CH 6
Close Call
Disclaimer = absolute zero
WARNINGS: violence in fighting; memory flashbacks of character death; wounds with blood
The next day a scroll was dropped onto Sokka's desk by Hawky. Katara glared at the bird with all her might from across the room. Trying to not laugh at the sight, Sokka ripped the wax seal with his thumb and read the scroll. She furrowed her eyebrows when her older brother let out a groan and slumped in his chair.
Without even a word he threw it to Katara and left to fetch the hawk some treats. Immediately her eyes caught the words "rumor" and "avatar". Katara slumped against the wall and groaned. She hated missions that had anything to do with the search for the avatar. It had been over a hundred years since the disappearance of the last avatar and the rest of the world had already given up hope that he/she would ever reappear. These rumor missions were always a headache and it ended up circling around some old men trying to relive their "glory days" by throwing out rumors and gossip. Katara threw the scroll angrily at the desk, momentarily forgetting where Hawky still perched. With an angry squawk Hawky fluttered and flapped his wings and what Katara could have sworn was a glare sent in her direction. She quickly side stepped out of the room before the bird could exact any type of revenge.
Sokka returned to a nervous looking Katara pressed with her back flat against the door frame in what looked like an attempt to avoid the bird's line of sight. He rolled his eyes as he walked into the room and placed the bird food on the desk.
"I still can't believe you have an ongoing war with a bird." He heard her mumble a couple words mixed in with "possessed demon". Taking one last glance at the scroll he threw himself into his work chair. The hard wood protesting at the sudden weight.
"Well… I don't like it, but someone's gotta check this out Kat…"
"I know…but I can still bitch and moan about it." Katara stepped into the doorway looking like she was ready to bolt if the bird made any sudden movements. "You know as well as I that this is just another dumb run around mission. Can't I just say I went and just…not?" Sokka raised his eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes and huffed "fine" before turning to leave and almost bumped into Zuko. She thanked her few years of stealth experience as she regained her balance and sidestepped the man.
"What's this about?" He seemed to still be ignoring her…still…men can be so dramatic.
Sokka eyed him for a few seconds before spilling the details on a reconnaissance mission to gather information on a rumored avatar sighting. Before he was even finished Zuko cut him off.
"We'll take it." His voice gruff.
"Don't get too excited, these missions are always bull-"
"I said we'll take it," he grabbed the scroll before walking out. The siblings watched him leave before Sokka stood to close the door.
Ten minutes later Katara and Sokka walked out to the main room to see Zuko finishing packing the bags for the day trip. The rumor was in the next town over and she knew they'd be back before dinner time. She picked up her pack and an extra canteen before heading out with her partner.
"We'll be back by dinner. Don't wait up," she said over her shoulder as she walked out.
Zuko moved to follow but was stopped by a hand on his arm. Sokka pulled hard on Zuko's arm to force him to face him. "I don't know what's going on between you two, but resolve it now." Zuko yanked his arm out of Sokka's hold. "If you do something that hurts my little sister, I'm coming after you…got it?"
"Yeah…got it." He let the door slam behind him.
"So it's you…you're the one people have been talking about? You're the famous avatar?" Katara's voice had never sounded so monotonous.
The old man smiled. "Why of course I am!" He pointed at his "tattoo" on his forehead. The man's sweat had been running down his head, making blue paint trails down his crooked nose… and slightly tilted. She couldn't stop staring.
Katara felt a migraine coming on and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Thanks for your time, old man."
Her eyebrow was twitching in annoyance. She hoped Zuko was having a better time with his part of the investigation. She eyed the poster of an upcoming play with the avatar as the main protagonist. She had just finished talking to an actor who had decided to dress in his full costume, recite a few exciting lines and act out a few scenes in different parts of the town to draw more customers in. Katara crumped the paper and threw it over her shoulder aiming for the trash bin behind her.
She hated these kinds of missions. At least she had found the source of the rumor within a couple hours by mere luck and wasn't running around for weeks trying to find a lead. Katara rubbed her temple to ease the headache away. Maybe when she reached Sokka's and Suki's place she'd find time to heal her head.
A few minutes later, Katara had managed to find Zuko near their meeting spot. The fountain in the middle of town glistened with the last rays of sun bouncing off the top of the water making it look a molten gold. She sat down on the lip of stone next to him.
Katara glanced over at Zuko, by the look on his face, he seemed just as annoyed. She cracked her back and let out a huff.
"Now you know why we hate these kinds of missions." Zuko was silent.
Katara stared down the street and watched the townspeople walk past them. When she figured they weren't going to talk at all, she moved to stand up but froze when she felt Zuko's hand on her arm. By the time she finally looked at him, his gaze was already on her. Had he been watching her from the start?
"We need to talk." His voice was calm and she couldn't help but relax into his grip.
"You never answered my question back there," she said. Katara couldn't look away from his eyes. The pattern of the golden flecks that lined his irises had her mesmerized. She traced the familiar outline of his scar with her eyes until she couldn't take the silence anymore and looked away. "Zuko, what's your answer?"
"To what?"
"Trusting…" She lingered on her word making a question out of a statement.
He huffed and let go of her arm. She thought he was going to ignore her until he finally responded.
"You really should stay away from me."
In that moment, she had never known her partner to have been so honest. She grabbed the hand that had been on her arm and gave it a squeeze.
"And if I don't want to?" His lips slide into a smirk.
"Then Agni help us both." She couldn't help respond with a smile.
A crash of clutter from the alley opposite to the fountain made the two look up. A group of men laughing at some joke came out from the shadows of the building. There must have been almost nine men. Katara looked around. She didn't have her weapons on her and Zuko didn't have his swords. If this got bad then…she didn't want to think of the possibilities. She had finally noticed that the town had gone dead silent and there wasn't even a soul in sight. Katara let the pull of the water behind her give her the strength she needed.
An old woman's voice suddenly echoed through her head:
"Water is everywhere, my child."
She gulped as she suppressed the urge to give into her instincts. Her master had said the urges were as natural as breathing and to give into the desires. That these desires would take over eventually.
Her eyes narrowed as the drunken men started to stumble their way towards her and Zuko. She always had a backup plan. And as much as Sokka always berated her for dipping into her bending reserves, she knew how to dabble with her bending powers before they could push her over the edge. She wouldn't lose control…not in that way.
"Ey! Looks like we got a couple of love birds ey Gan?" The one named Gan started to laugh, he tilted his head back and drained the last of his sake bottle.
"Sounds about right." Gan let out what must have tried to have been a sinister laugh, his smile slick and dangerous. Katara scrunched her nose as she saw a few black and discolored teeth.
Zuko and Katara let go of each other and stood to leave the area. She wasn't liking where this situation was going. She looked at the water fountain, Sokka would be mad if she destroyed the town's center square. The sun was almost set, and from the way she felt the pull of the moon tonight it would only be a waning quarter moon. She smirked, that would be enough to get her by if she needed to use her last resort.
The men circled Zuko and Katara leaving no gaps between them as they encroached. The men were sniggering and eyeing Katara saying things such as "I'll make you feel like a real woman honey" and the like. Zuko looked Katara in the eyes, his eyes were glowing embers with the last remnants of the sun's rays hitting them.
His face held no emotion, if Katara hadn't known him any better she'd think he was…calm…?
"Looks like we got a firebug in our town boys." And all at once the mood darkened. The group of men stopped their laughing.
"What's garbage like you doing in our town huh?" Said a man with tattoo's down his left arm. "I aint' standin' for no invasion this night or any other time!"
Gan threw his empty bottle to the ground, the base shattered into pieces while he held onto the neck. Katara eyed the new weapon. Her fingers twitched towards the pond, faint ripples reacted to her command and reflected the sun casting an eerie light on the crowd surrounding it.
"I'm only going to ask once. Let us leave."
"Or what sweet cheeks? I ain't afraid of a girl who got no bite." One man said, his green robe open showing an intricate tattoo of bleeding thorns digging into the skull of a spider cat. Something caught her eye and she glanced around again. She gritted her teeth, all of the men seemed to have a similar tattoo peeking out from under their clothes. It would be just her luck to get stuck fighting a local gang.
One of the more inebriated of the group pushed against his neighbor. "I say we just kill the guy and take the chick home! She'd make an awesome contribution to our meetings!" The commotion started a chain reaction of excited murmurs and twitchy hands.
Reacting to the energy, Katara pulled a large amount of water from the fountain and circled herself with it. Thin tendrils snaking out from it's source. Zuko lowered into his fighting stance, keeping his palms open and close to his chest.
"Then why don't you come and get me then?" Katara tried to cover the panic in her heart by reflecting her partner. If Zuko was unfazed, then so would she.
"Ready?" She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye before lashing a whip at the nearest man's feet, picking him up by the ankle and throwing him into a nearby wall. Katara couldn't see how Zuko was doing, she needed to focus on her own problems before she could turn to help.
A glimmer of silver invaded her vision and she ducked. A sword had only managed to knick the side of her face. She sent an ice ball into the chest of her assailant.
The man coughed and dropped to the floor, too stunned to move.
2 down…3 to go…
The man with the tattooed chest went for the dropped sword. She bit her lip and reprimanded herself for not slashing at both him and the man currently occupying her attention. She suddenly got a bad feeling that she'd regret not going after him first.
Katara heard the footsteps running towards her and rolled out of the way only to see a sword slice through the air where her shoulder had once been. Katara crouched down and swung her legs out, knocking the man onto the ground next her. Just as she was moving to stand and reach for more water, an arm grabbed her wrist and forced it behind her head. She gasped as the pain in her shoulder and ribs shot through her as she was yanked up by the one named Gan. Her only other opponent grabbed at the opportunity to go for the kill. He was barely two beet from her when another body collided into his.
Zuko had kicked a someone into the guy to stop the attack. A round house kick knocked the second to last man against the lip of the fountain. The blood from his split lip seeping into the dark water. Zuko's eyes never left Gan's.
"Once the army hears oh this you'll be headin' to prison, firebug." Zuko took a step to the right and Gan jerked Katara with him, the broken bottle threatening to cut into her ribcage if she took a step out of line. The two slowly circled each other. Zuko caught sight of the flow of blood that streamed down her face. He growled at the thought of any man beating their fist into her face. He clenched his teeth. How could they have been so foolish and let these guys sneak up on them?!
Zuko thought he saw movement on his left. In his defense, he had no peripheral vision after he had received his scar and his vision was 50/50 even in the best light. His heart thudded loudly as he saw the glint of a knife leave the from a guy's hand behind him. He stretched his arm out to block or even cut himself with the knife but he had moved a second to late. Katara grunted as the knife imbedded itself in her shoulder. Bright crimson flowed from the wound, staining her blue clothing and turning her leather breast plate a dark red.
With Gan distracted from the knife injury, Zuko took his chance. He crouched low and sprung at the man, following with a kick to the head. Gan let go of Katara giving Zuko just enough space to follow with a punch to his sternum. Dazed and with the wind knocked out of him, Gan stepped a few paces back and slumped against the wall behind them, completely unconscious when Zuko delivered a hit to the head. Zuko turned to the man behind him, the guy with the chest tattoo had managed to make it to his knees when Zuko dealt a fierce side kick to the chest. The man collided with another against the wall and laid still.
Zuko turned and sprinted to Katara who had managed to stumble her way over to the fountain's edge to hold herself up.
"We should probably leave before someone shows up." Katara looked way too pale to even talk. Her breath coming out in short gasps. All she could think was how much Sokka was going to kill the both of them for picking a fight in the middle of town with a gang of idiots. But she also knew that Zuko was going to be in the hot seat for letting someone "hurt his baby sister." Her eyebrow twitched at the thought of the inevitable lecture.
"I need to get to a water source. This one's too dirty." Zuko eyed the fountain's dark water and one man who was half slumped inside the pool, hanging limply over the edge. "I know there's a community bathing pool nearby." She gasped in pain as she moved to stand. "Help me up?"
Not even letting her walk on her own, Zuko carefully avoided the knife still in her left shoulder as he picked her up in his arms. She pointed with her uninjured arm leading as she led them through the streets. Zuko felt like he was running in circles, his sprints down the alleyways too slow. The panic in his chest made him feel like he was moving through molasses and not air. Everything was too slow. He needed to get help faster. Katara had begun to cough into her hand, she grimaced as the taste of blood made its way to her lips.
He can't let her die…not again…
Zuko's breathing was becoming erratic and he knew it. He needed to shut his mind down or he was going to lose it. His arms were beginning to shake with relief when he finally saw the doors to the pool house. Not even bothering to open the door properly, he kicked the door with more energy than necessary. The handle cracked and flew off as the door slammed against the stopper on the wall.
Zuko looked down to Katara to see a dribble of blood leak out her lips and a spray of red on her hands as she covers her mouth from her coughing. Her breathing had started to hitch at the end of every breath.
Katara had attempted in vain to slow her breathing. The knife must have hit her lung. There was so much pressure building up in her chest it had gone beyond being comfortable. Zuko moved to the back of the pool house with ease and stopped when he reached the pool's encircling gate, lifting the latch easily. His already fast heart rate stammered and increased when he began walking down the steps and slowly sat Katara in a nearby chair. She would have smiled at the endearing thought of Zuko worrying over her if it were any other time.
The renewing copper taste in her mouth only making her grimace with every cough.
"Zuko calm down. Your heart is racing too fast. I'm okay I promise." He may as well have back handed her with the look he shot at her. "I won't be able to concentrate if you pass out while I'm healing myself. It's just a stupid knife wound. I'm not dying."
Curse her body for making her cough up blood at the end of her statement. Zuko only clenched his jaw. He helped her remove her armor, the pain flashing in visible waves over her face. Katara coughed again when he had accidentally jostled her injured arm and with it the knife in her shoulder.
He cursed at Agni under his breath.
"It's ok. The blade probably nicked my lung." Zuko felt a bead of sweat trail down his spine. He raised his hand to remove the knife only to have a tan hand stop his.
"Stop. It'll only bleed worse if you take it out before I can heal it properly."
"Fine, just fix it already. You're paler than a spirit." Zuko's voice a little more gruff than he'd like.
"Take me to the pool." Zuko's hands moved to her shoulder and underneath her knees as gently as he could.
Katara tried not to focus on her fear. Zuko seemed to be moving like she was about to shatter into tiny pieces. She didn't have to waterbend to feel the stress flowing off his shoulders. She couldn't help but ponder where in the world his mind must be right now.
Zuko's breath hitched as the cold water wrapped around them. Holding her close to him, he walked towards the center of the pool and lowered slowly to submerge her up to her neck. Katara hissed as the cold water embraced her wound. She let out a shaky breath. She needs to focus her energy on her wound. The water was turning a deep crimson at a faster rate than she'd liked.
"This is gonna suck." Katara mumbled. She took a deep breath and with her good hand, removed the knife as fast as possible. She yelped as the ridges of the knife sliced their way out.
"Katara!"
Too much blood. There was too much.
Even in the dim lighting of the yellow lights flickering on the walls, he could clearly see the clouds of red engulf them.
He glanced back at her when he felt her head fall to his shoulder.
"Katara…KATARA!" He started shaking her. "KATARA WAKE UP!" Her breathing was starting to shallow.
No.
More crimson poured out.
"Katara come back." He let go of her knees and began slapping her face. He couldn't do this again. She can't die…
He pressed a hand to her shoulder to stop the bleeding. He clenched his jaw when he saw blood pour through the cracks between his fingers.
Not again.
Don't do this to me again!
He squeezed her to him and alternated between shaking and rocking. "Katara wake up. Come back. You can't…you can't…"
His mind was a whirlwind of pain. Images of sleek black hair and pale soft skin flitted around his mind. He squeezed his eyes shut as the images of slit wrists and blood absolutely everywhere assaulted his mind.
"Wake up…wake up…wake up…"
Not again.
Agni no…
Zuko was about to scream at her when he felt an odd sensation pull through the water. Soft tendrils coasted over his body and felt like they were floating in the direction towards her…wound?
A glow emanated from her shoulder, growing brighter with each second and lit the entire room. He would never get used to the sight of Katara's glowing water that sealed wounds, no matter how many times he'd seen it. The glow wrapped around her hands and on her thighs, healing the cuts and bruises that adorned her skin and erased them from existence.
The blood was retreating from the pool water and pushed itself back into the wound on her shoulder. He watched as the glow stitched together the tissue. Her skin returning to it's natural tan and a hint of pink dusted her cheeks. Blue eyes fluttered open as the last of the wound healed and the blood in the water had receded completely back into her body.
Those blue eyes looked up at him and he felt his skin run cold as she smiled. She reached up a hand gloved with water that responded with the glow when her hand touched his chest. Immediately he felt relaxed. The anxiety leaking from his bones. The glowing had surrounded his body and the stings he had only barely felt on his skin disappeared completely.
She dropped her hand back into the water when the glow dimmed.
She let instincts take over and reached her arms around his neck, pulling him in. Zuko's breathing that had been on the verge of hyperventilation began to normalize.
"I'm sorry I scared you," she whispered into his ear.
The shock of the truth of her statement reverberated around his heart. He thought he had lost someone again.
Zuko crunched her into his chest and rested his head in the crook of her neck. When had she gotten so familiar to him? What would he have done if the knife hadn't missed it's target and had hit her in the center of the chest?
He squeezed tighter.
Katara smoothed the hair on the back of his head as she whispered apology after apology. He remained silent.
His soaked hair must have had enough water for her to waterbend when she opened her eyes and saw a faint glow light up between her fingers.
Images of a beautiful woman laying in a bed underneath a sunlit window floated in her mind.
You can't leave me again. Not again.
Dull grey eyes that wouldn't respond to desperate pleas.
I couldn't handle it the first time. I couldn't survive-
A bed soaked in red. An empty cradle next to it.
Not again.
An unsettling feeling of helplessness rammed into her chest, squeezing her throat shut.
Katara removed her hand from his hair and furrowed her eyebrows. She didn't hear the words so much as felt them. She rubbed his shoulder instead, chastising herself for reading his mind without permission.
The overwhelming emotional pain she felt from his mind urged her to speak.
"I'm not going anywhere, Zuko. I'm right here." She turned to see his face and was surprised at how in control of his features he was. If she hadn't glanced at what he was thinking she would have thought he was barely upset.
They didn't let go for quite some time. Her heart clenched as she pushed him away. The pain of a confession swirling in her chest.
"I think I've grown too close to you to just leave you like that." She bit her lip. "Maybe before when we hadn't known each other as well, but now…I couldn't leave you…I won't. Not anymore."
Zuko didn't move as he looked down at her. He didn't know what in Agni's name was going on with his brain. He had originally sworn to protect her above all costs. At the time he made his oath, he lied. The whole thing. He hadn't meant one single word. He only knew that once he repaid his debt he would leave. But what about now? He knew he had to have other motives to have stayed by her side for this long.
He felt like he was being torn between logic and insanity.
Katara looked up at him expectantly. Her blue eyes urging him to say something.
"I know how you feel." Katara smiled and hugged him tightly. He grimaced at the feeling of warmth spreading through his chest.
Zuko couldn't figure out if he was lying anymore.
He hoped he still was.
Wasn't he?
A/N:
Aaaaand another chapter down! This chapter feels really short to me but hey at least I updated *awkward laugh*
Sorry for the wait! I'm horrible with updating and I apologize for any grammar or mistakes I've made. (PM me if they're super annoying, I'll fix them right away)
A big shout out for everyone who has favorited or followed the story. Each and every one makes me dance with joy and an especially big thank you to everyone who reviewed! It's so awesome getting feedback and knowing that you guys like it!
See you guys in the next one!