Chapter 4

Sora stared at Katara with a surprised, yet confused look on her face. She hadn't expected Katara to ask her such an odd request. Even if Sora could cut her hair, she was sure that wasn't the look Katara would want.

"Why would you want me to do that?" She asked her.

"Because… If Ozai's army or whoever might be looking for us, Zuko and I can't afford to be so easily recognized."

Sora hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement. She grabbed the comb, and clippers that they originally were gonna

use for the horses and gestured for Katara to follow her back inside the shed.

"You," Sora spoke towards Zuko, "keep an eye on the horses." She pointed the comb at him and then at the horses who were beginning to get restless as Sora left.

Zuko stood up by the horses and attempted to hush them but came to no avail. Zuko was never good at comforting and calming. He tried and tried to soothe the horses and gain control of their reigns, but it ended up with him getting head butt in the face and knocked backwards. He threw his arms up in the air and yelled, "Fine! You win," to the horses, taking a huge plop to the ground.

He reached his hand into the bucket and pulled out one of the apples and bit out a big chunk out of it. The horses drifted towards him one even sat by him and rested their head in his lap.

"Oh now you wanna corporate." Zuko grumbled.

He tossed both horses an apple and ate one himself all while petting the resting horse's head. For a second there he considered taking a horse and running away, possibly to the Fire Capitol to officially settle things, or to somewhere where he can forget about all this. There was no point in doing that though because he wouldn't be able to leave Katara, and nothing about this would he ever be able to forget.

Especially the sight he saw when Sora walked up with Katara behind her.

Zuko dropped the core of his apple and gawked at her. Katara chewed on her bottom lip again, and looked only at the ground. Sora saw the look on Zuko's face and smirked.

It turns out Katara looks adorable in a short haircut. Her wavy hair now stopped just below her chin, and she had these bangs that she'd kept pulling back out of her face, only to fall down again.

"Katara..." Zuko whispered out.

She looked up at him and gave him a soft smile before looking at the ground again. She immediately had regretted her decision as soon as Sora snipped of the first piece. There was no turning back now. Now her beautiful tresses had turned into short choppy waves of hair.

Zuko was stared at her for a minute before Sora spoke in with a, "Well..? What do ya think?"

Zuko shook his head to take him out of his trance and nervously laughed. "I think it looks nice." He stood up and walked over to Katara. "It looks good on you."

Katara blushed as he said that and then shook her head. "I look like a child." She muttered.

He paused for a moment before asking Sora for the scissors. He took them from her and bunched up pieces of his hair in his hand and cut them all off. His hair looked completely uneven and choppy and needed a proper trim after that.

Katara giggled at how goofy he looks. "You look ridiculous, there was no point in you doing that."

"Yeah there was, and you'll understand how important this is later. We just don't have time for the regrets and mistakes now, we live with what we got right?"

Katara smiled. "Right."

Sora stood there awkwardly looking back and forth between the two before coughing to get their attention. "Look give me the scissors and let me fix you up, also lets get the horses and put them back in the shed." She grabbed the scissors from Zuko and muttered something along the lines of "don't trust Zuko with scissors".

Back inside the shed Zuko and Katara helped Sora clean out the horses shed before anything else. Then Sora worked her magic on Zuko's hair and made it look a bit more decent. It almost resembled the hair he had back when he worked with Iroh at the tea shop in Ba Sing Se. Zuko wondered if the shop was still there and how things were going in Ba Sing Se. He asked Sora if there was anything happening there.

Sora nodded her head yes. "That's where the war is continuing. It's Iroh against

Ozai I believe, or at least that's what I'm hearing. It may just may be Iroh and the whatever locust against his army."

"The white lotus" Zuko corrected her.

"Whatever, same difference. I've also been hearing that Ozai's has disappeared in his battle with the avatar. All I know is currently Iroh and his team is winning and has managed to steer off most of his army, but there's plenty more waiting in the outer rings. If they manage to hold them off a bit longer they could actually win, but that still leaves the water tribes in trouble if Ozai's decides to go over there and attack."

Both Katara and Zuko fell silent in response. Until Zuko blew a fuse. Typical Zuko.

"Damn it!" Zuko shouted. "It's like we get one step ahead of Ozai and he brings us two steps back!"

Katara walked over to Zuko and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Look we just need to find out where Aang is…"

Zuko aggressively pulled away from Katara. "No. Aang is probably dead and you need to realize that. I'm going to go and try to save who I can, fuck this… Fuck this standing around bullshit I'm going to train until I'm stronger than him…" He walks out and leaves Katara in there with Sora. Katara wondered if he meant stronger than Aang or stronger than Ozai…

"He's pretty moody for a boy." Sora spoke in.

"Katara sighed and nodded. "He's just pissed because we can't do anything and all he wants to do is something." She looked back at Sora. "I'm sorry for his outburst. Thank you for your help though."

"Oh it's no big deal. You probably still want to find something that can disguise you guys better. After all he does have that mark." She gestures to the left side of her face.

"Oh… Let me tell him about that. We'll figure out something let me go calm him down for now.."

Outside Zuko kicked and punched bursts of fire. He looked so gracious while doing it, yet terrifying at the same time. Katara walked in on his aggression outbursts and grabbed his wrist as he punched another burst of fire.

"You're going to burn down their whole backyard if you aren't careful."

Zuko snatched his wrist away. "I refuse to stand around any longer Katara. You probably should be training too. We aren't going to be able to do anything if we just stand around and do nothing."

"I understand that Zuko but we can't just go bursting into a battlefield without some sort of plan. If you want me to train I'll train, but you gotta promise me that you have to try and be patient with me because we're trying to do this together… I want to find everyone and end the war too, but it's gonna take time."

Zuko inhaled a deep breath before breathing out. "Okay, but you can't just train by waterbending, I need you to know how to defend your self too. We can't have people recognizing us through our typical fighting techniques."

"Like fight fighting? Like fist and kicks?"

Zuko nodded.

"I can help you with that!" Sora spoke in. "I'm a non-bender so that's why I try and learn how to fight, we can practice now until sunset if you like."

"That's sounds fine, right Zuko? Is that okay now?"

Zuko rolls his eyes and begins to practice again, but Katara stops him. "You didn't mean what you said earlier… Right? Aang… Aang can't be dead."

Zuko hesitated before speaking. "Look Katara, I don't want him to be, but like you said if we need to plan and strategically go about all this we need to face facts that Aang might not be able to help or save us this time."

Katara remained silent and felt different emotions swirling inside her at the thought of Aang being dead. "No… I refuse to believe that. We're going to find him and everyone else." She walked away from Zuko and asked Sora to help her with fighting.

They all practiced until the sun began to set and the air began to grow cold. They headed back into the shed where Sora suggested making a fire.

"We can do that in here?" Katara asked.

"Yeah as long as you put it out at night. That's what I usually do when I sneak back after training."

So they put together a fire and sat around it.

"Sooooo, Sora why are you into fighting so much?" Katara asked as she let her hands warm up above the fire.

Sora spoke as she stared into the fire. "Well it all started when I found out I have this rare incurable disease." She pulled off her head scarf and long thin hair fell from it. She pulled on her hair and endless strands fell out. "My immune system can't fight it so my hair falls out and overall makes me weak. Lately I've done all right but I've had it pretty bad in the past few years."

She sighs and leans back on the wall behind her. "I've recently learned that my real parents have died in the war and left my grandparents to watch over me. As you can probably tell we're anti-Ozai, and try to have as little as we can involvement with the war. That's why if my grandparents knew who you guys were, you'd be out on the streets in the middle of no where."

Zuko and Katara figured as much. "So, that's why you fight?" Zuko asked.

"Well yeah… I fight because I feel as though this war has weakened my family, and although it's my disease that holds me back, I still don't want Ozai to have the upper hand of my family. One of these days he's gonna come through this area and imprison us all. That's the day I will fight, I'm tired of my grandparents being his puppets. That's why I'm open to help you guys in anyway that I can… Speaking of which…" Sora looked down at her head scarf and tossed it towards Zuko.

"Put it on," she instructed him, "on the left side of your face."

Zuko was confused for a moment but proceeded with what she asked and covered his scar completely.

"There, now you two don't look anything like the people on the news papers." She smiled at them.

"Thank you." Both Zuko and Katara said

"Are you sure you don't need this though?" Zuko asked.

"Nah, I've got plenty more at home."

After she said that they all turned their heads towards the shed door as Moe walked through with two bowls of soup in his hands.

"Come on Sora lets go back dinner is ready." He says as he leaves the bowls for Zuko and Katara to eat. "It was a hassle trying to sneak two bowls from Nori, but I got em'! Thank you for helping Sora today."

Zuko and Katara nodded and thanked him back. Moe and Sora left the shed and there Zuko and Katara sat in silence, eating their soups.

"This is really good." Katara spoke in.

"Yeah…" Zuko responded. Katara put down her bowl once she had enough and scooted towards Zuko.

"You alright there…?" She asked.

He nods and continues eating. "Yeah I'm just thinking…" Zuko looked over at her and saw her bright blue eyes looking at him through the bangs of her now short haircut.

"I like your haircut by the way." Katara raised an eyebrow at him. "Seriously, it suits you, I mean your long hair was nice to but um, this.. This is good too.." Zuko tautly spoke, not for sure of how to put his words to compliment her.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Flattery will get you no where, but thanks anyways… Your's is okay I guess." She said in a sarcastic tone.

Zuko thanked her before returning to silence again. Eventually he came out and said something he realized he should've said earlier today.

"Sorry about the outburst I had."

Katara saw that he regretted his words from earlier and she accepted his apology.

"Eh it's expected from a spoiled firebender like you." She smirks at him.

Zuko just shakes his head and scoffed at her. "You're absolutely right. You wanna know what's expected from a watertribe peasant like you?" He smirks back at her grin that slowly turned into a frown.

"Look firebender you wanna go?" She said in a low voice.

Zuko chuckles. "Can I at least finish my soup first this time."

Katara laid down and placed her head on his knee. "Just this one time firebender, I'll be waiting." She said as she closed her eyes.

Zuko placed down his soup and said okay to her and leaned back on the crates that stacked behind him.

Together they fell asleep and awaited the next morning to come and get the day over with, because the next day after that they leave for the village to restock on supplies and come up with a plans on where they should go in order to find their friends.