Title: Relief
Author: beyondthemoor on LJ, moor here
Genre: Gen
Length: Approx. 1,500 words
Pairing: Zutara

Summary: After the battle with Azula, there is a quiet moment shared in the dark.

Disclaimer: All works are copyright their original owners. (I'm not one of them.)

AN: This fic is written for misora, who won the bid I offered for the help_chile LJ comm. fundraiser in Feb/March 2010. Her prompt? A picture! "Embrace" by alamus, on deviantArt (check it out, it's gorgeous!). Hope you like the fic, misora! And alamus, thank you for your permission to write the fic, and also talking to me a bit about what you were thinking when you drew it! (My sincerest apologies it took me so long to get it ready!)

-mm

The chains clanged wildly in the courtyard, the spurts of overcharged blue-fire still searing through the air causing the smell of ozone to compound and expand, drifting outward on the breeze.

She was still crying.

And screaming.

Just… screaming.

And despair, her despair, followed the scent of burning rubble and ozone.

In spite of everything, within visible range of the writhing, broken prodigy, a pair of benders huddled together on the still-warm stone floor. Above them, they were surrounded by burning, tiled roofs.

"She'll probably wear herself out once the comet has passed," Katara said softly as Zuko sent another watchful look past her shoulder, ever cautious of his sister's propensity to escape captivity. "Don't…" she paused. How did she phrase something like that?

"Don't keep straining your neck like that. Zuko." She called him again, this time putting a sore, dirty hand to his cheek. "Hey, Zuko. Look at me, ok?"

Her fingers were still ringing, and occasionally trembling from abusing her energy stores to heal him.

She still wouldn't give up, though. Not after…

Not after what he did for her.

Katara steeled herself internally before she continued. It wrenched her heart to see Zuko still looking at his sister as if she were a viper curling in on itself, preparing to snap and pounce at them with venomous fangs. As if she was just pretending to be a wounded animal to lull them into a false sense of security before she attacked. Had the woman behind her really tormented him so much during their years together that he truly had no trust at all in her?

Obviously, she realized, as he strained further, in spite of her warnings, to keep a whiskey-coloured eye on her.

Katara knew she'd had things a bit difficult growing up, with her family being separated. But at least she knew Sokka had had her back, no matter what. She had that measure of security.

The man reclined in her lap had lacked even that small privilege.

"She isn't going anywhere, not anymore. Not until we… we'll figure out what to do." Her roughened fingers moved carefully over his cheek into his sweat-dampened hair, massaging and sensing bumps here and there as her sensitive fingertips roved. She touched his temple and drew his attention towards her, physically turning his head away from his sister until his gaze met hers.

"Zuko, Azula… she might be your sister, your family, but she chose her path, not you. You can't blame yourself for her choices."

"I know."

"Do you?"

Zuko met her blue stare levelly.

"Don't manipulate me, Katara. That's something she would do." His voice was a little hoarse, dry, and he swallowed. Katara stopped healing him a moment to bend a bit of water from a nearby drum over to them, into his mouth to soothe his parched, scorched throat. The air was so dry from all the firebending, and the fires still burning above them; he'd inhaled the super-heated air as he'd battled his sister, and it had burned down to his lungs. As soon as he was stable enough, she'd move them both. "I don't think of you like that, but… sometimes you do share a bit in common. Maybe that's why I always pushed you so hard. The way you saw me as the representative of all things Evil and Fire Nation, I probably saw you… as some kind of Water Tribe version of Azula."

Katara's brow knit, and Zuko almost smiled.

"I meant that as a compliment." He paused. "Mostly."

That made the young waterbender's eyebrow surge north, all right.

"What I meant was," he started, but coughed and brought a hand reflexively to his chest as if to calm the tightness. Katara immediately redoubled her efforts to heal the lightning that had pierced him.

"Hold on a second, you can insult me once you're over this," her fingers slid beneath his tunic and settled directly on his skin. "Please excuse my intrusion."

Bringing a hand to cover hers even as it glowed, Zuko's apology came quickly. "No, sorry, that came out wrong." He paused. "What I meant was that you're both very gifted, with bending. You were both obviously doted on by your fathers. You were both destined to be powerful leaders—."

Katara snorted at this, and Zuko ignored her.

"And you're both naturals. Whereas I had to work hard, harder than anyone to get even half as far as you both did. But where she had the best tutors in the Fire Nation to help her refine her bending, you had to learn on your own. I think that made you appreciate your bending more. But sometimes I see similarities in your personalities, too. I didn't mean it in a bad way, just that… it's something that surprises me, still. And seeing Azula's traits in anyone is a bit… unsettling."

Still healing the tissues and muscles that had suffered in Azula's attack, Katara nodded a bit to herself, but found herself disagreeing with her patient.

They disagreed a lot.

"I may have been a 'natural', Zuko, but I think I'm more like you than like her."

This time it was his turn to look at her skeptically.

This made Katara smile a bit to herself, inside. At least she was finally taking his attention off his sister. The stress wasn't helping his healing; and he had to get better. He had to.

Hands flat against his chest, she seemed to be remembering something important.

"You and I, we both had to work hard. And we both had to make mistakes to learn from them. We obviously lost people important to us," there was no need to repeat just who, the way her voice dipped, "and not only that, we appreciate our teachers, not just for the skills they teach us, but for the lessons we learn from them." They both understood the difference between skills and lessons. "We need challenges, and in a lot of ways, I think we're equals, too. Maybe that's what makes us challenge each other. Also… we respect each other. It took me a while to overcome certain ideas I had, and I think it was the same for you, Zuko." His attentive, if slightly surprised look gave her heart. "But I think the two of us share more in common than your sister and I. I think we share heart."

It took him a few moments—and a final glance behind his friend and healer to assure himself it was safe—but eventually he allowed himself to relax, to settle more comfortably in Katara's lap, and close his eyes.

"Heart, I like that." He would have laughed if he wasn't so sure he'd undo some of the healing Katara had blessed him with; he wasn't too proud to admit he was happy to avoid physical pain for a bit.

"Yours will be fine if you stop pushing yourself," she growled at him, not unkindly. His long-fingered hand still covered her glowing one. "So shut up and stay still. You're a terrible patient, you know that?"

"Better me than you."

He realized his mistake the moment he said it.

Through their proximity, and maybe it was the healing, the transfer of her energies into his corporeal body, he suddenly felt every emotion that flowed through Katara—the guilt, the fear, the anger, the desperation, the helplessness…

And finally, overriding it all, the relief.

What a strange bond it was, he realized with wonder, and opened his eyes to see small trails leaking from the corners of her closed eyes.

Pain be damned, the young man thought firmly to himself in that moment.

As she had shared of herself with him, he would comfort her; with that, he lifted an arm around her to hold her close. It wasn't much, in his still-weakened state, but the gesture was universal.

And Katara, still healing his heart, brought her arm around him, too, and bent her head down as she embraced him in return.

The End.

Ref: http:/ alamus. deviantart. Com /art /Embrace-98083460

AN: This didn't come out quite how I wanted it, but it's growing on me. 8)

-mm