When Katara was pulled from the depth of sleep and into the hazy cusp that was somewhere between dreams and wakefulness, she found herself pleasantly warm and utterly comfortable.

She let out a sigh and snuggled deeper into the pillow. Then she realized that her pillow was more firm than it should have been. And it was breathing.

Katara lifted her head and looked up at the same time Zuko opened his eyes and glanced down at her.

He blinked owlishly. "Good morning."

"Morning," Katara murmured.

Suddenly realizing she was still laying on his chest (and woefully embarrassed about possible morning breath) Katara pulled away and flopped back against her own pillow, realizing as she did that on top of using his chest as a pillow, her leg had also ended up between his in the night.

"Sorry," Katara muttered as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "We must've...fallen asleep."

Zuko stretched, and she heard his spine pop before he settled against the mattress. "I'd say so. It was definitely more comfortable than sleeping on the floor, though."

"At least we'll be back in our own beds tomorrow night."

Zuko exhaled deeply. "Oh. Right." He hadn't thought about Katara going home to her own apartment.

She sat upright and reached for her phone, but it wasn't plugged in on the nightstand. Katara patted down the bed.

"Is my phone over there somewhere?" she asked.

Zuko searched through the quilt and found it before he handed it over to her. Katara checked her notifications.

"Suki wants us to come by her gym before we head out," Katara said.

"Sounds fun."

Katara slipped out of bed. "Gran will probably make breakfast, too." She grabbed her hoodie and turned back to Zuko, who hadn't moved from the bed. "You coming?"

Zuko cleared his throat. "Yeah. In a minute."

Katara eyed him. "Is everything okay?"

Color rose in his cheeks. "Um...it's morning."

Katara barked out an incredulous laugh as she planted one hand on her hip. "Seriously? Does that happen every morning?"

"Well shit, it's not my fault you had your leg over my dick!" He looked away from her and scrubbed his hand down his face. "And it doesn't happen every morning."

Katara shook her head, still laughing. She was headed for the door when there was a knock. She froze, her eyes flickering over to Zuko.

"Good morning!" Kya called through the door. "Gran made cinnamon rolls!"

The door knob began to turn and Katara moved quickly. She tossed the hoodie over the desk chair and threw herself back onto the bed, slipping under the duvet.

"Do not touch me with your...thing," she hissed at Zuko.

"Wasn't planning on it," he muttered back.

The door opened, and Kya stepped into the room. Her mother was carrying a tray piled with cinnamon rolls and coffee, and she was smiling widely.

"Here you go! Breakfast in bed." Kya carried the tray over to the bedside table and set it down. "We know you have a long trip back to Ba Sing Se this afternoon, so we wanted to have breakfast ready for you."

"Thanks, Mom," Katara said.

"Oh, Gran didn't have to go to that trouble," Zuko murmured.

Kya waved him off. "Oh, you're family now! It's no trouble."

Hakoda appeared in the doorway. "Is there room for one more?"

Katara sat upright. "Wow, could we not do the Brady family meeting right now?"

Hakoda came into the room anyway and rested his hand on Kya's shoulder. "Your mother and I have come up with a proposition and I happen to think it's a terrific idea—"

"We want you to get married today," Kya interrupted excitedly.

Katara's jaw dropped. "What? Why? How?"

"Whoa," Zuko said, shocked.

Kya shrugged. "Well, you're going to get married anyway, so why don't you get married here so we can all be together? And that way Gran-Gran can be a part of it, too."

"I...don't think that's really necessary," Katara stammered out. "It's not like our wedding would be that far out anyway—"

"And my family would like to be a part of it too," Zuko added. "Thank you, that's a really nice offer, but—"

Gran-Gran suddenly shuffled into the room, followed by Pakku. "I'm ninety years old. It would be a dream come true to see my granddaughter get married."

Guilt and panic washed over Katara. They had to convince her family to wait. They could not get married today. Katara wasn't ready for that.

"And you will, Gran-Gran," Katara said firmly. "Just not today."

Kanna pursed her wizened lips. "I'm no spring chicken, Katara. Each day I wake up is a blessing. Nothing would make me happier than to see the two of you get married—besides having a grandchild, of course."

"I want you to be there, Gran," Katara insisted pleadingly. She looked over at Zuko. "But we need to think about Zuko's family, too. His uncle and mom would want to be there."

Kanna let out a dejected sigh. She looked at Katara beseechingly. "Have the two of you even set a date?"

Katara side-eyed Zuko. "Um, no. Not yet."

"Exactly." Kanna sighed again. "Nothing would make me happier than to see the two of you get married...before I'm dead."

"Gran!" Katara said exasperatedly.

"What about Winter Solstice?" Kya suggested. She looked between all of them. "It's a little over a month away. Is that enough time for your family to be able to attend, Zuko?"

Zuko glanced at Katara, wishing he could read her mind. How far off did she want to put off the wedding? Of course Zuko didn't want to get married today, but it would have to happen sooner or later. And the sooner they did get married, the quicker INS would be off their backs. And the sooner they would be able to get divorced.

"That…" Zuko began slowly, trying to read Katara's body language. "Could work…?"

Kanna clasped her hands together excitedly. "Wonderful! We will handle everything!"

"And you can get married in the barn, like we did," Kya added. "It's a Kuruk family tradition."

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, that's great. I've always wanted to…to get married in a barn."

Kanna smiled warmly. "It's a sign from the spirits that you're meant to be together." She turned and started from the door. "We must give thanks!"

Once Kanna was gone, Kya looked at Katara and Zuko with a happy smile. "Okay, I know I should leave you two alone now, but we're just so excited!"

"I know. We're excited too," Katara said.

"Really excited," Zuko added with a false grin.

Hakoda wrapped his hand around Kya's shoulder. "Come on. We should go."

Katara waved them off. "Go, go!"

Once her parents were out of the room, Katara buried her face in her hands and groaned despondently.

"Oh. My. Spirits. When my mom finds out this whole thing is a sham, she's gonna be crushed." She gestured neurotically at the door. "And my grandmother is gonna die!"

"Your mom's not gonna find out," Zuko said placatingly. "And Gran will be fine."

"I mean, what are they thinking? Get married today? They're more excited than I thought. And when Sokka finds out—"

Zuko rubbed her back soothingly. "They're not gonna find out, Katara."

"Oh, spirits, what did we do?"

Zuko started to rub her shoulders. "Hey, hey, they're not going to find out, okay? Everything is fine. The wedding is a month away, and we'll have it all figured out. There's nothing to worry about."

Katara closed her eyes as she felt the tension in her shoulders ease under Zuko's touch. He was surprisingly good at this. And he was right. She couldn't panic. She had to keep it together.

But for how long? When Katara had agreed to all of this, it had all felt so...surreal. And it had sounded easy. Marry a guy to keep him in the country, get a cushy promotion in the meantime, then have a quiet divorce and go their separate ways. Easy.

Somehow, Katara hadn't quite grasped how serious this would become. It would've been easier if they could have kept this a secret, but of course that couldn't happen. She hadn't thought about how much this would truly affect their lives.

And this morning? What was that? They'd fallen asleep together last night and woken up all tangled up together, and neither of them had even batted an eye. Just yesterday, Katara had been horrified when his hard-on accidentally brushed against her ass. And now Zuko was rubbing her shoulders like...like he was her boyfriend.

What the fuck are we doing? Katara asked herself. This is supposed to be business.

"It's gonna be okay," Zuko murmured. "It's not like we're gonna be married forever. We'll be happily divorced before you know it."

Katara nodded before she slipped out of his grasp, reaching for the coffee and the mugs on the tray.

"How about some coffee?" she asked as she poured each of them a cup.

"Everything is gonna be fine."

Katara looked back at him as she passed him the coffee cup. "Yep. Everything is great."

Zuko got out of bed, carefully so he didn't spill his coffee. "I'm uh, I'm gonna go. I think I'm gonna go outside."

Katara frowned as she brought her coffee mug to her mouth. "Are you okay?"

Zuko pulled a change of clothes out of his suitcase. "Yep. Everything is great. I'm just gonna...get dressed and take a walk." He looked out the window. "Beautiful day."

"You hate the cold."

"It's good for the lungs."

Katara frowned. "At least eat a cinnamon roll. For Gran-Gran."

Zuko stretched across the room and snagged a roll off the plate. He tipped it in her direction before he ducked out the door. Katara watched after him, still frowning. What the hell had gotten into him?


"Okay, you just...just have to focus, Zuko. This is a business deal. This is just a business deal. Everything's going to be just fine."

Zuko's sneakers slid across a frozen sheet of ice on top of the snow and for a moment his arms windmilled before he regained his balance. He let out a huff of air, which crystalized in front of his face and reminded him of how cold it was out here.

"Okay, this is a little rough. I can do this."

Zuko continued down what he supposed was usually a path that cut through the woods behind Katara's family's house when it wasn't buried under a half a foot of snow. Bare tree branches snagged at his coat and scratched at his hands and face, but they were a miniscule annoyance compared to the tornado of thoughts running through his head.

Katara. Sleeping beside him. Soft, warm Katara who smelled like cherry blossoms. He'd woken up with her thigh on his junk, and it had done very, very funny things to him. And now he couldn't stop thinking about the kiss they'd shared, and the fact that their wedding had been moved to just over a month away.

He had kept himself together during Katara's freak-out, but now he could feel himself spiraling. He'd known that one day he and Katara would get married; of course he did. That was sort of the end result when you asked someone to marry you. But it had seemed...far away. Hazy, like a dream.

When Ty Lee had first brought it up, it had seemed like an easy solution. Marry a woman, gain citizenship, divorce her in a couple of years. But now things were getting complicated. Zuko didn't like that. His life had finally gotten to a place where it was not complicated, and what did he do? Fuck it up.

He wasn't...he didn't like Katara. Not like that. No way in hell. She was just a pretty woman, with a nice laugh and a great sense of humor. And he'd been spending a lot of time with her. A physical attraction was a normal response to that, wasn't it? Zuko hoped so, or he worried he might be in trouble.

He was so lost in thought that he didn't see the tree root that was poking up through the snow. The toe of his shoe caught it, and suddenly Zuko found himself tumbling down a short incline. He finally came to a stop, his ribs breaking his fall against a boulder that was also buried under the Agni-damn snow.

For several moments, Zuko lay starting up at the frosted canopy above him, his ribs aching as he tried to catch his breath.

"Fuck," he managed to rasp out. "Agni, I hate nature! I hate it! I just wanted some fucking air!"

He pushed himself into a sitting position and gently prodded his ribs. They smarted, but they weren't broken. Zuko would bet that they weren't even fractured. Then he heard what sounded like a drumbeat, and strange chanting.

"What the fuck is that?" he muttered as he got to his feet.

Zuko picked his way through the undergrowth until he saw a break in the trees. The drumbeat and chanting were getting louder, and he caught the smell of woodsmoke on the air. Finally, he came to the edge of a clearing where he found a small bonfire burning in the middle of it, and a small figure clad in a blue tribal robe. Zuko frowned, wondering what in the hell he had just wandered into.

"Come to me, Zuko of the Fire Nation," the figure called. It turned, and Zuko suddenly recognized who it was. "It is I, Gran-Gran." She gestured to him. "I see that you are a curious one." Kanna waved him towards her. "Come. See how I give thanks to the spirits."

Zuko shook his head. "You know, actually, I'm not that curious." He jerked his thumb back in the direction he had come from. "I'll just…"

Kanna spread her arms wide. "Look around you. The spirits have provided all of this, just as they have brought you and Katara together to be joined." She smiled warmly at him. "We must give thanks and ask that your loins be abundantly fertile."

Zuko choked suddenly on his own saliva as a red heat crept into his cheeks. But apparently, Katara's grandmother was oblivious to his obvious discomfort.

"Come. Dance with me in celebration." Kanna gestured for him to come closer.

Zuko shook his head and managed to find his voice. "You know, I can uh, I can just thank her from here."

Kanna reached into the folds of her blanket and threw a handful of powder onto the fire. The flames exploded with a roar and Zuko flinched. He didn't like fire. Not ever since his dad...

"I insist!" Kanna bellowed.

Zuko held his hands up. "Okay, okay, okay!" He started deeper into the clearing. "I...will come down and dance with you."

Kanna beamed a smile at him as she started to move around the fire. "Follow and learn." She began to dance, her movements in time with the music that played. Zuko thought this might have been the weirdest thing he had ever been subjected to.

"Come on, Zuko!" Kanna enthused. "Feel the rhythm of the drums." She began to chant again, her wavering voice carrying over the clearing and causing gooseflesh to prickle across his skin. She looked at him. "Now you."

"Me what?" Zuko asked.

Kanna waved her hands toward him. "Chant."

"Chant what?"

"Whatever comes to you," Kanna said sagely. "To the trees! To the spirits! Whatever comes to mind."

She began to chant again, but to Zuko, it just sounded like gibberish. He felt foolish, but Kanna was watching him expectantly, and he didn't want to offend her. He mimicked her movements and began to circle the fire, humming under his breath.

"To the universe!" Kanna cried out. She continued chanting.

Zuko went along with the drum beat playing on Kanna's boom box. It sounded sort of similar to a song that was nagging at the back of his mind, and before he knew it, Zuko was mumbling the lyrics.

"To the window, to the window, to the wall, to the wall." Zuko shut his eyes and tried to drown out Kanna. Can't offend her. Gotta make a good impression. Great song choice for that, buddy. "To the sweat drip down my balls, all these bitches crawl…"

Kanna eyed him curiously, like he'd lost his mind, and for a moment, Zuko was absolutely certain that he had offended her. Must've hit my head on that fall, he thought distantly.

But the lyrics continued to pour from him, and Kanna picked up the pace of her dance, and Zuko followed suit as his voice grew more confident. He continued to sing as he and Kanna went around the fire.

"All skeet skeet, motherfucker, all skeet skeet hot damn!" He pointed at Kanna. "Gran-Gran, let's take it to the bridge!" He began to dance more confidently. "Let me see you get low. You scared, you scared!" Kanna imitated his movements as he sank into a crouch. "Drop yo ass to the flo'. You scared, you scared—"

Then his eyes landed on Katara, who was watching on the edge of the clearing with an amused smile on her face. Zuko came to an abrupt stop, straightening up suddenly.

"Whatcha doing?" Katara asked languidly.

Zuko straightened, planting his hands on his waist as an embarrassed heat rose in his cheeks. "You know, your grandmother wanted me to uh, chant. Chant from the heart."

Her eyebrow arched. "Balls? That's what came to your heart?"

He shrugged sheepishly. "I just went with the beat."

Katara let out a laugh. "Sokka and Suki are back at the house, ready to take us to the gym. You wanna go?"

"Oh yes, I want to go." Zuko looked at Kanna. "Is that okay? If I go?"

Kanna vowed to him. "Whatever you do is what shall be."

"Right." He jerked his thumb at Katara. "But it's okay if I go?"

She shooed him off. "Go on."

Zuko walked up to Katara, feeling equal parts relieved and embarrassed.

"Bye, Gran!" Katara called to Kanna. The two of them started into the woods. She eyed Zuko with a smirk. "You're a freak."

Zuko scowled down at her before he reached over and tugged on her ponytail. "Shut up. You will never speak of this."

Katara's answering cackle echoed through the frozen forest, and Zuko just shook his head.