Little Soldier Boy

Curses and gifts

Katara slept when they flew on appa as her back was against the sides of zukos stretched out legs, no one talked much,  Sokka had sympathy for his little sister though. While Toph and Aang tried to make conversation while they flew during the night.

Zuko could see the tear stains on her face as she had her arms crossed tightly to her chest as she slept. He looked over the side watching the clouds and set his hand on her bare shoulder hoping to help keep warm. She was devastated.

They landed after a few hours of flying, everyone stayed quiet and only grabbed their sleeping bags, letting Katara sleep on appa. Zuko grabbed the blanket from his sleeping bag and draped it over her as well as using her own to cover, his hand lingered on her bare shoulder for a moment as his chest ached with empathy.

"She's out cold," Zuko whispered when he jumped down to the others.

"I've never seen her cry so much," Aang clutched his shirt with worry.

"If you really think about it that ability is kind of cool and could be useful-" "I'm stopping you there Sokka," Zuko put his hand up to the older teen.

"Whether it's useful to have or not, it's something you're not going to bring up to her, not anyone... none of you will mention bloodbending even if she's not around, we let that bending technique die, no one else will know," he told them sternly, Aang and Sokka looked confused not understanding.

"All it takes is another water bender like hama and who knows what they'll do, what more they can create," he explained with a long sigh rubbing his face.

"Yea and does that go for lightening bending? Or metal bending, or what ever an airbender might make up," Sokka raised a brow as they sat on top of their sleeping bags.

"I-I don't know, those two are really hard to achieve obviously, I don't want to talk about it," Zuko waved him off.

"You got a weird thing about how people use their bending Zuko," Aang tilted his head to the side.

"No I don't," he defended keeping his eyes down.

"We're on the same page, we don't bring it up to anyone ever," Toph sighed nodding.

Sokka and Aang hesitated but agreed as well.

"We should get some sleep, we're almost to the location we're meeting the water tribe," Sokka yawned and rolled over to go to bed.

"Are you going to sleep?" Aang looked at Zuko.

"I'm gonna take a lap to check out the area then I will," Zuko told him quietly pushing himself up to his feet.

"Night Zuko," the avatar yawned as it was now normal for the fire bender to be the last to sleep at night.

Zuko nodded as the others laid down to go to bed around appa. He turned and went for his walk to scope out the area alone, he was glad they weren't in a wooded area anymore, he liked the open sky.

-

Zuko walked back to the camp when the moon was starting to lower and within the next hour the sun would start to show slowly again.

Only to see Katara awake sitting on appas head and watching the sea in the distance. She didn't notice him coming back so he stayed quiet to make his way over to her.

"Katara," Zuko spoke softly to catch her attention.

Katara perked up hearing him and waited for Zuko to climb up the side of the bison to join her.

"Where have You been?" She smiled calmly.

He relaxed seeing her smile.

"Just for a walk, I was still close," he leaned back on his elbows and had his legs stretched out.

"Should I even ask?" Zuko raised a brow to her.

"I'm okay," Katara sighed pushing her hair off her shoulder.

"Want to talk about it while the others are sleeping?" He asked.

"I was just scared, I was terrified," she explained after a pause. "I don't want that power, it was against every one of my morales and my beliefs of freedom and following your own destiny yet I have the ability to control a persons body,"

"Our abilities are gifts and curses, there's always some sort of darkness in light, don't fret to much about something like this," Zuko tilted his head up making all his hair fall back out of his face, he looked at the stars that started to fade from the night sky.

"Aang and Toph don't have curses to their bending," Katara mumbled.

"Earth benders can sink a person into the ground to suffocate them, crush someone with a Boulder, I don't know much about airbenders but they can make someone fly high in the air.. they could just let gravity do the rest," Zuko said matter of fact thinking about the elements they control.

"fire benders can take a home with one flick of a flame that can spread into a forest fire, leave a scar that'll last the rest of your life, and water benders can drown or flood, we are all capable of something tragic but it's our morales that keep the world in order, we're it's not only bloodshed and terror,"

"The fire nation does enough of that for all of the nations," he grinned a little.

"That's not funny," Katara noticed his smile.

"I can be funny," Zuko shrugged.

"Blood bending won't be mentioned again, it won't be known to anyone else but us, but don't be ashamed," he finished with a nod.

Katara slid down to lean on her elbows and stretched her legs out like him, she didn't find it as comfortable so she laid on her back instead.

"What's your favorite animal?" Katara rested her hands on her stomach.

"Turtle duck, why?" Zuko laid down on his back as well.

"I want to talk about something else," she smiled as if there was relief, that she felt she could move on from the day before. She had to thank Zuko for that.

"What's yours?" He asked now.

"I think now it's flying bison," Katara giggles patting appas fur.

"When is your birthday?" Zuko asked curiously.

"In the late winter, when's yours?" She looked at him.

"About a month and maybe a couple weeks ago," he closed his eyes. Katara saw him smile to himself at some memory that must've popped in his head.

"Was it a good birthday?" She smiled back.

"Yea.. i was able to have a sweet that day," he mumbled. Sweet people get sweet treats.

Katara felt tired again as her eyes fluttered shut for a moment but she fought the sleep. Zuko opened his eyes now and looked over at her. He rolled on his side and placed his hand on her shoulder again, Katara opened her eyes and looked at him, waiting and scooted closer for the warmth.

"Can I?" She whispered. Zuko opened his arms and welcomed her to lean against him.

"Thank you," Katara rested her head on his arms as she laid on her side, resting her forehead against his shoulder.

Zuko placed his open had on her back to keep her in the close body heat, she fell asleep quickly feeling safer.

Zuko inhaled a shaky breath trying to relax more so she could sleep. There was a new feeling, he always wanted to protect those he cared about, his brothers, his friends, there was a time he wanted to protect his sister even. But this protection felt different, he wanted to protect her from anything and everything, but only her. What made Katara different from others..?

"I won't let anything happen to you," he breathed holding her closer.