Day 25: Forced to Share a Hotel Room
Since she saw the road sign telling them there is a village ahead, Katara couldn't slow down. She's almost running now.
For six days they've been wandering through this goddamn forest, and she's had enough. She thinks that living in the Fire Nation Palace for the last two years probably made her unaccustomed to the wilderness. Living in the woods was once part of her life, but now she really misses her warm, soft bed and showers! At least, Zuko has been kind enough to warm the water around them, when they had to take a bath, but bathing with her friend in her underwear is strange, and she doesn't get really clean.
The village is basically just a row of houses standing on both sides of the road.
"Oh no," Zuko complains.
"What is it?" Katara wants to know.
"It doesn't look like a place that could help us somehow."
"Wouldn't any village here be willing to help the Fire Lord?" Katara asks, frowning at him.
He grimaces. "Those people are peasants. I don't think they even care much about who rules their country or not. I doubt they would even believe us claiming to be the Southern Water Tribe Ambassador and the Fire Lord."
Katara crosses her arms and now scowls at him. "Wow, and I always thought you only insult other nation's people as peasants. Guess you're not racist after all. Only a snob."
Zuko narrows his eyes at her, as she smiles sweetly. Well, he deserved it. He can't keep calling normal people, even farmers, peasants. It's not nice. And the Fire Lord needs a nice image.
She grabs his arm and pulls him further with her. "Let's just tell them we need help then, but not tell them who we are."
The smell of fried meat soon meets Katara's nose, and she follows the smell to one of the bigger houses.
The few children playing in the street, stop laughing as Katara walks by, dragging Zuko along with her. The kids stop moving and stare at them with wide eyes, as do the few adults who are around.
Katara doesn't feel all too well, as their stares bore into her skin, but she keeps going anyway.
The house from which the smell of meat comes from seems to be a butcher's shop, not a restaurant like Katara hoped.
"Hello?" she calls, as soon as Zuko and she stand inside of the shop.
There isn't much meat presented here, and none is fresh, most of it is smoked or preserved in other ways. The room is really small, painted in red with dark furniture, as is pretty common in the Fire Nation.
A broad built, small, young woman comes in from a door leading to the back of the house.
She smiles, but her smile dies as soon as she notices she doesn't know the people in her shop. "Hello?" she greets them and asks what the heck they're doing here at the same time.
Katara raises her eyebrows. "Hi, uh, I'm sorry, but I have to make a big request. My friend and I were only passing through, when we were ambushed by bandits. They took away everything we had. We only managed to escape with our lives, and we've been wandering through the wilderness since. Can you help us?"
The woman's smile reappears, this time full of compassion. "Aw, you poor souls! Of course, of course! Oh, you look awful, so skinny!" She waddles closer, grabs Katara's and Zuko's arm with more force Katara would have thought she has, and pulls them behind the counter to the door she just came out of. "You two need a real meal! I'll make you some hippo beef rice!" She sniffs. "Oh, and a bath wouldn't do any harm to either of you."
Katara frowns. She thinks they smell alright for six days not having any access to soap. But maybe she only got used to the smell of wood and earth.
Oh, but hippo beef rice sounds fantastic!
"Thank you very much! That is more than we would have asked of you," Zuko replies to the woman, as she sits them down in a kitchen that looks like it's part of the actual house of the family who lives here.
"Nonsense! I cannot let you go without a warm meal and a bath!" She smiles widely. "Unfortunately, our tiny village doesn't have an inn, and the extra room we have is taken, but son left a few months ago to work in the capital!" She says it like it's the biggest event that ever happened here recently.
Wait. That woman has a son old enough to go and work? Katara thought the woman was in her twenties, but she must be already in her thirties, if her son is that old. Katara's impressed. Maybe she can ask later about the woman's trick to look younger.
"So we have a free bedroom in which you two can sleep tonight. It's a tiny room, but you two are so thin from starving in the woods, I think you'll manage."
Katara's eyes widen, as she can see how Zuko's cheeks dust with pink. "Uh, no, we can't!" she screeches, and then clears her throat to say it again in a normal pitched voice.
"Why not?" the woman asks, sounding confused.
Zuko looks away and lets Katara explain. Great. "We're just friends. We can't sleep in one bed."
The woman looks pretty disapprovingly at Katara. "From what crazy town are you from, girl? Of course you can sleep in one bed. Even if you'll touch, don't tell me you never hugged?"
Katara blinks. "B-but it's inappropriate."
The woman rolls her eyes. "Nonsense! It' like cuddling!" She cracks a smile. "Besides, any woman would like having someone like him sleeping in one bed with her."
Zuko blinks. "Uh…"
"B-but it's not like that between us!" Katara screeches again. Urgh, talk normally! "We're just friends," she repeats in a deeper voice. "And yes, he's handsome, but I don't think about him like that!"
Zuko flushes so much his whole face has the colour of his scar.
"Uh…" Did Katara just say she finds him handsome? Now she flushes. That's even worse. She can't sleep with her friend she considers handsome in one tiny bed! If he'd be ugly, that would probably be easier, but even if he'd be ugly, he still would be he, and he always makes her feel nervous!
"Don't be such a prude," the woman laughs. "You'll sleep here, that's final. Can't have you poor souls sleeping in the woods again, now, can I?" She doesn't wait for a reply, only turns around, singing: "I'm going to make the hippo beef rice now!"
"I can sleep on the floor. You can have the bed," Zuko says, staring at the table.
If Katara didn't know better she'd think he's being shy. "No. You were hurt by those thieves way more than I was. You shouldn't sleep on the floor."
Zuko raises his eyebrows. "I'm fine now thanks to you."
Katara frowns, but lets it be, for now. He'll see who's winning this in the evening.
The hippo beef rice tastes like the best cooking Katara ever had. The flavours are marvellous, and she's delighted. Better than that is only the hot bath she can enjoy later. She's completely naked, alone, the water is hot everywhere and not just close to Zuko, and her stomach feels comfortably full. She sighs in bliss.
Zuko doesn't take as long as her.
When she's finished braiding her hair, he's already done bathing. Maybe he doesn't like water.
The woman guides them to her son's tiny room with the large bed in it.
Katara looks at Zuko, who looks back.
Well, this is a bed in which two people definitely fit in comfortably. It's okay sharing it then.
"How come your son had such a large bed?" Zuko asks, and Katara glares at him. One doesn't ask questions like that!
"Oh, he was such a womaniser, always bringing girls home with him, since he was eight!" The woman laughs heartily. "You don't wanna know what this bed was put through! Good night, sleep well!" Waving, she walks away down the hall.
Katara stares at the bed in horror, as if only its experience might infect her with inappropriate thoughts. Swallowing, she turns her head to look at Zuko, who grimaces.
She grimaces back.