Interlude, Katara

by Keelywolfe

The past year had led Katara to some strange places. Strange towns, bizarre caves and cities beneath cities, yeah, she'd seen it all. The Fire Nation wasn't the strangest place she'd been, by far. But somehow, knowing that Sokka wasn't in it, the palace already seemed quieter, the large hallways echoing her footsteps emptily as she walked to the infirmary.

She sighed a little to herself, unhappily, wondering how things had taken a turn into wrong.

Aang hadn't been convinced Sokka was doing the right thing and Katara was certain he wasn't. When they'd been in his rooms after everything had happened, the first thing Zuko had asked her when he'd awoken was if she'd heard from the others yet. If she'd heard from Sokka. It was completely obvious to her that they loved each other and things might have been easier if Sokka had just loved Suki, but if there was one thing they'd learned this past year it was that the easy way wasn't always the best way. If it had been, the Fire Lord would be dead or maybe Zuko never would have left the Fire Nation to begin with.

Now Sokka was taking another easy way out and running away, and for that, she could have smacked him in the head.

If they'd had more time, she was sure she could have persuaded him to stay and she felt a little rush of exasperated affection for her father. She loved her dad dearly, but he could have waited before offering Sokka a quick way out of town to go with his feeble excuses. Not that she didn't see his point, royalty being what it was, but she'd seen Zuko, the panic in his eyes when he asked about Sokka. The love that had been shining in them whenever Sokka was around these past few weeks. She'd watched it all, quietly, and now she was watching it fall to pieces.

The infirmary was a suite of rooms, not far from the Fire Lord's chambers, and Katara made her way inside easily, nodding to one of the young nurses as she passed.

The royal family physician was an older man with graying hair and a large, bulbous nose who spoke mostly in grunts and seemed rather uncaring of who was in charge, so long as they didn't die in his care. For all of that, he'd been quick to appreciate her healing skills when he'd inspected Zuko's injuries and his hands had been deft as he'd wound bandages around his new lord, forcing him to drink something that, from Zuko's expression, must have been hideously bitter.

He'd allowed Katara to stay with Zuko while he slept, grumpily overriding the guards' protests over having someone from the Water Tribe near him when he was injured and Zuko's objection that he didn't have time to rest when his country was in tatters.

"Young man," Doctor, if he had a name, Katara didn't know it, no one ever seemed to call him anything else, had told him, "You will be the third Fire Lord I've had the honor to serve in my time, as well as a large number of princes, princesses, lords and ladies. I've seen many of them come and go. And I can assure you, the country will survive long enough for you to rest, but you may not survive without it. Lie down!"

She'd hidden her laughter then as Zuko meekly did as he was ordered, relaxing quickly into sleep as the medicine took effect.

The infirmary still had a few lingering patients in it, one young solder with a badly broken leg and a few others who had food poisoning from spoiled rations. She had extended her healing skills to all of them, ignored their wary looks, their silent acceptance with Doctor hovering behind her encouragingly. He was standing in front of his cupboards at the moment, searching noisily through glass vials and clay jars, a collection that any apothecary would envy.

"The bandages are over there," Doctor told her, not looking up from the vials he was sorting. Something about the man's easy acceptance of her presence made her want to look around for Pai Sho tiles, signs of the Lotus but so far, she hadn't found a clue. Of course, she could just ask Iroh but somehow that would take the fun out of it.

"Thank you," Katara told him politely as she went to collect them. Perhaps she should be frustrated that after all they'd been through she was reduced, again, to being nothing more than a healer instead of a warrior in her own right, but it was difficult not to appreciate the trust she'd been given, that she was allowed to care for the Fire Lord's wounds.

Gathering the bandages and the small jar of ointment from where they were laid aside, Katara started on her way to Zuko's chamber. Much as he grumbled about it, Zuko knew enough about burns that he didn't protest the frequent bandage changes. Adding her own healing skills to the ointments only quickened his healing and she thought that soon he wouldn't need the bandages. The burns had been nasty but with care, the scar would be barely visible.

Not that Zuko should ever feel shame at any of his scars.

She sighed again, a little, wondering how to speak to him. If he would be lost in the Fire Lord, waiting impatiently for her to finish so he could get back to business or perhaps he would simply be the Zuko she'd come to know, the one who hadn't hesitated from stepping in front of lightning.

Or maybe he'd be a new Zuko, saddened by the loss of his lover, mourning even. Maybe. And what could she possibly say to that Zuko when it was her brother, her lovable, stupid brother who was the cause of it?

The guards at the door to his chamber were unsmiling, their eyes wary, but they allowed her to enter, the door closing softly behind her as she walked down the inner corridor. She could hear movement inside, Zuko was probably shedding his formal robes, and she forced a smile to her face, willing herself to be cheerful until she found out what she was facing.

Turning the corner into the main room, she stopped. And stared.

There were moments in Katara's life when time seemed to slow down. Running to her father as a child, terror in her throat as she cried out, too slow, always too slow, that her mother was in trouble. The realization that a hot arc of lightening was traveling right towards her and she had no time to move, no protection from it until Zuko had cut a path across it. And now, with a wealth of pale, bare skin stretched out in front of her, the blankets a wild tangle at the foot of the bed.

The first thought that came to her in that endless split second was that Zuko really had a nice ass.

The second was that its appeal was diminished by the fact that her brother's bare knees were on either side of it.

In that frozen moment, every detail seemed to magnify, etching itself into her consciousness. The contrast of the neat, white bandages looped around the darker skin of Sokka's injured leg, and Zuko's hand just above it, nearly as pale. The flex of muscles in broad shoulders, white bandages wrapped around the long torso, the heavy sound of breathing, a louder, deeper moan on an inhale.

And finally her hands went limp, sending her supplies crashing to the floor and abruptly two sets of eyes were on her, hot golden ones and wide blue ones exactly like her own and suddenly, time sped back up, jolting into now.

This particular situation being somewhat out of her experience, Katara did what she always did and went with instinct; she slammed a hand over her eyes, spun around, and screamed.

Almost instantly, the sound of running footsteps came from the main entrance, the clang of armor and weapons and large bodies that she refused to look at jostled around her, shoving her rudely out of the way.

Okay, this could possibly be bad.

Daring to peek through her fingers, Katara looked carefully to each side. The guards were lined up like statues in a garden, sword arms dangling limply and mouths gaping like a row of gargoyles waiting for rainfall.

There was a rustle from the bedclothes and Katara would have sworn she had no idea her brother knew words like the ones he was muttering right now.

Finally, Zuko spoke, through gritted teeth, "Do. You. Mind?"

One of the guards startled, the tip of his sword scraping against the tile floor. "No, my lord...I mean, Yes, my lord, we heard...I..." He bowed abruptly, dipping his head so low that he staggered forward a step. As quickly as they'd arrived, the guards were shuffling out and if they had anything to say about what they'd seen, they kept it to themselves. At least until they left the chamber and Katara was pretty sure that the entire Fire Nation plus the surrounding territories would have heard about this by nightfall. Fire Lord, totally naked, and yes, Water Tribe! Probably half the kingdom would be claiming to have seen it first hand by morning.

Oops.

She heard a loud sigh that had to be from Sokka. "Thanks, Katara, that was high on my list of things to do today. Be naked in front of most of the royal guard, I can check that one off. We're decent, by the way."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I was expecting you to be on a ship right now, not...not..." she turned around, felt her face heat a little when she saw that by decent, Sokka meant they'd pulled the blankets over their laps. She pointed a finger at them fiercely, because now would be the perfect time to take refuge in healer tactics. "Not doing things that neither of you should be doing right now!"

"Whatever." Sokka flopped back into the pillows. "You have got to get some better guards. And seriously, if we're going to keep putting on shows like this, we really need to start charging," Sokka said, muffled into the pillow.

"I'd prefer an alternative to public screenings, if you don't mind," Zuko muttered. His cheeks were as brightly flushed as Katara's. "Speaking of which?" he gestured expansively at the door and Katara realized he actually expected her to leave.

"I am here to change your bandages," she informed him tartly. "And that is exactly what I am going to do. Unless you'd rather I go get Doctor?"

Zuko pressed his lips together. "Change them," he said, resigned.

That was more like it. Shoving her brother out of the way, Katara sat gingerly on the edge of the bed and carefully unwound the bandages, looping them into her free hand. The soft cotton was slightly damp with sweat and Katara firmly didn't think of why. This was already a tipped over boat in a lake of gross, better to just get this over with before she had to start swimming.

Sokka was watching with interest, nearly in her way as he leaned in, inspecting the wound. She was expecting some remark, some joke about Zuko learning to dodge, maybe or...she wasn't sure. Sokka was the jokester of the family.

But he didn't. His expression was just this side of grave, studying the blistered starburst that was low on Zuko's chest.

"She almost killed you," Sokka murmured. He lightly touched the skin around the burn, his fingers clinging tackily to the leftover ointment coating it.

"But she didn't," Zuko told him firmly. He reached up and covered Sokka's hand with his own, squeezing gently, and for some reason, watching it make Katara's eyes prickle, just a little. She glanced at her brother, met his eyes with hers.

"You stayed." Katara said, softly, a smile curving her lips.

"Yeah, I stayed," Sokka grinned. "Zuko gives a hell of a persuasive speech."

"I'm glad," she said, nimbly tying the bandages up again and climbing to her feet. "Now, you, take it easy. Nothing strenuous, you're still healing. I'll see you tonight for a water healing session. You," she pointed firmly at her brother. "Same thing, but I'll add stay off your leg. You're going to heal crooked if you don't and unless you want your leg rebroken, I'd advise against it. And if you must have sex, try to keep it gentle."

It was completely worth her own embarrassment to hear Sokka squawk out an indignant, "Katara!"

Hastily, she gathered up the used bandages and made her escape. And if the guards didn't look at her when she left, well, she certainly wasn't going to blame them for that. She was already thanking the spirits that she'd been no where near the bed when they'd crashed in.

There were enough rumors going on for one day. Might as well save one for later because Katara had a feeling they were going to be here a while.

-finis-

Notes: I want to thank everyone for reading! I had a great time writing this story and I'm delighted that so many people enjoyed it! Thank you all! I'm working on the sequel to this, hopefully we'll see it soon! Take care!