Stars chapter eight- Zutara

The scene was silent. All eyes were directed at the two bender opposites. The air was thick with suspense, and even the birds outside seemed to respect the quiet, for their singing had consiterably dulled.
Or maybe Katara was too focused on the man in front of her to notice. She certinly hadn’t when the Earth King had tripped in and fallen on his face.
“Oww...” he groaned as he rubbed his nose. “I say, what is going on here?” Wincing, he gingerly picked himself off the floor. He glanced around the room, his eyes finally resting on the banished prince. “Hello. Forgive me for my awkward appearance. I am the Earth King, well, was.” a sad smile formed at his lips.
At last, Zuko managed to tear his eyes away from the piercing pare of blue before him, and gave the king a slight nod of acknowledgment, but quickly turned his attention back to the waterbender. Her fists were clenched, her eyes wide. Compared to her icy orbs, his seemed to glow in warmth as they met.

Oh, how many times had she imagined how they would meet. Yet none of her fantasies were like this. In some- her earlier thoughts- they would fight violently- perhaps even bloodily. In others, they would talk; an argument here and there, but virtually it would be peaceful. He would see his mistakes almost immediately, and ask for her forgiveness. Either way, she would be on top, so of course it would all work out.
But now, as she looked at him through clouded eyes, she saw her own mistake in the jumble.

‘It’s Zuko.’
‘Zuko, who chased us. Zuko, who lied to me with unblinking eyes. Zuko, who taunted and hurt us.
Zuko, who took my trust and ripped it to painful shreds.’
At this, she raised a trembling hand to her chest and clenched the empty oasis bottle under her shirt.

It was he who spoke first.
“You.”
She stared on.
“You.” he repeated, eyes widening more every second. He couldn’t believe it.
There she was, the girl he had been thinking about all week, standing right in front of him. Close enough to reach for, too far away to grab.
Her eyes were swimming with different emotions; shock of course. Anger, confusion, hurt....”It’s you.”

Spread across the room, the others were shifting confusedly in their spots. Sokka, despite his nasty scowl and drawn machettee, had placed a restraining hand on Toph, who had lifted more than a few large rocks from the floor in attempt to protect Aang. Said airbender was glaring angrily at the prince, daring him to make a move. The Earth King, however, was sputtering and pale, eyes darting around. “What’s going o-on? Do you all know this man? Is he dangerous? S-should we run? Wh-“
he was cut off by Katara’s sudden words. Soft, but audible.

“Zuko....”
And suddenly all the pain came rushing back.
The room turned red before her, burning brightly. This past week she had gone over his actions and her own, and when time and the thought should have made her anger flare rapidly, she found herself numbed and ready to forgive. It must have been his name. The strange calming effect had drugged her and left her as a stupid, naive girl. But now, seeing his face....
‘Zuko. Zuko.’
Katara took a step forward.
‘Zuko.’
The calm was gone. Another step.
‘Zuko.’ And silently she laughed. Relief from a name. Haha. Zuko.
“Katara?” That was Sokka.
“Katara, don’t go near him!” That was Aang.
“Sweetness?” That was Toph.
“It’s you, Kata-“
WHAP
That was her hand, slapping his face.

Stumbling back from the impact, Zuko tripped on a large root protruding from the earthen floor, and crashed to the ground.
Lifting a hand to his stinging cheek, the fire prince’s head began to spin.
He had never been struck before. Scarred, but not struck. He had never felt the burning sensation of weak fire.
His mind filled with wonderful insults to throw at the girl. All of them were terribly pain and would surly result in tears, but his tongue was too thick to speak. The only thing he could manage was to stare at her through tearing eyes, his mouth slightly agape.

Despite his shock however, Zuko was angry. His pale face flushed deeply and his muscles, once numb, began to twitch.
Here he was, a child of royal blood- an heir to the throne of the powerful, and fearsome Fire Nation- laying on his ass, looking up to a waterbending peasant (An ugly one, he assured himself). It was utterly humiliating.
And the longer he sat there, the more resentful he felt, until he was sure he would overboil with rage.

The fierce loathing in his eyes didn’t go unnoticed.
Katara’s hand was itching at her side, ready to strike him again when she saw it. All the pain, hurt,  suffering, embarrassment, and hate building up in those otherwise beautiful golden orbs was overpowering. And it was all directed at her.
Terrifying and thrilling, his eyes would haunt her perhaps the rest of her life.
She felt powerful, and weak, and so very, very intimidated.

It was this fear that brought a few choice words to her lips, a hand to her cheek. “I-I’m sorry Zuko...” she stuttered, and was horrified to feel her eyes grow moist.
He scoffed. How insolent she was; kissing up to her enemy. And after all that had happened, how could she mean it?
Suddenly, to his discontent, Zuko felt his stomach drop. For after Ba Sing Se, how could she ever mean it now? But he swallowed the lump in his throat and pushed his glare further.
“No,” he growled in what he hoped to be a fearsome tone, “you’re not.”
And he was quite saddened by her reply; “You’re right.” She pressed her palm to her hipflask, phobia forgotten. “You deserved it, you bastard!”

Quickly, she pulled a stream of water from the pouch and attempted to smack the prince’s head with it, only for him to simply duck out of the way.
Howling in rage, Katara lunged at Zuko, forgetting all bending and turning to bitting and clawing.
He hissed as she dug her nails into his cheek, slicing into a scabbing cut. Rushing into the fight, Sokka and Aang tried to pull the two apart, managing to get a few punches on Zuko’s shoulder, who howled at the impact. Toph and the Earth King shouted over the ruckus, the young earthbender sending small tremors into the rumble. At the second earthquake, Aang the Sokka were blown back against the wall.

Still intertwined in the other, Zuko and Katara hissed and spit like wild animals. The waterbender had completely lost it and had wrestled her opponent to the floor, fully intent on gouging his eyes out. The latter, on the other hand, had grabbed her mocha wrists and was growling at her as she struggled, uttering strings of words that Aang had thought could only come from Toph.
I fact, upon hearing the swears, the little blind girl began cheering him on, bobbing up and down on her heels, tiny fists pumped in the air.
“Enough!”
All turned to face a winded Iroh, standing tall in the shacks narrow doorway.
“Zuko!” he bellowed, striding over to his nephew and pulling him from the screaming heap; which was difficult, as the waterbender’s fingers were still roughly entangled in his hair.
After pushing him over to a sleeping mat, the general shook his head. “What do you think you’re doing, fighting the Avatar’s friend?” he scolded. “You’re making a bad impression for what we are going for, not to mention you’re sick and wounded!”

From her place on the floor, Katara eyed the prince wearily, searching for said wounds. While she didn’t find any visible, she frowned at his irregularly heaving chest. She wasn’t very heavy, and he could have pushed her off this ease. Something had to be hurting him more than just his sickness.

Dimly, she felt herself being pulled to her feet.
“Thanks Aang.”
“I’m Toph.”
“Oh. Thanks Toph.”
The room seemed to be spinning. Who was who, and where? All the blood must’ve rushed to her head during the fight. She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration and leaned against a moldering wall.
She watched Zuko attempt to stand as his uncle pushed him back down.
“Lay down and try to sleep. I’ll take it from here.”
“But-“
“Zuko.” he warned sternly.
Even through his protests, his head would nod tiredly every now and then. Finally, with a look of suspicion at the group, the boy allowed himself to be pushed against the bedroll and turned to face the wall, his breathing shallow.

When the old man was sure his nephew had nodded off, he told the gang of their story. How they had escaped from Azula and the Dai Li, how Zuko had freed him, and in return had taken a large rock to the head.
“Right near the temple. We’re lucky we could treat it so quickly after our getaway, but it still needs some serious healing. His arm isn’t looking much better either. He shouldn’t moving it at all, let alone wrestling a young girl.”
Though his tone was light when he said this, Katara felt a twinge of guilt and  knew she had made a large mistake in fighting him. She could only hope she hadn’t applied any more damage. “I-I’m sorry” she said softly. “I didn’t know, or I wouldn’t ha-“
Iroh chuckled good naturally and waved it away. “Oh, it’s not your fault dear. Your reaction was quite understandable. I don’t even know why he was up, but you can’t blame yourself. It was no ones fault.”
His warm smile made her feel better, and she gave a small smile.
“So you’re not mad?”
“Of course not!” a sly grin replaced his smile and he gave his slumbering relative a smirk. “Besides that, given that you wouldn’t be intent on killing me, I would have loved to be in my nephews place; with a lovely young lady atop me.”
The group paled and for a moment Zuko’s breathing seemed to pause, before they realized that his words were in good humor.
Katara blushed and gave a light giggle. Zuko’s back twitched slightly.

Growing serious, Iroh stroked his beard and straightened his robes. “And so , it’s about time I proposed my proposition. I’ve been considering it for a while actually, but now that Zuko has agreed to it...well...”
The small group leaned forward, pressing the old man with hopeful eyes.
“If the job is not already taken,” Katara clenched her dress. “Zuko and I would love to teach the Avatar firebending.”
“YES!” cried Aang as he leapt into the air, kicking out in joy. Sokka blew out a gust of air he hadn’t noticed he had been holding in, and held out his hand. “It’s a done deal.” the old man took it and laughed when Toph hugged him from behind. “Good to have you on the team friend.”
Katara let loose a relieved and light hearted laugh. Her body was slightly shaking as she wiped away a few stray tears that had escaped from the corners of her eyes.
While the Earth King was conversing with Iroh, Toph snuck over to Zuko’s still form. Just as she suspected, he stiffened when she bent down. In his ear, she muttered; “Nice acting Princy Poo. I’m sure Katara thinks so too.” She smirked when his heart rate sped slightly. “Welcome to the team.”
Watching her blind friend carefully, Katara felt some weight lift off her shoulders. Zuko and Iroh had joined them, and everyone seemed to be getting along. So far anyway. She still had a quite few things to settle with the prince, but for now she was just happy they wouldn’t have to run from them anymore.
Coming to a conclusion....

“I think things are about to get a lot better.”