Intertwined Legends (Zutara)

Chapter Seven

Katara woke up to Aang's voice calling her name. Rubbing her eyes from another tireless night, she sighed. "What is it?"

She looked up to see Aang hovering over and closer to her face than she expected, caushing her to sit up fast, her forehead connecting with his in an unpleasant sound. "What now?" she said.

Sokka was looking at Katara, his arms crossed once more. Toph, like every other day they had been at camp, was still sleeping in her stone tent. Katara could hear her snoring from several metres away. "Appa's still sick," her brother said, "and we've already wasted four days here. Is there any way for us to start getting back on track?"

Katara simply blinked. She was about to explain they had no means of transportation without the sky bison when Aang stomped his foot. "No. We're not leaving Appa until he feels better. I refuse to be separated from him again."

"Aang's right," Katara agreed. "We can't leave yet. You saw how depressed he was when those sandbenders took Appa away and sent him to the Earth Kingdom capital. We can't have that happen again."

Sokka groaned, clearly annoyed that they had to stay near that godforsaken village longer than what was needed. Katara, however, was relieved-Aang's outburst bought her an extra night to finish her task as the Painted Lady, which would hopefully be that night. "Alright," he agreed reluctantly. "We stay here one more night. But tomorrow we have to leave, whether Appa is well or not."

Aang dropped his head in defeat. "Fine. But Sokka, don't be so hard on him." As if to agree with the airbender, Appa let out a low wail.

"Aw, buddy," Sokka crooned, huggin the sky bison's neck as best as he could. "I'm sorry, but you know we have Sozin's comet approaching fast, and..."

While the nonbender stayed by Appa's side and comforted him, Toph stayed asleep and Aang (now in a happier mood) decided to right around on his air scooter. Katara went back into the village to see if she could get more fish from Lee, not to mention she enjoyed his company, especially since she hadn't really talked to anyone outside of her travelling group for quite some time.

But Katara was getting worried; nothing good every came out of her liking a guy. There was Haru, Jet, Zuko... She didn't even know how her feelings began to develop for the last person in that list, but it didn't matter how they appeared. What mattered was that they wouldn't and hadn't gone away since the crystal caves.

"That's something we both have in common."

The connection they shared when Katara was about to heal his scar was something that still sent goosebumps up her arms and shivers down her spine. Although she would most likely never forgive him for betraying the trust she had just bestowed upon him, that didn't mean her feelings had changed.

Before she knew it Katara was in the village, asking Shu if there were any fresh fish or greens that he could give her that would be worth eating. "Sorry, little lady," Shu said, shrugging. "There's noth-"

Katara felt a hand on her shoulder and a voice speak up. "She's with me, Shu. It's okay." She looked up to see Lee with a small smile on his face, his right eye crinkling at the corner. The seller's expression changed to that of surprise.

"Oh, alright! Let me get you your fish."

While Shu took out the fish wrapped in seaweed, Lee asked, "Do you think you can give me a bit more? I'll pay triple for it." He put a handful of coins on the counter. In no time Shu had managed to wrap up five slightly-tainted fish in still-fresh seaweed.