Hey guys! This story is my attempt to bridge what happened between the battle between Azula, Katara, and Zuko to the balcony kiss to explain what could have happened between then. I know a lot of people have done this, but I want to see if I can't put out a good one, so I hope you guys enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Katara watched the defeated Fire Nation princess cry herself to sleep. It was a bit vindictive this way. After all, after she had killed Aang, Katara would have probably cried herself to sleep for a long time if she hadn't been able to revive him. Still though, as much as she knew that the insane firebender deserved it, it was hard to watch. Throughout the battle, it was clear that Azula had lost her sanity over the course of time since she…

She shook her head at herself. No, she wouldn't allow herself to think of that moment. Not right now. It wouldn't do anyone any good, least of all her.

"Katara?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, she looked down to see the injured firebender that she was currently healing.

"Yeah?" she finally replied, refocusing on healing his wound.

"You've been healing me for an hour," he told her rather bluntly. "I'm fine. You can stop now."

Katara rolled her eyes at this. If there was one thing she and Zuko had in common, it was their stubbornness. "Zuko, you-"

He raised a hand in the air to stop her. "Katara, we both know that you're only doing this to distract yourself. What's going on?"

The young waterbender let out a long, defeated sigh and withdrew the water that had been healing him and put it back into her pouch. "It's nothing, Zuko."

"No, it's not nothing. I know that look. That's the look I had when I was writing my break up letter to Mai," he insisted. "What's wrong?"

One last sigh escaped her lips before she finally decided to get it out. "I'm worried about Aang. I know I said earlier that he would come back, but… what if he doesn't?"

"Katara, Aang will defeat my father," Zuko tried to assure her, though he knew what she was truly worried about. "He might not want to kill him, but he'll find a way."

Katara looked down sadly at her feet with her arms on her knees. "That's not what I'm worried about, Zuko." Zuko didn't say anything, for he already knew the truth. "I know he can beat him, but… what if your father takes him down with him?"

A flash of the horrible event in Ba Sing Se flooded her mind, reminding her of that horrible night when everything had gone wrong. A new wave of fear crashed on her as she watched the sky, looking for any kind of reassurance that he was still alive.

"You love him, don't you?"

It wasn't a question.

Katara looked at him sadly, then back to her feet as she nodded miserably. "I do." She took a long, deep breath. "And I'm not sure if he'll ever forgive me."

Zuko looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean? What did you do?"

She glanced away, feeling shame course through her veins once again. "When we went to that stupid play… when I went to go check on Aang, he… he tried to talk about what happened on the submarine."

"What happened on the submarine?" Zuko asked in confusion.

Katara realized that no one else knew about it other than her and Aang and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I guess you wouldn't know. Aang… may or may not have kissed me then."

Zuko's eyes widened in surprise at this, though he knew that he shouldn't have been surprised. He had known that the Avatar had a thing for her, and considering the way she had threatened to personally end his life if he hurt the young Avatar in any way, he could only assume that she felt the same.

"Okay. So what happened at the play?"

Once again looking down in shame, she fiddled with her fingers, her fear for Aang giving her a lot of nervous energy. "He tried to tell me how he felt, but… although I didn't know it at the time, I was scared. I thought I was confused, but now I know I was just scared." Zuko gave her a raised brow and she decided to explain. "Before Aang kissed me at the invasion, we were talking about him maybe not coming back. I told him to not even think like that. I had nothing but faith and trust in him. He's the Avatar, right?" She laughed bitterly. "He should be able to defeat the Firelord no problem. But when he kissed me… It reminded me that he's not just the Avatar. He might be the Avatar, but he's still human."

"So you got scared," Zuko broke in.

"I did. I got so scared that I doubted whether I actually loved him or not." She sighed a little. "I guess I was just trying to protect myself."

Zuko mused over this piece of information. He could only imagine the pain that Aang must have been going through. The girl he loved had told him she wasn't sure about how she felt for him. At least in his situation he had been the one to break up with Mai, but at least Mai knew that he still loved her. He knew that Aang might die without knowing how Katara truly felt about him.

But he supposed Katara was getting her payback now with worrying about whether Aang would live or not. Judging by the amount of guilt in her voice, she must have really hurt him.

"Okay… but why wouldn't he forgive you? Aang's one of the most forgiving people I've ever met," Zuko scratched his head, then winced at the pain the action caused him.

Katara was silent for a moment, refusing to look at anything other than her feet. "Because I was so scared that I hurt him. When he tried to tell me how he felt, I was so worried about loving someone who could die that I broke his heart." A tear escaped her eye which she hastily wiped away. "He probably doesn't even want to be with me anymore."

A long silence overcame the two as they thought about it. Zuko wasn't entirely sure what to say. This was something he was not used to. The most meaningful conversation he had with his own sister was him asking her what she was up to. And although he knew he would rather stay out of it, he knew he had to say something.

"Katara, if I know Aang at all, I know he still wants to be with you," he began rather awkwardly, feeling like he was starting puberty all over again. "Even if you hurt him, he really cares about you. You know he's doing this for you, right?"

"What?" Katara's eyes widened in surprise as she finally tore her eyes away from her feet to look at him.

"He's doing this for you," Zuko laughed a little, but winced at the pain it caused him. "Even when I wasn't in your group, I could see how much you meant to him. He fought me hard for your necklace." Katara smiled a little and grabbed onto the thing that Aang had won back for her. "If I remember correctly, his exact words were 'You have something I want'."

Katara couldn't help but smile again at this. Even back then he was fighting for her. He really did care about her.

"My point is, just because you made a mistake doesn't mean he's going to give up on you," Zuko continued, choosing his words carefully. "Aang might not want to fight, but if there's one thing he would fight for, I'd bet my nation that it would be you."

A few tears escaped her eyes at this, and she quickly wiped them away, but she couldn't get the small smile off her face. "Thanks, Zuko."

"No problem," he replied awkwardly, still wondering how he came up with a response like that. Maybe he knew more about people than he had thought.

Before either of them could say anything else, two large beams of light shot up into the sky, making them both gasp as they witnessed the orange start to overcome the blue. "No," she whispered to herself, feeling tears start to come down her face. "Aang."

Then, at the last second, the blue quickly overpowered the orange and a burst of energy shot throughout the sky, sending a shockwave throughout the world. She gasped and tried to see anything, but it was too far away.

"Zuko! That light! Do you think that means that he's okay? That he's…" she trailed off fearfully.

"I don't know," he admitted. "We'll just have to wait and see."

Katara's fear was at an all time high, but she knew there wasn't anything she could do about it. She would just have to wait and see what happened.

A few hours later, Zuko had passed out from exhaustion and pain on the stairs, but Katara had decided to sleep on Appa. Appa was softer than stairs and he reminded her of Aang. As she slept, she dreamed of all that had happened over the course of their journey, but more importantly, she dreamed of her time with Aang. Freeing him from his icy prison, her at the time unknown jealousy at Kyoshi Island. Their trip to visit Aunt Wu where she had discovered that Aang might be the one she would marry. Thanking him for getting her necklace back with a kiss on the cheek. The cave of two lovers, the library, the desert, Ba Sing Se… Every moment that they shared together she remembered.

She was awakened by the loud roar of what she could only assume was machinery. Waking up slowly, she looked up from her comfortable position against Appa to see a war ship landing. She gasped a little. Was it them? Did they all make it back? And the most pressing question on her mind: Did Aang survive?

The ramp lowered down and the door opened to reveal her brother being held onto by Suki and Toph. Katara smiled in glee. "Sokka!" Getting up from Appa, she started running towards them, faster than she had thought possible.

Zuko was awakened by Katara's running and smiled as he saw that his friends had made it. Getting up slowly, he started making his way over to them.

Katara finally reached her brother and tackled him in a hug, not realizing that he had an injured leg. "I'm happy to see you too, but can you get off of me? I've got a broken leg here."

"Oh, sorry!" Katara smiled sheepishly and backed off before giving Suki and Toph a quick hug. She smiled at all of them before she realized someone was missing. "Wait, where's Aang?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, as if being summoned, none other than the one she had been nearly worried to death for finally came out of the battered air ship. "I'm here," he smiled at her.

Katara gasped and smiled so widely she feared her face might break. "Aang!" She ran straight for him, not realizing how exhausted he was from his fight and tackled him to the ground, holding onto him for dear life as if letting him go would make him disappear. "You did it!"

Aang laughed weakly and hugged her back, enjoying having her in his arms, however temporary it might be. "No, we did it. I couldn't have done this without any of you." Katara smiled again and squeezed him tighter, feeling so relieved that he was alive.

The two just laid there on the ground, holding each other like there was no time left for them. And fortunately for Katara, they had all the time in the world.

"Alright, as much as I hate to break this up, we've got stuff to do," Sokka broke in annoyingly as he leaned against Suki while Toph had gone back inside. "We got to get the loser lord to prison."

Both Katara and Zuko's eyes widened in surprise at this. "You mean…" Toph came out a moment later, hefting the completely exhausted ex-Firelord on her shoulder, despite him being twice her size. He groaned as he dragged her, his bare feet scraping against hard metal.

"How?" Katara asked Aang with a hint of admiration and awe in her voice.

He smiled. "I met a Lion Turtle who taught me how to take his bending away." Katara and Zuko's jaws both dropped at this, making him laugh.

Once Zuko finally snapped out of his shock, he looked at the shell of the man who was once his father. "You're a disgrace." Ozai glared at him, but found he couldn't move at all. Toph snorted and threw him on the ground. "Guards! Take him away!" A few guards who had been standing to the side were hesitant. Zuko snarled and shot a large fireball, although with great pain, at their leader. "I said, TAKE HIM AWAY!" he roared.

The guards finally became more afraid of him and did as they were told, dragging him away. "I'll go with them to make sure that there's no funny business," Toph told them as she followed the guards.

"Good idea," Zuko nodded in approval before returning his attention to the rest of the group. "We should all get some rest for tonight, because tomorrow we have a lot of work to do. I have rooms set up for everybody." He led the way to their rooms and showed them where each of them would be, reminding himself to show Toph where hers was later.

As he showed Aang and Katara where their rooms were, he decided to go to his room and get some sleep, knowing that they probably had a lot they wanted to talk about.

And although he was right, Katara was hesitant. Aang was more distant than he was before. Now he seemed to be making sure that she had her space as they stood outside their room doors which were across from each other. And although she knew she wanted to tell him how she felt now, she knew it wasn't the right time. He was exhausted, and they had a lot of work to do ahead of them. She would just have to wait for the right moment.

Her decision seemed to be wise, as after they all got some rest, Aang was far too busy in meetings and setting up new rules for them to have a real talk. Much had to be done to make everything right, and Aang was needed to ensure that everything would be put back to the way it should be.

But after everything had been sorted out, the Gaang had gotten an invitation from the Earth King to talk about how to return everything to the way it should be. And after the meeting where they decided to start the Harmony Restoration Movement, Iroh had invited them all for some tea and relaxation.

And it was here with all her friends and family that she knew it was the right time. The right time for them to be together, the right time for him to know just how much she loved him and how much he meant to her.

And judging by the way he kissed her back, she could only assume that he still felt the same.