A/N: Warning! EXTREME FLUFF! Plus a little Zuko OOCness and a surprising twist of fluff at the end! And if I have any male readers, please don't be angry about a sterotype I've added in. It is Sokka, after all, and it progresses the plot a bit, or I'dve edited it out. I promise.
"HOW DID THE AVATAR ESCAPE?" Zuko screamed at his uncle, breathing fire.
"It appears that the Firebender that Caleb was with stole the clothes of the guard that tried to-"
"Uncle! I thought we drowned him!"
"Apparently, they recovered him," The Dragon of the West replied, shrugging cheerfully. Zuko screamed with primal rage, steaming up his tiny room. He had been so close to restoring his honor! And he had lost Katara…
"Katara? Are, you know, are you alright?" Aang asked her nervously. Ever since she had been rescued from Zuko, the Waterbender had been staring at the horizon, half-hoping a metallic ship would appear.
"Huh? Me? Yeah, I'm fine, Aang," she replied, touching her fingers to her lips, where Zuko had kissed her only a day ago. Damn if that kiss hadn't felt good! And his body….so well defined. She hated to compare him to Aang, but he was so much more sculpted than the scrawny Airbender. Trying to divert Aang's attention, she pointed at Sokka, who was jealously watching Cornelia and Caleb cuddle together in the back of Appa's basket. He was easily distracted, since it was one of Hay Lin's turns to fly behind the huge, furry, bison.
"I hate to be a downer here, but how are we ever going to get home?" Will piped up from Appa's head.
"Did you try the Heart of Candracar?" Irma asked.
"Oh, that? I forgot I HAD that ratty old thing," Will replied sarcastically.
"Hmmph. I thought I was the funny one around here," Irma retorted.
"Yeah, you are funny looking!" Cornelia joked, earning herself a glare from the Water Guardian.
"Excuse me? I'm good-looking enough to have a stalker!"
"A NERD stalker," Cornelia replied casually.
"What's a nerd?" Aang butted in before they could argue any longer.
"Oh, um, uh-oh! We're out of food!" Will interjected, changing the subject with as much skill as a diplomat. Sokka, momentarily distracted from watching Cornelia and Caleb, rummaged through every single bag, trying his hardest to find a scrap of food. Missing food was an important matter.
"We have to land right now and gather more food!" he ordered.
"But what if that prince finds us?" Will argued. Katara perked up at the mention of Zuko, trying hard not to remember the warmth of his kiss...she tuned back into the conversation just in time to see Caleb dangling a jingling bag of coins.
"Where'd you get those?" Sokka asked at the same time as Katara.
"The prince's room," he replied in a sly tone.
"You stole it from him?" Cornelia asked, her face a mask of shock.
"He kidnapped Aang and Katara, and after what almost happened to Katara, I figure he owes it to us," Caleb replied.
"Wait-what happened to Katara?" Sokka asked, favoring his sister with a brief glance. She pulled him over and whispered it in his ear. It couldn't be avoided now and every time Aang heard it, he got angry.
"What?" her brother yelled. "I'm going to kill Zuko! Turn this bison around!"
"Look, Zuko saved me, can you-" Katara barely had time to start before her brother interrupted.
"Now you're defending Zuko? Why didn't you tell me? I would have jumped right onto his little boat and hacked him to smithereens!"
"Sokka, Zuko saved me, and apparently you used the dead guard's uniform to rescue me, Aang, and Caleb. You may have found a different way, but that way worked. And I'm fine. Really." Sokka grunted, but it seemed as if he couldn't find a reply to that statement.
"Hey! A village! We can find a market there!" Aang pointed at something far below the bison. Sokka was immediately distracted when his mouth started watering for food, and Cornelia flew off of Appa to tell the other Guardians about the landing.
Aang took the bison down slowly, a landing perfected over their years together. He touched down a good walking distance from the village and ordered Appa and Momo to hide.
"Um, do you think you guys can change back?" Aang asked the Guardians.
"Why would we want to do that?"
"You're pretty noticeable."
"Oh, yes, how could we forget about these tiny wings?" Irma joked.
"Well, we have extra cloaks. You should put them on, or else you'd be defenseless," Katara offered.
"Yeah, I wouldn't want you to be tortured again," Cornelia told Caleb lovingly, fingering the place where the scar had been. As soon as introductions had been made, Katara healed his cheek, a pretty nasty burn that Zuko had given him…but he had only been kind and gentle with her. She tried not to think about him too much, it made her head hurt. The warmth and fuzzy feeling she received when they kissed, and then the thought of him torturing Caleb. It made him seem like two different people.
"Did Blunk hear mention of food?" the little green thing still curled up on Appa asked, yawning and stretching.
"Uh, no, Blunk, go back to sleep, we're traveling a little more," Irma replied before anyone else could utter a word. The pasling curled up once more and slept, oblivious to the fact that he'd just been lied to.
"What'd you do that for?" Aang asked.
"Believe me, shopping with Blunk is no picnic. Well, actually, for him, it is. He eats everything and then you have to pay for it!" Irma informed him, chuckling at her own pun, which Sokka found funny too, oddly.
The guardians threw on their cloaks and the entire group walked to the nearby village. Caleb grabbed the bag of silver and gold he'd taken from Zuko's room, but Katara snatched it out of his hands.
"I'll hold the money, Caleb. Last time a boy held it, he bought a bison whistle."
"It saved our lives, Katara!" Aang argued
"Yes, well, we needed it for food," she replied, lying through her teeth. Caleb had stolen it from Zuko's room, and if she held it up to her face, she might still be able to smell his smoky, masculine scent. Inhaling deeply, she didn't notice Sokka until he was right beside her, and she hastily dropped the hand with the bag.
"So, uh, are you alright?" he whispered, looking a little nervous about breaching that particular subject again.
"About what?" Katara asked, confused until she noticed his face. "Oh, Sokka, I'm fine. I had a lot of time to get over it while I was being held captive in Zuko's bedroom." As soon as the words came out of her mouth Katara knew she had made a mistake.
"He kept you in his BEDROOM?" Sokka bellowed, not bothering to try to hide his anger. "And what'd he do with you there?"
"Sokka! You think-but-me with Prince Zuko?" she stammered, blushing furiously.
"So he DID do something?" he asked, getting madder by the second. "I'll kill him!"
"No! He didn't do anything to me, really. I was safer there than in that other room where-"
"I don't need to hear that. He must have done something to you, or you wouldn't be blushing."
"He left me alone…he slept in a cot while I slept on the bed," Katara yet again lied to her brother.
"You can tell me what happened, Katara. I won't get mad at you," he kept repeating gently. But Katara knew that if she really told her brother what had happened, he'd probably go ballistic and disown her, then turn around to murder Zuko for trying to seduce his sister, so the Water Bender kept quiet.
"Really, Sokka, nothing happened," she replied, silently adding much. It had only been a few kisses.
"Oh, look, we're at the market," she added, distracting him on purpose.
"Come on, we need to buy lots of food…Aang's a growing boy!" Sokka said with impatience, clearly just hungry himself.
"What do I have to do with anything?" Aang asked, a little confused.
"He's just hungry, Aang, don't believe a word he says," Katara comforted him. They stopped at a stall selling vegetables, and Sokka grabbed at least five of every kind.
"What?" he asked when everyone looked at him. "Zuko's paying. We don't have to be cheap when it's on him. I'm sure he won't even notice the missing money."
"Here, Sokka, go get some more food for everybody," Katara told him, handing him a few coins "I'll go find some more. We'll have to make these coins last awhile." She wandered away by herself, glad to have found solitude away from her brother and his accusations that she had done something with Zuko. Looking around to make sure that none of her group had followed her, she lifted the sweet-smelling bag to her nose again, inhaling the definitive, masculine scent. Sighing, she shopped for food for a half hour or so, trying to put off returning to Appa. Out of nowhere, a set of hands grabbed her and pulled her, struggling, into a nearby alley.
"Shh! Katara! It's me!" Zuko greeted her calmly.
"I'm not telling you where the Avatar is!" she replied, instantly tensing up.
"I didn't expect anything else," he told her, and before she could retort, he leaned over and planted a kiss on her lips. Katara automatically relaxed, softening to his sweet touch. After a few minutes, Zuko broke away, hearing a slight sigh of disappointment from the Waterbender. Smirking, knowing that she was craving his touch as much as he was hers, he leaned in for another. Katara dropped her basket of food, completely forgetting about it in their desire. She gasped in surprise when Zuko's tongue entered her mouth once more, her cheeks turning a pale pink. After what felt like only a few second, they had to break apart when they heard Sokka calling her name. Katara was frightened that Zuko would not let her go; throughout the entire kiss, she'd forgotten that Zuko was much stronger than her with an obsession to capture Aang.
"Why, Zuko?" she asked, curious.
"It wouldn't work. I'd need to have the Avatar. It's a… matter of honor," he explained sadly. Katara was confused, but she didn't want to push her luck.
"I'm coming, Sokka!" Katara yelled, picking up the basket. She stood on her tiptoes, giving one final kiss to Zuko, surprising him by putting her tongue in his mouth. For a few, blissful seconds she forgot that Sokka was waiting for her, forgot about Aang, and she even forgot about the Guardians. All she concentrated on was that one, delicious kiss. Sokka yelled for her again, sounding closer, and she reluctantly broke away.
"Zuko…"
"Go, before your brother finds you with me." Katara ran off clutching her basket full of food, occasionally shooting apologetic, longing looks at the hot Fire Nation prince hidden in the alley. She had no idea how much will it took for him to let her run back to her brother.
She finally found Sokka searching food stalls for her.
"Sokka," she greeted him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, not expecting her to come up behind him.
"Don't sneak up on a trained warrior like that!" he yelled, blushing.
"Yeah, trained warrior," she replied sarcastically, already pining for Zuko's touch.
"Let's go find the Guardians," Sokka grumbled, still mad that he had been surprised by Katara. "What took you so long to find the food, anyway?" Katara blushed.
"Uh, I don't know, just wanted to find good quality food," she lied. Sokka noticed nothing, however, being male, and they continued down the street. Katara didn't dare call for Aang, knowing that Zuko was nearby, perhaps even following her.
"Everyone split up?" she asked nervously. "But what if Zuko comes again?"
"I didn't see him following us," Sokka replied, shrugging it off. "We'll be fine." Katara sometimes couldn't believe her older brother was so naïve. Last time they-she-had been captured, no one had seen Zuko's ship, either, and she had already been in…contact with the prince himself.
"Let's see…there were Aang, Hay Lin and me, until I left to find you, Taranee, Irma and Will, and Cornelia and Caleb. No one was alone except for you-" Katara blushed here, she hadn't really been alone at all, "-and I got worried so I left Aang and Hay Lin alone."
"We can find them first," Katara ordered her brother, getting more and more nervous about Zuko finding the peaceful Airbenders first. Sokka just shrugged his shoulders again. Sighing, Katara walked off to see if Aang and Hay Lin had headed back to their makeshift camp outside the tiny village. Aang was always afraid that Zuko would capture Appa and/or Momo someday and constantly checked on them. The Waterbender slowed down, to listen for footsteps just in case Zuko had followed her. If he was, she was leading him right to Aang! And right after her firm denial to tell Zuko where the Avatar was. She couldn't hear any extra sets of footsteps, but just to be cautious, she walked a full circle around the campsite, pretending she was lost. After about half an hour, she stopped to go to the bathroom behind a bush, and no one came stumbling around to see where she had gone, so she proceeded on to camp. Peering through the bushes in case of an ambush-she loved Zuko, but she didn't really trust him to stay away from Aang because of her- she was relieved to see Aang and Hay Lin sitting by the fire. Apparently, they were sorting food because Sokka had gone crazy with Zuko's money. It sounded like they were having a private conversation, and Katara didn't want to interrupt, but she couldn't help overhearing every word they said.
"Didn't Katara say for Sokka to spend this money wisely?" Aang complained good-naturedly.
"Yes, but it's obviously it's wise for him to spend a lot of money on food, since he eats it all the time," Hay Lin joked. They were silent for a few minutes, and Katara was about to intrude when Hay Lin started the conversation up again.
"Do you think Katara's alright?" she asked out of nowhere. "She wandered off by herself this afternoon and no one's seen her since."
"Katara can take care of herself," Aang replied confidently, Katara's blush going unnoticed in the shadows. "Although she's been acting strange ever since our rescue."
"You were very brave fighting against Zuko even though he threatened Katara." Aang, who had been getting angry about Katara's 'near escape', perked up and blushed.
"I was just helping to save a friend," he mumbled. "She helped me save a village from the Spirit of the Forest."
"Well, it was still pretty brave of you," Hay Lin replied. "You're younger than us Guardians and destined to save the world. That's pretty cool." Aang blushed again, and Katara felt uncomfortable hiding. It looked like a private moment and she thought she should leave. Before she could, however, Hay Lin stooped over and kissed Aang on the lips, and he responded hungrily. Katara averted her eyes, giving the couple their privacy, since she now couldn't leave without alerting them to her presence. After all, it was Aang's first real kiss since Katara only had the guts to kiss him on the cheek. She had no qualms about kissing Zuko on the lips and desperately tried not to think of him as Hay Lin and Aang locked lips in the clearing.
A/N: What'd I tell you? Very fluff-filled. I felt like I was writing a bad romance novel in some parts, to tell the truth. Man, my hopes and dreams almost died when I saw the newest Avatar. If Zuko had died, so would all of my Zutara dreams. But I loved the new episode anyway! How could you not be happy that the pirates from the Waterbending Scroll came back? They were awesome! Please R&R!