A/N: i ran the figures the other night: i.e i laid out the chapter plans for the next eight chapters and have it pretty much figured out where this fic is going to go and how its going to end. I even have a playlist going, which is in chronilogical order of the fic. I'm a dork so what ever!!

here it is:

1.Someday -Nickleback

2.Seasons of- Love (A) Rent

3.Apologize -OneRepublic

4.From Yesterday- 30 seconds to Mars

5.Bring on the Rain- Jo Dee Messina

6. Something there- Disney's Beauty and the Beast

7.Holding out for a hero -Frou-Frou

8. Umbrella -Rhinna (If you can find the one with Chris Brown called "Umbrella/Cinderella remix", its even better)

9.I won't say i'm in love -Disney's Hercules

10. I'm not that girl -Wicked, the musical

11. Stop and Stare- OneRepublic

12. Stand in the rain -Superchick

13. Breathe( 2am)- Anna Nalick

14. Beauty and the Beast waltz -Beauty and the Beast

15. If I fell -The Beatles (the version from across the universe works better here, but the original is still awsome)

16.Seasons of Love(B)- Rent

17. Wold spins madly on -The Weepies

18. Twilight and Shadow -Return of the King

19. A Modern Myth -30 seconds to Mars

20. WIthout you- Rent

21. Come Home- OneRepublic

22.Only the Beginning of the adventure -Chornicles of Narnia

23. Two Worlds -Tarzan

ok...now that i'm done with that, now on to the fun stuff...

1. i don't own anything,e xcept Hoshi and Mai's bitchiness

2. I know it was kind of an issue with some of my faithful lovely reviewers that Mai showed too much emotion, i kind of had to make her break out of the "blah" state, but come on, i'm sure if there was some girl sniffing around Zuko, she'd try to kick their butts! Lord knows i would.

3.reviewers are welcome and adored!! keep up the praise, i love it!!


Atonement Chapter 7:

"Stop and stare

I think I'm moving but I go nowhere

Yeah I know that everyone gets scared

But I've become what I can't be, oh" OneRepublic

Katara was on her way back from the practice courts with the young woman who had befriended her. Ming, who had been a guard in the prisons until she'd quit a few years ago. Now she was a personal guard for Iroh. Ever on the alert, Ming looked up as a dark shadow passed over them.

"What in the-"

"Aang!" Katara cried. "Appa!" She waved goodbye to Ming and started for the landing deck.

"Sugar Queen!" She felt something small and solid slam into her ribcage.

"Toph!" Katara ignored the searing pain in her ribs and wrapped her arms around the slender young woman's shoulders. She back for a moment to look at her friend. Toph had the same half grin, the same milky jade eyes that seemed to smile as well. But her ebony locks were now down around her shoulders, like a flowing river of black silk. "Your hair is so long!"

Toph ran her fingers through her hair as if testing that it was there. "I thought it was time to grow it out."

"You look so grown up!"

"I'd say the same but..." Toph shrugged and Katara hugged her tighter. While she and Toph had not always seen eye to eye (quite literally since Toph was a full head shorter), on most things, Toph had always been her anchor. And recently, she needed an anchor. Everything here seemed surreal and she needed a trip back to reality. If anyone was going to help her with that, it would be Toph. The little earth bender had a gift for telling it like it was, even if Katara sometimes didn't want to hear it.

"So..." Toph sighed. "How bad is Iroh?"

Katara couldn't find the words.

"Oh..." Toph's normally boisterous voice was soft in her ear. "I see."

"He'll be so happy to see you," Katara assured her. "He's been talking about nothing else for weeks."

Toph grinned. "It'll be nice to see him again."

Katara started to lead Toph toward the palace. "You know he really does give good advice."

"He does, doesn't he?" Toph turned suddenly as she heard Aang crash to the landing deck, buried in all her luggage. "Watch it, Twinkle Toes!"

"I can't believe you still call him that." Katara noted as Aang's response was muffled by the bags.

"I still call you 'Sugar Queen' and I call Zuko 'Sparky'. That'll never change."

Katara gave Toph's shoulder another affectionate squeeze. "I'm glad." She turned back to Aang, who was handing baggage off to attendants waved him forward to join them.

"I don't see why it matters what I wear," Katara insisted later as Ursa's dressmaker put the finishing touches on the soft burnt orange under robe.

"Lady Mai won't even hold a candle to you!" Hoshi, who was spending the afternoon helping Katara and Ursa pick out their outfits for Zuko's party, chimed in as she took out Katara's prize blue kimono and helped the dress maker fit it over the soft orange robe.

"Hoshi!" Katara snapped, pleased, however, that Toph was not there; she was spending the afternoon with Iroh and already had an outfit ready, she informed Katara haughtily. Katara had a feeling that the earth bender and Hoshi would get along swiminingly and it would only add to her embarrassment.

"I was only telling the truth," Hoshi retorted. "Lady Mai is pretty, but in this," the girl shook her head. "My lady, she won't even be able to compete!"

"The sleeves are a little long," Ursa noted and helped the dressmaker take them in. "She is right, you know."

"Ursa!" Katara gasped; shocked that even Zuko's mother had something to say about this. "It isn't a contest!"

"Not in this, it isn't!" Hoshi sang.

Katara glared at the girl. "I am not going to fight over a man! It's undignified!"

The dress maker shook her head. "Never going to get a man that way, with that attitude."

Hoshi and Ursa snickered as Katara grew red in the face from all the teasing. Hoshi pulled out the silver obi and held it up to Ursa. When the obi had been tied in place, Ursa motioned for Katara to turn and see herself in the mirror.

Katara's mouth fell open. If she didn't know that the blue kimono was her's, Katara would have never recognized herself. With her hair pulled back and secured with a lotus bloom comb and her lips accented with just a little color, Katara would have passed for the lady everyone called her. "I...I..." but no words came.

"Wonderful." Ursa complemented the dress maker, "Simply wonderful, as usual. My compliments." The woman bowed and collected her things and left. Ursa turned back to Katara. "Well, my dear, what do you think?"

Katara said nothing. She couldn't. A lump welled up in her throat and she was finding it hard to breathe. Her hand crept up to her neck where her necklace was still absent. Her mother would never see her dressed up like this.

"My lady?" Hoshi crept up next to her. "Are you all right? You look so lovely..."

Katara shook her head. "It's nothing...I just miss my mother that's all. Untie me, please?"

Hoshi obeyed, sending a worried glance to Ursa as she untied Katara's obi and put the blue and orange kimonos away. Katara shrugged her blue everyday robes over her head. "I'm fine," she assured them. "I will be, at least." She crossed her arms over her chest. "So can I assume you've stopped teasing me, then?"

"We've only begun, my lady!" Hoshi assured her.

"Oh, I nearly forgot!" Ursa gasped. "Your brother and sister-in-law will be here the day after next!"

Katara stared at her. "What?"

"You...you didn't know? I thought Zuko would have told you..."

"He knew about this?"

"Knew? My dear, he wrote to Sokka himself forever ago...Katara...Katara, where are you going?" Ursa called after her as Katara stormed out the room.

Luckily, she ran into Zuko as he was leaving a meeting. With no Mai in sight, Katara wasn't going to wait around for the girl to show up so she grabbed the front of his tunic and dragged him into a less used corridor. She turned around to face him and pointed with a threatening finger. When no words would come, she turned her back to him to gather her thoughts.

"Katara, what's going on?" When he finally asked, his voice was coated in confusion.

"You had no right..."She hissed. "You wrote to him...after you...I...we..." the thoughts were there, but not coherent. "You knew and still..."

"As illuminating as that was..." Zuko tapped his chin. "I'm going to more to go on."

"You knew that Sokka and I were in a fight! I told you! And you invited him!"

Zuko crossed his arms over his chest. "It's my birthday."

"You sound like you're five!" Katara growled.

"So do you!" He shot back, his temper starting to show. Katara wondered how long it would take. This new Zuko she encountered when she first arrived seemed endlessly patient, but she knew deep down remnants of the old Zuko was still there. And he was coming out now. "I don't see why you're so upset!"

"Because," She countered. "It's none of your business whether or not I'm fighting with my brother! You don't question my life and I won't yours!"
"What happened?" He demanded.

"Did you not hear what I just said?!"

"Just tell me!"

"NO!"

"Just tell me!"

"NO!"

"Why won't you tell me?!"

Katara closed her eyes tight and heard herself shout; "FINE!" Then there was a soft silence. She opened her eyes to see Zuko standing there, expectant. And suddenly the anger that was so powerful a moment ago, melted away into something akin to shame. "...fine...About three years ago, my grandmother died. I didn't even know she was sick and..." She bit her lip, holding back the tears. "She raised us after my Mom died and my Dad left...she meant the world to me, just like Iroh means the world to you."

"I see," he urged her on.

"Here I am, this great healer," Katara laughed bitterly. "And I can't even save my own grandmother...I was in Ba Sing Se and she died without me there..."

"So you ran."

"Yes I did," Katara nodded. "I ran because I couldn't stay there, I couldn't be around all these people who said it wasn't my fault...who told me that it was what she wanted...I never got to say goodbye."

"Sokka didn't want you to go, you told me."

She shook her head. "He wanted me to stay and I couldn't. We haven't spoken since I left three years ago. Now..." She looked up at him. "Why did you do it? Why?"

He shrugged. "I remember how sad you looked, it-it reminded me of that day in Ba Sing Se when I-"

"You don't have to say it..." Katara said quietly.

"Yes I do." He insisted. "I know that I can't go back and undo it, or do it differently, but at least I can try to make up for it...He's your brother, brothers and sisters shouldn't fight like this..."

"So, you did this for me?"

He just looked at her. "Didn't you just hear what I said?!"

"No, I did." She held up a hand. "I was just trying to clarify."

Again he shrugged and smiled that smile that Katara had grown to love. "Of course."

As mad as she was that he'd gone behind her back, she wanted nothing more than to reach up and hug him. But an image of Mai's face flashed before her eyes and she held back her instinct. "Thank you..." She said instead.

"Don't thank me yet, you still have to deal with Sokka." He smiled a bigger smile, sensing the fight was over.

"True..." She grinned. But her grin faded when she realized she wanted to ask about something Mai had said a few nights ago, but now didn't seem like the right time. "There is so much I want to say to you ..." was all she managed to admit. "So much that I can't say..."

"Why?" he took hold of one of her hands, grounding her to the spot. Katara wished that his touch didn't have the effect that it did, but there was nothing she could do about it.

"Mai," She managed to look him in the eye. "She loves you still. After everything...It's not fair to her."

Zuko looked puzzled. "What's not fair?"

Katara shook her head. "Its nothing, really. Just some silly little things, that's all."

"If you're sure?"

Katara nodded.

"... I have a meeting soon." He glanced at her. "I'll be around." He assured her.

Katara nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. "So will I." She told him as she watched him walk away. However if she hadn't looked down at her feet to gather her thoughts, she would have seen him glance back at her for the briefest moment before disappearing down the hallway.


awwwwwwwwwww...and you all were waiting them to make-out!! keep reviewing and i'll keep writing!!