Katara's eyes opened, and suddenly she was awake. For a moment, she had forgotten where she was, but after finding herself surrounded with deep red fabric and gold accents, she remembered: she was in the Fire Nation on official Avatar business. To be exact, she was in one of the many luxurious spare rooms in the Fire Lord's palace. Zuko had insisted they stay there while they were in the Fire Nation because they never see each other anymore, but when Aang and Katara had arrived, they found Zuko and his girlfriend, Mai, leaving for the weekend.

Katara sighed and rolled to her other side and found herself face to face with her boyfriend, Aang. It had been six years since they had ended The 100 Year War, yet somehow when he slept, mouth open wide with drool running down his cheek and his arms wrapped selfishly around his pillow, he still looked like that 12 year old child she found frozen in the ice all those years ago. She felt a huge lump start to form in her throat. She tried to swallow it, make it go away, ignore it like she'd been doing for quite some time now, but she felt like she was going to cry. She laid there staring at the boy next to her until tears started to fall slowly down her face. She quickly got up and walked toward the bedroom door, leaving Aang to his dreams.

As she walked aimlessly through the palace, Katara let the silent tears fall. She felt defeated; she knew she shouldn't be crying, but she couldn't make them stop. After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, she finally stopped walking.

Katara found herself in a large room with high pillars leading up to what would be the ceiling if there had been one; instead, there was just the night sky. She was standing in front of an enormous water fountain. She stood there, staring blankly at it. For a fountain its size, it was oddly calming; the water moved lazily from the top of the fixture to the pool of dark liquid at the bottom. It was peaceful. As she watched, her tears started to fall more slowly until she wasn't crying at all anymore.

"That's a new addition to my humble home," a voice that sounded as calm as the water in front of her said. Katara wasn't sure how long she'd been staring, but at the sound of his voice, she jumped and whipped herself around.

"Zuko!" She said, shocked. "What are you doing here? I thought you and Mai were gone for the weekend?"

"Our trip was…cut short." He avoided looking in her eyes as he answered.

Katara looked at him suspiciously. "Is everything alright?" She asked.

He finally looked at her. "I could ask you the same thing."

"No need to get defensive," she held her hands up as if she was surrendering, "I was just, uh, admiring your fountain. It's intriguing. You said it was new?" She was deflecting, looking for a way to change the subject, but she was also curious.

"Yes," Zuko said, moving his gaze from her face up to the fountain behind her. "It's a rather strange piece of décor for a Fire Lord, I know, but I've recently discovered that water calms me. This fountain was specifically designed to do just that."

As he spoke, she took him in with her eyes. She was so used to seeing him dressed as Fire Lord Zuko, full armor and hair in a bun with his crown stuck in it, she had almost forgotten what Zuko the person looked like. But here in the middle of the night in his own home in just a pair of lose shorts, it was easy to pretend he was just your ordinary 22 year old, not the leader of an entire nation.

When he was finished talking, Katara said, "That is so interesting. I would love to hear more about it, but it is so late, and I should really be getting to bed."

As she turned to leave, Zuko said, "I can tell you've been crying."

She turned back to find him looking at her so earnestly, she suddenly become conscious of the fact that she was only wearing her under wrappings. She looked at him in a way that pleaded with him not to ask any more questions. She turned again to leave.

"You should at least talk to Aang about whatever's wrong," he called after her.

She turned back around, a fire lit in her eyes. She screamed, "Aang is the problem!"

As soon as she said the words, she regretted them. She sat down on the ledge of the fountain and felt the cool mist hit her back. After a few seconds, Zuko joined her. He sat a couple of inches away from her, and he didn't say a single word, he just sat there.

After several minutes of silence and Katara staring blankly at her feet, she finally said, "I just don't know what's wrong with us. He was supposed to be the one."

Zuko pondered he statement, then said, "Well what are you feeling about the situation."

"That's just it," Katara said numbly, "I feel nothing."

"Really?" He asked, "Nothing at all?"

"Well, yes and no," she answered. "It's been six years, you know? It's been six years and at best I feel like he's more of a brother than a boyfriend, and at worst, I feel like his mother. It's like there's something missing, like we're going through the motions of being a couple. But it's not even just that. He's almost never home. We never see each other. Do you know the only reason why I'm on this particular Avatar business trip? He insisted I come because after he told me about it, I complained that we never get to be together lately. Do you know how often I've seen him? He's left early every morning that we've been here and by the time he gets back, he's too tired to do anything but fall asleep! I don't even know why we had to come here!"

Katara took a deep breath, giving Zuko a chance to add his input or advice, but in true Zuko fashion, he said nothing. He always liked to know the whole story before he put in his two cents.

So Katara continued.

"I woke up tonight because of a dream I had. It was me surrounded by a bunch of little airbending water tribe babies, obviously mine and Aang's, which doesn't sound like it would be the kind of dream that would wake you up and keep you from falling back asleep except for the fact that I was completely alone. I mean Aang was nowhere to be found and it was clear he was too busy being the Avatar to be any kind of father or husband. I don't want that. I want someone who is going to be there."

"It's clear that you have reached a crossroads in your life," Zuko began, sounding more and more like his Uncle Iroh, "I can't tell you what to feel, or which direction to go in, but I will say that you and Aang have a lot to talk about. You're leaving tomorrow aren't you? Maybe you can talk on the way home."

"Yeah," Katara said, looking up at him, "Maybe."

Zuko placed his hand on top of hers where it was resting on the ledge beside her leg and gave it a friendly squeeze.

"I believe everything will work out the way it is supposed to," he said, and took his hand off of hers.

"Thanks," Katara answered. "Now, are you going to tell me why you left your vacation early?"

Zuko, who had been looking into Katara's eyes, looked away.

"Mai and I broke up," he said after several minutes.

"I'm so sorry," Katara said sincerely. "Do you mind my asking what happened? Do you want to talk about it?"

"It was all my fault," Zuko said, almost to himself.

"How?" Katara asked.

"I proposed." Zuko said, embarrassed.

"What?!" At those words, Katara's insides twisted into a tight not.

"Yeah, I planned it all out. I took her to her favorite spot in her favorite part of Republic City, and I had this whole speech about how I've never been happier than when I'm with her, then I got down on one knee and asked and…she said no."

"I can't believe she said no, the two of you have been together longer than Aang and I have!"

"Well we've always been on and off," Zuko explained. "I guess I thought if I showed her I was committed, that would be good enough for her. But it wasn't."

"So did she tell you why she said no?"

"She said she loved me, but then she said we were basically kidding ourselves trying to stay together. She said that at least on her side, it had become more of a relationship of convenience and that if I couldn't honestly say the same thing, she didn't want to lead me on anymore. Then she called bullshit on my happiness."

"What? How can she call bullshit on your emotions?"

"She said she'd seen me happier, and it wasn't when I was with her…." Zuko trailed off, staring into the darkness ahead of them in the large room. Then he shook his head, as if trying to shake a thought out of it, and looked at Katara briefly before moving his gaze to the open sky full of stars above them. "Anyway, she's right. It was something of convenience. I mean, I love Mai, but if I'm being honest, there was something…missing between us."

He looked back at Katara again and smiled slightly.

"You should go back to bed. Do you know the way back?"

"Actually," Katara said sheepishly, "I have absolutely no idea how I found this place. I guess I'm lost."

"I'll walk you back," Zuko said, standing up, then offering Katara a hand to stand as well.

The two of them walked back in silence that was comfortable, and when they made it back to Katara's room, he gave her a firm squeeze on the shoulder and said, "Goodnight."

Then he turned and left. Katara stared at his muscular back for a few seconds as he walked away. She could still feel where he had squeezed her shoulder. The two of them weren't very tactile with each other, so every time they touched felt a little unnatural. Katara realized she was still staring, so snapping out of it, she turned to go back to bed with Aang.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed! Please review and let me know what you think! Thanks!