Sup my peeps. Hope you dig the chapter

Chapter 7: 2 Month Jump

ZPOV

These past 2 months have been amazing.

And it's not only because I'm still with Katara-and yes, we made it official- but also because I was really getting the hang of living here. Katara promised she wouldn't go telling everyone about my family history. I hated she had to keep secrets for me, but she made sure I knew she had no trouble with it. Both of us fully aware that people wouldn't be so accepting if they really knew. I had a sinking feeling Katara has had to keep her own fair share of secrets, but again it was a feeling I ignored, and decided to deal with it another time.

We had to close the shop for 2 weeks during the heaviest snow. I always wondered just how strong the phone towers and the electrical towers were because we never had a power outage and I had service for most of the time. Which also meant I could text Katara during these heavy storms, even though I couldn't see her because it was practically impossible to step outside.

But the snow was no longer as heavy, and school was back in session, which meant that I was back to work. Luckily, the person we hired had a friend who was moving back here after the winter, and desperately needed a job to get back on their feet. Uncle was happy to hire him, even though we had no idea who he was or what he did or whether or not he was a murderer.

It was a Saturday and Katara had texted me asking if I could meet her at the Dojo right when the sun was going to set and that I could just stay at her place afterward.

No, we haven't… you know. But things have developed since I kissed her in her room that first time. She does let me stay at her place from time to time, especially because it gets so dark so quickly in this time of year.

Her brother was already gone, left to go train some more guys as a drill sergeant, promising he would bring them in a few weeks to train with Katara. Katara and I have sparred a few times, but every time I don't really think she's very serious. I've also seen her teach some of her Dojo classes. From what I've heard… I don't ever want to see her go all out.

I knocked on the door of the Dojo and no one answered. I tried to slide it open and found it was unlocked. I walked inside to see a line of candles and I openly laughed. She was a girl and yet she did such romantic things. I grimaced slughtly at the thought. Girls could do this kimd of thing,too, although I could never see Mai or Azula doimg anything like this. I kept my heavy jacket on since it seemed like the candles trailed all the way out to the back garden. When I went back there, the candles split into two lines and went up the patio poles and there were large decorated alter like structure. It was decorated with blue and green candles and flowers. I have no idea where she got real flowers because I barely ever see any plants here. And then I saw her.

She was wearing a silky top that stopped right after her breasts and exposed her stomach. Her sleeves were see through and long, but only connected at her shoulders and her wrists, which exposed her arms. Her pants were like those of a gypsy and she was wearing no shoes. There was no snow at her feet, only green grass, the snow must have been pushed away.

"Katara…"

"Ok, so sit there." She motioned to where to candles split and I sat down in front of them. She walked over to where she had a CD player sitting on the wooden patio.

Soft melodic music began to play and she stood back on her patch of grass. She took a deep breath in and out and then she started to dance.

It was breath taking, it seemed as though her soul was connected to the music. I know that might be weird coming from a guy, but there wa no other way to describe it. And then she started bending.

The water melted while she bended and it became a river floating above her head. As she moved to the music, the shape of the water changed as well as the direction it would move. It was crazy to watch. I had seen a few waterbenders incorporate their bending into their dancing, but nothing was amazing as this. Even though it was supposed to be freezing, all I could feel was warmth. I'm not sure if it was from the candles, or myself, or from Katara. I wanted to take my coat off, but I also didn't want to move from my spot, because I couldn't take my eyes off her. Suddenly, I felt the sweat being lifted off my forehead, and Katara made slow movements of her fingers and I looked up to see small balls of water now surrounded me. The candle light reflected off of them beautifuly, which made me forget that it was actually my sweat floating above me.

Sadly, the music and the dance was coming to an end. When she finished with an extravagant mist of warm water, I stood and clapped rapidly for her.

"Katara! That was absolutely amazing!"

"You think so? I mean, I messed up on some parts, and I need to work on my-"

"Katara, that was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

She sighed, her shoulders visibly relaxing, "Thanks."

"I'm doing a performance at the school to promote a dance group I was thinking of starting. I want girls and boys to perform and include waterbending in their dance for the Spring Festival we have every year. I have some friends who are doing the music and stuff, but I'm practicing."

She walked towards me and hugged me. "You really think I did good? Oh, and hows the outfit? I borrowed this from Nala because she was a dancer in college."

"You look absolutely stunning. I almost died when I first saw you."

She laughed. "Sure, whatever. I'm too old for this, huh?"

I shook my head. "No way. You don't look a day over 15."

She laughed again. Agni, I love her laugh. "That would make you a petophile." I choked at that. "I'm just kidding!" She looked up at me and pecked me on the lips. "C'mon, I'll grab my coat and we can start heading back to my place. I'm making seal tonight."

"Yum." I said.

She used droplets of water to put out the candles as we walked inside and she locked the back door before putting on some heavy snow pants and coat and we walked out of the front to head to her place.

"Katara." We heard and I felt Katara's hand tense in mine suddenly. She ripped her hand out of mine and had a water whip in a defensive position immediately. I didn't let out any fire, but I was sure ready, because I had never seen Katara this tense before.

There was a man with a piece of straw in his mouth, who knows where the heck he got it. He had shaggy brown hair and was waiting outside. When I looked at Katara, she kept her defensive look, and I think I almost saw a flash of fear in her eyes. I dismissed it though, because I could never see Katara really afraid of anything.

"W-what are you doing here?"

"What? You don't miss me?"

"Get out of here before I stab you with an icicle." I don't think I've ever heard so much hatred in her voice. I don't think I've heard that much hatred in anyone's voice, not even my father.

And let's just say he had a lot of hatred.

"C'mon… 'Tara. I thought we could… play again."

"Look, Jet, I just want to go home, can you leave us alone?"

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Jet?!

As in exboyfriend, Jet. As in, Jet the guy who everyone talks about, yet no one talks about him, or what happened between Katara and him. I mean, I knew something happened, his name has been brought up more than a couple of times, but this was Jet? Besides the creepy factor of waiting outside of the Dojo and Katara's clear hatred for him, I technically didn't have that much of a grudge against him. Katara hasn't told me about him, if anything I'm pretty sure she's avoided talking about Ex's blatantly. I wonder what exactly happened?

"Oh, Katara, is this your new boy toy? Really? I mean, I know I might have been part of the shady crowd, but a Fire Nation guy? Please."

Ok, maybe I don't like him.

Katara dropped her stance, but remained tense as she grabbed my hand and pulled me to walk away. "C'mon, Zuko, let's go."

"Oh? Are you taking him back to your bed? And here I thought you had grown out of your slut phase."

I don't know what happened, but I must have yanked my hand out of Kataras and punched the guy square in the jaw. Before he could say anything else, I grabbed Kataras hand this time and pulled her in the direction of her home.

The march to her house was quiet, only the moon shined above us and I could hear our breaths and the crunch of snow under our feet. Jet didn't follow us, thank Agni, because who knows what else I would've done to him. It was strange how protective I was, I had never been like that in past relationships. I was squeezing her hand, my body heating up and I did my best to take deep breaths to calm down. Something must have sparked in me, probably because I'd never seen Katara that vulnerable before. She didn't even look that open when she was telling me about her mother.

Thankfully, Katara didn't say anything about my punch, she didn't say anything at all, which I wasn't sure whether or not to be worried about that.

We made it to her house and she opened the door for me and we took off our coats. She rolled her shoulders and went into the kitchen to make some tea, I silently followed her and leaned my shoulder on the fridge, watching her silently.

"Can you stop doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Stop looking at me!" She turned around and the cup shatter, tea expanding and flying into the sink. "Ugh, I'm sorry, I just… let me clean this up,"

She bent down to pick up the pieces of glass and I noticed that her hands were shaking. I bent down next to her and grabbed her hands before she could grab any glass. "Katara…"

"I know, I know, I look weak. I…" I could hear her voice started to break and her whole body was shaking.

"No, no, no, Katara, that's not it at all." I pulled her up to me and brought her to the living room where we sat down. "Katara, what's wrong, are you ok?"

She sighed heavily, refusing to look me in the eye. "I… don't really want to talk about it…" I nodded and just hugged her after that. She put her face in my shirt, refusing to look up at me. She was still wearing the outfit she danced in and her hair was still done up.

"Do you want to… change? I mean, I don't know how comfortable that outfit is…"

She nodded in my chest before getting up and then going into her room to change. When she opened the door she was in pajamas and motioned for me to come into the room. I did so and we lied in her bed silently. Her hair was down in long waves and it circled us on the pillow. She snuggled her face into my chest and I did my best to wrap my entire being around her protectively. I was honestly exhausted, but didn't want to fall asleep first, I didn't want her to be alone and awake for her own thoughts. It was dark in the room, but the moon was shining through some curtains and I looked down to see something I hadn't noticed before.

Katara was on her sode, while snuggled with me, and she almost always wore pajama pants, it seemed normal since its always cold, but to ight she had shorts. We may have gotten intimate. But never had I taken her pants off, I almost did once, but she was uncomfortable with it and I told her we wouldn't do anything until she told me. Her shorts were riding up and I had a full view of her dark brow skin.

As well as the light scars that contrasted against it. I could feel my throat tightening and my hands tense.

Those were cutting scars.

I didn't know how to reacr, and with the lack of lighting I couldn't tell how long they had been there or how bad they were. Slowly, hoping she wasn't bothered by my movement, I moved my hand onto her thigh/butt. She tensed in my arms. I began to run my thumb over the scars and I sighed, feeling they weren't scabs, it hasn't happened anytime soon. She finally fell asleep, not a word of what both of us had realized.was spoken. I also drifted off into the darkness.

I woke up to see I was in the bed alone. I rubbed my eyes of the sleep and walked out of the room to see Katara making tea. She had cleaned up the mess from the night before and had a new cup for me waiting on the counter. I grabbed it, and she didn't even flinch. She grabbed some sweet bread and we sat together at her table to eat our small breakfast.

I didn't know what was wrong when we first met, because I had hardly seen her eat. I've spent entire days with her and she won't eat anything, except maybe some.craclers with tea. Seal jerky seemed like her only nutrient. The first time I saw her with her shirt off, I was surprised at how thin she was. She was toned, no doubt, but her stomach seemed sunken in

Again, I had no idea how to address ot, so like a coward, I shied away from the topic. However, without realozong, she had begun to eat more. It was a slow process, but I could tell she was much happier, and not as tired. The scars was another worry, but it was something I could help her deal with, whenever she was ready to talk about it.

It was a comfortable silence until Katara started talking.

"I'm… sorry about yesterday. Jet… he… he's a part of my past I'd rather forget." I nodded. I know what it's like to want to forget. "I… I'm willing to tell you about what happened if you want. Everything."

I reached my hand across the table to hold hers. "Katara, you can tell me whenever you're ready to tell me." And I was being completely honest about that. I… don't know what it was that she had gone through.

"No, Zuko, you're going to find out anyway, but I'd rather you hear it from me." I nodded and waited for her to continue. "When I… came back from traveling, I was about 23 years old. I was supposed to spend only 6 months full time to finish my schooling, but my father thought it was best to have me assisting the councik right away. I onviously showed I eouldnt be jooning the mimitary anytime soon, so it made sense he was planning on me being a political leader. I was never officialky part od ths counil, I was first an intern, which turned into an advisor role with a lot of power, so I went part time for about a year.

"I had met Jet when I was in highschool, I grew up in this town and it's hard to date someone here. Once one person knows, everyone knows, and if you split up they make a huge deal about it. I realized when I finished highschool before he did that I didn't really want to be with him anymore, so I thought it was good I left. You know, it was the best excuse to break up." As she said ththat, I couldn't help but remember my own reasons for breaking up with Mai. "Besides, we were teenagers, we obviously weren't planning to stay together forever and get married or anything. We had completely different personalities and tastes and…" She sighed again. "Sorry, I'm getting off track.

"My dad really likes Jet. When I came back, Jet was practically under his wing and was doing everything he wanted. When I came back, my dad really pushed for me to get back together with Jet. I wasn't really interested, but I thought I'd date him just for the image, so my father would be happy, you know?" I nodded. "I dated him for two years. And at first, it was fine. He didn't really expect much from me except to make sure I put in a good word to my father. But soon enough… things started to get worse."

I saw her hand starting to shake again and she refused to look at me.

"I… We were spending the night at each other's places regularly. At first, nothing happened, we would normally just do it because we would be staying up late working on the port and dealing with paperwork the Central Council gave us. But one night he… made a move on me. I mean, it wasn't that big of a deal. We were technically dating…

"But things kept getting worse. We started to argue, once we became something of a real couple. And he…" She didn't have to say it for me to know what she was implying, and my body burned with rage. I reached out for her and but she pulled away. I didn't know how to react, and she continued. "He hit me, only a few times though, nothing too bad. I mean, it's kind of normal here. Children are spanked and stuff when they're punished so… it didn't bother me too much. He hadn't gone too far, and I didn't want to make a big deal about it." I really wanted to say something, to tell her how wrong she was, how wrong it was for him to hit her. I flashed back to my own mother, everything she had to endure because of the brutality of my father. Her death was because she was lenient with him, because she let him trample.her like garbage. I loved her so much, but the one thing that always made me.dissapointed was the fact my mom was weak to my father. I never understood why, seeing Katara like this, a similar image popped into my head. To see such strong and powerful women be out down because of the stupidity of men was just outrageous.

"But finally he… he did some stuff to me… he… forced…" Her voice cracked and I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't know if I was trying to push away the though of Katara being abused, or to embrace me choking the life out of Jet. "He did it… more than once. Soon enough… I just couldn't handle it anymore. I decided to quit my job and start my training to be a teacher. I shook off all ties with my father and most of that part of my life, and I broke up with Jet. I… haven't told a lot of people about why I did that, except for me not wanting to do what my father wanted.

"I haven't seen Jet in 2 years. I had heard that he was coming back I just thought I'd be able to avoid him. I'm sorry you had to meet him or anything. I just… I'm sorry."

"No, Katara." I grabbed her hand, forcing it in my own. "You do not have to apologize for anything. You haven't done anything wrong."

"But… I understand if you don't want to…" She still refused to look at me.

"Wait, did you think I'd break up with you because of this? Why?" I would never do that.

"I mean, I don't know I just thought maybe you wouldn't want someone… like me…" I stood up and hugged her close to me.

"Katara, you have nothing to worry about, I'm not going anywhere." Suddenly, there was a hard knock on the door.

Katara sighed and checked her phone that was on the table next to her and she sighed again and rubbed her brow. "Dammit." She pushed out of my arms and rubbed her eyes off before going to the door.

"Dammit Katara, open the-" I heard from the other side of the door and they were cut off by the door swinging open. "Oh, there you are! I heard Jet was back and I thought I'd-" Nala then saw me and her mouth turned into the shape of an O. "You know what? I can come back-"

"Nala, get your butt in here and have some tea. You didn't interrupt anything." I was astonished by the smile that was now portrayed on her face. I could see she was genuinely happy that her friend came to check up on her, but her eyes looked tired, and her pure happiness was slightly forced. I was reminded when I first mst Nala, and the wonderous carefree attitude that Katara and her shared. That aura diminished, and I could tell Nala barely took notice. Of course, she had no idea we already had an encounter with Jet. Oblivious to the slightly pained face her friend showed, Nala came inside.

"Hey, Zuko. Sorry to barge in and all."

"No, it's fine." I said and scratched my head. Katara giggled at that and it made me blush a little bit. The serious atmosphere had dissipated and replaced with something more light hearted.

Nala had come in with a paper bag (for some reason not many stores used plastic bag). She set it on the table I was now sitting at and took out some cookies. "I thought I'd bring some seaweed cookies."

Katara laughed. "Nala, you don't have to do that."

"Oh, Katara, we are like sisters, you know I'll always be here for you." They hugged and I just kind of sat there awkwardly. "So um… does Zuko know?" Nala tried to whisper, but I could obviously hear.

"Yes, I actually just finished telling him a little about it before you got here."

"Oh! Sorry, don't mean to interrupt that conversation."

"You know you're welcome anytime."

"Oh, ok, good, because-" Suddenly there was another knock on the door. Nala looked sheepish. "I um, may have invited company."

Katara rolled her eyes and walked to open the door. I saw the slightly forced, and yet still genuine smile she gave as Kurik and Esrick walked in. Kurik was the first to throw his arms around her and she laughed as he seemed to lean all of his weight on her.

"Oh, don't pout like that, you know he's harmless." Nala whispered and nudged me with her elbow.

"I wasn't pouting…"

"Mhm, sure." I started to roll my eyes and stopped myself. Katara has been rubbing off on me too much.

Esrick saw me and nodded at me and hugged Katara once Kurik was peeled off of her. Esrick held up a bag and smiled, "I brought some icenut bread."

Katara's eyes actually brightened, which made me smile. "No way! You shouldn't have…"

"It's your favorite, nothing less. Besides, I picked up the ingredients while Kurik made it all through the night." Katara gave both of them a big hug again.

"You guys are the best."

They laughed and Nala poured them some tea. I thought I'd let them have some time to hang out, so I went into Kataras room to change out of my pajamas. I was going into sweats, which honestly wasn't that different from my pajamas, but it made me more comfortable. I still couldn't quite get used to how everyone was ok with lounging around in their undergarments while guests were over.

When I walked out they were all sitting on the couch laughing. There was only enough room for three people on the sofa so Kurik was on the floor. I sat down on the floor as well and sipped on the rest of my tea, staying silent for a while.

"So, Zuko, how's it feels to be here?"

I was surprised to suddenly be included in the conversation, plus I hadn't been paying attention. "I'm sorry, what?"

Nala laughed. "How have you adjusted?"

"Oh, um, it's actually pretty nice. I mean, it's hard for me to get along with some people… and it's such a different atmosphere, it's taking me a bit to adjust. I'm really thankful for everything you've guys have been doing for me."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure Katara is getting you real adjusted," She said and elbowed Katara. Katara laughed and smacked her friend on the shoulder. I just scratched my head.

"Well… um, yeah. I mean, she helps me with training and stuff…" I could see that they were trying really hard not to laugh and my face started to heat up.

After a while, I checked the time and noticed that I would have to head out to the Red Dragon soon. "Hey, sorry I can't stay but I need to go to work."

"That's too bad, man, we were about to talk about some embarrassing stories of Kataras childhood." Esrick said.

"Oh shush. Zuko, do you mind buying some biter before you come by tonight?" I nodded. I didn't always spend the night, but after everything, I could hear the small plea for me to come back so we could continue to talk.

When I reached the Red Dragon, I ran upstairs to change quickly. "Uncle, I'm home."

"Glad to see you. How's Katara?"

"Not so well. Jets back in town."

I had no doubt he knew exactly who I was talking about. I had a feeling he was protective over Katara, too, considering how much she's helped keep us safe in the neighborhood, but also because he saw her as such a kind girl. His face visibly hardened and steam came out his nose. I hadn't seen him that fired up in a long time. "Think we should go welcome him back?"

I was actually pretty surprised at the animosity that was held in his voice. "Woah, Uncle Iron, I didn't think you still saw violence on the menu."

"I just don't think Lady Katara should have to deal with sum like that."

"Well Katara doesn't want us to do anything."

Iron sighed, put his chin up and began to walk down the steps. "Shame."