Zutara Week. Day One. Family.

I own nothing! Jun, Song, Jin, Li, Gansu, Sela, Mai, Ty Lee, Sokka, Suki, Aang, Toph, Ursa, Iroh, Katara, Zuko, Azula, shirshus, and anything else recognizable belong to Mike/Bryan/Nickelodeon/Viacom!

Zutara Week 2010 is, of course, run by the lovely GreenifyME, as well as AnimantX, Irrel, and Trishna87 on deviantART. n_n

Sisterly Love

He stood completely immobilized, completely helpless as everyone he even remotely cared about was lined up in front of him in his mother's courtyard with heavy shackles around their wrists. Toward the far left end of the line stood Jun, the bounty hunter, and next to her were Song and Jin with equally frightened faces. Mischievous Li stood sandwiched between his parents Gansu and Sela, who did their best to stand in front of him like a shield. Childhood friends Mai and Ty Lee were standing together. Mai's face betrayed her phlegmatic barrier with the slightest hint of tears and Ty Lee was full out bawling. Sokka, Suki, Aang, and Toph held hands the best they could, digging their heels into the ground for support.

Zuko didn't even have to look to know what order the last three people were in, but the guards in heavy, full armor left him no choice and forced him to see them. Ursa's elegant robes were slashed and hung around her in limp tatters. "Never forget who you are," she whispered before the hilt of a sword was stabbed at her shoulders. Uncle Iroh held his place next to the former Lady of Fire with that look of regret in his wise eyes that caused guilt to surge up Zuko's throat and nearly choke him.

He didn't want to look at the last person. He didn't want to see her eyes or her trembling lips or the chains that held her wrists down. He couldn't-he wouldn't look at her, he decided-but once more the metallic scrape of armor against armor forced him to do so. The water bender appeared so weak, so feeble. She was neither of those things.

"Katara," he murmured, and she heard him. She lifted her face and he could see streaks of dark maroon running across her dress and across her mocha skin; whose blood it was, however, he couldn't tell.

"Ka-!" He started to yell her name, but a quick jab to his solar plexus silenced him effectively.

"Well, hello there, Zuzu." Princess Azula sneered in his ear, casually curling her nails and brushing them against the metal chest plate she wore. She said nothing else to him but sauntered to the far left end of the line. "Shirshu poison. Fire. Ice. Swords for Mr. and Mrs. Goody-Goody, knife for the kid." Azula was handing out death sentences, he realized. She continued down the line, never once repeating a punishment. "Leave the last three for me," she ordered, and that evil Azula smirk played her face as she came back to Zuko's side. "Now see what happens when you become an enemy to the Fire Nation."

Her orders were carried out, and she made him watch.

Three people were left huddled together among the pools of blood that coated the young grasses. Zuko was crying, freely letting the tears in their relentless scurry slide down his face and drop on his tunic. "Please…"

"You never learn, Zuzu."

...

"Sugar Queen, wake up! Sugar Queen, come on, come on!" Toph shook her friend's arm urgently.

"Go away, Toph," the girl in question muttered and rolled over.

Toph curled her fist and clenched her teeth in dire aggravation. She stomped the ground roughly, causing the earth to reverberate, and tried to get the water bender up again. "Get up, Katara!"

The use of her real name brought the water bender to lazy attention. "What?"

"Something's really wrong with-" She was cut off by an intense, guttural scream that ripped through the small camp by the cliff side. "Sparky," she finished in a pained whisper. Not only was Katara up and running to Zuko's tent by then, but everyone else was too. In an area so small and quite, the chances of sleeping through the scream were minimal to none.

By the time Katara had reached Zuko's tent, for hers was the farthest away from the prince, Suki was sitting on one side of him with Aang on the other, trying to comfort him. Sokka tried to look important by pacing around in the small confines of the tent. Zuko cursed his sister's name, his voice coming in shattered gasps.

"Katara!" Sokka shouted. "Fix Sparky!"

The said healer girl pushed her brother out of the way with an annoyed roll of her eyes and went to the opposite side of the tent to kneel by Zuko's side, next to Suki. His skin was burning-literally, burning: tiny flames sizzled off of the back of his hands unconsciously.

"Zuko? Hey, it's okay. Zuko!" Katara firmly took his face between her hands, yelping quietly at the dangerously high temperature of his skin. His eyes grew impossibly wide when he saw her.

"Katara?" The whimper of his voice was relieved, and he fell back onto his sweat-damp blanket. He seemed to relax a little after he recognized the familiar face, though the breaths that passed his lips remained broken and uncontrolled.

"What happened to him?" Suki asked, ignoring Sokka, who continued with his frantic demands for Katara to "fix Sparky."

"Fever terrors, I think," she said sullenly, digging around in one of his bags for a washcloth, or at least something close to one. At the confused looks from both Suki and Aang, she explained. "They're really bad nightmares that you can get when you have a dangerously high fever. I've never seen it before, but I've heard of it." While she was talking, water-swathed hands moved deftly over the prince's feverish skin.

"How long will it last? Will he be okay? What can we do?" Questions bombarded the water bender in a rush of voices that seemed to blur together.

"Quiet!" Katara hissed. Aang and Suki obediently closed their mouths, but a quick water-whip to the back of Sokka's head was necessary to silence him. Once everyone was focused on her, she spoke in simple, curt sentences. "I'm going to do everything I can for him. Leave, all of you. He needs to rest and I need to concentrate. We can't do either with a pack of chattering hog-monkeys in a single tent."

Surprised by her frighteningly calm claims, Suki reluctantly stood and the boys followed suit. Zuko was at least lying still, exhausted after the stir his nightmare had caused, but the worried faces did not relax. The three teenagers followed Katara's orders and backed out of the tent uneasily, but the Runaway stayed as solidly as the element she bent.

"Toph," Katara urged, but the younger girl shook her head. In the dim light of the single lantern, the water bender could see a single tear roll down pale skin from unseeing eyes.

"He's my big brother," Toph insisted, and Katara's brow creased in confusion. "I won't leave my big brother." Her voice seemed so tiny, and her usual ambivalent casualness was discarded, the calloused layers of the girl peeled away until all that was left was a fragile little girl concerned for her family.

"Toph," Katara sighed again, but Zuko's hushed voice cut her off.

"It's okay, kiddo," he whispered, reaching toward the earth bender. Even Katara could tell that he struggled to get the words out so calmly. "I've got the best healer in the world to take care of me. I'll be fine."

Toph mulled over her choices-or maybe she was reading his heartbeat-before she eventually squeaked out, "Promise?"

"Promise."

"You know what'll happen if you're lying, Sparky."

"Of course I do, Bandit. Now go find the others."

Wiping the single tear from her face, Toph hesitantly agreed. "Take care of him, Katara," she begged softly.

"Don't worry, I will."

Katara felt like an intruder during their sibling-like exchange. From the very beginning, Toph was quite attached to Zuko. Maybe it was because he was the only one who could match her sarcastic remarks with comebacks of his own, or because he could withstand her mock punches and frequent practical jokes. Katara didn't notice how close they had really gotten, though, and she noticed that Toph willingly listened to his stern orders. She mentioned it to her patient.

After some unintelligible grumbling, Zuko finally replied, "She's my baby sister-the one who doesn't want to kill me. She listens to her brother."

Katara was silent after that, continuing her healing. The flames that ran across his arms were extinguished and he settled down from the frenzy that the nightmare had put him in. Once she could do no more, Katara stood and shuffled toward the opening in the tent.

"Where are you going?" Zuko asked, suddenly frantic again.

A quizzical look passed over the girl's face. "I'm going back to my tent…?" Where else would she be going?

"No, please. Stay," he pleaded. "Azula."

"Azula won't find us here," she assured, titling her head slightly.

"I-I-I…" Somewhere in the recesses of his mind-the rational part of his mind-he knew that the water bender was right; there was no chance Azula could find them and therefore he had nothing to counter her with. "Just…please."

Katara drew a long, tired breath, then met the terrified eyes of the young man before her. "Alright," she finally conceded. "Give me a couple minutes." With that, she left, and as she left, Zuko sat up. She wasn't coming back. He just knew it. Why would she? She wasn't going to-

"You came back?" he asked incredulously as she stepped through the tent flaps, pillow in hand, several minutes later.

"You asked me to. So here I am." She tossed her pillow toward him and knelt by his side. He didn't look anything like Prince Zuko, heir to the throne and future ruler of the Fire Nation. He just looked like…a normal teenage boy who had a nightmare. Katara felt a deep pang of sympathy for him, since she knew he hated showing any sign of weakness.

"Everything's fine," she murmured, taking a risk by curling her arms around him. To her surprise, he leaned into her, his breath on her shoulder and her cheek on the matted mess of his raven-black hair. "Go back to sleep," she coaxed and untangled herself from him. Uneasily, he lay down once more and Katara followed suit, her back facing the far wall of the tent so her body was perpendicular to his. Her legs curled and her body formed a protective arch above his head.

After long, uncomfortable moments of silence and stillness, the Water Tribe girl found herself running her tired fingers though his hair, just like her mother used to do when a bad dream disrupted her sleep.

"Azula killed you in my dream," Zuko revealed eventually, his eyes closed as Katara continued combing though his hair. "She killed you and my mother and Uncle and everyone else I love." His voice quieted as she stopped moving altogether. "She's crazy. She wants me dead."

Katara wiggled closer to him and pressed a light kiss to his forehead; the thin film of sweat that glazed his skin left an odd, briny taste on her tongue. "She can't take us all down. We're strong together." Her kiss drifted to the corner of his mouth.

"We're a family," the prince agreed breathlessly. "Non-lethal siblings," he muttered, and she could tell that he was flat-out exhausted. "Well, 'cept for you."

"What am I?" she questioned quietly.

"You're-you're more like my wife." As tired as she was, Katara's eyes widened. "We fight a lot. And you make me want you in ways I shouldn't."

"Well, then," she said thoughtfully, settling her weight on her elbow as she leaned over him. With the lightest ghost of a touch, she barely brushed his lips with hers. "We'll have to pick this up later when you're feeling better. Don't forget."

"I won't," he yawned. "G'night, Tara."

"Good night, Zuko. Sweet dreams."

~Fin~

This turned out much, much longer than I originally wanted it to be. -.-'

I'm not as proud of this as I'd like to be, and it has kind of a rushed and lame ending. Whatever.

This one focuses on how Zuko realizes how much he cares for his new family (especially Katara ^-^). I love the idea of Zuko and Toph being like brother and sister. SPEAKING OF WHICH, that's where the title comes in to play. You can either take it as Azula's sisterly love (or lack there of) or Toph's love for her "big brother."

Rewiew, please?
Tchao, Zutarians.
-Erika-
xoxo