Title: A Love That Couldn't Be Part 2: A Trying Love

Author: WishHe-LovedMe

Pairing: Zuko/Katara

Chapter: 26. Reasoning

Summery: Katara, fearing for her friends' lives, makes a hard decision, and decides to live with Zuko in the Fire Nation as his Fire Nation Princess. There, she meets many people with dark pasts, and a Royal Family with even darker secrets.Authors Note: In this chapter there is a part where Katara says something aloud, but is remembering something from a past chapter. What she says is in normal writing, what she remembers is in italics.

Reasoning

Do I love him…do I love him? It was the question that I have been trying to answer for so long. Almost from the instant I was first put on the ship. There was always something between the two of us, but did I dare call it love? Did I really want to put everything out on the line like that? Did I really want to tell Sokka what he wanted to hear, or…what I wanted to hear myself?

"No, of course I don't love him." I said, and laughed off the question. At that moment I turned ever so slightly to see if Zuko was still in my bedroom. I noticed that the sliding door was not completely closed, so I figured he was still there. I sighed. I didn't want to hurt anyone with the truth, but I didn't want to hurt anyone with lies either.

"Don't lie to me, Katara." Sokka warned threateningly.

"Fine," I sighed, "We're married, does that give you a clue?" I asked. I was wondering how, exactly, he would interpret the question.

"That's not an answer, and you know it Katara!"

There was no getting around it. I couldn't evade the question any longer. "Yes, I love him, okay?" I screamed. "Is that what you wanted to hear Sokka? Is that what you were hoping I'd say? I love him, and there's no changing it."

Sokka didn't even bother to address me further. He sauntered off mumbling something about killing him when he finds him. Aang went after him, trying to stop him. I was left on the balcony in a daze. Had Zuko heard me say everything? Or did he only hear the lie? I started to cry, I couldn't bare to have Sokka…It was then that the realization from Sokka's last words sunk in.

"Sokka!" I screamed uselessly. "No, you can't kill him, Sokka!" I ran back into my room to find them. Kezi was in there, and she had a very confused expression on her face. I had a feeling she saw, or heard, or knew something.

"Did you see Prince Zuko in here, followed by a Water Tribe boy, followed by a smaller boy with strange blue arrows on his head come by here by any chance?" I asked her.

Kezi gave me a small nod and a questioning look as if to say: "What, exactly, just happened?"

I gave her a small smile, "We'll talk later." I hollered over my shoulder and rushed out the door.

I didn't know where to go, I was in a palace. So I asked the first person I saw. "Have you seen Zuko." She nodded and pointed. I knew from a previous encounter with the Prince, that the place they went was Zuko's room. I guessed that what happened was that Zuko ran, and Sokka followed. Aang then followed Sokka, and they are all now in Zuko's room. I rushed to his room and paused when I got there.

I was scared to enter. I was scared of what could happen. I knew it wasn't going to happen with Sokka and Aang in the room with us, but all the same, I was scared that what happened last time I was in Zuko's room would happen again. I took a deep breath.

I was about to open the door when a voice from inside stopped me. "Guys, guys, stop it!" Aang. He was trying to stop them. From what I didn't know, and I really didn't want to find out, but I knew that I had to go in there, so I did.

What I saw was Zuko and Sokka fighting. That was inevitable, yes, but the strange thing was that Sokka appeared to be winning. Yeah, you heard me, Sokka appeared to be winning. But, as you should know, looks are usually deceiving. Zuko kicked Sokka in a…not so nice…spot. You'd think Sokka would quit, but he didn't. He went right back up to him and punched Zuko.

"Stop it!" Aang screamed. Do you think they paid any attention towards Aang? No, they didn't. Aang tried airbending, but they ignored him.

"What happened?" I asked my friend…or the twelve-year-old who used to be my friend. Are we friends anymore? How does Aang feel about me and Zuko? Is it even accurate to call him twelve? He was born over 112 years ago. Does that make him one-hundred-twelve? "What happened, Aang?" I repeated.

It was a really stupid question for me to ask. I'll be the first to admit it, but it was all I could think to ask. Aang obviously knew it was a stupid question and shot me a look.

He answered none-the-less. "What do you think happened, Katara? Sokka went after Zuko, who happened to be in your bedroom—which Sokka will almost certainly ask you about later—and when he found him in here, he attacked him." Aang had the most serious look on his face. One you would never expect to see on a twelve-year-old's…or one-hundred-twelve-year-old's… face.

"I know it looks bad, but it was completely innocent." I defended.

"Whatever; just get them to st—" Aang was interrupted by the shattering of glass. It was such a familiar sound, it made me shiver.

"Zuko stop it." I shouted at him. I kept shouting it, but it didn't do any good. I walked up to him reluctantly, and grabbed his arm. He whirled on me. "Zuko, you have to stop this." I said. He just pulled away from me. "Zuko, you're scaring me!" I yelled as loud as I could.

It was then that I realized I had said it aloud. Aang gave me a confused and hurt look, but that was the only reaction I got from anyone in the room. I looked at the ground and saw some broken pieces of glass. I picked two of them up. I looked at Aang who had a fearful look in his grey eyes. I looked into his grey eyes with my sapphire ones and in that gaze; I told him that everything would be okay. In that glance I told him that what I was about to do was going to stop it. I was going to make them stop.

I put the two pieces of broken red glass to my throat. "Katara," Aang started warningly.

"It'll be okay." I assured him.

I turned toward the fighting teenagers. Zuko had started to use his bending, and I was frightened. I then remembered something I had asked him.

"I promise not to kill the Avatar or your brother if they try to kill me." He said. Then his face got serious, "But don't think that I will not hesitate to hurt them if they try anything. I said I won't kill them, but that doesn't mean I can't hurt them."

"I don't want him hurt either." I whispered to myself. I took a deep breath and yelled as loud as I possibly could. "Sokka, Zuko, STOP FIGHTING RIGHT NOW!" They both looked at me this time.

"Katara don't—" Sokka started, but Zuko cut him off.

"Katara put the glass down now!" Zuko commanded.

Did he honestly think that I was going to drop the glass? Did he really think I would let him to continue to let my brother fight a losing battle? "No." I said defiantly.

"Katara put the glass down." Zuko repeated.

I did not do as I asked. I had no intention of doing so until I had what I wanted. "No more fighting." I declared. "Sokka, you can't kill him just because I love him. Zuko, you promised…" I trailed off, on the verge of tears.

Zuko walked away from Sokka and sat on a chair. He put his hands in his head and sighed.

Sokka went over to me. "You can't love him." Sokka said. It was like he thought that if he said it, it would make it true.

"I can love him, and I do." I whispered.

"He's a firebender." Sokka pointed out intelligently.

"Yeah, so? What else is new?" I questioned.

"You don't know what he's capable of. You don't know what he could do to you!"

"I know exactly what he's capable of." I replied. "I know that he would never hurt me if that's what you're trying to imply." Sokka tried to think of something to say, but no words came out of his mouth.

"Sokka, I'm older now, I'm growing up." I insisted. "I'm not the eight-year-old I was when our mother died. You don't need to protect me, I have Zuko." I reached out to my husband and took his hand in mine. "It's time that I learned to do things on my own. I've seen so much more than you know now, or will ever know, so don't tell me to shut my eyes and pretend that it never happened. I'm not a girl, don't tell me what believe."

"Katara…" Sokka pleaded.

"Sokka, we grew up surrounded by war. It took away my father—my biological one—then later took away our mother, and it has probably taken away your father. You lost Yue because of this war. We didn't grow up peacefully, we grew up too fast. I missed most of my childhood because I had to take care of our grandmother. Back at the South Pole you were teaching children no older than seven how to be warriors. We didn't ask for any of this…but, yet, here it is. We can't hide from what we are supposed to do. You can't hide me away forever."

I let go of Zuko's hand and took both of Sokka's. "Sokka listen to me. You can't tell me what to believe. You might have been able to when I was younger, but I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm not as impressionable as I was back then. I have to make my own choices and learn from my own mistakes. Please trust me on this, everything will be fine."

Sokka let out a sigh that he had been holding in. "Fine, I guess you're right. Just because I know that your decision could possibly be destructive, gives me no right to intervene…not too much anyway."

I laughed. "That's good enough for me, now you guys have to get out of here. Ozai is still in charge, and he could capture you." I said seriously.

"What do you mean still in charge?" Aang inquired.

I then proceeded to tell them about all of the things that have happened here while they have been gone, and I have been here.