Zuko swallowed and fell silent.
"I'm waiting," Azula chuckled.
"Take her," Zuko said.
Azula's eyes widened. "What?"
"You heard me," Zuko said in a flat emotionless voice, "Get her out of here."
Katara barely had time to grab onto a blanket as he shoved her roughly from the bed. She fell in a crumpled heap at Azula's feet. Azula glanced at her in disgust before redirecting her attention to Zuko, who looked oddly non-caring.
"But…"Azula was at a complete loss for words.
"What?" Zuko looked surprised, "you expected me to yield to your decision and throw me in a cell with this common whore? Please, I'm a prince and I have more dignity then that."
"But…" Azula seem to be regaining her thoughts, "you just said you were in love with her?"
"I lied," Zuko said, "she was warming up to me so I thought I'd help her along."
Azula said nothing but continued to gape at Zuko.
"Oh, and by the way," Zuko stood up; seemingly unaware of his nakedness but Katara and Azula both flushed a dark red. Zuko grabbed the camera out of Azula's hands before she could stop him and flung it at the wall. It shattered and Zuko sent a shot of fire to melt the remnants. All that remained was a few shards of charred metal.
"Now, get out and take her," he nodded at Katara, "with you."
Azula just starred at him.
"Did you hear me?" Zuko growled, "get out, both of you, I'm still in charge here." With that he returned to his bed and pulled the covers over his head.
Azula said nothing but grabbed Katara and dragged her out of the room. She continued to drag her, down, down, down many flights of steps until they arrived in the basement. Azula opened a door and harshly shoved Katara in.
Katara looked around; surprisingly the room wasn't that horrible. There was a bed with covers, no chains on the walls, and it looked like a room where guests would stay.
"I can't keep you in the main dungeons," said Azula, "in case your friends return to try and rescue you. And I had no time to prepare this properly so consider yourself lucky for the next couple of hours. It will all be gone soon."
"Wait," Katara said as Azula was about to shut the door, "do I get any clothes?"
Azula sneered at her, "that blanket should suffice, maybe if I'm feeling generous you'll get some later… maybe, but most likely not." And she slammed the door.
Katara began to cry. No, cry was an understatement; she was bawling her eyes out. She stumbled over and curled up on the bed. The mattress was soft but nothing at all could stop the flow of her tears. For hours she sobbed into the pillow before the tears stopped coming and she just lay there, thinking.
How could he say he loved me and throw me out like trash? Was that all I was to him the whole time? What now?
Katara lay there, starring blankly at the ceiling until sleep caught up with her and she drifted off into the oblivion.
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Tap, tap, tap.
Katara woke with a jump. Her room was pitch black leading her to believe it was late at night. She rolled over, trying to fall back to sleep.
Tap, tap, tap.
Katara sat up. "Whose there," she whispered.
Tap, tap, tap
Katara got up and, clutching her blanket, stumbled over to the door.
"Zuko," Katara jumped back from the door in alarm, almost dropping her blanket. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to you Katara, when no one else is around."
"Fine, talk."
"I lied, back there with Azula, I really do love you but I couldn't let us both be locked up. If that happened… We would have both died, although I'll miss your company this is how it has to be for the time being."
Katara turned away.
"What's wrong?" He asked her, both eyes full of concern.
Katara began to cry. "I don't know what to believe anymore, you rape me then tell me you love me then you have me shut away."
"I just told you, this was to protect both of us."
"But you still raped me, over and over again. How am I supposed to even like you much less love you after you did that to me?"
"Katara…" he was at a complete loss for words.
"I'm glad I'm here, now I don't have to see you anymore. At all."
With that she turned around and curled up on the bed, pulling the covers over her head exactly like he had done earlier that day. She began to cry again, harder then she had earlier, she just wanted to go home.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
She waited until she was sure he had left before coming out from under the covers. Sure enough, his silhouette had vanished from behind the door but there was something small lying at the foot of the door.
Curiously, she got up and picked up the small bundle lying wrapped in a handkerchief. She opened it and gasped, dropping her mother's necklace on the ground. She picked it up and noticed a note still attached to it, it read only two words.
I'm Sorry.
A/N: I'm sorry too this took so long for me to put up, I was on vacation for 2 weeks and then I had some trouble writing this chapter. I'll try my damndest to update faster but no promises, school starts soon. In the meantime, REVIEW por favor.
