"Grounded"

A/N: Been in a deep Avatar phase for reasons totally unrelated to Korra.

Hah. My reasons don't Korra-late with Korra.

Haha.

Anyway.

I don't know when this takes place. They're fighting Fire Nation guys and Zuko's good. So…yeah. This was all my brain wanted me to make. I don't even ship this, really. What am I even...?

For Ariel and Pow, who made me write it. Uploaded to tumblr first, then here. I think that's how I'll do it from now on because I like having a semi-beta before I upload my crap here. Remember, please, that I haven't written much lately, and my pacing is horribly off from years of slacking...

My tumblr: dpsg1 . tumblr . com

She felt him go down, but she didn't have time to turn to him. Not that turning toward him would have made any difference to the situation. She could "see" him just as well without. Initially, she just planned to ignore it and wait for someone else to take care of the problem, but then she realized they were the only two around. At least…the only two on the right side.

She shook her head hesitantly, allowing a look of worry to pass across her face as she felt the ground for their friends. Just Fire Nation soldiers – big, burly, gullible guys willing to kill innocent kids for the sake of their dictator.

They filled her with so much hope for humanity…

Either the others had taken to the sky with Appa or they were far enough away that Toph couldn't sense their unique weights upon the earth. She continued to fight off the soldiers with finesse as she searched, but the feel of her friend's erratic heartbeat behind her forced her into further action. She hated giving up the offensive, but Zuko was in trouble, and she was the only one around.

With one quick movement, an earthquake rattled the ground all around them and sent Fire Nation guards tumbling back onto one another. It wasn't a permanent hindrance, but it would buy her enough time to move back without worrying about fire following her. She stood right next to where Zuko lay groaning on the ground and constructed a shelter of earth around them. She knew the guards would come back and would attack the small hut, but the rubble would take much of the heat for them.

And if their friends didn't come back soon, she wasn't sure how much a little heat would really matter.

She knelt down beside him as he let out another gasping cough. He sounded like he was choking, and she shook with fear.

"Zuko," she tried to calm him over his groans of pain. "Zuko, listen to me!"

Something garbled in the back of his throat and his heart skipped a few beats before he was able to concentrate on settling his breathing. She felt him cautiously turn to face her.

"You're going to have to help me find where it hurts. Where did they get you?" she asked, holding her hand out to him.

After a moment of grunted anguish, she felt him shakily reach out his own hand to grab hers. She almost pulled away at the feel of wet slime rolling across her hand, but she realized with horror that must be blood. He placed her hand gently on his lower right side, and she felt even more of the substance flowing from a wound.

"Wha—" she started shakily. "How?"

She heard him cough lightly in a broken attempt to answer, "Sword...from behind."

She imagined he was shutting his eyes in agony as his body gave a slight convulsion away from her. She kept her hand on the wound, and his other hand met hers as he tried to stop the bleeding.

Toph didn't know much about injuries or healing, but she knew that this was bad. With the amount of blood coming out of him at a constant rate and the fact that his heart and breathing were becoming so erratic…it scared her.

She was jolted out of her terror by a slight…laugh?

"I don't s'pose earthbenders...can heal?" she could hear the wry smile in his voice.

She shook her head, all humor strangely lost on her at the moment. "That's water's thing. We'll have to…to wait for Katara."

His head moved, so she assumed that was a nod. Sometimes he seemed to forget she was blind and couldn't see his little gestures—which was a problem, she was finding, since Zuko was such a subtle guy. He was hard to read in general, and he talked less than the others, so his nuances were harder to pick up on.

She kind of liked that most of the time. The mystery.

But not right now.

She could feel his breathing slow as he relaxed into the pain. She imagined his eyes were closing.

And then he would…

"Zuko!" she said, panicked. "You need to stay awake."

"Mmm," he moaned, turning his head toward her again.

"Let's just…talk, okay?" she suggested, placing her other hand on his wound before mentally slapping herself.

"Zuko, do you have a shirt? We could wrap it around this."

Not waiting for his answer (because she knew he wouldn't directly say it), she felt above the gash in his side and found the tattered, burnt remains of his shirt. With his help, she managed to roll the material off of him and grab a long enough strand to wrap around his waist.

"I'm gonna need you to move a little, okay? It'll probably hurt, but…I don't really know what else to do," she admitted uncertainly, but he graced her with a soft sound of agreement as she draped the fabric over his waist. He gasped and stopped breathing as he was forced to arch upward, giving her just enough time to grapple with the shirt and tie it around him. She tried to make it tight without hurting him, but she was pretty sure he was giving in to the pain anyway.

"Okay, now. It's at least…bandaged. That's good right?" she asked, looking for reassurance. He was older than her. He would know.

He reached up slowly and grabbed her small hand in his and squeezed. "It's good, Toph…th…thank you."

She could still hear the breaking in his voice as he forced himself to talk, but she was grateful to hear from him at all. She squeezed his hand back, and only then did she realize she was in a small room with a shirtless Zuko, holding his hand.

She began to blush, but she blamed it on the heat that continued to rise as the Fire Nation soldiers outside no doubt blasted the small earth tent with all the fire they could muster. Toph took her hand back and constructed an inner wall, trying to compensate for what little they might have been able to burn off the top.

"Maybe I should go and try to find help. Keep the tent up to keep them away from you," Toph suggested, still at a loss. "I don't know how else the others will find us."

"No," he asserted, suddenly louder than before. "Please, don't…don't go."

He reached for her hand again, this time holding onto her as if for dear life. He didn't want to be alone. Especially if…

"Okay," she agreed quietly, stroking his hand as reassuringly as she could.

"I'm glad it's...you here," he whispered, surprising her. She could hear the rare smile return to his voice. "I probably...look like a mess."

She smiled back at him. "Honestly, if I had first pick, I'd want Sugar Queen here in this situation; but thanks," she said sarcastically, but not without a hint of gratitude. "And I guess I wouldn't know. I don't know what you look like when you're nota mess."

There was an awkward pause, and she could feel his lungs fill to the best of their ability before he simply exhaled. He was going to say something. And then he'd stopped.

What?

Not knowing what to say and having been spurred on by his words and her own undying curiosity, Toph slowly placed her hands back on his wound, causing him to whimper slightly before she moved. She glided her hands away from the blood and up, slowly. She felt his abdomen – tight, but shaky. His muscles were putting all of their power into helping him breathe. Her hands continued their journey of discovery as she reached across his chest, which flickered up and down unsteadily as he breathed.

"What…'re you doing, Toph?" he finally asked curiously, and she could feel the deep rumble of his vocal chords.

"I just wanted to know what you looked like," she answered mysteriously, hoping that his eyes were still shut in anguish so he could not see the blush crossing her cheeks.

"You picked a fine time…to learn," he breathed in between grunts of pain.

"How else was I supposed to get you shirtless and prone in front of me?" she tried to joke. He actually responded with a sort of hiccup that she assumed was meant to be a laugh.

"Don't," he struggled. "Hurts."

"Should I ask your permission, your highness?" she mocked, though she could feel tears forming in her eyes when she got to the spot over his heart. So soft, so slow…

She felt him shake his head and could have laughed at the movement. "Everyone else has to…see it. Can't leave…you out of the…misery."

She frowned at how weak his voice had gotten, but she took the fact that he was making Zuko-like, self-deprecating jokes as reassuring. She traced the lines across his solid chest softly before continuing up to his neck. It was long and thick, and she felt her curiosity deepen.

"Say something," she pleaded, wanting to feel his voice.

"…Toph?" he said after a moment.

She blushed again at the feel of him saying her name. Coughing slightly to let out the tension, she gradually reached still further up until she'd reached his chin, his jaw clenched in the intensifying pain. Curious, she ghosted her hands over to his eyes to see if they were closed, only to make a discovery the rest of them took for granted.

"Whoa. Did you get burned here?" she asked, her voice laced with concern as she lightly touched his scar tissue.

He instinctively turned away from her - groaning at the movement - to hide his scar from her touch.

"A long time ago...I did," he said lowly, his voice rattling as his lungs fought to work.

"A scar?" she deduced, the assumption somehow familiar, yet foreign. "How come you never told me?"

She felt him shrug, but she was only slightly annoyed, as she realized it was difficult for him to speak in general. "Didn't think to...just…part of me."

She could barely hear him, and she had a keen sense of hearing. And she noticed with panic that his breathing was slower and that she could barely feel his heartbeat through the ground anymore.

"Zuko, please," she begged, feeling panic rise in her voice. "Don't give up now."

She put her hands back up to his strong chest and could feel only slight movement, his heart slowing to a dull thump.

"Katara's coming soon, and we'll be fine, and we'll get out of here," she reassured, although the sweat dripping from them due to the heat of their confines told her otherwise.

A choked sob was her answer. "'m sorry."

She couldn't help the tears as she began to cry with him. She placed her head on his chest, willing his heart to keep sending her signs of life.

"I'm just getting to know you," she whispered as she absently reached up to stroke his hair and wipe the sweat from his brow. "I want to know you more. If you go, I'll be all alone and…"

She lost her ability to speak as another sob bubbled out of her.

His hand, weak and frail, slowly glided along her back until it reached her hair. He pressed her to his chest with as much strength as he could muster.

"Keep…me grounded," he muttered.

She didn't know what he meant, but she held onto him tighter. As his breathing slowed, her ears began to pick up a new sound. There was fighting going on outside their earth shelter, and the heat, though constant, had stopped increasing.

They were back.

And Zuko was falling away.

"No!" she shouted at him, racing her hands up to his face. His muscles had relaxed, and his head lulled to the side.

"Zuko, they're back! You have to stay with me," she commanded in the most intimidating voice she could manage.

He whimpered in response, a small noise that made his chest collapse slightly.

"Keep fighting," she said, lightly brushing his scar with one hand as she used the other to earthbend some of their shelter away. "KATARA!"

She yelled as loudly as she could, and she felt the waterbender turn from her fighting to rush into the tent, knowing that Toph using her actual name meant serious trouble.

Toph couldn't stop the tears as she turned to the older girl. "He's dying."

She could feel the pause in Katara's movements as she looked at Zuko. He must look horrible, she concluded, knowing herself how much blood he'd lost since he'd been hit. But Katara rushed madly over to him, gathering up what water she had into her hands as she placed them on the injury.

"This is really bad," she said in a low voice. "What happened?"

Toph wiped her eyes as she tried to compose herself. "He was attacked from behind. I didn't know where you guys were, so I tried to help. But I couldn't do anything," she sniffed, hating the sound of her voice as she cried. "He's gonna die."

"No. He's not," Katara reprimanded fiercely. "He's going to be fine."

But Toph could hear the apprehension in the waterbender's words, and she could feel Zuko's body jump as Katara did her best to revive him. His heart jolted back and forth between the living and the dead, and she hated the feeling of constant uncertainty. It was like he was on the brink, and he couldn't decide if he should stay or go...

Unable to stand his indecisive heart, she reached out and grabbed his hand in both of hers, squeezing it and pulling it toward her chest.

"You stay here," she commanded, holding his hand to her own heart.

Something in her voice seemed to jog him. His head tilted slightly towards her, and she could feel him desperately fight to suck air into his dilapidated lungs. Katara concentrated all her effort on healing him as Aang and Sokka ran into the opening of the tent.

"Man, it's hot in here," Sokka commented, pulling his shirt back and forth to create a breeze. He suddenly stopped. "Whoa, what…?"

"Zuko's hurt. Bad," Katara explained. "Toph's been keeping him safe, and she bandaged him…but it's still a lot to recover from. I think he can make it…"

"If he knows we're here," Toph said softly. "Hold his other hand," she gestured to either of the boys standing in the entry.

"He said to keep him grounded, and he didn't want me to leave to get help," she whispered. "He doesn't want to feel alone."

She placed her hand softly on his chest, over his still-conflicted heart. "We need you here, big guy."

Finally, the corners of his mouth twitched in what might have been pain, but his body began to accept the healing from Katara. The wound started to lessen, his breathing became more even, and Toph felt his heart finally start to beat again. When they heard him suck in his first gasp of air, everyone else in the tent released the breaths they had been holding.

She finally allowed herself to smile and squeeze his hand in praise; only this time, he softly grasped hers back.

"It'll take awhile to heal it completely," Katara said finally, taking a moment to wipe the sweat of worry from her forehead. "But he's definitely going to be okay."

They all looked to Zuko. He groaned as he warily opened his eyes and gave a wince that was probably meant to be a signal of gratitude. Testing his jaw, he took a pained breath before he spoke.

"Thanks, guys" he whispered, turning his head slightly toward Toph.

She felt him turn toward her, and she blushed. "I didn't do anything," she professed.

He squeezed her hand again. "I think my heart just...needed a beat it could follow," he whispered. She smiled at him, and he moved his hand to cup her cheek. "You kept me grounded."

I let my favorite character live...this is unheard of. I don't know what this is. *stares at it*