What I need to live has been given to me by the earth. Why I need to live has been given to me by you. – Unknown
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To live was nothing to her anymore; she felt nothing but the small pulse under her warm fingers, the small pulse signaling that he was still alive.
Living, in retrospect, was worthless unless she did it with him. She cradled him in her arms. If only there was water, somewhere. But no, the fire nation would have nothing to do with water unless they used it to sustain themselves. No rivers surrounded them, not an ounce of water was to be found under the sandy dessert ground.
It was unbearable hot, but there was no humidity, not an ounce of water that she could draw from the air around her.
In her lap his head shifted. She looked down to see splatters of her tears on his face. He was moving, after all those hours of sitting with him, he was finally moving.
"Katara…" his throat was dry, drier than hers. She smiled, her lips cracking painfully as she stroked his face.
"Shh; if you die, I'll be right behind you," she said soothingly. Zuko's eyes grew wide at this.
"Don't you dare kill yourself for the likes of me, I've spent too long protecting you, and you deserve much more than I could ever give you."
She stroked his face, her smooth and warm fingertips lingering at the hard, tough skin of the scar painted over his left eye. He closed his eyes, motionlessly absorbing her touch.
"Don't you see Zuko…" she said, her voice shaking. "You aren't even what I needto live, you're why I need to live."
"Don't you even think about killing yourself," He said, dragging himself up and shaking her fingers off his face. She cringed at the contraction of the large wound just below his heart as he sat up. "If you kill yourself, I don't know what I'll do," he said, his old ferocity in his voice as he shook her shoulders.
He collapsed back on the sand, and Katara cringed as some sand settled on the bloody outer regions of his wound.
She turned her face upward, praying for a miracle, for rain to heal with. Zuko's eyes fluttered closed.
Yue didn't answer her prayers. She turned desperate.
"Agni! Please! If you're there, please help your bravest and most loyal subject!" She shouted at the sky, her voice ragged and desperate. She knew Agni had nothing to do with the affairs of rain. "You're just going to let him die!" she screamed, her voice tearing through the wide silence of the dessert.
She let out a shriek of agony and fell on her knees next to him.
"If only I had water Zuko, I wouldn't let you die. I love you." She whispered those words, so familiar yet so final, for what she thought was the last time…
And then, she felt a raindrop.