Toph's Snow Chap 14

Chapter 14: Fever

A/N: I could finally update! Sorry it took so long, but school and after-school activities are killing my time right now, and probably will until March/April so please be patient with me. Thank you!

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to anything but my characters, the rest aren't mine. ;)

Week 22 (October 6-12, month 5)

Third Person Sokka

The ship reached the Fire Nation in record time. The students became more unmanageable the closer they got to land. They were constantly on deck, watching the distant nation inch closer and closer, but it was never fast enough for their liking. Mostly they were excited to finally reach the Fire Nation, but part of the reason they were so inpatient was that they were tired of being on the ship. When they landed, the teens ran off the ship as fast as they could, stumbling on the ground as they tried to lose their sea legs. The crew took the cargo off the ship and packed it into several carriages that would take Sokka and his students from the port to an inn where they would stay the night before traveling to their destination, located further inland. When told to, the students dutifully stumbled over to the carriages and got in, talking loudly and goofing around. Kazuka, who was still weak, was practically being carried by Xiao over to the carriage her friends had indicated as theirs.

Sokka had let up a little on the pranksters, allowing them to interact with the other students after they proved they were sorry for their actions. Xiao and Kazuka didn't know that Sokka knew about Xiao's stays in her room. Deciding that it would be good for the two to learn to get along, Sokka left them to conduct themselves.

The ride to the inn was quick, only taking three quarters of an hour. The nurse was the only crew member who had come with them since she had been taking care of Kazuka and she was only there to make sure Kazuka didn't get sick again.

The youths were split up into four students per room, except for Kazuka who shared a room with the nurse. Sokka had made sure that Xiao and his friends were in different rooms just as a precaution, though he sincerely doubted anything would happen again.

The next morning, everyone ate breakfast in the inn's dining room and then they all piled into the carriages again for the two day journey that would bring them to their destination. Sokka refused to tell anyone exactly where they were going, despite the constant inquiries.

Third Person Kazuka

Kazuka was grateful and flattered with Xiao's attention to her. He was always helping her do anything she required. If she stumbled while walking, Xiao was there to keep her from falling; if she needed help getting into the carriage, he would already be lifting her up; or if she desired something out of reach, she need only to reach her hand out and he would be handing it to her.

The other students were mystified by the sudden change in her relationship with Xiao. In the rare occasions that he wasn't around, Kazuka was bombarded with questions. She refused to answer some of the more crude questions, but would answer the others, as long as they weren't asked in a hostile way.

Sara and Li had trapped her on her way down to the inn's dining room that morning.

Third Person

"What is going on between you and Xiao?" demanded Li.

"Nothing, we're just friends."

"Really? 'Cause it doesn't look like you're just friends to me." Li barley hid the smirk in her voice and on her face. She turned to Sara, "What about you Sara? Do they look like 'just' friends to you?"

"No." she said, a little reluctantly. Sara didn't want to be on the receiving end of Li's bullying, but she didn't really want her to bully Kazuka either. "Come on Kazuka, we're your friends. We can keep a secret!" she pleaded.

"There is nothing to keep secret. Xiao and I are just friends." This conversation was starting to irritate her.

"Oh, come on! You two have been fighting each other since you were fourteen, there's no way you could become friends overnight! Unless of course, there has been a change to your virginity status?" Li wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"N-no, nothing like that happened! I'm still a virgin!"

"Ha! Look she's blushing. I got it right!" Kazuka was blushing, but out of embarrassment of the kinds of questions they were asking her, not from what they were suggesting.

"I'm still a virgin and I don't plan on changing that any time soon." said Kazuka through her teeth. Her fist tightened by her sides, her nails digging into her palms.

"I don't believe you." Li's smirk was still intact.

"How could you notbelieve me? I'm telling the truth damnit!"

"Maybe she istelling the truth." said Sara to Li, trying to be a peacekeeper. Kazuka's anger was starting to concern her and she wasn't sure what Kazuka might do.

"Maybe. I doubt it though. She's always been really secretive."

"Just because she's secretive, doesn't mean she's lying. She could-"

"I'm right here you know!" Kazuka was furious, but they ignored her and continued arguing. Kazuka gave up trying to get their attention and concentrated on calming herself down before she did something stupid. She didn't really care anyway; they were going to think what they thought and nothing she said was going to change that. Squeezing past them, she went down the hall and around the corner to the dining room.

Third Person

The carriage ride was endless to the teens, almost as bad as being on the ship. They rode down a popular road, full of other carriages and modes of transport. At one point, they had to stop so a carriage that had fallen over could be righted and the ostrich-horses reattached to the yoke.

Kazuka had developed a headache some time after breakfast and winced every time the carriage bounced. The nurse, Yuka, had given her some type of powder to lessen the pain, but with the ceaselessness of the throbbing in her head, it hadn't worked.

Xiao, Sara and Li all tried to keep her distracted so that she wouldn't notice it and finally, exhausted, she fell asleep on Sara's shoulder, relieving her from the pain.

When she woke up, they were camped next to a river, one she didn't recognise. The weight of something on her made her look down at herself; someone had put her on a sleeping mat and had covered her with blankets while she slept.

Kazuka sat up and looked around. Everyone else was sound asleep, spread out around the remains of a fire, which smoldered in a circle of rocks. The night animals were going about their usual business, making noises and moving around in the darkness. As she looked around, her hand bumped something and she looked down. Next to her mat was a piece of bread and a waterskin. The food reminded her that she hadn't eaten since their lunch break in the carriage. She could feel her stomach tighten in hunger.

She ate the food as quickly as she could, though the bread was hard, and got up to see if she could find anymore.

With the moon shining down brightly to help her, Kazuka found a berry bush sitting on the outskirts of the camp. She walked over to investigate, shivering a little in the early autumn breeze. The cool air made goosebumps appear as it caressed her skin, making her wish she was wearing warmer clothes.

On the small bush were a few late blooming berries. She picked one and put it to her mouth to eat it when a voice caused her to pause.

"I wouldn't eat that if I were you." Kazuka turned toward the voice, relaxing when she saw that it was just Xiao.

"And why would that be?" she asked coyly.

"They could make you sick. You're still recovering from your cold."

And whose fault is that? She thought.

"I think I'll take my chances." She popped the berry into her mouth. It was sweet, but had a tart-like quality to it too. She ate a few more of them, marveling in their enchanting taste. There was something about them that compelled her to eat more. Xiao walked over to the bush and inspected it, his face paled as he looked at it.

"Kazuka?"

"Hmmm?" she said distractedly.

"I really think you should stop eating those." He said nervously.

"Why." She brought another one up to her mouth but Xiao grabbed it and smushed it on the ground.

"Hey! I was eating that!"

"Kazuka, those are Shinri berries. They only grow in the Fire Nation, though they're rare."

"Wait a second. What's a Shinri berry?"

"It's very rare plant that has a chemical in it that causes the eater to tell the truth."

"Oh, that's not that bad. I thought I was going to be poisoned or something. Ugh. I feel gross, I should go bathe." Kazuka's eyes widened when she realized she'd said that out loud.

"See, I told you."

"You're such a know-it-all! A cute one, but still a know-it-all." Now Kazuka's face turned bright red. This was not going well.

"You think I'm cute?"

"Actually, I think you're the hottest guy I've ever met." She covered her mouth. Xiao was speechless.

"I'm going…this way!" Kazuka pointed in a random direction. "Don't follow me!"

"Is that really how you feel?"

"No." she clamped her hands over her mouth again.

"Well, since you're being honest with me, I have a question for you." Kazuka shook her head, but Xiao asked anyway.

"Would you ever be interested in being…more than friends?"

"Yes!" That answer surprised Kazuka. She hadn't known she felt that way about Xiao.

Hearing her answer, Xiao seemed to get a little cocky. He stepped closer to her, leaving less than a foot between them and practically breathed his next question.

"Do you want to kiss me?"

"So much!" This answer too, surprised Kazuka.

One side of Xiao's mouth pulled up into a lopsided smile as he moved closer.

What have I gotten myself into?

Third Person Xiao

Xiao's heart almost beat out of his chest at Kazuka's answers. Although he didn't show their affect on him on the outside, he was practically dancing inside.

He moved even closer, and tilted Kazuka's chin up toward him and gently brushed his lips against hers. Her breath hitched when their lips made contact. Xiao pulled away and looked at her face. Kazuka still had her eyes closed and was wearing an expression of intense longing. Her eyes fluttered open a second later and she flushed when she realized she was being watched. Xiao stroked her cheek and then leaned forward again, kissing her more forcefully.

Third Person Kazuka

Kazuka had never done this before, making it new and exciting, although the new sensations running through her were slightly disconcerting; especially the warm feeling that had started in her chest and was moving further south by the minute.

She was unsure of herself as Xiao continued to kiss her though she still tried to participate. She tried to copy what Xiao was doing, using more pressure, and changing the angle of her head. He responded by pulling her closer, so she assumed she was doing it right.

Xiao helped her learn what to do by giving her little nudges; soft ones if she did something right and firm ones if she did something wrong. Kazuka had to pull away every once and a while to gasp for air. When they paused for a minute, Xiao embraced her, tucking her head under his chin protectively.

It gave Kazuka a small thrill that she was just tall enough to fit under Xiao's chin.

"I've never done that before." she confided.

"Well you're pretty good at it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Beginners usually don't have a good sense of what is okay or not, but you got it right away." She gave him a look, stepping back a little and crossed her arms.

"And who have you been kissing that you are such an expert?"

"Jealous?"

"Yes. Ugh!" Xiao laughed.

"Don't worry, she was just teaching me."

"Who?"

"A friend of mine from the north."

"Oh." She was still a little annoyed.

"Are you really that jealous?"

"Yes. Damnit! Stop asking me stupid questions!"

"Hmmmmm." Xiao looked like he was thinking it over. "Nah, I think not."

"Then I'm leaving." Kazuka started to stomp off, but she suddenly stopped moving and put a hand to her head.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. My headache came back, is all." Kazuka smiled a little when this wasn't how she really felt.

"Oh. Maybe you should go back to sleep."

"That sounds like a good idea." She turned in the direction of the camp and took a few steps forward and her head seemed to explode with pain after only five steps. Her vision blurred and then turned black as she felt herself fall.

Third Person

Xiao was walking right behind Kazuka when she fainted. He caught her and hoisted her up in his arms. When he looked at her face, it seemed void of emotion, her usual look of peace when sleeping was absent. He put his cheek on her forehead, she was burning up. She had been fine only ten minutes earlier.

Xiao walked quickly back to camp, stumbling over a few rocks in his haste. When he arrived, he was dismayed to see everyone was still sound asleep. Xiao put Kazuka down on her mat and walked over to the middle-aged nurse, Yuka, and woke her up. She sat up with a start.

"There's something wrong with Kazuka!" hearing this, Yuka immediately got up and ran over to Kazuka. She inspected the girl, shaking her head when she felt Kazuka's forehead.

"Go get a cloth out of my bag, dip it in the river and bring it back here." Xiao ran back over to Yuka's sleeping mat and searched through her bag for a cloth. He found one and hurried over to the river to wet it, being careful not to step on anyone.

When he came back, he found Yuka inspecting one of Kazuka's legs. There was a bandage that was badly wrapped and bloodstained, wrapped around the middle of Kazuka's left thigh. Yuka carefully removed the bandage and underneath it was a short, deep, cleanly cut gash surrounded by discolored skin. An awful smell was coming from it and there was a little pus visable in the gash.

"It's infected." said Yuka to herself.

"How do you think she got it?"

"I don't know. My best guess would be that she scraped it on something, maybe a loose nail on her bed, although it's too clean a cut to be a nail. And too deep."

"Why didn't she say something?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Xiao handed Yuka the cloth, which she used to clean the wound carefully.

"Could you bring my bag over here?"

"Sure"

Yuka quickly bandaged the gash and walked over to the river to wash the cloth out. Xiao pulled his mat closer to Kazuka's and sat down to watch her.

"You should sleep Xiao. I'll watch her." Xiao reluctantly agreed. It was her job after all. He went to sleep after he helped her pull her sleeping mat closer to Kazuka. The worry line etched between his brows stayed, even as he dreamed.

Yay! The first chapter that is over 2,500 words! Hopefully it won't be the only chapter. ^_^ Just by adding Xiao, Kazuka, Song and Haru to the storyline, this story just got way longer, so please, bare with me. I wanted it to be shorter than this, but the almighty writing muses have decided that I must write an epic story before I get to the main event. Oh well, I guess it's a good thing to have a back story to everything before you move on to the point of it. I just didn't mean for it to turn out to be some epic story like the Odyssey(Heh, heh. School reference and it's been forever since we read that). Whoops! I didn't mean for this to be an epic author's note either, but sometimes I just ramble on and on.

Hope you liked it. Review please. Constructive criticism is especially accepted because I'm probably not as good of a writer as I think I am. Or send me something you want to see. I might be able to fit it in. you'll never know if you don't try.

Again, sorry about the epic author's note. I commend you for reading the whole thing. Virtual cookies for you! If you're one of those people who just skipped to the end, I hope you are just too excited to review and just had to click the review button now or you would explode.

Either way, Jaa nee! (That rhymed and I didn't even do it on purpose! Yay rhyming! Whooooooo!)