Zutara- Fire, Water, Steam ✔

The Painted Lady and the Blue Spirit

Zuko's POV

Katara is crazy. Brilliant, beautiful, but crazy.

I thought this as we snuck out of the dorms. It wasn't enough what we were about to do, but the costume she put me in was weird. I was in all black, including my boots and gloves. Even my hair was covered with a hood. The only color was my mask which, I will admit, looked kind of cool. It was blue with white details forming a weird smile. I had my dual swords on my back. Katara's outfit was fabulous, and she looked almost like a goddess which was the point since she based it off the Painted Lady. She wore a red dress under a deep maroon cloak that exposed her shoulders which she painted lines of red that matched the painting design on her face. To complete the look, Katara wore a hat that women use to wear when in rice fields with a flowing veil descending from the edges. The finishing touch was a crescent moon on her forehead.

We walked on the edges of the school to avoid anyone that might be in the halls. My father explained that the security guards were simply for protection, but they were stationed around the arenas and armory. It was convenient that the fire arena didn't have as much security as the others.

Finally, we reached the fire arena there with two guards standing in front of the entrance. I turned to Katara to see a smile on her face. She raised her hand, and slowly a fog started to appear. It inched towards the guards before it began to get thicker. It was already a cloudy night, and it seemed as if it was going to rain. One guard noticed and alerted the other, so both were hesitant as it got closer. I used the fog as cover to walk behind them while Katara walked forward standing in the middle of the mist.

"Who's there?" One guard asked, but Katara said nothing. Once I stood behind the guards, I realized how creepy she looked like a black figure surrounded fog. Before they realized I was there, I used the hilt of my dual swords to knock them out at the same time.

"Very nice. How long do you think they'll be out?" Katara asked me.

"I'm not sure, but we should hurry." I spoke in a whisper, unsure if she could hear me through the mask but she nodded. Suddenly, it began raining. I turned around in time to catch a smirk from Katara. She waved her arm, and I was being carried up to the roof with a jet of water up to my hips. I almost let out a noise of surprise but remembered we needed to stay quiet. Soon Katara joined me on the roof, a smile though trying not to laugh. My pants were soaked and before I could complain, Katara bended the water out and put it in a bag draped across her body.

"Very smooth. Let's go." I said and went to the opening of the arena's roof. The roof of each stadium could open and close, so that's how we were going to get in through the rain made it more difficult. I looked down and tried not to notice how far up we were. Instead, I focused on the edges trying to find a safe way for us to get to the ground. I saw a huge pipe that moved diagonally, got an idea, and started taking off my belt.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Katara yelled at me. I wasn't worried about anyone hearing her because we were high above anyone who could be walking by.

"Oh, calm down, it's not what you think." I chuckled, knowing she couldn't see my face. "You see that pipe? We are going to slide down, and my belt is the sturdiest thing we have."

Her face turned pink as she realized my plan. She nodded as I wrapped my belt around the pipe. It moved smoothly, and I made sure I had a good grip. I held out my free arm motioning for Katara to grab me so we could go down together and her face became almost crimson. She shook it off and placed one arm around my neck and the other around my torso.

"Hold tight." I said before jumping into the arena. We moved at a fast pace which became quicker because of the rain. Katara held on tighter, and if it weren't for the thought of crashing into the wall, I would've been a lot more pleased. I needed to jump and the right moment or else Katara could get hurt. I loosened the belt from the piped before wrapping my arms around Katara and angling our bodies so I would hit the floor instead of her. I landed on my shoulder and let out a cry of pain as we rolled to a stop with Katara on top of me. My shoulder was throbbing, and, with Katara on top of me, it was difficult to breathe. I looked up and saw Katara's eyes sparkling.