Have you got color in your cheeks?

Do you ever get that fear that you can't shift the type

That sticks around like summat in your teeth?

Are there some aces up your sleeve?

Have you no idea that you're in deep?

'Cause there's this tune I found that makes me think of you somehow

And I play it on repeat, until I fall asleep.

"Do I Wanna Know?" by the Arctic Monkeys

Katara stepped out of the women's restroom at the small truck stop they had stopped at two hours into the drive. She dried off the last of the dampness on the back of her shorts—rest stop paper towels never worked properly—and saw Zuko leaning against the Challenger, his legs crossed at the ankle, scrolling through his phone with a scowl on his face.

Katara frowned, hoping everything was okay. Really, they hadn't gone far enough that he couldn't turn back around if he needed to. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she crossed the pavement.

He looked up at her footsteps and the scowl decreased minimally.

"Sorry, I should have warned you I have a tiny bladder. It drives my brother nuts." She peered up at him. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. I'm trying to find a hotel, but I have zero service here." Zuko heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. He locked his phone and slid it into his pocket.

Katara resisted the relieved smile that threatened to crest her face. "I have service. I can find you a hotel while you drive."

"Okay, sounds good." He shrugged off of the car and opened the door for her.

She smiled warmly at him as she slid down into her seat, and he returned it. She was always pleasantly surprised when he opened her doors for her. It was such a gentlemanly thing to do, and she couldn't recall anyone else ever doing it before him.

Just as she sat down, she heard the commotion of another couple parked a few spots over from them.

"Why don't you ever hold the door open for me like that?" complained the shrill voice of a woman.

Katara bit back a smile as she looked up at Zuko with a wide-eyed expression that said, uh oh, he's in trouble! Zuko raised his brow and winced as if to say, whoops, didn't mean to make you look bad there, buddy. Then he closed the door and came around the hood before he slid into his seat. Neither of them looked in the direction the voice had come from, but neither of them could resist snickering as they drove away.

As soon as they were back on the road, Katara pulled her phone out and searched for hotels in Gaoling. Which reminded her, she needed to cancel her reservation and find something for herself.

"What's your budget?" Katara asked as she skimmed the recommendations.

"It doesn't matter," was the reply.

"Hmph, well, I can score you a room beside a very nice pimp, or you can get the penthouse at The Sage, your choice." Katara cocked a grin at him.

Zuko snorted out a laugh. "Isn't there a Best Earth Kingdom in Gaoling or something?" He looked over at her and arched his brow. "Where are you going to be staying? With your brother's girlfriend or something?"

"Ah, no. I'm going to be reserving the room next to the pimp. Broke college student stuff, y'know," Katara drawled as she found the hotel Zuko requested. She shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he can hire me for the night and I can earn some money so I can rent out the penthouse."

Zuko snorted. "Very funny, Katara. I'd rather you didn't, though. I'll pay for your hotel room."

Katara looked up from her phone, surprised. She studied his face to see if he was serious. He wasn't looking at her, but he certainly didn't look like he was joking. "No way. Best Earth Kingdom is like, a hundred bucks a night. I can't afford that." She barely had the money to cover the gas for their trip.

"I'm not asking you to pay me back. Just reserve two hotel rooms, okay?"

"Zuko...I appreciate it." She swallowed. "I really do. But there's no way I can accept that. I'll book your room at Best Earth Kingdom, and I'll find a motel close by so you don't have to drive far. I'll be fine."

"Katara…" Zuko glanced over at her for a moment. "I'm not gonna hand my card over to you to book me a room anywhere until you accept my generosity. It's either that or I drop you off at your motel, and then I'll just get my own room there anyway. So...where would you rather stay?"

Katara gave him a half-hearted scowl. "You can't be serious."

"When have you ever known me to not be serious?"

"Well...you've got a point there." Katara sighed heavily. "There's no talking you out of it, is there?"

"If you're sleeping with the roaches, I'm sleeping with them too." He shot a crooked smirk her way as he held out his credit card. "And I'm pretty sure you'll like the complimentary breakfast over at B.E.K."

"Or my brother will," Katara muttered as she took it. She let out a dramatic sigh and looked over at him. "Fine. I'll let you pay for my hotel room. But I will pay for your gas."

"Nope."

"Zuko!"

His grin came her way again. "I'll make you a deal. Let me pay for the gas and the hotel, and you can pay for the food, okay?"

"That's not really fair." Katara crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance. "But fine. If that's how you want to be." She eyed him for a beat. How could he have been such a jerk when she first met him? "I hope your appetite isn't as big as my brother's." She uncrossed her arms and dialed the number to the hotel as she held her phone to her ear. A moment later, a concierge was in her ear asking how he could help her. "Yes, I'd like to reserve two rooms please. For tonight." Katara listened and frowned.

"What?" Zuko asked, catching her expression.

"Hold on a sec." Katara covered the speaker with her hand and turned toward him. "He says they only have one room open. There's some convention or something, and a sports team, so all the rooms are booked. They only have the one" She sighed. "But it has two beds, at least."

"So reserve it." With one hand, he removed his credit card and handed it over to her.

For a moment, she gaped at his proffered credit card. "You...that won't be weird for you?" She really hoped her hand sufficiently muted her end of the call.

His lips tugged up. "No...why? Would it be weird for you? You got some cute bunny slippers or a favorite stuffed animal you're embarrassed for me to see?" Zuko was totally teasing her now.

Katara narrowed her eyes at him. "For your information, his name is Sam, he's a turtle seal, and no, I am not ashamed of him."

Zuko let out a low chuckle. "Oh, that's cute Katara. But if that's not it, then what is it? Are you afraid I sleep naked or something?"

Katara gawked at him, completely forgetting the concierge on the phone. "Y-you better not!"

An amused smile graced his lips as he looked at her, his eyes seeming to smolder. "What? I've got nothing to be ashamed of."

Katara's cheeks burned, and for several moments, she couldn't speak. Zuko's amused smirk only widened.

"I'm kidding," he said. "Just get the room, alright?"

Her cheeks still flaming, she took her hand off the speaker and managed to say, "We'll take it. Yes. We should be there around 11 tonight. Thanks." She gave the credit card information to the concierge before she hung up the phone.

It's not a big deal. We'll have separate beds. It's not like we had a choice. It's just two nights. It's totally fine. She was trying to convince herself, but she wasn't doing a very good job.

To distract herself, she looked at Zuko. "I hope you know my brother is going to kill you now."

Zuko grimaced. "Yeah, I'm not exactly making a good impression, am I? I mean, first time the guy sees me, I'm cutting him off in a parking lot and insulting him, and the next, I'm sharing a room with his sister. And it's not exactly like I have a forgettable face." Zuko scrubbed his hand down his face. "I just don't want it to be a problem."

"Yeahhhh...that's why we don't mention that we're sharing a room. It's just two nights. I'll just have him meet me in the lobby. He definitely doesn't need to know we shared a room."

Zuko considered that for a moment, and then he shrugged. "Sounds like a plan."

An hour later, they stopped for dinner at a chain restaurant that specialized in greasy hamburgers and salty French fries. Zuko went to pull into the drive-thru, but Katara stopped him with a sheepish smile.

"Tiny bladder," she reminded him.

Zuko rolled his eyes, but the corner of his lips turned up good-naturedly as he whipped the Challenger into a spot. "Alright, alright. But we're getting our food to go. Traffic is heavier than I thought it would be."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you in a hurry to get me there?" Katara arched her brow at him and offered a coy smirk.

Without skipping a beat, Zuko smiled back, ready to play her game. He leaned in closer then looked her up and down before he met her gaze and quipped, "Are you saying that you're not?"

His golden eyes were smoldering, and with his lopsided smirk, Katara found herself utterly speechless. Seeing her flustered expression, and confident that he won this round, Zuko's smirk turned into a wolfish grin before he turned away and got out of the car.

She was left with her heart stuttering in her chest. How could he be so...so damn flirtatious? What was a girl supposed to think? Then he was opening her door and she had to at least pretend like her head wasn't spinning.

"Do you know what you want? I'll order while you go empty your tiny bladder," Zuko said as she got out of the car.

Oh, thank the spirits, he's changing the subject! Katara snorted. "Ha. Nice try! But I'm buying the food, remember?"

They started for the doors as an amused smirk crossed his face. "Don't worry. I'm just ordering. You can pay."

Katara side-eyed him. "I'm not so sure I can trust you on that."

"And you would be right. You definitely can't trust me on that."

"Zuko!"

Eventually, they worked it out. Meaning, Katara thwarted whatever plan he may have had by insisting they order their food before she went to the bathroom. As she ducked into the bathroom, she couldn't quite shake his intense gaze from her mind. But then he had changed the subject, like their flirty teasing didn't mean anything. But that's all it was, she reminded herself. It's just teasing.

But part of her couldn't help but wish it wasn't just teasing.

They were halfway through the drive when traffic finally let up and Zuko put on the speed. Katara watched the speedometer on the dashboard creep towards eighty. She would have been nervous if it were anyone else (like Sokka), but she trusted his driving. She trusted him. The confidence with which he handled the Challenger told Katara that he wouldn't put her in danger. But she still didn't approve of him speeding.

The sun was fading quickly and soon they were in the dark, with only the headlights of passing cars to illuminate them as sporadically as an arrythmia. Katara peeked sideways at him. If the strain of the drive was getting to him, he didn't show it.

Now that they were too far to turn back, Katara thought she could use this opportunity to peel back some of his layers, to try to piece together some of the puzzle pieces that were Zuko.

"So." Katara cleared her throat. His eyes flickered to her for the briefest moment before they returned to the road. "I've been meaning to ask you...you remember how you said you were having a bad day? The day we met?"

It was hard to see him in the dark, but she thought she saw his grip on the steering wheel tighten. "What about it?"

"Well, I've just always wondered what made it a bad day."

"Mm..."

Katara waited patiently as the seconds dragged into a minute before she prodded him. "So…?"

"So what?" Zuko asked, his voice a little sharp.

Katara wondered if she made a mistake. It was almost too late to back out now, but she decided to press her luck. "I was wondering what made it a bad day. You seemed really ticked off."

"I was." Zuko flicked on the turn signal and pulled into the fast lane to pass a large truck. The engine of the Challenger roared as he pressed down on the gas. The speedometer slid up to 85, and then they were flying past the semi, and Zuko was pulling back into the right lane. He let up on the gas and the speedometer dropped down to 75. "Does it matter why?"

"Well, no, but I was just curious." Katara shrugged. "I mean, the way you acted at that mixer…"

He sighed, the sound settling heavily in the car. "It had to do with my sister, alright?"

"The prodigy."

Zuko snorted derisively. "Yeah. The prodigy."

Katara pushed a little harder. "What about her?"

Zuko glimpsed over at her before he looked ahead again. "I told you I've been in Ba Sing Se for about eight years, right? Well, my sister and my father have been in the Fire Nation all this time." His mouth pressed into a thin line for a moment before he spoke again. "Until this year. When my sister transferred to BSSU."

"Why?" Katara was hesitant. She didn't want to press him too hard, but she really was curious.

"To get under my skin? To stalk me? I don't know." He huffed out a breath. "She was going to the best private college money can buy in the Fire Nation. Business. From what I hear, she was a perfect student. So why would she transfer to BSSU?" Zuko shook his head. "I don't know, and it's slowly driving me crazy."

"I'm sorry," Katara said quietly.

Zuko shrugged. "I've been steering clear of her. By the grace of Agni, we don't share any classes. Thank the spirits." She saw his eye roll. "I don't associate with my family much. So when I found out she was there, I confronted her at the sorority. Things got...heated."

Katara recalled the crash she and Aang had heard from upstairs at the sorority mixer. She frowned. "Is your sister in the Kata Epi Kata sorority?"

"In it? Please." He scoffed. "She owns it."

Katara felt a shiver run down her spine. She could see the almond-shaped golden eyes, the high cheek bones, and the same aristocratic nose in her mind's eye, only these belonged to a girl with a predator's smile.

"Your sister is Azula, isn't she?" Her voice was quiet, but Zuko still whipped his head around to look at her as if she had just announced she'd shot the Earth King.

"How did you know that?" His voice was strained and muted.

Katara peeked up at him. His eyes darted between her and the road. "She...invited me to join her sorority. Like, a few weeks after school started. I told her no."

Zuko's eyes linger on her for a few seconds longer. "And she didn't destroy you?" His tone was bordering on incredulity.

"She's a college kid. What can she do to me?" Katara shrugged. "She didn't even seem all that mad that I turned down her offer, honestly."

"Mm." Zuko kept his eyes on the road.

Katara frowned. "Should I be nervous?"

"Probably not." He looked at her from the corner of his eye. "I mean, let's just say...Azula doesn't get told no very often."

She thought of that feral smile again. "I believe it." She chewed her bottom lip for a moment. "Is there bad blood between you and your family because Azula is the prodigy?"

Zuko barked out a laugh. It was harsh in the quiet space. Katara worried she had pushed him too far, but when he turned his gaze on her, there was humor in his eyes.

"You are just full of questions tonight, aren't you? Does having me trapped in a car with you for the next three and a half hours have anything to do with that?"

She blushed, embarrassed he had called her gambit. "Maybe?" She dragged the word out to a dramatic length before she grinned at him. "There's nowhere to run, and you're too much of a gentleman to leave me on the side of the road."

"There's always the trunk."

"At which point my brother will definitely kill you."

Zuko grinned at her. "I think it might be worth it."

"I'd like to see you try. I'll put up a fight."

"Well, we have been meaning to spar. Now's as good a time as any."

She poked her tongue out at him. "Ha-ha, very funny." Then she considered their current situation. "Okay, I have an idea. Let's play Twenty Questions. You ask a question, and I have to answer it, and vice-versa."

Zuko pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I don't think I like the sound of that." Then a smirk tugged at his lips. "I mean, I like the sound of asking you anything I want, but I don't think I like the sound of answering anything you ask me."

"You don't have to answer anything you're not comfortable with," Katara amended quickly. She pointed at him. "But that doesn't mean you get to deflect all of my questions, either. Deal?"

Zuko mulled it over for a few moments. Just when she thought he wouldn't play along, he spoke up. "Deal. I'll go first."

"Okay."

"Why did you go for political science?"

Katara looked at him, arching her brow. "Seriously? That's the first question you want to ask me?"

He leered at her in the dark. "We've got plenty of time to ask the more hard-hitting questions. I thought I'd go easy on you to start."

"Well...actually, it's really not an easy question." She sighed. "I chose poli-sci because I thought I could use it to help the Southern Water Tribe. Things are bad down there. Poverty. Crime. It seems like my people are always on the brink of a civil war. You don't hear much about it up here. We're not big news like the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation. Or even the Northern Water Tribe. It's why my dad moved us up to Gaoling after—"

Zuko looked over at her when she suddenly cut off. "After what?"

She exhaled slowly and looked out the window before she continued. "After my mom died."

He was silent for a heartbeat. Then, in a quiet voice, he said, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It happened a long time ago" Katara cleared her throat. "My turn. What's your favorite color?"

He let out an incredulous snort. "Really? That's what you want to know? And you were laughing at my question?"

"I do."

Zuko pressed his lips together. "Yellow."

"Yellow?" She was surprised. "I would've guessed red."

He chuckled. "Nope. It's yellow. My turn. What's your favorite color? And if you say blue—"

"Blue," Katara answered, grinning.

"—then I'm going to call you a Water Tribe stereotype."

Katara shrugged. "So I'm a stereotype. I like blue." She gestured to the sky-blue cropped top she was wearing. "Obviously. I'm almost always wearing it. My turn." She considered her question. There were a thousand things she wanted to know about him, but she didn't want to drop a heavy question right away. "If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be?"

Zuko mulled it over before he answered. "There's a turtle-duck pond on my family's property in the Fire Nation. My mom used to take me and Azula there a lot when we were younger and we actually got along. It was sort of my happy place, I guess. I haven't been there in years."

"That's really sweet," Katara said genuinely.

Zuko exhaled. "My turn." His eyes flickered over to her and trailed the length of her body. "Do you have any tattoos?"

Katara felt a blush rise in her cheeks. "I do. One." She gestured to her ribs. "But you're going to call me a stereotype again."

"Why? What is it?"

"You only get one question per turn!"

"Fine. Ask me a question."

"Do you have any tattoos?"

"I have two." Katara arched her brow and opened her mouth to ask him what they were, but he wagged a finger at her, a devilish smile on his lips. "Nope. It's my turn. What's your tattoo?"

Her cheeks burned. "It's an...anchor. That says 'sink or swim'. I got it with Suki over the summer." She neglected to mention that she got it after she and her ex-boyfriend had broken up.

"That is such a stereotypical tattoo for a girl. But, I think it fits you." His smile was genuine.

Katara eyed him. "What about you?"

"I've got a dragon, here." He gestured to his ribs on the right side. "And a phoenix here." He pointed to the left side of his chest. Zuko looked over at her. The wolfish grin was back. "What about piercings?"

Katara blushed furiously. She was glad that it was dark. He certainly seemed to be enjoying their game. "Just my ears."

"Hm."

"What?" Katara quirked a brow at him.

His grin broadened. "I don't know. You just seem like the kind of girl who'd get in a rebellious mood and get her nipples pierced or something."

She resolutely refused to acknowledge the dagger of heat that stabbed her low in her belly. "Um. No. No nipple piercings here. Sorry to disappoint."

"Nah, I don't think it's disappointing at all. Some things are better left natural."

She turned the tables on him as the heat between her legs pulsed hotter. "Do you have your nipples pierced?"

His smile was all white teeth in the darkness. "You'll have to catch me shirtless to find out."

"Why did you move in with your uncle?" She asked the question softly, knowing she was treading in dangerous waters.

They had passed the last hour asking all sorts of questions of each other. He knew her favorite movie was Dirty Dancing. She knew his favorite book was The Art of War. He knew her favorite class, her favorite food, her favorite band. She knew his favorite type of alcohol was whiskey, that he slept without his shirt on, and that he had been on the track team in high school.

Katara wondered what he was running from.

Zuko's answer was just as quiet. "Let's just call it a difference of opinion."

"That's not much of an answer." She paused. "But I respect it."

"Thank you." He sounded genuine. When she caught his smile in the headlights, she saw it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Okay so...this next question may very well make or break our friendship, so consider your answer carefully."

She grinned back. "Hit me."

"Coke or Pepsi?"

Katara giggled. He was trying to stay on lighter topics. Katara would respect that...for now at least. "Pepsi."

"Oof. I hate to break it to you, Kat, but I think you're gonna have to walk home." He peered over at her, a playful smile on his lips. "Do people call you Kat?"

"You only get one question per turn," Katara reminded him with a laugh. "But I'll let it slide this time. No. No one calls me Kat. Tara, but not Kat." She hated that particular nickname, actually. But she found she didn't hate it as much when he said it. "Alright, my turn. Favorite holiday?"

"I don't really have one."

Katara quirked a brow at him in disbelief. "Seriously? Everyone has a favorite holiday. It's like, a universal thing." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Unless it's just embarrassing. Like Valentine's Day."

"Valentine's Day is for suckers. It shouldn't even be considered a real holiday." He let out a dramatic sigh. "If you insist on knowing, it's actually Halloween."

"I guess I should've known that." She smirked. "I hear that you're a horror movie buff."

"Facts. What's yours?"

"Winter Solstice," Katara replied.

"And I should've known that. That is so…" He trailed off and stifled a laugh behind his hand.

"So what?" Katara prompted, a bit defensive. "Stereotypical?"

He didn't hide his laugh very well. "Yes."

Katara threw her hands up. "So I'm just a great big walking stereotype. Sue me. But I'll have you know, I hate pumpkin spice lattes."

"Good to know." His grin was wide.

Katara clapped her hands once. "Alright, enough of these boring questions. It's time to dig deeper."

It was his turn to arch a brow. "Oh?"

"Tell me about your first kiss."

She could see the mirth in the set of his mouth. "What do you want to know about it?"

"Everything. I live for the details."

"There's not much to tell." He shrugged. "I was fourteen. She was a girl I met in Ba Sing Se. Her dad was friends with my uncle, and he would drag me along when he went to visit so she and I became friends. She'd...she had a scar too, from an accident when she was a kid. We sort of bonded over that. There was this old treehouse in her backyard. We used to go up there and read comic books and stuff. I don't know. One day we just kissed." Zuko shrugged again. "You?"

Katara took a moment to digest that before she answered his question. Zuko had never acknowledged his scar to her before, except for that one brief touch the day he'd taken her up to the wall. If he had it when he was fourteen...Katara wondered how long he had it, and how it had come to be.

"Some boy I went to high school with. We went to Homecoming together. He kissed me. It was...kind of horrible, actually." Katara let out a laugh. "We bumped noses really hard, which kind of ruined it. And then he tried to grab my butt like, right after. Sokka ended up knocking out one of his teeth."

"That's rough," Zuko snickered. "I hope your next one was better."

Her next kiss had been her ex. While it was better in some ways, it was not better in a lot of ways. Katara shrugged.

"It's your turn."

"Oh, right." Katara pursed her lips. "What celebrity did you have a crush on as a kid?"

"That's easy. Megan Fox."

She snorted in surprise. "Oh really? Now who's the stereotype?"

"And I'm fine with that. Have you seen her?"

"Mm, yes. But she's not my type." Katara cracked a grin.

Zuko quirked a brow. "What's your type?"

Katara licked her lips. She wanted to say nice guys. Guys like Aang. But looking at Zuko, with his tight jeans and rock music and the possibility of a V-line and sexy tattoos, Katara got the feeling that wasn't really her type at all. She settled on the safest answer she could that wasn't quite a lie, but wasn't really the truth. A half-truth.

"Smart and funny." She smirked at him. "I'd ask what your type is, but if you had a crush on Megan Fox, I'd say it's pretty obvious." Pretty obviously not me, she thought but didn't say.

"Then you forfeit your question this round. My turn." Without giving her an opportunity to protest, he asked, "Is that Air Nation kid your boyfriend?"

Katara stared at him. "Why would you think that?"

Zuko shrugged. His expression was as placid as a lake on a windless day. "I don't know. Just seems kind of obvious he likes you. I guess I assumed."

"He's not," Katara said. Color rose in her cheeks. "My boyfriend, I mean. Aang is just a friend."

Zuko nodded slowly, as if digesting that.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Katara asked pointedly.

He smirked at her. "I thought you already declared that I was too much of a jerk to get any dates."

She rolled her eyes. "I was just joking. Sort of. Now answer my question."

"No. No girlfriend here." With one hand, he unscrewed the cap of his bottle of water and brought it to his lips, his eyes never leaving the road.

"Are you gay, then?"

Zuko nearly choked on his drink. "What the hell, Kat? What kind of question is that? No, I am most definitely not gay." Even in the dark she caught it when his eyes flickered to her chest. "Definitely straight."

She smirked, satisfied that she had been able to rattle him. "Well, we are playing Twenty Questions, so I just thought I'd ask."