concoursec | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Character(s):

watertides
Location: Zuko's dorm
Rating: Uh. PG?
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed
Summary: Hours after this. Katara goes to speak with Zuko about what was left unfinished in Home EC.

It was just after dinnertime. Zuko had left the Home Ec. class early with permission from his Instructor. He had finished his gardening project and had promised his teacher he would revise his notes after his physical therapy session with Dr. Kadowaki. His schedule had looked something like this: Home Ec, physical therapy with the doctor for an hour and a half, a walk to the showers and then to the Cafeteria to grab some food, then a walk back to his room where his tray of food sat untouched on the table.

The words exchanged with the waterbender earlier had left a sour taste in his mouth and his stomach churning. He had practically accused her of being no better than Ozai, something he shouldn't have done. Zuko knew she was a good person deep down. Well, he didn't know but he had a pretty good feeling considering she'd been there to take care of him and help with the pain most of the beginning he was on the mend.

It wasn't easy to find the words to explain his thoughts properly. Not to her.

Golden eyes opened to glare at the five thick candles that sat in front of him on a low table. He was trying to meditate, a towel rolled up to hang around his neck, his hair still wet from his shower. It was frustrating, how his thoughts were distracting him from being able to find peace in the simple act of meditation.

"Why isn't this working...?!" he then growled out, jaw clenching. The flames on each of them rose a little higher, flickered, and then lowered again.

Zuko exhaled, irritated, and closed his eyes to try again.

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Since her little conversation in Home Economics class with Zuko, Katara had been rather distracted the rest of the evening. All through dinner, she could only think of what Zuko had accused her of-- as much as Katara disliked him, she hadn't meant to hurt him as much as she did. Did her actions in a moment of blind anger really make her no better than Ozai? A shiver ran down her spin at the thought of being compared to such a monster-- but in the back of her mind, she couldn't forget the fact that she did possess an ability that could be equally as terrible and horrific should she ever choose to utilize it.

While she had been making her way back to her dorm after dinner, her feet seemed to travel on their own as they veered off course and set off in the direction of the male dormitory wing. No, she needed to settle this for her own piece of mind-- it would continue to bother her if they didn't at least talk it out. And technically he did agree to speak to her about it later, hadn't he?

Unfamiliar with the particular wing of the school, it took Katara a bit of time to finally locate the door labeled with Zuko's name. Hoping that he'd be inside, Katara took a deep breath before lifting a hand to rasp her knuckles against the metal door, her stomach tightening with an odd nervousness as she waited for a reply.

By the time the sound of the quiet rapping at his door came around, Zuko was more than frustrated now. The flames shot to the ceiling, barely licking the metal, and the firebender exhaled heavily through his nose, steam blowing out and coiling in the air before he pushed himself to rise off the ground. The candles were extinguished by the air carried the distinct smell of fire and candles being put out, following him as he pulled the towel off his shoulders to hang on the back of a chair in place of the shirt he snatched up.

Barefoot he padded over to the door, shirt in hand, and didn't bother to ask who it was. He slapped his good hand on the button that would open it and found himself lowering his eyes. What..? What the hell was the waterbender doing here at his dorm?

It also didn't escape his attention that she looked a little fidgety. "Uh..." Zuko just stared at her, standing there shirtless and in his drawstring sweatpants.

Say something, stupid--

"... Hi."

When the door slid open, Katara had expected Zuko to still be in his uniform just as she was-- so she was more than surprised when she was greeted by the sight of a shirtless firebender. Her blue eyes were immediately drawn to his bare torso, but she was quick to let her gaze snap up to meet his as soon as she realized she was staring-- Spirits, she hoped her cheeks didn't look as red as they felt.

Katara regained her composure before returning the greeting. "...Hi." Silence came between them, before she gestured his dorm room with a hand. "Can we talk...?"

Zuko said nothing and stepped aside to let her in, eyes looking off to the side. Well this was awkward.

He pressed the button on the door pad once she was in, the door sliding shut on a soft whoosh of air. Definitely awkward.

Zuko moved further into the room, the smell of put out candles still heavy in the air. There was fresh bruising along the mending collarbone and where neck and shoulder met, some she could probably see just at the back of his shoulder; each physical therapy session brought fresh ones to bloom, the old faded to yellows and greens while the newer ones were dark pinks and purples. It was a little price that he was willing to pay to regain full movement of his one arm and shoulder.

He wasn't sure how he was going to get his shirt on now without looking a fool. He'd probably end up looking like a fish on dry land, wriggling to get into it. Oh the irony; her being a waterbender and him being the fish on dried land.

There was a short sigh from him and then he turned again to face her, wondering when she was going to start talking.

Edited 2010-09-07 11:05 (UTC)

Once she received the signal that it was alright for her to enter, Katara stepped into the common area of the dormitory, her eyes briefly taking in the setting. She was surprised to see how tidy the area was; perhaps she was too use to Sokka's room and had immediately figured all males were as messy as her brother.

While he moved further inside, Katara couldn't help but notice the discoloration of his skin from his injury, a sight that makes her involuntarily suck in a breath. It really did look painful... and judging by the way he was simply holding the shirt within his hands, he was still having some trouble with functioning. And the way his skin glistened in the light, it seemed as though he was fresh out of a shower-- a small part of the waterbender in her felt the urge to bend the water away, but she resisted.

When he turned to face her, Katara felt her eyes dart up to meet his once again, not wanting to be caught staring at his bare back. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, his shirtless state was just a bit distracting and she couldn't really focus on the task at hand. With a vague gesturing of her hands, Katara spoke with a slight air of awkwardness, "Do you... need help?"

His eyes lowered to her gesturing hands and at first he wasn't really sure what she was talking about. "Huh..? Oh. Uh yeah. I guess."

Zuko hesitated before moving towards her, forcing himself to focus on the shirt and getting it around to how he needed it. The bruising on the front of his shoulder was a little worse than the back and darker towards where the bone had been fractured.

After a moment he just held it out to her on an aggravated sigh, frowning.

Her eyes were immediately drawn to the darker bruising on his shoulder as he moved towards her, and even as she gently took the shirt from his hands, she couldn't help the grimace as she inspected the injured area. Katara looked up at him, a slight look of worry creasing her brow.

"Does it hurt?" She indicated the bruising with a small sweep of her hand, but she was careful not to touch him-- she didn't want a repeat of what happened last week.

Zuko shrugged his good shoulder, looking down expectantly to the t-shirt she held in her hand. "Not really. Mostly during the physical therapy, that's it." He paused to shift his weight awkwardly from left to right foot. "Uh- shirt?"

He had no real problem standing around shirtless since he did most of his daily routines and workouts without one, but it was just the fact that she was there in the room with him. Alone. And it was probably better to be fully dressed for the conversation that was to follow.

"Oh, right!" Remembering that she held the article of clothing in her hands, Katara pulled the bottom opening of the shirt taunt, then held it up expectantly before realizing a small problem. "You're kind of tall-- could you duck down or something?" As if to emphasize her point, she reached up to show just how far her arms could go.

His apology was a raspy mumble and Zuko carefully eased his right arm into the shirt and sleeve first, then he ducked so she could pull it over his head as he brought up his good arm. As long as his injured arm/shoulder was in first and didn't have to go through much movement, it was fine with him.

When he ducked down, Katara pulled the rest of the shirt over his head and guided his good arm through the arm hole as well, even if he didn't need help with that. Tugging the rest of the fabric down over his torso, she then smoothed the wrinkles at the bottom of his shirt before giving a small hum of approval at completing the task. "There."

Zuko thought it was a little weird for her to be smoothing out his shirt for him. He was perfectly capable of doing it himself, that and he didn't really care about wrinkles.

He only raised a brow at her while straightening up and said, "You smooth out your brother's wrinkles, too?"

Katara realized that he isn't use to her more motherly habits, so with a small huff to hide her embarrassment, she drew her hands back to cross over her chest. "Someone has to-- crumpled and crinkled clothing doesn't look nice."

Now both brows came up, even if the scarred brow was hairless. "I didn't think a wrinkled shirt would be so distracting," he mused, snorting.

"So then? You said you wanted to talk...?"

'It's a better distraction than you being shirtless.' She couldn't help but think, and mentally scolded herself for even thinking back on the image of his bare torso. At his question, though, Katara straightened up, a slightly hesitant and uneasy look on her face now.

"You said earlier that it wasn't a good time or place to talk about what we were talking about." She gave a small shrug. "Is now a good time and place to carry on the conversation?"

And there went the semi-good mood. Expected of course.

Zuko said nothing and folded his arms over his chest. "There's nothing really to talk about."

"There's a lot to talk about." Katara gave him a pointed look, as if to warn him from even trying to suggest otherwise. "You know we need to talk about what you said."

She leaned back to sit on the edge of the table, her hands dropping to smooth her skirt out and her eyes followed the movement. There was a pause, and Katara didn't look up when she said, "I'm... sorry if what I did made you think of what your Father did to you. I didn't know, and I shouldn't have gotten that angry with you."

"No. You had every right." Zuko stood where he was, letting his gaze drift down to her legs and then quickly off to the side. "You're hardly a wench, but... I can be a jerk.

... A pretty big one most of the time."

Edited 2010-09-07 19:05 (UTC)

That made her head snap up. She certainly hadn't expected for Zuko to actually apologize to her, especially with the way he had been actively ignoring her for the past week. There was a momentary loss of words, before she blurted out:

"Are you feeling okay?"

Zuko was staring right back at her, if not leaning back somewhat in surprise at her unexpected question and outburst of a blurt. "Uh. My shoulder's a little sore...?"

"That's not-- nevermind." Katara shook her head, and she bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. He really had apologized and even admitted he was a jerk without her having to say so. What was the world coming to?

"Do you want me to try and heal it?" Katara asked, a hand gesturing his shoulder. "I mean, I can understand if you don't want me to especially with that happened the last time I tried."

He eyed her in silence, eyes narrowing. The last time she'd tried helping with the ache, she'd shifted the bones and caused them to rub against one another. Definitely not the best feeling in the world.

"You won't poke at it again, will you?"

Katara held both her hands up in a gesture to indicate that she means no harm, her eyes wide as she slipped on an innocent expression. "I promise I won't poke at it again. Which was a stupid thing for me to have done, now that I think about it..."

"Yeah. Just a bit."

And he stands there, waiting, unsure of if he should sit or simply stand.

Katara moved away from the table and walked up to Zuko, equally unsure of how to proceed. Thankfully, she realized an important factor missing to her healing session.

"Do you have any water?"