Okay, WTF I'm like, the biggest Maiko fan ever, and while I clearly had the intention of making this a BFF!Zutara fic…it failed to do so. I admit there could have been tons more romantic stuff, but this seriously evolved into a Zutara fic (I'm utterly shocked). I got the idea from watching "The Southern Raiders" for the billionth time today…I figured that Katara didn't learn much about Zuko in that episode, and he didn't really do anything worthy of her forgiveness, so here's what happened between the scene of Katara vs. Yon Rha and the Zutara hug…enjoy :)

"I'm…sorry Katara."

Katara didn't look back. She felt incredibly ashamed of herself and didn't want Zuko to see the tears streaming down her face.

"Why are you sorry?" she managed to say in a choked voice. She tripped in a puddle, but continued walking as though nothing happened.

It would take another couple hours to get back to the spot where they had hidden Appa before they went to find Yon Rha. Until then, they only had the company of each other.

Zuko looked away awkwardly. He didn't really know why he said that, he just figured it would have made Katara feel better. Instead of responding, he feigned interest in the foliage around them. Distracted from the path ahead of him, Zuko clumsily tripped in a puddle. He flung his arms around wildly, desperately trying to regain his balance, but it was no use. He fell face-first into the water in front of him.

Katara, wondering what Zuko had done this time, turned around to see him wiping mud off of his face and trying to stand up. Just as he was nearly standing, he slipped in the mud again and fell on his back.

Katara's mood immediately lightened and she giggled. She helped him to his feet and blasted him with water to get the mud off.

"Thanks for cheering me up," she told him with a small smile on her face.

Zuko stared at her. "Um…you're welcome I guess."

Katara and Zuko silently continued slowly down the muddy path. Neither of them wanted to talk about what had just happened back there with Yon Rha, so they both chose to ignore it.

Zuko didn't really know what to think. His entire life, he had been told that revenge was the answer; not forgiveness. If his nation had taken Aang's advice, they wouldn't be in the middle of a war right now.

Katara had initially taken his advice, and later decided to follow Aang's. Only then did Zuko realize what was right. Aang and his friends could have easily tortured Zuko for all the wrongs he had done against them in the past; instead, they forgave him. Initially, Zuko didn't understand why they did it, but now he did.

The two continued their silent stroll. Ten minutes turned into thirty, and that turned into an hour. Zuko was so exhausted that he closed his eyes while he walked.

Suddenly, he heard a rustle from the bushes. His eyes immediately flew open and he looked around the area.

"Did you hear that?"

Katara was looking at him strangely. "I didn't hear anything."

"But I…"

"Look, you're probably just sleep-deprived and you're starting to hear things. Just ignore it."

She turned to continue walking, but was met by a group of at least six firebenders in front of her. They all wore the uniforms of highly-ranked soldiers, Zuko noticed.

"Uh, hi…can we help you?" Zuko asked in a mildly-panicked voice as he stepped in front of Katara to block them from her. This surely wasn't going to be an easy escape…

"We were told by a man by the name of Yon Rha to be on the look out for two rogue teenagers in all-black clothing. You two seem to fit his description," the top commander said as he eyed them suspiciously.

Inside, Katara was raging. That dirty little, good-for-nothing, mother-murdering ex-soldier ratted them out! And to think that she had felt an ounce of sympathy for him!

"What do we do?" she whispered to Zuko, her mouth concealed behind her black facial mask.

"Run," he breathed back, while still facing the group of abnormally gigantic men.

Instantly, Katara summoned all of the water off of the ground and shot it at the group of firebenders. This action distracted them momentarily, so the two kids dashed off to the left.

Their pursuers were much faster than them and had frighteningly good aim with their fire. Zuko took it upon himself to jog backwards, while deflecting the enemies' fire and responding with some of his own.

Six adult firebenders definitely outmatched one teenager, though. Realizing this, Zuko stopped running. He was just going to tire himself out more, and he was better with short-distance attacks anyways.

"What are you doing?" Katara screamed at him over a loud clap of thunder. She was several yards ahead of him, but began running back when she realized that he hadn't followed her.

Luckily for her, it had begun raining again. By the time she reached him, Zuko had already knocked out one guy; five to go. Katara whipped one soldier high into the air with a simple flick of her wrist; the huge stream of water did the rest.

"Watch out Zuko!" she yelled as she formed a gigantic bubble of water and flung it at the group. Zuko didn't have enough time to react, however, and was blasted just as hard as the others were.

"Hey!"

"I told you to watch out," she shrugged as two huge blasts of fire came flying at her. She hid behind a newly-formed ice shield, but it was of little use against the power of two angry firebenders.

Aside from Zuko, there were only three firebenders left fighting. One of the biggest guys had given up fighting fire with fire, and began chasing Zuko with a deadly-looking dagger instead. He managed to tackle Zuko to the ground, spraying mud everywhere when they landed. Zuko tried kicking him off, but the guy had to weigh more than three times as much as he did, so this tactic didn't work.

"AH!" Zuko yelled under the strain of the man crushing his lungs with his knees. One hand was at his throat, ready to strangle the air out of him if the knife didn't finish the job of murdering him. Zuko panicked and tried again to squirm free, but it was no use. He briefly glanced at his attacker's furious golden eyes and silently wondered if those were the last things he would see before his world turned to darkness.

In his moment of panic, however, Zuko remembered what Iroh used to repeatedly tell him: firebending is about power, not strength. Same with fighting. The offender certainly had more strength, but Zuko could outmatch him anyways. He just needed to concentrate…

Taking in a deep breath, Zuko closed his eyes. Just before the crazed-soldier stabbed the dagger into his skull, he released an explosion of fire from his mouth. The soldier jumped off him and writhed around in the mud in agony. Zuko hadn't wanted to hurt him badly, but considering that the guy nearly killed him, he had to do what was necessary.

Over by the cliff that dropped steeply into the ocean, Katara was sorely outmatched by the two firebenders. While she was definitely more agile, their attacks were too powerful for her to hold off and gain offense at the same time.

She was dangerously close to the edge of the cliff, but the attacks kept coming. Surely the girl would die if she was forced off the cliff…

Zuko's eyes narrowed in anger. It was now pouring down rain, and, Zuko thought grimly, there was lightning abound in this storm. Spotting several more flashes of white near the village on the mountain behind them, Zuko realized that lightning was his only chance.

He tried concentrating everything he had on redirecting the storm's next bolt of lightning, but then he saw the unimaginable: Katara was directly hit on the face by the flames of one of the aggressive soldiers.

"NO!" Zuko yelled as he saw her drop her water and reach for her face. Almost instantly, he caught a bolt of bluish-white lightning from the darkened sky above, and channeled it through his body, just as Uncle had taught him.

It came through his left hand, down his arm, and he carefully transferred the extremely powerful energy through his body. His own body grew dangerously overheated, and he felt as though he had been shocked himself…

Finally, the lightning exited his right hand's fingertips. The soldiers barely had enough time to look up and see what was coming before they were blasted off of their feet by the strongest force they had ever felt. The ground rumbled on the impact, for Zuko had shot the ground near their feet; he intentionally didn't strike them. The blast was deafening as well; Zuko was certain that his concern for his friend's safety had somehow made his lightning-bending more powerful than ever before…

Zuko felt tremendously weak from the bending move, but forced his feet to sprint at top speed. Katara, completely dazed by the scorching hot sensation on her face and the explosion in front of her, tripped over a rock that was firmly implanted in the ground and fell over the cliff's edge.

"KATARA!" Zuko yelled as he jumped after her. The drop wasn't as far as it seemed, but it was still terrifying.

Thanks to pure instinct, Katara came to her senses and managed to brace herself for impact using waterbending. The ocean was deep and had very few rocks pointing out of the water. Zuko hit the water hard, but luckily had been in a diving-position so the impact of the water was nearly painless.

When he came up gasping for air, he was immensely relieved to find that Katara had somehow managed to make herself an ice-raft to float upon. He swam over to her and she helped him climb aboard.

After several seconds of labored breathing from both kids, Zuko spoke: "Are you okay?"

Katara was holding her left hand over the lower portion of her right cheek. She was apparently trying to heal the burn, but she was too frenzied to really concentrate and do a good job.

She simply stared back at Zuko. He looked ready to faint; his face was incredibly pale and he was covered in cuts. His left arm was bleeding profusely from the swipe of one of the soldier's knives.

When his breathing nearly returned to normal, he scooted closer.

"Let me see," he said gravely, wondering how badly she was really burned.

"I'm fine," Katara swatted his hand away and held back tears of pain. The burning-sensation on her lower cheek was beyond awful. She had never been burned this bad before; Aang burning her wrists seemed comfortable in comparison to this.

"Look, I know it hurts, but I can help."

Katara was infuriated by his complete lack of concern. It was almost as though he thought: Oh no, another burn, boohoo, poor waterbender.

"I don't need your help," she retorted angrily at Zuko's insensitivity. "How would you know anything about burns?"

She immediately regretted saying that. Zuko's face went from looking concerned to looking like she just slapped him across the face.

"Gee, I don't know," he replied darkly. "Maybe this?" he pointed to his scar.

"Zuko, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that…"

"Of course you didn't," he spat. Katara felt terrible for saying that. He had just saved her life and was offering to help her. Now this was how she paid him back? Why had she even said that?! Who could possibly say that to someone who had half their face burned?

Exhaling softly, Katara moved her hand away from her face and let Zuko see. He didn't grimace like she had expected him to. Then again, he had been through much worse, she realized…

"It'll heal fine. Just keep using some water on it so it doesn't scar over."

Katara bit her lip as she readied more water on her palms. "Are you sure?"

"I'm speaking from experience," he replied dejectedly and looked away.

Katara exhaled and fought tears again as she applied more water. The water probably would have been soothing if she wasn't so tense.

After dropping the water, she glanced at her reflection in the calm ocean's water. She immediately gasped; this was much worse than Zuko had made it seem!

Luckily, it was several centimeters from her eye, but still! Her cheek was fleshy and red; and this was after she had already tried healing it twice!

"I can't let them see me like this," she moaned softly as she absentmindedly traced her finger along the length of the burn.

Looking up and noticing Zuko's icy glare, she realized that she had screwed up again.

"You're right, one freak in the group is more than enough," he said in a quiet, yet sarcastic tone.

Feeling suddenly irritated at Zuko, Katara whipped her head away from her reflection and glared back at him. "Look! I'm very sorry about that training accident or whatever happened, but I'm sick of you always taking things I say the wrong way!"

Zuko just stared at her as she fumed, looking quite ridiculous for trying to hide the burn when he had already seen it.

"You think it was a training accident?" he asked almost inaudibly when Katara was looking away. Her head immediately flicked back, this time, her burn was clearly exposed.

"It…wasn't?"

"It's nothing. Forget I mentioned anything," he immediately cut her off and looked towards shore. "We can probably swim from here…"

"Why are you so secretive all the time?" she prodded him, not bothering to hide her frustration with him for changing the subject so quickly. "This is the perfect chance to tell me the truth, instead of yelling at me whenever I accidentally mention it!"

The waves around their little ice-raft began rocking furiously as Katara raged on. The madder she got, the higher the waves grew…

"First it was in that cave in Ba Sing Se, and now here! Look, I'm burned too, okay?! I might end up with a scar too! Why do you make such a fuss about it?"

The waves had to be at least ten feet high now, but neither of them noticed. Katara was so mad that she had lost most of her rationality at this point…

Zuko's eyes were closed, as though he were relieving some painful memory…

"Father," he said without even knowing what he was saying. Katara's shoulders dropped and the waves instantly ceased.

"What?"

Zuko's eyes opened in fear as he realized what he just said. Oh Spirits, he didn't want to say that…

"Nothing."

Katara sat back down and stared at Zuko's back, trying to piece it all together.

"It's not nothing, you just said 'father,'" she said softly.

"No I didn't," Zuko tried to deny it, but he knew it wouldn't work. Mentally, he kicked himself for giving her that bit of information. Now she would expect him to go into this lengthy sob-story about how horrible his father was. Well, he thought. Too bad, cause it's already done. I don't need to tell her anything else.

After several minutes of silence, Katara tried one last tactic.

"Does it have anything to do with your banishment?"

Zuko jerked is head around and looked at her in shock. "How'd you know?"

"So it does…"

"No…" Zuko said defensively, angry with himself for blowing that, too. Rolling his eyes, he gave up. "Okay fine, will you leave me alone now?"

"Why did you trust me in Ba Sing Se, but not here?" Katara asked him quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know…in Ba Sing Se, you told me stuff I never would have even imagined from you…now that we're friends though…"

Katara noticed a flicker of pleasant surprise on Zuko's face at her mentioning of them being friends.

"Look, I don't need to know anything you don't want me to know…but I'll be here if you need me," Katara tried changing the subject and gave him a small smile, which he returned.

"Oh, and I'm sorry for yelling…" she mumbled.

"I can't blame you…it's just…a painful memory. I'll never forget it. If only I hadn't gone to that stupid war meeting…" he trailed off; Katara realized that he had momentarily forgotten that she was there and he thought he was talking to himself.

"I didn't fight him," he continued, this time actually acknowledging Katara's presence. "Suffering will be your teacher."

Katara shuddered at the coldness in his voice...if what he said was true, then she felt awfully silly complaining about a small burn.

The mark of the banished prince…cursed to chase the Avatar forever, Katara remembered him saying in the cave.

"Too bad I didn't have a waterbender like you around after the Agni Kai," he tried making a joke out of it, but Katara could sense the underlying turmoil. She had no idea what this 'agnee ki' thing was, but she was pretty sure she didn't want to know…

There was another long period of silence.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm glad you were banished. I mean, well… I probably would have never gotten to leave the South Pole if you hadn't taken Aang away," she joked.

Zuko seemed slightly cheered by this and smiled.

"And," she added seriously. "If I hadn't met you…I probably would have always believed that everyone from the Fire Nation is evil. You, well…you changed my mind…thanks."

She reached over and hugged Zuko. Upon initial contact, he froze, as though he didn't understand why she was hugging him. After a couple seconds, though, he relaxed and smiled contently. The lightning continued striking overhead, but the rain lightened up a little as they drifted towards the shore, where Appa was patiently waiting for them in a hidden cove.

I'm still puzzled as to how this became a Zutara fic…whatever, I hope you guys enjoyed it, and if you have any suggestions/comments/complaints/etc feel free to tell me. I figured that Katara, while mostly compassionate and understanding, still has some personal flaws to deal with (which is why she was somewhat insensitive to Zuko towards the middle). And Zuko is still a dumbass (luv u Zuzu), but he occasionally lets out some personal details (as in Crossroads of Destiny and The Beach). Hopefully they were mostly in-character. Thanks for reading, if you guys like this, mebbe I'll try more Zutara xD