Zuko followed me around the back of the duplex and onto the campus grounds. We took one of the many walkways, passing students studying or socializing along the way until we finally reached the large gym building. I led the way through the walkways and past the weight rooms to the main desk. The building was pretty crowded for a Thursday, but I was pretty sure there would be a spare room.

"Hey, do you guys have an empty training room we could use?"

"Yeah, room… 109. Down that hallway."

"Thanks! Come on, Zuko."

A short walk later, we reached the fairly large, empty room. Three of the four walls were grey cement, but the third facing the hallway was made of glass. The floor was slightly padded, which would make rough landings less painful.

I was already smiling faintly in excitement of a fight; it had been that long.

"Ready?" I could barely contain myself.

"It really has been a while for you, hasn't it?" Zuko smirked, grabbing one of the swords.

"Heh, that easy to tell?" I grabbed the other, facing him and grabbing the other sword.

"You're kind of easy to read some times."

Zuko couldn't speak much after that. I moved quickly, slashing at his torso but he blocked with his wooden sword, the clashing wood echoing hollowly throughout the entire room. Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a few passers-by stopping to watch.

I snapped back to the fight as Zuko lunged forward, and he would have caught my stomach if I hadn't spun to the side at the last second, bringing my weapon up to block again as he attacked just as quickly. I kicked sideways at his leg and caught him unprepared. Zuko stumbled back a bit and I took the opportunity to swipe at his neck.

Of course, he let his backward momentum carry him away from my attack and he caught himself on the ground with one hand, swinging his legs under mine and knocking me to the floor roughly.

"Oooh!"

I grinned. Zuko looked in surprise at the glass window, just noticing the growing crowd of spectators.

While he was distracted I leapt to my feet and slashed down at his stomach. Zuko spotted my movement out of the corner of his eye and rolled away, letting my sword strike the padded floor. He got to his feet and stepped into the ready stance across from me again.

"Having fun yet?" He asked, smirking.

"Oh yeah, tons! I like kicking your butt." I grinned.

"Really…?"

Zuko suddenly threw his sword at me, and I had to twist violently to the side to avoid the quickly spinning wood. I lost my balance and stumbled back to steady myself but by then Zuko had already covered the distance and sent a kick at my head. After that followed a quick flurry of punches and kicks.

The two of us were moving so quickly, and I was reacting to Zuko's attacks without thinking, that I didn't notice that any time had passed at all until I suddenly noticed how tired I was. I could see Zuko's face begin to show signs of exhaustion as well and I decided to try to wrap the fight up.

The crowd had grown outside, fluctuating over the time of the fight as people came and went. I could hear them banging on the windows sometimes and cheering loudly in the hall.

Zuko rushed me, leaning hard into his punch and I ducked. Using his momentum, I crouched and pushed him over my shoulder, flipping his body behind me. I caught him off guard and he went flying through the air a short ways before landing on the matt with a thud. I remained crouched, resting lightly on my toes and fingertips, and turned to face him. Zuko got to his feet and lunged at me again, this time ready for me when I tried to flip him.

He caught my arms and let his momentum knock us both over. Before I could recover he had pinned my arms and legs to the padded floor, and the match was over. I struggled a bit to see if I could get lose, but grinned after a moment, breathing heavily.

"Nice… match."

"I agree." Zuko smirked back at me. We were both pretty sweaty and breathing hard. Definitely time for a shower back home.

Outside I could hear the other students laughing and cheering. They apparently had really enjoyed our spar.

"Come on… let me up. We should head back to the house and clean up."

"Actually…" I raised my eyebrow suspiciously. Zuko was behaving weird. "… I'm kind of comfortable the way I am now." He grinned a little and moved his head closer.

My stomach did that strange flip it did every time he got that close. The boys outside the room noticed Zuko, and started making catcalls and Oooh's.

I started to panic. I didn't want to be kissed in front of all these people. In fact I wasn't even sure if I wanted to be kissed at all. But it looked like I wouldn't get much say in the matter. Zuko leaned in and kissed my lips. It wasn't long, only about a second, but it did the same thing as last time. I felt so weird, and I knew that when he pulled away and extended a hand to help me up that my face was flushed red.

When we both left the room the spectators bombarded us with pats on the back and more teasing. My face was flushed red, and I felt like shrinking into a corner. Instead, I put on a brave front and led the way back out of the gym. We walked in silence across the campus, until I finally broke the silence.

"Um… that was a fun match."

Zuko peered at me out of the corner of his eye. "It was."

More silence.

"Listen. Forgive me if my kiss upset you, but I'm not sorry." I looked at him, surprised again. "I really like you, and I just couldn't help it." My face felt hot again and I looked away, embarrassed.

"Well… next time…. – if there even is a next time- I'd like to have a say in the matter. And I'd rather it not be in front of a crowd."

"Fair enough."

The walk to the duplex went quickly and I let Zuko shower in my bathroom first, while I worked a little on my homework. I'd left Zuko with one of his new outfits, and ordered him to show me when he came out.

"Kristen?"

I set my work down and turned around to take a look. A grin lit up my face, and then my eyes got big.

"Your hair!"

Zuko ran a hand awkwardly over his smooth head. "I… thought it was time. And standing out in your world isn't helping much either."

I was still surprised. "But… it's your hair! I mean, if you're anything like the Chinese culture, cutting your hair is a big deal!" Noticing the pained look on his face, I let it drop. "The clothes look really good on you. You blend in very well." I smiled.

"Thanks. I guess…"

"Oh come on. You do!" I got up and went into the kitchen. "Come on, you're going to help cook dinner. We can watch a movie and eat after that. I have some movies I think you might like."

"Those plays you were telling me about?"

I laughed. "Yeah, those plays. I'll show you some and you pick whichever ones interest you."

After setting out the ingredients, I showed Zuko how to make French Toast. It's pretty easy, and he caught on pretty well. Nearly ten minutes after we started, the toast was done and I went about setting out several DVD's.

"Mkay… I figured you'd most easily understand war movies since… well, war is pretty much the same everywhere. So I have The Last Samurai, Black Hawk Down, The Patriot, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Braveheart, …" I continued listing off a few other similar movies. I didn't have a ton of war movies, since it was mostly me who watched them. Mikelle was more of the romance, drama movie person. And Zuko wouldn't grasp our comedy until he understood our culture somewhat. I figured historical war would help that a bit.

Zuko stood in silence over the cases, looking them over carefully. He finally pointed to The Last Samurai.

"This one looks a lot more like my world than the others. I think I would understand it more."

"I agree. And it will help to kind of bridge the differences between them, since it has some of my world's history."

"So this is true?"

"Eh… more or less. Lesson to you: don't trust movies right off the bat. They're usually wrong or twisting the truth."

I sent Zuko to grab some pillows and blankets from the closet and I set up the TV and DVD player. He came back in the room as the menu came up and stood frozen, staring at the screen.

I watched him a few moments while he took it in, then led him to the couch and pushed him down, tossing a pillow roughly at his head to jerk him back to reality.

"I told you, it's recorded. These are actors, and the whole technicality behind how they are "appearing in the screen" is way beyond you. So just accept what you see for now. Just enjoy the story."

"Very well."

I grinned. It was way too fun having someone from another, and if I say so, more primitive world visiting mine. I pressed the start button and the movie began. Throughout the whole thing Zuko was on the edge of the couch, staring intently at the screen. I knew he recognized much of the culture, possibly the writing, and maybe even the language. But I really couldn't tell, since the only language I'd heard spoken in his world was English.

And of course… I can't leave out the fact that it was a war movie. I mean, come on! How much better can it get? ((Sigh)) I love war movies… anyway. He was pretty wrapped up in the story; fight scenes, and the contrast of cultures. I always get teared up at the end, so I forced myself to keep dry eyes.

When the movie ended I glanced over at his face to see a glimmer of understanding.

I guess I'm not the only one who gets this… it's comforting.

I cleared my throat to break the silence. Zuko snapped back to reality and cleared his throat.

"So… what's the next play you think I should watch?"

I laughed. "Another one?" I glanced at the clock. "Hm… it's not that late. I guess we could watch another one until Mikelle gets back from work." I looked over the movies again.

"Ah man. I want to watch Black Hawk Down… but you really wouldn't get it yet." I had noticed Zuko staring at the cover strangely. Probably confused by the helicopters. "We'll watch The Patriot. It's about my country's war for independence from Britain. If you're confused I'll explain it for you."

We spent the rest of the night watching the Patriot, as I explained the complicated history stuff. Mikelle got back from work around ten and finished the movie with us, then I helped Zuko make up his bed on the couch and we all went to sleep. As I lay in bed, for some reason I was getting nervous butterflies. Tomorrow I would be watching a show about a world that no one knew really existed… with one of the main characters from that world. Somehow, that's just really mind-boggling.