Zuko watched the Waterbender and the Avatar disappear into the shadows of the dim cave, hand absentmindedly coming up to scratch his chest where a fiery itch had started as soon as Katara had left his side.

The Prince wondered at the feeling. Zuko was not unfamiliar with longing. He had longed for the love of his father as long as he could remember. When his mother had disappeared, the hole in his chest from missing her had grown even bigger. Throughout his banishment, adrift of his homeland and birthright as he had been for the last three years, Zuko had assumed this was the height of his suffering. He had reached rock bottom, known pain like no other, and the only place there was left to go was up.

Now, he had somehow gone even lower. The feeling of panic welling up inside him when Katara had left his side was like no other. The pressure to not screw this up, to begin his journey to redemption and regain his honor, felt like the weight of a thousand bricks.

He had been feeling conflicted about the Fire Nation's war on the rest of the world for sometime now, though he had always been hesitant to voice his feelings out loud to the only other person in his life. The existence he and his uncle had built in Ba Sing Se had always felt fragile and delicate, and he didn't want to bring it all crashing down with his thoughts of reality.

His reality was fractured and...fuzzy. Zuko had always been a man of action. All those years on his ship, adrift of his people, his throne, he had kept himself busy by consistently making a plan for action. He had barely taken breaks, relentlessly scouring the world for any sign of the myth that was the Avatar. Of course, his penchant for action had foiled his own plans because he didn't tend to think them through, that he could admit.

Nevertheless, a man of action he was. A place of action Ba Sing Se was not. Though the life as refugees he had built with his uncle had been peaceful, he had been looking for a way to prove his metamorphosis fever right. He wanted to know what change he had undergone. He wanted to be presented with his reality to see if it had become clearer. Being faced with Azula had given him that opportunity and he felt as though he squandered it being dragged away by the Dai Li to some secret prison.

That is, until he saw the Waterbender there.

Here, here was another chance to confront his reality. Other than the Avatar, there was no better person to represent a confrontation with his other side, his good side, than the Avatar's Waterbending master.

He thought of the first time he had seen her, when he raided her village and manhandled her grandmother. The memory still made him wince to this day, but when confronted with her anger in the cave, he had clammed up. He didn't feel that he should apologize for things he had done in the past that he had felt were necessary. Deep down, he had been extremely affected by the hostility he had experienced for being known as Fire Nation throughout his travels. Instead of being thankful and welcoming, people were angry and filled with fear. If the knowledge and culture the Fire Nation ostentatiously sought to spread through this war was so great, wouldn't the people be loving and grateful? Surely they would've won by now, the other nations conceding after 100 years of fighting that their culture was superior. There was also always that voice in the back of his head that questioned how fair it was that one nation was no longer here to see this change. The Air Nomads had been exterminated simply due to the possibility that the Avatar was in their midst and he hadn't been. He'd been frozen at the South Pole. His people had essentially died for nothing, a whole way of life, a whole part of the balance ceasing to exist.

And while there was the side the Waterbender represented, there was also the Waterbender herself. Katara, he tried to say in his thoughts. After all, he thought cynically, it looked as though he should be getting used to spending a lot of time in her presence.

Not just in her presence, touching her.

Oblivious to his Uncle observing him, Zuko winced. He could not deny the Waterbender was beautiful. She looked nothing like all the other girls back home, her bright blue eyes boring into making it impossible to lie. Sitting so close to her in the patch of moonlight, he had been uncomfortably aware in the cave of the depth of his sudden attraction. What's more is, unlike every girl he had been involved with prior, she seemed to feel the same depth of attraction for him too. He had allowed himself to get carried away in the caves by themselves, swept up in the feeling of her soft hands on his cheek.

Then the spell had been broken in a literal explosion as the wall came down. Seeing Katara in the Avatar's arms had made his blood boil like nothing else. The fire in his chest threatened to overwhelm him as one thought flashed across his mind: mine.

What's wrong with me? Zuko thought, slightly worried now that the adrenaline of the Waterbender's touch had calmed down. He struggled to focus his thoughts on the task at hand as he chanced a glance at the cause of his distraction, accidentally meeting her eye. Unbidden, a blush rose to his cheeks and, with great effort, he ripped his eyes away from her gaze.

He looked to his Uncle. In the time that he had been mulling over his thoughts, his Uncle had seemingly been doing the same thing. Zuko fought against the urge to blurt out everything he was thinking and every question he had as he waited for his uncharastically serious Uncle to speak.

"Zuko," he began, "the time has come for you to chose".

This had been the conversation he had been dreading. He knew the time was coming, he had been simultaneously begging for it to come and dreading its approach while playing as a tea server. He wanted to make the right choice, he just wished he knew what the right choice was.

He thought again of the Waterbender, Katara, of how he felt when she selflessly offered a rare gift to help an almost total stranger, someone who had previously been an enemy. The feeling of acceptance and encouragement and hope was something he felt like he had been looking for his whole life. He found it with his mother, but then he lost her. He constantly disappointed his father and his sister, and for all the hope and belief his Uncle had in him, he was constantly floundering and not living up to it.

The acceptance from Katara had felt unconditional and, while he didn't know what this...thing between them was, he wanted to find out.

He wanted to convey all of this to his Uncle but he didn't think the words would come out right. A part of him desperately longed for his Uncle's advice, but was afraid of his reaction to their strange connection at the same time. He shifted uncomfortably and pushed up the loose sleeves of his robe as he felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead.

"Something is wrong," his Uncle stated without question as he examined his nephew with appraising eyes. He glanced in the direction the Waterbender had gone off in. "She didn't hurt you, did she?"

His tone conveyed his own disbelief in his question, so he didn't deign to respond. The silence continued for some time, but when his Uncle finally opened his mouth to say more, the glowing green crystal sprouting from the floor sprung up to create a makeshift cage.

"Uncle!" He yelled. Iroh slumped forward in his cage, looking trapped and defeated. Zuko grew pale with panic as he realized he could hear fighting off in the next cave.

He could also hear his sister's voice.

"Go!" Uncle yelled. Zuko paused for a long moment, conflicted. If he left his Uncle here right now, there was no guarantee he would be able to rescue him. He would no doubt be captured as a traitor and delivered to his brother in chains. If he joined the fight now, on the Avatar's side, the fragile existence they had built as refugees would truly cease to exist. Everything would change.

A distant scream of anger shocked him action. He had heard that sound many times before, been the unfortunate punching bag for that anger many times. Katara, just the thought of her name floated through his mind on a cooling wave, calming his turmoil and the uncomfortable fire in his chest. He took a deep breath, and focused.

"I'll be back Uncle, I promise," Zuko said seriously, tears springing unbidden to the corner of his eyes. He blinked furiously as he jerked his head away and, not daring to look back, he sprinted towards the distant flashes of blue flame.

ZutaraZutaraZutaraZutaraZutaraZutaraZutara

Author's Note: You might have noticed if you've read this before that I've been going through and editing the early chapters, so welcome to the edited chapter 2. I wanted to take the time to try and better capture the turmoil Zuko and Katara are feeling, but also to illustrate the 'intoxicating' nature of their connection. I hope you enjoyed!