Author's Note:

artsyelric: zutara friends, i am so sorry, but at the end of this chapter you may be stuck holding your breaths until we publish the next one! don't kill us! you were the ones who wanted this so badly!

Trombe: Hey, suspense and drama is what makes a good story. Although...too much of that and it turns into a an afternoon soap. Yeck.

What I Don't Like About You

Chapter 26: Under a Full Moon

Zuko dropped to a knee as he came down off a particularly large rock, and he struggled to push himself back upright under the added weight of two prisoners. "Are you alright?" the man on his back asked.

"Magnificent," Zuko answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Toph, how you holding up?"

The girl just grunted as she dug her feet into the earth further. They had just left the cave entrance and started back down the mountain towards the town. The two make-shift carriers still hovered a few inches off the ground, each of their five passengers (or the ones of them that were conscious at least) trembling slightly as they struggled not to slip off. The stone slabs were trying to slide down the hill, and the only thing keeping them from doing so was the invisible force the earthbender was exerting on them. Her feet skidded forward through the dirt as she continued her slow decent, the slabs suspended before her they progressed.

Suddenly there was the splintering sound of an explosion off to their right. The group jumped, and somehow the night seemed more ominous. "She's here," one of the five walking prisoners whispered. "Hama…"

But Zuko's heart leapt for another reason. Katara…

"Let's take a break," he suggested to Toph, laying the unconscious woman down on the giant stone litter.

Before Toph could protest, there were shouts below them, and lights bobbed through the trees as a group of villagers appeared, coming up the path. "Lin!" the man on Zuko's back called as his wife appeared at their head.

"You're safe," his wife cried, rushing to embrace her husband as Zuko set him down.

Toph's litters hit the ground with twin thuds, and she wiped her forehead in exhaustion before plopping down on rock for a well deserved break. No one seemed to be mentioning to the rest of the townsfolk that she was an earthbender.

All around people were greeting loved ones they thought long lost, scooping up injured, crying and thanking the rescuers. The man he had met the day before was hugging his boy, and his wife was weeping wildly. But Zuko was barely aware of them, even the ones that pulled on his sleeves. His eyes were scanning the forest in the direction the explosion had come from.

Moment's later his vigilance was rewarded, as the crisp, popping sound of another explosion echoed through the forest. Now he could hear people shouting as well, very distant. They're not far... And it doesn't sound like things are going well.

His eyes turned for a moment to Toph, who nodded simply. "Go," she dismissed him. "I'll take care of this and follow in a minute."

Zuko was already running before she finished the sentence.

Hama lifted her hands, and the boys' bodies snapped up rigidly. Aang let out a startled cry, and Sokka gave a strangled shout as they were suddenly whisked across the ground, their feet dragging uselessly across the grass. They flew at Katara, a wild mass of flailing arms and legs, but Katara spun through them, drawing more water from the grass, and shooting it out at Hama.

But the old woman was prepared. Another tree exploded as the water within it formed a spinning wheel around her, effectively shielding her from Katara's new attack. There was an explosion of water in which the younger lost track of the older's movements. Then Sokka called a warning from behind her. "Katara, look out!" he brother's voice called as the distinctive sound of his meteorite sword being drawn filled the clearing. "It's like my brain has a mind of its own!" he cried as he began to swing haphazardly at her.

"Enough, Hama!" Katara pleaded.

But the old woman was in no mood to repent. She waved her arms wildly, her fingers stiff like a puppeteer's, and Sokka continued to dance to her tune. "Stop it, arm! Stop it!" he commanded uselessly as Katara was forced to defend herself, brushing him aside with a stream of water.

But suddenly Aang was there too, attempting to kick her from behind. "Katara!" he shouted, his voice higher than normal, and frightened. "This feels weird!"

Katara dodged his side kick, then smashed her water into him, knocking him heavily against a tree. As he hit it, and idea struck her, and she froze him to the trunk, covering his whole body with a wave of water that turned to ice. Aang grunted heavily as he stuck solidly against the rough bark. "I'm sorry, Aang," Katara apologized quickly.

"It's okay!" he called back immediately."Look out for Sokka!"

Katara ducked under another wild swing from the black sword, and drained another tree of its life water. She shot it out at her brother, using the same game plan she had on Aang, and blasted him back until he smacked into a tree. The water immediately froze to ice, pinning him, dangling a few inches off the ground. "Nice shot!" he called, shivering slightly.

"What now, Hama?" Katara called, holding each ice structure firm with her bending as Sokka's body twitched pointlessly against its binds.

Hama's mouth twisted sourly. It had come down to a test of will powers again, whether Katara could hold her ice, or whether Hama could bend her puppets out, and they both knew how it would end. She could see the desperation in Hama's eyes, but, unlike last time, she didn't see defeat.

Katara pressed harder against her ice, insuring it would hold. The woman continued to twitch her fingers, and Sokka continued to struggle. Aang's head twisted too, since his whole body was encased in ice, but as he made no other attempts to get out, Katara was forced to wonder if he was doing that himself, or if it was Hama. "Stay still!" she barked at the Avatar, and Aang immediately stopped moving.

If she's not bloodbending him anymore, what's her left hand doing?

"Katara, watch out!" Sokka's voice screamed, and she spun, too late, as an icicle formed behind her.

Everything happened too fast. The sharp, ice tip shot at her while she was still turning. Her reaction was not going to be fast enough.

Bracing herself for the pain to follow Katara did not expect a flurry of a shadow leaping up before her. Spinning and launching a kick, hot flames erupting furiously as accompanying the blow her rescuer delivered. The well timed counterattack shattered the ice projectile into tiny fragments that fell through the air, covering the night with sparkling shards.

The shadow landed effortlessly.

And never in her entire life was she more glad to see his familiar face.

"Zuko!"

The Fire Prince breathed a sigh of relief, he had just barely made it in time. In the old fairy tales his mother used to tell him the hero always arrived just in time, when he was desperately needed the most by the princess. While Zuko had never been one to call himself a hero he damned well felt like one at that very moment.

"Watch your back," he grinned at Katara, taking on his favored dragon stance.

"I-" Before the blue-eyed girl could respond she was cut off by their adversary.

"Wretched firebender!" Hama hissed at Zuko's recent rescue.

"It's over, hag. You're going to pay for what you've done."

Zuko's eyes glared. It was two against one. Numbers were to their advantage, and the face of her victems still fresh in his mind gave him all the motivation he needed. But the woman was a master waterbender, fighters renowned for their uncanny reflexes. He needed to tip the balance more towards their favor.

Roaring a battlecry, Zuko was pressed to launch a hard offensive. Leaping and lunging, flames engulfing wherever he struck. Hama countered every burst of fire with whips of water as they struggled, and slowly Zuko allowed himself pushed back. Zuko's flames illuminated the night mere seconds before being doused by the water of the old inn keeper.

"You think you can win against me, you demon!? I've spent a lifetime mastering the waterbending arts!" Hama sneered as her hands deftly created those infamous southern style water walls to protect herself from Zuko's firebending.

Her taunts landed on deaf ears as Zuko continued his assault. She was taking the bait.

"Katara!" he yelled out.

"Right!"

The young waterbender complied and joined the prince in a joint attack. He aimed low, she aimed high. Katara's water whips lashed out against Hama's own. This was the moment Zuko had been waiting for. He launched two sweeping kicks, sending two waves of fire simultaneously launching at the old woman who could only gasp in surprise as the flames caught her dead on. The intenses flame caused her to wince in pain as she lost her footing. Hama came tumbling down to the ground, her clothes cindered, her legs scorched.

Zuko knew victory was theirs. Who knew that the times he spent watching Katara practice her waterbending would lead to him finding out a fatal flaw in the art? The more he'd faught against Katara, the more he'd recognized it. A waterbender's attack and defense came solely from the movement of their arms. Masters of redirecting their opponents own attacks back against them, the waterbenders lacked vibrant dynamic offenses of their own, relying on their opponents to come to them. A waterbender never used their legs to bend the art. As such their feet were needed to be constantly rooted to the ground for their impenetrable defense. Break the root, break the bender. It was fundamental.

"Yeah, go Zuko!" he dimly heard Sokka shout from where he was pinned against a tree.

He hovered above her, left fist aimed and ready to deal the final blow if need be. Katara's presence solely reminding him what was at stake.

"You're done, Hama," Katara stated softly.

And she was right. It was time the old woman knew she was defeated. The Fire Prince was sure she was going to accept their term of surrender.

But then, her face twisted into a wicked smile that scremed the exact opposite of defeat. "...On the contrary..."

And suddenly all feeling left Zuko's arms and legs.

"Zuko?" Katara noticed the abrupt stiffness that came over the prince.

"Something's wrong," he grunted, moments before his right arm drew back and balled into a fist.

Katara gave a squeak and leapt out of the way as Zuko's fist slammed into the ground right where she had been moments before.

Suddenly Hama's horrid laughter was echoing through the clearing. "Oh, how wonderful! How lucky you are, to have such friends! For every one of them that comes running, my army is bolstered another man! What will you do, Katara? How will you stop me now?" She threw her head back and laughed again, her arms whipping in front of her as Aang's gave a startled cry.

"Ahh!" the Avatar called uncomfortably. "I don't like this, Katara!"

The ice around the Avatar's body gave a loud crack, and Katara made a rapid motion, pushing it solidly back into place. She would not have Hama hurting Aang or Sokka. She forced the thick ice coating the two to firm up again, but now it was Zuko's turn to shout out.

"What is this?" he demanded, grabbing at his disobedient wrist the same way Katara had, and grunting as it pulled a knife from the sheath at his belt.

"Who will you pick, Katara?" Hama's voice called. Katara's eyes had gone wide as Zuko procured the knife, and in her momentary distraction, Sokka's iced wrist broke free of it's confines, dropping the boy to the ground. The bloodbender was laughing madly as she piloted the warrior, sending him zooming across the clearing, pulled by his sword arm. "Who will you save?"

"Sorry, Katara!" Sokka apologized as his sword attempted to run her through again.

And as Katara dodged Sokka's attack, she was distinctly aware of Zuko's blade positioning itself by the prince's heart.

Zuko and Sokka, she decided, releasing her hold on Aang's icy prison. I'll stop Zuko and Sokka. Aang doesn't have any weapons. He can't hurt himself.

"Don't hurt your friends, Katara," Hama called. "And don't let them hurt each other!"

Sokka stopped attacking his sister, and her eyes widened as she realized Hama's plan. The meteorite blade was headed straight for where Aang was imprisoned in her icy barrier. If she didn't stop him, Sokka would surly bury his sword through the ice and into Aang. "Katara!" Sokka shouted.

"Katara!" Zuko's confused tone came again, as his own knife hovered inches from his heart.

"KATARA!" Aang cried as Sokka drove towards him.

"Three," Hama called. "Two…"

What do I do? Katara paniced. She can only control two at once - she only has two hands. But even so, I can't stop both attacks. Who do I chose? What if I can't save all of them?

What do I do!?

As Sokka bared his blade and headed straight for Aang, Zuko knew what Katara's decision was going to be. He didn't know how the old woman was doing this, but he knew it was her. And he knew that Katara would pick Aang and her brother, or wouldn't be able to pick at all.

He had to make the decision for her.

The old woman's mouth opened to pronounce the final word. "One-"

But before she could put voice to it, Zuko inhaled deeply, and blew a great stream of fire out of his mouth, onto his own arm.

He could feel his muscles spasm under the shock of the heat and the struggle for control, as he had expected them too, and the blade fell from his twitching fingers, clattering to the ground. Using the temporary break in control, and before she invested total influence over his body, Zuko kicked the blade as far from himself as he could. Only then did he let the pain of his arm register in his mind, and he cried out as he cradled to his chest. It's not bad, he told himself. I've had much worse… But it hurt none the less.

Behind him, he could hear Katara taking advantage of the situation. He was dimly aware that Hama had screeched angrily. "You wretched firebender!" she wailed, and, as he struggled to re-focus himself, he saw Sokka once again hurtling straight for the young avatar, this time Aang busting out of his icy bonds and flying back towards the warrior as well. "You bring this upon yourselves!" the woman screamed as she hurled the boys at one another.

But before either could harm the other, they both suddenly collapsed to a stop. The final few lasting bits of control that still held him pinned to the ground faded as the boys halted. Zuko blinked in surprise as Sokka dropped his sword and Aang stumbled into him, both lifting their hands in freedom and surprise.

"What..." Sokka wondered. "What happened?"

But Hama made a gasping sound as Katara positioned her hands before her in the same style the puppet master had earlier. Zuko watched in confusion as she lowered her hands, and Hama's body began twitching, until it was finally forced down onto its knees, in a submissive, bowing position. The old woman made one last struggle, pushing back up on her arms. "How could you?" she demanded of Katara. "How could you choose firebenders over your own family? Your own people?"

"This isn't about family," Katara stated, her voice as cold as Zuko had ever heard it – and he'd heard it plenty cold. "This is about doing what right." Then her eyes watered. "I'm sorry, Hama." Her voice trembled in the same it way it had in Ba Sing Se, when Zuko had betrayed her the first time, and suddenly he almost sorry for the old hag too.

"It doesn't matter," the old woman breathed, falling victim to Katara's bending. "What's done, is done." The words had a note of finality to them Zuko didn't think was for her own defeat, but they left a sour aftertaste in his own mind, too wickedly reminiscent of the advice Aang had given him the night before.

Sokka rushed over and grabbed Hama's arms, pinning her to the ground, and Katara shuddered as she dropped her own stance. "Are you all right?" Aang asked, his voice barely carrying to Zuko, and the prince saw Katara shudder from her kneeling position, and rest her head on the boy's chest.

Feeling his jaw clench so hard his teeth ground together, he turned angrily away from the sight. Every bone in is body wanted to rush to her, to be Aang right now. Hadn't he been the hero tonight? So why was it Aang she still wanted right now? He wanted to be the one holding her now, even if just to reassure himself she was truly all right.

But as he rolled over, clutching his burnt arm, he felt the exhaustion from the fight and the night's hike catching up to him. He could see all the horrid faces of the dying people he'd found, and the dead he'd had to abandon. And he realized why he wasn't there, beside Katara now; why Aang was. He didn't forgive Hama. Not in the slightest. He didn't care what horrors his people had done to her in the past. Certainly, they had been wrong, but if he'd had his choice, the monster laying on the ground before him would be dead right now. Dead, where she could never hurt another villager. Dead, where she could never escape. Dead, where she would never bother Katara again.

He moved his arm gently and sat up. Katara was pushing away from Aang, though she didn't look at all consoled, and Zuko felt a perverse pleasure run through him at the fact that the Avatar had failed to comfort her. But he ashamedly buried the thought as Katara approached him. "Let me see your arm," she commanded.

He held it out to her carefully, and moments later the cool, soothing feel of her healing started to wash over it. "Um… thank you," he started, feeling as if the silence made healing more awkward – especially when he was staring into her face like that.

"That was careless," she said suddenly. Her voice echoed out her concern and frustration. "Why would you burn your own arm?"

He blinked at her. This wasn't at all how he'd pictured their conversation going. "I did it so I would drop the knife," Zuko stated. "I did it so you wouldn't have to choose between me and… your friends…"

"I could have saved you all," she told him, her tone berating. "I did save you all."

Zuko's eyebrows drew. It wasn't him she was chastising; it was herself.

He started to open his mouth, to speak her name, to try and find something that would comfort her, or to at least understand what she was going through, but before he could even form the thought, he was cut off. "There they are!" Toph voice echoed through the tree, her small form appearing over the hill at the edge of the clearing.

Katara dropped Zuko's hand immediately, rising and turning away from him to face the villagers that had arrived with the blind girl. The lack of her touch was frustrating beyond belief.

"Don't worry!" Sokka called from where he was pinning the old woman down. "We got her!" Then he made angry motions at Aang, who quickly scrambled off in search of his hat.

Men from the village poured into the clearing, and one produced a set of handcuffs, obviously snatched from the prison walls of the very cave cell Hama had used to hold her prisoners. The villagers pulled her up when Sokka released her, and cuffed her hands in front of her. "You're going to be locked away forever," the man told her as Sokka rejoined his friends.

Hama ignored him. She was acting very docile for someone so horribly condemned. But the group realized why only as she was led away. "My work is done," she revealed, turning back to face them and delivering one final barb to Katara. "Congratulations, Katara. You're a bloodbender."

Katara covered her mouth as if she felt sick, then trembled and began crying. Hama laughed as she was led away, and Aang and Sokka rushed to comfort their friend. "Katara," Aang whispered. "It's all right. She can't hurt anyone any more."

But that didn't seem to be the right thing to say, as Katara pushed out of his arms and ignored Sokka's rebuffs, running off into the woods a ways. Aang and Sokka glanced after her. "What'd I say?" Aang asked, and Sokka shrugged. "Man," the Avatar groaned unhappily, kicking at a rock.

Zuko pushed through the trees, careful to keep his still somewhat-raw arm from bumping against bark or low hanging branches. He opened his mouth to call for her, but then decided against it, and moved on in silence instead, his golden eyes searching the forest for signs of her passing he would never have been able to see less than a week ago.

She went this way, he realized, catching sight of where her boot heal had pressed into soft earth and a tree branch had snapped, probably snagged on her clothes. Or at least, someone did anyway. But considering that there was likely no one else out there at that time of night, in the haunted forest, he decided to count on his odds that it was the girl he had just seen run off this direction.

How long until they notice I'm gone? Zuko wondered. While Sokka and Aang had been discussing – aka squabbling – over Katara's dramatic exit and Toph had been helping the villagers secure Hama, Zuko had slipped off after Katara, eager to get even a few minutes alone with her. No, he corrected his inner self forcefully. I'm going after her because she's my friend, and she needs help. But the anxious desire to see her he'd been battling with all night continued to gnaw at him regardless of his excuses.

The sound of running water caught his ear, and when he turned towards it, he saw her, huddled up on a rock near the edge of a stream. "Figures she'd head straight for the only bit of water in this entire rocky mountain," he muttered to himself before stepping out of the trees.

Katara didn't move. She didn't seem to have seen him yet. And now he was feeling awkward about how to interrupt her thoughts, or as to what to say once he had. She sniffed and wiped her hand across her face, and Zuko suddenly felt even more awkward. He came here because he wanted to see Katara, because he'd been jealous of the fact that Aang was the one comforting her, but now that he was here, he realized he didn't really know much about girls, especially crying ones. Mai never cried, he realized. At least not to me. And she's the only real experience I have…

Deciding maybe he'd been a little too over anxious following her out here, he turned to go back, but his boot crunched loudly on a pile of sticks as he turned, and Katara looked up. "Zuko?"

He pounded his forehead with his hands before turning back to her quickly, trying to cover it with a pleasant greeting. "Yes, it's me. I ah… thought I'd come after you, to… you know, talk."

"Oh," Katara stated, quickly scrubbing at her eyes again.

"Right," Zuko continued, maddeningly unable to stop. "Because that's what you people do when your friends are upset, right? Follow them and talk to them until they feel better? Or something…"

Katara snorted a little, and Zuko took that for as good a sign as possible, walking over and positioning himself on the rock to her left. She shifted a bit, still facing out towards the stream, and he crossed his arms where he leaned against his own rock, watching her. "So… are you all right?" he asked. "Everyone was kind of… worried."

"I'm fine," she said in a steely voice.

"Yeah," Zuko grumbled, his tone completely disbelieving. "Right."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, spinning towards him.

"Look, I don't know what's wrong with you, but I know you're not 'fine'." She huffed and turned back to the stream.

"Sure," she snickered. "Way to state the obvious."

"Come on, Katara," he tried again. "I've said the exact same thing to Uncle hundreds of times, and I was never 'fine'. If… If I'm the problem, I'll go get Aang or someone," he offered, even though he almost choked over it.

"No," she said quickly. "No. Aang… wouldn't understand."

Feeling slightly victorious, he dropped back against the rock. "What wouldn't he understand?"

Her brow furrowed. "How I feel now!" she shouted, the water beneath her rippling turbulently. "What I feel like now that I've learned that horrible woman's technique, now that I've used it to control someone. It's… it's evil."

"Bloodbending, right?" Zuko asked, when she trailed out. "That's what she called it, at the end. Is that how she was controlling us?" Katara nodded, and Zuko took a moment to process it. He remembered how it felt to lose control of his body completely like that, and tried to imagine what it would feel like to use bending to control someone else. The thought was tantalizing, and unpleasant. It had the same, powerfully addicting feel to it that he'd felt for the few moment's he'd held lightening. Less dangerous, but darker. "Then," he concluded, "that's how you beat her. In the end."

"Yes," Katara confirmed, her voice sounding as if she was speaking about catching a disgusting disease. "I beat her with her own technique. I'm a bloodbender now too…"

Zuko took a deep breath as he watched the girl before him with a new sort of awe. With the full moon above them, he was vividly reminded of the first time he'd fought her since she trained with a waterbending master, when he'd tried to steal Aang from the North Pole. It had been a full moon then too, and she'd held her own against him, fighting with a skill level so much more advanced than he'd expected from her, he couldn't help but be impressed. She learned so quickly – a natural. Something that he both envied, and feared.

And now a bloodbender.

But Katara seemed much less than impressed with her new skill. Her eyes watered again, and she dropped her face into her hands. "Do you have any idea what that feels like?" she demanded. "To reach inside someone, to bend their will to yours? It's about more than just moving the blood in their body. It's about enforcing your mind over theirs! It's about crushing their spirit, their free will, and taking them over completely." Zuko decided saying that it could be useful was probably a bad idea. "I never want to do it again. I don't think I could live with myself if I had to…"

Her body trembled as she hiccuped, and he moved carefully to her side. His hands balled into fists for a second, and then he placed them awkwardly on her shoulders as he let her cry it out. "Katara," he told her, "you're better than that woman. Her technique may be evil, but that doesn't mean you have to be."

As the words left his mouth, he suddenly had an idea of what to say. "...When Sokka and I were hunting with your dad, he said something like that about Sokka's sword. That it's an instrument for killing, and it can't be treated any other way. But that doesn't make Sokka a bad person just for carrying it, does it?"

"I hate it!" she gulped, ignoring Zuko's rhetorical question. "I hate bloodbending!"

"Then don't use it!" That came out harsher than he'd meant it. She didn't seem consoled. "Oh, come on," Zuko groaned, running his hand through his hair as he wracked his brains. He thought advice from her father would have been just the thing. "It's not like you're the only one with a power you don't want," he reminded her. "You're still Katara. Just because Aang is the Avatar, does that mean he's any less himself, does it?"

"Being the Avatar is an honor," Katara protested, her tears trailing off. "It's not like… being part of something that aweful…"

"And being the prince of the Fire Nation is all glory and pomp, then?" Zuko demanded, a little annoyed that she could dismiss his own torments so. "You think I don't feel like a horrible person every time I hear stories about the terrible things my people have done? My family; the people that I'm responsible for. And no matter what I do, they're my people, Katara. My people, who destroyed all of the air temples; my people, who did those horrible things to Hama and your tribe… Would you rather live with that?"

As he finished, he realized Katara was looking up at him with eyes still wet from tears. He hadn't meant to go on a tirade. Spirits, he was so bad at this! He should have said something nicer, or at least not told her all the things he hated about himself. He was trying to make her like him, not remember why she'd hated him.

But, at least it seemed her tears had stopped. "I'm sorry," he said, quickly taking his hands off her shoulders. "That probably wasn't the right thing to say."

"No," she admitted. "Actually, it helped…"

Surprised, Zuko leaned back against his rock, watching her watch the water, wondering what she was thinking. She trailed her fingers down to where the reflection of the giant full moon danced across the tricking stream. "She wasn't all bad you know," Katara said, after a moment. "In her own, twisted way, I think she was just another victim of this stupid war."

Zuko bit his tongue. She was talking about Hama. He didn't think there would ever be a right time to tell Katara about the people in the cave, but he knew this definitely wasn't it.

"And, I can understand how easy it is to hate the Fire Nation."

Zuko raised an eyebrow. "Where are you going with this?" he asked.

"Just that… I'm sorry I treated you so cruelly before. I guess Hama is proof that there are horrible people on both our sides."

"Mmm."

"Zuko?" she asked, and now he knew she was definitely getting at something. "We're friends now, right?"

"I thought that's why you gave me this," he reminded her, drawing her betrothal necklace out of his pocket.

"Oh, well, yeah." She flushed, and it was pleasing to watch the tables turned on her. He was quite sure the embarrassed Katara was a sight better to look at then his own scarred face trying to blush. "It's just… Hama said something, before she completely lost it, about… you."

"Do I even want to know?"

"It's… bothering me."

He took a deep breath. "All right. What?"

"She asked how I could trust you," Katara revealed. "And I realized that I started trusting you… you know, back at the Boiling Rock." He nodded and she continued. "But I also remember you saying that I shouldn't just forgive you right away because I felt guilty, but that you wanted me to keep on you. Why would you say that?"

He shrugged. "I don't know… Maybe I just do better when I have someone to measure up to. And this is something I don't want to mess up." She quirked her head questioningly. "I guess, because I didn't want you to doubt your decision."

"I'm glad you had a reason besides more secrets. But… I think you were right," Katara admitted, and suddenly Zuko felt very cautious. "I really am glad that we're friends, but I also think there's still something you're not telling us." Zuko felt like a mule-deer in front of a bright light, too nervous to think straight. How does she know? The girl stood up and brushed her hands off on her pants, facing him with those deep blue eyes. "Zuko, why are you really here with us? What secret are you still keeping?"

He could tell by the wobble in her voice that she was afraid she'd be hurt again, afraid that she all ready knew the answer, but she had to ask anyway. He didn't know what to do. The only secret I'm keeping is how I feel about her. If I tell her, who knows what'll happen, but… if I don't… If he didn't, how would he ever convince her he wasn't going to betray them, again?

She watched him, clearly aware of the inner struggled going on behind his clenched jaw, even if she had no idea what its subject was. Zuko curled and uncurled his fists in a complete panic. Maybe I can think up something else to tell her? No, that's just as good as lying – she'll know. He remembered how hurt she had been after Ba Sing Se, and the hate she had felt for him afterward. He remembered how hard he'd worked to get past that, and how he had promised himself not to hurt her that way again. I have to say something…

I have to tell her.

He opened his mouth, but he couldn't even find the words. What do I say? The secret I'm keeping is that I have a giant crush on you – don't tell Aang? Or maybe I should start with, 'Now that Mai's in prison…'

When nothing came out, Katara seemed to decide she had waited long enough. Her face fell, and she turned. "Never mind," she told him, rubbing her arm with a free hand. "It doesn't matter."

She turned to walk away, and everything inside him was screaming something different. She's leaving! I blew it! He'd just spend the whole night terrified that he would lose her to a bloodbender without ever telling her how he felt, and now he was going to lose her because he couldn't. The look of disappointment in her eyes flashed before his vision, and before he could stop himself, he reached out and caught her wrist. "Katara, wait!" He still didn't know what to say, but he knew he couldn't lose her, not now that they had come this far.

As she turned, a strange desperation seemed to overtake him, a frightening culmination of the fear he'd felt this night and so many others, and all the times he'd kept silent when his heart was screaming inside him.

"Zuko, I-"

But she didn't finish. Before she had a chance, before he stumped himself trying to think of something to say, he strode forward and pressed his lips against hers.