So I've decided to revamp the first few chapters. You know, increase the quality. So…let me know if you like it better this way!

Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Avatar. And writing disclaimers seem to only wedge the knife a bit deeper.

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"You are such a JERK!!"

The slap that echoed across the campsite had sent both Aang and Sokka tumbling from their place on Appa, the two so surprised that Katara had actually slapped the ex-prince instead of freezing him to a tree as was her favorite thing to do when he annoyed her.

Infuriated and positively fuming towards the other side of camp, Katara clutched her necklace back to her neck and began to finish cooking dinner. Aang and Sokka, after climbing back to their feet, exchanged both worried and amused looks before turning to glance at where she had come out of.

Sokka snorted as he tried to cover up the snicker that would've had his head chopped off from the growling Firebender that came after her. Zuko's hands, clenched into tight fists, trembled and his face sported a rather bright and red hand mark across his good cheek.

Aang sent him a nervous look, "What'd you do this time, Zuko?" not sure whether or not he should approach either of the two steaming benders. (no pun intended)

What surprised them this time was that he didn't snap or roar anything or even sent a vicious look at Aang, instead he grumbled incoherent (and meant to be censored) words under his breath, before spitting a "Mind your own business!" At them. Aang looked back to Sokka, who shrugged and grinned widely before leaning back on Appa.

"Well…," Aang jerked a thumb to where Katara was furiously stirring a pot. "She's my waterbending teacher and my friend…so it kind of is my business…er…" He withered under a full blasted livid look from Zuko. "Where's Toph when you need her?" Aang whined softly, wondering why he sent her to go keep an eye on Zuko's uncle and scout for any other fire nation settlements nearby.

"If she wants act like a child, let her…what do I care?" he hissed, crossing his arms and sticking his nose up in the air. Katara jerked around, her eyes narrowed into a glower.

"That's great to know!" Katara spat at him over her shoulder, the soup and other food threatened to jump out of the pot as she continued to stir violently. "You probably don't care if you eat or not tonight then, isn't that right, Zuko?!"

Zuko sent her a glare of his own and the tension between them got so thick Aang could swear he saw a spark flash between them. Nervous, since he knew that if he let this go on the campsite would be a horrid clash of fire and ice, the Avatar tried to peacefully intervene.

"Uh, Guys?" he put his hands up nervously as he sent Sokka pleading looks. He face faulted when he saw that Sokka was nowhere to be seen.

"Sokka!" he hissed, "Where'd you go?!" He glanced back at the other two, Katara had stood and has lifting her hands in the octopus stance and Zuko looked ready to devour her in flames. Aang, as was his right, panicked.

"Please, you two, don't do this, who's going to teach me how to firebend and waterbend if my two teachers went off and killed each other?" A snort from behind Appa let Aang know of Sokka's whereabouts, and with a jab at the air, Aang managed to earthbend the water tribe warrior from behind Appa, into the air and land right beside him.

Sokka cried out, rubbing his behind after the rough landing but managed to quit whining after receiving a deadly look from Aang. Sighing he stood and glared at the scene before him. "Alright you two, enough's enough. Let's just eat dinner first, then you can do whatever you want – OW!!" Sokka rubbed his side from where Aang had jabbed his elbow before glaring at the twelve year old.

"You're NOT. HELPING." Aang growled. Sokka was about to growl something back until they saw, from the corner of their eyes, Zuko drop his stance before running a hand over his face.

"You're right." Zuko spoke out suddenly and the two peace keepers felt their jaws drop in disbelief.

Did Prince Zuko of the cruel and sadistic Fire nation yield from a fight? Did he finally grow up and decide to become a better person? It almost seems too good to be true! Aang was the first to recover before looking at Zuko with a hopeful look in his eyes, if he yielded now, then maybe he can finally get some rest from endless bickering! Aang was almost tearing in the eyes from this dream come true, he was on cloud nine!

"I'm only wasting my time fighting with such a silly little girl."

"EXCUSE ME?!"

The dream collapsed and Aang was painfully thrown back to reality. Face faulting, Aang felt he had lost such a great battle and collapsed to his knees. Sokka merely sighed, rolled his eyes and patted the kid on the head. "You tried, Aang."

"I'm not the one who started taking other people's things and taunted them with it!!" Katara screamed, standing up with a spatula held dangerously at her side, the soup began to rise from the pot, thrashing and gnarling in the air.

"It's obvious you can't take a joke, either!" Zuko growled, "And besides I didn't take it. I found it lying on the ground by the river, you can't even take care of your own mother's necklace and you call yourself responsible." Zuko said with a smirk, as though he hadn't heard her scream.

Silence followed for a short amount of time, and for a second Zuko felt his stomach drop when he saw her vicious glare darken into a blizzard of ice.

Zuko kept himself very still, watching her making sure not to let his guard down. Aang waved a hand over his own throat as if telling him to cut it out before it was too late. Sokka stared hopelessly, and began to try to find the nearest exit.

"You have got some nerve to speak to me the way you do." Katara hissed, her voice low and dangerous. "After all the things we've done for you, you act as if you've done the most work here!"

Her lips tilted upwards and Zuko felt a twinge of panic jerk the adrenaline to rush through his blood. "You know I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, I was actually starting to appreciate you…Well you know what Zuko? I think you need a lesson in manners, first, before I let you have your way here."

It was like lightning itself, in one flash of a second. Katara had thrown the spatula to the side, and bent a water whip so huge and large from what appeared to be water from the nearest river and her own canteen. The water whip wrapped around her and tentacles rose from the water, Aang recognized it again as the Octopus form and groaned.

Zuko, felt excitement rush from his chest, covering the panic he was feeling just moments ago. He had wanted this, he realized, as he worked long licks of flame to wrap around his arms.

Aang stared at them hopelessly, "Could you guys at least wait for me to clear the camp?" if they heard him they made no sign of it, and with a quick display of earthbending and airbending Aang had moved everything that could've been totally destroyed out of the way. Quickly urging Appa away from the oncoming chaos, Aang sent a quick look of worry and irritation at the two benders.

"Aang, aren't you going to stop them?" Sokka asked, climbing on Appa's saddle.

Aang shook his head, "They need to handle this situation themselves, and if they have to beat each other up to finally stop in full then they can."

Aang jumped and shot himself through the air to land on Appa's head, urging the beast to make his way out of the soon to be battlefield. Sending one last glance at the two polar opposites, Aang prayed they wouldn't hurt each other too badly.

When the large bison disappeared over the sight of the trees, Zuko waited no longer. Throwing the fire together to make a whip, he snapped it at her and watched, smirking, as she used the water tentacles to beat the whip out of the way.

"You've really gotten far from being a silly water peasant!" Zuko taunted, expertly dodging the water she launched at him to grab him.

"I'll show you how far I've gotten!" Katara growled as she advanced toward him, the octopus form splitting into two separate blobs of water. Letting the two sources of her element fall to the ground she bent a small amount to form large sleeves from her arms, before spinning to throw the water at him.

Zuko, seeing where she intended to strike, jumped high in the air spinning the whip to slam into her. Katara slapped the flames aside and steam erupted from the connection of water and flames, momentarily making her lose sight of him. The flames still came and she narrowly missed an arrow thin shot of fire that snapped the cord that held her water canteen to her body. Gasping in surprise she almost had no time to stop the other flames that began to surround her.

Quickly bending the water around her to stop the flames from getting so close, she failed to see the Firebender, sprinting toward her. She had just turned to see him, barely a foot away from her, and she cried out, just as he pounced and threw them to the ground. Landing on her back, she gasped, feeling the earth beneath her scrape and bruise her. Zuko grunted at her side, also bearing the harshness of the fall as well, but he had grasped her wrists and held them above her, pinning her.

"Ugh!" She growled, struggling under his steel hold, "Let me go!!" Zuko was panting next to her, and feeling his chest rise and fall rapidly above her sent the blood to rush to her head. Katara snarled, thrashing one more time before falling, weak, under him.

"I win." His voice and breath reach her ear, sending shivers up and down her spine. Katara, panting herself, tried to breathe deeply before trying to get his hands off her wrists, "You cheated." She hissed. Zuko's hair tickled her neck and chest as he turned to face her with a smirk.

"All's fair in love and war." His smirk morphed to a triumphant smile. Katara felt her face heat and turned away, embarrassed. "If you weren't such a jerk, I'd have no problems with you…" She muttered.

Zuko chuckled, "Things would be awfully boring that way, don't you think?"

Katara scoffed, "Yeah, whatever. Get off me now, Zuko." Zuko didn't budge; instead he twisted enough to that his chest really pinned her to the ground. Nervousness and panic began to make themselves known as Katara watched his eyes darken with a strange emotion she had never seen.

"Zuko…what are you doing?" Katara asked, her voice slightly trembling. Zuko smiled. "You know, I thought you noticed by now…" He was getting too close, and Katara wished he didn't feel how hard her heart was ramming her chest.

"N-noticed what?" She squeaked, feeling both excitement and panic grip her. She could feel his breath on her cheek and neck and his lips were just barely a millimeter away. She looked at his eyes, and found them actually glued on her own lips. Her cheeks flaring, she tried to move but found that she couldn't.

"Zuko – "

"Let me explain." Zuko finished, before finally closing the space and pressing his lips against hers. Katara froze, her eyes widening when his slid close. For a moment, Katara forgot to breathe.

It was when he moved his lips against her, almost massaging them carefully and tenderly, did she let her own eyes slide close. It was such a strange feeling. Aang had kissed her, yes…but nothing like this! He would just press his lips against hers and that's it. But Zuko…Oh…

She felt her own lips react, felt her own chin tilt towards him and try to follow his movements. His hands had let go of her wrists and had trailed to cup her face and hold her waist. She lowered her arms, and placed her scratched and bruised hands to hold his face and neck against her own.

She had thought that she would've felt repulsed, or something along those lines. A feeling of security and protection as well as an airy feeling wasn't something she thought she would experience with Zuko, of all people.

It was strange, and she felt something from deep within her chest begin to rise. Zuko squeezed the hand that held her waist against him and the feeling erupted. A low smooth sound rose from her chest and through her throat. The moan had surprised them both and Zuko broke their connection for a moment.

"Katara…?" He tried to ask but her lips found his again.

"Don't stop." She said half muffled as she spoke in between kisses.

Zuko was too happy to oblige, his lips parting slightly to fully kiss her. At some point they rolled and Katara was soon the one on top, kissing him. She let her hands shyly roam his chest, and was surprised when he let out a moan himself.

"Zuko, I – " He didn't let her finish. Kissing her again was one of the most sublime things he felt he had ever done right. Zuko then smiled, he should've taken her necklace and teased her a long time ago.

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Yeah…I like it a whole lot more. Okaay…as for the time frame…let's keep it after Zuko joined up with them. And yeah…I do know they're a bit OOC. Get offa me.

Mido-Ao