Chapter 3Why?

Zuko paced the room while Katara slept. He began to think of everything that happened over the past two years. How he had to stay hidden throughout all of his travels. He missed his family well he missed Uncle anyway. Katara moaned in her sleep cuddling up next to the pillow. He looked over at her and saw she was still asleep. He sighed. It was strange to be this close to her but also be so far away at the same time. Her words echoed in his head. She was getting married to the Avatar. Well it wasn't like he could do anything about it. After all Sokka and Aang thought the Prince was dead.

Katara tossed and turned. She couldn't sleep. Like it was her fault anyway. Zuko was pacing the room. She sat up and looked at Zuko. She sighed. He had definitely changed over the two years while he was gone. He was definitely better defined with more muscles. He was a couple inches taller. She smiled at the thought of him. Things were definitely different now.

"Zuko are you okay?" Katara asked crawling out of bed. "It's late come to bed."

"I'm not tired." Zuko said stopping his pacing. "In fact I'm just doing some thinking."

Katara crawled to the edge of the bed. She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the bed. "Zuko, you need to chill." Katara said bringing him closer. She pushed him down next to her.

"Whatever happened to you getting married?" Zuko asked sitting up.

"You of all people should know Aang isn't the person who I want to share the rest of my life with." Katara countered.

Zuko stood up and walked over to the desk. He sighed. "I know that. Don't you think I know that?" He looked around nervously.

Katara walked over to him. "Zuko look at me. I have less than two weeks to convince Aang that I don't want to marry him."

"You can do it." Katara tilted her head. She sighed as he sat down next to her.

"Zuko you don't understand what it's like. Sokka is like my father now. He chooses who I married and I have to have honor in who my brother chooses for me." She sighed again.

She looked out the window and saw the sun begin to rise. Sokka would be waking soon and demand that Aang and her spent time together. It was going to be strange, Katara thought of Aang more as a little brother than a friend. Sokka knew this of course but he was determined that he had to choose Katara's husband. It had to be that way if she wanted to show respect towards her family. It was considered an honor to have your spouse hand picked for you.

"Today maybe the worst day of my life." Katara sighed for a third time.

Zuko pulled Katara into his arms. "Katara there are several ways to get out of this. Two of them deal with a certain fire bender. Another one is to run, and two of them have to do with telling the truth. And another one is just let it go." Zuko numbered them off with his fingers. "It's up to you."

Katara rolled her eyes at Zuko. "There is no way I'm going to have sex with you. That's my last choice."

"Now who said that was what I was talking about?" Zuko asked poking Katara on her forehead.

Katara leaned her head on his shoulder. She honestly did like how he tended to cuddle with her. Katara scooted as close as she could to get to his warmth. She let out a huge yawn. She allowed her eyes to close as Zuko started to rock a back and forth a bit. She opened her eyes then leaned up into a kiss. After pulling away she crawled up towards the top of the bed. She looked over at Zuko and sighed. Zuko followed the suit and crawled up next to her. Both fell asleep within each other's embrace within seconds.

With Sokka and Aang

Sokka walked the deck early that morning. He had picked Aang to marry Katara for reasons only known to him and Momo. The reason was because he felt that he could trust Aang. After all he was the Avatar and Katara seemed to take an interest in the boy.

He watched the ship dock. Turning to Iroh who just walked out onto the deck he tilted his head slightly and asked. "Why are we docking?"

"Prince Zuko wishes to get more some more supplies and I need some more tea." Iroh said as the ship flung forward slightly.

Sokka nodded not having a right to say anything about Prince Zuko's reason for docking. "Wait Prince Zuko? I thought he was dead."

"Katara had her hopes up and sure enough Zuko appeared late last night." Sokka began to panic. This was going to throw his plan off completely. He began to pace back and forth mumbling to himself quickly.

Iroh tilted his head in confusion. "Tell me the real reason why you want Aang to marry Katara."

Sokka looked at the ground nervously. "Okay during the two years of traveling with Aang I met some really strange guys. And two of them knew I had a sister. They began to talk more about how she filled out in the right way and stuff like that. And they only cared for her looks." Sokka sighed before continuing. "We came up against Zhao during our travels. He had said that if Katara was with us at the time she would be begging for mercy."

"That's the only reason?"

"No of course not. Something happened to Aang during our travels. It was like his hormones kicked in or something. I was surprised at first but he seemed to take a liking in Katara during out travels and didn't know what it was. I made a deal with him. After defeating the Fire lord he would have to marry my sister. But since Sozen's comet never came we allowed it to slide." Sokka explained. "We were both tired of trying to find a fire bender to train Aang. We promised to return to Baj- sen- sai after the Avatar married Katara."

"Why?"

"Because for fame and fortune. They promised to give us anything…"

"You became power hungry that's why Aang is marrying me?" Katara asked walking up with Zuko right behind her.

"Zuko it's good to see you again." Sokka laughed nervously.

Katara narrowed her eyes. "You're lucky Ember's not here. I'd allow her to kill you right now." Katara turned on her heal and walked down the ramp.

Sokka sighed. He watched her walk off into the town. The way she walked off the water splashed up against the boat in a dangerous way. He turned around and came face to face with a very angry prince.

"Um… back from the dead already?" Sokka joked.

Zuko grabbed the water warrior by his collar and brought him up to his face. "Call off the wedding." He threatened.

"Not on her life." Sokka snapped kicking the fire bender in the stomach.

Zuko dropped him and bent over so they were face to face. "Do you really think that I wouldn't be stronger when you meet me?" Sokka opened his mouth to say something but instead of his voice came a high pitch scream.

Both boys look at each other and said, "Katara."

K15: Like I said my 'rents are coming back this weekend so it might be like wensday before I update again. Maybe longer. I'll try my hardest to update every friday. But my brother's have issues with letting me on the computer. So anyway. Chapter three's up and running. Hope you enjoy. The first couple of chapters are just getting things back to normal... well as normal gets in the Avatar World. Anyway chatper four will promise to be exciting. (Hopefully) Anyway. Later. K15