Water

Confrontation

Sokka couldn't decide whether Aang had the worst timing in the world or the best. Just after Sokka had kissed Yue—or Yue had kissed him, or maybe they'd both kissed each other at the same time, he wasn't entirely clear about which of them had made the first move—Aang's tattoos stopped glowing, and he scanned groggily around the Spirit Oasis.

On the bright side, Aang hadn't actually seen the kissing. On the less-bright side, the fact that Aang was awake meant that the kissing was over now.

Aang blinked a few times and then squinted down at them. "Guys? Why are you down in the pond? And what happened to all the water?"

"To be fair, the pond is a lot more full than it was a while ago," Sokka pointed out. Rather than merely kneeling in the mud now, he was actually kneeling in a few inches of water and a whole lot of mud. Which wasn't the most romantic place to kiss Yue for the first time, but she hadn't seemed to mind it too much. Which, in its own way, was pretty romantic.

Plus, it was pretty clear that the two fish were going to be okay now. Spirits or not, that had to be a good thing.

"Yeah, but—" Aang stopped, shaking some of the bleariness from his eyes.

Yue was a little redder than usual, but she stood with a remarkable degree of composure. "Were you able to learn anything in the Spirit World?"

"Um—kind of. But it wasn't exactly what we were hoping it would—"

From above them, there was a bellow and Appa crashed down just on the far side of the pond. The suddenness of the arrival startled Sokka, and he slipped in the mud, skidding on his back all the way down into the few inches of murky water at the bottom. One of the koi swam up and nibbled gently on his ear before he sat up again and scrambled out of the hole to find Katara and Zuko staring at him, apparently perplexed.

"Aang," Katara called across the oasis. "Did you find the moon spirit?"

"Well—no, not exactly," Aang answered.

"That's okay," Yue said gently. "I'm fairly certain that Sokka and I did."

"What? Where is it?" Katara asked.

"Down there." Yue gestured down into the pool of murky water—now that Sokka had fallen in, it looked more like mud than anything else. "The white fish is the moon spirit. I'm sure of it."

"Oh!" Aang hung a little over the edge, staring down into what remained of the pond. "Then the other one is the ocean spirit. They're supposed to be a pair—Roku helped me figure out that much."

"That's all you learned in there?" Sokka asked. "You were gone for hours!"

"I tried, Sokka. But the spirit that I was supposed to talk to about all this stuff wasn't home, and Roku and I had to fly around on his dragon for a long time looking for him before I came back here."

"Let me guess," Zuko said flatly. "You were looking for Koh, the giant face-eating centipede?"

Aang frowned. "Roku called him Koh the Face Stealer. I don't know if he looks like a centipede."

"Believe me, he does."

"Koh is loose in the city," Katara added. "When you went into the Spirit World, I guess the bridge between the worlds stayed open, and Koh—he climbed through the pond, and now he's out looking for faces to eat. We're going to send him back, we just don't have a solid plan quite yet."

Sokka blinked. "What?"

"And Zhao is in the city now," Zuko added. "As far as we can tell, he doesn't actually know where the Spirit Oasis is, but if he keeps wandering around, he'll find his way here eventually."

Sokka's voice crept even higher. "What?"

Katara threw her hands up. "You're welcome for the warning, Sokka. We could've just let you figure it out on your own."

He narrowed his eyes. "You wouldn't dare."

She cocked her head to the side a little bit. "What—Sokka, we're here right now. You're being weird."

That was possibly fair. He hadjust kissed Yue, and it was a little difficult not to blurt that out to all the others. In fact, the kissing took up enough of his mind that he almost didn't notice how weirdly close Katara and Zuko were standing at the moment. Almost. He was going to have plenty to say about that later, after the just-kissed feeling subsided a little.

"Well—" Zuko glanced at Katara, then across at the others. "If the moon spirit is a fish, can't we just move it for a while? If Zhao finds the oasis and there's no moon spirit here, he really can't do that much damage."

Although the making-sense part of his mind wasn't functioning quite right, Sokka's snark was making a quick recovery. "You want us to evacuate a fish from the city?"

"Can you think of anything better?"

He frowned. He really wished that he could say yes. But if Zhao was in the city—and someone must have really messed up to let that particular ship through the battle lines—they couldn't really risk letting him get his slimy hands on one of the spirits. Besides, Koh had come into the physical world through the pond in the middle of the oasis. Which hadn't gone very well for the koi. And if Katara was planning to send Koh back the way he'd come, then the fish probably wouldn't fare much better this time than they had before.

With an exaggerated sigh, Sokka turned on his heel. "Aang, you're on fish duty." Then, as he stooped to gather up his and Yue's parkas, a good deal of the sticky wetness lifted from his back. He glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see Katara dropping most of the mud from his clothes and hair back into the pond.

"What? Why me? Shouldn't I go with—"

Sokka shot a look at Aang. "Do you think that Yue and I are gonna be able to move a couple of fish around without killing them? Because I'm not optimistic about that."

"Oh." Aang looked a little crestfallen, but did his best to perk up after another moment or two. "I can come back with my glider to check on you guys when we have the fish somewhere safe. If you need any help, I won't be very far away."

"Thanks, Aang," Katara said. It didn't escape Sokka's notice how quickly, how casually she grabbed Zuko's hand as they started for the hatch in the oasis wall again. "Hopefully this will be quick. Zuko says he has an idea."

"So?" Katara asked him in a whisper when they were just barely out of earshot in the street. "What is the idea?"

It was difficult to force himself to look her way. The odd feeling inside his chest had receded a bit, but he didn't savor the idea of explaining his shoddy plan to her. "Just—to be clear, you remember that I said you were going to hate it, right?"

Her grip on his hand tightened, and she pulled closer to his side as they edged along the outer wall of the oasis. "I remember. That's why I want to know what it is now so I have a chance to tell you how much I hate it."

He took a long, slow breath, scanning around the next corner. "Well—we've gotten the others out of the oasis. They should be safe now. And with the moon spirit out of the way, Zhao's less of a threat now than he was before."

"Right. So you want to deal with Koh, then?"

A small nod. "It's not like anyone else will be able to stop him. And Zhao—someone else might take care of him while we're sending Koh back to the Spirit World."

"Good. That's all fine. So what's the part I'm going to hate?"

He glanced back down at Katara again. "That's—I think that I'm going to have to be the bait to lure Koh back to the oasis."

She gave his arm a small, audible smack. "You're right, I hate it. Why do you have to be the bait?"

"Because I can't open the Spirit World to let Koh back through. You can." He tried to pull her toward the next street, but her grip on his hand held tight, and she refused to move. Zuko looked back again and found her staring directly into his eyes, her forehead creased. "What?"

"Zuko—there has to be another way out of this. A way that doesn't put you in so much danger for no reason."

He sighed, looking off to the side a bit, and shook his head. "Can you think of anything? Because I can't. Believe me, I've been trying. It's just—either we take this chance or hundreds of people are going to get hurt."

"So you need to get hurt instead? Is that it?"

"Better if it's just me instead of everyone else."

Katara's voice wavered a bit. "Zuko, I don't want to see anything bad happen to you."

He found himself drawn back into her gaze, falling back into the almost endless blue. "I trust you," he said. As small, as soft as his voice was, the words felt weighty, even to him. "If I take this chance, I know you'll have my back. You'll find a way to get rid of Koh, and everything will turn out okay."

She looked away, gripping his hand even tighter than before. "And what if it doesn't?"

He gave a small shrug. "I thought I was supposed to be the pessimist."

Katara scowled. "No, you're just impossible. There's a difference." But rather than getting angry with him—or rather than yelling, at least—she yanked hard on his hand. Then, when he stumbled back toward her, she threw her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder.

Warmth seemed to spread out through his entire body, and after a few moments of hesitation, he wrapped his arms cautiously around her in return. This was nice. This felt good, and although he still didn't know quite what to do about being hugged, he thought that he could probably get used to it in time. For a hug like this, for her, he could get used to almost anything.

"If you die, I'll kill you," Katara said, her voice a little muffled thanks to his parka covering much of her face.

Zuko snorted. "You know that doesn't make any sense, right?"

"That's the point." She squeezed him a little tighter, then let out a huff and pulled back, wiping her eyes. "You'd better make it out of this safely."

"Katara, are you—"

She sniffed and shook her head. "No. I'm not crying."

That was a lie. It was faint, and even harder to see since she wouldn't look at him, but there were definitely tears in her eyes.

Zuko wished that he knew how to stop it. How to make everything better so that the tears would dry up and she could smile again. He wished that he was brave enough to reach out and hold her the way she'd done for him, but the best he could do was take her hand again while he brushed her shoulder with the other.

"I'll be careful," he said quietly. "I remember what your teacher said. I'll try not to show any emotion, and everything else should be okay."

"It had better be," she said, jabbing him in the chest. She met his eyes again. "If we come up with a safer idea, we're changing plans, got it? No arguments."

Zuko nodded. "Got it. I don't exactly savor the idea of being eaten by a centipede. I'd be more than happy to forget that plan completely."

Wiping her face with the sleeve of her parka, Katara nodded too. "Okay." Her grip tightened on his hand. "Then—let's go find Koh."

They snuck along the streets as quickly as they could, aimed roughly in the direction of the break in the wall. Zuko couldn't be certain that that was where they would find Koh. Frankly, he still didn't know the streets in this part of the city well enough to know exactly which direction to turn, but he had his bearings well enough to know that the core of the fighting should be just ahead of them. And if Koh was still in the city, the soldiers would probably be a welcome supply of prey.

After a few blocks of breathless sprinting, they came up on what should have been the center of the fighting, but this time, it was quiet. Eerily quiet.

Zuko exchanged a look with Katara as they advanced carefully toward the wall, then recoiled when he saw a patch of dark hair sticking out around a corner. They were too far off to see the uniform, but it was obvious that the fighting within the city walls had claimed at least one life. Probably more. Almost definitely more.

His insides clenched, and he had to force himself not to turn away. He'd seen fighting before. Nothing quite like this, but this wasn't entirely new either. It shouldn't make him feel so—awful, so scared. He'd been at sea for three years, banished all that time, and hunted for at least the past few months. Death shouldn't bother him like this.

But it did, and he wasn't sure whether he felt better or worse about it when Katara inhaled sharply and took a step in toward his side so that their shoulders brushed. It was nice to know that she was here with him, every bit as horrified as he was. At the same time, it wasn't entirely reassuring that they were both so unsettled. It was hard enough to keep his guard up and his expression steady without seeing the evidence of the battle all around him. With the blood and bodies on the ground—he did his best not to look at them anymore.

They'd made it just a few blocks farther when Katara grabbed onto his arm. "Zuko," she whispered. "I think Koh is close."

A bit reluctantly, he followed her gaze downward until he found another pair of soldiers—one waterbender and one firebender—lying in the snow, faces turned upward. But there was no blood, no evidence of any burns or any other injury. Their faces, however, were entirely missing. No eyes, no nose, no mouth, nothing was left.

Zuko put his hand on top of Katara's and met her eyes for just a second before taking a long breath and doing his best to clear his expression. It wasn't a gory mess when Koh ate faces, at least. That was a good thing. Right? Or was it even more horrifying that Koh managed to do so much damage without leaving any noticeable marks behind?

Slowly, carefully, they continued picking their way down the street, stepping over and around the fallen soldiers that they encountered, both doing their best not to look at the bodies too closely.

"You're still sure about this plan?" Katara whispered somewhere along the way.

He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead and fought to keep his expression from changing. "A lot less sure than I was before. But I still don't think we have any better options."

Her grip on his arm tightened, and he felt her cheek rest lightly against his shoulder for a second. "I'll keep my eyes on you. If I see Koh getting too close, I'll try to drop you into a tunnel again."

He gave a small nod. "Thanks."

She started to say something else but cut herself off at the sound of voices from farther up ahead. Zuko's eyes widened, and he heard Katara's breath catch beside him.

"That's—Zhao, right?" he whispered. "I'm not imagining it, am I?"

She pressed her lips tight together but was apparently doing her best to keep the rest of her face from moving. "It sounds like him." Another voice reached them, this one lower and accompanied by a chorus of faint, wet crackling sounds. "And Koh."

They crept as near as they dared without being seen, edging along the side of a wall until both voices reached them clearly. Even then, Zuko had to concentrate to make out what they were saying over the rush of his pulse.

"What have you done to my soldiers?" Zhao demanded. Though the snow deadened his tone a bit, it was obvious that he wasn't making an effort to conceal the blend of rage and panic in his voice. "You—you overgrown caterpillar."

"I have feasted," Koh replied. By the sound of his weird, clicking movements, Zuko could only guess that the spirit was advancing on Zhao. "But my appetite remains. Fear is too common a flavor. Perhaps I can taste arrogance and rage this time."

"What are you?"

"I am many things. I am older than words. I am nearly as old as time itself." There was an ominous pause. "However, I believe that the word you seek is 'hungry'."

"No." There was a roar of flames, and Zhao's footsteps crunched closer and closer through the snow. "That isn't what I meant!"

Zuko glanced toward Katara again, then angled himself ever so slightly to the side to partially shield her if Koh or Zhao or both came their way. It wouldn't be enough. He knew that. If they had to face both at the same time, they couldn't possibly win. But if he put himself in the middle, there might at least be a chance that Katara could escape.

"No!" Zhao shouted again. "You will not take me. I serve the Fire Lord. I am known all around the world, and when this day is through, my name will be remembered—"

"I am known to almost none outside my own realm, and yet I live on. Let us see whether the fickle memory of humanity will sustain you as long as you think."

There was a start of a scream, but it cut off almost as soon as it began, replaced by a muffled moan, and then silence.

Zuko clamped his eyes and his jaw shut, and he couldn't tell whether he or Katara was squeezing harder—all he knew was that his hands were beginning to lose all feeling, and that he could still sense her warmth at his side.

There were a few more clumsy, crunching steps, then a fwump as something landed in the snow just a few paces away. Then it was quiet. No more shouting. No more weird, wet clicking noises. No more of the abrupt roaring sounds that came with firebending in the cold.

When Zuko finally dared to open his eyes again, he found Zhao lying only a pace away, tilted onto his side with one sideburned cheek turned up toward the sky. At first glance, everything looked normal. Just like all the other fallen soldiers they'd come across, Zhao seemed unhurt. But just like with all the others, Zuko leaned in just a little closer, then regretted it when he found nothing but blankness where Zhao's face should have been.

"Zhao?" he said, voice small and uncertain. He could feel his brows creeping downward, and as hard as he tried, he couldn't force his expression to clear.

Katara peeked out around his shoulder, and there was an audible gasp. Then Zhao's hand swiped blindly at both of them.

Shit. He was still alive. Probably not for long, considering the fact that he apparently didn't have any way to breathe, but at least for the moment, Zhao was still here. Still vindictive.

There was a small shriek from Katara, and Zuko made a surprised noise of his own, yanking them both back from Zhao's reach. He couldn't still firebend, could he? Zuko hoped not. Breathing exercises were a part of firebending practice for a reason.

The strange, slithering, clicking sounds grew closer, and when Zuko looked up, he found Zhao's face staring down at them, plastered to the front of Koh's long, buggy body.

"Ah, is it time for you two morsels already?" Koh said. "My, you both look delicious."

Doing his best to clear his expression, Zuko turned on the spot, giving Katara push forward. "Run!"

They couldn't outrun Koh. Katara worked that out within seconds. No matter how fast their legs could move, it was nothing compared with Koh's pace once he'd gathered a bit of momentum. Fortunately, her waterbending could make up the difference and buy them a little extra time as long as Koh didn't catch them first.

The moment that they dodged around the first corner, ducking clear of Koh's claw-like legs, she grabbed Zuko's elbow and pulled him tight against her side. Then, eyes fixed in the direction of the oasis, she formed a shield-shaped piece of ice beneath both of their feet, and after a forceful shove with her bending, sent them sliding faster and faster up the street toward the oasis.

She could hear Koh following them, even as the rush of the ice skimming over hard packed snow grew louder as they gathered speed. Zuko gripped her shoulders tightly, crouching and leaning along with her to help steer the little ice sled the right direction while she pushed them along, rounding one corner after another in the hopes of slowing Koh down a little. He was fast, but he was much too big to change directions the way that she and Zuko could.

Still, when they came back in view of the oasis walls, they'd only just pulled out of Koh's view. Katara's jaw clenched. They had seconds, at best, to work out exactly how to send Koh back.

"Stop here," Zuko shouted.

"What?" She glanced back, and in the moment that her concentration lapsed, the ice sled slipped from underneath them, sending them both toppling.

Katara wasn't certain how it happened, but they rolled, and somehow, she wound up lying on her back on top of Zuko's chest while they skidded to a stop.

With a gasp, she rolled off of him and scrambled to her feet, trying to pull him up after her. "What was that about? Come on, we're almost there."

Zuko stood too, wincing, but he pushed her hands away. "Go," he insisted. "Into the oasis. Quick."

"You're coming with me, Zuko!"

He shook his head and pushed her toward the hatch that led into the oasis. "No! You go. Open the Spirit World. I'm going to buy you some time."

"But—" Her throat started to grow tight, and her eyes burned around the edges.

"Please, Katara. I'll be right behind you."

The sounds of Koh's footsteps were growing ever closer, almost within sight, and finally, Katara nodded. "You'd better be."

Just before she ducked into the hatch, Zuko gave her a small, forced smile, then closed the hatch after her before she could protest again.

Breathing hard, Katara stared at the hatch for a moment longer, his tense smile burned into her mind. Part of her desperately wanted to swing the hatch open again and drag Zuko through after her. Even if he tried, Koh wouldn't be able to follow them through such a small space, and maybe in the minute it took him to crawl up and over the wall, she might be able to open the Spirit World again. Maybe she could keep Zuko beside her after all.

But even from the opposite side of the wall, she could still hear it when Koh came within sight, when he surged clumsily around another corner, his long body smacking against the wall. By now, Zuko would be running again. He would be too far off for her to reach. She had to trust him to make it back.

Katara squeezed her eyes shut. He'll be okay. He'll be okay. She couldn't convince her legs to move any further, so she dropped to the ground just a few feet to the side of the hatch and tried to focus on her breathing, tried to slow her pulse. He'll be okay. He'll be okay. He'll be okay.

This wasn't how meditation was supposed to work, she knew that much, but after a while, the chant began to lull her. Her breathing began to slow, and along with it, her pulse.

The first thing you need to do is to focus on your breathing. Katara inhaled. You don't have to relax so much if you have something else to think about. A slow, steady exhalation. Without Aang nearby, it was hard to tell whether the bridge to the Spirit World was opening or not, but as her thoughts began to slow, then to quiet, she thought that she was getting closer. She thought that the bridge might be opening.

Of course, she still didn't know how exactly she could send Koh back, even after the bridge opened. It wasn't like there was a physical door that she could shove Koh through. It wasn't like she could trip him up and just trust that he would disappear when he inevitably skidded on the wet grass and collided with the wall. Could she?

An image began to form in her mind—first of the oasis itself, calm and pristine as it had been when they first arrived, with the pool in the center full and sparkling. Then it shifted, and she saw the oasis from a different angle, lying terrified on her back, with Koh crawling from the pond like it was a burrow, not a simple pool of water. Then the image shifted again, and this time, she saw the oasis from almost directly above, but the pond was replaced by a strange, almost glistening disk of blackness.

Her forehead creased. Was that it? Was the pond some sort of physical portal between the worlds that she could unlock? Was that even possible?

Before she could ponder it any further, the hatch crashed open beside her, and Zuko tumbled through, then scrambled to his feet as fast as he could and sprinted for the far side of the oasis. Koh followed only a handful of seconds behind, jamming his entire body through the hatch, one segment at a time with a horrible, near-deafening cracking noise. Which should not have been possible, considering his size.

"Out of places to run, aren't you?" Koh said, slowing as the last of his many limbs clambered through the hatch and into the grassy oasis. "It's a good thing that I don't care for the limbs. You'll have made them all stringy."

Zuko spun around toward the creature, eyes wild.

Heart racing, Katara stood. Though she could tell that Zuko was trying, his face was anything but emotionless. He was terrified. And she still wasn't sure whether she'd succeeded in opening up the Spirit World.

"What's so special about my face?" Zuko demanded. "You've eaten plenty of firebenders already. I've seen what's left of them. Aren't you satisfied yet?" He kept backing away, and Koh continued advancing.

"Certainly not. Your petty human ideas of hunger and satisfaction mean nothing to me."

"So—what do you want from me?" Zuko missed his footing and slipped on the grass, landing hard on his back. Desperately, he tried to scramble back even farther. "If you think my limbs are stringy, my scar has to be worse."

"Flesh does not concern me," Koh said. "And fear is dull. I've tasted it dozens of times before. But in you—I see loyalty. I see determination. I see despair, and I see hope. An entire array of emotions and flavors. But the one I am most curious to taste—is love."

With that, Koh lunged, and as his body passed over the stream, Katara raced forward, swinging her arms over her head to draw all the water she could from both the pond and the stream, wrapping it so tight around Koh's body that she thought she might break him apart. Then, with a cry of effort and determination, she ripped the water back in her direction, yanking Koh off of the grass and propelling him down into the hole where the pond should have been with every ounce of force she could muster.

There was crackling all around them, and a hundred screams that she couldn't recognize, and for a moment, the world flickered and went hazy and distant. But then, when the oasis went silent again and her vision began to clear, Katara found herself on her hands and knees, staring down into the slippery, muddy pit that had once been a pond.

Koh was gone. Finally. And aside from the great, violent gashes torn through the grass, there was almost no sign that he had ever been here in the first place.

It took another moment or two before she managed to focus her eyes in Zuko's direction, and then Katara staggered to her feet.

"Zuko! Zuko, are you okay?"

He didn't seem to hear her. Her heart leapt up into her throat, and she raced toward the bridge and across the stream. Zuko was struggling to rise back to his feet, and even when his head turned far enough for her to get a glimpse of his face—still there, thankfully—her pulse didn't slow. She half skidded, half toppled in front of him, hands landing on both of his shoulders.

"Zuko, look at me. It's over."

He blinked a few times, but his eyes wouldn't seem to focus, and there was a long, deep gash around the rim of his scar, from the point where the inner edge of his eyebrow should have been and looping downward from there, cutting cleanly around the burned skin to a point just before his jawline. It was like one of Koh's bladelike limbs had latched onto his face, and Katara had ripped the spirit away just in time to keep anything worse from happening. Still, there was blood streaming down his cheek and dripping slowly from his chin and onto his parka.

"Oh, no," she breathed. It took a considerable effort to reach far enough upstream to find a bit of clean water, but she didn't care. The water responded to her pull, and as soon as her hand was encased in it, she reached up toward his face.

"No," Zuko said, his eyes still unfocused. He pushed clumsily at her shoulder. "Don't touch me."

"Zuko, it's me. Please, I'm trying to help."

His eyes squeezed shut, and he shook his head violently, which only made the bleeding worse. "No. Don't—it hurts."

It pulled hard at something in her chest, but Katara reached up with her other hand and grabbed hold of his chin before he could pull any farther away. "Zuko, please. You're bleeding." She could feel and hear her own voice breaking, and she couldn't bring herself to care that there were hot streaks of tears making their way down her face. "Just listen to me. I know it hurts. But it could be a lot worse if you won't let me stop the bleeding."

His eyes opened again, still a little unfocused, and he blinked a few times in a row like he was struggling to find her, to understand what she was saying. Like Koh had gotten close enough to the core of Zuko's mind, his emotions, to leave everything muddled and indistinct.

"You're bleeding," she repeated, softer this time. "Please let me help."

His forehead creased like it hurt to focus. "What?" His hand lifted up toward his scar, and when his fingertips came away coated in blood, he went pale. He blinked again, and this time, when his eyes drifted across her face, they came to a stop. "Katara—"

"Just hold still," she told him softly. "I can fix it. I just need you to trust me."

When her hand approached his face again, he winced, but this time he didn't pull away.

Carefully, gently, Katara brought the water up to his scar and held it there, focusing on all the torn flesh, the severed blood vessels, the damaged nerves. With the water encasing her hand, she could feel the old damage as well—hardened ridges of scar tissue, permanently dulled and deadened nerves, and skin that felt a little too tight, a little too tender. She wondered for a moment whether she could mend that too—whether Zuko would let her.

Whether he would even want her to try.

For now, she kept her attention focused on the cut, on the damage that she knew she could mend. Working upward from the depths of the gash, she drew the flesh back together, sealing up the veins, binding the nerves back together, fixing it all as seamlessly as she could. By the time that she was finished, she couldn't even tell that there had been a cut there in the first place. Even then, she couldn't bring herself to pull the healing water away for a few seconds longer—not until a wave of tiredness struck her, and the water's glow wavered.

"That's all," she said softly, pulling the water downward to wash the streaks of blood from his face. "Good as new."

Zuko reached up before she could pull her hand away and caught it, holding her fingertips still against the lower rim of his scar.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, using her other hand to toss the soiled water away into the grass. "Zuko, it's okay. I'm done healing you."

His grip on her hand tightened ever so slightly, and he squeezed his eyes shut again. "I know."

"Then what is it?"

He let out a slow, shuddering breath. "It doesn't hurt anymore." She wasn't entirely certain, since there were still droplets of water clinging to his face, but she thought she saw a tear escape and make its way down his cheek. "It doesn't hurt."

Her mouth opened just a bit, but she couldn't find a response. He didn't just mean the cut. He couldn't. There was something else, something much, much bigger behind the unsteadiness of his voice. It doesn't hurt anymore. She almost wanted to ask him what he meant—his scar, their closeness, their contact, or something else entirely—but still, the words wouldn't come.

Maybe it didn't matter. Whatever it was had stopped causing him pain, even if it was just for a while. Maybe that was enough. Maybe that was all she could ask for.

With a slow, shuddering sigh, Katara leaned into his chest, pressing her face into his sternum. Her free hand looped up around his shoulder from behind, and she felt him curl ever so slightly inward, like he was about to envelop her.

Her eyes closed. Whatever else was going on outside the oasis didn't matter to her anymore. They were both still here.

They were safe.

Author's Note:

Congrats to everyone who predicted that Koh was going to eat Zhao - that idea made me laugh like two years ago, so there was no way that it WASN'T going to happen :) I will admit that it feels a little weird and cheat-y to get rid of one of the bad guys by feeding him to the other "villain" (although I'm not 100% sure that Koh is really a villain - he's sort of just hungry, which isn't the most villainous motivation in the world), but for some reason, framing it this way, with Zhao conveniently running into Koh and trying to pick a fight on his own felt more natural than a bunch of kids deciding to manipulate a giant, face-eating bug into getting rid of an enemy for them. After all, the face-eating process seems pretty horrific, and I doubt the kids would choose that fate for one of their enemies. But lucky for me, Zhao is the kind of idiot who might think that he could argue with a spirit and win, so... Koh got snacky after roasting Zhao for his self-importance.

I really can't believe that I only have two chapters left before the end of Book 1! I'm working on cleaning up Chapter 80 right now, and I'm so excited to finally have this whole thing DONE (and also a little sad that Book 1 is nearly over, even though I'm going to start editing Book 2 immediately after finishing). So I guess I'll see you back here in two weeks for Chapter 79, then in two more weeks for Chapter 80! In the meantime, reviews are always appreciated!