AN: I thought I'd update. I know this is a bit shorter, but the next chapter will be really really good! Full of lots of fun and action, etc. The story really lifts off a bit in these next couple of chapters. However, this still isn't much of an action/adventure fic so it won't last too long. I like character developement best.

"Hey, Sensha…" Katara tried to sound casual but was failing miserably. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could get some poison-root berry leaves do you?"

Sensha blinked her squinty eyes at Katara as she helped hang the laundry on the line. It was almost noon and the whole morning had been spent washing clothes and bed linen. The heavy work was typically done by women only, but strangely enough, the girl claimed to never have done such work and the boy did.

Of course, Sensha wasn't complaining, really, the boy was obviously a lot stronger than the girl. Which was good for hanging soaked sheets high up on a rope strung between the house and a nearby tree. And he was good-looking.

But what was a boy asking about poison-root berry?

"I have some," Sensha admitted gruffly. "Why?"

"My brother and I need to make a… well, it's sort of like some medicine, I guess." Katara threw a sheet over the line and pinned it there with three pieces of split-wood pins.

"You all sick?"

"Oh, it's not contagious!" Katara hurried to reassure the woman. "It… it's more of a mental thing, really."

Sensha drew back. "You don' look insane."

Katara laughed nervously. "Yeah, well, I'm not. Can't say so much for my brother…" At Sensha's look of surprise and fear, Katara laughed for real and waved her hands in the air, saying, "Oh no, Sensha, I'm just kidding! He's fine, he's fine. I was just making a joke – you know, sibling rivalry and all."

The old woman laughed hesitantly and took a step back. "Right… is there anything else you need? To get you on your way?"

Katara rattled off the rest of the list and Sensha shook her head. "I've only got them beetle-bush leaves, but I'll go get it and the root and you all can be on your way. Wouldn't want you to be sick!"

As Sensha scuttled back into the hut, Katara fought between the desire to laugh and smack her forehead. Who knew she was possible of making such a bad impression?

"Well, they were in a hurry to get rid of us!"

Katara walked cheerfully down the path, almost skipping as Zuko behind her lead the ostrich-horse. She wished she could see herself right then. Somehow, she imagined it would be very funny to see Zuko acting as happy and carefree as she felt.

"Two ingredients, Zuko! Two! Can't you even smile a little?" Katara fell back to walk in step with Zuko, though her steps were admittedly a tad more bouncy than his.

Zuko snarled at her. "Do you know what that man had me doing? Cleaning up filth!"

Katara shrugged. "So he had a couple of barn animals. Get over it. You're on the lam, Zuko."

He scowled and looked away, remembering the smell, particularly. "It was disgusting. I wasn't made for this."

"Neither was I," Katara noted absently, watching a butterfly dance around a bush they passed. "But you don't see me complaining."

"What are you talking about?" Zuko sneered. "You're a stupid peasant. You were made for cleaning filth."

"You know, Zuko," Katara felt herself starting to get a little edgy. "You better watch your attitude. You don't know anything about me."

"I know you're a peasant and I know those farmers were peasants, so I know you would be doing the exact same thing they were doing if it weren't for the stupid avatar."

"I lived in a tundra, Zuko! There were no animal droppings!" Katara rolled her eyes. "And what's Aang got to do with anything anyway?"

"He's ruined everything," Zuko muttered. "If he didn't exist, my life would be perfect."

"Yeah, sure, Zuko." Katara could feel her temper rising. How dare this spoiled brat blame his own stupidity on Aang? Innocent, kind Aang? "I bet you'd be hanging out with your evil sister, plotting evil ways of doing something other than catching Aang, and… I don't know, killing kittens or something!"

Zuko stopped and glared at Katara who stopped, as well.

"That brat has ruined my life! He doesn't exist for a hundred years and then just randomly shows up? If he would just sit quietly and let me capture him, there wouldn't be a problem! The war would be over and I could go HOME."

"You're blaming Aang for not letting himself be captured?" Katara sputtered. "That's ridiculous! And who wants the war to end like that anyway? Only the Fire Nation does! Your people destroyed Aang's people! You've destroyed his home – I've seen it! – and you talk about going back to yours? You don't know how lucky you are! To have parents, to have a family!"

"What parents?" Zuko demanded. "A father, that's it!"

"That's all I've got, too, Zuko!" Katara yelled. "Because your people killed my mother!"

Zuko scoffed. "Who cares about your stupid peasant mother?"

Katara's eyes widened. She had never felt so angry in her life. Rage rose up in her like flames, burning through her veins and coating her skin. She actually saw red, she was so incensed.

"You know nothing!" Katara slashed the air in front of her with her hand.

Zuko jumped back at the wave of fire that just barely missed him. His anger left as he realized the true problem – the girl was extremely angry, yes, but now she was a firebender, untrained. She didn't know how to control her fire and he was pretty sure she didn't even realize the flames were hers, yet.

"How dare you call my mother stupid!" Katara took a step forward and the ground was marked with a burn in the shape of her foot. "She was a noble woman with a good heart!" Katara's voice broke on the word heart.

"Katara," Zuko held up his hands. He was surprised at how quickly his own anger left him when faced with the need to calm Katara down. It was almost as if he wasn't feeling his own emotions. "Calm down."

Katara shook her head, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. "She loved me, Zuko. Do you understand that? Can you?"

"Yes," Zuko lowered his hands and looked straight up into Katara's eyes. "My mother loved me too."

"Yeah," Katara scoffed, the burning behind her eyes was starting to embarrass her. "But she's sitting cozy in a palace while mine's dead."

"No," Zuko shook his head. Like water dripping, he felt his heart practically melting with the weight of his emotions. "She's gone."

Katara stopped moving forward.

He looked so sad, standing there. It was a pain beyond words, beyond tears, even. It was almost as if he couldn't cry, as if it wasn't in him. For the first time ever, Katara saw a person who had sorrow etched into their very being, rather than just a powerful emotion being felt for however long a time.

"Really?" she asked, feeling stupid as soon as she said it. "I-I'm sorry."

"You didn't kill her." Zuko tried to drum up some resentment in his voice but he felt like it was sorely lacking.

"I still feel bad."

He looked up at her, wearing his own body, and he wondered if that's what he had always looked like when he was sad. Moments ago, when she had been angry, was that what he looked like? His scar highlighted and deepened in the light of his own flames, a mark that could have symbolized all that was wrong with the warped emotions of love and anger?

Sometimes he truly wondered if his father had given him that mark out of love or the desire to teach a lesson like he claimed. Sometimes he wondered what kind of father would do that to his son and the one answer he could always come up with was that it was something Uncle Iroh would never do.

"Whatever," Zuko shrugged, trying to blow off the emotions he was feeling. It was too tumultuous to want to bother with now. "Let's just go get the rest of the ingredients."

But when he tried to walk off, he found himself swept up in a hug, his feet lifted off the ground until only his toes barely touched the path. Strong arms wrapped around him and he was surrounded by his old scent and the new scent of Katara's body.

And it felt nice, finally, to be hugged like this. To feel safe because he was smaller in the arms of someone larger.

"It's okay to be sad," Katara mumbled into his hair. "It's okay to cry. It doesn't make you weak or anything. Don't be ashamed because you feel."

Zuko closed his eyes, and for just a moment, hugged her back a little.

And like water dripping, he felt his heart melt a little more.

AN: Well, that's it for today! Please review! And thank you to everyone who signed up for story alerts or added this story as their fave or made me an author favorite. It really touches my heart when I see that and really makes my day. Seriously, feedback is always appreciated, even if it's not fully complimentary. Any review at all shows you care! (I hope I haven't just opened myself up to a bunch of flames. I can't say I've ever gotten any yet, but I still dread the occasion, should it ever arise...)

But I doubt that'll happen, because you guys are so great!