NOTE: I edited the last chapter, got rid of a sentence. Just so you know.

Thanks to:

Iloveprincezuko – (honestly, who doesn't?) Sorry I was late :-D I'm like Mulan in that sense, I guess.
Daemon – (who the flip are you anyway?) I don't mind. Your comments are welcome whenever they come along, as long as they come along.
Gir…etc – Camp -camp- -camp- -camp- Gotta fix that echo...
Starlightz1112 – I'm not promising anything about K + Z just yet, so don't get your suspenders all in a twist.
Aangsair – Yay for six flags! I mean, who can genuinely say that they don't love Raging Bull? And I'm glad you liked that twist.

c.16 (pre-edit)

Gir…etc – I'll try...
Starlightz1112 – I love writing Sokka, now that I've gotten it (somewhat) down. He's so funny! Thanks!
Deamon – You'd be surprised, young padawon. You would be surprised.

c. 16 (post-edit)

FiestyAngel- Yeah, I'm finding Sokka and Aang to be the hardest characters to write, besides Iroh, who I have currently cut out for such purposes. But thanks for the compliment. I pride myself on my words, and I'm glad you like reading them.
Shield…etc – Thanks. I feel your pain. What do you play?

Okay, so I'm checking my stats like a Scottish stalker and I see 3533 hits on this story. Only fifty-five reviews? Was ist das? Come on! Am I just that bad? Whatever.

I don't own Avatar. But I do own his friend, Jay. I also own every word written here (not individually, of course. Not even Shakespeare could say that. Although, I think he's the only one who ever used "hither" so many times, so he practically owned it) so if you're going to use my words, quote them like there's no tomorrow. Quote them as though your fingers were recycling bins with the word "Reduce" rubbed off so all you've got left are the "Reuse" and "Recycle". Wow. That was horrible. Okay, moving on now.

Wait, shoot. I don't own any of the phrases from Hercules, either, I just borrowed them for this chapter.

Chapter Seventeen

She wearily opened her eyes and peered down her nose at her surroundings. Through bleary vision, she saw her toes sticking unceremoniously out of her blankets, something small and white sitting on her lap (most likely Momo), and a small, blue something around what was presumably the small white thing's neck.

"What's this, Momo?" She put her hand on the little creature's sleeping back and felt smooth fabric. She also felt a small metal…clasp? And a cold, hard stone that glinted off the limited early-morning light. Her eyes shot open in an instant.

"Momo! Where did you get this?" she whispered feverishly, not wanting to wake the others up in her excitement. Momo jumped up, curled himself around her neck, and fell back asleep. There was a small piece of what looked like it could have been paper lying where Momo had just been. There were words written on it in the sloppiest handwriting she had ever seen. The words either said

If you live, trespass cows, looter.

which obviously didn't make any sense. So she tried harder to decipher the horribly shoddy letters, and instead, she got

I believe this belongs to you, Katara

She looked over at the sleeping prince and watched as his chest moved rhythmically up and down. She crawled out of the warmth of her covers and over to where he lay. Lifting her head near his ear she whispered, "I know you're not asleep. You woke me up."

Slowly, Zuko turned his face toward hers and opened his eyes. "How could you tell?"

"I would have never woken up this early on my own." She suddenly grasped exactly what that meant. Her eyes widened and she looked at his arms and legs.

"Yes, I can move," he said, following her gaze. "Good thing, too. It took a lot of moving to get your necklace on that rat of yours." His hands were shaking involuntarily from the effort.

"But Jay said that you wouldn't be able to move for a long time, and Sokka said..." she trailed off, remembering exactly what Sokka said.

"Sokka said I'd probably die like this?"

"Well, yes." There was an intensely awkward silence between them. "How can you…how did you…you shouldn't be able to…"

"Are you always this articulate?" he asked coyly with a smirk on his face.

"Why did you give it back?" She chose a different question than her original, and Zuko seemed slightly taken aback.

"Why?"

"Yes. Why did you give me back my necklace?"

"Because it doesn't belong to me. It was by chance alone that I had it in the first place."

"Is this supposed to be a trade?"

Stillness passed between them, and a confused look crossed Zuko's face.

"Trade?"

"Why did you give me back my necklace?"

"I told you." His voice almost slid out of a careful whisper, and he glanced around to make certain he hadn't woken anyone.

"Why now then? Why didn't you give it to me earlier? Or why didn't you wait? What provoked you to give it to me now?"

"I guess I heard correctly. Women do ask a lot of questions." He smiled at her, but she was frowning. "If you're trying to get me to say something, you're going to have to try another approach, because I'm blind to this barrage of interrogations."

"What do you want from me?"

"W…want from you?" He looked baffled.

"You hate me Zuko; do not deny it. It's not as though the feeling isn't mutual. I've felt nothing but loathing for you for quite some time before I even set eyes on you. Over the past day or two, pity has crossed my heart for you, but that is all."

"I'm not seeing your point," he said, though his voice held a hardly audible quiver.

"I can't imagine that in your sixteen years in this world you've ever met a girl that you've had any interest in, and so you have no idea what we're like," she said, straightening up a little, defiance in her eyes. "But I know you better than you think I do."

"Do you?" he asked brashly, annoyed by her resolve. How could she know?

"You obviously either overheard Aang talking to me and took it to mean something it wasn't, or you misread my actions."

"I…I have no idea—" but she didn't let him finish.

"Even if I did have any feelings other than utter repugnance for you, which I do not, you have none for me, no matter how much you are willing to pretend that you do."

"Excuse me?" he exclaimed with as much feigned ferocity as he could muster.

"You're excused," she said, very nonchalantly. "And I forgive you for trying to use me as an escape. But as I said before, you will not be free of us until you are fully healed, and not a minute earlier. Unfortunately for both parties, you are going to take a bit longer to mend than originally thought."

Zuko was silent as he looked at her, the fire dancing malignantly in his eyes. He bored his way into the depths of her eyes, the way he did with his uncle and his underlings. But nothing was forthcoming; she didn't concede an inch.

"Oh, and you won't be getting your bending back either." She turned to go back to her bedroll, and then turned back suddenly. "Thank you for my necklace back." Then she lay down and rolled over onto her side, her back facing the prince.

He stared at the back of her head for a long while.

How could she tell? Was I that obvious?

No, she's just smart.

She is not. She's just a Water Bender.

A very pretty Water Bender.

Sleep hardly came to him that night, and when it did, visions of a sneering little girl crossed his vision. Pent up fire burned inside his heart, and for once in his life, all he really wanted to do was kill.

Kill her.

Of course, that was probably impossible in his current condition, but he'd find a way to make her life horrible; he swore at least that much.

/chapter seventeen

A/N: I've gotten inspiration from Marching Band. The main DM, Steve, (great guy, by the way) is basically a Caucasian Zuko without long hair or a scar. He's got a crazy temper...And I can't stop staring at him, because it's seriously like looking at the banished prince of the Fire Nation (esp. when he's wearing a hat and you can't see his face). Really freaky...