Title: A Love That Couldn't Be Part 1: A Forced Love

Author: WishHe-LovedMe

Pairing: Zuko/Katara

Chapter: 8. The First Outburst

Summery: Katara isn't a water peasant as Zuko seems to enjoy calling her. Her birthright entails her a lot more than that. This is the story of Katara; and how she discovered her past, controls her present, and forms her future. Zutara

The First Outburst

"HELP, SOMEONE ANYONE, HELP ME!" She screamed, and within minutes, Zuko came into the room. The two men let go of a naked Katara instantly. Katara quickly went under the sheets of her bed. It didn't take the Fire Nation Prince long to fight off the two mostly drunken men. How they got drunk is still a mystery. Soon he came over to the Princess who was under her covers crying.

"Shh, it'll be alright, just rest, shh." Zuko said softly. Katara reached over toward the Prince, and held his hand in hers. Her tears stopped soon after, and she fell asleep.

Later, she woke up and managed to remember exactly what just happened. She shivered at the thought. She went to the bathroom, and washed up. She felt dirty, violated in so many ways. She hated herself at that moment. I could have been… raped… if it wasn't for Zuko. She thought to herself inside of her head. Zuko, the same person who has me on this ship, the same person who has been going after Aang for years. Why would he save me? Why would he care?

After her bath she cleaned up the mess: throwing away the pieces of clothing that used to be a dress, getting new sheets to put on the bed, and a warm blanket to use as a comforter. She put on her silk nightgown, and slipped under her new clean sheets, trying to put the almost rape in the back of her mind, unsuccessfully.

When Zuko couldn't sleep, late that night, he went to check on Katara. After what he saw earlier and what he did to protect her, he was checking on her more frequently. He felt protective of the girl now.

He opened the door silently and walked in. There was no noise from the girl, so he knew she was sleeping. Zuko walked up to her bed and watched her sleep. At first she was quite peaceful in her sleep, and then she began to move and hit the air violently. He stood up and tried to get her to stop. She clawed viciously at him in her sleep.

"Katara, stop," He said, "It's me, Zuko." He tried to hold her down, but it just caused more of a violent reaction.

"No, please stop." She shouted. "I don't want to do this." He stopped trying to get her to stop. "NO!" she screamed before she woke up.

Katara awoke from her nightmare with Zuko by her side. "Please, make them stop." She uttered in a voice hardly audible. Katara looked into Zuko's eyes, and by the look she saw in them, what she said was starting to register. Zuko instantly pulled her into a hug. "I tried to stop them, but they just kept…" she trailed off. She noticed she was crying, and wiped away the tears silently. "They just kept… kept…" she tried to get the words to come out, forced them to come out, but she wouldn't say the word.

"They're gone now, Katara." He told her.

"But they…"

"They didn't." he said. "I got to them before they could." he wiped away the strands of hair that were covering her face. He held her there for a minute, and just waited for her to calm down. "Do you want me to kill them?" he asked her seriously once she was calm.

At first Katara didn't know if he was serious or not, but after looking at him, and seeing the serious look in his eyes she knew that he was. "No," she finally said, "Don't kill them, let them suffer, and when we reach the palace, we can put them in the darkest and deepest dungeons we can find."

Zuko actually smiled at her. "Sounds good to me," Zuko said, looking down at the ground. He then looked at her.

She looked up at the Fire Prince. "I'm sorry." She said timidly.

"For what?" he asked her, looking concerned. "You didn't do anything—"

She cut him off, "That's the point, I almost let them…"

"You don't have to say it, I don't even want to say It." he told her. "What I was trying to say was that you didn't do anything wrong, Katara. I'm the one who should be saying sorry." He looked down.

"You didn't—"

"I should have let you come with me, but I didn't want you around Zhao. He's dangerous, and unpredictable, and… well, I didn't want to take the chance that he would hurt you, but if I didn't get back sooner, those two idiots would have done worse than what Zhao could have ever done… well so I hope anyway." The Fire Prince noticed that he was babbling, so he stopped abruptly. "I'm the one who should be saying I'm sorry." He said right before leaving her in her room.

Zuko went to the prison hold where those two men were locked up. "You imbeciles, do you realize what you put that innocent girl through?" he yelled at the two men, who were suffering through hangovers—ones the Prince hoped stayed for the rest of their miserable lives. "If it weren't for her, you would be dead right now." He informed the two. "She wanted you alive to spend the rest of your worthless lives in a prison cell." He looked at them with pure hatred in his eyes, and then he left the prison hold, going toward his room.

When he got there he saw a glass vase. He threw it at the wall. The glass breaking, the flowers in it falling and the water going all over his bedroom, in a strange sort of way, it actually made him feel better somehow. His anger was making him act out in rage. He couldn't stop. He saw a glass plate and crashed it at the door. A shriek followed and he saw someone come in his room. It didn't stop him. He was outraged. Everything was getting to him, and he was losing control of everything.