"Sokka, Katara I'll show you to your room." Zuko said walking them through different hallways. Coming to the first room, "Sokka this will be your room, so you can unpack, I have a feeling we will be on here for a really long time." Zuko said as he walked farther down a long hallway. "Katara, here is where you will be sleeping and doing your girly things so I'll give you some privacy." Zuko said leaving the room and as soon as he shut the door he stopped short of turning around completely, just because he thought he had heard anything.
Zuko worked his way back to the deck and found his uncle left of the door where he emerged, Zuko spent no time in getting to his uncle and asked him "Uncle earlier today, when I met Katara we could hear each other's thoughts and it was so weird. I don't know how or why it even happened, it just did. Do you have any idea how I can control this gift or curse or whatever this is? Isn't there a legend from thousands of years ago or something that could possibly explain this phenomenon?" Zuko asked with concern clearly written all over his face and laced within every word he spoke.
Iroh looked at him with astonishment. "Zuko that is no curse it was rumored that among the dragons, once they found their mate and that was a truly beautiful sight to see; they could hear each other's thoughts and speak like that. It is said that after hearing each other's thoughts for a prolonged period of time they would soon be able to feel each other's emotions, such as if one of them was in pain they both were in pain. Then a few or more years would pass and then they would be able to interact in each other's dreams changing little aspects of them like the color of flowers that fits them best. But, only when they had their first born child would they truly be able to see through each other's eyes." Iroh managed to tell all in one short breath, stunning Zuko.
Iroh knew that the connection between his nephew and the tribal girl will never be severed, no matter how much they tried to stop it. Only Iroh did not tell Zuko this and let him was the question that he truly with wanted to ask.
"How did you even remember that?" Zuko asked astonished at both the legend and how old it must have been. Dragons haven't been around for thousands of years, or so he was told.
"I've told it to countless people before you." Iroh lied. "And it's still a blessing to have found your mate." Iroh looked around, he had only read that particular legend once, and that was for trying to learn about the nation's history of fire lords. Only once have any of the fire lords had that type of connection and it was the first one to be appointed as the fire lord.
"Thanks a lot uncle." Zuko thanked showing himself to his room he thought he would get so much more done that what he had actually gotten completed.
'Katara I need to talk to you about something huge; meet me in my room' he thought feeling guilty for what he was about to tell Katara.
'I'm still in my room give me a second to get down the hallway' she thought as she walked across the hall 'I'm there'
Zuko walked, but he practically ran down the hallway to his room when he got there he paused briefly thinking of the consequences of what will come from this confrontation before he entered.
"Katara I found out why we can hear each other's thoughts." Zuko told her before retelling the legend to her much shorter than Iroh had made it out to be.
"So you're saying that were soul mates and we'll have children in years to come." Katara mumbled before allowing the whole idea sunk in. "Zuko I only think of you as a friend that and I just met you I couldn't have a baby with you." Zuko knew what she meant as he was also uneasy about the legends Every account in history that this legend played a role in, occurred exactly how the legend played out, there where two people had a baby and they were connected psychically.
Days passed and they blended into weeks, weeks into months. Then out of the blue one day when Zuko was practicing his bending he was overcame by fear. No one else seemed to notice but his uncle. "Zuko what's wrong? Why are you afraid?" Iroh asked so lowly no one, even if they were listening could have heard, concerned for his nephew.
"I don't know uncle I was practicing when all of a sudden I feel afraid." was all Zuko managed to say when he heard Zhao from another ship one that seemed to emerge out of nowhere.
"Hand over the children Iroh or I will take them prisoner or they will be executed the next time you find a port for treason." He demanded unknowing of how many benders were on board. He added the threat to the ending to make it seem that the children had no other choice.
"Zuko go get Katara, it appears that your sparring has come to your benefit. Go! NOW!" Iroh yelled at the young man.
Zuko ran straight to her room and told her to come with him, he did the same with Sokka. The three ran to the deck and immediately Katara began to build an ice shield around the ship as Sokka and Zuko fought to keep the ship from being boarded by Zhao and his crew. Katara stopped as she bended a huge wave pulling the ship along with it. She worked and worked until she was weak and even then she worked with Zuko. They fought off Zhao's soldiers until he tried to board and then Katara used the current and pushed the ship out of Zhao's sight. Only then did she pass out from exhaustion only when the ones she loved were out of harm's way. Zuko heard her hit the deck with a loud crash and he called for a healer and was told she needed to rest, that she was going to need to work harder when they sparred and she needed to practice more than she already was. Zuko looked at Katara feebly and whished there was something he could do anything. Days later she woke up refreshed and well.
"What happened all that I remember is I fell unconscious. How long was I asleep?" She asked rubbing the sandpaper feeling out of her eyes then blinking.
She heard Sokka answer "You have been out for days. Are you ok? You have to be thirsty. Would you like something to drink? What about something to eat?" worriedly asked Sokka. Katara knew that he was protective but she didn't know that he was this obsessive making sure that she was well.
"Sokka I want to see Zuko. Can I see him? Is he ok? I saw him get burned and I want to heal him. ZUKO!" Katara shouted. "Are you ok? Is your arm ok? Have you been healed? Do I need to heal you?" she demanded as Zuko walked into her chambers. He knew that the first thing that she would do was make sure everyone was ok.
"No Katara I'm fine look no burn no scar nothing." he told her and she saw nothing that would make her worry about his physical well-being. He made it a point to show her that he wasn't scarred. 'I know you're worried but you have nothing to worry about.'
"Zuko took a blast of fire while I made the last wave." she told everyone, she knew what she saw and it bothered her that Zuko was blowing it off like waking up for school on a Monday morning.
"Katara I went to sleep with it burnt and I woke up to it wrapped in glowing blue water though it was quite warm for a water bender." Zuko said. "Not much later it was healed completely, not even a scar was visible from the incident. Thank you." Zuko said while giving her a kiss on her cheek to show just how thankful he was for her healing him, when she just as easily could have frozen his arm off. "How were you able to heal me while unconscious? That, I want to know, because there has never been a bender that can bend while unconscious in the history of any of the four nations and I think it's amazing. You did it the first night you were out of it. I was terrified that I was going to lose my arm due to frostbite." Zuko asked bewildered looking at his arm for the millionth time since it had healed.
The days following were filled to the brim with intense training for Katara, she slowed down her pace when she got tired, every time she got tired. They had been training for hours and they had managed to get Katara's basic training down. Now they were sparring to see if she could apply her basics to a spar.
'Katara the more you slow down you the higher the possibility you could get killed' Zuko thought as he threw another fireball at her, which fizzled when she threw a ball of ice at him. Zuko was able to get some fire bending stances to work with Katara's bending and it worked out well for the most part. She couldn't be as firm with the stances and her attacks were weak.
Slowly she began to get stronger as she saw to that she drank a lot of water, frequently. Before long that was part of her routine. And the months seemed to pass by like sand in a child's hands. In what didn't seem to be very long at all, they were fully fledged teenagers. Zuko and Sokka were sixteen years old and Katara was fourteen.
As Katara and Zuko grew so did their emotions for each other. They denied it every chance they got and the more they denied it the more everyone else saw the budding romance. Every so often Katara would walk to Zuko's room and just talk about anything, just so she could hear his voice. Other times he would see her and talk to her for the same reason she went to him for.
Katara tiptoed to Zuko's room, knowing that she didn't make a audible sound but when she got to his door all she heard was 'Katara come in while you're at it I know you want to talk, but this late?' Zuko thought.
'I wasn't making a sound. How did you know that I was coming to your room?' Katara thought as she opened his door. "Zuko how did you know?" Katara demanded as the two teenagers heard Sokka yell "Zhao's here for a visit! Go get Katara and Zuko! NOW!"
"Katara move!" Zuko yelled, not knowing he yelled.
"Zuko we are going to the same place so screw off!" Katara yelled back as she ran to the deck and looked at the damage being caused.
Katara and Zuko charged the center of the deck and she immediately formed a water whip and he formed fire whips. The couple took on soldier after soldier until the deck was almost completely cleared. Sokka saw them and joined the duo. Making a trio. Iroh saw them and laughed to himself as Zhao walked onto the ship.
"Iroh and Zuko, I will be taking the water tribe children to the capitol." Zhao told them with no negotiation clear in his voice. Katara and Zuko merely looked at each other and they laughed. "What's so funny?" Zhao demanded.
"You think you can take me and my brother back to the fire nation without uncle, Zuko, my brother and myself fighting your troops and yourself." Katara mocked "You are sadly mistaken because we don't want to go, why do ou think we left in the first place." She said as she flung several ice daggers at him, followed up by a water whip.
"I will not leave without the children!" Zhao yelled as he was knocked back by a blast of fire coming from Iroh's general direction.
"Zhao you will not take them!" Iroh yelled. Then Katara made a massive wave and made it crashed it onto the deck knocking Zhao off his feet and pulled up another one this time washing Zhao off the deck as Katara pushed the ship forward.
"Katara tell us when you get remotely tired. You don't need to fall asleep for a week like last time." Zuko told her as he remembered being lonely for a week.
"Ok I promise and I wont fall asleep, but I will get as far away as possible." she said without a fault in her bending.
'Please not again.' he thought.
Before long she stopped abruptly, looking around. 'Zuko, I'm done get the engines running.' she thought as she sat down. Iroh looked around as he walked up to her and told her " Katara I need you Sokka and Zuko to get off of this ship the next time we port. We cant risk Zhao finding you three now after you washed him off our ship he will be angry and will stop at nothing to take you back to the fire nation. We will be docking in the next few hours, thank you for pushing us this far we will get you to safety and I promise you, you will be protected by Zuko and your brother. I saw the way he reacted to Zhao when he said that he will not leave without you and Sokka. I need to tell Zuko. Wait I need you to tell him and your brother. Katara I'm counting on you to make sure you get off this ship, now go pack." Iroh told her way to calmly for the current situation.
'Zuko go get my brother and get to my room. NOW!' Katara demanded in her thoughts knowing Zuko wouldn't question her because of her tone.
'Why? What happened?' Zuko wondered concerned. She never was this aggressive about anything and considering what's happened in the past few weeks, nothing good will come out of what she has to tell him.
'We're leaving' Katara thought.