PLEASE READ!

AN: Okay! Hey everyone and welcome to Chapter Nine! I wanted you all to read this because I found some very very very very interesting news about Avatar! A lot of you may have seen this already, but I felt it was my duty to share it with those who hadn't. BE WARNED: MAJOR MAJOR SPOLIERS! But really great spoilers! Find out who the evil female fire bender from "The Storm" was! I'm dying to put it here, but I don't want to ruin it… I will say this though (unrelated to evil-she) it doesn't look like ZukoxKatara is going to happen… cries The link is in my profile, and the Avatar stuff is the first link you'll see when the page opens. The spoilers are under "Click here for the panel report". Even if you don't want to read the spoilers, you should look at the drawings under "Full Gallery"!

P.S. All this info is from the show's producers at the Comic Con which I never get to go to!

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. That sucks. Enough said.

Chapter Nine: Heart To Heart

Zuko was on edge. Zuko did not like being on edge. In fact, he hated it. Ever since Katara had told him about her dreams, he constantly worried one day she would wake up and realize everything he had told her was a lie. And when he finally decided to go to his uncle for help, well, he didn't get any.

"What should I do Uncle?" Zuko asked after telling Iroh what happened.

Iroh shook his head. "You just keep digging yourself in deeper and deeper, don't you Prince Zuko?"

Zuko ignored his comment. "What should I do?" he repeated.

Iroh shrugged. "How should I know? You started this whole mess Zuko. This is your problem."

Zuko cursed his uncle silently.

To his relief though, Prince Zuko found himself able to relax after a few days. Katara didn't seem to be acting out of the ordinary or remembering anything (consciously anyway). She didn't mention her dreams to Zuko again, but he could only imagine she was still having them. He prayed his answer had satisfied her and she wasn't thinking about her dreams too much anymore.

000

Katara was thinking about her strange dreams more than ever.

She sat in her room, gazing out her window, with her head in her hands. Her bright blue eyes were troubled and confused; they gave away the turmoil inside her. She was most definitely still having her mysterious, elusive dreams, but she purposely didn't bring them up with Zuko had to intention of ever doing so. She couldn't quite put her finger on why, but she didn't like talking about them with Zuko.

He seemed pretty sure it is him in my dream… she thought, But he answered so quickly. Like he wanted to give me an answer- any answer. Just as long as I would accept it and move on…

It troubled her. She wanted to believe Prince Zuko. It would make everything so much easier. She wanted that boy to be him. But it wasn't. If she didn't know anything else, she at least knew that her mysterious person was not Zuko. But, then who was it?

000

"Have you forgotten who is in command of this ship?" Zuko demanded from a terrified guard.

"N-No Sir…" the man stammered, "I was just-"

Fire started swirling around Zuko's fists. He took an intimidating step towards the man.

"If I ever hear talk of mutiny on my ship again you'll spend the rest of your life in the brig or worse!" he growled.

What on Earth is he yelling about now? Thought Katara. She could hear Zuko's voice becoming increasingly loud down the hallway. Sighing she got up from her desk and opened her door. The noise appeared to be coming from the deck. She walked down the dimly lit hallway and onto the deck. "Hey, what's all the shouting about? I could hear…" Katara broke off when she spotted Zuko and the soldier. Zuko sent his arm out and cast a stream of fire at the man. He went flying backwards into the wall of the ship, his body making a thud that made Katara's stomach turn.

Zuko stood over him, not bothering to hide his fury. "You seem to have trouble understanding the chain of command. You had better learn some respect!" Prince Zuko started to move. Katara had no idea what he was about to do. Would he leave the man there? Or deal the final blow? The soldier wasn't even fully protected; his mask had gone askew from the impact. Katara did not want to find out what Zuko was going to do.

"Zuko!" she shrieked.

Prince Zuko's head whipped around to see Katara standing at the entrance to the hallway, looking furious. "Get away from him!" She ran to the man's side and helped him up. He was obviously hurt; he needed to put some of his weight on Katara. She glared at Zuko. "What is wrong with you?" she demanded, her aqua eyes ablaze with fury.

"Teaching him a lesson!" Zuko hissed through clenched teeth.

She glanced at the man who was now leaning against the wall, rubbing a sore arm. And probably all for some stupid, insignificant thing that got Zuko irked. "Whatever he did, you didn't have to be so violent! That was totally uncalled for!"

Zuko grabbed Katara by the arm and pulled her near him. "I don't need you interfering with how I run my ship!" he hissed. His narrowed amber eyes burned into Katara's but she never flinched.

Katara wrenched her arm out of his grasp and threw him a look of contempt and disgust. She turned away from and walked over to the soldier. "Come on," she told him, "Let's have a look at your bruises." She helped him walk out of the room.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going? Get back here!" Zuko shouted after them. The soldier hesitated, but Katara kept on walking. "Don't listen to him." She told him. Katara threw Zuko one more disgusted look before leaving Zuko alone on the deck (all the other soldiers had fled in terror when they noticed Zuko start to yell that the wounded man).

Zuko let out an exasperated scream and shot two fire balls at nothing in particular. Why did Katara have to see that? He thought remorsefully.

000

"Honestly, I don't what has gotten into him!" Katara said, shaking her head as she iced and bandaged the soldier's swollen ankle. "He is unbelievable sometimes!"

"T-Thank you that Lady Katara… You didn't have to stand up to the Prince like that for me," said the soldier, speaking for the first time. "I mean, I appreciate it very much," he added quickly, not waning to sound ungrateful, "But, you could have gotten hurt…"

Katara gave a dry chuckle. "I don't know if Zuko would hurt me. Or even if he could."

The man remained silent, letting Katara do her work.

"There," she said when his ankle was wrapped up nicely. "Now then, why don't you take off your helmet and let me see what the damage is."

The soldier obliged and removed his helmet, but said, "Really, Lady Katara, you don't have to do all this for me… The ship's physician could take care of me."

"Please, just call me Katara," she said, getting more ice, "And its not trouble at all." When she turned around to face him, she was slightly surprised. He was young. Not as young as she or Zuko was, but younger than most guards. He was fairly handsome too. He had short black hair and light brown eyes. Katara figured he probably looked better without all the bruises and small cuts on his face.

"Did Zuko do all this to you just now?" she gasped, wiping off the cuts with a cool rag. Katara had known he could be violent sometimes, but this was above and beyond anything he had ever done before. Or, at least, anything Katara had ever seen him do before.

"No," he replied sheepishly. Most of them aren't from him. Just the ankle and the bang on my head from when I hit the wall."

"Then how did you get them?" Katara asked, clearly concerned.

"Well, I'm uh, not the most popular guy. Let's leave it at that."

Katara wanted to press further, but she decided to not to. Does he mean the other soldiers beat him up? She thought.

Katara sighed and sat down on her bed when she was satisfied with her work. The cuts had been cleaned, the bump on his head had a packet of ice strapped to it, and his ankle was wrapped. "Once again, thank you so much Lady Katara."

"Please," she replied wearily, "Just Katara is fine." He nodded his head, but something told Katara he was still going to call her "lady".

"So, what is your name?" Katara asked conversationally after a moment. The guard stared at her blankly.

"My name?" he repeated dumbly.

"Yes. Your name." she said, trying to hold back a smile.

"It's Kyo. We don't really use names here," he explained.

"Then what does Zuko call you?"

"Normally he refers to us all as 'soldier', 'you there' or the ever popular 'useless idiot'." Kyo replied.

Katara laughed. "That's awful," she said.

Kyo just shrugged. "We're used to it. Besides, as much of an obnoxious teenager as he can be, he's been through a lot. We all understand." Katara didn't reply to that. She just looked away. "Do you know what happened?" Kyo asked carefully.

Katara hesitated. "Kind of. I mean, I've only overheard scraps from the guards. I know the general story though. How his father gave him the scar and had him banished…"

Kyo nodded grimly. "Do you know why his father gave him the scar?"

"No."

Kyo took a deep breath. "It's not pleasant."

"Please tell me. I've been trying to figure that out forever."

Kyo looked at Katara and gave a small smile. "Okay. But you didn't hear it from me." Katara nodded. "Well, from General Iroh told us, when Prince Zuko was fourteen, he wanted to attend some kind of war council. They let him in, but only because Iroh made them. Iroh warned Zuko not to speak, but with his temper that was an impossibility. Some general had a plan to fight a powerful Earth Kingdom battalion. But, it required the sacrificing of an entire division to new recruits, to mount an attack from the rear. As bad as Zuko can be sometimes, he really does love the Fire Nation. He stood up and said they couldn't sacrifice an entire division like that. Those soldiers loved and defended their country and they couldn't betray them. As noble as this seemed, it wasn't Prince Zuko's place to speak out."

Katara nodded sadly. "I know the rest…"

Kyo put his hand on Katara's shoulder and said, "I'd better be going."

"Yeah. I wouldn't want you getting into any more trouble." She laughed.

Kyo stood and limped his way to the door. "Thank you once again for everything La-, uh, Katara." Katara smiled at him as he opened her door and left.

Katara sighed. I always knew Zuko got his scar from his father, but I never knew why she thought. I can't believe he got it for standing up for what was right.

As furious as she had been at him only a few minutes before, Katara couldn't help feeling sad for him. There was no excusing his behavior sometimes, but still… What horrible memories….

000

Prince Zuko was standing alone, hunched over the railing of his ship. He was staring absently at the ocean. He was thinking about the Avatar. Why was it taking him so long to come for the girl? Did he want him to come for the girl? Of course he did. Right?

Zuko was also thinking about Katara. What did she think of him now? Did he care what she thought of him? No. Or did he? He had always tried to be somewhat civil around her. He felt like he'd blown it big time now. Blew what? He asked himself.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn't even notice the person now standing beside him. "Zuko?"

"Huh?" The sudden voice mad him jump. He lifted his head to see Katara standing next to him. He didn't know what to do. "What do you want?" he asked, sounding harsher than he meant to.

Katara sighed and pushed a lock of her loosely hanging hair behind her ear. "Look, I didn't come here to apologize. But I didn't come here to fight either."

"Then what did you come here for?" he replied, again sounding harsher than he wanted.

"I don't know…"she said absently, "Just to talk. You can't pretend like nothing happened."

"I wasn't." Katara folded her arms and rested then on the railing. "How is he?" Zuko asked suddenly.

Katara was slightly taken aback. "He's okay," she replied, "Though you messed up his ankle pretty bad."

"I'm not going to apologize to your or anyone else. I did what I had to keep order on my ship."

"No you didn't!" yelled Katara. She was getting angry now. "You didn't have to beat him up so badly! If I hadn't come along, who knows what could have happened…"

A few moments of silence passed. "You, know, I wasn't going to hurt him anymore. I just lost my temper."

It seemed that was the closest thing she was going to get to an apology. A strong breeze blew, lifting Katara's hair into the air. She closed her eyes. "Zuko, have you ever…killed anyone?" she asked suddenly.

Zuko looked up at her in surprise. He furrowed his eyebrows. "No. I've never killed another human before in my life." He stated, slightly offended. "Despite what you may think, Katara, I do have standards and principles." He thought back to his Agni kai with Zhao. When he had let Zhao go.

Katara's expression softened. She smiled up at him gently. "I know Zuko. Believe me, I know you do…" Zuko looked down at her in surprise.

"How do you know about that?" he asked, but no unkindly.

Katara shrugged. "They say if you want to know something in a palace, ask the maids. Well, if you want to know something on a ship, ask the soldiers."

Prince Zuko was lightly annoyed that the guards knew about what happened and they had old Katara. He really hadn't wanted Katara to know. The less people who knew, the better. "So, what do you think of me now?" asked Zuko quietly. "Not only am I violent, but I'm also shamed and dishonored. A prince without a throne. Or even a home."

Katara turned his head towards her. "Hey," she said, "I don't know too much about royalty. I don't know how things like this work, really. But, as an outsider looking in, I think you did the right thing Zuko. I know if you could change what happened to you, you would, but… You did a good thing. You did the honorable thing. I know how much you love the Fire Nation." Katara paused a moment and looked him straight in the eyes. "I'll be honest. I don't like how violent you can be sometimes. In fact, I hate it. That much is true. But, I would never think less of you for what happened two years ago. Never."

Zuko didn't know what to say. Nobody had ever said anything like that to him before. His first thought was ignorant she was. How could she possibly think what he did was honorable? What did she know?

But, then it sunk in that she really did think that. She was probably the only person alive that thought that. That made him feel good. Better than he'd felt in a long, long time.

Katara gently put a hand on his shoulder and smiled softly. "I know you don't think so, but I do. Don't worry; you'll regain your honor. In your eyes anyway. I don't really think you've lost any." Katara turned and walked away.

Zuko felt better than he could ever remember feeling after the day he received his scar. But, then a cloud of doubt passed over him. Would Katara still feel that way if she knew the only for his restore his honor was to capture her best friend?