The Dragon and The Ocean // Zutara

Regrouping

Zuko's POV

I wrap my arm gently around Katara's shoulders and we walk out of the room. The pain from walking this morning is much less than the pain from right now, but I still don't think I will be able to walk all on my own. 

It takes a while but we both make it to the palace doors and surprisingly, I'm not too tired. The guards let Aang, Toph, Sokka, and Suki inside the palace gates, and so we will meet them at the top of the stairs that lead up to the palace entrance. When the guards open the massive doors, we see the Aang, Sokka, and the girls have just been let in.

I feel Katara's excitement, and her urge to run toward them, but she stays by my side, which I guess is good I'm not sure how I would've been able to move by myself without falling over if she were to leave. In the near distance, we see Aang make an air scooter and zoom toward us.

"Let's stay here." Katara says. "I'm not sure if you will be able to make it down the stairs" 

"Ok." I respond with a small nod. 

I look back out toward the gate to see that Aang has made it to the base of the stairs and is air bending himself up the stairs. Just before he makes it all the way, Katara pulls herself out form under me and helps balance.

"Katara!" he shouts when he gets to us, "I'm so glad you're okay!" He hugs Katara and I can tell that she is hugging him back, but not out of love, out of friendship. Aang is definitely hugging out of love though.

"You too Aang!" she replies with a smile. 

"Did you and Zuko win?" he asks eagerly. 

"We did." I reply with a satisfactory nod.

Next, Toph comes up behind Aang. She seems much more peppier than usual. She is breathing slightly heavier due to the fact that she ran up the stairs. 

 "Sugar Queen! Sparky!" She says with a bright smile.

"Toph!" Katara says going over to hug her. "It's good to see that you are okay." 

"You too!" she says, looking straight ahead.

"Where's Sokka?" Katara asks, concerned. "Oh yeah, right." Toph mumbles, a bit annoyed. 

She roughly slides her foot forward and crunches her hand into a fist. In the distance I hear Sokka yelp. He appears at the top of the stairs with his arm around Suki's shoulder, just like my arm was around Katara's.

His left leg is bandaged up to a little past the knee. He has a poor quality crutch under his right arm. I can tell that the crutch isn't enough, which is why he has his other arm around Suki's shoulder.

"Hey a little warning next time!" Sokka says to Toph balling up his fist and flailing it at her. 

"Sorry Snozzles," Toph says with a shrug and a smirk, "but you know I'm not a patient person."

After Sokka regains his balance, I ask him what happened. He proceeds to tell Katara and I how he fell off the side of a fire nation airship and landed on one of the balcony extensions. He regaled us with all of the glorious details of how he fought off fire nation soldiers while Toph was holding onto him for dear life.

"I was not!" Toph shouted, crossing her arms. 

"You were too!" Sokka says back. 

"I'm just glad all of you are okay." Katara says letting out a breathy laugh. She pulls us all into a group hug. I wince, hoping no one would notice but, of course Toph does.

"You okay?" she asks concerningly. I push off her question, pretending I didn't hear it, but unluckily Suki does. 

"Okay about what? What happened with you two? Did you guys beat Azula?" she asks.

"We did." Katara says. She doesn't add anything about the fact that Azula went insane, challenged me to an Agni Kai, fired a lightning blast at Katara, or that I just jumped in front of that blast and almost died.

"That's good," Sokka says, "because if you hadn't won, then us taking out the Airship fleet would have been for nothing." 

"Hey!" Aang shouts, throwing his hands up in the air, "I was the one who beat the Firlord!"

Everyone laughs, and no one asks anymore questions about my moment in pain. As we continue to talk I find myself having to lean against one of the pillars to keep myself up. I thought that no one was going to ask any more questions, but this small movement proved me wrong.  

"Hey Zuko, you okay? You... you look tired." Aang asks, genuinely concerned. 

I look at Katara. I really didn't want to have to explain to the rest of the gang about my wound. Katara just stares at me, giving me a sign that they are going to find out as soon as we have to start walking anyway. I just nod back at her. We might as well tell them.

"Well, we beat Azula," Katara says, "but..." She then proceeds to untie the sash around my shirt and pull it away from my body, revealing the bandages. Aang and Suki gasp, while Sokka's eyes widen. Toph just stares straight ahead. 

"What is it?" Toph asks. I decide to answer her question. 

"It's a lightning wound." I say. 

"How did you get it?" Aang asks.

"I...I jumped in front of a lightning strike to save Katara's life." I reply, hesitantly. 

Everyone immediately looks to Katara for clarification. Even though I joined the gang about a month and a half ago, they still don't 100 percent trust me, especially when it comes to something as serious and far fetched as this.Katara nods and continues to explain the story. 

"Azula played a dirty move during their agni kai, and shot a lightning blast at me instead of Zuko. Instead of letting me get hit, he jumped in front of the blast. He was able to successfully redirect it, but he almost lost his life in the process." she says with a very serious tone.

Nobody really says anything. They all just stare at me in confusion and surprise. Katara is the first one to move when she ties my shirt back up. I look down at her. She gazes back up at me quickly and gives me a sympathetic smile. After that, Sokka is the first one to speak.

"Wow. It looks like you got it worse then me buddy." he says. I give him a friendly smile. I mean what else do you really say to this. 

"I did notice that there was an unevenness in your stance," Toph says, continuing to break the silence, "but I didn't really think much of it."

"Ya, I can't walk all that well, but I'm much better then I was yesterday." I reply, shrugging slightly. I'm about to continue to invite them inside to eat something, but then Aang speaks up.

Ooooo a cliff hanger...kinda :)

The next part that I have written is kinda longer so I split it into two for your guy's enjoyment ;) I might post the second part later tonight though so I won't keep you all waiting too long.

Also thanks for 150 reads!! I still think it's crazy that people are actually reading this.