Zuko was awakened by a giggle.
Blinking his eyes opened, he squinted in the sunlight and tried to figure out who the sound belonged to, shifting into a sitting position. However, a warm mass of deadweight prevented him from moving.
Glancing down, he saw Katara snuggled close to him, eyes shut and breathing calm in the telltale signs of sleep. His arm was wrapped around her waist, and she her head was resting on his shoulder, her hair tickling his neck.
'We must've moved while we were sleeping,' he thought, subconsciously reaching up to finger a strand of her hair. It was dirty and greasy from the days of travelling, but still somehow soft.
Nikko giggled again, earning a stern glare and a "Shh!"
Careful not to wake the waterbender, Zuko managed to slip away from her, leaning her resting form against the tree instead. He took a moment to watch her sleep, thinking she looked peaceful and innocent... and pretty.
Something inside the firebender decided that these were bad thoughts to be having, and that pondering on them would only lead to trouble. Which was ridiculous, since he had always known Katara was a pretty girl. He just... never acknowledged it until then. But, somehow, by admitting such a fact to himself, he began treading dangerous grounds and tempting trouble to come find him – at least, that's what the voice in the back of his mind said.
Another giggle pulled him out of his thoughts. "You're staring," Nikko said, smiling in a way that seemed to say her fairytale had just come true.
Tearing his gaze away from the sleeping girl, Zuko rose to his feet, surprised to discover his joints stiff and sore. A result of throwing himself off speeding ostrich-horses, being cramped up in a metal cell, and sleeping against a tree, he was sure. He had barely been standing a second when Nikko was throwing her arms around his waist, clinging to him like some baby koala-lemur.
"I'm glad you're okay," she said, voice muffled as she buried her face into his stomach.
The ex-prince reddened slightly, unsure how to react. Giving her hair a little tousle, he pulled free from her embrace, clearing his throat. "Um... W-what do you want for breakfast?"
She shrugged, still smiling happily. "Doesn't matter."
Kneeling by Katara's bag, he rummaged through it in search of food, He pulled out two apples, tossing one over to Nikko, who fumbled slightly, but managed not to drop it. They each took a bite of their fruit, moving to sit together at the center of camp. Without hesitation, she plopped onto his lap and asked for a story.
XxXx
Sitting upright, Katara winced slightly. Her back was stiff and she felt like she had slept on a bed of nails and leg seemed to be asleep, heavy as lead and tingly all over.
'How long was I asleep?' she wondered, blinking at the bright sunlight. When her eyes adjusted, the first thing she saw was Zuko, sitting in the middle of camp and talking in a hushed voice. It took her a moment to realize Nikko was sitting on his lap. Straining her ears, the waterbender tried to hear what he was saying.
"The Prince was unhappy, but he couldn't understand why. He had everything he had ever wanted – his crown, his palace, a lover, his father's acceptance – but he lost what mattered most: himself."
"How could he lose himself?" Nikko asked, wrinkling her nose in confusion.
"Because he wasn't following his heart," Zuko – obviously the subject of the story – explained. "He was doing what pleased his father, not what he felt was right."
Katara found herself nodding, silently urging him to continue. A useless action, since he had yet to see her, but an instinctive one all the same.
"Anyway, The Prince eventually realized what he was doing was wrong and turned against his father, joining the other Kingdom's fight against him."
"The one with the peasant girl and her friends?"
"Yeah," Zuko said, smiling softly.
Despite finding the name 'peasant girl' far from flattering, Katara found herself smiling as well. She wasn't sure why, but there was something about that story and that moment that made her want to like him.
Deciding she had done enough eaves-dropping for one morning, she asked, "What's for breakfast?"
The other teen jumped, quickly turning his head to look at her. "Oh, you're up. Uh, we just ate some fruit."
She smiled, stretching her arms above her head with a contented sigh before crawling over to her bag and grabbing an apple. When she sat down beside Zuko, he was no longer looking at her, seeming intent on staring straight ahead.
Well, this was odd. Either he had decided to ignore her, or there was something amusing or hideous one her face. Turning away, she ran a hand across her face, feeling for anything unusual. Nothing. Looking back at him, she scowled – why was he ignoring her?
Nikko looked between the pair, frowned, and said, "I'm gonna draw in the dirt by that tree way over there." She pointed to a tree on the other side of the clearing.
"Sure," Zuko said, releasing her and still refusing to so much as glance at Katara. "Just stay where we can see you."
The older girl smiled, glad the five year old was perceptive enough to know when 'mommy and daddy' needed to talk in private. Focusing her attention back on Zuko, she bluntly asked, "Why are you ignoring me?"
His eyes flicked over to her, surprised, then quickly loomed elsewhere. "I'm not."
"Yes you are! You won't even look at me."
"Would you rather I stare at you all day?" he asked, forcing himself to face her.
"You know, there's some middle ground between obsessively staring and completely ignoring."
"This is a stupid fight," he said, crossing his arms and turning away again.
'Only because you can't think of what to say,' she thought, but kept quiet. If he was smart enough to end an argument he knew couldn't win, well, good for him.
"So, what was that story you were telling Nikko?"
His cheeks reddened slightly, body tensing. "How much did you hear?"
"Just the part where The Prince realizes he's unhappy because he's an idiot," she said with a smirk. "Why were you telling her your life story, anyway?"
"She wanted to hear a story about a prince. I never heard any as a kid because, well, I am a prince. So, I told her the only one I knew."
"I guess that makes sense," Katara said. Noticing Nikko leaned up against a tree on the far side of their camp, watching them patiently, she smiled. "You can come back over, if you want!"
The little girl was on her feet and rushing toward them in seconds. She plopped down beside Zuko, glancing from him to the waterbender expectantly, as though something amazing might happen at any moment.
"So, what's the moral?"
"What?" Zuko's head jerked up, gaze darting from his hands to her face.
"The moral – every story I was told had some sort of lesson to it," Katara explained, locking eyes with him and willing him not to look away.
He did anyway. "I guess it means to follow your heart through life, and that real love can't be bought or earned. It's unconditional." Before she could respond or even fully register what he had said, the firebender got to his feet. "We should probably get moving. I need to get a new sleeping bag in the next village."
Katara followed, helping Nikko stand and asking, "Isn't that your mother's village?"
"Y-yeah, I think it is," he said, clearly not realizing how close they were until she pointed it out. If the stuttering wasn't enough proof, his expression and the way his whole body stiffened at the mention of his mother certainly were.
"Well, we should hurry," she suggested, kneeling to roll up her sleeping bag. "The sooner we get there, the better."
He nodded, looking surprisingly depressed for someone about to meet his long lost mother.
Katara tried to ignore her concern.
Author's Notes: So... basically nothing important happened in this. xD Zuko/Nikko bonding, I guess, and a bit of Katara/Zuko bonding? But, we're closing in on the Ursa/Zuko reunion, so I guess it's good to have a calm before the climax... or something. -making up excuses-
Anywho, hope you guys enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I do not own 'Avatar' or any of its characters.
