A/N: Started as a drabble for the Avatar100, but, uh, grew. I did three sets, one for Aang, one for Katara, and one for Zuko. I hope you enjoy it and will please review for me. This is just one of the many ways I could see zutara happening (slowly). It's also a little theory I have about Katara's reaction in the Fortune Teller. This particular drabble is Kataradrama. Yummy.

Maybe--Katara

Jakia

She hated lying to him.

She hated it, really, she did. In truth, she heard every word he said, every time he said it. He's gotten good at confessing his love for her she had to admit. Has actually gotten somewhat poetic about it. Once or twice she even wanted to reply, if only to say how beautiful it was.

But that would admit she had heard him, and that would lead to her having to answer him.

And she couldn't break his heart just yet.

Never mind that she didn't return his feelings. Never mind that she didn't think about him like that. It was so much easier to ignore him---it left him hopeful and it left her without having to feign something she did not feel, or worse, break his heart.

To break the spirit of the Avatar would have been horrible, and she could not commit such a crime.

Not yet, at least.

She had heard him every time he spoke. She heard him all the way back then, when they were at Aunt Wu's village, when he confessed for the first time. Her broke her, too, because she cares about him. She really does. Aang is her best friend—she would do anything for him.

Almost anything. She couldn't fall in love with him. She almost wished she could. It would make her life so much easier. She wished she did love him, so that way they could all be happy, but they weren't. She could control who she fell in love with just as easy as she could stop being a waterbender. It was impossible.

Which is why she changed her focus from Aang to Zuko.

It was such a quiet thing. First, it was just being good enough to stop him from capturing Aang. Then, it changed, slowly. Suddenly it wasn't so much stopping him as it was challenging him with her bending abilities. Slowly after challenging him by force it became challenging his mind, as their battle of wit escaladed to new heights. Now, she was no long "water peasant". She was now "barbaric water tribe girl who thinks she knows everything."

He, likewise, had grown from "stupid Prince" to "arrogant and spoiled temperamental Fire Prince!"

Their insults varied day-to-day, though her favorite by far was, "Damn beautiful water-witch, why can't I beat you, foolish woman?" He had muttered it so low under his breath she wasn't sure she had heard him right. She knew for a fact he had not meant for her to hear that insult, but she had heard it anyway.

It made her blush just thinking about it. He thought she was pretty? No, not pretty—beautiful. It sent foreign shivers up and down her spine as she thought about the Fire Prince. While she was sure someone must have thought it, no one had ever actually said it to her, and that meant the world to her. Even if it was unintentionally, it still meant something to her. After all her traveling, she had not had much time to care much for her looks, and hearing someone comment on them, positively, had…well, it made her feel like a girl. So often while traveling with Aang and Sokka she had been treated as one of the guys. It was so nice to be treated like…well, a girl. Positively, that is. She didn't need Pakku telling her that she was a woman and needed to be in a hut, barefoot and pregnant.

Which led to a further study of this Prince.

Which led to the idea that he might be handsome, if he had a better personality.

Which led to the fact that he was handsome, in spite of his personality.

Which led to the curious thought that maybe his personality wasn't so bad, either.

Which, in turn, led to the idea that maybe he wasn't bad, either.

It was crazy, but somewhere in their battles, they stopped fighting. Instead, they had begun sparing; as if their fights were just an attempt from to better themselves at their respective bendings. There was no longer an attempt to hurt one another, just fighting. She hated it, but it was almost romantic.

Which is why she was here, away from everyone else, playing in the stream, half-listening as Aang gave his latest confession of love.

She would tell him the truth, she decided. About her feelings towards Zuko.

"I'm sorry Aang, did you say something?"

XXX

On to drabble three!