Doctor Yugoda finishes up with her and then lets her go with a smile— when she walks outside, Zuko is loitering in the hospital's foyer, staring at the sheets of paper lining the back walls. When she glances at the side she sees Family Planning amongst the titles, and she doesn't know how to deal with that, so she puts it aside and grabs his hand.
They walk silently to the car, and then Zuko gets in after opening the door for her, like a gentleman. Katara thinks they're going to head back home, but he takes a left instead of a right down one of the city's streets, back towards the college.
"Where are we going?" she asks.
Zuko reaches over with one hand to intertwine her fingers with his and then relaxes against the back of his seat. "I thought we could stop by Pao's shop."
"Not Uncle Iroh's?"
He smiles slowly. "We didn't meet each other for the first time there."
"That's true," she says. "What's up?"
He shrugs. "I guess because I took today off work and everything, and your job doesn't start for a bit, and everything . . . I thought we could go somewhere. Maybe get a bite to eat. If you're . . . okay with that."
Katara reaches over and presses a hand to his shoulder. She doesn't quite remember the last time they went out to eat, but there is a new light upon her soul, something simply— featherlight— and she knows what she needs to do. "That sounds good. Doctor Yugoda said everything looked on track."
"That's good," Zuko says as they pull into a small shop. The area around them is full of college students, but they don't look that out of place— they've both just graduated, anyway. They jump out of the truck, and Katara grabs his hand as they walk up the stairs to Pao's Teashop, a homemade sign dangling above them as they walk in.
The shop is empty, and Katara snags their seats as fast as she can, a small circular booth in the shop's corner. A map of the four nations hangs above the table, along with a lightbulb that looks like it's very close to breaking in two— she slides underneath it and makes room for Zuko. It's small, and he goes to order for them before he sits down.
She gets her coffee— with sugar and cream, just a bit— and he gets the particular blend of moon peach green tea he likes from here, the kind Katara thinks he's just started to like because of his uncle. Pao knows them and he gets their orders done fast, and then a moment later he's back next to her, and there's a hot cup in his hand for her.
"You didn't order anything to eat," she notes.
Zuko pulls his arm over her and they both take in a display of swords, standing at the shop's back. They sort of look like the ones Zuko likes to spar with.
"What do you want?"
Katara bites her lip. She hasn't ordered food, she thinks, in a very long time.
"I like the apple pastry," she says hesitantly after a second. "I'm kind of in the mood for something sweet."
"I'll get one too."
When he comes back this time with two plates in hand and a fork, she takes it without a second thought and stabs the pastry, pulling it to her mouth. It tastes the same as it did two and a half years ago.
"Remember how we met?" she asks.
"I feel like you mean 'remember our first date' and not 'remember how we met'," Zuko teases.
"Right. The first time you met you were hanging out with Sokkla and you tried to hit on me without realizing that Sokka was my brother and then he—"
"We don't need to relive that," he interrupts and laughs. "I'm thinking about what happened when you got my number from Suki and we ended up meeting here."
"That was sort of dumb of me," Katara thinks back. "You're lucky I thought you were cute."
"I definitely am," he spears a bite of her pastry and shoves it into her mouth, and she laughs. When he leans down to capture the sound, his breath smells clean against her, like fruit. "Very, very lucky."
"Loser," she murmurs against his lips, and pulls back when she thinks she sees students staring at them in the background. "You're cool, I guess."
"You guess?"
"You're pretty awesome," she admits. Then she glances at the pastry she'd ended up finishing, and at her empty class, and then back to him. Katara thinks about Zuko, and a picture which has forced her to spiral, and how she loves him.
"Thank you, Zuko," she says against him, right in the place where they first exchanged cheek-kisses, and the single lightbulb illuminates the scarred part of his face. He leans in to kiss her.
"I think I should be thanking you."
Please take care of yourself! Sorry I'm a bit late on crossposting the rest of this. Catch me on tumblr/twitter as likefirings. Thanks for reading.