skyblaze112: Yep, the last line is going to start the Zutara ;D

Disclaimers : I do NOT own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or any of these characters, they belong to Mike and Bryan! This is just fanmade!

Chapter three: Family

Katara:

It had been almost five weeks since Aang died and the world was in deep sorrow but they soon got hope again, knowing that the Avatar would return one day. I spent my days training, it was the only way I could set my mind on other things.

I looked into my opponent's eyes and smirked. "You're going down, Zuko."

He laughed at me and used his fire bending but I protected myself with a wall of ice. He had made sure there was a pond where I could get water from in the garden, so I wouldn't kill the fish or accidently throw a duck to his face, like I did at our first training session. He immediately started to laugh and told me I was just like Sokka, which got him a cold shower. A few days later the fish of one of the ponds were removed and soon our training started again.

Zuko walked closer to me and put his hand against the huge wall of ice, burning through it immediately. He got his power from the sun while I got mine from the moon. We were complete opposites and so were our powers but we got along very well. It was almost strange, knowing that I couldn't stand him eight years ago.

"That's enough for today."

We both turned around and saw Iroh, holding a plate into his hands.

"Tea?"

The remains of my wall of ice hit the ground when I turned it back into water and Zuko walked to the side of the field, taking his coat. I could see the scar on his stomach, the one that his sister made when he wanted to protect me. Suddenly it felt like we were kids again, he always had that protective side but I never noticed it before. He had it when we were fighting Azula, when I told him about my mother, when I told him Aang was dead. No one would ever see it in him but I knew better. The great Fire Lord was a care taker. He didn't look like his father or his sister at all. He was gentle, like his uncle and I wondered if he maybe looked like his mother. I had never asked about her before since he didn't like to speak about her. He had lost her too, when he was young and I knew he had made a lot of trips, trying to find her.

"Are you going to the festival tonight, Katara?" Iroh asked, snapping me back to the real world. He had left his tea business in the Earth Kingdom, to help Zuko. They needed some reorganization now Aang was gone but he would soon leave again, I could tell that the old man missed the peace and silence of his home.

"I don't think I will, I don't want to go alone," I answered, nipping from my tea. It was lemon tea, just the way I liked it.

"I'll go with you."

I turned my head a few degrees and looked up into two amber eyes.

"Are you nuts? People will bow for you and tell you about their problems, hoping you would do something about it. The girls will try to get your attention and eventually people will notice I'm with you and start telling me how sorry they are." I shook my head and drank again.

"Katara, the festivities are based onto old legends, people won't notice us if we go there and dress. Besides, you could use some distraction," he said while sitting down and taking his own cup of tea.

He was right though, I could use the distraction but I just didn't want to go, it felt so wrong to be happy now Aang was gone.

"I think Zuko is right," Iroh said. "You two should go."

Zuko:

Katara and I walked through the streets, some people complementing us about our costumes. Little did they know that we had used these costumes before, to help them. I was dressed as the Blue Spirit while Katara was the Painted Lady. Almost her whole face was hidden behind her hat but I could still see her lips, she wasn't smiling at all.

"Katara, I thought this would do you some good," I said to her and she shrugged her shoulders.

"It's not that I'm not enjoying this, it's just that… I don't know if I should be happy, knowing that Aang's gone…" She continued to walk but stopped when she noticed I hadn't.

"Come here," I ordered her.

She raised her head and I could look into her eyes now, she seemed to have a bit of her joy back, but not all of them. Taking three steps she now stood right in front of me, looking up while I looked down.

"Aang was the definition of the word fun, Katara. How would he feel if you were never happy again? He's probably blaming himself, right now, somewhere in the Spirit World. Aang wants you to live, and you should remember that he's still alive too, at least a part of him. It is somewhere, in a little water bender, and I'm sure that you will find him once more. You'll just be friends but you'll be able to ask him if he wants you to be happy, but I'm sure he wants you to be, he loved you, Katara."

She didn't speak but I could finally see a true smile on her face now and some tears in her eyes. I gently wiped them away and she laid her head into my head, still smiling.

"Thanks for being such a great friend, Zuko. It must be hard for you, taking care of someone like me and being a Fire Lord at the same time."

I shook my head. "Almost everything is arranged, and my uncle is helping out too. It's not that I have to rule the country every minute of the day."

"You're a lucky man," she whispered before turning her head back to the streets. She was looking at the people, at all the different lights burning, at a blue, paper dragon that was carried through the street by several men and I stood beside her, enjoying the view.

"Why am I a lucky man, Katara?" Maybe I was, in her eyes, but I certainly wasn't in mine.

"You have your honor back, the world is in balance once more thanks to your help, you are the Fire Lord, you brought peace. You should be proud of yourself Zuko. You have almost everything that you could possibly want." Her eyes wandered over the silhouette of a little boy and I could see a sadness in her eyes.

"I don't have everything that I want," I said to her, refusing to let my emotions take control of me.

"What do you want the most, Zuko?" she asked, now looking back to me.

"A family."

She smiled at me and nodded. "That's one of the most beautiful things you can wish for," she whispered before taking my hand and leading me into the crowd again.

Katara:

I wandered through the palace, wearing a dressing gown to keep me from the cold. It was late at night, Zuko and I came back from the festival a few hours ago and everyone was asleep, everyone but me.

I walked towards the garden and closed my eyes when the cold air caressed my face. I liked being outside, I liked the cold, it reminded me of home. After taking a few steps I sat down at the edge of the pond, looking at the beautiful flowers in them beneath the moonlight.

Zuko's words were like a song, stuck in my head. He was right, Aang liked to make fun, he wouldn't like it if I didn't, he wanted me to be happy. But still, there was a part of me that felt like betraying him every time I was happy and lately I felt happy a lot. But it was the reason why that scared me, I was happy whenever the young Fire Lord was around. I couldn't feel something for him, could I? No, I couldn't, I wouldn't.

I looked up at the moon and a sigh escaped my lips.

"Do you want me to be happy, Aang?" I whispered into the darkness.

Zuko:

I wandered through the palace, not bothering to wear any clothes other than my boxers to keep me warm. It was cold outside, I knew that, but I wanted to feel it, I needed to cool down. It was often that I couldn't sleep at night but the reason why I couldn't tonight disturbed me. Normally I couldn't sleep because I had stress or because I had an important meeting or just because I wasn't tired enough but today it was because my thoughts drifted off to my beautiful guest. There was something about her, that made me feel happy when she was around and sad when she was. She seemed like Mai but she seemed so much more at the same time.

"You can't fall in love with her," I said to myself. "She has just lost the love of her life."

I saw her face in front of me again and I remembered what she had asked me a few hours before. 'What do you want the most, Zuko?' I answered her I wanted a family and it was true but there was something else I wanted, although I wasn't quite sure what that was. Did I want Katara's friendship? Did I want some company or did I just want someone to protect and care over? Did I want someone to love or did I want someone who made me feel alive and happy?

The answer to my questions was soon given when I saw her, sitting at the edge of the pond, her body covered by the moonlight. I didn't want anything or anyone, I wanted her.

Katara:

I had closed my eyes again and had the feeling I was being watched. When I opened my eyes again and turned my head I could see Zuko, standing a few feet from me, his eyes filled with something I had never seen before.

"Aren't you cold?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. He stood there, only wearing his boxers and I traced down the lines of his muscles. His body seemed so perfect…

"No," he answered, walking towards me. "Are you?"

I noticed that I was hugging my dressing gown closer to my body and that I was cold. "A bit," I murmured.

He sat down next to me and placed one arm around me and hugged me closer to his side, wanting to warm me up. I looked up at his face and smiled before taking a peek at his muscular chest and looking at the water again. In that short second I had seen that he spoke the truth, he wasn't cold, he didn't have any goose bumps.

"Why aren't you cold?" I asked, almost whispering.

"I'm a fire bender, if I get too cold I can always warm myself up," he answered, looking at the water too.

"I see," I answered, a yawn escaping my lips. "What are you doing here exactly?" To others it would sound impolite, asking the Fire Lord something like this, at his own house even, but I knew Zuko wouldn't mind.

"I could ask you the same question," he laughed and I smiled. What he said was true, I was as strange as him, wandering around the palace at night.

"I couldn't sleep."

"Me neither." He didn't look at the water anymore but he looked down at me, his amber eyes captivating me. "What were you doing here?"

"Thinking, talking to Aang."

The look in his eyes changed, as if he suddenly realized something and he let his arm slid of my shoulders before looking at the moon.

"What did you talk about?" he asked. I couldn't help but to think he was hurt, but why would he?

"I couldn't stop thinking about what you said earlier so I asked him if he wanted me to be happy." A little smile appeared on my face when I thought back of Zuko's words. Anyone could have said them, but out of his mouth they seemed true.

"What would make you happy?" the young man next to me asked.

"The same thing that would make you happy, a family." I knew I had a family, I still had my brother, niece, father and grandmother while Zuko only had his uncle but I felt as empty as he did, now I had lost Aang.

"Do you think you could ever fall in love again?" he almost whispered.

"I don't know. Maybe I will, after some time. But Aang will always have a special place into my heart." I felt sad again and I noticed that Zuko seemed more sad too, as if he was taking over my mood.

"I understand," he simply said, smiling at me to comfort me and it helped, his smile always helped me.

"Zuko?"

"Katara?" He raised an eyebrow and gave me a questioning look so I continued.

"Thanks for being such a great friend, I don't know what I would've done without you." My words were true, there wasn't a better friend than Zuko, not even Toph, Suki or my brother.

"No problem."

I smiled and laid my head upon his shoulder again, a sigh escaping my lips. I needed him, I needed him to take care of me, to make sure I was ok. A few months would pass before I would realize I needed him in other ways too, that I needed him to love me, to hug me when I needed him to. To train with me just to be in his company, to guide me into the Fire nation's traditions, to learn me the old stories of the country, to hold me at night, to talk with me at the edge of this pond whenever I couldn't sleep.