Katara wasn't sure what worried her more, the fact that someone up on a platform in the sky apparently had a death wish for them or that the nearby hissing sound could mean their imminent death as well.
"Zuuuuuuuuuko!" She ran to catch up to him. "Why are we going this way now?"
He shielded his eyes from the sun with one hand while pointing with the other. "Because we're now going away from that tower. Someone was there who wants to kill us, and I don't think I want to meet them in person."
"But we're two master benders. We could handle it. Besides, I thought you said we should head for the beach." The idea of a whole body of water at her command sounded very comforting.
"Katara, we have no idea what we're up against… who they are, how many of them there are… Also, it's an island. No matter which way we go, we'll end up at the beach eventually."
Katara groaned. She felt frustrated and angry, not so much at Zuko, but just at everything. "Still, I think we could take them."
Zuko stopped dead in his tracks. "I'm NOT going looking for a fight. You said you can't even properly waterbend when you're stressed, so…"
"Well, I was doing just fine until you messed everything up!"
"Oh, so we're back to that, huh? Remind me to never get stuck in the jungle with you again."
"Oh yeah, who would you rather be with then? Jin?"
Zuko's jaw clinched and his nostrils flared, but another hisssssssssssss sound from the bushes seemed to bring them both back to their senses.
"We really have to get out of here," Zuko said quietly. He reached for Katara's hand, but she didn't take it.
They walked for nearly an hour without speaking. Then Zuko dared to break the uncomfortable silence that had stretched between them.
"So, what could we have done better?" he asked, his tone neutral.
"Hmm?"
"I think we both had good ideas about how to handle the situation. Maybe we could have worked together better. I don't know."
"Zuko, we were plummeting toward certain death. We didn't exactly have time to plan things out."
"I know, but—"
"I honestly think the water would've worked. It's OK to let someone else take care of you every once in a while."
"It's not… that. I… couldn't firebend. So, I panicked. I-I'm sorry."
"You were panicking about that? When I already had you covered? I was panicking about how quickly the ground was coming at us."
She had stopped walking and turned to face him. He then saw a range of emotions pass across her face, anger that faded into sympathy then followed by concern. He had seen this before. In the crystal catacombs right before I betrayed her. Oh, Agni, I've let her down, again.
"I fucked up. I'm so sorry." He reached for her again, and this time she reciprocated.
"I revise my earlier statement. You need someone to take care of you, apparently." She laughed. "But the fire jet thing out your feet was a pretty cool idea, too."
"What? But I thought—" Ugh, girls can be so confusing!
After another hour, they finally found water.
"Oh, thank the spirits!" Katara rushed to the pool's edge to refill her waterskin and splash the coolness of her element on her face. The resulting stinging sensation reminded her of her burns, so she began healing them.
Zuko joined her a few minutes later with a handful of small reddish-colored fruit. "I think they're called jujubes."
Katara giggled as she popped one in her mouth. "Juju. Isn't that what Azula calls Dr. Jung?" Zuko only scowled in response.
The fruit was ridiculously sweet, not reminiscent at all of the brain doctor or his prodigy patient.
Even though she already felt pretty drained, Katara began healing Zuko's burns. He sighed and relaxed under her touch. She slipped a hand around to his back, and even though the bruise there had mostly healed itself, she fixed it anyway. He tensed.
"Katara, I told you it wasn't a big deal."
"Yeah, but I never want to hurt you, especially when…"
"I promise you I was not thinking about it at the time… and not much since then, either. You might find this surprising, but I have a pretty high pain threshold."
"But that's just it, Zuko. You've already been hurt so much, I don't want to—"
"Shhhhhhh. It's OK." He put a finger over her lips. "Let's keep moving. We only have a few hours left of daylight. I think we might be close."
As they continued walking, the jungle terrain changed very little, and Zuko began to get nervous about their location, the timing, their progress… he could tell Katara was feeling anxious, too. Their constant bickering didn't help matters much, either. Perhaps it was time for more light-hearted conversation to help take their minds off things.
He picked a flower and handed it to Katara. "It's a panda lily. It grows here because of the fertile volcanic soil on the island."
"Oh?" She tucked it behind her right ear.
"Um, actually, you should put it behind your left ear. Fire Nation custom is that if you're in a relationship, you put it behind your left ear, and if you're available, you put it behind your right." He smiled shyly.
She moved the flower and smiled back. "Doesn't the panda lily represent love… or passion… something like that?"
"Uhh, it does… in the Earth Kingdom. In the Fire Nation, it symbolizes fertility. Because of the volcanic soil, I think. Or this legend about how the islands were formed, but my mother would never tell the whole story."
Katara then saw a nervous twitch in his smile and thought it mirrored her current thoughts perfectly. Love. Fertility. Mother.
"Zuko, when Aang and I went to Crescent Island…"
She didn't finish right away, and the only sounds were their feet scuffling on the ground and the occasional bird squawking overhead. Zuko had no idea what she planned to say next but tried not to let his imagination get the best of him.
Finally, "I got to talk to Avatar Roku. He said… we would have children together… and grandchildren, too."
"Oh." He hadn't expected that.
Katara thought surely such a revelation warranted more of a response from him. "So… what do you think?"
"I think that sounds… likely." So much for light-hearted conversation.
"Well, don't get too excited about it or anything." She folded her arms across her chest.
"What do you want me to say? Did he say when? Because I wasn't planning on—"
"Well, that's just the thing! It's a prophecy. It doesn't even leave room for a plan!"
"Ohhhh, I get it. So now you feel like you're stuck with me. I told you, you can leave whenever you want. You probably don't want to have my kids anyway…"
"What? Zuko! Why would you say that?"
"Because… it's in the blood, Katara!"
"What is?"
"I don't know. My father—"
"Zuko, why can't you just let it go!? All that stuff with your dad… you need to move on!"
"What do you want me to do? Forgive him?"
"No! Of course, not! I just…" I want to make it all go away.
At that moment, a bird swooped down and plucked the flower from behind Katara's ear. Zuko nearly resigned to accept that as some sort of signal in and of itself, but as he watched the bird fly away, he saw that nighttime was drawing near.
"Dammit." He had forgotten how early the sun sets in the winter.
"Zuko, what are you doing?"
"I'm making a fire ring. Can you help me collect rocks?"
"Shouldn't we get something to eat first? Like catch something so we can cook it?" She looked apprehensively at the darkening sky.
"The smell of meat will attract tigerdillos or panrillas. Here, I still have some jujubes." He handed over a fistful of fruit he had stashed in his tunic pocket.
"So, you'll make a fire?" she asked.
"I'll make several. Look. I didn't want to make one earlier because I thought it might alert a potential assassin to our location. But by now, there should be a search party out looking for us. And we shouldn't keep trekking in the dark, not with the…"
"The what?" Katara shuddered. She already knew the answer.
"Most animals hunt at night. The fires should scare them off. It'll be OK, Katara."
While gathering rocks and firewood, they also collected various nuts and berries. By the time they finished eating and Zuko had lit the fires, the sun had set completely. The day's conversations seemed forgotten in light of their current situation.
"Katara, you get some rest. I'll take the first watch." He rested his chin on the top of her head as she leaned into him.
"Are you sure?" Katara didn't realize how tired she was until she had settled down in the middle of their fire circle, the warmth of the flames and the frame of her firebender blocking her from the winter night's chill. She didn't hear his answer as she drifted off to sleep.
Zuko tried to stay awake, but lately he had been effectively fighting sleep at night for fear of what horrors his nightmares might bring. The day's events and the cracking of the fires lulled him to sleep within minutes.
Katara awoke sometime later to about half the fires still burning, the others only a bed of glowing coals. Zuko lay behind her with an arm around her waist, fast asleep. She sighed. I guess it's my watch, then.
She contemplated whether or not she should change positions, but when she shifted her feet, she heard a HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
A razorback adder. A spiky-scaled snake known for two things: its aggressive nature and its deadly poisonous bite.
"Z-z-zuko," she whispered while elbowing him gently in the ribs. "W-w-we have company."
HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. The snake slithered closer. Everything in Katara's mind screamed RUN, but she figured it would be better to stay still... and as calm as possible. For all she knew, the darkness beyond presented even more dangers, and besides, Zuko was still asleep.
He stirred slightly. "Hmmmm?"
All Katara saw next was a wave of fire as Zuko became aware of the adder's presence, rekindled the ring of fire in full force, and scorched the snake in the process. He had pushed her away in doing so, putting himself in between her and the snake. When she was finally able to catch her breath, she closed the gap between them.
"That was a close one," she whispered.
"Y-y-yeah." His voice sounded pained, and his breath was erratic. Katara then saw, and dread overcame her. He had been bitten.
No problem. She was a healer, after all. Right?
She could literally sense the poison moving through his blood and knew she had to act quickly. The puncture wound in his arm was so small, though, it seemed like such an inefficient place to pull the venom out from, yet, she really couldn't fathom any other way. With each stream she bent out of him, she could feel him writhing in pain and her own strength growing weaker.
"T-t-takara," Zuko mumbled.
"Shhhhhhh. It's OK." Push and pull. In and out. Crest and fall. Break and release. Just like water. Like the waves. She needed a mantra to keep her going.
Zuko's voice broke through, although strained and faint. "T-t-tell Luza she can have the estate. And t-t-tell my father… I forgive him."
Oh spirits, is he delusional? Or dying… Katara felt her concentration waning at this admission. The firelight flickered before her eyes, and then became a blur of orange, a wash of heat. The last thing she saw was the moon, high in the sky, commanding the tides.
A/N: OK, before I get into head canon ramblings about the ZK relationship, here's a little bit of Emletish love from this chapter and the last one. I brought Jin back, yay! (This is something she would do... bring an old character around full circle.) In Not Stalking Firelord Zuko, Iroh actually sets Zuko up on a second date with Jin, and that's the one where Katara eavesdrops... because that's what she does... the stalker that she is, ha! I do have her express a little jealousy over their reunion in the tea shop. Because Jin is cute, no? I would totally ship Jinko over Maiko any day.
Also, Em's portrayal of Ember Island sounds a lot like her homeland of Australia, complete with all the critters that want to kill you. The razorback adder is from Not Stalking Zuko, but I'd guess that it's based on the death adder, a poisonous snake native to Australia? Em also describes Ember Island as very jungle-like. I'm not sure what it's really like in Australia, never been there, but if you look up "zipline in Costa Rica," then you'll have a good idea of what I envision for the scenes from these chapters. Oh, and the flower-behind-the-ear thing is a reference to Hawaiian culture along with the story about volcanoes and fertility in how the islands were formed. (If I remember correctly, it's kinda sexual, which is why Zuko's mom didn't tell him the full story.)
OK, and now onto Zutara analysis at least as it's presented so far in this fic: this chapter is a glimpse into how their relationship is developing, how they might react under stress, and what potential issues they may have. So, I love Katara, but she's pretty much in the wrong this whole time. Zuko's firebending was definitely the better tactic for breaking their fall; the effectiveness of her water bubble would have paled in comparison. In fact, an ice slide would have been a better option, come to think of it. Katara is too stubborn to admit this, but her biggest problem is her insatiable need to just fix everything. It's part of her character, yes—she's the motherly type, the healer, the comforter, the caregiver—but where Zuko is concerned, it's getting a little oppressive. He's already warned, "Stop trying to fix me!"
The water bubble actually illustrates this quite well. She just wants to protect him, enclose him in a bubble, and keep him safe from any further harm. But she doesn't realize that in doing this, she's actually suffocating him and keeping him from tackling his problems head on, which is the way he handles things best. Zuko is totally on the right track when he says, "So what could we have done better?" and "We could have worked together," but Katara shuts him down with "I already had you covered" and "You need someone to take care of you."
Zuko is quick to let Katara win their arguments especially when reminded of his past grievances toward her. Katara would not hold these things over him, of course, it would all be self-inflicted and related to Zuko's self-confidence issues in general. Therein lies his emotional baggage he brings to the relationship. He might say for her to stop fixing him because he thinks he is unfixable. He keeps waiting for her to get scared off by all the Fire Nation family drama, and he jumps to conclusions when she says things like, "I might be homesick." He adores her and is understandably afraid of losing her, but he's losing a little bit of himself in the process.
Growing pains! That's all it is. I think Zutara has a great foundation for a rock solid relationship. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this! Perhaps they will hit a turning point when Katara can't heal Zuko completely this time...