AN: I'm back and ready for more, so without further ado, here is the next installment of my story Your Promises…

Chapter 7

Katara's POV

"Welcome back, my waterbender…"

I felt my cheeks begin to heat up, as I continued to stare into his eyes, but when I heard someone in the back of the group clear their throat, I looked at the rest of the people who were surrounding me. Everyone had a wide smile on his or her faces, but it did not reach their eyes, which looked wild and scared. My father managed to speak up out of the entire group:

"Katara are you alright sweetie?"

Feeling the blood that had just rushed to my face drain, I ran over everything that happened in my head that had happened just moments ago. Remembering how Zuko and Toph came in, with Zuko looking like shit. I could remember Toph and I were talking or rather fighting about saving Zuko. Then, I recalled the pulling sensation on my muscles as I tried to save Zuko by…

"I bloodbended… Didn't I?"

Looking over to Toph, I saw her shift uncomfortably under my constant staring. Never having seen the young Earthbender nervous, I waited patiently for her to answer, with a niggling feeling inside of me.

"Well, yeah… Um, you kind of had to because Zuko was going to die or something like that. Anyways, the good thing is that you're both safe and not dead, and now we can all relax a bit."

When speaking, Toph made her words forceful with her determination to not bring up the fact that the whole "bloodbending" thing was her idea. Yet, now taking a look at everyone around her, they were surprised by her quick outburst of the half-truth and went back to stare directly at me. Sokka especially…

"You bloodbended? How is that even possible, there wasn't even a full moon? In fact, it's still morning!"

Iroh and Suki, however, looked a little curious as to what it was that we were talking about, and stared at Sokka when he was talking. Seeing this, I told them in a calm manner: "About five years ago on our adventure, we were hiding out in the Fire Nation. This was after Ba Sing Se. We met an old woman, Hama, who owned an inn from the Southern Water Tribe. She had survived from the abduction of the waterbenders. She taught me that she escaped using the available water that she had around her. The only thing she had at the time was blood from the inside of the rats and her prison guards. Soon after a while, on the full moon, she bloodbended me, trying to get me to fight back and learn, and for a while I did by stopping her control over me, but I never bloodbended anyone until she used Aang and Sokka against each other. I finally reacted and stopped her before Sokka's sword went straight through Aang. I was so ashamed of myself."

I could Zuko's warm hand grip onto mine and squeeze it tightly, and in doing the same to his, I continued on, "Waterbenders are at their strongest on the full moon, so Hama was able to bloodbend on the full moon when our bending is at its peak. I have never had the ability to bloodbend at any other time without the full moon except this morning."

Iroh looked shocked but nodded in understanding of the whole situation, muttering to himself so low that none of us could hear him. Suki, however, looked downright baffled by the whole explanation.

"So you are saying that you can control people with their own blood?"

Nodding with annoyance, "Yes, that is exactly what I am saying to you."

Looking rather sheepish at her own ignorance, Suki shifted her eyes downward to the floor, unable to look at me until Aang piped up:

"Hey! If it is definitely what you say and how I remember it, than how come you can bloodbend in the daylight, without a trace of the moon anywhere?"

That's just about when everyone began to stare at me with a look of confusion, and when I could only return with a shrug and an "I don't know", Zuko began to glare at everyone and said, "Don't you think that we could maybe get some rest after all of this? I mean, seriously."

Everyone began to back up from us, each of their arms waving at us trying to apologize and trying to shuffle out of the room. The last in the room was Dad, taking one last glance back at us before closing the door slowly and softly, leaving us on the floor alone and silent.

Gazing back over to where Zuko was sitting next to me, I saw that he had a thoughtful look on his face, a look that made me very suspicious of why he would kick out everyone. Noticing my constant stare out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at me and then reached with the one hand that wasn't in mine and scratched the back of his head, looking a little nervous about something. I began to not only stare but glare at him.

"What?"

Taking a deep breath, he said, looking down, "Nothing, it's just that I should be thanking you for saving my life even though I was a complete jerk to you last night. It should have never happened in the first place, but that doesn't matter because I should have made sure that I make it to our date, but I didn't because I was an idiot-"

I couldn't help but agree by saying, "A huge idiot."

He began to glare at me, but sighed as he started to nod in compliance with what I had said, "Yeah… A HUGE idiot. Yet, that shouldn't have changed anything, I shouldn't have just let myself fall asleep without having someone…"

A look of curiosity was etched across his face, only to have a flash of rage on it the next as he got up from where he was sitting next to me. Pacing up and down the room, trying to avoid as many of the strewn clothes on the floor, he began to rub at his face and head with his hands as though he was beginning to get aggravated at something. It wasn't until I cleared my throat that he finally stopped the little rampage and looked at me in the eye.

"Sorry. It's just that I made sure that I told someone to wake me up last night before dinner. I was just so tired that I didn't want to fall asleep in the middle of the main course or anything. I didn't want to miss the dinner at all, in fact, I made sure that I had someone to wake me up…"


Zuko's POV

Taking a look into her cloudy blue eyes, I saw that she wasn't at all impressed with what I was saying, and continuously rolled her eyes, making me think that she might end up having them stuck to the back of her head if she did it anymore. I guess you could say that I got rather fed up with it when I told her to stop and listen to what I was saying. She wasn't exactly happy about that though…

"What the hell do you expect?"

"Nothing but a little cooperation from the girl who was willing to risk her life to save mine," I might have egged the whole "saving my life" thing by holding onto my chest, but whether or not that had any effect on her at all, she had decided to give me a break and nodded for me to continue on.

Nodding my thanks, I tried to go over in my head what exactly I had done last night, but my mind drew to a blank every single time. I could remember going to meet with the council members after being with Katara, but I just…

"Well, as fun as this may be for you, but I don't want to sit here all day watching you come up with some excuse for me to forgive you quickly because, honestly, until you tell me the truth, I am not going to believe a word that you are saying."

Turning back to where she was sitting on the couch, I stared her boldly in the eye for measure, and said, "Well, then you're going to have to take a leap of faith with me here and hear me out on this one. I don't intend on ever lying to you, not after what I had to go through the last time I had to gain your trust. I don't know how much it's going to take for you to finally believe me about anything. Another bolt of lightning?"

She flinched when I mentioned the Agni Kai with Azula, but never did she falter, "No! I do not expect you to do anything. You lost all the faith I had in you, so if we are finished here, I want to go back to my room!"

Striding with as much pride as she could muster, she puffed up her chest and with her head held high tried to walk out of the room, but not before I could put myself in between her and the door. Then, obviously pissed off with me, she stomped her foot and shrieked at me with her fists at her sides. It looked as though she was trying to restrain herself from hitting me, but I could easily use that to my advantage. Taking her hands in my own, I pulled her over to the couch and gently pushed her down to sit on the red cushioned seat. Still holding onto her hands, I kneeled down right in front of her and looked into her scornful eyes.

Taking a very big deep breath, I began with, "Katara, if you could somehow find it in your heart to not ignore me for the next couple of minutes, that would be great," then when I saw that her eyes had softened from their hard edge, I continued…


Katara's POV

Listening to him tell me what he remembered from that night, I began to feel a little calmer and melancholy at the fact that I shouldn't be as mad at him as I was. I mean, of course I should be mad at the fact that he didn't tell me that he was so tired or that he didn't show up to begin with, but I couldn't help but pity him for feeling guilty about everything. Then, sitting there in silence, I could see that he was shrinking under my bold stare, his own eyes held downcast from the shame.

"So you don't remember what happened before you fell asleep?"

His eyes flashed to meet mine, a look of confusion and shock taking control of his face, "Yeah, it's like a big blur to me, but that's not the main thing here. The main reason why I am bringing this up is because I can't figure out who was in my room with me when I told someone to wake me up."

Making a small effort, I tried to give him a small smile when I spoke, "Well, maybe if you-"

The door was forced in and when we whipped our heads to see who would dare to do so, we saw the young blind Earthbender with her foot held high in the air, "Alright Sugar Queen and Sparky, times up! You have been in here for long enough and I want to have some quality time with my boyfriend, so go make your apologies somewhere else and leave."

Ever the more rustic one, I couldn't blame Toph for wanting us to leave, considering how we were the ones who were in her room, but still, she could have said it a little nicer.

"Glad to see you again Toph, and don't worry we'll be out of your hair," Zuko lifted himself, pulling me up along with him, and tugged me on out of the room from the young girl and her nervous-acting boyfriend. Yet, before we could leave, Toph had yanked my arm back, jolting me to stay in place right next to her.

Feeling a little weird, I said, "No offense Toph, but I rather not be in here for whatever you and Aang are about to-"

Then a little belligerent to what I was saying, she retorted back, "Like I would ever want you to know. I just wanted to say that I am glad that you two are okay…"

Zuko and I were both a little shocked to hear this coming form the blind Earthbender, but before we could say anything, we felt the ground shift from underneath our feet and we were soon on the outside of the room, separated by the large ornate door. Taking my eyes off of the door, I looked over to where Zuko was standing. He still had that really shocked expression on his face, but it was soon replaced by a wide grin when he saw that I was looking at him. A smile began to crack through the frown that was stuck on my face, and soon I was chuckling softly.

Quirking my eyebrow, I asked, "So where to next?"