Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar or any of the characters in this story. It's probably better that way.

AN: Another one-shot. This was actually supposed to be something else but my plot bunny mutated. I like it though. What do you think? It seemed weird to me that Iroh's lightning bolt from Azula took an entire episode to heal, Aang's took the entire break between seasons, but Zuko's only took until the next day? Yeah right. Here's what I think they left out. I'm thinking it's a day or two before Mai shows up.

Rated T cuz I don't think little kids would really understand. Aang doesn't seem to, anyway.

.

.

.

.

"And how is the future firelord feeling today?" Katara asked brightly as she walked into Zuko's bed chamber.

Zuko glared dangerously at her from his nest of pillows. The curtains hadn't yet been drawn from the window and the way his eyes glittered from the shadows of his canopy bed made him look like a dangerous moose-lion, waiting to attack.

He growled.

Katara laughed and started pulling back the curtains. "Well, someone's obviously not a morning person." Her cheeriness was almost bright as the sunshine streaming in.

The growl came out again, this time followed by words. "I AM a morning person!" Zuko roared angrily. "But the deranged psychopath in charge of healing me hasn't let me out of bed in almost a week!" He tried to wiggle his way out of the thousands of pillows and blankets that made up his bed but with the sharp pains issuing from his chest and side, it was a lot harder than he wanted to admit. "What kind of—urgh- example am- agh...I setting for my people," he wheezed tiredly. " if I'm spending the first few days before my coronation lounging lazily in my bed instead of actually trying to get some work done?"

Katara rolled her eyes and with a smile, pushed the agitated prince back against the pillows. For someone so concerned about his health, she wasn't exactly gentle about it and he grimaced from the pressure of her hands. "Yeah, I'm so deranged." She said as she tried tucking the blankets around him. She looked at him in amusement. "You can't even lean back into your soft and fluffy pillows without wincing."

"I don't want to be resting against soft and fluffy pillows!" He exclaimed, using his good arm to throw one of the offending pillows at her. "And I'm not hurt! You babying me is what's making me - URGH!" He tried clamping his teeth together to keep the sudden cry of pain in but it didn't work.

Katara had been in the process of removing his pajama shirt, so that she could double check his bandages but when she tried to lift his left arm out of his sleeve, something in his side or chest had ripped. She'd heard it.

The smart thing to do would have been for him to admit defeat and just let Katara finish. She had her water bowl on the nightstand, right next to his bed. She could remove the bandages, heal up whatever wound had just opened and then he'd have the whole day to sulk and pout.

But Zuko hated feeling weak and powerless and Katara's mothering just seemed to insult him. So instead, he tried to push her and her stupid healing hands away. His Uncle Iroh hadn't needed her waterbending abilities to heal from his lightning bolt injuries. Why did he?

"Zuko!" Katara shouted angrily. "Will you hold still? This- is why-" she jumped onto his bed, placing her legs on each side of his hips so that he couldn't thrash around as much. "you've- been in bed all week!" The growl that came out of her mouth was almost identical to his earlier ones. "Stop moving so I can heal your stupid wound!" She yelled as she placed a hand on each shoulder and pushed him as hard as she could into the soft and fluffy silk pillows behind him.

The problem with silk is that it's a smooth material. If enough pressure is placed against a silk object, it tends to slide away. When an angry firebender is being shoved roughly against silk pillows by a frustrated waterbender, instead of being a soft cushion to rest against, the pillows panic and begin sliding out of the way. As a result, the wounded patient (who until two days ago was in a coma, hence the week in bed) ends up getting his head bashed into the ornate wooden headboard behind him while the healer (who has been going out of her way to help the man who saved her life) accidentally bites through her lip and drips blood onto his (already stained with blood from his own injury) bandages.

"ARGH!" Katara yelled in frustration as her hand flew to her mouth. Her eyes widened as she licked her lip. All cheerfulness was forgotten. "You stupid..." Her cheeks puffed out as she tried to come up with a good enough insult. "Jerkbender! Look at what you did!" She pulled her hand away from her mouth and pushed it inches away from Zuko's eyes. While the urge to slap him was strong, she was supposed to be healing him. And Katara didn't like to think of herself as a person who gave into violent urges.

Zuko had long ago accepted that being good was not something he was good at.

"You almost bashed my head open!" he yelled angrily. Her hand was too close to his face. If he crossed his eyes, he could just barely make out blood on her fingertips but it was her own fault! He tried pushing her hand away and at the same time bucked his hips in an attempt to get her off of him. But instead of her falling gracelessly to the floor like he wanted, he had to grit his teeth to keep from yelping, again. He had used his left arm that for some reason, was directly connected to the raw nerves that were being rubbed against the bandages on his chest. And his genius hip thrust only seemed to open up the hole the bandages were supposed to be helping close. He clenched his jaw and small plumes of flame came out of his nose as he tried to keep the pain to himself. If he screamed, that'd only prove Katara right. He had no intention of encouraging the power trip of some teenaged egomaniac. "That's treason!" He bellowed as he grabbed her elbow with his good arm, "Attempting to assassinate the future fire lord is punishable by death!"

Katara laughed in his face. "Well obviously I didn't hit you hard enough!" she shouted back as she tried to push him back into the bed with one hand while wrestling her other hand free from his grip. "At least if you were unconcious –" She grit her teeth in frustration and had to tighten her legs around his hips. He was obviously feeling a lot stronger, it hadn't been this hard taking care of him yesterday. "I could change your bloody BANDAGES!"

The last bit was screamed inches from his face but before he could think of a good insult for the smell of peaches that had wafted up his nose, his bedroom door was slowly pushed open.

"Um...hello?" someone called nervously.

Blue eyes and gold eyes both turned and glared at the unwelcome intruder. "WHAT?" They shouted in unison.

Aang's eyes widened and he scratched his head nervously. "Uh...I heard shouting and I thought..." His voice trailed off. His eyes took in the pillows that had fallen to the floor, the half-undressed future fire lord leaning back against the headboard, his (maybe? girl)friend straddling said future fire lord, her swollen bottom lip, and both of their flushed faces. One of her hands was pushing against his chest while his good arm was gripping her elbow, trying to pull it away. Their free hands were tightly pushed down together against the mattress.

He wasn't really sure what to make of it.

"Well?" Katara asked impatiently. She took a deep breath and tried pushing down on her patient with her hips, while he tried to pulling himself into a more regal/less injured position. "I'm trying to heal Zuko, what's wrong?"

Aang felt like he was missing something. There was a clue that he hadn't picked up on. "Uh..."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Can you just spit it out, please?" His hand let go of her elbow and as a new thought occurred to him. "I want the water peasant out of here as quickly as possible. How am I supposed to be getting any rest-" He tried gripping her side and wriggling his fingers, she was ticklish there.

Katara squirmed and tried to twist her waist out of his grip. "Water peasant?" She almost shrieked. She punched his good shoulder and he winced, grabbing her hip to keep from falling back into the ornate deathrap behind him. "Are we back to name calling again?"

"You called me jerkbender!" He said. His jaw was starting to hurt from all the teeth grinding.

"Cuz you are! You..."He grimaced again as he felt her grip on his bad band hand tighten. "Jerkbender!" She took his moment of weakness to start pushing him down against the bed again. "I'm the daughter of the chief of the Southern Water Tribe and the only female Master waterbender in the world! Not to mention I'm the one healing your pathetic, ungrateful -"

"Ungrateful?" He sputtered angrily. He tried pulling himself up to a seated position and even though he couldn't return her grip on his left hand, he was able to tickle her waist again. "I saved YOUR life!"

"And now I'm trying to save yours if you would just-" she tried wiggling out of his reach again but it just made him tickle her more. "Stop it Zuko!" She was trying not to laugh. "You're going to hurt yourself!"

"A-hem."

The two teens turned and looked. Aang was still in the room. He was still staring at them.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Aang if you're not here to help then you need to go. Zuko needs his rest."

Zuko scowled at her. "I'm not a baby. Maybe it's something important." He fixed his glare on Aang. "What is it Aang? Did Sokka fall down a well? Did Uncle have some cryptic message he wants me to figure out?"

Aang couldn't even shake his head. Katara & Zuko weren't that much older than him. Technically, he was older than both of them. But right now, he felt like he'd walked in on some grown-up conversation that he was just too young to understand. Or maybe something that was too silly and immature for him to appreciate. It was a confusing feeling.

"I, um...I'll just come back later." He said.

Katara saw the confused look in his eyes and it almost broke her heart. It reminded her of the look on Sokka's face when their dad left. She didn't realize it but for a second, her and Zuko's fingers laced tightly together as he too noticed the boy's uncertainty. He ran his good hand up and down Katara's arm as she climbed off of the bed to try to comfort the younger boy.

A few months ago, she would have had to bend her knees a little more to be at eye level. Now he was almost as tall as her. "We were just being silly, Aang." She said with a smile as she took his hand in hers. "I promise, we're not really going to kill each other."

Zuko grinned ruefully and rubbed his hair. "Yeah." He said reassuringly. "Just give Katara a few minutes and she'll meet you in the hall for breakfast, okay?"

Aang didn't find this comforting at all. In fact, his stomach knotted up into a weird, familiar, nameless feeling. But instead he nodded his head and started back towards the door.

"Oh and Aang!" Katara called after him. He turned and looked at her hopefully. She smiled wryly. "Zuko has gotten a lot better, I think. So if he behaves," she shot the wounded future fire lord a warning glare, which he returned with an angelic who me? grin, "he might be able to do some basic firebending with you later on tonight."

Aang put a smile on his face. "That's great, Katara." He said in what he hoped was his normal voice. It cracked a little but he thought it sounded cheerful enough. "And maybe you and I could walk…" He trailed off. Katara had already turned back to Zuko's bedside, a hand warily on her hip.

"And as for you, your majesty..."

He closed the door behind him but could still hear them, slightly muffled through the door.

"Technically it's future majesty..."

"Whatever, future jerk lord. Let's get those off of you, okay?"

He could hear a giggle from Kutara as Zuko mumbled something. His voice was too deep for Aang to hear it clearly through the door.

With a sigh, Aang walked dejectedly down the hall. He wasn't the only one that had missed something.