"Katara?"

I ignore Sokka, as I find some cloth from our belongings and soak it with some water from my pouch. I whip it out a little too fiercly, and tear a strip of the material a little too aggressively. It splits. I'm cracking.

"What's up with you?" Sokka asks as I furiously scrub at the ash on his trousers. He stands there, with just a loin cloth on his bottom half, looking sheepish in front of his sister. But I'm not paying attention to him. In a matter of minutes hasty stitches have been pierced and yanked through the material. I fling his garb at him and storm off.

"Katara!" He calls after me, sounding surprised. He thinks I am changing, but I haven't. Things around me have shifted, and are making me feel uneasy, as if I'm unstable, but I haven't changed. I'm still the same old fiery Katara. And there's no way one little kiss from that boy is going to change who I am.

I won't let him have control over me.

"Katara?"

Just hearing someone call my name, demand something from me made my blood boil over.

"What?" I shout, my eyes wide and my nose wrinkled in fury. I jump up from my seat under a tree and watch Toph's eyebrows shoot up.

"I just wanted to see if you were ok, you're outburst was a bit unexplained back there." She said, keeping her cool and making her point. I relax, my bones aching, my muscles feeling stiff and to the point of breaking. I slide down the tree again, and put my head in my hands. There's a pause before my friend takes her place by my side.

"What's up?" She asks, too soft for her usual character, too kind and caring, as if I'm a normal human who deserves normal treatment, who hasn't done something terrible. My eyes sting as a lump rises higher and higher in my throat. I try to swallow it, but it won't leave.

"Nothing." I choke. She clicks her tongue and shakes her head, her raven hair hiding her eyes but I can still see her sad smile.

"Katara, even if you weren't about to cry I would be able to tell that you've just told the most obvious lie."

And I burst into tears, because she's being so nice to me and I don't deserve any of it. I turn away from her, but don't expect her to comfort me with a hug anyway.

"Is it Aang?" She tries. Even I can feel my heart beat quicken, "Sugar queen, what's wrong? You and Aang have only just got together!"

"Not properly." I tell her through sobs, "Just a kiss here and there, a brush of hands. He's too busy with his training for me-"

"Katara, I'm gonna have to advise you to pull yourself together." Toph says, firmly but apologetically, "You know that Twinkle toes has to train for the invasion, even harder than he did before, because we've only just realized how much it's gonna take to end this war. You can't expect him to just drop the rest of the world for you..."

I don't even tell her that that wasn't the problem, its better that she believes that instead. She pauses before saying, "No guy would drop everything for you...believe me..." She sounds troubled, but I don't have to ask her anything, she tells me herself.

"Sokka still has feelings for Suki, doesn't he?" She blurts out, losing her aloof manner to a flush of her cheeks. I stare at her, forgetting my tears and aching troubles with my mouth hanging open. I know what she means by this, but do I believe it?

"...Sokka hasn't seen Suki for a very long time," I try, my mouth is dry and my tears are forgotten. Toph just shakes her head.

"Doesn't mean he's forgotten her..." She says, in a small voice that is too hurt and sad to belong to her. I can't think of what to say. Deep down I know that Sokka loves Suki, even more than he loved Yuwe, maybe. I've never stopped to think about him and Toph. It is just so hidden and disguised, so unexpected and unthinkable.

"We don't even know if Suki is alive, Toph. Azula and her team had their garb, for all we know, she took them down to get their clothing..." Suddenly I realize how evil and awful this could sound if taken the wrong way. And Toph does. She leaps up and shows a look of disbelief and disgust.

"Is that meant to comfort me? Katara, I have never heard anything so inexplicably insensitive and awful! Of course I want Suki to be alive! You think I'd wish something like that upon someone?" She pauses as I try to explain but carries on before I get a chance, "I never thought that you would wish that upon someone..."

"Toph!" I cry in exasperation, "Listen to me! I only said that because I'm warning you! Sokka has no idea whether Suki is alive or not, just imagine how horrible that is; he doesn't know whether to give up or keep hope! He probably lies awake at night dreading the news that she's gone and praying for word that she's ok. I can't even begin to imagine that...What I'm saying is you shouldn't expect Sokka to just forget Suki, it could take years for him to-"

"I'm not expecting him to!" She says loudly, stinging from my accusation.

"I didn't say that." I say, trying to speak calmly to cool her down.

"Katara, I came to you for advice, not for a lecture. Do you know hard that was just then? That was probably one of the first times I've ever spoken about Sokka and me to anyone, and this is what happens!" She flings her arms up in anguish and leaves quickly. I don't bother running after her.

The shock is still hammering through my veins, the grief for Toph and for Sokka. Their stars are catastrophically crossed.

"Katara?"

I'm still sitting under my tree, reliving what had happened with Toph and mulling over what she had told me as yet again, someone demands something from me. I have not fully awoken from my daydreams until they speak again, and I realize who it is.

"I seem to have made you angry."

That voice...it makes me want to uproot the trees around me, to shatter the mountains and crack through the skies. I am so overcome with fury that I just can't talk or breathe. I'm scared; I've never felt this way. I don't recognize myself.

"I have nothing to say to you, Zuko. Why don't you just go back to Aang and drop hints about me, play your little mind games and watch your plotting spin away from you until you are left empty and alone- again?"

This is met by a silence. I can hear the faint chirruping of other Air Lemurs, the pushing of the winds that surround us at such a high altitude, but to me it is silent, as if I am unattached from this world. But eventually, I hear the slow serenade that is Zuko's voice.

"Well that was impressive."

"Stop it!" I shout, whipping round to face him. He remains unemotional, a trick picked up from his girlfriend, no doubt, "Stop playing with me, I'm not your piece of meat, Zuko. You are nothing to me! You never will be! And I am nothing to you either! What is it you call me? 'Peasant'?"

"Calm down." He tells me. He knows. He knows that this will make me even angrier.

"STOP!" I scream, forgetting my water pouch and drawing water from the air, as Hamma had taught me. We were so high in the mountains that the air was flowing, alive with moisture and clouds, and I had as much as I could ever want.

Zuko looks upon my skill with nonchalance, an eyebrow raised. He knows I am good, he knows I am brilliant, but he won't show it. I continue to stare him out, laden with my element, letting it waltz around me in a state of calm as I bare my teeth at him, my heart pounding faster and faster-

And the bastard is smiling.

"Come now, Katara, you're not really going to hurt me. Maybe one of your typical water whips but would you really hurt me?"

It never occurs to me that this is a plea, not a taunt to provoke me. I should've realized.

Darts of water pirouette through the air, freezing and crunching as it turns to ice and hits his wrists. He is knocked backwards, and seizing this chance, I freeze the ice to the ground. His ankles are then trapped in due course. He struggles, losing his composure as he lies before me.

"I am not fire nation, Zuko." I say quietly, seething still.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He demands. He is the one who is confused and being manipulated now. I take my revenge with relish, bitterness dripping from my teeth as I go on.

"Well..." I say sweetly, patronizing him even further, "You see, I don't really have the amazing urge to just hurtpeople whenever I don't get my way. I'm not a spoilt little brat, Zuko. Something you and I will never have in common." I spit these words at him, and revel in his growing outrage. I carry on, because the more I do it, the better I feel, watching him writhe there, completely helpless as I tell him just what I think of him.

"I don't know about you, Zuko, but I prefer to let families stay together, to live and watch each other live, to laugh and have their family, their mothers and fathers, their brothers and sisters laugh with them. I prefer to let the world stay in peace, and not blast down their walls, march through their streets and spread war, hate and fear. I would've preferred to leave a certain group alone, because all they're doing is trying to help the world make a little more sense!"

I find myself crying as I talk, my face crumpled in dismay and hurt. I'm no longer angry or filled with spite. I'm falling apart, feeling my heart break just a little more. I turn away from this bastard and hug myself tight, trying to squeeze the pain out of me.
"Katara..." It is no more than a croak, not mocking or seething with rage. It is sad and lonely.

I turn and see Zuko sitting and looking up at me, having melted my ice effortlessly with fire bending, like he could've all this time. And it dawns on me, finally, realization shining down on me.

He had let me have my say... he isn't who I think he is after all. My heart freezes as I look just a little closer, through the fire and into the warmth.

He'scrying. Tears are streaking down his face, so many that they are merging together. They pass over his scar, giving it the illusion of beauty. His teeth are clenched and he turns away from me.

"...Zuko?" I breathe.

Before I know what I'm doing, before any of this makes senseI'm on my knees beside him and my arms are wrapped around him, holding him so close to me that I can feel his heart beat striking it's rhythm against my chest. He lets everything go and into me, his sobs are ripping through his body, his tears are mingling with mine. I close my eyes and let go too.

"I-I never wanted to...be part of this..." The prince chokes eventually, "I never wanted to be part of this war...I've been raised in a culture of anger, hate and destruction. I-I n-never..."

"Shh..." I soothe him, stroking his wild hair and holding him closer. His arms are around me. I'm not quite sure when they had got there. The mere pressure of his hold scorches through my skin and into me.

It's all I can do not to kiss him right now.

And it terrifies me.