Avatar: The Last Airbender - Ignis Aequor

She's asleep when she hears the metal door creak open.

Katara's energy is slowly returning even though she's nowhere near where she used to be; she can feel the intruder's blood move though his body and the faint pulsing of a heartbeat. It's a man and he's alone.

She keeps her back to the door where she lies on the bed and waits. Eyes closed and breath even so that her visitor will think she's asleep.

Her hands grip the sheets tighter though and her body stiffens. She waits.

"I know you're awake." The Prince states and Katara's eyes open. She can't see him, but she can hear him close the door before he takes a few steps closer to the bed. "Lee says you wake up at the same time every morning."

"And what if I decided to sleep in?" She asks bitterly. Katara sits up though, the blanket pooling at her waist as she turns to face him with her back against the headboard. It's warm and she's in her bindings – Katara doesn't miss his eyes narrow when he looks at her. Interesting.

"Your back hasn't healed completely yet." Zuko takes notice. Katara doesn't know what sort of condition the skin of her back is because she refuses to look in mirrors when she goes to the bathroom, but she does know that the wound has healed. By the look on the Prince's face though, she guesses that it's scarred over.

He doesn't seem to like that.

Curious, Katara reaches her arm around to her back and feels along the skin. Sure enough, it's no longer smooth and soft like it was. Now it's rough and coarse, bumpy underneath her fingertips. What she wants to do is see what it looks like now that she knows the skin is marred. Does it look like Zuko's scar?

"I haven't been able to restore myself. You and Zhao have kept me from the moon." Katara crosses her arms over her chest and glares at him. Surely he knows about that. It's not exactly rare knowledge that waterbenders get their power from the moon just like firebenders get theirs from the sun.

But by now it probably won't make a difference. Even if Zuko lets her sleep on the deck underneath the moon's light her back will never heal. It's been too long, and the burn was too much. She's been too exhausted and the scar will stay with her forever.

Katara likes that. Being a healer and bloodbender, her body has always been able to heal herself. She's never had the badges of honor that cover her brother's and her father's skin. Now she has one of her own. Part of her life's story is on her skin just like the etching at her waist.

She hopes it's impressive looking. It wouldn't be fair if she went through all of that pain just to come out with a pathetic scar.

Zuko looks like he's going to say something but he seems to think better of it. Something on his face is torn, his back stiffens and he gains control over himself again. Katara wonders who taught him how to do that – how to get command of himself that quickly. It might have been gained through experience and age though, but she's still sure someone had to show him how to do that.

His temper is too volatile-seeming to believe otherwise.

"You took the water from the plant the other day, didn't you?"

It takes her a moment to realize what he's talking about. "Maybe, maybe not. Why? Do you think I did?"

"How did you do it?"

"How did I do what?" She goads him. It works because his eyes flash and his cheeks get a tad bit redder.

"How did you take the water?"

"Did I take it?"

"You just said you did!"

"No I didn't. I said that I might have. That's two totally different responses, Prince. And shouldn't you already know the answer? Fire Nation Royalty seems to have the answers for everything else so I don't really see how this is any different."

He actually breathes steam from his nose and she's sure that she sees a flicker of flame at his hands. She smiles because she's winning.

Katara slips from underneath the covers and stands by the bed. The black pants that she found in the dresser are so long that they drag on the floor when she walks to where she discarded her tunic during the night. She pulls it over her head, adjusting it a bit.

"I've never seen a waterbender take from plants before." Zuko utters under his breath and she almost doesn't hear him. He isn't looking at her at first, but then he is and Katara is a little caught off guard by the curiosity in them. "How did you do it?"

She actually pauses before she denies it. "If you've never seen a waterbender do it before then why do you ask? Seems like you think it's impossible."

"I know what I saw the other day. Somehow, you got your hands on more water and my plant is dead. That means that you had to have taken it and I want to know how you did it."

"Why? Are you planning on trying to take water from a plant? You're a firebender so I'm pretty sure that is impossible no matter if I actually did it or not."

"I know what I saw! Stop beating around the bush and just tell me the truth!" Katara takes a step back when he moves towards her, eyes angry and his body tense as fists form by his sides and she's actually a little worried that she pushed him a bit far.

But it doesn't matter. Because that worry is eclipsed by the fact that she got that controlling exterior of his to fall and now she's seeing the real Zuko. The one with a temper that matches the fire in his veins.

"What if I told you that I did?" That makes him stop his advance and he looks at her, his eyes going from angry to scrutinizing her as if trying to figure out if she's trying to tell him that she did, in fact, take the water. "What would you do then?"

Zuko blinks. "I-I don't know." At his sides, his hands relax like the rest of his body and he looks away from her. "But did you? Did you take the water from the plant?"

"My answer depends on yours. I'm not admitting or denying anything until I know what you're thinking about doing to me."

Katara watches as the Prince takes in a deep breath. His anger is gone but the control isn't back up yet. She caught him off guard, surprised him with her sudden turn of tone and she sees that he's more than a little confused about everything.

"Un-General Iroh has learned several things from studying waterbenders." He pauses as if he's going over what he's about to say multiple times and she waits patiently even though she's very interested in what he's going to offer.

But Zuko sharply turns his head to look at her. "How were you able to get the water from the plant? You already said that you haven't seen the moon in days so you don't have your full strength yet. Wouldn't that have taken a lot of energy?"

"I'm not as strong as I could be. Yes, taking the water made me a lot weaker because it took up so much of my energy. Why did you think that you were able to beat me so quickly?" She realizes after she answers that she just told him that she took it from the plant.

Katara watches him carefully. He doesn't seem angry or confused just... intrigued.

Understanding flickers across his face and he seems satisfied. "I was wondering why you seemed… weaker than I expected. Your wave that stopped Zhao's fire was impressive even though it nearly killed you."

Katara bites on the inside of her cheek. Where was he going with this, again?

"Can you do anything else?"

Yes. "No." Zuko doesn't need to know about the bloodbending. She can't do it until she feels the moon anyway and she's saving that show for last.

He looks a little disappointed and she fights the urge to smile.

Zuko reaches inside the pocket of his tunic and he pulls out the knife she had the other day. He looks down at it then back up at her before extending his arm to hand it to her. Katara stares at it.

"Some of the men are angry because you attacked one of them in the kitchen. I will let you keep this for protection only in case you are unable to defend yourself and they make it past Lee."

"Is that a smart move, Prince?"

He smirks. "I've seen you try to fight with it. It's a pathetic weapon and to be honest, you're an even more pathetic knife wielder. I'm guessing you've never had any formal training?"

"I'm a waterbender. Why would I need to know how to work a knife?" Katara glowers at him, rather insulted by his comment. She thought she had done okay for her first time with the short weapon. Katara had used spears once or twice when they hunted and a skinning knife but that was nothing like using one to actually kill.

"If you had known how to use one the other day, you might have gotten away."

Katara looks at him. The knife is still held out to her and she reaches out gingerly, wary as if he's going to slice her wrist when she gets close enough. Before he can do that, she grabs it and yanks it away from him so that she's holding it instead of him. He makes no move to stop her.

"If you try to use it to injure one of my men when they're not trying to attack you, I will not hesitate to punish you. That is a warning, waterbender."

"I've never been good with warnings." Katara shrugs her shoulders. Zuko's lips tug up in the corner but there's no smile. "But giving me this knife isn't going to make me talk about the Avatar. You, Lee and your uncle can try to woo me all you want. It's not going to happen."

The knife slips underneath her pillow where she had kept it before. Despite the fact that she is glad she has another – although far less effective – weapon near her, she wasn't blind to what they were trying to do. Giving her a false sense of comfort with the room and the bed, security with the knife, fake friendship with Lee and Iroh's tea.

Their methods were different than Zhao's. But that didn't make them any more dangerous. Katara had to keep her guard up so that she didn't enjoy their company too much. After she had come back from General Iroh's room, Katara had kicked herself for being so stupid. These people weren't her friends. Lee at the very most was a fickle ally.

She had to be stronger.

"I'm not in charge of your interrogations. That is the Fire Lord's duty."

"But you want to know about the Avatar just as much as Zhao does. You're just as eager, aren't you?"

That's something he doesn't seem to have an answer to. Or an answer that he doesn't want to give her.

"You never trusted Zhao, did you?" Katara continues, watching the Prince carefully as she spoke. "I saw it when you were in his room. You didn't like him then and you definitely don't like him now. You followed him after that, waiting for him to mess up so that you could come leaping in. That's why you were able to get to the boat so fast."

"Anyone who trusts Zhao is foolish. Even my father had his concerns. It would only make sense for someone to stand and watch just in case anything happened. My ship and I happened to be closest to him."

"I'm not an idiot. You had a spy on that ship. There's no way you could have known otherwise. I bet –"

"Enough. I don't need to answer to you." The interruption and the tightness that appears in his shoulders is more than enough for her. Zuko might not have answered her in his words, but he didn't have to. His reaction is more than enough to confirm what she had been thinking ever since that day.

Her lips curl up into a victorious smile. "But you already have."

Something breaks in Zuko and he's launching himself at her. His hands grab onto her arms tightly, hauling her close to him as he stares down at her. He's hot – his heart is beating erratically and there's steam coming from his breath and his hands are uncomfortably warm.

Her own heart skips at the heat.

It makes her start to wriggle. She can't bend because there's no water or plants around so she starts shoving her hands at his chest and kneeing his thighs to get some room in between them. He tightens his grip on her arms, the heat getting warmer, and she pushes against him harder.

There's a flicker of something in his eyes and before Katara can really figure out what that something is, she's being pushed away. Katara's legs hit the bed and she sits, catching herself by putting her palms down and she gasps. She hadn't expected him to shove her away.

Zuko's jaw is clenched when he turns away abruptly and storms out of the room. The door slams shut behind him, leaving her slack-jawed with the heat fading from her arms and curiosity in her mind.

Well that was… odd. Odd and most interesting.

-/-

Katara has braided her hair twice and read the rest of the poems in the red book when there's a light knock on the door. A moment later, Lee opens and comes in. She shuts the book and sets it to the side, sitting up on the bed so that she can get a good look at him in the low candlelight.

He flicks his wrist just barely and the candles flare. The room becomes brighter.

"The Prince has agreed to let you eat in the kitchen, tonight. He hopes that you will not cause any more disturbances." Lee states. "I assured him that you wouldn't."

"Never assure him anything. Especially when you can't guarantee it." Katara gives him a flat stare. Rather reluctantly, she clambers out of the bed and straightens the hem of her tunic before she slips on the black flats. She's not even hungry, really. She'd much rather stay in her room alone than go in the kitchen just to be stared at.

If they wanted to give her fresh air they should take her outside. Will she ever see the moon again?

Lee shakes his head as she crosses her arms over her chest and waits for him to lead her out. She suspects that he will handcuff her like he has before, but he doesn't. Katara hasn't been cuffed since her fight with Zuko when he threw the metal clamps on his table before dismissing her.

"If I ask you something, will you tell me the truth?" Katara asks him when they're walking to the kitchen.

The look he gives her is a bit wary but he slowly nods his head. "Sure, I suppose."

"Is Zhao still on board?"

"Yes. Of course I can't tell you where he is being held –"

"Does he know that you were Zuko's spy?"

"– because we can't – wait, what?" His eyes widen and he blanches when she stares at him. "I-I didn't –what –"

"You were the one who let Zuko know about the burning."

"I-I…" Lee finally gets control of himself and clears his throat. Looking around to make sure that they are alone in the hall, he leans closer to her. "My loyalty is to the Fire Nation. Not to any one Captain."

"So you admit to it."

"I admit to serving my Nation. Nothing more." Lee blinks, then turns away and starts walking back to the kitchen.

Katara hurries to catch up with him. "But why would you turn against Zhao like that? I mean, I know he's not the best person or anything and I'm not surprised that someone other than me wanted to bring him down but…why? I thought loyalty was a big thing in the Fire Nation."

"Loyalty to country is. Loyalty to one person varies depending on the circumstances." Lee halts and she has to jerk herself back so that she can meet his eyes when he faces her and bends down again. "This conversation is over."

"But – hey, wait I wasn't finished asking questions!" Lee starts walking again, Katara scrambling to catch up with him again. She was starting to get a little whiplash from all of the stopping and starting.

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not," she huffs indignantly.

"Yes. You are." His voice is tighter now. Katara clamps her mouth shut and follows after him silently. Her curiosity, while peaking and nagging at her, knows that she's about to cross a boundary. Lee's getting defensive and unlike Zuko, she actually kind of likes the Fire Nation guard even though she knows she shouldn't.

Both Lee and Katara are quiet when they eat. Katara can't help but try to come up with reasons why Lee would turn against Zhao in favor of Zuko. The answer about loyalty should make sense but it doesn't. Not to her.

The move should have brought Lee some sort of personal gain. But from what she could see, his status hasn't changed much. He is still guarding her, wearing the same robes and Zuko hasn't said he was promoted or anything. Lee seems to still be the same guard he was before. Surely if he had showed his devotion to his country by handing over a corrupted captain, he would have gained something.

But he hasn't. And that is what troubles her. The Southern Water Tribe even had rewards for soldiers who showed that they were loyal to the tribe rather than their superiors. It didn't happen often because there were so few left and the tribesmen by nature were not very ambitious but still. They had something.

The Fire Nation, whose entire foundation was built on ambition alone, should have some sort of reward system for behavior like Lee's. He shouldn't be stuck guarding her, he should have been promoted to Captain of his own crew or something. Even if Zuko was waiting for the Fire Lord to bless the promotion, there should still be stirrings of it.

There were none though. And that makes Katara very suspicious of Lee's claims of national devotion.

Lee walks with Katara when they slide their plates in the bins. Supper has gone without anything happening. Everything is quite normal – quiet and there are far too many heated stares sent in her direction, but it's about as normal as it's going to get and Katara has come to accept that.

She tries very hard to ignore the moon's pull when she's in the hallway. The kitchen is close to the open air of the deck. Wanting nothing more than to run out and soak up the energy, she has to grit her teeth and force herself to follow after Lee.

That act of defiance will not go unpunished like her knife incident did.

When she's in her room, alone, Katara stands by her door until she hears the click of the lock. She bites the inside of her cheek and waits until she hears Lee's footsteps walk away and there's nothing but silence outside before she goes over to her bed.

Before she takes two steps, Katara pauses. The lock. She walks back to the door and bends down so that she can see the handle. It's hard to see because of the dim light, but when she shifts away from it a bit she can see that there is a tiny slot just under the handle where the lock is. Just the right size for…

Katara rises and practically runs over to her bed. She slips the knife out from the pillow, holding it close to the light. Zuko's right; the knife makes a pathetic weapon and probably won't hurt anyone if she ever tries to stab them. But it's just thin enough at the edge that she might be able to…

She's back by the door in a matter of seconds, bent down on her knees with the knife in one hand and a lit candle by her side. Her hand doesn't shake when she slides the knife's tip in the tiny slot. It doesn't go very far and when she wriggles it around, she can feel something hard pressing against it that prevents much more movement.

Teeth biting the inside of her cheek and eyes narrowing in concentration, she wriggles it a little harder, digging it further into the tiny hole so that she can get more leverage against the block. If she could just –

– the block gives and she hears a click. Katara's heart stops beating for a moment and her eyes widen a fraction. She just unlocked a door with a knife. Testing it, she reaches up to turn the knob and sure enough, she's able to twist it all the way.

Katara gently lets it go back so that it doesn't make any noise to alert anyone that might be nearby. It takes a bit of pulling to get the knife out of slot but she manages, landing on the back of her heels when she gets it free.

A slow smile spreads across her face. The Prince has just given her a way to escape.

He's helped her in more ways than he –and she – ever thought possible.

-/-

The moon calls to her strongly that night.

It's getting close to a full moon. The three days before and the three days after the full moon, she's at her weakest. It's a balance – nature always has a way of doing that – and her weak points are not really that weak but she can tell when she bends that there's a difference. It's harder. She uses more energy. Sometimes, her waves are not that powerful.

One time, her weakness almost killed her father when she was unable to drown a firebender's fire blade because she had been fighting for nearly two hours. Luckily, Sokka had been there and their father was able to get out relatively unscarred and unburned. Barely – but he made it out thanks to his sun.

Katara grimaces at the memory. She hates thinking about times when she's failed.

But with the weakness comes a peak that she can definitely notice. Her waves are always towers and her ice is always unbreakable, even to the hottest of fires she's able to withstand it. Those are the memories Katara likes best; ones where she was able to overturn an entire Fire Nation ship or the times when she was praised as a battle hero because she took on the firebenders almost single-handedly and won.

Getting power from the moon certainly has its drawbacks, but the rewards that she reaps are more than enough to make up for it.

By her guesses, the full moon is less than a few days away – four at the very most. She has the next day to build up her energy and then she should rest the three days after that because she'll be at her weakest.

But on that fourth day… Well, Katara probably shouldn't make plans of escaping yet. But the knife under her pillow taunts her and so does the unlocked door. She has a way out, and she'll be stronger than the other benders. She can finally get out and get back to her Tribe…

It's more than enticing. Katara has missed the moon so much that feeling the pull almost makes her want to cry out in frustration. She should be outside on the deck, absorbing the power now that it's strong. She'll be weak; she'll need the energy for those three days.

She shouldn't. If the soldiers catch her outside her room, they'll know she got out somehow – they'll search her room and find the knife – and there's no telling what will happen then. No, Katara knows what will happen. Zuko will have no choice but to take it back and banish her to a real cell. One without a bed and books and clothes and a door and baths.

It'll be like Zhao all over again. Only this time, she can't count on nice guards to give her water or a Fire Prince to bombard the ship. They've been traveling for four days now, not counting the one full day she was on Zhao's ship. When she was captured, she was on the opposite side of the Earth Nation. If it took about three weeks to get around…

She'll be in the prison for about two weeks. After only being in the cell in Zhao's ship for a night and nearly dying, she isn't exactly wanting to back down in there.

So why does the pull of the moon seem more and more enticing?

Against her better judgment, Katara slides out of the bed and pulls on the black tunic. She moves slowly – she shouldn't be doing this, she shouldn't be getting dressed, she shouldn't be tucking the knife up her sleeve, she shouldn't be sliding her feet into the flats, she shouldn't be walking towards the door, she shouldn't be twisting the handle.

But she is. And before she can stop herself, she's slipped out between the tiny crack and she's in the hallway with her back pressed up against the wall and the door closing behind her.