A/N: I've noticed that every single one of my chapters has been longer than the previous chapter... O.o

Also, sorry I took so long to get this one out (so long being a few days. .) I've kinda been ridiculously busy with school and crap.

Zuko stared at the vast number of Sky Bison in awe. Everyone had been so sure that all of the Sky Bison had been wiped out along with the Air Nomads, and yet here they were, and if there were Sky Bison left, then surely there was a great chance that there were Air Nomads left as well.

Turning to Katara, Zuko grinned widely. "This is incredible! How did you find them?"

"We didn't— Appa did. We had been on our way to the temple when he just changed directions and came here. We didn't know what was going on until we saw the rest of them," she replied, grabbing his hand and leading him closer to the herd.

One Sky Bison came over to them and nuzzled against them. Zuko was a little nervous, and when the bison licked him, he tumbled over backwards. "Uh… Hey there… Nice Sky Bison…" he said, staring up at it. Katara was stroking the bison's head, and her eyes widened.

"Zuko, I don't think this is just any Sky Bison…" she said slowly, "This is Appa."

Katara didn't understand why Appa would be here without Aang, and she thought that Aang had to be around somewhere. He would never leave Appa behind, and even if he did, Appa would surely follow him. The two were practically inseparable, and it was with this logic in mind that Katara decided to hunt for Aang here. He might be hiding in one of the caves surrounding the clearing, or maybe he had wandered off a short way and would be back soon. Either way, Katara intended to search for him.

Zuko was less sure.

In the past when Appa and Aang had gotten separated, Appa had returned to the place they had last seen each other. If that was the case, Appa might have decided to come here to wait for Aang. And while there was no reason not to check, Zuko doubted that Aang would be there.

Then again, maybe that was just his subconscious begging for more time with Katara. More time where he wouldn't have to watch her be lovey dovey with Aang.

Not that it was fair for him to complain, nor was it right for him to harbor these thoughts. He had to marry Mai. It was his duty.

Katara had to tell him. It was probably vital information if they were going to find Aang. But how could she explain that she had been lying— that Aang hadn't "just vanished," but had probably ran away from his problems again, as he had a tendency to do. But then why was Appa here? Was Aang coming back?

Maybe she wouldn't have to tell Zuko after all.

She shook her head. Of course she would. If Aang was back, Katara wouldn't be able to keep it a secret any longer. There was no way she could hide it when he came back, and then everyone would be even more upset that she had both caused this and then kept it a secret.

With a sigh, she looked up at Zuko. They were on Appa's back, riding up to the air temple.

"You alright?" Zuko asked, looking at her anxiously, "You've seemed so down lately, but we're going to find him. I promise."

Katara smiled ruefully. "Yeah," she said, "Just been thinking a lot."

"Erm… Do you want to talk about it?"

She looked at him for a moment, a tiny bit of hope flickering in her eyes, but then she thought for a moment. Shaking her head, she replied, "I can't. I just did something stupid, but it's no big deal."

Zuko nodded at her. "Well, if you ever do want to tell me, I promise to listen."

Zuko had no idea what Katara was so miserable about. Had something happened with Aang? It seemed as though she became more and more upset the closer it seemed they were to finding him. Maybe they had gotten in a fight. They were always fighting, because Aang was so stubborn and playful, while Katara had ridiculously high expectations of him. She seemed to forget how young he was all the time.

He was worried about her. Aang was always doing stupid things, and Zuko knew how upset it always made Katara. When Chief Hakoda had died suddenly just a month after the war had ended, Aang had thought the best way to cheer Katara up was to throw a party for her.

When she had become very ill herself, Aang had taken her on a long trip to a secluded hot spring in the middle of the mountains, which only resulted in her being more exhausted and weak.

Every time Aang heard more rumors of Air Nomad sightings, he dragged her away from her tribe on some useless journey.

Sometimes they forgot that Aang was just a kid, but that's exactly what he was, and Zuko could see it slowly wearing Katara down. Surely she was getting sick of it.

"Aaaang?" they called as they wandered through the temple. "Aang, where are you?"

Surely he was here. He wouldn't just leave Appa behind!

Hearing a shuffling sound ahead, Katara ran forward. "Aang?" she yelled, "Is that you?" She turned a corner, and there she saw Momo, shuffling through a pile of papers. He looked up at chattered happily at her when she appeared, jumping towards her face.

She yelped a little when he landed on her, and Zuko immediately rushed to see what was wrong.

"Momo…?" he asked in surprise, before holding out an arm for Momo to climb up onto his shoulder.

As soon as she was free from Momo's grasp, Katara turned to Zuko and grinned. "He has to be here! He wouldn't leave Appa or Momo, and he certainly wouldn't leave them both!"

"What if he didn't leave them, Katara? We have no proof that he just left of his own accord," Zuko replied after a moment.

Katara's head jerked up as he said this. "Yes we do! It's obvious that he just ran away! He always does when things get complicated!"

Raising an eyebrow, Zuko asked her what had gotten complicated, but she simply shook her head.

"It's… It's nothing. We just had a bit of an argument. I'm overreacting. You're probably right…"

"Katara, what aren't you telling me? It could be vital. What happened, Katara?" Zuko asked, taking a step towards her. Again, she shook her head. "Just forget it, ok Zuko? It's not important!"

"Katara…"

"What part of forget it do you not understand?" she yelled, before sprinting down the hall.

"And you say Aang runs away when things get complicated?" Zuko yelled after her. She turned to glare at him for a moment, before disappearing around a corner yet again.

Katara sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. No one ever understood. Now she had made a big mistake, but she couldn't tell anyone because no one would listen. They'd just hate her and judge her. She had needed to end things with Aang, but surely no one would see it her way. They would all just think of her as the idiot who had broken up with the Avatar.

And the worst part was that all of her friends were close to Aang as well, and they'd take his side too.

But Aang always ruined everything, and Katara had needed a break.

It wasn't that she had anything against Aang, but he expected too much from her and she had come to realize that she simply couldn't reciprocate his feelings.

She loved him, she really did. But she didn't Love him. He was like a brother to her, and she was done with trying to see him as something more. She only wished that he could see that, wished that he understood.

The real problem was with how she'd told him, of course. They had been at the Southern Air Temple, and he had started describing all of their kids zipping around on their air scooters. And that wasn't even when she had snapped.

"Our kids?" she had asked, somewhat incredulously. Surely he wasn't really thinking about kids. They were still so young, and anyway, Katara wasn't sure she wanted to stay with him that long.

"Sure," he had replied with a confused blink, "We're gonna have loads of them. I mean, we have to repopulate all the Air Temples, and that's gonna take a lot of babies." Katara's eyes had widened.

"You expect me to repopulate all of the Air Temples?"

"Well, I expect us to."

"Aang, I'm not even ready to start thinking about having one baby!"

"But we gotta start soon if we want to have time to—"

And that was when Katara blew her top.

"That's it! I've had enough! Aang, I love you, I really do, but I am just so sick of you! I'm 17! Yeah, some people have kids this young, but hell, I'm not ready for that! And you? You're only 13! You shouldn't be thinking about kids yet!"

Aang was now getting pretty upset at her as well, and he yelled back. "But we have to!" he'd shrieked, "Katara, it's your duty to have a bunch of babies! We need to bring the Air Benders back!"

"No, Aang, you need to bring the Air Benders back! That's not my duty at all, and frankly, I have no commitment to the Air Benders or you. Frankly, I am so sick of you! My duty? I can't believe you!"

"You're being stupid! We have to do this Katara!"

"No Aang. No. We don't. I don't. You do what you want. I'm not going to deal with you anymore," she'd finally said before turning around and walking away. She'd gone home at this point, and she hadn't seen Aang again since.

And she was scared. Something must have happened to him, and it was all her fault.

After a little while, Zuko silently came out and sat beside Katara. They sat next to each other for several minutes, the only sound being Katara's sniffling. Each second seemed like a minute, and Zuko wondered if he'd a mistake to come out. Then Katara had rested her head against his shoulder.

With a sad smile, he rested his head on hers and put an arm around her.

"You ok?" he said softly, "I'm sorry about pushing you to tell me something you didn't want to."

Katara nodded. "Yeah… I'm ok… I'm sorry for being so nasty and emotional… I just… I'm scared about him, Zuko…" she said, snuggling closer against him. Zuko looked down at her and sighed. He could never have her, yet here she was in his arms, so close and yet so far.

"I know how you feel. I'm in love with this girl, and I know she's hurting but it feels like there's nothing I can do. And there isn't really, because it's my duty as the Fire Lord to marry Mai apparently, and it sucks, because more than anything I'd like to scoop this girl up in my arms and tell her to stop being so reckless with her heart," Zuko said.

He wanted to tell Katara everything, wanted to spill all his feelings out on the floor and show her how he really felt. Seeing her so miserable made him want to save her, protect her from everything. But knowing that she was miserable because she was scared for Aang— that held him back.

This was only proof that he never had a chance.

"It's just that…" she started after a moment, and then took a deep breath, "It's just that he's such an idiot sometimes, and no matter what I do he's just going to make the same mistakes over and over… And I just get sick of making everything right again…" She glanced up at Zuko then, as if to gauge his reaction.

"You'll figure it out," he said, giving her a quick squeeze, "If you love each other enough, you'll be able to overcome your differences."

"That's what I was afraid of…" she whispered, so softly that Zuko could barely hear her.