Hey everyone! Pooh, I finally got another chapter written! This story is developping way slower than I had thought in the beginning, but there are just things I really want to write out and not only describe. And since the chapters are rather short, I never get to write a lot at one time.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. Don't forget to review! :)

I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender.


Chapter Fifteen

Zuko kept chewing on his lower lip, while he was drying the dishes Katara handed to him.

After the cornflower incident, Katara had seemed weirded out by him, and he didn't know what to do to make this go back to how it was before. Or maybe not how it was before, but better. They should get along in a very easy going way. He wondered why that was so difficult. In some moments, conversation with Katara seemed to come easy to him, but then his brain would totally shut down, not letting any good ideas through, and Zuko would get frustrated with himself.

"Thanks for dinner," he quickly said, as he remembered that he didn't say it yet. He turned his head to look at her, seeing how she stood very close, as they had to in this tiny kitchen.

Katara turned her gaze up at him, her eyes wide with surprise and her lips slightly parted.

Damn, why did he even notice that? It wasn't like he was paying attention to her lips. But it just was the first time she was so close to him, and looked up at him like that. Even if her whole face wasn't turned to his, he couldn't help but notice that she was very pretty.

A light smile spread her lips. "You're welcome."

"The mochis were great," Zuko went on, knowing he had already said that after eating one. "I particularly enjoyed the green tea one."

Katara grinned. "You seem to enjoy a lot of things connected to tea."

Zuko's eyes widened in shock and in slight panic. He did not! Tea was not something he always preferred to other things! The green tea mochi was just… well, good.

He felt slightly irritated at the memories which rose up in him, but he tried to push them down.

He shrugged. "Maybe," he answered evasively.

"Maybe you could cook something for us next time," Katara proposed and nudged him with her hip.

Zuko felt his body tense up for a second. Her hip… had just touched him.

Why was it that he still felt like some unexperienced teenager boy around Katara? Every time she did or said something nice, or she even touched him, he felt like his major high school crush had smiled at him! Not that he had had a major high school crush! Zuko hadn't crushed on anyone from high school. It was just a comparison. Maybe it was the fact that Katara reminded him of high school, because they had only known each other back then. Maybe it also had to do with their animosity back then, and how much it surprised him when she seemed friendly. He didn't know.

"Er… Yeah, sure. I can do that," he spluttered and pressed his eyes closed. Urgh, he was such a freak. He couldn't even answer Katara correctly. He should have said 'I'd love to', and not stutter like some idiot!

Zuko was the one paying Katara, so he should be the one in charge, but he got nervous around her, she bossed him around, and he did everything for her to not hate him again. Was that pathetic or what? Zuko just hoped it would all be over soon. He hated being pathetic, but in order to please his father he often had to bite the bullet.

"Er… Then you could come to my place, and I'd…" He wracked his brain for a meal he could present her. Katara knew Western Province cuisine, and Eastern Province, too, so… Then he suddenly had an idea. Katara had only ever been to Ethiopia outside of Elementia, but Zuko had been to so many other places. He would just cook her something from Europe, or South America, India, or Morocco, Latin America, or West Africa? Urgh, the possibilities were endless!

"I'd like that," Katara already answered, saving him from having to continue his sentence. "But please don't cook anything Western Provincial."

Zuko chuckled. "I didn't even think about that. I was thinking about cuisine from another country or continent."

She looked up at him in surprise again. "You can do that?"

Zuko shrugged. "Uncle dragged me to cooking courses in every country we had visited over the years. He loved eating, but he also wanted to know how to cook all the meals, so that he could make them here, too."

"Oh," she answered.

When she didn't say anything and just handed him silently the washed cooking spoon, Zuko wondered if he had said something wrong.

"Is your Uncle… Is he well?" Katara asked in a small voice.

Zuko frowned, drying the spoon with the cloth, as Katara cleaned the sink. "Why do you want to know?"

"It's just…" She kept scrubbing on the metal, refusing to look him in the eye. "You always talk about him in the past tense, so I wondered…"

"Oh." He stilled shortly, before sighing and putting the wooden spoon in the can with the other cooking cutlery. He turned around and leaned his butt against the counter, crossing his arms. "Actually, I have no idea how he is. I guess he's fine, because I haven't heard of him, but I don't know. We haven't talked for…" He frowned, counting. It's not even been a year. How did it feel so much longer? It was April, and Zuko had only had contact with his parents again since July last year. How on earth did it feel so much longer? He got so used to being in the capital and seeing his parents whenever he wanted that he just never noticed how little time he had actually spent with them. "… ten months."

"How so?" Katara asked, and put her blue cleaning cloth away.

Zuko worried his lower lip, before he turned around to look at Katara and shook his head. "I don't really want to talk about it."

Katara's eyes widened and seemed innocently big all of a sudden, before her lips slightly pressed together which seemed to show her sympathy. She let out a deep breath, before she nodded a bit. "Alright." She suddenly grabbed his hand. "Come one, we still have some business to do."

Zuko felt startled, and didn't even have the time to feel grateful for the change of topic, because Katara pulled him behind the curtain which hung behind the table. Zuko had known that Katara's apartment was small, but there was another door, and he had thought it would lead to her bedroom, and that the bedroom would have an adjoined bathroom. But that couldn't be the case, because Katara's bedroom was apparently behind the curtain. It still smelled of food behind the curtain.

Zuko was seated on a small bed and could see that there was also a dresser with a mirror on top of it and a clothes hanger behind the curtain. A book shelf stood next to the door which probably led only to the bathroom.

Katara sat down next to him, and he turned around, feeling surprised as she pulled one leg up to touch his thigh.

"So, Zuko," she began.

He watched her curiously, wondering where she was getting at.

"How about we cuddle a bit and talk about out childhoods, until we don't feel totally uncomfortable anymore? And then we could practise kissing. Also, you should really try to flirt with me more often," Katara added, her face contorted in a grimace that seemed to tell Zuko that he was a lost case and couldn't even flirt with the biggest slut on earth if his life depended on it.

He felt a little offended. It's not like his ability to pick up women was great, but that was probably the case due to the lack of training. Zuko had never tried to pick up a woman. But he could be cocky. He had been so with Mai several times and sometimes with Jin, although Jin had laughed at him at first, before she had played along.

So what if he was a bad actor? He just needed to be cocky. That wasn't so difficult.

Zuko scooted closer to Katara and supported himself on his left arm, leaning closer to her, until their faces were really close. She stopped talking immediately, her mouth still a bit open. He took his time and looked from her eyes to her mouth. "How about we skip the cuddling part and go straight on to the kissing part?" he said, keeping his voice hoarse.

Katara's eyes widened almost impossibly largely, before they quickly narrowed. "You just tried flirting, because I said you should do this more often, right?" she asked, as if she wasn't sure what this was about.

Zuko couldn't help but grin widely. "Yep. Just your answer still needs a little work."

Katara's nostrils widened slightly as she tried to give him an unimpressed look. "Okay, fine. We're acting tonight as if we were a couple, right? From now on. No more awkward, no more weird, and no more complicated moments? We'll just behave as if we were completely used to each other, and touching each other, and all our thoughts will be kept to ourselves?"

Zuko nodded slowly.

Katara shortly closed her eyes. "Okay, because if we were a couple, I would have called you a pervert after your skipping cuddling and kissing instead comment."

Zuko twisted his mouth. "Well, then I would have said that you can hardly blame me for wanting to kiss you, since you're beautiful and would be my girlfriend."

"Then I would have told you that flattery would get you nowhere," Katara mused. "And shoved you slightly, but gently. And I would have smiled to show you that I would just be joking."

Upon his next thought Zuko felt his body slightly heat up, as he stared at Katara's bare neck. "Then…" he rasped, lifting a hand and laying it on her shoulder. "I would have…" He had to swallow. Okay, this was a bit too embarrassing, as that he could get out full sentences. He wasn't self-confident enough to do so. "… probably… kissed your shoulder… and neck, and asked you if that would get me anywhere."

He saw how Katara took a shaky breath. His gaze was still fixed on the brown skin which showed above her light grey sweater. His thumb slightly caressed her skin. Her chest rose heavily with her breathing.

But she didn't answer anymore.

Zuko looked up at her to see her blue eyes were burning with intensity. Her cheeks were a little flushed, and her lips stood slightly open.

"What would be your answer?" he asked.

Katara stared at him and shook her head. "I don't think I could reply something smart in that situation. I might just say no. What would you do then?"

Zuko smirked. "Keep kissing you until you say yes."

Swallowing, he pulled his hand away. Heat had pooled in his stomach, and for a moment he had only thought about Katara as a woman. A woman with a nice face and body. A woman he would have to kiss tonight. A woman he wondered who would be mad, if the kiss turned into more.

But now, he saw Katara again. And Katara was not a woman who would appreciate any of this. His thoughts or intentions, his fantasies. But it's not like he could help it. Katara was pretty, and sometimes she was nice, and she was his age, and he was male and hetero, so how couldn't he think about that, when they were planning on kissing tonight all along?

But he didn't think that way about Ty Lee, so maybe there was more to that. Maybe it was because of his and Katara's history.

"Remember, we're a couple now," Katara suddenly said, her face looking determined.

Zuko nodded slowly, not really getting what she meant.

Until she leaned closer to him, that is.

Zuko's body went completely stiff, as if he were afraid Katara would draw back the moment he would move. But she didn't draw back. She stopped, right in the middle, still looking up at him.

Zuko sighed, when he got what she was doing. She was waiting for him. He looked into her blue eyes, which blinked once slowly. He closed the distance between their mouths.

His nose touched her cheek under her right eye, as their lips met.

Katara's lips were soft with a few dry spots, where he felt dry lip skin scratching his mouth. Her lower lip was plump, in fact, she had the plumpest lips he had ever kissed, and that felt… extremely good. All in all, Zuko decided that he liked Katara's lips.

She began to move her mouth against his, and he soon followed suit, feeling surprised when she lightly bit him. Did she do that on purpose? Well, it felt very good.

He leaned closer to her, adding more pressure on her lips, as he raised his hand to cup her cheek and ease his access to her mouth.

Would it be okay for her if he brought in his tongue? They hadn't talked about it, so he didn't know, but he chose rather not to do it. In the end, she would only get mad, call him a pervert and throw him out of her apartment. Okay, maybe he was dramatizing and overthinking things, but if he would try not to overthink things, then he would solely concentrate on his feelings, and however weird or awkward imagining this moment had been to him, he didn't feel any weird or awkward now. He solely felt the wish not to stop. He wanted to push this further, and he had to stop himself from doing do, because if he did, then it would completely stop.

That was when Katara's tongue touched his lips. He jerked a little from surprise and felt Katara starting to pull back. He quickly followed her, not wanting her to end the kiss, answering her tongue with his own.

Zuko's eyes were closed, as he tried hard to stay logical and analytical about this situation. He wanted to find out how Katara kissed, and if he could make it seem like real kisses in public between the two of them, but that proved to be pretty hard.

Simply concentrating on the kiss was far easier. It didn't take long for Zuko's mind to say good bye and only offer really unhelpful how-you-could-get-laid-now advices.

But analysing Katara's kiss was stupid.

She kissed him. She kissed well. She bit him a little. Her lips felt amazing. Nothing else really mattered about that kiss.

Their tongues danced together, exploring their mouths and lips, not letting any air between their mouths, as their lips were pressed together, as if someone had used super glue on them.

Instinct told Zuko to put his arms around her and pull her closer, but he didn't know how she would react to that.

The only problem was that Zuko didn't know how long he could keep kissing her, without pulling her closer, or trying to lie down on her. He got a little of her scent, and wished he could bury his nose inside of her, forever.

Their kiss became more heated, and Zuko answered Katara's passion with equal fervour. Her hands were suddenly on his thigh, grasping some of his flesh.

Zuko groaned. And then cursed himself in his head, as Katara pulled completely back, too quickly for him to follow.

Zuko slowly opened his eyes, trying to sort out his thoughts. He thought he should apologise. For groaning. He shouldn't have done that. Now she'd think he was a pervert.

His breathing still went fast and heavy, as he stared at Katara who had averted her gaze downwards. She seemed to stare at her hands, which were still on his thigh.

Zuko really hard tried to forget the feeling of the kiss or her hands grasping him like this, because he really needed to calm down. He didn't need to stay or get even more aroused. "Er… sorry, I…"

Katara quickly looked up at him again. "No, you, er… You don't need to apologise," she said, pulling her hands away from him.

He had no idea what she was thinking, but at least she didn't seem mad.

Zuko nodded slowly, wracking his brain for something to say. "Well, that was good practice," he said, but then grimaced, as he quickly turned away from her. Good practice? Seriously, his mouth had just said that?!

Katara hummed in agreement. "Er, yeah, it was good, which is good. I mean if we wouldn't like kissing each other, it would be super weird."

Zuko turned towards her, feeling surprised. She had liked kissing him?

Katara seemed to notice what she had said and quickly lifted her hands, shaking her head. "Not that I liked kissing you because of you, but you kiss well. I-I mean, I didn't feel disgusted or grossed out, not even slightly, because it was a really good kiss."

Zuko stared at her for a second, wondering if the meaning of her words was that she had expected to feel disgusted and grossed out by his kiss. He grimaced and lifted his chin a bit, as he looked at her in an offended manner.

Katara blinked. "What?"

"You thought you would feel disgusted and grossed out by me kissing you?"

Her eyes widened and she quickly shook her head. "No! No, no, not at all! It's just…" She sighed and let her head fall down. "Sometimes I still have trouble… to think nicely of you," she quietly confessed. "I'm just so used to think the worst of you that it's still hard not to. And I don't want to think bad things about you anymore, so it is more like I hoped I wouldn't feel disgusted, because I wanted to think something nice about you."

Zuko stilled for several moments, at a total loss of words. He didn't know Katara felt like that. How could he have known?

But maybe his fear to make her hate him again was real and didn't come from a place of insecurity within him. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she still thought negatively about him in many points.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, as he stared at the ground between his feet. "Oh. Well, I get that. I have the same problem, I think."

Katara straightened up, putting a strand of hair behind her ear. "What?"

Zuko nervously licked his lips, which suddenly felt dry. "I still think that you would easily hate me. I'm afraid I would do something stupid, which would make you hate me again."

Katara stayed quiet for a while. "I'm sorry," she whispered after a while. "I don't want you to feel like that. I don't really think badly of you, I just need to get used to liking you. After you taunted me for so long for no reason, it's just hard."

Zuko stiffened. "I did what?"

Katara shot him a look. "Look, I already got that I kind of bullied you, and that was not okay, and I'm sorry, and I know you apologised for being a jerk back then, too, but you never really realised what kind of jerk you were, did you?"

Zuko frowned. "I was just mean to you, because you bullied me."

A slightly irritated expression passed her face, as she widened her eyes a bit. "That's not the whole truth, Zuko."

His frown deepened, as he looked at her as if she had grown a second head. He really had no idea what she was getting at.

Katara's face turned darker, as she glared at him a bit. "Oh please, don't tell me you forgot."

Zuko felt panic rise inside of him. This seemed like Katara would get mad at him any second, if he wouldn't know what she was talking about. And he really had no idea what it could be.

After a few seconds, Katara seemed to notice that, too. Her mouth twisted in annoyance, and her eyes seemed to sparkle of venom. "I always tried to be friendly to you at first. I had noticed you didn't have any friends, so I always smiled at you, and tried to be nice. I once even invited you to eat with my friends and me in the cafeteria! Your answer was always rough and annoyed, but I thought you were just shy and difficult." She took a deep breath. "Sokka always told me you were just an arsehole, but I didn't want to listen. I was convinced you and he would make great friends, and I don't even know why I thought that. I mean, there was nothing nice about you! Well, and then you made Aang cry, and that was it."

Zuko sat there with a half open mouth, listening intently, but feeling completely aghast. This came as a shock. "B-but we weren't even in the same year," he stuttered, lacking a good response.

Katara sighed. "I know. Sokka told me about you, and Yue said that she was sure you could be nice, and just needed friends to show you how being nice works. And I… I don't know, I thought having a friend a year above me would be cool. Of course, now I know this is kind of stupid, and this was all weird teenager logic, but… it stung. And later I think I was also mean to you to not show how affected I'd been by your constant unfriendliness." She slumped her shoulders and smoothed her hair back over her head. "Look, I was able to make friends with almost everyone I met. I had never met anyone who didn't want to be my friend for no reason. Of course, there were people who didn't like me, but that was okay, because I didn't like them, too. I just thought it would be easy with you, because you never showed any dislike towards me, so all this kind of hurt my ego, I guess."

Zuko stared at her wringing her hands and biting on her lower lip. He felt very surprised by all this. Of course, he had known that Katara had only started acting mean towards him, after he had made Aang cry, but he didn't know she had wanted to be friends with him before. Yes, she had been nice, but at that time Zuko hadn't really noticed it as something meant only for him. He had thought she was like that to all people. He had thought Katara pitied him, and that's why she invited him to eat with her. Being nice hadn't been easy for Zuko at that time. He still had had to deal with the fact that he couldn't go home and had to live with Uncle now. Maybe Katara had just approached him the wrong way.

Later, when she had been mean to him, it had come easier to him to react to her. Shouting insults at people had been easier than figuring out if someone wanted to be his friend. Glaring at people had been easier than smiling.

He just had never realised that his actions had hurt people, who would hurt him in return. Or he probably hadn't even cared back then.

"Katara…" he began, then he pinched the bridge of his nose. He had to sort out the chaos of words in his head first. "Okay, well, thanks for telling me that. Now I know what's been bothering you all this time." He took a deep breath and turned towards her. "I'm sorry. I never meant to, er, hurt you. I just didn't think about how my actions would affect other people." He sighed. "I wasn't… in a good place back then, and I didn't care much about other people's feelings. I didn't even realise you wanted to be friends. I thought you were always this friendly, to everyone. I earlier said that I had aggression issues, and being friendly wasn't easy for me in high school."

Katara scowled. "You were friendly with Toph, and you got friends with Jet," she held against him.

Zuko grimaced in an embarrassed way. "Well, Toph was… always surprising, and… I don't know. She wasn't friendly to me or anything, and maybe I liked her because of that. I didn't have to be friendly with her either. I could be my grumpiest, angriest, most emo self with her around, and she would just laugh, as if I had said something funny. Besides, that was two years after I made Aang cry."

Katara rolled her eyes.

"And with Jet, it was weird. None of us wanted to be friends with the other one. We always insulted each other, and annoyed one another… But out chemistry teacher back then didn't like us, so we had a common enemy, and started playing pranks at him. That was funny," he said in a thoughtful tone, shrugging.

Katara seemed to think about that. "So you say, if I had insulted you rather than be nice to you, we would have become friends?" she asked in an incredible voice.

Zuko frowned. "No, I mean you were mean to me later, and we didn't become friends. I don't know, Katara. But we can be friends now. If you accept my apology, and stop thinking the worst of me."

She looked up at him and smiled. "Sure. I'd like that."

Oh, the relief he was feeling! Somehow her acceptance made him happy, and he hoped they could improve the way they treated each other from now on. A brand new, easy going friendship!

Zuko smiled back and just wanted to answer, as she leaned closer and hugged him.

He stilled. Her breasts were touching his chest. That was good and so bad in two different ways. He couldn't notice her breasts, when they were sure as hell never going to be more than friends. Zuko didn't have a lot of female friends, but he had never noticed Ty Lee's, Toph's, or Smellerbee's breasts.

Katara squeezed him around his waist. "Hug me back!" she ordered.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Zuko put his arms around her, his hands lying flat on her back.

Katara let him go and leaned back, and he quickly let his arms drop to his sides again. She grinned at him. "That means that I will be nice to you from now on. And don't you dare push me away again!" She poked her finger in his chest.

Zuko smiled. "I wouldn't dream of it. I'm really looking forward to you being nice to me. Now I will be able to really enjoy it."

Katara laughed a bit and pulled at her braid. "Alright. Now, I think you still owe me some cuddling and talking about out childhoods."

"While we act like we were a couple?" he asked hesitantly.

Katara twisted her mouth and nodded. "Yes. We haven't been excelling at this tonight."

Zuko grinned. "I honestly think I was better."

Katara huffed. "This isn't a competition!"

Zuko chuckled, then put his arm around her. "Yeah, now, talk about your childhood."

Katara pushed his arm off her and scooted backwards on the bed, pulling at his hand to show him that she wanted him to follow her. "You have no idea what cuddling really means, do you?"

Zuko felt his cheeks warm in slight embarrassment. "I just didn't want to cross a line or anything."

Katara was still smiling, as she positioned him on her bed, and then used his armpit to snuggle close. "Now that's cuddling," she explained to him.

"Ah."

She wiggled around a bit, until her head lied on his shoulder.

Zuko's left arm was wrapped around her, pressing her into his side, and his right hand lied flat on his stomach, close to Katara's left one. He noticed that Katara's sweater was very soft. He liked touching it, and absentmindedly started stroking it, thus her.

"Huh, you're comfy," Katara said.

"Thanks?"

"I mean, I didn't think you would be comfy with…" She trailed off, playing with the fabric of his Longsleeve.

"What?"

She sighed. "Well, you're quite muscular, and I didn't think that would be comfy. I thought it would be hard and edgy and as if you were trying to cuddle with a concrete wall."

Zuko grimaced. "Er…"

"Take it as a compliment," said Katara.

"O-okay." He still felt a bit weird about this and wondered if she would want him to stop training. But even if he did, he still did sports, so he probably wouldn't get soft shoulders at all.

"What did you prefer as a child? Playmobile or Lego?"

Zuko looked down at Katara to see her looking up at him, her eyebrows raised. He smiled and opened his mouth to answer.


Thanks for reading!:)

I actually had wanted some the gaang with Zuko moment in here, but the chapter just got too long, due to Katara's feelings, so I decided to split it. I hope I can have that moment in the next chapter:)

Answers to reviews:

To uchihaNaruto247: I'm glad you found the last chapter funny. I always worry that I'm not good with humour in stories, since I think it is a very important part which makes a story more entertaining. Now, sorry, for a more serious, but necessary and embarrassing chapter. I hope you liked it, though. :)

To IDidn'tSignUp4This: Okay, well, this first practice turned out different from the one I wrote about in my Zutara Month collection, but it kind of wrote itself. I was thinking about using the piece I already had written for Zutara Month, but that was from Katara's point of view, and I very much wanted to write this from Zuko's POV, since the last chapter was already from Katara's, so... Yeah, now this is it. I hope you liked it:)