A:TLA does not belong to me, nor do these characters. They belong to VIACOM. They only take part in any way this story takes me.

Chapter 10: Hunting

Katara woke early the next morning with the pungent smell of vomit contaminating her nose. She was half asleep and ripping her stinking robes off to try and rid herself of the reek.

'Ah.'

Katara nearly jumped out of her skin. She searched for the origin of the voice and found Zuko's back turned to her. She nearly screamed at him.

'Why are you in my room?'

'I-I'm not in your room…' Zuko replied rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Katara paused and looked around her. She found herself in Toph's room, on the floor by her bed, Zuko not too far away, Katara in nothing but her wrappings.

'Eek!' She squealed grabbing her stinking clothes and running from the room with a painfully strong blush.

Once she was washed and changed, she went to find a very unwell Sokka. He was handling the sickness better than Toph. But still, he was vomiting every time he had something in his stomach. As she walked toward the room she found Aang and Zuko in the corridor talking in hushed voices. They stopped when they saw her.

'What?' She asked nervously.

'You and Zuko should go and find some more food,' Aang paused, 'that isn't poisonous.'

'What? Why do I have to go?' Katara complained.

'Because you're a waterbender, so it's easier to fish. And, Zuko said he has a knowledge of all the plants and animals from when he travelled the world with his uncle.'

'He always loved to talk about deadly Fire Nation plant and animals…' Zuko mumbled. 'But he was useless when it came to the Earth Kingdom.'

'You're a waterbender too, Aang,' Katara protested. She felt very uncomfortable in this position. Katara had never been on good terms with Zuko, but now she and Aang were fighting… and seeing as both Toph and Sokka were spewing their guts out every time they moved, she felt pretty alone.

'I know, but I'm not leaving To- I'm not leaving them here,' Aang said calmly.

'Well, I'm a healer. If anyone should stay here it's me,' Katara protested. Zuko cleared his throat.

'I don't mind going alone...'

'No. It's not safe,' Aang said. 'Besides, a waterbender makes catching fish a lot faster.'

'I don't understand why I can't stay,' Katara said scornfully. It's not that she didn't want to help out with the food; it's that she didn't want to be left alone with Zuko in the forest. When Toph first started being sick, a faraway voice in her head told her that Zuko had somehow slipped poison in their food.

'Katara,' Aang started, sounding strained. 'It's only fair. Something that you picked out made them throw up. You say you don't know what, so hopefully by you going with Zuko you'll recognise some of the plants and he'll be able to tell you what one made them sick,' he paused, as if biting back words that he didn't want to say, 'and how badly.'

Katara studied his face before nodding slowly, and turning to Zuko.

'Come on, jerkbender.'

'Charming,' Zuko replied.

He had been less passive ever since he had confessed his alter-ego to her. He actually responded to her insults rather than just take them. It was unwise of him to do so; Katara would rarely allow herself to lose a fight. Especially with Zuko. It was probably why they battled for thirty minutes without stopping. Neither of them would have stopped if it weren't for Toph, she almost blushed at the memory of their bodies wrapped together due to the tiny earthbender.

They walked deeply into the forest without a word shared between them. Zuko was clearing his throat so much; Katara thought that he was constantly trying to get her attention. She nearly swung round to tell him to quit it when her eye caught one of the plants she had used in the soup.

'Ah!' Katara exclaimed, running toward the plant and examining it.

'What is it?' Zuko asked.

'This is one of the plants I used,' Katara answered, waiting for him to tell her whether or not it was the culprit. He knelt beside her and stared at the medium sized plant with great green leaves and purple, thistle-like flowers. Katara would still stiffen at his presence. Despite the slight trust she had in him now, she frequently had to remind herself to not prepare for battle at the sound of his voice.

'No, this is fine to eat,' Zuko said, picking one of the flowers off and popping it into his mouth. 'It's a popular Fire Nation gift for wedding anniversaries.'

'An animal could have peed on that,' Katara said without thinking. Zuko's mouth tugged up at the corners ever so slightly.

The smile vanished as quickly as it appeared and he moved away from Katara. She too, followed his lead and brushed herself off.

'You go ahead,' Zuko said gruffly. Katara nodded and began searching for some of the plants she had chosen to put in the soup.

Katara hadn't thought about any of the plants reliability when she plucked them. She chose the ones that looked most similar to the ones that they ate in the Earth Kingdom. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

She took them to the place that she had picked the other foreign plant, and tried to search for its strange appearance. The stem, long and thin, with a small cylinder shaped vegetable on top. When she saw it, she didn't say anything to Zuko- she simply pointed at the swaying patch of plants. He followed her pointing finger and picked one of them, examining it thoroughly. He shook his head at her.

'Nope, this is fine, too.'

Katara groaned. She didn't want to spend any longer than she had to in Zuko's presence. It felt like she was walking on eggshells with what she said. She didn't want to blurt out anything about The Blue Spirit, or going into his room and snooping around.

Katara ran a hand through her hair and turned to walk toward the river. She had caught some strange looking fish, which could have been the cause. Zuko cleared his throat, again.

'Zuko!'

'What?'

'Quit aheming!' There was a slight pause.

'...Aheming?'

'You know,' Katara played with her hair. 'Clearing your throat. Do you have a cold, or something?' She asked, recoiling away slightly. Katara couldn't afford to get sick right now.

'I don't think so...' Almost as soon as Zuko spoke, rain started to fall. Katara sighed.

'Great. Let's just go get some fish before we do catch a cold.'

They pressed toward the river that everyone fished in. Katara wasn't usually the one to fish out of the group, even though it would be easier considering she was a waterbender- she didn't want to steal Sokka's thunder, his 'off the hook' skills.

When they got there, the rain was falling incredibly hard and both Zuko and Katara were drenched. She didn't mind the rain too much, being constantly surrounded by water made her feel as if she was back at the South Pole. However, in the forest there was the smell of sweet, wet earth and sodden pine leafs. Katara welcomed the sensation of water in her hair and dripping down her cheeks. She found it hard not to admire the appearance of their little lake. It rippled and thrummed with the raindrops, the stones on the bankside glittered in the storm, Katara thought that rain made everything look magical.

'Bergh, I hate rain,' Zuko said. Katara rolled her eyes and made a dismissive noise, waving him away with one hand. 'What? Are you saying you like it?'

'Well, yeah. I'm a waterbender. I love being covered in my element.'

'I'm a firebender… That doesn't mean I liked being covered in fire!' Zuko replied.

Something inside of Katara made itself known in that moment. Something that she had thought was abandoned completely since Ba Sing Se. She felt herself laugh. Really laugh. It was an alien feeling to her, to laugh without forcing it, or even contemplating forcing it. She felt it was honest and true, and completely necessary. When she was able to get control of herself, she slapped her hand over her mouth and looked up at Zuko's perplexed face.

'Sorry,' she said, wondering why she apologised soon after saying it.

'Don't be sorry,' Zuko murmured slowly, staring into her eyes with that intense stare he so liked to wear. She tore her eyes away from his, and focused on capturing fish.

Katara felt the pull of her element as she raised her hands before her and shut her eyes, trying to feel for any fish. She felt one a lot larger than the one she had yesterday, but it had the same fins, same body shape. Katara raised it from the stream and bent it above her.

'What about this fish?' Katara asked, twirling her hands in an intricate dance to keep the fish in her control.

'Could you just lower it? I can barely see...' He said, agitated.

'Zuko, I don't need you telling me how to bend,' she spat at him.

'I'm not. I'm just saying-'

'Well don't JUST SAY!' Katara yelled. Losing concentration, the fish she had in the bubble of water had swam out, promptly slapped her in the face and fell to the floor. Zuko quickly grabbed the fish and shoved it in the bag. Blushing a strong scarlet, Katara saw Zuko hiding a small grin.

Humiliated, she summoned water from the lake and smacked him across the head with a sharp water whip. He stumbled away from her, catching himself on a thin tree trunk.

'Wipe that smile off your face,' she said, huffing. He swung around to face her and grabbing her wrist turned her to face him. Breath left her lungs as her face was only inches away from his. Katara looked him squarely in the eyes, not acknowledging his distracting scar or the rain water that was slowly dripping down his face.

'Or what?' Zuko demanded, releasing her wrist. She pulled her hand away to jab him in the shoulder, but didn't back down.

'I'll wipe it away for you,' Katara spoke in a terse whisper. Her hair felt heavy with the rain, she felt drops of water slide down her lower back and sink into her skin. Regardless of the hate she had for him, she couldn't help but think he looked strangely beautiful stood there in the rain. As she shivered from the cold and a tiny smile crept across Zuko's mouth. She could have sworn she saw his eyes drop to her lips, but he looked away so quickly Katara thought she may have imagined it. He leant back.

'I don't doubt it. Let's just get some more food and go,' Zuko replied in a monotone voice and without the smile which was formerly on his face. He opened the bag up and stared into it. Katara studied his face as his eyes widened and his skin almost visibly paled.

'What... What is it?' Katara asked hesitantly.

'This is the tigerfish, it's extremely poisonous!' Zuko cried. He kept his cool so often, seeing him freak out like this was more than unsettling. Katara hugged her arms and stepped toward him.

'How bad...' She whispered scared to raise her voice any higher than what it was.

'It causes stomach bleeding, violent vomiting and after 24 hours...' Zuko sounded like he was reciting something. He looked up into Katara's eyes with fear, and she knew what the end of his sentence was.

'Death,' she finished for him.

'We need to find the antidote,' Zuko shouted, throwing the fish back into the river. Katara found herself unable to speak. 'It's a flat leafed plant, with red flowers that have pointed leafs and black berries, we need the black berries...' He yelled, running into the wood.

Katara ran after him and frantically tried to find the plant of his description. Flat leaves with red flowers and black berries, flat leaves with red flowers...

Toph and Sokka couldn't die because of Katara's bad choice in food. She wouldn't let them. It would be so humiliating the kids that were supposed to save the world and defeat the Firelord couldn't even pick out safe fish to eat.

'I found it! I found it!' Zuko roared, sprinting past Katara and toward the temple.

'Zuko! Wait, slow down!' Katara yelled after him, trying to keep up. She didn't understand his urgency, Sokka and Toph had only drunk the soup ten hours ago- they didn't have to run all the way back. Usually, Katara would encourage the haste. But now, when it was raining so much and the ground was so slippery, she didn't want to risk it by them both breaking their legs.

'Why?' He turned around and shouted back. 'Why Katara?'

'Because if you keep running with the ground this wet, you're going to break your legs!' She shrieked. He paused, and looked at her solemnly.

'Why do you hate me?' He asked so quietly it was barely audible amidst the sound of the torrential rain and gusting winds. Katara bit her lip and took a few steps toward him.

'I don't hate you, I hate what you did,' she said loudly enough for him to hear.

'Like you've never disappointed anyone before?' He yelled in a sudden burst of fury.

Katara stared at him in awe. It was one thing for Zuko to look brooding and say sorry, but another to actually fight back… but really fight back. Not a sly, on the side comment that could be shrugged off, or a silly little spar were neither of them actually wanted to really hurt each other. An actual eruption of hostility, an actual fight with actual meanings.

'What..?' Katara whispered, dread filling her stomach. She knew what Zuko meant. He meant when, in Ba Sing Se, she told him that she would heal him, but as soon as Aang appeared she left him behind. She once swore that she would never turn her back people that needed her, and in that moment down in those twinkling caves, nobody else in the entire world needed her more than he did.

'Don't give me that look.' He spat. 'You fell through on me, too. You're not all good.'

With a fierce look in his eye, he shook his head slowly and turned away from her, this time walking back to the temple. Katara ambled behind him hugging her arms and staring at the flooded ground. She knew what he said was true, and although she had thought for so long that what he did was worse, she began to doubt herself. Was it worse? Was leaving him behind with only the promise of 'what if' better than a betrayal that wasn't really so unexpected? Even if Katara tried to convince herself that what Zuko did was worse, it wouldn't justify or rationalize the fact she had acted as if she was a far better person than Zuko could ever be.

Katara's old self began to shine through the layer of hate she had designed to protect herself. She felt the thick layer of resentment and regret crack, but not diminish. She felt the urge to stop Zuko and apologise to him, but found her lips fastened shut. All that she was concentrating on right now was trying not to cry. Don't show weakness. Never show weakness again.

'Sokka! Toph!' Katara shouted, hearing her words echo throughout the temple's halls.

She urged Zuko on gently by pushing him in the back with two hands. He looked back at her with the corner of his eye and a tilted mouth. Katara stared at his amber eyes before smiling. 'Hurry,' she said gently.

He nodded, looking shocked at her sudden affection and began to speed toward the room Sokka was in.

'Katara, can you bend the juice out of these berries?' Zuko asked, opening his hands to reveal the cluster of black berries in his palms.

'Yep, is this all we have?' Katara asked, bending the juice from the berries.

'They won't need much,' Zuko said, watching her hands weave the juice from their skins.

When she had sucked out all the liquid she could, she separated the juice into two bubbles, and bent one into Sokka's mouth, sliding it down his throat. Despite how it may have looked, it was very tricky. Anything that Sokka ate, he would puke back up. She focused on keeping the juice inside his protesting stomach, and when she felt safe to release it, did so.

'One down,' Katara said defiantly. Zuko grinned at her and led away to Toph's room. Before she followed, she gave Sokka a quick peck on the head.

They got to Toph's room and found Aang slumped over the corner of her bed, fast asleep. Toph, a little more elegant than Sokka in her slumber, had her mouth shut. Katara shook Toph awake and spoke in a soft voice as to not unsettle her.

'Toph, Toph wake up. We have something to make you better...'

Toph's eyes flickered open and she gave Katara a tiny grin.

'Sweetness, that can only be you,' she said in a rasp. Katara smiled at her.

'Swallow this Toph, it'll make you feel better...' Katara bent the juice into her mouth and pushed it down her throat. She would have let Toph swallow it by herself, but she wasn't sure her stomach would allow it without a fight. Katara forced the contents of her stomach to stay put, and again, released it when she felt it safe.

'Thank you, Sweetness,' Toph purred. 'Can I sit on the floor now?'

'Yes,' Katara laughed, helping her onto the floor. 'Zuko, could you check on Sokka?' She asked. Zuko nodded and left the room.

'Ah, the beautiful floor,' Toph said, lying face down on the concrete. Katara watched her contentedly, everyone was alright. Everyone was going to be alright.

Suddenly, Toph's body froze still. Her eyes opened wide and she pressed her ear to the floor. Panic swayed over Katara's senses and she reached for her, frightened of the onset of another puking frenzy.

'Top-'

'Shh!' Toph demanded, pressing her feet to the ground as if listening intently to vibrations. 'We've got intruders.'

Earlier than usual because of the Christmas holidays!
This chapter was more of a filler than anything, to give Zuko and Katara some… one on one time before an important part of chapter 11. But, no spoilers!
Thank you all for leaving reviews, it really helps me to write this.
This is only just the beginning.