Don't own Avatar and all that jazz, This is in a few years (I know I know people! It's just a bloody story) Katara is about 17, Sokka 18, Zuko 19 and Aang 15 (Don't worry, no kinky sex scenes in my stories! Well at least not outright ones. I might leave hints)
Chapter one
Fire on water
Katara sat underneath a huge oak tree, with it's leaves spread out in all directions. A rather large book was in her hands with a blue leather binding and the title Shoseki no Mizu. Aang and Sokka had disappeared a while ago to soak in the hot springs that they had found. Though it had been a few hours, she was not one to dare dragging them out. Not after last night…
Katara sat in the middle of the clearing with thick sweet honey dripping down her face. Her beautiful amber hair was covering in it along with leaves, bugs and a number of other rotten nasty things Aang and Sokka had managed to find. She had run into the forest, away from them, to clean up, cry and sleep.
Her hair was still sticky from the honey and her heart still sore. Finally they came through the woods, Sokka's hair slightly damp and Aang's clothes drenched. They came and stood solemnly before her looking properly ashamed.
"Umm… you can use the hot springs now Katara." Aang offered quietly. Katara lifted her eyes to him and stared into his own great grey eyes.
Over time he had become taller with thin but sufficient muscles that rippled when he moved. She and Sokka had developed the same muscles; on her it made her appear to be a dancer. Also she had gained breasts and hips, giving her proper, proportionate curves. But, he was still a child young, carefree, playing pranks…
Slowly she moved her gaze away and stood; she was now a good 5'6". And though Aang was still taller, she somehow managed to look down at him with cool blue eyes, "Thank you." She smiled evilly, revealing that she had a not forgotten yesterday. But it wasn't just yesterday. Aang's pranks had slowly turned from torturing Sokka, to being downright cruel to Katara at times. But she bore them with a water bender's pride and held her head up high as she walked out of the clearing towards the hot spring.
The sun was setting fast and the lack of light would mean it would be time to properly spy on the Avatar without getting in trouble. Zuko snuck carefully across the littering of leaves, bugs, mice and Roku knows what else. Finally he came to the outer trees of the clearing where he saw the Avatar and Sokka sit down and begin to talk.
"Maybe we should cool it on the pranks Aang." Sokka whispered under his breath. Aang shrugged, "Come on, her hair is STILL sticky from that honey. Lets go get her before she-" at that moment, as though timed, Katara's enraged and frightened screamed echoed through the whole island. Zuko was ready to flee at a moments notice if she came running saying she saw a fire nation soldier of something. Instead there came the angry woman pounding through the forest, with a now dead water snake in her hands.
"Is this your idea of a damn joke?" she threw it violently into Aang's face, one of the fangs scratching his eye. He stared at her, shocked, "What if it had bit me, huh? I could have died Aang, DIED! You are such an insensitive jerk! I hate you! You hear me I HATE YOU!" tears were streaming from her eyes.
Sokka was looking angry and confused. Finally he managed to say, "You put a water snake in the hot springs, that was your joke! Gods Aang… Katara, I didn't-" but when he turned back, Katara was racing through the forest, her pack bouncing on her shoulders.
"Aang, she's right, you have been getting over zealous in your jokes! I hope that thing got venom in your eyes." He muttered as he turned and began rummaging through their things.
Aang's quiet and childish voice rang into his ears, "You aren't gonna leave me… are you?" Sokka turned on him, his face red from anger. But he checked himself just short of yelling.
He let out a big sigh, "No I'm not. But Katara is pretty fed up with it all. Let her have her space for a while. We'll make and leave out some food for her before we go to bed. Though I have a suspicion that she won't even come back for that." Aang took out a white cloth and began to treat his injured eye.
As Zuko watched the scene calm down, a soldier came up to him quietly, "Sir, what about the girl?" Zuko slowly turned around to look at him.
"I'll go after her, you stay here and watch, just watch. I have a plan." Zuko crawled on the ground on his stomach. As the soldier arranged himself so he could get a good view but still be comfortable.
Finally Zuko got far enough away to where he could walk. It felt good to stretch in the moonlit night. The moon was actually only a slim crescent in the sky; it's points looking jagged and cruel. He loved it…
Though there was little light, Zuko easily found the hot spring. There he found her abandoned pack and belongings, but where was Katara? After a few uncertain minutes, he crept into the area and had to walk almost nose to the ground to find her footprints. She was light and swift and didn't leave heavy or noticeable footprints. They led slightly to the left of the hot springs to a path. And the path led to a large lake. And there was Katara, in all her naked beauty and glory, standing on the water's edge.
Katara reveled in the crisp night air. It had been several years since she found out she could do this! She called it becoming one with the water.
Quietly she let her kimono fall from her shoulders, undid her under dress and finally she removed her loincloth and stood naked and exposed in the night.
The moon was in its sixth phase, the waning crescent, and looked most beautiful, with and underlying tone of evil, but she ignored it. The water lapped at her feet, tempting her to join it.
She stepped out, but instead of her feet sinking to the floor, they remained on the surface. Her tanned skin began to ripple in odd ways. It was changing, moving, rippling... like water. The tone of her skin became the same as the water, and then she was water. Her hair flowed behind her in an unseen wind; her eyes became nothing but shallow holes in her face, and she had no features save the shape of a woman's body with long flowing hair.
In a sweeping motion she twirled on one foot, first with her arms forming a circle in front of her, as a ballerina would, then stretching high above her head to the stars above. The spinning slowed down and she began water skating across the lake. Letting her ability become one with the water to propel her across the liquid surface. She took wide turns, moving gracefully all the while. The scariest thing was that she was completely translucent.
A few years back she had asked Aang to do the same thing, without showing him of course, but he just fell flat on his face. And she laughed to herself at the fact that she seemed the only one who could do this.
She danced for a while, letting the lake water flow into her and out again, but still keeping herself. Zuko watched from the shadows, completely immersed in what was happening. It wasn't so much as she was naked, but that this dance was beautiful; from the heart. And for some reason he felt strongly like crying, because the sadness in her dancing- the pathos of loosing her mother and father, the only friend she had and her brother- was so much like his own.
Finally in one huge sweeping motion, she raised a wave underneath her. Zuko watched it rise ten feet in the air, the fifty and finally one hundred feet in the air. Katara began to glow brightly from within. He could see it start at her heart, then spread out to the point where he could hardly stand it.
Then, when she was solid again, and falling backwards towards the water. Her eyes were peacefully shut and her mouth slightly open. Just before she hit the water, she moved so that she was in a diving position, with her fingers touching at the tips, forming an arrow; so that when she went into the water, there was nothing but a ripple in the surface. And the water tower also slid silently back into the lake.
Zuko was out in the open now. It had been well over three minutes since she had gone under. He scanned the surface with his one good eye but saw not even a small wave. Suddenly, right back where she had started, Katara emerged from the water, as though walking upstairs. Her amber hair, which used to be an ugly mousy brown, clung to her skin, and hid her breasts from view. She stood on the shore momentarily, as though sad to leave, and picked up her clothes before marching back towards the hot springs. Zuko had disappeared.
Zuko walked through the forest, a ways off the path, but enough to still she her. She was still naked, but she looked much better, no tears. After a while they reached the hot springs, where she set about making a campfire and tea before getting into the hot springs to rest her physical body. But she did not have much time, because Zuko took this time to do it.
Moving almost as gracefully as Katara had, he came into the clearing and whipped a gag over her mouth. Though it had little use, she hadn't had time to scream. He reached into the water and grabbed her hands, securing those too with a piece of cloth. Soldiers pealed off trees, the ground and came from the shadows and gathered her things. And the small party left the clearing, leaving not even a foot print or traceable scent.
... yeah... that's my fanfic. I changed it a bit because I was getting complaints on my little notes in the middle of sentences. I went back and read it fully only to find it major tacky so I'll move stuff like that down here.
Shoseki no Mizu (roughly Book of Water)
and Roku knows what else (meant to be like calling to a god).
Quietly she let her kimono (That's what it looks like, therefore that is what it is)
loincloth (old school underwear for the idiots out there)
