..:: 4 Illness ::..
(AU): The Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation are waging a war against each other. Firelord Ozai, the ruler of the Fire Nation has sent his only son into the war zone, which happened to be in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko was his name and he and his army got stuck in an ambush. The most of his army were able to flee but he got himself wounded badly. He managed to hide himself from the Earth Kingdom army but fell ill. He got high fever, to be accurate. The young blind princess of the Earth Kingdom found him that way: beaten, wounded and ill. Princess Toph decided to nurse him secretly. (AU)
"Don't be stupid." The princess of the Earth Kingdom chided the ill prince of the Fire Nation. "If you get up now your condition will just get worse. And I don't feel like nursing you longer than necessary."
Zuko growled. "I can't stay forever in a bed!"
Toph whacked him with the wet towel she was holding on his head. "Shut up and lie down! It's juts a week ago since I've found you."
"I still can't stay forever in the bed like an old man!"
Toph raised an eyebrow. "Hey, you are an old man... compared to me..."
"I'm 22!!" He growled. "And you're 17! It isn't more than 5 years difference!"
"You still have to stay in bed." she shrugged. She put the wet towel on the prince' forehead and pressed him down so that he lay down in the soft bed he was in.
He fought a bit but finally gave up arguing with his life rescuer. With a satisfied smirk she stood up to leave. But another girl entered the room, making her to stop some feet away from the bed. It was princess Katara from the Water tribe. She was with her family as reinforcement and support at the palace of the king of the Earth Kingdom. And she knew, with some of Toph's closest maids, about the secret of this ill man.
"Do you really think this is okay?" Katara asked with concern. "If your father will find out-"
"He won't if you all keep your mouths shut." Toph snapped. Katara flinched at the harsh tone but was neither angry nor insulted at her friend. Toph went out of the room and Katara followed her.
Katara was always amazed when she thought about the fact that Toph was blind since she was born but still kept doing everything like she wasn't. Her will of showing no weakness was amazingly strong. Katara had to smile. Since she was young Toph always had been a very stubborn princess...and her parents, the King and Queen from the Earth Kingdom had never been happy about Toph's un-princess-like behaviour.
They both were in the big hallway of the part of the palace that Toph possessed when Katara spoke. "How is he doing?" The water bender princess had been very surprised when Toph had announced that she would take care of this prince secretly (and threatened to send every person who dared to mention anything to her parents or anyone else who might be a threat straight to the centre of the earth...and everyone in the know knew that it wasn't an idle threat).
"Like always." Toph answered. "Stubborn, grumpy and ill."
"You know, Toph..." Katara began as they both walked down the hallway that led god-knows-where-to. "...somehow I can understand that you want to nurse the prince of the enemy..."
Toph raised an eyebrow, obviously to show her doubts. Katara just smirked, too bad Toph couldn't see. But Toph could sense a sudden change of heartbeat. And somehow she knew that she wouldn't like this sort of heartbeat.
"Well... he's handsome, even with this scar at his left eye. He has amazing golden eyes..."
"He has golden eyes?" Toph asked, halfway interested. She had never had an idea how the prince had looked like and she hadn't tried to find out.
"Yes...and he's...very hot." Katara ended with a huge grin directed to Toph. "Surely it's his hotness that causes you to nurse him to health..."
"WHAT?!" Toph exclaimed. "You do know that I don't have an idea of hotness!" What an imputation! "Excuse me if I'm not thinking like you normal girls are... What is this hotness, anyway?!"
"Toph..." Katara sighed.
( - ) ..::.. ( - ) ..::.. ( - )
"Do you still think that I need to stay in bed?!"
She didn't even bother to give the fuming ill prince an answer.
"I'm talking with you."
Silence as she poured a glass of water for the patient.
"Hey!"
"Drink!" She told him sternly.
"Let me out!"
"Drink!"
She froze but Zuko was too angry to notice and opened his mouth to protest a lot more. "Not bef-" "Shhh!" She clapped her hands over his moth to shut him up. Confused he did so. Toph put down the glass with water on the table nearby and listened. Her sensitive ears had picked up something...
A few seconds of silence passed between them, before Toph decided to move and that before the prince lost his patience. That meant she shoved him deeper down into the bed and jumped quickly next to him, flinging the sheet of the bed over them both, covering the man completely and the girl up to her waist. "No sound!" She hissed to him, before her eyes fixed at the door of the room.
"To-oph!" A male's voice chirped. Right after that a tall man with black long hair stepped into the room. He was dressed in noble green, gold and yellow colors. The kingly family or more the kingdom crest was in the middle of his chest, like it was on the green hair bangle, or her necklace, her bracelet and so on. Yes, this man with kind grey eyes was Toph's dear father and also the emperor of the Earth Kingdom.
"How's my little Toph?" The addressed princess scowled and snorted at that. She wasn't little anymore. "Huh? You're alone? I could've sworn that I heard more than only your voice..."
"Your imagination, father..." Toph tried her best not to move around too much but Zuko's folded body just underneath her legs was quite uncomfortable. The unusual warmth of another body. And so painful near to her... She suppressed the urge to blush heavily and could press it down to a faint blush and a bit coughing.
"Toph? Did you catch a cold?" Her father asked concerned.
"N-not at all!" Toph was surprised where her mind had wandered off. "It's a bit coughing. A bit resting and I'll be fine." She could feel Zuko shifting uneasy around underneath her but she couldn't help it at that time. Her father was still around and it didn't seem like he would leave too soon...
Let's go to where Zuko is right now. Yes his head was somewhere between Toph's thighs and his position was very painful for his body...and mind...if you consider that he faced the inner thighs of a maiden that had nursed him for quite a while. Oh how heavy he blushed already and it hadn't passed more than 5 minutes! Even in the darkness of sheets he could see, from where her princess' dress had slid up, the revealed pale skin of Toph's virgin skin.
He tried his best not to choke or scream or hyperventilate. None of them would do any good to any of them. Only a thin layer of her dress parted his more or less reluctant view to her pants and when he noticed what he had though the urge to smack himself was rising steadily. And her smell...she smelled interesting. He already heard that the princess of the Earth Kingdom had never been the cleanest person since she was an earth bender in full nature. But she didn't smell as bad as he would have expected. Either way he felt his chest clenching painfully. No, not because of that...dirty...desire... well actually because he was slowly suffocating...and not only because he was covered with sheets...
Back to Toph who hadn't it any bit easier with her father observing her sceptically and worried at the same time while she could feel Zuko's heart beating incredible fast. She was on the verge of panicking when she noticed that Zuko got problems with proper breathing – why it was that way she better didn't want to think of right now.
"Look, father, as much as I appreciate your worry-" She froze for a brief moment when Zuko's messy dark hair tickled her inner thighs. "-I wanna rest a bit here, please leave me a bit for myself, okay?"
Damn, she felt hot down there where she shouldn't have been hot! Damn that Zuko! All his fault!
"But why aren't you going into your own room? There the maids can look after you and even your mother and I wouldn't have a long walk to look after you..." He stepped closer to her bed, making her to flinch. "I'll carry you there! Your strong daddy will carry you in your room...as long as there isn't a husband to do so I'll do it." A bright grin appeared on her father's face.
As much as she hated to break that bright smile (her father already had very little time to talk to her like they were now) she had to do something before Zuko would suffocate and before she would lose control of her teeny hormones.
Hell, she could feel him breathing against her thighs...it was slowly getting too much!
"Father, please! I'll be fine here, besides...I like the view from here!" She suppressed the urge to earth-bend her father out of the room immediately. If he would stay any longer she would be forced to do so, father or not! "I'll be fine, really!"
Toph's father, the emperor, rubbed the back of his head and sighed in defeat. "Well then...make sure you're okay, my dear Toph, understood?" He bent over the bed and both Toph and Zuko held their breaths as the emperor kissed the forehead of his daughter. "Rest well!"
He stepped out of the room (Finally! Zuko though with an almost inaudible sigh. Of course Toph heard it), but Toph stayed silent and stiff for some more moments. She tried to ignore everything except her father's footsteps. She ignored that fact that Zuko's head was between her thighs, she ignored that fact that he knew it and she ignored the fact that her heart, as well as the prince's one, pounded rapidly in each other's chest. She listened to her father's steps as he painfully slow reached the room most of the maids and servants were.
She let out the breath she had hold and panted slightly as she noticed that her body was trembling. Because father was so close to find out... she told herself. It's not because of Zuko, no it isn't!
Zuko couldn't keep up any longer. He coughed loudly and panted, still on the verge of either suffocation or hyperventilating. Both ways would be bad, now only for him.
Toph, finally re-realizing that there was a man underneath her, flung the sheets away and jumped out of the room, blushing heavily, now that she was allowed. She turned her head to avoid his glance, preventing him from seeing her blush. She smoothed her dress nervously and angrily at the same time (angry because she was so nervous and unsure) so it resulted in an even more messed up lower part of her dress.
Zuko on the other hand was blushing at least as heavy as Toph did. He was lying on his bed, trying to catch his breath and calming down his slamming heart.
Just then another pair of footsteps came to the room Toph noticed too late and just stared when Katara came into the room with a smile and some fruits. "I thought you two would like to have something...oh!" She stopped, her smile getting wider and wider. Katara's expression...Toph didn't like it...
"I knew it!" She exclaimed triumphantly with sparkles in her eyes. She saw a messed up bed, an exhausted (in her eyes exhausted ;D) Zuko in the bed and Toph's knitted and messed dress. AND embarrassed out-of-breath faces of a teenage girl and a young man. That could only mean one thing... "I knew you think he's hot, Toph!" She squealed. "I knew you would love his golden eyes!!!"
"Ka-ta-ra..." Toph could feel panic rising, at the same time she felt her eyes twitching.
Zuko just cursed softly under his breath, dumping his head into the bed...whose sheets still had the interesting smell of the Earth Kingdom Princess...he noticed.
Toph wasn't sure whether Katara really was that ignorant or just didn't want to see it otherwise... "It didn't happen a thing...!"
"Deny it as much as you want, my friend, the facts are telling me something else! Sorry for interrupting you, ne?" She put down the bowl of fruits she had been carrying with her the whole onto the table and went out of the room. "Have fun." She winked at them both.
Toph just groaned as she felt Katara moving away from the room.
She readied herself to leave but stopped at the doorframe. "You know..." Zuko lifted his head as the girl spoke and curiously stared at the back of her head. "Golden eyes are magnificent."
She left.
..:: () Illness owari () ::..
I know, I know...Katara is really OOC (but I don't see any reason why she wouldn't act that way...).
Oh, and I LOVE, absolutely adore and worship golden eyes, and character with golden eyes. I can think of a bunch... besides Zuko there's Ren Tao from Shaman King, Train Heartnett from Black Cat, Maes Hughes (isn't he a COOOL character?) and Edward Elric from FullMetal Alchemist...I'm sure I forgot someone but...nevermind... (Cain Hargreaves from Count Cain / GodChild had green eyes flecked with gold, this is cool as well xD)
Did I already tell that this chapter should be M-rated? For the scene in the bed...? Shall I tell you where I've stolen the idea from? Do you know To-Love-Ru? The same mangaka from Black Cat (that's the reason why I'm reading it) but an extra author for the storyline. There the girl wanted to hide the boy that was accidentally in the girls' room from the other girls that were coming...it was cute so I wanted to try out...eh I know...that was... risqué...but I couldn't help it... –sweatdropps-
I hope you liked it in any way. Reviews are loved! Celes ;))
(I'm now too lazy to write the Disclaimer because it's about 12 in the night and I have paper next day...-.-" gomen...)
Oh right. I hate the way I wrote this chapter. I felt so nervous and uneasy when I wrote...this just isn't something I should do very often, even if I have a half-perverted mind...o////o
By the way...Meteor-kun, thank you a lot for you review especially. I swear, I'll review for your drabbles as well! Soon...I hope... And thank you, minna-san for doing the same, makes me haaappy .