Chapter 4 She still loves him

Both Sokka and Zuko ran off towards Katara's scream. Even if the young prince were upset with Sokka, he would set aside the argument and rescue Katara. They came to the town and looked around. Still nothing. Sokka pointed off in a corner of the market to a red color running away. Both boys figured that it would be best if they ran that they would come across the water bender.

"Where did he go?" Sokka asked sliding to a stop.

Zuko looked around their surroundings only to find out that they had walked into an alleyway. There was a wall in front of them making their situation come to a dead end. He turned around to get out of there and came face to face with his sister, Ember. Narrowing his eyes he took a fighter's stance.

"Oh please you so need to dear baby brother." She said waving her brother off. "It's not like I want anything to do with you anyway." She shrugged and began to circle her prey like a huntress would.

Zuko kept his guard up and followed her with his eyes. It didn't matter what she wanted just as long as Katara was safe and out of harms way. Ember snapped her fingers and Zhao came around the corner with Katara struggling to get out of his grasp. She seemed worried about something but at the same time didn't allow anyone to notice her fear.

"Let go of her!" Sokka yelled. Zhao just let out a laugh and threw Katara at Zuko.

"Let me tell you something baby brother. You may have been able to kill Ruko but I'm a different story. I wouldn't let you near my weaknesses. So I suggest you take better care of this girl." Ember blew them a kiss. "Until next time baby bro." And with that Zhao and her walked off.

Katara was slightly shaking in Zuko's grasp. Zhao must have done something to make her scared out of her mind. Her grip on him was almost cutting off circulation. Zuko turned towards Sokka and motioned for them to go back towards the ship. Katara looked up into Zuko's eyes and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Don't let me catch you wandering off again like that." Sokka scolded as he followed Zuko and Katara back towards the ship.

"You know if I didn't find out that you only wanted to be selfish I wouldn't have ran off like that." She snapped.

"Well maybe if you didn't have to be so picky."

"Maybe if you let me choose who I wanted to marry."

"You know I can't do that!" Sokka yelled.

Zuko watched the two siblings argue back and forth. He knew that Katara was right but also Sokka did have a point. If she wasn't so picky… he shook his head. He couldn't be thinking like that after all he loved Katara with all of his heart. And nothing not even her brother was going to get in the way of that.

"Hey would you two stop arguing for just a half a second?" Zuko asked.

"Stay out of this!" Sokka and Katara snapped before going back to their argument.

Zuko rolled his eyes before pulling Katara into his arms and holding her back from her brother. He turned towards Sokka and muttered, "Go back to the ship. I've got a few items to pick up."

"You're not…" Sokka started to say but then noticed the way Zuko's hands were flaming up. "Fine I'll go but she's taken already Prince." He walked off swearing.

Zuko turned to Katara and put his hands on her shoulders. "Katara…"

"Don't start Zuko. Sokka's right I am taken." She sighed turning away from him. "No matter how much…"

Zuko started to laugh at Katara's reaction. "That's not what I wanted to know. I wanted to know if Zhao did anything to you."

Katara looked at the ground. "He almost did. He began to touch me but your uncle had taught me some fire bending moves that could be transferred over to different bending moves. So I used those." She looked back up and smiled. "Nothing to worry about."

He laughed as they walked down the street together. Everyone was giving them strange looks because they had all thought the Fire Prince was dead. Katara turned away from him still worried about what Aang would think if he saw them together.

"I really shouldn't be this close to you…" Katara started turning away.

Zuko turned her back towards him and pulled her into a kiss, not caring who saw them. Katara wrapped her arms around him and at that point in time she knew that she still loved him.

Katara pulled away and walked off towards a nearby shop. After all the reason she had Iroh stop the boat was because she wanted to get some shopping in. Before she had a chance to go into the shop an arrow whizzed by her head. She turned quickly and took a fighter's stance. Zuko looked at her with confusement in his eyes but when she dodge another arrow he knew that they were under attack. Quickly he turned around and saw the YuYan archers. Even after all these years Zhao was still using the well-trained archers for his own benefit.

"We're too close to people and they'll get hurt if we're not careful." Zuko said grabbing Katara's wrist and pulling her down the street. He knew the YuYan would follow but he didn't care just as long as they were out of harms way it would be all right.

As Zuko had thought they followed. But this time not only had they gotten faster but they were also better at shooting arrows on their feet. Katara turned back and looked around for water to splash them with. As they ran by a barrel she used her water bending skills to spill on the ground causing the archers to slip and fall. It was a good plan really, if the YuYan didn't jump on the roof for better aim at the two benders. They came to a clearing just on the outside of town. Zuko let go of Katara's arms and sighed.

Katara pulled out a water whip and hit two of the archers in the head with it, knocking them out cold. Zuko on the other hand was having trouble so spent more time dodging than anything else. An arrow was shot right for Zuko's head that ducked just in time. Behind him the cabbage man was walking into town pushing his cart. The arrow just happened to be on fire when it was shot so it set flame to his cabbages.

"My cabbages!" He yelled running off into town. Katara knew that he would inform the authorities but didn't say anything to Zuko. "You'll hear from my lawyer!"

Katara shook her head and watched Zuko fight on. She knew that something was up when he was having trouble. Maybe he left something out when he was explaining what was going on before he got there. He seemed tired and lacked a lot of energy from when he first started. He also seemed very pale compared to earlier. Katara began to worry about him.

It was then when she noticed Zuko was slowing down more than normal. And his fire bending power wasn't as strong as it normally was. He was too busy fighting off the other archer to notice the arrow coming straight for his head. Katara didn't know what came over. She ran and pushed Zuko out of the way getting hit by the arrow herself.

K15: Okay you guys chapter four up and going. Okay yup. Anyway things are now going to get interesting. Of course with Katara getting injured and all. Anyway. I was suprised I was able to update today. Anyway check back friday with me. It's another busy tuesday for me. So I might not update till the end of the week. Anyway. Later. K15