A/N

I piddled until midnight Saturday… Then I thought I'd go to sleep…

Then I reread my reviews, saw a lot of Zutara shippers… Did a little more fanart browsing and I found a really inspiring one… And I decided that two thirty in the morning isn't THAT bad, and by four in the morning I might as well just not sleep at all. Ah, the things I'll do for my plots and muses.

We'll see how this goes… And currently I'm fascinated with these (…) things, and currently I just forgot what they're called…

xxx

Haru pushed clod of dirt after stone after clod of dirt away. For ages he toiled, his muscles straining from such drudgery. Further and further he pressed into the ground, wondering numbly if any of his efforts were even making a difference.

He paused, studying the ground above him. He heard rushing feet and a slight brush of steel.

"Well," He muttered, "They're following me, I guess."

He glanced behind him, towards Zuko and Katara's cavern. All he could make out now was a pinprick of light in the distance.

He hated leaving her with him. He didn't fear for Katara's safety; she could take Zuko down on any given day. Haru was concerned about what Katara was thinking.

He pulled himself from his own thoughts and pushed on, shifting earth aside. The sooner he could get his tunnel long enough, the sooner he could continue attempting to woo Katara…

xxx

The rumbling underground paused. Mai attacked the ground with her sword, her feet, and finally threw her entire body onto the ground, tearing at the land with long, tapered fingernails.

"You can't hide forever!" She growled.

Ty Lee glanced around at the other soldiers. This was getting a little out of hand.

"Mai…" she said gently, stepping closer to her friend's shoulder. "Maybe we should wait for them to come out… They can't stay underground for too much longer."

Mai's eyes flashed angrily as she focused back on Ty Lee. "I refuse to lose him again. I will turn him in to Azula."

xxx

Aunt Wu's grey bun shook lightly when she laughed, distorting the light that was shining in from the window in her room.

She took Katara's hand and turned it over, commenting on their texture.

Katara replied conversationally that she used a seaweed lotion. She brushed the small talk aside.

"So, do you see anything interesting in my love line?" Katara pressed.

"I see a great romance for you. A man you're going to marry."

"Tell me more!"

"I can see that he is a very powerful bender."

"Get off of me, you dumb animal!"

Katara jerked awake at the sound of Zuko's voice across the cavern.

"What now?" she mumbled.

Zuko was attempting to pry the lemur from his arm. "This thing! Get it off!"

"So much for being a powerful bender," Katara said without thinking.

Powerful… bender?

Her heart practically stopped beating and she stared painfully at the pale teenager now flinging his arm in wider and wider circles.

"Get it OFF!" Zuko yelled. He gave his arm one final shake, and Momo leapt from his arm and bounded to Katara's lap.

Zuko's gaze followed it, then he caught the horrified expression on Katara's face.

"Why are looking at me like that?" he snapped, narrowing his eyes.

There are other 'powerful' benders in the world, Katara thought to comfort herself. He didn't have to be 'the one'.

"I'm… just surprised that… you… don't like Momo."

Zuko made a dismissive sound and gestured to the creature now bathing himself, "Look at that! How could you like that?"

Katara shrugged and occupied her eyes with watching the creamy brown fur of the lemur on her lap.

Aang's pet.

Katara squeezed her eyes shut. She wished she'd never met Madame Wu. She didn't know who was better: Zuko or Aang.

"How many benders do you know?" Katara asked suddenly.

Zuko paused sifting through Haru's pack. "Hundreds."

"Oh." She watched him take out a lump of biscuit and taste it cautiously. "But how many of them are… well… How many would you say are 'powerful'?"

Zuko shoved the biscuit in his mouth, not trying to conceal the fact that it was twice as large. He shrugged.

"Sefenth."

"Seventy?"

"Sefenth!"

"Oh. Seven. Is that all? Who are they?"

Zuko coughed, failing to dislodge the sticky mass now glued in his chest. He looked wildly around for something to down it with.

Katara noticed his eyes begin to water. "What? Are they dead?"

Zuko shook his head violently and pounded his chest with a closed fist.

"They're… manly? I'm not very good at this. Just tell me who they are."

Zuko clutched his throat.

She finally realized and threw her water pouch at him. "Here!"

Zuko guzzled it down, and Katara watched with increasing alarm as it diminished.

"No… Don't do-." She cried, reaching out as if to stop him.

He pulled it away and gasped.

She watched every drop of water fall.

He recapped the pouch and tossed it back. "Thanks."

She shook it. A little less than a third left, barely enough to give a minnow breath.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" she exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know I can't bend without this!"

"You gave it to me."

"You tricked me! You probably weren't even choking!" She stood up, grabbing her pack as she rushed into the darkened tunnel.

Zuko rose with her. "Where are you going?"

"I won't stay here with you. I'm defenseless." She put one hand on the wall to guide her. It wasn't long before she felt him behind her. "Go away," she hissed.

"You know if you go down there that you could get hurt." His voice was soft.

She brushed it away. "No. Don't talk to me."

"He doesn't know you're coming, and if you come up behind him, he could unintentionally hit you." His voice was smooth and sincere, as if he actually cared.

She'd heard that tone before. He'd tried to lull her into telling him where Aang was. He offered her Sokka's safety and her own necklace.

She clutched it out of habit.

"Don't go down there," Zuko pleaded.

"Shut up!" Katara screamed, whirling in the darkness where she supposed he was standing. "Aang was wrong! You are not trustworthy! You're just a-."

"Look! If you don't stop screaming, we'll all become sitting turtleducks down here. Now, hold out your hand."

"No." Katara backed away.

"Hey," Zuko held a fist into the air, "Run all you want. I have fire at my disposal. Come here or I will find you."

"Oh… Am I supposed to be afraid?" Katara barked sarcastically. She tensed, preparing to bolt.

He didn't answer.

"Zuko!" She called, and still received no reply.

She put her back to the wall, trying to keep her panic from turning her legs to mush. The darkness and dust pressed down on her, and she could swear she felt her heart bursting through her chest.

She inched her way along the wall, praying to here the distant rumbling of stone to stop and for Haru to come to her rescue.

She paused. She hated playing the damsel in distress.

"If you want to get me, here I am, Zuko!" she bellowed, extending her arms in a welcoming gesture.

She waited. Still, hardly a sound was made except her own quickened breathing and Haru's distant proof of his progress.

In one smooth motion, Zuko latched onto her wrist, clamped a hot, dry hand to her mouth, and caused a ripple of flame to illuminate his calm face for a brief moment.

"You feel so defenseless?" he asked, then released her and pressed something long and metallic into her hand. "Then here."

She ran a cautious hand down his swords' cold sheath. "What?"

"Take them. If you feel that strongly about not trusting me, then take the swords."

"I don't know how to use these!" she exclaimed, and searched the darkness in front of her, wishing she could read his expression.

She heard him sigh. "Then come back to the cave and I will teach you."

Katara clutched the swords to her chest, their weight acting as an anchor to any safety she might have a chance at obtaining.

"I don't trust you," she cried.

"So I've heard. Are you coming or not?"

'But you trust me, don't you?' Aang said.

Katara bit her lip. "Yes," she answered reluctantly, "I'm coming."

xxx

"Aang?"

Aang tore his gaze yet again from the tree line to glare at Sokka.

"What?"

"Do you ever get the feeling like you're being watched?"

"I don't know. Why? Do you have that feeling now?"

Sokka shrugged, gazing up to look at the sky opposite the setting sun. "Sometimes I wish I did."

Aang followed his line of sight until he caught the object of his attention: the moon.

"She is watching over you, Sokka."

The other boy didn't reply, but nodded and refocused on the ground. The pair was silent for awhile afterward.

"Aang?"

Aang gave up searching and pulled Appa to a stop. "Yea, Sokka?"

"Do you see people in the spirit world?"

"Well… I saw Roku and Hai Bei, but I never saw any other person I knew, though."

"Do you think it's possible?"

Aang shrugged, not wanting to give him any false hopes.

"Oh." Sokka dropped his pack next to Appa's lying form. "And can you think of any reason there would be an ostrich horse tied to a tree in the middle of nowhere?"

"Huh?"

Sokka pointed to the bird at the side of the road, sleeping with one leg curled limply. They moved closer to inspect it.

"I don't see anyone it could belong to," Sokka said, examining the woods around it.

Aang stuck his face into a half-empty pot settled on top of a bed of ash. He took a sniff, trying to figure out what the traveler had been cooking.

"It's tea," Aang puzzled, "And it's a lot of tea…"

Sokka dipped two fingers into it to taste it, he grimaced upon finding out. "Ugh. This stuff is awful! And it smells like those leaves Zuko had in his pack."

They exchanged shocked looks.

"This was Iroh's tea!" Aang exclaimed.

"But he's not here…"

Aang pulled Sokka to Appa. "He's been taken. Someone's picked him up. We need to find the others now."

"We're not flying!"

"No. We won't fly, but we need get to them as fast as possible. Let's go Appa!"

xxx

A/N

I duck my head in shame at the clichéd Zutara here. Same ol' same ol'. I apologize; I gave in to my own fangirl desires.

That was CRAZY. But I'm going with it for now. I may change it later. For now, Haru will continue his wild jealously, Zuko will be smooth 3, and Katara will be caught like Dorothy in her Kansas storm.