Well this sucks! Zuko thought. He didn't say it out loud. Katara was a bit hysterical at the moment and had said it plenty, in many different creative phrases, with many choice words. Zuko thought one of them should be the calm one. He just never thought it would be him. If he started freaking out then they'd both be lost. Think! He'd gotten out of worse scrapes than this. He could climb the fallen bridge like a ladder or scale the cliff wall. It looked like there would be enough handholds for that. He'd need both hands for that. He could lift Katara up one armed and she could hang onto his back while he climbed.

"Katara, I'm going to get us out of this… I'm going to lift you up so you can grab onto my back, okay." He said, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing. He didn't really, but telling Katara that wouldn't have a calming effect.

"Okay." She replied tremulously.

It was much easier said than done. Eventually he was able to lift her up until her arm was even with his shoulder. She grabbed onto his shoulder with her other arm and there was a great deal of fretful commotion and frantic struggling. She poked him in the eye accidentally as she clambered around him, kicked him a bit during the process and grabbed him so forcefully round the neck that she practically started choking him. None of this was condusive to his ability to hang onto this dreadful bridge. Eventually she settled into place. Her legs were wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck, not choking so, but definitely uncomfortably firm. He could feel her heartbeat fluttering at a million miles and hour and she was nervously repeating "This was such a bad idea. God I don't want to die on some random cliff face in the middle of nowhere. What are we even doing here? This was such a bad idea…."

"Katara" Zuko interrupted her.

"Yes"

"We're not going to die okay. I'm going to climb us out of here." He said with more bravado than he felt. He could do this. He'd scaled that icy glacier in the North Pole, he could do this. With one hand holding onto the bridge, he dung around he belt for the dagger he normally kept there. Just in case. His uncle had given him a new one when he'd become Firelord. Top quality fire nation steel. He missed his old earth kingdom one. The one that said 'never give up without a fight.' But this one would do for what he had in mind. He found it and scanned the cliff face for any rivets, splits and footholds in the cliffs surface. He saw what could be a path upwards to the left and a small crack in the cliff face just above his head. He slammed the dagger into it and tried to swivel it so it would be jammed in good and tight. Then he tested their weight. It would hold. He held onto the dagger and let go of the bridge.

Now instead of dangling from a rickety wooden plank over the side of a cliff, they were dangling from a firenation dagger from the side of a cliff. Zuko felt their situation had improved somewhat. He trusted the firenation dagger more than that bridge anyway. He reached for the first handhold and started to climb. The climb was extremely laborious. After a while, Katara had calmed down. Now she was trying to be 'encouraging' and advising him on where handholds were and generally being a backseat climber. "You are a good climber. I forgot about how you climbed that glacier in the North Pole. This must be a bit easier because at least you're not climbing on ice." She mused almost to herself.

Zuko wanted to say that it wasn't easier, but he couldn't, because it was almost too much effort to talk and climb at the same time. But when he'd climbed that glacier at the North Pole, he'd had Aang instead of Katara. Aang was smaller and slighted than Katara, however Zuko knew better than to ever, ever say this. However the main reason it had been easier with Aang was because Aang had been unconscious and hadn't constantly tried to 'help' him, hadn't squirmed and certainly hadn't wailed 'oh spirirts we are so high!' and 'bloody hell! It's such a long way down!" and "If we die here I am going to be so mad at you!" and "Do you even know what you're doing!" These various comments were not as helpful as Katara seemed to think they were.

When they were three quarters of the way, he paused and caught his breath and said (very grumpily) "Look, did you want to switch places and you can carry us both up this cliff?"

"No, I'm good here."

"Well can I have a bit of shush? This is much harder than it looks and I need to concentrate."

"Okay"

Soon they were nearly at the top. Zuko's hands were bleeding and his strength was nearly giving out. He had a moment to be grateful that he'd practiced climbing this morning. It proved to be a good warm up for what was a grueling mission. Zuko never gave up, that was true. But there were times when he just wished he hadn't started on a particular course of action. He would have given anything to be back in the sleeping bag and not here, dusty and sore and bleeding. His hands curled over the grassy edge of the far clearing. Using one last burst of strength and energy, he pulled them both over the edge. Katara rolled off his back and into the clearing and nearly kissed the ground with glee. "We made it! We're alive!" she cried happily. Zuko rolled over and lay on the ground exhausted with his arms and legs all spread out like a starfish. He wasn't moving for at least another 20 minutes. He was just going to lie here like a dead starfish until the feeling came back into his arms. Good plan Zuko!

Katara, who had been doing some happy we'll live after all dance came over and plonked herself next to him and smiled down at him. Zuko tried to smile back but even his face was tired. Suddenly her eyes went wide "Oh my goodness, you're bleeding." And before Zuko could say anything, she'd uncorked her water skin and taken both his hands and started healing them. Zuko sat up so it would be easier for her to heal them both at the same time. She ran the water up and down his forearms and hands and seemed fully engrossed in her task. Whenever Katara touched him like this it made his stomach go crazy with that good indigestion feeling. "Take your shirt off" she said suddenly.

"Why?" Zuko asked. Most of his scrapes had come from the climb and they were all on his hands and forearms. Katara paused for a second.

"I just want to check you over and make sure your not bleeding anywhere else." She said with an even voice. Oh, seemed reasonable enough. Zuko shrug off his shirt and Katara moved behind him and ran her healing hands over his back and shoulders. Spirits that felt good. He made a noise of appreciation in the back of his throat. She seemed to be able to drain all the tension and tiredness out of him.

After she'd soothed his aching muscles, he turned around to face her and completely forgot what he'd been about to say. Their faces were so close; he could feel her breath on his face. He felt a strange pull, an urging to just lean forward a little more and do what he had wanted to do for a very long time now. She held his gaze and smiled softly and leaned in.

"Just friends eh?" Tim the wise monkey chirruped smugly as it popped up right next to him.

Zuko hated that monkey.

He hated that monkey a lot.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

So maybe Katara had gotten a little bit hysterical. What with the bridge and the falling and the dangling above certain death. Katara didn't normally have a problem with heights. But this dangling with only a crappy bridge to hold them up was frightening. She challenged anyone not to freak out in that situation. Anyone who wasn't Zuko that is. Zuko had been cooler than a snow cucumber. He'd been so calm, so focused on getting them out that it had calmed her down as well.

After she'd scrambled onto his back she felt a little better about their ridiculously bad, terrible, idiotic situation. So maybe she clung to him a little tightly, like he was a life-raft and she couldn't swim. And maybe she occasionally bemoaned their terrible, bad idiotic situation. But for the most part she felt better. When he started to climb, she knew deep down that they were going to make it. Zuko wasn't going to let them die in such an inglorious manner. Zuko never gave up. Zuko sometimes got a bit snappish and asked for silence, but he didn't give up.

She'd know he was a good climber ever since the North Pole, when he, like an idiot, had scaled that glacier with an unconscious Aang in tow and faffed off into a blizzard. She hadn't even liked him then, but she'd admired his dedication to his stupid avatar-snatching mission. Now she admired his dedication to scaling this sheer cliff. It was a lot of effort. She could feel his muscles straining. He was getting pretty sweaty. Katara normally had great appreciation for sweaty Zuko, if it weren't for the sheer drop below them, she would have almost been having a nice time.

After what seemed like an age, Zuko pulled them into the clearing on the far side. Katara rolled off him. They would live after all. She could've kissed the solid ground in happiness. She skipped around the grass just happy to be alive and not dangling over a cliff. She was alive and with a boy who she liked very much, who was also alive and not dangling over a cliff. Katara stopped her skipping and looked at Zuko, who was lying flat on his back like a drunken penguin, arms and legs stretched out at odd angles. He was breathing hard and still a bit sweaty. He almost made a comedic sight. She sat down next to him and he smiled lazily back at her. He really was exhausted she thought as she looked him over before noticing his hands and arms were bleeding. They must have gotten scratched up in the climb.

She whipped out her water bottle and started healing all the little scratches on his hands and arms. He sat up to make it a bit easier for her to heal him. She took both his hands and ran the water all over them. He really did have nice hands. They were long, pale and larger than hers by a long way. She turned one of them over and wondered what it would be like to have them all over her body and…

"Take your shirt off." She heard her own voice saying. Whaa? Did Katara just say that out loud? Judging from the confused way Zuko was looking at her she must have! Bollocks! Daydreams are for private time, she admonished herself. "Why?" Zuko asked a little surprised. Why indeed. Good question. Katara knew she couldn't answer with the truth I just like the sight of you shirtless. Katara thought for a second before replying.

"I just want to check you over and make sure your not bleeding anywhere else." Nice save! And it worked. The shirt was off. Yay! She moved around behind him and started running her healing hands over his long back. She could feel the strain of the muscles, especially in his shoulders. She concentrated all her energy of soothing them. Zuko made a little blissful noise and Katara's brain momentarily stopped working. She didn't even know he could make sounds like that. How long they sat like that, Katara couldn't say. She may have lapsed into daydreamland again. When it felt like there was no more tension in Zuko's shoulders she stopped and lowered her hands.

She'd been about to say something when he turned around. And suddenly his face, his lips were right there. Was this real? Or was Katara daydreaming again? No, it was real alright. Katara looked down at his lips and then into his eyes. There was a question in them and if he had asked it, Katara would've said yes in a heartbeat. So much was unsaid and just understood between them. Katara felt a gentle push and pull that she normally associated with waterbending in her stomach, it urged her to just lean forward and have a little taste. Zuko smelled dusty from the climb and ever so faintly like dragon berries. They were so close…

"Just friends eh?" that bloody monkey Tim popped up from nowhere and killed the moment stone dead! Bugger off moment-killing-Tim! She thought but didn't say. That would be rude. They both turned to gape at the Tim, who was smirking smugly like a smug smirker who smirks a lot. They were both a little aghast and embarrassed. Katara was also extremely irritated if truth be told. She'd just been about to….damn you monkey! If it was possible to will something to disappear with your mind, that monkey would have been gone!

"Well, I see you made it okay. Just not in the way I was expecting." The monkey laughed as if it had just made an extremely hilarious joke and then it handed them their packs. "Nobody's ever scaled the cliff face before. So ten points for originality." The Monkey said chuckling again, almost slapping the ground in mirth.

"How else do people make it over then? That bridge is a death trap! You nearly got us killed you stupid monkey." Zuko almost shouted at the monkey.

"The bridge is not a death trap. Look." The monkey gestured behind them. The bridge was suddenly repaired. It spanned the clearing without a single rope fraying and seemed to mock them with its very existence. "The bridge responds to you." The monkey added almost gently. "The more you believe in its ability to hold you up, the sturdier it is. However if you think it will collapse, that is exactly what it does."

"Why didn't you warn us? You could've killed us!" Katara hissed. If she'd know it worked like that she would have thought herself a giant sturdy rock bridge like the one into Omashu. Tim was crazy.

"No, no, you would've have died. You would have failed the quest but you would've have died. If you fell, you would just have ended up in the clearing where you started." Tim said gesturing back over to the far clearing.

"So that bridge was one of the tasks?" Zuko asked, sounding curious.

"Nope sorry! You still have three to go." Tim said and held up three fingers. Zuko looked disappointed as the monkey continued. "This was a test of dedication. You dedication to obtaining the knowledge you seek. You may go forward. " Tim said with a very regal bow. Katara and Zuko just sat and looked at the monkey. To follow a talking monkey in pants or not to follow a talking monkey in pants. That was the question. What to do? Obviously the monkey was crazy. Tim was tapping his foot and looking at them impatiently.

"Come on. Follow me, the first task awaits!"