Katara woke late the next morning, stretching after taking the time to blink a few times. She heard a yell from outside the cave, and she jerked up. Looking around she realized Zuko was nowhere to be seen, and she grabbed her water bag as she scrambled to her feet and ran from the cave. She barely managed to stop and duck when a bolt of fire seared over her head, and she quickly flung out a storm of icicles in the direction the fire came from.


                   “Ow! Darn it Katara!” Her head snapped up to see Zuko holding his shoulder, water and blood mixing as it ran down his bare arm and chest.
“Oh no! I’m so sorry!” She ran to him, water encasing her hand and softly glowing a light blue.
“Here, let me fix it,” she said, gently prying his hand from the wound, wincing when she realized the shard of ice had completely went through his flesh. She flattened her hand against him, frowning in concentration as she felt the muscle and bone nit back together. He watched her eyes narrow as she pushed the healing water through him, and he hissed through his teeth when he felt the bones click together again.


                    “Sorry,” she murmured, pulling her hand back to reveal skin completely unbroken. He grimaced and rotated his shoulder, then smirked at her.
“Thanks.” She rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, thanks for healing you after I made you a pin cushion.”
He frowned slightly.
“Why did you do that anyways?”
She crossed her arms and looked away.


                “I thought we were being attacked or something. I heard you yell, and when I came outside you nearly hit me, and I just went for it. Sorry.”
When she looked up at him, she saw the softness in his eyes.
“What?”
“Thanks. For, you know, being willing to come out fighting for me, I guess.”
She gave him a look.
“Like I’d do anything else.”


She started to walk away, but he pulled her back to him, hugging her close.
“You don’t know what it means to me to have someone willing to come out fighting with their only knowledge being that I’m in trouble. For all you knew there was fifteen guys out here and they already had me captured. You came anyways. It’s not something many would do for me.”
She looked at him.



               “But you just had two entire fire navy crews swear allegiance to you. The entire fighting force of the Southern Water Tribe is fighting for you. The avatar is fighting for you.”
He shook his head.


                 “Not the same thing. They’ve agreed to fight UNDER me. You just proved that you’d fight FOR me.”
Just as suddenly as he had hugged her, he let her go.
“Come on, we need to get going.”
He laughed at her bewildered face, and walked away to start breakfast.