Ok! Here is chapter thirteen! Enjoy!
And please please please review! I need the inspiration to keep writing.
Zuko was kneeling next to the young water bender's cot while resting his arms and head on it. She had been running a high fever for three days and he hadn't left her side since the first night.
The way she'd scream in her nightmares sent chills up his spine, but all he could do is try to wake her and comfort her until she fell unconscious again. It was a new experience for him, comforting, but it made him feel good whenever she would give a small smile or squeeze his hand in thanks. He knew that she was probably delusional but he didn't care.
Caring for her had ignited a spark in Zuko's heart, he felt the need to keep her safe from whatever haunted her in her dreams. She would often wake still screaming and sobbing trying to fend off her unknown attackers, and Zuko would simply hold her and whisper "You're ok" and "It was just a dream" then she would fall back into her fitful rest.
Sometimes she would talk; say sentences and names that meant nothing to him. But one name she said more then all the others, Jet. Zuko had never heard the name before, but she always said it with such fear and anguish that he figured he must have been an Igniis Furiis like him. No one else could strike such fear into a heart. Except his father.
Zuko propped his head up with his right fist under his chin and watched her slow breaths, then slowly he reached his hand over to head and stroked her hair. It was completely loose and hung all around her, surrounding her small frame. It was slightly wet around her face from the heat of her fever, and sweat beaded on her face and neck.
Zuko had refused to leave her side, even when her older brother, the water tribe warrior from the trial, demanded that he couldn't be alone with her.
"What are you doing in here?" The water tribe teen seethed through clenched teeth, "Get out,"
"No," Zuko replied to him steadily, "Toph told me I could stay. I take my orders from her not you."
"I'm the chief's son! And she's my sister!" Zuko nearly laughed at the gaping expression on his face. For someone probably the same age as him, he was certainly immature. Zuko plastered a warning glare on his face before replying.
"I'm not leaving her," he said forcing his voice to darken. The other warrior was visibly flustered and rather angry.
"Well-well then fine! But if you even touch her I'll kill you myself!" the teen said before marching back to the door "Jerk bender," Zuko heard him mutter under his breath before moving out of earshot.
There was no way Zuko would have left her, not after the way she'd grabbed his hand. It was like she was asking him to stay, to help her.
Zuko moved his hand from her head to his left eye, and he touched the skin around it gingerly. It was completely smooth and normal. It'd been a long time since it'd felt normal. Before he left his father hired a so-called miracle worker to heal his scar so that Zuko wouldn't risk being recognized. But Zuko was surprised when he began to miss it. After he got out of training he'd become proud of it, it showed his survival, his strength, his courage. It showed his honor.
He removed his hand from his face when the sleeping form next to him began to twitch and wriggle as if uncomfortable. But then her lips began moving as her eyes squeezed shut.
"Why, Jet? Why? I thought you loved me, but you betrayed me. You used me!" Her voice was strained and Zuko could barely hear it but he registered those few short sentences and his heart sunk deep into his chest. Whoever this Jet was, he obviously wasn't sincere. He used her to get close to the chief, probably to kill him, and then he broke her heart and her life.
How am I any better?
He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, before opening them when he heard her cries. He stood to sit on the side of the bed and gathered her sobbing form into his arms. She buried her face into his shirt like a child as she drained her eyes dry. Her crying ended and Zuko thought that she had fallen back asleep and was about to place her back down when he heard her small voice.
"Thank you, Zuko." she said sleepily before drifting off again. Zuko placed his face into her soft brown hair and breathed in the scent of sea salt and coconuts, before setting her back under her covers.
He picked up a chair that he spotted in the corner and placed it next to the small bed. Then he reached over and grabbed the cold cloth out of the bowl of water on her nightstand and placed it on her forehead. She sighed sleepily and shifted before settling back into a deep sleep.
"You're gonna be ok, Tara. You have to be."
So I know it was short but there ya go!
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Kmsitterley