Be careful making wishes in the dark.

Can't be sure when they've hit their mark.

And besides, in the meantime I'm just dreaming of tearing you apart.

I'm in the details with the Devil.

So now the world can never get me on my level.

I just got to get you out of the cage.

I'm a young lover's rage.

Gonna need a spark to ignite.

— "My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark" by Fall Out Boy

"So, are you ready for another round of Twenty Questions to get us through this long drive home?" Katara quipped as she buckled into the passenger seat of the Challenger the next morning.

Zuko smirked over at her. "What could you possibly ask me that you haven't already?"

"I'm sure I can think of something." She eyed him. "What, you saying there's nothing else you wanna ask me?"

"Please. You're an open book." He turned the car on and reversed out of the spot. When Zuko was right in his seat again, he smirked at her again. "But, if you insist, I'll play along."

Katara mockingly put her hand over her heart. "Oh, you are too kind."

"Oh no, don't sound so excited. Today, I'm not holding back." There was humor in his voice. Katara wondered what types of questions he planned on asking her.

She quirked a brow at him. "Oh? So does that mean I don't have to hold back either?"

"That's up to you." Zuko pulled out into the early morning traffic.

It was barely 7 am. Zuko had woken her up an hour before. He had already been dressed (she cursed herself for missing an opportunity to see him without his shirt on again) and was packed. Katara had grumbled through her morning routine until Zuko had planted her in front of the coffee machine in the breakfast lounge.

"Not much of a morning person, are you?" He murmured in her ear as she had poured her cup.

"I think I mentioned that not long after we met," Katara had replied.

His crooked smirk had done more to wake her than the subsequent coffee as it sent her heart thundering in her chest. "Hm, I think I remember that."

Now Katara pursed her lips. "Fine. I'll play ball. Ask me whatever you want."

Zuko gave a smirk of triumph before he asked his first question. "First time you ever got drunk?"

Katara wrinkled her nose. "That is not a pleasant memory." She let out a little laugh. "Picture it: I was 15, sophomore year. Sokka had just led our football team to victory for the Homecoming game against our rivals. One of the other teammates is throwing a kegger out in the woods. We go, and proceed to get so falling-down drunk that Sokka loses his pants and I end up throwing up all over the captain of the basketball team—who was hot as hell, I might add."

"Oof, that's rough," Zuko snickered.

"I don't think my social status ever recovered from that." She snorted. "What about you?"

It was his turn to laugh. "Oh, it was not much better. I was...14, I think? Me and that girl I was telling you about—"

"Your first kiss."

"—right. She snuck a bottle of her dad's sake up to the treehouse and we spent an afternoon in the baking heat drinking it. We were both sloshed out of our minds when her mom called us down for dinner." He made a displeased face. "She'd made fish. We both threw up right there on the kitchen floor. It didn't take long for them to figure out what we'd been doing." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Her dad forbade me from ever seeing her again."

"Harsh," Katara remarked. "But...understandable."

"Not as harsh as the hangover I had the next day. Which my uncle spent loudly playing the tsungi horn." He chuckled. "I don't drink much. Probably because of that."

"Me either. If I hadn't thrown up on him, I'm sure I would've been making out with him instead before the night was over." Katara sighed wistfully.

"And that train of thought leads me to my next question. Worst date?"

Katara arched a brow at him. "What makes you think I've been on enough dates to have a bad one?"

Zuko snorted. "Don't play around like that, Kat. You're too pretty enough to have not been on enough dates to have had at least one that ended badly."

Katara relished the warm feeling in her belly. He thinks I'm pretty? Katara hid her smile by looking out the window. But her expression darkened when she thought about her worst date. She couldn't tell him. So she lied.

"I actually haven't been on any bad dates," Katara said hesitantly. "I've been on some good ones, but...nothing that sticks out in my mind as bad." She peeked over at him. "What about you?"

He grimaced. "My worst date was with my ex. Let's just say it ended up with me in a fountain with a dead fish on my head."

Katara snorted out a laugh. "Ouch." She grinned wickedly. "What did you do? Try to feel her up under the table?"

"No. I uh…" Was he blushing? Katara thought so. "I was actually breaking up with her." He was rubbing the back of his neck again. "She sort of pushed me into a fountain. I really don't know where the dead fish came from, but she threw it at me. My ego definitely took a hit."

"Then I don't blame her! I'd be pissed too," Katara guffawed. "Why would you break up with her on a date? You know, stuff like that is what makes people think you're an asshole."

"Yeah, I know. Definitely not my proudest moment," Zuko cleared his throat. "Remember a few weeks ago when you asked if I've lived in Ba Sing Se all this time?"

"Yeah. You said it was, and I quote, 'complicated'," Katara answered.

Zuko nodded. "It was. I lived with my uncle from the time I was thirteen until my senior year of high school. Then...my dad and sister reached out. I thought…" He trailed off, shaking his head. "Anyway, I went back to the Fire Nation. I almost finished my senior year out there, but I came back instead."

Katara had forgotten the rules of the game. "What made you come back?"

She mostly expected him to remind her of the rules, to deflect the question. Or maybe he would just refuse to answer it. So Katara was quite surprised when he actually answered it.

"I didn't want the life my dad was trying to force on me." His voice was quiet and his eyes were trained solidly to the road ahead. He made a derisive sound that was some mix of growl and laugh. "He had my future all planned out. It was everything I always wanted...but I wasn't happy. I wasn't me."

Zuko was being vague. Katara didn't know if he was doing it intentionally or not. She wanted to ask more, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. They were quiet for several moments.

He let out a sigh. "Well, that definitely deviated from your question. Sorry about that."

"No, no, it's okay." Without thinking about it, she touched his forearm. Zuko stiffened suddenly as he looked over at her, and she quickly withdrew her hand. "Sorry."

He tried to smile, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I started it. No need to apologize."

Katara smiled kindly at him. "We all have things we don't like to talk about." Her thoughts drifted to her ex. Katara quickly pushed them away. "And that's okay."

He nodded, his eyes trained back on the highway. His idea to leave early and beat the traffic was paying off: there were few cars on the road. Zuko was cruising along with the speedometer at 80.

"Okay, to make it fair, you can ask me anything," Katara told him. I'm probably going to regret this, she thought immediately after she said it.

He glanced over at her, his eyebrow arched and a devilish smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Anything?"

Katara only hesitated for a moment. "Anything."

He pursed his lips thoughtfully as he looked back at the road. "Hm...I'm going to have to think about that for a while. I'm not wasting that opportunity." He flashed a grin at her again.

"Should I be worried?"

"Mm…Maybe."

Time ticked unnervingly by as Zuko contemplated his question. Katara's mind was in a whirlwind as she tried to run through what he might ask, and how she would answer. And, as she thought about what sort of questions she would ask Zuko, if she had the same opportunity, she grew more leery.

She was about to break the nerve-wracking tension with a question of her own when he finally spoke up.

"Okay...here it is…" His eyes cut to her. "Just remember...you said anything."

Katara swallowed hard over the dryness in her throat. "Ask away."

"How many guys have you slept with?"

Katara gaped openly at him as a furious blush rose in her cheeks, incredulous at the question. "Wow...you weren't kidding about not holding back, were you?" she managed to say.

A wolfish grin curved his lips. "Nope. I figured it was only fair to make you squirm, since you've put me on the spot before."

Katara scowled at him. "I didn't mean to, jerk."

"Hey, you said I could ask you anything, so I did," Zuko returned with a shrug.

Katara arched her brow. "And what makes you think talking about this would make me squirm?"

"Well...since your face is as red as a tomato, I think I have my answer." He leered at her. "Now, answer my question."

Katara looked away, unable to meet his gaze. "Just...one guy. My ex. That's it." Her eyes flickered to him. "Now you answer the question."

"Oh no, I don't think that was part of the deal."

"It most definitely wasn't not part of the deal," Katara countered confidently. She crossed her arms over her chest and arched her brow at him. "So tell me, how many girls have you slept with?"

Zuko looked over at her, his face the perfect mask of innocence. "Me? Have sex? Nah, I don't do that. I'm a virgin."

Katara snorted out a laugh. "Yeah, okay, and I'm the Dali Lama." She gave him a pointed look. "Seriously."

"You sure you wanna know?" Zuko asked. "What if it's some crazy high number and you never look at me the same again?"

Katara blanched, taken aback by that response. She couldn't say she would be surprised if he'd slept with his fair share of people, but would that change the way she felt about him? Katara didn't think so. But it might affect how confident she felt about herself, not even knowing if she was his type at all.

"I'm just messing with you, Katara." He met her gaze briefly. "The answer is three. Just three." He shot her a teasing grin. "But it was very satisfying watching you sweat it out over there for a minute, though."

Katara gave him an annoyed look, to which he chuckled lightly.

"You make the best faces when you're upset," Zuko remarked, his lips turned up in a half-smirk. "But I guess you can consider it payback for asking if I was gay." He peered over at her. "And for the record, I wouldn't have looked at you any differently if your number had been higher."

Katara offered him a warm smile. She found, once again, that he never failed to surprise her.

She wondered if the rest of the drive could be so interesting.