AN: Zutara week, day 3! I'm glad you all liked the twist ending last chapter! Here's the rest.
Fuse
I knew I loved you then, but you'd never know
Cause I played it cool when I was scared of letting go
- James Arthur
It all happens so horribly fast.
The worst part is that he sees it coming. Zuko sees the masked assassin dropping down from the beams of the roof. He sees the killing intent, sees the knife lunging forward at him. But he and Katara are dancing, spinning too fast, and it all happens too fast . . .
And then Zuko fends off the attacker with one arm while holding Katara's weight in the other.
He sweeps his free hand in a diagonal arc, throwing a defensive wave of fire outward, a waterbending technique he picked up from Katara long ago. The masked figure leaps back and Zuko launches a few fire blasts from his fist, but the assassin is too agile and Zuko's range is limited with Katara in his other arm. Soon the hall explodes into a flurry of bending as the guards and the other guests at the wedding work together to chase down and restrain the figure. Zuko leaves the fighting to them, while he focuses on his first priority.
He gently brings Katara down, resting her on the floor.
She's breathing heavily. The knife is still buried in her side. She's not losing too much blood because the blade is still in the wound, but he can tell she's in shock. Some of the wedding guests have gathered around him. They obviously don't know what to do or are too stunned to do anything.
Zuko has to act.
He pats her face to get her attention. "Katara!"
"Wh—what?"
"Katara! The knife!"
She looks down at herself and gulps. "Pull . . . the blade out."
Zuko frowns. "You sure?"
"Do it!"
He reaches for the handle. Katara clenches her jaw and Zuko prays to Agni that this will all work out. He pulls the knife out in one smooth motion. She nearly cries in agony. Blood starts spilling from the open wound, soaking the blue fabric of her dress, turning it black.
Katara summons water from the air with a shaky hand and covers the wound, but the blue glow is weak.
He shakes his head. "You're losing too much blood!"
"I . . . I need—" She pauses. "Cauterize it."
"What?"
"I can't . . . heal it quickly, it's too deep . . . I need fire. Stop the bleeding."
Zuko gulps anxiously, but he nods. Cauterization is a common technique in the Fire Nation. Zuko has seen it done, but he's no healer. If he messes this up . . . Katara's life is on the line. If it works, it should stop the bleeding. He reins in his emotions, drops the bloody knife, and summons a tiny jet of flame from his fingers. He then draws his own clean dagger and holds it in the fire until it's red-hot.
"Are you scared for me?" Katara teases weakly.
He shakes his head. "Terrified."
"Yeah, me too," she says. "Let's do this."
Katara raises her hand with the ball of water, taking deep breaths. Zuko tilts his head, questioning. She grits her teeth and nods.
This time she can't hold back a brief scream.
Zuko tries to work quickly, using the hot metal to burn only the clean line of the wound. The flesh chars, the blood coagulates, and immediately Katara pushes the glowing water over it. A quiet sizzle of steam. Zuko watches the edges of the wound fuse together, and the bleeding finally stops.
He sighs in relief. Katara closes her eyes, breathing raggedly.
"I . . . think I'm gonna . . ."
Her voice fades away.
"Katara?" He touches her face in alarm. "Katara!"
Soon enough some Water Tribesmen and Fire Nation guards arrive, along with most of his friends. Everyone is talking and shouting and moving frantically. Zuko can't hear any of it, because Katara is lying unconscious in front of him and nothing else matters.
An old waterbender, a healer if he remembers correctly, pats his shoulder. "Don't worry, Lord Zuko. We will take things from here."
The guards help Hakoda and the Water Tribesmen carry Katara from the floor, taking her across the hall to a separate room nearby. Zuko moves to follow, then suddenly thinks of the assassin's knife. He picks it up, ignoring the blood—Katara's blood—and brings it up to his nose.
A faint sour smell drifts from the blade. His eyes widen.
Sokka and Hakoda have gone with the guards, but Suki is next to him. "What's wrong?" she asks.
"The knife," says Zuko. "It wasn't clean."
Zuko suddenly remembers who else was invited to the wedding. He jumps to his feet and searches through the crowd. He doesn't have to go far. Ursa is already on her way towards him. Zuko runs over to her and wordlessly hands her the blade.
Ursa takes a whiff of the knife and grimaces. "Poison."
He nods. "Mom, can you . . ."
"I'll see what I can do." Ursa rushes over to the nearby room where Katara has been taken.
Zuko moves to follow but Suki takes his arm and turns him around. Suki points to Aang, Toph, and some guards on the other end of the hall. "Zuko, the assassin."
The Fire Lord's expression turns hard as steel. He'd almost forgotten about the assassin. His fists light up and become completely ablaze, like two fiery comets brought down to earth. He strides over to where Aang is standing, in front of a young woman trapped in stone shackles.
"Zuko." Aang grabs his shoulder. "No."
"Let go of me, Aang," he growls.
"No."
"LET GO OF ME!"
Zuko flares up like a living wildfire, and Aang almost takes a step back, but Zuko sees a hardness in Aang's eyes that wasn't there years ago, during the war.
"I can't let you hurt her," says the Avatar. "She's just a girl. I saw what happened, Zuko, I saw her try to kill you, I saw her hurt Katara, and I'm worried for Katara too. But you can't retaliate. You can't just hurt someone you don't like in cold blood. It's wrong, Fire Lord, and I won't allow it."
"I wasn't asking your permission." Zuko's deadly gaze lands on the assassin's face.
The girl is sobbing.
He pauses, and all the fire in him dims.
Zuko brushes off Aang's hand, and this time the Avatar lets go. The Fire Lord walks up to the assassin, leaning down to meet her eyes. "You tried to kill me," he says. "You hurt my best friend instead. Give me a reason to let you live."
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean for anyone else to get hurt!" She bites her lip nervously, still crying. "I just wanted to save my city!"
Zuko frowns. "What?"
"You ruined my life!" she shouts. "You and your Harmony Restoration Movement! It would have ended this month! The One Year Pact would have ended, and then my people would be torn apart!" Her voice falls back to a quiet, defeated whisper. "I just wanted to save my city."
"Yu Dao?" Zuko guesses. "You're from Yu Dao?"
The assassin sniffles and nods.
"What's your name?"
She stares at him. "Kori," she finally answers. "Kori Morishita."
The name takes a moment to register, but when it does, Zuko's eyes widen. The mayor of Yu Dao, Morishita, is a good man. This is probably his daughter. A range of emotions overtakes Zuko. He holds them all back. In this moment, he is the Fire Lord, and he cannot be ruled by emotion.
He rises to his feet and sighs in exhaustion. "Holy Agni, I hate my job."
Aang pats his shoulder comfortingly.
"Zuko?" He turns to find a rough hand grasping his own. It's Toph, who hasn't said a word until now. Her voice is unnaturally fragile. "Will Katara . . . will she be okay?"
His silence is an answer in and of itself.
Toph's blind eyes fill with tears.
Zuko sighs and pulls Toph into a hug. "I don't know," he admits, because he's always honest with his family. "But she's strong, you know that, Toph. I think she'll be okay. She has to be."
. . .
Everyone stays up all night waiting, and then they wait through all of the next day too.
Katara has been moved to one of the guest rooms at the Fire Lord's beach house, under the constant care of Ursa and the Northern waterbender named Yugoda, but after a whole day, there's still no sign of her waking. Her skin is ashy and pale and cold as ice. The poison is slow-acting, constricting her blood vessels over time. Zuko is terrified for her, but his face is hard as granite. He can't allow himself to be scared. Everyone is scared, even Toph, so Zuko has to put on a brave face for all their sakes.
Sokka and Suki are leaning on each other, with Hakoda and Gran Gran right beside them. Aang stands nearby, holding his staff grimly, as still as a statue. Iroh stands behind Zuko and Toph is right beside him. Her grip on Zuko's hand is solid as iron. Toph's head is tilted, and Zuko knows she's listening to Katara's heartbeat.
"Too slow," whispers Toph, her voice breaking. "It's too slow."
Katara can't die. Not like this.
If she dies today, Zuko will never forgive the world for being so cruel.
He thinks back to all the impossible things she's done over the years. Katara is too stubborn, too strong, too good to be killed by a knife in the back. But Zuko is practical by nature, even in his worst moments. He saw how long that knife was, how deep the wound went, how much blood she lost. He smelled the poison on the blade. If she survives, it'll be a miracle.
With every hour that passes, Zuko's heart aches even more.
But then the antidote Ursa concocted seems to be doing its work, and Katara's skin slowly regains its beautiful dark tone. The worst is over. Still, she does not wake. Ursa uses her motherly tone and urges all of them to get some sleep. One by one, everyone in the room gives into exhaustion. Even Sokka and Toph leave after Ursa's incessant reassurances that Katara will be fine.
They all turn away, until it's just Zuko, Ursa, and Yugoda left.
Ursa frowns at him. "You should go, dear."
"No."
"You need sleep," says his mother. "Don't worry, we'll let you know the moment she wakes up."
Zuko shakes his head. "I made her a promise, Mom, years ago. I told her I wouldn't leave her alone. So I won't."
Ursa hums and nods in understanding, allowing Zuko to keep sitting outside the doorway.
. . .
It's around midnight when he hears the sound. A ragged breath, different from the shallow breaths he has been hearing for hours. He jumps to his feet and walks inside to find her awake, both eyes fluttering open. He takes her hand and holds it tight. "Katara!"
Her gaze seems to go in and out of focus, but it finally settles on him. She smiles tiredly. "Hey, Zuko."
Zuko leans over to the chair where his mother is sleeping and shakes her awake. Once Ursa comes to her senses, she looks Katara over and calls for Yugoda, who is sleeping in the room across the hall.
Yugoda walks in, pushes Zuko out of the room, and closes the door.
He waits patiently for a while until the door opens again. Yugoda smiles as she lets him in. "I've looked her over," says the old healer. "Katara will be just fine." She nods to Ursa. "Thank the spirits we had an expert on poisons in the room."
Ursa shakes her head humbly. "My antidote would be little help without your healing abilities, Lady Yugoda."
Katara blinks. "Wait, what?"
"The knife was poisoned," says Zuko, rubbing his eyes in weariness. "You've been out for a little more than a day. Yugoda and my mother have been taking care of you. At first we weren't sure if . . . if you'd make it."
"Tui and La," whispers Katara. She bows her head gratefully to Ursa and Yugoda. "Thank you for saving my life."
"Don't just thank us." Yugoda glances at Zuko. "He did the most important part."
Zuko's eyes widen. "Me? I didn't really do much."
Yugoda laughs. "Are you kidding? You saved her, Lord Zuko." She turns to Katara. "Your idea was brilliant, by the way. A fusion of Water Tribe and Fire Nation healing techniques. If he hadn't cauterized the wound, you would have lost so much more blood. You might have died. If you hadn't healed the burn, it could have become infected. But both techniques together . . . the spirits were kind to you, Katara. All you need now is a few days rest."
"You're a very lucky turtleduck, Katara," Ursa sums up.
Katara laughs softly, then winces and touches her side.
"I stopped the internal bleeding," says Yugoda, "but you'll still feel the pain for a while."
She sinks back into the bed. "Yeah . . . definitely feeling the pain."
Yugoda walks to the door. "I'll be in the bedroom next door if you need me." Katara nods.
Ursa smiles. "I'm glad you're alright, Katara." Ursa waves good night, then gives Zuko a pointed look as she walks out the door. Zuko rolls his eyes at her.
After she leaves, Katara chuckles. "Nonverbal mother-son conversation?"
Zuko huffs in annoyance. "She's just teasing me. She thinks I should go to bed. You know, because it's late and I've never left your side and we're alone now . . ."
"Oh." Katara blushes. "I see." She pauses for a second. "Wait. You've been with me the whole time? Without sleeping?"
He nods. "Pretty much."
"Why?" she asks incredulously.
"You took a knife that was meant to be for me," says Zuko. "The least I could do was wait by your side while you recovered."
"You've been awake since last night? But weren't you awake for most of the night before the wedding too? Finishing up preparations?"
Zuko nods again. "And the night before that. What's your point?"
She whacks the back of his head with her hand. "Are you trying to die from exhaustion!? Go to sleep, Zuko! No wonder you look terrible!"
He sighs. "Okay, okay. So maybe I'm a little tired. I'll go. But be careful! If you're feeling sick or unnaturally cold or nauseous, make sure to tell my mom." She nods and he continues. "And if you feel bad at all, Yugoda's next door. And if you need anything else, let me know."
Katara rolls her eyes. "Yes, dear," she says sarcastically. "Seriously, I'm fine!"
They both freeze for a moment as her words register.
In the dim candlelight, Zuko can't tell who's blushing more. He rubs the back of his head awkwardly and walks toward the door.
"Well, I'll be going then . . ."
Right as he reaches the doorway his sleep-deprived brain comes to a realization. He stops in his tracks and reruns his mental count. Zuko groans.
Katara gazes at him in concern. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing," he replies. When her gaze turns into an irritated glare, Zuko sighs. "The bedrooms. They're all taken. Aang is sleeping outside on Appa, and Toph made herself an earth tent, and we still don't have enough beds. Most of the wedding guests are staying in hotels, but we had so many friends who wanted to stay the night here to make sure you were okay." Zuko yawns. "I'll just sleep on the floor in the hall."
Katara looks at him for a second, then snorts. "Not on my watch." She scoots over to make space on her bed. "Here."
Zuko blinks a few times until he suddenly understands.
"Are you insane?" he yelps. "I can't sleep here!"
Katara has turned pink and Zuko is sure his own face is burning red.
She pouts imploringly. "Stay? Please? For me?"
Zuko tries to think, but he's too exhausted. His rational mind spins sluggishly for a long moment before it decides to give up on him. "Fine. Whatever. But if anyone sees us in the morning, you get to do the explaining."
Katara laughs. "Deal."
Zuko walks over and collapses beside her on the bed, snuffing out the flame of the candle with a wave. He can feel her warmth beside him. He tries his best to ignore it, keeping his back to her.
A hand touches his shoulder. "Zuko?"
He hums in acknowledgment.
"Zuko, turn around."
He sighs and turns on his side to face her. They are so close, separated only by blankets, but Zuko is far too tired to care about the implications of what he's doing. Suddenly Katara leans in, her forehead touching his, both her hands brushing his face. For a moment it feels like his heart might thump out of his chest.
"Thank you," she whispers. "For always staying with me."
He growls, though there's no hostility in the sound. "Shut up and let me sleep, Katara."
She laughs softly.
Zuko is about to close his eyes when Katara leans in and brushes her lips against his.
His eyes widen. Katara just kissed him. It was fleeting and unremarkable and gone before he even felt it, but she kissed him. He stares at her in disbelief, and she smiles back at him.
"Good night, Zuko."
After a long moment, he smiles too. Zuko gently puts an arm around her, then buries his head in his pillow and closes his eyes.
"Good night, Katara."
He's asleep within moments. For the first time in many years, he doesn't have nightmares at all.
. . .
Zuko wakes just before dawn to find a warmth curled into his side.
For a second he thinks he's dreaming, but this can't be a dream. She's real. Her eyes are closed, her breathing is shallow, her head is resting on his shoulder. Zuko runs his fingers through her silky hair. Definitely real. Her eyes flutter open.
"Hi, Katara," he whispers.
She gives him a sleepy smile. "Hi, Zuko."
They've come to a silent understanding again. Zuko doesn't know how to name this feeling, but now that he has it, he doesn't ever want to let it go.
He thinks it's love.
. . .