Here is chapter #3! It's not the best. I had a few problems writing it, but oh-wells!
Hope you don't fall asleep while reading
I do not own ATLA and/or any of the characters.
Except for Salji! She is mine!
Since Toph was training Aang today, Katara figured that she could corner Zuko and ask him what was wrong. Even though he had told her there was nothing to talk about, she knew that there was. There had to be some reason he was yelling some girls name in his sleep loud enough to wake her up.
Right after breakfast Zuko had snuck up stairs, and Katara planed on following a little while after.
She walked up the stairs to Zuko's room, knocked on the door and waited for a reply. One didn't come. She knocked again, a little harder this time. All of a sudden the door flew open.
"What do you want Katara?" Zuko asked wearily.
"I want to know what's the matter with you. This morning I wake up to hearing you screaming some girls name, you won't eat, and it looks as if you haven't gotten any sleep. I just want to help you Zuko. Please let me help you." She pleaded.
"I don't want your help Katara."
"Zuko, you need to tell someone what the problem is. It's not good to keep things bottled up inside."
"Katara, I don't want nor need your help." He said, and then abruptly shut the door in her face.
Katara couldn't believe that he just shut the door in her face. Why did he have to be so infuriating? She thought that if she offered to help him out that he might just open up to her like he did in Ba Sing Se, but she was apparently wrong.
She stormed off to do the laundry. As she scrubbed the clothes with soap, she relived her and Zuko's imprisonment together.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you before." She said turning to him
"It doesn't matter." He said indifferently.
"It's just that for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face."
"My face," he lifted his hand to his scar, "I see."
"No, no, that's not what I meant." She said wishing she had more control over her words.
"It's okay. I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark."
"Maybe you could be free of it." She had a crazy idea that possibly could work.
"What?"
"I have healing abilities."
"It's a scar. It can't be healed." He said turning back around
"This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties, so I have been saving it for something important" she said trying to explain. "I don't know if it would work, but..."
He turned back around and leaned his head towards her. She put her hand on his scar. It felt different than she thought it would. It wasn't scaly like she imagined, it was actually had sort of a glossy, silk feeling.
"Hello? Katara?" Aang interrupted her thoughts.
"Oh, hey Aang." She said as she got back to washing the clothes.
"You know you've been scrubbing that in the same spot for like 5 minutes." He said as he pointed towards the shirt Katara had in her hand.
She looked down and saw that her hands were all wrinkly and only one part of the shirt was soapy.
"Oops. I guess I zoned out." She blushed as she said this.
"Do you want to practice some waterbending with me?"
"I can't," she replied, "I really need to finish washing these clothes, and then I've got to make lunch."
"Oh, ok." He stalked off obviously upset.
Katara hated to hurt Aang's feelings, but she had to finish the chores, and make lunch for everyone.
Soon she was through washing the clothes started to walk downstairs. She wanted to stop by Zuko's room and try to ask him again, but she knew he would do exactly what he did last time. So she moved on to the kitchen.
She decided to stew some ocean kumquats for lunch. She knew Zuko wouldn't eat, but she made enough to feed six anyways. When she finished making the stew she yelled "Lunch is ready!' loud enough for everyone to hear.
Everyone came to the table except Zuko. Katara rationed out everyone a bowl of stew and got a bowl for herself.
"Where's Zuko?" Suki asked.
"He's up in his room." Toph replied. "I think he might be sick or something." She said with a worried look on her face.
Katara couldn't even begin to imagine what Toph must be going through because of Zuko's indescribable behavior. She was the closest to him out of the whole house, and he apparently wouldn't even tell her.
"I'm sure he's ok Toph" Katara said as she patted her on the shoulder.
"I hope so" Toph said just above a whisper.
They finished eating their lunch and when everyone was through they went back to their normal activities. Katara saw Toph sneak up to Zuko's room. She secretly hoped that Zuko would tell Toph what was wrong, and then Toph would relay the information to her.
Katara thought that she would clean the dishes while Toph went and talked to Zuko. She ended up washing all of the dishes, cleaning the house, and made supper by the time Toph can back down.
"Hey Toph" she said with a cheerful smile.
"Sweetness, I know you are planning to ask me if Zuko told me anything, but I can't tell you." She said with tiny tears welling up in her eyes.
"Come on Toph, I just want to help him. Don't you want to help him too?"
"I do want to help him, but he won't tell me what's wrong" now the tears rolled down Toph's face. "He won't let me help him Katara. I need to help him, but he won't let me."
Katara grabbed Toph and embraced her. She had never really seen Toph cry, and she never wanted to see her cry like this. She loved Zuko, and he loved her, but then why was he hurting her like this?
"Toph, you stay right here, I'm going to figure out what is the matter with him." She said as she let go of Toph.
"Katara, no, please don't bother him. He's really upset at whatever happened. Just let him be for now." She pleaded to Katara.
"No Toph, I've got to go see what his problem is. He can't just avoid it forever."