I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender in any way, shape, or form.
Prohibited Affection
Chapter Three- Changes
Previous line…
A knock on the door startled both of them.
The door was still closed but a voice came from outside.
"Zuko?"
It was Mai.
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Zuko quickly let go of Katara and leapt away as far away as he could from her. Did Azula already tell Mai about the 'prisoner' he now had to have in his room? Questions raced through his mind as he tried to think of how to respond to her.
"Yeah?" He answered back still with the door closed.
"Can I come in? What are you doing? Are you busy?" Mai asked sounding a bit irritated.
"Yeah… come on in, the door isn't locked." He answered her once more trying to sound easygoing.
Katara watched from the wall interested. Mai? Wasn't she that knife-throwing friend of Azula's? I wonder what she wanted Zuko for. Then the realization hit her. They could be a couple! Zuko didn't seem the lovey-dovey having a girlfriend type of person, so this made her giggle. Mai then walked in, looked around, and once she found Katara, glared at her for a second then turned to Zuko.
"I'm not happy with this Zuko." Mai said sounding irritated once more.
"Neither am I! You think I'm happy having her in here? Well I'm not!" Zuko didn't mean to shout, but his anger always got the best of him.
"Well you need to do something about it Zuko!" Mai shouted back.
"Your Azula's friend! Tell her about it!" He yelled back again.
"Why can't you? Zuko you can't do anything! You can't even get your sister to do what you want! You're a failure!" Mai shouted once more not caring if her words would sting or not.
After hearing this, Zuko stared at her in disbelief. How could she say something like that to him? She knows how controlling and scheming Azula is! Yet she has the nerve to talk to him like that? That was the final straw for him today. He wasn't going to yell no more, he had had enough.
"Mai. Leave, now. We're done. Don't even think of speaking to me anymore." He said as calmly as he could muster.
Hearing what Zuko had to say wasn't what Mai thought he would say. She looked at him for a second, turned, left and slammed the door behind her.
Following Mai's departure, Zuko stomped over to his bed, picked up the nearest object which happened to be a book and threw it to where, he did not care.
"Watch where your throwing things! I see that your mad or whatever but don't take your anger out on me!" Katara yelled from her spot next to the wall.
"Well I forgot you were there! Excuuuse me!" Zuko shouted back.
Katara didn't have anything to say back so she slide down the wall and sat down on the floor. A couple minutes later she decided to start talking again.
"Who was that? Your girlfriend?" She asked curiously.
Zuko looked over at her like she was crazy. Where does she get off at asking him personal questions?
"What? No. Why you ask that? " He wasn't technically lying, he did say they were over.
"You guys were yelling some pretty harsh things at each other. Regular friends don't really do that." she replied.
"Well stop listening to my conversations." He said to her in a matter-of-factly voice.
"Well it's kind of hard to do that when you two were screaming at each other." She answered him also in a matter-of-factly voice.
"Whatever, I'm not in the mood to argue. Go to sleep or something." He said calmly.
"What? Excuse me? There's no way in the world I would fall asleep in this place! I don't trust you or anybody else in this place!" she yelled at him as if he were crazy.
The idea she was persuading made his face grow pink.
"Well then stay awake all night for all I care!" he replied to her.
"Fine then I will!" she stated.
Zuko went somewhere for a while, which Katara assumed to be the bathroom where he must be taking a bath before bed. A bath! She wished she could soak up in a nice hot bath right now. If she hadn't had left her friends she would probably be enjoying some nice hot springs right now… Now that she thought of it, what were her friends doing right now? Were they looking for her?
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Back at the camp, Aang, Sokka and Toph were going crazy wondering where their little water bender went off too.
"It's nightfall already! Where could she be? Come on let's go look for her!" Sokka exclaimed.
"She probably got lost looking at you know, girl things." replied Toph.
"She's smarter than that!" Sokka exclaimed once more, "Stop making jokes! This could be serious! What if someone figured out she was in with the Avatar?"
As Sokka spoke, Aang thought about this. Maybe something was up? Katara wasn't much for getting lost, and she knew we had to leave and wouldn't spend too much time in the market.
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"Alright, let's go." Aang decided the stupid thing would be to sit around and wait, for Katara could be in trouble.
When Zuko came back from the bathroom, Katara was fast asleep huddled up in a ball against the wall. Pfft, so much for 'staying up all night'. He looked over at her for a second. Could she be faking? Is she thinking she can wake up when he was asleep and attempt to escape? There's no way she could, they're guards everywhere in the palace. He watched her for a few more seconds and couldn't help but notice she was shivering. Only wearing that little red outfit must be kind of cold… He knew he shouldn't do this and treat her nicely but…she hadn't been too mean to him, had she? He walked over to his closet, grabbed one of his smaller blankets, walked over to where Katara lay and threw it on her. There. Being nice wasn't too bad. He walked back over to his bed and drifted away to sleep with many things on his mind…
Later when the sun was quickly rising, Katara awoke with something fluffy around her. That wasn't there last night! She quickly fastened her eyes open and looked around. Where did this come from? Hey I wasn't even supposed to fall asleep last night! Anything could have happened and I would have been off dreaming! Great job Katara. Still, she couldn't help but think. Had Zuko gave her this when she was sleeping? Zuko… being nice… to her? She couldn't help but blush at the thought. Maybe he wasn't so bad…
Standing up, she yawned and stretched and thought of a way to get out of here. She walked over to the door and dropped to the floor. She did this to look underneath to see if anybody was there. It was just her luck that she saw two sets of boots standing there. Great. She really was stuck here.
Zuko awoke as he heard soft footsteps walking around. He noticed Katara at once laying on the floor by the door. What the hell was she doing?
"What are you doing?" Zuko's voice caught Katara off guard and made her look up from her spot on the floor.
"Nothing…" Katara replied to him in a way she thought of as innocent.
"There are guards everywhere you turn in this palace. I wouldn't even think of escaping if I were you. And as you can see, there are no windows in my room. Face it, your stuck here."
"Thanks Captain Obvious." she said as she stood up and brushed herself off.
"I would watch that attitude if I were you." he said, also standing up. As he stood up he could see Katara's face turn as red as the fire nation symbols hanging on the wall. Why was she…? Then it hit him. All he had on was his pants… His face also turned red and he quickly turned around and walked in the direction of his bathroom.
This was going to take a long time getting used to…
The moment Zuko left the room Katara breathed a big breath of relief. That wasn't expected. His body was so in shape… his chest so firm…WAIT What was she thinking?! This was the enemy! She wasn't supposed to be thinking and blushing about the enemy, no matter how good he looked without a shirt! Whoa Katara, that isn't helping! She smacked herself in the head to try and shake the image away. That right there was a big difference between Zuko and Aang. Zuko was older and…. There you go again Katara! Calm down, breath in, breath out.
Zuko walked back in fully clothed his face still a bit pink. This was going to be awkward. He hoped nothing else like 'that' would be happening again today. Why would she get so red? Her companions she traveled with included two boys so she must have been used to that…Well one of them was her brother and one the young Avatar. So of course that might've been a shock for her. Why did he catch him myself thinking about it over and over again? Seeing her face flush up like that…Stop it Zuko! Breath in, breath out.
If only he had known Katara was thinking the same things in her own mind…
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Aha!
The end of this chapter. I know it's been literally monthssince I last updated, but my wireless adapter in my room broke and my brother isn't much for letting me on his computer. I thought about it and there isn't many people who actually enjoy this story so I thought no one would notice if I stopped. But I felt so bad, so I then decided, hey I should update! No matter if people review or not! I'm so sorry for the super long wait! T.T
I think I need to write longer chapters…. T.T…
Thank you for reading!
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Anntionette