A/N: I am once again asking for your reviews.

I own nothing.

Cheeks

Katara found herself waking up in a surprisingly good mood considering she was in no way a morning person, normally she'd be sour and regretting her decision to take such an early morning class- especially since she had no interest in religious studies as far as a career was concerned. But she had promised herself she'd broaden her horizons and try to learn as much as she could before settling on a career.

As a child she had thought she was going to be a nurse like her mother, some of her wilder years had her father threatening military-school, he'd never truly meant it, but as a child forever moving she never thought that he'd been bluffing. The idea of being a nurse had left her just as quickly and as brutally as her mother had, even being a doctor was no longer an option for her. She couldn't bear the idea. She couldn't handle all the blood.

A chill spider-walked down her spine as she slammed her eyes shut trying to push those horrifyingly unwanted images from her head, she wouldn't think about that now. She wouldn't. Splashing her face with the coldest water she could manage, she opened her eyes. Memories successfully suppressed she climbed into the shower and continued getting ready for the day.

Waving goodbye to Yue who was starting her morning routine, Katara grabbed her bag and closed the door to her shared dorm behind her. Stepping out into the warm summer morning managed to put the wind back in Katara's sails, she preferred the cold of the winter and all the activities that came with the chiller air; Big snuggly jumpers, boots, hot cocoa, Christmas, blankets, hugs and Netflix with snacks, she had even been born in the winter, but the warmth reminded her of some of the good times she had in her childhood.

Walking the short distance through the near-empty campus allowed her to be nostalgic, she thought of the boat trips she'd been on with her father and grandfather or the ice lollies her grandmother Kanna used to make, back when they were both still alive, she thought of all the exploring her and Sokka used to get up to every time they'd move to a new place- back when moving had been some fun new adventure. Back then her father used to tell them each new move was a chance to find something new, Sokka had kept that mentality the whole time but Katara had long lost the wanderlust.

Katara was thirteen when she first made a friend she could have considered her best friend, her name was Korra and was a tomboy like she had been. They used to play together a lot in the pond by Korra's house and talk a lot about travelling together one day. Korra was loud and tough and managed to beat Sokka a few times in an arm wrestle, she liked to make jokes and could make Katara laugh with ease. Korra's town was the longest Katara had stayed anywhere, almost a full year so when the inevitable eventually came it was painful. Before meeting Korra, Katara had been happy to keep finding something new but having to say goodbye to her first real friend had hurt.

Suddenly all the moving and the road trips just weren't as fun anymore. She'd tried to stay in contact with Korra for as long as she could, but by the time Katara was mostly through her fourteenth year, they'd fallen out of touch. It happened she supposed, Korra wasn't the only friend Katara had made and lost contact with over the years but she was always the friend Katara had regretted losing the most. She'd check in on her now and again through social media but stopped when she realised Korra had new friends and was happy. Last she checked she was dating some green-eyed boy, but that must have been three or so years ago now.

It was two moves later when Katara had met Zuko, she had been halfway through her fifteenth year when they were first introduced and a week off sixteen when she'd left. Still those five months she got to be with him were some of the happiest memories of her teenage years, ironically though she never got to spend a summer with Zuko. She had moved to his town in early August and was gone by late December, she guessed that was just another reason why she liked the cold.

"Katara!" The cheerful voice of her friend and classmate Aang pulled her from her thoughts. She gave him a warm smile as he bounded over to her, he always seemed so excited to see her and that made her warm. One thing she'd learned from her childhood of ever-changing spaces and faces was to appreciate when someone was happy to see her, she hadn't had many friends growing up so she always cherished these moments.

"Morning Aang" Katara offered. His big wide grey eyes were always so full of life, even when the rest of the campus was dead to the world. She summed it up to his childish innocence, Aang was still a teenager after all.

Sixteen years old and attending college, the thought always made Katara awestruck and just a little bit envious. If she was being honest with herself though there was no way in hell a sixteen-year-old Katara could have attempted college, even if she had graduated early like Aang. But Aang never appeared to be all that stressed about it, in fact, he had this eternal optimism that was infectious, maybe that level of confidence came from being a child genius or maybe it was just who he was. She didn't let herself overthink it, Aang was Aang and some days she needed his cheerfulness. Today wasn't that day. She had her own cheerfulness to fuel her.

"Hey! You're smiling, are you that happy to see me?" He asked a little sheepishly. Katara found his shyness cute, she guessed even being a prodigy didn't mean you could escape the awkward teenage phase.

"I'm always happy to see you Aang" Katara returned as she began to dig in her bag for her water bottle, as much as she liked the warmth but the warmth did not tend to like her, in doing so she missed the wide grin that could have split Aang's face.

"So Katara, wanna grab lunch after class?" He asked in a voice that Katara didn't quite catch, as she rummaged around her bag.

"Ah! Found it" Katara celebrated as she triumphantly presented Aang with her water bottle.

"Water?" Aang asked, his big eyes only looking bigger through the plastic bottle.

"Yes Aang, water. You should try it sometime, it's better for you than all that energy crap you and Sokka drink" Katara added, one hand on her hip as if she was scolding a naughty school kid. Aang shuffled for a moment before he raised his eyes back to her.

Aang gave her a bright smile and a silence fell over them, it had only just occurred to Katara that Aang had said something before she decided to chastise him for not drinking enough water.

"I'm sorry, Aang. Did you say something?" Katara asked, feeling guilty for not giving Aang her full attention.

"Yeah, I was just wondering-"

"-Zuko" Katara breathed as she cut off the rest of Aang's sentence. Aang could only watch as Katara made her way over to her new-old friend, he let out a puff of air as he watched her retreating back.

Zuko's morning had been as terrible as his night, despite all his silent prayers to the universe, Hahn's stamina wasn't completely depleted and he'd spent large chunks of the night watching videos on his phone, apparently, he'd never heard of earbuds because he'd had his phone on it's highest possible volume.

Despite his steadily rising need to kill or at least maim his roommate Zuko had finally managed to drift to sleep at about the three AM mark. That wouldn't have been so bad, considering his only class was about midday to late afternoon, if it wasn't for the fact that Zuko was physically incapable of sleeping past six-thirty, and once he was awake he couldn't get back to sleep.

Waking up tired, with his roommate snoring six foot away from him, had done wonders to stoke his already flaring temper. So rather than lay in his bed deciding if it would be best to smother Hahn or just choke him, he got himself up and decided to go for a jog. The campus was relatively quiet before eleven anyway so chances of him running into anyone he didn't want to, Like Sokka or that guy in his communications class who kept trying to befriend him, was slim. And after a night of reigning in his anger so he didn't get kicked out, he prayed the physical exercise would help him clear his head and hopefully diminish his murderous thoughts.

What he hadn't been expecting while he was drenched in sweat and reevaluating his decision to move onto campus was to see Katara talking to the beanie boy, he'd have been annoyed if it wasn't for the way her eyes lit up when she saw him.

That is a kid Zuko, reign it in. He thought to himself as he pulled the earbuds, the ones he needed to introduce Hahn too, from his ears and offered her what he could manage of a smile. He must have failed at that because the first thing Katara greeted him with was sarcasm.

"It's a little early to be so unhappy don't you think?" Katara spoke as she drew to a stop in front of him, again he was met by the soothing, sweet scent of jasmine. He felt himself relax a little, Katara had a way of calming him when she wasn't the reason for his mood. He hoped he didn't smell too bad, he was sensitive to smell himself and the last thing he wanted was for Katara to think he stunk, he couldn't think of a bigger turnoff.

"I'm never happy" he returned with the quake of his eyebrow. She laughed at that. He didn't know why, he was being honest.

"So what drags you out of bed at this ungodly hour?" She asked. Her eyebrow raised as she cocked her head.

Beautiful. He thought

"I'm an early riser," he said. Clearing his throat, he threw his arms over his chest in a lame attempt to soothe his beating heart.

"I know, I meant what pulls you out of your dorm room?" She said with a roll of her bright blue eyes.

"My roommate" he replied trying hard to wrestle the annoyance from his voice as he thought about Hahn and his seemingly undying love for Internet memes.

"Don't get along?" She asked. Zuko scoffed before dropping his hands to his hips and shaking his head in the annoyance he'd been trying to conceal.

"That's putting it lightly, the guy is the worst. If he's not sleeping with half the female student body he's laughing too loud at some dumb video one of his idiot friends tagged him in" he huffed as he ran his fingers through his hair. He needed to get a new roommate, if he had to deal with Hahn for another minute longer than he had too he'd explode.

Not only was he a pig but he was also a slob, his side of the room was a constant mind field of junk food wrappers and what Zuko could only pray were dirty T-shirts. Zuko had never dared ask because the idea that he could have accidentally stepped on Hahn's dirty undies drove him to a new level of rage that he feared could shut down his body.

Katara's laugh drew him from his Hahn hate spiral. He liked it when she laughed, her cheeks would lift and force her eyes to close, she had rounded cheeks anyway so she always reminded him of a chipmunk when she laughed, especially when she had her naturally wild curls and not the pin-straight hair she had now. He missed those curls…

"It's not that funny, Kat" he huffed as he averted his gaze from her. He wasn't annoyed with her, if roles were reversed he might have found it funny too. And if he could just get rid of Hahn then maybe it would be funny eventually.

"Oh, Zuko. Want me to go and give him a stern talking to for you?" She asked with a mocking pout of her bottom lip. He knew she was joking but the idea of her being anywhere near that little predator made his gut lurch, he'd already realised Katara fell too perfectly into Hahn's type and he didn't need another reason to want to hurt the guy.

"No!" He shouted a little bit too enthusiastically. He felt the blush spread across his face instantly. Her smile dropped as she arched her brow at him, her shoulders squared and her chin pointed.

Good going Zuko, now she's mad. That took what? ten minutes? New personal record. He chastised himself. Before he scrambled in his brain for a way to fix this. It's not like she couldn't deal with Hahn, he just didn't want her to. She was too nice and Hahn was too much of a well-seasoned veteran not to try and play to that. Even if he truly believed the only person who would be laying on their back would be Hahn after Katara knocked him out.

"I'm a big boy now, I can handle my problems" was all he could reach for in his chaotic head.

Lame. The voice in his head called out. Zuko agreed. Now she would be really mad.

"I know…" Katara replied in a voice that sounded just that little bit airy and flustered. Zuko eyed her cautiously, had that worked? He spied the pink across her cheeks and the way she was gripping her water bottle just that little bit tighter than she had been. He felt the blush deepen on his face, whatever she had meant by that was spreading heat through his body.

"Katara! It's time for class!" Zuko had completely forgotten beanie boy was even there, if he hadn't spoken he'd probably have forgotten anybody else existed.

"Right, I'll be there in a minute Aang" Katara called over her shoulder before she turned her attention back to him, when she did he realised her lip was back between her teeth. His golden eyes fell on her lips for the briefest of seconds before he flicked his eyes away.

Too soon. That was all he thought before the sound of her voice pulled his attention back to her.

"I should probably go, professor Yangchen waits for no man," she said with a half-hearted giggle.

"Yeah, some of the professors here are real hard asses" he offered lamely as he stuck his hands in the pockets of his jogger pants.

"I'll see you later?" She asked softly, even Zuko was able to pick up the notes of hopefulness in her voice. His chest squeezed.

"Yeah Kat, I'll see you later" he replied with a nod he hoped would somehow reassure her.

"Good" she whispered as a soft smile spread on her lips. Zuko wasn't sure if he was meant to hear that or not but he decided he was glad he had, it made his chest all fluttery. "I'll see you then" she added with a smile aimed directly at him this time.

"Yeah, see you" he spoke, returning her smile. He wasn't usually a smiler, he hated the way it made his scarred eye even smaller, but his face didn't listen to him when Katara was concerned. He had three modes, a mask of complete indifference, a cocked head or raised eyebrow that could mean a million things and it was down to the person he was talking to figure that out and a scowl, none of them seemed right for Katara. So she had managed to have unlocked a fourth mode, his smile.

"Oh, here!" Katara smiled as she pressed her cold water bottle in his direction, he flicked his eyes to it and then back to her.

"I haven't drunk out of it if that's what you're worried about," she said with an arch of her brow and the slightest curve of her lips. His eyes immediately fell on her mouth before he flicked them back to the bottle, he cleared his throat as he took it.

"I wasn't. Thanks" he said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You're welcome. I really should go now" she laughed, flashing her white teeth before turning to head into class.

"Kat!" He called after her, he knew she did need to get to class but he just wanted to talk to her a little more.

"Yeah?" She replied as she turned to face him.

"I'm going to see my uncle later. If you, maybe, wanted to go with me?" He offered. It wasn't a lie, he was way overdue for a visit with his uncle anyway and he had debated asking her. He just hadn't decided if he would yet.

"Really? I'd love to go! What time?" She chirped as she turned to fully face him.

"After my class, like four-ish?" He decided.

"Great! I'll meet you by the library?" She asked. Her excitement so clear that it relaxed his nerves.

"Yeah," he said, averting her gaze from hers. Suddenly the water bottle in his hand seemed more interesting than it had done previously.

"I'm looking forward to it!" She skipped off with a wave as she practically ran into the building holding her class.

"Yeah me too," he said softly as he flicked his eyes over to where Katara had been standing. He felt a smirk form on his face as he cracked open the bottle, took a deep sip, slipped his earbuds in and continued his jog. He was right, it had helped ease his anger.

Katara shot into the room with seconds to spare as she gave an apologetic look to her professor. The tall woman raised her eyebrow at her before gesturing for Katara to take a seat. Katara returned her gesture with an apologetic smile before she made her way over to her seat next to Aang.

"Sorry" she breathed quietly as she sat next to the boy. He greeted her with another smile.

"It's okay, you haven't seen your friend in a while, I get it" he whispered in response.

"Yeah. Thanks, Aang" Katara returned his smile as she quietly dug about her bag for her notepad and pen.

"So did you want to get lunch after this?" He chanced again, pursing his lips and sliding his grey eyes over to her.

"Yeah, I'll text the others" Katara replied with a smile as she flicked her long hair out of her face.

"Ah, okay," he said softly as he played with his pen. Katara glanced at him for a moment, she wasn't sure why his mood had suddenly changed, maybe he wanted to speak to her about something he couldn't tell the rest of their friends? Katara was the one people would come to with their problems after all.

"I could do with a cold drink on the break though, I think there's a vending machine downstairs. If you want to grab one with me?" Katara said sweetly. He beamed at her for a moment before his eyebrows knitted, she could just see them poking out of his arrow beanie.

"Wait, where did your water go?" He asked innocently as she scanned the table for the water bottle she'd had not ten minutes before.

"Ah, I gave it to Zuko, he was jogging and it's warm, so…" Katara cleared her throat as she turned her attention to the window to her left. She knew another blush had spread across her face and she didn't want Aang asking about it or mistaking her for being too hot again.

"I see, I guess that makes sense" Aang spoke from behind her.

She didn't quite hear what he had said after that but she didn't press it. She was still trying to control her racing heart, Zuko had asked her to go out with him. Well, kind of. He'd asked her if she wanted to go with him to see her old boss, his uncle, after class but it somewhat counted.

There's that alone time you wanted. Suki spoke inside her head again. She shook her head of the thought before she turned to listen to Professor Yangchen, she wished this lesson would end already.

A/N: Working in them Korra characters.

Please R&R