A/N: Goodness, that took a little bit longer than I'd have like and I fell of my schedule because I re-watched all three seasons of A:TLA! Sorry about that. I wanted to have this ready days ago, but it wasn't cooperating. In any case, I'd like to thank you all for being so wonderfully generous with your reviews, they're very sweet. I love that you're all enjoying the story so much and I'm so pleased you take the time to express your enjoyment. I was so worried I'd be rubbish at writing this pairing, so all feedback is very welcome. Much love! xx-Kitten.

Brightest Nights or Darkest Days

By Kittenshift17

CHAPTER FOUR

When he next awoke, Zuko knew something was wrong. He shivered slightly, blinking his eyes open to find he was sprawled on his stomach inside his sleeping bag. He was alone in it, cold with the loss of Katara's body heat against his. Lifting his head and feeling groggy, he tried to make sense of his surroundings. It was dark, making him think he'd somehow slept all the way through the day and well into the following night.

Waving his hand to bend his fire, Zuko lit the small lamp he always carried and his frown deepened when he discovered that Katara was gone. Her things were still scattered about the room, namely her sleeping bag, but she was nowhere in sight. Narrowing his eyes suspiciously, he noted that the door to the room where they'd been staying was open. Getting to his feet, Zuko shivered at the chill in the air outside his warm sleeping bag, pausing long enough to pull his discarded cloak and travelling clothes on before he went in search of the Water Bender.

Carrying the lantern with him, Zuko stalked silently through the house they'd been inhabiting. He followed his ears toward the sound of running water to the end of the hall on the lower level. Zuko stopped in the doorway when he found a second lit lantern inside the room. He could hear the sound of chattering teeth and with a start Zuko realised that it was a washroom.

And Katara was in the process of bathing.

The Water Bender was clearly using her bending to make the shower run despite the frozen pipes thanks to the blizzard. His eyes skidded to a halt when he spotted the sight of her clothing in a basin where they were swirling back and forth, seemingly of their own accord. He raised his eyebrows when he realised she was also bending in order to wash her clothing. All of it. Zuko felt a minute tremor run through his body when he spotted the sight of her binding sarashi wraps amid the other garments.

Meaning she was completely naked as she chattered her teeth all the through her shower. Zuko gulped audibly.

Was she mad? Who decided to do laundry and take a bath during a blizzard? The answer, apparently, was water bending fugitives. Then again, Zuko supposed she could bend the water right out of her clothing so they would be dry again once they were clean.

"Stupid cold!" He heard her mutter from inside the shower behind the screen. He couldn't see her through it. The idea that she was naked on the other side of those flimsy screens made him feel strange inside and the same sensation he'd woken to that morning when he'd risen with the sun, so to speak, twitched through him at the very idea. Having spent a good deal of time sleeping with her in his arms, he had a very real concept of the curvy, tautly muscled figure Katara sported under all her clothing. And despite his aversion to Water Benders and to being touched, Zuko was still very much a hot-blooded male.

Setting his lantern down on the bench, Zuko found himself silently traversing the floor of the washroom until he was standing beside the screen. The urge to rip it away and demand to know what she was doing was strong. Zuko denied it. Barely. Instead he found himself reaching for the pipe the water was gushing out of, wrapping his hand around it tightly before directing heat into the appendage and warming both the pipe and the water that rushed through it.

"Oh," Katara sighed for just a moment inside the shower before she gasped. "Zuko?"

Zuko rolled his eyes to himself. How many other Fire Benders did she know who wouldn't immediately be trying to force themselves on her or trying to capture her for being a Water Bender?

"You and I need to have a discussion about boundaries, Prince Zuko," Katara said sternly.

"I can leave and you can have the freezing cold water back, if you'd prefer?" Zuko sneered from beyond the curtain.

"Why are you in the washroom with me? And why are you being nice to me?" she asked suspiciously, refusing to rise to the bait.

"Maybe you're not the only one interested in bathing and having clean clothes," he informed her.

"Oh," she huffed. Zuko smirked to himself. "Right. Of course. Well, I'll be done in a minute."

Zuko didn't respond as he channelled heat into the pipes and waited for her to finish. The tension between the two of them from the previous day returned tenfold as she finished bathing and Zuko was surprised by the scent of fresh jasmine and papaya, realising with a jolt that she must have some kind of soap or something behind the screen.

"You can stop heating the pipe now," she said quietly. Zuko listened the sound of her bending all the water off her body as it ceased rushing from the pipe.

"I take it you won't need this?" he asked, dangling a towel he found on the washroom shelf over the screen towards her.

"I do actually," she replied, taking it from him. "But not to get dry."

Zuko blinked at her in surprise, leaning against the basin as she came around the shower screen wrapped in the towel. Her tanned skin was flushed pink from the warmth of the shower. She eyed him carefully, as though she feared he might lunge at her and Zuko rolled his eyes in response.

"You can get in, if you want." She waved her hand at the screen and the shower beyond it. "Throw your things over and I'll bend some more water to wash them for you."

Zuko eyed her a minute longer before taking her suggestion. She baffled him completely. He also needed to do something about the problem he was having at seeing so much of her skin on display. The towel was short, barely covering her middle and all her feminine parts. The last thing he needed was more mortifying discussion about his inability to completely control his entire body. Something he was lamenting furiously as he rounded the shower screen and began to strip. The idea that she was just beyond the screen unsettled him a bit but he disrobed just the same.

"Let me know when you want water," she said over the sound of wet clothing being lifted from the basin. Zuko peeked around the screen just the tiniest bit at the sound of her bending the water free of her clothing, watching with some fascination as she pulled the water from the fabric with ease, leaving it dry and much cleaner than he suspected it had been in some time. Not that he blamed her. Who knew how long it had been since he'd had cleanly laundered clothing or bathed properly?

He very rarely had the opportunity to bathe in peace given that he was a wanted fugitive and he certainly didn't have time or the inclination to do laundry. When the things he wore grew too soiled, he usually just stole something else and discarded the dirty garments. He bit his lip and tossed his things over the screen, still peeking around it slightly and watching her.

"Ok," he said quietly, waiting for her to begin bending the water. He moved slightly so she wouldn't see him peeking when she glanced in his direction and made a pulling motion with her arm. Zuko wrapped his own hand around the pipe to heat the water as he heard it bubbling through the pipers before it spilled down his back.

He tipped his head back into the spray, sighing at the feel of the hot water sliding over his skin and suppressing a groan at how good it felt to bathe properly for once. Tilting his head towards the wall and enjoying the water, Zuko peeked around the curtain again, his free hand fisting his current problem – which was growing steadily at the sight of Katara. She had dropped the towel she wore and was in the process of re-binding her chest. Zuko moved his thigh to hide the jutting evidence of his arousal over the sight she made, being sure that if she did glance in his direction and spot a glimpse of him behind the screen she wouldn't see all of him.

"Hey!" he protested when the water stopped suddenly a few minutes later.

"Do you want clean clothes or not?" she asked. She sounded amused. Zuko looked up to see the water was being channelled over the screen and into the basin where she'd washed her things, having disposed of the dirty water from her own clothing. He felt very much at a disadvantage when he noticed that she was now fully clothed while he was still naked.

Zuko waited impatiently, trying not to shiver at the feel of his wet skin in the chilled room without the hot water rushing over him. He sighed when she directed it back at him and Zuko went about trying to wash himself as best he could with only one hand. The other was controlling the water temperature and he wasn't about to risk the feel of freezing water on his skin for the sake of proper scrubbing.

Using the soap he found inside the shower – that she'd clearly used as well - Zuko scrubbed at his skin and then his hair, which had grown long enough to hang into his eyes in a wild tangle as a way of better hiding his scar and his identity from the Fire Nation. When he was clean – feeling shiny and new again – Zuko let the water rush over him for a few minutes more, leaning his forehead and the balled fist of his free hand against the wall of the shower.

He really needed to do something about his problem, but he didn't know how with her in the room. Oh, he could be quiet, but the idea that he had this problem at all was outright embarrassing. He was a grown man, for crying out loud. One curvy little water bender should not be able to rob him of his self-control. What right did she have to look and feel that intriguing, anyway?

Sighing heavily again, Zuko listened to the sounds of her swishing the water through his clothing vigorously. She'd begun to hum softly, as though she were off in her own mind as she went about the task as though she was used to it. Living with her brother and the Avatar on the run from the Fire Nation – Zuko supposed she was used to it. He didn't imagine either of those idiots were any better about laundry than he was.

The notion that she mothered them made him snort with amusement.

He regretted the very thought when it followed with notions of her actually being a mother. Especially when his body twitched and throbbed painfully at the very idea. This was getting out of hand. He was going to have to do something. He couldn't stand to be in her presence and her company for however long she was likely to follow him around without either screwing her – which he had no doubt they would both morally oppose – or finding another way to deal with his problem.

Being quick about it, Zuko turned slightly so his back was to her if she peeked around the screen and smoothed his hand over his swollen flesh. Used to the requirement of hurrying through such a thing when it was for the simple purpose of relieving pent up tension or frustration, he was as quick as he could be.

He felt dirty afterward, especially considering that he'd found the humming water bender featuring in the imaginings that had pushed him over the edge. This would never do. She was a Water Bender and he was a Fire Bender. She was his prey and he, her pursuer. They might temporarily be travelling companions but soon enough they would locate his uncle and the Avatar and then they would part ways once more. Zuko resigned himself to the fact that until then, they were going to have to get along as well as enemies could.

He made sure to squash the thought that popped into his mind of just how well enemies might be able to get along, if given the chance.

"You can make the water stop now," he said, a bite of annoyance in his voice as he found himself angry over what he'd done. Over what she'd caused.

The water cut off and Zuko straightened. He hissed in surprise when she pulled the water from his body and his hair, leaving him cold but dry behind the curtain. He narrowed his eyes when her hand, clutching a clean towel, appeared around the edge of the screen before he snatched the cloth from her. Despite already being dry, Zuko found himself scrubbing the towel furiously over his skin for a minute before wrapping it tightly around his waist and stalking around the shower screen.

Katara glanced up at him in surprise from where she was still agitating his clothing in the basin, swirling the water wildly. Zuko crossed his arms over his chest, too angry to really care that she was eyeing his naked chest strangely.

"Um… Zuko?" she said quietly. He raised his only eyebrow at her questioningly. The other didn't grow anymore – not since his father had burned his face.

"Could you turn around for a second?" she asked and Zuko frowned.

"What for?"

"Just do it, would you?" she asked. Zuko narrowed his eyes at her further, sensing she had some reason for it but wasn't going to share it with him until he complied. He didn't much like that, but he did it nonetheless. Turning until his back was to her, he watched her over his shoulder.

"Oh," she murmured. Zuko realised she must be staring at the burns and scars crisscrossing his back from the fire bending training and battles he'd had in his younger years. "They're gone."

"What?" he asked. He flinched when he felt her cool fingers smoothing over his back.

"The scars I could feel here… they're gone."

"What do you mean, they're gone?" he asked.

"See for yourself." She nodded at the mirror over the basin where his clothes were washing.

Zuko angled his shoulders to look at his back – not having done so in years - and he was surprised to see that she was right. The previously scar-riddled flesh was smooth and unblemished.

"How?" he asked, eyeing the skin with some annoyance. He'd earned some of those scars, damn it!

"I think maybe I got a bit carried away this morning," she admitted. "I was trying to bend the snow outside, but I was touching your skin… Water benders can heal…."

Zuko eyed her in confusion for a moment as her words sunk in.

"You healed my scars?"

"Only the ones on your back," she told him softly. Zuko flinched, jerking back when she reached up as though to brush her fingers over the scar on his face.

"Don't touch me!" he hissed. His eyes sparkled with fury.

How dare she think she could just reach up and touch the scar on his face as though it weren't the most sensitive and horrifying part of him?

"Sorry," she whispered. She lowered her hand, moving back once more and returning her attention to his clothing in the sink where she washed them. Zuko continued to glare at her in annoyance before turning his own attention back to the mirror and to the fact that all the scars on his back where she'd swirled her fingers were gone.

She didn't say anything else to him as she pulled the water from him clothing and disposed of it. She handed the garments back to him in silence and Zuko watched as she left the washroom quickly, pulling the door closed behind her.