┊𝑰𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆┊

chapter 7

Katara woke up in the middle of the night from a noise she heard. She listened for a few seconds before realizing how warm she felt. She looked down and noticed arms wrapped around her. They hadn't fallen asleep like that, she was sure of it. Maybe he was just cold, being shirtless and all. She started blushing, but it quickly went away when she heard the noise again.

"Zuko.." she whispered.

"Mhmm.."

"Zuko, are you awake?"

"Mhmm.."

"I thought I heard something."

"Wha?"

"Wake up, I heard something," she whispered a little louder.

"Mmm juz go back aslp, Ktar." He snuggled closer to her and buried his face into her shoulder, obviously still asleep.

She turned her head and shook his arm and his eyes fluttered open to meet hers. "I heard something, please wake up."

"It's probably nothing, go back to sleep," he mumbled.

Katara rolled out of his grasp and over on her stomach and searched the woods behind them to see if she could see anything. The moon was almost new by then so it wasn't giving off much light. She was about to give up when she heard something again. It sounded like a grunt or a growl or something like that.

She scooted slowly over right next to Zuko and whispered in his ear, "Zuko, there's something in the woods. I heard it again!"

"What did it sound like?"

"I don't know, a growl?"

He sighed and sat up some, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He turned around some and looked into the trees. "I suppose you want me to go check it out? This isn't like a monster-under-the-bed thing, is it?"

"No, it's not like that. I'll come with you if you're scared, I just didn't want to go alone just in case."

"Ugh, fine, let's go check it out."

They got to their feet slowly and started towards the trees. They heard the noise again when they reached the trees. Katara thought it was too close for comfort, but they went in towards it anyway.

"I told you," she whispered at Zuko. He just turned and held a finger to his mouth, gesturing for her to be quiet. They continued through the trees without a sound. They heard the noise again even closer, so close that Katara would've screamed if Zuko's hand hadn't gotten to her mouth first. When he removed his hand, she mouthed a quick 'thanks' before returning her attention to the situation.

He turned back to her and made a tiny flame in his hand, then put it out and pointed the direction the noise kept coming from. She assumed he was trying to say there was a fire over there. He moved forward just a bit and peeked through the brush. When he couldn't see anything, he turned to her again.

He walked up close to her and whispered in her ear, "I don't see anything. They must've heard us and ran."

"Or they're hiding and waiting to jump out and attack us." Just as she said that, her vision went black and she felt someone's arms around her.