Fire and Ice

Nightmares...

That night, the group awoke to the sound of screams. The first one to bolt to the location of the screams were none other than Rin and Zuko.

Frost covered the floor and walls, coming from the bed where Klare laid. Said girl was paler than usual and thrashing around with the sheet of a blanket she had left long forgotten on the frosted over floor.

"Klare?" Zuko tried to call out to her, but his call fell on deaf ears. The water tribe siblings eventually made it their, followed by Toph amd the others. "What's happening to her?!" Zuko's attention briefly left Klare to focus a panicked glare at her brother. Rin returned the glare and shook his head. "I don't know. This has never happened before. This is by far the worst her nightmares have ever gone."

The frost was slowly spreading, creeping closer to the group by the door as it covered more ground. "Are you saying that she has nightmares a lot?" Katara questioned the boy, sounding rather concerned for her new female friend. Rin only nods in response and turns his gaze to the floor in shame. "They started about a week ago and escalate every night, making this the worst." That's when Rin noticed it. While he and the others had to step back before the frost reached them, Zuko was left untouched in the same spot as if there were a barrier around him. "Hey, princy, try walking over to her." Sokka gasped, "Are you crazy?!" Rin shot a ferocious glare at the tall boy before looking back at his sister writhing around in what appeared to be agony. "I know what I'm asking might not sound safe, but I know what I'm doing more than any of you do. Even asleep, my sister would never purposely hurt Zuko. The rest of us are just extra to her compared to him." Zuko's eyes widened at his words, but they were plenty enough to motivate him to take a step forward, expecting to step on frost. The frost in the area where Zuko's feet tread vanished instantly on first touch until he reached Klare.

Now that Zuko was up close, he could clearly see the tears staining the snowy haired girl's face with streaks of frost as well. Seeing her distressed figure, he felt inclined to comfort as she had done so many times before. Slowly and carefully, the teenaged boy shifted the girl into an embrace and gently wiped away her tears. Upon his touch, the frost on the female's face melted instantly.

"Ngh." Her face slacked from its previously tense expression before the brightly colored eyes fluttered awake to look at him. "Zu...ko?" There was a few moments of complete silence as the frost that had taken over the entire room melted away. Zuko opened his mouth to respond but was quickly stopped when her slender arms wrapped around him to bring her closer to the boy than what his hold had already brought them. "Thank the great Phoenix you're okay! I was so... so scared. It felt so real! She! ... I thought she killed you! I was completely helpless!" Everyone was shocked by the sobs that coursed through the eldest girl's body. Only hours before did they see this very same girl smiling and laughing cheerfully with an occasional blush.

Rin narrowed his eyes at the course of events, balling his hands into tight fists. "Tch." With a sharp turn, the white-haired boy walked past the other observers and back to his room. He didn't, however, forget to say one last thing to the group standing outside his sister's temporary room. "Everything's fine now. Give them some space and go back to sleep." The others were hesitant to leave, but eventually decided that Zuko could handle it and left.

Back to the unofficial pair, Zuko softly ran his hand along Klare's hair in a soothing manner. Memories of doing this very same thing flashed into his head as he did so.

**flashback**

"Hey, Zuky?" The young prince looked up to find his best friend walking up to where he was seated at his usual tree in the garden. She seemed to be upset as she sat beside him. "What's wrong, Klare? Did something happen?" The ravenette girl refused to speak, instead she chose to lean her head onto his shoulder. The boy knew that when she was like this there would be no way of getting her to speak unless she wanted to, so he just wrapped an arm around her shoulder and stayed there. "Zuky... can you pet my hair? It feels nice when you do." The boy was shocked by this request, but he didn't question it.

As if it had a mind of its own, Zuko's hand shifted up from her shoulder to her head and began slowly stroking her smooth, black hair. It only took a few strokes before the young girl closed her eyes and smiled peacefully.

**flash forward a few days**

Zuko walked through the halls, trying to find his mother and best friend, who would usually be together until lunch. However, a flash of black and a dull red quickly caught his attention and caused him to divert from his original plan in order to chase after the flash. He ran around the corner and followed the person, quickly noticing that the figure was a female based on the long hair that was worn down in a natural wave at the end.

The girl ran around various halls before finally stopping and curling herself up next to a wall. When the young prince caught up to her, he recognized the hallway as one of the few that was rarely used by anyone other than him and Klare. That's when he realized that he had unknowingly chased his best friend, who appeared to be in distress.

The prince cautiously approached the shaking girl and sat next to her. "Klare?" His voice was soft, as not to startle her. Mostly white eyes raised up to meet his gaze. Her light blue irises made up a much smaller portion of her eyes than usual, signifying to the boy that she was terrified of something. This concerned the boy, instinctively making him pull her to him in a protective hug and gently stroke her hair. "I don't know what happened, but everything is fine now."

Klare didn't move for quite some time, not even to return the hug. She did, however, relax soon after he began petting her hair. After a while, a small voice found its way out of her. "It was Azula again... The innocent little butterfly... She laughed and made it burst in flames..." The tears that the girl had been trying to hold in immediately poured from her eyes as she told her friend of the incident.

**flashbacks end**

Zuko watched as the snow haired girl in his arms slowly stopped crying and eventually fell back asleep with her head on his shoulder. A small smile slipped its way onto the teenaged boy's lips as his just stayed there, holding her resting figure.

It didn't take long after for Zuko to shift the two of them enough so that he could lay down too, and that is how they stayed until morning. Asleep with their arms holding the other as if they would lose each other if they were to let go.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Heya, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this new update, sorry for the wait (my summer has been hectic now that I'm going into my junior year of hs... not looking forward to it). The school season is coming up... so continuing may be a bit more difficult with the added work load, but I'll try to get on Wattpad and type regularly.

Remember that comments, voted, and everything else from all of you is very much appreciated!!
And as always,

Until next time!~

Ali🌹