A/N: A day late. I know I suck.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own ATLA.

Jubilant

Katara and Zuko had decided it would be best to keep to the plan and travel south. It gave them hope and comfort to know that they had a chance of finding the others. However after a couple of months of driving for a day and stopping for a week or two when they found somewhere safe, their car completely broke down.

...

"What do you mean, you don't know how to fix it?" Katara's arms were crossed over her chest as she watched Zuko bend over the frame of the car to look for the problem. He was grumbling and shaking his head as she watched him poke the parts of the car with his pale fingers.

"Um. Well. I've never actually had to fix a car before." Katara rolled her eyes as she watched him stand up and rub the back of his neck.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Zuko glared at her under his mop of black hair before sighing and looking back at the smoking engine. A feeling of inadequacy came over him as he looked around the empty overgrown road for any other form of transportation.

"Maybe because you always like to expect the absolute worst from me. Sometimes you make me wonder if you even trust me." Katara's eyes widened in mild surprise at the frustration in his voice and words. The past two months he'd been careful around her, hardly talking, only comforting her when she woke up screaming for her brother. Or Aang.

"I don't mean to." When he looked up from the ground she had turned her back to him. He opened his mouth to assure her that he had forgiven her. That he would always forgive her, but she hardly let him say anything as her arm's dropped, and she shivered in her shorts and cotton shirt. The dark burgundy color of her shirt had faded with the amount of times she's had to stop and scrub at drying blood. "Maybe you should start trusting me."

She quickly turned back around and opened the car door. She pulled out their large pack and threw it over her shoulder. She slammed the door, and started in the direction they had been driving. After a couple of moments of brooding cerulean eyes, Zuko was beside her starting to pull the pack from her shoulders to his own.

It was a silent apology hanging in the chilly air between them.

Katara stopped as he moved her arm slightly to slip the strap off and then do the same with her other arm. He looked at her out of the corner of his good eye as he threw the pack over his shoulder. When she released an exhausted breath and reached for his long calloused fingers with her own, the message was clear.

She had forgiven him. She would always forgive him.

Hours after the sun had set they found an empty (safe) apartment building, and chose an apartment on the fourth floor. (They were lucky to find it unlocked.)

To Katara's excitement, right inside the door of the apartment were two long boards. Zuko had simply raised an eyebrow as she picked one up and hugged it to her chest like a long-lost friend, and her eyes were squeezed so tightly shut he could've sworn she was in pain. When for the first time in months a full-blown grin spread across her tanned face, Zuko realized how much he loved her.

When the idea of love bloomed in his chest a warmth spread through his body and to his cheeks. It was like an inner fire had finally set to the kindling that was their careful relationship. It was his heart and his soul, and he decided with stubborn finality that it was burning for her. In a burst of rare happiness he let out a sharp breath and grabbed her shoulders in his large hands.

"My heart burns for you, Katara!"

After a second of widening eyes and blushing cheeks (from both of them), Katara flung backwards out of his arms only to break into a ceremoniously loud fit of laughter. Zuko's entire face was as red as a tomato as he hit himself on his forehead repeatedly. Cursing his lack of luck and unforgivingly broken filter.

"Stop laughing at me!" Zuko's hands clenched into fists. If it was for any other reason, Zuko would have been savoring the sound of her laughter, but now as he watched her fall to the ground and clutch her stomach with her scarred fingers, he grew upset.

"My heart.." Her voice was low in an insulting imitation of his voice as she paused between words to suck in a gulp of air and release hearty laughs. "Burns for you!" The more she laughed the more frustrated Zuko got until finally he reached down and pulled the girl up by her waist so that she was standing in front of him. Her laughs resolved to nervous fits of giggles as she stared at him under her eyelashes. His hands moved from her waist to hold her wrists in front of him.

"I was trying to say I love you." His voice came out as an angry growl and he knew he was glaring at her under his hair. Katara flinched at his voice, but when the meaning behind the words registered he saw it in her eyes. The silence as he released one of her wrists to touch her blushing cheek was excruciating. "I know you don't love me, and I am bad at… feelings in general, but, Katara, I promise you I will always protect you. I need you, like I said when we lost Aang. I meant it, Katara. I meant it." His voice had turned frustratingly soft as more words began to tumble out of his mouth without permission. "I love you. I love you so much it hurts, and until you love me back I will keep saying it. I know that…"

"I love you, too." Her outburst surprised them both as Zuko's hand began to drop from her face. Her's came to meet it as she held it close to the warmth in her cheek. Tears welled in her eyes, but when she smiled he knew she was alright. That they were both more than alright. When the salty tears fell on his hand hope fled into his bones at the idea of living with Katara. "I love you." Her voice was shaking as she repeated it over and over and over until the words morphed in their ears to sound like something completely different. Zuko let go of her other wrist to cup her face in both his hands and then in the confidence that the past few moments gave him he began to tenderly kiss the tears on her face. He kissed the corner of her mouth with mild hesitance before she reached for the back of his neck and pulled him back down to her.

After a few seconds Katara concluded that Zuko was indeed, a better kisser than Aang.

That night when they lay wrapped in each other's arms under a comforter Katara had found in the closet, they made reckless promises to each other and said I love you enough to make up for all the times that they hadn't in the past.

A/N: Drop a review if it so pleases you.