Narrator here. Well, this one-shot (I hesitate to call it a "drabble," as it is all together too long!) is the result of a LiveJournal fic-challenge issued by rashaka: put Zuko and Katara in a "white room" and go from there. Apparently, this theme is as prolific as "blanket scenarios," although I have never come across it before. Soooo...

I tried making it light and fluffy. The muse declared otherwise. (headdesk) At least I got some amount of silliness into it!

Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender- Still not mine!

Experiments

"... two… three!"

A beat of silence.

"Ha! Rock beats scissors! Ha!"

"You cheated! You waited until I'd already…!"

"Oh, quite whining."

"… Best out of 49?"

"… okay."

"One… two…"

Katara stretched, working the kinks out of her back. 'Can people die of boredom?' she wondered, having reached that stage of ennui wherein one's brain feels as though it is slowly turning into a warm tapioca pudding. After time interminable, she had been reduced to tallying all the cracks in the floor… and the walls… and the ceiling (what she could see of it, at least). '1,739 seems like an awful lot… they should really talk to the person who built this place. Especially that really big one over there that goes from the ceiling to the floor… the foundation must be settling faster than…'

"Dammit, LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Katara winced as the incredibly loud shout reverberated through the empty space, slamming into walls, ceiling, and floor, seeming to echo and magnify. She cast a disgruntled glare at the room's other occupant.

"YOU CAN'T KEEP ME HERE FOREVER!" Zuko yelled, slamming fireball after fireball into the recently blank face of the wall through which the strange Earthbender had thrust him, sealing the stone as soon as his feet touched the floor on the other side.

"How long do you intend to keep that up?" an irritated voice asked behind him.

The corner of Zuko's right eye spasmed. "Until I burn this wall into ash or that insane bastard lets me out," he answered through tightly grit teeth, not turning around.

"I don't think either's very likely," Katara observed, "That guy seemed pretty determined to carry out his "experiment." And that rock's got to be at least two feet thick. This one time, in Omashu…"

"Gyah!" Three fireballs slammed into the charred stone in quick succession.

"… if my trying to have a conversation is bothering you that much, you could have just said so," said Katara, rather more sulkily than she meant to. "Making nice" with someone as moody and withdrawn as Zuko could hardly be called "fun," but it was a heck of a lot more interesting than the enumerating architectural defects of the strangest (and most boring) prison cell she had ever been the unfortunate resident of.

Never mind that Zuko was also "someone-who-was-an-enemy-but-maybe-not-quite-anymore," and that Aang was better at stuff like that.

Or that the prison cell in Omashu had been "newly refurbished."

Katara went back to staring at the ceiling, wondering what time it was. Or what day it was, for that matter.

Or when Aang, Sokka, and Toph would be coming to get her out of this hellhole.

Or when Zuko would finally collapse from his idiotic campaign against the wall and be quiet if he was not going to talk like a civilized person.

'I'm reeeeeeeeeeaaally starting to hate the color white…' Katara realized.

"… oh, crud…"

"What now?"

"I just realized something."

"What? A brilliant plan to get us out of here? Otherwise, be quiet, I'm trying to sleep."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that was my job. Of course, something like that is a lot easier when two people try talking to each other to figure a problem out."

"You have a point, right?"

"… where are we supposed to go to the bathroom?"

"…"

Zuko stared hard at the blackened, ash-encrusted wall that had thus far defied all his power. 'I'm sure Uncle would have some annoying proverb to recite over this whole stupid situation,' he thought, then shook his head like a rhino harassed by a pesky fly. 'That's not helping - think, dammit! Regular fire attacks aren't enough. You need something more powerful. Much more powerful…'

"Hey, you…"

Katara looked up from the globule of water she had been bending into various geometric shapes. "My name's not 'Hey, you,' it's… oh, never mind!" Katara had given up trying to convince Zuko to at least call her by name. 'I'm going to start calling him 'Angry Boy' if he doesn't quit it…' "What do you want?" she asked, bending the water back into her canteen.

"Get to the back of the room. Now."

"Why should I?" Katara demanded, hackles immediately rising at his pretentious tone of voice, "Who do you think you are, bossing me around like that!"

Zuko rolled his eyes and glared over his shoulder at her. "I'm going to try using lightning against this wall."

Katara blinked. "You can manipulate lightning? I thought only the highest masters of firebending could…"

"Yes, I'm aware that only the best of the best firebending masters can use lightning, thank you," Zuko interrupted acerbically, the reminder of his deficiencies less than comforting, "But I'm going to try."

"'Try'?" Katara echoed, suddenly getting the ole' familiar Feeling of Impending Doom. Lightning was far more dangerous than regular fire, even a waterbender like her knew that. One only had to watch a thunderstorm in operation to realize it. And for someone who admitted they had no certain control over such a radical power…

Zuko read all his own self-doubts in the Water Tribe girl's face. "If you'd rather rot in here, waiting for your precious Avatar to rescue you, that's up to you. But I can't afford to. I'm getting out of here, on my own power." Zuko about-faced, focusing his attention on the wall. 'Put it out of your mind,' he told himself, feeling the girl's worried eyes on his back, 'Put her out of your mind… Find the center uncle talked about…'

'He's really going to try it,' Katara realized, watching as Zuko assumed a neutral stance, one that was far more relaxed than any she had ever witnessed from the young man. Even so, she could tell he was concentrating intently. Instinctively, Katara backed up; suddenly, the cavernous room seemed all too small. 'But what if he screws up, and suddenly this whole room is full of lightning?' a panicky little voice squeaked in her head, 'It'll be like being in the middle of a storm cloud - there'll be no safe place!'

Katara's heart began thudding in her chest so loudly, she was surprised Zuko did not snap at her for breaking his concentration. 'Stop him! Stop him before he kills us both!' She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists, willing her body into stillness - Zuko was about to attempt something very dangerous. Trying to stop him now might be the worst thing she could possibly do. She had to trust him.

'If there is a benevolent being in heaven, earth, or hell,' she prayed fervently, 'Please, don't let him screw up and fry us.'

"Hah!" Zuko released the building power within him in a single, powerful burst, every cell and fiber of his body in sync. For a split second, his vision filled with lurid blue light…

ka-BOOM!

Katara shrieked and clapped her hands over ears, her body jerking into a reflexive protective fetal position as the concussive shockwave of the explosion slammed into her, almost knocking her off her feet.

"Ow…" Katara pulled herself upright, quickly running an assessment of her vitals: heart still beating, check; limbs still attached to torso, check… Cough, cough, hack, cough! lungs in working order despite all the acrid dark smoke filling the air, check. "Did it work?" she asked hesitantly, waving her hand in front of her watering eyes, trying to get a clear view through the smoke. "Zuko?" Walking forward, Katara called out again. "Zuko? Hey, stop ignorin- whoa!"

She did not even have to look back to know what (who) she had tripped on.

(His body was very still)

She did not even have to look down to know that it was bad.

(His pale face was bloodless)

She did even have to look to know that all the precious water she had been conserving would be needed.

(The pale floor was stained crimson)

She set to work.

'I'm never going to get it right…'

"This is what stubbornness gets you."

'… I might never find what I'm looking for…'

"I hope you're happy."

'… but that doesn't mean anything…'

"At least use some of that stubbornness to pull yourself together! I can't do all the work here."

'… because I'm always going to keep fighting…'

'… singing… no, humming… someone's humming…'

Hearing returned to him first. He could hear his heartbeat, the rush of blood whooshing in his ears. He could hear his breathing, and the emptiness of the air surrounding him. Finally, he could hear a voice, wordless song, notes thrumming in the empty air, ascending and descending scale.

Smell and taste combined. Smoke, tinged sour with electricity, fit to choke even someone accustomed to all the byproducts of flame. By shifting just slightly, a new smell, one that the noxious vapor had concealed, the scent of cloth washed with rain and clouds, and the sea, and fur.

Touch and feeling returned all too quickly, his whole body awakening to pain. Except that there was comforting warmth, too, and the sensation of fingers softly combing his hair.

The humming continued, musical without tune, familiar and distant.

'Mother?' "Ngh…"

Katara stopped humming abruptly, her hand on Zuko's forehead stilling (she had not even realized she had been playing with his hair). "Zuko?" she asked, whipping her hand away and staring down anxiously at the face cradled in her lap.

"…I'm not dead?" Zuko asked faintly, cracking his eyes open.

If it had been Sokka, Katara would have laughed, and gently pummeled him for being silly. If it had been Aang, she would have cried with relief and hugged him. If it had been Toph… 'Well, if it ever comes to that…'

But it was Zuko. "No," she replied simply, "The lightning… or whatever it was… it didn't break the wall down, but it did knock you back pretty hard. Your head hit the floor, and…"

"And?" Zuko prompted, managing to open his eyes fully. Katara's face, darkened with smoke, made her blue eyes all the more startling bright aqua in comparison.

Katara's brow knitted. "I healed you. I told you I could help, that one time, remember? I can use water to heal people."

"… oh." Zuko blinked.

Silence.

"You're welcome by the way," Katara muttered, "Do you think you can sit up now? You're head's very heavy, and I've been sitting like this for a while."

Zuko complied, sitting up very carefully and slowly, his body screaming in protest the whole way. He felt, rather than saw, Katara make a motion to assist him; he was rather more happy that she held back.

Katara sighed in relief, easing her legs out from under her. She had no way of knowing how long, exactly, she had served as her patient's cushion, but her legs informed her that it had been more than long enough. "Ow, ow, ow, owowowowowowow…!" she whimpered to herself, getting to her feet with extreme care. The blood rushing through neglected veins made her feel like she was standing on millions of pins, while fire ants crawled up and down her legs. "Eurgh…"

Zuko fingered the back of his head, finding the slightest bump in his cranium that may or may not have been there before.

"So…"

Katara glanced at him as she tried bringing up one of her legs behind her.

"You ready to try and figure a way to get out of here?"

"Do the moon and the sun rise in the east?"

"Well, that's it. I'm out of ideas."

"Me, too. And now my head hurts."

"… mine, too."

"Wanna play a game?"

"Hn?"

"Nothing like Twenty questions, I can't think anymore. Rock-paper-scissors?"

"… okay. Best two out of three."

"Okay."

"One… two…"

"The secondary subject injured itself severely in its last attempt to escape, but the site remains uncompromised."

"How severely?"

"I was about to send in our personnel to remove it."

"Oh?"

"Against expectations, the primary subject used her waterbending to heal it."

"… that is unexpected. But her abilities…?"

"Have proven adequate. However, given present emotional proclivities, should I recommend termination of the experiment?"

"No. We shall continue observation. No sense in wasting time spent till now."

"Very well."

FIN

I reeeeeeeeaaaaaally need to not read about German Romantics while writing fanfic... (blarh)