"Stripped to the waist,

We fall into the river.

Cover your eyes so you don't know the secret

I've been trying to hide."

- Ellie Goulding

"Chen." I say sternly, stopping a yard behind him. "Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

He whirls around to face me, a mix of shock and panic crossing his face. "Wha..what?"

"You're hurt!" I frown at him in disbelief.

"Oh." He glances down at his right leg. "I'm fine."

I deadpan. "You're limping."

"It's nothing." He dismisses my concern with a wave of his hand and turns to keep walking. But he can hardly put any weight on his right leg anymore. He must have gotten banged up during the bridge ordeal yesterday.

I jog to quickly catch up and hop right in front of him. "I can help you know."

"Thanks." He nods, his familiar stubborn expression covering his features. "But, no thanks. I can manage."

I put a hand on my hip as I watch Chen limp past me. I can't say that it's not slightly humorous. Sometimes too much pride can be a bad thing. Or rather, a stupid thing.

He barely makes it four minutes before tripping on a creeper and landing hard on the ground. He's unable to silence the groan of pain that follows. I kneel down beside him, with an eyebrow raised. He reluctantly meets my gaze. "We're never gonna make it if you can't walk. Atleast let me look at it."

He sighs in defeat and reaches down to roll up the leg of his black pants. He winces when he pulls the fabric up to his thigh, revealing a very bruised and very swollen knee. He must have smashed it against the rock wall on our way down.

I bend the water from the grass around us into a spiral around my right hand. It flows against my hand until I've formed a water glove.

"It's fine." Chen says, reaching to pull his pant leg back in place.

I catch his hand with my free one. "Chen, don't be like that. I can help." He purses his lips tightly and narrows his eyes at me. I'm sure he doesn't like the idea of me helping him. But atleast this would make us even. Not to mention we can't go anywhere if his knee is busted. "Or… you can just wait it out while I head for the Earth Kingdom. It shouldn't take too long to heal on its own. Only a few weeks if you're lucky."

He glowers at me for a moment before shrugging and leaning back on his hands, giving me free access to his injured knee. I take a deep breath, focusing my chi into the water around my right hand. I ghost my hand over Chen's knee and his body jerks in reaction. The water swirls from my hand to his knee, encasing it completely. Chen watches with a look of frustrated curiosity.

When the men from my tribe returned home from battle, I got a lot of healing experience. I try not to recall the images of bloody burns and broken limbs, but I often see them in my nightmares. Every wound I've ever healed, even the minor ones, haunt me. The transfer of energy, I think it is. That's what leaves me feeling empty and whole at the same time. It's not a bad feeling and it's also not a good feeling. It's more like a powerful feeling. I just don't think that I've gotten fully used to it yet.

I can feel the energy from the water spiraling against Chen's knee. The bruises slowly start to fade as the swelling goes down, before the water disappears into his skin entirely. Chen reaches down and pokes at his newly healed leg. Frowning, he says, "Well, is there anything that you can't do?"

I've been wondering the same thing about him. I quickly get to my feet again. "You're welcome. Let's keep moving."

Hours turned to days as Chen and I trudged along onto Earth Kingdom grounds. With so much water around, we no longer have to worry about dehydration. I'd say we've been traveling for almost two weeks. Atleast out here in the Earth Kingdom the sun isn't so bad, not even at midday, so we've been covering more and more distance each day. We'll reach the capitol city in no time. But I can't help worrying about Aang and his whereabouts. What if he went back to the Southern Water Tribe to Sokka? What if he never went to Ba Sing Se and is on the opposite side of the Earth Kingdom? This is exactly why I need a messenger hawk. Because then I would know these things and not be possibly wasting weeks of time trying to get to a place where Aang isn't even at.

I sigh loudly as I make my way over to the small lake that our camp is set near. The last I saw of Chen, he said he was going to find fire wood and I'd told him I would get some fish for us to eat. So now is as good a time as any to refresh myself. I haven't bathed properly in two weeks and that is terribly upsetting.

I ditch my leggings and shirt at the edge of the water, which is blue and inviting. I wade into the shallowest part and feel an immediate relieving effect. Water is my center. It keeps me focused and whole and calm. I can feel goosebumps rising on my arms as I reach stomach level. I walk in further, until my neck is beneath the water as well. I swirl around, letting the cold liquid revive and heal my body.

Feeling immensely better, I swim across the lake to the deeper end. With no trees to block my view, I can see that this lake is bigger than I'd originally thought. I prop myself up on a rock ledge that's jutting out from the ground. I glance around at the trees and the orange glow of the sunset light shining through them, at the crystal clear blue water, and I can't help but feel peaceful. We are definitely in the Earth Kingdom now. Nothing this beautiful could ever exist in the Fire Nation.

If only Aang were here with me, splashing around and saying funny things. If only I knew that he was alright. Aang hates it when I worry about him and really I have no reason to; he is the Avatar, after all. But he's family. And I'm not prepared to lose any more family members.

Suddenly, a dark figure pops out of the water just a few feet to my left. I can't contain the shriek that escapes my lips and I jump backwards, pressing my back against the rock ledge and readying a water whip.

"Sorry! I didn't know you were out here!" Chen's familiar raspy voice apologizes and he grabs onto the rock ledge himself.

I slap a hand over my chest, trying to calm my pounding heart. "Jeez." I let out a long breath. "It's okay. You just really scared me."

"I didn't mean to." I can see him smiling now, at my expense. Maybe I'll use that water whip after all.

Without warning, a canon sounds in the distance and our heads snap up at the noise. Chen grabs my arm and yanks me down into the water, pulling us into a spot more obscured by the wedge of rock. He reaches a protective arm out in front of me as he searches the sky and nearby forest.

A long moment of silence passes before we both untense. I place a hand on Chen's shoulder. "Earth Kingdom villagers use canons in some of their rituals."

"Oh." He clears his throat and straightens his back. "Right."

I can't help but laugh. As if the Fire Nation would launch a canon at us from miles away when they could just swarm and attack.

Chen turns back to glare at me, his eyes narrowed, but I can see the hint of amusement in them. I grin widely at him, "Thanks for looking out." He smiles back. And it's a nice smile, it really is. Chen has a lot of nice features, actually. I suddenly become hyperaware of our close proximity. I can feel Chen's body heat, even through the cold water. And there's also the fact that my hand is still on his shoulder. I yank it away, almost too quickly, and swallow thickly. "Well… we should get out of here anyway. It'll be dark soon."

"Right." He nods.

We swim back to the shallow part of the lake. I'd almost forgotten that I'm wearing only my under wrappings until the water is well below my waist. I glance over at Chen and feel my cheeks heat when I see that the same is true for him. I can see the outlines of muscles all over the upper half of his body, which I would expect for a warrior like the Blue Spirit. But I wasn't expecting to feel the need to touch those muscles.

I hurry over to my clothes and quickly redress, trying to push the thought out of my mind.

The canon we heard earlier is really reassuring. We'll be reaching a village within the next day or two. I'll be able to get messages out to Aang and Sokka. And hopefully find some new clothes, too. The Fire Nation officers who captured me took all of the stuff I had on me; my water skin, my money, and I think I had some seal jerky in my bag, too. Oh, well. I could probably find something to wear in one of the villager's laundry. Chen will be fine in his all black outfit, but blue really stands out in an all green crowd.

I look over the fire to Chen, who is scarfing his food down. "How's the fish?" I tease.

He glances up at me, smiling sheepishly. "It's good. You're a talented water bender."

"And you're a talented fire maker." I smile back.

Chen shrugs. "I could teach you."

"Really? It takes me almost an hour to get a good fire going."

Chen laughs and sets his dinner down. "C'mere." He motions for me to join him. We both kneel down beside the now unlit campfire. I watch carefully as he picks up two rocks. "Make sure the rocks that you use have a flat edge, like these do." He blows on both of them and wipes them off in his hands before clashing them together. He leans the rocks over the pit, hovering them above some dry leaves, and starts to scrape them together quickly. Within seconds, sparks are flying from the rocks. And no more than a half minute later, a spark catches on the leaves and a small ember starts to burn.

"Wow. That was fast. You're really good at that." I tell him.

"Thanks." He smiles. "Now your turn." He places both rocks in my hand. I look at him with uncertainty before I start to clap the rocks together, trying to imitate his motions.

Almost immediately, Chen starts to laugh. "No wonder it takes you an hour. Here," He moves behind me and takes my hands in his around the rocks. My cheeks warm instantly and I know that it isn't from the fire. It feels strangely nice to have Chen curled around me this way. I forgot how long it'd been since I'd been in anyone's arms. I resist the urge to sigh and lean back into his warmth. "It's all about the wrists." He instructs. With his hands moving over mine, I start to clip the rocks together and I can tell that it's much more productive this time. Chen lets go of my hands and soon I begin to make the sparks on my own. It takes a few minutes, but I finally create more fire.

"I did it!" I cheer, turning to face Chen.

He looks at me and grins. "Yep, you did."

We both still as the awkwardness sets in. In this position, with my head turned back, Chen's face is mere centimeters from mine. I fight with all of my might to not glance down at his lips. My body is starting to heat. What is happening to me? When did Chen get to be so… attractive? There's something so alluring about his golden eyes. I can feel my pulse jumping inside my throat. It's not like me to get so flustered. We stare at eachother for a brief moment before he finally clears his throat and turns away.

I face forward again, adjusting my shirt. "Well… thankyou for teaching me that." Snap out of it, Katara. You have one thing to focus on and that is finding Aang.

"Anytime." He says.

We both go back to silently eating our dinners.