Author's Notes:

Thanks for the reviews everyone. You've all probably read this a couple thousand times, but the reviews really motivate me to continue and to write faster. This is a pretty short chapter, but I think it is still pretty awesome. Now on with the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender. It is the property of its creators and Nickelodeon.

Chapter 6: Anxious Rest

A man kneeled before her, begging for mercy. His eyes were filled with fear and horror as he looked at her. She raised her hands, and brought them down swiftly, and shards of icicles rained down upon him.

"…ara," a voice called out, "Ka… ra… tara… Katara."

Her eyes slowly opened, and she saw Zuko come into focus. She saw that it was night time, and felt the intense heat of a campfire near her. Once she got a feeling of her surroundings, she returned her eyes to Zuko.

"Zuko?" she muttered, "What happened? I remember… islands… a beach…"

He was bending over her, and put three fingers in front of her.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked.

"Ugh… three," she mustered.

"Follow them," he instructed, and he swung them back and forth in front of her.

She followed his instructions as perfectly as she could as she kept her focus on the moving fingers.

"Alright, your hearing, and sight are fine. Can you get up?" he asked.

Katara tried to lift herself up, but she found very difficult to do so. Her entire body felt like it had been stretched out on a rack for days. She slowly began to remember the night that she and Zuko had escaped from Azula, and realized that all her pain must have been from pushing herself beyond her normal limits.

"Your muscles must be sore," said Zuko, "Lie down, and when you're better, we can get moving."

"No!" she shouted before managing forcing herself upright, "Ahhh… We need to find Aang as soon as we can!"

Katara felt something slip from her front, and she saw Zuko redden immediately and turned around to face the fire. She looked down and saw only a burlap blanket, and that the only clothes she was wearing were her undergarments. She immediately shrieked and struggled to wrap the blanket around her half naked body.

"Wh-Where are my clothes? What did you do to me?" she demanded in a shrill voice.

"Y-Your clothes were soaking wet, and you were unconscious. If I didn't get them off you, you would have gotten hypothermia. Your clothes are by the fire," he said quickly pointing in an embarrassed and fearful voice.

Katara followed his finger, and she saw that her Water Tribe clothes were indeed lying by the fire neatly folded, with her mother's necklace placed neatly on top.

"I'm sorry, but it was the only way… you were shivering," said Zuko.

Katara looked at him with a cringe in her face and opened her mouth.

"And before you ask, I didn't even touch you," he added.

She stared hard at him. He was obviously too embarrassed to look at her, and his words seemed sincere. She opened the wrapped blanket slightly and inspected her undergarments. Nothing seemed like it was out place, in fact they were still slightly moist; a sign of improper drying. Zuko was telling the truth, and she let out a small sigh.

"Keep looking at the fire, and don't turn around until I tell you," she ordered.

Zuko waited for a few moments, until he heard a hiss of pain.

"Katara?" he began still looking at the fire.

Suddenly, water whizzed passed him into the bushes. Zuko waited for what seemed like another five minutes, and heard Katara occasionally hiss, and say "ow" from time to time.

"Ok… you can look now," she said.

Zuko turned around, and saw Katara sitting in a lotus position with the blanket wrapped around her. Even thought the blanket covered her up, he was still too embarrassed to really look at her.

"For the record," he began in a low, very ashamed voice, "I didn't want to remove your clothes; I… just couldn't think of a way to keep your body temperature up without burning you."

She looked at him with harsh eyes, but sighed.

"Well, I was unconscious, and you didn't remove my underwear, so I'll let it slide," she said calmly, "But don't you ever do that again, or I will kill you. You understand?"

Zuko gulped at the sudden anger in her voice.

"I understand," he said.

Katara sighed, and pulled the burlap blanket tighter to her body.

"So where did you get this? In fact, where are we?" she asked.

"We're… in the Sinchou forest on Heiwa island," said Zuko. "There is a village at the edges of the woods, and a port town on the other side of the island," explained Zuko, "I got you the blanket and some clothes from the village."

"You mean you stole from there," said Katara.

"You're one to talk, Painted Lady," said Zuko recalling a story that Aang told during practice.

"How did you… never mind, that was a differ-Ahh!"

"What is it?" asked Zuko in a worried voice.

"Nothing… I'm just sore," she said.

"Then you should lie down."

"I'm fine Zuko," she insisted, trying to get to her feet.

Zuko got up and gently pushed down on her shoulder, causing her to fall back and yelp in pain, and he kept the hand on her shoulder and gently held her with that. She tried to get his hand off of her, but her arms hurt so much she didn't have the strength to really push his hand away. She squirmed, and that didn't even make his hand slide around. Zuko let out a deep sigh, and lifted his hand up. Katara looked at him defiantly, upset that he had proven his point.

"You need to rest Katara," he said softly, "Wait here; I'll get something that will ease your aches."

He got the water skin that Katara used during the escape, and left the camp area while Katara slumped into a ball, too tired to complain.

Zuko walked over to a nearby river, and collected some river rocks. He took off his vest and outer belt, and wrapped them around the rocks forming a neat little bundle. Afterwards, he pulled out the water skin, emptied out the water before refilling it. Once he did that, he put both packs in one hand, and collected firewood on the way back. When he arrived back at the camp, he saw Katara still sore. She turned her head slowly to see him, and he set the things he had gathered down.

"You thirsty?" he asked as he added more firewood.

"…Yeah," she said.

Zuko got the water skin, and knelt in front of her. Katara managed to get a hold of the water skin, and with Zuko's help, she got the drink that she desperately needed.

"Thanks," said Katara in her neutral tone.

Zuko reflected back to when they were prisoners on Azula's airship, and when they escaped. He was amazed at how much better she treated him during their time in their holding cell. In the end, though, he felt that her treatment of him was most likely one out of convenience. She needed him to get them out of there, and when he did it seemed as though she was grateful to be out of that miserable place. Now it seemed like he was back at the Western Air Temple.

'I figured it wouldn't last,' he thought as he tossed the stones that he had collected into the fire.

Katara watched Zuko toss the rocks into the fire. She looked at him in a very strange way; not hostile, but strange. Ever since the torture inflicted upon him as Azula's prisoner, she had been having mixed feelings about Zuko. Part of her wanted to trust him, now that it was clear his allegiance wasn't with the Fire Nation. But the other part kept bringing Ba Sing Se back into her mind. She decided that the best way for her to make a decision was to question him for the moment.

"How long was I out?" she suddenly asked.

Zuko looked at her, and when he saw her look of determination, he faced her fully.

"As far as I can remember?" he asked her, and she nodded, "Two days, including today."

"Two days?"

Zuko nodded, surprised by her reaction.

"Yesterday, I woke up on the beach," he continued, "You weren't too far off. The tide was coming in, and you were out like a hibernating platypus-bear. So I carried you into the forest, and made camp. You were shivering, and… well you know what happened."

His face was scarlet, and he looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. Katara also blushed, but her cold eyes drew any kind of attention away from any other part of her.

"I've been looking over you since then," he finished.

Katara was quiet for a moment.

"Two days…" she began before a thought hit her, "What about Azula? Is she out there looking for us?"

"She is," said Zuko.

"Then we should move!"

"Don't worry; even if you didn't know it, you took us to a good place to hide," said Zuko, "We're in the Liu Long cluster."

"Liu Long cluster?" asked Katara skeptically, "What's that?"

"A number of islands in the northwest of the Fire Nation. All you need to know is that the islands are large and numerous, and to her we could have washed up on any one of them."

"Are we safe? I mean are there soldiers here?"

"There are, but we're deep in the woods. They won't find us, I promise you."

Zuko's confidence in their safety was apparent in his voice. Katara had one last question to ask him.

"Where are we in relation to this Ember Island place you mentioned?"

"Heiwa is four days from Ember Island by ferry."

"Four days?" she shouted in disbelief, "What if Aang gets caught before we get to him?"

"Don't worry Katara," he repeated gently, "It's a safe place. Because of all the high-ranking officials on the island, that is the last place they would ever look, and besides, even if Azula decided to enter that area, the entire district would know, and that would be a clear warning for Aang and the others."

Katara thought about it for a while and realized that the situation was fairly sound. She could tell by way that he talked that he had really planned out a good escape route for the others to follow in case the need should ever arise. While he answered her questions, she had been watching him like a hawk and listening carefully, looking for any indication that he was lying or if he didn't know what he was doing, but she could find no error in any of his answers.

This had been a wild ride for Katara, especially since all the uncertainty she felt seemed to have fallen on Zuko's position. He had helped her brother and Aang in some way, and had come through time and time again for her ever since they had been in their predicament. She decided to do something that she never thought she would ever do again.

"You… certainly are different from before," she said cautiously.

Zuko looked up at her.

"The others… they wanted me to give you a chance," she continued, "To be honest, I was never going to give you that chance, ever. But… you saved my dad, kept silent when Azula tortured you, got us out of that airship, ensured that Aang and the others had a chance to lay low for a while, and you've been looking after me, despite my actions toward you. I think… you deserve… a chance."

Zuko thought his heart skipped a beat.

"You mean it?" he asked almost excitedly.

"One…" she said firmly, "One chance to show me you've changed for the better. If you screw up in even the slightest, then you can kiss my forgiveness goodbye."

"How will I know if I'm screwing up?" he asked.

"That will be for me to know and you to find out when you do," was all she said.

It wasn't much of a chance, but the more Zuko thought about it, the more he realized that this was a vast improvement from before. He closed his eyes and bowed slightly.

"Very well," replied Zuko.

He turned around to face the campfire, and saw the river rocks glowing red. With a quick motion of his hands, he snuffed out the campfire, bent the intense heat from the stones so that they were now only toasty warm, and put it into his vestments. When he had gathered them all together, he wrapped them up into a bundle and walked over to Katara.

"Lie down," he said softly.

Katara raised an eyebrow, but did as he asked. He showed his hand to Katara, and held the burlap blanket.

"I'm going to lift the blanket, and put the rocks on you where they hurt the most. Just tell me where, alright."

Katara nodded after giving him the silent treatment for a good minute. Zuko lifted the blanket, and turned red on seeing Katara in her undergarments. He quickly asked her where the soreness hurt the most, and he placed the rocks accordingly. Katara could feel the soothing warmth go straight to her bones and she began to relax, and once Zuko was done, he quickly covered Katara up, and put his outer robe on top of the blanket to provide extra warmth for her.

"Goodnight… Katara," said Zuko.

He went to the other side of the camp, and sat in a lotus position. He relaxed his posture, and after a few moments, he fell asleep sitting up. Katara looked at him weakly, and began to feel the soothing effects of the heat. She slowly drifted off to sleep, and as she did, she silently hoped that she was not wrong in giving Zuko another chance.

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