To have you here

"Are you ok?" Zuko asked as he watched the Waterbender shed millions of tears.

"Go away" Katara said while wiping away her tears, she hated when people saw her like this. She thought of it as a weakness, as if she couldn't control her emotions so she is showing that she isn't strong. She hated to have to cry in front of other people, to have them witness how sensitive she actually is to her emotions, and now Zuko knows how weak she is.

Zuko sat down, not listening to her clear demands of her wanting him to leave.

"Are you deaf?" Katara asked frustrated. She was mad that Zuko not only didn't respect her choices, but even had the gut to sit down. As if that could be any better.

"No" Zuko responded.

"Then why aren't you leaving? Why aren't you gone yet?" Katara said looking at him with a death stare, but his golden eyes that looked into her deeply took away her anger. She quickly turned her eyes the other way trying to not fall for his stare that made her anger vanish. She's supposed to be mad with him, for one, he hadn't left him when she asked him nicely to. Secondly, he kissed her last night, without permission.

"Didn't you hear me? GO. AWAY" Katara yelled. She looked at Zuko with no expression. Showing him that she wasn't weak and didn't care for his feelings.

"Katara, if you don't want to talk about it then don't." Zuko said quietly, hoping that he wouldn't anger her more. But he was wrong because the next thing he knew Katara was yelling again.

"Who EVER said I was going to talk about my hundreds of problems? And definitely not with you!" Katara screamed as more tears started to form behind her eye. She pressed her hands on her eyes to press them further down, not allowing them to come out.

"Hundreds of problems?" Zuko questioned while looking her in the eye, only to realize that she looked away again. Every time he looked at her or made eye contact with her it wouldn't last 3 seconds as she would quickly turn away, as if avoiding something.

"W-what? I never said that." Katara stated.

"You literally just said seconds ago that you have hundreds of probl-" Zuko said before being interrupted by the angry waterbender.

"Well I must've just mistaken myself. I have no problems. None of which concern you anyways." Katara spat out, hoping that he would believe her and just leave her alone on the subject.

" And what if I am concerned?" Zuko said looking at her, but it wasn't long before she looked away again.

"Good. It should concern you." Katara said a bit angrily, how could he not know that her entire worry was of him? Because he had kissed her, because she didn't know if she wanted it or not, and it scares her. "No…No! I didn't like the kiss! It was unwanted and he didn't even have permission." Katara told herself.

"And why would it concern me?" Zuko asked a bit confused.

"Because I'm such a huge mess…. because of you." Katara admitted.

Zuko looked at her a bit confused, how had he made her a huge mess? What did he do? Then it hit him, the kiss. The kiss he had given her, it was because of that, because of that whats why she was such a mess. Out here in the woods crying like a maniac, he didn't know she would take such a huge effect from it, had she never kissed before? Surely he has seen Aang steal a couple kisses from her.

"How stupid of me" she said in a voice of self-hatred.

"How so?" The firebender asked, curious as to why she had gone from crying, to insulting herself.

"How stupid of me to think you've changed" Katara whispered. Zuko felt a pain in his chest. He didn't mean for what he did to have ruined her so much, he didn't even know why he had kissed her. He didn't even like her. He wished things can go back to the old friendship they had. But it seems that it probably won't ever be fixed. And she will probably never forgive him.

"How stupid of me to think that after you did that to me the other night, that you would say sorry." Katara said with angrily. "How stupid of me to think that after I admitted that I was a mess because of you, that you would at least apologize." Katara said even more angry. "How stupid of me, how stupid…." She said as she held her head low, the kiss itself didn't have an effect on her, but the fact that it made her start caring about him again. Like she did before his betrayal, what if he did it again. She would feel horrible just like she felt last time. All because she cares about him now. She continued to avoiding any form of eye contact or communication with Zuko.

Zuko looked at her, even if he knew she wouldn't look back, he still would continue to glare. Feeling sorry, but emotions weren't usually Zuko's specialty, he always had trouble expressing himself. Except when it came to anger, but sadness, sorrow, forgiveness, guilt. He had always never shown those emotions easily. Unless he was truly sorry.

"I'm sorry, Katara" Zuko finally said.

Katara looked up at him, making eye contact. Although this time she didn't break the contact shared between the two. He had said it. He had said what she had been waiting for, an apology from no other than Zuko.

"Don't be, I already had enough problems, I don't think theres nothing you can do to make it worse." Katara said.

"Really? Because it seemed like you had big problems…over us and the kiss." Zuko said a bit quietly.

"N-no… not really… It's just that I had so many thoughts on my mind... and I guess I told you those thoughts in a form of hatred." Katara said with a sigh. She did indeed want to tell someone her problems, having so many things with her and not being able to tell a single soul. Except herself of course. She told him some of her thoughts in a rude way, so he didn't think that she had trusted him.

"Why?" Zuko asked.

"Why what..?" Katara questioned.

"Why in a form of hatred?" Zuko said. "Why not just telling me the issues?"

Katara froze, did she really want to tell him the reason? Because she still hadn't trusted him? Because she was afraid?

"Because…I…I guess I'm afraid." Katara said shamefully and weakly.

"Of what?" Zuko said confused.

"I'm afraid. I can't trust you, I don't want to. I just can't bring myself to grow close to you… not again." Katara said, as tears started to form again. This time, she didn't even bother to try and stop them, if she cried then she cried.

"Why? The whole team has trusted me again. Why can't you?" Zuko said a bit saddened at what she said about him.

"The whole team trusts you. Because they aren't as betrayed as I am. I was the first to trust you Zuko, even when Sokka warned me about you. I didn't care, I accepted you. And how did you repay me?" she said looking at him, wanting him to know how much pain he caused her that day.

Zuko looked away, he knew what she was going to say next.

"By betraying me. I was so hurt Zuko. I told myself that I would never allow myself to trust you like that, to be close to you like that. Because the pain is just too much. I never want to go through that again" She said with a tear trailing down her cheek.

Zuko pulled her close to him and hugged her. "I would rather die than betray you, or the team again. I would never live with myself if I hurt you like that again. I'm sorry." Zuko said as he felt the waterbender return the hug. He loved this feeling, the feeling of having Katara this close to him. One step closer to gaining her trust.

"Zuko" she said, loving how he embraced her. She never wanted this moment to end.

"Yes?" he asked while breaking the hug and staring into her eyes.

"I'm glad to have you here." She said as she hugged him again and he hugged back.

Although she wanted this moment to last, she knew their relationship wouldn't be anything romantic, and they would probably never hug again. But she was fine with that, she wasn't supposed to like him romantically anyways.

_ Camp

They both headed back to their own tents, but another surprised waited for Katara.

"You two have fun?" Said an angry voice.