Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, my muse ran away after I wrote Chapter 8 because school started, and I have really hard classes. But I do have good news: I just saved a bunch of money on car insurance by switching to Gaico.

Just kidding. I don't own a car. I have a bicycle. But Blue Kat did update one of her stories (after two months...) which makes me quite happy. For those of you who don't know, Blue Kat is the amazing authoress who got me started on reading and writing fanfiction in the first place. Yup. I started writing because I was going through withdrawal due to her infrequent updates.

Kind of sad, huh? But she updated and now I'm happy.

Chapter 5

Surprisingly little persuasion was needed to convince Zuko that Katara didn't need anyone to 'guard' her while she bathed. Though, grudgingly, Sokka's constant threats and glaring did help sway him, their effect was dwarfed by Katara's effort.

"I'll be all right," she had assured him. "You'll have to stop being a pervert for now." She kissed him on the cheek, and his opinion was instantly solid.

Sokka watched with interest. Somehow, everything he and Aang said was brushed aside as unimportant and Zuko's response was grudging at best. Yet all Katara had to do was bat her eyelashes and he became her loyal servant.

It was bizarre.

He'd probably jump off a cliff if she asked him to, Sokka thought cheerfully. The image was rather pleasant, especially in the grimly familiar place.

They had been flying for a few days now, but the forest over which they traveled showed no signs of ending. Zuko assured them that they were already outside Fire Nation territory, and safely out of reach of Zhao and his soldiers. But he was blissfully unaware of other dangers, sure that he could cope with whatever threatened.

That confidence really ticked Sokka off. And the young warrior came just short of saying so, moments after Katara left for a bath. But before he could make a sound, he was interrupted by a rather annoying bird as it twittered somewhere in the branches above them.

"You are really annoying, you know that?" Sokka said. Zuko didn't respond. His attention was focused on the leafy canopy, his predator's eyes scanning the branches.

"Zuko?" Aang said gingerly.

"Quiet." His eyes still hadn't left the sky. Somewhere in the trees, a breeze disturbed the branches, and they rustled noisily. Sokka snorted.

"Boy, you're tense. Calm down, it's just some dumb bird." Zuko lowered his gaze, carefully meeting Sokka's eyes. His eerie golden orbs were unreadable.

"No, it's not."

Katara tried not to look downstream as she bathed, though she couldn't keep her eyes from wandering. In the distance she saw the ruins of an old dam, long since destroyed, and the destroyed land around it, an ugly scar on an otherwise beautiful forest.

But in truth, the wreckage wasn't really ugly. Water had filled many of the remaining craters, and foliage was beginning to reclaim the mutilated earth. It could be rebuilt. Reclaimed. The land could heal in time.

The man who caused that destruction could not.

She took a deep breath and dove beneath the river's surface. The river pressed all around her, offering her comfort. Water could restore. It could protect. It could save. And after even the cruelest flood, new life was always sure to emerge. It was a gentle element. A healing element.

But he had tried to change that. To use it to destroy, to kill. He tried to use her to murder innocent people.

A bitter taste filled her mouth, summoned by the memory. She spat it into the river and broke through the surface, shaking droplets of water from her face and hair. Satisfied, she opened her eyes.

And cried out.

Zuko was on his feet in a flash. He raced away from the clearing, Sokka and Aang on his heels.

To drag Zuko away when he finds out it's nothing, Aang told himself. Katara just shouted because she stepped on a frog or something. She's not really in danger. Zuko just got worked up, so he's jumping to conclusions, and we need to herd him back to camp when he gets there. It's gonna be all right.

Please, please be all right, Katara.

They burst through the line of trees with no warning but the startled chirping of a few birds. Katara stood ominously still, half submerged in the river, her face a mixture of shock and anger and fear. She didn't see Aang or Zuko or Sokka.

Her eyes were locked on Jet.

The young man glanced over his shoulder at the new arrivals, a look of mild surprise on his features. He had been staring at Katara a moment before. Aang swallowed. This did not bode well: Zuko knew nothing of Jet, though he was clearly very sure of something else.

Whoever the stranger was, he had frightened Katara. And most likely, had threatened her as well.

The air around Zuko became suddenly torrid, and Aang fought the urge to back away, to escape the wrath that was almost visibly welling within the Prince.

"What are you doing here, Jet?" Sokka demanded.

"Sokka. Aang. Who's your new friend?" Something in the rebel's eyes betrayed that he knew very well who Zuko was.

"Answer the question," Aang said coldly. Jet shrugged.

"Same as always," he said, his voice light and smooth. "Saving people from the Fire Nation." If he had been looking for a reaction, he certainly got one. Zuko's face twisted into a furious glare as he advanced a step, unconsciously entering a fighting stance. Jet's face flickered into a minor smirk. Another false bird cry sounded, and he glanced up.

"I've got things to take care of, so if you don't mind..." he didn't bother to finish, disappearing like a shadow into the trees.

As he left, Katara seemed to remember herself, as well as the fact that she wasn't wearing anything, and jumped into the meager shelter of the water, trying to cover her vital regions with her arms. A furious blush stained her face. Aang, Sokka, and Zuko apparently realized the same, and all three spun on their heels, turning away from her, their faces as red as hers. Sokka clapped his hand over Aang and Zuko's eyes as well, as though to block out any temptation of peeking at his sister. But Zuko brushed the protective barrier aside and pulled off his shirt. Without a second thought he threw it over his shoulder, and it landed in the river, a few feet away from Katara. She understood and quickly donned the garment before wading from the water.

"Are you all right, Katara?" Sokka asked, as the three boys helped her from the water's edge. She nodded.

"Yeah...I was just startled. That's all." She bent to pick up her clothes and towel.

"Wait to change until we get back to camp," Aang suggested, his eyes flickering through the deceptive foliage. Katara nodded again and began walking, surrounded by her three guards.

She toweled off and dressed behind Appa, grateful for the warm, dry clothes. She thanked Zuko for lending her his shirt, though he assured her that it wasn't a problem. The unspoken message was clear enough: they had greater problems to worry about than a soaked tunic.

"That pervert," Zuko said as all of them settled around the campfire. "You all know him?"

"Wish we didn't," Sokka grated.

"Yeah...it wasn't the best experience," Aang said uncomfortably. They could have done nothing more to peak Zuko's interest.

"What happened?" he pried. Sokka shot a sidelong glance at his sister.

"For one thing, Katara used to have a crush on him." An awkward moment passed.

"I see," Zuko said. He would later look back in wonder at the restraint he showed.

A crush? On him! What could you possibly see in a shallow, twisted boy like him? He's obviously nothing but a good for nothing, vain, idiotic, perverted, sick... As though she could hear his thoughts, Katara blushed, sending an apologetic glance at the ground.

"It...wasn't the brightest thing I've ever done..." she said.

Clearly.

But then, neither was kissing me. And I know I've never regretted that... But there was more to the story.

"What happened?" he asked again.

"Jet... well, to put it nicely, he was a lying jerk and a madman," Aang started, still uneasy.

"Heck, yeah," Sokka said. "And he had the two of you eating out of the palm of his hand. Sure, the guy could talk smooth, but he was insane. He tried to kill off an entire village, just because it was being occupied by the Fire Nation. He was obsessed with destroying everything Fire Nation, no matter who he had to hurt or kill to do it. He even jumped and beat a harmless old man!"

"And you liked him?" Zuko asked Katara.

"I didn't know. I just figured Sokka was being weird or jealous or something. I didn't think he..." she looked away. "I didn't think anyone could be like that."

"Like what?"

"Two faced like that. He acted...sweet, I guess. Sincere. Like he really wanted to help people. And then he turned around and tried to kill all those innocent people... And he talked Aang and me into helping him do it."

"How?" Zuko couldn't imagine Katara ever willingly going along with such a scheme. Katara, Sokka and Aang explained about the reservoir that stood just upstream of a village, of Jet's lies about a planned forest fire, about how she and Aang had been eager to help protect the valley, only to discover, too late, the truth behind the plot. And of how Sokka had convinced the villagers to evacuate, just before the dam that held the reservoir was destroyed, releasing a flood that completely destroyed the newly emptied village.

"I really trusted him," Katara said at last. "I just didn't want to believe that he could..."

'They wouldn't touch your food if they knew where it came from. Sokka and Aang don't trust Firebenders. Least of all you.'

'But do you?'

'No.'

It certainly explained a lot.

"And now we're back," Sokka said at last.

"We can leave first thing in the morning," Zuko offered.

"Right." For once, the two boys didn't argue.

Zuko woke that night to an unwelcome sound. He snapped to attention, searching through the darkness. Katara was, thankfully, still asleep, though she was tossing in the throes of a nightmare, whimpering and moaning incoherently. Silently Zuko crawled around Sokka to her side. With one hand he took hers, with the other he smoothed her hair.

"It's all right," he whispered into her ear, softly, so she wouldn't wake. "It's all right. I'm here. I won't let anything hurt you. Shhh..." Katara began to calm. Her movements slowed, her whimpering quieted, and she tightened her grip on his hand, pulling it close to as though it was a stuffed toy. He continued whispering to her until her breathing steadied and she returned to a still, peaceful sleep. For several minutes he simply laid there, his hand held in hers, watching her.

"I love you," he murmured, before finally reclaiming his hand and leaving her side.

Cold eyes watched him return to his spot on Sokka's other side. They saw him sit up once more to glance at the sleeping girl, and sigh, before Prince Zuko finally returned to sleep.