Chapter 2: Lovely nightmares.

'Mom? Are you there?' Katara ran into the neighbour's igloo, she had been looking for her mom for hours and finally found her.

'Katara! You shouldn't be her right now. Please, go play with your brother', Kya said anxiously.

At that point Katara saw a man, dressed in red clothes, holding her mom tightly. 'Mom? Are you alright? Who is this man?' she asked hesitatingly.

'Please, do as I just said, go play with your brother!'

'But... Sokka is chasing penguins, and daddy once said I was...'

'All right, this little family reunion has lasted long enough. You'd better go, young girl, then I'll maybe act like I didn't see you.' The man turned back to Kya. 'Now, tell me who is the last waterbender and no one will get hurt.'

Although Katara knew she couldn't stay here any longer, she didn't want to leave her mom alone with such a creepy man, so she ran forward to embrace her before leaving.

All of the sudden she got surrounded by a wave of fire, which approached toward her with great speed. She could feel its heat burning her skin and heard the creepy man repeating his question.

The fire faded out and she found herself crying in the underground prison in Ba Sing Se.

Zuko hugged her lovingly. 'Then that's something we have in common', he whispered in her hair.

Somehow those seven words made Katara calm down completely. She found herself enjoying the close hug she was in and felt very safe. 'Thanks.'

Zuko laid his head against hers, till a comforting warm, overwhelming feeling settled down in her heart, resulting in a kiss. For a moment, everything felt perfect. The world seemed full of loved, free of war, and her mom felt closer than she ever had felt before.

'I love you.'

The words made Katara's heart jump. Sokka and her grandmother used them a lot, but it didn't feel the same. She had never heard them before from someone who really, really was in love with her. Now she did, she was almost losing her self control.

Then, a wave of fire appeared again. Zuko tried to protect her with his body so the flames would hit him first, but it couldn't prevent them to reach Katara.

The last thing she saw, was Zuko's sister, surrounded by blue flames, evil laughing.

'Zuko!' I screamed.

Aang, Sokka, Suki and Toph got immediately to their feet.

'I can't feel anyone moving within a distance of half a mile. I think Katara was just dreaming about her little prince', Toph said wide grinning. Then she laid down to get back to sleep again, even if the sun was up already. I assumed she didn't knew that, since we were lying in the shadows of some giant trees.

Aang gave her a destroying look. 'I assume you mean she had a horrible nightmare?'

'Whatever', Toph answered annoyed.

'Are you alright?' Aang asked me.

'I am, don't worry about me. You were right, I did have a nightmare.'

'So, what was it about? You screamed Zuko's name', he asked curiously. 'I mean, maybe the Spirits want to tell you something.'

I thought about it for a moment. Was my dream a message from the Spirits? Then what was it trying to tell me? Azula was about to kill Zuko? Why should I care about that? In reality, nothing happened in the underground prison. Zuko had just made me believe he had changed, and then betrayed us.

'Azula was kind of... chasing me.' I answered finally.

'What does Zuko have to do with that?' Aang asked suspicious.

'He was... with her.' I hoped he wouldn't see the blush on my cheeks.

Aang couldn't resist a little, relieved smile. 'Okay then, it's alright. They won't hurt you any longer.'

'And who will take care of that? Will you, Twinkle Toes?' Toph laughed.

'Well, maybe you forgot I'm the Avatar. I can already bend air, water, earth and a bit of fire and you really don't want to see me angry when I'm in the Avatar State', Aang explained proudly.

'Actually, I would love to see you like that! I just don't think I will ever get to see it', Toph said light-hearted. 'And about you bending earth: some practice really wouldn't hurt you. At least if you're not that scared you'll fly away again. You heard Sokka yesterday: rock beats airbender!'

'Okay, maybe I can still work on my earthbending skills, but I can still fight them with water and air.' Aang crossed his arms and looked at me to let me know this was a good moment to say he was right.

'I'm sorry Aang, but I think Toph is right. Your waterbending isn't perfect yet as well. If you really want to fight someone, you should really practice more.'

For a moment, Aang watched his feet, but his disappointment didn't last very long, and soon he had a big smile on his face again. 'Well, I've got plenty of time right now. Yesterday I discovered a lake, so...'

'I'm sorry Aang, I'm actually still quite tired, but nothing is holding you from going.' I gasped exaggeratedly to show my tiredness. I laid down again, trying to resume my dream from the kiss.

'Okay, thanks for the advice, Sifu Katara', Aang said quietly.

'You're welcome.' I closed my eyes and replayed my dream over and over, enjoying the pieces Zuko took part more and more, till my fantasy took over and I fell in love with a dream.

AN: Thanks for reading! Next chapter Zuko will start his search. This, of course, will be written in Zuko's point of view again, and then everything should normally be written in Katara's position.