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(On With The Story!)
Zuko finally fell asleep about twenty minutes of staring at the ceiling. The sounds of the dreaded 'music night' were enough to make Zuko want to go to sleep instead of listening, but a part of him didn't want to fall asleep for a number of reasons. He was still thinking about many of the events that had transpired from the fact that he heard the waterbender saved them to the fact that he could have died and might have without his knowing.
Katara's azure eyes fluttered open just moments after the Prince had fallen asleep. Her eyes were initially blurry to her surroundings and she had felt a certain warmness leave her just thirty minutes ago and she had been drifting in and out of sleep since. She had been half-heartedly listening to Zuko's discussion with his uncle, but any major details had already been forgotten.
Once the waterbender's vision cleared, she found herself in a pitch-black room besides the residual moonlight cascading in the room and along the figure of the Prince. Katara immediately flinched away from the Prince as she tried to figure out if he was awake, but after a few moments of his gentle breathing and relaxed body, she was proved otherwise. Katara let out a soft sigh of relief before she slowly sat up to allow her legs to dangle over the side of the bed.
The first thing that Katara noticed was how a spot that she hadn't even been sleeping in was still warm and the imprint of a person was still in it. Katara's cheeks began to burn a dark red at the thought but she just excused it from her memory and tried to focus on other things. The girl felt her stomach began to rudely growl as Katara's hand made her way to her hungry stomach. She let out a groan as the pangs of hunger eat away at her empty stomach.
'I should at least find something to eat.' Katara thought to herself as she turned her eyes to the firebender that was sleeping on the chair before she began her journey to the door. Katara stood up and cringed when she felt the metal planks began to creak under her feet and turned a quick eye to the Prince to make sure he was still asleep. When she took notice that he was, she tiptoed her way to the door trying to prevent the cold metal under her feet to cease its noisemaking.
Dream
Zuko kept listening to the general's and lieutenant's ideas of destroying a newly recruited battalion to be placed at the front line of a powerful Earth Kingdom army, where they would certainly have been destroyed as the other fleet of Fire Nation attacked from the rear. Zuko felt his legs beg him to stand up as his conscious beat him softly in the back of his head to do the right thing.
He did.
The next thing Zuko saw was the image of his father walking toward him when he was expecting the general whom he insulted. "You shall learn respect and suffering shall be your teacher." Said his father's malicious voice ringing through the Prince's ears as the young Prince lay kneeling at his father's feet begging for mercy.
"Father!" Zuko begged in a shouted plea of mercy before he felt the scorching pain of the fire run across his bare flesh of his sensitive left eye until it produced the sizzling tissue that was to the point of dripping off his face in the intense heat. The next thing that Zuko saw was the same scar was now a permanent and deformed part on the Prince's once flawless face until he seen nothing but darkness and could hear nothing but his father's angered voice.
"Zuko!" came a soft female voice that sounded quite erratic that quickly broke and overpowered the deafening sound of his father. It seemed similar yet it was something that occurred following all that already happened. "Zuko! Wake up!" It came again. The voice that had woke him up after he accident that nearly and momentarily took his life. The same voice of the healer that had saved him even after everything he had done to her.
Katara.
End Dream
Zuko's eyes flew open. The cold sweat was gently running down his shaking body. The waterbender's tear stained face was the first thing that Zuko saw when he opened his eyes. Her ragged breathing was a sign of her aggravation when Zuko didn't respond to her calls. He had stopped breathing and whatever she did to help him start again, he just wouldn't. Zuko felt his own chest heaving when he looked down from the sight of her to see her hand firmly clenching his.
Katara was kneeling next to the Prince. One of her hands was tightly gripping his as her other hand was in a tight fist that was leaning against her chest. She didn't know when she started crying. The thought of whatever happened on deck had been haunting her and she was terrified that it was going to happen again. This moment brought back the memory of when she first realized she was on his ship. He had been sweating and tossing uncontrollably in his sleep. She knew it was a bad dream, but since the incident, it had become petrifying just to watch.
"Damn…" Zuko whispered softly before pulling his hand away from her grip. Katara flinched at his action, but was just satisfied to see him awake even if he was the same Zuko she had come to know.
"What happened?" Katara asked softly as her eyes filled with concern toward the Fire Nation Prince.
Zuko still wasn't looking at her. The reason he heard her in his dream was totally coincidental and he tried to ignore that she could had just saved him again. That was the first time his dream had escalated that far to the point he could actually feel the singe of fire on his skin to the point he relived the day he got his scar and the pain until he seen nothing but darkness and his father's voice.
"Nothing happened!" Zuko growled angrily before he stood up and headed to the door.
"Zuko!" Katara shouted after him after standing to her feet. Katara didn't expect him to stop, but he did.
"What?" Zuko asked stiffly when he stopped at the door. So many nights he had had this dream, but this was the first time he had it since she had been on the ship except for the first day, but since then, it had seemed to stop to the point he didn't dream at all. Zuko had no idea if he was now questioning his own mortality with the occurrence on deck or if the reoccurring dreams were just the result of fear of death before he completed his mission.
"You had a similar incident the first day I was here. I didn't wake you up that time and I regret, because I should have. After everything that has happened, I want you to know that even thought we may not see eye to eye in everything, but as long as I'm stuck here, I think we should at least try to get along. We may be enemies and all, but – well…" Katara tried to say, but no words would come of the actual thing she wanted to say.
"But, what?" Zuko asked when he turned to her.
"Listen, I'm scared of this war and you must be too. Being stuck at sea for however long must be horrific and I know that everything happens for a reason, so maybe you saved me for a reason, and… Wait, no!" Katara said before she realized what had come out of her mouth and placing her hand firmly over her mouth.
"What? Who told you I saved you?" Zuko shouted angrily as he fully turned toward the waterbender with fire beginning to pour from his hands.
"No one! I didn't mean to say that!" Katara tried to defend as Zuko held up the fire threateningly as Katara fell back on deck.
"Tell me!" Zuko growled as he held the fire above his head and ready to engulf the young girl. Katara's eyes began to fill with crystalline tears as she felt the dry heat of the fire just inches away from her delicate skin as she tried her hardest to back away from the prince when the chair fell over from contact with her back.
"I-I onl-ly said that b-because I-I-I saved for a reason too! I'm sorry! I-I'm so sorry…" Katara whimpered as she held her legs folded up to her body waiting for the fire to burn her skin. The fire immediately dissipated from the prince's hands before he fell to his knees. The way Katara looked must have been something that was much like what his father saw before burning him. The fact that he had almost done something his father had done to him made the Prince place his hands in his face.
Zuko felt tears began to form in his eyes. It had been years since he last shed a tear and the familiar pain on is face that he might have just caused her began to etch over his skin with the bad memory of the Agni Kai. Katara opened her eyes to see Zuko kneeling on the floor. His legs folded beneath him as he appeared in a bowing position with his face buried in his hands. She saw the firebender physically shake as she listened to his unstable breathing. Katara's eyes softened to the sight of him as she began to crawl toward him.
Zuko desperately fought the tears that began to overwhelm the Prince's senses. He forced the tears to stay within his eyes. He had no idea what had brought him to the point to injure someone. Zuko knew that he could have easily killed the waterbender just because she knew of him rescuing her. The cold-heart of his father was beginning to show inside of him and Zuko had always refused to turn out as cruel as his dictating father. The reality that he nearly killed the girl that had just saved his life devastated the Prince to the point his legs gave out and tears rushed to his eyes.
The Fire Lord didn't stop from scarring his own son for life, and for a second, Zuko almost did the same thing and it was too much for him to bear. The image of Katara kneeling defenseless on the ground with fire emitting from his hands that would obey his every whim to the point of killing destroyed the Prince. Once Katara reached the kneeling Prince, she knelt down to the point she could wrap her arms around his torso. Katara felt her tears still dripping from her cheeks as she embraced the trembling firebender.
"I-It's okay… I somehow knew you wouldn't do it." Katara whispered in his ear as she placed her head in the slope of his shoulder. Zuko listened to her gentle words and was somewhat taken back by her unrelenting forgiveness even when he could have easily killed her just moments before.
"Why are you doing this?" Zuko choked out in a dry tone; finally being able to control the building moisture in his eyes to the point it dissipated. He didn't push her away. He wanted to listen to what she had to say in her defense. No one could possibly so forgiving to the point that you are hugging and trying to comfort the person who could have murdered you just moments before.
"I care about you." Katara answered bluntly as she looked at the wall in front of her as her arms were still around the Prince and her chin propped up on his shoulder.
"That doesn't matter!" Zuko said with spite in his voice after pulling away from her caring grip and sitting up with his knees folded under him.
"Yes it does, Zuko!" Katara growled as she felt the tears began to build in her eyes again.
"Why are you like that?" Zuko asked as his hands gripped into fists.
"Like what?" Katara asked sternly as she felt more tears slip down her cheeks.
"Forgiving! No one I ever met in my life can forgive someone who nearly murdered them so quickly!" Zuko retorted.
"I can! Listen, I've lost so many people in my life that anger or resentment between two people shouldn't be elongated to the point it is too late for either of them to make up. I've learned very quickly that when you're with a person, no matter whom they are, something as stupid as anger shouldn't stand in the way and most of the time, people forgot the reason they were upset in the first place. But I learned that lesson a little too late. That's why it's always good to apologize and forgive." Katara explained as her eyes stared deeply into Zuko's.
"It's already too late for me…" Zuko said as he folded his hands in his lap. "I've become too hardened by my father's tactics to ever be like you! So, I apologize if I can't be as forgiving as you." The Prince continued before he turned away from her eyes.
Zuko began to rise to his feet when he felt Katara's hands gently overlapping his. Zuko's eyes quickly turned back to her until the point their eyes were locked. "It's never too late for anybody…" Katara whispered before she pulled closer and wrapped her arms around him as another tear made it's way down her face before finally dripping onto the cold steel floor as the moon became brighter in the night sky.
(To Be Continued…)
