Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Author's Note: A lot of people have been worried about the rumor that Zuko and Katara will be trapped in a cave together during the season finale, though from the preview, that's not exactly the case. I didn't think it necessarily needed to mean they would get romantically involved, so I came up with this idea. I've been working on it for about a week. I apologize if Zuko seems a little OOC, but I did say it was quirky. And MormonMaiden, you probably shouldn't read this if you won't be able to laugh out loud!;)

Another Cave Story

"Oh, perfect!" Katara exclaimed as she regarded the rock and earth currently blocking the cave's only opening. Actually, she couldn't see the barrier because it was not only keeping her in but also keeping all light out. She was feeling the newly formed wall with her hands, testing its solidity.

"At least you're not alone," came Zuko's voice from behind her.

"Aaaaaah!" Katara shrieked, unconsciously imitating her brother's response to being trapped with a group of musical nomads as she scrabbled at the rocks with her fingers, trying to pull them free.

"Stop that!" Zuko spoke sharply to her. Katara saw a brief flash of light, then he had her arms pinned to her sides by the elbows. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"Why do you care?" she spat, but she stopped struggling, and Zuko carefully released her. She turned around and folded her arms across her chest.

"Self preservation," Zuko answered, and Katara heard him moving away.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Think about it. Who will your friends blame if something happens to you in here?"

"You, I guess."

"Exactly. I don't want to see what the Avatar will do to me if I let you get hurt."

Katara considered this as she felt along until she found a relatively smooth part of the cave wall and slid down it into a sitting position. She frowned into the darkness. Revenge wasn't really Aang's style. Sure, she'd seen him destroy a few things when he got angry enough, but she had never really been afraid of him at those times, not even the Avatar State. Afraid for him was a better description of her feelings. Still, under the circumstances, maybe it was better to allow Zuko to retain a healthy measure of fear. Katara turned her thoughts to coming up with ideas for getting out of the cave.

"I could use waterbending to slice through the rock," she said doubtfully. "But it would take a really long time, and without light, it would be hard to tell if I was hitting the same spot every time."

"I can give you light," Zuko offered, and a small fire appeared above his hand, eerily illuminating his scarred face. Katara shook her head, although she wasn't certain he could see her.

"Your fire would use up all the air in here long before I was done," she argued.

"Good point," he acknowledged, closing his fist and extinguishing the flame.

"Of all the people I could have been trapped in a cave with, why did it have to be you?" Katara complained, hating the childishness in her tone. She wished Toph were here. It bothered Katara not to be able to see where Zuko was. Of course, if Toph were here, they wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. There was a long pause.

"For what it's worth, I never saw you as enemies," Zuko said, so quietly that his voice barely carried over the short distance between them. "The Avatar was my ticket home. The rest of you were just obstacles in my path."

"I hated you," Katara admitted.

"Yes," he agreed simply. He paused, then added "Hated? Past tense?"

Katara shifted uncomfortably.

"It seems kind of silly to hate someone you might end up dying with," she remarked ruefully.

"I wouldn't worry about that. I doubt the Avatar will allow his girlfriend to stay in here long."

"He has a name, you know," Katara flared, irritated. "It's Aang. Is that really so difficult? Aang. Aang, Aang, Aang, Aang, Aang."

"You seem to take that rather personally."

"I just –" Katara broke off, feeling her face grow warm and glad that the blush wasn't visible to her reluctant companion. Oddly, it had made her feel better to repeat Aang's name like that. "He's a person, and my friend. I don't like hearing him talked about like he was an object or something. The Avatar is what he can do; Aang is who he is."

"I see. Just a friend?" the tone was casual enough, but Katara thought she detected a note of disbelief in it.

"Is it any of your business?"

"Not really. I'd just always thought…well, maybe you're right. He is just a kid."

"He's still a better man than you'll ever be!" she retorted vehemently.

Silence. Katara found herself regretting her words on a number of levels, but she couldn't quite bring herself to apologize.

"Probably," Zuko conceded at length. "I've had the opportunity to evaluate my life recently. There are a lot of things I'm not very proud of."

"I guess we all have a few of those." Katara remembered the time she had stolen the waterbending scroll. Even worse, though, was afterwards, when she had lost her temper with Aang just because he was a quicker study than she was. She'd never forget his expression at that moment, almost like he was afraid of her. She'd hated that feeling, but it gave her an understanding of why he disliked people fearing him.

Of course, Aang had made mistakes, too, some of them big ones. She suspected he still hadn't forgiven himself for burning her. The last time he had even mentioned firebending was to vow he would never do it again. He always went overboard to make up for it when he screwed up. Tears pricked at the insides of her eyelids.

He's wonderful, she admitted to herself. And now I may never see him again.

Get a hold of yourself, Katara. You'll get out of this, somehow.

"He's the bravest, kindest, most generous and forgiving person I've ever met," Katara sighed quietly, hardly realizing she'd spoken aloud.

"But you're not his girlfriend," Zuko returned sardonically, startling Katara. She felt herself flushing again but refused to rise to the bait.

"Well, you know he's forgiving," she retorted, changing the subject. "How many times has he saved your sorry butt?"

"Twice," he admitted.

"For the record, Sokka and I would have been perfectly happy to let you freeze to death up at the North Pole. It was Aang who couldn't leave you to die."

"Noted. It may be a third time, if he does get us out of this cave. He knows earthbending now, right?"

"Yes. He's actually getting quite good at it," Katara couldn't keep the pride out of her voice.

"No problem, then."

Silence fell over them again. Katara thought over their conversation and her own tumultuous feelings. She hadn't missed Aang this much since she and Sokka had left him to go with Bato. In both cases, she had thought she might never see him again, and it left an odd, empty place inside her.

Okay, so I'm in love with him. Now that I've finally figured that out, is there any chance I could get out of here? she internally asked the gods and spirits. As if in response, the ground trembled.

"Do you feel something?" Katara almost shouted as she sat up suddenly.

"The blockage! It's moving!"

Katara scrambled quickly around to the back wall, worried that she might be too close to the cave mouth. She came up against something soft that she supposed must be Zuko. The rocks blocking the entrance began to slide, letting in enough light that Katara blinked and squinted, trying to get her eyes to adjust. Zuko shielded Katara from the falling shower of stones and dust with his body, surprising her. When everything seemed to have settled, he pulled away and looked at her.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I think so. You?"

He nodded and brushed himself off.

"Um, Zuko? Thanks." Katara impulsively hugged him, knowing full well that he probably had no idea that she was thanking him more for helping her sort out her emotions than protecting her person.

"Uh, maybe I should come back later."

Katara jerked away from Zuko to see Aang's silhouette outlined in the now-bright opening. He turned and jumped down the pile of debris.

"No, Aang, wait!" Katara shouted desperately. She began clambering her own way out of the cave. "You don't underst--" she broke off as she caught her foot on a stone and began tumbling down the landslide. She saw a whirl of orange and red as she barreled right into Aang. He caught her, but her momentum was still enough to knock him over. They rolled a couple of times before he managed to bend air below them to cushion their landing. Katara ended up on top of him. They regarded each other briefly before Katara started speaking frantically.

"Aang, that wasn't what it looked like," she said in a rush. "The truth is, Zuko helped me realize how much I love you!" She didn't even give him time to process this before kissing him to emphasize her point. She was just so happy to see him and be able to tell him how much he meant to her, she didn't care about anything else. Aang froze in shock for a second, but that was all it took for him to begin kissing her back.

"What are you doing to my sister?!?" Apparently, Sokka and Toph had finally caught up. Katara felt herself pulled away from Aang. Sokka stood over him menacingly as the Avatar continued to lie on his back, blinking in astonishment. Katara pulled Sokka back and shoved him in her turn.

"I was doing it to him," she informed her brother angrily. "Not that it's any of your business. And if you don't mind, I'd like to go back to it!"

"But – but – you – I," Sokka gave up trying to produce coherent speech and simply worked his mouth at her like a grounded fish. Toph punched him in the arm, hard.

"Oh, leave them alone," she advised. "I think everyone's been through enough today." Sokka turned his accusatory glare on her, rubbing his arm, but he still couldn't come up with anything to say. Meanwhile, Zuko had climbed over the rubble and was surveying the scene with utter confusion, and Aang had taken advantage of Sokka's distraction to airlift himself to his feet. He stood there with his brow furrowed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand and looking as though he were still trying to puzzle out what had happened. His eyes set on Zuko.

"So you helped her with this, huh?" he asked. Without waiting for a reply, Aang rushed to Zuko and hugged him briefly around the body. "Thank you!" he shouted, elated. Zuko endured this with a long-suffering expression.

"You people are all psychotic!" he declared, and he wandered away, muttering to himself.

--

Author's Note: Um, yeah, so that was it. I'm not sure about the ending. I told you not to take it seriously! I just hope my fellow Kataang fans enjoyed it. We once again got to see Sokka's impeccable timing in The Earth King…did you catch Katara's expression? I think she knew what Aang was going to say and was irritated with Sokka for interrupting. Such a good episode! Okay, so review already!