A. N. : On this first week of october, it's time to bring out some Bad stuff and prepare for Halloween. As such, today's bad idea is brought to you by Jet and Katara. Mostly Jet. At least this one was planned for a long time already.

Zuko might have mesestimated some things.

Like the fact that he is used to daos and Jet isn't, or the fact he took the left sword because Jet had the right one and so he didn't even have a handicap while sparring and Jet didn't know about it and expected a fairer fight and didn't react –

Katara might be here to heal them, but Zuko still injured Jet's best weapon in a friendly spar, and that's bad. He definitely deserves that scolding right now. Thankfully Toph is busy training the Avatar and isn't there to make fun of him on top of everything.

What's weird though is that Jet seems to be deep in thought about something, and even asked Katara waits before she heals his arm.

Zuko prays the new idea won't be a terrible one.

As it turns out, it's more of question than an idea. If blood is basically red water, does that mean Katara can bend it ? And if she can – could she keep the blood inside a person's body and stop them from bleeding out ? Could she turn her injuries into weapons ? Could she drain someone from of their blood with only just a small cut ?

Aside from the last one – which is definitely not Katara's style, she isn't you Jet – those are worthy considerations. And Katara seems to be aware of that, as she hmmms and focuses on the spilled blood on the ground. She reaches her hands out and moves them up and down in typical waterbender fashion. Push and pull. Except vertically.

And the blood seems to resist at first, like it has a will of its own – if it has Jet's stubbornness, they're going to be her for a while – but it finally yields and flows upwards, following Katara's lead.

She is frowning for some reason, but Jet on the other hand looks like Ty Lee did when she finally managed to do a back-flip all those years ago. Zuko wonders how she and Mai are doing now. And just like Ty Lee, Jet immediately wants to try and push it further.

He asks Katara to bend the blood directly from his still wounded arm. Zuko was pretty sure he didn't hit his head until right about now, but he's starting to have his doubts. Still, Jet insists – just to push the blood back in his body, it's better if Katara figures it out now instead of waiting for a more dire situation, come on – and Katara sighs and says fine and don't complain afterwards, and she lifts her hands and pushes and pulls and –

And the blood isn't the only thing that moves in rhythm.

It's – disturbing, really, to see Jet's arm act like it isn't part of his body anymore. It's unnatural and just looking at it feels wrong, so absolutely wrong and –

And Jet seems to choke when he asks Katara to stop, please, and Katara stumbles backwards with wide eyes and shaking hands, like she just realized what was happening and she hated it.

Jet lets out a shaky breath, puts on a shakier smile still, and he says let's not do this again with a voice that reminds Zuko of the aftermath of his breakdown in Sazakura. He says how about we let the wound heal naturally and Katara agrees, and Zuko feels like he's missing something, like Jet's arm was only just a part of something worse.

He frowns. Wonders how he should phrase this. In the meantime, since he won't be sparring anymore for now, he asks Katara to hand him Lin, who smiles when going back to him. He holds her up before pulling her close. Her still has no idea how to ask Katara if there's something more to what happened, or if it's really just the creepiness of it all that made her – made her what ? Zuko doesn't even really know what ticked him off. Her not healing Jet ? Is it really that weird ? He isn't so sure anymore.

Ugh, why is he so bad at people ?

While he fumbles with the cloth, trying to tie Lin to his chest when all she wants to do is get down, like seeing him was fine and all but now she wants to crawl on the ground and explore – ah, maybe he should let her down more often – while he does that, Jet goes to Katara and quietly asks if she felt anything weird during the – thing, he calls it, like it wasn't bending.

Wait, so Zuko was right ? To think he doubted himself even then is somehow more frustrating than if he'd messed up again. But for now he focuses on listening, and also on not dropping Lin.

Katara says is was – weird. And horrible. Like something pushed and pulled right back at her, and the more she bent the more pulled in she was. She says it felt wrong, that she was in control and also not. That she could do anything, and that terrified her. Like that power was going to drown her.

She is not doing this again.

Zuko looks at her, looks at Jet staring at his own arm like some kind of dangerous creature, and he wishes he could say something. He was there, he saw what happened, how disturbing and unreal and indescribable that was, and if he is weirded out, he can't begin to picture how Jet and Katara are feeling. But he has no words. He can't offer any comfort. Jet helped him in Jang Hui, and Katara helped Sokka this morning, but Zuko can do – nothing. Zuko can't do anything for them.

It's unfair, he thinks, though he doesn't know to whom.

It's unfair.