Day 4 & 5 - Lilac/Fever

She'd woken up with her body being consumed with a blazing, aching fever. It hadn't helped that she had managed to soak her bedsheets in sweat. Even bending that away had taken a lot of strength. It seemed funny to her that she, a master healer, was taken down a notch with a fever. The irony did not escape her.

Her eyes shifted towards the door as Zuko came into the room. Years of being Fire Lord had made him less emotionally expressive when in public, but in private Katara saw deep worry in the tightness of his mouth.

She had told him not to worry, that she would be fine. It was just a fever afterall. But Zuko would always be a worrier, no matter what.

"How are you feeling?" he asked placing a teacup on the bedside table.

"Better,'' she responded, "I should be fine in a day or two.''

"Why didn't you say anything when you started feeling sick Katara?"

"It's been a busy week Zuko, I didn't want to stop what I was doing and risk the council changing their mind. Both of us know that this trade agreement with the South has taken months to finally pass. I had to make sure everything was in order before they could make any quips about it.''

Zuko sighed, "Stubborn woman.''

She smirked, "That's why I make a good ambassador.''

Zuko rolled his eyes but smiled, "The best.''

She reached over for the teacup. The floral scent emanating from it was rather strong lovely. She didn't care, her throat was dry and she needed to drink something fast.

The initial taste, however, made her cringe slightly. She was sure Zuko noticed.

"How is it?" he asked as she took another sip.

"It's a little bitter." No point in lying when her reaction had given it away. "What flower is this?''

"Lilac,'' he responded. "Uncle mentioned once that it was one of the best teas for treating fevers, so I asked Yori to make it for you. If you don't like it I could go and request something else.''

"You remembered that?"

"Well yeah," he shrugged, "you remember important things for important people. And you're one of the most important people in my life Katara ….. but if you want I'll go and ask for something else. I'm sure there are more teas to help take care of a fever."

She shook her head. His face was etched with worry and care but his eyes held something she tried to deny for weeks out of initial confusion. Love. He loved her and she knew. Her feelings were more than returned. Yet, it was still too early to early for them to move into a relationship with each other. Memories of Aang and Mai were still too fresh. Both knew from experience that rushing into something so serious was never a wise choice.

It was complicated now, but given time she didn't see a valid reason of why they couldn't be together.

A possible future in the Fire Nation didn't seem like a daunting idea at all for her. Just maybe the idea of suffering any future fevers in a place where the humidity was as high as the heat. But if she had Zuko by her side to care for her like he was doing now she wouldn't mind one bit.

"No need.'' She took another sip and found that it wasn't as bitter anymore. "Thank you Zuko.''

couldn't write a single (coherent) thing for each prompt individually so I decided to combine them.

xoxoxo