How could I ever get used to you?

Chapter two: Well, this is new.

By adsalor

Katara rolled in her sleep. She wasn't fully asleep, but she wasn't fully awake either. She didn't remember ever being fully asleep at night since she found the boy in the iceberg. She had so stay alert in case something happened, and there was always something. Fire nation soldiers, pirates, Zuko, Azula and her friends.

Well, at least the threat had gone down by one now that Zuko was part of the team, but she still couldn't help but feel uneasy around him. Training with him had really not been a bad idea at all. It would have been good for both of them. It'd help to stay in shape, lose some muscle and, of course, practice. But then she had to go and screw it up. Her emotions had gotten the best of her and she hadn't been able to control them.

True, he had triggered them by underestimating her, but still. She was a grown woman now, known as a waterbending master, she couldn't let her feelings get in the way. How would she act if she were ever face to face with the Fire Lord himself? Remember all the wrong he's done and start crying?

Bang.

Blue eyes shot open and the only thing they saw were a pile of rocks coming down to crush her. She raised her arm to cover her face, while at the same time scanning desperately for any source of water. Too late. She closed her eyes, ready for the impact.

Suddenly, the water tribe girl felt her body being pushed away and started rolling violently against the ground, then something soft, then again the ground and the something soft.

The next time she opened her eyes, everything was a mess. Fireballs were being shot into the temple and her friends were trying to stop them in any way possible. She was still in the ground and was being held by something warm. Not something, some one. She turned around, almost afraid to do so.

Pale skin? Check. Dark hair? Check. Burn mark? Check.

Shit.

Blue eyes met some very concerned gold ones, and she turned away from them just as she felt her face warming up. His lips were moving, but she couldn't hear anything but a ring and the faint sound of explosions and a battle being held just some feet away from them.

She tried to get up and run, but felt an arm squishing her back and pulled her whole body down to the floor. Her back was pressed tightly into his body and through all the madness going on, she could feel the blood rushing up to her cheeks.

"What are you doing?" As she asked furiously, she saw another pile of rocks crashing into the spot she was about to run to.

"Keeping the rocks from crushing you?" He asked. Was she insane or what? She should be showering him with thanks and reverences. Ungrateful peasant.

"Okay, I'm not crushed. You can get off me now."

The water bender stood up and ran away, trying to put as much distance as possible between her and the banished prince. She went closer to the edge to see what was going on.

A figure emerged from the abyss. It was wearing red and black armor, black hair was tied up in a bun with two lose strands masking the face. A psychotic, sick kind of smile graced her painted lips and the yellow eyes were like staring directly into horror itself.

Azula was rising up, standing on the tip of a fire nation war globe, just inches away from Katara. A boulder was shot into the war globe and the fire nation princess lost her balance. She stumbled forward and backwards and reached out for the nearest thing she could grab. She caught a blue, sparkly thing.

Katara's necklace.

The fire nation princess pulled hard, hoping to steady herself, but the necklace immediately broke and she fell backwards into the war globe.

It felt like having her soul ripped out.

Everything seemed to stop as wide, tear filled blue eyes watched her most valued possession, the only remaining memory she had from her deceased mother disappear into the air.

With a heavy sigh, she turned around to leave. At least she was safe, her friends were safe. The blue fire bender did not get her and they could still escape.

It was fine.

Fine

She started to walk away, but then a red figure rushed past her in the opposite direction.

"Wait, Zuko, no!" She yelled, but it was too late. He had already jumped.

As he darted into the air, he started to think that maybe he hadn't thought this whole thing through. In reality, he hadn't though at all.

He had literally just saved the water bender's life, but for some reason she had seemed angry at his heroic act. And when he saw his sister tore out her precious necklace, it had seemed obvious that he had to be the one to get it back. She could definitely not stay mad at him after he emerged from the smoke, wiped that thankful tear from her cheek, delicately brushed her hair away and gracefully placed the necklace on her neck. It was brilliant!

Now, about that abyss he was falling through...

Zuko had caught the piece of jewelry just in time, but in order to do so, he had thrown himself off the cliff. He saw the nearest war globe was actually not that far away and with a push of fire blast, he managed to hold on to one of the sides.

Alright, so he wasn't falling to his death anymore, but as he climbed on to the top of the machine, he found a very similar problem. He barely managed to avoid blue fire that had just been thrown at him. Azula was right in front of him, in her usual attack position.

Yeah, this hadn't turned out exactly like he planned.

His sister's attacks felt strangely familiar and distant at the same time. There had been a time where he, too, had powered his fire bending with rage. He knew better now.

The fire nation Prince took a deep breath and felt the heat of the sun slowly taking over his body, all the way into his stomach and then out again through the palms of his hands.

They ended up blowing each other off the globe. Once again he was falling. He had completely lost track of where the Avatar and the others were. He found out soon enough when the six legged beast came flying out of nowhere and an arm pulled him down onto the saddle.

Zuko turned to see her sister, still falling, and for a second he thought she wasn't gonna make it.

But of course she did.

Once they were at a safe distance from the war globes and Azula, Zuko held out the necklace triumphantly in front of everyone. Instead of hugs, kisses, tears and thank yous, all he got were strange looks, furrowed brows and an awkward silence. The water tribe boy and the Avatar were studying him with critical eyes. He noticed some of the kids and the southern water tribe chief were gone.

"I got your necklace" he said to katara. She looked at him as if he was offering her a dead squirrel frog. "What?"

"She told you to leave it." The blind girl said. He had heard some voices calling after him when he jumped, but couldn't make out any specific words.

"This is your mother's necklace." He said, holding out his hand with the blue piece dangling towards the water bender. Wasn't this supposed to be important to her?

"I know that." She took it from his hand with a straight face and put it on looking down. "Azula nearly fell off the war globe and that gave Aang and Toph enough time to open a tunnel through the cliff so we could escape. Instead we had to go back for you."

Zuko had never felt more stupid in his entire life.

The rest of the trip was held in complete silence.

They didn't stop to make camp until it was dark. Appa landed on a hilltop at a place that seemed far enough from all civilization and then it was time to set the tents, feed Appa and Momo, start a fire (a task that had obviously been taken over by Zuko) and cook for dinner. The usual work whenever they landed on some place new.

As Katara set up her tent, she raised one hand and placed it on her mother's necklace, feeling conflicted. She had never, ever let anyone do so much as hold it. Not even her brother, and yet the fire lord's son had had it in his hands twice.

Was he supposed to be a hero now? As if it wasn't enough that Sokka and the others had come back from the prison showering him with all sorts of compliments about how great he was and how they wouldn't have made it if it weren't for him and his girlfriend.

He was too busy trying -and failing- to set up his own tent, a little further away from the others, to notice a pair of blue eyes staring at him. Having lived most of his life as royalty, he obviously didn't have much experience with their kind of life.

Katara bit her lower lip. He may be stubborn, but at least he had got her necklace back. And saved her from falling rocks. Twice. And she hadn't even said thank you.

Zuko reached up to tie one of the ends, but immediately lowered his arm again and winced.

Bingo

Katara waited until everyone had finished dinner and were getting ready for bed. She walked over to Zuko's tent, took a deep breath and shook one side of the fabric awkwardly. She didn't want to walk in anything weird.

"Uhm... Come in?" A low, raspy voice coming from inside said.

Nothing too weird was going on. He had started a small fire and a teapot was hanging over it. A few inches away she saw a framed painting of Iroh. Zuko was sitting with his legs crossed on the floor of the tent. He was drinking tea from a small ceramic cup. He looked up, confused.

"Who were you expecting? Your girlfriend?" Katara asked mockingly.

"She's not my girlfriend anymore." Zuko said.

"Oh". She mentally slapped herself. There was no need to be rude. "I'm sorry"

"Uh... Would you like some tea? I learned from my uncle. It's not as good as the one he makes, but-"

"Sure. Tea sounds nice." She sat down across him and watched him take out a second ceramic cup and pour the hot liquid into it. When he stretched out his arm to give the cup to Katara he flinched again. Right. "Your arm. She burnt you, didn't she? Your sister."

"It's nothing." Zuko pulled his sleeve down so she wouldn't notice the burn mark. The water bender grabbed his hand tightly and pulled.

"I'll be the judge of that." She pulled up his sleeve and her eyes widened. It was a nasty burn. It looked like it really hurt. "Alright hold still."

"You don't have to-"

"It'll only take a second."

She opened her water skin and covered her hands in the cool water. It started to glow immediately. Gold eyes watched with great interest. It was the first time she, or anyone else, had healed him with water. Katara delicately placed her hands on his arm and he backed away, trying to silence a grunt of pain.

"It's gonna take a while. Burns heal much faster when treated immediately. You're gonna have to suck it up She said, never lifting her eyes from her task. He nodded. Katara moved her hands across his wounded arm, making sure each spot was properly healed before passing on to the next one. But as much as he tried, Zuko could not hide signs of pain from his expression or small spasms that made her lose concentration. She sighed. It was a nasty burn. And he had taken it for her. She grabbed his other hand with her left one. "You can squeeze my hand if it gets too painful, but please try not to move".

After a couple of not so light squeezes and gritted teeth, Katara cooled the water a little bit and proceeded slower.

"I guess I never thanked you. For what you did to get my necklace back." She said.

"Guess not…" The fire bender lifted an eyebrow.

"I meant thank you. For the necklace. And saving me from the rocks."

"Twice". Was he trying to hide a proud smirk?

"Twice." She agreed. There was a cool breeze that slightly shook the sides of the tent every now and then. The air inside was heavy with the smell of tea and the presence of two former enemies. She let out a nervous laughter. "You know, you're the only person in the whole world who's touched my mother's necklace it since it's been mine. "

"Sorry about that." He said. He had stopped making noises of pain and squeezing her hand and he seemed more relaxed by the minute.

"No, no. I didn't mean to throw it in your face. You know…" She took a deep breath, unsure about what she was considering confessing. "For a second I thought I was prepared to let it go. The first time I lost it I felt so guilty. But this time, at least it gave us an opportunity to escape and be safe. At least it would have been for something. But then when you gave it back…"

Her voice started shaking. She tried her best to hold back tears.

"This war… I know we're going to win someday. I know it. But right now we keep losing and hiding and being constantly afraid to lose people we love. I know it's just a thing, but it's all I have left from my mother".

She felt a light squeeze in her hand, but not from pain. It was then when she realized they had been holding hands for quite some time now.

"What I'm trying to say is thank you." She continued. Half his arm had already been healed by then. "I suppose if anyone can understand how I feel it must be you, considering what happened to your mother".

"She's not dead". He said. Blue eyes went wide and her face turned to watch his.

"What? Are you sure?" She was shocked.

"I confronted my father during the eclipse." Zuko stared at a blank point on the ground. His expression was serious. "It turns out she's alive. She was banished, like me, and she's still out there."

"Zuko that is amazing news. You have to go find her." She said, honestly happy for him.

"I know that." He answered, a little annoyed at the obvious statement. "I will as soon as this war is over."

Katara studied the young man's arm. All signs of the burn were gone. "Tell me if this hurts". She placed two fingers on the part of his skin where the mark had been and pressed. There was no reaction. She repeated the action on several points to confirm that it was all gone. His pale skin was warm, despite the fact that she had been using cold water. "Anything?"

"No." He said.

"There." She put the water back in the skin and lifted her hand from Zuko's (was it still there?) to stand up. The fire nation prince was still siting and he had taken to examining his own arm, impressed by her work.

"Now we're even?" He asked without looking at her. He didn't notice her whole body stiffen at the question. Her fist was clenched; jaw tight. Let it go, Katara. Just let it go. The words came out before she could stop herself.

"We will never be even." Part of her regretted saying it right after it came out, but a bigger part didn't. Zuko stood up.

"I know what you think of me." He said, angry. These feelings will eventually pass if you just leave it, Katara thought, why are you still on this? "I know you're still mad about all the things I've done, but I'm trying to prove to you that I'm not that person anymore. Don't you see that? Your friends, your brother, even the Avatar. They all trust me now, why can't you?"

"I WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO TRUST YOU!"

And then everything came out. Yells, tears, words.

And none of them could be taken back.

Where did it go wrong? Zuko tried to replay the events of the last couple of days in his mind.

He offered to help her train: she got mad.

He saved her from falling rocks, twice: she got mad.

He rescued her mother's necklace from falling into oblivion, nearly killing himself and she got freakin mad.

But then something magical happened. The ungrateful water tribe peasant had gathered up some manners and apologized. She even offered to heal his wound. A wound he wouldn't have had if it weren't for the spirits forsaken necklace.

He came to the conclusion that he was simply no good with women. Breaking up with Mai through a letter had seemed like a good idea at the time, until she threw said letter on his head. Running away from Jin right after she kissed him was probably not the best idea. Was it worse than stealing Song's ostrich horse?

But wait, this is way off topic. Those were women who you could consider he had a romantic interest in. Or them on him. Either way, this was not the case with the water bender.

Everything seemed to be going fine from the fire bender's perspective. He was making some tea, thinking about his life without bothering anyone, and then the waterbender had come inside his tent and offered to heal him. He hadn't planned on telling anyone about it. He had even denied the offer in the first place, but then she grabbed his arm because apparently she had no sense of personal space and then there was nothing he could do.

It was the first time Zuko had ever been healed with water. He imagined it would be pleasant, but instead he had to bear constant shots of pain. That's when she offered her hand for him to squeeze. It did help to at least distract him from the pain. And the healing did become pleasant after the surface of the wound became less exposed.

From that moment on he had no need to squeeze her hand anymore, but she didn't lift it from his so he wouldn't either. Her hand was soft, as he imagined a water bender's hands would be. He wasn't fully aware that he had started drawing invisible circles with his thumb on the back of her hand.

See? Everything was going fine. He even decided to tell her about his mother. Well, not so much decided as the words just came out of his mouth. But it didn't feel wrong to talk to her about it. She was talking about her mother already, after all.

But then for some reason Zuko still could not make out, everything went wrong. She started yelling at him and crying. She had mentioned what happened between them in Ba Sing Se. He would always hate himself for making the wrong decision then. For betraying his uncle and running away from his true destiny, for nearly killing the Avatar. He always assumed she would have been pissed by the events of that day. But did she sound hurt?

And she had also mentioned her mother. Back in Ba Sing Se, she had implied that it was his face she pictured when she thought of the war and all the pain it's caused her, including her mother's death. Zuko started rubbing his face with both hands. Did his scar disgust her so? What would have happened if she had healed it with her spirits oasis or whatever water? The fact remained that she wasn't going to let the matter pass, so it was up to him to do something about it.

That's when he went looking the water tribe boy, her brother. After a very awkard encounter he hoped to erase form his mind as soon as psychologically possible, Zuko had asked the warrior to tell him about their mother's death. He was hesitant at first, but told the whole story after Zuko explained his noble motive. Even then, the boy had been suspicious. Suspicious of what?

"Are you sure that's the only reason you're doing this?" The water tribe boy had said to him very seriously and with narrowed eyes.

"Of course". Zuko felt very uncomfortable. What other motive could he possibly have? What was he implying?

"Alright" The blue eyed boy sighed, "Just be careful with my sister, ok? She's been through a lot".

He wasn't exactly sure what the boy meant by that, but he decided to ignore it. After that he had sat down on a rock and started to think. He didn't notice when dawn broke. He had completely lost track of time until the waterbender opened her tent and came out. She froze as soon as she saw him sitting right outside her tent.

"You look terrible". She said.

Well, he supposed he must, having had no sleep at all. Wait, how long had he been sitting there for? How long was I thinking about her?

"I know who killed your mother. I'm gonna help you find them".

The last couple of days had been intense, but they were finally back on Appa, returning to camp with the others. Zuko stared at the girl in front of him, sitting at the other side of the saddle, unsure of what to say. She had a very conflicted expression on her face. Maybe she was thinking if she had done the right thing. Had she?

If Zuko had a man who killed his mother right in front of him, he wouldn't have given it even a second's thought. It was what he deserved. And right after the guy told Katara to kill his mother as revenge, Zuko thought he might puke. It was a revolting being and he would have ended his life then and there.

But she hadn't.

He tried to make eye contact, but she was staring blankly at the floor. Only the spirits knew what she was thinking. She looked so tired. Not physically, but emotionally.

"I thought you were very brave" Zuko said.

She lifted her head slowly and looked directly into his eyes. The hint of a smile graced her face and she let out a laugh, but her expression overall was still sad. There were no tears, but her eyes had become red and puffy. He decided he hated seeing her like that.

The water bender crawled to his side of the saddle and collapsed into his arms. The fire nation prince was frozen in the spot. He felt her sob a couple of times, but the tears never came. That was good. He never knew how to deal with people who cried in front of him. Let alone in his arms.

After a few moments, he felt her body relax and her breathing steadied. He loosened his arms to release her, but he noticed she had fallen asleep. She must have been drained. Zuko pulled her close, as softly as he could so he wouldn't wake her up, and brought her to a more confortable position. So she could rest well, obviously. He also raised his body temperature a little just so she wouldn't be cold.

It was weird seeing her like that after all he had witnessed in the past few days. There was no doubt that she was a very dedicated and skilled waterbender, but he had never seen what she was capable of until now. He had seen her with his own eyes take over the body of another person and move him at her will. He had been so amazed by that. It was a power he had never even dreamt of having. Could she have burst his veins if she wanted to? She wouldn't do that.

He wondered what it would feel like, to lose control of your own body. What it would be like to have her decide your every movement, to have you at her will. Wait, no. Dangerous territory.

The full moon still blessed the sky, clearer than ever with millions of stars wrinkling in the distance. The trip turned out to be a good idea after all. He doubted she would still be on edge around him after this. Zuko let a smile grace his lips. At least she trusted him enough to let her guard down.

The waterbender shifted and placed one of her hands on his chest. She pulled tighter on to his body and let out a breath close to the exposed skin on his neck. This sent shivers all over his body and he blushed furiously. Was she really asleep? If not, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest was sure to wake her up any moment now. The fire bender thought this must have been a trick. Damn male teenage hormones.

He studied her face. How could she look so peaceful when he was so nervous? The moonlight brightened her skin and her hair. Strangely, Zuko felt like he was looking at her for the fist time. He never thought of her as unattractive, but he never thought he'd find himself in this situation either. He wondered what she thought of him, if she did at all. Was his scar so much that she couldn't look beyond it? He had always thought so, but even having one side of your face burnt didn't seem to stop women from noticing the young fire bender.

The girl in front of him had become hypnotizing for the fire nation prince. The constant way her chest rose and fell, the sound of her breathing, her eyes slightly moving. If her eyes had been open right now, he would definitely have been lost in them. He had loved Mai, but as time went by he had noticed there wasn't much more to her than what he already knew. Otherwise, he would have taken her with him. But this girl was different. There was passion in his eyes, more passion that he had ever seen in one small person. There was this strength, this will to do whatever it takes to keep her loved ones safe. Would she act like that for him too, now? He wondered.

His gaze finally set on her slightly parted lips. She can't be asleep. She's doing this on purpose. They looked soft and inviting. One little kiss couldn't hurt. No! Bad Zuko. She was asleep, for spirits sake. Doing something would be taking advantage and that would be dishonorable. Besides, she would open her eyes and he would end up frozen in the spot. Gold eyes narrowed. But what if she liked it and kissed him back? Unlikely as it was, he preferred to keep that scenario on his mind.

Rays of sunlight were already emerging from the horizon. We must be close, he thought. She'd have to wake up any minute now. As he stole one last glance at the waterbender resting peacefully in his arms, the fire nation prince thought that yes, he could definitely get used to this.

Zuko was finishing unloading the last of their stuff from Appa's mount when she approached him. She looked calm, even happy.

"I'm ready to train with you again". She said.