeezed her hand that wasn't resting on his cheek and blinked away more tears. The gesture made something snap inside her and she started to cry in earnest. Zuko's arms wrapped around her and pulled her close so that she ended up crying into his shoulder. It wasn't long before he started to cry too and for a long time it was all they could do to cry in each other's arms.
At long last, Katara's tears slowed and finally stopped. She breathed a sigh of physical and emotional exhaustion and felt her eyelids droop. Outside the rain had stopped and the sky was now pitch black. Next to her, Zuko shifted to make himself more comfortable and took a deep breath to calm himself. She was debating starting a conversation again when he spoke first.
"Can I ask you something, Katara?"
She tore her gaze away from the outside and turned to meet his eyes again. "Of course…what is it?"
"Would you really have killed Azula earlier today? If there was no other way to stop her stabbing me?"
The unexpected question threw her off and she paused to think carefully before answering.
"I think I would have." She nodded and continued. "I care about you too much to let you get killed when I could easily prevent it. Especially after you saved my life."
He blinked and she knew he was taken aback by her statement. She waited for him to speak, but instead he leaned down and pressed their lips together. It was kiss filled with gratitude and affection. She repositioned her arms around his neck and kissed him back, matching his feelings and going beyond them to express her relief that they were in this together. Finally they both ran out of oxygen and the kiss ended. It was then that Katara realized they had moved and were lying down, and Zuko was on top of her.
"You're welcome." She smiled up at him, reveling in the new feelings of warmth and safety.
He rolled off of her with a smile, but kept one arm around her waist. She draped an arm across his chest as his free hand tangled in her hair. They were quiet together for some time, listening to the soft popping and crackling of the fire, until Zuko spoke again.
"Tomorrow I think we should figure out where we are. And what to do next."
"You're probably right." Katara nodded in agreement, and then a new, awful thought came to her mind. "What's going to happen after that?"
"What do you mean?"
She propped herself up on one elbow. His hand slipped out of her hair and rested on her shoulder. "I mean after we figure out where we are and all that. Like, if you go back to the fire nation and become the Fire Lord…what's going to happen to us?"
"Well what do you want to happen to us?" His questioning response frustrated her.
"I want to stay with you. My entire family and most of my friends are gone…you're all I've got left Zuko." The prospect of having to make her own way in the world, with no one around to help her in any way was terrifying.
"Then that's what's going to happen." He spoke plainly and firmly, and as he spoke, he raised a hand to cup her cheek. "Katara, relax, I'm not going anywhere. I want to stay with you too."
His words caused her heart to melt and she returned to her lying down position. "I'm sorry if that sounded crazy. It's just that I hate the idea of being completely alone in the world."
"I do too." He kissed her forehead and hugged her close. "That's why I'm not letting you go anywhere."
The phrase was spoken in jest, but the words touched Katara and made her smile.
"Good…because even if you did, you'd have a pretty tough time getting rid of me."
He chucked in reply and the pair slipped into a comfortable silence. Zuko dropped off to sleep first, and Katara found herself watching him in the firelight. For one who had just been nearly murdered, his face looked incredibly peaceful as he slept. Even his scar looked less severe with his entire face relaxed. A happy, protected feeling stole over her as she smiled down at him. This was the person watching out for her. He cared about her deeply and wasn't about to let her get away. Her feelings were entirely mutual, and if the day they had just been through was any indication, as long as they had each other, they would be okay.
With that last thought, she returned her head to his chest and slipped into sleep. The fire died down and went out on its own as the couple continued to sleep. The emotions and experiences of the day had worn them out so that they were too deeply asleep to notice as several figures approached and entered the cave where they lay.
-Fin
A/N: So it's not as dark as Aftermath, but I figured some happiness and fluff was in order. If it wasn't totally obvious, I have some ideas for a sequel to this, so let me know if you think it's worth it…by reviewing!! Please and thank you!