And here is part 4 of the story! Thanks for all the lovely reviews. Keep 'em coming!
Say, who would like me to write a Find Ursa story?
/
The moment Katara stumbled out of Zuko's room, she felt the tears that had been prickling at her eyes brim, scorching and punishing down her cheeks. She covered her hand with her mouth to muffle the sob.
"What? Is he dead?"
The question was said quietly and with Sokka's usual forceful anxiety. Katara shook her head and tried to set her shoulders to force herself to get a grip.
"No, he isn't. He's holding on."
"Then why the tears now?" Sokka frowned. "Things will work out, they always do."
"No, Sokka, they don't always do," Katara said sharply, walking away from the door and towards the tea shop's kitchen. It was the safest bet that nobody would be in there. Sokka frowned to himself a little before trailing after his sister.
"Is he worse, then?"
"Not really. Probably more tired because fool that I am, I tired him out talking. Do you know what he told me, Sokka?"
Sokka had the sinking feeling that he would find out. His eyes searched his sister's face. Katara turned away, tinkering away in the kitchen with pots and pans just so her hands would be able to do something other than strangle her own self. She sighed.
"He begged me not to feel guilty of what happened. He tried to prove to me I shouldn't feel guilty." She smirked in mirthless irony. "The one who once was the face of the enemy to me actually tried to support me while he was in pain."
"Zuko is the kind of guy who'll do that," another voice said gently, making the siblings flinch and turn to look. It was Mai, who was leaning against the doorframe, arms folded while she was holding a scroll. "He has more compassion than he would like to admit- the scar on his face is proof of that."
Katara shivered, considering the story she had only recently learnt about how Zuko had gotten the scar, and she felt even worse, unable to look Mai in the eyes, just like she had been unable to do so with the ailing firebender.
"Zuko is amazing," Katara admitted, trying to make her voice even like Mai could. "Aang saw that in him right away."
"The avatar is amazing, too," Mai conceded, and Sokka wondered just what the Fire Lady to be was really doing. Offering Katara some support or attacking her indirectly by guilting his sister through talking about Zuko?
He had no chance to find a way to test his theory, because Mai held up the rolled up scroll.
"The falcon has returned."
Katara immediately took it and unrolled it, and immediately her face fell, her lips shaking with weeping once again.
"Yagoda isn't coming," she said in a toneless voice. "She says it will be no use."
"What?" Mai's eyes flashed with rage. "Is it no use to try and heal the only Fire Lord to date who will not call the likes of her peasant trash?"
"You don't understand," Katara said a little more sharply than she had intended, "Yagoda isn't coming because there isn't enough time or purpose. If we don't do what will heal Zuko really soon, he will die by tomorrow night."
Mai paled visibly, and Sokka felt he had no breath. Katara's knuckles around the scroll had become white.
Katara took a deep breath, and this time she didn't bother to control her tears.
"She says… she says that the Spirit Water may help… but if Aang's journey in the Spirit World for an answer doesn't yield results, an injury like… like what Zuko sustained for me… is… is always fatal."
"Iroh will be back with it," Sokka tried to make his voice light and optimistic. "And Aang is the avatar! He won't fail."
"No, he won't," it was Mai who said so, surprising Katara into looking up. Mai's features were stern, hard as if set in stone. Scenarios of threatening reasons why Aang could not afford to fail seemed to play out before Mai's shielded eyes, but the young woman didn't voice them, and allowed for her words to hang in the air with the frigidity of a potential death sentence.
"Are all of you done grieving for Zuko before he's even dead?" Toph's voice was especially harsh, and everyone flinched.
"Shut it Toph! You don't know the half of it," Katara growled, watching as the blind girl stomped into the kitchen for a glass of water.
"I know that Twinkletoes is alone, zoned out in the main room, Sweetness, so you'd better go there so Suki can stretch her legs a bit as well."
Katara was somewhat affronted that Toph was once again ordering her around, but she found herself obeying with relief she hadn't expected. Being there in the same room with Mai, knowing that she was responsible for Zuko's condition with a prognosis that was looking dimmer by the moment, suddenly became so stifling that she couldn't breathe.
And so she fled, and rushed out into the main room of the tea shop, where Aang was meditating, oblivious to the real world while his spirit searched for an answer in the Spirit World. Iroh had ordered the shop closed, and Zuko's guard was stationed around it. Looking around that the empty chairs and tables, Suki perched near the window and only Aang sitting crosslegged on the table in the middle, his tattoos and eyes eerily glowing upon his otherwise still form, she felt bereft and helpless, weak beyond belief. Zuko did what he had to, and saved you from an impossible attack, back at the plaza. How on earth did he even manage to reach the lightning bolt in time, let alone manage to block and redirect it? Even Iroh can't yet understand how his nephew redirected even the amount he did, the way he threw himself between us, but Zuko did it, and you are here alive.
When are you going to do what you have to, and save him from this impossible condition that is your fault anyway?
"Katara."
She jerked herself awake with a start, horrified that she had nodded off.
"Oh no! Zuko! I need to check on him, is it—"
"Katara! Stop! It's me, just me, Aang! Look at me for a moment, will you?"
It was almost an impossible effort to tame her racing heart to look into the avatar's light grey eyes that were always, even now, full of optimism.
"Aang!" she cried out, gripping at his hands that were now at her shoulders. "You are back! How much time has passed, I- I don't know how I could have dropped off-"
"You are extremely tired, Katara, that's all," Aang said lightly with a small tight smile. "But Suki here says you only closed your eyes for a while, and you needed it."
"Mai has been with Zuko, anyway," Suki provided readily, "and since all is quiet, I think he's still holding on just fine."
But Katara's mind was already on her task.
"So?" she asked hungrily. "Did the Spirits tell you how we can save him?"
Aang cringed a little.
"Well… they said …stuff… about how to do it."
"Tell me!" Katara felt like shaking Aang for the first time. "Will the Spirit Water do it?"
"The Spirit Water is definitely part of what you need," Aang nodded vigorously. "Everyone kept telling me that."
"…but it won't be that simple, will it?" Sokka was the one to say it, and Katara realized that everyone had converged to the main room except Mai.
Aang sighed and shook his head.
"They kept saying that power is needed along with the Water. The Healing power of all four elements."
"Then maybe you should be the one to do it," Toph jabbed Aang with her elbow. "Don't you control all four, o avatar?"
"Maybe, but I'm no Healer. It took everything I had and three past avatars' experience just to keep Zuko breathing," Aang cringed a little worriedly. "I couldn't possibly do something that might end up killing him faster. And all the Spirits were telling me to keep away from Healing until I'm, like, thirty." Aang looked both embarrassed and confused by that stipulation.
Katara paced, gesturing irritably at everyone.
"Fine. Fine, just let me think about it a moment," she muttered. Aang sighed.
"Katara, all the Spirits kept telling me that you were the one to do it. Just… with all elements."
"What? But I am no avatar!" Katara groused. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? I can only bend water!"
"What is all that racket?" Mai's voice was heard from the door. "You are making Zuko nervous."
"He's awake?" Aang asked hopefully. Mai nodded.
"Yes, he is," her expression almost didn't shift. "Trying to convince me he isn't in pain."
Katara hissed.
"I'll come alleviate that immediately."
Entering Zuko's room with Mai in tow and a cup of fresh water, Katara felt like her mind was on fire but she couldn't puzzle out the Spirit riddle. Incompetent as well as stupid, her self harshly commented as she smiled for Zuko, kneeling down at his side. He turned his head slowly to look at her through heavy lidded eyes.
"Mai won't believe me," he said, a slight attempt at banter, "that I am not made of sugar these days."
"Well, you aren't as bitter, that's probably why," Katara forced herself to smile as she parted his tunic again to perform the healing to ease Zuko's breathing and quench his pain.
It wasn't long before Zuko breathed again, and looked at Katara thankfully, but he didn't say anything as he noticed her flinching at the mere hint that he was about to thank her. Instead, as Katara was readjusting his clothing, he asked:
"Is my uncle back yet?"
"Not yet," Katara said, not liking the tone of his voice. "Why do you ask?"
"Nothing much," sighed Zuko, shifting on the bed a little uncomfortably. "But do you think he'll be back soon?"
Before Katara could answer, it was Mai who leaned forward, cupping Zuko's cheeks that were still so pale and yet too warm with fever, despite the tea. Her expression was almost wild.
"You listen to me," she said sternly. "You don't care how much your uncle takes to return, because you have time. Do you understand me? You aren't going anywhere. Remember, you promised me, Fire Lord!"
Zuko winced and even managed to flush, embarrassed and taken aback that he had been found out. It horrified Katara that Mai had been right in inferring the firebender's thinking behind his question- Zuko wants a chance to say goodbye to Iroh before he dies…!
"Mai is right, Zuko!" Katara heard herself saying when in reality she wanted to scream. "You aren't going anywhere- Aang went into the Spirit World for you, and we know how to cure you now. You will be just fine. Okay? Just fine!"
Zuko frowned a bit in disbelief, side glancing at her to see if maybe she wasn't giving out false hope, but Katara strongly forced herself to look him in those feverish, golden eyes, and tell him with determination and assurance:
"The truth works best between us, you said, and I agree. Aang told me what to do, and I will do it- and you will be fine, with all the time in the world."
Zuko found himself smiling besides himself, and his glance softened as his shoulders relaxed into the mattress. He believes me. He is trusting me. Oh, Spirits, he has just trusted me that I will save him!
"Okay, Katara," Zuko smiled, knitting his hand with Mai's. "I've got time."
And Katara just nodded, and walked out of the room with limbs that seemed made of wood.
/
And that's that! Part 5 is going to end this little story, guaranteed. :P But I couldn't help letting everyone else in on the interactions.
Things24: Thank you! That was the intention :)
Zutaraforeverkataangnever: Here's the update, and Zuko said something to her. Sometimes the toughest isn't romance, but friendship ;)
Gymnast3: Thank you! I generally follow canon for my stories, so expect very strong bonding between Zuko and Katara, but his heart is Mai's. They go a long way back together.
A5h13y 101: Thank you! I got tired of searching for one myself, so I decided to write it.
Sokkantylee: Here is the update, and thank you so much for your delectable review! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. And while Mai may not offer herself much to cartoon expressiveness, she does make some pretty powerful attestations of her love for Zuko in the canon story, in my opinion.
Catstop: will do!
Zolarix Aster: I might, if I am given material to write out, or I get inspired to do so :)
Dragonwitch 250: Here it is! I hope you like it.
