Chapter 6
The next time Katara woke up, it was nearing night time. She laid there groggy, not opening her eyes. She was still tired. She was happy she didn't have a nightmare again. When she thought about it she never dreamt at all, not like she cared, but she did like dreaming. She stopped thinking about her dreams when she heard a noise from somewhere in the room. She cracked open her eyes, only to have them go wider as she saw Zuko standing in the front of the room with his back to her. He had his baggy night pants on, but his chest was bare. He had a towel in his hand, drying off his hair.
"He must have taken a shower," she thought. She watched him. She had to admit, he was pretty good looking. Actually he was hot. His body was in really good shape and he had great muscles. His black hair was down and was ruffled in places from him trying to dry it. She looked away as she realized what she was thinking, "What am I saying! I must be delusional!" but when she looked back at him, she knew what she saw and was thinking was real.
Zuko felt someone's gaze on him and knew Katara must have waked up. He smirked and dried the rest of his hair. It was still damp but he wanted to see the look on her face. He turned around to find Katara gazing at him, their eyes met for a second but she quickly looked away and started to blush. He smirked at her but couldn't help but blush a bit himself.
"Have nothing better to look at?" Zuko teased, he turned around and threw the towel over near the wall by the door. He thought he had heard her mumble 'shut up' but he didn't say a remark. He turned back around to head for the windows, only to find Katara staring at him.
"What?" he cocked an eyebrow up.
She kept on staring at him. He was getting annoyed and he let out a snort and headed for the windows. He started to shut the curtain to the massive window when he heard her speak up.
"Are you going to sleep like that?" she asked watching him close the rest of the curtain. He glanced at her for a moment then looked away and headed for the other window.
"Like what?" he was getting even more annoyed. Everything they were saying was a question. He reached over and grabbed the side of the curtain and started to drag it over the window.
"Without a shirt," she said it a bit lower and when he looked back up, she was watching herself fiddle with her hands. He felt his body heat warm up and Katara must have felt it cause she tensed and looked up at him with a worried look.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he thought. "Yea. I don't wear a shirt when I go to bed."
He felt relieved when she figured out he wasn't mad with her and wasn't about to hit her and saw her relaxed, "Why? Does it bother you?"
"Yes!" she blurted out, "Why wouldn't it bother me? Its bad enough having to sleep in the same bed with the person that's keeping me prisoner. And now I figure out he's sleeping half naked next to me!"
He was in shock. "half naked?" Katara was blushing now and he didn't notice himself blushing either. "I'm not half naked! I just have my shirt off."
"Exactly," Katara crossed her arms, "half naked."
"Well, get used to it, cause I sleep like this every night and I'm not changing," he walked over to the bed, averting his eyes away from Katara to his side of the bed.
Katara gaped at him, "Why cant you wear a shirt!?"
"Because the night gets to hot," he peeled back the covers and sat on the edge of the bed, "remember, were on a fire nation ship and I'm a fire bender."
She just gave a huff and looked away from him. She really didn't want him to get in the bed. When he had started walking over to it she started feeling awkward. She was glad that the bed was pretty big though. "But not that big to keep him away from me."
She felt him lay down and pull the covers half way up on him and saw out of the corner of her eye him grab the candle from a little table near the bed and blow it out. They were in total darkness then and she started to tense up.
"You better not do anything to me during the night," she said in a warning tone. She moved her body farther away from him, making pain come, but luckily it went as fast as it came.
"I wouldn't dream of it," he rolled his eyes. Like he would think of doing something to her during the night. Would he? He actually slapped himself at the thought. He would never take advantage of a girl.
"Zuko?" Katara heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh and wondered what happened.
Zuko tensed, "What?" he said a bit to harshly.
"Are you ok?"
His body weakened as he heard her soft voice. Why was she wondering if he was ok? It seems like she hates him. "Yes," he rolled onto his side, "go to sleep."
She sighed and felt his warmth radiating of his body and she was drawn towards it. She yelled at herself, she just tolled herself that she was a bit cold and was drawn to the heat- not Zuko. She shifted in the bed and mumbled something.
Zuko listened to her and was sure he heard her say 'good night.' He unconsciously smiled and whispered 'good night Katara".
They both feel asleep within minutes.
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Katara was so warm. She felt refreshed and she felt… arms around her. Her eyes shot open. Zuko was pressed up against her from behind and had his arms wrapped around her waist. His head was cradled in the nook of her neck and she could hear him breathing in and out softly. She panicked. She tried to wiggle out of his grasp but it made him pull her back tighter. She squeaked his name. When he didn't do anything she said his name louder and she heard him say, 'hmmm…'
This is not funny. Oh god he's holding me- he told me he wasn't going to pull any of this stuff!
She yelled his name and he jumped behind her. When he realized what was happening he quickly let go of her and she scrambled away to the other side of the bed. He was in shock of what he was doing- he told her he wasn't going to do anything like this! But at the same time he hated that her warmth was gone.
She was panting. The whole thing just made her heart race and her breathing go fast. "You told me you weren't going to do anything!" she yelled full force and pointed a finger at him.
Zuko was still in shock but he flicked out of it. "I was asleep! I didn't know what I was doing!"
"What! How can you not know? Your on the other side of the bed and you don't know that you somehow crawled over to me and held me in your-"
She stopped suddenly at the word and looked down, "-arms."
He couldn't help but blush. He was happy that she wasn't looking at him. "Im sorry," he looked down, "I honestly didn't know."
She didn't say anything to him and he got angry. "Do you really think I would purposely anything to you!"
She looked up, "Yes. You are a teen boy," she stared straight into his eyes, "And part of the fire nation."
Zuko was invisibly slapped across the face when she said the last part. He gritted his teeth, "What the hell does that mean."
She regretted saying that. Oh god she wished she hadn't said that. Zuko was glaring at her with a scowl on his face and rage in his eyes. "Nothing," she mumbled.
He laughed at the word and it made Katara shiver. "Nothing?! What the hell did you mean?"
She felt his body heat rise very quickly and felt herself beginning to sweat. She saw a flicker of fire form out of his hand- luckily it wasn't that close to the bed sheets. She couldn't breath- was he going to burn her? Was he that mad he was going to hurt her?
Another spark erupted from his hand and she let out a cry. "Please!" she dropped down to a whisper, "don't hurt me. I'm sorry."
Zuko watched her tremble in fear. He was so angry at her, he was actually about to hit her with a burning hot hand if she didn't answer him- and if he had heard the answer, what would he have done then? He was still angry but knew now what he was doing.
"Then tell me what you meant."
She heard his voice gentle down but she knew he was still pissed at her. "This!" she pointed at him with a trembling finger, "You'll do anything to get what you want, even if it means hurting someone else emotionally or physically! Your whole nation is like that, that's why were in this stupid war! Because of your stupid nation!"
She gasped at what she had just said and covered her mouth. She started trembling, not knowing what he was going to do.
His anger over took him and a huge flame of fire erupted from his hand. "You think because I'm part of the fire nation, I'll do anything to inflict pain on someone?!" he yelled. He got off the bed and quickly went to her side where she was trying to back away from. "You think the Fire Nation is stupid? That were just people trying to hurt everyone?" he pushed her down roughly on the bed and he grabbed her throat. He bent down and whispered, "Do you think I'm stupid Katara?"
Her neck was burning, she couldn't breath. Everything he was saying he was doing the opposite of! He said that their not monsters but here he is burning her- inflicting pain on her.
"Stop" she barely was able to say it, "I-I can't breath."
He took his grip off of her and backed away. He saw the imprint of his once-burning hand on her neck. He watched her choke for air and roll onto her side curling up.
"I'm sorry," she cried, tears trickling down her face, "I'm sorry."
It slowly dawned on him that he was inflicting pain on her- he wasn't letting her breath! Everything he had just said, he had just proved was untrue. Katara was right. He watched her cry and heard her keep saying 'im sorry.'
He felt so bad. He felt like daggers were piercing his skin. He walked up to her crying form on the bed and placed his hand on her shoulder. From his touch she quickly curled up tighter in a ball
"No! Please. Don't." she let out another cry, "Im sorry." Zuko took his hand from her shoulder.
"Katara?"
She cringed at his voice. But she opened her eyes.
"I'm sorry," he was the one saying it this time, "I'm really sorry."
She heard him turn away and head for the dresser. Her neck was still burning and she couldn't breathe properly. She still was gasping for air, it felt like the heat was making her throat swell.
She hadn't heard Zuko come back. "Drink this."
She didn't look up.
"Its water."
With that she looked up and grabbed greedily for the drink. He helped her up and to her surprise she didn't fight back, she just wanted to drink the water. When she was sitting up she quickly gulped down the water and when she sighed relief as she felt her throat being soothed.
"Katara?" she heard Zuko's voice. It was full of concern.
"Stop acting", she thought. She didn't look at him, she just stared at the cup in her hands that once held water.
"Im sorry," Zuko hated this. Why did he let his anger over take him? She was telling the truth- every part of it was the truth. And he let his anger out on her and now she hates him more than ever. "Katara… Im so sorry."
"That's not good enough," she looked at him. She looked in his eyes and saw only but concern and hope to be forgiven, but Zuko saw opposite. He saw hatred, rage and… fear?
Oh, how he wanted to hit himself over and over. The next words she said made him speechless.
"Im just your stupid prisoner, right? Why do you care?" he looked at her, He couldn't handle this. He headed for the door and unlocked, swinging it open he stepped out and slammed it behind him. Leaving Katara alone and hurt.
Her words kept re-running threw his head. 'Im just your stupid prisoner, right? Why did you care?'. He couldn't answer the question. Why did he care?
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Ok here's Chapter 6. Im sorry if its bad or whatever but Im so tired and I had to finish it tonight… its like 3:00 in the morning. I had to finish… Chapter 7 will be up. So anyway, Hope you guys like it! Poor Katara she just keeps getting hurt. I promise things will get better with them soon- maybe not in chapter 7 or 8 but in 9 maybe? Really I don't know. Things could happen in chapter 7… im tired. Night everyone, Review!!
Oh and read my short story- love is deadly. Its only like 500 words. Its sad but the idea popped into my head and I had to write it.