Based on "AU Zutara Wallpaper" by Irrel on DeviantArt. This chick is amazing, check out all of her Zutara!

Dislcaimer: Don't own Avatar, or the pic.

Warnings: Zutara, AU.

Distance

Oneshot

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To be honest, Katara didn't much like college. She'd opted to stay local, while all of her friends had gone on to separate schools. Toph had gotten a scholarship to a school for the blind, though they couldn't break her habit of not wearing shoes. Sokka had apparently found a girl at Kiyoshi University, at a goth mixer ("She had me at 'You want some blood punch?'", he'd told her in a five-minute phone call). He'd proposed, and the two were expected to get married right after they graduated - Sokka majoring in theatrical tech, Suki in interpretive dance. She'd gotten an invitation to their engagement party, but didn't want to go if they wouldn't have the group they once did.

Their little 'Gaang', as they'd dubbed themselves in middle school, had gained two but lost one towards the end of senior year of high school. It was at their table at Senior Prom that Aang had announced that he would be leaving after school was done to pursue a life of enlightenment with monks in Thailand. Katara had been suprised at the fact that she was apparently the only one left out of the loop, everyone else had figured it would happen sooner or later.

It was at that exact point in time that a certain popular kid and class president Zuko had an argument with his older sister Azula over the phone that had annoyed his girlfriend Mai, causing her to break up with him for the umpteenth - and the last - time. So he'd tried to run after her as she'd went to leave the catering hall, but she'd already called her best friend Tai Lee, hopping into the passenger seat of the brunette's hot pink convertible and speeding off into the night. Katara had noticed the pained look on his face and invited him back to their table.

"Want to dance?" he'd asked her, just as a slower tune had come on over the speakers, leading her by the hand to the dance floor packed with students. His hands were on her waist, hers on his shoulders. She'd smiled at the song - one she'd loved ever since it came out, it was a ballad but she didn't bother to try and name it now. But when the song had ended it seemed all too soon. Hands touched, eyes met, and without any warning their lips had touched softly, tentatively. Katara had traced her fingers across the scar he'd gotten from an accident in metalshop in sophomore year, realizing that she'd never really wanted Aang to stay - all she wanted was for this moment to last forever.

Graduation had nearly broken her heart, not because she wouldn't get to see her friends every day, but because Zuko was being sent off to an Ivy League school. He'd promised to call or email her every night, but with the increasing amount of homework and term papers his promise had faded into nothing but a memory. She'd been asked out numerous times - there'd been that gorgeous foreign exchange student, Haru - but she remained single just in case.

Everything changed one day when Katara opened her email inbox to find a letter from someone she knew well, but didn't think they had access to a computer - Aang. She started to read it out loud to herself.

"Everyone,

"I wanted to just say 'hi', since this is my first time near electricity for about a year now. It's sad that I can't see all of you guys, I miss everyone. But I've got some good news and some bad news.

"The good news, as everybody wants to hear first it seems, is that apparently I'm a godsend to the monastery. The Dalai Lama has just died, and they think I'm the next one. So tune into news networks and stuff whenever they mention the new Dalai Lama - chances are, you'll see clips of me. Though I have tattoos now - yeah, I know, shocking isn't it? - they're blue arrows, the sign of the monks.

"The bad news, I regret to say, is that not only am I separated from everyone anymore, apparently everyone is separated from everyone else. I know everybody's going to school in different places for different majors, but geez, can't you all stay in touch? You're threatening to throw our spirit ring off balance! So everyone please open up the attatchments I sent.

"See you all at some point on the spirit plane, though you probably won't even see me visiting!

"-Aang.

"p.s. - For my two best friends I have a different attatchment, you'll know why I sent it when you open it. But you have to wait until exactly 9 PM tonight (which is friday, by the way) to open it!"

"And why does Aang get a lisence to be cryptic as soon as he becomes a monk? Sheesh." Katara exhaled, bringing the cursor up to the 'dowload attatchment' link, clicking 'save to disk'. She opened her dowload file, kind of suprised when she discovered it was an mp3 instead of a longer document.

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"This better be worth taking my time out of eating," Zuko complained, turning up his headphones to an audible volume to hear what Aang had sent him.
He dropped his slice of day-old cold pizza when he heard a slow, soft melody come out of the machine on his lap. The guitar track was one he knew well, and he'd memorized all the lyrics after that night... after Senior Prom.

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Katara's hand dove for the plush penguin she had next to her bed, hugging it tightly to her chest. Her father was still at work - good, he wouldn't hear her crying. Gods, she missed him... It had been over two months since she'd last spoken with Zuko, let alone seen him face to face. She didn't even hear her cell phone ring the first time.

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It rang about five times, then he got the voicemail. "Dammit, Katara, answer your phone..."

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The second time he'd called Katara had finally heard it - she recognized the sweet, happy ringtone right away, and she scrambled for her phone. She didn't even have to look at the caller ID to know who it was. "Hello?"

"Hey." It was a simple statement, the one he's always opened a phone conversation with. "I'm sorry."

She knew she was choking up - it wasn't helping that she'd dove into the conversation crying anyway - and paused to collect herself before she said anything else. "It's been two months"

"I know," he said, sighing on the other line. "I lost my phone, and I couldn't get a new one because I'd thrown out all of the warranty info. I know you always told me to keep it in a safe place but-"

"Zuko, 'safe place' doesn't mean a corner of your desk," she laughed for the first time in weeks. She'd never really known the kind of power he'd had over her until now.

"I know," he said, and she could hear his smile on the other end. "I miss you."

"I miss you, too." She stifled a sniffle. "How's school?"

"Boring," he drudged, "But I do have good news."

Katara rolled her eyes. "What kind of good news?" Her voice was sarcastic.

"I'm being transferred, the law program's getting moved."

She dropped her voice to almost a whisper. "And how far are you going to be away now?"

"Oh, don't worry, it's only about a block." Her eyes widened when she could hear his trademark smirk.

"They're moving it to the main campus?!" The main campus of the state university was a fifteen minute walk from her father's house - which meant he was either getting an apartment, or he was moving back into his uncle's house. "Are you freaking serious?!"

"Yes, I am. Now I fully expect a 'welcome home' party, with a stripper in a cake and an ice sculpture-"

"Oh shut up, Zuko," she silenced his joking, "When are you coming home?"

"A week," he said, "Home. Hm, I like the sound of that."

"I can't wait."