(A/N: I don't know whether to jump with joy, or cry! The finale to Avatar: The Last Airbender is coming so soon! I really want to see what happens and who gets the 'ship with Katara, but I also don't want it to end! At least I get a full movie-length feature on Nick on Saturday night, so I'll be sated for a little while, but it just won't be the same without the show. Anyway, those marathons are daily now, so I'll be updating as soon as I can for the next few days, minus the weekend. My thanks go out to everyone who's been reading, adding the story to their faves/alerts and reviewing it. These people include: FaithandLove, CuriousBabyVamp, Laliz, Pepipanda, Phoenix Wingz, Avatar Kiba, meluvtasuki, Veronica10, and ktsvillefan. Keep the reviews coming! They make my soul very happy. I really love hearing from you guys, and the little conversations I've had with some of you have really made my day. Even if you only want to say 'Hi', you should still go and review. Special thanks go to Avatar Kiba and CuriousBabyVamp because they have really helped me improve my writing. Thanks again, and on with the show!!)
NOTE: I've also post-submission edited this chapter with just a few little snippets from other characters, thanks to suggestions by CuriousBabyVamp. Thanks again, and I'll try and have another chapter up tonight to thank all of you, even those of you hiding in the shadows, for 14 reviews, 746 hits, 3 faves and 7 alerts. Maybe we can make it to 17:850:5:10 by Chapter 5? :D Si se puede!
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender, nor do I make profit off its use.
Chapter 3: Behavior
"What's wrong with him?" Sokka asked, poking at Zuko's shoulder with a corner of his boomerang. Katara had stood, but was now taking slow steps backwards.
"Don't walk away, Katara, I need you here with me. Please, don't leave me here, I can't stand not being able to see your beautiful face," Zuko pleaded, standing quickly when she was a few feet from the edge. Her eyes widened as he just kept going toward her, and she was remotely aware of Sokka and Aang yelling something incoherent at her as she took another step back, falling backward over the abyssal canyon, and Suki gasped.
He reached a hand toward her, but her own arms were busy swinging in the air to keep her from falling off the edge. It was too late, though, and before Appa could moan in protest to the idea of having to get up and save her, she had slipped off the edge completely. Zuko reached his hand further out, grabbed her wrist and pulled her back onto the flat and into his arms. She was too shocked to say anything, and too scared to pull away. She was pasted there in Zuko's embrace, and though she had to admit to herself that it was warm and welcome, she wasn't exactly blind to the rest of the group staring at the two of them. None of them had gone over to help her except Zuko, even though a few of them (namely Hakoda, Suki and Haru) stood with gaping mouths. In the back of her mind, she thought they would catch flies with their traps open like that.
He shifted against her, and breathed in her ear, "You should really be more careful." She reddened, and pulled away from him, careful to avoid the ledge. Katara could see a shadow of hurt in his eyes, but she shook her head. "Come now, darling, don't I get a thank you?" He stepped just once after her, his arms lifeless at his sides. Her face betrayed her emotions, shifting from disturbed, to shocked, to dumbfounded. Darling?! She stepped back again, and a warrior's hands gripped her shoulders. Sokka searched her eyes, clearly looking for any signs of distress in her vibrant blues.
"Katara, are you alright?" She nodded, and cleared her throat. A silence stretched over the rest of the group like a thick blanket.
"Yes, I'm... I'm fine." She heard Suki released a breath behind her, and noticed the more relaxed shift in the rest of the group's posture.
"Can I get you something?" Chit Sang, that guy Sokka saved from the Boiling Rock, stepped forward and bowed shortly.
"Anything? Uh, water?" Haru stepped up to the plate as well, and Hakoda (after having been struck speechless by Zuko's brave moves) moved beside his daughter.
"Perhaps you should go rest for a while, Katara, I'll need to talk to Zuko later." Hakoda leaned toward his daughter and almost whispered the last part in her ear. She shook her head though, there was too much to be done, and a scare like that meant nothing compared to what Aang would have to go up against before the comet arrived.
"Should I start cooking dinner?" Teo offered, pulling a crank on the side of his rolling chair, releasing a wooden flat that served as a table. He was ignored, and Sokka turned back to her.
"Something needs to be done. Katara, I hate to ask this of you, but you're the only one of us that knows anything about healing and... that kind of stuff. I need you to see if you can find anything wrong with Zuko. Aang, you check his room and see if anything was tampered with, and I'll check the food storage to look for anything out of the ordinary. Everyone good with that?" The group nodded, and those not involved in the plan went off in different directions after a bit of hesitation from those other than Teo, Haru, Pipsqueak and The Duke (who, of course, would be going to explore more of the Temple). It would mean that today, Aang would be taught nothing, but the health of the group was just as important, and he wouldn't learn anything from Zuko while he was so... out of it. She turned to try and see what Zuko was doing, but he was just sitting on the ground where she left him, staring after her like a lost turtleduck.
Aang nodded to Sokka and left for Zuko's room, mumbling something to himself as he went. Sokka put his hand on Katara's shoulder, and looked her in the eye. "Are you going to be okay here alone with him?" She nodded, a little unsure, but was willing to do anything to return to normalcy. Her brother eyed her suspiciously. "I know, I don't like this either, trust me," he said before glancing over to Zuko, who was etching a picture of a chibi-fied Katara in the dirt. He looked up to Katara, and gave her a huge grin.
She blinked.
"Yeah. I think I'll be okay. He's no threat at all, even you can see that. It'll just be..." she swallowed. "Weird." Sokka nodded and left for the food pantry, not bothering to disguise the run he made to their only food stocks and the grin plastered on his face. Clearly, he was going to enjoy raiding their supplies. She shook her head a little, then turned back to face Zuko. He was standing now, but he canted his head to the side and let his smile fade.
"Zuko."
"Yes, Katara?"
"Are you, uh, feeling alright?"
"I feel perfectly fine. Don't worry yourself about me, sweetheart. Are you okay?"
"Fine. I need you to lay down and... and close your eyes," she said, trying to figure ways of making the whole thing less complicated and awkward. He did as she asked without question, which in and of itself made it obvious that something was wrong. She knelt beside him, and bent some water from out of the fountain and between her outstretched palms. "I apologize, but I need you to, uh, take your shirt off." She blushed a little at her own request, and a bit more when he raised his intact eyebrow suspiciously. "Just do it. Please." The last word was added as an afterthought, but she was glad for it when he did as she asked with a thin and acknowledging smile. He tossed it to the side, and lay back down, eyes to the ceiling. "Thanks," she said shortly.
She let the water coat her hands, relishing in the familiar feeling before placing them on his chest. He gave her a knowing but sly smile, and closed his eyes. His taut muscles beneath her palms were hard not to focus on, but after a moment to compose herself, she closed her own eyes and focused on trying to find something, anything out of the ordinary. He was tense everywhere, that much she could tell, and he harbored so much pain there. She frowned, moving her hands lower. He had been hurt so many times, not one spot in his body had been spared. She could almost feel the guilt he suffered, almost forgetting what she was supposed to be doing. Katara pulled back, letting the water fall back into the fountain. At the splash, Zuko's eyes opened, and she blinked.
"I'm sorry, I didn't find anything beyond the, uh, what wounds you had already." At his lack of words, she sighed. "Close your eyes again." He nodded, and did so. She called the water back to her hands and let them fall to his chest again. "Breathe deeply." She closed her eyes again, and let the water relieve some of his pain. She would never be able to take all of it away, but she did as much as she could. When she was done, he sat up and felt around his muscles, then looked back to Katara with a boyish smile.
"Why did you do all of this?" She felt her cheeks heat.
"I help who I can, regardless of..." she sighed. "everything."
"Well," he said as he stood, brushing off his pants. "Thank you very much." Before she could respond, he took her into his arms again and rested a hand on the top of her head. "You are amazing," he whispered in her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. His bare skin was warm against her clothed form, and for a moment she allowed the stress of the day to slowly melt away and into his embrace. Normally, she would never show so much weakness, never allow herself to become so easily manipulated, but this was not an ordinary day, and she really was in need of a hug.
Especially if its from a fire-nation hunk of a prince, right? her mind sneered, and she mentally slapped herself before physically pulling back. "I... uh..."
"No, its okay, I understand." Zuko smiled whole-heartedly, and took a tentative step back. "You are an amazing woman, though, and I hope you know that. I never realized it, and somehow, I do now, but you are. I don't know how I couldn't have seen it, but the important thing is that I do now. I know I'm not exactly the Avatar," he said thoughtfully, looking down, "but I also know that I... well, I can be everything you want, everything you need. I know this sounds cheesy, but I would do anything for you, Katara."
Her jaw went slack, and she took another step back. He stayed where he was, but reached a hand toward her. "I... I..."
Her hands went to her mouth, and she stepped back again. She was at a loss for words. She blinked at him, and though he was smiling happily, her heart was bitterly tense. She shook her head dumbly, and turned, running straight to her room. In his current state, she really should have expected such things of him, but hearing anything like that from anyone wasn't something she took lightly, even if he was horribly sick.
Sokka rounded the corner just before she did, and she stopped in her tracks. "Katara, I found a sack of mushrooms in the food closet that I haven't seen before. The bag has fire nation insignia on it, so I know I didn't find them scavenging. Zuko didn't bring any food with him here, did he?" She shook her head, still unable to form words. "That's what I thought. I don't know how they got here, but they smell funny. I think that's what made Zuko sick." Katara nodded, thinking back to the mushrooms she put in their breakfast. For the moment, she would allow herself to forget why she was running away from Zuko. Funny, she thought, this is the first time I'm not running from him because he wants to kill me, but I still feel like Momo crap.
"Sokka, did you eat the mushrooms I put in breakfast this morning?"
"Eugh! No. Nobody did, from what I saw. Nobody but..."
"Zuko," they said at the same time, their eyes wide.
"Monkeyfeathers."
"If it was the mushrooms, and the only thing they cause is that, uh, delirium, then there's nothing we can do until they get out of his system. He should be fine, I think, but it may take a few days."
"But, the fire nation insignia... There was no food when we got here, was there?" Sokka queried.
"No, none. Someone must have put them here, probably knowing they were poisoned."
"Ugh, monkeyfeathers! That means that it was a trap, a set-up! Someone snuck in, took our food and placed those poisoned mushrooms here."
"That's really weird. We should go tell Zuko."
(A/N: Thanks everybody! The next chapter won't be ironing out those questions you all have, but the one after it will. Thanks for reading, and please review! I love how quickly this story is beginning to blossom. All my love, Khepri.)
