Ten: I'm Alive

Zuko woke up to the sight of his Uncle Iroh standing over him.

He started, half-lifting off the sand before Iroh quickly put a finger to his lips and motioned him back down, pointing at the still-sleeping girl on Zuko's chest.

Zuko lay back down slowly, the expressions on his face communicating everything to his uncle: You're Here! and, Thanks For Scaring The Shit Out Of Me! before he finally settled on a cross between What Took You So Long? and Thank You.

"Don't wake her yet," Iroh whispered, gesturing towards Katara. "Sorry it took so long to find you, Zuko."

Zuko gave his uncle a short nod, "It's alright—"

"But it looks like you had fun while you were waiting, so I guess every thing's okay," Iroh winked.

"Well, no," Zuko took back his earlier statement, "It's not alright," he hissed.

"What do you suggest we do then?" asked Iroh. "Her friends obviously haven't found her yet."

True; the Avatar, his monstrous flying beast, and that wimpy little Water Tribe warrior hadn't shown up yet. Zuko smirked inwardly. This just proved that the Fire Nation was superior in every way, including impromptu rescue missions on deserted islands.

Iroh continued, "So do you want to leave her here and get back to the ship for a hot meal and warm bed? Chef Kwanyin has prepared the most delectable beef stew, I must say—"

His uncle's voice droned on as Zuko realized what rescue meant. It would mean leaving Katara behind to fend for herself as he, the Prince of the Fire Nation, got back on his ship of worldly comforts and left for better things.

Or, it would, if he decided to let it happen that way.

"—and in Omashu, I bought this brand-new sauna tub for a bargain price, nephew, just about the most comfortable thing you'll ever soak in—" continued Iroh before Zuko cut him off.

"Uncle. Wait."

"Yes, Prince Zuko?" Iroh gave him a perfectly genial look.

"I—I would rather," was this really such a hard decision to make? "I would really prefer it if we could—if we could stay here until Katara's rescued."

"I see," Iroh nodded acceptingly, but behind those calm gold eyes, Zuko detected something. Pride. Pride in him. As if Zuko had passed some sort of test Iroh had set down for him.

Zuko became aware of his own arm wrapped around Katara's waist, keeping her close. Her warm breath ruffled across his shirt and felt slightly ticklish.

"Would you like me to instruct the soldiers to begin setting up camp on the island?"

"No!" Zuko said, catching himself before he woke Katara and lowering his voice. "I mean, no thank you, uncle."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, there's no need for camp or anything. Actually, it would better if everybody just stayed on the ship and didn't come around."

Iroh was slightly confused, and his face showed it. "You don't want us around? What about the beef stew? The new sauna tub?"

Zuko struggled. "I mean, I don't want ­her to know that you're here—"

And all of a sudden Iroh got it. A smile appeared on his face. "You mean, you care enough to stay with her and keep her safe, but you don't want her to know that you care enough to stay here of your own choice."

Zuko gritted his teeth. "Yes."

Iroh's grin split his face. Ahh. The universal obstacle that plagued love-struck young men everywhere: How To Care For Her, But Keep Your Cool Manliness Intact At The Same Time.

He understood perfectly.

"I don't like that smile on your face, uncle," Zuko hissed.

Iroh continued to grin without abating.

His very own nephew, caught in the perils of young love.

"She's waking up, uncle!"

Holding in the laughter, Iroh quickly removed himself from the beach, tracking his way back through the forest to where the ship was anchored on the other side.

Zuko was never going to live this down.

---

Katara blinked her eyes open, realized her situation, and shot back faster than a flaming fireball. She was frantic, flustered, gaze darting around the beach, taking in the open boxes, the empty bottles of alcohol, Prince Zuko looking as hot as sin with a few more rips in his shirt than she remembered. Her own clothes were still on but you couldn't be positive, what with the compromising position she'd found herself in when she woke up—

"Nothing. Happened." Zuko said, sliding a hand down his face in exasperation. A splitting headache was forming inside his brain; a side effect of the alcohol?

Katara was clearly distrustful of the whole situation. She watched him from a distance like a wary animal.

"Hey," said Zuko, holding his hands out to his sides. "Nothing happened."

"And I'm supposed to trust you why?" she all but spat at him.

I did not give up beef stew and a hot tub for this, Zuko thought to himself.

"What?" Katara asked. "That expression on your face—what?"

"Nothing," said Zuko, pushing himself off the sand to a standing position. The world rocked around him, and briefly, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Iroh's footprints on the unmarked beach below them. Don't look to the side, he begged Katara in his mind.

"You're wobbling pretty badly," said Katara, forgetting her suspicions as her worry for him increased. "Are you okay?"

Feeling the bile rise in his throat, Zuko fell to his knees, clutching his stomach—at the last moment, he made sure to aim for the footprints his uncle had left behind.

He felt Katara hesitantly come up behind him and begin to rub his back in smooth, warm circles and whisper encouragement and comfort in his ears.

So much better than a hot tub, he thought.

Katara looked at Zuko's vomit with disgust.

---

"That was the third time I've seen you throw up," Katara said conversationally, wringing cool sea water from a bit of cloth ripped from the hem of her robe, and laid it over his forehead.

Lying on his back in the warm sand, Zuko sighed.

"The first time was when you woke up and realized we were on this island. You just rolled over and threw up all over the place—"

Zuko felt drowsy; the pain in his head was beginning to lessen with Katara's cool ministrations.

"—and the second time was when you were being stupid and ate those poisonous leaves. Why did you do that? It was really idiotic of you. Do you normally go around chomping on toxic plants? You were so sick after that—"

Zuko had a momentary urge to say something to protect his own intelligence; no, he did not normally go around chomping on strange leaves—it was her fault, actually, for not feeding him.

"—and now this. You're hungover from all that rum you drank. I only have a little headache. Perhaps our bodies handled it differently. I wonder if alcohol has a different effect on Firebender bodies than Waterbender—"

You sure talk a lot, Zuko thought to Katara, since he couldn't seem to connect his brain to his mouth. You talk so much you could drive a man to drink.

Haha. I made a funny.

"—and then completely ruin it by—wait, Zuko, are you falling asleep again? Already?"

Silence.

"Zuko?"

He dreamt of Katara in a hot tub eating beef stew.

---

It was late afternoon, and Zuko was sipping clean freshwater from one of the unbroken bottles they'd emptied during last night's binge-drinking. No more fuzzy coconut shells. They'd upgraded to chipped rum bottles. Nothing as fancy as the solid-gold goblets with the Fire symbol engraved on it back at home—but it was almost like civilization again.

"Do you think," Katara began, poking the clams in the fire, "we'll ever get off this island?"

Zuko choked on his water before spewing it all over the campfire.

"Hey! Watch it—aw, now you've got your saliva all over the clams—and that water took time and work to get, you know."

Zuko's eyes were watering. "Yes. I do think we'll get off this island."

"Soon?"

"Eventually," he replied.

Katara sighed and continued to move the clams around with her stick. "I want to leave."

"Why the hurry?" Zuko replied sarcastically before downing the last of the water in his bottle.

Katara gave him a look. "I have things to do."

"Like what?"

"Helping Aang."

"I have things to do as well," Zuko said, voice surly. "Like catching your little boyfriend."

Katara threw her stick down. "I don't understand why you don't just leave us alone!"

She added as an afterthought: "And he's not my little boyfriend!"

Zuko shrugged and refused to meet her eyes. Any other time, he might have enjoyed yelling at her, telling her that she was the one who didn't understand, and maybe even explaining his situation to her.

But now things were too complicated. Stuff had happened between them; stuff that couldn't be forgotten or taken away. Revealing his reasons to her (revealing his father, his shame) would only further cement the "relationship" they had.

And they couldn't have a relationship.

She scooted closer to him. "Come on. Talk. I know you can't resist a good argument."

"It's not an argument if there's only one person arguing," Zuko said curtly, turning away.

He felt her hand on his shoulder. He could see it out of the corner of his eye: brown, slim, and graceful. A healer's hand.

He could break it so easily with one of his own—grasp and twist and gone

The way his nation had crushed her tribes. The way his people had massacred hers. The way his own country's obsession with domination of the future had eliminated her people's way of life.

The way his father had destroyed Zuko's face, his love, his hope.

Turning, Zuko stared at Katara's hesitant, open expression.

And realized that there really was no going back now.

He began to speak.

---

Afterwards, they lay together on the beach. He'd stopped crying awhile ago. She noticed that he wasn't able to cry out of his left eye; the burn had destroyed, disabled, dried up everything.

She stroked his scar with her light fingertips.

"I could make it gone, you know," she whispered. "I could—right here, right now."

Zuko stilled in everything; breathing, moving, living.

Then he relaxed (life began again) and placed his own hand over hers. "No."

Her fingers stilled on his face, under his hand.

She smiled. "You're right. It wouldn't be the same."

"I don't want it to be," and kissed her palm.

A/N: Warm fuzzies for everyone. Consider this your holiday present from lil' ole me. XDDDDDDD

More pimpage, guys:

Hearts of Fire by Dracori (10 chapters so far, Romance/Action/Adventure, Zutara, and this is one of the actually good early original Zutara-bait-fics, a worthwhile read, I say!)

48th by Otabe Yatsuhashi (One-shot, Zutara, and will give you many more warm fuzzies/such an original idea! I LOVE IT)

Only two this time because I was gone over break and didn't have much time to read anything. Fear not, this is not the last chapter. There will be more.

(And yes, I'm currently trying to beat some sense into Chapter 19 of LTE--give me some more time. Like two more weeks.)

:dodges bullets:

Review, yarr!