Wanted

Chapter 7

Stories

Katara slept through the night. Zuko half expected the wound to completely disappear, but a bright pink scar marked the location the arrow had once resided. He briefly wondered what she could've done for him and his family's wounds had she been there that night so many years ago.

The memories forced him to push his thoughts about her away. He was thinking about her too much.

She was present for the massacre of her own people. She couldn't help even them at the time. There was no point in wondering what she could've done for him, or Lu Ten even. But still he watched her as she slept quietly, cared for by her brother. He watched as Sokka dried and redressed his sister, and then gently attempted to braid her hair. When it didn't seem to work he huffed and tucked the thick mass into the collar of her loose blue tunic.

An hour later the three men sat around the fire finishing off the last of a small rabbit-squirrel Zuko had managed to catch before sunset. Clouds of steam misted off the bowls of soup and from the breaths of everyone present. It was a cold night.

"So, young Sokka," Iroh began, customarily tucking his hands into his sleeves like he always did when he was getting comfortable. "Why has your sister been disguising herself as a boy?"

'Subtle' Zuko thought, setting his bowl aside and pulling his cloak tighter around his shoulders.

Sokka sighed and glanced at his sister before returning his attention to the fire. "She is the only female waterbender we have ever encountered outside the Northern City. To boot, she's the only female waterbender trained in combat even within the walls of the north. It looks weeks to convince them to teach her, and only by chance did she manage to sway Master Pakku's conviction."

"They don't train women in the north?" Iroh asked, mildly surprised. In their shared and unshared experiences, both Zuko and Iroh knew all other nations trained women in the same arts as men. Even the extinct Air Nomads trained their nuns to defend themselves.

"They do, but only as healers." Sokka sighed. "It was this huge shock to Katara that our sister tribe would deny a seemingly basic knowledge and ability. She couldn't understand it and fought the tradition every step of the way. We learned a lot about our people that winter." Sokka laughed. It was laced with cynicism however, and no hint of humor existed in the short outburst.

"You see, the Southern Tribe has been dealing with Fire Nation raiders for the past hundred years. Our city used to be even greater then that of the North. But after a hundred years of attacks and kidnappings our city… our culture was all but obliterated. Katara and I were the first children born into our tribe in almost a dozen years. Katara was the first waterbender born in almost twenty. We had to keep her a secret. The Fire Nation makes point of collecting our benders. Outside the borders of our tribe, we found out that Katara was even rarer then we had originally thought. She was caught several times and almost sold as a performance slave. Apparently rare and beautiful girls fetch a good price in the markets of the Earth Kingdom." A bitter and furious look passes over Sokka's face before he continued. "Katara made her first kill when she was almost fourteen. They came in the night and took her, all it took was a kick to the head and there was nothing I could do. I didn't get to her until the next morning. It took me hours to find her, but when I did she had already escaped."

"It took her a few weeks to get over that, and I still think she dreams about it."

Sokka took a moment to finish the last of the watery soup, even attempting for a moment to feed it to his unconscious sister. Zuko took a moment to look at the peaceful face of the female bender. She was beautiful by most standards and he could see why someone would want to have her for something as scandalous as a 'performing bender'. He wondered how she had gotten so good at hiding the obviousness of hiding beauty like hers. Years of practice seemed like the answer. She shared the same tanned skin with her brother. And while Sokka kept his dark brown hair pulled back and the sides shaved clean; Katara's hair all but cascaded down her back. He wondered why she kept it that way. It would've made sense to chop it off, making her disguise as convincing as possible.

"We decided upon the disguise after our run-in with a rebel named Jet. He had set up a small encampment to the northwest of Serpent's Pass. He liked to ambush Fire Nation troops and sabotage their supply lines. I didn't really like him, even Aang managed to hate him and that kid can't even eat meat he loves everything so much… but for some reason Katara really admired the efforts he was putting up against occupying troops. We didn't really realize how much effort that meant. He ended up using Katara to destroy a dam in hopes of drowning out a battalion of Fire Nation troops occupying a town downstream. If Katara had known what he was really up to, we would've been gone in a matter of minutes. She takes death very seriously after what we've been through. In the end we saved the town. But despite that, Katara was framed by Jet and the Fire Nation has a bounty on her head for her 'attempted mass murder of Lord Ozai's subjects."

Zuko flinched at the name of his father. In the company of only his uncle the name was never uttered.

"So we decided that they couldn't execute her if they couldn't find her." Sokka sighed, pulling a bone out of the soup pot and sucking on it. "It's important that we keep her a secret. She's kind of a big deal for more then just the Fire Nation."

"How's that?" Iroh asked.

"The Avatar." Sokka replied. "He has these… uncontrollable emotions when it comes to Katara. If someone ever tried to hurt her, or if he ever found out what happened to her today, he'd pretty much explode. And I'm not exaggerating on the exploding part."

"Is the young Avatar smitten?" Iroh asked, looking amused.

"Katara would say that she's just a mother figure for the kid." Sokka grumbled, muttering something about pre-pubescence under his breath. "Toph on the other hand thinks he's totally head over heels in love."

"What about you?" Zuko couldn't help but ask.

Sokka gave him a mild look of surprise. "Me? She's me little sister, what else am I supposed to think other then, 'keep your hands off my sister'?"

For a moment Zuko had the distinct feeling that Sokka's response was meant for him. Stay away from his sister? Of course he'd stay away from her. What was the point of getting close?

He thought about that, quickly turning his head away from Sokka's pointed stare. Him and Katara? The thought seemed kind of ridiculous. Sure Katara was beautiful and powerful in the same fell swoop; but was he even interested in her that way? Fire and water? He wanted to say no. He wanted to deny the attraction. Thinking back on their interactions, he cringed a little bit. She had rescued him, attacked him, traveled with him and all without uttering a single word. He had no idea who she was let alone the fact that he hadn't know her true identity until that afternoon. He had to admit the revelation wasn't displeasing.

But no, Sokka had nothing to worry about.

Iroh, on the other hand, had a look on his face that was not missed by either young men.

Sokka didn't know if telling their story, even if it was only half the story, to the firebenders was a good idea. He could already anticipate Katara's bad reaction when she woke up. And the fact that the next evening would be followed by a full moon didn't calm his nerves the least bit. In fact, his stomach turned at the thought. He almost wished she'd sleep through it. But if she did, they'd be even more behind schedule then they where already. They'd already be showing up a day late at their rendezvous point with Aang and Toph. Any later and he didn't want to think what Aang would resort to in order to make sure his precious Katara was okay.

It didn't help that he had noticed Zuko eyeing Katara even before the hot head had realized she was a girl. Sokka wasn't an idiot, he knew his sister was pretty, and having one more guy to worry about (a firebender especially!) was almost a little too much for him to handle.

But, the more he thought about, he realized Katara would probably like it even less then he would. He almost relaxed at the thought. But then he realized how much she'd hate it, and again he shivered at the thought.

Katara was down right terrifying when she was angry.

It was almost a curiosity she wasn't born a firebender.

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A/N: Of course it's about to get interesting! Don't you think? It'd be nice to know what that was exactly. Reviews are always appreciated and held dear to my heart.

Speaking of reviews: Special shout-out to Sumhope for all her awesome reviews AND for her awesome story! Shell Shock is probably one of the most realistic AU Post-Sozin Comet stories I've ever read on this site. It is incredible and you're missing out on 21+ chapters of awesomeness if you don't read it. (You can find it in my favorites.) It's always pretty cool when two authors get hooked on each other stories.

Anyways, you might be able to expect another update with the next 12 to 24 hours. Exciting, hmmm?