Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the characters, nor do I profit from this in any way.

A/N: I know this chapter is a little awkward, there's not much i can do about it. I really tried to make it suck less. I wrote it about a million and a half times over and I think I'm decently happy with how this turned out. The next chapter will have more than just talking over kill...

Enjoy!

Amy.


Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Chapter 7 – Hallelujah

The moon was dark, not an ounce of light crossed the sky except the stars twinkling in the distance. The shadows hung darker than usual in the hallway and the ominous blackness of the stairwell seemed to stare back as he walked towards it. He glanced over his shoulder again. A distinct and uncomfortable feeling etched up his spine, half way down the hall it had started. Zuko turned back, ears perked and at the smallest creak of the floorboards he spun around with tightly closed fists, squinting into the empty darkness. Searching for shadowed movements, he relaxed his hands and slowly turned around. Again, the creak came. He turned around, clenching his teeth and his blood nearly boiling.

"Calm down, it's just me." Toph finally said, shifting her weight and revealing her position not far from where he stood.

"Oh…" His voice was low and his guard dropped.

"Maybe I'm missing something here, but it seems like you sneak out a lot at night to go see Katara." Toph stared into her usual scenery.

"I'm not sneaking out." He glared.

"You're being awful carefully to be quiet." She smirked.

"I don't want to wake anyone." He looked away.

"Wouldn't it be easier if you just went out before everyone goes to bed?" Her smirked turned higher on her face into a full smile.

"No." He said quietly.

"Oh I see; you don't want anyone to know about these secret little rendezvous." She folded her arms restraining a snicker, "Don't worry, I won't tell."

"Toph…?" Katara closed the door behind her.

"It's about time." Toph turned her head toward the older girl.

"What are you doing up?" She put a hand on her hip. Normally, she was the only one wandering in the darkness of the night while Toph slept like the rock she claimed to be most of the time. According to Sokka, she was the loudest rock he'd ever heard.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." The blind earthbender turned back toward Zuko. He stood silently, leaning against the frame of the staircase, and stared into the darkness at the shorter girl almost resentfully knowing the comment was directed at him as well as the waterbender.

"I've just had trouble sleeping lately…" Katara stroked her hair, eyes still unadjusted to the dark. She shifted her weight nervously listening for any tell-tale signs that other members of the group might be awake and roaming the halls.

"I've told you before, if you're going to lie to me, you should at least put a little effort into it." Toph stared uselessly towards the boy in front of her though her words were directed to the taller girl nearly pressed against the wall.

Katara raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Look, Katara, I know you're lying again." Her voice sounded slightly annoyed as she turned around and filled the gap between them with a few quick steps.

"I'm not lying." She crossed her arms, annoyed as well, knowing well this too was a lie. Perhaps the lies to cover up the first would throw Toph off her trail and she'd go back to bed, but then again it never worked in the past.

The blind girl poking her in the arm set to find the truth, "Either you tell me what's going on right now, or I'll ask Sokka."

"Ask him what?" She leaned towards the younger girl in an attempt to intimidate her with the obvious size difference though it mattered little to a girl who couldn't see.

"Why have you and Zuko been sneaking out together every night?" She put her hands on her hips and skipping right to the point. The firebender folded his arms and straightened his back out against the wall.

"I'm not sneaking anywhere with anyone, Toph." Katara's voice rose, threatening to wake everyone.

"Stop lying to me!" Toph's voice grew louder and desperate as the words squeaked out.

"Calm down." Zuko stepped forward, easing away from the darkest corner near the stairs. The light from the windows illuminated his figure just enough to be recognized. The floorboards moaned with his every step. For a moment there was silence. Toph hung her head trying to understand the reason he remained silent up to this point while Katara searched for the right words to put together to make the question dangling on the tip of her tongue. He glanced at Toph and then at the older girl.

"How long have you been here?" Katara watched the shadowy figure standing beside the blind girl. The faint light from the dark sky peeked in enough for her to see his outline as her eyes adjusted at last. He looked bored, almost as though he listened to the entire conversation.

"A while…" Zuko stared through the black air.

"Now would you please tell me what's going on?" Toph folded her arms, insisting on gathering the information. She'd noticed the strange sneaking around at the Western Air Temple, and after a slow start it seemed to increase and last far longer. Sometimes, she would sense the two returning not late after the sun started to climb the horizon.

"Nothing's going on." Katara insisted, as though to suggest it would be better just to head back to bed.

"Then why are you always sneaking out?" She stared blankly.

"We're just friends…" She said quietly. Toph's head raised and she glanced sideways at the tall boy beside her and then back to Katara, her eyebrow lifted curiously. His heart beat grew stronger, faster, and as he shifted his weight, his breath caught in his throat. The words seemed to sting him like a buzzard-wasp. Every muscle tightened for just a second as the words echoed in the stale air, then released slowly and relaxed again. Even with the gradual calming, his heart continued to race. Toph squinted at the ground as though watching the thumps and thump-pumps in his chest. The longer it hung stagnant in the middle of the three, the more effect it had. Katara swallowed hard as her pulse started to rise as her eyes drifted from Toph to Zuko. The blind girl sighed, uncertain if she changed her posture or where she was looking but either way she had a good guess as to the reason for the change in hearts.

"I guess I can understand if you're just friends." She shrugged smugly and then turned to the boy with the calm façade, "Hey, Zuko, could I talk to you about something for a minute, privately."

"Sure." He barely got a word out before the small girl grabbed his wrist and pulled him down the hall, listening carefully to Katara's footsteps as she walked down the stairwell.

He stumbled close behind, trying to regain his balance but she could have cared less if he fell over or just tripped over his own feet the entire way down the hall. Toph stopped near the end of the hallway. Her fingers unwrapped from around his wrist, releasing him from her strong hold, and she took a deep breath, "I know it's none of my business but you need to stop doing this."

"Doing what?" He glanced toward the stairwell. His thoughts wandered off to the previous nights. The long walks and drawn out talks about the war, after the war, and long unspoken memories. Sometimes, the words were hard to bring from fragmented nightmares of the past to open discussion but somehow they found a way. Once in a while, there were tears or there would be laughter but most of the time they walked in silence knowing if they had anything to say, the other was right there waiting to listen. Suddenly his reminiscing was broken.

"Stop all these secret meetings with Katara." Her voice sank, nearly a sad tone as if in pity, "I don't really care you and Sugar Queen are up to every night, but you need to stop it before Aang comes back and before Sokka finds out."

"Why?" Zuko turned his attention back to her, keeping his mind focused on the situation. He'd seen her earthbending and knew she was a force to reckon with, and ignoring her was a mistake only Sokka would make, and only did once.

"If you haven't noticed, Aang really cares about her, and to be honest, I don't think he'll be happy when he finds out about all this." She said as a warning. He remained silent. Zuko knew about the Avatar's feelings for her and understood those feelings weren't returned. Toph sighed, "On top of that, Sokka won't exactly be thrilled to know his sister's sneak off with her new boyfriend at night to go on secret dates."

"What?" He jumped back a bit, the statement hit him hard.

The blind girl raised an eyebrow noting the strange leap in his heartbeat, "What part of that surprised you, the Aang part or the Sokka part?"

"The boyfriend part…" He said quietly to the point she nearly missed the comment.

She smiled making an assumption about their relationship and Katara's history with relationships, "I guess she didn't tell you she had a boyfriend before you."

Zuko looked over with a glare, "No—

"You don't have to worry about it, though. It's not like he's coming back." She said with a sad sigh, distant, and somehow remorseful.

"What happened?" Zuko softened. Her tone tipped him off that something terrible must have occurred. It was as though misery followed the waterbender wherever she went.

"He died." She said, almost flatly to choke back a few salty tears she promised herself never to let escape over someone she hardly knew, "I didn't know much about him. I guess they got in a pretty bad fight and broke up. Katara never even mentioned him until he showed up in Ba Sing Se one day; and then she nearly had a moose-lion over it. I guess he did something really awful. I haven't seen her that angry at anyone except you in a long time." Toph paused, remembering the last moments, "I have to admit, I didn't trust him at first, especially after all the things they told me about him…but in the end…Jet was good."

The name rang clear in his memory. The tall boy had stood next to him speaking of alliances and outcasts sticking together because no one looked after them except each other. His mop hair waved in the wind as the steel ship cut through choppy Earth Kingdom water on the way to the greatest walled city of any nation. Together they stole food for the hungry and became something like friends. The greatest misfortune with the renegade companion was his attempt to prove Zuko and his uncle to be Firebenders. Though he was right, it ended any friendship they created for the sake of safety. Even so, Zuko felt him a friend for the good he'd shown and his acceptance of a fellow outcast. His throat felt dry as he quietly asked, "Jet?"

"Yeah…" Toph's voice melted away in a sad trail.

He turned away with the conformation he needed, "I didn't know..." She looked up sensing a change as he walked away slowly, running a hand on the wall as he walked down the stairs. It was as though his heart nearly stopped, and small pieces of him rested broken in front of her. Perhaps he never heard about the boy's falling. It was truly a sad fate for someone so young and someone who'd just turned his life around for the better. Toph knew he ached inside, the weakness of his muscles was the give away of a silent mourning for the fallen friend, and yet there was something amiss. It felt to her as though his heart was racing like a nervous wreck, his breathing was slow and uneven. She stared into the emptiness of the hall as his footsteps faded away.

Katara stood up from her chair as he stepped down and walked across the floor to meet her. She smiled brightly as they left the house and up the long dusty road. For some distance, neither spoke. There was nothing out of place about it. She looked up at the sky for a brief moment; the stars brought enough light to see and it was considerably more than inside the apartments. Her eyes drifted over to her companion. Zuko stared forward.

"Are you okay?" She slowed her stride as he turned to her. At first, his face twisted with a vast array of emotions. Words hung in his mind, glowing through his eyes and begging questions left unanswered. Finally, he composed his thoughts.

"What happened in Ba Sing Se?" He stared seriously.

"What?" Katara stopped, confused by the question. They both knew what happened and the near catastrophic finale to the event. There was little need to dig up the memories and start wondering what would have happened if things were different. A few nights before, they'd explored that imaginary route for nearly the entire night bringing laughs and hidden questions neither dared to ask.

He looked down uncertain if he should inquire but before he had a chance to reconsider the words slipped out, "What happened to Jet?"

"How do you know about him?" She stared in awe at him as though he figured out the secret to ending the war without risking Aang's life.

"He was my friend." Zuko's eyes lifted with a strange wet gloss pooling against the natural gold shades. The tears were there but they never fell. This side of him was strange and unfamiliar, but sensitive and real to her.

"Are you sure it's the same Jet?" She lifted an eyebrow. There was an off chance that the Jet she knew and Zuko had met and became friends but she didn't think it was possible that the two boy could have run into each other and they, at the time, were enemies in the same city unknowingly.

He turned away facing the horizon let the night wind dry the tears that begged to roll down his cheeks, "He said he used to be a 'Freedom Fighter' but he changed and was headed to Ba Sing Se. My uncle and I met him and two of his friend on the ship."

Katara reached up and put a hand on his shoulder, "I didn't know you were friends."

"I didn't know he was your boyfriend." Something bitter rang in his voice. He stared down into the ground, gritting his teeth in regret that the words had escaped his lips so easily.

"He's not my boyfriend." She pulled back her hand and put it on her hip, jutting it out to the side.

"He was your boyfriend…" Zuko's nose crinkled as he glared at a lumpy rock by the side of the road. Somehow it was hard to believe that the waterbender could hate him for such a long time and manage to have dated Jet. That boy was nearly out of his mind with radical ideas to end the war and even more so to expose Zuko and his uncle's true identities. Even so, he couldn't help but admit that the mop head boy was talented with the hook swords and gave him a decent challenge. They had more in common that he wanted to acknowledge but he knew it as though it were a simple fact.

"No he wasn't…wait, Toph told you that, didn't she?" Her arms dropped to her sides.

"It doesn't matter." He glanced over at her. Jet and Katara was completely different. It was no wonder the relationship ended badly.

Katara's eyes narrowed suspicious of the sudden interested in the deceased boy, "Then what's the big deal?"

"You could have told me." Zuko's voice lowered as though biting back on resentment, and ruefully choking it down to keep under control his flaring temper.

"You could have told me that you have a girlfriend, but you didn't and heard from Aang! So why does it matter if I didn't tell you about Jet? You didn't tell me about Mai!" She raised her voice, turning her back to him and leaving him with the cold sting of her voice as she too grew bitter.

"What? Mai's not my girlfriend!" He tossed his hands in the air, exasperated by the assumptions everyone made with the single drop of her name, "Why does everyone think that?"

"Maybe because that's what you told Aang." She glanced over her shoulder with a menacing glare.

"I never said that!" His shoulders slumped forward. Katara grunted in disbelief and turned her nose up at the sky. Zuko put a hand on his forehead with a slap, "Alright, fine, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Mai."

"So she is your girlfriend?" An obvious harshness lingered in every word. It was like a lethal bite, one after another.

"No, I ended it with her; it wouldn't have worked out anyways." He pinched the bridge of his nose trying to forget about his originally reasons for ever being interested in the knife throwing girl.

"Oh really…?" Katara said bitterly, not expecting or wanting an answer.

"She's not type…" He trailed off and looked away, scratching the back of his head.

She turned around, surprised, "What is your type?"

Zuko looked over with wide eyes. He then looked around, frantically searching for the answer he'd only give minimal thought to and then his returned his attention to her, "It's complicated…"

Katara smiled, her eyes jumped to the ground and then back up at him, "I have time to listen."

He smiled a little and looked back at the road. Wisps of dust whirled about in circles before settling back on the ground only to be stirred up again later. They walked down the road slowly, avoiding dusty whirls as they came to the empty ports. Night after night they would return to this spot as though it called for them. A few times, they'd joked about waiting for the sunrise but each time they returned to bed before it happened. The waves rolled in slow and small as though being courteous to those sleeping. Zuko walked over to the sand bank and sat down. Katara sat next to him and for a long time there was silence. He finally looked at her, reclining on his arms, "She was boring." She gave him a skeptical look. Zuko smiled and looked down at his legs dangling over the bank's edge, "She bottled everything up. I never knew what she wanted or how she felt. It was like she didn't feel anything." He looked over at the girl beside him. Before, a different girl sat at his side with his arm resting behind her, both seeming to be care free, and now in her place sat a waterbender that made habit of sneaking out late at night with him.

"I thought that's how girls in the Fire Nation were supposed to act." Katara smiled, shifting her eyes towards him for only a moment until he looked away.

"It is…" He stared out at the ocean with an unhappy tone.

Katara looked down at her lap, crossing her ankles, "She must be perfect for you…"

He whipped around with wide eyes, "I just told you she's not."

"I know, but she's perfect." She turned to him with a little shrug, having already accepted the expectations for women in the Fire Nation and making assumptions about where his interest should lie.

"I can't stand her. I wish she would have just cared about something for once." He tossed his hands in the air and then fell onto his back with a thump. Zuko took a deep breath before releasing a deep frustrated sigh, "There's nothing wrong with having a few emotions. I hate when girls just bottle everything inside and pretend like nothing's wrong."

Katara smiled, restraining a snicker, and staring down at him for a moment and then dropping onto her back next to him, "I think you just want to find someone who has as much passion for something as you do."

A grin spread across his face as he looked over at her as she stared at the stars. Zuko's eyes drifted back to the sky, "Do you think there's someone out there like that?"

"Of course there is, Zuko." She rolled over to her stomach, head resting on her arm, "You just have to know where to look."

His head turned to the side as he stared at her, "Where should I start looking?" Katara smiled and looked up the small knoll leading back to the road from which they first came, a small laugh escaping her lips but an answer to his question never followed. He sighed, nearly chuckling at his own inquiry and turned his gaze up to the twinkling heavens. The wind rushed over the knoll and across the sandy beach and whistled through salt worn rocks letting out a howl that sounded cold and broken, and yet somehow sweet as if calling out for the sea that had always been there but the rocks in one way or another hadn't noticed it or its longing for it before just that moment.


A/N: I bet you want to know why I called this 'Hallelujah' since, you know, they didn't kiss or anything cool like that. Well, it's more like a ahem cold and broken hallelujah. (Sarah: You were just trying to get them to come as close as possible to flirting without crossing that fine line...) I will admit, it's pretty close to flirting...it's like they're thinking about it! Wait...that means...that means...that..MEANS...They're going to hook up soon...they're going to kiss soon! ... Um, no. Not yet but since everyone wants to know, I guess I could throw you guys a bone. I mean, after nearly 4000 views and AMAZING COMMENTS! I think you deserve something in return.

Well, folks, don't get too depressed over this but this is actually a Kataang story in the long run.

jk.

Actually, the big news are only 3 chapters left. That's right. 10 chapters in total. (Unless you talk me into a bigger committment... :) )
So there you have it.

THANK YOU FOR COMMENTS AND PLEASE LEAVE MORE! I LOVE THEM!

Amy.