I had just finished talking with Zuko when I heard someone shout out my name. It was Suki. I waved to her before coming to sit by her. She was sitting by the hall gates smiling like she had some sort of secret. Maybe she did, I wouldn't find out until I made it over there.
"Hey Suki, what's up?" I ask her after taking a seat. She puts a piece of her hair behind her ear and turns to me.
"Oh, same old, same old Katara. But what I want to know is what's up with you!"Suki still wore that grin that was starting to creep me out.
I shook my head slowly in question and rose an eyebrow. "Um, well you know just the usual. Trying to keep this group together, helping Aang in training and stuff, you know that Suki." What was she up to and why is she acting so strange?
Suki laughted quietly. "Katara it's just us girls here now! Everyone else isn't even paying attention to us. Now tell me what's really up, and don't hold back the details!" She threw her hand out towards me and I was still puzzled.
I shrugged. "Suki, I honestly don't know what you're talking about?"
Now she realized I was telling the truth. She moved closer to me and whispered in my ear. "You know… what's going on between you and Zuko!"
I immediately drew back from her. "Going on?"
She nodded and motioned with her hands in a way saying to tell her more.
"There's absolutely nothing going on between Zuko and I." I lowered my voice, even though not many people were around us I wasn't taking a chance.
"Oh come on Katara! I saw how you smiled at him last night! You two were just talking to each other." "Besides." She started. "I saw the way he looked at you just now!"
It took a minute or two before I could respond. My heart began to thump louder and faster. How come at the mention of what Suki just said caused me to react this way? She saw the way he looked at me? How did he look. Wait why do I even care. I don't care, Zuko didn't look at me in any special way..did he?
"First of all, I smiled at him because I was so overwhelmed with joy that my dad was here with you guys. Secondly we were talking because, well frankly that isn't even important." I snuck this last part in quickly and quietly."Besides I would have noticed if he looked at me a certain way!" I tell her looking away.
Suki grabs my shoulder and turns me around gently. "No, you wouldn't have because it was the way he looked at you as you walked away." She says smirking.
"Oh yeah? Well how did he look?" I'm stroking pieces of my hair trying to avoid eye contact with her.
"Like he was in looooove with you!" She says in a sing song voice.
"Suki!" I shout at her.
She laughs. "Ok, ok! But really Katara, he looked at you like you were the only person that mattered, his eyes were so intense. It looked like he didn't want you to leave. As you were turning to come over here he followed you around and that's when I saw the look."
Now I can't help but blush a little. I knew it was true because I often notice that intense look he had in his eyes all the time. But was the rest true? Me the only person that mattered, and he didn't want me to leave? Blah why do I care how he looked at me. We aren't even really friends right? What were we then? Curse Suki for putting these thoughts in my head! I'm out of here.
"Look Suki, I can assure you nothing is going on, now if you don't mind I have to uh go feed Appa!" Standing up quickly I walk away from her hoping this whole thing gets left behind here.
"Ok Katara, but if you ever need to talk about this I'm here!" She said that in that singing voice again.
Great.
…..
"Ok Suki, Teo, and I will be trying to find all of you and you have to make it back to the base which is the fountain before we tag you alright?" I hear Sokka say as I near the group.
"Dad, Chit Sang, are you sure you don't want in on this?"
I heard my dad laugh. "Sokka I think I'm a bit too old to be running around playing tag."
"Yeah, I'm fine just sitting back here!" Chit Sang added.
Sokka shrugged. "Ok if you're caught sit down by our sleeping stuff!"
"What does the winner get?" Haru asks.
My brother places his hand on his chin. "I don't know. They will get the title of winner and that should be good enough!" He says with enthusiasm. "Alright 10 minutes to get to the top of the temple and hide or whatever. If you're anywhere near the fountain before the 10 minutes is up you're out! You must be at a good distance away from it! Ready Go!" He shoots his arm outwards and we all make a run for it.
I begin to run and I looked to my left to see Zuko running with impressive speed. He almost looked happy to have some action and competition back in his life.
…..
I walked through the old garden Zuko and I found Momo in and decided this wasn't a very good place to hide until found. My brothers rule I guess were we weren't allowed to start running to base until one of the people searching for us found us or we heard them close by after someone else.
As I'm walking out of the small garden I hear someone running up the steps so I book it to the hall across me. I peak over the wall and see it's my brother. I'm walking backwards silently to make sure he wouldn't follow me. Walking back I suddenly bump into something.
Somehow I tripped over my own foot after I bumped into the object and landed on.."Zuko?" I say looking down at him.
"Could you get off me?" He says sounding like he's having trouble breathing.
My hands were on his chest and that's how I managed to prop myself up to look at him. "Oh sorry." I get off quickly.
"Could you be any louder?" He says standing up. Zuko dusts the dirt off of him and looks around to make sure no one saw us.
"Oh we're fine. Sokka is over there so that's why I ran to this hall, why are you here?" I ask him.
He turns his head to the way he came. "I saw Suki come up the stairs so I came over here too."
I listened more carefully to make sure we were alone before I began talking. "Well what do you want to do now? We can make a run for it since it's been longer than 10 minutes and they are in the area so.."
He rose an eyebrow. Gosh how stupid can I get why did I assume he would want to work together with me! "I mean never mind I just thought that um we'd have a better chance both winning if we both watched each other's back or something." I babbled out quickly.
He just stared at me. I couldn't even decipher what kind of stare he was giving me. A judging one? Katara you're out of your mind if you think I'd team up with you kind of stare? This is so aggravating.
"Let's run for it."
To be continued.
Another one done! Thanks for the reviews I got yesterday! I told you they really do motivate me to write faster! I was feeling kind of silly so decided to have the group play a little game of tag/hide and seek like I used to when I was younger. We would have to hide first and when we were caught or heard someone by we'd make a run for the base haha it was fun. But anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter more coming up. As always review if you have time really helps get the next chapter out! Oh yeah, we are 3 reviews away from Character Questions. When I hit 20 reviews you can ask a character In the story a question and it will be answered depending on how many I receive. Thanks!
