I don't own the Avatar: the Last Airbender or any of its characters.


Anywhere – Part 5



Zuko could only see complete darkness around him and his head ached like hell… while he rubbed his eyes so that he could figure out where he had been, even his ears tried to trick him with a low noise he could not recognize. After that he looked around, trying to regain his last memories.

He soon figured out that the noise he heard was caused by the wind. Now he had seen that outside the weather went crazy… it was snowing as if to further keep him away from his ship and his destiny. He hated the snow, because every time it only slowed him down and never once in his life had it helped. Damn, if he had been at home it would have never snowed!

As he shifted in his place did he realize something surprising: beside her sat someone he did not expect: the avatar’s waterbender.

He remembered now. He was forced to move into the only cave around here, and she just happened to be there. She tried to keep herself warm in a corner, because this place had otherwise been completely empty, so there was no hope in making a fire either…

Of course when he appeared she was more than ready to fight him. Well at least that’s what she had in mind, but he had enough of her damned element than to launch at her without any real reason. She yelled at him that her friends were not here. Guess what? If the news were only halfway true from the last fire navy ship then he probably no longer needed the avatar. In truth he could have done anything and yet the Fire Lord named his sister his heir. His uncle said that there was nothing left to do to change that… that’s why he packed and left to ‘clear his thoughts’. He might return to the Fire Nation in disguise…

Too bad they would probably want to execute him in public if he did that…

The girl beside her inhaled a deep breath, her arms still wrapped around herself but she would just keep her distance from him, even though she knew he – as a firebender – could have kept her warm. He already made his body temperature rise, but if she just stayed that way… When he could hear that even her teeth lowly chattered, he dared.

She stiffened beside him as his arm touched her shoulder and in the next moment he gained an icy stare to welcome. “I only, I repeat only sat here because there’s nothing else in this stupid cave but you and it’s snowing.” She turned away from him with that but did not move away.

“I just…” He did not go on as she huffed then pulled on his arm, unconsciously yanking him closer. Instantly he faced her narrow look which made him smirk. “If you pull my arm other parts of me can’t stay away either.” Her lips formed a pout and she let go at once, trying to rather stand up, but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry…” Her eyes rounded for a slight moment before he went on. “Trust me, ok? I swore on my honor not to try…”

In the next moment she whirled in her place to face him, shifting her weight on her knees. “What…?” He started, but she shushed him, her eyes focusing on his face. His eyebrows furrowed as her hand slowly reached towards him, and he slightly leaned away as her direction seemed to be the scar on his face… but her hand stopped before his face, covering the area above his lips from her sight.

She stayed like that for a minute, making him frown but after that she gasped, falling on her backside in her haste to create distance between them. He did not quite get what went through her mind, but her widened eyes and her hand covering her mouth made him stay where he was. Then she said something, but he could not understand it through her hand. “What?”

The hand from before her lips pointed at him in the next moment, while her big blue eyes stared into his. “You are the Blue Spirit!”

“Eh…” Shoot. The last time he needed his alter ego had happened because of her. Zhao had somehow got ahead of him to catch up with the avatar’s group and the admiral bragged how he already had the avatar on board, while they were actually only able to capture the girl. So he went to re-capture the master of the four elements, finding her instead, being threatened with things which even made his blood boil.

So he saved her. What else could he have done? But of course he did not expect that she would want to thank him. With that pushing his mask up to his nose, exposing his lips…

“Me,” He let out a forced laugh before getting to his feet. “…as in the fire prince, being his nation’s vilest criminal? Don’t be…” He retreated some steps from her too. “R-ridiculous…” Damn her stare… As he suddenly felt heat rising to his cheeks, he turned away. And especially damn her eyes! Too sure and too b… blue to look at!

His heart beat in his throat, while he tried effortlessly to swallow and keep it together, and that was the time which made her move. Because she was all of a sudden behind him, making him turn towards her. He knew his lips parted to say something, probably snapping at her for being just a silly peasant girl or touching him at all… But then she was suddenly standing on her tip-toes, her lips pressing against his, while her hands hold onto him and he forgot about any of that.

And then she knew. He acted the same way as he did while he hid behind his mask, first stiff as if hesitant to let go and give in, but then his response became more than eager. She felt the same sensations, recognized the faint scent of smoke and firewood as his arms circled her and then… she pushed him away.

He did not understand what went wrong, but he was sure something did when in the next moment he got a slap across his right cheek that echoed in the cave.

He groaned rubbing the side of his face before returning her gaze with a furious one. “What the hell is wrong with you?! One moment you throw yourself at me, then in the other…!”

“Oh, what’s wrong with me?” She asked angrily, forming fists by her sides. “You tell me! It was you who played the… the ‘masked hero’ and for what?” Her eyebrows knitted together as his fury slowly faded. “You only wanted to get to Aang through me, didn’t you?!” She asked loudly, but as he only averted his gaze she let out gasp. “You did!”

“I-I have… considered it…” He stuttered while rubbing his neck but as she let out a frustrated sigh he added quickly. “But then I’ve let you go, and did not follow you!”

Her gaze narrowed before she crossed her arms before her chest. “Well thanks a lot for giving me a head start!” She yelled before snapping her head away as he did not respond, only stood in his place wordlessly.

Her lips first turned into a firm line. She had been such a fool… still believing in heroes who helped her, the ‘damsel in distress’ without anything to gain in return? For some reasons she felt a burning sensation in the corner of her eyes, and she bit on her lower lip to balance it. She felt herself humiliated and tricked in the worst ways… if she had known who she had faith in, then she would not have expected anything else, but…

“So,” She started so low that if he stood some steps further away he probably couldn’t even hear her. “That was what you planned?”

His golden gaze returned to her form, but she did not turn back towards him still. “What do you mean?”

The waterbender’s fingers clenched the fabric of her sleeves. “Have you saved me to earn my trust?” Her gaze finally turned to him from the corner of her eyes, but his expressions remained unreadable, just like always. “And after that… when you’ve seen me at that port,” His good eye lightly rounded as she went on. “Was that why you did not warn your crew about me? …about the avatar?”

Zuko’s face turned stern under her gaze. He straightened in his place while stepping towards her, trying to intimidate her. “You are imagining things, waterbender.” He said, his tone became colder than before, but he still knew that it sounded miserably far from cruel. “I don’t need pitiful ‘tricks’ to get what I want.” He stopped only two steps away from her, and she was finally facing him, but with defiance in her ocean-like orbs. “And if I had not sent my men after you, it only meant that I simply haven’t recognized you.”

“You have seen me.” She said with a frown, but he only chuckled. “I caught your eyes, but you did nothing!”

“Don’t get too hooked on the idea of me feeling sorry enough for you to let you run.”

Her gaze seemingly darkened but not without a slight hurt appearing on her face. “If that is true then what are you doing here? Why have you followed me?” She asked accusingly, raising her chin up.

The firebender scoffed before taking a step back with opened arms. “Have you looked around?” The dark cave they were in had only gained some light from the cave’s mouth where the snow fell restlessly, covering the cloudy sky. “There were not many possibilities to get under a ‘roof’! Do you think that I did not want to get myself an empty cave?”

While he was shouting, he slightly leaned towards her, making her feel as if he had been towering over her. She averted her gaze and shifted in her place, taking a step back.

“On the other hand…” He started with his only eyebrow raised. “What are you doing here all alone?”

She gave him another icy stare. In truth she had argued with her brother again, before wandering off to cool down. Who knew it would start snowing…? She tried to go back where she came from but probably made a wrong turn, and then it turned cold enough for her to try and get dry in a cave, maybe beside a small campfire. And what had come out of it? No fire, only the ‘oh-so-mighty’ fire prince himself…

“That’s none of your business!” She hissed as he smirked down at her, making her palm itch to slap him again.

“You know,” His smirk remained on his face as he bowed his head to the side. “Now that I think about it, maybe it was you who led me here…”

She looked at him incredulously. “What?”

“Yes.” He said, shaking his head as he took the step towards her, which she retreated before. “How convenient that in April, I suddenly find myself in the middle of a snow-storm then ran into the only waterbender miles around…”

“You are crazy...” She took a step back again, which he made after her too while his eyes held a glint of the smirk on his face. “That’s not even possible.”

“Oh, is it not?” When her back met the cave’s wall, panic mixed with her expressions as he leaned his hands against the wall by her shoulders. She started panting as he slowly leaned in, closer and closer to her before turning to her ear, whispering huskily. “Or are you simply not…” While breathing in, he could feel her scent much more from her hair, a pale hint of the salty ocean air and cheery-blossoms. “…strong enough, to do it?”

In the end he returned to hold her eyes, but he was still so close that their noses almost touched. Her chest rose and fell rapidly while she was watching him with all her senses too much aware of the fact how she wanted to answer to him. But in the end she spoke another way. “Think what you want, but it was not my doing.”

The silence between them, while being this close seemed deafening against the blowing wind outside. But he did not plan to break it so soon, and she suddenly didn’t even dare to breathe, let alone move.

Her eyes had been crystal clear, like the full moon that managed to break through by the surrounding clouds. He knew he shouldn’t have looked into them… now he was surely going to drown…

Then he bowed his head, his face inching closer to her, and as her eyelids shuttered close only then did he close his eyes too. And then as if freeing from her spell he breathed. “I know.”

He came to a halt, when he looked at her again, she was watching his face, trying to understand him. Why… why did he stop?

“I,” He slightly pulled back, a bittersweet smile appearing on his face, but his amber eyes shone with regret. “I wanted to tease you… because of fantasizing about your enemy behind the mask.”

She blinked really slowly with her gaze confused. She tried to turn her head away with still parted lips as she felt she could no longer hide the whirl of emotions which he caused in this very moment with a painful twist on her heart…

But then his hand caught her chin, and though she let her hand fall upon his chest in a weak attempt to stop him, but he did not let her turn away as he said. “But from the two of us, it was not you who had more sleepless nights since that day.”

Her lower lip trembled. Her glance returned to his, while a single tear fled from the corner of her eyes and yet she could not even look more beautiful than in that moment for him.

A small smile hid in the corner of his lips as he went on. “You never needed more than just being yourself for me to recognize you, Katara.” She shuddered as her name softly rolled off his tongue, while his hand whipped her tear away then stroke a feather out of her forehead. His golden orbs slowly broke their contact as he let his hands drop. “While without my mask… I…”

Her hand which tried to push him away before held onto his arm so fierce that for a moment it crossed her mind that it might rip his shirt, but she did not let go, not when his surprised gaze caught her sight; not even when she slowly stepped away from the wall; not when she closed the gap between them. Her fingers only relaxed to trail in their own ways when his lips sealed hers and his arms scooped her up from the ground. She remembered how their only blanket laid under them before all of this started… but now all that mattered had been the feeling of his skin, his lips and his warm hands which caressed her in ways she never even dreamed of…

And to get rid of all those needless clothes they had, the sooner, the better.

***

While just laying there she felt as safe and relaxed as if she had been in the richest houses of Omashu.

The warmth of his arms and body around her meant much more than any pillow and blanket in the world could have. She never wanted to have more. She did not need anything else… as if she had finally found home after being so far away from her real one.

She smiled softly as she felt him nuzzling against her neck. But then her eyes opened, and with the first rays of the morning sun she understood how reality was different from their little dream world.

Her expressions saddened as she finally asked. “What’s going to happen now?”

She felt him stiffen behind her for a moment, but after that his arms wrapped more firmly around her slim waist. “Nothing’s gonna happen… I am a prince, I refuse anything to happen.” He pulled her closer, earning low giggles as he kissed her delicate neck. “I refuse to get up, not even the Sun can rise up if the fire prince does not allow it to do so.”

Katara shifted in his arms, turning towards him with his eyes closed, and a real smile gracing his feature. “And what will you do if I want to get up? Will you order me to stay?”

Only his good eye opened, but nothing else changed. “No, I’m going to ask you to do so.”

A playful smirk appeared on her face. “Oh… and what if I do not listen?”

This time he leaned on his elbow as he answered with a smile similar to hers. “Then I am going to plead.”

The blue eyed girl slowly reached towards his face, tracing the edge of the raw skin of his scar and he leaned into her touch with closed eyes. “But it is time Zuko…”

“Time for what?” He murmured, only looking at her again as her hand moved away.

“Time to get up.”

The prince scowled like a child, catching the water nymph’s hand to feel her soft skin again. “I don’t want to…”

The waterbender’s voice suddenly started to echo through the cave as she lightly laughed. “We are no longer kids anymore.”

His eyes opened as the warmth of her body left him. “Katara!” The cave suddenly felt darker without her. He sat up, whirling to see where she went. “Where are you?!” He yelled with panic before his gaze caught sight of her, standing in the cave’s mouth with her not even sixteen years, smiling like she had back then… when all of this happened once.

“Wake up Zuko,” She said softly, her smile remaining on her face as she opened her palm with a small amount of snow. In the next moment she blew it towards him, making all the snow from behind her rush in too, whirling around him in the air, blinding him as he only heard her voice’s echo… “Wake up.”

***

Then… the prince’s eyes slowly opened at a campsite, with the sun high above the horizon. Looking into the same wonderful blue eyes of her as she said the words ‘wake up’ a third time. And as joyful tears appeared in her eyes, he responded with his softest smile, reaching out to touch her face. “I t-thought firebenders rose with the sun…” She tried to say, but she could not suppress a small sob. She was too worried in the past hours to do so.

He would have thought that his wish had been to dream on before…

His smile turned into a smirk when he halfway sat up. “It’s an exception that proves the rule.”

…but now he realized that in reality, he wanted nothing more than to wake up, and find her there beside him…

Then his gaze finally caught sight of her hair. And his heart skipped a beat when he realized that now her hair was not completely let down, but on top of her head there had been a small bun, with the blue and white hairpiece in it. His lips parted before looking back at her, her bright smile saying it all. “You truly didn’t know what my answer would be?” Her voice was low and even a bit surprised as he slightly shook his head. And in the next moment he leaned forward, finally catching her soft lips with his rough ones, only realizing it halfway that this was their first kiss as betrothed... and that was not a thought which could hold his passion back.

…and he wished for nothing more, till the end.