There were some things I wanted to fix up before I posted again, but now that I have you can expect a new chapter after this very soon. Like, less than a couple of days soon. So pay attention to all those Story Alerts I've noticed:)

Katara had long since finished the washing and had bended the water from their clothes. She felt refreshed, wearing her clean clothes and finger-combing her clean hair. She decided to let it hang loose to dry.

Bored, she figured Zuko would like to have his clothes back, and she figured she'd had enough time avoiding him. They were both adults, weren't they? She could handle facing the guy after kissing him like that, couldn't she? It wasn't like she'd hated it or anything. In fact, she'd really liked it. She hoped to do it again sometime soon.

Making her way down the river's side, she eventually found Zuko.

But Zuko had definitely not found any fish. In fact, it looked like he was getting angry at the fish, if the angry jabs he was making with a pointed stick were any sign.

"What are you doing?" Katara asked. Zuko jumped and spun around.

"Don't do that!" Zuko roared. "Don't sneak up on me from behind!"

"I wasn't sneaking," Katara rolled her eyes. "You were just making so much noise, you couldn't hear me walking like a normal person."

"Well, you try better," Zuko snapped, glaring at the water. The fish were mocking him. Mocking him!

"First of all," Katara rolled up her pant legs and walked into the water to stand beside him. "You have to be patient."

"I am being patient!"

"Of course you are. And that's why all the fish are just hanging around your toes."

"Then you do it." Zuko thrust the stick at her.

"Fine!" Katara snapped. It was infuriating how quickly his bad mood caught on to hers. She was a waterbender! She should be calm, like her element!

Katara frequently enjoyed forgetting about hurricanes and tsunamis.

Zuko stomped out of the water and sat down on the bank. "Are these mine?" he asked, shoving on the clothes without waiting for a reply.

Katara ignored him, watching the water silently. After about twelve minutes, a fish swam lazily close, and Katara jabbed at it. She threw from the elbow, not the shoulder, and when she pulled the stick back up, there was a wiggling fish on it.

"See?" she said, a bit more calmly than before. "You just have to wait for it. Aiming takes some practice, but the real trick is to just sit still. Fishing is all about letting the fish come to you. It's not like hunting."

"That's still only one fish," Zuko reminded her, still inexplicably grumpy.

Katara sighed and tossed the stick to him. He caught it effortlessly and made a face at the fish at the end.

The girl turned back to the water and held her hands palm-up in front of her stomach. Pushing them out and up, and falling into a stance, Katara bent three more fish into the open air, trapped in bubble of water. Quickly, she bent them onto the shore.

"That's cheating."

Katara shrugged. "Well, it's faster and I'm hungry. Let's skin them and cook 'em already."

Fifteen minutes later, Katara had the fish roasting sticks shoved into the ground near an open fire. It was really convenient for a waterbender and a firebender to get lost in the woods together.

"Are they done yet?" Zuko demanded. "I'm starving."

"No, they're not," Katara replied with forced patience. "Give them a minute."

"Cook them faster."

"What is your problem?!" Katara burst out. "You've been grumpy and irritable since you went fishing! What is it?!"

"Nothing!" Zuko snapped. "Why don't you just concentrate on cooking the fish? I'm starving."

"No," Katara got up and walked over to Zuko. She crossed her arms and looked down at him. "I want to know. What's wrong? I thought we were just starting to get along."

Get along? Katara blushed but ignored it. 'Getting along' was the understatement of the year.

"It's nothing," Zuko refused to look at her. He refused to even get up.

Katara crouched down in front of him. "Seriously, Zuko," she said softly. "What's wrong? Why won't you talk to me?"

Zuko closed his eyes, trying to ignore her. He wanted her to go away, to just leave him alone. He'd rather fight with her than have to deal with… with the possibilities of what that kiss meant. Was she playing with him? Was she caught up in the moment like he was? Had it even been any good or had she just been going along, not wanting to hurt his feelings?

And what if she did like it, did that even mean she liked him, the person? Maybe she just liked to kiss, and didn't even really care who it was with.

"What's wrong with me?" he demanded, looking back at her. Damnit, but he hadn't meant to say that! But he would never take something like that back. He was too proud to look away.

Katara's eyes softened but it wasn't quite pity. It was more like understanding.

"Nothing, Zuko. There's nothing wrong with you."

Zuko looked away, not believing. Katara chuckled and ran her fingers along the jaw under his scar.

"Okay, well sometimes you're annoyingly quick to temper," she admitted. Zuko's eyes snapped back to hers and she smirked. "And you react kind of weirdly to stuff, like now. I mean, I just kissed you like I've never kissed anyone before in my life, and you're acting like you think I don't even like you."

"You don't," Zuko reminded her. "I've been chasing you and the Avatar for months."

"Yeah, well," Katara shrugged. "There are still things I can like about you. You're persistent."

"You called me obsessed."

"You're a good fighter."

"I've attacked you. And kidnapped your friend. And you."

"You can be creative?"

"I tied you to a tree."

"Fine then," Katara huffed. "One thing you're not good at is taking a compliment. There's stuff that's respectable about you, Zuko, so just take the goddamned compliment and deal with it!"

Zuko blinked at her.

"If that was a compliment, no wonder I was confused."

Katara couldn't help but laugh at that. Zuko wondered what she thought was funny.

"Look, just take me for my word. If it weren't for the whole chasing-the-Avatar thing, I feel like you'd be a pretty cool guy. Yeah, you don't have much a sense of humor, but I think deep down, you're an okay guy, Zuko."

Katara grinned and tilted her head, looking at him from lowered eyelids. Zuko's heart turned over in his chest when she looked at him like that.

"Not to mention," she practically purred. "You're a pretty good kisser."

He frowned. "Only pretty good?"

She shrugged. "Well, maybe you could get better." Beat. "With practice."

And they commenced doing just that.

AN: Oh my god. Oh my faffing god, you guys. Do you know how much I love you all? Do you? You made my day. I almost cried when I saw how many reviews I had and how nice they all were. (I haven't checked since I posted last chapter.) You all... you're just all amazing. Every single one of you. You are like... I don't even know. Words escape me and I am quite the chatterbox.

I... I can't even ask that you guys review this chapter. I'm just too ecstatic over how many I've already got. Just... wow.