Katara woke up in Zuko's arms, him lying behind her, an arm draped over her waist and the other under his head. She brought her eyebrows together in frustration about the events preceding her awakening. She looked down to see her hand in Zuko's. She allowed herself to smile at this. His bare chest was pressed to her almost bare back, and the sensation of his skin on hers felt wonderful. She knew she would miss this, when she became Katara again, and he became Firelord Zuko again. She exhaled slowly.

When did life get so complicated? She thought to herself, shutting her eyes.

Zuko squeezed her hand, revealing that he was awake. "Morning," he whispered in her ear, sending shivers down her spine.

"Mmm." Katara answered with a pleasant smile, enjoying his presence. Heat radiated from his body, raising goosebumps where her arms were exposed to the cool air.

He pressed his lips into her neck and elicited a laugh from her as she tilted her head awkwardly to meet him for a kiss. He paused at the sensation of dried blood on her lip.

"Sorry." She ran her fingers over her mouth. It occasionally started bleeding again due to any sudden lip movement she made.

"It's okay." He brought his hand over her waist and kissed her neck again.

She smiled happily and tilted her head into the tunic under her head, exposing more of her neck to his lips. He brought his kisses to her bare shoulder and his hand down over her hip. He opened his eyes to the red cut on her breast, just above the line of her undershirt.

"What's that?" he quickly snapped, meeting her gaze,

Katara turned her head to look at it. "A cut."

"On your-,"

She brought her eyebrows down at his reaction.

"-Was he- was he touching you, Katara?" he whispered, his eyebrows down in confusion, anger and fury.

Katara's mouth dropped open. "What?" she whipped her head around and stared at him. "No! He was gone by the time I passed out." She managed to bring her voice back down to acceptable levels, considering he was right beside her.

"You passed out?" Zuko gritted his teeth.

"Zuko, you need to calm down." She took his hand in hers.

"No, I don't. I need to find this hogmonkey and slit his throat." He murmured angrily.

Katara bit her lip at his words. She took a sharp breath and ran her thumb across his hand.

"I should have gone with you." He rolled away from her, onto his back. "I could have protected you."

Katara sat up and looked at him. "This isn't your fault."

"Then whose is it?" he snapped.

She jolted at his sudden answer and turned her head away from him. She knew what he was implying; that it was her fault. That she should have used her waterbending to protect herself, instead of being so stubborn.

"It's my fault, right?" she answered bitterly. "Is that what you want me to say?"

Zuko sat up and put his hand on her back. "No. No! I'm just … I'm angry. I'm angry because I don't want to see you hurt." He finally managed out.

Katara turned her head to look at him with a slight smile and sat up straighter, before putting the bottoms of her feet on the floor and pushing up into a standing position and heading for the bathroom. Zuko breathed out and got onto his feet, stretching his arms upward and walking into the kitchen area, a frown etched on his face. He glanced at the bathroom door before pushing himself to walk in after her.

She was leaning over the washbasin, her hands covered in water gloves, one hand hovering over her black eye and the other over the cut on her lip. He snaked his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. She smiled slightly at his touch, focusing on the bruised tissue surrounding her eye. The pale glow dissipated as she pulled her hands away and brought the water down. Zuko marveled at the disappearance of the black eye, and stroked her arm before heading back out into the kitchen, wondering if she'd need some privacy to heal the rather nasty cut on her chest.

Later in the day, as Zuko was dropping the water pots into the washbasin, he caught sight of Katara sitting sown at a table and exhaling tiredly as the last customer shut the door behind themselves. Katara leant back and rubbed her face to wake herself up. Zuko walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Tired?" his voice was soft.

Katara nodded and tilted her head back to look at him. At the sight of him, she realized how much their conversation this morning had changed things, as he looked rather dismayed. Zuko was impressed by the disappearance of her ailments, but was at the same time bothered by it. Katara seemed to be relatively okay, which in itself was quite strange. After all, being victimized by his father had led Zuko on a wild goose chase for the avatar, just trying to distract him from thinking of his father's betrayal. Katara was fine, and it bothered him. Then, maybe, having lost her mother, she had immunity to victimization.

Zuko mentally shook his head. Katara was never a person he'd ever seen feeling sorry for herself. She had fought him with more strength and determination than anyone he'd ever met. The victimization of losing her mother was still a large issue for her, so why was she so 'okay' with being mugged in an alley?

Katara smiled at him. What was bothering him so much? This thought tethered off as his thumbs pressed into her sore muscles and she moaned a little. Before long they were back in the apartment, his hands pressing against her back with warmth and affection as he leant over her. The bruise on her back was gone and she was fine. Everything was fine and yet something wasn't. Something he couldn't put his finger on.

His fingers dug into her skin again, eliciting a sharp sigh that was lined by a smile of ecstasy. She turned her head to look at him and saw him smiling warmly as he kneaded her sore muscles into comfort. She felt her stomach fill with butterflies as he met her eyes with the smile. He flattened his hand over her bare back as she sat up. He was surprised as she took his face in both of her hands and pulled him to a kiss. He put his hand on her shoulder and kissed her back, his other hand on the mattress beneath them. She pulled away only for breath before kissing him again. He was caught off-guard as she pushed him back onto the mattress and followed him, kneeling beside him, bent over to kiss him. He laughed as she pulled away again, seeing her smiling. A small candle was flickering near them, the light illuminating them in the darkness.

"You're beautiful." He had said it before thinking.

This only made her smile more as she leant down and kissed him softly. "You're beautiful too." She had pressed a gentle kiss on the raw red flesh of his cheek before he could do anything about it. He pulled up one side of his mouth in a lopsided smile, his hand bringing her chin back for him to kiss her.

She pressed her hand flat over part of his upper chest and collarbone, feeling the soft skin on her fingertips, her sensed filled with the smell of smoke and chamomile. She'd almost forgot that the teashops new special was chamomile. She suddenly paused and pulled away. She bit her lip with the thought of Ursa. How could she possibly be this free with him and love his company so much, and yet betray him with a secret that would kill him and save him all at the same time?

"What? What's wrong?" Zuko asked softly, the smile on his face still apparent, yet his eyes revealing a little bit of concern.

Katara bit back the thought, shoving it to the back of her mind and kissing him again, this time more hungrily, her fingers running into his dark hair as her other hand took his jaw again. He slid his arm around her waist, pulling her on top of him. She brought her leg over him until she was straddling him, leant over him, linked at the mouth. By the heat of his body and the knowledge of how firebending worked, she could tell he was feeling pretty passionate. Not that she needed any logical thinking to know that, his touch told her everything she needed to know. A dirty thought came to her mind, and she pushed that also to the back of her mind, to keep the company of the thoughts of Ursa. The thought had been triggered by Zuko's hand on her hip, where the waistband of her leggings met with bare skin.

She murmured Zuko's name as he pushed a lingering kiss on her neck. His lips trailed down her neck to her bare shoulder, one hand on her hip, the other on her back as she leant over him. He muttered her name softly between kisses into her skin. He heard her moan under her breath, and leant back again to kiss her on the lips again. He breathed her in, feeling her fingers outstretching in his wild black hair. He felt her roll off of him, panting for breath. He hadn't realized how long they'd been engulfed in each other, but he only rolled onto his side and laid his hand on her stomach with a satisfied smirk.

Katara smirked back, happy with the effects of his kiss. He was a good kisser, she had been right about that before even kissing him, and he was one of the most passionate people she'd ever met in her life. On top of all that, he really looked sexy when he looked smug. The candle nearby flickered light over his face, bringing her heart leaping into her throat. She wanted to kiss him again.

Zuko slid his flat hand across her bare stomach, pulling himself up slightly and leaning over her. He put his hand under her head and kissed her gently. "Come on," he stood on his knees. Katara sat up and got on her knees before wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him again.

"I don't want to go anywhere." She mumbled into his mouth.

"We have to go get our money. And then we'll find something fun to do." He smiled between kisses.

Katara smiled at him, bringing her body against his and putting her cheek to his. She felt his scar against her face. He seemed a little uneasy at the sensation, but his hands placed on her waist stayed soft and gentle, as his thumbs stroked the contours of her body.

Katara and Zuko later walked hand in hand into the dance bar and sat down at the bar.

"Hey, Lee, TeiLyn. What's your poison tonight?" the bartender smiled warmly at Zuko, and then at Katara. Kai, which was his name, always took note of the swords Lee carried on his back at all times. He was pretty sure the boy was skilled in their use too.

"Something light, Kai. We're working tomorrow." Zuko smiled briefly, glancing at Katara. She was staring past Zuko, at a table further into the bar, her eyes wide and her face completely terrified. Her name jumped into his mind as he opened his mouth, but he controlled himself and spoke. "TeiLyn?"

He followed her gaze to the table, and then he felt his blood boiling at the sight of a man with a broken nose and triplet scratch marks down his cheek. The man was drinking alone, eyeing a drunk woman dancing with her male counterpart, rather scantily dressed, with his eyebrows together and his lips parted in awe and amusement. Zuko got out of his seat and Katara did nothing to stop him, completely frozen as she stared at the dirty little excuse for a man.

"Hey, get up. You and me are going to have a little talk outside." Zuko grabbed the man by the shirt and pulled him up out of his seat.

The man shoved Zuko off him and glared. "Who the hell are you?" he raised an eyebrow.

Zuko tossed his head to move his hair from his face. "I'm the guy whose girlfriend you mugged." He gritted his teeth. Katara stood up at the other side of the bar and took a step toward the scene. The entire bar was quiet and staring. Katara looked down for a moment. She applauded herself for leaving the cut on her forehead to sit there as a sort of proof of the attack. The cut was about two inches long and not very deep, half an inch from her hairline.

The mugger took a glance at Zuko, and then at Katara, before answering dryly. "What are you going to do about it, Cyclops?"

Zuko remained calm, almost calm enough to be creepy or eerie. "Come outside and we'll find out." He drew his swords in a swift movement. Inside the bar people would call it a bar-brawl; uncivilized and thoughtless. Outside in the street it was a duel.

And in a duel you could kill.

A/N: I'm so sorry it took so long to do this chapter! It took a few do-overs to decide what I wanted to do with it. I never really commit to the next chapter while I'm writing its prequel, so I really just run with the situation I've created. Hoping the next chap won't be as hard as this one, since I already have the start to it. Hey, did anyone else know that star signs have elements? I'm a Fire sign :) (Sagittarius) My whole family is actually!

Fire: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius

Air: Libra, Aquarius, Gemini

Water: Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio

Earth: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo

Oh, and can't forget one little thing for this chapter: The quote! This chapter's quote is:

Katara: "I'm sorry, Aang."

Aang: "It's okay, Katara. It's not your fault."

Uncle Iroh: "Well, yeah, it kinda is."

Love yas xxx Rhia! Review!