Grumbling under his breath, Zuko reached for her waterskin to revive her... at the unfortunate moment that Katara chose to regain consciousness and open her eyes.
As she blinked and furrowed her eyebrows, Zuko realized that his fingers trailed only a few inches of her, ahem, chest region while the rest of his body remained suspended over her supine figure. All in all, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable situation for any teenage girl to wake up to.
Zuko coughed awkwardly and stood up (to help dispel any notions that hinted that he was any more or less than a sincere Samaritan-type; he couldn't help but think that his mask and general Zuko-ness proved everything to the contrary, but it was too late to correct that now).
"A-Are you okay?" he mumbled.
Katara frowned at the dark-garbed, marked man in front of her as she got to her feet. Something about the disturbing mask screamed Highway Robber or Crazy Supernatural Cult Member or Possibly Some Creep in Jet's Gang She's Seen Before (because there's something in his rough, muffled voice that seems painfully familiar).
All were, to some respect, wrong in the context, but the lack of this knowledge certainly did not prevent the waterbender from screaming as loudly as possible.
"No, no," groaned Zuko, reaching out to comfort her shoulder, "listen, I'm here to hel-"
His hand did not contact any part of her shoulder. She had twisted slightly such that his hand instead landed on—
Oh, Agni.
Heat rushed to Zuko's face and pounded in his ears (boob boob boob boob boob boob) as he snapped his hands to his sides and stuttered out an apology without looking there (boobboobboobboobboobboobboobboobboob).
Katara gaped in shock, mouth open not unlike that of a fish, before glaring with all her super waterbending master fury and moving her hand towards her waterskin.
A whoosh and a thud later, Zuko found that his back ached slightly against the trunk of the tree behind him while there was an uncomfortable sensation in his abdominal region, which was entirely due to the sheet of ice plastered over his body and limbs.
Zuko watched through the slits of his mask as the insane waterbender made to leave him (her freaking rescuer) bound in the cage of ice.
But Katara slid her eyes back to the masked man and paused, drawn to that intimidating mask.
Zuko stared back, wondering what in Agni's name she was doing. Was she going to actually hurt him? Were the Avatar's weird last-minute redemptive ideals contagious?
Was she going to kiss him?
It was a stupid suggestion, yes, he knew, but there she was, barely a foot away from him and her lips were puckered.
And though it was stupid to think about, his heart was suddenly racing; he could no longer breath properly through mouth and he had lost track of whether he was supposed to breathe in or out and settled for not at all as she placed her hands on the cheeks of his mask and tiptoed to meet his eyeholes.
To his surprise, she blew over his eyeholes, a puff of cool air meeting his eyes before another sheath of ice materialized over his mask. The girl let go of the mask and took a couple steps back. Zuko shook his head, but to no avail; all he could see through this frosty kaleidoscope was the blue blur of her dress rapidly disappearing from the green.
Damn. He was
stuck
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Katara peeked at the man between the
foliage before turning on her heel towards Aang and Sokka's camp and
quickly lowering her palm.
There was a very satisfying thump, followed by a groan behind her.
Pervert.
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fin
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