Hey everyone! I'm glad to be finally able to post another chapter of this story! I'm sorry this took so long. With Zutara Month and my other two fanfictions I had quite a lot to do...

Zuko will mention a Lake Haiyang in this chapter. I explained this in the last chapter, but I thought I should mention it again. Haiyang is Chinese and means ocean. This lake is between the Western Province (Fire Nation) and the Eastern Province (Earth Kingdom). Zuko will say that people closer to Lake Haiyang probably eat more Japanese apricots. He means people further East, since he's in the Western Province, and the lake is in the East. Because Japan is further East, too.

Yeah... So, I hope you will enjoy the next chapter! Please leave reviews if you do!

I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender.


Chapter Fourteen

They had totally messed up the greeting, and both knew it.

Acting like a couple wasn't that easy with someone you didn't know well, or used to despise. It was probably harder for Katara than for Zuko, since she still had a problem with being nice to him.

She liked to tease, so what?

But Zuko didn't react well to that, and she feared he might take it too seriously, after all, they hadn't gotten along for a long time.

Katara had smiled at him and let him enter her apartment, as he had rung the bell. Only when he took off his coat did she remember that she had wanted to greet him with a hug. So she did that, after he had taken off his coat.

It was a short, but tight hug, one that Katara liked to give. The only thing which she didn't like about it was having to feel Zuko's body so close to hers. He was way too close for her personal taste, but that was what a hug required. She didn't have anything against him being close, but she felt his hard chest and stomach through his sweater, and she really didn't need to know how hard his body was. It made her feel uncomfortable. She wouldn't be able to get it out of her head. Well, Zuko apparently put a lot of effort into his training.

After Zuko also took off his shoes, Katara felt suddenly a bit self-conscious about her apartment. It was the smallest place she had ever lived in, and her bedroom was not even in another room. She had a curtain separating her bedroom area from the kitchen area, and it wasn't even big enough to fit a sofa in.

"Give me your coat, I'm gonna... er, hang it somewhere," she murmured, stretching out her hand towards Zuko.

One corner of his mouth lifted, as he nodded.

Katara tried to look as if there really was some place she could hang his coat, but she simply laid it on a chair in her bedroom area. Returning to the kitchen, she took an exaggeratedly long breath.

"So, getting pretty crowded in here with suddenly two people!" Good thing, she had finally managed to unpack all the cartons.

Zuko looked around, and probably seemed to realise for the first time that this was all there was to her apartment. But hey, it was a dormitory! He couldn't expect much more to that.

He shrugged. "There's enough space."

Wondering if he had only said this out of pity, Katara raised an eyebrow, but walked then to the pot steaming on the stove. Busying herself with checking the ingredients, she started rambling about how this evening was supposed to go.

"Okay, look, we said this evening would be as if we had a date. So we'll try to get to know each other, tell of ourselves, making compliments to one another, and..." Should she ask him, if they should practise their kiss tonight? Or should they wait with that? After all, it was not like she wanted to kiss him!

"Yeah..." he answered, sounding reluctantly.

Katara suppressed the urge to snap at him, and rolled her eyes. It's not like this was her idea! She didn't want that!

The stew was totally okay, and really didn't need further seasoning, so she decided to turn the stove off.

"What are you cooking?" Zuko asked, suddenly sounding way closer than before.

Katara turned around to see him standing right next to her, his hips leaned against the counter, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He looked at her in an interested and friendly way.

Smiling, Katara looked back in the pot. "Well, I thought I'd introduce a part of myself with the food. It's the closest thing to sea prunes stew I could make."

Zuko scrunched his nose. "You mean that thing with ocean kumquats?"

A slight smile crept up on Katara's lips, as she took two bowls from the cupboard. "Nope. I saw your face scrunching up, when I mentioned them last time, so I used sea weed and Japanese apricots to get the sea and sweet taste in it."

Looking back at Zuko, she was pleased to see that his face simply looked curious, not scrunched up this time.

"I never ate cooked Japanese apricots," he said, scratching his neck. "But I think people further east towards Lake Haiyang use it quite frequently."

Katara shrugged. "I wouldn't know. It's the first time I'm trying it like this." After filling the bowls, she placed them on the table, which was already mostly set.

"I made tea," she said, "since you always seem to drink it. Do you like Jasmine?"

It seemed like Zuko tensed shortly, but nodded nonetheless.

"My friend Toph says lately that Jasmine tea is calming, so I mostly drink it in the evening, and I have to say it really works," she babbled on, hoping her "wisdom" about tea might impress him, since he really seems to like that stuff.

"Oh, er, I actually don't really care about tea flavour," Zuko said cautiously.

Katara turned around from serving the rice. "What?"

He winced visibly. "I'm sorry. I appreciate the thought, really, and you're right, I really do like tea, I drink it all the time, it's just that the flavour isn't important to me. It all tastes the same to me, really," he rambled, while Katara kept staring at him.

Oh. Well, she did hope she would get another reaction, but at least, he said he appreciates her effort. After all, she had thought very profoundly about this evening.

"Oh, well, that's okay. As long as you like it. It's all hot leaf juice, anyway, isn't it?" she joked, since she could somehow understand what he meant. As long as it was no fancy Western, Indian or Oriental tea with the other flavours, she, too, didn't really care about the type of tea. She tasted a difference, of course, but it was not so big she could develop a favourite.

She didn't expect Zuko's grin, though. It was wide, showing his teeth, and made his eyes even smaller, but it was a look he could definitely wear more often.

"You know that my uncle had a tea shop in Ba Sing Se, right?" he suddenly said, gathering the rice bowls and went to the table, sitting down, as she set the tea pot down, after pouring them.

"Uh, yeah. I used to hang out there, because of Jet." Cocking her head to the side, she suddenly realised that Zuko's uncle had always been very friendly. She had never really considered how Iroh could be so nice, while Zuko had been such a jerk.

"When we first moved to Ba Sing Se, Uncle worked in another tea shop and complained that their tea was disgusting. He said it simply tasted like hot leaf juice." He looked at his food, not at her, as she sat down.

"Oh," Katara said, not knowing what to say to that.

"I told him that's what all tea is, and he acted like I had offended him," he went on, and Katara had to grin.

She had always thought Iroh to be a bit eccentric, and certainly too tea focused, and it was funny that Zuko apparently shared her opinion. "So we understand each other regarding tea," she concluded.

Grinning, Zuko nodded, and then looked at his meal again. "So, uh, is there any special way to eat this?" he asked.

Katara tried hard not to chuckle. "Of course not, Zuko, it is only a stew!"

His expression changed into a slight scowl. "So? You could say the same thing about hot pot, and you still don't eat it just from a bowl."

Katara tried to remember what hot pot was, and hoped that she wouldn't embarrass herself if she had to ask. But luckily, it came to her mind. Originally, it was from Southern China, but while making its way through that country, it had also found the way to Ba Sing Se. Hot pot had been considered highly popular by the kids in the Eastern Province, sitting around a table with a hole in it, in which the stew pot was put, and everyone could just throw in various ingredients. Just getting them out again was difficult. Katara had only once or twice eaten hot pot, when Sokka had dragged her along with him. Aang hadn't been a big fan, because there was so much meat which was exactly why Sokka loved hot pot. Problem was, hot pot was normally very spicy, so Sokka had always ordered a not spicy version. Katara wasn't surprised that Zuko knew it. He probably preferred the spicy one, though.

"But you have it in a bowl," Katara argued, referring to the wannabe sea prunes stew in front of them.

Sighing and rolling his eyes, Zuko took the spoon and poured the stew on the rice in the other bowl.

Okay, so there was apparently a wrong way to eat sea prunes stew. Katara had forgotten that most of the soups and stews in the Western Province, as well as in the Eastern Province were poured on rice and not just eaten directly from their bowl, while eating rice on the side. Usually, sea prunes stew was also eaten with bread, but the bread she had found in the capital was way too squishy and white.

Zuko could actually eat her stew like he wanted to, and after arguing that there couldn't possibly be a wrong way, Katara really didn't want to correct him now.

So she ate the stew the same way he did.

It didn't quite taste like Gran Gran's, or her mother's, but it was still close. It weren't only the ingredients, which had changed the flavour, but also the way Katara had made it. She just didn't make it the exact way Mum or Gran Gran had, but she didn't know the difference, actually. Maybe they added a special sauce or something like that.

Zuko seemed to taste the stew quite thoroughly, the way he chewed or shoved it in his mouth from side to side.

Katara raised her eyebrows, already prepared for a negative answer or a lie. "So, how do you like it?"

He sniffed. "It's not bad. It's just not what I'm used to with the salty and ocean flavour."

The answer didn't quite please Katara, and she had to fight the urge to snap. In her opinion it tasted really good.

"Hm, you'd rather have it spicy then?" she asked, forcing a smile on her face.

Zuko frowned, again tasting in an exaggerated manner. "Actually, no. I don't think this would work, but I'm not a culinary expert, so..." He shrugged and kept on eating.

Now she couldn't keep it in anymore. "If you don't like it, then you don't have to eat it!" she barked at him.

He stilled in his move to bring the chopsticks to his mouth.

Katara swallowed. Shit. She really should have kept her mouth shut.

Zuko slowly raised his gaze to her. "I never said I didn't like it."

"You said 'not bad'. It practically means you don't like it!" she argued, but with less venom in her voice.

His face contorted to a stern and slightly annoyed expression. "I meant that it's not bad," he explained, almost pointedly as if she were dumb. "I didn't mean that I don't like it." He looked at her, as if that would explain everything.

Now she felt a bit unsure. Was he honest? "Then do you like it?"

He nodded. "Yep. It's totally different to what I'm used to, but I like it."

Katara bit her lower lip, as he took another bite of the sea prunes stew drenched rice.

"It's good," Katara said, after she had put some rice with stew into her mouth, too. "It tastes differently than the one my grandmother made, but I guess it's okay."

Zuko smiled shortly at her.

"What's your favourite meal?" Katara asked then.

"Uh... I don't really have one." He shrugged. "There are a lot of good meals from all over the world. None really blew my mind."

Katara raised her eyebrows. Great. Her new fake-boyfriend was as emotional as a rock. How could one not have a favourite food?

"What kind of food do you associate with your childhood?" she wanted to know.

"Hm. That's all just the basic Western Province stuff. Fried and spicy. I like it, but I like other food, too."

"Are you serious?" Katara couldn't hold back anymore.

Zuko shrugged. Again!

"Okay, tell me one thing you love! Anything! And family members don't count." She would make Zuko show that he was passionate about at least something.

He frowned at that. "Uh, why?"

"Because you reacted like an unemotional rock to my question, and I can't deal with unemotional people. They're giving me the creeps," she added, so to not make it sound insulting.

Her effort was rewarded, since she made Zuko smile. "Alright. Well, I like food, but I don't love it."

Katara rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I already got that. But what do you love?"

She just wanted to flinch from uncomfortableness because Zuko took very long thinking about it.

After a few seconds and a ridiculously cute looking thinking face, he answered. "Well, apart from the obvious things, I'd say that I love home, most animals, Kung Fu, sword fighting, horse riding…" He trailed off, obviously thinking about what else he loved. "Uh, music aaaaaand… art?" He grimaced as if he couldn't believe what he had just said.

Katara felt pretty surprised at the number of things Zuko loved. "Do you mean your apartment with home?"

Zuko shook his head. "No. I meant the Western Province and more specifically the Capital. I spent my childhood here, and…" Frowning, he trailed off again, staring at his stew.

Katara didn't like it when people didn't tell her things. She hated it, because whenever one would trail off, she would only want to know even more! She really tried to be patient and just stay quiet and didn't move at all. She had a feeling that if she asked him to explain more he would only recoil and not talk at all.

Her theory seemed to be right, because Zuko resumed talking after a while. "Well, everything was easier when you were a child, you know?" He suddenly looked up at her, and something about his expression made Katara worry.

She simply nodded.

"And so it was easier to be happy back then, and this is the place where that was… I guess I just like the mild weather. How it never gets really cold, and the sun shines so much. It's always very green here, and even during rainy season it's still nice." He kind of rambled at the end, looking uncomfortable, as if he needed to take that comment about his childhood away. He shrugged.

Katara wondered if she could staple his shoulders to his torso, so that he would stop doing it. He seemed so… down about this. He had smiled at her earlier, when they had just talked about random stuff, or last time they had seen each other at Coffee Cups. But even though he was now talking about things he loved, he didn't smile. She asked herself if it would be okay to ask him for a reason to this.

She decided against that and searched for something to ask about another thing he had mentioned to love. "What's your favourite animal?"

Zuko smiled. "I like lions. Or wolves."

Katara made a face. Now he smiled? Hm, maybe he wasn't so down at all. Maybe he just didn't only love his home and childhood. Maybe he held other feelings for that, too. She wondered if there had been rough times for him. Damnit, she should have asked him what it was like to grow up here! But now she was stuck with the animal topic!

"Er, really?"

"Yeah, sure. They are beautiful and majestic. Wild and free," he said, before eating some rice with stew. He was eating faster than Katara, she noticed.

She took a few bites of her food, before asking him something else. "And what animal would you like as a pet?"

"A cat. A dog, rabbits, guineas pigs, hamsters, and maybe some mice. Actually, any pet which hasn't got a better life in the wilderness." Suddenly, he looked very sheepish. "I'd actually love to have wild animals, but they are happier in the wilderness. This didn't stop me from bringing all kinds of wild animals back home, when I was a kid, though."

Katara was intrigued. She liked this shy smile on Zuko's face and wanted to know more about it. She wanted to know what made him look like this. "Really? You were that kind of kid?" she asked, grinning.

Zuko shrugged, when pink colour dusted his cheeks. "Yeah. We have a giant garden, and I found all sorts of animals in there. I didn't bring all which I could catch home, but I brought injured animals with me. I used to ask my mother what we could do to make them feel better. She said I should give them water and cover them with a blanket. Then she called the vet, and we brought the animal there. It would stay with us, until it was fully healed again. Most of those animals were actually stray cats. But I was never allowed a pet. My father thought it might distract me from more important things."

"Wow, I would have never thought you were like this." Her eyes widened, as she noticed how this sounded. "I mean, now I might think that, but back in high school I would have thought you were the kind of person who grilled ants under a magnifier," she admitted, feeling pretty bad for it. Now that she was thinking about it, she couldn't imagine Zuko ever doing something like that. If he would have been forced to do this as a kid, for example by his evil sister, he probably would have cried the whole time.

Zuko frowned at her, clearly not feeling flattered, but then one corner of his mouth went up. "I used to think that about you, too."

"What?" Katara shrieked indignantly. "How could you? I'm a totally gentle person, and I would never hurt anyone or anything!"

Zuko made a doubting face. "Yeah, if you say so."

Katara pointed her chopsticks at him. "Take that back!"

Zuko pointed at her chopsticks with his finger. "That's rude."

Katara pointed at Zuko's finger with her own. "That is, too. Don't point at me."

"You point twice at me!"

Huffing, Katara pulled her chopsticks away. Stupid Western Province with stupid eating rules.

Why would pointing at people with chopsticks be impolite? Long, small things were there to use them to point at something. Sokka and Katara had pointed a lot at each other with chopsticks back in the Southern Province. Sometimes that had led to mini fencing fights.

Zuko seemed satisfied with this, because he stopped pointing at her, and instead explained why he had thought Katara was a mean ant griller. "You always tried to make my life more difficult in high school. At some point I just imagined you would make plans how to ruin my life and rub your hands, while laughing evilly. I hated it, but I thought you might have always been a little sadistic."

"Sadistic?!"

Zuko flinched, smiling sheepishly. "Er, well, I know you smiled when I got beaten in a Kung Fu contest by a student from Long Feng High School."

Katara opened her mouth to retort. "That…" was right. She had smiled. But not because he had been beaten up, but because he had been beaten. He had always been so arrogant about Kung Fu, and when Aang started winning against him, Zuko became very obsessed with becoming better, and had started winning against the others in an almost brutal way. Katara had hated it.

"I didn't take pleasure in your pain!" she said instead. "I just liked that you lost for once. After Aang won against you, you started being mean to everyone else in Kung Fu class, and I thought you were an arsehole. You were a bit brutal during fights sometimes," she says carefully, her eyes fixed on him. She didn't know what kind of reaction she could expect, but she wanted to be prepared.

Zuko didn't went mad, and he didn't look angry. He looked more shocked, actually. And pretty embarrassed. "Okay. That is right. I was… a difficult teenager."

Katara felt relieved, but also incredibly curious. "Did you have aggression problems?"

Zuko grimaced. "Yeah… Pretty much. That's also why I was in Kung Fu class. I loved fighting, but it also served me to vent."

"Why were you so aggressive?"

"I don't really know." He shrugged. "I was just… always angry. Probably at my life or the world. A stupid teenager thing, you know."

He tried to make it sound more harmless than it was, Katara could see that. But if he wanted her to think that, then she wouldn't probe anymore. At least, not now.

"Hmh." Humming, Katara resumed eating her Japanese apricots stew.

They ate in silence, until they were finished, and then Katara couldn't contain it anymore. "Are you still aggressive sometimes?"

Zuko's eyes widened, and he looked surprised, but maybe also hurt by her question. "I…" He got a pensive look on his face. "No. I am not. I can still be an arrogant arsehole sometimes, but I don't get angry quickly anymore."

Katara knew that he could see the relief on her face, but she wasn't ashamed to show it. She just hoped he didn't feel bad about it.

"I get angry pretty quickly," Katara said, to lighten the mood probably.

Zuko smiled then. "I noticed. Okay, well, I get pretty quickly to that level of anger, too, but not to the level of wanting to fight."

Katara grimaced. "Hm, I do. It was always like that. I used to beat Sokka up, when we were kids. He could have defended himself, but he said beating girls was unmanly." She rolled her eyes. "But recently, I only get that mad at Toph."

Zuko looked beyond shocked and probably a bit frightened.

Katara quickly raised her hands. "Hey, I don't beat up a blind girl! Toph is always the one to strike first. And it's part of our friendship. It's, er, friendly fighting." She laughed nervously. Oh, that didn't make it sound better. "You know, pulling at each other's hair and stuff."

Zuko still didn't look any better.

Hm, maybe she should completely stop talking now. Or she should invite Toph next time to come over, but pretend that it was a coincidence, and then they could have one of their squabbles, and Zuko would understand that Katara was no violent person. That sounded good.

"It's just squabbling. Between friends. I'm really not a violent person," Katara explained pointedly and then crossed her arms under her chest. Pfft! Actually, Zuko could think what he wanted to! It's not like he needed to like her! They were fake dating, so liking the other one wasn't important at all.

But Katara had come to like Zuko. A little. He was kind of like one of these hurt, wild animals he had talked about. Most times she would find him cute (in an "Aww! Isn't he adorable?" kind of way, not the other way!), but then there were these times when he would coil into himself and not let anything through. Sometimes, he also just acted normally. Seldom, he had snapped at her. It bothered Katara that she was the snapper out of them both.

So it would suck if Zuko didn't like her.

He still looked doubting, but Katara didn't want to defend herself anymore. He could doubt like he wanted, she didn't care!

"Do you want a dessert?" she asked then, smiling broadly. And falsely.

This didn't seem to calm Zuko, he only looked even more alarmed. And probably disturbed. "Er..."

Katara rolled her eyes. "I was trying to change the topic. Offering dessert is something nice to do. I have ice cream, pudding, mango yoghurt, mochis, and cookies..." She trailed off, realising that if she said more this wouldn't count as "What I bought for this evening" anymore. Zuko would realise that she had a sweet tooth.

"Mochis?" came the hesitant answer. "Thanks, my forget-me-not."

Katara frowned and Zuko frowned, too.

"No, that sounds stupid," he murmured, looking at his empty bowl.

"Er... What was that?"

Zuko looked back at her. "You said I should choose a pet name for you. I thought a blue flower would be nice, but I only know forget-me-nots."

Katara grimaced. "Yeah, don't call me that. It sounds like you're worried I would forget about you the moment I see a better looking guy."

Zuko smiled in an amused way. "Yeah, you're right."

A thought occurred to Katara, and she remembered that this evening wasn't only supposed to be like a date, but that they had to pretend to be a couple. She looked Zuko in the eye and tried to think about his face in nice and praising ways to get into the right mood. Oh, his eyes were so beautifully bright and yellow (gah! Like some lizard eyes! Or cats' eyes!) like the sun, and his skin was so pale and white (and looked totally unhealthy) like the snow Katara grew up with, and his hair was so black and shiny (Yep, it was really nice hair, but still combed back! Urgh! Katara hated that style! It looked so posh!) like ebony.

She stopped her own thoughts here. If she would think any further, she would only think about Zuko as Snow White. Well, his lips were only as rosy as cherry blossoms, and not as red as blood, but there could be a resemblance. If Katara would see him sleeping in a glass coffin, she would probably try to kiss him awake.

Oh, no! Now she was thinking about kissing him! And they still had to practise that! Probably tonight! Gah!

She took a deep breath to concentrate, then reached over the table to take his hand. "So you would like a mochi then, sweetie?"

Zuko looked at her in a very confused, alarmed and slightly disgusted way.

Great. So maybe he didn't like her after all. That sucked.

"Er, yeah, sure... Cornflower?"


It would also suck if you didn't like the chapter, so please let me know what you think!

About Zuko's unemotionalness: Don't worry, I know that Zuko is an emotional person. But he shows emotions more through being dramatic or sulky, grumpy or snapping at people. That is not how Katara understands showing emotion. She meant being enthusiastic or excited. I always thought Katara would be a person who could talk for ages about her favourite food or favourite anything else. And I just don't think Zuko could do that. He said he liked to do nothing (!) for free time, so I don't consider him a person who would be excited enough about something to talk about if for hours, or even consider it his favourite whatever of whatever topic. If he would consider something his favourite whatever of whatever topic, this would have a determined, practical, soft, or "I hate all the other things in this topic" reason. E.g. the dual dao swords are his favourite weapon, because he's really good with them. He would be fond of them, and smile softly while saying this, but that would be it. He's just not that kind of person to go on and on and on about it. (Maybe he would, if he'd be provoked, though.) I just think that Zuko is only dramatic about bad things, or his own stupidity, or fears, but not about good things. And I guess Katara would be more expressive considering good things than bad things. So, this is how you should understand "unemotional" in this chapter. It was from Katara's point of view, and Katara doesn't know Zuko well enough yet to know that he is pretty emotional, but only expresses bad feelings very strongly.

And Zuko was disgusted by the pet name, not by Katara.

Answers to reviews:

To Smckoy929: Ha, I wished that, too. Thanks for reading my story! And thank you, I could use the luck! I just hope I passed all my exams!

To IDidn'tSignUp4This: Thank you! Unfortunately, we're not there yet. Katara and Zuko just made my fingers write something else than what I had planned for this chapter. If you already want to read about the practice, I would suggest to you my Zutara Month collection from this year. It's called Another Zutara Month, and Day 10 Fake Dating treats that practice.

To uchihaNaruto247: Awww, thanks! I hope I made you smile again through this chapter:)