26. Holiday

Katara woke up to soft pillows and cool sheets and the smell of jasmine tea.

It was truly a pity she had to wake up, she mused, eyes still closed. She had been dreaming of clouds and water and her mother and herself soaring in the sky and playing in the waves, although they coudn't have done it at home because the sea was always freezing...

Her hand moved and touched burnt cloth, and then she remembered everything. The escape plan. Jin's betrayal. Zuko, the Blue Spirit. Zhao. Yue...

Yue was dead. She shuddered and felt like throwing up again. She'd sen her mother's body and known what had happened; she'd seen the pitiful wooden coffins of the dead students, carelessly attended to; and she'd almost lost little Kita. But she saw Yue, the bravest princess in the world, light up in flames like a phoenix, but she would not come back to life.

Where was her brother, Suki, Bumi, the other resistance members?

Where was she?

She sat up and nearly screamed. The room was plain, but she was in a large bed with red silk blankets and a shiny carved desk and a dresser with a tea set on it and bare walls with a two doors. This wasn't her room at all. Was this Zhao's? Did he catch her? Oh, spirits, was she here to...

The door opened, and Prince Zuko strode through with a tray and a bowl of what smelled like broth with meat in it.

Katara did the first thing that entered her mind: she picked up the teapot and threw it at him.

It missed—it was much too heavy with tea and landed ten feet away from him, smashing the porcelain on the hardwood floor and splattering the tea on everything, mostly the hardwood floor.

The Prince stared stupidly at her. The tray was still in his arms. "You're—"

Katara didn't see the point in obstructing her abilities towards him anymore. She flicked her wrist, and the tea shaped it self into twenty ice daggers, flying at Prince Zuko with speed that she could admire. He cursed and ducked, the broth sloshing over the sides. The daggers impaled the door and walls.

"Are you stupid? They don't know you're here! Stop that!" he hissed at her as loudly as he dared and set to melting the tea-icicles, forming a large puddle on the floor. He pointed to them. "Clean this up, and don't you dare try something."

Katara scowled and gracefully pulled it back into the teapot just as a knock sounded on the door. "Everything okay there, Prince Zuko?"

"Fine, Lieutenant Jee!" Zuko called back with a strained nod, forgetting his officer couldn't see him through the door. He picked up the tray and dumped it in front of her. "Here. Komodo chicken soup with noodles."

She stared at him, then at the bowl. "What...?"

Zuko rapidly summarized as she dug her spoon into the steaming soup. "I picked you up and carried you here without anyone noticing. I had to clean you up a bit, since you, ah, regurgitated on yourself again, but I didn't touch you anywhere else, I swear on Agni. Then, I put you in bed and ordered Jee to guard the door. You didn't awake for two days."

Two days. "What of my brother? My friends?"

"They can't find your brother. Suki was caught, but that kid, Bumi, wasn't."

"Suki..." her throat felt dry, despite the abundance of soup being spooned into her mouth. "What...what's happening to her?"

Zuko swallowed. "They're...they're interrogating her. With...fire whips and...chains."

Spirits, no. "Suki..."

"She—"

"Don't you dare say she'll be fine! You made this happen! You planned everything, you bastard! You son of a—"

"If you say bitch, then I'll turn you in. I swear that I will." His eyes were flames, now, but she found that she didn't care. Not anymore.

"And what? I'll say that you hid me from them and took care of me. Isn't that a bit treacherous?"

He glowers at her, and she simply stares back.

Zuko turns away. "What am I going to do wth you?"

She narrows her eyes. "Set me free. Let me escape and find my brother and rescue—"

"And get killed? Surely not."

"Then help me!" Katara snaps. "Help me, then, if you don't want me to get injured! Ironic, huh?"

He starts and backs away from her. She feels powerful at the look in his eyes. "Katara, please. I realize all of this was wrong; it's—"

"You just found that out?" Katara wants to form more icicles. Her soup is starting to vibrate in the bowl. "It took a death of a girl, and me fainting to realize this? Are you really this messed up in the head?"

The Prince hangs his head. His hair falls into his eyes, and she notices that he's not wearing his crown. "Yes. I am."

She's silent, then turns away from him. That's the most honest thing he's said to her so far.

Zuko keeps her in his room and orders Lieutenant Jee to stand watch over his room. Since he would look suspicious guarding the Prince's room every day when it was not needed before, and this would put him in a situation for him to be asked questions, Jee is stationed in her room. He's polite and sorry and plays Pai Shao with her, a girft from General Iroh, who had left before the Escape. Katara has one of Zuko's robes and pants on, since Zuko doesn't allow her to wear the singed school uniform anymore (she doesn't really have the desire to, either), but she still hates it, as if she's his personally-owned property.

Jee knows enough about her not to talk about the Escape or her friends without her bringing it up, so he shares legends of the Fire Nation that are not sprinkled with patrotism and funny stories about his childhood. He reminded her of her father, somewhat, but with a drier sense of humor. Katara was soon laughing at a story of little Zuko falling into the turtleduck pond when the Prince walked in, obviously disgruntled.

"That is enough merriment today." Katara raised an eyebrow. Who said merriment? Jee smirked, too, as Zuko continued, "They might hear you two! Jee, you are dismissed. We have big day tomorrow."

Katara figures out that the "big day" is not an escape plan, but a day out in the next town. Zuko makes her pose as a Fire Nation colonial, since he tells her that he "can't steal powder to make her look like a citizen since everything is tightly locked." Jee is going, too, posed as her father. Zuko wears a cloak.

She feels this is the Prince's way of "cheering her up," which seems a little bit odd because he's trying to make up for causing a death, several injuries, and a betrayal. (Two, if you counted Jin) Katara is taken to the seaside, where she immediately smells the wonderful air ("It smells like salt and dead fish, Katara.") and wades in the water like a "lunatic."

Zuko buys her sweets—an egg custard tart and a taro roll—and tries to give her other nice things, like jewelry and books and dresses, but she saves him off. She doesn't see the use of them and doesn't want to accept anything from him. She gives the taro roll to Jee (it's his favorite) and the tart to a wailing child.

The Prince finally pleases her with the ocean, even though she cannot bend it. They watch her prance in, fully clothed, and walk in it slowly. It's freezing, but delightfully contrasts the humid and stuffy school. Her skirts swirls in the water. She feels calm as she steadily begins to go into deeper, the waves gently pushing at her as she paddles in delight.

"Don't go too far," the Prince commands her, like a parent to an eager child.

Katara stares at him, something clicking in her her head. Zuko smiles at her fondly and turns away to talk to Jee.

She dives.