Disclaimer: Sorry, Hurricane Katrina delayed me. Please check my profile if you're curious.
I was really blown away by all the feedback I got from chapter one. It was really, really unexpected. But coming back and reading all of your reviews... I've decided to pick myself up a bit and try for chapter two.
Thank you!
Keep Your Enemy Closer
02
My Name Is... What?
(I know some of you are thinking "Slim Shady," right?)
"Prince Zuko?"
There was a knock on the door - which was, by the way, very sturdy and perfectly normal, quite rectangular, with a knob and the whole shebang.
However, to Katara at that moment, it was like an ominous voice of doom proclaiming to her it wanted to devour her firstborn, or something harrowing such as that.
The voice was familiar, but somewhat not-so, like she had heard it before but hadn't really paid the best attention to it.
Colors, mostly of the warm nature, assaulted Katara's vision as she slowly (and quite dumbly) stared at the scene before her. Everything was blurred, like a camera with a smeared lens, as if she was unused to using her current eyes. She dug her nails into the plush rug, and she could feel it and yet she couldn't feel it - it was as if she was watching someone else do things, in a way, and yet in some sense she was connected to them.
It was actually quite a nauseating experience and Katara pitched forward, throwing her hands to her mouth.
Her strong, masculine hands.
And as she sat trying to make sense of everything, she felt... stubble?
Stubble?
She, Katara, had stubble?
Oh God, the things Sokka would say if he knew.
She felt her knees trembling and she squeezed her eyes shut.
It was just a dream, just a dream, Sokka slipped her something before bed and she was going to murder him and skewer his body on a pole and dance around it, and Aang would dance to, even if she had to force him to do it and possibly murder him as well.
Oh the dementia of it all.
"Prince Zuko?" the voice came again, this time more concerned. Katara peeled her eyes open, which was in itself a strange experience.
The lids were heavier, slightly different, and they moved differently. For some reason her left eyelid was strangely tight, and heavy, like it was stretched or weighted down. When she looked she beheld golds and oranges and reds, and as things began to form into shapes she saw ornamental furniture, all very serious in design but quite comfortable looking regardless.
Suddenly a tapestry caught her eye and her heart fairly stopped. It boasted the bold insignia of the Fire Nation - a single curved and pointed flame.
She told herself this couldn't be happening because, as we all know, things like this don't happen to normal people. However the girl found herself suddenly doing a double-take on her situation.
Sokka-inspired dream or no, she was in Fire Nation territory.
A tingly feeling traveled all through her being and seeped into her body. The world quit shifting so much and settled down. She felt gravity again and feelings and sensations woke up. Now she could more clearly feel the rug, and the air, and when she breathed her lungs stung and then eased, as if she'd been holding her breath (which she probably had been.)
Slowly she wriggled her toes.
"Prince Zuko, are you awake?"
That voice again. Katara wished whoever it was would be quiet so she could -
Wait.
Prince Zuko?
The Waterbender felt the color, blood and other necessities drain from her face.
Zuko?
Katara scrambled up, pawing madly at the bed in attempts to gain her feet. Zuko was in the same room as her? How dumb was she?
Something had happened when she had fallen asleep, she had been drugged and dragged onto his ship, to be tortured and laughed at. And Aang...
She growled and shot a look around the room, fighting the dizziness and ignoring the strange guttural sound of her voice.
Where was he?
The nerve of him to do something so wicked, to -
There was another knock and Katara whirled around, quick as a panther, and then stopped dead.
A mirror grinned at her from across the room.
It was a nice mirror, admittedly, but that was not what she was concerned with.
She saw Zuko in its reflection and her gaze fixated on his face, and she opened her mouth to scream angrily at him -
And as she did, Zuko's mouth opened as well.
Katara, not being of a relatively dumb breed (though Sokka is questionable in this department) came to a conclusion to her situation rather quickly.
Somehow she looked like Zuko, and now she was just about ready to get out of this dream.
But even then, as the weight of things started to tell on her, Katara began to doubt, deep inside, that this was a dream at all.
Openly admitting that was another story. Though quick to assess situations, Katara is not one to tolerate situations she doesn't like, even if it means going into shallow denial.
"Prince Zuko, I'm coming in."
There was a bump, then a jangle, then the sound of the door opening.
It all flew in Katara's face. She looked like Zuko and moved like Zuko and she was on Zuko's ship in his room and someone wouldn't stop bothering her...
What if they knew? What if they knew who she really was?
Where was Aang?
All her questions could be summarized as thus:
What the hell happened?
She flailed backwards, nausea gripping her again.
She was in a boy's body.
Immediately all her thoughts were directed to...that area of her form but she strained to pull them away. She did not, NOT, want to starting having feelings there. So far she had been spared the experience, as much of her lower body still felt distant and numb.
The door continued to swing open. Katara pitched and shot towards it, holding her hands to her mouth with her eyes squeezed shut. And despite everything and anything, as scared as she was and as perilous as she deemed her situation, the complete and utter weirdness and discomfort of the situation had taken hold.
Iroh was more than a little surprised when Zuko blew past him with a high-pitched wail, hands covering his face, crying out "Stubble! Stubble!"
As his nephew disappeared down the hall Iroh blinked and scratched his beard in confusion. "I wonder what..."
Suddenly the old general froze and wondered if Zuko was at a Crisis.
"...I do hope I don't have to give him The Talk," Iroh groaned. He could only imagine that.
Meanwhile the actual Zuko was handling his situation a tad differently.
"Get back from me, you fool!" the dazed, confused, sick-feeling yet as-always-in-some-manner-frustrated prince shrieked.
Shrieked.
Horrified at the sound of his own high-pitched voice Zuko blanched, wondering what was wrong with him.
"Woah," Sokka squeaked defensively, throwing his hands up. "What's up with you?"
Being of a more direct nature than Katara, Zuko fell more easily into his new form, though unlike her he wasn't as quickly aware of it. He was too busy being angry.
He balled up his fist and then pointed jaggedly at Sokka, eyes blazing.
"You! What business do you have in my bedchamber?"
Sokka gaped at "Katara" for a minute before slowly raising an eyebrow in disdain.
"Uhh...it's a giant leafy thing called a forest? It belongs to everyone? ...Are you sick?"
Zuko suddenly felt himself stricken dumb. His mouth parted again and he inhaled, feeling his chest rise and fall- a narrow chest, with...
Slowly Zuko turned his eyes downward and stared at himself. His hands began to shake.
Maybe it was the sickly feeling, or his temper, or the fact that Sokka (though he didn't actually know his name) was giving him a cocked-head-eyebrow-raised look, or the fact that he now had breasts, but suddenly Zuko wanted very much to be alone.
Slowly, slowly Zuko let his hand fall to rest on the grassy dirt beside him. The other was trembling, clenching onto the covers of a thick sleeping bag.
"Go away."
Sokka frowned. "Huh?"
"Go away."
"Are you mad at me or something?" The Water Tribe boy was pretty curious now. "Katara" had a grim and otherwise unreadable expression on her face. Suddenly she snarled, her lip curling upwards.
"Now!"
Sokka scampered back at the thick outburst before pulling himself up to stand, brushing stray dirt off his sleeves. "Fine, be that way. Talk to me when you're feeling normal." With that the older boy stamped off to stew and find Aang, who had gone off on his glider to scout their area for the Fire Nation. Appa groaned and rolled over from not far away, oblivious to anything and everything as he slept.
Zuko focused on his breathing. It all came to him, slowly but surely.
Zuko had never been the superstitious type, and always looked for logical explanations to things. He was a tactician, sometimes stubbornly so, a necessity if one is in the military. But, much like Katara, Zuko is not one to tolerate situations he doesn't like. And, also much like Katara, he may go into fits of shallow denial because of that.
Zuko questioned whether he was still asleep, as that was the last thing he remembered doing. Slowly he got up, stumbled a bit, then straightened. And slowly he glanced down at himself once again.
Thin, femme hands. Shapely legs. Blue robe. Braid. Petite feet. Actual hips.
Zuko felt like he was going to hurl. For a moment he actually glanced around for a suitable bush to do it in. He even briefly considered behind Appa.
Luckily the fit passed and bushes and bison alike remained unscathed.
Slowly Zuko raised his hands to his face. In equal slowness he proceeded to run his fingertips over his skin.
No scar. No burnt skin. His face was undamaged.
He moved his left eye, and it moved without restraint. He furrowed his eyebrow, and it obeyed. He blinked.
If not for the fact that he was in a female body, Zuko might have experienced unbridled happiness in that moment for the first time in years.
His face was good.
But it was not his.
This has a tendency to kill happiness.
Iroh. He had to get to Iroh. He had to get to his ship. Even if this wasn't reality, it was the only intelligent thing to do. He had to get out of there.
His uncle would know what to do. At this point Zuko even began to think he'd bathe in tea if that's what it took for things to return to normal. He'd marry tea.
Well, maybe not. Iroh would get a kick out of that.
Zuko began to stumble away from the camp, not even looking back as he did, in the direction he deemed led to his ship. His legs were numb and didn't move quiet like he was used to, and several times he almost tripped. However Zuko was more apt at using his body than Katara had been, and before long he was making long strides and eventually almost breaking into a run.
Twigs and grass bent beneath his feet. It was strange, this body was lighter than he was used to, and not as bulky.
Sadly it was also not as in shape as his and before long the prince had to stop and take a breather, bent over with his hands on his knees.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what body he'd landed in. It was the Waterbender girl.
Which meant the Avatar was near, but for one of the rare moments of his life, the Avatar was not his topmost priority.
Immediately Zuko began blaming Katara for all his trouble. Then a horrible thought boinked him in the brain.
What about his body?
Zuko stiffened.
His body...
If he was here...
Then she must be...
For a few seconds, or minutes, because we don't care for accuracy, Zuko stopped breathing.
All kinds of horrible images came to him; images of him in frilly dresses, him at a table exclaiming "Oh dear! Fish, how lovely!" and even worst of all - the image of him hugging Iroh, exclaiming (in a high pitched girly voice) "Oh I'd love tea, Uncle-kins!"
Of course Katara would never actually do these things, but Zuko wasn't entirely sure of that and with each image came another image even worse.
Nevertheless this caused Zuko to break out into another run as he brushed branches and limbs out of his way. He HAD to get to his ship no matter what it took.
Normally in dreams people wake up in the middle of the run. And when this didn't happen the reality of the situation became clear. This made Zuko speed up even faster, ignoring the pounding of his heart and the breathlessness of his lungs.
Suddenly a noise made Zuko skid to a stop and spin around habitually.
And there he saw...
A bathroom.
She needed a bathroom.
Katara flew down the dark hall until she saw a door. Either the gods above had mercy on her, or maybe bathroom doors emit bathroom-y auras, but Katara flew at it and it was, indeed, a bathroom.
She slammed the door behind her and stumbled to a mirror, resting her elbows on a squat basin. There she focused on inhaling and exhaling and calming herself. Slowly her heart slowed down to its normal pace (which was still slightly faster than what she was used to) and she let herself droop to the floor to rest.
Immediately she realized she had done a very dumb thing, but she wasn't too hard on herself for once. Maybe her flight down the hall (and girly shrieking) wasn't noticed too badly.
Her thoughts went back to the man at the door and she double-checked whether the bathroom door was locked. It was, and she leaned against it and sighed.
She had to get off the ship and find Aang. She wasn't too keen on finding Sokka, but then again it was impossible to avoid the little urchin. She'd have to face him.
Katara glanced to the mirror and slowly she made her way to it, her heavy footsteps resonating on the hard floor. Once she had approached it she gazed silently into its surface.
She looked like Zuko, and there was no mistaking it. Subconsciously she bit her lip, then realized what she was doing and spit it back out. Slowly she raised her hand to touch the scar.
His hands were more calloused and rough than hers had been, but fighters' often were. Slowly she traced the blemish and winced, even though it didn't actually hurt. It was more of an eyesore. Of course she had noticed Zuko's scar before upon their meetings, but she'd never thought about what it was like for him to live with it. She didn't even know how he had gotten it. Maybe it was some badge of honor, but something told Katara this was not the case.
Suddenly Katara noticed the muscle. She blinked and rotated her arm, watching the muscles move and ripple along her shoulder and chest. Suddenly she began experimenting, flexing and clenching certain upper body muscles to see how they worked. She didn't have half these muscles and had never known most of them even existed.
She also couldn't get over the flat chest. In utter amazement she poked and then rubbed at it, baffled at how firm it was.
Suddenly she realized what she was doing and froze, blushing inwardly with fervent embarrassment. She was oogling herself!
And at that same exact moment the door flew open and Iroh was standing there, mouth open to spout out his apology at interrupting, when he stopped.
"Zuko" was standing in front of the mirror with both hands frozen in a rubbing motion over his chest. His mouth hung open in horror.
There was complete stillness until "Zuko" suddenly threw a hand out to his side and pointed to the door. "That was locked!" he wailed piteously.
Iroh momentarily forgot how to work his mouth. When he did, in typical Iroh fashion, his voice was calm and his face placid. "...Zuko, you know the lock on this door doesn't work."
"Zuko"'s lip suddenly started trembling. He looked like a wild animal that had been trapped.
Slowly Iroh backed away from the door. "...I'll leave you alone now, Nephew. Please join me for lunch later." He shut the door.
Katara nearly collapsed in a wash basin. She covered her face, feeling a blush worm its way across her face. She was beyond embarrassed and horrified. She was... embarrified.
After she gained control of her emotions the Waterbender began fervently searching through drawers until she found what she wanted. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her bare chest and was once again glad she had woken up in pants. She waited for a few minutes and listened through the door but heard no sounds or footsteps. Gradually she eased out and tiptoed down the hall, clutching the towel tightly to her like a cherished pet.
Luckily it was not a pet, for if it was it would have been limp and dead by the time she had found her way back to the bedroom she had woken in. She closed the door behind her and stared into space.
This was not her day.
A monkey.
A hog-monkey, actually.
Zuko stared it down as it stared him down. He scowled in what he hoped looked threatening.
"Stupid beast!" the prince exclaimed before turning to march off. The hog-monkey made a growling sound. Zuko whirled around and clenched his fist. He knew how to get rid of pesky animals.
Zuko drew back his arm and then thrust his fist forward, prepared to fire a fireball big enough to either fry the ugly thing or simply scare it off.
Victory twinkled in his eyes.
Silence.
Nothing happened.
Zuko stared, dumbfounded at his fist. Not even the smallest wisp of smoke!
The hog-monkey looked almost amused. It did a little jig.
Zuko snarled, kicking a branch at it in his rage.It had never occurred to him that he would lose his Firebending in this body as well, and to top it all off it was a freakin' monkey that was laughing at him.
Suddenly the hog-monkey became very serious. It gave out a call.
Suddenly five more hog-monkeys appeared beside it, all looking quite upset.
Zuko took a step backwards as the monkeys advanced.
This was not his day.