Chapter 35: Hell Hath No

…

My own mother thought I was a monster. She was right, of course, but it still hurt.

–Princess Azula

…

"Mm…dem…dumb birds're makin' a racket," Nami mumbled into Zuko's chest.

"Whammm?" he garbled, shifting his head, his eyes still closed.

Nami frowned and opened her eyes, blinking in the pale morning sunlight slanting through under the platform overhang. Late the previous night, she and Zuko had joined the others by the fire as crickets hummed and a crescent moon drifted in and out of dark clouds. The night had been warm, and most of them had simply slept on the platform on mats or in sleeping bags. She and Zuko had fallen asleep beside one another on a mat with a ratty blanket to cover them. But now the morning sunlight was beginning to lighten the eastern sky and birds were awake and noisy.

She inhaled deeply, her cheek and nose pressed against Zuko's shirt. She smelled the warm, comforting scent of him as her eyes traced over the sleepers on mats and under blankets and sleeping bags around them. She smiled, seeing Sokka and his father slept the same way—on their stomachs with their faces stuffed down into their pillows.

She traced her fingers gently on the prince's chest and listened to his steady heartbeat beneath her ear and the bird chirping that had awakened her. It sounded like a couple of them were very close and she lifted away from Zuko to look—they were playing in the fountain behind them.

Zuko opened his eyes as her movement pushed his arm off from around her, and she smiled tenderly when she looked back at him. She pushed his shaggy black hair away from his eyes and leaned in to kiss his lips lightly. They glanced at Aang—who had been sleeping against Appa—as he yawned, waking up as well.

The birds suddenly scattered and Aang stared as a red cylindrical object soared into the platform, through the spraying water of the fountain, and right at them. In reflex, Aang hurled the object back out and over the ledge with a swipe of airbending.

"Was that a—?" Nami began. An explosion detonated down in the ravine.

"Yes," Zuko growled through clenched teeth, pulling her up. "A Fire Nation bomb."

More red bombs began to sail up through the air toward the platform and hit the top, shaking the place. Sleepers woke with a jolt as debris and dust fell around them. Aang, Zuko, and Nami rushed to the ledge where they saw Fire Nation airships rising up toward them.

"Get back under the roof!" Aang yelled as the three of them ran to the back of the platform where everyone else was. Aang did a spinning airbending move and the long open blue protuberances from the columns closed all around them like shades—the area became a sealed-in shelter.

The bombing continued, however, and the roof began to cave under the explosions.

"Katara!" Nami yelled, seeing the girl was right under where a huge piece was about to fall.

"Watch out!" Zuko yelled, running forward and diving into her, getting them both out of the way of the falling ceiling.

"What're you doing?" Katara demanded.

"Keeping you from being crushed by rocks," the prince growled, standing back up. "You're welcome."

Katara gave him a look and walked stiffly away to where Toph had created a tunnel through the stone in which they could escape.

Zuko stayed behind, Nami tall beside him.

"What're you doing?" Aang yelled to them. "C'mon!"

"Go ahead!" the prince called back. "We'll hold them off. I think this is a family visit."

"Zuko, Nami, no!" Aang yelled back.

"Go!"

Sokka and Katara dragged Aang away and they went into the tunnel after the rest of the people. Zuko turned to grasp her by both arms. He stared very seriously into her eyes.

"Nami, listen," he said. "I don't want you to worry about my safety when we go out here. Just focus on taking care of yourself. You don't have to worry about me. Just keep yourself safe, alright?"

As the walls continued to crumble, Nami nodded curtly, grimacing, and then she and Zuko ran out into the barrage of explosions. A bomb set off right in front of them, but they both did a roll in the air that avoided the worst of it, and as Zuko landed on his feet, he shot fire at one of the close airships.

A crow's nest on a ship began to rise into their line of sight from below the ledge and Azula was standing there, smirking wickedly at them. There was a manic fury in her eyes as she saw them standing together.

"I'm glad you're here, Zuzu!" the princess shrieked. "I'll be able to celebrate becoming an only child!" She twirled around the bar of the small platform and shot a huge blast of lightening at them with her feet.

Nami dove to the side but Zuko was only able to turn backwards and the blast threw him across the platform in a flare of smoke and fire. Nami gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, trying to do as he had asked. Don't worry about him.

Feeling the stone cracking beneath her, she realized the entire platform was about to give. Her heart stung as she looked back into the smoke where she had lost sight of the prince, but then she took a deep breath and launched herself off the ledge. She landed on another precipice of the temple complex. The landing stung the balls of her feet, but she had much more to worry about, and she and Azula still had an unfinished battle to take up.

She smiled in relief as he saw Zuko running across a falling column of the platform. The column fell across the openness of the ravine but he launched himself off of it into the open air, punching fireballs from his knuckles as he fell. His fireballs blasted into Azula's perch and she was forced to jump down onto the top of the ship, but Zuko was unable to get a hold of the ship's side as he fell and he disappeared into the smoke and fog. Nami forgot how to breathe. She choked, paralyzed with shock. No.

She took a running leap into the air off the ledge and blazed fire from her knuckles behind her to give her more propulsion. She landed on the front of Azula's airship and scaled the side and onto the top as Appa suddenly came at Azula, a shield of rocks held in front of his face by Toph. Azula shot a blue fire blast at them, but the rock shield protected them, and they sailed away. Nami watched after them for a second before she locked eyes with the princess and squared herself for their match.

Before either of them could do anything, however, a figure atop a rising airship beside them caught both their attentions. Zuko stood there, his black hair blowing wildly in the wind. He locked eyes with Nami and they shared a moment of mirroring each other's relief. Then Zuko began running for their ship and Nami ran for Azula. As he was jumping across the space between the two ships, Azula shot a blaze of blue fire at him, but he deflected it with a spin in midair and shot back a burst of flame which Azula had to dive to avoid as the prince landing on their ship on his feet. Nami gazed proudly at him. Very nice.

They both rounded on the princess and the two began to quickly get the better of her. Then suddenly, both Zuko and Azula hurled the same move at each other, blue met orange, and they were both thrown backward. They both began to tumble off the side of the rounded ship's hull. Nami threw herself after the prince. Sliding down the side of the ship, she grabbed onto a passing rung with one hand and stretched out the other to him as he fell. Her hand slapped against his wrist, and she clasped him there like a vice.

She cried out as the weight of him stretched her shoulders and put pressure on the hand holding them both to the rung.

"Climb up me," she commanded, grimacing. "Quickly."

He pulled himself up with one arm, took a hold of her shoulders as she gasped in pain, and then he also hand a hold of the rung and his weight moved off of her.

Zuko was watching his sister fall on the other side.

"She's not going to make it," he said bleakly, his face blank.

Azula suddenly seemed to recover her wits, because she blasted fire from her feet and threw herself into the cliffside where she scraped with a knife down the rock face and finally came to a stop.

"Of course she did," Zuko muttered.

"Let go!" a voice called up to them and they glanced below them. Appa hovered down below them. With a glance at one another, Namura and Zuko let go and plummeted down into the bison's saddle platform.

"Where's everyone else?" Zuko asked Toph as he pulled Nami to him and encased her in his arms.

"They went through the cave and are escaping on the stolen airship," she replied.

They nodded. Nami buried her face in the prince's chest. Zuko made a deep growl in the back of his throat as he gathered her up tightly to him.

"Thank you for grabbing me," he rumbled. "And for listening to me before then. About taking care of yourself and not worrying about me."

"Yeah, well, I don't think it's the greatest plan."

He sighed. "It's difficult. I've always fended for myself. I don't realize you might want to protect me. And it's excruciating to not throw myself in front of anything that could hurt you. To not put your safety over mine. You have no idea how important you are to me." He kissed her. "But…" He tilted her face up with his hands to look her deeply in the eyes. Her hair whipped in the wind and he moved his hands back to keep it out of her face. The wind was loud and Toph was probably the only one who could hear their words to each other. "I know how strong you are. How talented, how capable." He pressed his warm forehead to hers. "I'll trust you to keep yourself safe if you trust me."

She snuggled into him in response, kissing his neck, as Appa carried all of them over the landscape.

…

They found a place to camp as the sun was setting; a grassy outcropping by the beach protected from the wind by tall rocks. They made a campfire and put up tents.

"Wow. Camping," Aang said, smiling as he cooked a piece of meat over the fire. "It really seems like old times again, doesn't it?"

"If you really want it to feel like old times, I could, uh, case you around for a while and try to capture you," Zuko said, smirking. Everyone cracked up—except Katara.

"Ha ha," Katara muttered darkly.

Sokka was particularly amused. He held up his cup for a toast. "To Zuko. Who knew after all those times he tried to snuff us out, today he'd be our hero?"

"Hear, hear!" Toph, Aang, and Suki exclaimed, lifting up their glasses. Nami touched her cup to the prince's with a smile.

"I'm touched," Zuko said humbly. "I don't deserve it."

"Yeah," Katara growled. "No kidding." She stood up and walked away.

"What's with her?" Sokka asked.

"I wish I knew," Zuko replied. He looked at Nami.

"You should probably go talk to her," she sighed, much as she disliked the idea of Katara walking alone with her boyfriend under the moonlight.

Zuko nodded. He got up and walked away after the Water Tribe girl. Nami looked away from his back and at the flames as he disappeared down around the back of the outcropping toward the beach and out of sight.

…

"This isn't fair," Zuko said, coming up behind Katara. She was standing with her arms crossed on grassy plateau overlooking the beach beneath the almost-full moon. "Everyone else trusts me. What is it with you?"

"Oh, everyone else trusts you?" she repeated scathingly. "I was the first of us to trust you, remember? Back in Ba Sing Se. And you turned around and betrayed me. Betrayed all of us."

Zuko sighed deeply, the memory of turning his back on Nami and Iroh stinging his heart. "What can I do to make it up to you?" he asked.

"You really want to know?" she asked heatedly and with a sarcastic bite. "Hm. I don't know. Maybe you could recapture Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King. Or—I know—you can bring my mother back!" She stalked past him and away.

Zuko frowned in thought, looking out to the crashing gray waves. Her mother… She had talked about her mother before in the catacombs. Could that pain be at the heart of her hatred for him? Or was it something even more complicated…did she like him as Nami had concluded? Zuko grimaced. Girls liking him had never been a problem for him before; he didn't know how to handle it.

He walked back to the campfire and to Sokka's tent. Everyone seemed to have broken up for bed in his absence, but Nami was still sitting staring at the fire. He didn't meet her steady gaze as he walked over to Sokka's tent.

He rounded a large rock and ran into Suki.

Suki stepped back. "Oops. Wrong tent."

"Sorry," Zuko said quickly, "do you need to talk to Sokka too?"

"Nope," she replied, scooting guiltily away. "Not me."

The prince opened the tent flap and wrinkled his nose. Sokka was lying on his stomach with a rose in his mouth and candles surrounding his sleeping mat.

"Well, hello," Sokka purred alluringly, turning his head, and then choked when he saw it was Zuko.

"Zuko!" he choked, spitting out the pieces of the rose stem he had bit down on in surprise. "Uh, Zuko, yes, why would I be expecting anyone different?" he said in a high-pitched, awkward rush as the prince sat down cross-legged in front of him. He took a breath. "What's on your mind?"

"Your sister. She hates me and I don't know why."

"Nah, she doesn't hate you," Sokka replied. "Katara doesn't hate anyone. Except maybe some people in the Fire Nation." He blinked at Zuko's expression. "Wait, no! Not people who are good but used to be bad, but bad people. Fire Nation people who're still bad, who've never been good, and probably won't be ever—"

"Stop," Zuko said. "Okay, listen. I know this may seem out of nowhere, but I want you to tell me what happened to your mother."

"What?" Sokka said, drawing up short. "Why would you want to know that?"

"Katara mentioned it before when we were in prison together in Ba Sing Se, and again just now when she was yelling at me. I think somehow she's connected her anger about that to her anger at me."

Sokka took a deep breath and looked away. "It's not a day I like to remember." He took a few moments to lapse into the memory. "Katara and I were having a snowball fight. We were real little—five or six, maybe. There was a Fire Nation raid. Katara got scared and said she was going to find Mom. I watched the fight. We were badly outnumbered, but somehow we managed to drive them off. As quickly as they came, they just left. I was so relieved when it was over, but that's because I didn't know yet what had happened. I didn't know we'd lost our mother."

Zuko asked gently, "Can you remember any details about the soldiers who raided your village? Like what the lead ship looked like?"

"Yeah…sea ravens. The main ship had flags with sea ravens on them," Sokka answered.

"The symbol of the Southern Raiders," Zuko muttered. "Thanks, Sokka."

"No problem," Sokka said, and pushed Zuko out of his tent. "Thanks for stopping by." He stuck his head out of the tent flaps and called in a hushed voice, "Suki!"

Zuko, who had only taken a few steps away rolled his eyes. He walked up to where Nami was still sitting by the fire under the stars. He sat next to her but she kept her eyes on the glowing coals.

"I have something I need to talk to you about," he said.

She turned her head slightly to gaze levelly at him. "Are you going to tell me everything this time?"

"Yes," he answered. "And my decision hinges on what you think."

Nami threw a small stick onto the coals with hard, faraway eyes. "You want to go away again, don't you?"

He looked carefully at her face and he knew her well enough to see the irritation behind the mask of her features. His eyes saddened and he reach up a hand to tuck some hair gently behind her ear.

"I won't if you don't want me to," he murmured. "I learn from my mistakes, Nami."

She looked up into his eyes and took a slow breath in through her nose. "So what's the scheme?"

"I have a way to fix things with Katara. I think she's associated her anger at her mother's death with me. Sokka told me how it happened and I know who did it. I want to take her to them so she can get some closure." He watched her face intently and it frustrated him that as he spoke, her face became more and more closed off to him. It settled on resolutely expressionless, and Zuko sighed. "You don't like it."

"What kind of 'closure'?" she asked in a low voice.

"I don't know. Whatever she needs."

"What if she needs him dead? Are you going to kill the murderer for her, Zuko? Are you going to let her do it?" Her voice was controlled, deliberate; it gave away nothing. It ached a little for her to be so inaccessible to him.

"I don't know," he replied softly, his eyes still on hers, trying to get something out of her hazel orbs. "Please tell me what you think. Don't close yourself off like this. If you think it's an idiotic plan, you can say that."

She smiled slightly. "Zuko," she sighed, "do you think it's the right thing to do?"

"I'm asking you."

Nami took his hand gently, brought it to her warm lips, and kissed the back of his fingers. "I don't want to be the all-knowing one anymore. I would've told you not to go to the Boiling Rock and you came back with an airship, Hakoda, and Sokka's girlfriend. I trust you, Zuko. If you think this is what needs to be done, I trust you." She paused for a moment before adding, rather unwillingly, "I'm not going with you, though. I don't have a reason to. It's something you and Katara should do alone."

"You can come," he murmured. "I want you to come."

"I'm not going to take a long Appa ride just to watch Sugar Queen bitch at some old firebender that killed her mom. She wouldn't want me there, anyway."

Zuko's mouth drew into a line. "I'm not leaving you. I'm not going anywhere without you again."

She smiled a little, touched, but replied, "Are we going to be joined at the hip the rest of our lives? Listen, I won't be hurt or angry if you go, I promise. If it's something you and Katara need to do, I understand."

"It's not like that. I'm trying to help Katara and maybe she'll stop hating me. It's not like…"

"I know it's not. On your side, at least."

Zuko grimaced. "I seriously doubt there's any on hers, either."

"You don't know women," Nami replied, shaking her head with an almost-amused expression. "But anyway, it doesn't matter. She'll have to get over it." Nami leaned forward to kiss his lips lightly. "Do what you think is right," she whispered. "I'm behind you, whatever you choose."

Zuko's eyes flicked back and forth between hers but found only sincerity. "Yeah?" he murmured.

"Yeah."

He smiled and cupped her face with his hand to kiss her deeply. They sat together, kissing with a rhythm and a flow. Nami submerged herself in his taste, his touch. She didn't want to fight with him, though she disliked his plan. The sooner he got it over with, the sooner he would be back.

"Mm, let's go to a tent," she breathed into his mouth. Zuko nodded and as he stood, he lifted her into his arms bridal-style. She didn't protest. She kissed his neck, his shoulder, and he was growling hungrily low in his throat as he ducked with her under the tent flap and laid her down on the sleeping mat.

They didn't have enough privacy for sex in the campsite, but they rolled and made out as the darkness deepened and everyone else was sleeping. When their hunger for each other was stated, Nami snuggled against his side and Zuko fell asleep with her in his arms.