Hey guys. I've been working on this story for forever. Katara and Zuko are the main focus. But I also included Toph and Aang. This takes place right after the ending of the series. I hope you enjoy it. Ages have been tweeked slightly for Mature rating. As in Adult Themes Dont Like Dont Read.

I do not own ATLA or its characters.

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I wasn't breathing.

Which seemed ironic for no other reason than it being the element this man could control.

We broke away when Sokka awkwardly cleared his throat letting us know dinner was ready.

I turned back to Aang, the sun dipping low behind him, his warm orange and gold robes illuminated from the setting sun gave off a regal appearance; he was breathtaking. So much more mature and grown. A handsome, young man indeed.

The Avatar.

His lazy and dazed grin perked up into an all out smile as he threaded his fingers through my own and lead us inside. We all sat and ate a meal Iroh slaved over for hours. The roasted duck was especially delectable.

I was helping clear the table and clean dishes when I peered out the window at a gloomy, negative, yet still frighteningly beautiful woman, climbing into a palanquin. I watched Zuko place a sweet kiss on her lips before it took off down the gravel road to the place she was staying in the city.

I still haven't talked to him about what happened. What he did. There was so much celebration and clarity for the first time in a century. So much judicial prowess and planning that was more important for the new Firelord and the Southern Water Tribe.

As soon as I had him healed enough from Azula's lightning strike his advisors put him straight to work. He only had enough time to say thank you before he was whisked away.

I spent two days healing his wounds. I didn't sleep or eat, just healed him until exhaustion threatened to take my life.

Until the smell of his singed and dying flesh made me yearn for reprieve. But I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. I was the only qualified healer for such a critical wound for miles.

It was different than when I healed Aang with the Spirit Oasis Water. That water brought Aang back. Not me.

I didn't have that luxury with Zuko. I had to heal him myself. Following tendons and arteries, rebuilding muscle tissue and rerouting veins. Countless hours of panic rivaled the countless hours I spent looking at him when his body wasn't failing.

His face, I had long memorized. The expanse of his forehead and thickness of his dark eyebrow. The slope of his nose, that he once said was the only trait he got from his mother, was indeed, feminine in nature.

His eyes, almond in shape, and when opened, looked like the element he bent. His high cheekbones made me jealous and his rigid jaw line was that of a man, not the fifteen year old boy he used to be. But I suppose a war ages you.

Silky locks of obsidian hair hung down in his eyes. Hair that I often pushed from his sweaty brow, and sometimes ran my hand through just for the thrill of it. I have never been so close to him for such a long period of time.

The scar on his face no longer frightened me. And it no longer took away from his aesthetics. If anything it added to it. It showed everything he had overcome and he wore it on his face like a badge of honor.

Zuko was a beautiful man by all accounts.

I spent hours touching the marred skin and realized even with the Spirit Oasis water I would not have been able to heal him of it. Though I wondered what Zuko would look like without the scar, I almost preferred him with it.

I looked down at the spoon I had been washing and dropped it into the sink, bent the water from my hands and walked right out the front door.

The sun was now fully set, the waning moon bathed Zuko's features in a way that made the now nineteen year old look beyond his years.

In a way that had his amber eyes smoldering like hot coals in the light Yue had shining down on us. He was captivating to say the least and had such a powerful presence.

I surprised myself with the amount of difficulty it took to advert my gaze from his own and focus on his much less distracting shoes instead. It was the first time we had been alone since I healed him.

"Katara?.." His voice was gravelly and deep like he had just woken up. I smiled shyly as he approached, noticing the remnants of his reddened cheeks from his bout with Mai not but minutes ago.

He stood a safe distance away, perhaps two or three feet, and I realized just how much taller the older man was. A whole head. I had to crane my neck up to meet those molten, fiery eyes. His gaze peered through my own looking into my soul for an explanation.

"Is everything alright?" His eyes then becoming weary, darting around looking for a disruption of the peace we all clung to so desperately.

Not entirely believing that the war was finally resolved. That it was actually over. "Everything is fine," I assured, "I just wanted to talk to you. If that'd be ok?"

He nodded and led us to the veranda I claimed Aang's lips on earlier that evening. I still felt a tingle down my spine. The energy the Avatar exuded flowed through him into me, it sent my senses in overdrive trying to handle the intake of chi.

Zuko leaned his back against the railing, folding his strong arms casually across his broad chest. The fabric of his blood red satin robes straining at the shoulders to support the movement.

An exiled, young prince no longer, but a grown man, a Fire Lord stood there with a commanding presence that threatened to steal all logic away from me. A proud, noble man who had suffered and struggled, but never turned his back on his people even when they turned on him.

Though the moon was high in the sky, I couldn't help but think which one of us would have the advantage in battle. Watching him face Azula proved what a powerful bender he was. Comet or not. And it unsettled me that I couldn't say I'd be able to beat him.

I took a deep breath trying to find the words to express my gratitude. "Zuko-I.." The words died in my throat; I tried again.

"Wh-why did you do that? Why would you do it? You have a whole Nation to lead. A whole people's, I'm just a peasant from the Southern Water Tribe."

He didn't say anything for a moment, as though he were mulling it over. "I wasn't thinking. I just reacted." But the nonchalant way he spoke sent a rage through me that I couldn't explain.

"Spirits! Zuko do you not understand how close death hovered over you? When I finally got to you the lightning was still fighting it's way out of your body, ripping away at tendons and muscles like it was a wet tissue.

"It just barely missed your pulmonary artery. Do you even know what that means?" I approached him and pointed at his chest where that nasty scar undoubtedly lay.

He didn't respond. "If that lightning even nicked that artery blood would have filled your lungs and you would have drowned in it; I could not save you from that. No healer could have.

"I would have had to watch you choke on your own blood and die. Then Azula would be Fire Lord as is her birth right. Are you stupid enough to plunge your nation back into a war? To drag every nation back into a war because you felt the need to protect a peasant?"

"More children growing up in turmoil. More children growing up with murdered parents. More lives uprooted because of a war they had no control over. They didn't have a choice but you did."

My chest was heaving, knuckles turning pale as my nails dug into my clenched fist. I didn't know I was crying until he leaned forward and brushed my tears away.

I looked anywhere but at him, which he quickly deemed unsatisfactory as he moved his hand to my cheek, angling my head so I met his eyes.

Anguish and guilt flashed through those eyes. His voice was raspy and hoarse, "I'm sorry, Katara…I just reacted."

Tears still poured down my cheeks, "I'd do it all over again if it meant you were safe." My heart swelled with an emotion I could not detect. With an emotion I didn't understand.

He pulled me to him then, arms wrapping tightly around my shoulders, his chin resting on the crown of my head.

Heat flooded my body at his embrace. Something I could only assume was a product of his bending, I briefly wondered if he was always this warm. It seeped into my icy skin setting me ablaze. I couldn't stop my moan of gratitude.

Subconsciously, I breathed in his scent, it was intoxicating. Like burning sandalwood and cinnamon.

I peeled myself away from him then. Met his gaze, and with the straightest face I could muster said,

"You're a fool. You can't afford to be that selfish. Your duty to your people should always come first. I...I-I watched you die, Zuko." I took a deep shuddering breath; I could feel hot tears burning down my mocha cheeks.

I was so angry Zuko appeared as a red blob in front of me, my tears blurring his features into an indistinguishable form.

"You never think these things through. What if I couldn't bring you back? What if I couldn't have defeated Azula? Then the Fire Lord would have been killed protecting a peasant. They would blame my people for your death. War would rage again and worse of all, you'd be dead.

"I don't think the world would have survived my grief, Zuko."

"The days I spent healing you after your injury were pure agony. I didn't know if you were going to live or die. You lost consciousness so frequently that I wouldn't risk sleeping.

"I stayed awake for two days straight mending tendons and muscles, rerouting veins. Cutting away dead flesh. Your heart stopped once. I prayed to Tui and La for them to bring you back to me. You opened your eyes and I felt your pulse. I cried for hours while you lay there unconscious.

"I don't need, or want, you protecting me or risking your life for me. It's not just us fighting this battle. The whole world is resting on our shoulders. My people were decimated; Aang's' whole nation eradicated. You don't get to make that choice. You've got too much to live for."

I couldn't staunch the flow of my tears. But I turned my back to him, unable to look at him for what I was going to say next. "You should have let me die. My life isn't worth thousands of countless others."

He made no move to stop me as I walked away.

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Well that's chapter one guys. Pretty spicy if you ask me. Anyways I'll post the next chapter tomorrow at some point. RR I love you guys and you inspire me to continue writing.