Eleven: Ginseng Tea

A slyly smiling Katara unwrapped a towel from around her naked frame, stepping into the steaming hot tub where Zuko was sitting—she floated over, everything from her neck below covered by frothing, foaming bubbles. She held a bowl of savory beef stew in one hand, and he opened his mouth as she raised a spoon to his lips—

An ear-splitting shriek shattered Zuko's dream into a million pieces; he woke, scrabbling about in the sand, and, realizing that Katara wasn't here anymore, took off in the direction of the scream.

"Katara!" he yelled, "Katara, where are you?"

He struggled, panting, as he ran up the side of a sand dune, feet sinking in deep with each step. He was almost at the top, and then he'd be able to save Katara from whatever monster it was that attacked her this time—yes, he could be the hero, he could almost see that loving, admiring look in her face, her face that was turned towards him—

Zuko reached the top of the hill, and, upon seeing the sight that greeted him, let out a veritable shriek of his own.

His uncle stood urinating at the base of a palm tree not a few feet from the bottom of the sand dune where—where Katara stood, mouth gaping open and one finger accusingly pointed at Iroh.

"You! You!" she shrieked, her finger shaking. "You!"

"Oh shit," moaned Zuko, covering his face with one hand.

"Yes?" Iroh replied, calmly buckling up his armor. "Me?"

Iroh's eyes saw the movement Zuko had made at the top of the hill, and flitted quickly up to give his nephew a look. Zuko began to step backwards in the shifting sand, holding his hands up in front of him and head shaking an emphatic no, no, no at his uncle.

Katara caught Iroh's look, and snapped around to look at whatever Iroh was making eyes at behind her. "YOU!" she screamed as she caught sight of Zuko's retreating figure, "OH—DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT RUNNING AWAY FROM ME, YOU—YOU!"

As Katara took off after Zuko, Iroh smiled to himself, highly amused, and walked over to the waves to rinse off his hands.

---

Katara was still shaking furiously as she sat inside a room aboard Zuko's ship, hands clenched on the surface of the table in front of her. Zuko was very still next to her, eyes unmoving from an interesting stain on the left thigh of his pants.

"Tea?" Iroh offered magnanimously, one hand extended towards the cheerful pink teapot and matching pink-and-white teacups set on the table before them.

"No, thank you," Katara gritted out through her teeth.

Zuko just shook his head.

"I'll have some," Iroh answered his own offer, and moved to pour himself a cup, aromatic steam rising from the brown liquid. "Ahhh, ginseng. What a calming and peaceful scent, don't you think?"

Neither teenager answered.

Everything was silent but for the sound of Iroh sipping.

"All right," said Katara, slamming her hands down flat on the table, causing the teacups to clink together nervously. "I've had enough of this dancing around. You two need to just out and confess, now."

Zuko and Iroh gave each other a look.

"Confess?" asked Iroh, "Confess to what?"

Katara narrowed her eyes and leaned forward menacingly. "To this—this conspiracy!"

"Conspiracy?" asked Zuko, "What conspiracy?"

"The conspiracy," Katara shot to her feet, rattling the teacups yet again, "that you two planned in order to get me on this stupid island!"

"Now, why would we want to do that?" Iroh looked up at her, a genuine expression of confusion on his face.

"It's obvious!" Katara put her hands on her hips and glared down at Zuko, whose gaze was still fixed firmly in his lap. "You wanted to get me to trust Zuko and tell him all about the Avatar!"

"If we wanted information about the Avatar from you," Zuko said bitingly, not making eye contact with her, "there would be much easier ways to go about getting that."

"Like what?"

"Torture."

Katara bit her lower lip, slightly taken aback, and shot a quick glance over at Iroh.

Iroh's face betrayed nothing, and he took another sip of his ginseng tea.

"Yes—but—" Katara began, in fact unsure of what she was about to say.

"But nothing," Zuko finished for her. He stood up, much more gracefully and slowly than Katara had, before turning to look her in the face. Katara had to make an effort not to look away. His gaze was disconcerting—too open and bright and golden.

"Believe me," he said calmly, "when I say that this little foray of ours on the island was unplanned on my part. I had no dishonorable intentions towards you. I had no plans to extract information about the Avatar from you." He paused here. "I don't know what happened."

Iroh smacked his lips as he set the teacup back down on the table. "Ginseng—good stuff."

"Well," said Katara, voice considerably softer than before, "what's going to happen now?"

Zuko broke eye contact with her to look at his uncle. Iroh looked back, smiling benignly.

"Right now," Zuko began slowly, as if thinking, "right now, we're going to give you a room so you can clean up—something I'm sure we're both eager to do."

Katara nodded. A bath, in clean, warm freshwater, with soap and bubbles and sweet-smelling things—it would be just like heaven.

"Some food too," Iroh added. "How does beef stew sound?"

A/N: Ooh, looky, a question and answer session!

Question: When are you going to update LTE?
Answer: When you find the epilogue and give it to me. Then I'll post it and everyone will be happy!

Question: Why did you, after a year plus of no writing or action on your part whatsoever, update this stupid story and not LTE?
Answer: Because I wanted to.

Thanks for reading. :)