Pending Trust
Even though he was inside, it was cold. His blanket was very thin and itchy. Zuko tossed back and forth trying to get sleep. Trying to ignore the cold, and cope with the thin itchy blanket. It didn't help that he had just been threatened by the water tribe girl.
Despite all his efforts he ended up spreadeagled on his back looking up at the cracking stone ceiling in dismay. He threw back the covers roughly and tossed his legs to the side of the bed, sitting up. The teen glanced out the window to his right, a crescent moon hung dimly behind the black clouds. He ran his fingers through his hair irritably, stood up and walked out the doorway to his room.
"Where are you going?"
Zuko froze in his mid stride as he recognized her voice, and tried to revive his stopped heart. He coughed before responding.
"I—uh." he began.
"You-uh?" she said angrily shaking her head in agitation, coming towards him a finger poking him pointedly in the chest. He took a step back, but she quickly filled the gape. "Explain yourself-now." Katara put great emphasis on the 'now' part.
"I-uh-I, couldn't sleep," even to him it sounded just a bit lame.
"Likely story." She sneered sarcastically "...I don't believe you."
"Fine. I'll go back--" he started before she interrupted him harshly.
"I'm sure." she snapped.
Zuko growled inwardly trying to keep himself from yelling.
"Yeah." he stated plainly.
He started walking back, and became quickly aware that the girl hadn't left, and remained still hot on his heels, a scowl planted firmly on her pretty, dark complected face.
"What are you doing?" he asked looking over his shoulder narrowing his golden eyes just slightly.
"I'm going with you." She said authoritatively.
"Wouldn't that be," he paused shortly "..A little inappropriate,"
She huffed in annoyance "No." she said shortly ignoring his implication.
"Whatever." he replied back hotly cutting a kingly hand through the air in begrudging acceptance of her impudence.
He went in his room standing by his window. The breeze blew at his hair. He turned around when he heard a rustling sound.
"Are you, going through my stuff?" He asked a little disbelieving at her boldness.
"I am." she answered without even a trace amount of guilt.
"How can you just--?" she cut him off quickly.
"I'm not letting you hurt us. I'm looking for some sort of evidence to incriminate you so I can get you away from Aang." She explained easily.
Zuko pulled in an indignant breath. "I can't believe you!" he shouted an angry red flush forming on his cheeks.
"Well, I can't trust you!" She shot back turning away from her work to glare at him.
"Why can't you just give me a chance!" he said getting closer to her throwing his arms around him empathetically.
"I already did, at Ba-sing-se!" she countered.
That stopped his tirade in it's path.
"You're right, but couldn't you at least give me a little respect? Anything?" he asked his arms resting back at his sides.
"Respect! You haven't done one thing that would deserve even an once of 'respect'!" She shouted her face becoming flushed.
Zukos jaw worked.
"Couldn't you at least stop treating me like dirt!" he asked loudly.
She looked at him with extremely icy eyes. She tossed his bag at him it hit him right in the gut as he caught it. "No." she stated flatly stomping away.
"Fine!" he shouted after her tossing his bag away on his bed. The teen looked at the picture of his Uncle sitting beside his bed before he himself stomped away out his door. He wasn't about to stay here now. As a matter of fact the angry prince flew right past Katara on his way out.
"Hey!" She shouted, but he completely ignored her.
Zuko didn't know how far he walked all he knew was that the clear open outside--away from the temple was nothing short of being absolutely liberating. Especially since he was away from his hot -tempered 'probation' officer.
His calm face was quickly replaced by total surprise. Zuko leaned back with cat like reflexes barely avoiding the deadly trail of a black dagger. Adrenaline began pumping through his veins at full speed his senses hit complete alertness. Daggers flew at him again this time in a swarm like pattern he ducked, but one sliced into his right arm and another left a rivulet of blood on his cheek.
A black masked form landed crouched in from of him then swiftly stood up. The hiss of metal pierced the dark cold air of the night. Zuko's eyes widened in a fearful kind of wonderment. The sword was beautiful, and that beautiful sword wanted nothing more than to slice through the flesh of his neck and remove his head from his body.
The clouds moved away from the moon just long enough that he noticed the fire emblem on the persons chest. Zuko did a double take. So it was an official assassin then. He couldn't say he was that surprised. Luckily, he still had the small advantage of being out in the open, he would hate to think what would have happened if he had actually been asleep.
Guess he did have some luck after all. He was dodging the sword with ease but he couldn't do this forever. Even now the strokes were closing in. There was only so much dodging he could do. He had to get that sword away from this guy.
There! He spied an opening, it was small and he could lose an arm, but he decided he had no other choice but to go for it. It was do or die.
He reached with his left hand and hissed through his teeth a little as the sword nicked the upper half of his palm, his accuracy hadn't been quite perfect enough, but he had the leverage he needed. Zuko pulled the mans arm the held the sword up and keeping his feet wide he punched the guy in the face with his free hand. As the man fell back ward Zuko pushed the mans sword hand down and bringing his right hand forward he popped the mans sword hand out of its socket hyper extending it with a nasty crunching sound. The man cried out in pain letting go of his sword.
Zuko picked the blade up off the ground swiftly, and quicker than the man in black could recover, he had it pointed at his neck.
"I think you've lost," He stated plainly.
"You should have killed me when you had the chance." The man said his hand flying from his stomach releasing a couple daggers. Zuko blocked the one that was trained on his heart using the recently acquired swords blade, but the other hit him to the left of his sternum making him cough and fall back. The assassin mad his way toward the down boy systematically grabbing a short-sword from his belt. Zuko blocked the descending short sword with stick from the ground but the high quality of the fire nation sword would not be denied, and it's descent was only delayed a millisecond before continuing down onto the prone teen.
The blade just missed him as he rolled out of the way. His opponent having to pull the sword out of the ground gave Zuko the slight advantage as he used the ground as leverage to deliver a kick literally full of fire at the man.
Either by dumb luck or a twist of fate, just as the assassin tried to avoid the hot attack a rock tripped him, which, was only worsened by the fact that he was also precariously located by the fog filled edge of a cliff. His cry echoed loudly in the wide empty expanse to which he would most likely meet his death. Zuko fell back on his elbows in exhaustion.
"I'm sure luck was on my side for a moment there." he said trying to stand up with a pained effort. He felt the warm moist blood leaking from his chest with agony. Every breath he took sent a sharp spasm of pain down his left side.
"Damn. That hurts like hell." he winced. He decided standing could wait for a while. He half heartedly untied and pulled the sash from his pants in an effort to use it as a way to staunch the bleeding, but the sash quickly became bled through. Zuko knew he had to get up and get some help at least make it back to his room where it would be a little less freezing. He breathed out and noticed the smoky trail it left in the air. He forced himself to stand. His bore the pain grinding his teeth.
He limped a little noticing also that a dagger had graced his left calf too.
"Wonderful. Just glad to be alive, I guess" he mumbled a more than a little sarcasm seeping into his words. As he pushed a branch out of his way, what he saw was probably the last thing he wanted to see. It was the water tribe girl.
"Hey." he paused a little trying to hide his choke of pain with a choppy sigh "Nice night, huh?" he closed one eye in a wincing manner. He pulled his jacket around him trying to push past her. She put her hand on his chest.
"Don't take ano--" she stopped at the wet sensation she hastily pulled he hand back and examined it in the moonlight. Her face twisted from anger to shock.
"You're..." she choked.
He took her shock as an opportunity to push past her.
"Hey!" she cried out after him.
"Seriously, Zuko! Stop!"
He stopped, but he did not turn around.
She ran up to him grabbing him by the shoulders as if to hold him there. "I know I said that I didn't trust you and all, but that doesn't mean that I..." she didn't know how to continue.
"I'm going to..." he didn't finish because his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell forward. Katara barely managed to hold him up. She hugged him to her and sat down on her haunches gently laying him on the ground. She reached her hands forward and pushed back his blood soaked over shirt. She hissed between her teeth at the location of the wound. She ripped his shirt around the cut, examining it. She pulled water from her canteen and went to work on his wound. Katara didn't have time to even wonder what had happened to him. She had to stop the bleeding.
"Don't die," she pleaded.
The clouds cleared away for a moment reflecting off of Zukos' unusually pale face. The moons light soothed Katara calming her muscles and her mind almost completely serene now, she was closing the wound little by little. Stitching the layers of muscle and vessels. The boys body shivered a little. Kataras hands stopped glowing and fell to her sides in exhaustion.To her relief the bleeding had stopped and the wound was reduced to a small scab. Now that Katara could examine him more closely and in the light of the moon she noticed a small scratch on his face and further examination led to the discovery of a wound on his right arm and left leg.
"The one on your arm is really deep I should..." she said out loud as she placed her hand on the wound. She was startled by the sensation of a cold hand curling around her arm. He just stared at her with a strange expression. "Please, stop looking at me like that." she said uneasily trying to hold back tears that just came upon her suddenly. He turned his golden stare away from her letting her go as his hand fell back to his side listlessly.
She didn't turn away she just continued to look at him blue eyes wide. The wind blew tossing her hair in her face. Zuko shivered visibly. Katara stood up quickly. She knew she wouldn't be able to move him.
"Stay here, I'll be back," She said assuringly. The girl thought she saw him nod, and she ran off to fetch some blankets
He watched her go until she was out of his sight. Then he moved his knees up and managed to stand. He walked the opposite direction.
When Katara returned a few moments later she to find him gone she frowned. At first she thought maybe she had come to the wrong place but she noticed a spot of blood and not only that, but a trail of blood.
"The wound on his leg." She said to herself following the trial.
She found him actually quite farther than she would have thought he could have made it. For a moment she watched him sitting there on what was once an intricately carved rock the monks had crafted, it was now more of a mossy cracked rock. She watched as he traced his chest were she had healed him. Finally she spoke.
"Hey, I thought I told you to stay put." she said a little annoyance creeping in her voice.
"Why are you here?" he asked looking down at his feet.
"I have blankets...for you." she said as if uncertain of her own intentions.
"It is pretty cold, I guess." he said listlessly.
She came forward surprising him a little as she dropped the blankets on his back. She sat down beside him fidgeting with her hands in her lap.
"What happened to you?" She asked the question that had been burning in her mind.
"My father sent an assassin to kill me," he stated as straight forward, as if they were talking about the weather.
"An assassin?" Katara said disbelievingly
"Yeah, I guess my last visit really pissed him off." he finished a small painful chuckle escaping his lips.
The girl felt a little twinge in her heart. She looked at him trying to say something finally she decided and she began.
"Look," she paused "I'm sorry." she winced at the lame irony of those words.
"No, you're not sorry. You feel sorry for me." Zuko replied as if she had shoved glass down his throat. "I don't want your pity." he continued pausing for a moment then turning to look at her "I want your trust, and this time I intend to earn it." he said with determination in his eyes. She could almost see his heart beating outside his chest.
"I see." She said simply conceding nothing.
A moment of silence passed through them, but it wasn't a hostile silence it was more like a neutral, perhaps a forming comradeship type of silence. Katara looked down at his hand and remembering herself she grabbed a white roll from the pouch she had retrieved that hung at her waist. Then she reached over picking up his hand gingerly. She bandaged it with practiced ease also making sure to wrap around the thumb so it would stay in place. Zuko observed her work in silent admiration.
The water tribe girl crouched down on the ground in front of him to doctor his leg. He watched her raptly. She tried to be gentle when rolling up his pant leg but she still managed to illicit a hiss of pain from him. She looked closely at the gash, it was totally straight across his calf.
"Talk about precision. This guy didn't mess around." she said simply. Zuko remained quiet.
Katara looked even closer at the wound shaking her head.
"It's worse than I thought," she paused "Maybe I can--" she pulled water from her pouch and held it around her hands. The water began to glow, and that strange sensation that he had felt earlier when she healed him, encompassed his leg. She finished by wrapping his calf as well, and stood up.
"Ah, it's not healed all the way but it's the best I can do." She said regrettably
"It's fine. Thank you." he assured.
"We'll have to make sure to get the proper medicines on those wounds in the morning." She said.
"Let's go back." Katara said finally, looking at him. He nodded in agreement and started to walk wincing a little.
"Here." she offered him a shoulder. He was hesitant, but he leaned on her nonetheless. They made their way back clinging to each other in silence.
I'm not sure whether to make this a story or a one-shot. I'm considering a continuation, which, would be a Zuko/Katara story (of course). Also, for some reason I could not think of a title! I settled for this one though--lest I would have gone insane. Well, more insane.