Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the characters, nor do I profit from this in any way.

A/N: As usual - great comments! This chapter is short, I don't have a very good excuse for why this occurred and I can't tell you the exact reason it ended up so short...otherwise I'd spoil something in the next chapter and that's no good. There were a number of issues in chapter 2 that were pointed out, and were fairly consistant. I hope I've corrected those in this chapter and stayed true to the quality.

PLEASE IF YOU READ THIS, LEAVE COMMENTS!!!!

Amy.


Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Chapter 3 – Say, All I Need

Zuko rolled over in bed again. Thoughts swirled behind his eyes like a whirlwind out of control. It had to have been the middle of the night; he'd been tossing and turning for hours at least. Disgusted with his restlessness, he sat up and stared at his feet in frustration. There were too many thoughts in his head to sleep. Every time Katara seemed to accept him as a friend and they were enjoying each other's company, something would go wrong and she'd be angrier than ever at him. Sokka told him not to lose sleep over it; she has a hard time accepting anyone. Though the words were comforting, they did little to cure his insomnia.

At dinner she made relentless remarks about his poor cooking skills, as though it mattered somehow. Then when he offered to practice firebending with the Avatar, she snapped at him about how he selfishly kept the young airbender from practicing the other elements. The insults and snide remarks rained down until the sun set. The dark sky brought peace and silence. He'd walked down the hall to his room as she walked up the hall toward the open porch, she greeted him as though she'd been nice and considerate all day but he just ignored her friendly gesture.

Wandering down the long hall again, he made his way to the pool on the lower level. She'd been there the previous night; there was a chance she would be there again. Zuko rounded the corner and looked out to the glossy pool. His shoulders slumped down and with a grievous sigh; he turned away from the empty area. Apparently sleep graced her more so than it did him. This too did nothing to settle his mind. And so, he wandered the temple longer.

He walked up the stairs to the top level and then climbed up to the Cliffside. The shadows of the trees waved in the wind. Leaves rustled and a yawn came abruptly from the ground. Zuko walked over to the familiar sound and stared down at a girl lying on the grass, gazing at the sky. He hovered over her for a while, not sure what to say.

"You know, a 'hi, Toph' or 'you can't sleep either?' would be better than just staring." Toph said as she reached up and put her hands behind her head. He sighed. She stared blankly in his direction, "Sorry I'm not who you expected."

"I wasn't expecting anyone." Zuko shrugged, looking away.

"Whatever you say…" She shrugged as he sat down next to her.

"I take it you don't hate me." He spoke quietly as though trying to mask his concern.

Toph sat up, "The only person who might hate you is Katara." He shifted his eyes sideways, considering the possibility. Toph turned towards him, "Just give her some time, she'll come around."

"I doubt it." He muttered under his breath but just loud enough for her to hear.

"So," She turned back around and leaned back, "you talked to her last night." Zuko glanced over at the blind girl. "Does that mean you're friends?" Toph continued.

"I thought we were, but I guess I was wrong." Zuko glared out at the empty looking canyon.

"I don't really know a lot about you, except for what everyone's told me," She paused a moment as he quickly turned his attention to her. Toph smiled and shut her eyes, "And your uncle told me about you. To be honest, I think he knows you a lot better than everyone else. He really cares about you."

"I know." Zuko said sadly.

Toph smiled and punched him in the arm, "I think you're a pretty good guy."

He cringed, resisting the urge to rub the sore spot, "Thank you."

They sat in silence for a while, staring at nothing in particular. Toph broke their quiet endless blank gaze again, "I bet you want to know what everyone else thinks about you."

"It's not important." He tried to speak calmly.

"Look, I know you're worried about what everyone else thinks of you. Face it, you were the enemy and you switched sides, they have a lot of good reasons to not like you." Toph turned in his approximate direction. He looked down at his lap, trying to deny his own worry. She leaned back again and took a breath, "Aang really likes you, and Sokka does too even if he say it. They didn't want you to join us at first but the longer you're around, the more they trust you. As for Katara, I'm pretty sure she hates you."

"I know." Zuko said bitterly.

"Hey, I'm not saying she will forever, I'm just saying that right now she hates you." Toph shrugged, "Besides, when I first joined the group she didn't like me either."

"Why?" Zuko glanced at her curiously as though she could see his movements.

"She just wasn't used to me being there. Maybe the same thing is happening to you." Toph said optimistically.

"No." He glared at the ground again, "She hates me, and I don't blame her. I did terrible things in the past."

"What did you do to her?" Toph asked, never having heard what happened.

"She trust me and I betrayed her." He sighed.

"When…?" The blind girl sat up.

"In Ba Sing Se…" Zuko said slowly not sure if she already knew or if Katara had kept it to herself.

"What happened?" She pressed for more details.

"We were in prison together." Zuko's mind floated back to his blunder ridden actions, "I didn't realize how many people were hurt by the Fire Nation until then. The war took her mother away…" He paused a moment, "For a long time, she always thought of me as the enemy. I told her I changed and she wanted to help me…" His voice trailed away.

"You started to trust each other." Her voice nearly made it a question.

Zuko looked up at the sky, "I thought I knew what I wanted but when the time came to choose, I did the wrong thing."

"Did you apologize?" Toph asked the obvious.

He thought about it for a moment, "No, I haven't…"

"Then maybe you should, it might help." The blind girl suggested plainly.

"Nothing's turned out how I wanted." Zuko sighed in dismay.

"Like I said before, you should apologize for what happened in Ba Sing Se, and give her some time." Toph stood up and dusted herself off, "I'm going back to bed. Good talking to you!" She waved a hand over her shoulder as she walked away.

He flopped backwards onto the ground. The stars twinkled in the distance. Zuko blinked a few times, feeling the heavy weight of sleep finally coming on. With a yawn he breathed in the warm night air and drifted away.

Toph walked down the hall kicking a pebble. She stopped for a moment and stared forward, "Is everyone still up?"

Katara smiled weakly, "No, I just couldn't sleep."

The blind girl rolled her eyes, "Trust me; you're not the only one."

"Can I talk to you about something?" She asked.

"Can it wait till morning?" The blind girl sighed, not wanting to hear anyone else's problems.

"I don't think so." Katara fussed with her skirt.

"Does this have to do with Zuko?" She skipped right to the point.
"No." She snapped back.

Toph groaned, "Look, Sugar Queen, if you're going to lie to me, at least put some effort into it!"

"What? I'm not lying!" She put her hands on her hips.

"See, that was much more convincing." The blind girl crossed her arms with a sarcastic smile.

"Toph!" Katara groaned.

"How about instead of bugging me, you just go talk to him. He's up on the cliff." Toph tossed her arms down and then pointed upward.

"What is he doing up there?" She wondered out loud.

"Probably sleeping." Toph said as she resumed her walk down the hall to her room.

Katara sighed and walked outside and up the stairs. They hadn't had an opportunity since the market to talk. Even though they seemed to get along now and again, she still found herself angry and hurt and she had a feeling as to the cause. She climbed up to the Cliffside and looked around. It was peaceful, a small grove of trees danced in the wind and the grass waved back and forth as the invisible force pushed through. It was another clear night, warm like every other night. She searched around the open plain until she spotted something near the cliff where the grass was shorter. Katara walked over and peered down. Just as she expected, Zuko was laying there unaware of her looming above.

For a moment or two she stood there waiting to see if he was asleep or faking like Sokka would often do to make her go away. It became apparent that he was indeed lost in a sea of dreams. Katara kneeled down and shook his shoulder, "Zuko, wake up." He groaned and rolled away from her. She narrowed her eyes. It seemed as though this was the popular response to her trying to kindly wake someone. Once more she shook his shoulder but a she was not as kind, "Zuko, get up!" He groaned again and sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes before opening them and looking around.

He stared at her with an exhausted look, "What do you want?"

"We need to talk." She tried to mimic his tone from earlier that day.

"Can it wait?" He stared at her a little dazed.

"No." She said quietly. Zuko groaned and leaned forward, rubbing his face. She sat down on the ground next to him and gave him a moment to wake up, "Are we friends?"

Zuko whipped around and gave her the most surprised look she'd ever seen, "Why are asking me?"

"I want to know." She said modestly, glancing away.

"Are we friends?" He turned the question back to her.

"I don't know…I thought we were…" Katara looked back over at him. His hair was messy from his brief sleep on the ground.

Zuko stared back at her, annoyed by her constant switching from friends to enemies, "No, we're not friends."

"What?" She was taken aback.

"You hate me. I don't blame you, I deserve it, but as long as you do, we can't be friends." He turned away abruptly as though to say the conversation was over.

Katara's eye twitched, irritated and angry, "That's why we can't be friends?" He sat quietly glaring into nothing. Her nose crinkled, "It's because you think I hate you?" She didn't give him a chance to respond, "Well, maybe if you wouldn't have done all those horrible things—

"I told you before that I was sorry, why don't you believe me?" He turned around with an extended arm as though motioning toward the past.

"Why would I believe you? You chased us all over the world and when I started to trust you, Aang paid the price! He almost died!" Her voice rose to almost a yell.

"I was confused, I thought I knew what I wanted but I was wrong!" His angry glare was returned with full force.

"How do I know you're not still confused?" She said maliciously.

"If I were, I wouldn't be here!" Zuko said with great fight behind it. They unknowingly leaned forward at each other, angry and full of spite. Katara backed up first, snubbing her nose in the air and crossing her arms as she turned her face away. He turned away too, the fire in his throat burned in a way it hadn't since his days chasing the Avatar. The moon moved in the sky before they said anything but finally Zuko broke the bitter silence, "I'm sorry."

She looked over with a crinkled nose, "Sorry?"

He stared down at the ground, still angry, "For what happened in Ba Sing Se." Inside he was praying that this would bring an end to the greatest amount of anger she held against him. Katara looked him over a few times. She didn't want to accept it but the longer she watched him, she could tell he was being sincere. After a while she looked away and stared into the distance.
"What you did was terrible," She swallowed hard, "and it hurt."

His irritation turned to sympathy, "I'm sorry I hurt you…"

"You don't understand what you did." She squinted, "If Aang would have died…"

"I know." He looked away feeling guilt creep up.

Katara stood up and looked around. It was yet another night where she stayed up later than expected. It was a bad habit that started to form over the past two days. Zuko looked up at her to see if she was still there. She folded her hands behind her back, "I'm going back to bed." Just as she went to turn around, Zuko scrambled to his feet and stepped next to her.

"I should go to bed too. The Avatar will wonder where I am if I'm not there in the morning." He shrugged, sleep was taking over again.

They walked quietly together back to the living chambers. The hallways were dark as usual and Zuko walked with his hand against the wall as a guide back to his room. Katara followed close on his heels until he stopped. He turned around to her, not sure certain what this goodbye would entail as he recalled the previous night. She sighed and put her hands behind her back, rocking on her feet, "I guess this is 'goodnight.'" Katara watched him carefully. He gave a nod. She looked down and then back up at him, "Well, goodnight."

She crossed the hall and went to open the door. Katara hesitated with her hand on the wood, "Zuko," She called over to him. He turned around, the door partially open. There was a long pause, "My name's Katara."

A strange smirk crossed his face, making her raise an eyebrow, "I know."


A/N: Great, now they're back to fighting again. Why?!! They were finally getting along and there were so many hints of possible romance, what have I done?! Simple: I've set the stage for chapter 4...for which I do not currently have a title. Okay, seriously, if you people can't figure out where I'm getting my inspiration at this point...ugh.

Amy.


S/N: (Sarah's Notes): Alright, so Amy's sleeping (and snoring) and I figured I'd get on and answer some questions cause she's a slacker. A lot of you asked if Haru has a crush on Katara and the answer is: No. He's just really nice. Another question that came up a lot was why Zuko was smiling at her at the end (I guess) of Chapter 2, it seemed kinda OoC...yeah, I told her not to do that, does she listen...Noooooooooooooo. I think her inner Zutara Fan Girl was taking over again. (BTW, if you didn't guess this already, we write this together. Well, Ch1 she wrote herself and was going to leave it a one-shot but you people talked her out of it. Good job!!!) Anyhow, I guess Zuko was just happy that she wasn't crying anymore. I think I would be too, people crying sucks.

Alright, well this little commentary spot is pretty full now. Please leave all comments about the story here.

If anyone has questions or comments for me (Sarah Lysa), email me at: lysdreamr0509 at hotmail
Any other questions or whatever for Amy, email her at: amibluecrystal at yahoo

Peace out,
Sarah!