Chapter nine – Love's All Around

Avatar: The Last Airbender

-!--!--!-

The group sat around the king's table with a huge celebratory feast in front of them. Sokka was drooling at the site of so much food and promptly dug in once he was seated. A few minutes passed and Katara saw Zuko only pushing around the food. "What's wrong?"

Zuko jumped at the sudden voice. "Nothing…" she rose an eyebrow in his direction. "Alright…I don't know how this happened, but during the battle I went into the Spirit World."

All eating halted at that declaration. Iroh's face lit up and he smiled brightly. "Finally!"

All eyes turned on him and he turned a lovely shade of red. Zuko's brows furrowed. "What are you talking about, Uncle?"

Surprising to everyone, it was Aang who answered. "General Iroh can see into the Spirit World from time to time. We both could see you also had the gift, but it wasn't developed enough to be repeated. Only once were you allowed there, and only in the time of great importance."

Tian started laughing. "Zuko can see spirits, Aang is talking like an old guy, and Katara's finally having her wounds catch up to her." Her breath hitched when she realized the last thing she said.

Katara's face was white, her eyes were closed, and her body language screamed pain. Suddenly, like fog disappearing, cuts and burns faded into view. Everyone had forgotten she was hurt, as they were all fine. Katara had enough energy to heal them before leaving the battle grounds. Only a few soldiers had broken bones, but she couldn't fix those.

Suddenly she fell to the left, where Zuko was seated, and he caught her. Standing up in a flash, he was running to the infirmary and laid her on a bed. The others had come along, with Ruifu grabbing a healer on the way.

The last thing Katara heard before falling into deep blackness was Zuko. "You'll be okay…you have to be okay…"

The next thing she knew was a dim light coming through her eyelids. Opening her eyes with much force, she glanced around the room. The sun had long since gone down and the light was a fire across from her bed. Beside her was Zuko, sleeping in a chair. Smiling, she tried to reach out her hand, but it wouldn't move.

She started to panic. Why couldn't she move? Wasn't she supposed to move? That's what her joints were for. Finally, her hand twitched. It seemed to Katara that her body didn't like her to panic, so they gave her something to calm down. Moving her hand again, she was able to get to the edge of the bed. Frowning, she concentrated, but just fell back unconscious again.

Zuko woke up soon after and saw her hand had moved. Sitting up with hope, he gently put a finger to her cheek. Her eyelids fluttered, but didn't open. Deciding to let her sleep, he carefully lifted her hand and put it on his, that way she could wake him when she came back.

It seemed like three seconds later when he reawakened, but it wasn't Katara. Ruifu stood in front of him. "Sokka's coming, and I doubt he'd like to see you here with her." She whispered. Zuko nodded and silently leapt out of the open window Ruifu had came through. She sat in the same chair after closing it right when the door opened.

Sokka was surprised to see her there, but quickly got over it. "How is she?"

"She seemed to have awoke once, but I wasn't here to talk to her." She was only guessing, hoping that she had awoken.

Sokka pulled up a chair and sat next to the earthbender. She turned back to her asleep friend, not noticing Sokka glance over at her. To him, she was beautiful with the moon seemingly reflecting off her eyes. Shaking the thought from his head, he looked at his sister. She was looking better then she did before.

He reached out to put her hand back next to her at the same time that Ruifu did too. They both blushed, but Ruifu continued putting Katara's hand where it was aimed to be. Sokka cleared his throat and stood. "I'm going to go back to sleep. Good night…"

"Goodnight Sokka." A split second he was out the door.

Ruifu looked after him before hearing soft laughter coming from the bed. Turning back, she saw Katara's blue eyes opened and her stomach was shaking with giggles. Ruifu blushed slightly, realizing what her friends found funny.

Katara opened her mouth to speak. "I think you'd make a nice couple."

Ruifu reddened more, much to the amusement of Katara. "Do you think so?"

Katara smiled sweetly. "He told me that after Princess Yue, he hadn't liked anyone. I think that after two years, he's ready for a relationship."

Hoping to turn the tables, Ruifu smirked. "Speaking of relationships…what's going on between you and Zuko?"

Katara smiled dreamily, but didn't blush. "I think we're heading there…but that's not we are talking about now, is it?"

"Would you stop that!" Ruifu hissed while Katara giggled harder. Bad idea. The waterbender suddenly felt a small pain on her stomach. Asking Ruifu to pull back the covers, they found a bleeding wound. Ruifu helped her move the cloth from the wound and brought a bowl of water.

"Ruifu, do you think you could be my arms and move my hands to where they need to be? I can't move them on my own."

The Earthbender nodded and began helping Katara heal herself. She watched as the water clung to her hand and started glowing. It seems that she had enough energy to heal, but couldn't move to do so. Ruifu brought her glowing hand to the wound on Katara's stomach and watched the water soak into it.

Katara ran out of energy before it fully healed. Ruifu brought a bandage over and covered the large cut while Katara fell back asleep. When the covers were back over the sleeping body, Ruifu sat back in her chair, thinking about her friends brother. She smiled at the thought before realizing what she was doing. I really have it bad for him, don't I?

-!--!--!-

Zhike had taken up finishing Aang's firebending training, as Zuko was mostly seen with Katara. Once, while training, she felt him in a depressed mood. Stopping, she sat, pulling him down with her. "What wrong?"

Aang sighed. "I just feel…lonely, I guess. I wish there were other Airbenders…"

Zhike understood only a little. She was the only Firebender in the small group of ninjas, but she had known there were others out there like her. "Hey, you know, there's supposed to be balance between the four nations. Don't you think that when you get married and have kids, they will most likely be Airbenders too? We need all kinds of benders to keep the balance, but without you, we wouldn't even have a chance of bringing back the Airbenders."

Aang smiled grimly. "Thanks Zhike, but it only helped a little."

"Is there anyone you're thinking about marrying?"

The bald-headed boy blushed. "Not really. I used to think it would be Katara, but that was just a silly crush. Besides, I see how her and Zuko act together…"

Zhike thought for a moment. "Didn't you meet anyone your age on your journey?"

Aang shrugged. "A few…but none really…stuck, if you will."

"Tell me about one."

-!--!--!-