Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, I wonder how many times I've said this? I'm going to do a count and put it in the next chapter I write.
A/N: Okay, so yeah, thank you to my reviewers! You guys have kept me going, even when I had, like, 500-something hits on the first chapter, then 200-something in the rest. Thanks guys! And I did write a song-verse for the song Headstrong by Trapt, and it is currently saved in my Word documents. I will put it in where it fits, maybe 8th or 9th chapter. Depends when I finish this chapter. Now, I have nothing else to say, so yeah. On with the Zutaraness!
Katara walked into the village slowly. So far, so good. As she walked, she realized something. There were a lot of Fire Nation citizens here. There were also many people disguised as Earth Kingdom, like she was. Katara could easily pick out the people from the Water Tribes, with their dark skin and blue eyes. She could also spot some Fire Nation people, because of their fair skin and golden eyes. She tried to catch everyone in green robes' eyes, knowing that they would all probably be coming later. There were just too many people here for them to all be from the village.
It was about noon when Katara got to the tea shop (Iroh had asked her to pick up some jasmine tea, and it would help, were she interrogated), for the town was laid out oddly, and she kept going down the wrong alleys.
It was more crowded than Katara had thought when she stepped into the tea shop, but when she finally got to the counter, it did not take her long to get the tea packages and leave. She wandered around the village for a while longer, stopping at a small inn for lunch. It was about a half hour before she was supposed to meet the reinforcements, so she decided to head out.
All of a sudden, Katara was forced to stop. A very large man had just stepped in front of her, blocking her path. As she looked up at him, she realized two three things: one, he was from the Fire Nation; two, he was about a foot and a half taller than her; three, he needed to cut back on the sweets.
"Hello, sir. What can I do for you?" Katara asked politely, trying not to get in trouble.
"What is your business here? You are not from this town," he said, his voice booming.
"I came here to get tea for my grandmother. She is sick, you see, and she requested that I come here to get it for her," Katara recited.
"Where are you from?" he asked her suspiciously. Obviously he had noticed Katara's skin and eye color.
"Well, I live in Ba Sing Se with my mother and father, but I'm helping my aunt and uncle with my grandmother in –"
"No, no, no! I meant what is your heritage," he interrupted.
"Oh, that always comes up," Katara said cheerfully. "My great-great-grandmother on my father's side was from the Water Tribes, although both my mother and father are from the Earth Kingdom. Every generation, someone gets the Water Tribe characteristics, and this time it was me."
The guard grunted, before saying, "And what if I don't believe your story? What if I think you're some kind of waterbending rebel, come here for reinforcements? There are a lot of outsiders here today…."
"Excuse me, but that is enough!" Katara turned around and saw the elderly owner of the tea shop. "This young lady just bought tea from me, jasmine to be precise, and there is a large trade caravan leaving from here tomorrow! You should know that, and I know because I am going with them," he said.
"Well… that is all true, but…" the guard stumbled over his words, before the old man yelled at him again.
"Now, leave this poor girl alone! Go about your business, and I will escort her out," he said, waving his hands at the guard in a shooing manner. The guard did walk away, although he kept an eye on Katara and the old man until they were out the gates.
When they were far enough from the gates of the village, Katara dared a question. "So, you are coming with us then? Are you an earthbender?"
"Yes, to both questions. I am an earthbending master, and despite my appearance, I can be quite intimidating. My name is Hakuto," Hakuto said, offering his hand.
Katara took it, smiling warmly at him before saying, "And I am Katara. I am a waterbending master and the Avatar's waterbending teacher."
They walked in silence until they reached the clearing where everyone was going to meet. No one was there yet, so Hakuto went to get his cart, so that it would actually look like he was going in a trade caravan, while Katara ran to get the rest of the group.
As she walked into the camp, Aang came up to her. "What happened? Did no one come or something? Are you okay?" he asked, for Katara was panting from her run.
"No… Everything's fine. I just ran here from the clearing, because no one is there yet. All of the people are saying that they are part of a major trade caravan, so they plan on leaving their carts in the trees near the clearing. I came to get you guys, because we should all be there. Plus, I want to get changed," Katara smiled slightly, and went off to get into her usual blue robes. She put her hair down, deciding to braid on the way to the clearing. When she came back out, everyone else had already left.
Katara braided her hair, and had her hair-loops in place by the time she got back to the clearing. Hakuto was the only one there yet, and he had hidden his cart with the rest of the group's help.
"So, I see you've all met Hakuto. He helped me to get out of the village, giving support for my alibi," Katara explained, motioning to the elderly earthbender. "Actually, Hakuto, Toph is a master earthbender as well. Maybe the two of you could share tactics or something," she suggested. Toph and Hakuto agreed, and walked off to talk. Aang followed them, hoping to learn something, while Sokka and Iroh went back to the camp for some food.
"Damn, I missed seeing you with your hair down," he said good-naturedly.
"Yes, well, if you want to see that, you'll have to wait. I might show you sometime, but I don't know," Katara replied, smirking. When she saw more wagons and carts coming from a small break in the trees, Katara gave Zuko a quick kiss before going to greet everyone.
Katara helped to direct them to places where they could easily disguise their carts, before leading them back to the clearing. When there were no more carts left coming, Katara led the women off to the camp so that if they needed to change out of disguises, they could in private. The men were doing the same in the clearing.
While the women were gone, Aang took the time to find out how many people there were. He new that Katara had taken about two dozen women, and it seemed like there were around another four dozen men here.
As they changed, he got a chance to see how much of a diversity there was. There were probably two dozen people from the Earth Kingdom; whether they were benders he did not yet know. Maybe a little more than one dozen from the Water Tribes, and the rest were from the Fire Nation.
Katara was doing much the same as the women changed. She figured that there were probably a dozen from the Earth Kingdom, and half a dozen each from the Water Tribes and Fire Nation. They were probably all benders, because other than women benders, women usually did not fight.
After Katara had led the women back to the clearing, which was now very crowded, Sokka, Iroh, Zuko, Katara, and Aang separated the benders from the non-benders. Then they separated the different elements. Toph stood to the side before Katara called her over to head the troop of earthbenders.
It turned out that there were 63 people. Twenty-five were non-benders, and 38 were benders. Katara was heading the group of thirteen waterbenders; Toph was at the head of the eighteen earthbenders; Zuko and Iroh were at the head of the seven firebenders. Sokka was in charge of the twenty-five non-benders, and Aang was overseeing the whole thing.
By this time, it was night, and Sokka was already complaining about dinner. Luckily, all of the people had brought enough food with them for a long journey, so Katara made dinner for their small group in their campsite. They decided to have the women, including Katara and Toph, sleep in the campsite, and the men, including Sokka, Zuko, Aang and Iroh, sleep in the clearing.
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The next day was devoted only to walking. It was actually easier than you would think to have a group of sixty-some people walk through a forest. When they stopped for the night, everyone ate and went directly to bed, the men and women separated again, at Sokka's request.
When everyone woke up the next morning, Zuko, Katara, and Toph got together. They agreed that Aang would only be trained through sparring from then on. So that morning, Katara started sparring with Aang while Zuko and Iroh trained with the other firebenders. Toph, the earthbenders, and the non-benders formed a circle to watch. After Katara and Aang finished, Aang was given a short break before Toph sparred with him and Katara trained with the other waterbenders. This time, Zuko, Iroh, the firebenders, and the non-benders watched. Then everyone was given a break for lunch, during which Katara and Zuko went off to eat alone, as did Aang and Toph.
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"Aang's come a long way, hasn't he?" Katara asked Zuko as they walked.
"Uh huh," Zuko muttered. Katara decided not to ask about this lack of response until they had stopped walking.
"Zuko?" Katara asked after they had sat down and began eating the fruit they had brought for lunch. He did not answer; he was completely zoned out. Katara got an idea. She reached forward and carefully slipped his banana out of his hand; he still did not notice until he brought his hand up to take a bite and only hit air. He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it, and looked at Katara eating his banana casually.
"Why are you eating my banana?" he asked, a smile coming to his lips. Katara just shrugged before swallowing and saying, "You were zoned out, and I figured this was the only way to get your attention. What's on your mind?" She then gave him back his lunch and finished eating hers.
"Nothing really. I was just thinking about when we face my father," he said in an off-hand tone, as if one would think about that kind of thing just like they would what they were having for dinner. After a few moments of silence, he suddenly broke out with, "What if one of us doesn't make it?" He held his head in his hands for a few seconds before saying, "Almost losing you before was just like losing you for real. I couldn't take that, not for real."
Katara moved over to sit behind him, wrapping her arms around his strong form. As they sat there in silence, Katara thought, its ironic how someone so strong and blasé on the outside can be so caring and, for lack of a better word, soft on the inside. Finally, she slipped around Zuko and sat directly in front of him, forcing him to look up at her.
"Zuko, if you keep thinking like that, it will take over your life. You will always live in fear that something will happen, and it will make you a weak and small person. Please, don't think like that. If you do, I probably will start to as well, and we really don't need two depressed, scared bending masters weighing down everyone else. Lighten up a bit. Focus on something else," Katara said, looking deep into his eyes.
As Zuko looked back into hers, he realized that she was right. If they both thought like that, or even just one of them, it could endanger the rest of their friends and family.
"I think I can find something to concentrate on," Zuko said, smiling as he grabbed Katara and pulled her down with him. She laughed as he tickled her sides, trying to imprint the image of her laughing face in his mind. Finally he stopped, letting Katara catch her breath. That was the face that he would remember.
When Katara sat up, her face still alive with laughter, she picked up Zuko's banana and offered it to him. "Banana?" she asked innocently, as if she had never taken it in the first place. Zuko smiled back, mock laughing before snatching his lunch back from her. They finished eating in silence, and then made their way back to the camp.
As Katara and Zuko walked into the clearing, they saw that Aang and Toph were still not back, but that everyone else was just clearing up. Katara realized as she looked through the group of rebels that they were all separated by their race. The Earth Kingdom people were in between those from the Water Tribes and the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation people were also set apart from the rest, which was more the other nations' decision than theirs. She decided to fix this later, because it was then that Aang and Toph strolled into the clearing.
Zuko walked away to get Aang for sparring, while Toph gathered the earthbenders to train with them. Katara, the waterbenders, and the non-benders all stood around to watch the match. Iroh stood to the side as a sort of referee, like he had done for all of their sparring matches since the beginning.
Zuko and Aang started to bend right away, and the match quickly became heated ((A/N: pardon the pun)). This was the first time Katara had gotten the chance to watch Zuko fight in a while; she was entranced by how fluidly he moved, just like every time she was when she watched. She guessed that all of their training had paid off. Zuko could feel Katara watching him, and so was trying to look good in front of her. He let out some more complex bursts of fire, driving Aang back a few paces before he tripped over a rock. Zuko thought he had won, but that was before Aang knocked his feet out from under him with a burst of wind from behind. Aang took his chance to get up and pin Zuko down. After a moment someone started to clap, and they continued even after Aang had helped Zuko up and they had bowed to each other, ending the fight. Zuko walked off to bathe, walking right by Katara (with no shirt on) and causing her to stare for a moment, while Aang went off to tell Toph that he had won. As Katara was recovering from her brief glance at Zuko, Sokka came up to her.
"Katara, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?" he asked. She nodded her head, and followed him into the trees, out of earshot of everyone else. They were unknowingly going closer to the river where Zuko had disappeared to.
"Katara, I don't like that you keep going off with Zuko all the time. I mean, you're never around, and who knows what happens when it's just the two of you in the woods over here, and I have definitely lost weight after Aang, Iroh, and I have had to cook all the time recently," Sokka said, looking Katara straight in the face. What he hadn't noticed was her increasing rage.
"What do you mean, you've lost weight?! You NEVER lose weight! And plus, I thought you were going to back off! You were supposed to give me and Zuko some space as a couple, and just me alone! But you just couldn't help it, could you? Couldn't live your own life for more than a few minutes," Katara yelled. Sokka had seemed to shrink before her. All the yelling had not gone unheard, however. Though Zuko could not tell what was said, he definitely recognized Katara's voice, and he was curious. Probably Sokka being stupid again, so this could turn out funny. He began to make his way towards the shouting, already finished bathing. When he found the pair, he was astonished.
"… Well, you know what? Why don't I tell you something? I was only with Zuko so that he would stay here and teach Aang. Because you kept bugging him so much, he was ready to leave half the time, and I hooked up with him so that he would stay. Now, give me your opinion on that. What do you think, Sokka? Should I split up with him?" Katara yelled angrily. Luckily for Sokka, he did not need to answer. Zuko stepped out of the bushed, a look much like Aang's face the first time he had seen them together on his face.
"No need," he said quietly. Katara had not noticed his presence until he spoke. Then she whipped around, her braid hitting Sokka in the face as a look of ultimate horror appeared on her face.
"Zuko," she whispered. "Please. I didn't mean any of that," she said, stepping closer to him. He stepped back, however, saying, "Stay away." Then he turned and dashed off into the forest.
"Man, he didn't take that very well," Sokka said, coming up behind Katara. She turned on him, screaming, "You idiot! Look what you've done!" She froze him to a tree before sprinting off after Zuko. She knew where he was going, and she had to get him to come back.
"Hey!" he yelled to her quickly retreating form. "Get me off this tree! It's cold under this ice!"