It was intoxicatingly tempting to drift away from Katara's perspective for this one, but I resisted. It's a real challenge for me to write as her. It makes this series fun to write.

Keep guessing. I'm sure you'll get it eventually…

I don't own Avatar. Thanks for asking.

Chapter 2 – Confused to Pieces

"He's lying," croaked Toph. Katara could hear Smellerbee quietly sobbing to herself. Unable to do anything more, they made their hasty escape.

And Katara had been confused ever since.

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Katara poured Zuko a bowl of soup. She didn't look at him, but she assumed he was looking at her. Golden eyes had a piercing quality to them, judging even though they had no right to. She hurried over to Sokka and Suki.

The twilight was beautiful, Katara lamented. Stupid weather.

"Aang!" she called to the trees. "It's time to eat!"

"Coming!" shouted the gleeful monk, his head popping out from the forest canopy. "You heard her, Momo! Let's go!"

The wind blew as he landed, and Katara had to look away. She almost would rather have had Aang look at her like Zuko did now. And have Zuko look at her like he was using her as bait. At least things would be normal.

"Did I tell you about the time I beat up a giant all-knowing spirit?" Sokka asked Suki casually.

Suki choked on her soup as Katara began pouring the wine.

"Please," said Katara, rolling her eyes. "You just got him while he wasn't looking."

"Sh!" interrupted Sokka, his finger on his lips. "I'm telling the story here!" he turned back to Suki. "It all happened when we were in this ancient library in the middle of the desert."

"Are you sure you're not making this up?"

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Sokka pulled Appa's reins sharply to the left.

"And sometimes they're wrong," he said smoothly.

Katara turned to face the sky. She didn't want to face a person, so she looked for clouds. There were none. It was a beautiful day, a stupidly beautiful day.

She didn't want to look down to the earth. Too many people there. She knew they couldn't see her, but she couldn't bear the thought of crying in front of all those people. Over a boy. She was supposed to be stronger than that. This wasn't like the loss of her mother. It was just some stupid boy doing stupid things on a stupidly beautiful day.

She shielded her eyes from the sun, hardly necessary after a few moments once she had dropped to her knees, allowing tears to fall down her cheeks. She cursed herself for being so emotional. She was born with it, she was convinced, because every little thing made her eyes well up ever since she was a little girl. But she was stronger now. Little, stupid things shouldn't make her cry.

So confusing.

She sniffed loudly. She wanted out of her mind. She wanted to feel her father's hand on her shoulder, to see the wrinkles in his forehead as his eyebrows arches up with concern. She made her body tremble at the side of the saddle. That would surely catch someone's eye. Her father wasn't there, and her insensitive brother would never notice from the reins.

"So next we're going to the Great Divide!" exclaimed Aang. Katara could feel the warmth of his body as it moved closer to her. "It's one of the most beautiful places in the world, Katara! You've got to see it!"

Katara sniffed again, partly because she needed to, partly to draw attention.

"Katara?' said Aang finally. "Is something wrong?"

Katara sniffed again and said through a broken voice, "No, Aang, I'm fine," making it as obvious as she could that she wasn't.

"Great!" said Aang cheerily. "Because we're going to one of the most beautiful places in the world and you'll want to be in a good mood!"

That wasn't what he was supposed to say. He was supposed to say, "Are you sure? Talk to me." But he didn't.

The day was too beautiful for him to say something like that.

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How come everyone always counted on her to keep them up when they were down? Sand and a lack of water, no help, and no hope. How come she couldn't have some emotional support every now and then?

And, though she hated to admit it, there was only one person who had been able to offer this sort of support, even more than her brother.

And there were some major problems with this person.

First of all, they had tried to kill each other on numerous occasions. But secondly, and maybe even more importantly, he reminded her too much like Jet.

There was no rationality about this. They only had two things in common as far as Katara could tell: a taste for the destruction of villages, and admittedly gorgeous physical attributes.

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"And there he was!" said Sokka with a menacing tone. "A giant spirit as old as the world itself in the shape of a giant owl!"

Suki broke into laughter.

"What?" exclaimed Sokka indignantly. "It's true!"

"He's right," corroborated Aang, taking a sip from his soup. "I was there."

"You see, I'm more inclined to believe him," said Suki to Sokka, pointing at Aang.

Everyone laughed.

"I could tell you if he's lying," said Toph matter-of-factly.

"That's another thing I don't believe!" Suki blurted out, twirling her glass of wine in her hand. "How can you tell if people are lying if you couldn't even tell me apart from Sokka?"

"Hey!" exclaimed Toph, leaping to her feet. "You said you wouldn't talk about that!"

"Talk about what?' asked Aang.

Zuko smirked. "I think I can figure it out."

"Shut up, Sparky," growled Toph through gritted teeth.

"So then what happened?" asked Suki eagerly, her head on Sokka's shoulder. Katara looked away. "Go on with the story, already!"

"Well, I tricked the owl and found out about the Day of Black Sun," said Sokka impressively.

"That did you a lot of good," Zuko pointed out.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, it did," retorted Sokka. Then, considering what he had said, added, "Oh, wait. No, it didn't."

Katara looked down and saw her bust, which was beginning to borderline impressive proportions. She wished for her parka, something to cover herself so boys wouldn't look at her that way. You know, that way.

Why couldn't things just stay as they were? This was so wonderful, sitting around the fire, eating dinner with friends and family, laughing, teasing. There was no need to add suggestive glances and impure thoughts. Why did there have to be any romance at all?

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There she was, crying over a boy again. But this time was different. She didn't even realize she was crying.

And she wasn't crying because she was brokenhearted, at least not the same as before. She was allowed to cry over real emotions. A feeling of loss is a real feeling. A feeling of betrayal is only the result of one's own stupidity. Therefore it is not a valid emotion.

Be quiet, consciousness. It is true and you know it.

She wasn't thinking about any of this when she cried over a boy in front of all those people. It was not a stupidly beautiful day. It was storming outside, but she wouldn't find that out until she made it out from underground.

Someday she would have to thank Iroh for what he did.

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After that, no more crying over boys. Her father didn't count as a boy.

Crying over blood bending was a different matter.

And, once again, Aang didn't know what to do.

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"Oh, wait. No, it didn't," added Sokka.

"Azula must have found out when she was dressed up as me," said Suki, spitting on the ground.

"Well, no use crying over spilled tea," said Sokka.

"Unless you're my uncle," said Zuko, actually chuckling a little. "There was this one time…"

"Can it, fire man," scolded Suki. "I want to hear about the giant owl."

Zuko folded his arms over his chest and sulked.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Toph, gesturing over to Aang.

Grey eyes fixated on the sky, searching for something. A cloud, perhaps. Or a beautiful day, even if it's stupid. No piercing there. Just watching. Aang turned his head to realize everyone was staring at him. He laughed nervously.

"You finish the story without me," he said, air bending himself off the ground. "I'm going to practice my water bending."

With that he hopped on an air scooter and sped off towards the beach.

"What a party-pooper," complained Sokka. "So, anyway, then the owl started attacking us and…"

"Did you not just see that?" interrupted Zuko.

"He just doesn't like my storytelling, I guess," reasoned Sokka. "So, as I was saying…"

"Aren't you going to go see what's wrong?"

"Oh, that's Katara's job," dismissed Sokka.

"My job?" exclaimed Katara.

"Well, yeah," said Sokka. "Whenever there's something wrong with Aang you're always the one who brings him out of it."

"He's not lying," snickered Toph.

"Shut up, Toph," mumbled Katara low enough so that no one could hear. She stood up and avoided Zuko's eyes. She considered asking someone to help find out whatever was wrong with Aang, but she was terrified of Zuko accepting the invitation meant for Toph. She sighed and walked away from the warm fire and towards the beach, unfortunately.

"So, the owl attacked us and…" Katara could hear as she drifted away.

"Do you think she's okay?" asked Zuko.

"Okay, seriously, will you let me tell this story or not?"

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"You don't want to fall in love?" laughed Yue.

Katara blushed and nodded. She glanced at the glowing monk. Still in the spirit world, still unable to eavesdrop.

"Neither did I," said Yue. "It could only make things more complicated for me." She sighed. "But I did. There was no helping it. And it was wonderful. Don't run from it, Katara."

"Why not?"

"Because running will only make you more confused."

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Think you know? I laugh in your face. Keep guessing.

Are you confused? Good. That's by design. More to come, and then maybe you won't be so confused anymore.

-samtana