35~

She slept deeply and dreamlessly, and woke to find herself in a huge room with fine furniture made of dark wood and raw rock and everything decked out in green. One of the Palace's finest guest quarters, she could tell from her previous visits. There were clean green robes laid out at the bottom of her bed so she stripped off her blue tunic, washed herself quickly with water from a pitcher on the wardrobe, and put on the new clothes. The silk was soft and smooth against her skin. Next was food. Well, no, first was checking on her patient, then was food. So determined, she pulled her door open to find someone who could direct her back to Iroh's room, only to almost run headfirst into Zuko, who was standing there with his hand raised as though he had been about to knock. She was glad he caught himself, or he would have knocked right on her face.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, recovering herself and retreating a half-step too far. "Good morning, or day, or… what time is it even?"

"Almost three in the afternoon," he told her, lip quirking up on one side. "Were you going somewhere?"

"I was going to check on your uncle. Have you been with him? Is he… okay?" She could not bring herself to say 'alive.' And Zuko was not distraught enough for him to have passed away.

"Yes, much better," Zuko said, face lighting up. "He woke up for a little while this morning. He said he felt better than he had in months, and if heart attacks did him this much good he should have one more often. Of course I explained about you."

She chuckled. "Leave it to Iroh to make a joke about something so serious. Is he asleep again then?"

"Yeah. The healers say that's best."

"It is," she approved, and thought a little better of the Earth King's healers. "I'll postpone my check-up on him if he's doing that well."

Zuko nodded seriously. "I'm sure that will be fine. But… are you okay? You collapsed, or fainted or something last night after working on Uncle. For… for a minute I thought something… bad… had happened to you."

He looked so concerned that she had to smile. "I just overworked myself. I've done it before. Last time I was out for twenty hours. I probably just fell asleep too fast. Sorry to scare you."

His expression cleared with her explanation. "That's good."

"Yeah."

They stood there for an awkward moment, each on opposite sides of the doorjamb, wondering what the other was thinking. "Do you want to come in?" Katara finally asked, stepping aside to let him through. He nodded almost shy thanks and stepped in. "I'm pretty hungry," she went on, making a production of closing the door to avoid looking at him a little longer. "Do you know how to summon servants from one of these rooms? I've never stayed in one long enough to know how."

"If it's like my room, it should be…" He crossed the floor and pulled on a heavy, tasseled rope that hung near the wardrobe. Katara had wondered at its function before, and was glad to know.

Then they stood at opposite ends of the room, staring around sort of vacantly, at a loss for anything to say. And Katara, distressingly, found that in this time of Iroh's improved health, that something found space to sneak back up and was vying for control again. But before it could really test her mettle, the expected servant knocked, opened the door, and bowed low. "Master Katara. What duty might this humble one perform for you?"

Katara shook herself and said, "Yes, hi, thanks, um. I just woke up so I missed lunch. Is there a way you could bring me some leftovers or something?"

The servant looked seriously scandalized. "Allow me to assure you, Master Katara, that the royal kitchens are perfectly well equipped to serve you a complete, delicious meal without resorting to the use of..." A shudder. "...refuse. Please make yourself comfortable here so that it might be conveniently delivered to you. Shall I have the chefs prepare a meal for two?" Another deep bow in Zuko's direction. Katara raised her eyebrow as a question.

"No, thank you, lunch with the Earth King was perfectly sufficient for me," he said, switching on 'imperious Fire Lord' like the drop of a hat. The servant bowed low once more and backed out of the room, closing the door along the way.

Katara let a second of silence pass, before snorting a laugh and commenting, "Well, better service than the resort up north, I will admit that."

They shared a laugh, did a few mean impressions of the unlucky receptionist who had earned their eternal ire, and conversation flowed on easily from there. The meal that was delivered to them was delicious and could have easily fed six people, and Zuko ate a little after all. Finally, their hunger exhausted, but not their appetites for conversation, they sat back from the table and talked on.

"And how's running the Fire Nation these days?" Katara asked, nursing a cup of tea. "We don't get too much news down in the South Pole. I'm out of the loop."

Zuko groaned. "Hectic. Sometimes less than terrible, mostly just terrible. Sometimes I wish I was still hunting Aang, in a way. At least then I had a simple goal."

"That bad?" Katara asked, wincing.

"Worse. As soon as I figure out how to deal with one kind of situation, they figure out a way to twist it so I can't tell its top from its bottom anymore." He huffed a sigh and pushed a hand up through his hair, which was getting longer. He hadn't worn it tied up in its topknot as he would have in a more formal setting, as he probably had during lunch with the Earth King. 'Like dark silk, isn't it?' that something whispered insidiously. 'Like the silk you're wearing now. So soft and smooth on your skin. Just look at it, just imagine feeling it, running YOUR fingers through it…' She gave herself a hard mental shake and returned her attention to what he was saying. "...bet you'd be good at that sort of thing, Katara. Uncle says Waterbenders are adaptable."

She blinked. "He does?" 'He can't have known many Waterbenders,' was what she didn't say, to save Zuko's feelings. Besides, she knew Iroh actually had known a few. They made up a quarter of the White Lotus alone.

Zuko nodded earnestly. "Yes. And he speaks especially highly of you, you know."

Katara felt heat rise in her face. That something was radiating smugness. "Really?"

"Absolutely. He says the Fire Nation needs someone like you. We've got a lot of hot heads over there so he says we need someone with cool hands. His metaphor, not mine." He looked so sheepish for even having said it that she had to poke a little fun at him.

She held her own hand up, studying it critically. "Cool hands mean poor circulation. I cannot think my ancestors would have selected for such a trait. We do live on ice caps, you know."

Zuko chuckled. "No, I don't imagine so either. And your hands…" He reached out and gently grasped the hand she had held up for examination. She went stock-still. His hand was dry and perfectly matched hers in temperature. She would have expected them to be warm considering his element, but apparently people thought her hands should be cold because of hers and they weren't. "Your hands could never be cold. You're too warm-hearted." She practically stopped breathing. It was a simple compliment, but Zuko was not the sort to give them out casually (or even at all) and that made it worth a hundred more poetical sentiments. It caught her so off-guard that that something sidled up and nearly got words out of her mouth, but she caught her tongue just in time and instead blurted out, "Should we go see your uncle?" The question sat there between them like a muddy handprint covering a page of fine calligraphy. The awkwardness from before leached back in and suddenly the contact of their hands seemed horrible and strained. He let her go and stood up so quickly he almost knocked his chair over.

"Yes, yes, Uncle, important for you to, uh, monitor his condition, yes. Let's go."

She nodded silently and followed him down the wide green hallway, doing her best to calm her raging pulse.

A/N

Thank you for all the well-wishes yesterday! I'm feeling much better! :)

Anyway, I thought our babes just needed a nice interlude today. Tomorrow we'll get back into the real shit. See you then!

All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom

E.I. signing out