Chapter 24 I don't care

Katara refused to leave Zuko's side until he moved. And that was about a week ago. She refused to even acknowledge anyone either. She hadn't eaten or slept in about a week.

"Please wake up my prince." She whispered stroking his head. "Your uncle needs you. So does your crew." She allowed a tear to slip down her cheek. "I need you."

Katara finally picked up Zuko's hand and brought it closer towards her face. She allowed her tears to fall down continuously. Just the thought of Zuko being in a coma was driving her insane.

Zuko finally moved his thumb and forefinger and wiped her tears away. "Don't cry." He opened his eyes and forced himself up. "I'm not worth that many tears."

Katara opened her eyes and looked at Zuko. She couldn't help but smile when he spoke these words. She jumped onto the bed and threw her arms around his neck. She then began to cry into his shoulder.

"Aw… what's with all the crying? That's nothing like you." He stroked her hair gently trying to get her to calm down.

"You had me so worried." She sniffed.

Zuko smiled and pushed her away. He looked her up and down before lifting her chin towards his face. When he closed the gap between their lips she smiled into it.

Neither of them noticed Sokka, Aang, and Iroh walk into the room. Sokka gagged a little while Iroh chuckled startling both the teens.

Katara pulled away from the fire bender prince and looked towards the three boys. Each of their expressions read differently: Sokka was kind of grossed out, and Iroh was impressed. And Aang, well it didn't take Katara that long to figure out that the boy was hurt by her actions.

"Geeze Katara, you should put up some kind of warning before you decide to have a make-out session." Sokka half scolded half teased.

"Prince Zuko, should I be expecting nieces and nephews soon?" Iroh asked teasingly.

Sokka couldn't help but smile. "If they create my nieces and/or nephews now then I'm going to have to be extra careful for those half breeds."

Katara giggled slightly while she felt her face blush. She looked over at the Avatar; he really didn't need to say anything about this subject. Both his eyes and face read: 'how could you.' After she saw his expression he ran out of the room at top speed. Turning back towards Zuko she sighed.

Zuko started to move but Katara pushed him his shoulder back. "Let me go find him." She gave him a quick kiss before walking over to the doorway.

"Try the mediation room." Iroh suggested. "He's been staying in there for the past week."

Katara nodded and headed towards the mediation room. Since she had only been there once before she wasn't sure how to get there. But when she saw left over dust from Aang's trail she figured that he would lead her to him.

"Aang?" Katara asked walking into the room sometime later.

Aang looked back towards the open door before returning his gaze back towards the candles. "Fire is so beautiful yet it can still betray you." He turned back towards her. "Kind of like you."

Katara was aghast by what the Avatar had just said. "Look you don't understand…" Katara tried to explain approaching the heart broken boy.

"Oh I understand all right. You go for the high and mighty types. Not for the type of boys that really matter." Aang snapped. "And Prince Physco is one of those types."

Katara was clearly losing her patience with the boy. "Aang!" Katara yelled. "Zuko is not a Physco. The reason I fell in love with him is…"

"Look Katara, I don't care what reason that is!" He yelled back. "All I know is that I love you. Why do you…"

Katara walked up to the young Avatar and smacked him across the face. "Avatar, listen to yourself. You're twelve years old. You can't love. Having a crush is one thing but loving someone comes with a whole bunch of different responsibilities."

"So why are you allowed to love?"

"Because I know…" She stopped herself. "Because I know what the real Zuko is like. He doesn't have many friends. His sister and father don't love him and…"

Aang interrupted her for a second time. "Look I just want to know the reason you love Prince Physco."

"I love him not for his titles or because of his money. I love the prince because…" She paused to stop to think. She was going to say because he wasn't a child. But that wasn't true. Okay it was partly but not the reason she was going for. "Because I know he'll be there for my children. And I won't have to worry about…" She stopped again lost for words.

"Yeah," Aang looked at his feet. "You just want to admit the fact that you're falling for…"

It was Katara's turn to interrupt the boy for a second time. "From what I'm getting at your…" Katara didn't get a chance to finish her sentence because Aang had pushed her up against the wall. He stood on his toes and forcefully placed his lips on hers.

Katara could tell that he was acting out of lust and not out of love. She then felt the child push up against her. For someone so young he sure knew what he was doing. Katara wanted to scream or do something, but since Aang was being so forceful she was helpless.

Katara was lucky at that moment that Zuko came rushing in. his eyes fell on the two benders and he felt a different sort of feeling. It wasn't jealousy it was more like a protective kind of feeling.

"Get away from her!" The prince yelled pulling Aang off of her and flinging the Avatar across the room. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

He didn't give Aang a chance to answer because he picked Katara up bridal style and carried her out. He was going to protect his peasant in any way possible. Katara wrapped her arms around Zuko's neck and the two of the m walked out. She then buried her head into his shoulder almost wanting to cry.

"Are you okay my water peasant?" Zuko asked walking back towards his room.

Katara pulled away from looked up and smiled at the boy. "I am now my prince." She answered leaning up to give him a quick kiss.

Zuko smiled back at her and kicked open the door. His eyes fell on both Sokka and Iroh. Iroh smiled. "Why are you carrying the girl?"

Zuko didn't answer him. He placed the girl on the bed. "Stay here. I'll be back." He pushed Iroh out of the room before telling Katara. "I promise I won't be too far." With that he left the room.

Katara sighed and turned back towards Sokka. "How do you feel about me and Zuko?"

Sokka stood up and walked around before answering. "Katara, Zuko is a fire bender. I personally don't trust him." He sighed as Katara gave him the puppy dog pout. "But you love him. And that's good enough for me."

Katara squealed before jumping onto Sokka giving him a hug. "Thank you!" She shrieked.

"But," he pushed her away and put his hand up. "No holding hands, kissing, hugging, pet names, you can't even talk to him at all."

Katara giggled at her brother's over protectiveness. "Okay, how about instead no kissing, pet names, or holding hands." She compromised.

"Fine that's all right. The other crap you can't do in public." Sokka finished as Zuko walked in.

"Kat, are you sure you're okay?" Zuko asked for like the third time. Katara walked up to Zuko and gave him another kiss.

"Hey I'm public!" Sokka yelled.

Katara smiled and answered, "Yeah, I'm all right."

"What happened?" Sokka demanded.

Katara looked down. She couldn't tell her own brother what happened between her and Aang. "Well…"

"He was trying to force himself on Katara." Zuko answered the warrior.

"Who's he?" Sokka asked raising an eyebrow.

"The Avatar," Zuko replied his fists flaming at the thought of Aang's hand on Katara.

Sokka glared at Zuko. "So you rescued her right?" He asked suspiciously.

Katara nodded before answering, "Aang didn't know what he was doing. He was reacting on instinct and feeling rather than what was going on in his head."

Zuko and Sokka turned to Katara and gave her a look like she was crazy. "Katara, did you hit your head when Aang forced himself on you? That boy was trying to rape you and all you can say is that he doesn't know what he's doing?" Zuko threw his hands up in the air from frustration. "From what I saw he knew what he was doing."

"You don't understand!" Katara yelled.

"Katara calm down. It's just a statement." Sokka trying to get the girl to calm down. "You don't need to…"

"Oh I understand all right." Zuko yelled back. "You don't care about yourself. As long as Aangie does it it's all right. And the whole world is safe."

"No, that's not it at all!" She yelled. "He's just too young to understand. I'm trying to protect him."

"Protect him from what? Realizing that he could hurt you more than he realizes? How much damage he could cause by fucking you?" Zuko asked. "Well you're doing a good job of it."

"Shut up!" Katara yelled back. "I'm trying to make sure that Aang doesn't do anything stupid before he defeats the Fire Lord!"

"Well…" Zuko started to say calmly.

"We're leaving!" Katara yelled addressing Sokka.

"Fine go. Leave this place. I don't want you here anyway." Zuko's frustration was back again.

"Good cause I don't want to be here!"

"But I'm not calling off my search for the Avatar!" Zuko yelled.

"That's fine with me. Because I don't care!" She walked up to him and slapped him before turning to Sokka. "Lets go Sokka."

The water warrior looked at Zuko, who shrugged. The fire prince walked up to the warrior and whispered something in his ear before giving him something.

Sokka nodded and pushed Katara out of the room. They were lucky Aang was standing outside of the door. Sokka grabbed his arm and dragged him out onto the deck. The Avatar then took out his bison whistle and blew into it. Appa landed on the deck and the three of them walked onto the bison.

"Yip, yip Appa." Aang commanded.

Katara walked to the back of Appa's saddle and watched Zuko's ship disappear. She leaned her head on the saddle and allowed tears to flow down freely.

Sokka walked over to his sister and pulled her into a hug. "I promise your prince will be back. And he will forgive you for everything you said." He whispered brushing some strands of hair out of her face.

Katara pushed away from Sokka and snapped. "I don't care about that prince. For all I care he can die." Though deep inside she knew that she really did care about him and she was currently heart broken.

With Zuko

Zuko looked at the door then turned and kicked a table over. He walked out of his room and onto the deck.

"Helmsman!" Zuko yelled. "Continue our course northward."

"No we need to make a stop for more supplies Prince Zuko." Iroh yelled.

"Why?"

"Because your father insisted he stayed here until he was sure that you weren't here." Iroh answered. "And he destroyed most of our supplies."

"Fine, but we will not stay there for longer than necessary." Zuko snapped. "I'm going to mediate. Do not disturb me unless it's concerning the Avatar." He walked back down into a maze of rooms. Focusing back on regaining his honor and nothing else.

Zuko opened the door to his mediation room. He looked around it and let out a huge sigh. His thoughts once again returned to Katara.

"I refuse to think about that water tribe peasant. She means nothing to me." Zuko told himself. "The only…" He couldn't bright himself to say it. He took a deep breath in and said, "She's just a tool. Nothing more. And if she dies, so be it." He then closed his eyes and began to focus on regaining his honor.

Neither of the two teens knew that this fight would affect the out come of the rest of their lives. And maybe the existence of both the Fire and Water Nations.

K15: I laugh at you all. Okay this is the end of Running From Fear Itself. So thanks for all the good reviews... so on a more imporant note. The sequel to this story is probably just going to be added onto it. I'm just going to rename the story and change the summary. I bet you all weren't expecting this sort of ending. I planned it all along. So I laugh at you all again. I give you Sokka action figures this time. (He has six different bendable postitions. And he has 20 different quotes and 13 different ways of saying he's hungry. Oh and he has 15 ways of nagging Katara about his instincts.) Don't ask where I come up with these ideas. I have no life. Okay so plz review. And look for an updation for the sequel soon. So yeah. Later. K15