The Forgiven (Zutara)

Reconnecting

Zukos POV
She feel asleep with her hand on my chest. I sighed placing an arm under my head and with my other hand I grabbed hers gently not wanting her to stir in fear she would move away from me and I would no long have her touch. I reached over and pulled the jacket tighter to her body and soon enough fell asleep myself. I heard my name being called and forced myself to wake up.

"Zuko! Zuko! Grab the kids!" Katara said. I sat up quickly and looked around. There were men coming towards us. I began running towards the kids waking them up, carrying the boy since he was the youngest. I looked over at Katara who was struggling to stand I quickly came back towards her, supporting her, wrapping my arm tightly around her waist.

"Freya. Into a dragon." She spoke panting.

"What about my mom and dad?" The little boy cried as I set him on the dragon.

"We'll find them but we can't stay." I told him. We all climbed on the dragon and left, we circled overhead trying to find mom and Ikem. We finally spotted them about two miles from where we had camped. We flew as close to the ground as we could and I helped them up.

"Zuko. Zuko I remember." Mom said as she gripped onto me right so she didn't fall.

"That's great mom and I'm very happy you remember. But I think we should probably wait to have a reunion until we get somewhere safe. Katara can Freya make it across the ocean?" I asked up to Katara.

"Well get there." She replied.

"Are you alright?" I asked her. She looked very pale and weak.

"I'll make it." She said. I kept an eye on her worried that she'd get so weak she'd just start falling off Freya. We'd finally made it onto fire nation territory and Katara told Freya to stop. When Freya stopped and everyone got off of her Katara fell to her knees catching herself on her elbows, she lifted one hand to hug her waist and began coughing hysterically. I placed a hand on her back trying to soothe the coughing.

"Katara you're not getting any better." I said. She slowly sat up breathing heavily.

"Yeah. I am. I would've been dead. I'm not. That's a step. Earlier I was fine. It's the traveling that's making me worse." She argued. I shook my head a set my backpack next to hers, propping them up so they were like pillows. I gently helped her lay down, her face contorted into pain then she finally relaxed. "Zuko why don't you take your family to the palace? That way they're safe." She said. I shook my head about to answer but instead I felt a hand placed on my shoulder and my mother answered for me.

"You've helped save my family's lives. We aren't leaving you here." Mother said. Katara groaned.

"Great. Like mother like son." Katara said and we all chuckled. I stood up and turned to face my mother. She placed both hands on my shoulders looking at me, studying me.

"Who would've thought. The little boy I left all those years ago. Do you know why I had to leave you Zuko?" She asked. I nodded.

"Yes I found out just a couple months later." I replied. She hugged me tight.

"My little boy all grown up. Wow." She chuckled. Then she placed her fingertips on the edge of the scar on my eye. "Did he do this?" She asked. Should I tell her the truth? Or should I let her believe I had a good childhood?

"Doesn't matter. I did most of my growing up outside of the fire nation." I shrugged. She furrowed her eyebrows at me.

"What do you mean?" She asked. I shouldn't tell her I was banished.

"I grew up with Katara. Our fathers knew each other and when the war started to peak he sent me and Azula to the Southern Water Tribe so we could be away from the worst of it." I lied.