Well I had a lot of fun writing this so I hope it's fun to read! Much sarcasm and jibes at each other in this chapter, enjoy!

Chapter 6: A Crazy Idea

Zuko blinked. Once, twice, third for a good measure. She looked serious but she was obviously joking, right? He tried so hard, so hard. He really did. He just couldn't help himself. And so for the second time that evening he outright laughed.

Katara scowled. This was beginning to get old: him laughing at her. "Look you," she hissed, "all I'm saying is that—" He cut her off, holding a hand in the air from his position: hunched over and clutching his sides. He took a long breath and quickly recovered, quicker than the first time.

Zuko straightened up and fixed her with an arrogant glare. "You're kidding, of course." He insisted. The waterbender sighed and pinned her eyes shut, attempting to vent a small bit of her frustration.

"No…actually…I wasn't," she ground out between also clenched teeth. Zuko paused as if he wasn't sure he'd heard her and in a decisive moment, sat down with his back to the sculptures with crossed arms, having previously taken the time to light the torches set around the room. He hmphed to himself. No way. Absolutely not. As a last resort, maybe. If all else fails, maybe. But until then, no. His thoughts leeked out into his speech as well as he sat against the wall with the girl still glaring down at him.

"I don't think so." He said. That was the end of that. Or at least, he thought it was.

"No, I don't think so! Look, I know it's crazy but I'm not going to let you turn away any chance that we have to get out of here, you understand?" Zuko looked away. He'd had just about enough of her shouting.

"Look, you're being loud," he growled. "I can't think." He put on the added effect of closing his eyes in what appeared to be deep concentration. He was concentrating all right, but not on finding another plan. What if she's right? I can't just let any idea go by, it might be the only way. I won't know for sure unless I— He broke off his thoughts there. Enough was enough.

Katara tapped her foot, attempting to get on his nerves. He finally looked up. He was pleasurably agitated, his good eye was glowing with annoyance and his brows were knit together.

"Any brilliant ideas?" She taunted. He stood up and glanced around at the brightly burning torches.

"You know what?" He asked. "Fine. If that's what you want." He reached out and roughly grabbed her shoulders.

"Woah—wait. Wai—!" He didn't listen. She was cut off in the middle of her protest with his lips on hers.

She'd asked for it. She brought it upon herself. She knew it. That was it, the end, she'd forced herself to have her first kiss with a firebender, the prince of the firebenders. What would Sokka think? No, that didn't matter right now. Why won't he stop! And just as she thought it, he did.

He didn't look at her. He didn't say anything. He just peered around the room to see if anything had changed. It hadn't. He let go of her shoulders and gave them a slight shove. With a loud groan he fell back and slid down the wall where he could sit again.

For a moment Katara stood frozen but then she decided she wasn't fond of that look on his face and stalked off to sulk by the inscriptions. It had felt nice—really nice. She wasn't about to admit it though. How stupid could she get? She'd practically begged him to kiss her. Stupid, that's what she was, really stupid.

"You know," Zuko commented from the opposite wall. "You're really stupid." Sure she'd thought the same thing but hearing him say it too was just—. She whirled around.

"You can just—uough!" She wailed to the ceiling. "You are unbearable!" She informed him vehemently.

"So I've been told." He countered calmly. "I think you just wanted me to kiss you." He added, passively studying a nail.

She wanted to scream. She really wanted to scream. She bit it back and swallowed to anger, intent on winning this match of wits. "Au contraire, I didn't make you," she reminded him. Alright, that was a lie, she did. "I think you just wanted to. You didn't get to before so you wanted to make up, right?"

He raised an eyebrow. What on earth was she talking about? "Oh please, indulge me, what exactly are you referring to?"

"Hmph, back at the river all that time ago. How sweet, wanting to take advantage of a girl who's tied to a tree. But you couldn't because all your goons and those pirates were around, right?"

Zuko snorted. "Keep dreaming, Katara." Oops, he'd done it again. He mentally slapped himself, wondering why he was so dumb.

"It's not a dream. This is a nightmare."

"I couldn't have said it better myself."

"Well if it's any consolation, we still have the torches." Katara observed.

They went out and the two were sitting in the dark once again. Oh, the irony.

Yes yes, the irony of it all. I really couldn't resist. I just couldn't. But anyways, thanks as always for reading! Keep sending those reviews! Oh yeah, that's right! I forgot! I was planning on celebrating hitting the 500 hits mark in this chapter but I passed it...so I wanted to say, yay! 600 hits! But I passed it too...so here goes! YAY! 700 hits! I owe it to all of you! Thanks so much for your support and keep reading!

--Lynnia

Special Thanks:

Reviews: FirebenderKitty, Rebirth of the Pheonix,storm-of-insanity

C2s: Well, I don't know who added me to their C2 list but I figured I'd thank the anonymous people for adding me to "Fic That Doesn't Suck" and "Firey Waves and Icy Flames" I 'preciate it!

Alerts: i'm not going to list all the people who alerted the story, sorry, i too lazy! But I will say thank you for being dedicated! I love you all!

Replys:

storm-of-insanity: Thanks for noticing! I was thinking about it and just couldn't help putting it in once I'd thought about it!

Rebirth of the Pheonix: Haha! I'm so evil!

FirebenderKitty: Glad you liked!