I do not own Avatar or any of its characters.

Words to Regret

Appa was almost loaded when Zuko returned to camp. She let out a sigh of relief. If he had stayed away any longer Sokka was going to leave him behind. She smiled as he approached but it faded quickly when she got a good look at him. He walked slowly, with a slight limp and the expression on his face was pained.

"What happened?" she asked concerned.

"Nothing" he said through clenched teeth. "I guess I over did it a little on my walk."

"Well come sit down and rest for a moment."

"We don't really have the luxury of waiting any longer Katara. His sister is probably hot on our trail and we've already lost a lot of time today." Sokka yelled in her direction.

"That's ok." Zuko replied. "I'm not going with you anyway. You can leave whenever you wish."

"Well then let's go" Sokka said with a little too much excitement in his voice.

"No Sokka," she yelled back, "He's not staying behind." She turned to Zuko. "We can't leave you. You're still not well."

"I'm well enough" he said. "After another night of sleep I'll be fine."

"Zuko, you don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

"You're pulling away. I'm sorry about earlier. I promise not to pry anymore. Your business is your own, but you really need to give yourself more time."

Anger flared in his eyes and he yelled at her, "Stop treating me like I'm some little kid. I've been on my own for some time now and I've survived worse than this. I appreciate all you have done for me but I don't need your help anymore!"

She could feel the tears spring to her eyes, but she held them back. Anger surged through her and she met his glare. "Don't you dare talk to me like that. I do not treat you like a child. I have only shown you compassion and we all know you don't really deserve that. After all you have put us through we should have left you behind to die."

"I never asked for your help little miss compassionate. No one told you to heal me with your water bending."

"No, no one did. In fact everyone was pretty much against it. Maybe I should have just left you to die. Or better yet left you behind for you sister to finish off. No wonder she wants you dead. You're such an arrogant, hotheaded, jerk! Living with you had to have been unbearable!"

"As if being with you that last two days has been a picnic." He shot back.

"At least I know when to be grateful. At least I can appreciate when others are being nice to me."

"Well sorry that I can't be as perfect as you. You would never be ungrateful towards others. In fact you're just the model of womanly virtue. Soft spoken, slow to anger, always calm."

"Oh and you're just the perfect gentleman aren't you. You would never do anything as rude as tying a girl to a tree as bait, or hunting her down with a fierce animal, or even blasting her with fireballs while trying to steal her friend."

"I haven't done anything to you that you haven't deserved." He said in a quiet voice. "I would never mistreat you without a good reason."

"Without a good reason! What could possibly be a good reason to treat me badly. I never did anything to you. Never! Augh! Sokka was right. You are a big jerk!" To drive the point home she put both hands against his shoulders and gave a push. He let out a muffled groan and fell back. Too late she remembered his broken arm.

"Oh Zuko, I am so sorry. I forgot about your arm." She put out her hand to help him up, but he slapped it away.

"Don't do me any more favors" he said in a low voice. He rose slowly to his feet. She felt miserable about losing her temper. Why couldn't she keep her cool around him. Frustrated now she could feel the tears she had held back start to run down her face. She looked down trying to avoid his gaze, but it was too late. He had seen her tears.

"I guess you could add 'overly emotional' to your list of insults as well." She said and then choked on a sob.

"I'm sorry Katara. I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. Please don't cry." He brought his hand up to her face and using the sleeve from his shirt he wiped her tears. Then he started to smile. "I guess I should have used something a little cleaner. Now you've got dirty smudges instead of tears."

She smiled in return and tried to wipe her tears with her hands in an attempt to clean up. "Better?" she asked.

He stared at her for a moment and then replied, "Yeah. You look fine."

Sokka's voice loudly called, "Ok enough! Can't you two even fight without it turning into some sappy moment. Come on Katara. We need to go. Say goodbye to prince charming and let's get out of here."

She looked at Zuko and pleaded, "Please come with us."

"It's better if I don't "

She stopped herself short before she really made a fool of herself. "Ok then I guess it's goodbye."

"For now." He replied.

"Yeah, for now." And then a thought came to her. "You know before we found you we were heading to Ba Sing Se. That is where you're headed isn't it?"

"Sort of."

"Well then wouldn't it be in your best interest to continue on with us. I mean Appa is pretty fast, faster than traveling on foot."

He seemed to consider, when Sokka interjected. "Katara, stop it. You heard the nice prince. He wants to be alone. It would be rude for us to force him to come along with us when he clearly doesn't want to. No matter how much we'll miss him. "

Zuko looked at Sokka and she could tell that he was thinking it over. Maybe his desire to tick off her brother would be greater than his desire to stay behind. After a moment he responded in a loud voice meant for Sokka to hear, "You know I would hate to let your brother down. I know he really enjoys my company."

Relief spread through her and she grinned. "No we wouldn't want to disappoint Sokka, would we."

"No, really it wouldn't disappointment me that much if he stayed behind."

They both walked towards Appa, ignoring Sokka's pleas. He was coming with them. There was still time to change his mind about Aang. In her heart she thought that maybe there was time for them as well. No idiot she chided herself. He is not what he appears to be. This guy is too much for anyone to deal with. But still she couldn't help but feel excited that he was staying with them a little time longer.

Once again they rode in silence. After the exchange between himself and Katara everything had been awkward. He should have stayed behind. He realized that now that he had had some time to cool down. He had made the decision while he was meditating earlier. He really needed to be free of them, free of Katara to be more specific. He still couldn't believe that he opened up about his banishment with her. He had never told a soul before. But yet she had gotten him to talk. And to make matters worse he had felt a sense of relief. It had felt good to be able to confide in someone. But that confidence had made them grow closer. He couldn't afford to get too close to anyone now, especially her.

He closed his eyes and thought back to the first time he had seen her, back in the South Pole. He had terrorized her village looking for the Avatar. He could remember the fear in her eyes as well as those of the other women and children. Is this what his life had come to, he thought, terrorizing women and children? Had the Avatar become so important that he would stop at nothing to find him? He remembered her words from earlier: tying her to the tree as bait, hunting her down with the shirshu and of coarse the battle at the North Pole. They had had their moments hadn't they? But that was the way it was with them. When he was around her he found himself doing things that he would never do to other girls. But she was not like other girls. She was tough and fierce when she wanted to be, at other times though she could be so temperamental and aggravating. He admired her sense of loyalty and her compassionate nature. She had protected her new friend no matter what the cost and she had treated him with great care and concern even though he knew he didn't deserve it, but that was her way he realized. She was willing to give him a chance, even though he had been horrible to her in his quest to bring the Avatar home. It was a chance that he knew he didn't deserve, yet he found that he wanted.

Of course accepting her kindness would mean having to hurt her in the end. Eventually he would have to leave. If he stayed too long Uncle would die. He had to find him soon. He knew he still needed time though. Today had been painfully obvious to him. Just that short trek into the woods had exhausted him. When he did leave he would not have the luxury of a flying bison to carry him to his destination. He didn't even have the ostrich horse anymore. He would have to walk and walking would take forever. It made sense to stay with them as long as they were headed to Ba Sing Se. When the time presented itself he would go. Of course once he had his uncle he would return again and this time there would be nothing to keep him from taking the Avatar.

A.N. I realize that Katara is crying in just about every chapter so far, but you know how it can be. We all have our emotional weeks. Enough said.

Anyways the next few chapters will see Katara back in true form.