Dangerous Ground
Chapter Nine
It was so nice to be back in my own bed. Papa must have given me another blanket, because I'd never been this warm in my entire life. I knew I should get up and help Gran-Gran make breakfast, but it was just so deliciously hot under these blankets.
Almost too hot. I reached out to tug the blankets off and I felt my hand collide with something hard. I furrowed my brow. What in the world? I slowly opened my eyes.
Instead of the cheerful blue of my tent's walls, I found myself surrounded by a black, murky cave. Instead of the warm furs of my bed, I realized I was instead wrapped in layers of rough walking cloaks. I felt my heart sink into my stomach as I realized where I was In an explosion of memory.
Focusing straight ahead of me in the near-dark, I reached my hand out again and felt for the source of the heat. As my eyes adjusted and lost the blurriness of sleep, an image formed. It was a body. A very, very warm body covered in sculpted muscles. I let my eyes traveled upwards and found myself staring into two golden orbs, burning with fire in the darkness.
"Zuko!"
A hand went over my mouth and I stifled the panic welling up in my chest. What was he doing? Why were we lying together, wrapped up in our clothes? Was he naked?
"Don't scream, you'll alert the guards." He warned me and his hand slowly lifted off my mouth. I took in shallow breaths and weighed my options. Right now, alerting a guard didn't sound like such a bad idea, but I decided to let him explain himself before I disobeyed him.
Without a word, he pushed himself upright. The cloaks slid off his frame to fall in a pile by his knees. I gasped in the cold and looked up at him, suddenly wishing for the warmth of his skin again. What I saw did bring warmth to me, but not because of shared body heat.
A stream of silvery moonlight was filtering in through one of the vents in the cave, outlining his muscular silhouette and bathing his face and body in a milky, ethereal light. I let my eyes wander over his strong, angular face, over his shoulders and his firm stomach, down to the silky pants he had worn beneath his armor.
He's so beautiful
I mentally slapped myself. What was I saying? I must still be suffering the effects of being cold for so long. I tried to shake myself out of it as I watched him gather the cloaks and begin to wrap me tightly in them.
"You had the cold sickness. It is rare among my people. Only the weakest get it. You are lucky I was trained in battlefield aide." He said as he finished wrapping me. I looked down at myself and noted that I looked very much like a smaller version of Appa. Not exactly pretty, but warm. It felt so good to be warm. My stomach twisted inside of me as I remembered the night before and how close I had come to death. The cold sickness may be rare for the Fire Nation, but it was all too common a reality among the Water Tribes, whose frigid homeland claimed many victims.
I looked up at Zuko, who had turned his back and was now pacing the walls. I noticed that he was still without a shirt. Fingering the many layers of fabric, I felt the soft, silky touch of his tunic beneath the two cloaks. He'd given it up for me. Picking out the negative words Zuko commonly sprinkled through his sentences, I realized that he'd just admitted that he'd intentionally helped me.
"You saved my life." I whispered. Zuko froze.
"No man with any honor lets a lady die in his presence if he can prevent it." He didn't look at me when he said it, only continued pacing. I stared at his back and felt a wall of anger rising in front of my eyes. How could he say such a thing when his nation was killing women and children every day as part of their ruthless subjugation of the world?
His nation kills innocents, yes. But does he? It was Gran-Gran's voice again. Gran-Gran's voice was getting annoying. It was forcing me to put aside the anger I wanted to feel toward him and remember the ways of my people.
But does he? She insisted. I wanted to say yes, but I had no proof. I'd never seen him actually kill or hurt someone, though he certainly had it in his power and ability to do so. Of course, he'd attacked Aang, but it had only ever been Aang. He'd never gone after me or Sokka. That could just have been because I (and certainly Sokka) weren't much of a threat, but it seemed unlikely.
Oh, he'd threatened and grandstanded, but that just seemed to be a Fire Nation trait. As I thought about it, I realized that even when he'd invaded my village to hunt for Aang, he had never hurt anyone. When he'd captured me to question me he'd not tortured me to get information. In fact, he'd almost been gentle.
"Thank you for... for what you did." I said softly.
"Forget it. Now we're even." He pounded on the rock and blasted it with fire, but it remained as firm as ever.
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"I... I have your tunic."
"You need it more than I do."
The room fell silent for some time. I huddled against the cave walls, breathing into my hands to warm them. Already the iciness that permeated the tiny cell was beginning to seep into my clothing, but I willed myself not to think about it. Already the pale light of night was giving way to a creamy yellow of dawning sun. Maybe the cell would heat up as day came.
"Why is it so cold in here? Do they want to kill us?" I wondered aloud, just to break the silence.
"Not like this. They think you're a Firebender. They don't know you're subject to the cold." He settled down across from me on the cave floor. His face was drawn tightly in concentration as he looked at the ground. I began to think that if he continued to stare with such intensity, he might bore holes in the ground and we could escape that way.
"Do you have any ideas?" I asked timidly. I didn't want to break his concentration, but the silence was killing me.
"This cell was built for a Firebender. It's so small that if I were to try to melt the rock, the room would heat up and turn into an inferno before I even get halfway there. Even if I should try, I wouldn't get very far, as a good part of my strength is used in just keeping my body warm." He spoke to the floor, seemingly musing out loud.
A loud clang made both of us jump. Zuko stood in a fighting stance, one hand already blazing with fire. I crouched by the door, gathering up what little moisture I could find and concealing it in my fist. Slowly, the heavy metal door swung open, creaking on its hinges and scratching grooves in the earthen floor.
"Well, it looks like the lovebirds are up." An earthbender said with a leer as he pushed a bucket into the room with his toe. "Eat up. You'll need your strength for when you face Teikei tomorrow." And with that the door closed again, leaving us blinking and mulling over the Earthbender's foreboding words.
"I wonder who Teikei is." I thought out loud as I peered into the bucket. Zuko remained silent, staring into the darkness at the other end of the cell. I shrugged and began to pick items out of the bucket. There was some hard-crusted bread that had an earthy smell, along with a few dried and salted fish and a canteen of water.
"Want some?" I broke the loaf roughly in half and offered the larger piece to the Prince. He threw a disdainful look at the bread and then turned back to his silent musings.
"You don't have to be so rude. You could at least say 'no thank you'. I'm not the one that got us into this mess, you know." I said. I was cold, dirty, worried about Aang and Sokka, and in no humor to put up with Zuko's moodiness.
"It was your idea to go for a walk by the river." He retorted.
"Hey, they wouldn't have even bothered me if I hadn't been with a Firebender."
"And how do you know?"
"What would they want with me? I don't remember leading an army to take over their kingdom."
"You couldn't lead an army out of a knapsack."
"And you can't even catch a little boy!"
Fire crackled in the air as the room heated. Mmm, this was nice. I'd have to get Zuko angry more often, that way I might be able to enjoy a moment of warmth every once in a while.
"A water peasant could never fully appreciate the complexities of my strategies." He huffed and crossed his arms as smoke began to wisp around his fists.
"Strategies?" I snorted. "Looks like your strategies are doing wonders, Zuko." I spread my arms out against the backdrop of the murky cell walls.
He gave me a dark look and then turned his back to me. I celebrated inwardly and began to Waterbend the contents of the canteen. I'd won my first verbal battle against Zuko.
The golden cream of sunlight turned to pale white as the sun and moon changed guards over the sky. I sighed. An entire day had passed. The cave had turned deathly quiet after the little argument between me and Zuko, though I'd done my best to ignore it by waterbending. Soon, however, even waterbending became boring and I'd resorted to reciting poems in my head, then to picking all the fuzzballs out of my cape, and finally to drawing little stick-figures on the cave walls with sharp stones.
You should make up with him.
Make up with him? How could I do that? We'd never been 'up' to begin with. There was nothing to make up to!
All the same...
I sighed. Why did I have to be the one stuck in a cell with the snarling Fire Prince? Why couldn't it have been someone that deserved cruel and horrible punishment, like the Fire Lord himself. Maybe if they got stuck in a cell together daddy and son would work things out and we could all get on with our lives. Or, one would end up torched. Why did Firebenders have to be so volatile?
Power, anger, destruction, passion. It is their element.
Well, I'm glad I'm not Fire Nation, then. Water is much better. Passive, healing, soothing. That beats fire any day.
Listen to you, you're as bad as Zuko is! Have you learned nothing from your people? There must be balance in all things. Even water, if unbalanced, is a detrimental element.
But how can water and fire balance each other? The two cannot exist without destroying each other.
This time, I had no answers. I sighed. Picking up the leftover bread and fish I brought it to Zuko and sat as close next to him as I dared.
"Here, you should eat this. Don't make me force feed you again." I said. Something flashed across his face. A smile? It was hard to tell in the deepening darkness of the cell. He reached forward and accepted the food.
He ate in silence. The dark of the cell became more intense, as did the cold. I wrapped my arms around my knees and focused on keeping warm, but unlike Zuko, I did not possess the ability to summon warmth to my body. I sighed as I gave up and started shivering. Fingers of ice ran through my blood, reclaiming the body that they'd lost the night before. My teeth chattered together despite my best efforts to keep myself still. The sound attracted Zuko's attention.
"Fools."
"Wh-wh-wh-haat?" I stuttered through my shuddering mouth.
"They should have made sure you were a firebender before they put you in here." He explained. I caught the movement of his hand as he reached up to rub his shoulders. Even as a Firebender he seemed to be getting cold without a shirt in the sub-zero cell. I realized that we could both be in danger tonight. Of course, there was one way to ensure we stayed warm...
No! I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't ask. He would take it as weakness.
You could be saving his life, as well as your own.
Then let him ask!
You said yourself that it would be weakness in his eyes to ask. He would never choose to appear weak. You must be the one to make the first move.
I sighed. I was losing too many arguments with myself.
"Z-Zuh-Z- Zuko..." I began. What do I say? I thought, anxiety creeping into my stomach. Zuko, will you please sleep with me? Zuko, I want your warm body? Zuko...
The fantasy requests only got worse from there, and I blushed as I realized what I'd been thinking about. Not that I wanted any of that... with Zuko. He was my enemy and I would sooner clean up after a flying bison's droppings than do that with my enemy.
"What?" He looked at me expectantly. I realized that I'd not given him my request yet. Okay, here goes...
"I...I wuh-w- was just t-t-t-thinking... I'm really cold... and you're g-g-g-going to get tired trying to keep yourself w-w-warm, and..." I trailed off, hoping that he'd just take the hint and not press the matter.
"Yeah? What about it?" He drew me out. I couldn't see his expression in the dark, but I could tell from the slow, innocent way that he spoke that he was teasing me. He was enjoying this! Aghh! If I didn't need his warmth I'd...
Calm yourself, Katara. Just tell him what you want.
"I j-j-just thought... that... w-w-well, you know how you h-h-helped me when I had the c-c-cold sickness? Well, maybe we could do that again... t-t-tonight." I waited breathlessly for him to respond. It seemed to take an eternity.
"Even in all those clothes you can't stay warm? No wonder the water tribes are losing the war." Was his arrogant reply. I balled my fists and grit my teeth as I prepared to unleash a barrage of insults at him. But then I suddenly felt his hands on my neck.
Gently, carefully, they were untying the cords that held the cloaks on my shoulders. All the words that were going to come out of my mouth suddenly stuck to my throat like honey. A shiver passed through my body as the first cloak came off. I heard the rustle of cloth as he laid it on the ground.
"If we put a cloak on the floor it'll keep the cold in the ground from seeping into us." He explained as he began to untie the next cloak from around my shoulders. His touch was becoming more pronounced now as the layers were coming off. I heard the second cloak drop to the floor.
His fingertips were warm through the cloth as he reached forward to unbutton the tunic he'd let me wear. I was frozen, and this time it had nothing to do with cold. A man was undressing me. Not just a man, a Prince. My enemy. The last thought hardened me and I put my hands out to push him away, and that's when his fingers connected with the bare skin of my neck.
A jolt of electricity ran through me, sending every nerve in my body dancing beneath my tingling skin. I gasped as a shudder started at my neck and zinged all the way down to my toes. Zuko pulled his hand away quickly.
"It's cold" I complained, standing there in only my Water Tribe dress and the now-open tunic. I had to say something to cover up my gasp, and it was the best thing I could think of. Why did it sound familiar?
I felt his hand take mine firmly and lead me to the pile of cloaks. I was pulled down into the nest, his strong, masculine hands wrapping around my smaller ones and tugging me gently to him. Taking me in his arms he brought me against his chest.
I took in a sharp breath. It was so warm! Before I could stop myself I nuzzled into him, enjoying the feel of his arms around me.
ENJOYING! I almost jolted out of my skin. You can't enjoy this! He's your enemy! I scolded myself. How could I? I would be betraying my people if I was enjoying being in the arms of this spoiled Fire Prince brat.
Nonsense. I'm not enjoying him. I'm just enjoying his warmth.
Yes... that's it. I'm enjoying his warmth.
It's just the warmth.
Thanks to all the wonderful reviews! They are truly encouraging, and make the chapters come much more quickly.
Cold sickness is how I thought the characters at this time might think of hypothermia. Yes, that's what Katara had. Hypothermia (as I'm sure you all know) is characterized at its late stages as feeling numb, inability to speak, hallucinations, and finally coma and death if untreated. I hope that I conveyed this well.
This story has been very fun to write, but also a little challenging, as I've committed myself to telling it solely from Katara's POV. I've wanted quite a few times to switch to Zuko, but of course, you can't do that writing in the first person. So, I'm just going to try and convey his thoughts through his actions. This will come more later on.
Yes, I know, not a lot of fluff, like I promised. But IT WILL COME. It's just slow going because I really want to show the character's inner conflicts and thoughts and keep it believable. There must be character development, but not overnight. Hopefully, you'll bear with, and perhaps even enjoy, the romance as it buds.