Story Title: Cliff-Side: Part One
Rating: T for language
Pairings: Zutara Goodness
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Avatar: The Last Airbender themes or characters. That is all owned by Nickelodeon.
A/N: Okay, first part. Not much to say. Last update before I leave to go out of town. Whee! Anyways, two parts. Enjoy. -Solar Beam
Cliff-Side: Part One
Katara slowly made her way down the path, a whicker basket in both hands, humming a sad lullaby her mother used to sing to her. She tilted her head to the side, basking in the warmth of the sun that managed to reach out to her through the branches of the high canopy. Her body rocked back and forth, the basket swinging from side to side with each step.
Her singing paused, and her feet stopped tapping along on the dirt path. She stood on her tip-toes and spotted that a cliff wasn't far ahead. So instead she turned back around on the balls of her feet and made her way back to the boys and Toph about a mile away at the camp. That's when she stopped once more, and her head turned toward the scent of fresh berries. Her cobalt eyes shone and she ran over. She picked a purple berry that had small spines on it (soft spines, not hard). She threw it into her mouth and chewed, and she clapped her hands happily. "Ruckle berries!" she exclaimed to herself, "Sokka will love me for this."
She began scooping handfuls and putting them into the basket along with all the other delicious delicates she had picked on her walk. Something rustled behind the bush, and Katara slowly picked herself up to look over it. There sat a hungry-looking cub, looking up at her with wide, anxious eyes. "Well hello, little fellow," Katara cooed, "Where's your mama?" The baby was too big to pick up, and it looked oddly familiar. Something in the back of her mind itched to be brought forward; it was something urgent. She ignored it and instead brought out a few berries and held them out to the baby bear. The cub sniffed it with that nose of his and then looked up at her with distaste…
And began crying. Katara was taken aback and she fell backward onto her butt, holding the basket close to her with wide eyes. She frantically stood up and reached out to the cub, "Shhh, it's alright, little guy. Don't cry!" It seemed to ignore her with delight and cried even louder, if that were even possible. "Please stop crying!" begged Katara as she began to push her way through the bush to come up to the baby. She was leaning over the cub when something snapped behind her.
Katara's instincts were telling her not to turn, to be perfectly still and act like she was dead. Of course, Katara's instincts weren't as sharp as Sokka's and she turned despite her better judgment. Her eyes widened as her eyes scaled the body of a large, brown, angry mama platypus bear. Katara looked down a moment, thinking: Oooh, so that's a baby platypus bear… And then her head snapped back up and she screamed. She dropped the basket and ran, jumping clear over the bush regardless of the ripping sound of her over-dress. She ran, and ran, and the mother bear followed in pursuit.
Katara skidded to a stop as her feet just barely made it over the Cliffside. She spun around, eyes wide. It was nice to know this was how she was going to go. She was going to die by a rabid bear. She shut her eyes tightly, ready for the mother to yank her head off, but instead Katara felt the dirt under her feet crumble slightly. The mother bear stopped moving toward Katara and it tilted its head to the side in dumb curiosity. Katara followed the bear's gaze and watched as a large crack spread between the bear and Katara. Katara being on the falling end. The mother bear backed up slightly as the crack deepened, and Katara took a running leap to get on the safe side. A second too late. The ground fell beneath her feet and Katara's finger's just barely managed to grab hold of the dirt and grass above her.
And instead of finishing the job, the mother bear snorted and left Katara to dangle there helplessly. How nice of her, thought Katara icily.
Katara's fingers tightened over the grass and dirt, and she leaned her forehead against the muddy cliff-side. She shut her eyes and let out a sigh. "Sokka and Aang will notice I'm gone, and they'll come looking for me," she said to herself confidently. "And they'll bring Toph to make the job much easier."
An hour flew by, and Katara felt herself being baked by the sun and her arms were tiring. "Any minute now," she growled to herself as she struggled to get a better grip. She forced her head upward and she searched for a face looking down at her. There was none. Katara sighed; she couldn't be like this forever. Eventually she would completely wear out and she would let go.
Another hour flew by, and Katara had fallen asleep in this position. Dirt piling under her fingernails made her awaken; it was a very strange feeling. She looked up and noticed in terror that her hands were losing grip. She struggled to get a better grip, her fingers clawing at the ground. Not a chance; luck was not on her side. Her fingers were barely on the cliff now, and she threw back her head and screamed as loud as she could, "Help!" Her fingers were the only thing keeping her up there now. "Please, someone! Anyone; help! Please help me!"
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes tightly as her left hand fell to her side. She clenched her jaw when her right arm began screaming in pain. She let out the breath in a terrified scream as she lost her grip at last and she began falling backward. Something gripped her wrist in an instant, and she stopped from falling.
Katara let out a sigh and reached up with her left hand to grab hold of the hand that held onto her wrist with a death grip. "Thank goodness, Sokka. I didn't think you guys could hear me."
"…Who's Sokka?"
Katara's eyes snapped open and she looked up into flaming golden eyes…familiar, flaming golden eyes. She screamed again, knowing that she was in a very vulnerable predicament and all he had to do was to let go of her and she would fall to her death.
"Stop…screaming…" Zuko struggled out as he pulled upward with his legs, both hands now gripping hers. He pulled up, but the girl was a dead weight and she barely moved an inch. "Holy crap, how much does this girl weigh?" he grumbled under his breath to himself as he tried once more to pull her up.
Katara winced in pain. "Please stop," she begged, "you're hurting me."
Zuko stopped and looked down at her curiously. She looked up at him pleadingly, her scream gone from her voice. He sighed and shook his head, "Just brace yourself, okay? On the count of three, I'll try and pull you up, okay?" What was her name?
Katara nodded. "One…" she tightened her grip on his hands, "Two…" she braced her elbows against the muddy wall with her shoes digging into the sides, "Three…" He pulled upward and Katara moved a few feet, before he dropped her a few feet with a gasp. Katara screamed but he once more was grasping onto her wrists, this time her left hand was in his, and her right in his.
"What the hell was that?" she gasped angrily, "You are trying to kill me, aren't you? Forget it, I don't want your help!"
Zuko looked at her now as if she were crazy. "I let go of you and you go falling, peasant," he pointed out. Agni, what is her name?
"Peasant!" she screeched. She struggled to get at him, her teeth baring in an angry snarl as she thrashed about.
Zuko's eyes widened. "Stop it, you're going to make me fall, too, and where would that get you!" This time Zuko slackened his grip on her and Katara, instead of screaming, shut her eyes tightly. But Zuko wasn't going to let go, he just readjusted his footing and once more his grasp tightened. "Okay, look, I'm not going to drop you."
Katara looked up at him sadly. "Why not? You could get rid of me right here and now. One less person to kick your ass when you try and get Aang."
He tensed. "I can't sit around and watch a young woman in her prime be killed. And if I did it, it would make it even worse. Some fire-benders may be ruthless killers, but all Fire Nation have priorities, and for royalty women are in the highest."
Katara glared at him a moment, testing him. He just looked away in…what was that?...embarrassment? "Whatever." She shut her eyes and leaned her forehead once more against the wall of the cliff, letting out a deep sigh.
The silence between them didn't last long, for as soon as she set her head against the wall a roar was heard on the ground above Katara's head. She opened her eyes and looked up and Zuko, who slowly turned his head to see what it, was. "What was that?" Katara asked fearfully.
Zuko's head spun back around and he looked down at her, "Do you trust me?"
"Hell no!" Katara yelled.
"Please, just trust me this once."
"What's up there?"
Another roar, this time closer. Zuko's head spun around once more. "You are going to have to trust me, peasant." Great Agni, what was that peasant's name! Kaitlin? Katasha? Katara? Katara! That was it!
"No! What do you want to do?" she asked fearfully, her eyes wide in fear.
Zuko's head turned around once more to look at the angry beast behind him and then he looked back down at Katara, this time more determined. "Damnet, Katara, just trust me!" Katara's eyes widened at the sound of her name falling off of his lips, but then she shut her eyes tightly and nodded.
"I trust you…" The instant the words fell from her mouth, the grip around her wrists vanished and she felt the air sweep down past her body. Katara held in the scream, her eyes tightly shut as the air passed underneath her and the crying of the wind against her ear. Tears streamed upward from her eyes, and then she slammed against something. She opened her eyes slowly. She was alive?
Katara slowly picked herself up, and felt the dirt and rocks beneath her hands. She looked down, and her eyes widened. She looked up to where she had been once before, and Zuko was vanished, but she could hear fire being slammed against something up above. Katara slowly made her way to the edge of the small cliff-top and she looked down the side. "That's a long drop," she gulped into the darkness of the fall. She crawled back against the wall of the cliff and pulled her knees to her chest.
That's when a yell was heard above her head and she looked up just in time to see Zuko's body to slam against the small cliff that she sat upon. Her grip tightened on her knees, scared that the impact of his body would break the rock face, but it did not.
Zuko slowly got up, but he winced as he came onto hands and knees. Blood dripped from somewhere on his front, and the rock beneath him slowly became encased in red droplets. "You're hurt…" whispered Katara sadly.
"No kidding? I hadn't noticed." Zuko spat something out of his mouth and he turned onto his butt, rubbing his shoulders. Katara gasped in shock; his left shoulder was ripped from the collarbone across his chest ending to where his ribs on his right side would be. It was bleeding terribly.
He winced as he touched the sensitive skin around it. "Damn bear," he growled. And then his cold eyes looked at the water-bender in front of him, and he spat out, "And what the hell were you doing hanging over that damn cliff, peasant? Of all the stupid things you could possibly do!"
Katara gasped heatedly. "Do you think I planned dangling from a hundred foot cliff? Do you think I was enjoying just hanging around like that?"
Their eyes met in an angry battle of a staring contest, fire against heated water. Sparks flew between them angrily as their opposites met, and Katara felt like strangling him. She hissed out a breath of air through her mouth, and instead of invisible air the breath that escaped her was icy and cold. Zuko in turn breathed out angrily through his nose, steam escaping his nostrils.
"I shouldn't have trusted you," she pointed out in a tight voice, "Look where that got me? In a worse jam then I was in before!"
Zuko snorted. "I should have thrown you away from the cliff-side that way you would have fallen into the dark trench and I wouldn't have to be bothered by your bubbling!"
She glared at him. "You are so insolent!"
"Yeah? Well, you are stubborn!"
"Oh yeah? Well, you are so irritating!" Her voice was rising into a threatening yell.
"Me? Irritating? Please, you are even more so!"
Katara was standing by this time, glaring at him. "You know, this face isn't very large. It would only take a kick in the groin and a good shove to have you gone for good," she pointed out with narrowed cobalt-blue eyes.
Zuko stood as well. "You realize that it won't take more than one flaming punch to make you look like me?" Katara stiffened slightly, now her gaze was on his scar over his eye. Zuko snarled angrily at this and then he had her against the wall, his right hand around her neck.
Katara struggled for breath, her fingers scratching at his arm desperately. His hand tightened after a moment, and Katara's eyes shut desperately as her hands fell to her sides helplessly. When her breathes became shallow beneath his grasp, that's when Zuko realized what he was doing. He let go of her instantly and she fell to her knees, her hands gripping the rocks as she attempted to catch her breath. When she felt she could talk she looked at him with daggers and she pointed an index finger at him, "You…jerk…so…rude…no…manners…you…idiot…" she gasped out the words in a sad excuse of a sentence and then her head fell back down and she coughed and choked on her breath.
Zuko looked at her in dim amusement as she coughed up these harmless words. If she was strong enough to cough up those words after being choked like that, she was strong enough to do anything. But he sighed and crouched down to her, "Sorry."
She looked up at him for a moment in surprise, but then glowered at him. "Apology not accept," she said breathlessly as she fell back onto her butt, leaning against the wall taking in deep breaths of air. Zuko sat there a moment, and then he moved away slightly.
"You wouldn't have some secret way to call the Avatar to you, would you?" he asked suddenly.
Katara looked at him angrily. "No, of course not. And why would I? You would be at him in a second, you jerk-whole." He glared at her for that name-call of hers; it was pathetic.
"Sheesh, it was just a question," he rolled his eyes away from her gaze, and then he looked back at her with a mocking look, "and 'jerk-whole'? You don't have anything better in that dull head of yours?"
Katara scowled at him and then looked down at her knees. Zuko sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Sorry, 'jerk-whole' is a good nickname. Call me 'jerk-whole' all you want. It's fine." Katara looked at him oddly for a moment, but stayed silent as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall.
Just as the edges of sleep over-took her, she opened one eye and looked at him, "Jerk-whole," she grumbled jokingly and then she was asleep. Zuko watched her as her breathing slowly edged into a slow pattern, and he smiled slightly as she muttered the nickname.