Character thoughts now in italics! Thanks for the suggestion Somariel!

O.O

Night withdrew her chilly embrace, giving way to the between hours of dark and light allowing sunbeams to creep furtively through the hills and burn away the mist clinging to the trees like spider silk in a candle's flame. Zuko rose with it for the first time in days and Agni's glow filled him with a strength he had been longing to know again. He swung his feet over the side of the bed, planting them firmly on cool stone, all traces of pain having fled with the dawn. It left him feeling renewed and alive and anxious to be out of bed considering the only instance he'd been out of bed was when Sokka bundled him in a blanket after the fever broke and sat him on the stool so he could change the sheet. No one would be awake this early save for Katara who would undoubtedly be starting breakfast and if he snuck by it would be safe to run some katas.

Zuko paused, running a calloused palm lightly along the expanse of his arm, settling warmly on his smooth chest, feeling the thrumming warmth of blood pulsing beneath the whole, unblemished skin. Unbidden, the fingers of his other hand found the rough, ugly scar on his face and he closed his eyes against it. He owed Katara so much and she didn't even know or care to.

The firebender dressed, bouncing on the balls of his feet, relishing a clear head and regained balance as he tied his sash and practically ran from the room. He stopped, slightly winded, he tried not to dwell hard on it, and edged past Katara's turned back. As he had thought she was engaged with bending something bubbling before her, familiar smell wafting his way and making his stomach growl. But there would be time for food later. All Zuko wanted to do right now was move! He slipped like a catowl through the shadows with just a touch less than his normal grace.

Katara glanced up at a soft scuffling out of place with the most recent waking sounds of the temple behind her and knew what she would see before she turned her head and caught just the barest glimpse of red and gold round the corner to the hall leading to their training area. Inwardly she was glad Zuko felt well enough to surreptitiously glide past her as he had used to do before the accident, but the waterbender also felt a twinge of worry deep in her chest and struggled with it. Since speaking with Toph she had tried to view Zuko as someone raised to take his father's place. She allowed herself to become lost in the rhythmic sweeping for some time, focusing strongly on her thoughts.

He's just going to hurt himself. Katara stood abruptly, dousing the fire underneath the pot so the jook wouldn't scald, and headed towards the crumbling arena.

O.O

Hot, bright flame scorched the dry earth in a crescent and burned itself out around him as he swung his body sinuously through the low kick. What started as a dry run of some simple forms had given way to a violent display of raw, unfettered emotions and sweat streamed down his limbs and face, evaporating in the heat of his bending. Zuko's vision swam like heat shimmer in the desert playing visions of his cruel sister's twisted feral grin, Mai reading his letter, his disappointed Uncle, a wounded Aang, sullen Katara…but he forced himself to keep moving, working all his frustration and anger into training. He knew this…he could do this and nobody was around to tell him to stop or remind him of his failures. It was reckless-Zuko knew that too, but he wouldn't make his body stop. Not until he was so fatigued his thoughts would stop plaguing him. The blaze raged around him, as comforting as his mother's touch had been, as warm as his Uncle's laughter, and still his contemplations plagued him. Why couldn't he accept that Katara hated him? Why did it hurt so much? He was no stranger to being hated but her hatred made his heart clench with emotion. He had found an ally in those eerie caverns and like everything else in his life he had ruined it. Why couldn't he be better with people and fit in? Why had his family destroyed a whole people? Why was he so bad at being good? Zuko punctuated each thought with another blow; fire erupted from his hands and colored the stone black. He was pushing himself far past his limit but he had to drown out the voices with firebending's roar.

Nephew…

That's who you are Zuko…

I'll make sure your destiny ends…

ZuZu…

Jerkbender…

"Stop!"

Katara had little knowledge of what she would find when she located her quarry but this was far from what she expected. Not three days ago the exiled prince had been languishing in the throes of a torrid fever. She had doubted his ability to even bend when he had stolen past her not even an hour ago. But this. He was a beast possessed and she knew he had no awareness of her presence or his bending would never be so raw. Whenever she had dealt with him before he had always been poised, tightly measured, his proud breeding betraying him even when groveling before her feet, flash-bang temper thinly veiled with regality though so easily set off. Now he was completely out of control, his fire burning more brightly, more dangerously than she had ever seen it, but her practiced eyes took in the signs of flagging strength: quivering legs, panting breath, sweat streaming in rivers down a pale, hard jaw. Why is he doing this to himself? It was unexpected, this thought, why did she care was closer to the heart of what she wanted to ask herself. Katara had wanted to turn away, to leave him to his own senseless devices but instead had called out in a voice very unlike her own, surprising the both of them equally.

Zuko paused mid-strike, chest heaving and face streaked with dark soot and sweat, eyes wild and wide with disbelief, animal in his thin face. He dropped his trembling arms as he turned to look for the voice and found a figure of blue walking towards him angrily, aggravation written in the taught line of her body, hands fisted loosely in a skirt of sky. "…Katara?"

"What do you think you're doing?" She stopped several feet away and stared, ocean touched gaze reflecting worry and something else he couldn't place. Zuko swallowed hard around the sudden lump in his throat, trying to calm his breath and stand without swaying. He hadn't noticed how dizzy he'd become. He didn't even know how long he had been out here but the sun had traveled quite far across the pale cerulean sky. "You're going to land yourself right back in bed!" The ice-bright stare narrowed and Katara frowned spectacularly as only she could.

"I…I…was…" He couldn't take anymore of her disgust, not right now, not when he was suddenly so weary. Don't! Zuko flinched as she reached towards him and took an unsteady step backwards. "I…"

"Stop this…" her voice softened just a little at the poorly concealed distress in his eyes, "you're still recovering." Katara moved towards him again, somehow concerned by the red flush dusting his cheeks. "Let me help you back to bed." Almost gentle, as though she was approaching a wounded mooselion. Zuko blinked once, confused by her offer. What? His last thought before melted gold rolled up into his skull and he slumped boneless towards the battle scarred rock. It was all Katara could do to get her arms around him and prevent his head from cracking into the stone. She sat there on the black, scoured ground, his upper body a warm heavy bulk in her lap, and brushed his slick hair away from his closed eyes before settling the roving fingers on his unscarred cheek. A smell, like fire and ash, filled her nose and mouth, cloying, reminding her of black snow and screams. With effort she pushed the visions aside and glanced down at her burden. He's too warm. She could feel it in the palm of her hand as it cupped his face and the tops of her thighs through her clothing and his. Ocher flickered through ink-dark lashes as he swam back towards consciousness and tracked her face, no recognition present under his bleary scrutiny.

"I told you," she said tartly, withdrawing her hand and heaving him forward. His body listed, lightheaded and hot, where he sat. "You should know not to push yourself so hard…" Zuko struggled to listen but her voice sounded so far away, muffled, almost like she was speaking to him through the steel hull of his old ship. He blinked sluggishly against eyelids lined with lead. While taking a shuddering breath he heard her stand through the deafening throb of his own blood in his ears, vaguely aware of her stalking around to his front to look down at him. Zuko expected her to leave him there in the cold sunlight but instead she heaved a sigh laden with exasperation-the tone usually reserved for Sokka-and gripped him around the middle with one arm to yank him to his shaking legs so fast it made his head spin and nausea grip him in its unyielding fist. Blood drained from his already pale face as it fell heavily against her shoulder and he felt clammy.

"…don't feel well…" Bare more than a soft exhale against her neck. The waterbender paused, briefly stunned by this admission of vulnerability. Zuko had never complained before, not even when she knew he was in terrible pain. He sagged, an odd sound in his throat, eyes sliding shut, almost pulling her down with him, before she hitched him up, hiding her curiosity, her concern, with biting commentary instead.

"Hey! Don't fall over or I'll have to get Sokka! Wouldn't that be embarrassing?" Zuko didn't have the presence of mind to be shamed he was so focused on maintaining his feet. "Training for hardly an hour and look at you." The waterbender started forward, contempt painting her face unkindly, and he stumbled. "Come on, you're going back to bed so keep up." She waited for his first unsteady steps. "Keep up," she repeated, pulling his arm over her shoulder and hoisting him straighter.

Together they made slow progress and by the time they'd made it back to his hallway Katara was coaching him through each step, being as calm and kind as she was able, very aware of his struggling wheeze, reminiscent of the congestion from the infection, and too-prominent ribs digging into her hold like bone handles. He was trembling from effort and growing heavier by the moment, unable to support himself for much longer. They were rooms away from sanctuary when his legs betrayed him, powerless to take another step.

"…Stop…stop…" The ground and sky were reeling and he was sure he was going to be sick from the throbbing in his temples. The plea in his raspy voice repulsed her. He had always been stronger, better than this.

"Just giving up then?" The bitterness in her voice was unmistakable, replacing the encouragement from not a moment ago, but it was her words that sent an electric shock through his body. No...never...

Zuko was completely spent, fever burning him up even as she deposited him onto the bed. With an intensely concentrated effort Zuko pulled one leg laboriously onto the mattress and lay there, panting short and shallow, eyes half-lidded and unfocused.

Katara left him for a brief moment to retrieve some water in a basin and cooled it with waterbending before dipping a folded cloth left behind by her brother. She watched it soak for an instant before wringing out the excess between her hands and smoothing it onto his forehead above closed eyes. The firebender shivered reflexively before settling into a troubled doze. Katara sighed and heaved his other leg onto the bed noticing he was soaked with sweat. With a flourish she bent it from his clothes and carried the mess outside, over the edge of the temple. Returning, she pulled the blanket up to his chin and sat down on the stool, trying to see what Sokka had seen but instead taking a moment to glance at her surroundings.

The room was Spartan but as an exile she supposed he had few possessions to speak of. Fingertips ghosted over the beautiful Fire Nation woman she knew must be his mother and came away clean, free of the ancient dust that hovered in the air and settled on every surface. Katara saw much of her in Zuko. She withdrew her hand and curled it into a fist in her lap to avoid lashing out at the simple frame. This is foolish. Why am I even sitting here?

"Nnn…Uncle…" a slurred, hoarse voice broke her concentration, saying other nonsensical things. Zuko struggled half-heartedly, ungainly beneath the coverlet as though the weight was crushing him. Katara leaned forward to hear, closing the distance between their faces. Vacant eyes brimming with black pupil lined with a thin ring of fire-bright iris snapped open so quickly she nearly fell off her seat in shock, sputtering dumbly.

"Zuko?"

"…Mom." She had never thought of his voice this way, like a warm wind whispering through winter boughs, full of hope, carrying sparks that spoke of love and family. Her heart nearly broke and her fingers found the pendant at her throat at the confirmation in that glassy, unguarded gaze and the trembling half-smile almost forming on dry, parched lips. For a brief second she wished for his sake it was true. Echoed in his face was all that she had ever felt in the loss of her own mother and she knew too well the pain that would follow when he realized his mistake. Tears welled like a tide in her eyes as Katara recalled acutely the swamp and the vision of her own mother therein. Had Zuko passed through that place in his pursuit of them? Had he seen her there?

When realization finally dawned in his amber stare it was as a ship splintering against rocks. Zuko closed his eyes and took a shuddering gulp of air, as though he were drowning in it and for a long moment there was nothing.

Katara bristled at the sudden sound, a soft keening peal like that of a wandering sea bird, and almost felt she had no right hearing it. This was a private sound, a sound made when someone was trying not to be heard, one reserved for the solitude of empty nights and lonely rooms. To hear it coming from the throat of this firebender-turned-ally unnerved her in the very pit of her cold belly. And yet this was not the first time she had heard him reduced to such a state though perhaps now his reasons were altogether too similar to what led to her own nights spent sobbing in her sleeping skins. It sparked something akin to the feelings she had for Aang when he found Monk Gyatso, she was sharing the same moment and feeling the same intense sorrow. Gently she placed a hand on his face and wiped away the tears sweeping in a torrent down his unscarred cheek. They were cool compared to the living furnace of his body.

"Zuko…" the words she wanted to say were still stuck in her throat like burrs in Appa's pelt. All reassurances still blocked by what he was-once was. As much as she felt for him even now when he wasn't altogether sure who she was, just not his mother, or even where he was she was unable to step completely out of her prison. With great effort he sat up, folding in on his knees, face buried in his hands. His cries weren't loud, almost unnaturally quiet in fact, but his whole body quivered and shook like a leaf in a gale. The knot in Katara's throat grew. "Zuko, it, it's okay…" She moved her hand awkwardly along his spine in a way she hoped was soothing, embarrassed blush painting her face scarlet. "Shh…shhhh…" With speed and strength she didn't know he had left in him Zuko flung himself at Katara and wrapped hot limbs tight around her waist. His hands fisted in her dress and he clung to her desperately, sobbing loudly, openly now into her chest. Katara sat there on her stool dumbstruck with half a firebender's uncomfortable weight in her lap. She listened to the gut-wrenching sorrow; felt the heaving swallows of air entering his lungs, and knew the moment Zuko's pain overwhelmed her own heart was when she folded her arms slowly around the wretched body holding her so frantically.

She could give this to him, freely, in this moment where she knew in her head this was because of his fever and in her heart that he needed it. She would. He had never had this, of that she was certain. Where Katara had her tribe, her father, her brother, Aang, even Toph…and while she was sure his uncle tried with all his heart, she was also sure Zuko had never allowed any comfort in this way.

After a time Zuko's fraught weeping ceased and Katara found he had fallen asleep where he sprawled, breathing deeply and easily. She brushed his forehead lightly, pleased to find his fever had lessened somewhat, and instead of withdrawing her hand carded her fingers through his untamed hair just once before easing his weight back onto the mattress. She tucked the blanket around him, replaced a fresh cold-cloth and stood, pausing before she left to stare at the relaxed curve of his cheek. Toph had been right…as she usually was, and Katara couldn't stop the vision of a small Fire Nation child entombed in a room of extravagant red filled with that keening cry, hiding from a family that would never understand.

O.O

Just wanted to take a moment to thank peeps for all the wonderful reviews! And to thank those who haven't reviewed for reading!

I know Katara has seemed quite…abrasive…although I'm going for conflicted. I'm drawing on her interactions with Zuko in the show, when she threatens him, teases him, scoffs at him. I believe his betrayal in the caverns, especially because it dealt with her mother, left a very deep, confusing wound. Losing her mother to the Fire Nation in that way would have been a very traumatic experience and using that against her, as she perceived it was under Ba Sing Se, would be the ultimate treachery, even more so than the attack on Aang. That being said she's not evil…just really, really at odds with herself and at heart she's a big softie. Hopefully Katara's acceptance of Zuko seems gradual as I'm confident her strong feelings are not something that would disappear overnight.

Anywho…thanks again for the support! Almost done!