I'm a pretty new fan of this series; I've only watched Book 1 so far. But I loves it, and I'm convinced that it's Katara and Zuko, baby, all the way. I hope you enjoy this. Remember: I didn't create it, it doesn't belong to me, etc.

--The Author

Aang was so good, and so talented. Just because he could Bend everything didn't mean he had to be good at everything. Why, someday, she would wipe that smug little grin off his cute little face. She would be better at Water-Bending than he was. He would beg her to teach him. She would smile patiently and shake her head as he struggled through move after move…like she did now.

Katara turned over in her bedroll. It never felt good, being less good at something. She felt it now. Like an ice cube in her very middle. She had meant it when she had apologized for yelling at him.

When she had given him the Water-Bending scroll, she wanted it to mean something. Bowing to his greater power, or whatever. He had barely looked at it.

She was the Water-Bender! She ought to out-Bend him!

She rolled over again. Now she was on her stomach. She looked into the campsite. Sokka was snoring in his bedroll. Aang, little Avatar Aang, was snoozing without a blanket. He looked so normal without his bright eyes open. Such a clever little deception in one so little. Didn't even care about Bending. He had even given the scroll to Sokka.

He had given the scroll to Sokka.

Katara quietly rose from her roll, and stepped as quietly as she could to Sokka's bag. Some of them contents clicked as she picked it up and opened it, but Sokka snored on. She looked; Aang, in all his Avatar power, hadn't even heard.

She lifted the Water-Bending scroll from the pouch and stepped away. How often was she going to have to steal this thing? The pirates had nearly killed them when she had stolen it from them the first time. Aang had only barely saved them…and now she was stealing from Aang, and Sokka too.

Her list of crimes were growing.

She turned, and found herself face-to-face with a pair of round green eyes.

"Mur?" they asked.

"Momo," she hissed. "Sh! Go back to sleep!"

She tip-toed past him.

"Mup," said Momo.

"Sh!"

The forest was pitch-black, but she could feel the river. She found her way to its shores, and arranged the scroll on a stump.

She practiced the Water Whip. Face the shore at an angle. Arms and hands facing the other way. Swing them to the shore. Lift the hand closer to the shore up, so the water formed a ball. Now, with that same hand, throw the water to your target!

But she water she had Bended fell uselessly to the ground.

"Shoot!" she glared at the water. "Come on water, work with me here!" She took a breath. "Okay, what if I just…" she followed through "Ow!" It hit her side. "Stupid scroll!" She looked at the scroll. Aang had held it up, earlier. She remembered what he had said. He was the Avatar. "Okay, Katara, just shift your weight through the stances."

It barely wiggled to her hand.

"Ergh!"

Crrrrrunch.

What was noise? It sounded close. Zuko? She went to a copse of trees and moved some branches away.

The pirates! How had they found them? She had to warn Sokka and Aang! But when she turned, she smacked right into a big, smelly body. She turned again – run! – but he grabbed her arms.

"No! Let go of me!"

But of course he didn't listen. She waved her arms and threw out her hips-

The Water Whip! And the pirate was down.

But no time to celebrate. She dashed forward, nearly falling, and threw her hands out to catch herself, but someone caught them. She looked up, into the fine, hideously scarred face of Prince Zuko.

"I'll save you from the pirates," he said.