The Burning Rose

Chapter Seven

The Fight

OOC- Disclaimer: I don't ATLA. Bryke and Nickelodeon do. I wish I did, though. *sigh*

She brought out the rice mixture, gave everyone a helping, and then sat down to eat. She was flushed red from what Sokka had talked about earlier, so she didn't talk, no matter how hard Toph tried to hit her, Aang tried to speak to her, and Sokka tried to, well, stuff food in his mouth and try to talk to her. It came out in a bunch of muffled noises, so it wouldn't have helped anyway. Eventually, Toph and Sokka gave up on Katara, so they had an eating competition, to see who could eat the most. Toph won. Sokka had passed out on his chair before Toph had become slightly full.

"He must have lost his appetite while he was with Suki," Toph said as she loomed over the unconscious Sokka. Aang stared at Sokka, poking his arm. It rolled over, and Aang jumped. Throughout the rest of dinner, he glanced at the arm, then looked down to his bowl.

When Katara was done, she just quietly left the table and cleaned up the food and the bowls. No one came to talk to her after that, so she gathered everyone's bowls as she heard Aang and Toph quietly discuss the prank among themselves. She cleaned everyone's bowl as she tried to get her thoughts off of the prank, and focusing on Azula and Boiling Rock.

'Could she get out?' she thought as she bended water off the bowl she was washing. 'If Zuko and Sokka could get out with Dad and Suki, then Azula could get out. I mean, Dad and Suki weren't much help getting out. Azula could definatly get out on her own, but would she want to?'

She quickly dismissed the thought of Azula escaping, and began to focus on the task her hands were doing, but she eventually came back to another subject.

'Who attacked Sokka? What if Azula wasn't the one who did it?' she thought to herself. 'What if someone else did it? Like Iroh.' She shook her head, 'No, Iroh wouldn' t do something like that. He is too nice to hurt me. What about Zuko? He liked Sokka. At least, they acted like it. I don't know if they are really friends, but they had seemed to be friends at the Temple before the comet.' She finished the last bowl and set it down in the cabinets.

She had nothing important to do, so she went to the forest outside the Temple, and found her favorite spot to think. It was out of the way, so no one really bothered to go with her. There was a waterfall that would glisten in the light, and it looked beautiful. She could see a rainbow in the spray coming off of the rocky side. The rest of the water would collect in a pool underneath the waterfall, then flow down a river to the temple. It was out of the area for the town, so no one would venture as far out as she was. Also, there were some rumors going around that the forest was haunted, and was full of rabid animals.

She bent some water into her waterskin, then began to push and pull the water in the lake. She immediately became calm, and her body moved with the water. It rocked gently up and down. It created little waves on the surface of the pool. It was relaxing for her to be near her element.

She could let her thoughts run wild while her body swayed with the water. She tried to think about everything, but it would always immediately go to Aang and their relationship.

She thought about how he never really showed affection to her. He didn't buy her lavish gifts, or complimented her. He was just, her husband. He had kissed her once, after their wedding. It wasn't a deep, passionate kiss. It more like a goodbye kiss, because he had to leave for a while, traveling around the world as an ambassador.

In truth, she was a little glad that he didn't try to kiss her anymore. Before, when he had tried to kiss her, she would quickly make up an excuse and leave before she could see his face. She didn't like to see him disappointed.

'Does he still like me?' she wondered.

She heard a slight tap, like someone had hit a sword against a rock. It sounded like it was behind her, so she instantly got some water from the lake and turned, but she was a little too late. A flame whip shot toward her head, and she quickly tried to block it, but she didn't move fast enough and groaned. The water stopped some of it, but not all of it. The flames licked her forehead and her left arm. Her hair was singed, and there was a slight burn on her arm, but the adrenaline took away the pain.

She became very mad and looked around for the person who had done that, but everything was cast in shadow. She looked up at the sky, and the full moon had come out. She felt very strong, and she pulled more water out of the pool right as a fireball flew for her face. She easily dodged it and threw a big wave to her right, where she had thought they had shot it from, but hit nothing except trees. Another fireball came out, but she traced where it came from before dodging their throw. She shifted to her right and blew a tsunami-like wave at her left. She could hear the person move to dodge the wave, and threw a water whip where she heard them. She heard a grunt and a loud thud.

She quickly gathered more water and slowly made her way over to where she heard the grunt. She saw a figure in the darkness, but couldn't see who it was. The person was shrouded by shadows, so Katara quickly tried to pull the person out in the moonlight. They were heavy, and she took a while, but she finally got them out in the open.

They had a black cape with a black hood over their face, and it was strewn when she had dragged them out into the clearing. She swore she had seen the cape before. It was about floor length compared to the person's body. It looked like velvet, but she couldn't quite tell under the moon's light. She dragged them to the waterfall to see them better. She quickly moved the top half of their body up, so it would be easier to see their face. The moon was in front of her, and behind the person, so it still cast a shadow over the person's face.

She quickly pushed the hood off their face, she gasped, and let go of the person all in one swift motion. She looked back at the face on the ground to make sure that she was seeing who she thought it was.

She whimpered one thing. "Zuko?"

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He didn't remember anything, only feeling a light breeze come through the forest. Then he heard a light tapping noise, then noticed that his hand was moving. His sword, in his hand, hit a rock, and it seemed very loud in the silent clearing. He mentally cursed himself as he saw her turn around. The moonlight shined off of her hair so it made it look like milk chocolate with a spot of white chocolate. She looked very beautiful.

'Man, she looks good. Wait, what am I thinking about?' he said in his head as he felt his body moving. His hands created fire balls and shot them at Katara. He felt himself grow worried as she barely deflected it and shot a wave of water at the trees. He saw himself, again, shoot a fireball at her, and he felt water spray his right arm. He tried to look to his left, but he couldn't. He felt a huge pounding sensation on his face as he saw a water whip come for his face, and his world went black.

~*~

He felt himself being lifted off the ground and opened his eyes a crack. He saw a blurry form of someone, but he was sure it was Katara. He saw the lack of light, and guessed he had been out for only minutes. His back hurt badly, and he could feel a stick poke a tender spot, but he was surprised at what she did. She flipped back his hood, and he saw an expression on her face he couldn't read. Was it rage, pity, or hurt?

He felt himself falling to the ground. His head touched the ground lightly, but he felt two hands on his back pulling him up. He quickly closed his eyes and pretended that he was still unconscious, but it didn't work so well. His eyes opened before he squinted them shut, but Katara had noticed it.

"Zuko," she muttered. He could tell she was trying not to sound mad, but she was failing very badly. "Zuko! I know you are awake!"

He forcefully opened his eyes and looked into her ocean blue eyes. There was such a flame behind them, so he couldn't look at them for long or he would probably burst into a million pieces.

"Zuko," she said in a harsh tone, like she was going to kill him any second. "What are you doing, trying to attack me?"

"What do you think I was doing, peasant?" he said proudly, lifting up his chin

He saw Katara's eyes go into slits, and she dropped him. He fell on his back, jabbing the stick harder into his back, and landed on a rock right below where the stick hit him. His vision went a little blurry, but he picked himself up so his weight was on his elbows and stared at the girl.

He saw Katara's face quickly soften a bit at the pain he was experiencing, but she instantly went back to a hard stare. He tried to get up onto his feet by using a rock, about the size of a small dog, that went up to Zuko's calf when he stood. He couldn't get up by himself, but Katara wouldn't help him up. He tried as best he could, but he could only get into a crouch.

"Why were you trying to attack me?" she said as he feebly tried to get to his feet. She was mad, he could tell. He couldn't see her face because he was avoiding her blue eyes.

"I can't tell you," Zuko said as he stared at the floor, and fell down.

"What?" Katara almost screamed.

"I can't tell you!" he almost screamed as well, again, trying to get up.

"I have a right to know! You attacked me!" This time, she did scream. He was worried she would wake someone up. Finally, he stood up as he said his response.

"I can't tell you! Why can't you understand that? It is very simple!" he said as he hovered over her, looking down on her. He could feel his eyes going to slits, and he didn't care. He could feel his hands clench into a fist, and he wanted to slap her. All thought of the world around them melted away.

"Why can't you tell me?!" she screamed, glaring at him.

"I can't tell you that either!" he said as he stood there, trying to calm himself down.

"Well, what can you tell me, then?" she said as she stood in front of Zuko and yelled in his face.

"Nothing, you peasant!" he screamed at her. He had leaned in closer to her, so now their faces were at least an inch apart.

"I have a name you know!" she said loudly, trying to keep her face farther away from his by backing up a bit. "You spoiled prince!"

"Ugh! This is getting us nowhere!" he said as he took a step forward. Their faces were a little bit closer together, and he could feel the heat off of her skin onto his. A shiver went down his spine, but he paid no heed as he saw Katara walk away.

"Where are you going?" he said as she walked away.

"Somewhere where I can't see you!" she screamed back.

OOC- Sorry for the late update.

I won't update for another two weeks, because I have to type the next chapters, and I don't have anything started. I will try to go as fast as I can, but give me, maybe three weeks at the most. I will have it done by then.