Some days I don't know if I'm wrong or right.

Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear.

'Cause though the truth may vary,

This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.

"Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men

Zuko pulled into the parking lot of a retro diner sometime later. He whipped the Challenger into an empty spot in the half-full lot and killed the engine. Per usual, he came around and opened Katara's door for her. She could feel the ghost of his hand hovering above her back as they walked up to the diner, and she couldn't ignore the butterflies that fluttered against the walls of her stomach at the gesture. Once again, Zuko held the door for her and she thanked him as she stepped inside.

Katara immediately fell in love with the place. Inside smelled like grease and French fries. The floors were black-and-white checkers, the tabletops shone like chrome, and the booths and chairs were teal-colored faux leather. Oldies music, like what her grandmother listened to, played from the speakers and the waitresses wore poodle skirts.

Zuko led the way down the aisle between the booths that lined one wall and the bar counter by the kitchen and stood beside a booth in the back corner, gesturing for Katara to sit. She did, and then he sat down across from her. He leaned forward on his crossed forearms, a satisfied smirk playing at his lips.

"This place is seriously so cool," Katara said. She eyed the jukebox in the corner. "It's like going back in time. How did you even find this place?"

"I've done my fair share of exploring the city," Zuko replied coolly. He gestured in the air with one hand. "There's a lot of neat places here."

"Mm. I can imagine."

His omission about his father's company meant something. He was, for whatever reason, beginning to trust her. Katara got the feeling Zuko didn't trust a lot of people. She didn't want to mess that up.

She mimicked his position and crossed her arms on the table, leaning closer to him. "How long have you lived in Ba Sing Se?" Katara asked, trying to keep her tone neutral.

Zuko didn't answer for a moment, his expression darkening. Katara wondered if he was going to answer at all. But then he lifted one shoulder in a shrug as he gazed out of the window. "About eight years, give or take."

Katara was burning with curiosity. She felt like he knew so much about her, but she didn't feel like she really knew him at all. He had been rather forthcoming so far—or as forthcoming as he seemed he could be—and she thought that was a good sign. But Katara wasn't going to push him. She could be patient.

But she thought one more question couldn't hurt. "And you've lived with Iroh all that time?"

Before he could answer, a waitress came up to their table with two glasses of ice water in her hands and two menus tucked beneath her arm. She smiled down at Zuko like they were old friends.

"Well, hello, stranger," she greeted him. "Long time, no see."

Zuko gave her a crooked smile. "Sorry. I've been a bit busy."

The waitress's eyes flashed to Katara and she could practically hear her thoughts: does this girl have anything to do with that?

"Would you like your usual, then?"

"Yes, please." He smiled at her, a true smile that showed his straight, white teeth. Color rose in the waitress's cheeks. Zuko glanced back at Katara, the smile still on his lips. Her heart stuttered painfully in her chest, and she wondered briefly if he knew what kind of effect he had with that smile. "I'm telling you, the bacon cheeseburger is the best. But their milkshakes are even better."

Katara turned to the waitress. "I'll take his word for it. Bacon cheeseburger and fries, please. And a chocolate malt shake."

"You've got it."

The waitress walked away without even bothering to jot down their order. When Katara looked back at Zuko, he was still smirking amusedly at her. This time, her heart stopped entirely.

"What?" Katara asked. She couldn't stop the nervous giggle that left her, and she quickly took a drink of her water.

"I always get a chocolate malt, too."

Katara met his golden gaze over the lip of her cup. "Seriously?"

He nodded.

For some reason, her cheeks warmed. Then she cracked a smile. "Hm, so we actually have something in common."

"Well, it seems we also have similar tastes in music, so that actually makes two things we have in common."

Katara let out a chuckle, and he smirked lopsidedly at her. Spirits, he had such a nice smile. Her heart continued to do funny things as her blush deepend. When she felt like she had her expression under control, she looked back up at him and repeated her question.

"So, have you lived with your uncle the whole time you've lived in the city?" The corners of her lips tugged up. "Well, until you moved into the dorms, at least."

Katara mostly expected him to deflect that question. It was more personal, she suspected, than asking how long he'd lived there. But to her surprise, he gave a half-answer.

"For the most part," Zuko said slowly. He twirled his water glass with the tips of his fingers, watching the ice clink against the edges. His eyes flickered to hers before he dropped them again. "It's complicated."

"I can understand that." And really, she did. Her reasons for transferring universities were complicated.

"My turn to ask a question."

Katara looked up at him and spread her hands. "Ask away. I'm an open book." She smiled at him.

"I know you are." Zuko smirked crookedly at her. He didn't take his eyes off of her as his face became serious again. "Why did you transfer from GU? It's just as good of a school as BSSU. Their poli-sci program is just as good."

She tensed up. "Um."

Katara didn't want to answer the question. How could she explain to him that she had transferred schools because she got mixed up with a bad boy who shattered her heart and fundamentally changed who she was as a person? That wasn't something she would tell someone she barely knew. She barely even talked to her friends about it.

Instead, she picked up her water and slowly brought it to her mouth, drinking deeply from it as she considered how to answer the question. Then she set it back down on the table and took a deep breath.

"It's complicated," she said at last.

Humor danced in his eyes. "I can understand that."

The waitress came back bearing a tray loaded with two chocolate milkshakes topped with cherries and whip cream and two baskets with burgers and piled high with fries.

"Here you are," she said cheerily as she set them down. She beamed another smile at Zuko before she left. "Let me know if you need anything else."

"We will, thanks."

Katara surveyed her food. It looked even better than it smelled. She grabbed the ketchup and squirted some on the paper beside her fries. Then she pulled off the top bun and took off the pickles, discarding them in a pile in the corner of her basket.

"You don't like pickles?"

Katara made a face and shook her head. "No. I think they're gross."

"Well, I think they're delicious." Long, pale fingers snaked over her basket, plucking up the discarded pickles. Katara watched as Zuko popped one in his mouth and chewed it with a satisfied smirk. He winked at her—and oh my spirits did her stomach drop—as he said, "The perfect friendships exist between someone who doesn't like pickles and someone who does."

Katara laughed. Her heart was still keening from his wink and the sound was a little high-pitched and nervous. She inwardly face-palmed herself. Get a grip, Katara! She looked at him from under her lashes.

"That...has to be the worst line that I have ever heard." Zuko chuckled and Katara peeked at him from beneath her eyelashes. "So...does that mean we're friends?"

Zuko popped another one of her pickles into his mouth and chewed it thoughtfully as he considered that. The corner of his mouth twitched upward. "Mm, I think we're getting there."

That was more than she could have hoped for. Katara definitely wasn't going to complain.

Katara collapsed on her bed a few hours later, her mind still reeling from the unexpected events of the day. What had begun as a study meet-up (she refused to use the word "date" while referencing anything involving Zuko) had turned into quite an adventure.

The rest of lunch had gone well. The conversation had remained light, and they had made plans to meet at the library Tuesday morning before Comm class to continue to work on their project. They both conveniently had no morning classes on Tuesdays, so it was the perfect opportunity to wrap it up.

He had dropped her off back at her dorm at nearly four o'clock, flashing her a quick smile and an "I'll pick you up at 5:30 tomorrow" before he loped back to his car. Her head was basically in the clouds and she barely heard one of the girls who shared her dorm hall call her name and invite her to play Cards Against Humanity. Katara took the girl, Yue, up on that offer.

She had mostly kept to herself since classes had begun, primarily because her schedule was so full. Between courses and work, Katara barely had any downtime. She knew Yue and Keiko from the swim team, with whom she also shared her dorm hall. Both of them hailed from the Northern Water Tribe and Katara liked them well enough. She had classes with some of the other girls that were playing as well, and she had so much fun playing the game that she didn't even realize that the evening was creeping up on her.

After that, Katara, Yue, and Keiko had walked over to one of the cafes on campus to get ramen for dinner (though she was still pretty full from her late lunch with Zuko) and ran into Aang and his friends, Kuzon and Bumi. Aang spotted Katara and immediately invited the girls to join them. Kuzon and Bumi, who hailed from the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, respectively, were both fun-loving and kooky, and had the girls laughing so hard they were trying not to snort noodles from their noses.

Once they had eaten, the girls had invited them over to play more cards with them. Yue and Keiko were roommates, so once the boys had been checked in, they went to their room to continue playing.

Katara had played until she yawned so hard her jaw cracked. When she had checked the time, she was surprised to see it was after 11 pm. She stood up and stretched, feeling her back pop in all of the right places.

"I better get to bed," she had said, a bit regretfully. "I had a lot of fun playing, though. We'll have to do it again sometime." She smiled at Kuzon and Bumi. "It was nice meeting you guys."

Aang had gotten to his feet. "I'll walk you back to your room."

"It's like, three doors down," Katara had chuckled.

But Aang had just shrugged, a small smile on his lips. "I don't mind."

That's because you're a Nice Guy, Katara had thought as they left Yue and Keiko's room. She wondered if Zuko would have done that if it had been him in Aang's place, and given how many times he had opened doors for her, she decided he probably would have. Does that make Zuko a Nice Guy, too?

Aang walked her to her door. Katara unlocked it and stepped inside, turning on the light. She turned toward Aang to bid him a good night.

"It was really nice studying with you yesterday," Aang said, a shy smile playing across his lips. "Maybe we could do it again sometime."

She smiled back at him. "I'd like that, Aang. I'll see you later."

"Later, Katara."

Now that she was alone, she took out her phone, which she had ignored all day. There were a few texts from Suki, one complaining about her brother and his dirty gym socks that apparently stunk up his entire dorm room, and another asking why she was AWOL all day. Katara quickly texted her back.

K Sorry, I was out for most of the day. Call me?

S Your brother is over here studying. Call me tomorrow? Or just text me?

Katara hesitated, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. She wanted to tell Suki everything about today. But she didn't know if she wanted to do that over text.

K I'll call you tomorrow, but here's the tea: I met up with Zuko to do our project. He remembered my fav tea and bought me some. Then after he took me up to the Inner Wall and out to lunch.

S Are you for real?! How was it? So I was right about him?!

Katara smiled down at the phone screen, shaking her head a bit.

K It was….nice

K I'm going to bed. I've got an early class. I'll fill you in tomorrow.

S Ok, but tomorrow I want allllll the details. ;) Love you!

Katara rolled over onto her stomach and reached for her headphones, which were in a tangled heap on the floor. She had some new music to check out.

On the way home Zuko had introduced her to a band called Set It Off. They were a rock band that reminded her somewhat of AWOLNation. Before she did that though, she sent a YouTube link of NEFFEX to her brother.

She plugged in her headphones and pulled up Set It Off's album, Duality. Zuko said she would probably like that album best, and if the first song was any indication, she thought he was probably right.

Her thoughts drifted back to Zuko as she listened to the music. She mulled over his admissions about his family's company, and how he had been living with Iroh since he was only about thirteen or fourteen. What made a kid leave his parents like that? And for that matter, what kind of parents just allowed their teenager to up and leave?

Curiosity got the better of her. She opened her Instagram app—which she used to mostly post pictures of food or stuff from her swim meets—and searched for Zuko. She assumed Sozin was his last name, but she didn't find anything. Even when she deleted Sozin, she couldn't find him.

Maybe he doesn't have Instagram, she thought, as she opened her seldom-used Facebook app. But searching for him there yielded no results either. As a last-ditch effort she looked on Snapchat. But apparently, Zuko didn't use social media at all.

The nosy side of her let out a disappointed sigh. She had wanted to see if she could take a sneak peek into his life, and what better way to do that than by stalking his social media? It would be easier if he had social media, she thought dryly. Of course, it was possible that he had his profiles locked down so she couldn't find them, or maybe she didn't have the right last name. And it was likely that whatever had happened between him and his family (and Katara was sure something had happened, even if she didn't know what) had caused him to go off the grid. There was a reason he had moved in with Iroh when he was a teenager. She wanted to know what.

Suddenly, and without really thinking it through, she backed out of Snapchat and clicked on her search engine. She had his name all typed out and was ready to hit "search" when she hesitated. It felt wrong to search for him like that, not knowing what might come up. If anything did, it would likely be things he didn't want her to know about, or at least didn't want her to know about yet. And besides, what could the tabloids tell her that Zuko couldn't tell her better himself?

Katara closed her Google app and set her phone aside. No more being nosy, Katara thought as she grabbed Pride and Prejudice. She would just listen to Set It Off while she read before she went to sleep. She opened to her page and slipped back into Lizzie's world like she was putting on a favorite cardigan.

Her phone buzzed after about ten minutes, but she ignored it, assuming it was Sokka replying to the song she had sent him.

Twenty minutes later she shut the book as she yawned. She pulled out her headphones and checked her phone. To her surprise, the text wasn't from her brother at all. It was from Zuko. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest.

It was a simple text, just three words, but they made joy bubble up in her throat. Katara smiled down at her phone like a lovestruck fool.

Z Thanks for today

She was about to text him back, hoping he was still awake since he had texted her twenty minutes ago, when her phone vibrated with another text from him.

Z Goodnight

Katara's heart skipped a beat and she hurried to reply.

K Thanks for eating my pickles.

A few seconds passed, and then she got another text.

Z Thanks for letting me eat them.

Her heart pulled painfully in her chest. She wondered what he was doing. Was he on his bed in his dorm room like she was, getting ready to call it a night? Katara wondered idly what he wore to bed. A t-shirt and pajama bottoms? Sweatpants and no shirt? Just boxers? The possibilities were endless.

Then it hit her. Hit her like a rock. The butterflies...the bubbly feelings...the twinging of her heart every time she thought of, saw or (apparently) even got just a text from Zuko...she was totally falling for him.

Her phone buzzed again.

Z Don't you have class in the morning?

K Yes. Gotta get up at 6:30. Ughhh :(

Z Go to bed

K Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know I left you in charge of my sleep schedule. And how do you know that I'm not in bed already?

Z Then quit texting me and go to sleep.

K I'm working on it. falling asleep rn. Goodnight.

Z Goodnight

Katara laid her phone on her chest and stared up at the ceiling, all traces of sleepiness fading away. She listened to the pounding staccato of her heart in her chest, her mind still reeling.

She couldn't believe that she only just now came to the startling, albeit not totally abhorrent, realization that she might have a teeny, tiny crush on Zuko.

Just a tiny one.