Chapter 8: Protective brother

Zuko woke with start, his eyes fluttering open to the dim glow of the morning light filtering through the window. His mind struggling to grasp where he was as the remains of sleep drained away. The flood of memories rushing through his head brought a sense of shame coiling in his chest, over the weakness he showed last night. The worst thing being that she had seen him like that.

With a sigh escaping he got up, settling in the middle of the furs in a meditation pose he welcomed the morning sun. A few minutes into the meditation, the sound of movement caused him to open his eyes a little and look towards the bed. She rolled over in her sleep, murmuring something in her dream. Zuko rolled his eyes and returned to his meditation, waterbenders seemed to be late sleepers he had gaged from his limited experience. He was ten minutes into his meditation exercise when the sound of the door crashing open into the wall caused him to jump to his feet, settling into a bending pose ready to fire at the intruder.

"Katara, are you up yet? We need to get star-" Sokka cut off abruptly as his eyes landed on the prince, standing, unchained, in his sister's room. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY LITTLE SISTER'S ROOM?" Sokka yelled, simultaneously drawing his sword, and pointing the tip at Zuko.

Zuko for his sake, had registered the intruder was the teen imbecile, Katara's brother. He stood up out of his stance and raised his hands to his sides in surrender, deciding to try and be as nonthreatening as possible to the other teen.

"How did you get up here? Why are you not in your cell? And how did you get out of your chains?" The questions were fired at Zuko in rapid succession. Sokka was furious, but his brain seemed to be trying to work past the fact that Zuko, of all people, was in his little sister's room. "Why are you in here Alone. Unchained. And alone."

Alone, the operative word, and what he seemed most furious about. Zuko made no move to answer any of his questions. He resolved to just stand there glaring at the other teen with contempt.

"Leave him alone Sokka." Katara ordered her brother as she sat up rubbing sleep from her eyes. When she finally looked at Sokka and took in his stance she exclaimed in horror, "And put that sword away."

"No," Sokka retorted, refusing to take his eyes off Zuko. "Not until Mr. Hothead is back in shackles."

"Mr Hothead?" Katara asked as she climbed out of bed.

"Ya, okay." Sokka said in defense. "Not my best one. But seriously Katara, what were you thinking."

"I brought him up here last night." She began in explanation. "I brought him up, unchained him. We went through the supplies I had packed for him, seeing if I forgot anything. Then he made a bed of furs over there" She said with a wave of her hand in Zuko's direction. "And then we went to sleep. Nothing happened Sokka."

"But why Katara?"

"To see if I could start trusting him." She stated as she walked over and dug through a pack pulling out a change of clothes. "And I think we should all try."

"No, we can't." Sokka argued. "We will not ever be able to trust him. He is a firebender Katara, only thing you could ever trust him to do is blast you in the back." He still had his sword pointed a Zuko, who stood scowling at him, hands still raised in surrender. "We should just leave him here, let the Northern Water Tribe keep him out of our way while we help Aang with his mission. One less firebender to worry about."

Zuko's gaze swiveled to Katara, worry coiling in his gut. She would not leave him up here would she. It would be torturous to him. Not being there to honor his vow and protect her.

"We cannot leave him here Sokka. He is my responsibility, and he did swear to protect me." She said finally, to Zuko's relief. "Will you put that sword away please."

"No." Sokka cried out exasperated. "Not until you put him back in chains."

Katara let out a sigh of defeat and walked to retrieve the shackles from the floor by the door where she had left them the night before. Zuko lowered his hands to his sides, his heart sinking as she approached him. He had hopped she would leave the blasted things off. After all, what none of them seemed to realize is that with the chain hanging between the cuffs he could still blast them with fire balls if he really wanted to. But he resolved to keep that bit of information to himself.

"Give me your hands." She said to him. He complied, and she gently clasped the shackles around his wrists. "Sorry." She whispered to his surprise. Then admitted a little louder, "I would have had to replace them when we went to the market anyways."

"Are you kidding?" Sokka said behind her. "You cannot take him to the market. One, why would you even want to? And two, no one will sell you anything with him there." Sokka finished with a smirk.

Katara rolled her eyes at him.

"Well seeing as how we leave tomorrow; I still had some things to get for him and figured since he would be the one using the items why not let him pick them out."

"It will not go well." Sokka stated.

"Thank you for your concern." Katara said, sarcasm dripping from the words. "Now, I need to go wash up and changed. Why not help me out and take Zuko to the men's washroom and then I will meet you two for breakfast with Aang." She asked her brother sweetly.

"Absolutely not." Sokka crossed his arms.

"Come on Sokka, you do not want me to do it, do you? Me going into the men's washroom with Zuko, so he can wash up and change."

"Ok fine." Sokka conceded, causing Katara to grin in triumph.

"Besides, he has been in his cell for two weeks. Do you really think the guards would be making sure his has bathed during that time? And who knows how long it was before his capture that he had his last one." Karata added.

Zuko resisted the urge to check himself as the two siblings' gazes swung to focus on him. He scowled at the two of them, but could not stop the flush of embarrassment that stained his cheeks from knowing that it had been a while.

"Hurry up jerk bender." Sokka stated, shoving Zuko through the doorway to the washroom. "I don't have all day."

The room was dimly lit, the sound of dripping water echoing through the small space. Zuko turned towards Sokka, raising his arms out to him to remove the shackles. But Sokka just closed the door and rested his back against it, crossing his arms and glaring at Zuko. After a moments hesitation Zuko let his arms drop.

"Listen up, fire brat." Sokka began, his voice low and threatening. "I know you're traveling with us now, but I swear, if you hurt my little sister, if you even thing about it, you will have me to deal with."

Zuko's amber eyes met Sokka's cold blue gaze. "I swore to protect her."

Sokka's expression remained stern. "Actions speak louder than words. Keep your anger in check and do not let it get in the way of protecting Katara or anyone else in our group."

"Let us clear the air right now. I do not care about you, or the Avatar. I am bound to Katara's will only. I am only concerned about her safety. You and the Avatar are on your own." Zuko was tired of explaining this.

"Got it." Sokka scowled. "But if you let anything happen to her, or you yourself hurt her-"

"I will not let anything happen to her." Zuko vowed, his voice steady and firm in his conviction. "You have my word, on my life."

Sokka held Zuko's gaze for a moment longer before finally nodding. "Alright then. But remember, one wrong move, and I will not hesitate to take you down. That threat is also a guarantee if you try to go after Aang to."

"Got it." Zuko seethed through clenched teeth. Then holding his hands out to the water tribe boy again, he asked, "Now can you remove these so I can wash up."

"Naw, you can figure it out." Sokka replied with a shrug. "Now hurry up sir stinks a lot, I am hungry."

Zuko took a deep breath, trying to hide his annoyance at Sokka's dismissive and degrading response. Turning to the wash tub he set about finishing the task at hand.