Ok here is Part 8 sorry for the slow updates everyone school had kinda taken over I'm so close with being done with high school, I should be done with it within a week, I will have the next one up as soon as I can, :/, Thank You all for you patience and hopefully this chapter will make up for the slow updates. ;).
He walked into the room trying to make as little noise as possible, Katara was already asleep over the big covers sleeping soundly.
He felt a little awkward being in the room with her, and his eyes widened when he saw she was only wearing some small shorts and a red silk tunic with her hair was fanned out all around her. 'I should go.' He thought, but Lee might still be down there and the bed seemed to be calling him to crawl in. 'I'll just stay for a while and leave in the morning she won't even know I was here' he glanced over to the dresser by the bed, which had a almost empty of bottle rice wine.
He smirked to himself, 'where did she get that?' thinking of taking a drink himself.
Zuko walked to the other side of the bed and took off his shirt; he moved the blankets over and crawled in.
Katara wasn't sleeping as soundly as Zuko had thought and when she felt the bed shift she jerked awake. Katara saw that the room was still dark, she felt dizzy and very hot and when she turned around and saw Zuko laying next to her under the covers, she shot up and looked at him, her eyes wear glazed over her heart began to pound when did he get here?
"Hey Zu…Ko." She said, falling back onto her back.
He raised his eyebrow 'this will be fun' he thought sarcastically. "I see you found the rice wine." he said not looking at her.
Karara nodded her head. "Yeah Ling left it was for both of us but, I drank it all gone." She beamed.
She was very very drunk he thought. She closed her eyes and lay there perfectly still, and Zuko looked at her for a moment she seemed to have fallen asleep. He sighed, sank down, and closed his eyes. It had only been about five minutes when he felt the bed move again. He then felt Katara's breath on face.
"Zuko." She whispered loudly, he could smell the wine, and his body tensed up when he felt her lean over him.
He finally cracked open his good eye and looked at her, she was leaning only inches from him face. "Yes?" He said quietly.
She moved her face closer to his. "What are you doing in here." She asked sounding like a child.
Zuko became a bit uncomfortable; she was very close to him. "I'm trying to sleep and so should you." He said, trying his very hardest to ignore the way her tan skin pressed against him.
"Oh." She said, and then took her hands and placed them on his chest. She then began tracing her hands around his chest.
He grabbed her hands and sat up, she looked very confused. "What are you doing?" He asked in shock not letting go of her wrists, I thought she hated me he thought.
"You're just really really cold, you know its cold in the south pole like you". She then giggled and hiccupped. Zuko shook his head this girl was more then gone. She looked down in sadness, and he let go of her wrist and looked at her, she looked jaded and scared his face softened but only a bit. "Are you mad at me?" She asked.
"No." He said, as he let go of her wrist and helped her to lay down alway from him trying his hardest not laugh.
"Well, do you want me to cheer you up?" She asked, bouncing a little under the covers. It was amusing seeing her like this, she was always so motherly to everyone 'except him' it was funny seeing her so lose and free, he bit back a smile while he watched her start trying to count back words on her fingers. "7, 9, 45, 46, 70, hey, this stuff is really really great, Sokka told me I wasn't allowed to drink until I was married but I don't know why this stuff is great and and you know it's harmless I mean I don't feel any different do I looked different hey, Zuko did you know thet there is rice wine?" She asked.
Zuko responded by shoving a pillow over his face. "no… 'yes' his mind argued " I want to sleep."
She laid there for a moment looking at him, she felt so jittery and happy, 'this stuff is great' she thought smiling.
"hey Zuko" she asked laying down close next to him, he didn't answer.
"do you think we will ever be friends" she asked in a quit voice, Zuko rolled his eyes remembering the Avatars words.
"no" he said said sternly, Katara just nodded
"yeah me neither" she said, they sat there for a moment in silence Zuko had really thought she had gone to sleep.
"I don't many friends" Katara said, Zuko smacked his head.
"for the love of"
"I have 1…." she sat there forgetting how to count for a moment.
"hey Zuko will you be my friend?." she asked jumping a little making the bed move.
"no" Zuko said sternly, she sighed sadly.
"please"
"no"
"please" she begged again
"no shut up" he snapped
"please", "I should have stayed down stairs" he thought
"fine if it will shut you up" he said, she smiled
"yay, now I have two friends" she said counting on her finger again. Zuko said nothing and ignored her.
Her face fell and she flopped back on her back. "Why are you so moody all the time?"
"Besides you don't sleep anywayszer-" She started, stumbling a little on words.
Zuko sat up and looked at the waterbender. "What?" He asked.
She then yawned. "You don't sleep very much….. doo you?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.
"No, not really." He answered he was a bit surprised she noticed at all, the only person that ever seemed to notice was his uncle.
"Why can't you sleep?" She asked in a childish tone moving closer to him.
"I just can't." He closed his eyes and pushed his head back.
"Come on there must be a reason are you upset about something?"
"I just can't." He yelled in a hush tone. Zuko turned away from her and crossed his arms.
Katara smirked 'he's so dramatic' she thought, he was turned away but Katara wasn't giving up so easily, she waited a minuet so he would think she was done, and she didn't know if it was the alcohol or that she just loved pushing Zuko, but she moved over softly so that her mouth was right by his ear. His eyes were closed and his expression hard, there was a little voice in her head yelling at her to stop but she leaned right above his ear.
"Zuko." He didn't move. "Zuko I know your awake." She whispered in his ear, still no answer. "Is it because of your scar?"
Zuko couldn't take it anymore, he snapped his eyes open and flipped around so that he was facing her, and he looker her over her with a serious expression. " You are really starting to piss me off waterbender," he snared.
"Well answer the question then." she swallowed as he got a little closer to her face.
"you know I no problem with the idea of killing a girl" he snapped angrily at her.
"yes you do because your my friend, my second friend right after the one that fly" she giggled, he said nothing and she sighed
"will you pretty please with sugar and spice and mmmm sugar…. please" she said
"Fine, if it will shut you up, then yes that's why I can't sleep I haven't sleep a full night since I left the fire nation."
Katara looked down. "Why wear you banished?" she asked.
Zuko then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Why do you care?" He asked quietly, his head was pounding in agony; he leaned back begging her in his mind to shut up.
"Because…I." She really didn't know why, curiosity maybe or it might be the liquor anything was possible. "I just want to know why you're such a grouch all the time, I mean-" She sat up leaning on her side. "Most of the time your this, mean, self obsessed, selfish, grouchy, jerk, completely dedicated to this life to finding the Avatar but failing every time, even though Aang's 12 and gets distracted by anything shiny-" She trailed off.
"I get it, just get to the point!" Zuko snapped angrily really wanting to gag her.
" But…" her eyes softened. "Sometimes, your this sweet, kind, man, who holds more honor then anyone I have ever seen, and who would risk his life for silly waterbender who's been his enemy since birth."
Zuko's couldn't' believe 'why is she'… he looked at her and this time didn't sneer or roll his eyes, he simply looked at her, his headache was forgotten when he saw her. She was glowing in the moonlight, and eyes were shining like blue diamonds.
She was breathing hard now, and was almost afraid she moved her head away from him and a stray hair fell in her face, he smiled and moved the piece back tucking it behind her ear, she blushed hard, she could feel her body temperature going up, and she felt dizzily.
"I would do it a million times over again, Katara." He said, still looking at her, he leaned in a little closer to her his face only inches from her, and she turned red looked down.
CRASH!
The sound came from outside the window.
"What was that?" Katara whispered.
Zuko looked at her and then slowly rose from the bed.
CRASH!
The sound was closer now and made them both jump, she followed slowly behind him, as the cold night air hit his chest he shivered. Katara grabbed a hold of his arm and walked with him until he put out his hand and stopped her he turned around and gave her the signal to stay there.
She glared but stayed as Zuko walked to the window and looked out to see a hobo running away while a crate full of cans fell on the ground, seh breathed in relief he looked back at Katara who began breathing heavily she felt unbearably hot and sweat pored down her '
The sound came again only louder Katara ran to Zuko ready to help with her bending or not.
"What is it?" She whispered, he was still looking out, and when she only saw the ally she froze, 'what if they were inside?'
"Zuko, they're here." She said.
"No I think its just that hobo from before." He said he seemed a lot calmer then she was but his heart was pounding in his chest just as fast as hers.
"But what if its not, what if its Azula coming for Aang or Zhao coming or-"
"Katara." Zuko whispered harshly.
"Zuko wear under attack," she whispered back.
"We're not under-, stop that, " he snapped, Katara was breathing hard, he noticed that the candles had lit and were getting brighter melting wax all over the table.
" Listen to me we're not under attack see those cans?" He pointed to a tipped over box with cans pouring out of it. "We are all fine you need to calm down, or you will burn down this whole place." He hissed at her.
She looked around the saw the candles burning fast they were almost down to the holders. "But Aang-" She asked worried.
"The Avatars fine, why are you freaking out? whats wrong?" Zuko asked, her eyes looked glazed over she was sweating hard, and the candles were burning brighter and brighter.
"No you're lying." She placed her hands over her ears.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" He was beginning to worry something was wrong with her, no one just stated freaking out for no reason. She began wheezing heavily and she gripped the bed and fell down.
"Katara!" He grabbed her she was unbearably hot her skin almost burning his, and she was wheezing clearly not getting enough oxygen.
He had seen this type of thing before. "Katara I need you to wait, I'm going to get uncle." He said glancing around. Putting out the candles was pointless she would just catch something else on fire, she still wasn't listening.
"Katara." He shook her, but she gave no response.
"Katara?" Still nothing. He lifted her up and took her over to the bed, she wasn't moving and barley breathing.
Zuko remembered something similar when Azula was ten she started freaking out because she couldn't find her favorite knife she started crying and scramming, then she lit her whole room on fire before anyone knew what was wrong. If his mother hadn't been there she might have burned to death. They realized later that Azula had gotten into some of his fathers wine stash thinking it was juice, he looked at the bottle of wine, 'of course' he thought it was really dangerous for fire benders to drink more then a few glasses at a time, and you weren't even allowed to drink in the fire nation until you wear properly trained in breathing.
The alcohol was very dangerous for her, she was new to this and didn't have control it was burning up inside of her like inflaming her form the inside this caused hyperventilation, and heavy hysteria, it clouded your mind and you lose control. Katara's breathing was getting shallower, and it was to late to get his uncle.
Zuko crawled into the bed next to her and began rubbing her back with his hand, he remembered his mother doing it for hours until Azula had calmed down and wine burned away, he had to just calm her down, and the alcohol would burn away on its own, 'yeah that it just calm and relaxed so she didn't burn down the inn' he thought.
She twitched but he kept moving his hand in a circler pattern on her back he did this for a awhile until she started to squirm around.
"Katara." He whispered in her ear, she whimpered a little her whole body burned it felt like something was bubbling inside her, but the pressure on her back felt nice, it was working the fire started to die down it was burning on the table in low flames that barely lit the room and she began breathing normally again. "You have to calm down just breath."
She shook. "Sokka?" She asked looking at Zuko her eyes a little glossy.
"It's Zuko." He said.
"I'm sorry Sokka." she barely whispered before she drifted off to sleep.
Zuko wasn't sure why the universe was so cruel to him, but no matter what he did or didn't do it always seemed to bite him in the ass, especially when it came to the Avatars water bending teacher. He wanted her to fall off the face of the planet, but he also didn't like it when she wondered into the forest on her own. Then she would be so close and all he wanted to do was push her away, but at the same time beg her to come closer. It was infuriating, when she would talk all he wanted to do was gag her and throw her into a random hole into the earth, but her voice was like a siren, and he was stuck in the center with her. 'This can't be healthy.' He thought holding Katara as she slept, even now, he should put her down go get her brother and send him to do this, but he didn't all because he was worried about leaving her side.
She shifted a little moving her head more comfortably on his chest, she was almost on top of him, and he felt connected with her in a way maybe it was the fact they had switched bending abilities, he was almost drawn to her, and he remembered when he came to her village and he saw her for the first time. She had this look it was determination and fear all in one look.
He saw the look again when she took the water bending scroll, and she had looked so little but not helpless, she never looked helpless. He smiled when he remembered them fighting at the north pole she had become so much stronger in such a short amount of time, it had made him jealous all protégées didn't even have to try they could just do it. Azula was the same way, then finally when they were trapped with Zhao he had seen her hurt and scared, and had to admit it made him feel good protecting her. For once he didn't feel so worthless.
She shifted again and mumbled something. He sighed at looked down at her sleeping face and then smiled, he then took his hand and slapped it hard into his face and ran it over his hair in frustration 'this is most defiantly not healthy how can one girl make him feel anger and happiness all at once was beyond him'.
Katara woke up about half an hour later, she had been dreaming of her brother. She was hot but her face felt cold, and she shifted her body and looked up. Zuko was looking out the window, and then she realized she was on laying on his chest.
"Zuko?" She asked, and he turned his head and looked at her.
"About time you woke up water bender." He said, she looked around, the room was dark the only light was from the moon.
"What happened?" She asked, trying to sit up. The alcohol was still there, but she was feeling clearer then she had since she had started drinking.
"Careful, you're still not well." Zuko grabbed her and laid her back down on the pillow next to him.
"You had a strange reaction to the rice wine you might say, its called Firebender Hysteria ." He said, crossing his arms over his cold chest.
"A what?" She asked confused.
"here drink this" he held up a glass of water he had gotten for her, she drank it quickly and coughed
"slowly waterbender" he said still holding it up the water felt so good, she could feel it putting out the flames still bubbling a little in her gut. after she finished she looked up at him.
"now what is Firebender Hyster or whatever" she asked.
he rolled his eyes. "I can see that since it had more then two syllables it's hard for you to understand."
She glared at him. "See that's exactly what I was talking about earlier." She sighed. She could remember everything, and turned red,
"What?" Zuko tried to remember, how did she remember? She was drunk.
"Nothing, anyways what this….. what were talking about?" She said, trying to get back on topic and forget the fact that she acted like foolsih.
Zuko raised his eyebrow. "It's like firebending hysteria, it becomes overwhelming and your charka lines speed up."
She shook her head. "So this crazy firebending, does this happen a lot?"
Zuko shook his head annoyed. "No it only happens to new powerful fire benders, who get into the wine cellar." He turned so he was facing her. She looked at the bottle and then blushed, she could remember.
"Firebending is controlled by your emotions, like all bending but fire bending is not like waterbending. What happens when you get up upset, water reacts differently it freezes or moves, well fire is the same way only it's more fierce. Always your inner fire is begging to come out, and with a little panic and loss of self-control, it clouds your mind and releases. You should just be lucky that you have more control then others and only managed to light the candles." He pointed to the burned wood and melted wax on the table.
Katara looked down ashamed. "I could have killed someone." She placed her head in her hands and began sobbing as she thought of Aang or Sokka; she could have burned down the whole place.
Zuko was taken aback, he hated it when girls cried although he didn't have a lot of experience when it came to this. "There there." He patted her shoulder.
"I could have hurt them all because I drank to much and got upset over a noise." She sobbed.
"That's not it." He shook his head. "You have a lot to be upset about, I mean you lost your bending and you have no idea why, Zhao and Azula are chasing us, and on top of that taking care of the Avatar, plus the fight with your brother you deserved a drink."
"You know about that?" She asked softly, looking up at him thinking about the fight with her brother.
"I overheard you guys down stairs earlier."
She wiped her eyes. "You were spying on us!" She challenged her breathing began to speed up.
"No! I was no spying I was coming in to… talk to your dick of a brother, but you were already in there, now calm down before you have another episode there still might be some rice wine left in you."
She calmed down and then promptly began crying again.
"No don't, crap." He said, she was broken, crying, and she leaned her head on Zuko's shoulder seeking comfort.
"He hates me, because I can firebend, he thinks I'm betraying him." She sobbed, and Zuko sighed 'why is it always me' he thought as he rubbed her back awkwardly this was easier when she was drunk.
"He doesn't hate you, he hates me." She didn't stop he wasn't good at the whole lovely its not your fault speech, 'what would uncle say' he searched his brain.
"Um ok," he pulled her out so she was facing him. "Life is like the moon," he pointed to the window. "It was many phases, and you change from those phases, so while time passes we change with the phases of the moon because in the end we're all just stars." He spoke quieter with each passing word knowing how stupid it sounded even to him, she stopped crying for a moment and he looked at her and Katara just looked at him, then she then began to cry again.
"Look, it's not your fault ok." He said giving up, 'why do I do this to myself?' he thought when she looked at him. "Your brother is mad at me, and at the spirits for doing this to you, he's stressed and angry, I mean if my sister wasn't a psychopath I would feel the same way if something was hurting my little sister." He took her chin in his hand and moved her head up. "It's not your fault Katara, none of it." He moved his thumb and wiped away a tear from her eye.
She blushed and move turned her head away. "Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked quietly and he moved his hand and gave her a rare smile. 'good question' he thought.
"Because like it or not Katara we have a real problem, they switched our bending, and I need to figure this out, we need to get our bending back."
She frowned. "What about Sokka? He'll never let me."
Zuko shook his head. " I don't know, maybe the Avatar can go back into the spirit world and find out some more about what they want, and then we take it from there."
"What about Aang learning earthbending?"
"That's not my problem Katara." He snapped.
She frowned and looked outside. "Do you think Azula will find us?"
He gave her a serious look. "Yes, and that's why we need to act fast."
"And stop fighting." She whispered.
"Yes, and although your brother is an idiot" he sighed and looked away "but, I'll play nice if he does."
Katara grinned and blushed a little. "You know your a lot nicer since you became a waterbending, maybe my bending had an effect on you."
Zuko rolled his eyes. "Yeah well your a lot more heated since you became a friebender, maybe little miss nice girl is slowly burning away, who knows maybe you'll snap and kill a bunny." He then laughed and Katara's mouth dropped open.
"OK never mind, your still an ass."
Zuko just chuckled. "Well the only thing your water is doing is making me cold." He shivered missing his inner fire so much at that moment.
"Maybe if you put your shirt back on you wouldn't be so cold." He glared and picked up his shirt and put it back on, it made him a bit warmer but not much.
"Happy?" he asked, and Katara smiled.
If it makes you feel any better I'm too hot." He raised his eyebrow.
Katara blushed and turned away from him and pulled the covers over her head. "I'm sure your uncle wouldn't mind sharing, or you could crawl into bed with Ling and Lee, Ling said they had some hot and heavy plans tonight."
Zuko eyes got wide. 'ewwwwwww' he thought at both of the ideas.
She laughed and then closed her eyes; Zuko smiled at her and then crawled under the covers. "You win for now, firebender." Zuko said, and she ginned.
"Goodnight Zuko".
Yue walked through the golden doors, since she had become the moon spirit things had been very strange for the young princess. She spent most of her time watching over her family and Sokka. She became furious when she heard that Katara had her bending taken from her, and her pale face shined as she walked through the meeting room, she wore a long while and sliver dress with long sleeves her hair was handing down her back with a long braid wrapped around her head woven with white and sliver ribbon and jewels. She was new to this, but not stupid and she walked near Avatar Roku and took her place next to him, she glared around the room there were only a few spirits in there, but her eyes quickly fell apron certain women sitting at the end of the table.
"So nice for you to join us Yue." She said in a crackling voice.
Yue glared. "How dare you!" Yue snapped.
The woman just looked at her. "How dare I what my dear?"
Yue slammed her hands down. "Who are you to give and take bending?"
"I still have no idea what you're talking about." She said, casually looking at her newly done nails.
"You took away Katara's bending." She yelled.
The women looked back up. "Oh I see you're on a first name bases with the little waterbender now, but I guess you know a lot about being human don't you Yue."
Yue stood up only to be stopped by Roku. "Calm down Yue, she's just trying to push you." Yue narrowed her eyes.
"Why are you even doing this, what's' the point? You're going to ruin everything, and what about the Avatar?"
"What about him?" She asked,
That's when Roku stood up. "What about him, I'll tell you what about him, the only chance the world has is the Avatar, how can he do that if he is worrying about his friend?"
"Oh my Roku, you really need to calm down it's just a bit of fun." She said calmly, her gold sandals were shining on the table where they sat.
" Fun…. What is the point of this, don't you want the war to end?" Yue asked with hurt eyes.
The women raised her drawn on pattern eyebrows. "I have a theory my dear child, and like the counsel said, you cannot interfere, so go back to combing your hair and watching your human."
Yue moved but Roku grabbed her. "You are a twisted women, and you will pay for this whatever you're doing." Yue said calmly, before she and Roku stormed out of the room.
The women just smiled and pulled out a mirror moved her head and a refection appeared overlooking down at the sleeping waterbender and firebender. "This is going to be very interesting." She smirked.
dun dun dun, I know i'm a wicked tease,
stayed tuned. :).
This chapter song Is, A Lack Of Color,- Death Cab For Cuite.