ATLA: Sacrfice LovDes Ch.07

Chapter 7


- Previously -


“Stop complaining ‘your majesty,’ it’s the best I can do.”
“…” He sighed and finished the rest of the medicine.
“Thank you,” she took the bowl and checked his forehead, again without him complaining, “You’re still pretty warm.”
“Realize that I’m a fire bender.” Zuko retorted then coughed.
“Realize that I know you’re sick.” Katara backfired.
He lied back against the hay, “what were you going to tell me before you left?”
“What?”

Knock, knock

Lee opened the barn door with one hand and a torch in the other as his parents behind him brought two trays of dinner from them. Zuko and Katara looked at each other confusedly as the two adults set the food down about five feet away from them.  The boy then lighted a lantern and placed it near the trays and went to his parents afterwards as the three bowed.

“We apologize for our rudeness to you the previous time you were here, Prince Zuko.” Sela said softly.
“Katara here explained to us that there can be good fire benders just as well as bad, so we won’t have you banished from our village any longer.” Ganzu stated.
Lee looked at Zuko, “and… I don’t hate you anymore…”

Zuko looked at the three, “why are you all apologizing to me?”
Sela smiled warmly, “you can thank Katara.”
“Katara,” Ganzu started, “we appreciate your words to us.”
The water bender blushed, “it was nothing.”
“No, you’re words helped us realize many things,” he replied.
“You can stay here as long as you please.” Sela stated.
“Thank you,” Katara replied.

“Hey Katara, do you think you can tell me more of your stories tomorrow?” Lee asked happily.
“Sure.” She smiled.
“We’ll bring breakfast for you two tomorrow, set the trays out when your done please.” Sela smiled.
“I will.” Katara nodded.

The small family left and Zuko looked at Katara with a raised eyebrow, “what the heck did you tell them?”


- Now -


It was early in the morning and Zuko’s eyes opened inside the dark barn to see that the fire had been put out during the night. He tiredly turned over his body over and saw the sleeping Katara next to him. Her small outlining was seen through the dim light, and it was shivering ever so slightly and glared at her.

‘Why didn’t she just ask about sharing the blanket if she was so cold?’ Zuko thought to him self annoyed.

Shifting the blanket around a bit to unwrap him self, he had it spread out a bit, and placed half of it over her while keeping the other half to him self. Already knowing though that it’ll take her a while to get warm on her own, he scooted her closer to him and accidentally placed her too close to where she now had her head against his chest. Katara groaned lightly and nuzzled gently into her new pillow, making our dear fire bending prince blush like there was no tomorrow.

‘Why me?’ He asked himself as he sighed.
“Zu…ko…” Katara mumble in her sleep.
The fire bender looked down at the water bender, “…”
“…” Her resting was now again silent.

Sighing tiredly, he brought his hand to his mouth and coughed a bit, and then groaned himself at how he felt sick-wise. Not caring much, Zuko placed his hand under the blanket and against Katara’s back since it seemed like a comfortable spot for his arm. His head dipped constantly until he gave up and placed it over Katara’s head, and returned quietly to his little slumber with his friend.

Lee saw the entire incident and began snickering at how ‘lovey-dovey’ Zuko was being with her asleep, and couldn’t help but spoil the moment for him. The little boy jumped away from the barn window and rushed to the front of it to open the doors and a burst of morning light shined on them. The barn doors greeted the sleeping two with a loud whacking noise, causing them to jump and sit on the hay.

Zuko blushed lightly, hoping they didn’t know the sleeping position he was in with Katara. Judging on how Lee was snickering about, he must’ve known and purposely woke them up. Lee rushed over to the opposite side of Katara and sat there with a huge grin on his face towards Zuko.

“Katara, wanna know a secret about him?” Lee pointed to Zuko.
The water bender raised a tired eyebrow, “what might that be?”
“Don’t you dare tell her,” Zuko glared.
“Hehe, he’s really clumsy, last time he was here, he was helping my dad and hit his thumb with a hammer.” The boy laughed.
“Ow, that must’ve hurt,” Katara spoke out. 'He woke us up for that?'
Zuko looked confused, “that’s your secret on me?”
Lee looked at him with a grin, “no, I saw what you did right before I opened the doors.”
“You better keep quiet.”
“What are ya gonna do?”
“…” Zuko growled.

“What going on between you two? It’s too early for arguments and fights.” Katara yawned.
“Absolutely nothing,” Zuko replied quickly before Lee could answer her first.
She looked at him, “you’re jumpy aren’t you? Still got a high fever?” Her hand went to his forehead to check.
“Humph…” Once again, he allowed her to check for a fever.
“Hehe,” Lee snickered.
Zuko began blushing for knowing what Lee was thinking about, “stop.”
She listened and stated, “Well, it’s not as high as yesterday, so you’ll be over this quicker than I was.”

“Hey Katara, do you have any stories about him?” Lee asked with a grin.
“Who,” she pointed to the fire prince, “Zuko?”
“Yeah!”
Katara laughed, “Too many to count.”
“What was the first encounter?”
“Him destroying our Water Tribe wall of snow, demanding for the avatar,” She began to laugh, “you should’ve seen how mad he was when my brother’s boomerang hit him.”
“See! I told you he was clumsy!” Lee laughed.
“His weapon just caught me off guard.” Zuko scoffed.
“Right… and Aang didn’t literally sweep you off your feet?”
“He was too fast and came from behind!”
“…” Katara began to giggle at the excuses.
“Humph,” he looked away and lied back down.

--

“Katara is taking so long!” Sokka grumbled as he walked about the camp.
“My nephew has gone with her to keep an eye on her,” Iroh smiled.
“Great, a pervert!” He sighed. “You know what; I’m going to that village, soldiers or no soldiers!”
“I’ll come too, we can take Appa!” Aang stated.
“No, you’re staying to earth bend twinkle toes!” Toph glared, or so to speak.
“She’s right Aang; I’ll go there by myself.”  Sokka stated.
“Okay, but take Appa and Momo, their bored.” Aang frowned.
“Alright,” he hopped up on Appa’s head, “yip-yip.”

--

Zuko tossed and turned in irritation for not being able to return to his once calm slumber after breakfast, so now he was completely restless with the coughing and what not. The water bender disapproved of him coming out of the barn to meditate so that took away half of his things to do. All he remembered was that Katara said that she was going to the village with Lee to gather up some medical herbs that Sela didn’t have.

The fire bender completely rejected that because of all the soldiers from the Fire Nation were walking around, but she assured him that she would be okay. Lee helped her with that with blackmail from the early morning. Zuko wanted to fry that little kids’ butt for watching him; not like he didn’t do anything wrong by sharing his heat with her, it was just somewhat inappropriate.

Foot steps were heard and he got up then wobbled over to the barn doors to see Katara returned with Lee. They were whispering about and so he leaned against the door frame and watched them quietly. Lee then laughed excitedly as they got closer to the barn without noticing Zuko nearly ten feet in front of them.

“That was so cool though!” Lee grinned.
Katara laughed sheepishly, “Yeah, I guess so, but don’t tell Zuko, okay? I’ll most likely tell him later.”
“How about telling me now?” Zuko said in annoyance.
“Z-Zuko, what are you doing up?” She said in surprise.
“I’m waiting…” He continued in a stern tone.
“…” Lee slowly went behind Katara in little fear.
“I’ll explain later, really.” The water bender answered nervously.
Zuko’s glance went to her sleeve to see a burnt mark, then glared at her, “you fought against the soldiers?!”
Katara looked to Lee and gave him the items, “put these inside for your mom to fix up please.”
“Y-yeah, sure,” Lee took them and rushed away.

She then glared at Zuko, “you didn’t have to scare him; he’s trying to trust you again, remember?”
“That’s ridiculous, why would he try to trust me again?” He glared.
“I vowed for you! I stood up for you! I even…” she didn’t want to start an argument so she looked around talking to herself, “I need to water bender or something.”
Zuko looked at her, “you vowed for me?”
“I told them that you weren’t like those Fire Nation soldiers that are just slaughtering innocence for fun, I assured them that.” Katara sighed.
“…why…?”
“I know it isn’t you…” She walked passed him and into the barn.

Zuko watched her and walked back in as well, “what I meant was, why had you stood up to them for me?”
“You’re my friend Zuko,” she sat on the hay pile, “and about the soldiers, one got suspicious about me and so he attacked me.”
“You got hurt though,” he stated as he sat down aside her.
“I can heal, remember?” She laughed then checked his head, “why aren’t you asleep anyways, you still have a fever.”
“I don’t know… perhaps I didn’t want to...” he scoffed.

“What, were you worried about me?” She teased.
“As if I’d get worried…” He scorned at her.
Katara smiled as she saw through his lie, “thanks, but you don’t have to worry now, so how about you get some sleep now?”
Zuko looked away and scratched the back of his head in irritation, “I guess I should explain about this morning…”
“What about it?

“I woke up this morning and saw you shivering…” he scratched the side of his face, “and so I shared the blanket with you and tried to get you closer to me so I could fire bend you so warmth but you sort of leaned into me…” Zuko began to blush, “I didn’t want to wake you… so I just let you sleep like that… and as I was going to sleep, Lee opened the barn doors.”

“Wow… that sounds embarrassing; Lee seeing us in that position.” Katara laughed.
The fire bender raised an eyebrow, “you’re not mad at me?”
“No; every now and then I sleep with Aang when he’s upset, I’m used to it,” she explained, “thanks for trying to take care of me, though it should be the other way around because you’re sick.”
He blushed, “stop saying thank you.”
“Fine,” she leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Zuko fell onto the ground; startled of what she just did. “W-what was that for?!”
“You said to stop saying it, so instead; I gave you a thank you kiss.” She smiled.

--

Sokka scouted behind huts and little shops to hide from the Fire Nation soldiers to look for Katara and the banished prince. There were a lot of rumors about some Water Tribe girl beating up a soldier; he knew it was his sister. Getting the chance he could, he asked if they knew where she was and they said over the hill on the croplands, saying that he couldn’t miss it.

He left with Appa and then looked around for a farm and spotted one after a while of looking. Appa set down on the ground and the farm animals were too scared and backed away in a corner silently. Sokka jumped down and searched the area with his boomerang in his hand.

“Katara, where are you?!” He yelled angrily as he looked around, “damn bastard, where are you hiding her?!”
Sela came out, “is there a problem sir?”
Sokka turned to her and calmed a little so he wouldn’t seem all that rude, “do you know where Katara is?”
“Yes, she’s in the barn of there with the young man and Lee.” She replied.
“What seems to be the problem?” Ganzu asked coldly at Sokka.
“Nothing, I’m here for my sister.” Sokka answered and walked over to the barn and opened the doors to have a fire ball coming his way and ducked.

“Bless you,” Katara laughed.
“…” Zuko groaned and rubbed his nose after sneezing.
“That was SO cool!” Lee cheered.
“Ahem!” Sokka glared at them.
“Oh, hey Sokka-” Katara was interrupted.
“We’re going to camp.” He stated.
“Zuko’s sick though, you know that.”
“There’s a blanket in the saddle, let’s go.”
“For once I’ll agree,” Zuko stood up weekly but tumbled against the hay.
“See, he can barely walk.” Katara stated.
“The longer you’re gone the longer everyone starves.” Sokka explained.
“Iroh can’t cook? What is it with men?!”

“It doesn’t matter because the longer you're gone, the more we get worried, and Aang might snap one night and we can’t do a thing. Not to mention that if one of us gets sick, you wouldn’t be there. Plus you’re in a barn and there’s smelly animals right next to it, and have you even taken a bath?!”

“Geez, I’m a water bending master, I’m sixteen, and I’m still told what to do by my seventeen year old brother!” She yelled.
“Katara,” Zuko called out quietly, “if it shuts him up, let’s just go.”
She stood up, “fine, you want to get even more sick, then its fine by me! You guys are so thick headed!”
“…” He looked away.

Katara stormed out of the barn and towards Appa to give him a pat on the head, then calmingly went into the house to ask for the medicine so they could go. Sokka then left the barn in the direction towards Appa to get on his head and grab the reigns. Zuko got up by him self and wobbled over to the barn doors. He managed to get into Appa’s saddle and wondered where Katara was, but it was soon answered when she came out of the house and walked up Appa’s tail to the saddle.

“Yip-yip…” Katara said annoyed and Appa took flight.

--

Aang saw Appa and smiled happily while Toph then through a rock at his head, causing him to fall over. Saying that they needed a break because Katara was back, so she agreed. Iroh yawned and watched the water bender jump down as the flying bison landed.

Katara walked up to Iroh and yelled, “Zuko’s your nephew so you can take care of him!”

As she walked off, she left a completely stunned Iroh standing there, not knowing what happened. Then he remembered that he allowed Zuko to follow her, wait, she was still mad about that? He saw Sokka hop off the bison’s head and told him that Zuko was still in the saddle.

The avatar ran over to Katara and gave her a hug, telling her that it was great to have her back. Katara said it was great to see him to and that they could do some water bending today. Aang was even happier that he could do something other than constant air and earth bending every day.

“Katara, Zuko said something mean about you when he left the camp.” Aang frowned as he released the water bender, “Iroh said that you were a beautiful woman, but then Zuko said that you were a hideous monster.”

Katara stopped for the moment and looked at the riverbank, “thanks for telling me Aang.”
“Are you okay?” Aang looked worried.
“I’m fine; just tired is all.” She bent down and collected some water in a bowl.
“You were taking care of Zuko the entire time?” He asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Katara replied and placed herbs in the bowl and stirred them with her water bending, “Aang, can you take our stuff out of the dome so Zuko and Iroh can be in there? I’ll fix the tent up and we can sleep in it again.”

“Okay.” Aang started to walk away but stopped to look at her, “are you sure you’re okay?”
Katara turned to look at him with a smile, “yes Aang, you don’t have to worry about me.”
“Alright…” He left and walked to the dome.
‘I’m getting such a headache,’ Katara sighed.

--

Aang walked in and the two fire benders looked at him curiously whilst he picked up Katara’s things. Zuko didn’t know what the avatar was doing, and he didn’t like it either for that matter. Coming in and out multiple times, Aang was grabbing the last of the stuff and Zuko stood up.

“What do you think you're doing?” The teen fire bender scowled.
“Katara said to get our stuff out so you and Iroh can stay in here.” Aang replied.
“With nothing to shelter yourselves?” Iroh asked in a surprised tone.
“Unlikely; she’s not like that,” Zuko retorted.
“Uh…” Aang was about to say something else but Katara entered the dome.

“No, I’ll fix up our tent,” Katara said annoyed and tossed the canteen to Iroh who caught it, “give it to Zuko when he’s done being a brat,” she then began to head out, “come on Aang; I’ll teach some bending tricks after Sokka helps me with the tent.”

Zuko looked at the young woman with an attitude and wonder what was wrong. She wasn’t mad at him because he wanted to come back to the campsite was she? Feeling someone look at him, he turned his head to his uncle to find him scowling. Iroh then handed him the canteen and Zuko took it slowly.

“I don’t know what you did to upset her, but it is best if you apologize.” Iroh stood up tiredly.
Zuko looked up to his uncle, “I don’t even know what I did.”
“Ah, but it must’ve been something pretty big or else she would not have looked so angrily at us; specifically you,” he stated.
“She didn’t even look at me.”
“Exactly,” Iroh began to walk out, “maybe we should have stayed in Ba Sing Se so you could stay with Jin.”
“No…” Zuko replied, “I hated it there.”
“So you hated Jin too?”
“…I’m going to sleep…” He lied down.
“I suggest you drink the medicine Miss Katara made for you or else you’ll make her even angrier later on.” Iroh stretched, “I’ll be right back; I’m going to bring our stuff in here.”