(A/N: Another chapter up, my dears! I'm very proud of myself, though my mother certainly wouldn't be, if she knew I were writing fanfiction rather than doing my Biology homework… Hah! Anyway, a spark of creativity fueled my muse for a while after I uploaded chapter 10, so here's 11! Please review when you're done, I love knowing what you think, and if I'm doing anything wrong.)
Disclaimer:I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender, nor do I make profit off it.
Chapter 11: For Their Lives
Zuko woke with a start. It was a shame, really. The first morning he was to awake with a woman in his arms, and he'd only be pulled up and away from her. She had already woken, of course, and had simply clung to him as if he were her only way of staying there, alive. Dark elk-bats, he could see from the almost transparent wings folded on the exotic creatures' backs. Lovely, he thought as he was thrown up and across one of the saddles. His hands were bound behind his back by familiar rock gloves, and the pommel of the saddle he had been tossed upon was now digging into his ribs. He only grunted, and kicked his legs out behind him. His feet connected with something solid, too solid, and he heard something hit the ground. He had kicked one of his captors off his saddle and onto the ground! His victory was short-lived when he saw the same hooded man pull Katara, who had been pinned to the ground by another of the men, into his arms where a dagger awaited her. He poked her neck with it, and Zuko thrashed again.
A deep, gravelly voice spoke from inside the hood. "Still yourself," it demanded, "or I will rid the world of your pretty little girlfriend." It snickered.
"Get your filthy hands off her," he growled, unable to keep himself from kicking again, only to make contact with something slightly more soft. The elk-bat reared, tossing its head back and extending its boned wings, and bit his ankle. Zuko cried out, but kicked the creature again. It didn't bite him again, but kicked the creature he had been thrown onto.
"Fine, that's how this is going to be then, eh?" the stranger drawled, drawing his dagger across Katara's throat lightly. She flinched back, but the damage had already been done. A single line of blood had been drawn, and collected at one side before dripping down and into the dip of her collarbone. Zuko gasped, but Katara screamed. He kicked a burst of flame at the elk-bat beside him, and it jumped forward- his own elk-bat reared back and he was thrown off its shoulder and onto the ground. His captor jumped out of the way just in time, and Katara fell forward onto the heels of her hands.
"Get up, Katara! He's behind you!"
It was at that point that he began to realize it: he was fighting for both their lives, unless she could come up with a quick source of water. Aha! There it was. Nestled between one arm and her hip was just one waterskin, but still the sight of it brought a triumphant smile upon his face. The triumph turned to awe as he watched her pull the water out with a flick of her wrist and freeze all of the men's wrists to the ground, pinning them rather effectively. She then ran over to Zuko and bent over, blowing cold air onto his rock cuffs. They shattered quickly, as she had frozen the earthen gloves completely, and she pulled him up. They stood back up, back to back, facing the circle of dark and disenchanted soldiers. One of them sighed, and tossed his head back.
"CHAN!?" Zuko nearly fell backward with the shock.
"Shut your trap, Oh-Princely-One. I'm only here because Kira's here." The arrogant Fire-Nation bastard sighed, pointing to another hooded figure, who had managed to break one of the ice cuffs around his wrist, and was pulling off his hood.
"Kira!" Katara shouted, diving to the ground with a goofy, ecstatic smile.
"Katara! I thought I'd never see you again! I'm sorry we attacked you," the woman amended after Katara had relinquished her death-grip. Man, I'm confused!
"Ah, Katara?"
"Oh, right, I'm sorry Zuko." The waterbender stood. "This is Kira, one of the Kiyoshi warriors."
"Z-Zuko," the warrior stuttered from the ground. "You!" She fought against the cuffs. At his name, the other cloaked warriors took off their hoods, revealing another female face, each one painted with perfect Kiyoshi war paint. They did not look happy.
"The Great Warriors of Kiyoshi Island," he said reverently, bowing in a gentlemanly fashion before sinking to his knees to bow before them. "I apologize for having, ah," he searched for a proper word, "disturbed your town those few months ago. I have found my place at last, and I see now how much I have hurt your people. Please accept my humblest apologies. We can lead you back to Suki, if you wish," he added as an afterthought: nothing like a bribe to sweeten a sour reunion.
The girls scattered around the elk-bats all got up at once, jumping and cheering happily. "Suki," they whispered to each other. They miss her, their leader, their best friend. He remembered Aang and Sokka, and finally his own Uncle. I guess I know how that feels.
Chan, who had now stood and made his way to Zuko's side, cleared his throat. Zuko turned to face him. "Listen," the teen began, averting his eyes. He clearly wasn't used to confrontation, unless he were dominant. "I don't know what we did to piss you off so much at Ember Island," he said, "I guess maybe I shouldn'a flirted with your girlfriend, but… I'm sorry, for whatever its worth. The Kiyoshi Warriors were sent to one of my other houses, you see, and me and my boys were gonna have our way with 'em until one of them caught my eye." Chan sighed, and glanced over to Kira, who was laughing with Katara about something unbeknownst to either adolescent. "She convinced us not to do anything to them, and for a while we just talked. I love her," he finished, making eye contact with Zuko.
"Not that I don't appreciate your explanation, but why are you telling me this?"
Chan shook his head. "No reason. I just figure we'd better iron some things out if were gonna be bunking."
"Bunking?"
"Yeah. We were looking for you guys. Kira and everyone else," he gestured to the small mass of girls behind him, "were trying to find Suki so they could help with ending the war. We want to help," he pleaded.
"Oh. Uh, yeah, sure, you guys can come back to the Air Temple with us. Aang will be glad to know more of his friends are safe," he added. "The more help we can get at this point, the better. How long do we have until the comet arrives?"
"Uh," Chan lifted up one arm where he had tiny pockmarks: little circular burns. Match burns. "Six days, from what I can tell." He looked to the sky for a moment, then to Kira, and back to Zuko. "I hope so, at any rate." Zuko nodded.
"Did you guys come through a forest or something on your way over?"
"Yeah, actually, about a half a kilometer south of here. I don't know if the girls are going to want to backtrack though, knowing their family is so close by. Would you mind if we separated? We'll meet you two back at, where did you say you were stationed now?"
"The Western Air Temple," he said slowly, pointing North. "We're just south of it. You'll be there by nightfall. Whatever you do, don't give us away, okay Chan?"
"You got it." It was tough for Zuko to trust this man, this boy. He had very nearly ruined everything for him and Mai, and for that Zuko had crashed his party, breaking everything he could get his hands on and burning everything he couldn't. Still, something seemed suspicious about the whole thing. How would they know where to look for the gang? Where was Chan's other friend, Ruon-Jian? Something about it seemed too fishy about it. Chan was too much of a spidersnake in the grass to be trusted, at least for now.
They separated with few goodbyes, the only hugs being between Katara and the Kiyoshi warriors, and after she and Zuko gave them directions, the larger group trotted off on Chan's pets, the elk-bats. Eerie creatures, really. They hopped more than ran, beating their wings every few feet to kick themselves into the air. It was a smooth ride, from what he had been told, but it looked to be anything but. Besides, in the Fire Nation Palace, they only used mongoose dragons.
At any rate, the two continued south for a little while longer, only exchanging pleasantries until Katara stopped and looked up at him. "How did you know Chan?"
"Huh?"
"You knew his name, and you seemed kind of shocked to see him out here. How do you know him?"
"Uh, well, I don't know that that's such a good story to tell right now. Let's just keep going," he said, turning around to do just that.
"No," Katara said more forcefully, grabbing one of his wrists and jerking him back a bit. "Please, Zuko, I want to know. I don't want to keep secrets with you, nor you with me, not anymore." She was pleading now, he could see it in the way her cerulean blue eyes sparkled a little too much to be normal.
He sighed. "Fine. While I was with Azula," he nearly spat the word, "in the Fire Nation after the, uh, catacombs of Ba Sing Se, we were sent to my family's old summer house on Ember Island." He paused. "Maybe I'll take you there someday," he mumbled, but shook his head. "Anyway, Azula invited herself to Chan's party, and the rest of us with her- Mai, Ty Lee and I." As he said Mai's name, Katara's eyes narrowed, and she stiffened. "The rest of the night is, uh, a blur. Too much fire rum, you know." He shrugged it off, hoping she wouldn't ask more questions.
"Eugh! Spirits, Zuko, you didn't do it with Mai, did you?" She took a step back. Repulsed.
"No! N-no, that's not what I meant. We just, ah, got a little carried away and completely thrashed his house, that's all. I never felt any of that for Mai, trust me." He smiled to himself a little, and Katara relaxed. "Why?"
"What?"
"Why do you care?"
"Uhm, well, ah, I don't. I just don't like her."
"So you like me?"
"I didn't say that."
"But you didn't say you didn't. Anyway, you care enough to see that I didn't go too far with a girl you don't like. Who should I go too far with, then, hm?" He took a step forward, a sly grin plastered on his lips. Katara took another step back, and put her hands out defensively.
"No, Zuko, that's not what I meant! She tried to kill us, Zuko!" He stopped.
"Us?" Katara blinked, and floundered for an explaination.
"Before you joined us, she'd tried to kill us all, at one point or another, Zuko. Don't tell me you can't see it happening." Zuko frowned, but nodded.
"What you don't know," he took another step forward. This time, Katara didn't move, "is that she saved your father, your brother and I at the Boiling Rock. She risked her life, her loyalty to my sister, and her honor to save us." Katara stayed quiet. "She was a good person, really, she just didn't know how to express herself." Zuko didn't know exactly why he was explaining it, or why he couldn't stop talking about it. "I don't think I ever really loved her, though. It never seemed natural. It was settling, I know it now."
Katara nodded. "You can do better that Mai."
Zuko smiled. "Thank you." He leaned forward. "Oh really, though? Who, exactly, do you find suitable?" Katara laughed awkwardly.
"Psh, nobody, I don't know, it doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does," he said more seriously. He took another step forward, but Katara took another step back, successfully running into a tree. A tree! They had found fire wood!
"No, really, Zuko. It doesn't." For a moment, his heart rate sped when she said his name. Stupid goddamned mushrooms, he inwardly cursed. Surely they should have been out of his system by now.
"I think it does, little girl," he teased, raising a hand to the left side of Katara's face. He placed his hand over her cheek with his thumb over her lips, just like in the crystal caverns below Ba Sing Se. "Do you remember?" he whispered, leaning forward again. She nodded a bit. "I remember," he said slowly, "everything." He moved his hand away, and shifted to the side to get a better view of the forest.
He heard Katara laugh. "Firewood," she said simply, but she took a step toward him and put both hands at either side of his face, gently pulling his head downward to face her. "Everything," she repeated him, and stood on her tip-toes.
Time slowed down. All Zuko could see was her. It was as if the world ceased to exist- no war, no Avatar, no Azula, no Ozai, no nothing. He smiled, and watched as her eyes fluttered closed, ever so slowly, and she waited. He blinked once, twice, and leant his head down that last few centimeters. He canted his head to the side a few degrees and let his lips barely brush hers. This was different from before: they both wanted it now. It felt right, for some unseen reason. Despite everything that was, it felt right. He let himself linger there for a moment, but when he started to pull away a little, she put a hand at the back of his neck and stood up taller. She pressed her lips against his a bit more fervently, and sages were they soft. It had to be against some law somewhere for lips to exist that were as soft as these. How did he not remember this? He wanted more. He allowed one arm to curl around her waist, and pulled her closer. His other arm he placed against the tree that was behind her, and her lips opened; very little, but they still opened. Zuko let his tongue brush against her bottom lip, and he felt her sharp intake of air. Still, she didn't move away.
Definitely should be illegal, he thought again, and he pressed his lips to hers again, her bottom lip resting between both of his. He suckled it gently, to which Katara leant against him, and then let his senses take over. He heard her gasp, and he took advantage of it by stealing her tongue from her mouth and into his. Soon she got the hang of it and they kissed for a few minutes longer, until he heard clapping behind him. He pulled away quickly and turned, ready to defend her with his heart and soul.
The cold, heartless yellow eyes of his sister glared at him from a few meters away. She continued clapping.
"How sweet," she sneered.
"Azula," he warned, just before he saw the lightning.
(A/N: Again, thank you SO much for reading! Please review, I'd love to be able to improve upon my writing. I love the Zutara-ness in this one! I know, it seems a bit OOC, but I thought I made it work okay. All my love, Khepri.)