I stare around me at the barren landscape, wishing for some water. It's not that it's ugly or that there's nothing here. It's just... so uniform. It never changes. The little hillocks, the tiny, scrubby bushes and pointy brown trees, and the total lack of water, everywhere.
In the air. In the ground. In the plants.
In me.
My mouth feels like it's swelled to twice its size; we haven't come upon a stream or anything in hours, and our canteens are empty. Zuko walks beside me, head down. His straw hat shades my face from the sun, and he's tied the wedding robe around his head like a turban.
His shoulders are hunched, his amber gaze fixed on the rocky brown horizon. I put a hand on his arm, say his name softly. Then, again, louder, even though it's hard to talk and my voice is barely recognizable.
"Zuko."
He stops, turns to me.
"Here." I pull his hat off me and push it into his hands. "You need this more than I do. You're starting to get a tan!"
He smiles at me, just barely lifting one side of his mouth. "That's a bad thing?" His voice is as thick as mine, but it feels good to hear another person speak. Especially him- he's been so quiet these last few days.
I eye him, pretending a light mood that I don't feel. "I said tan... I meant that you're getting cooked but you're not actually turning brown. You're glowing. And not in the good way!"
I scrub at my arm, frowning in concentration, then push my arm onto his skin and rub. He looks at me like I'm crazy.
"Uh.. Kara? Are you okay?" I look up at him, dead serious.
"I was trying to give you some of my brownness, but it isn't working. You're just not meant to be brown! Or red, for that matter. Seriously, take the hat. I don't need it."
"Just because you're brown doesn't mean you won't burn. Trust me, you need it." I roll my eyes.
"Come on, hotshot, just take it! Please, for my peace of mind?" I smile at him and bat my eyes. He eyes me.
"You know that doesn't work on me, right?"
I just smile wider, because as he says this he's taking off his robe/turban and handing it to me. And he puts on the straw hat.
He helps me tie the turban over my sun-baked hair, muttering slightly. I elbow him in the ribs and he half grunts, half laughs.
He tugs on a lock of chocolate brown hair that has come undone from my careful braid, and then wipes at my face. I frown at him.
"What?"
He smiles. "There was dirt on your face."
YOU ARE READING
Falling for the Enemy (Sun and Moon Book 1)
Fanfic*A Zutara fanfic* Kara has been living in a little fishing village in the northern Earth Kingdom for as long as she can remember--literally. She woke up on its shores nearly six months ago, and she knows that if it hadn't been for Aki, she'd be dead...
