It rained the entire weekend in Hira'a, so Zuko and Katara spent their time at Noren's home. Katara watched in fascination one afternoon as Kiyi pulled out a broad canvas and she and Zuko sat cross legged on the floor looking at it. Zuko cupped his chin in a hand and tilted his head as Kiyi rattled off math and color theory. Eventually they got into a discussion on brush strokes so Katara got up to help Noriko with tea.
They watched movies, played board games, and helped around the house doing chores. It was the most mundane yet calming experience of Katara's life.
After the weekend, she returned to school and things settled down a bit. People would ask her about the Avatar from time to time, but mostly the discussions were about the impending examinations.
Rohan sent her a video of Thuy at one of Toph's matches, and Katara hadn't seen such an expression of bi panic since Sokka was introduced to the warriors of the North Pole.
[Do you think she knows?] Katara texted Rohan.
[She has no idea.] They replied.
More videos came as Thuy started her training; the Avatar cycle demanded that elements were taught in a certain order. So earthbending came first, and Toph proved to be a merciless, albeit chaotically so, master.
She called the Avatar "Wet Wipe."
Katara sent videos back of her mountain of texts, or the weird things she saw happening in the library at 2 AM.
Zuko was less inclined to use social platforms than Rohan, but still managed to contact her just as much. He sent texts of new teas, or random parts of his day while in the palace. Those pictures were always a bit shocking; his long hair fell loose down his back save for his top knot, and his clothing was much more formal.
For some reason, when he sent her a picture of himself in his court robes, it made Katara blush.
Still, they texted in the morning and before bed, which was dancing at the edge of friendship and romance. It was frightening how long Katara would agonize over an emoji sometimes.
As midterms approached, everyone sent her encouraging messages or memes. Rohan was the best at making her laugh, so she had to resist pulling her phone out during study sessions. Thankfully, her concentration had gotten better since she started attending a PTSD group on campus. The exams still stressed her out, and her sleep schedule was still utter garbage, but at least now she had a plan.
After her final exam, she left out a breath and texted Zuko.
[So, date?]
The plan was a movie and then dinner. That way, Zuko informed her, they would have something to talk about while they ate.
"We might miss our show time." Zuko said and Katara snorted.
"But we will absolutely have something to talk about." She replied.
"Be quiet!" A man growled and Katara rolled her eyes.
The rope around her wrists rubbed against her skin painfully. When she leaned back, she felt Zuko's back stiffen to support her. His hands and feet were encased in metal to keep him from firebending.
They had been grabbed in the parking lot. Zuko, lacking any sense of self-preservation, had gone for Katara as two men held her. This opened him up to the woman behind him, who slammed a baton into the back of his head. As he went down, one of the two men who held her dosed Katara with chloroform.
Waking up in the back of a van had been less than ideal.
"Look, you very clearly were not hired by my father, which means that you're not of any real caliber of kidnappers to keep me here." Zuko said. The woman who had knocked him out turned in the passenger seat to glare at him.
"And how do you know that, princeling?" She asked.
"Because you don't know who my companion is." Zuko said.
Without the full range of her arms, there was very little Katara could do in the way of bending. But she only had a little bit of liquid to work with anyway, so it didn't matter.
"The Waterbender? We know your little girlfriend isn't much of a fighter." The driver scoffed.
Using her fingers, Katara called the blood from Zuko's head wound. It came as a glob between her thumb and index finger, so she stretched it into a thin thread. Flicking it out, she mimed the act of sawing with her two fingers and the blood acted it out over the rope around her wrists.
It was going to take awhile.
"So what is it that you want?" Zuko asked. "Ransom?"
"Shut it pretty boy." The woman hissed.
"Oh that's original. Sure, make fun of the guy with the burn on his face. I know you're criminals but do you have to be so insensitive?" Zuko retorted. The woman looked perplexed before turning to the driver.
"Did we get the right guy?" She asked.
"Excuse me, I am one in a million." Zuko said, sounding offended. "I didn't get this burn just to be treated like a commoner."
Katara snorted again and almost lost her focus. She was about halfway through the rope and could feel the loosening.
"We know that your sister is going to train the Avatar and we don't need that psycho corrupting her." The driver said. "So you're going to shut up and be a good little bargaining chip or else we kill your girlfriend."
"Okay so one, she's not my girlfriend, yet. We were planning on having a nice date, see how things went, and maybe she'd decide to go out with me again. We're not rushing things here." Zuko said and Katara smiled. "Secondly, I totally agree with you about Azula. Same page, totally get it. But, and I am not doubting your reasoning skills for a second, how is kidnapping me supposed to change my father's mind about that?"
"Because if he wants you back alive, he'll have the Avatar sent elsewhere for training!" The woman snapped.
"Look, where's the other guy. He's been quiet, I want to hear his thoughts on things." Zuko said.
"We're clear." Katara said as she cut through the last loop of rope.
"Nevermind." Zuko said and swung up onto a knee. He slid behind the passenger seat and slammed his metal clad hands on either side of the woman's head. As he heated the metal, she started to scream.
Katara, staggered by her bound ankles, reached out toward the dash. This was another trick she had picked up after her training with Hama and had been used to disable many vehicles during the war. It only worked when people had gotten lazy on upkeep, which was surprisingly frequent among the more far flung troops.
Closing her fists around the water source, Katara yanked her arms back, pulling water and coolant out of the engine. In a quick motion, Katara used the water to peel apart the metal around Zuko's hands just as she had done to the factory in Jang Hui. Zuko then went to the driver, who had begun to swerve dramatically, and held a blade of fire by his face.
Katara froze herself to the floor of the van to keep from being tossed about while she cut off her last ropes and freed Zuko's feet.
"Stop the van and we'll let you go." Zuko said, his voice low. As the driver seemed to debate the merits of listening to him, Katara went to the woman. She was huddled in the corner of her seat, whimpering and covering her burns with her eyes closed. Pulling water around her hands - making sure to completely discard the coolant - Katara called out the healing energy, making the water glow.
"What are you doing? Get away from her!" The driver said and the van jerked as Zuko brought the blade closer to his face.
"Don't you worry what she's doing. It's leaps and bounds better than what I'm thinking of doing to you." Zuko said.
Katara touched the woman's face and she jumped, but didn't move as the cooling sensation brought relief to her face.
"This will just take a second." Katara murmured and the woman opened her eyes. She looked terrified.
"I'm a healer." Katara added and tears welled in the woman's eyes.
After a few moments, Katara pulled her hands away and the woman brought her hands up, shaking terribly, to her face. As she felt the unburned skin, she started to cry.
"Look," Zuko said, sounding calmer. "There's a noodle restaurant there. Stop and let us out."
"Haruka, are you okay?" The driver asked.
"Y-yeah." The woman said, still crying.
The driver grunted and jerked the wheel over, coming to a stop in front of a row of shops.
"Katara?" Zuko asked. Katara went to the side door, pulling it open. After she jumped out, Zuko dissipated the fire and followed after. He barely closed the van door before it pulled away, its tires screaming against the pavement.
"Well that was fun." He remarked.
"Let me see your head." Katara said with a sigh and Zuko obediently walked to her. She healed him, washing the blood out of his hair before tossing the water into the gutter.
"Hungry?" He asked.
"I could eat." Katara said and they laughed.
"Does that happen to you often?" She asked as they started to walk to the shop. People who had stopped to stare at the van watched them go.
"Less than you'd think, but more than other people." Zuko admitted. He reached the door first, opening it and standing aside. "After you."
Katara walked in and saw steam burst from behind the counter. It was fairly pretty and smelled like warmth.