Sorry it took a long time, guys. Just to warn yall, I probably wont write so much now that school is starting up ;;

But keep in touch!! Who knows, the new season of Avatar may inspire me Sept 21 Woot woot!!!!!

Fiery and Forbidden (a Zuko love story): 10

Zuko awakened when he felt something small hit his cheek. He groaned and brushed whatever it was away. Strange, it was wet. Another fell on his forehead and on his arm. He begrudgingly opened his eyes. Dark clouds. Zuko groaned again. It was starting to rain.

Chiye was already trying to raise herself up onto her elbows and Iroh was still trying to sleep, although the rain was only getting worse. Zuko sat up and rubbed his eyes. Damn rain.

Zuko yawned. It was going to be a long day. He shakily stood up and tried to pack away his muddy cot. For once, he envied Chiye. She didn't have to carry a pile of muddy cloth for another forty miles. Oh well. Suddenly, the rain stopped falling on his back. He looked up. It was still raining, but Chiye was bending over him with an umbrella, smiling.

He smiled back and finished packing. He brushed some of the dirt off his bag and said "you should probably try keeping my uncle dry." Indeed, Iroh was still struggling to sleep, but it was becoming increasingly difficult as the area around him became more and more muddy. Chiye chuckled a little and walked there to make him wake up. Foolish uncle.

CHA CHA CHA SCENE CHAAAAAANGE!!!!!!!!

"You know, the umbrella is big enough for two people."

"Yeah, but…"

The three travelers had been walking for a long time down a deserted road. The rain continued to fall, and it only became heavier as the travelers drew closer to the city. Unfortunately, Chiye never carried any supplies, so there were only two umbrellas. Zuko, being the gentleman that he was, allowed Chiye to have his. Although, despite her reasoning, he just didn't want to be under the same umbrella. They'd just be…so close.

Chiye sighed, clutching the umbrella "I'm serious, I've been watching you get wet for the past hour. If you haven't already, you're going to catch a cold."

Zuko just continued staring at the mud "It's okay, I'm fine." He said coldly.

Indeed, Zuko was very wet and very cold. Maybe it was because he was from the fire nation, but being in the rain did anything but make him happy. But on the other hand, that voice in the back of his mind kept reminding him not to get too close to Chiye. They were becoming too friendly and what had happened the previous night only revealed how dangerously close they were becoming. After all, Zuko had to remember his mission. Any sort of relationship with Chiye would only distract him from his purpose.

Zuko felt a small hand lace with his fingers. Chiye pressed her body close to him, holding the umbrella overhead.

"Look, if you're not coming under the umbrella, then I'm bringing it to you." She said, wrapping her arm around his and making her steps firm.

Zuko would have leapt away if she hadn't kept such a tight grip on him. Instead, he had to endure walking this close to Chiye. He felt his face burn up. Was he running a fever, or was he blushing? Damn rain. Damn Uncle. Did he have to keep watching them? Couldn't he just butt out? Ugh, if its raining, why was it so hot?

Chiye could feel the tension in his arm. Poor Lee, she thought, he must really be getting sick. She squeezed his hand and whispered "Relax."

Zuko glanced at her. Easy for her to say, she was the girl. All she had to do was walk. But what was he supposed to do? Take the umbrella from her, to be polite? Or would that be rude? Why was it so damn complicated? AND WHY WAS IT STILL SO FRIGGIN HOT?!

Iroh smiled and laughed to himself as he watched his nephew panic. He didn't hide it well—his body was stiff with tension, and he was blushing uncontrollably. He was lucky that Chiye was a good girl. She couldn't help but notice, but she didn't give him trouble about it. Iroh stroked his beard. This whole arrangement was getting very amusing.

"I think we are almost there." Iroh said, still grinning at the expense of his nephew.

Chiye smiled "Good. I think Lee is coming down with something." Maybe she wasn't as sharp as Iroh thought.

NEXT--SCENE--NEXT--SCENE--NEXT--SCENE--NEXT--SCENE--NEXT--SCENE--NEXT--SCENE—

"Okay, so now what do we do?" Chiye looked up and the dark sky.

The three were currently taking refuge under the terrace of someone's house. There was no longer enough money to rent a room at an inn and Chiye couldn't dance in the rain. Not to mention, since she had put her fire nation collar back on, the travelers were getting many ugly stares. At least this town hasn't been taken by the fire nation yet.

Iroh looked at her hopefully "maybe we have enough money for a cup of tea?"

Chiye sighed at looked in her small coin purse. She had been handling the money, since Iroh could never refuse his patronage to a tea house. "Yeah, I think that's all we can afford. So why not?" She sighed again and grabbed one of the umbrellas. Zuko's fever had inexplicably stopped since she let go of his hand. Maybe it was a side effect of the natural heat she produced since she became a fire bender. Sounds crazy, but anything is possible, right?

Iroh led the way, passing shops that sold food and souvenirs until he came to a modest tea shop. A quick nod to the hostess, and then the three sat down at a table.

"I personally recommend jasmine tea. It captures both the fragrance and the sweetness of the flower." Iroh said, smiling down at the menu.

"It's kinda funny that you like the jasmine, Mushi" Chiye said as she touched her chin thoughtfully "It's a popular drink in the fire nation."

"Oh…uh …you don't say" Iroh laughed, embarrassed, as Zuko glared at him over his menu.

When the waitress returned, Iroh (of course) ordered the jasmine tea, Chiye had the green tea (improves endurance—plenty more miles to go!), and Zuko just wanted a glass of water.

"But water is so boring!" Chiye said as she handed the menu back to the waitress "Don't you want something better?"

Zuko folded his arms "tea is just hot leaf juice. I'm not interested."

Chiye laughed "Well, when you put it that way, you can make anything sound bad." She spotted the waitress returning. "Oh, that was quick."

But the waitress wasn't carrying their drinks. Instead, she approached the table with a look of half-disgust and half-resentment. "I'm sorry" she said without a hint of remorse "but some of the other customers have been complaining about—" she paused and nodded at Chiye, seemingly not knowing whether to say her or that. The three looked around the room. Indeed, ugly stares met them from almost every table.

Chiye blushed slightly and stood "I—I'm sorry" she said to the waitress with her gaze pointed at the table. The waitress only turned back around and walked away coldly. Chiye turned to Zuko and Iroh and nodded at them, her fists clenching at her sides. "I'm really sorry about this. I'll be outside." With that, she walked stiffly out the door and into the rain.

Zuko watched the door for a few moments, knowing that she wouldn't return but hoping nonetheless. Then he turned to Iroh "aren't we going to go after her?"

Iroh stroked his beard "…you go. And take an umbrella with you."

Zuko nodded and stood. He wasn't sure if his uncle had slipped into one of those rare moments of wisdom, or if he just wanted his tea. Either way, he had to find Chiye.

A

Aa

Aaa

Aa

A

It didn't take long to locate her. She was under the same terrace that the three travelers had taken refuge beneath earlier. She was just looking up at the sky, ignoring the rain that splashed around her feet. Her hands were still in fists at her side, and her face was contortioned into a look of pleading, as if asking 'why'. When Chiye spotted Zuko approaching, she averted her gaze to the ground. Her fists relaxed as she folded her hands in front of her. She didn't want to talk.

Zuko folded his umbrella and stood beside her, looking up "you know, you're going to catch a cold."

Chiye smiled slightly at the ground "…I'll be okay."

Zuko sighed "look, don't let that waitress bother you. She's just…" Zuko stopped, trying to grasp a word "…closed-minded."

Chiye shook her head "It's not the waitress. I'm used to people acting that way toward me, but—" she looked back up at the sky, "—taking off my collar yesterday reminded me of…of the good times." She sighed and smiled again. "Let's go for a walk."

Zuko unfolded the umbrella and held it over their heads. Somehow, he didn't feel uncomfortable being so close to Chiye today. It almost seemed natural for them to be walking together under the same umbrella. Under the falling rain, he almost missed her arm linking around his.

Chiye sighed again "when I was young, I was always pressured to train. By my father, by all my drill sergeants, it just never ended. But at the same time, I removed myself from the other fire nation children. So I never really had a childhood. But, every once in a while, there would be moments when I really would have fun. That's how I got so close to Hong. He was a slacker and he never took anything seriously, so he would always drag me to the river or to the woods instead of training practice."

Zuko glanced at Chiye. The dismal expression that she had under the terrace was completely changed into a fond, remembering smile. He sighed to himself. Of course he didn't like Hong, but he couldn't hate someone who could make Chiye smile so easily.

Chiye started twirling a lock of her hair around her finger "All of the fun that we had back at Tundai made me remember the good times that I had back then. And thinking about the past made me think about the future." She looked up at Zuko, putting her hand back at her side "what's going to happen now?"

Zuko looked down at Chiye as they continued walking. Her eyes, although black as night, were beautiful nonetheless. The lock of dark hair that she had been twirling strayed from its usual place, curving onto her cheek and leading towards her full lips, which were slightly parted in questioning anticipation.

Just then, a loose stone in the road threw Chiye forward. In an attempt to regain balance, her body twisted back, and one arm went flying towards the air. Zuko, with quickened reflexes from his training, stepped forward with one foot and managed to wrap his free arm around Chiye's waist without dropping the umbrella.

In less than a second, the two teens went from just walking to an almost tango-like dip. Zuko was holding the umbrella with one hand and supporting Chiye by the waist with the other. Chiye, her body at an angle and facing Zuko, had one arm limp while the other, the one that had grasped in vain for balance previously, had somehow delicately landed so that it was placed gently on his shoulder.

Suddenly, the rain stopped and the clouds parted, but Zuko didn't notice. He could only feel the blood rushing to his head. His face was only inches away from Chiye's. Their bodies were so close together, he could even feel the warmth radiating from her body. And yet, his senses dulled in comparison to the passionate emotions that erupted within him. All he could feel, as the space between their lips shortened, was her heartbeat against his chest.

"What's going on?" Zuko and Chiye stopped in their tracks. Powerful realization came flooding back as they scrambled to stand upright again. Both of them could feel the harsh burning in their faces that meant a heavy blush.

"I…uh…sorry 'bout that" Chiye looked off to the side as she brushed the back of her neck with her hand. But Zuko was already looking for the source of the voice that had stopped them a moment earlier.

"Is that a fire nation girl?"

"The fire nation's coming?"

"She couldn't be a soldier."

"But look at her neck!"

"We're all going to die!"

Cold comprehension flooded Zuko. The first voice had come from a woman, and it wasn't exactly calm. Her tension was slowly echoing through the crowds and escalating into alarm. This wasn't going to end easily. Chiye started noticing the distress as more voices joined in the overall lament of the people.

"But what's that boy doing?"

"Were they just—"

"She will kill us!"

"He's a spy!"

"Stop them!"

Zuko had grabbed Chiye's hand and was running as fast as his legs would take him. The crowd was only getting louder and louder and it was only a matter of minutes before the crowd would turn into a mob. Zuko could hear a number of people trying to follow them. He had to lose them. Right-left-left-right-left—he darted in and out of alleyways trying to lose whoever was following them—right-straight-left-left-right—they were coming close to the edge of town, and there were only a couple of people behind them—left-left-straight-right-right—the woods! Trees became visible only a few yards ahead. Zuko glanced back. They had lost the mob, but it looked like Chiye was about to pass out from exhaustion.

As soon as Zuko got into the woods and stopped, Chiye dropped to her knees with her palms on the ground as she tried to catch her breath. Zuko leaned against a tree and folded his arms. It's not like they had been running a marathon, she shouldn't be that tired.

Through her labored breathing, Chiye whispered "Wha-huff-what just happened?"

Zuko looked at Chiye and shrugged nonchalantly "Someone saw your collar and started chasing us. I thought you were used to it."

"No!" Chiye looked up. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to catch her breath "it was different this time. They weren't just trying to catch me. They were…they were chasing you too."

Zuko shrugged again. "So?"

Chiye lowered her head and closed her eyes. She willed the tears not to fall, but they came. "This is the first time…the first time that my transgressions have hurt someone else."

Zuko sat down in front of the crouching Chiye with one knee propped up "Don't be so worried about me, I'm fine."

Chiye shook her head. Her hands clenched against the ground, creating streaks in the dirt "but you could have been hurt! I know you're strong, but you couldn't take on an entire village by yourself. You could have died, and it would have been my fault!" She looked up with pleading eyes "It's never happened before, so what started it now?" As she looked at Zuko, her face changed from pleading to quiet realization. "We…we have to keep our distance from each other."

Zuko slowly raised his eyes in surprise. A strong emotion—almost like anger, but more like a counter to rejection—rose in his stomach. He opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by the look in Chiye's eyes.

"Please" she said "I just couldn't forgive myself if anything happened to you. Stay away for my sake, if not for your own."

Her eyes, brimming with tears, pleaded with him. And the way that she begged him reminded Zuko of the first time he had seen her, back at Denang. She had begged the man with the gold piece for his sake back then, too.

Zuko sighed "are you going to stop traveling with me and my uncle?"

Chiye paused and sat back on her heels, hugging her knees "…no…I don't want to completely stop…seeing you."

Zuko sighed again, and then nodded. After all, hadn't he been telling himself that they shouldn't get too close? Then why did it hurt so much more when she said it?

He rose to his feet and held his hand out to Chiye "We'd better get going then."

Chiye looked up, into the unsmiling face of Zuko. His expression may have been serious, but she could sense more behind his exterior. A little bit of dejection, but also forgiveness. And maybe even something beneath that, but she couldn't tell what it was. Either way, he was right. It was time to get going. She grabbed his hand, and he lifted Chiye to her feet.

There was no more time for tears.