Day Five: Voyage (based on Lifeboat)

It was going to be a long way to shore. Even longer because Katara had no idea if the person they pulled out of the water would to survive the trip.

If her brother had anything to say about it, he wouldn't.

"He's been after us since the South Pole," Sokka passionately argued as he had for the past ten minutes. "Who's to say that when he wakes up, he won't start throwing fireballs all over the place to try and capsize us."

"For one thing, Appa isn't a boat," Katara patted the sky bison's fur in an offhand show of affection that earned a happy growl from the beast. "For another thing, even if he did try, it would only mean that he'd end up drowning, too. I don't know about you, but I don't peg Zuko for suicidal."

"Well, we already know he has problems."

"Sokka!"

"I'm just saying."

Sokka raised his hands in surrender. One of them held the boomerang he'd been prepared to take the prince's head off with. Unconscious and waterlogged, this was the most vulnerable state Katara had ever seen Zuko in. His single patch of hair had come undone and hung loose in his face. Katara had to avert her eyes, because several times, the sight had made her fingers itch. She had a feeling his hair would be very soft like silk, and that he'd look much better if he had a full head of it. It would frame his face much better, and...

She must have swallowed more seawater before than she thought.

As her brother moved away, obstinately to sulk at losing the fight, he swerved at the last second and made a beeline for Aang. The Avatar had been at Appa's head, guiding him towards the sun and away from the smoke for the past hour and a half. He'd been quiet all that time, occasionally turning his head to see if Zuko was still out cold under blankets Katara provided. Otherwise, he was blind and deaf to everything not straight ahead of them.

"Aang, you don't think we should be saving Zuko of all people, do you?"

The hope in Sokka's voice made Katara roll her eyes. Did he actually think there was any chance Aang would agree with him?

"I don't think we should throw him into the water, if that's what you mean." Aang glanced at Sokka briefly, long enough to catch his falling expression and childish puffing of his cheeks as he turned his back to them.

"I didn't mean it like that, I just want to make sure the three of us are safe," he mumbled.

"What do you think Zuko can even do in this state?" Katara asked. She had leaned over to check his breathing. Her hand pressed into his chest to feel for a heartbeat, which she found to be steadier than all the other times. That was a relief (more of a relief than she thought it would be).

"Katara's right, Sokka, he almost died."

Several miles behind them, sinking little by little into the depths of the sea, was the charred remains of Zuko's ship, sunk in a brutal attack by one who should have been on his side. Whoever this General Zhao guy was, he might be bad enough to make the Fire Nation prince look like nothing more than a bully pushing smaller kids' heads in the snow. Maybe they'd been lucky it had been Zuko who landed on their shores that day. Unlike Zhao, he left everyone alive.

"Well, I'm keeping an eye on him, and we're dropping him off the moment we hit land. That's all I have to say about it."

Sokka sat against Appa's saddle, crossing his arms and lowering his head to watch Zuko beneath his brow. The effect of his posture would have been very intimidating were Sokka older and taller and could legitimately threaten a firebender. At least now he was keeping quiet and not trying to argue anymore. After fourteen years (fifteen in four months) of knowing her, he should have at least been aware of how stubborn Katara could be. When she wanted something- really wanted it- that was the end of the story. No arguments would be had. That was the reason they were on this journey in the first place. Katara wanted a waterbending master. She wanted to be the one to train the Avatar in her element. And so, here they were.

She stayed at Zuko's side, wishing there was something more she could do than just watch him sleep. Enemy he may have been, watching someone die was the last thing Katara wanted to do. Not that she thought he would die, not anymore. There had been a time, when they first picked him up and Katara had been forced to clumsily bend the water out of his mouth before he choked on it, that she had really believed he wasn't going to make it. Their greatest foe (so far) was going to go in one of the worst ways possible (Gran Gran always used to say that the water's wrath was to be feared, because to drown was more painful than to be burned by the hottest fire). Then he had started improving, slowly at first, then more and more his color returned, and his breaths came stronger, and he grimaced and groaned whenever Appa made a sharp turn to avoid a passing school of fish. Though he had yet to wake up, Zuko proved his strength just by surviving this long, and Katara wouldn't be surprised if he was sitting up and making threats within the hour.

Until and unless that time came, Katara kept to her post, looking out at the long stretch of ocean and the barest hint of land on the horizon. She felt Zuko move and turned to see him gritting his teeth. His body seized up, his chest rising off the ground for just a moment, and then he fell flat again and returned to his bitter slumber. He had changed positions slightly, one hand flailing out to the side in front of Katara. She followed the trail of his pale arm to where his fingers stopped, and realized that the very tip of his longest two fingers were what she had been feeling pressing into her own.

Katara jerked away with a squeak. She looked up to make sure Sokka hadn't seen (he'd probably use it as an excuse to get the boomerang out, to 'protect her honor' or something like that), and nearly laughed at the trail of drool falling from his mouth as he snored. So much for keeping an eye on Zuko.

She started to relax, watching the sky and the passing clouds that all seemed to be shaped like fish. It helped distract her, if only just, from the memory of when her and Zuko touched for that single, passing moment, and that electric buzz her skin tingled from even now.

That distant line of land grew larger by the minute, but it was still such a long way to shore.