/ / /

sit in discomfort

make light of this until it feels like second nature

Katara is severely sleep-deprived the next day, but even more prominent than that is her rapidly growing anxiety. In the light of day, the foolishness of her actions is harder to ignore, and she keeps looking over her shoulder, half expecting an angry cry and a burst of flames to appear out of nowhere and incinerate them all to ashes.

She tries to convince Aang and Sokka to move their camp, but no one pays her any heed, and she's unable to produce a good enough reason since they are taking a break from travelling for a bit. So, in the end, they stay where they are and she's left to sit in her fear, knowing she has no one to blame but herself.

But nothing happens. She spends the day mending their clothes, Sokka devotes a mindboggling amount of time to polishing his boomerang and Aang goofs off with Momo. She doesn't have the heart to make them be productive, simply not today, and in the afternoon she lies down and tries to get some rest, while still keeping an eye open in case they are attacked.

When night falls, she quietly makes her way over to the riverbank, hoping she'll be able to retrace her steps from there. But it turns out she needn't have worried – Zuko is already there, waiting for her.

"I wasn't sure you'd remember the way," he says in way of explanation, and she just nods.

Iroh seems to be doing slightly better. The fever has gone down a bit and he's breathing easier, but he isn't out of the woods yet. She gets to working, determined to get more sleep tonight because they're on the move again tomorrow, but is careful not to overlook any step in the process.

This time Zuko offers her a cup of tea alongside the stew. She settles next to the fire, and they share silence that thankfully isn't as tense as last night. It is civil, ridiculously so if one is aware of the context, and Katara actively tries to disassociate from the nagging voice inside of her head that's asking her what the hell she's doing.

"Why are you running from the Fire Nation?" she asks, in part because she is curious, in part to distract herself from her thoughts.

He's silent for so long she thinks he won't answer at all, when he finally says, "Same reason you are."

Katara doesn't know what to say to that, so naturally, she says nothing. But she's feeling weird now, having him be right there and not fling lethal fire at her. She wonders if their unspoken truce will be over when she's done healing his uncle. For some reason that thought tastes almost as sour in her mouth as the tea he's made.

"Why the change of hairstyle?" she prompts again because it's easier to ignore the awkwardness if she's talking and that's one nervous habit she never really got rid of.

"Why the sudden interest?" he retorts, not really sounding angry.

Katara sighs. "Because this is weird and I'm trying to make it less so." She waves a hand in his general direction. "Your hair seemed like a safe enough topic."

Zuko snorts at that and she thinks she sees a ghost of a smirk on his face. It's the first time he's shown any amusement around her. He looks younger, she thinks.

"Got tangled in the wind too much."

"Sure." But she's smiling now too. "Anything is an improvement after that, if you ask me."

This time he does smile and for a moment, Katara is fascinated. Funny how she thought anger is the only thing to look at home on his face. She's been wrong, it seems.

For a brief second, she dares to consider the possibility she may have been wrong about other things, too.

But then Zuko's taking her cup, not offering to refill it, and she senses it's time to go.

"I'm moving on tomorrow, so I can't do anything else." She's apologetic, but he just nods. "Here's what you need to do for the following days…"

She enumerates all the things he needs to keep track of, what herbal mixes to make and how, what order to do everything in, using her fingers to list off things, before she catches his gaze and notices he isn't listening. He's watching her with that faraway look that indicates his thoughts have trailed off somewhere, and his mouth is slightly open, just the tiniest bit.

Katara frowns and promptly shuts up, but he doesn't register it immediately. The gold in his eyes is curious, that seems like an appropriate description for how he's looking at her, but there's something else there too. It looks the tiniest bit like respect.

Katara doesn't know what to do with that, so she turns her head before she's had a chance to ponder what a peculiar color his eyes are, and how warm they seem when he isn't seething with rage. Not warm for her, but just generally so, in that deceiving way appearances can be.

"Right," she says again, looking around the campsite. "Do you have a scroll?"

"Uh, what?" Zuko blinks and he's back to the present moment once more. "Why?"

"I'm writing all of this down. You didn't hear a word of what I said."

"I did," he argues but it's a limp attempt. "First, I change the gauze. Then, I check the pulse. Uh, before that there's something I put on the gauze…"

"I'm writing it down."

He exhales. "…Thanks."

Then she's done and there is truly nothing left to stick around for. Zuko walks her back to the river and when they part ways, the only thing she says is, "I better not see you around."

But her eyes betray her humor and before she turns away to walk back to where her friends are sleeping, she thinks she sees another small smile.

/ / /

if this were another life, could we be this instead?

It's a sheer miracle Katara wakes up first the next morning. And it's a good thing, too, considering what she's woken up to.

There are two big baskets of food sitting a few feet away from the fireside. Katara rallies and rummages through the contents (just to make sure there isn't a snake, or a bomb hidden somewhere inside, rather than sheer goodwill) and then she just stares.

Sokka and Aang wake up shortly after and she quickly schools her shock into a smile, an excuse about having woken up early and gone to the village rolling off her tongue with disconcerting ease.

But they're either oblivious or she is just that good a liar, because they accept it without another word (that's not counting Sokka's complaint that there's no seal jerky). She makes a mental note to hide away the amount of coins this must cost in case they ask, for once grateful she's the one responsible for their money.

They pack away their things and their chatter fills the air, but Katara can't calm down the fluttering in her stomach.

This is his unspoken way of saying thank you, she knows, the thank you she wouldn't let him utter a second time.

Somehow though, it feels like more than that. Maybe in some alternate world where there wasn't a war going on – a war they are on opposing sides of, not by choice, but by mere coincidence of where they were born – they could have been friends. At least maybe in this world, they will one day be able to say they are no longer enemies.