Zuko is caught off guard as he is hit in the face with a rather drowning amount of water; it forces him to release Katara's hand and he looks up in time to see her trip around a surprised looking Suki.

Suki jumps in surprise as she is nearly bowled over by a physically distraught Katara who is rushing out the door. She looks at him, then after the waterbender, and then back to him; he is wiping the water from his face.

"Okay spill it", she says after a moment or two, "what was that about?"; he ignores her question, in all truth he doesn't know what it's about. He doesn't know why he got out of bed last night, or why he tried to talk to Katara, or why he came down here or why he tried to make her talk to him in the first place. He really doesn't know.

But he is going to find out.

Getting up, he heads after her, side stepping Suki and closing the door behind him softer than Katara had done. Now where to start? The early morning sun gives some aid to finding her, but not enough to make the job easy. So he spends a good portion of his morning wandering the gardens looking for her; the world coming alive around him with the rising sun.

After a while he doesn't find her; he is just about ready to give up, telling himself that the others in the house are probably awake by now and Suki has told them what she saw this morning. Unconsciously he has just convinced himself to keep looking for Katara, he doesn't like the idea of facing the bout of questions and insecure glares from Mei.

Finally, he stops at the gazebo, it is old and cracked; the paint is wearing off and he thinks briefly of having it repainted before dismissing the idea. He means to take a break, to sit and wait for a little while before deciding whether to return to the house or to keep looking for Katara when it's obvious that she doesn't want to talk to him. But as he steps onto the creaking boards that he probably should have renailed down, he finds her, huddled up against the wall of the structure, head down, the world tuned out.

He gets down beside her as quietly as he can, not wanting her to run off again because he is not sure he could manage another bout of trying to find her in the large garden. When he is fully down beside her, he ever so gently brushes a few stray locks behind her ear.

She leaps at his touch, scooting away from him before she realizes who it is; when his face registers she tries to scoot away further, but with less fright and more avoidance. It is then that he stops her. Taking off his robe, he wraps it around her, hiding from his view the goosebumps that have slowly come to cover the bare spanse of her skin. She seems to relax a little after he does this. (At least she doesn't look like she's going to bolt.) The waterbender mutters a thank you and nothing more passes between them for a few long moments.

It is Zuko that speaks.

"What's wrong Katara?", at this point he is not sure if he expects an answer or not; he glances at her and sees that she is staring blankly into the air around them. Probably not.

But she surprises him.

"A lot of things are wrong...", she mumbles, it is the most she's said to him in the last few days and he wonders if he can get her to talking at a normal amount.

"Do you want to talk about them?", she shoots him down.

"No." Again nothing is said for a long few moments before he tries again.

"Is this about Aang?", the waterbender shrugs and lays her chin on her arms that are crossed over her knees.

"A little...", she concedes, "it's a little about you too..."

Him? He gives her a confused look that she doesn't see before dropping the subject and sinking into his thoughts. What about him could have been bothering her? And what about Aang for that matter? As far as he knew the Avatar adored her, he would do anything just because he asked her to. She speaks again.

"I don't think I love Aang the way he wants me to", she mumbles, her demeanor not changing, "he's like a little brother to me, looks like the play was right..." He knows what she is referencing, the awkward night before the end of the war when they all went to the theatre together. The Ember Island Players had butchered the play but had brought up some unsettling questions and realizations about themselves and the relationships and decisions that they had made.

"You can't help that...", he says gently, hoping that it helps; she shakes her head.

"Then why do I feel like it's my fault?", she asks, he has no answer for her and after a moment or two of silence, she speaks again, obviously deciding that she isn't going to get an answer to that one. "Then there's you..." He sits forward slightly, a ray of light coming across his shoulders and warming them.

"What about me?" she turns her head so he can't see her face anymore and hunches her shoulders.

"You just- make everything so much more complicated." he opens his mouth to ask her what she means and she continues before he can speak, "It's like- I get it all figured out and it all makes sense, and you throw a monkey wrench into the works..." She sighs softly and turns back so that he can see the profile of her face again. "Maybe that play was right about a lot of things..."

She isn't making much sense and Zuko is forced to try and rearrange what is being said so that it makes some sense. But it makes little.

"What do you mean?", he asks; she looks at him, her expression one of exasperation.

"I mean that ever since that last battle with Azula I can't get the image of you hurt out of my mind, I can't make myself forget what I felt when I thought you were going to die. And Aang is expecting him and I to be together and I am not sure that's what I want..." She turns back and lays her chin on her knees once more, "You-..."

He puts his hand on her arm to stop her and she looks up at him briefly before looking to see Aang standing at the end of the path, just out of earshot, looking for her. Nothing more is said for a long time and while Katara is watching Aang with a look on her face that shows that she hopes he doesn't come over, Zuko is watching Katara. A range of emotions come across her face when she doesn't know he's watching, all finally settling on uneasy anxiousness.

Finally, the airbender leaves, wandering back towards the house; when he does Zuko hears Katara release the breath she is holding. It is time to go back inside; they would have to continue this later else they be interrupted. He pushes himself to his feet and offers her his hand.

"We'll continue this tonight", he says softly, realizing why she hadn't wanted to talk to him before, it was because he was a big part of what was bothering her. He has questions now, questions like what had she felt and how did it pertain to him; but he pushes them away as she took his hand and let him pull her up.

She trips a little but he catches her against him and gives her a gentle smile which she returns briefly before pulling away from him (he doesn't hold on to her and lets her do as she likes). Together, they head back to the house.