A/N: sorry for the delay, I was at my dads house and you know, Avatar was having a marathon thingy and I was glued to the TV so… scratches head in embarrassment anyways back to the story…
Zuko had no idea what he had gotten himself into. He had just said he was going to go swimming… with a really attractive water bender… She was now starting to untie her robes. Zuko who had just only taken off his shoes so far was beginning to sweat; he pulled at his collar and gulped.
Katara took off her rode having her white under clothes on underneath. She though nothing of it seeing as she usually did this when with her friends. She got into the water and swam into the middle of the river.
"Come on in! The water is wonderful!" she waved smiling ear to ear.
Zuko shook his head and took off his shirt revealing his muscle in all its glory. (You were all waiting for that I know it!) He then jumped into the water in an almost dive like fashion.
Katara looked around for where he might be in the water, be before she could find him he jumped up behind her causing water to splash all over her.
Zuko shook his head again sprinkling water on her. "Sorry." He smirked.
"Yeah I bet." She smiled bending the water from her face and flicking it onto his.
Zuko whipped it off. When his hands fell from his face Katara was gone, he frantically looked around the water feeling she was going to attack him. A fountain popped up beside him, then another on the other side of him. He continued to search frantically. Another two fountains shot out of the water completely surrounding him. Then they began to circle around him. He had to admit this was a pretty great trick, he hadn't seen it done before. He decided to stand a fighting stance so not to fall over incase she decided to strike out of nowhere. But instead she slowly came up out of the water in front of him. He didn't understand why she had done this, or what she was doing, but seeing her come out of the water like that made her look kind of angel like. Her hair was now out of its usual braid and made her look even more beautiful. Zuko gave another nervous gulp as her eyes met his and there was total silence. The water slowly began to fall, as the two got closer. There eyes not moving for a second. The faces became very close. There wasn't a sound to be heard, what was going on in there heads was a complete blank, what was happening was happening. Then all of a sudden Zuko pulled away. He looked down at the water beside him.
Katara made a small sad face, as if she was disappointed. "We better get out, we don't want are fingers to prune…"
Zuko nodded, he felt so ashamed, why did he do that? He wanted to kiss her so bad! He was mentally kicking himself for not kissing her, its what he wanted and he pulled back.
Katara was already onshore bending the water from her hair and underclothes. She wondered why he didn't want to kiss her? Did he not like her? Did he not share the same feelings as she did for him? All this had made Katara a little sad. She quickly slipped into her clothes and waited for Zuko who was now just getting out of the water.
"Here." She said bending the water from him.
He gave a small hint of a smile. "Thanks." He then put his shirt back on. "We should probably start walking before it gets dark on us." Zuko then looked up at the sun and began to walk.
Katara followed carrying her things on her back. She watched the back of Zuko walking through the woods. He was so tough looking, so handsome. Katara snapped out of it for fear of drooling or something.
Zuko starred right ahead, not wanting to look back in fear that she would be staring at him and his eyes would be captured by hers once again. It was like whenever their eyes locked he was a zombie.
"Zuko…" A soft voice cooed from behind him.
He turned to look at Katara to see what it was she wanted.
"Zuko, I don't know what happened back there… but I felt something…" Katara said not looking up at him.
Zuko froze, he didn't know what to say, and the only word that came out was: "Katara…" in a whisper.
"I'm not sure if you felt it too but… oh what am I talking about, I'm just crazy…" Katara muttered sitting down on a near by stomp. (Why are they always so conveniently placed? BECAUSE MENTARK WEILDS IT SO! Cough Wrong show)
Zuko put a hand on her shoulder. "Your not crazy… I felt it too." He then took her hand and pulled her up so that her face was now close to his. They both closed their eyes and began to lean in when an arrow shot out from nowhere and hit the tree next to them.
"Run!" Zuko yelled pulling her away from where the aero had hit. More aero's began to shoot by them. Zuko looked at the sun and decided to turn east and kept running until he found what he was looking for. It was the same river they had swam in before only now downstream. "Jump in!" he commanded once again, and both jumped into the water.
They swam behind some plants growing out of the water and hid behind them. Some men looking like natives came out of the woods. They searched around a bit then gave up and headed back into the woods.
Katara and Zuko sat up.
"Who were those people?" Katara asked quietly.
"Probably just some natives that live here in the forest." Zuko shrugged and got out of the water.
"Are you sure its safe?" Katara asked.
Zuko put out his hand. "I wont let anything happen to you." She took his hand and he pulled her up.
She bended the water out of both their clothing. "By the way, how did you know where to find this river?"
"Easy, just looked at the sun." Zuko shrugged and began to walk once again with Katara following.
It was now night and it seemed like the pair had gotten nowhere. Zuko had just finished making a fire for the two of them and Katara set out her sleeping bag.
Katara stood up and shivered. "Wow it's getting cold out tonight."
Zuko looked up and shrugged, being a fire bender he could just raise his body temperature and he was content.
Katara sat down in front of the fire and tried to warm up.
Zuko mentally slapped himself on the forehead. DUH! He thought. "Uh… Katara, why don't you sit over here… the night gets pretty cold." Again he mentally slapped himself; he just said the most stupid thing ever! But Katata blushed and did move beside him.
After a few minutes of silence Katara decided to lean on him. She felt the warmth come of his body. Zuko gave a slight blush. His heart was racing at lightning speed. He finally gained enough courage to put his arms around her. Katara stopped shivering, she was warm in his arms, he was like a big blanket of heat wrapped around her.
They just sat together in silence as they watched the flames dance in the darkness.
A/N: Again I am sorry for taking forever to post this! But thanx for reading and I will be sure to update tomorrow… hopefully…
-DO NOT DRINK THE CACTUS JUICE
-Teenfox
