Chapter 21
Zuko smelt the smoke before he saw the flames.
"Katara!" Jet called after her. Zuko just noticed that Katara had flung the door open and was running towards the flaming house.
"Katara!" Zuko yelled and followed her. She was trying to get through the door that was on fire. Her hand fell onto a flame and she screamed in pain as the flame burned her, but didn't stop.
"Katara! Stop it!" Zuko dragged Katara away from the house. She struggled and squirmed against Zuko's grip but couldn't get free.
"Let me GO!" she screamed, kicking and hitting him "I need to get to Sokka! He's in there and-" she fell to her knee's, tears in her eyes. "I can't let him get hurt because of me. No one is going to get hurt because of me" she suddenly jumped up, and sprinted towards the house again.
"Why did you let her go?" Jet yelled as the two boys ran after her.
"I didn't think she'd run back into the fire did I?" Zuko yelled back. They both caught hold of her, and dragged her back.
Tears ran down her face as blisters began to show on both her arms.
"Kat, don't do it! I just called the fire brigade, they should be here soon" Jet told her.
So that's what he was doing while I got Katara the first time. Zuko thought to himself then gasped "Uncle! Jet, stay with Katara! I'm going to check the fires not getting into uncles home!" Zuko then ran into his uncle's home to find him drinking tea happily.
"Uncle! There's a fire next door! Come on!" Zuko yelled, frustrated that his uncle hadn't smelt the smoke that filled the air.
"Oh dear" Iroh frowned "let me just get my Pai Sho set"
"There's no time! Get out now!" Zuko slapped the cup of tea out of his uncle's hand and onto the floor. Iroh frowned but followed Zuko out of the house.
"Oh no" Iroh murmured as he saw Katara kneeling on the floor, tears streaming down her face and he hurried over.
"Here" he said, producing a wet cloth from his pocket.
Zuko frowned "why do you-"
"I always come prepared nephew" Iroh interrupted, a smile on his face.
Katara flinched as the wet cloth touched her burns but gritted her teeth and bared it, tears slowly falling from her eyes.
It was then that Zuko noticed that the fire department had arrived and was slowly putting out the fire. A man in a yellow jacket came over "I'm sorry" he informed them "but there was no one inside the house that we could find"
Katara whimpered and tears fell faster and faster down her face.
"Wait, are you sure he was in the house? Maybe he was with Aang" Jet said suddenly. Katara raised her head, hope in her eyes "maybe…" she then tried to get up but Zuko held her down.
"What do you need?" he asked her gently.
"My phone" she murmured "its in the car, I need to call him"
"Ok" he said and went over to the car, grabbing her phone out of her bag and going back over to her.
She dialled a number on her phone and pressed the phone to her ear "hello?" she asked timidly "how could you?" tears started to run down her face. Zuko frowned, this isn't Sokka.
"Hahn…" she sobbed into the phone and Zuko growled and grabbed the phone from her slender fingers.
"If I see you again" he snarled into the phone "I WILL kill you" he hung up the phone and glared down at her "why did you call him?" he snarled "are you stupid!" she flinched from his harsh word. Jet frowned at him.
"Zuko! Shut up!" he held Katara in his arms "god, cant you be a little more sympathetic?"
Zuko stared at him. Him sympathetic? What?
"I'm sorry" he dropped to his knees and looked her in the eyes "I just hate that guy so much. I'm really sorry"
She nodded then said "I shouldn't have called him, I just…" she trailed off, shrugging slightly.
"I'm going to call Sokka, is that alright?" Zuko asked her and she nodded. He looked on her phone for his number and found it. Sokka picked up on the first ring "Katara? What's wrong?" he asked instantly.
"Um, Sokka, there's been an accident" Zuko said.
"Zuko? What happened? Where's Katara!" Sokka's voice rose.
"Your house… it's been set on fire"
"WHAT! OH GOD! KATARA'S DEAD ISNT SHE? I SHOULDN'T OF COME TO YUE'S TONIGHT!" Zuko moved the phone away from his ear, wincing slightly at the pitch Sokka's voice had risen to.
"No, she's fine. She was teaching me ice skating tonight. But she's burned and your house…" Zuko trailed off.
"Why's Katara burned?" Sokka's voice had softened a little.
"She thought you were in the house and tried to get inside your house is… kinda destroyed"
"That doesn't matter! Katara's the most important thing! Are you going to take her to hospital?"
That left Zuko silent. They probably should take Katara to hospital, her burns were pretty bad.
"Well?" Sokka said.
"Yeah, we will" Zuko said down the phone "gotta go now, bye" he hung up the phone before Sokka could reply.
"Is he ok?" Katara asked, her face full of worry.
"He's fine" Zuko assured her "but we need to get to hospital"
"No!" Katara said, her voice rising in panic.
"Alright, alright, we don't have to go to hospital" Jet said soothingly.
"Good" she shuddered.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Iroh asked them. They all looked at each other, silence draping over them.
No one knew.