Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the affiliated characters. If I did, my descriptions of waterbending would be ten times more awesome and accurate because I WOULD BE A WATERBENDER!


Night Four

The night was so silent that Katara could easily hear the coughing, and she let that be her guide until a hand grabbed her arm.

"Security and patrol have tightened after our food fest last night." Katara nodded her understanding to the Blue Spirit, then continued walking. He pulled her back. "That means we need to be careful."

"We're always careful." Why was he so jumpy? "And besides, listen to that."

"I know," he said, once again tuning into the rough cough. "I can hear it, and so can the guards."

She folded her arms, and Zuko knew enough about Katara to recognize that he was in dangerous territory. Even if he didn't know Katara, he would have figured that out about the Painted Lady on his own. "You don't really expect me to sit back and let him suffer, do you?"

"Of course not," he defended himself meekly. "That man needs help. I'm just saying that we've been lucky avoiding the guards, but that might change, so be prepared." She relaxed her stance. "I'll be on the rooftop, but make it fast." That said, he used the window of a nearby house as a foothold and lightly pulled himself onto the roof. "And try to lessen that blue light thing you do."

"No promises," she replied as she snuck in the shadows down the street. But just as she was about to open the door to the house where the coughing was coming from, there was a clatter. It came from the street running parallel to the one she was on, with the line of houses - on one of which the Blue Spirit sat - acting as a barrier. She froze and dove back into the shadows.

Zuko pressed himself to the rooftop and only raised himself after twenty seconds of silence. Katara was well hidden, but peaked out of her spot to give him a questioning look. He held up his hand, symboling for her to wait. In any other situation, she would have listened; she could be daring and take risks, but she was also logical and reasonable. Unfortunately, this was not one of those situations. Another coughing fit ensued from inside, and she turned to the building, gesturing helplessly.

He looked up. "Oh, for the love of..." He sighed and shook his head. He'd been right: she was far too compassionate for her own good.

Katara saw him finally accept defeat and wave her on, as if to say, "Yes, fine, just go!" Then he pointed to the alley on the other side of his roof perch, and she took that to mean that he would check out the sound while she was inside the house.

She slipped through the door and kneeled beside the man laying flat on his back, his eyes squeezed together in pain as he took long, shuddering inhales. There was nothing she could do about the glow, but she healed and soothed the man as quickly as she could, acknowledging his strained thanks with nothing more than a nod. She pulled herself to her feet, recapped her water skin, and hurried to the door.

"I knew it!" A gruff voice shouted from the end of the street. Katara halted in mid-step: A soldier. "I thought I saw that blue light!" He called for any other guard in the immediate area to come to him, and she sprinted the opposite way, but skidded to a halt when two more armed men came running around the corner from that direction. Her heart started to beat faster. There were no side alleys she could slip into, and back the other way, two more soldiers had joined that first, bringing the total to five.

They approached her slowly, swords drawn, trying to circle around her. She glanced up at the rooftop, and that was when she started to panic.

It was empty.


Zuko grumbled under his breath about Katara's kindness. Yes, it was a wonderful thing and the world would be a better place if there were more people like her. Obviously, his own goodness - if it had even been there at the start - had been squelched after years of his father and Azula and banishment, and was therefore nowhere close to hers. He couldn't stop himself from thinking that asking her to wait a minute wasn't that unreasonable if it was to keep her safe.

He continued to grouse to himself as he crept to the other side of the rooftop. He saw no movement, but did recognize the source of the noise: a pile of wooden crates in a side alley had fallen to the ground. Suspicious, he dropped to the stone street and approached them, seeing absolutely nothing.

A moment later, though, he did hear something: a soft, light padding. He whirled around, drawing his swords in mid-turn, poised to face his challenger.

A stray dog.

He sighed, connecting the animal to the disturbance, and was about to sheath his swords when heard another sound, this one definitely human, and definitely bad: "I knew it! I thought I saw that blue light!"


Katara flipped the cap off her water skin, waiting for the soldiers to approach her. She didn't like them getting any closer, but she didn't have enough water to take all five of them on from a distance.

Twenty foot radius...Fifteen foot radius.

"Put your hands up!" She didn't comply.

Ten foot radius...nine...eight...

She stopped counting, and the guards stopped moving, everyone's eyes on the shaggy, skinny, brown dog that was barking and charging through the circle. They all remained paused like that, watching the animal as it ran down the street and disappeared around a corner.

Katara was the first to remember the situation. Well, maybe the second. The first was probably the soldier to her left, the one that the Blue Spirit dropped down on. Taken by surprise and already standing no chance against the masked figure, the guard was unconscious before any of the others even started to move.

Katara met the Blue Spirit halfway as he ran towards her, ending back to back. The four remaining guards charged, swords raised. "Oh, please," he mumbled, just loud enough for Katara to hear and grin. She felt immensely better, knowing she had him with her now.

The clash of steel on steel resonated through the streets, but Katara took the other two by using a different approach. She used every ounce of water in her pouch to make a wave that crashed into the guard in the shadows. Having used the darkness to her advantage, all that anyone else would have seen was the soldier thrown against the wall of the house. The other guard watched the outline of his comrade slump down and collapse, unconscious.

Creeping into the shadows herself, she bent the water back to her and sent it in the form of a whip, smacking the second soldier's hand. His grip on his sword lessened as a red welt started to form and she snatched it from his grasp with the water, throwing it behind her.

Out of his peripheral vision, Zuko saw a sword go flying before clattering on the ground. He was tempted turn around and see what on earth Katara was doing, but he faced three guards, because, just his luck, another one had decided to join the party.

One was no match for him; two was definitely a challenge he was up for; three was an experience he could live without, especially when they were going for a kill, and he was trying not to do any irreparable damage. He spent most of his time dodging and diving out of reach, hitting with punches or kicks, using his swords for defense only.

He finally managed to land a roundhouse kick against one mans helmet, and the shock of it sent him to the ground. Two was a much more even fight, but he was tiring, and his arm stung. He put up his swords as the two remaining neared him, but one suddenly fell to the ground, his legs swept out from under him, and he was pulled into the shadows.

Zuko gulped, even though he knew it was Katara's doing. The last guard, however, was not aware of that, and he stared at the space that his comrade used to occupy, jaw slack. Zuko took the time to rush him, easily ducking under the desperate swing when the man remembered the battle. He sidestepped the second chop, grabbed and twisted his sword arm until the weapon was out of his hand, and jammed the hilt of his own sword on top of the man's head. The man sunk to his knees, then fell flat on his face.

Breathing heavily, Zuko surveyed the damage that was six unconscious guards, two of which he could only see a few limbs of, as the rest of them were in darkness. Katara emerged from those shadows, and once he knew she was okay, his annoyance at her rebuilt itself.

"We need to get out of here, now," he commanded. He sheathed his swords and started to run to the entrance to the village, knowing she was right beside him. They checked down streets and alleys for more guards, but their main concern was getting out as fast as they could. They didn't stop running until they were at the trees outside of town.

He opened his mouth to complain, but she beat him to words. "Are you okay?"

"What?" he asked, thrown off. He looked down and saw that his forearm was bleeding. He wiped the red with the sleeve of his other arm, vaguely remembering feeling the sting during the fight. "It's just a scratch," he said quickly, beginning his rant. "Tell me why I can't leave you alone for two minutes."

She furrowed her eyebrows; even in his low, raspy voice, she could hear the tone was serious and bothered, not teasing. She'd been inclined to heal his arm, but now she wasn't so sure if she wanted to alleviate his pain. "What does that mean?"

"It means, would it have killed you to wait a minute while I went to see what made the sound?"

"You told me to go," she reminded him. Why was he so on edge?

She skipped crossing her arms and went straight to putting her hands on her hips, but Zuko didn't back down. "Only because you probably would have whether I gave consent or not!" He was right, and they both knew it. Katara turned away from him, wondering why that excited thrill that had been constantly present in her chest since meeting him was suddenly making her heart race even more than it usually did. He sighed. "I'm sorry." He hesitated, then decided to admit, "I was worried."

That was why the thrill was suddenly working double-time. She turned back to face him, but ducked her head so he couldn't see how she was biting her lip. "I can take care of myself, you know." When he didn't respond, she quietly said, "I'll see you tomorrow," and walked away, leaving him standing at the forest's edge with a dumb-struck look on his face that no one could see.

She was Katara; of course she could protect herself, and he had first hand knowledge of just how well she could. So why did he feel so inclined to protect her? Why was he not even willing to give her the chance to prove to him what he already knew to be true?

Katara glanced back to see the Blue Spirit standing in the exact spot she'd left him. She was in trouble and she knew it. It wasn't right, and it didn't make sense, because she'd known him only four days.

He was deadly: fit, strong, and nimble, he wielded those dual edged swords as easily as she bended water. But he was also moral and decent, never inflicting harm on the Fire Nation soldiers, only getting them out of the way. And, as she found out tonight, he would do anything to protect her.

Again, that rush rose up in her chest, but this time she forced it back down. She didn't know who he was, where he was from, or even the color of his eyes. If she were in the town, she wouldn't be able to pick him out in the crowd.

She knew nothing definitive about this Blue Spirit, nothing that would account for why her heart jumped and her stomach dropped and goosebumps erupted on her skin when she was near him. Nothing that explained why there was something so familiar about him, something so comforting and easy about their relationship. Like how he made her feel so safe. Like how it seemed as if they'd worked together before. Why did being with him feel so natural, so much better than she'd ever felt about being with anyone - especially anyone she knew nothing about?

But, it wasn't him, though. It couldn't be. It was the idea of him. It was the danger and the mystery that surrounded him, the things that gave her such a rush.

What was he doing to her?


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