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Borealis: A Zutara Story	By : jaded_priceless Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > AU/AR - Alternate Universe/Alternate Reality Views: 34026 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, any historical figures or events, or easily recognizable persons, places or things. I make no profit from this work of fanfiction

Chapter List
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- 266
Chapter 262
Contrary to popular belief the fastest messenger hawks in the world did not belong to the Fire Nation military or even the Fire Lord. They belonged to his staff. Cooks and servants had to be ready a moment’s notice to satisfy their monarch’s every whim. Taiga had just gone to the rookery to check the status of the ash banana delivery needed to make ash banana pudding. It was Princess Ursa’s favorite dessert and Fire Lord Ozai would eat it daily for the two weeks before and after her birthday and the anniversary of her death in her memory. She thought the incoming hawk carried the response to the message she sent earlier.
She was not expecting to intercept a letter from Princess Azula to the Fire Lord. She read the letter twice before immediately dispatching another hawk to the Earth Kingdom. Zuko was a sweet boy; she could not allow him to be killed for honoring his mother’s memory. She hoped it arrived in time to for him to gain his great-aunt’s intercedence.

“Amayu.”
The doctor was walking towards Zuko’s room but froze when Chu-hua called her name.
“I have seen you coming back and forth with the Waterbender but have not seen my little cousin. Is he your patient?” Chu-hua asked calmly.
Despite her placid tone there was dangerous glint in her eye that made Amayu believe her life was certainly in danger. She swallowed thickly before speaking the truth. Katara would not allow Prince Zuko to kill her but no one but the Fire Lord would dare censure Chu-hua. “Yes Admiral Chu-hua. His majesty asked that his treatment remain private.”
“I see,” she nodded. “So what ails him?”
“Admiral, please forgive me but it is with my utmost respect that I say I am unable to answer that question upon penalty of treason by decree of Prince Zuko,” she replied bowing.
“I see. Very well, as your superior office I order you to stand right there, say and do nothing,” Chu-hua instructed before walking away. She returned with Ami. The frightened girl unlocked the door to Zuko’s room then asked if they needed anything else before disappearing down the hallway.
Chu-hua stepped into the room. It smelled strongly of food and medicine. She stepped around the privacy screen and saw Zuko asleep on Waterbender’s chest. She was reading. His back was covered in bandages and a sheet covered his lower half. She bellowed, “You have three seconds to explain what is wrong with him or useless people will start dying.”
Katara looked at her but said nothing. She woke Zuko by calling his name and caressing his face until his eyes opened. He snuggled closer to her and she called his name again. This time his eyes opened. “Hey, Katara, I’m hungry.”
She formed her lips into a tired smile, “Chu-hua is here to visit. She wants to know what’s wrong with you. I didn’t tell her.”
Zuko sighed and turned his head the other way to look at his maternal cousin, “Blood poisoning.”
“It’s getting better,” he added adjusting so Katara could feel his erection.
She blushed as it moved along her thigh as he sat up.
He attempted to whisper, “I miss making love to you in the first rays of morning.”
“Zuko!” Katara shrieked.
He smiled and laid his head on her shoulder, “Do you miss feeling me inside you?”
She swatted his leg, “Don’t you see Dr. Amayu and Admiral Chu-hua standing there?”
By the looks of both women Katara guessed they had either heard or read his lips and knew what he was saying.
“I figured Amayu was here to check me. I wanted her to give me permission to make love to you,” Zuko said looking down at his lap. His expression softened as raised his head and smiled, “I really don’t know why I have this anyway. I was dreaming about Mom. Chu-hua sometimes looks like her. I thought I was hallucinating when I saw her standing there.”
He frowned, “Dr. Amayu is something wrong with me? I was dreaming about Mom now I’m talking about her and this hasn’t gone down.”
The doctor walked over to the bed and took his pulse at his wrist, neck, and foot them compared them to his actual heartbeat. “Congratulations you are at a stage in your recovery where your heart is pumping enough blood to your extremities for your body to function as a normal sixteen year old male’s should. That is an extremity. That is its normal condition upon waking, is it not?”
Zuko blushed as he agreed.
“Not to mention you’ve been lying on the breast of a half naked girl and haven’t stopped looking down her top. Do I even want to ask where your hands where?” Amayu asked frowning. They had been abnormally warm when she took his pulse.
This time Katara blushed. One of his hands had remained between her legs and the other cupped her behind as he slept after touching her earlier.
The doctor rolled her eyes, “Admiral please open the bottle of antiseptic. I may contaminate it after taking his pulse.”
Chu-hua removed the lid. Katara waited until she had sat down the bottle to bend liquid towards Amayu. Toshio had dropped a bottle when she did the same thing. Amayu washed her hands while Chu-hua took a step backwards and drew fire. Katara quickly snatched the remaining liquids away from her.
“Be careful I was yawning that stuff’s flammable. What would you have done if sparks had come out?” Zuko scolded.
Chu-hua put away her flames and Katara directed the liquid back into the bottle but kept some out to wash her and Zuko’s hands.
Amayu threw a robe at her while grumbling, “Clean him up so I can check his back.”
Katara covered herself then called hot water from the ever present pot in the fireplace, mixed it with antiseptic then washed the chair. She repeated the process then ran the mixture over the bar of soap then bent the soapy water over Zuko after he sat in the chair. It was followed by water from the pot mixed with cool water from the tub. Chu-hua watched with a wary eye as Zuko calmly allowed her to tend to him.
Once he was clean and a towel draped over his lap Amayu removed his bandages. It was a totally devoid of normal healthy skin; a pink and white mottled mess of flesh and scabs. Chu-hua gasped, “What did you do to him?”
“I excised the skin covering the wounds during the first surgery but that did not remove all of the poison. This was done during the second surgery to ensure nothing lingered,” Amayu explained while cleaning one of the pinker spots.
“Surgery? Second surgery?” Chu-hua repeated angrily.
“The first was done fifteen days ago. The second was done the night of the full moon,” Amayu confessed.
“The full moon? What does that have to do with any-” Chu-hua stopped. The Waterbender had washed Zuko. She was now standing in front of him, cradling his head to her chest as the doctor worked on him. The admiral’s eyes narrowed. Zuko’s second surgery was on the night of the full moon when Waterbenders were at their full power. “Did you let her touch him?”
“She is his concubine, Admiral. She touches him according to his own wishes,” Amayu replied honestly.
“Do not be facetious little girl, I am your commanding officer,” Chu-hua reprimanded harshly.
“Stop harassing her. She speaks the truth. As my physician she is bound to not to divulge specifics regarding my care unless I give her permission. She does not have my permission,” Zuko muttered authoritatively.
“You have blood poisoning! Don’t you think you should have gone back to the homeland for proper treatment?” Chu-hua growled.
“And here I was thinking Azula and Father were the only family members who wished to kill me,” Zuko huffed.
His voice rose as he continued, “I would be dead before I ever got halfway across the ocean if not for Katara and Dr. Amayu. Leave if you have nothing positive to say to those who saved me.”
Chu-hua placed a hand on Zuko’s exposed back and grabbed his hair, pulling his head back, forcing him to look up at her. She began speaking in the Fire Nation dialect native to their ancestral island, “Listen here you stupid brat. You may be crown prince but you are also a seaman under my command and a member of the Kumanishi clan. Do not forget I own you. Or do you want your father to find out about your pet’s damned howling? He would make you listen to her scream before burning away her vocal cords but you would still be forced to watch her lips moving and see her expression as she begged for you to help her. Or maybe he would deafen you so you would always hear her screams echoing in your head.”
Tears stung his eyes and Zuko whimpered in pain, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Chu-hua did not see the liquid approaching until it was already in her mouth and nostrils. It was bitter.
“You told me that my brother’s life was tied to Zuko’s. Even if it were not, I am not the type of person to stand aside while someone is being bullied. Zuko is injured and you are endangering him; will you kill me or my brother because I chose to protect him?” Katara snarled unblocking Chu-hua’s respiratory openings but leaving enough liquid to make it too dangerous for her to Firebend.
To her surprise Chu-hua, flashed a toothy grin that was far more sinister than Azula’s, “I’m glad to see you are finally learning your place. A good bitch always protects her master.”
She let go of Zuko’s hair and removed her hand from his back, “I will not harm you or your brother for coming to his defense. I might even reward Sokka. I’m sure he will be happy to that hear you’re doing such a good job taking care of this little idiot that I’ve decided to give him a little gift.”
“Aang,” Katara replied removing more of the liquid from Chu-hua’s face.
“What?” the admiral stated incredulously.
“The gift I’ve earned for protecting Zuko. Do not give it to my brother, give it to Aang. Sokka is getting fresh air and exercise in the stables and garden while Aang wastes away inside your cages. Take him outside. He won’t run away without us and Appa,” Katara bargained shrewdly. She didn’t understand most of what Chu-hua said but she recognized her tone and expression. She had spoken to Zuko the same way a mother would a child who had done something stupid and placed themselves in danger.
“And why would I do that?” Chu-hua hissed.
Katara smiled then leaned over and kissed Zuko’s scalp where the admiral had pulled his hair, “Because he trusts me and you do not trust his judgment. As you stated there are limits to Fire Lord Ozai’s decree protecting Sokka and Zuko’s life is tied to his. You worry for Zuko on behalf of his mother and know that he drops his guard around me. It would place me in your debt if you were to allow Aang a moment to go outside and experience freedom.”
Chu-hua’s eyes narrowed. She swirled her tongue around inside her mouth tasting the antiseptic polluting her saliva. It was bitter, but not as distasteful as the arrangement she was about to make with the Waterbender. Zuko had willingly stepped into the ocean with her; licked poison from her lips, and allowed her to use her element to heal him. The boy would no doubt do something else foolish in which the Waterbender would be the only thing keeping him from certain death. She had promised Ursa to look after him not anticipating the boy would fall under the spell of a water demon.
“Prince Zuko, you hear what she is asking, have you no opinion of granting the Avatar a bit of freedom?” Chu-hua asked to test him.
“Do it. It will be in our favor if the people see him striding about in the custody of the Fire Nation while doing nothing to help them,” he replied knowing the advantages presented by using the Avatar as a pawn in psychological warfare would do more to convince Chu-hua to go along with Katara’s idea.
Chu-hua stepped forward to look at Zuko. His head was once again pillowed on the Waterbender’s chest; her wet fingers massaged his scalp, soothing it from where she had pulled it earlier. Unlike Zuko’s whose eyes were closed, the Waterbender’s remained focused on her. Chu-hua realized small droplets of antiseptic hung in the air between them. They made tiny circles that in perfect synchronization with the movements on Zuko’s scalp.
It reminded Chu-hua of Ozai. He and Ursa had shared the loss of their virginity months before their betrothal was scheduled to be consummated. It had only been the two of them in plain view of Agni and not in the designated room at the palace surrounded by sages. Their parents had been livid to find Ursa lying naked on his chest after one of their illicit couplings. Ursa justified their action by saying, “He is my prince and we are soon to be wed. Has not my future husband proclaimed since our first meeting that I was the wife Agni had chosen for him? Have you not told me since our first meeting to cherish, care for and protect him? He has known since we were children that I am the only woman for him and he patiently waited for my feelings. Why is it that you would become upset that we fulfill the will of Agni in our own time when it took almost a decade for your sages to realize what he has already known? Do you place the words of silly men above the heart of Agni Eternal which beats within him?”
Ozai had said nothing. He continued to rub circles on her back and kiss her forehead as tiny flames dancing around the bed threatened those who had intruded on them.
This scene, Katara showing affection to Zuko while using her element to threaten her, was blood chillingly similar. At first she found it disgusting that Ozai liked the Waterbender and counted her among his offspring but now she could now see the similarities between them.
This Waterbending Katara was more like Ozai than Zuko or Azula could ever be.
Not the Fire Lord as he was now, but the young calculating prince who found ways to be defiant within his father and older brother’s restrictions. The strategist who conquered a fortified Earth Kingdom city by having his troops lie down outside it until those inside grew curious enough to come out. A trickster who read the situation around them and was able to take advantage of it without the overt use of manipulation; he gave subtle nudges and allowed people’s own instincts and actions to do the work for him.
Chu-hua took a step back realizing her error. Throughout their journey she had deliberately concealed her affection for Zuko but today she let her guard down. She had shown the girl how much she cared for him. The hussy had gambled with the Fire Lord and won her brother’s protection, Chu-hua should have known she would be able to detect her love for Zuko beneath her pretend indifference. Chu-hua quickly composed herself and huffed a compliment at Katara, “Fire Lord Ozai would most certainly be proud to see his child’s behavior.”
“Leave. Leave now,” Zuko demanded rising from his chair. He was shaking.
This time the admiral left. She had not considered her words would be taken as an insult by Zuko. She loved him too much to hurt him by throwing his relationship with his father in his face. She had meant that his water demon reminded her so very much of their Fire Lord. Her heart was heavy as she walked the short distance to her room and gulped fresh air from the window.
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Borealis: A Zutara Story