Chapter 3: Road to Recovery
Zuko thought things couldn't get more awkward during their late dinner until Katara asked him how he ended up in such a predicament in the first place. He was ashamed, he didn't want to admit that he fought with his one and only uncle over something stupid, ran away like a five year old kid, and injured himself. He looked up at Katara's curious face, remaining silent for a moment until he decided that she deserved to know the truth for taking care of him thus far.
"I got into a fight with my uncle and ran out of the house," Zuko muttered. He looked down at his soup, trying not to meet Katara's eyes. Sokka was sitting across from him, leaning against the other wall, while Katara sat in between the two men. "I was really angry… and I didn't realize where I was running until I fell down the hill."
"I'm sorry to hear," Katara remarked as she finished the rest of her soup. "What did you two fight about?"
Zuko fidgeted, and continued looking down at his bowl of soup, "Well, you know, just family problems."
Katara seemed satisfied with his answer. She had somehow convinced her brother to allow Zuko to stay with them until his leg was healed. He was still wary of Sokka's constant stare, and reminded himself that he needed to recuperate fast and pay back Katara soon for her kindness.
"Won't your uncle be worried and start looking for you?" Katara asked.
Zuko lightly smiled, "Nah. He knows I can take care of myself. As long as I don't take too long, he'll be waiting back home for my return."
"Sounds like a pretty cool uncle to me," said Katara.
"Yeah… " Zuko sighed. "I was stupid and immature to fight with him. I'll have to apologize when I go back."
Katara nodded in agreement and stood up with her empty bowl. She walked over to Sokka and he handed her his bowl, muttering a quiet 'thanks'. She came over to Zuko and stuck her hand out, "I'm going out to clean the bowls."
Zuko quickly tried to stand up, forgetting about his broken ankle. He paused when he felt sharp pain in his left leg and slowly ushered himself down. Katara smiled, amused at his efforts and kept her hand out.
"Don't worry about trying to help me," she bent down and took the bowl from him. "It's easy to wash them quickly with water bending, you know." Taking the three bowls, she pushed the door open with her shoulder and walked out into the dark forest. Zuko sat there, trying to calm his breathing, aware of Sokka's eyes set on his every move.
"How long have you been living with your uncle?"
Zuko shot his head up to Sokka's voice, surprised he was trying to start a conversation with him. His face remained emotionless, waiting for Zuko's answer.
"All my life," said Zuko. "We moved from place to place, but we've been living here in these mountains for the last couple of years."
Sokka continued to look at him, having no reaction from Zuko's reply.
"Age?" asked Sokka.
"Nineteen," Zuko replied smoothly. He then realized that the hill incident previously didn't exactly match up with the intelligence of people his age, and he grumbled silently.
Before the silence between the two men could hold out any longer, Katara walked back in, holding three perfectly cleaned bowls. She set them on the floor and stored them into a large leather bag one by one. Katara opened up another bag and pulled out blankets and frowned.
"I'm sorry we don't have an extra blanket for you, Zuko," said Katara. He expected that, it was a wonder why they were carrying an extra bowl for food, and since she told him that they move around a lot, an extra blanket they don't need would only burden them.
"That's really all right. Being a firebender raises my body temperature considerably higher than a normal person, so I won't get cold easily," said Zuko, smiling reassuringly to Katara.
"That makes a lot of sense, I was thinking you were running a crazy high fever when I helped carry you here," she let out a small laugh.
Zuko smiled back at her, trying not to feel like a burden anymore. He was satisfied with the advantages that came with being a firebender, as he lowered his back to the floor, turning to face the wall. The moonlight illuminated the inside of the house through the small rectangular windows at the top of each wall. He watched Katara and Sokka's shadows move around for a bit, and settle to the floor with a low thump. He concentrated on his breathing, slow and steady. Too exhausted to dream, Zuko felt his will eventually weaken as he drifted off into sleep.
Something was really hurting Zuko's right arm. He couldn't exactly feel it anymore and felt the need to stretch it out. He woke suddenly and realized two things; he had been sleeping in an uncomfortable position on top of his arm all night, it had been bent and stuck under the weight of his body for hours. He also realized that there was a blanket draped over his body, two of them. He grunted as he slowly sat up, bending and extending his elbow repeatedly to increase the blood flow. The sunlight had poured through the windows, lighting up the small room and filling it with life. Katara and Sokka were nowhere to be found, but their bags were still in the corner of the room, so he quickly dismissed the thought of being abandoned.
He removed the heavy blankets and folded them up as best as he could when he saw the cast over his left ankle. Two thick bands of wood were bounded together on the sides of his ankle by a cloth that was repeatedly wrapped around his leg. Zuko wondered how Katara managed to find the perfectly shaped slabs of wood, when he noticed the numbness from his leg yesterday was gone. He tried to move his ankle and found it impossible with the cast on, but it definitely felt a lot better than it did yesterday. Zuko pulled himself forward and slowly pushed himself off the ground, putting most of his weight on his right leg, and balanced himself by leaning against the wall. He cautiously limped towards the door, ready for any pain, but felt none. He pushed the block of wood open and admired the sight before him.
The forest gave off a clean smell of the morning, as he soaked in the sun's rays. Zuko concentrated on the sun's glare and estimated that it has been only a few hours after sunrise. He took a step out of the house, his hand still holding onto the door frame for support when he heard Katara's voice.
"You really shouldn't be walking around just yet," she called out. Zuko turned his head to see Katara and Sokka walk out from the trees dragging something behind them. She was dressed in similar attire like he remembered from yesterday, her large cloak covering most of her body. She had her hood lowered, revealing her long brown hair, waving down to the middle of her back. She had a quiver slung across her back, containing long, sharpened arrows and held a large silver bow in her left hand.
Sokka narrowed his eyes when he caught sight of Zuko, but didn't attempt to rush at him like the night before. He wore the same style of cloak over his body, and was dragging a large brown mass with a rope behind him.
"I'll clean," Sokka muttered to his sister. She nodded at him and continued to walk towards Zuko as Sokka walked towards the side of the house, pulling out a large hunting knife from his waist.
"How does your ankle feel?" asked Katara, raising an eyebrow at him. "I gave you a small healing treatment this morning before I left, but I'm surprised you can somewhat walk already."
"No wonder," he smiled at her. "I am once again amazed and in debt to your skills, Katara. My ankle feels unbelievably better than yesterday." Zuko shifted, and limped back inside the house with Katara following him in. She set her silver bow against the corner and began to remove the quiver.
"That's good to hear," she remarked. "I'm also amazed at your recovery speed so don't give me all the glory for this."
Zuko let out a light laugh and limped over to the wall and slid down, careful of his left ankle. He watched Katara finish adjusting herself and sat down in front of him.
"So where did you guys go?" Zuko inquired. He already guessed that they were out hunting, but he wanted to listen and talk to Katara, it felt like he hadn't seen her for a long time.
"We went out to hunt for food, and scan the area here," she replied, leaning back against the other wall. "Since I didn't exactly bring home food yesterday—" she looked and gestured towards Zuko with an amused face, "Sokka and I decided to double team it this morning so we could find resources as soon as possible."
Zuko wasn't very familiar with the terrain in this side of the mountain. The forest was enormous and he hadn't done much venturing outside of his house, much less be this far away from it.
"And what did you bring?" he asked curiously.
"A wild boar," she seemed to beam with pride. "We were lucky that it was wandering around during this time of the day. Sokka's outside cleaning it out and checking for anything that could be bad for us. It should last us about eight days before we'll need to hunt seriously again."
Zuko looked at her with amazement. She was cleaning of one her arrows with a cloth, wiping off the blood; he assumed that she was the one who caught the creature.
"We also found a river close by," she continued. Zuko raised an eyebrow at her 'close by' remark, remembering that the last time she said that, he couldn't believe in her sense of distance anymore. "Since you fell down, if we follow the water up, we should reach somewhere near the altitude you fell from."
He considered her observation to stand true. There was a small river that flowed near his house, and he always went there to wash up and feel clean again. All the small streams and rivers were connected somehow, so he murmured in approval at her idea.
Katara was watching Zuko, staring absently into his face. She wasn't making eye contact, but looking at something next to his left eye, so he immediately knew she was staring at his scar. He raised a hand up to his face and touched his scar.
"Are you curious as to what happened to scar my face like this?" asked Zuko.
She seemed to snap out of her trance and looked at him with wide eyes. "No no! Of course not… I'm sorry I didn't mean to stare like that. I was just…" she stammered.
Zuko gave her a small reassuring smile, "Don't worry about it. It's nothing crazy. I've had this scar for as long as I can remember. My uncle told me it was from an accident in the kitchen when I was very young. Fire exploded and I happened to be too close to the incident."
She listened to him, trying to mask her curiosity. "Well… I was just wondering if I would be able to heal it or not, and how I would heal the scarred skin." She looked at him apologetically and raised a weak hand, "Sorry. It's a bad habit of mine."
Zuko laughed. He knew she had a big heart for other people, but it had finally struck him that she thought her intentions were bad. He stopped laughing and cursed when his left ankle reacted in sharp pain to the sudden movement of his laugh.
Then suddenly, Katara burst out in a laugh—probably at his stupidity—covering her mouth with both hands, and tried to muffle her laughter.
Zuko blushed slightly and playfully glared at her, then smirked at her laughing face. He watched her laugh at him for the next moment and thought: she is definitely beautiful, both inside and out.
A/N: I realize that you may be wondering why I made Sokka five years older instead of one year. It's not exactly super important, but it will make sense later on. You may also be wondering why Katara and Zuko don't have their infamous temper and sassy-ness. I wanted to tone it down a bit so that they are at least off to a good start and I don't have to spend five extra chapters in the beginning trying to get them to tolerate each other. BUT! There definitely will be some sass and fierceness in the later chapters.
And if you happen to be a reader who was not wondering about either of these, please continue to read on, review, and stay classy.