Six: Rainstorm

When Zuko woke up, it was cold and dark.

And raining.

He sat up from the muddy dirt, looking blindly towards the spot where Katara had fallen asleep. She was already upright, shivering in her own drenched clothes.

"Shit," he said. "What do we do now?"

She shrugged, arms wrapped around herself in an effort to stay warm. "Beats me."

"Isn't there better shelter we could find?"

"This," she indicated the sparse canopy of coconut tree fronds above them, "is the extent of our shelter."

Zuko stood up abruptly. "There has to be something better," he said

"No there isn't," she said, staunch in her opinion. "This is it."

He shrugged, and turned to leave their little clearing. "You can sit there and be all helpless but I'm going to find someplace drier." Zuko began to walk away, squinting through the darkness. There was the tiniest crack of light at the edge of the horizon, out across the wide sea that kept them imprisoned. They couldn't be more than a few hours away from dawn. Maybe the rain would let up once the sun rose.

With the way their luck was going, that was unlikely.

Then he heard the cracking of wet twigs behind him and turned to see the slightly apprehensive look on Katara's face. "Wait," she said, catching up. "I'm coming with you."

He smirked. "Scared of the dark?"

Katara looked him unashamedly in the face. "Yes."

Zuko was a little surprised that she'd admitted weakness so easily. Something like that could be used against you in the Fire Nation. She was so open with herself. Didn't she know how dangerous it was?

But it did make him feel a little better, that she would choose to stay with him instead of sitting alone in the dark.

He tried to ignore the warm feeling it gave him, that she trusted him enough to go with him on a hopeless hunt for shelter in the rainy night. It meant their relationship was progressing.

Their non-existant relationship, Zuko corrected himself. They didn't have a relationship.

They tramped through the tiny forest, from one end of the island to the next. It took them around an hour for a one-way trip, and they were both exhausted by the time they reached the opposite side.

"Like I said," Katara panted, sliding down with her back to a large tree trunk. "Nothing."

He merely nodded, unwilling to accept defeat but still too prideful to admit he had been wrong. He sat down next to her in the mud. "This is bad."

"Can't you light a fire or something?"

"Nothing will burn in this wet," he retorted, giving her a gosh-you're-stupid look. "Can't you, like, bend the water around us or something?"

"I can," she said, "but then I'd have to stay up the rest of the night to concentrate on it."

"You do that," said Prince Zuko, getting into a comfortable position. "and I'll be sleeping."

A slew of unnaturally large raindrops splashed onto his head.

"Stop it!" he snapped, trying to shake the extra water off. "My plan makes sense! We can both be dry, and at least one of us will get some sleep!"

"How about my plan," she gritted through her teeth. "I stay dry, while you just stay wet!"

"Fine! Now shut up so I can get some sleep," he said, lying down. The coconut fronds above him provided the tiniest relief from the constant downpour. He looked over and saw that the rain slid away from an invisible shield above her head. "Selfish," he muttered.

"I hope a coconut drops on you in your sleep."

"I hope the island floods and the fish monster comes and eats you."

"I'll personally drop that coconut on you!"

----

Katara had drifted off a few hours before dawn, relinquishing her hold on her "umbrella" and giving way to sleep.

When she woke up, the rain had let off and the sun was just beginning to warm the island.

She glanced over to her side and saw the Prince still dosing next to her, barely touching her back. His face was relaxed, completely free in his sleep, and he was lying on his side, the scar hidden. He looked so... innocent.

It must be a trick of the light.

Katara elbowed him, a bit roughly, trying to dispell the sentimental thoughts from her mind. "Get up," she said.

Zuko made some kind of mmrphgh noise before blinking his eyes open. "Mmm... what?"

"Morning."

He sat up, wiping the sand and dirt from his face. "What are we going to do today?"

She shrugged, standing up and stretching. "Dunno. Wait for rescue. Find more food."

"Clams again?"

Katara ignored him and said, "We should also build a shelter."

"Why?" he stood up and copying her stretch. "It's already stopped raining."

Katara pointed at the sky. "See those clouds? Bet you anything it'll rain again tonight."

He looked, and nodded. "Good idea."

----

They spent the entire morning dragging broken branches and small pieces of driftwood back to their clearing. It was hot, sweaty work, searching for just the right pieces and then trying to figure out how to fit them together. They planned, and failed, and swore at each other, and yelled in frustration. Finally, they achieved some sort of standing structure that had the larger pieces propped against a tree trunk, filled in and supported by smaller pieces of wood.

"It needs more of a covering," said Katara, inspecting the result of their work. "A semi-roof. Or else it won't help at all once the storm comes back."

Zuko looked up above their heads. "The coconut leaves. If we get enough of them, we could cover the whole thing in that."

Soon, he'd scaled the rough, handled trunk and began to saw through the thick stems with his knife, before dropping them back onto the ground. "Catch these! Don't let them fall to the ground, or we'll have dirt all over our heads tonight."

Katara scowled and ran around under him, catching the spiny greenery as it dropped out of the sky. It poked her in the face and scratched her and eventually built up in a large pile she struggled to keep up. "Why do I have to hold this?" she complained to him, trying to see beyond through the leaves. "Why can't I climb the tree and do the cutting?" She was dirty and the leaves itched and she hadn't gotten enough sleep last night. Bad mood.

Zuko, perched in the tree, wasn't much better off. It was hot, and there were bugs up here crawling all over him. "Be quiet," he yelled back down. "Aren't you a little low on the food chain to be whining?"

"Food chain?" she grumbled to herself before raising her voice to him. "Food chain? There is no food chain! There's us and the coconuts!"

"No," he retorted, slicing off another stem and throwing it down, meanly satisfied when she yelped and stumbled to catch it. "There's me, the coconuts, and then you."

She threw the leaves to the ground and stomped out of the clearing.

"Hey!" he yelled after her. "Hey! It's going to be your fault when you wake up with bugs in your hair!"

"At least I have hair!" she screamed back.

Zuko flinched inwardly. Now that had been uncalled for.

----

Katara looked up to see Zuko coming out of the forest towards her. She was kneeling in the sand again, elbow deep, digging for clams.

"Come over here," she said, scrabbling for a clam and tossing it away when she saw it was an empty shell. "and help me. Or else you won't be eating tonight."

He stood over her, glaring down at the three clams next to the hole. "The deal was you give me water and food, and I'd give you fire and protection. Food is your job."

So he was still throwing a hissy-fit over her comment earlier this morning? Her lips thinned. "Fine," she said. "Food is my job."

He nodded, satisfied, and stomped back to the forest. Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation wasn't going to be grubbing around in the dirt like a comomoner.

Katara dug out one more clam, before standing up and kicking the sand back into the hole she'd made. Whoops. Only four clams for tonight, barely enough to feed one person. Too bad.

----

"What do you mean, there's not enough for me?" He had come back from his bathroom trip to find her baking four measly little clams in the fire he'd already built.

Katara smiled sweetly up at him, "Couldn't find any more. They're getting fast. Must be learning that we're hungry."

She carefully picked the opened clams from the fire. "Too bad for you," she added in a sing-song voice, swallowing the first one.

He gaped at her, shocked at the fact that she was... mean enough to do something like this! And after he'd already built her the fire! How foolish of him. He should have waited until he'd been sure she'd gotten enough food for the both of them.

And he was damn hungry.

Katara caught the look on his face and stood up hurriedly, catching the clams in the lap of her robe. "I'll go enjoy these in peace."

He made a leap for her, but she evaded him, dashing behind a coconut tree. Katara pried open a second clam and quickly swallowed it down hot. "So good."

Zuko swung around the tree trunk, but she was already away, and smacking her lips after the third clam. "I love to eat."

One left. His stomach growled.

Zuko let off a fiery blast at her left side, deliberately missing; she screamed and dodged the other direction. He'd been ready for this, and immediately intercepted her path of flight. She yelped, twisting away, but he leaned forward with her and they went down, slamming to the ground with him on top. Katara cried out as her breath whooshed out of her; he caught her wrists and attempted to scrabble away the remaining clam, which she quickly covered with her torso by scootching over it.

All of a sudden she stilled under him and said, "Get off of me."

He realized their compromising position but he was so hungry, he'd been building that stupid shelter all day without any food and damn it-

Katara shoved her elbow into his face and he yelped without relinquishing his hold on her. She did it again, and he gave it up, rolling away, knowing his cheek would be bruised by morning.

She stood up, glaring daggers at him. "I told you to get off."

He stared back, and said icily, "You flatter yourself. If I'd wanted to do anything of that kind to you, I would have done it already."

"And I would have knocked you out so fast-"

"Shut up," he said tonelessly. "You act like you're so tough but you're not. You and that idiot brother of yours, the one who thinks he's a warrior."

"You don't know what you're talking about-"

"We both know you don't stand a chance against me," he said, staring at her from his sitting position, but somehow still managing to seem so much bigger, "so give me the food now, hold up your end of the deal, and we won't have any other problems."

Katara's face was shocked, terrified; but then a frozen mask slid over her features and she tossed the grimy clam at his feet. "Help yourself," she snarled, before turning her back on him and walking away.

Zuko ate it slowly, and tried to ignore the bad taste it left in his mouth.

A/N: Want it to go just a bit darker, like the end here, or keep it light and funny? I can go both ways. This story is really all about making you guys happy so... opinions, please.

Couldn't Katara have tried to catch a fish with her Waterbending like she did in the first episode? And second, does Katara know how to heal in this one? I noticed she didn't insta-fix Zuko after his little scrape with the shark or whatever it was. -Pyro Eclipse
Hm. True on both points; I personally just forgot all about catching with the Bending skillz (it's been SO LONG since I've watched the first eppy) and as for the healing part, I had this scene in my head before I found out about Kat's insta-fix powers, so I just decided to make it stay that way. XD Glad you're back.

happy...early birthday - Katuko
Yesh indeedy, thanks. My birthday is on Nov10!

So I shall assume that (does she think scar ugly?) means "Zuko wondered if Katara saw his scar as everyone else had seen it--a cruel, ugly mark of the shame he had deserved for being so disrespectful of his father's soldiers" but not in as many words. -gladdecease
You hit the nail right on the head.

Prince 'I-Can't-Even-Take-A-Flesh-Wound' Zuko. This one reminded me of Monty python "Tis only a flesh wound! Come here and I'll bleed on you!" Ah, good times. -kuposan
MONTY PYTHON RULES LIKE WHOA!111!11!1eleventyone!11!1!

You lived in Taiwan? AWESOME! what is it like there? -sonamyfan
What is it like? I don't know. It'd take me much more than these two sentences to explain anything and everything I love about it.

I reply more to reviewers at this story than I do at LTE... I dont konw, there's just less pressure overall. I feel like I can relax instead of being all ZOMGINEEDTOUPDATELIKENOW. So instead I waste my time typing these lame-ass answers... heh.

Enjoy.