Trapped Fire
by
Amber M.

Disclaimer: By now, ya'll should know that I own next to nothing and the things which I'd sooo like to own (like certain animes and characters!) are not mine. And sadly, I may never own them. So yeah, I don't own Avatar: the last air bender or any of its characters.

Author's Note: Okay, so this is my first Avatar fic. Considering that the season finale is another 2 weeks away yet (okay, so it's close to one week now), I decided to write a little one shot about my fav Avatar couple! Just to warn you, this story here might be considered a little AU 'cause it takes place sometime during/a little before the finale.

Katara was having trouble sleeping that night. She wasn't sure why but she had a bad feeling, like maybe trouble was coming. Her eyelids were partially lowered, her crystal blue eyes gazing aimlessly through the open arch windows out onto the still scenery.

Her friends and family, the Avatar, Aang, and her brother, Sokka, were soundly asleep on their sleeping bags to her right side. She herself was facing the opposite direction of their heads, lying on her belly and resting her chin on folded arms.

She let out a little sigh, and watched her breath of air dissipate as it rose up away from her. Then her face contorted to slight confusion.

Her breath of air disappeared only to be replaced by a flash of light off in the distance of her sights. The light had gone too quickly for her to be certain of what it was.

Intrigued, she stood up, making sure she was silent as she walked out of the shelter and into the colder night air. Since she was wearing her heavy jacket and gloves, the chill wasn't so much a problem. She walked straight ahead, down stairs and then along a waterway passage, passing beneath a few bridges as she headed for where the light had been.

Then, she could make out the figure of a person, shadowed in the distance. Whoever it was, they were facing the opposite wall, their right side turned to Katara. And the person was wearing a parka with the hood up.

The waterbender continued along in silence as she approached the person. Her eyes narrowed, sure that she'd seen a light flare to life at the person's fist. And then it hit her…

Fire.

Her eyes widened, her breath hitched but it was too late to turn back. She was already within striking distance and besides that, her curiosity had been piqued. "E-excuse me," she said, surprised to find her voice even.

The person jumped, immediately whirling on her in an attack pose. If she hadn't been shocked to find a firebender smack dab in the North Pole water tribe kingdom, the sight of the scarred face of Prince Zuko surely remedied that. She took a step back, though her brows knitted together out of anger. Undoubtedly the prince had to be there for the Avatar.

"Zuko!"

The firebender narrowed his eyes. "Oh. You're that girl," he said offhandedly.

"Katara," she corrected firmly. She didn't understand how in the world this prince managed to get into the well-fortified ice fortress. Zuko wasn't exactly hard to notice.

The prince looked at Katara pensively. After a moment, he said, "You could lead me to the Avatar, couldn't you, Katara?" His tone was smooth, just the same as that time when he interrogated her after he and those pirates caught her.

"Forget it."

Zuko frowned. "If you won't willingly, then I'll—"

"You'll what?" she interrupted, "Take a look around Zuko! You're surrounded in MY element. Believe me, I'm no pushover and if you want to get to Aang, you'll have to go through me first." At that, Katara settled in a ready stance. It didn't matter how he got in. All she knew was that he was here to capture Aang, and she certainly wasn't going to allow that to happen.

Zuko looked moderately stunned by the girl's courage but Katara hadn't noticed. She was ready to fight him but then her eyes had drawn to the prince's left arm where the parka's sleeve was halfway soaked in blood. She straightened back up from her stance, concern falling over her features.

"What happened to you?" she asked bluntly.

A confused look was on his face until he looked at his arm. Shadows played across his eyes and he leered off to the side. "A few obstacles I had to overcome before getting here."

"Obstacles?" The prince was silent. Wait… this would be the perfect chance for her to defeat Zuko… No, what was she thinking? How could she think of battling an already wounded person? After a hesitation, the waterbender said, "Um… I can heal that for you."

Zuko looked up at her suspiciously. "Why would you do that?"

"Well… it looks like you've lost a lot of blood. It must be painful, right? What does it matter—I'm only offering you help."

"No. What you're doing is pitying me. Forget about it! I don't need your help!" he growled and turned away.

Katara pouted. "I'm not pitying you! A human being offers a person help when they're in pain that's all! It's just the right thing to do! Zuko!" When the prince didn't stop walking away, before he could turn the corner, she quickly did a motion with her arms drawing up. She willed the ice beneath Zuko's feet to ensnare him. The ice almost instantly crawled up to his knees, effectively trapping him.

"What the—?" Katara heard the prince mumble and then ran around to face him.

Subconsciously she kept a safe distance while he vainly tried to get free of the ice. His healthy right arm was the only one that could produce fire at the moment. He stopped jerking about and glared at the waterbender. "Release me!" he snarled.

"I can heal your arm, Zuko," she reasoned calmly, not even flinching at the furious look on the prince's face. "Just let me do that, okay? It'll only take a minute."

He gave her a look crossing with disbelief and anger. "You want to heal this arm? This arm that I'll use to burn you to a crisp and capture your friend, the Avatar?"

Katara quietly gulped but for some reason she wasn't really afraid. There was just… something about him… "I can't ignore someone in pain…" she replied quietly.

The firebender's mouth fell agape, speechless. When it seemed he had nothing else to say, Katara cautiously approached his wounded arm while removing her gloves, allowing them to dangle off the cuffs. She nervously glanced at his face, the scarred half in front of her as his gaze remained fixed on the spot she had previously stood. She brought her hands up and picked up a snake of water from the canal. It slunk through the air and then wrapped around one of her hands, turning it lightly aglow and ready for healing.

The prince flinched as she touched the wound but settled as soon as the healing took affect. The wound had been made by a weapon, not by any of the elements, unless it had been made by an earthbender's attack but she doubted an earthbender would have been up here.

Zuko's posture finally relaxed and he turned his head a little toward the waterbender. "You're a naïve girl, Katara," he murmured.

"Gee, that's a nice way to thank a person," Katara grumbled, giving the prince a flat look.

"Just because you're doing this—"

"I know, I know. It doesn't mean you're going to relinquish your pursuit of the Avatar, right?" she mumbled tiredly, rolling her eyes.

Zuko turned his face fully to her and frowned.

Healing the wound only did take a few seconds. Katara let go of his arm and looked at it with a satisfied smile. "There, see! It's like new," she said brightly.

Zuko wasn't looking at her accomplishment. He was gawking at the girl. How could she be happy to have restored a firebender to fighting form?

"W-what?" she stammered, just noticing his expression.

"…Nothing," he grumbled, and downcast his eyes. Oh well, at least now he was ready to enter battle again. Any who got in his way of capturing the Avatar, including this waterbender herself, were going to be sorry.

Just as he was about to send some jets of fire to melt the ice around his feet, he froze, his pulse skipping a beat as a hand touched his face. Slowly he turned his head back to the girl. "What are you doing?" he queried in an undertone.

Katara was staring at the scar, her fingertips running over the marred tissue lightly. But her stare was not critical or in disgust. It was a little curious, maybe sympathetic. The prince was ready to get angry at her and lash out, but the way she looked at him… It was… different.

"You can't do anything about it," he whispered, his face gone neutral.

"I know… Scars can't really be healed, right? At least… not physically."

His eyes widened a millimeter in size.

She stopped looking at the scar and switched her gaze to his golden eyes. They were intimidating, intense, fierce. Yet she still couldn't bring herself to truly fear him, nor could she take her eyes from those golden orbs.

Quietly she said, "You know… I bet you're not really that bad a guy, are you, Zuko?"

"Are you patronizing me?"

"No. Of course not." She flushed as she realized she was still touching him. She drew her hand back, quickly crossing her arms and averting her eyes abashedly. "S-sorry…"

Zuko blinked. After a moment, the ice melted from his legs and he started shaking the water off. Katara flinched, balking.

"So, what are you going to do now, Katara?" the prince asked calmly.

This time, Katara blinked. Her heart seemed to leap every time he said her name, but at the same time her mind knew that this was still a dangerous firebender determined to catch the Avatar. Was he still so determined to accomplish that? "I guess whatever I do now depends on your actions," she replied.

Zuko smirked. "Really?" he drawled. "Let's see how good a bender you actually are then."

Katara's eyes widened. Was he serious? Was he actually going to attack her still? Accepting that he probably was, she quickly took her stance. But then her expression twisted in oddity. What she saw:

The prince was kind of slipping about on the water he'd kicked off his feet, his face turning rosy as he tried to regain his balance.

Katara bit her lip, trying to hold in the urge of giggling. "Um… do you need some help, Zuko?"

Zuko just grunted. He stilled for a moment but when he tried to step toward the waterbender... his balance was lost again.

"Here. Give me your hand," she said, extending a hand forth.

A couple streams of steam jetted out of the firebender's nose as answer.

"You're going to fall, Zuko," she warned in the type of tone mother's use when their infant is about to spill milk.

"Shut up!" he growled.

Katara took her hand back and placed it on a hip, her expression peeved. "Fine. If you don't want my help then you can just—ZUKO!" she yelped, the firebender suddenly slipping forward and right into her.

He only caught her shoulder to send her to a seat on the ground but he himself slid all the way by and into the canal.

Katara flopped onto her hands and knees and crawled over to the edge of the sidewalk, looking frantically in the blue for the prince. "Zuko!"

These canals weren't that deep, were they?

A minute passed…

"Oh my god… Zuko!" She was about ready to bend all the water aside, when her expression instantly fell flat.

Someone was snickering behind her.

Obviously, Zuko had climbed out on the other side of a bridge nearby and snuck up on the waterbender.

Katara jerked her head over her shoulder and set a simmering glare on the chuckling prince. She growled and raised a fist at him. "That's NOT funny! I thought you were…"

The laughing stopped. Zuko smiled at her. "Were you worried about me, Katara?" he asked casually.

Her eyes narrowed, despite the blush on her face. She shot up to her feet and bristled. "Of course I was worried! I only healed you a minute ago and then to have you disappear in the water… That was NOT funny!"

Zuko blinked. Because that was really all he could do. "Katara?"

"What!?" the waterbender replied snippily.

"I think you kind of froze me…" he said, his movement quite constricted by the thin sheet of ice over his body.

Apparently in Katara's rant, she had accidentally frozen the residual water that was on the firebender.

She gasped. "Uh… Oh! I'm… I'm sorry… I… Let me just…" she trailed off and then focused on unthawing the ice.

It melted in a few seconds completely and freed the prince to move. He sighed quietly and rotated his shoulder a bit.

"I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…"

"That's alright," Zuko said, smiling lightly. It was strange. Usually he'd get mad at this type of thing but he felt no such emotion as that when he looked at this waterbender.

Without really thinking, he walked over to her, closed the gap between them so that their bulky coats nearly touched. Katara's blue eyes caught the pale moonlight, a soothing glow twinkling in them. Zuko raised a hand up and caressed her soft cheek.

"This was fun," he said gently. His own words brought a twang of pain to him. The night would end… and he may never get to see this pretty waterbender ever again…

Katara put one of her hands up over his. "You… really think so? Falling into chilling water and getting turned into an ice sculpture is under your definition of fun, huh?" she said, smiling.

Zuko chuckled. "If I'm with you… yeah."

The waterbender flushed. She couldn't believe this… This was all a dream, right? She'd finally fallen asleep after those foreboding feelings and been granted a pleasant, impossible, not-going-to-happen dream, right?

Well, if it was a dream, it was a really, really nice dream.

Especially as the prince leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. Her blood rushed, her head spun. She was somewhere lost in the stars but she wasn't alone. It seemed like she was wrapped in fire, a harmless fire, peaceful. Zuko was the fire of course…

And she never wanted to leave.

But all dreams must end, right?

Had it all been a dream, Katara thought as she sat crisscrossed on her sleeping bag, gazing blankly out onto the brightening horizon. The sun was slowly rising, it being morning now. She sighed and plopped her chin on her palms.

Was I dreaming?

Zuko cautiously walked along the water paths, trying to merge with the water tribe people who were coming out of their dwellings one by one to travel the kingdom. He wore the hood of his coat pulled as far as it would go to shadow his face.

His mind was streaming with several worrisome thoughts. How much time did he have before Zhao and his fleet attacked? Where was the Avatar? How was he going to capture him in time? And if he captured him, how the heck was he going to get out of this ice trap with his own life in tact?

And whenever these questions irked him to the point of hopelessness…

He remembered Katara. The feeling she gave him when they kissed.

The war had to be ended. Once his problems were resolved, he could be with Katara.

They could be together.

fin

AN: Okay, one question that might arise is how did Zuko get in the ice kingdom by himself and how did he get ahead of the fire nation fleet, right? Yeah, that would probably be a difficult thing for our prince to accomplish without being noticed, right? I actually don't know if that is even possible, thus one reason why this one-shot is AU!

Well, I hope ya liked! And please review! Much thanks in advance.

Niveus