YO!

Hahahahahahahahaha! So it appears I have successfully confused and annoyed many of my readers with the last chapter! So what do you think? Is it Zuko? Is it a dream? And if it is Zuko then where the hell has he been the last two years?And WHY does VC enjoy playing with our heads so much?!

READ to find out! (btw, you'll never find out the last question ;P)

What is this smell? Musky... subtly sweet... very alluring... familiar. Ah! I'm still dreaming!

Katara's eyelids fluttered open, and she blinked in the dim candle light. Candles? Oh... this is a very good dream.

She was in a bed, a huge circle shaped bed with a soft mattress that folded into her every little curve. Pearly silk covers lined in gold and red with a large Yin and Yang sign in the middle covered her. A huge canopy was overhead, and transparent gold silk curtains hid the bed from the rest of the room. She was very comfortable, very warm, so much that she would not have moved if that wonderfully familiar scent had not been there. But it was. So she had to move.

She sat up slowly, reluctantly, and stretched. Hm... This had to be the most vivid of all her dreams. Then she noticed there was someone kneeling by the side of her bed, his head was in his arms folded by her pillow. She heard the soft and slow intakes and outs of sleeping breath, saw the lovely silky black hair. She smiled.

"Zuko," she said gently, putting her hand on his head, smoothing his hair. He flinched and his soft breathing pattern ended. He lifted his head. Katara was surprised that even in her dreams, his beautiful golden eyes still made her catch her breath, still made her heart race, still made her palms sweat.

"Katara!" his voice sounded relieved and he smiled for a moment before looking down at his hands and a guilty expression took over. "I'm sorry," he said softly. He ran a hand through his hair the way he always did before explaining himself and Katara frowned.

"Don't apologize Zuko," she said. "You can't control it." Zuko looked up at her again, a puzzled look on his face. Katara laughed and ruffled his hair then climbed out of the bed then stood and stretched.

"This is beautiful," she said pulling away the bed curtains and gazing in amazement at the luxurious room she found herself standing in. The bed was set on a podium, her bare feet had landed on a soft white carpet and she padded down three steps to the wooden floor. Up some more steps, there was a huge window wall that gave a perfect view of the night settling in on New York City, big white curtains lined in red could be pulled by a string to hide the view or exploit it. There was a fountain and a pond built into the floor, the bottom of the pond was blue marble, swimming in the crystal clear water were two coy fish; one black, one white.

Hanging in the whitewashed walls were giant and beautiful Chinese paintings of dragons, phoenixes, pandas, and tigers. There were two dragons, one blue one red, dancing around each other in the endless night sky. There was one tiger, standing on a cliff overlooking a valley, the big silver moon hung above his handsome alert head. There were two pandas sitting in a grove of bamboo leaves, one ate a shoot of bamboo, the other hugged it from behind. And the largest of the paintings, it was even taller than Zuko and wider in length than Katara, was of a phoenix rising from the flames. The magnificent bird was stunning gold with bright red plumes, his wings were spread apart and his head was raised to the heavens as if to shout out, "I'm still here! You've tried to be rid of me time and time again but I'm still here! I will always be here!" Smoke filled the starry background; only one bright star could be seen clearly.

Statues also decorated the room, some were obsidian, some ebony, some ivory, some clay, some marble. They were of all different kinds of animals, many of them dragons. Katara's favorite was the marble statue set in the middle of the room; a sphere the size of a basketball cut in the form of Yin and Yang, the pieces fitted together but just barely did not touch.

"Wow," Katara breathed. She made her way up the steps towards the window and she looked outside at the starry night sky which blanketed the city. She found her arms hugging herself as she took in the enormity of the scene.

Then Zuko was standing beside her, his hands were in his suit pockets and he watched her with that same puzzled expression. "Katara?" he said carefully.

The girl looked up at him with a smile. "Yes?"

He tilted his head slightly to the side. "Are you okay?"

One of her eyebrows arched up and she laughed. "Yes I am! I'm wonderful!" she exclaimed happily. She laced her fingers together and brought them to her face, placing her thumbs under her chin and her fingers on her nose. She smiled then twirled around and laughed again. "I haven't seen you in months Zuko!" she said when she stopped and she danced up to him. She wrapped her arms around his middle and pressed her cheek to his warm chest. "Mmmm..." she sighed closing her eyes. "You're so real."

She felt his hand, warm and gentle go to her hair and his other lifted her chin. "Katara," she opened her blue eyes to meet his flaming amber ones. "You haven't seen me in two years," he said gently as if she was somewhat incompetent.

Katara stood on her tip toes and kissed his jaw. "You do this to me every time Zuko," she said smiling. She stepped back and he placed each of his hands on either side of her face. "You try to make me think I'm not dreaming. Don't worry though; I've accepted that you're dead. And I know this is a dream. A vivid, beautiful dream, but a dream nonetheless," she sighed and buried her face in his chest again. "Even though I know that I'll wake up, alone and shivering like all the other times..." she closed her eyes and smiled, inhaling his wonderfully familiar smell. "I'll at least have been able to see you again."

Zuko was silent for a moment then he squeezed her. "You're never going to wake up from this dream Katara," he said slowly.

"Yes I will Zuko," Katara said into his chest. "Even though I'd rather die than wake up, I know that I will."

"Katara you won't, I promise this isn't a dream," he said, his voice slightly urgent.

Katara laughed bitterly. "You said that once. You said that many times. But I always woke up." He started to say something else but Katara caught him. "Stop," she said shaking her head. Pain was evident in her voice. "Stop," it came out as a whisper this time. "Please."

Tears stung her blue eyes and she looked up at him with a sad smile. "I don't want to talk Zuko."

He looked at her, searched her, touched her face, wiped her eyes, let her kiss his palms. Then he kissed her. He crushed his lips to hers, slid his tongue into her mouth, wrapped his arms around her waist and her back, pulled her flush against his body, hands slid under her shirt, touched her skin, set her on fire, and he kissed her, long and hard.

Tears continued to slid down Katara's cheeks as her own little hands went to grip his hair, her tongue danced with his. This dream was so wonderful, so beautiful, so real. She hated and loved that she was having it. She hoped that when she woke, she would remember this, every little detail so that she could use it to live through the next long period of time before she had another dream of him.

Strange... She thought. Zuko was being rougher with her now than all the other times. Usually, his kisses were transient, she felt barely a whisper of them, and she tried so hard in all her dreams to make them last but they never did. Now as he hoisted her up onto his hip, ran his fingers down her thigh and carried her towards the bad, Katara found herself clinging desperately to him. She didn't want this dream to end just yet. She never wanted this dream to end.

He dropped her onto the bed, she pulled his suit jacket off of him and tossed it to the floor, he unbuttoned her shirt, kissed her neck, kissed her collar bone touched every part of her he could find before he stopped suddenly and pulled away. Katara made a noise of disapproval but he did not kiss her again, he just looked at her. Then he asked her, "In your other dreams, what did I do?"

Katara raised an eyebrow at his question but his intensely golden eyes bore into hers urgently. "You held me," she said slowly, "you talked to me, you let me cry in your shoulder. And when you kissed me, they never lasted," a painful tremor passed through her and she bit her lip before continuing. "You always left me. You just... disappeared, and left me crying."

She saw something she couldn't comprehend in his eyes then he kissed her chest over her heart, slowly and gently before leaning in over her, and whispering in her ear. "I will never leave you Katara," he said, his warm breath made her tremble pleasantly, a fire in the pit of her stomach had begun to roar out of control. She wondered if this dream Zuko would take her. "I will do what ever it takes to make you realize this is real."

Katara could not help the tears that spilled out of her eyes. "Stop saying that!" she said hitting his shoulder uselessly. "Stop!" she pulled herself out from under him then rolled over to the other side of the bed. She dropped to the ground, crossed the room to the bathroom door and turned back to Zuko. "This is a dream!" she shouted to him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'll prove it!" Before Zuko could reach her, Katara had two fingers in the doorway and she slammed the door as hard as she could on them.

"OOOOOWWWW!!!!"

"Katara!"

A scream escaped her throat and she shook her bruised fingers to rid them of the pain. Zuko was at her side in a moment and he took her two fingers, now purple and blue, and he kissed them lightly before putting them in his mouth. His tongue ran over the broken skin, he sucked the blood and spat it out, then resumed absorbing the pain through his mouth.

Katara was so shocked to still be in this dream that she could do nothing but stare at him through wide blue eyes. When he was done, he kissed her fingers again and looked at her. "How's that?" he asked in a low voice.

Katara was speechless for a moment before she answered in a tone barely above a whisper. "Better."

They stood just like that, him holding her fingers while they watched each other through frightened blue eyes, and wary golden ones.

"Are you really real?" she asked in a broken voice.

He put his hand on her cheek and brought his face slowly down to hers. He kissed her lips, gentle, soft, long, sweet. He pulled away. Katara's eyes were still closed, she was so afraid to open them, afraid that if she did open them, he would be gone, she would wake, and the dream would be over.

"Yes." There was his voice again, so strong, so real, so sure. Her knees buckled. Zuko caught her and carried her to the bed. He sat her down her hand went to her forehead. She wouldn't look at him. "Katara?" he said worriedly. "Please Katara-," she turned her face away from him. Shock, happiness, sadness, relief, and overwhelming-

"OW!" –anger.

His hand flew to his stinging cheek and he looked at her with surprise in his golden eyes. "What was that for?!"

"You stupid-!"

SMACK!

"OW!"

"Inconsiderate-!"

SMACK!

"AAOW!"

"Insensitive, obnoxious, evil, disgusting- GAAAAH!"

SMACK! SMACK! KICK PUNCH SLAM!!!!

"OOOWWW!!! Katara please-!"

"AAAH!" SMACK!

"OW! God damn it just-!"

"Shut up!" SM-! "AAAAAAH!!!! You jerk put me down!"

PUNCH KICK SMACK!

"OW! Please listen!" Teeth. Shoulder. Scream.

"AAAOOOWWWEEE!!!! KATARA STOP BITING ME!!!"

"SHUT UP!!!" tears.

...

"This isn't necessary."

"Yes... actually I think it is."

"You deserve it."

"You wouldn't listen to me."

"There's nothing to hear."

"You haven't listened yet so you wouldn't know."

"What you say won't change anything."

"I know," he leaned over her and Katara shrank away from him. "But you've still gotta listen to me."

Zuko had jabbed a few of her pressure points, each one rendering a certain limb useless for about seven seconds, but numbing it for a few minutes giving him time to tie her to a chair using the sheets from the bed.

After use of her limbs returned, Katara had struggled aimlessly before she finally stopped and glared at him hatefully.

"Please stop looking at me like that," Zuko begged but Katara only growled at him.

He straightened, folded his arms across his chest and smirked. "What?" Katara asked irritably.

He shook his head. "Nothing, just a minor case of déjà vu." Katara only scowled and continued to glare at him.

Zuko's smirk disappeared and he frowned. "Katara, please stop looking at me like that."

"Shut the fuck up! What are you gonna do about it?"

His smirk returned and she squealed in surprised when his lips were pressed hard to hers. As much as she loved this, as happy as she was that he was alive, she was still very mad. So she bit his tongue. Hard.

"OOOOWWWLLLLL!!!!" he jumped back and it was her turn to smirk.

He glared at her and she tossed her head, flipping her hair showily over her shoulder. "Well, what is you wanted to say? Cuz after you're done you have to untie me because I have to finish kicking your ass."

Zuko made a funny face as he sucked his tongue checking for blood and Katara clenched her jaw to keep her angry face from breaking into a smile. "Well?" she demanded.

Zuko sighed then pulled up another chair and sat across from her before he began his soliloquy. "Well, after you left, the fire came, and I laid there bleeding..."

...

He faintly heard the sound of Katara's screams as her brother carried her away to safety. His head was pounding, his chest was hurting, and he knew, this was it. This was the end.

Too bad... he thought as the heat of the fire grew even closer. He barely felt it though. He was slipping away. His life was draining away... We could've been happy. We could've...

A tear slipped from one of his golden eyes. He knew the fire must be on him now, but he didn't feel the heat. There was a voice in his ear, "Hang on Nephew... please hang on..." Uncle?

Sorry Uncle, he wanted to say. He couldn't hang on. He wasn't strong enough. "Hang on Zuko..." he forgot everything...

"Zuko..."

His eyes opened and he found himself standing on a cliff overlooking a waterfall of about thirty feet long, flowing into a lovely pool below. He recognized the trees surrounding the pool, knew every stone, every boulder. The air was pleasantly warm as usual, steam from the waterfall and the pool rose up to meet him.

"Zuko."

He turned and saw her standing there next to him. She smiled at him, her beautiful smile, her starry eyes sparkled as she leaned in and kissed his forehead. "Hello my beautiful Prince." She said wrapping her arms around him and brought his head to her chest.

Zuko sighed and breathed in, letting his mother's wonderful comforting scent intoxicate him. "I'm here mom. Finally." He said returning her embrace. "I really missed you."

Ursa kissed her son's hair. "I missed you too Zuko." She rubbed circles around his back and squeezed him. Zuko felt tears rising in his throat as he realized then just how much he missed his mother. "But it's not your time to come join me."

Zuko frowned. "What are you talking about? It is my time. I'm here aren't I?"

His mother's musical laugh reached his ears and she pulled out of the embrace. "Come," she said taking his hand and beckoning him to follow her. They walked slowly down the slope that circled the pool in a comfortable silence, and Zuko wondered what his mother was saying.

"Is this heaven?" he asked after a while. Ursa laughed and shook her head. "No Zuko," she said smiling. "But it's close." The two of them stopped when they reached the bottom of the cliff and they were standing on the rocks looking down at the pool. "You're in love Zuko," Ursa said turning to face him. She smoothed his long black hair out of his eyes and kissed his forehead. "And you are young. You still haven't lived the life that I gave mine to protect."

"But how? Aren't I dead?" her son asked puzzled.

Ursa took his hand. "Your heart stopped beating. But there is still hope. If we go now." She squeezed his hand then turned towards the pool.

"Can you come with me?" he asked childishly. He knew already there was no way his mother could come back to life, but still, he felt he needed to try. He had missed her so much... Ursa looked at him and smiled sadly.

"I'll always be with you my Prince."

Then she pulled him into her arms and she jumped with him into the pool.

"His heart's beating!"

There was a blinding white light and overwhelming pain in his chest. "AAAAAAAAGGH!" he screamed and his fists clenched then loosened as he lost consciousness again.

...

"I was in the hospital for a month, then I had to leave California with Uncle. No one could know that I was alive, remnants of the gang, led by Azula would be looking for me, and if they had any reason to believe my heart was still beating, they would not rest until I was dead. So he took me here to New York, where I lived with my grandfather. He died about a year ago, leaving the hotels to me just like he promised," he ran his fingers through his shaggy black hair and sighed. "I wanted to contact you. But I couldn't risk it. If Azula found out she could've used you. Killed you even. She changed Azula... she was even more ruthless than my dad was."

"Was?" Katara asked puzzled.

Zuko nodded, a pained look appeared in his golden eyes. "Azula... my little sister... she was, killed. The gang... most of the leaders were killed that night. Many of them scattered, my dad's rivals picked them all off one by one. And the FBI were all looking for them. Azula was on the run all of these last two years. I never heard anything about her, until the news one morning, two months ago... I woke up...," he swallowed, a faraway look in his amber eyes. "I turned on the television..." a tear slipped down his pale cheek. "And there was my little baby sister," he was crying, shoulders trembling, voice shaking. "They said she was shot to death. The gang... turned on her... killed her in her sleep. Six bullets..."

Katara looked at him, this handsome golden-eyed youth crying for his dead murderous little sister. He cries for her? Why does he cry? She remembered her father, how he had cried for Ozai despite all the evil he had done in his past. He was still his brother, just like Azula was still Zuko's baby sister.

"I'd die for you too Azula... I love you."

"The rest of the gang was caught, it was safe for me to come out of hiding," a guilty look crossed his face again and looked away from her. "I tried to contact you first thing. But when I got your number and called, well... your dad answered."

Katara's eyebrows shot up but Zuko continued to not look at her. "Didn't believe me at first, when I said I was who I was. So you remember that weekend when he was gone?"

Katara searched her memory and vaguely remembered her father saying he was going to New York on a business trip for the weekend. "He was coming here to make sure it really was you," Katara finished for him and Zuko nodded. Then he looked at her with a strange expression.

"Your dad is scary," he said sheepishly. Katara could not help the grin that spread across her face.

"How?" she asked and her imagination conjured up an image of her father towering over Zuko with his fist in the air shooting question after question always about to bring his fist down but never actually doing it.

"Well, he asked me about a thousand questions...," he smiled slightly out of the corner of his mouth. "and he has this look... it's a lot like my dad's, I felt like he was turning me inside out with his eyes, reading my soul." He shuddered and looked at her again, then grinned his crooked grin. "In the end, I think he quite liked me. 'Just like your father,' he said. 'And your mother.' He patted my shoulder then. 'take care of my daughter. Or I'm sure my brother would understand why I would have to kill his son.'"

Katara laughed as she imagined this in her mind. She remembered the smile she had not understood on her dad's face when he said going to New York would be good for her. Now she understood. Oh dad... You are so going to get it when I get home.

Zuko was kneeling on the ground before her suddenly, her left hand in both of his. She saw a smile cross his lips as he toyed with the ring on her third finger. "You still wore it..." he said softly, and she knew she'd touched him.

"I couldn't bring myself to take it off," Katara admitted. "I guess I just... liked the idea... too much... to let it go." Zuko looked at her with an odd expression on his face.

"If I asked you again," he said slowly. "Would your answer be the same?"

Katara's heart picked up the pace in her chest and she didn't answer for a while. Then she looked down at the sheets tightly strapping her to the chair. "Untie me first," she said raising an eyebrow, "Then ask and you'll see."

Zuko stood and leaned over her so that he could reach the knot on the back of the chair. His and her faces were inches away and his lips lightly grazed hers. Before he kissed her though, he said, "Only if you promise not to beat the crap out of me once you're free."

Katara chuckled and bit her lip. "I promise." He kissed her then and he tugged the knot loose and the sheets fell to the floor. When her arms were free, Katara wrapped them around his neck and he lifted her up onto the bed and sat her back down. Then he pulled away and slipped the ring off her finger.

And he knelt down before her on one knee, took her hand again, looked at her with all the love and affection in the world, and then he said, "Katara Sahar Long, I love you," he put the ring back in it's place, Katara felt herself beginning to tremble the way she had when he proposed two years ago. "Will you marry me?"

A smile broke out across her lips, tears escaped her eyes and she nodded. "I love you Zuko. Yes, I will marry you." He stood up then, leaned over her, pushed her gently down onto the bed and touched his lips to hers.

That night was very much like the night behind the waterfall two years ago, there were many tears, gasps, and sweet murmers. But it was a lot less awkward, no questions were asked, neither hesitated, and they didn't stop after the first time. They didn't stop after the second time either... they went until the first gentle rays of the sun peeked over the horizon, until the birds rose from their rest and sang their morning song, until the morning rush of people getting to work began, until the sky began to lose its inky blue darkness, and when the dog star was the last bright soul in the sky. Then it was to sleep they went, tangled in the silk sheets, wrapped in each others arms, her face in his warm chest, his face in her fragrant hair, breathing synchronized, hearts beating in unison, both sleeping dreamlessly, for there was no dream that could ever top this night.

God damn it... You guys are making me soft. Do you know how close I was to making this a tragedy??? Lucky asses... you better review, or in the next chapter one of them is gonna get hit by a car and die instantly and never come back. You don't want that do you? DO YOU?! Didn't think so! I'm not even gonna smiley face wink at you guys cuz I'm so mad. I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY! Cuz I'm not! :(

NOW REVIEW!

Oh yeah, don't say ANYTHING about the spelling and the grammar. I already know, no need to point it out. capiche? cool.