Title: Bend
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Type: Multi-chaptered
Rating: PG
Pairings: Zuko/Katara
Word count: 1,960
Summary: During the Seige of the North, Katara pursues Zuko from the oasis rather than staying with her friends.
A/N: Many thanks to Tory for help with dialogue. (A good deal of this was written a long time ago.)
Chapter 3
"If it wasn't for your stupid avatar and your stupid people resisting the glory of the fire nation, we wouldn't be stuck here on this ridiculous hunk of wood!"
Thunk.
Only half listening to him,Katara thought about telling him that if he made sourpuss faces all the time, it might get stuck like that.
"And if that blob of blue you serfs worship hadn't ruined everything, I would have the Avatar in my hands right now and be on my way to my father to reclaim my throne and my honour!"
Thunk.
On second thought, his face was probably stuck like that already.
"I didn't even care about that stupid fish, I just wanted the avatar! Nothing ever goes right! I should be in a palace, not on a stinking raft with a girl who smells like blubber!"
Thunk.
Yes, it was definitely a lost cause.
And she should probably stop hitting her head in frustration against the mast of the raft; it was getting a bit painful.
As Zuko lost interest in his latest tirade and resumed sulking at the front of the raft, scanning the horizon, Katara retreated back into her own thoughts, leaning up against the mast.
Their third week at sea was much the same as the previous weeks: sun, water, boredom, and Zuko complaining. Had she not scratched the passing days into a plank on the raft, Katara likely would have lost count of the time passed by now. Their raft was gradually floating its way south, with the help of her waterbending whenever she was bored and there was nothing else to do. Which happened to be quite often. Talking was usually kept to a minimum between all occupants of the raft, as tempers tended to shorten with each passing day. Only Iroh seemed relatively unfazed by their castaway status, and spent his days alternating between humming tunes, accompanied by drummed rhythms on his belly, and napping. Katara envied him.
Her least favourite person aboard the raft appeared to have only two moods: sulky, and angry. Katara wasn't sure which was better. Sulky tended to mean silent, and as long as she didn't look at him, it was as if he wasn't even there. Angry, however, broke up the monotony of life at sea. She still couldn't decide which mood she preferred, and she'd given it a lot of thought. After all, what else was there to do?
As for herself, she'd ended up permanently occupying the back of the raft, right near the mast and sail. This gave her a small amount of space away from the two men, who preferred to sit up near the front, on lookout for the chance that some form of land might appear. She didn't like to think about it, but as the days wore on, Katara became less optimistic about drifting into land anytime soon.
Without anything else to focus her mind on, Katara's imagination wandered to thoughts of what she would do with the rest of her life on a raft. She imagined she'd grow her hair out long, let it get all funky, and then have it dangle in the water. Some unlucky fish would inevitably get caught in it and voila! Instant dinner, no effort or waterbending required. Or maybe their raft would float to the fire nation, where Zuko in all his cruelty would order her imprisoned in a tower and then her long hair would come in handy when Aang and Sokka had to climb up it to rescue her. Or they could just fly up to her on Appa. Whatever.
Katara wondered idly if she had sunstroke by now.
She was lying on her back, limbs outstretched, staring into the mid-afternoon sky. The surprisingly entertaining activity of cloud-watching was out of the question for the moment, as the sky was too clear.
It was risky, breaking the silence aboard the raft, but for the sake of her sanity Katara felt she must stir up some form of conversation. She said the first thing that came to mind, speaking even before her own answer was formed in her mind.
"What's the first thing you're going to do when we find land?"
She listened to her own breathing for a moment before Iroh's answer came. "I'm going to plant myself for a few days in the first tea shop I see. Or maybe massage parlour. Or maybe both."
To anyone meeting the Dragon of the West for the first time, she supposed that this answer would be surprising. But Katara knew better by now. The greatly renowned general of the Fire Nation was just a wise, kind, and eccentric old man.
During some of the hours surrounded only by ocean and sky, she wondered if her grandfather that she never knew had been like him.
Shifting her head slightly so that the warmth of the planks met her cheek, she looked vaguely in the direction of Zuko, who she swore hadn't moved in the past few hours, and waited for his response.
And waited.
Who was she kidding; she didn't expect a reply from him in the first place.
After trying to formulate a coherent and non-rambling idea of what she would do when she got back to land, she barely got out the first syllable before being cut off.
"We wouldn't have time for that, Uncle. We've already lost too much distance between us and the avatar."
Typical.
She let out an exasperated sigh and focused an incredulous look towards him.
Katara hadn't noticed before, but he'd removed his shirt under the afternoon sun.
Oh dear, she thought, eyes wide and turning her head away quickly with a blush, they really must have sunstroke.
That evening as the sun began to set, Katara stood up slowly, bracing herself against the mast before stumbling into a basic waterbending stance. Might as well help the raft drift along to the south, and she'd hardly done anything physical all day.
Bending half-heartedly, she gradually propelled them closer to what she hoped was the direction of land.
Iroh was humming softly, and it took her weary mind a few moments to catch the tune.
"How do you know a Water Tribe song?" she asked, startled to hear it so far from home.
"Much less want to sing it." Zuko's expression was nothing short of appalled.
"Oh, I've done my fair share of travelling. It's a children's song, from what I can remember."
"That's right." Katara smiled as she remembered her village.
"I seem to recall the words going something like this…"
Iroh sat up and cleared his throat dramatically.
"Row row row your boat, gently down the stream!"
Zuko was beginning to look apoplectic, and as Katara knew that any opportunity to annoy Zuko further was not to be missed, she joined in with Iroh's singing.
"Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream!"
"Come on Zuko, it's your turn now!"
In the corner of her eye, Katara could see that Zuko had sprung to his feet. She didn't care. Let him rant at them, this was the most fun she'd had in days.
"Shut up, Uncle! And you too, peasant!"
They sang blithely on.
"No, I'm serious. Shut up and look at the horizon."
Silence fell abruptly. Katara and Iroh joined Zuko at the very front of the raft. They all gazed, disbelievingly, at the sight ahead of them.
Katara hoped to whatever power could hear her that this wasn't some horrible joke or trick of the light.
The setting sun illuminated a stretch of black, higher than the surrounding sea.
Land.
They stared.
Zuko turned suddenly towards her, grasping her shoulders. For one fleeting moment, Katara's dazed mind thought that he was going to hug her out of joy. Of course, this illusion was dispelled when he started shaking her violently.
"What are you waiting for?! Bend us over there!"
Shoving him away, she got to work on doing just that.
When the sand under the water became visible, Katara jumped off the raft into the knee-deep, frigid water and splashed the rest of the way to shore before throwing herself face-first onto the beach. She hugged piles of sand to her chest, hoping that this wasn't all some hallucination or yet another wishful dream. When she was sure that her situation was indeed real, she flopped herself over onto her back to stare at the sky and made sand-angels. She never thought she'd be so glad to leave water behind.
Her raftmates' reactions were much more controlled than her own. They sat down, stunned, and tried to process that they were finally off that nightmarish raft. As the moments wore on, they all became aware of the fact that they were near-starving, covered in grime, and in desperate need of proper rest.
Iroh, ever the voice of reason, spoke first.
"We need to find an inn."
Katara knew they'd be the talk of the small fishing village for months to come.
The mismatched group of castaways, looking like creatures washed up from the depths of the sea, stumbled into the shabby local tavern and inn. All activity stopped. Beer temporarily forgotten, the occupants of the room stared at the newcomers. Motioning for Katara and Zuko to stay at the entrance, Iroh approached the innkeeper at the counter. All eyes followed him. Digging around in his weather-worn clothes for the little money he had left, Iroh dropped it on the counter. With his mouth still hanging open in shock, the innkeeper automatically handed over a set of keys.
After thanking the man politely, Iroh waved Katara and Zuko over and they climbed the stairs up to the door leading to the inn's rooms. With one last round of glares at the still-silent tavern, Zuko closed the door behind them.
Towelling her hair dry, Katara wondered if she'd ever known a better feeling than being clean. As the smell of the dinner that they'd ordered reached her, she revised her thought. Clean and full of food would be better. Tossing the towel onto her bed, she joined Zuko and Iroh in the adjoining room where they were seated at a small table. After being served their food by the innkeeper's wife, they dug in and made short work of the meal.
Content for the first time in many weeks, Katara leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.
"So Katara, what are your plans now?" Iroh asked, casually.
She'd been trying to avoid that question. "I'm… not entirely sure. I need to find my brother and Aang, but I have no idea where to start. I don't even have any supplies or money." She didn't want to add that by now her friends had probably assumed she was dead and given up looking for her. She was trying not to think about that.
"Well, that settles it then. You'll travel with us."
Zuko exploded. "WHAT!? No way! No. Way. Have you finally gone senile uncle? She's the enemy. Friends with the avatar. She's not coming with us!"
"Now, now, Zuko. How can you say that after all we've been through together? Would you abandon a young lady and have her travel alone? Where are your morals? Besides, even though our reasons are different, we're all looking for the same person. It only makes sense to stick together." Iroh had his patented cheerful smile pasted on. There was no arguing with that face.
"…Fine, she can travel with us." He gave in grudgingly before turning to look fiercely at Katara. "Maybe we can use her as bait to draw out the avatar."
As Katara proceeded to tell Zuko, rather loudly, what she thought of his idea, poor, long-suffering Iroh could only sigh.