Growing up Katara had always heard the stories of the great romances of the unconventional lovers and how their love had conquered all; she had dreamt that one day it would be her destiny to follow in the footsteps of these brave and passionate characters. She was certain that when she was grown up the man of her dreams would come and she would have her very own love story.
If she would ever be willing to admit one of her most shameful secrets, she would tell you that half the reason she was so willing and ready to go with Aang was so she could start her quest to find the perfect guy. If he couldn't make it to the cold and torturous ice land to find her she would journey away from it to find him.
Jet was Katara's first experience of love and of bitterness, from the very first moment she met him she knew she had fallen in love with jet. He had made her heart beat faster and gave her butterflies; she'd once compared it to having a constant adrenaline rush. He was handsome, brave and most importantly had rescued her from the soldiers, which in Katara's book reserved him a leading role in her fairytale romance.
Katara didn't hesitate in creating the future she and jet would share together in her head, it was filled with over the top romantic gestures and witty one liners.
When Katara found out about Jet's true motives she was crushed and after several days of moping and resentment towards him she had shoved his name into her mental box of things she would never think of again and decided being rescued from soldiers wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
After the heartbreak she received from Jet the romantic side of things had died down for a very long time, long enough for the war to finally end and peace to be restored. A lot had changed since that first heart break, for one she no longer needed a handsome man to protect her from enemies. But despite this she was still eager to fulfill her original intentions.
Aang had made it open what he felt for Katara and his persistent romantic advances were hard to sweep under the imaginary mat of friendship. In the end she thought maybe this sweet and young goofball was what she needed for her dream. After all didn't every girl need someone who could make her laugh? The relationship was sweet but didn't see the week through. Katara had decided after the first kiss it was the equivalent of what dating her brother would be.
So after excessively brushing her teeth and showering twice she assured Aang there was someone else out there for him. Katara then promptly swore off younger guys forever.
After the whole fiasco with Aang ended Katara had come to the conclusion that she deserved some much needed time away from all things' fire nation and packed her bags for the North Pole.
One of the first people she was introduced to on the night of her arrival was Toru. Toru was famous in the North Pole for his powerful water bending; in fact he was considered the best bender of his generation. It was exactly how the fortuneteller had described the man she would marry. Though Toru had more to recommend him then just his bending; he was tall, handsome and romantic. Exactly how Katara had described the man she wanted to marry.
Katara felt she and Toru had a connection and the next time she saw him he confessed so did he, after two weeks of wooing Katara could proudly call him her boyfriend. After three months Katara found out she wasn't the only girl Toru was dating. After breaking off the relationship she left both Toru and the North Pole behind.
Katara cried the whole trip home. She finally began to realize just how unromantic the world of love really was. There was no masked stranger to dance the night away with or a handsome man to come and ride off into the sunset with her. In her experience of the complex world of dating Katara had worked out that the chance of her having any kind of breath taking romance was very slim to none. And so her childhood dreams were placed away in the earlier mentioned mental box.
About two years after giving up on her dream Katara was sitting at a tea shop with Toph and Aang when the younger girl informed them of a sudden epiphany she just had. Always eager Aang asked what it was.
Toph continued to inform them that she was absolutely positive she knew who Katara's perfect guy was. Even though Katara had given up on the idea of her perfect guy she was still curious.
Toph then began describing all the qualities Katara had wanted in her perfect guy; tall, handsome, older then her, someone who made her heart beat faster, understanding, compassionate, smart, someone who challenged her, someone who noticed the little things, protected her, someone similar to her, someone who could take her teasing and tease back, someone dangerous, almost forbidden, someone who's motivated, passionate, had a great smile and someone who stood out from the rest. Katara's mind jumped to one person. After telling Toph and Aang she had to go and leaving money to pay for the tea she went to find him.
As Toph and Aang would find out later she had gone to Zuko.
She'd told him all about her childhood dreams, the boys she'd known in her life, what Toph had said in the teashop and then finally why he was her perfect guy.
He was tall. He was handsome, his scar didn't change that. He was older then her, he understood how she felt like no one else did, he'd been there to show her compassion when she felt she was alone, his knowledge had helped her find out who killed her mother, he'd noticed the little things like her necklace even though he'd used it against her, he'd protected her from things like falling rocks and pirates.
They'd laughed as she remembered his words from that night; it was the perfect one liner she'd always wanted to hear and she hadn't even noticed.
She told him he was so obviously her opposite but as an opposite he was just as much a similar; she was from the water nation, he was from the fire nation, she got her power from the moon, he got his power from the sun and she bended water, he bended fire.
She told him how she about the teasing they had both done and how she'd always enjoyed it.
She told him he played with fire and was once an enemy there was no doubt he was dangerous and forbidden. He was defiantly motivated and passionate considering he'd chased them all over the world. He made her knees weak before but unlike when Jet did it, this was out of fear. And on the occasion that she got to see it, he had an amazing smile.
And when she was ready to leave to find her perfect guy he'd come right through her village wall to her. She told him how they had this amazing romance waiting to happen and she been so oblivious to the whole thing.
And then he kissed her. And all her dreams became reality.
Many years later when Katara had children of her own her youngest daughter asked for a bedtime story instead of the great tales she'd heard as a child, Katara told her the story of the real life romance of Zuko and Katara.