A/N: Amidst all of the chaos, I managed to finish a chapter! This is a chapter which has 1. ninja adventures 2. mortification 3. continued adventures of Zuko's hormones and 4. stomping (as always).


In the silence of everything, Zuko could hear Katara's exhales so loudly, he could feel them crawl into his ear and settle deep in his gut somewhere. It was like he didn't even need to watch her to know what she was doing; he could just sense her there, moving and breathing and doing that glorious thing she did called existing.

"So where are we going?" Katara asked him, her voice muffled by the fabric drawn over her mouth. If it was easy to tell where she was, it was even easier to tell how tense she was. It wasn't fear, and it wasn't even really anxiety, it was more of a trepidation, a reluctance to cross that line Zuko was now so familiar with.

It felt like he'd been going over it, back and forth, for years.

"We'll be fine," he reassured her in a hushed voice. "I know exactly where we're going; there's plenty of food, and plenty of people who don't deserve it and won't miss it a bit."

Katara seemed to accept this, and nodded quickly in confirmation. So Zuko started moving.

"Stay close," he whispered. Katara exhaled.

"Right," she whispered back, staying right beside him. Anyone else would have stayed right in his shadow, would have clung right behind him, but Katara stayed beside him like a near mirror image, perfectly in tune to his movements, perfectly in tuned to his mind and his motions. If he skirted closer to a wall she did the same, if she dropped to the ground he dropped with her, if she turned her head to shush him, he was already doing it to her.

"So where is this place?" she asked as they traveled quickly to the other side of the island. Zuko climbed easily up a low wall and perched on the top, looking over the landscape.

"It's not on this island," he said. "It's on the mainland. We'll have to cross the water somehow."

Katara climbed up next to him. "I don't think that'll be a problem," she said, giving him a sly little look. "Good thing you have me," and she hopped down to the other side and headed for the beach.

"Yeah," Zuko murmured under his breath, watching her for just a second. "Good thing I have you."

And he hopped down and followed her.

Once they reached the water, Katara froze a sheet of ice and pulled Zuko onto it, her grip firm and commanding. Working her arms in a small but furious windmill motion, she rocketed the two of them to the mainland.

Zuko watched her in silent amazement. When he'd first seen her waterbending, she was...terrible. It was obvious she'd had no prior training, and she was barely a match for anyone. But suddenly, inexplicably, she'd become amazing. Never in all his life had Zuko seen anything like it, and as he watched her, he just marveled at her skill, at her strength.

Traveling the rushing waters reminded him strongly of the southern raiders, and for once, a feeling that wasn't bitter or guilty rose in his chest. This time, he wasn't trying to apologize for something nearly beyond forgiveness. She wasn't looking for revenge. She'd given him no dirty looks (a significant improvement to the last time), and it was just the two of them, on a mission together.

The word together stirred feelings in Zuko's chest, and he ignored them as best he could. He couldn't let his own beating heart give them away; the compromise of their mission could mean the end of it for both of them.

When they reached the mainland, Katara hopped off easily, and Zuko followed.

"Come on," he said with a whisper, and led her down through the alleyways of tightly packed houses. "We're pretty close to the palace, so be careful. Keep on the lookout for guards."

Katara nodded, and stayed close to Zuko as he skimmed walls and kept a fierce lookout. He started to worry, not about himself, but about Katara; what if she was caught? They were close to the palace, too close to the palace. Azula, his dad. countless guards and elite firebenders were in there, and here he was, dragging her into the thick of it. Wanting to put as much space between them and the palace, he turned a sharp corner and led her down a winding path.

When he stopped by the side of a house and cupped his hands together, Katara understood completely. She let him boost her up to the roof, and held her hand down to pull him up once she was up herself.

"It's not far from here," Zuko muttered, looking around.

"Where?"

"It's a storage barn," he told her, taking great care to keep his voice low. He leaned closer to her and whispered the words in her ear, all the time aware of how she shivered and pressed closer to him in the chilly night air. "Where all the 'important' people keep stores of food. Royal court people mostly, like my father's advisors and councilmen. It's not just food though, I hear they keep weapons in there. Weapons and raw materials, stuff like that. It could be useful."

"Okay," Katara nodded, her eyes flashing. "Are there guards?"

"Naturally. We'll have to take them down as silently as we can." He looked at her then, his gaze piercing in the dim light. "However way you want to do that."

He hadn't mentioned it since it happened, but it was impossible for him to forget. He'd seen her that night, fury and blood shaking in her eyes. He saw the solider, completely at the mercy of her movements. He didn't know how she'd done that, but all he knew was that it was pretty cool, if not a little disturbing, and there was no refuting the fact that it would be useful.

Katara must have known was he was getting at, because her shoulders slumped a bit.

"Not that way," she said softly, but firmly. "I don't...I don't do that anymore."

He didn't question it. It didn't seem fair to, and when her eyes fell to the ground and twisted in guilt, he regretted suggesting it with a fierce pang. "All right," he nodded, fingers brushing her arm. "That's fair. But we need a way to take them out without making any noise."

"I have something else in mind," she said, and looked back at him for a second. "The bloodbending...just feels wrong. I don't...I don't want to regress either."

"That's why we're both here," he told cautiously in what he hoped was a reassuring tone, "to keep the other from going too far."

"Yeah," she said slowly. Zuko imagined a small smile on her lips. "You're right."

They nodded at each other once, and hopped to the next rooftop, as swift as cats.

When the storage barn came into view, Zuko stopped moving and pulled Katara back by the wrist. "There," he murmured, keeping her close. There were guards patrolling around the perimeter, each with spears. Katara's eyes narrowed.

"I need water," she said, and pointed to the waterskins she had strapped around her body. "More than this."

"There," Zuko pointed to a grate. "Those channels run underneath the whole capital. It's a good source of power."

Katara shook her head a bit at that, and Zuko looked at her. "What?"

"It's just weird," she said, "that the Fire Nation is on this rampage about how great and superior they are, but they're still depending on other elements."

"Yeah," he said gruffly. "They're not so great as they think they are. Now come on."

"Are they firebenders?" she asked of the guards when they were close.

"Most likely," was Zuko's answer. "So be prepared."

She nodded, and got into a stance. Zuko put a hand on his swords, his knuckles white. He told her to wait, and she did, breath bated.

When two of the three guards crossed paths, she gave a mighty push of her arms into the air, and a wave of water rushed with her. Swiftly, she enveloped the guards and froze them there, their faces halted mid scream. A frozen, clawed hand stuck out of the edge and grasped for her. She skirted away with a shiver, bumping into Zuko as she did so.

"Come on," now it was Katara's turn to pull at his wrist. "That won't hold them forever."

They ran for the other guard then, and when he saw them, he turned in surprise.

"Hey!" he called, pointing his spear in their direction. "This is private property!"

"Sorry," Zuko growled, unsheathing his swords. "But we're in a hurry." He rammed the hilts into the guards stomach, and gave him a swift kick to the head to send him down.

"Okay," Katara said, watching the man's twitching figure. "Now what?"

"Now we get inside," he said, turning to the door. He started to attempt picking the lock with the point of his sword, but Katara pushed him aside.

"This is why you have me," she said, and froze water onto the lock. When she hit it, it shattered, and the door swung open. They rushed inside, aware of how little time they had before the other two guards unfroze and alerted someone.

"Wow," Katara pulled the fabric away from her mouth and looked around; there were tremendous stacks of food everywhere, in crates, in sacks, all piled up to the enormously high ceiling. There was some old scaffolding near the ceiling, pieces of construction no one had bothered to remove. Zuko could see it would be easy to climb the stacks of supplies and get up there, if they needed to hide, and kept that in the front of his mind in case it was necessary. "You really weren't kidding."

"No," Zuko said, tossing her a sack. "I wasn't. Now hurry up, we need to get back before we get caught."

The shiver of fear of being caught passed through both of them, and they caught each other's eyes.

"We'll grab what we can," Katara told him, "and get back to the island."

They began shoving food into their bags, taking anything that looked light and easy to carry. At one point, Zuko caught Katara trying to put an entire watermelon in hers, but he stopped her.

"You're going to carry that all the way back?"

"I like watermelon!"

But she ended up putting it back.

The silence was tense, so Zuko concentrated on the thrumming sound in his ears. There was a fear of being caught, of course, but there was also the thrill of thievery. It was something that had to be treated cautiously, he knew, but there was n denying the fact that he felt a great satisfaction from taking things, especially if they were things people didn't deserve.

There was also the undeniable thrill of being with Katara, who seemed to secretly revel in this as much as he did. In the deep space of the barn, her little exhales soared and filled his ears like rushing water. When he backed up, he accidentally bumped into her, and she startled.

"Sorry," she said in a rush, "I wasn't...I wasn't watching."

"It's okay," he told her as she turned to face him. "I wasn't either."

"So..." she looked around. "I think I have enough food, and I picked up some things we can use until the comet. Insulated blankets, some coins, and this cool scabbard for your...swords..."

She trailed off, because Zuko had taken her hand, and was running a gloved thumb slowly over palm. Desperately he held her there, as if he were afraid she'd repel his touch and tell him off. But she didn't; rather, she just stood there and grasped his hand cautiously, breath shivering from her lungs.

His name was a whisper in her throat. "Zuko."

He didn't even say anything back; he couldn't. Staying perfectly still, careful to not frighten her away he stayed, doing nothing but holding her hand and pleading with her eyes. Katara only looked back at him, her eyes hopeful and sad.

"It wasn't supposed to be this way," she said after a while. He understood. This isn't about you two, Aang had said. Aang was the hero, and the hero got the girl. He was supposed to carry her off into the sunset, Zuko was never supposed to be there.

But he was.

Filled with the urge to just kiss her and get it over with, Zuko swallowed. It would be so easy, he thought, and she has to want it as much as I do. It was all there, the way she pressed closer to him, they way she eyed his lips, the way her heart hammered in her chest. There was electricity all over her body.

He would kiss her, if he could. He would envelop her in his arms, bury his face in the nest of her hair, eliminate any and all spaces between them. He'd kiss her, fiercely, desperately, and she'd fall into him just like he'd always pictured. There in that storage barn he'd finally taste her, finally feel her lips against his. He wanted to push her against a wall, he wanted to feel the heat of her body, he wanted her hips and her breath and her hands, her hands.

Her hand clutched his, and she sighed.

"We should go," she said quietly, eyes falling to their hands. "Those guards could be free any second."

A breath. "Hold on," Zuko said, his brain and reason finally overpowered. He was driven by something entirely else now, the thundering in his ears, the wanting in his chest, the heat in his pants. Without breathing he cupped her face in his hands, letting his fingers slip over her skin. Katara just waited.

And Zuko knew exactly for what.

If the guards hadn't burst in at that moment, he would have. With tremendous guilt he would have kissed her, he would have done everything if she had let him. There was no telling where he might have gone, if the guards hadn't come in, yelling and thrashing fire in their direction. Katara yelped, and the surprise of it pulled her away from him.

"Watch out," he cried as a whip of fire nearly missed her head. "Katara!"

"I'm fine," she yelled, ducking and weaving through the attacks. Zuko unsheathed his swords and flew at them, taking care not to firebend. It wasn't every boy with a scar over their left eye, and giving up his position was the last thing he wanted to do.

Zuko swung a kick at the guard, missing by less than an inch. The guard weaved and approached him from behind, but Katara was there before any blows could be struck. Without a word Zuko took her by the hand and dragged her upwards, jumping easily from one crate of food to the next, until they were on top of one of the large stacks. Katara looked at him questioningly, but he put a finger to his lips and jumped up into the rafters.

The guards, in their confusion, had missed all this. They were looking wildly around, stupidly, but their eyes never travelled to the two benders perched in the rafters. Zuko headed to the scaffolding, where there was a small, enclosed space (possibly a lift, or something of the sort) that he knew they could take refuge in. Zuko dropped into it first, but Katara hesitated.

"They'll see you," he mouthed at her, and seconds before the guards eyes turned to that corner of the ceiling, she lifted her legs over the sides and slipped in, barely missing their attention.

It was in that moment that Zuko realized just how small of a space this was.

Katara must have realized too, because her face had flushed. The thing about Katara, Zuko had noticed, was that she didn't turn embarrassingly bright red like he did, instead her cheeks just adopted a pinkness, a subtle heat and warmth that never went unnoticed by him. He looked at her for a second, and then looked away, feeling that incredible redness coming to his own face.

"How long do you think we have to wait?" she asked eventually, her words cautious and clinging to her tongue. "I don't want anyone to worry."

"I don't know," he said, moving to look over the edge. In doing so, he felt his body shift against hers. Spirits. "It could...it could be a while."

"How long of a while?"

"Well..." he frowned, considering the answer. A thought turned into his head, a thought more on the devious side of things as far as these things were concerned; Zuko had his fair share of devious activity in the past, and while continuing to act in such a manner didn't particularly seem like a good thing to do, he was a teenage boy in a small space with a beautiful girl and spirits be damned if he wasn't going to stretch that time out a little longer.

"They might have raised the alarm. If they have, it'll take about fifteen...thirty minutes for the backup to get here." There's no backup. "And even then..." he shrugged, "who knows."

"Alright," she said a bit uncertainly, shifting uncomfortably. "I guess we'll just have to wait."

There would be enough space, Zuko observed, for both of them to sit comfortably without touching if they hadn't the bags of food in there with them. As it were, Katara was wedged between a shallow wall and his torso, so that every time she moved, her breasts would push against his arm and make him all red faced. Keeping very silent, she tried turning to face him, but there was no space for her to face him unless she was sitting on his lap, so she ended up half scrunched in a corner, half on Zuko, her legs crossed to one side of his body.

The feeling of her thighs wasn't any less red faced inducing than her breasts were, and Zuko felt himself start to sweat. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

He chanced a peek over the edge, and the guards were still sniffing around suspiciously.

"We're stuck here?" Katara asked.

"Yeah," he confirmed, swallowing and looking back at her.

"I didn't even tell Sokka I was going somewhere," she said, muttering and rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands. "He's probably so worried, and Aang..."

"I'm sure they know you can handle yourself," Zuko told her, taking care to keep his voice low. Katara gave him a small smile and nodded.

"I hope so."

They fell into silence again. Zuko, as he was like to do, found himself distracted by the overwhelming tightness of Katara's clothes and her heat and the general scent of her body and her hair and her skin and everything. He inhaled, trying to make it seem like he wasn't trying to drown himself in her scent, her being, like he didn't depend entirely on her presence and her words and her gentle breaths. She's just a girl, he tried to reason, his eyes catching on her breasts again.

And I'm just a boy.

It started with heat, as it always did. Heat was innocent, Zuko was used to heat, under his skin, on his fingertips, in his throat. It was when the heat started to pull at him, when the heat expanded and swelled in unfortunate places that things usually started to get unfortunate. As he battled both the welling feeling in his chest and in his pants, Zuko realized that maybe this wasn't the best of situations. Her face, he could get lost in that face, but it was making his heart only beat ever the faster, only pumping blood to places he did not want it to go.

In a desperate attempt to avoid any such circumstance concerning such things, Zuko tried to rotate his entire body just to get away from hers because this was not good, but the attempt was futile and he ended up accidentally touching more of her than Mai had allowed nearly four months into their relationship.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," he muttered, cursing his stupidity. Katara grabbed his shoulders to stop him.

"Shhh," she urged, "they're going to hear you!"

And she turned to look down over the edge, and as she did so, her godforsaken breasts rubbed against his chest, and he was done.

Spirits spirits sprits why me why now. Zuko scrambled in his mind to think of something, anything else that would just calm him down but it was just no use. His knee shot up in a vain attempt to conceal himself, but in doing so, he accidentally clocked her in the face.

She nearly cried out, but he clamped a hand to her mouth. "Sorry," he hissed desperately, wanting nothing more at this point than to just go home and forget the whole thing ever happened. For fuck's sake I hit her in the face. "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah," she whispered back, rubbing her jaw. "It's okay. Don't worry about..."

Her eyes flicked down, and shot back up. Zuko's lips tightened and he looked at her with an expression that he hoped was 'um yeah so this happened to me and I'm sorry about it but really if you think about it it's not my fault' but probably came off more as 'I'm a total creep and also a weirdo.' Her eyes were only wide, understanding and suddenly frozen by the sudden realization of the situation.

Um, was all she said, um seemed to be the only word coming to her head. Zuko scrambled for something, anything to say, but he settled for crossing his legs as firmly as he could in the constricted space and hunching down so he could grumble incoherently into the floor.

What would Uncle do? He racked his mind frantically, trying to think of solutions, when Katara presented one herself.

"If you don't say anything, then I won't say anything," she told him from somewhere very far away, her words jarred by the awkwardness that came with the situation. "Ever."

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled quickly, turning red again. He could feel the embarrassment washing over him, taking away the burning, and he felt himself get a bit better. He chanced a glance back up at her, but Agni above she was staring and when his eyes raised, hers took the slightest of seconds to snap back up to his face.

"We should be good," she said quickly, jolting to her feet. "I'll just freeze the guards again, I'll freeze everyone in the Fire Nation if we can just go home and go to bed." Zuko raised an eyebrow at her, and she paused, her eyes wide. "Not...not together! I didn't mean together, to our own...separate..."

She trailed off, her words helpless. Zuko, who was self aware enough to realize that he was in no way capable of coherent speech at the present moment, just nodded tightly and waved a hand.

"You go," he said gruffly. "I'll...catch up."

Katara nodded abruptly, and threw one leg over the edge of the low wall. She looked down, and then back at Zuko for a second.

"Are you...you're not gonna...take...care of...that, or...are you?" her eyes flicked back down, and he threw his palm to his forehead and groaned.

"No."

"Good, because it's...not that you shouldn't, I mean it's...but we have to get back and..."

"Just go," he hissed through his teeth, nearly on the edge of curling up onto a ball on the floor and pulling his hair out. Katara only nodded again, lips pulled in embarrassment, and dropped out of sight.

He couldn't exactly remember a time where he'd felt more mortified than that exact moment right then; there was really no going on from that point. I may as well just stay up here forever. He'd liked to think that before, his burgeoning attraction for Katara had gone mostly unnoticed by her, and even if it hadn't, it was reasonable enough for both of them to just ignore it and go on as usual. But now there was no chance of that at all and he would have no other option but to go back to the Fire Nation and hang out with Azula and marry Mai (after maybe getting her out of that prison he left her in).

Zuko also realized with a plummeting feeling that minutes before the scaffolding incident, he had actually made an attempt to kiss her, and that wouldn't go unnoticed either. I am the worst person in the universe. Reflecting that he'd, in the span of about three or four days, made a promise, repeatedly battled with keeping that promise, tried to break said promise, and after failing to do so, continued to get hormonal in the presence of the girl of which the promise revolved around.

Yep, never leaving this roof.

But there was a hiss. "Zuko!" Katara called from below. "Come on, we have to go!"

Grumbling endlessly about the miserable state of his life, Zuko clambered out of his hiding spot, making sure to grab both bags of stolen goods, and made his way back down to the ground, where Katara was waiting.

"Frozen?" he asked, trying to clear his throat and talk at the same time. She nodded.

"Feel better?" she asked, making an attempt at teasing him. He only grumbled some more, and she gave him a sympathetic (but still exceptionally awkward) pat on the shoulder that didn't make him feel any better.

"That isn't not talking about it," he grumbled, crossing his arms fiercely. Katara looked uncertainly on the ground.

"So...we should go?"

"We should go," he clarified, and with one last clumsy exchange of glances, they left the warehouse.

Now that they were encumbered by heavy bags, the journey back was a lot slower. Katara remained quiet, and Zuko didn't feel like pushing the silence.

Spirits, what was I thinking? He admonished himself the whole way back. When I get back, I swear to Angi, I'm going to my room and I will STOMP and I will HUFF and I will INCINERATE anyone who admonishes me for doing so.

It was Aang who greeted them first. His eyes were drawn suspiciously, and he eyed Zuko with a great deal of concern.

"Where did you guys go this time?" he asked. As a response, Zuko threw the bag at his feet.

"Now you won't go hungry. You're welcome," he snapped, and turned around to stomp up to his room. He was followed by calls of "how did you get this" and "I hope this wasn't acquired by dishonest means," but he just ignored it.

Once he'd gotten to his room and slammed his door very dramatically, he started to regret being so snappy. Sometimes he forgot Aang was actually his friend, and he needed to start showing him at least some level of respect before he was kicked out of the group and marked as an enemy again.

Chalking it up as another point of regret, Zuko sighed and curled into his bed, breathing the smell of his childhood, drowning in memories he never wanted to keep.


A/N: Thanks for reading! And a continued thank you to all the beautiful people of the world who take the time to tell me what they think of the story, it really means a lot to me and it helps to know what you guys like! Since I'm writing a new chapter ever week or so ish now, I am taking suggestions of things you guys would want to see in the future (I'll try to incorporate things as much as I can, as long as it fits; someone asked for an embarrassed Zuko or Katara and I think that was achieved).

If you hadn't noticed, I just love torturing this poor kid (although he really does a lot of it to himself). Zuko won't suffer for long, there WILL BE ACTUAL ZUTARA in this story. Zuko will still suffer in other ways, because that's the way Zuko is, but believe me, I'm just as anxious as you are for these kids to get their Zutara on.

(As always, you can find me on tumblr and talk to me about zuko's feeliings and zutara and zutara feelings or just follow me or not I'm just throwing the option out there) (for clarification, I'm fire-lordzuzu and not firelordzuzu which is really a shame but what can you do) (parentheses)

(If I don't update as much, it's because I have school and a massive workload, but I'm not going to stop writing by any means! So just bear with me, and I'll deliver the Zutara on a semi regular basis. I'll complete this story if it kills me or else I will have DISHONOR)