Chapter Ten

By the time Katara awoke from her pain-induced black-out, she had been dragged a few meters away from the cliff, and Zuko was awkwardly trying to put his shirt on her. After a bit of panicked screaming, some flailing and general misunderstandings, she sent him off to find something that could hold water.

Meanwhile, she used the puddles of water still lying around from the earlier display of bending to begin healing her arm. Wincing, she knew she wouldn't be able to heal all the damage with just the use of one hand. But she had healed enough that when Zuko came back, she was able to heal the damage to his side. He had done a fair enough job of burning the wound shut, but it was a messy business.

"You should have waited for me to heal you." Katara said absently as her hands smoothed water along his torso.

"I had to be able to move." He said shortly. Even though she was wearing his shirt, and her towel as a kind of skirt, he still found it difficult to look at her. For one thing, her outfit was so loose, and light. He had never seen her wearing less clothing. (Well, actually, he had, but he was trying very, very hard not to think about that, especially as she was so close to him. And besides, it was in the midst of great danger; therefore it didn't count, right? It wasn't like she had meant to be naked around him, it just kind of… happened.) And for another her hands were pressing against his bare chest, the water surrounding them deliciously cool against his skin, contrasting with the heat of his wounds, lulling him into a sort of slumber with their pleasant contradiction.

For a moment after she took her hands off him he remained in that peaceful repose, before the reality of their situation snapped him back to full attention. They were in strange terrain, lost in the middle of foreign woods, with little to no idea how they got there, and none whatsoever of how to get back.

And, furthermore, it was getting late and they were both very hungry. The heat of the day still rose from the hard-baked ground, but the sky was going to be moonless that night, and the prospect of stumbling around trees in the dark was not a nice one.

"We won't be able to get far if we set out tonight," Katara said, standing up and helping Zuko to his feet. "Aang and the others will probably come looking for us tomorrow morning on Appa, so the best thing we can do now is make camp for the night and make sure we stay in a clearing."

"It's too exposed here," Zuko said, looking at the bare cliff edges. "I'll go look for a nearby clearing and start a fire, you can go collect some food before it gets too dar-"

Before he managed to finish his sentence a low, spine-chilling growl came from the woods to their left. Another growl sounded off in response, making the hair on the back of Zuko's neck stand up. Katara's hand, stilling clutching his from when she helped him up, convulsively gripped him.

He looked down at her in surprise: this was the first time he had seen her display any kind of fear. From what he had seen of her in times of trouble (which he had usually been causing, but that is neither here nor there) she tended to get angry, and violent rather than scared. She would simply face the foe (him) head-on and whenever possible attack with her bending…

Her arm. In the gathering dusk he saw that sections of her arm were still sluggishly bleeding – she had been unable to fully heal it. She had managed to bend earlier, but that had been done from pure adrenaline, and had probably cost her a great deal more than she would like to admit. She was exhausted, disarmed, and incredibly vulnerable. Even if he didn't owe her his life several times over, Zuko didn't know he would have been able to abandon her.

"You know what? I don't feel very hungry after all." He said, and punched his stomach when it tried to growl in protest. "We had a big breakfast of … whatever that stuff was. Very filling."

"Yes," Katara said with a shaky smile, looking uncertainly at him. "We call it Jackrabbit-panda stew."

"And it would probably take you forever to gather any food, it always does." He said, still holding her hand as he started to wander towards the woods.

"What? At least I gather food! You just sit around and start fires!" She flared.

"Without fires you wouldn't be able to cook the food!"

"We managed to start fires before you arrived! There are ways to make fire other than with bending, you know!"

"Oh yeah?" Zuko was beginning to feel better already, and the cries of the wolf-bats were easily ignored as the two of them stormed through the woods, looking for a clearing. "Well water is really easy to collect by hand, a lot easier than all those loops you put it through when bending! In fact, you water-bending the water probably takes longer than the normal way!"

"If it wasn't for my water-bending, you would be dead!" She shouted as they stomped into a perfectly sized clearing.

"And if it wasn't for my fire-bending, neither of us would be able to see a thing right now!" Zuko shouted back, as he blasted a small tree down, then kicked it into the middle of the clearing and set it on fire.

"I don't need to see with fire, I can see just well without it!" Katara declared, and plunked herself down on the ground, cuddling her minimal clothing to herself.

"Fine!" Zuko said, and sat down with equal force. The howls of the wolf-bats had disappeared because of the fire, and the clearing was tight-knit, and comfortable.

"Good night!" Katara huffed, before rolling over and closing her eyes.

"Sleep well!" He snapped back, flopping onto his back and screwing his eyes shut.

A silence followed, where both of them pretended to be asleep and totally not at all worried about what they were going to do if Appa couldn't find them tomorrow, thank you very much, and neither were either of them the slightest bit worried about the other's injuries!

Nor, after a few more minutes, did Katara slowly open one eye and squint at Zuko, his back to her, and quietly whisper "Thank you."

And Zuko definitely did not smile in the darkness and reply with an even quieter "You're welcome."

Not at all.