Episode 6: A Laughing Universe

Zuko's head was throbbing, his chest felt like an elephant was standing on it, and yet he felt relaxed. More relaxed than he had in a while.

Looking to his left, he realized why.

Katara.

Wearing bloodied blue scrubs and a black jacket, her hair a mess around her face and dark circles beneath her eyes, but she was still beautiful.
Her words from last night rang in his ears. "You'll be safe with me."

And he'd believed her.

She had apparently fallen asleep while treating him. There was a bowl of water and an open first aid kit next to her. Someone had come through in the night and draped a blanket over her shoulders, probably her father.

Zuko tried to sit up only to be hit by a wave of vertigo and fall back down.

Right. All that blood on her? That had come from him.

How close had he come to death?

He managed to raise his blood-caked shirt enough to look at his side, wincing as the stiff fabric slid against his tender skin. A massive bruise ran up from his hip to his shoulder with a tight bandage across his ribs.

Yet...he placed a hand against his face. He was still wearing the mask. Had she removed and replaced it? Why would she have put it back once she was done? Had she not wanted to see his face once she knew who he was?

Zuko had a stomach ache. He couldn't decide if he wanted her to know who he was or if he hoped it was still a secret.

Katara yawned and stirred. Zuko froze until she settled back against her arms resting on the table. He started to breathe again.

He needed to get out of there. Staying would only raise the odds of Hakoda or, spirits forbid, Sokka coming in. Zuko groaned internally, and not just because he was forcing himself to sit up on the table.

Sokka was going to kill him. The man was like a mother hen when it came to his friends and Zuko had been on the wrong end of his protective instincts more than once. He wasn't looking forward to the lecture that was undoubtedly waiting for him back at the apartment.

Zuko slowly slid his legs around until he was sitting on the edge of the table. Everything ached, every move was a battle against his own protesting limbs. He held his breath as he gently edged off the table onto his toes, then his feet, then his legs. He had to catch the table when he wobbled and checked over his shoulder to make sure Katara was still sleeping before he attempted his first step.

The more he moved he began to loosen up and by the time he'd strapped his swords back on and found his bag, he was able to step and breathe at the same time. Bending over was still a no-no but he was pretty sure he could get home without dying.

He took one more look at Katara's sleeping form. No doubt her neck was going to have a crick in it from sleeping upright all night. There was a single strand of her hair that had fallen in front of her face. It was gently swaying back and forth with her breath as she slept on. Zuko carefully reached out and brushed the single strand away from her face and tucked it in behind her ear. As he pulled his hand back, his gloved fingers deftly drew down her cheek and Katara sighed. Zuko fought the urge to smile.

The Blue Spirit snuck out the back door down the fire escape. It took him longer than he would have liked to hobble down the stairs and it almost killed him to shimmy down the final ladder. He had to stop for a minute to catch his breath before continuing on.

The sun was just barely rising when he found a small alcove to change into his street clothes from the night before and stored his mask and swords in his pack. He would have to retrieve his motorcycle at another time as it was all the way back where he'd parked it in the Village.

His legs burned and more than once he thought he might have broken through the bindings on his side and checked for blood., but he made it home win one piece. Wisely, he avoided the Jasmine Dragon entrance. Uncle was too intuitive for his own good.

Zuko took extra care to insert his key slowly and turn gently to avoid making any noise and even turned the handle entirely before starting to ease the door open.

He was suddenly jerked forward when the door was wrenched open from the other side and his roommate was before him, an overpowering presence of rage and demand.

"Where have you been?" Sokka asked, his voice loud in the dawn of the morning.

Zuko cringed and then flinched from the pain, his hand wrapping protectively around his middle.

"Bed empty. Motorcycle gone. No text." Sokka listed off his fingers. "No call, nothing! Tui and La, Zuko, you could have died! Do you have any idea how worried I was? I had Suki searching the entire island."

"I'm sorry, Sokka," he said. "I was…" he trailed off.

He couldn't tell him he'd been hit by a car, the news must have already been on the TV about the Blue Spirit. Telling him he'd spent the night at the bakery with his sister would only bring about his second near-death experience in the last 24 hours.

His panic rose the longer Sokka stood there with his arms crossed and his eyebrows high awaiting an answer. Better to just wing it.

Zuko opened his mouth-

"Nope. Try again," Sokka cut him off.

"I didn't even start!"

"You were wearing your lying face," Sokka explained with a shrug.

"I don't have a lying face," Zuko grumbled.

"Where. Were. You?" Sokka wasn't backing down.

Winging it was out the window. Guess he was stuck with the truth.

But not the whole truth. He was...mugged? No, that would just confirm his fears. Checking in with a doctor? But why wouldn't he have texted?

Then he thought of Katara, of her sleeping face and words of comfort. He thought of the warmth in his chest and the tingling in his fingers when he'd brushed her cheek.

"I guess...there's this..." he blew out a breath. "Girl."

Sokka stared. Then blinked. Zuko was about to check if he was still breathing when his roommate said, "I'm sorry, what?"

"There's a girl."

"A girl."

"Yes."

"As in a female?"

"Yes, Sokka. A female."

"Who you are interested in."

Zuko's silence was enough of a confirmation.

Sokka blinked again. "WHAT?!"

"Why is this so hard to believe?" Zuko demanded.

"You have never, not once, in all the years I've known you, talked about girls." Sokka had begun pacing and was currently attempting to take off his shirt. He had a bad habit of stripping when he was upset. "I was beginning to think you maybe didn't like them. Or you were just a workaholic. It was always 'job this', 'homework that', and 'honors honors honors' all the day long."

"I've talked about girls," Zuko defended.

"No, you've listened to me talk about girls," Sokka corrected. "You've mentioned an old crush once. That's it. The gloomy girl who sighs a lot. What was her name again?"

"Mai..."

"It doesn't even matter because I'm pretty sure she liked you. Not the other way around. Now, girls liking you is not new. You liking a girl? That's unheard of."

"Well it doesn't matter anyways."

Sokka stopped pacing to face him. "What? Why not?"

Zuko thought of all the interactions he'd had with Katara when he hadn't been near death. He frowned. "I don't think she'll ever see me like that."

"Oh no, my brother is not losing the only girl he's ever liked. We are going to make this happen."

Zuko frowned. He'd always liked that Sokka had taken to calling him the familial term, but now that they were talking about girl interests...and said girl was his sister...it suddenly felt wrong.

"Trust me." Sokka slung an arm around Zuko's shoulders, last nights worries forgotten even as Zuko tried not to crumple beneath the action. "We'll break through whatever is holding her back and my baby bird will finally be on his way to manhood."

"I'm older than you," Zuko remarked.

"Shhhh." Sokka held a finger to his lips. "The master's talking. Now, listen closely."

There was no way this was going to end well, but it seemed better than any alternative Zuko could come up with at the moment. So he listened as Sokka unknowingly provided him with tips on how to woo his own sister.

The sun was up by the time Katara finally opened her eyes. She stretched her hands above her head and rolled her aching neck. Sleeping sitting up was something she had done many times before as a nurse and it never got any more comfortable.

It took a moment for her to remember where she was. At home…at her kitchen table…her clothes were stiff with the blood of…

Katara sat up. Where was the Blue Spirit? He must have left in the middle of the night. Her first thought was that she hadn't cleared him to leave, but this was her house…and he was a criminal. Kind of. Well, yes he was a criminal but he'd recently shown her that wasn't all that he was. Katara face palmed. How could she have been so stupid to think he would hang around? The idiot jumped off rooftops in his spare time for La's sake, of course he was off somewhere bleeding along the streets.

"Katara?"

She turned to see her dad in the doorway, a mug of coffee in his hand.

"Dad, did you see him leave?" she asked, standing up and walking to the window.

"I didn't." Hakoda checked his watch. "Aren't you supposed to be at class?"

"What?" she asked, turning away from her observation of the busy street. "What time is it?"

"Almost 9 O' clock," he responded.

Katara ran. She hurdled park bushes, waded through crowds, and even jogged at stoplights waiting impatiently for her turn to move forward.

The door opened with a loud bang as she entered the classroom, her breath coming out in pants. A silenced room stared back at her. She looked to the left where Dr. Pakku was watching her with lowered brows.

"It's past sunrise, Katara," he reprimanded. "You're late."

Her face burned. She murmured an apology and hurried to her seat next to Zuko.

It wasn't until she sat that her brain caught up with her situation. She was still wearing her scrubs from the night before…which were covered in the Blue Spirit's blood, and she had forgotten her school bag with all of her notes, textbooks, and laptop.

Shrinking further down in her seat, Katara crossed her arms in an attempt to try and cover the stains as well as shame.

Zuko continued scribbling beside her as Dr. Pakku resumed his lecture, his only response to her presence was to shift his textbook slightly so that she could also read the page they were discussing. About when her heart rate started to settle from the craziness of the morning, he asked out of the side of his mouth,

"Are you okay?"

She turned to look at him and noticed a faint bruising along his right jaw and beneath the scarring of his eye. Her conversation with Suki came back to her, apparently his night out hadn't been all fun and games. "I'm fine," she replied, returning to her shamed position of slouching and staring down.

A Jasmine Dragon thermos entered her vision as Zuko slowly slid it across the desk to her side. It took a moment for her mind to catch up with what was happening, but when it did Katara perked up.

Before she could say anything he spoke again.

"Thank goodness you're here," he said quietly, "I have no idea what's happening."

Katara stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded. Then she smiled and took the pen he offered as well as the book he'd been using to take notes. Sitting up, she took a sip of the tea and playfully rolled her eyes. "You're helpless."

As she tuned back in to the lecture, she didn't quite notice the faint grin that had appeared on her partner's face.