Water was rushing around her ears...but this time it wasn't calming, wasn't peaceful. It was loud, violent, painful...

Katara bit her lip and flinched. There was something rough and uncomfortable rubbing against her cheek, and she stirred restlessly, annoyed at the bitter substance that was causing her such discomfort. The sound of roaring water was still pounding in her ears, and she opened her watering eyes, seeking the source of the noise.

The world was bright, dusty, and blurry. At first everything in Katara's gaze was a blinding white, and she shut her eyes from the sudden brilliance of it. Then, of course, she realized she was staring right into the middle of a sunrise after a terrible storm - which would blind anyone, not counting that she had just woken from unconsciousness and had no idea that she was facing the fiercest point of the sun. She rolled over and opened her eyes again, and found it much easier to see. But something was sticking to the side of her face; she raised her hand to wipe it away but paused when her hand brushed the same rough texture that she lay on - only then did she discover she was lying on a beach.

She sat up, but the action made her head ache and she let out a slight gasp as her temples throbbed. The wind was still growling softly and she shielded her eyes , gazing down the length of the beach, her vision still terribly impaired.

Her gaze caught something dark and indistinguishable stirring down in the sands. For a moment, she thought it may be some sort of animal, a beached dolphin or struggling to get to the water - but when the dolphin sat up and put a hand on its head, obviously suffering the same daze as she was, hope flared up in her heart.

"Sokka...Aang? Hey!" she was still too weak to run, but instead floundered through the rough sands in both desperation and joy; but when she reached the figure her voice caught and she let out a gasp of horror.

"YOU!"

Both Zuko and Katara leapt shakily and fell into wavering battle stances. Katara had more time to recover than Zuko, and somehow held her footing in the flying sand; Zuko, however, had awoken seconds before and he fell heavily onto one knee, blind and weak, hearing only the echoes of a faint female voice above him. He bit the air in frustration as pain shot up his leg, and his hands fell, digging into the sand with bleeding fingers as he tried to regain full consciousness.

Katara paused with a whip of sea water ready in her hands, noticing that he too was slave to a state of complete exhaustion; undoubtedly their bodies had been thrashed by fearsome waves all night, until the beach reached out her arms and pulled them onto land for momentary safety. For a moment, the water bender wondered if they were even alive, standing there on that beach...or that maybe this was some strange dream and she was still asleep beside Aang...maybe there had never even been a storm...

Zuko's vision cleared and his gaze fell on Katara; the rage simmered in his blood and he punched towards her, letting a hissing flame escape his clenched fist. She moved just in time and sent the whip towards him with equal fury; he ducked it but it skimmed his back and left a strange, straight cut in his flesh. Infuriated, he swung his arm and a curved wall of fire knocked Katara to the ground; her coat caught fire and she tore it off as Zuko floundered for footing in the sand and leapt towards her. He caught her arm behind her back and she let out a yell.

"Where is he?" he snarled into her ear. Katara ground her teeth and slammed her heel into the Prince's foot. Zuko let go of her and stumbled back as Katara slid into the sand.

"Leave me alone! Leave Aang alone, leave..." but Katara's words faded as the endurance of her body faded. The water was still flowing in her, healing her, but she had no strength. Her eyes fluttered and she fell forward into the sand before Zuko's feet.

Zuko froze, trying to gather the situation in his head. He had...he had been thrown overboard. This girl, this water bender girl - she was a traveler with the Avatar. What was she doing here? What was he doing here?

The storm...suddenly the night before came rushing back into the fire bender's throbbing head and he looked at Katara with sudden understanding. She had fainted from the exhaustion of battling tidal waves and roaring gales, and upon seeing him the leftover adrenaline kicked in and she attacked - but the strain must have been too much on her. Zuko frowned at her weakness and debated what course of action to take.

He gazed at the island, which was small, but familiar. Though he could not remember quite why it was familiar, he knew he had seen the place before and his eyes met a shallow path that ran up into a grove dark woods.

He turned back to Katara, wh lay motionless in the sand, and hesitated. The tide was coming in and to leave her would mean she would drown; but why should he care? She was just a water bending girl, she was of no real use to him in capturing the Avatar, since both bison and ship had seemingly vanished from their side of the earth.

But the Avatar, he remembered suddenly, had rescued him in a similar condition. Zuko felt something stir inside him at the thought of returning the favor, but refused to feel anything over the matter.

"It is simply honorable," he whispered to himself. He unclasped all his armor, knowing it would no longer serve him any purpose on this deserted beach, and saw trails of sweat soaked into his shirt. He grimaced, mentally slapping himself from not noticing the heat, and took off his shirt also. The girl had taken off her jacket when it had caught fire, but she was sweating still; obviously he had to get her to shade and water or she would die from heatstroke.

Stooping, he slid one arm beneath her knees and the other around her waist. She was light and he lifted her effortlessly into his arms, where he caught his first clear view of the delicate outline of her face. But there wasn't time to gaze at her or fondle over good looks. She had what he feared was the beginning of a fever, so he carried her swiftly off the beach and into the shade of the woods in desperate search of fresh water, leaving his armor abandoned on the dry beach.

Katara regained a bit of consciousness only twice as Zuko walked. The first time her eyelashes fluttered and she looked up at him, dazed and confused. He feared, momentarily, that she would recognize him and thrash from his arms in an attempt at escape - but she fainted again soon after looking at his eyes and he breathed a sigh of relief.

The second time she awoke was when he was placing her, carefully, on a bed of moss beside a pool of freshwater. Zuko had examined the area and marked no danger - none that he couldn't handle, anyways. The deep pool was cold and clear, fed from a raging waterfall that thundered faintly a few yards away. At the sounds of water Katara stirred and opened her eyes. She did not at first see Zuko, but noticed something out of the ordinary when the cold water touched her lips. She drank it slowly and whispered a thank you, though she did not know who she was thanking or why.

Zuko's body tensed at her voice. It was very soft, very quiet. Something in it seemed to rush through his veins and make everything in his heart seem less passionate...less tortured...like he had gone slightly numb. Her eyes fluttered open and she struggled to prop herself up, to which Zuko aided her, still stirred by the peaceful note of her voice.

But as she shook her head, trying to gain focus, he fell back into himself and took a step away. He knew what her reaction would be before she even noticed him, and the rage flickered through his veins again. His fists smoked, knowing the injustice she was about to accuse him of. She would catch sight of him and struggle up, bending the water and attempting to thrash him down while he struggled in desperation to explain that he had saved her life, the miserable, ungrateful little-

But when her eyes fell on him, the anger that swelled in his heart fell away again.

Her eyes were blue, clear and cool as ice. She was so calm, so peaceful...and he was so angry, so apathetic. He was stronger than her, fiercer, and she was weak, unstable, too influenced by the serenity she had always known. Her element was water, her purpose was to soothe; but she would be destroyed by her helplessness, her tranquility, by the calming soft glow in her eyes...

Then the fire flickered in his heart again as she turned and faced him, and her gaze turned to one of astonishment.

"...Did you save me?"

His hands shook a little, she noticed. The deep gold of his eyes seemed confused, tormented with some inner conflict that he could not seem to decide upon himself. But as she stared at him, the relaxed focus of his gaze turned to fury. He stood as fire flared up his arms, as the pride and anguish seeped back into his mind.

"I did not save you. I was repaying a debt."

He turned away from her and the flames faded. Katara attempted to stand, leaning on a nearby tree for support. Zuko turned his head, briefly, to see what she was up too; what he saw was her beginning to lose her balance and the greedy claws of gravity take hold of her.

He caught her before she could topple into the water and he felt her cling, briefly, to his shoulder; then she pushed him away after gaining her footing.

"Get off me," she hissed defensively. Zuko glared at her and almost growled from the injustice.

"Your welcome," he snarled. At those words Katara's face relaxed. If she kept getting on his bad side he would light her up like a bonfire, and she had to find her way back to Aang alive. Trembling, she shook her head and bowed to him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Zuko paused, confused, and then glared again.

"Don't do that," he hissed, standing straight and turning away from her. Flames were licking his arms, but he did not seem to notice. Katara saw it and took a step towards him.

"Doesn't...doesn't that hurt?" she said slowly, watching the fire glitter around his elbows. Zuko turned an eye on her and then looked down at his hands. His shoulders dropped slowly and he relaxed.

"Not really. Only if it gets too hot for you to handle."

"Oh."

There was a sudden, unexpected silence. Katara screeched to a stop in her head. She had jsut made conversation with Prince Zuko.

"Where are we?"

"A Fire Nation island," said Zuko instantly. He knew she would ask this question and he had an immediate answer ready for her. "An old worship island. It's been abandoned for years. There's a temple on that ridge over there."

Katara paused and looked at Zuko, who still stood motionless beside the pool. The fact that they were both abandoned on this island had obviously done something to the way they acted towards each other. Zuko, for example, was not trying to kill her or force news of the Avatar out of her. Perhaps this sudden misfortune had nodded some sense into his muddled head.

"Zuko," said Katara suddenly, and the fire bender's pride flared again as the girl he had been chasing spoke his first name without fear. "You know this island more than I do, and we both want to get off of it. We should help each other."

"I could kill you and survive on my own, you know," he said, and the flames flared up his arms, securing that the threat was nothing like a bluff. But Katara's hope would not let her give up. She stood her ground, even when Zuko raised his fist towards her face, letting the red light glitter off her affectionate features. The heat stung her eyes and they watered irritably. But she did not blink, but stared into her foe's gold eyes in equal determination.

"But you wouldn't, would you?"

Zuko's fist clenched as he looked at her, pure beauty, pure serenity. The fires of rage flickered through him and his blood boiled in frustration. He had killed men before, but never a woman - and never, for that matter, a water bender. He knew that water flowed in her veins the same way fire flowed through his, twisting their senses into something deeper and more fluid than they had originally been, but they were opposites: passion against peace, fury against forgiveness. The stern look of her gaze relaxed as she noticed that Zuko was not striking, and he could not bear to look into the cool tranquillity that strained to meet his eyes.

The flames vanished as his golden gaze looked away. He lowered his hand, lost in sudden confusion as to why he was letting this girl go. But for the moment, he overlooked the fact that his anger was gone.