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An Agni Kai was one of the possibilities that Zuko had considered when he asked Katara to accompany him to the fight against Azula, but he had also expected her to play fair.
But it was Azula and as soon as she mentioned it with the crazed look in her eyes that showed that her mental state was unstable, he should have known that his little sister would do what she had always done. Play dirty.
So when her hands were full of lightning and her gaze shifted towards Katara, Zuko knew what he had to do and he rushed to shield Katara from the blast that would have surely ended her life.
It happened in a flash; a light blue, fiery, painful flash.
His body convulsed harshly as the lightning made its way through him and he could have sworn he heard Azula mock him by saying, "Zu Zu, you don't look so good."
After that, he couldn't hold himself up anymore and was forced to focus on his harsh breathing as he heard Azula and Katara fight for what felt like hours; until he heard rushed footsteps and was slowly maneuvered onto his back before a soft coolness quenched the fire in his chest
He finally managed to open his eyes to see Katara, eyebrows knit tightly with concentration as she held the water over his wound before looking at his eyes. It was only then that he managed to voice his thanks in a whisper.
Zuko watched as Katara's eyes filled with tears that quickly spilled onto the ground as she responded. "I think I'm the one who should be thanking you."
As Azula continued to scream and spit fire, he let Katara pull him to his feet, the fire in his chest still blazing but not as hot as she held onto his shoulders.
"We should get you inside. I need to get a better look at your wound." Katara insisted as the guards came out of the shadows to take Azula away, but Zuko shook his head and turned to them.
"Don't lock her in the prison tower. Send her to a place where they can help her."
"Oh, Zu Zu, still too weak to lock me up." Azula sneered between her disturbed screams as she was taken away, leaving Katara and Zuko in the still-flaming courtyard. He focused on ignoring her words, that he knew that he was giving her the best option possible but it still made his chest ache and burn harder to the point where he could feel sweat start to form at his brow.
That was when he turned to Katara, only for her figure to be distorted, that he remembered this distinct feeling. He had felt in Ba Sing Se as he was falling ill just before he had lost consciousness and he could see that Katara was saying something but all that came out was muffled noise.
"I don't feel good…" he managed to moan before his feet fell from under him and his vision went black.
…
For the first time in Iroh's adult life, he felt like he could breathe freely. His brother had been stopped, the one-hundred-year war was over…and he was on the right side of history. 'If only you could have seen this, Lu Ten.'
Helping rebuild Ba Sing Se was going to take a long time, maybe even years to fully restore it, but as he watched members of all four nations band together to do so, he had hope that it would be just as beautiful when it was finished, if not more so.
Even when his mind brought back the worry about Zuko and his friends, minus Aang who had been to them first with Ozai unconscious and no longer able to bend, he forced it to go away. Aang had stopped The Fire Lord, so the others had to be victorious as well.
At least that's what he was telling himself for the first day as he joined the rebuilding effort, starting with his tea shop in the heart of downtown.
It wasn't until the midday break for food and his teapot of jasmine had started to steep, that one of the fire soldiers approached him with a scroll in hand and an apologetic look on his face that Iroh had last seen when he lost Lu Ten.
"Are you alright, soldier? I have a pot of steeping jasmine tea if you would like to sit with me." He explained while his heart pounded and his thoughts flooded with every bad scenario that could have happened in the capital, all centered on his nephew.
"I'm afraid not, I'm busy delivering messages to and from the fire nation, but that's why I came here. I have a message from Katara for you."
"Go ahead." Iroh swallowed nervously, trying to keep his face stoic as the man unrolled the scroll and began to read.
"The fight against Azula resulted in victory and she is currently being taken care of in the Fire Nation Prison Hospital. Suki, Toph, and the other Kyoshi warriors have started the rebuilding efforts with the civilians with Sokka acting as a supervisor due to a broken leg. The win did not come easy for us, however, and Zuko is very injured. I'm doing my best to heal him, but due to the severity of his condition, it was recommended that I send for you in between sessions. He had not regained consciousness since fainting shortly after the fight and he has started to develop a fever. I can only assume that he will continue to deteriorate before he starts to recover. I hope this message finds you well, Katara."
Iroh was already on his feet before the customary closing of the water tribes. "When do you leave for the capital?"
"After we've grabbed some food and the rest of the letters to the capital."
Iroh nodded as he started making a mental checklist of what he had in Ba Sing Se while asking. "Do you have room for one more?"
…
No matter how hard Katara tried, she couldn't break through the fever that was rampaging through Zuko's body. From healing with one hand and wiping off his forehead with the other to focusing directly on the fever for a full session rather than the lightning wound, it seemed as though nothing was working.
As she slowly tried to repair internal damage, the heat from the wound and his skin passed onto her, making her stomach ache and her brow sweat profusely, but she couldn't stop until she had to. 'I can't let him die, not now.'
Her throat was parched and she was running out of clean water for bending by the time Sokka hobbled into the room with a crutch under his arm and a glass of water in his hand.
"I can't use that for bending." She told her older brother as she soothed yet another internal burn.
"It's not for him, it's for you. Drink."
Katara stopped bending with her left hand to take the water and drank it in one gulp, letting the coolness soothe her parched throat before passing the glass back to Sokka and continuing to work on trying to repair what she could.
"How bad?"
"It's internal burns. Healing them is hard because fire benders are warm so they can only be soothed. Between that and his fever…" she stopped healing with her right hand to wipe down Zuko's warm forehead, feeling the skin twitch under her soft hand when the cloth went over the top of his scar, "I sent for Iroh in Ba Sing Se yesterday morning. I'm hoping that he has a better solution."
"Why don't you let me take a shift? You need food and sleep."
"Because you're not a bender."
"I can sponge a sweaty forehead, thank you very much." Sokka pretended to take mock offense and Katara knew it, but the exhaustion had spread to her bones and she couldn't remember the last time she ate something, so she went along with it.
"You'll get me if something happens?"
"You have my word." Sokka insisted and that was enough for Katara to rise from her chair and set off on a mission to find food and a soft bed, all while trying her hardest to ignore the fact that she should still be working on healing Zuko.
…
The messengers arrived at the capital as nightfall was settling onto the city and the second day of rebuilding was winding down with a meal before everyone went to their temporary housing. But as soon as Iroh dismounted from his ostrich horse, he was immediately stopped by one of the Kyoshi warriors.
"General Iroh," The teenager nodded before bowing to him and he didn't have the heart to correct her, so he bowed back to her, "My name is Suki. Sokka told me that you would be arriving at nightfall and asked for me to escort you to the infirmary."
"Thank you, dear." He nodded before following her to the palace.
The ground of the courtyard was scorched by fire and lightning and the structures weren't much better in terms of damage. He knew that this was where the battle between his niece and nephew had taken place and as they passed every charred structure his heart ached as he tried to picture just how violent the fight had been.
When they walked inside, however, aside from a shattered mirror the interior was untouched. Down to the snarling portraits of Ozai glaring down at those who made their way into the palace walls. He knew that in the coming days, they would be taken down but for now, he avoided their judgemental looks.
They finally arrived at the infirmary, passing the rooms that held injured soldiers and civilians from the battle until they arrived at the large doors that were made from melded iron that only held members of the fire lord's family. Suki reached her hand forward and delivered three hard knocks to the doors before they opened, but Iroh couldn't wait for another second and rushed towards his nephew.
His nephew, who was still unconscious but his brow was twisted in agony, who had beads of sweat falling from his temples due to the rising fever, and who had a sickeningly large lightning wound that cascaded over his chest but led to a hole of torn, infected skin in the middle.
"Oh, Zuko…" he muttered under his breath as he pushed his hair out of his eyes, his fingers lingering on his hot forehead, "you did well. But the fight is not over yet."
He didn't even register Suki's departure until he heard a different voice greet him that he knew belonged to the water bender who had sent for him in the first place.
"Katara," he offered her a brief but grateful smile while turning his head before he asked, "what have you done so far?"
"I've been trying to heal the internal injuries first to heal the infection, but due to his fever and his body heat, all I can do is soothe the burns. I've also been trying to get his fever down so I have a better chance of healing the wounds, but it hasn't budged. I think it's only gotten higher."
"I know he's still unconscious, but we need to find a way to get some water into him. He's dehydrated, which is only making things worse," Iroh explained as he ran the cool washcloth over his nephew's forehead, "Zuko has always been prone to illness, even as a child. It'll take him a while to shake this but he will as soon as we can get him healed enough to awaken."
"I'll go get more water." Katara nodded and rose from her spot towards the iron doors as Iroh called out after her.
"Bring me my teapot and the brown box beside it," when she gave him a nod of confirmation before the doors closed behind her, he turned back to his unconscious nephew and wiped at his forehead again, knowing that the boy couldn't hear him, "you always did hate that tea. But it does wonders for infection."
…
Zuko's face burned.
The world was dark, his stomach was twisting harshly with nausea and his face was searing hot. If he moved, he likely was going to be violently sick, but at the same time, he felt the urge to open his eyes and take in his surroundings.
'Zu Zu, you don't look so good.'
The haunting echo of Azula's voice was enough for him to open his eyes, expecting to see her sneering over his body with a triumphant grin because she had won the Agni Kai. All that he saw was a dim light filling the room and the moon outside of the window.
He was inside. The battle was over. He was in the infirmary that he had been in so many times as a child after fights with Azula. That was a relieving sign because it meant that he had won…hopefully.
"Easy, Zuko," a voice soothed softly as he managed to turn his head to see Katara hovering over him with a soft smile, "you don't want to hurt yourself more."
"We won?" He managed to choke out, his throat as dry and hot as his face, but the nod from the water bender was enough to make speaking worth it. But when he tried to take a chance to shift his position in the bed, that's when he felt it.
The unmistakable hot, searing pain of a lightning strike right in his torso forced him to turn himself over in order not to retch onto Katara. As he continued to vomit, sending more pain into his chest, he felt two cooling hands on his stomach that finally started to lessen the pain.
"I'm sorry." He coughed as he rolled onto his back once again and realized that it was Katara who was trying to heal his stomach.
"It's okay, I should have warned you. Azula did a lot of damage and it's going to take you a while to get back on your feet." Katara explained slowly and softly as she removed her hands from him.
"Just how much?" He questioned as his body started to shake violently.
"You have a pretty bad infection that's making healing the wounds near impossible," she explained as she reached over and slowly pressed a cold cloth to his forehead, stopping the shaking, "your uncle is working on some sort of tea to combat it, but it's going to be a bit till you can stomach much of anything."
"Where are the others?"
"Toph, Suki, and Sokka are working on helping rebuild both the Capital and Ba Sing Se. Aang has been pitching in when he can, but he's been meeting with other nation leaders nearly every day to start planning on how to move forward. Your uncle has been meeting with other fire nation officials to remove the Ozai loyalists and to resume the throne temporarily."
"Temporarily?" Zuko's head was beginning to ache as the pillow under him tried to lure him back to sleep and his face continued to burn with a renewed fire behind it.
"Until you've recovered enough for your coronation."
"Right," Zuko nodded, although every fiber in his being was telling him just how much he didn't want or deserve to be the new fire lord, "right, that makes sense."
"You should go back to sleep. You'll probably feel better in the morning." She insisted as she pressed a cooling hand to his face and began to quench the fire on it.
"What about you?" He asked as he closed his eyes and tried to let the coolness lull him back to sleep. But before it welcomed him with open arms, he heard her voice answer with a shakiness that made him concerned.
"I have a few more healing sessions to do."
…
He hadn't been asleep for long when a soft hand gently squeezed his shoulder and he managed to open his eyes. Even though it had been cleaned up, Zuko didn't dare move for fear of vomiting once again. But he adjusted his gaze and couldn't help but smile despite the pain when he saw his uncle smiling back at him.
"Hey, uncle." He rasped while blinking a few times to clear his vision, trying to see better in the dim light.
"Zuko, I didn't expect you to be awake so soon," his uncle stopped to press something cold against his forehead, "you're still very ill. But, you're awake now, so you must be starting to turn a corner."
But instead of having some sort of comment to add to his uncle's statement, the memory of how shaky and tired Katara had sounded before he fell asleep came back; he couldn't figure out why it scared him so much but it made him unsettled enough for him to ask, "how's Katara?"
His uncle was silent for what felt like hours; although it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, it was enough to worry Zuko for that time until Iroh finally spoke, but his answer wasn't the reassurance that he was hoping for.
"She's putting up a strong front, getting up every few hours to continue to try and heal your wounds. But as soon as you're out of the woods, I guarantee that she is going to crumble without her worry and adrenaline."
Something about Katara being weak, tired, and unable to defend herself nearly made Zuko sick to his stomach and he knew that if it was Aang, Toph, or Sokka, he'd feel the same way. But he wouldn't be making himself more ill over it, surely not.
'Do I…like Katara?' he wondered briefly, but he shook it away just as fast as it came, 'No. She's just my friend. My friend who is running herself dry on my behalf.'
"We should get some tea into you before you fall asleep," Iroh interrupted his thoughts as he stood and Zuko grimaced at the idea of the nasty tea that Iroh made whenever he fell ill, even though it always ended up helping him feel better; and he knew that his uncle saw the grimace because he offered Zuko a sympathetic smile before walking through the iron doors, "the sooner you drink it, the sooner we can convince Katara to get some real sleep."
Those were the words that convinced Zuko to comply with the gross herbal remedy because even if she was just a friend, helping her made Zuko feel good. Like he could do the right thing.
…
It was weird for Katara to continue with the healing sessions once Zuko was awake. Even though she was glad that he had finally opened his eyes and that the infection was slowly but surely fading, the way he looked at her with what she could only describe as worry was starting to get annoying.
She was the one who was supposed to be worried about him. He had been the one to risk his life and almost end it by taking the lightning meant for her, he was the one whose body was struggling to comply with her healing the wounds inside of him. So why in the world was he concerned about her?
"You can at least speak to me," Katara finally said as she tried to once again knit together the tearing despite Zuko gritting his teeth as she did, "instead of just staring at me like that."
"Like what?" He questioned through his teeth, fighting back the pain as she pulled the skin together.
"You're worried about me and you won't tell me why, you just keep staring," she explained as she moved to the large burn in the center of his torso, feeling his muscles visibly loosen under her water-covered palms, "so I need you to tell me why, so I can focus."
The room was quiet aside from the soft slosh of water from her healing and she began to wonder if she had stunned Zuko into silence with her shaking hands until he spoke up, his voice weak from pain and exhaustion.
"Because you look awful, Katara. You haven't slept for more than a few hours in days. You barely eat, you hardly drink," he stopped to take a shaky breath and she couldn't help but notice that his left arm snaked around his torso where she had just been bringing the damaged skin back together, "and I'm pretty sure that it's making the healing less effective."
He wasn't wrong. Sokka had pointed out her eye bags during breakfast where she could barely touch her food due to her worry. She was worried about the future and how she didn't know where she fit into it. She was worried about Aang who was a thirteen-year-old boy by himself in meetings with people who could easily take advantage of his kindness and age.
And most of all, she was worried about Zuko; the future fire lord who was just now starting to heal, who had been so hurt just a few days ago that she sent for Iroh in case he had to make final goodbyes, that almost convinced her to pull Aang away from his work because their friend was on death's doorstep. Even though he was making small strides towards his recovery now, Katara was still worried that one misstep was going to send him right back to when he first lost consciousness and she doubted that he could bring himself back from that a second time.
"That doesn't mean I should stop," she insisted as she covered her palms once again and tried her hardest to focus on the wound despite the shaking in her hands, "not when you're still so injured."
"Katara," he moved forward and gripped her wrist, shocking her with how tight it was but she knew that it was to get her attention and not out of malice, "if you keep healing me while you're like this, there's a large chance you'll do more harm than good to the both of us."
Katara sighed because she knew that he was right. Shaking hands only could make mistakes while steady hands were the ones that healed and fought, she knew that from her own experience. Even though her fears pulled on her heart, she knew that she needed a break that was longer than a few hours.
So she bent the water off of her palms and into the bucket she had placed by his bedside before putting her hands together and offering him a bow of respect that she knew he would protest against before speaking.
"I will return by the next sunrise."
And with that, she stood up slowly and made her way out of the iron doors to make her way back to her room, keeping an eye on the sundial in the hall as she walked.
…
Zuko managed to push himself up to rest against his propped-up pillows without throwing up from the shocks of pain radiating through his body. He never thought he'd be so thankful to see the sun, even if it was from the infirmary window.
The warmth felt good on his feverish skin and he could feel strength in his body that had been missing through all of the healing sessions he had endured; even with his chest aching as he breathed from the wounds, he felt like himself again.
So when a knock on the iron doors interrupted it, he had to fight back the urge to yell at whoever was behind them and instead, called out for them to come in, expecting to see Suki, Iroh, or even a very exhausted but stubborn Katara.
But when the doors opened to reveal Aang, still in his traditional air nomad colors of orange and yellow and holding his staff in his right hand, Zuko couldn't stop his happiness from escaping his lips with a cheer as the thirteen-year-old nearly crushed him in a hug.
"I'm so glad you're awake," Aang muttered from where he had firmly pressed his face against Zuko's light red robes that were common for infirmary patients, "I was here for a while, helping them with Ozai, but you look so much better when you're awake."
Zuko chuckled at Aang's rambling while holding the small Avatar to his chest, making sure that the boy knew that he was alive and was on his way to recovery before he finally made his request that he knew would be best for his strength in the long run.
"Can you help me walk to the window?"
He expected a protest of concern, but Aang just wordlessly nodded before letting go of him so he could offer his hand out. Zuko took it firmly and slowly pulled himself to his feet, his legs starting to shake immediately with the unfamiliarity.
"Here, take this," Aang offered out his staff, which Zuko wrapped his hand around tightly to stop the shaking in his legs, "it's good for balance."
"Thanks, Aang." Zuko nodded and slowly made his way to his goal, holding onto his friend with his left arm and the staff with his right until they finally made it to the window, the sun shining on him as it began to set behind the mountains that lined the edge of the fire nation.
"Do you want a chair?" Aang asked softly, but Zuko shook his head. The sun made him stronger, smarter, and faster. If he wanted to, he could let go of both Aang and the staff, but he didn't as a symbol of their friendship and his respect for his friend.
"Do you remember when I was teaching you how to firebend, and I would wake you up in time to meditate as the sun came up?" He waited until Aang gave him a nod of confirmation before continuing, "waterbenders grow strong with the moon, but firebenders, we grow strong with the sun. It amplifies our powers. I'm hoping that the feeling of sunlight on my skin.-"
"Will help you heal." Aang finished and Zuko nodded before turning his eyes back to the soft orange coming from the sky, feeling his adrenaline start to go down with the sun and an ache starting to form in the pit of his stomach.
He gripped harder onto the staff as his head started to pound with fever and he could have sworn Aang had said something, but his mouth was dry and he felt way too hot like the room was closing in on him.
He didn't know if it was a mercy or not when his vision finally went black even though it was accompanied by Aang's terrified scream.
…
Katara didn't think she could wake up to anything more terrifying than Aang's scream. He was just now thirteen, younger than all of them except for Toph, and his scream sounded so much younger than he was.
'Screw the sunrise.' She told herself as she hurried towards the infirmary, tightening her sash on the way and bracing herself to see the wildest of nightmares behind the iron doors.
What she had been thinking didn't even begin to shine a light on the sight of Aang struggling to drag Zuko back to his bed with tears rolling down his face.
"What happened?" She demanded as she rushed over to help support the teen's weight, looking over to see Suki with a lack of Kyoshi make-up standing in the hallway and ready to do what was needed, "go get clean water"
"He wanted to be in the sun," Aang choked out while they pulled Zuko into the bed and Katara started to use the reserve of fresh water from her flask to figure out where he had strained himself, "he said that it would help him heal."
Katara sighed as she started to piece back together the strained skin because Aang wasn't incorrect. The sun did strengthen firebenders just like the moon was helping her hands to stay steady as she scanned Zuko's body, but the fact that he was up without her knowledge like he had waited for her to be gone to make the request, made her blood boil.
'I'm his healer, for Pete's sake. If he wants to get up, I should know about it.'
"H-he's gonna be okay, right?" Aang's voice shook with tears and it tugged at Katara's heart as she once again remembered just how young he was, "I didn't want him to get hurt, I just wanted to help."
"I'll know when Suki brings me more water," she explained as she once again soothed the harsh burns that were scattered across his torso and started to work on the bruised shoulder that was likely from the fall, "but he strained himself too much, that's all. He didn't set himself too far back."
"Oh, thank goodness," Aang muttered as his head went to his hands, and it finally hit Katara at just how exhausted he looked. His eyes had dark circles similar to her own and his body sagged unnaturally.
"You should get some rest. You have a few meetings in the morning before you head out again," She explained softly as the doors opened again and Suki set the bucket of water down next to Katara's feet, "he's going to be okay."
"You'll get some sleep too, right?" Aang asked as he stood up slowly, "I'm not the only one who has been working non-stop."
Katara bit her lip for a moment as she pressed more water to the wounds, trying to bring down Zuko's rising fever once again, but she plastered on a fake smile for Aang, who was the last person she wanted to worry about Zuko's well-being.
"Yeah, I'll head to bed as soon as this session is over."
She cursed herself out internally for the lie as soon as Aang walked out of the heavy iron doors, knowing fully well that she had zero plans of going back to sleep when there was work to be done.
…
Regaining consciousness for a second time was almost harder than the first time. The first time, his bones hadn't ached and his burns hadn't been sore; but now Zuko was waking up to both and it was absolute agony.
"Don't move," a voice warned and the anger laced within it made him realize that it was a very upset Katara before he even had a chance to open his eyes, "or I'll have Suki chi-block you."
"Sorry." He managed to cough while opening his eyes, immediately greeted by her glare.
"You could have at least asked Aang for a chair. You're still running a fever and your wounds are still infected."
'Right,' he remembered as Katara's hands roamed his body with expertise, 'I asked Aang to help me to the window.'
"Thought it would help."
"Well, now you're staying here unless I'm around," Katara explained while coating her hands in freshwater, "your uncle can't be fire lord forever."
"Is that the only reason you're healing me?" Zuko snapped even as her hands soothed the harsh burning in his chest, "so I can assume the stupid throne?"
"Did I say that?" She snapped back, her voice just as fiery as his even though he could swear that he heard it quiver, "maybe I care about you, Zuko. Maybe seeing Azula strike you and leave you for dead was one of the worst things I've ever seen and maybe I haven't been able to explain that to you because every time I try, your self-hatred and stubbornness get in the way."
He was stunned by her words as her hands still went about trying to heal his body. 'I know that I care about her, but…she feels the same way?'
"Katara, I wasn't trying to hurt you."
"You have hurt me," she shook her head as she bent the dirty water into the bucket before starting to make her way toward the iron doors, "and you're just too blind to see it."
"Katara," he called out to her, but the heavy slam of the doors just solidified one thing to him; he was too late and he was alone.
Well, at least for a few hours until Iron emerged with breakfast and a still steaming teapot that must have just been taken off the stove. As Zuko managed to eat some of the food and drink some of the tea, he finally let out his feelings for the water bender to his uncle that had been weighing on him since he joined their crew.
"I just don't know what to do, uncle," Zuko finished as he sipped on the tea, "it feels like every time I speak to her, she finds a reason to be upset with me."
"Well, for starters, you can finish your tea."
Zuko couldn't help but smirk at the predictability of the beginning of his uncle's response as he continued to sip at it slowly.
"If you love Katara, more than you have loved before, " Iroh stopped to lay a cold cloth on the back of Zuko's neck and he let out a shudder of relief at the cool but calming sensation, "you will figure it out."
"That's not helpful."
"I can't give you answers I don't have, nephew," His uncle smiled for a brief moment before gently pressing on the cloth, squeezing some of the water onto his neck, "but, you're a smart boy. You'll figure it out."
"I don't even know how to talk to her about this when all she does is worry about me." Zuko sighed while looking down into the empty cup as if he was hoping to find an answer in it.
"You'll have to find that answer on your own," Iroh spoke while gently taking the empty teacup before using two fingers to tilt Zuko's gaze upward so their eyes were in direct contact, "but I know you will."
'I hope you're right, uncle.'
…
The days continued to pass slowly now that Katara refused to be around him aside from the healing sessions which grew less and less frequent as he continued to heal and regained his strength. While Zuko was thankful that he was getting closer to being himself again, it brought forth a new wave of anxiety.
'I'm going to be the fire lord, and the others are going to leave,' Aang had already come and gone like the wind as soon as he saw that Zuko was okay from his fall, but the others had their duties to attend to that were not in the fire nation. Even his uncle was ready to settle in Ba Sing Se, 'Katara is going to leave.'
He struggled with the knowledge that there was a high chance that Katara wasn't going to speak to him and as soon as his injuries were fully healed, she was going to be gone for good and he was going to be alone.
So when the day finally arrived for his coronation and he only required one healing session a day, he got up slowly; if there was any way that he could prolong his ascension, he was going to do it.
'I cannot follow in my father's footsteps,' he told himself as he shrugged on his white undershirt before gripping his fingers around the royal robes that hung next to his bedside, 'and I cannot lose Katara.'
He shrugged his left arm into the sleeve with little to no pain, but when he went to do the same with his right, the shock of pain from the bruise and the residual burn had him stunned to the point where he hadn't heard the door open until Katara was standing in front of him.
"Let me help you," she muttered while softly guiding his arm into his robe, "if you injure yourself now, I think Suki will have my head."
Zuko couldn't help but smile as she pulled the robe tight and tied the sash with the same level of concentration that she had healed his wounds for days, but when she looked up at him and asked if he was okay, he knew that he had to speak to her.
'Now or never.'
"Katara?" He asked softly as she went around to the back of his head and started to brush out his hair gently, most likely pulling it into a top knot for the crown.
"I'm still mad at you," she responded and he winced at the harshness of her tone, "you could have inadvertently killed yourself."
"Can you at least hear me out?" When she didn't respond but continued to style his hair, he finally spoke, "I…I wasn't sure about it for the longest time. I knew that you were my friend as much as Sokka, Toph, and Aang, but," he stopped to swallow down his nerves, "I'm in love with you, Katara. And even if you don't feel the same way, I need you to know just how sorry I am, because I can't do this without one of my best friends by my side."
The room was eerily quiet aside from the slight rustle of hair being softly pulled through a hair tie until finally, she came around to where he could see her and reached her hand up to softly press against his scarred cheek.
"You are going to be a great fire lord, Zuko. You're strong, you're kind and you're intelligent. You are everything that a leader needs to be."
The way she spoke made him terrified that she was going to walk out of that room without another word. That what she had said would be the last words he ever heard from her. That this was goodbye.
Until she cut off his anxieties by pressing her lips on his and wrapping her hands around his neck, leaving him with the only option to press his lips against hers and wrap his arms around her waist, pulling her close to his body so he couldn't lose her.
She pulled away after a few moments and he couldn't stop himself from looking into her blue eyes which were full of happy tears as she spoke, "I would be honored to be by your side."
Zuko pulled her back into a kiss and took in the smell of saltwater that filled the air whenever Katara was around as he reassured himself once again.
'I can do this.'