For some reason, when Megu introduced herself as a cleaner, Katara never considered that she would be cleaning her room. And so, when she walks in with a mop in her hand and begins to wash the floor, Katara can't not feel uncomfortable.
"Oh, you really don't have to do that," She begins, her voice strangely gentle compared to her previous shouting.
Megu continues cleaning, not bothering to meet Katara's gaze. "It's my job."
"I know, I just... I'm capable of doing it myself, so it's really fine-"
This time, the woman raises a brow, her fists clenching around the mop handle. "Agni, first Zuko and now you, too - you don't need to feel guilty about me doing my job. Trust me, if I wanted you cleaning your room instead of me, you would know."
She isn't quite sure how to respond, her mind still stuck on the mention of Zuko feeling guilty about someone cleaning his room. He is royalty - raised in a palace, cradled by servants ready to attend to his every need - and somehow, he is apparently uncomfortable with someone mopping his floor. It simply doesn't add up. Perhaps, then, Zuko is intent on making everyone believe he is a good person; considering the crew's opinion of him, she doubts he will succeed.
The rest of Megu's sentence catches up to her, and she forces out a reply. "Sorry - I'm just not used to people doing these sorts of things for me. Shall I get out of your way?"
The ghost of a smile appears on her lips. "Nah, you can stay here if you want."
Megu gets to work, and silence settles in the room. Still, Katara finds herself wishing for the woman to change her mind and make her leave, because she can't help feeling unbearably awkward simply watching Megu clean for her. Time seems to pass slower with her in the room, until suddenly, a series of loud thumps is heard outside - they exchange a glance, and both go to see what caused the noise.
Lying at the bottom of the stairs which lead down to the bedrooms is Zuko, his body unmoving and limbs sprawled out around him. His stillness makes the image of Aang's lifeless body flash in her mind, and she finds herself unable to move for a moment; it is only when Megu, who is already trying to lift Zuko up, gives her an expectant look and gestures for her to help, that she forces herself to get closer.
"Is he… okay?" She asks, glancing at the slight rise and fall of his chest.
"Yeah, I think he just fainted. I wonder what made him so sick," Megu says.
As the pair carry him to his bedroom, Katara can't help but wonder why, out of all the people on the ship, she needs to be one of the ones who found Prince Zuko lying unconscious on the floor. It simply doesn't seem fair, after everything that has happened between them today - and everything that has happened between them in general. Perhaps a spirit is playing a cruel joke on her.
Just as they lift him into bed, his eyes flutter open, and he mumbles a quiet hm?
She places her hands on her hips almost automatically. "Nice of you to wake up right when we're finished carrying you."
There is an uncomfortably long silence, until he finally says, "What happened?"
Katara glances at Megu to explain, but she seems to have different ideas. "You can tell him, I'm going to get Ikuro to see if he can make some kind of medicine or something."
She leaves before Katara can protest, and the uncomfortable silence returns, more stifling this time. She looks at him for a moment, and finds that he is avoiding her gaze; she follows suit, and looks away.
"I think you fainted and fell down the stairs." She says, her voice tight.
"Oh, okay. Thank you." He replies, somehow, sounding even more awkward than her.
The silence returns until Megu reenters, this time with Ikuro and Zui by her side.
"Prince Zuko, Megu told us what happened. Are you feeling okay?"
"Mhm, I'm feeling fine… Just a bit hot. No worries." He mumbles, his last word cut off as he promptly falls asleep, his mouth set in an attempt of a smile.
Ikuro frowns and walks over to the bed, placing his hand on Zuko's forehead.
"He's burning up - and if he hit his head when he fell, he may have a mild concussion."
"Agni, why is there no physician on this ship?" Megu says, her hands curling into fists.
Ikuro lets out a short laugh. "Do you really think the Firelord cares enough about anyone on this ship to give us a physician?"
"No - but maybe the Firelord should care enough about finding the new Avatar to give us one." Megu snaps.
There is a moment of silence before Zui finally speaks. "Ikuro, you told me Katara is a healer, didn't you? Why doesn't she just heal him?"
"Oh - well, yes, she is. But I don't think that's the best idea-" Ikuro begins.
"Do you have a better one?" Zui asks. All three of them look over to Katara.
She resists the urge to bellow a resounding no!, and instead takes a deep breath."I'm sorry, but I'm not doing it."
"He's the one leading the search, Katara. By not healing him, you're interfering with the mission." Zui says, and she suddenly feels sick to her stomach, Azula's words filling her head - 'If you try to escape, or take down the ship, or do anything to interfere with the mission, we'll kill him.'
She doesn't know if Zui knows what will happen if she interferes with the mission, doesn't know if he is blackmailing her or if it is just a strange coincidence, but either way, she refuses to risk it. As much as she feels her blood boiling at the thought of helping Zuko, she knows she has no choice - her father is far more important than the grudges she holds, even if they are justified.
"Fine." She forces the word from her throat, refusing to meet Zui's eyes. "But I'm not staying here and waiting for him to wake up. Tell me when he's awake and I'll try to heal him then - for now, I'll be in my room."
She leaves before any of the others can argue, shutting the door just loud enough for them to know that she doesn't want to do this.
.
It is almost a relief when she hears a knock on her door. Even after months of having nothing to do on the ship that brought her from Ba Sing Se to the Fire Nation, she is still not used to simply sitting around. In the South Pole, she was always cooking or cleaning or helping Gran Gran with similar chores, and when she travelled the world, she continued doing those things alongside the adventures they had. Sitting in her room with no one to talk to and no chores to do, she is reminded of how much she hates doing nothing - even if the alternative is healing Zuko.
Ikuro's voice tells her that Zuko has woken up, and she gets up to walk with him to his room. When she arrives, Zuko is lying in almost the same position she last saw him in, his head now tipped up slightly to drink the glass of water he's holding.
"I'll leave you to it, I suppose - unless you want me to stay?" Ikuro says, looking at her warily, as if she is a polar leopard, ready to pounce at any moment. She feels herself pale slightly at what he must think of her, to look at her like that.
"No, it's fine. I can heal him on my own." She says, giving him what she hopes is a pleasant smile. He nods and returns the smile, shutting the door gently behind him as he leaves.
There is a bowl of water beside him; she puts all of her focus on it as she walks towards his bed, sitting in the chair that's been placed next to it. She feels him glance at her for a moment, before looking away.
"So is this just… seasickness?" She asks, disliking how unsure her voice sounds.
"No, I don't get seasick. I think… I don't know, it might be because there's been a lot of… change in my life recently."
She immediately regrets ever agreeing to healing him, that familiar anger igniting in her again.
"Don't try to make me feel sorry for you." She snaps.
There are a few moments of silence in which she begins to bend the water, making it swirl gently inside its bowl. Just when she decides he isn't going to reply, he speaks in a voice quieter than she was expecting.
"I wasn't trying to. I'm trying to help you heal me."
She cannot help but stare at him now, caught between being even more angry and being surprised. She decides not to allow herself the latter - he knows how to manipulate people, she reminds herself, and she refuses to fall for his tricks.
"I don't need your help." She says, her words firm. Even he isn't idiotic enough to try to argue.
She bends the water onto his forehead and watches it glow a pale blue under her. It feels strangely caring, gentle, tender - she has not felt like she is any of these things in a while. She pushes the thought away as soon as it comes, not wanting these things to be in relation to him.
She feels a great deal of tension under her hands - a worrying amount, even. She is not sure how to describe it in any way other than frustration, confusion, pain. Perhaps it is simply what concussions feel like - it's not as if she's ever tried to heal one before. She attempts to remove some of it and watches out of the corner of her eye as his jaw tightens more and more, his fists clenched at his sides. She knows from his clear discomfort and the amount of tension she can feel that she should stop and allow him a few moments rest, but the sudden urge to make him feel the pain that he has caused for her and her friends seems to overtake her. She attempts to remove far too much of the tension at once, knowing that it will hurt, and he lets out a pained yelp; to her surprise though, he does not move away from her, instead pressing his lips together as soon as the sound leaves his throat and forcing himself to stay still, as if to create some illusion that it was not painful.
She pulls her hands away and the water falls onto his lap, silence filling the room as she realises just how much she had wanted to hurt him. Perhaps that shows more about the severity of his actions than any faults in her character, but the disgust she feels only seems to be directed at herself.
"Sorry." She says; it slips from her mouth before she can figure out if she should really be apologising, her voice tense and more quiet than usual.
"It's fine - It'll dry."
"No, I mean- I mean…" She pauses, the explanation of that's not what I was apologising for lost in her throat. "no, I can waterbend it out."
The silence returns as she does so, bending the water back onto his forehead as he lets out a quiet thanks. Yet, the politeness of his tone only serves as a reminder that he is a master of manipulation, and she remembers that for all she knows, he had planned to make her feel sorry for hurting him, to make her feel ashamed of the anger and vengefulness that she has a right to feel. No matter how much she believed his reaction a few moments prior, she refuses to let him think he can manipulate her.
"You don't need to act all nice." She snaps.
"I'm just trying to be civil."
The calmness of his voice only makes her more angry, trying to keep her hands steady on his forehead as she speaks, her tone biting. "Well then, thank you so very much for choosing to be civil now, instead of when you were chasing me and my friends around the world, or burning down villages of innocent people, or choosing to side with people who electrocyte children. I suppose you expect me to be grateful that you're not burning my mother's necklace right in front of me, or sending me to your sister so she can kill me the way she killed Aang, is that right? Or… Or-"
"I wouldn't do that, and can you please just keep your voice down? Everyone heard our last argument."
"What, so now you're trying to blame me? After everything you've done?"
"No, I'm just saying-"
"I can be mad at you and yell at you and make the entire ship hear about what an awful person you are if I want to and nothing you can say will be able to make me stop, because you deserve every single bit of my anger."
Silence follows instead of any sort of heated reply that she expects, and just as she is about to expand on what she already said, he speaks, his voice quiet again, almost soft.
"I know."
Perhaps it is another piece of manipulation, another cog in his plan to get her on his side only to betray her, but the way he recoils slightly as he speaks, only noticeable with her hand resting on his forehead, does not feel like something that can be faked.
That may simply mean he is good at what he does; she does not want to think about what else it may mean. Instead, she heals him for the rest of the session in silence, willing him to do something, anything, to prove himself as the cruel, manipulative son of the Firslord that she knows he is. He avoids her stare and doesn't say a word, and never in her life has she been more frustrated at someone's lack of callousness.
—
AN: yikes school has rly been draining me sorry for never updating. it's xmas break now and every winter i get in the mood for zutara so i'm gonna try to update loads over these two weeks!!
i'm also in the process of editing the first five chaps that i wrote when i was a lot younger, so hopefully soon i'll be fine editing and i can publish the new and improved versions of them all!!