Crazy In Love

Author: AnimaAmore

Characters: Zuko, Katara, Sokka, Aang (main), and most of the other characters

Genres: Romance, Adventure, Mystery, Angst, Humor

Summary: When Sokka and Katara go to the Earth Kingdom to visit their father, Sokka suffers an accident which leaves him delirious, leading to his temporary admision into an asylum until his sanity returns. Katara, being the doting sister she is, goes to visit him daily. What she didn't expect, though, was that her brother would befriend Zuko, another patient who is rumored to be a pyromaniac and who has been in the asylum for a long time. But if Zuko is in there, who's causing all those fires? Why are they happening so close to Katara? And why is Zuko in the asylum if he's actually pretty smart, assertive, kind and... interested in Katara? Maybe Zuko isn't crazy after all. Unless it's for her.

Fanfic Type: Avatar-verse

Rating: T, mainly for some themes and angst

Disclaimer: Avatar TLA and its characters and world belong to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. This story and plot, however, are mine.

Author comments: There is no 100-year war here between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world. This is my idea of the Avatar, with a few twists and alterations, for fun. This is my first ATLA fanfic, but my third overall. Please enjoy.

"Come on, Sokka," Katara chided her older brother who was running around trying to find his things with a slight shake of her head. "If you move any slower we'll miss the ferry."

"Yeah, yeah, hold your horses!" Sokka scowled at her as he rushed between rooms, randomly stuffing his favorite things in a blue and white backpack.

Katara sighed, giving up, and sat on the top of three steps that made the stairs of their grandmother's entryway. Sokka, being the amusing but undoubtedly lazy and disorganized guy that he was, always left everything for the last minute – literally. That day they were leaving their traditional homeland of the Southern Water Tribe where their grandmother lived and were heading out to Ba Sing Se, the capital city of the Earth Kingdom in the north where their father, military General Hakoda, worked. Although he had visited them in several occasions, it had been about three years since they had been with each other for an appropriate length of time. Now that Katara and Sokka were old enough to travel by themselves, they could finally visit their father, who could not leave his job for too long and thus made it difficult for him to visit them for more than two or three days at a time.

A crash followed by a curse was heard inside the modest house and Katara just rolled her eyes as she wondered what Sokka had broken now. Indeed, although both of them had been looking forward to this trip for a long time only Katara had prepared ahead of time. Sokka, well, had not. Which explained his frantic rushing that morning. He had scarcely packed his clothing only the night before, and that was only after Katara and Gran-Gran had nagged at him about it.

"Gran-Gran!" Sokka called to their grandmother. "Have you seen my boomerang?" Sokka had inherited the uncanny fascination for the military from their father, be it weapons, names, strategy, or maps. The only books he ever read were about the military and their history; anything from legends to modern warfare. The boomerang he was searching for was the traditional weapon of their tribe, used centuries ago by warriors for everything from hunting to battles. Hakoda had presented it to Sokka as a birthday gift when he learned of his son's interest.

"Come on, Sokka!" Katara called back to him impatiently. She had been waiting for this trip for too long and very eagerly to have her brother ruin it for her when they weren't even out of the house.

"Relax, Katara," Sokka huffed as he raced towards the house's entrance, his bag looking like it was about to explode from the amount of things that had been so unceremoniously stuffed in it. "I'm ready; I just need my boomerang."

Katara's electric sapphire-blue eyes narrowed slightly but she didn't say anything. Sokka's boomerang was as precious to him as the necklace she always wore around her neck was to her. The necklace was as traditional as the silver weapon her brother carried, but it held more sentimental value. It had belonged to her mother, and her grandmother before then, on and on for generations back a good two or so centuries. As if that didn't make the little blue necklace with the smooth marble-like moon stone sentimental, the reason for its existence sure did.

The necklace was a traditional way of proposing matrimony. Usually it would be given to a son when he wanted to marry, but unless there were no sons or the son in question wished to make his own engagement necklace, it would be then passed down to the eldest girl. Katara's mother had died from an illness a few years back, and since Sokka was far from even thinking about marriage, Katara's mother had passed on the necklace to her.

Katara fingered the white moon stone, feeling its coolness against the heat of her skin. In addition to that, her necklace was the only one in existence that wasn't broken or so fragile it served as no more than a prized possession used mostly for decoration. Very few had survived time, and out of all of them only the one Katara had inherited could still be used as it was meant.

"Here you go, Sokka," Gran-Gran said calmly as she walked to the front entrance of the house where the siblings were and handed the loud boy a V-shaped object wrapped in a teal cloth. "Sorry, dear; I was giving it a good polish. Who knows what kind of polishing you can get in a place where metal is so scarce?"

"Thank you, Gran-Gran!" Sokka exclaimed, touched, as he hugged the old woman. "You're the best!"

Gran-Gran chuckled. "I know."

"Alright, alright," Katara sighed impatiently as she stood up and swung the long strap of her brown bag over her head. "You have your boomerang, now we must go." She ignored her brother's incomprehensible grumbles as she turned to her grandmother, who was fighting to stifle some tears that were forming in her eyes. "Don't cry, Gran-Gran," Katara smiled gently at her as she bent to her level and gave her a big hug. "We'll be back soon."

"Hmph. Who's crying?" The old lady hugged Katara fiercely, surprising the youth by her strength, but Katara simply smiled and enjoyed the familiar embrace, if a little strong, and the warmth that came with it.

"Good-bye, Gran-Gran." Katara gave her a little squeeze before stepping out of her grandmother's embrace somewhat reluctantly. She smiled brightly. "We'll bring you lots of goods!"

"You better," scoffed the old lady teasingly. "And hurry back soon, you hear? I'm not getting any younger waiting for you two to grow up."

"Kaaataaraaaa…." Sokka whined from a few yards away. He had already started walking in the direction of the port while grandmother and granddaughter said their farewells. "Hypocrite. Now who's the late one? Hurry up or I'm leaving you behind and telling Dad that you have a boyfriend!"

"`Specially with that one," Gran-Gran muttered as Sokka stuck out his tongue and ran away. "That boy's never going to grow up. I'm never going to be able to die in peace knowing that."

Katara laughed at her grandmother's humor. "Don't worry, Gran-Gran," she said, "once Sokka gets a girlfriend he'll stop being so childish."

"Very true." The old woman turned and smiled at her granddaughter. "Stay safe, Katara. And save your brother from himself. Mark my words: his own stupidity will be the death of him."

"I don't disagree with you on that." Katara kissed Gran-Gran's cheek and, with one last smile, took off after her brother.