Author Notes:

Okay...I think I'm almost done with these. It's like there have been all these fluff bunnies in my head, though, and I had to clear them out. (Of course, if you WANT lots more fluff bunnies from me, you could post a review telling me that.)

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing.

Season 3, The Ember Island Players

The kids have returned from watching the Ember Island Players' production of The Boy in the Iceberg. Aang kissed Katara during intermission.

Katara needed fresh air. Never mind that it was still dark outside or that the window in the room the girls shared was wide open. The air inside felt stale and suffocating. She needed fresh air. Now.

Toph slept like a rock. Katara stepped stealthily around her sleeping mat. Suki hadn't come to bed last night again, which meant she and Sokka were probably in the room behind the door that was shut tight at the far end of the hallway. The door to the room Sokka was supposed to be sharing with Aang was cracked open, and Katara could hear Aang's nasally snores coming from within. The wood slates creaked loudly right in front of Zuko's room, the last before the staircase. She stilled momentarily, but she didn't hear anyone stir, so she padded quietly down the stairs.

Zuko's creepy summer house was more mansion than villa or cottage. The walls felt saturated with haunted memories. Every step she took made her feel like it was more important to get out. But then when she was outside, the heavy weight of conflicting emotions still hung around her neck. So maybe it wasn't the house that was suffocating her after all. She stood in the empty courtyard and looked down at the cracks in the paving stones, listening to the waves crash on the beach in the distance.

"You're up early."

Katara swung around, arcing water from one of the courtyard fountains up into the air and toward the person intruding on her fresh air before she registered the identity of the voice. Zuko flinched as she altered the water's path to miss him. It splashed to the ground behind him.

"Zuko!" she hissed. "What are you doing out here?"

"I heard someone get up," he said simply.

She waited for him to provide a further explanation. He didn't. The air wasn't feeling any clearer. She shrugged.

"It was me," she said. She put her hand on her hip and stared at him. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared back. "I'm sorry I woke you. You can go back to bed now."

He angled his head at her. "You didn't wake me," he said.

She really didn't care if he hadn't been able to sleep either. She wasn't interested in company. His eyes slanted down and he rocked from one foot to the other as if she were making him uncomfortable. She waited impatiently for him to go back inside. He didn't.

Katara had decided that Zuko was a little socially awkward. He had a tendency to say whatever came to his mind without bothering to filter it. He took everything too seriously. His jokes were so bad even he didn't laugh at them. And things with Zuko were - confusing.

Not as confusing, though, as things with Aang, who had gone and kissed her again last night.

"I'm going to the beach," she said.

It was a challenge, of sorts. Sokka would have scolded her and told her to get back inside. Toph would have scoffed and gone back to bed. Aang would have quoted the monks and made her feel like a bad person for feeling restless.

Katara grimaced. Maybe she was being a little hard on Aang, but he was still living in a world where there was good and bad. The lines she had previously drawn in her life didn't feel so clear cut anymore.

Zuko walked over and stood next to her like he was waiting. The shadows hid the scar on his face. He was socially awkward, but he didn't tell her what to do. Plus, if he'd decided to come with her, he wasn't doing it out of any misplaced sense of moral obligation.

They started walking the trail to the beach. Zuko looked glum. Even for him.

It had been a rough night for everyone, she supposed. Maybe him especially. The play cast Zuko as a surly prince who had bad hair and made bad decisions, including betraying his uncle, joining up with the Avatar and hooking up with her in the caves of Ba Sing Se. After his sister defeated him in the play, he died in the flames yelling "honor!" while the audience cheered.

Katara looked sideways at the heir to the Fire Nation throne. He was looking the opposite direction. She took his hand before she could think not to. It was warm. His fingers closed naturally around hers. He stopped walking.

"It was just a stupid play, Zuko," she said. "No one really wants you dead."

He gave her a look that made her swallow and backtrack.

"Okay," she said, holding his hand tighter. "Maybe some people want you dead. That just means you're that much more valuable alive to the rest of the world."

"Try: my whole country wants me dead," Zuko said, but he clutched her hand like she was a lifeline.

This was the kind of thing that made Zuko confusing. Not that he let her hold his hand or that she took it to begin with. She would have done that instinctively with any of her friends. It was the funny sensation tingling from his fingers pressed into the back of her hand.

Katara sighed. "Try: your whole country has been under the leadership of your evil father who only thinks about power and world domination."

"My mother was a good person," Zuko said wryly.

"I should hope so," Katara said back. She let go of his hand. They kept walking.

"Is Aang okay?" Zuko asked.

Katara laughed mirthlessly. "You're not the only one your whole country wants dead," she said. "He probably feels sort of like you feel right now."

"Hmm," Zuko said. They had reached the beach. Katara took off her shoes and set them by the trail. "Are you going in the water?" he asked. It was the first time he'd questioned her actions. She looked back at him. He looked more nervous than judgmental.

"I'm just wading in," she said, bending down to roll her leggings up to her knees.

"Why?" he asked, watching her.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I like being in the water. It makes me feel…clean or soothed or something."

Zuko's eyebrows narrowed. "Why would you need to feel…like that?"

She huffed and ignored him, plowing forward to the edge of the water until the waves lapped at her feet. The tide was rolling out. She heard Zuko grunt behind her and she turned around to see him yanking off his boots. She stifled a laugh as he waded in after her, flinching with every step he took in the shallow water.

"This is not soothing," he said.

She laughed for real and waded smoothly out until the water was up to her knees. She heard him groan and splash forward awkwardly behind her. The water was mild and she felt like her worries were sinking into the sand with her feet. He said things under his breath about the water that made her smirk. His discomfort distracted her while the water soothed her.

"Okay, I'm in the water like an idiot," he said, breaking the calm. "Mind telling me why?"

"I didn't ask you to follow me here," she said, and she didn't bother to look back while she said it.

"You didn't tell me not to," he countered. "Anyway, you know what's going on with me and there's obviously something going on with you too. Fess up."

"Oh, we're sharing now?" she asked, although it didn't come out as sarcastic as she intended.

"We're fighting together," he responded rationally. "We need to trust each other enough that you know I have your back and vice versa. So spill."

"What if I don't want to talk?" she asked childishly. She did want to talk. She wanted someone to tell her that what she'd said to Aang hadn't been out of line. That it was okay for her not to know right now if she and Aang were ever going to be together. That it made perfect sense not to get caught up in some romantic fantasy with a boy on the eve of war.

She pondered that while she watched the darkness begin to fade. It was almost light enough for her to see the point on the horizon where the ocean stopped and the sky began. She felt his eyes on the back of her head. She turned to face him.

He nodded. "I guess you have other options besides talking," he said.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Like what?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "Like you could cry. Or yell at me if you want."

She half-smiled at him and he half-smiled back.

"We could fight," he offered. She smiled for real at him and he smiled back like he was glad he'd said something that pleased her. A wave splashed high and lapped at the hem of her dress. "Or you could just tell me what happened," he continued. "There was hardly anything bad about you in the play."

Apart from it portraying her as a preachy drama-queen who could barely keep it together. Apart from how her actress self only fell for bad boys. Like Jet. And Zuko.

She felt tears prick at her eyes and it made her scowl at her own foolishness. She was not going to let Zuko see her cry. Not again. So she might as well get this over with.

"Aang thought there was some bad stuff about me," she said, casting her eyes down. She watched the water roll in and out around her legs.

He was silent for so long that she had to look back up to check for his reaction. He was giving her a funny look. "Was it the part where-" he began slowly.

"Yeah," she said quickly, interrupting him before he could say it out loud. She couldn't have handled him saying it out loud. "That and how my actress self said he was like a brother to me." She kicked her foot into the wet sand below her. The water didn't splash like she wanted it to. She just stubbed her toe. "At intermission he asked me if that's how I really felt and if we would ever be together. I told him I didn't know and that I was confused. He was so upset and then…" she paused briefly.

"And then?" Zuko prompted.

"Then he kissed me," she said, blushing in the dark.

"Oh," Zuko said. He paused like he was trying to decide what to say next. "Um, did you want him to?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "No. Not really. But it…wasn't the first time. He's kissed me before. The day of the Black Sun Invasion. That time it was fine. Then there was another time before that, but we were in a cave, and we were trapped by all these rocks…" She wrung her hands nervously.

He waited for her to continue.

"This is stupid," she said, suddenly feeling incredibly ashamed. "I shouldn't have told you any of this. You're upset because your nation sees you as a traitor and wants you dead. I'm upset because I have boy problems. I'm such an idiot."

"You were okay with him kissing you a month ago but you're not okay with it now?" Zuko asked, ignoring her anxiety. "What changed?"

She tried not to let her mouth hinge apart. What had changed? Aang still needed to defeat the Fire Lord. He still needed to master all four elements. He was still the same, really. Everything was the same. It was still her, Sokka, Toph and Aang working together to come up with a plan. And Zuko, of course. He was on their side now too.

Zuko hadn't been with them before.

Zuko who was looking at her with genuine concern on his face. Who made her feel…funny…when she held his hand. Him. He had changed things. He had come around and changed things. Like Aang, who could firebend now. And like…like…

"Me," she whispered. "I'm not the same anymore."

He didn't say a word in response.

"I knew I shouldn't have said anything," she said quietly, more to herself than to him. "I should have talked to Suki or something. You wouldn't know about this stuff. You've probably never even kissed a girl." She didn't really mean for that last part to come out. Maybe she was the one who didn't have a filter.

Zuko made a stifled, strangled noise.

Katara's eyes widened. He blushed so hard she could see it in the dark. Her eyes widened further. He shifted his weight awkwardly in the water. His nonverbal communication was telling her more than she needed to know.

"Oh," she said, the realization of what it all meant dawning on her. "Oh. Oh. No way. No. No. No."

"I'm two years older than you are!" he said. "I have a girlfriend! Or at least I had a girlfriend."

"Who?" she asked, though the minute she asked she wished she could take back the question. Why the hell would she want to know who?

"Her name is Mai," he said.

"The girl who throws the daggers?" Katara asked, horrified. Why was she surprised that Zuko would date a girl like that? Of course his girlfriend would be a terrifying pale chick trained in the sport of impaling people with sharp objects. "I thought she was one of Azula's friends! She almost killed me. Twice!"

"I didn't know you and Mai ever fought," he said apologetically. Which was weird, because he didn't owe her any apologies. But it was also weird that he'd…with her…

Oh spirits. She was going to need a lot more water to feel clean about that.

"Yeah," she said grumpily. "Well I didn't know you and Mai-"

Zuko cringed but got defensive. "At least I'm not the only one who has a thing for dangerous partners," he shot back.

"Dangerous partners?" she shrieked. "How is Aang dangerous?"

"How is Aang not dangerous?" he yelled. "How was Jet not dangerous?"

Katara narrowed her eyes and glared hotly at him. "What do you know about Jet?"

"Only that he attacked me and my uncle in Ba Sing Se when we never did anything to him," Zuko said angrily. "I had to fight him and his stupid twin hooks."

She was taken aback. "I didn't know you and Jet ever fought," she said, and now she was the one with the tone that was partly apologetic and partly defensive.

"Well I didn't know you made out with him until the play."

Katara hadn't realized she was breathing hard until right then. She deflated at the slight disgust in Zuko's tone, which couldn't have been as bad as the disgust she felt about him and dagger-girl. "This was a bad idea," she said, backing away in the water with a sudden need for distance. "Sharing was a bad idea. We don't need to share to fight together. We only need to be…to know…that the other is…is…"

Her eyes met his.

He hissed out a slow breath and groaned loudly while tears began to fall from her eyes. She wiped them away feeling stupid and low. "Damn it," Zuko said, splashing closer to her. She stopped moving and stood in place because she was too emotionally drained to prevent him from getting any nearer. He stopped in front of her and started to reach out. His hands snapped back.

"Oh," he said. "Sorry. Can I…erm…hug you? I'm sorry I brought up Jet. You were already feeling bad about Aang."

She nodded and forgave him on the spot. "I shouldn't have reacted that way about Mai," she said, though the name came out a little muffled. He had thrown his arms around her while she started talking, like he'd lose the courage to do it if he didn't do it right then, and her face was temporarily smashed against his shoulder. She returned the hug reflexively, wrapping both arms around him. He was getting better at hugs. Or maybe he was just getting more comfortable with her. This felt warm and good. She sighed quietly. She didn't want to pull away. She waited for him to pull back.

He sighed and drew her in closer. They breathed in and out together. An almost inaudible hum came from his throat. It wasn't until they both had to take another breath that they stepped away from the hug.

"Have you tried to talk to Aang about what happened?" Zuko asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know how I can," she said. "What would I say to him? I don't want to upset him right when we're the on the verge of war."

Zuko looked at her like he was contemplating the problem. "What if you weren't afraid of how he would feel?" he said. "What would you tell him if you could be totally truthful with him?"

Katara bit her lip. What would she tell him? That the kiss they had on the day of Black Sun had meant something to her? That she had felt it, but that she wasn't the same person anymore? That maybe Aang could stay pure and perfect, but she wasn't a kid any more? That she was more conflicted? That she was more like Zuko these days and less like him?

"I guess our paths are diverging," she said slowly. "I still care about him, but I'm not the same person I was. I'm not the good little girl who would never hurt anyone anymore. I'm…I'm…"

Her voice was shaking. She was going to start crying again.

Zuko touched her arm. "Katara," he said quietly. "Innocent and naive get you killed in war."

"I'm not innocent or naive," she responded sharply. "I'm dangerous."

He blinked. "I know that, Katara," he said. A smirk made its way across his face. "It's, um, probably why I like fighting with you as my partner so much."

His words startled her. Her response startled her even more. "I suppose that's why I like you as my fighting partner too."

Her steps were lighter on the way back. She glanced sideways at Zuko as they walked. He glanced sideways at her too.

"Jet?" he asked.

"Mai?" she said.

And they agreed silently never to talk about that again.