A/N: Day 10, prompt 29 – I Chose You. I hope you like it! PS I own nothing in the Avatar world.
Read, review, and enjoy, as always.
"You don't have to do this, you know," Zuko said, looking over at Katara.
She was busy moving the glowing blue water over the sizeable burn on his upper shoulder. "You're the one who got distracted while sparring, Zuko. I thought you were some kind of fire bending master, shouldn't you have been able to block it?" she joked, smiling.
"It's not my fault I got distracted," he replied hastily.
She turned to look at him, the grin still evident on her face. "Oh? And whose fault was it that you weren't concentrating on the fire bender in front of you, and didn't block the fire? Hmmm?"
Zuko shrugged with his one free arm. "If it was anyone's fault, I'd say it was yours. I got distracted watching you waterbend- it's fascinating to me, I guess, since the style is so different from my own. But I've never really had a chance to study it, and when you are practicing, I get distracted. However, that's not what I was talking about."
Katara blushed, her eyes trained completely on Zuko's arm so he wouldn't see the color adorning her cheeks. "Then what were you talking about, Fire Lord?"
Zuko took a deep breath, and turned his face away from Katara.
"You don't have to stay here and keep me company. It's been nice, and I have enjoyed having someone else around the palace constantly, but I feel as though I am keeping you away from your family. I know… I know at first, it was because of him, but now it feels like you feel the need to take care of me, as well. I just…" he trailed off.
He hadn't wanted to have this conversation with her; he felt comfortable with Katara's presence, and he enjoyed talking to her. But he had seen her stare off into the distance when someone would bring up family, or cry slightly when she read a letter from Suki.
Zuko didn't want her to be miserable.
"Do you want me to leave?" she asked quietly, her facial expressions still invisible to him.
"What?" he asked, sitting up from his position on the bed. He twisted his body around to face her, but winced as soon as he put pressure on his burned arm. The water Katara had been using to heal his burn sprayed everywhere once he moved, and covered them both in a thin dusting of water particles.
Katara pushed him down, and drew the water back into an orb above his bare chest. "You, sir, need to stay still while I am healing you if you don't want another scar to add to your collection," she said, returning to her healing.
"That's not what I meant at all, Katara!" he said, still not meeting her eye. "I don't want you to leave, I just feel like I'm keeping you from your family. Like now you feel you have to talk to me and take care of me because I was kind to you. I don't want you to feel like you have-"
"I chose you, remember?" she asked, cutting him off. "I'm the one that chose to come and stay with you. You didn't ask me to come down here, Zuko."
He ran his free hand through his black hair, which he had taken out when he went to spar with the other firebender. "I know, but I still don't understand why you chose me, out of all the people who would have gladly taken you in."
Katara sighed. "If I had lived on Kyoshi Island with Suki and Sokka, it would have been miserable for me. They would have tried desperately to either push me back to Aang, or push me to meet someone new. Well, Suki would have, at any rate," she said, knowing her brother would have told her to swear off boys forever. "Suki would have also been constantly checking on me to make sure I was okay. I would have been smothered. I don't know if I could have taken that, right after I just broke up with the boy that changed my life. It would have driven me insane.
"As for my father, living in the Southern Water Tribe while I was still sad would have been torture for him. Everyone has to have a role in the village, and as a water bender, my role would be especially big. I can heal, I can provide this, I can do that. If I were depressed, I would have been useless, and therefore a burden.
"However, by living with you, you gave me the room I needed to think, Zuko. You didn't pressure me to do anything, and let me roam around as I wished. Plus, I wouldn't have been a burden, living here and not being able to provide anything. You gave me solace. You gave me the perfect escape."
She finished, and began to concentrate on her work once more.
Neither of them said a word. Zuko didn't want to say something else that could be classified as idiotic, and make her even more upset. And Katara was thinking on what she said, and her reasons for choosing to live with him.
"I'm done," she said a few minutes later, pushing the water toward a plant that was sitting in a corner of the room.
Zuko sat up. He stretched, and rotated his shoulder, amazed. "It feels great, Katara. Thank you," he said, turning to look at her.
She smiled. "It's the least I can do for someone as clumsy as you, Zuko."
"I am not clumsy! I'm just easily distrac- No, I'm not easily distracted either," he protested.
Katara laughed, and shook her head. "You are crazy, Zuko." She stood up and walked toward the door as Zuko pulled his shirt back on. "Oh, and I just want to tell you: I don't feel obligated to take care of you or talk to you. I want to do those things. I enjoy being here, with you."
She walked out of the room, and Zuko stared after her, his eyes wide with surprise.
A/N: GEHH I need to stop writing these reflective (if you can call it that) chapters. It's like a whole line of them. I think this whole story is all about inflection! At any rate, I hope you liked it. I thought it was gooey, and hopefully the next one will be the adorable, cute, and funny chapter that I'm actually good at writing. Here's for hoping!