(1) Augmentum | Zuko

Chapter Fifty

Fingers touch Rana's neck and chin, ghosting over her flesh, pulling her from her deep sleep. It takes some recovering from a full nine tail event. The touches disappear and she sinks into sleep again. She feels touches again, this time tracing the tip of her ear, toying with the fur there. She hums and turns a little towards where it is coming from.

"You going to wake up any time soon, Princess?" Zuko's voice rumbles in her ear, it rumbles through her entire body. It tingles. He moves his hand, the backs of his fingers brushing over her cheek. "Wake up" He whispers closer to her ear, lips brushing over it.

"Do I have to?" She complains and shifts, her eyes blinking as she fully wakes. She sits up to find that she's alone in a cave. No Zuko. No Aang. No Sokka. No Katara. No pokemon. But the campfire is still pretty fresh. They're around somewhere. She sighs as she touches her face and closes her eyes, leaning into her own hand.

......

The sun is starting to set beyond the cave as Rana makes it to the mouth where she finds Ninetails laying alert, watching over her. Rana unclips the ball from her necklace and holds it out. Rockruff and Pichu appear at Ninetails' side. Noivern makes a noise from above them as he swoops down to land. Rana touches his face as he moves to her.

"Where are the others?" She asks, Noivern turns his head and looks away from her. Rana turns to follow his gaze and finds Wartortle, Katara and Sokka are in the clearing close by unpacking Appa, so they haven't been here very long. Rana lets out a breath and heads towards them.

.......

Sokka unwraps and sorts his supplies with Wartortle who helps, the turtle now carrying the pokemon egg from the temple in a sling, as Rana reaches them, her hair swaying in the wind that picks up.

"What are you guys doing?" Rana asks.

"Setting up camp" Sokka answers. "Urm, we put you in the cave to rest till we were done..."

"We didn't want you getting cold" Katara adds as she moves closer to Rana.

"How are you feeling?" Sokka asks, Rana hums and shrugs.

"Tired, still" She complains, she is aware that Katara is staring at her, waiting for her attention, but Rana knows what she wants to talk about and to be honest, she doesn't really want to go there today.

"Rana..." Katara starts.

"Let's not" Rana stops her. "I'm still tired, and I really don't want you to apologise for calling me out for the terrible taste I clearly have in boys...I know that my feelings for Zuko are..." She sighs and stops herself. She doesn't want to talk about it. "I'm working on it" She adds. "He's the enemy, I get it...."

"No" Katara stops her. "I shouldn't have said what I said, it's different. You and Zuko were friends, you know a different version of him...a version we'll probably never see, and I know that he only let us go because of you, because of that friendship. We kind of owe it....so I'm sorry" Rana waves over her shoulder and heads back towards the cave.

"Get some more rest" Sokka shouts after her. Rana waves over her shoulder to acknowledge him. She's still too tired to argue.

....

Ninetails stretches and curls up again as Rana passes her by, heading into the cave to rest. She's starting to think that being alone would be preferable to this. The constant exhaustion. She could go off on her own for a bit. Get a better handle on her powers. Learn how to do better. To be better. If she could learn how to use all of her abilities, then she will be better at protecting Aang. What good is she if she keeps passing out? Anything could happen. Not for long. Just a little while. She sits on the ground and stares into the fire. Maybe some time away will take her mind off of Zuko too. Some 'me' time. Just for her and her pokemon.

"Hey, Rana" Aang greets as he sits at her side. "You were so awesome" She glances at him, finds him smiling brightly at her. She can't help but smile back at him. "You okay?" He asks her.

"Just tired" She whispers and looks at the fire. "You know how it is" She waves a little and the fire moves with her hand, dancing around as she picks up the movement. "Everything was so much easier when I was just a fire-bender" She throws out her hand and the fire moves with it, dancing around the walls of the cave. "I could do that, it was what I'd trained my whole life for....but the rest?" She shakes her head. Aang cringes a little.

"I know I'm supposed to say something that will help" He starts. "But I'm not very good at that" She wraps an arm around him and pulls him into a side hug.

"You don't have to be" She assures him. "Just be Aang" He nods and smiles as he hugs her. Something moves, something that looks suspiciously like Zuko passes by the corner of her eye, she turns her head to watch it disappear into the shadows. Something is going on. First, she wakes up with him in her ear and now she's seeing him floating around. "I must be really tired" She whispers to herself as she rubs at her head. Things have been getting weirder since that little purple spark thing. The dreams. The whispers. She looks at Aang who dozes against her side. Tired himself. She smiles sadly and nods. Of course, he's tired.