Zuko banged his head against the floor again before letting it fall. This was the eighty millionth time he's had these thoughts. He's always had them. Before he began helping Aang, before May and the young fire lord grew apart, before he gave up on capturing the Avatar.

That one glance, when they locked eyes for the first time, made him fall in love with Katara.

Everything about her was perfect. Her dark brown hair, her blue eyes, her body, the way she elegantly waterbended… just so… perfect. The only problem was she has been in love with Aang and she was now his girlfriend. If that wasn't the case, of course, Zuko would've confessed his love to Katara when they were trapped underground.

Don't think about it, Fire Lord Zuko thought. It'll go away sooner or later. Ten minutes later, the thoughts didn't. He still fantasized about Katara and him kissing inside his bedroom, losing all their clothes, and they…

"Zuko, are you… okay?" The young firebender cringed at the sound of his forbidden love's voice.

"It's nice to knock, Katara." Zuko joked, trying to sound like himself. He lifted himself from the floor just in time to see Katara playfully roll her eyes.

"Apologies," Katara said sarcastically. "But are you okay?"

No, I'm in love with you but you're with Aang and I'm just a friend, was what Zuko wanted to say. Instead, he said, "Peachy. Just a little, tense? With the party coming up and all. Nothing a massage can't fix. I'll just call up the masseuse and-"

"Let me do it!" Katara said too quickly. "I mean, the servants have their hands full with tonight's banquet for your birthday, you shouldn't disturb them."

Zuko tried hard to sound fine, but his voice sounded hoarse when he said, "S-sure, Katara."


Katara was overjoyed inside. Although she was with Aang, she found her feeling something more when she was around Zuko. The Avatar may be a sweet guy, probably her soulmate, but there was something that drew her to Zuko. Besides, she wanted to take advantage of this massage to get close to the young firebender.

"So, you're turning 16 tonight." Katara tried to start a conversation as Zuko pulled off his red tunic. The 15-year-old waterbender was glad that Zuko laid on his bed on his stomach so that she couldn't gawk at his body. "You excited?"

Zuko laughed a little. "It's not as exciting as you little ones may think," he joked. "Age's nothing but a number." Then why won't you just fuck me already? Katara's inner self screamed. That definitely caught her off guard. She had never thought about having sex with Zuko until he just took off his shirt. This is the problem, she thought. This effect from him never happens when I'm with Aang. I don't even feel much when we kiss anymore.

"Katara?" Zuko's voice made her jump. "You don't need to do this is you don't want to,-" Katara grabbed Zuko's forearm before he could grab his tunic.

She sighed. "It's alright." The young waterbender flicked her wrist at the flowers on Zuko's windowsill, and she obtained water, making the flowers wilter. Katara held the water over Zuko's back as it began to glow. The massage began.


Zuko regretted letting Katara doing this. It wouldn't matter if anyone walked in, even if Aang walked in. It's just an innocent massage, the young firebender kept telling himself. How much he wished that was true. If this was so innocent, would he be having to restrain his self from getting hard? "Yeah, pretty innocent massage," He said out loud. "I bet Aang'll walk in at any moment and see how innocent this is. Pfft, his own friend loving his girl, great."

"What was that?"

"N-nothing, Katara!" Zuko looked up to see Katara with a surprised, but hurt look on her face. "W-whats wrong?" Of course, he knew exactly what was wrong. She had heard him.

Katara just looked down at Zuko, and he stared up at her. So he… feels they same way about me? The young waterbender wanted to back away, back out of Zuko's room and run to hers. But she wanted to stay here and be with Zuko more. She figured out she loved Zuko, and she knew it was wrong at the same time.

"Katara, I shouldn't have said that. I'm-"

"Zuko, you love me, too?"

"Well,-" He gawked at her. "Wait, what do you mean by too-" Katara was the one to kiss Zuko. They both knew it was wrong, but it had felt so right. When two people love each other, they can't stop it. They just had to accept that. A few seconds later, the two pulled apart and stared at each other. They knew how wrong this was, so they stopped.

Yet, they yearned for more. Zuko never felt it with May. Katara never felt it with Aang (not even with Jet!). It was: fireworks.