Hey everyone! My exams are over, and I've got holidays now! Yayyy! Not that I'll go anywhere else, but at least the exams aren't still on my mind.

I am very sorry this took so long, but you'll get a long chapter, at least. I actually always wanted to have chapters with 5.000 words for this story, but they are getting longer and longer. So, I think this chapter is only long, if you think about all the other chapters, but not compared to the last one. I just really wanted to have this chapter end where it does...

We'll have the gala now! Warning: There will be a bad word about girls in this chapter. And some serious snogging.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender.


Chapter Twenty-Two

A stranger stared back at Katara as she looked at herself in the mirror. The stranger had her face, her hair, her arms, and her body. She was beautiful. She looked like a princess.

Katara didn't feel beautiful or anyhow like a princess. Her emotions seemed more similar to that of a lamb which was about to enter the wolves' cave. Her dress and make up were just the wrapping of the present.

After looking herself over again and steeling her nerves, she checked her purse again for everything she needed: key, wallet, mobile phone, tissues, lipstick, hair ties, and clips. There could always happen something to her hair. Or she would get annoyed with it and simply want to tuck it back.

Zuko was already ringing her bell for the third time. She was late, and had not ready yet when he had arrived, and she hadn't answered him, instead had kept running around like a headless chicken, putting her shoes on, checking her hair, searching for her key. He was surely very angry now.

When she finally opened the door, he had a scowl on his face, his hand resting on the bell.

"Sorry," she breathed. "I couldn't find my keys."

His scowl intensified. "And you couldn't let me know? Or let me in?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm here now, aren't I?"

"Are you ready yet?" he asked, almost haughtily, as if she was the worst person on Earth for not being ready on time.

She nodded, trying not to snarl at him.

His face softened immediately, before his eyes trailed down her frame. Somehow, she felt like she was standing in the midday sun.

"The dress is good," he said, before stepping away, making it clear that he wanted to leave.

She stepped out of her flat, closed the door and watched him turn around and descend the stairs. She grimaced at his back, sticking her tongue out at him. Seriously? 'The dress is good'?. She didn't get anything more for that? Urgh. Idiot.

Although Zuko was mostly dressed rather formally, this was the first time she saw him wearing a suit. The jacket was longer than she was used to seeing it from the businessmen in town, so she guessed it was something special for evening wear. He also wore a bowtie and not a neck tie. The suit fitted him perfectly, and Katara got the impression that it had probably been tailored just for him. She sighed. This was really not her world. Her dress, having been two thousand five hundred yuans, was probably just as expensive as his jacket. Or shoes.

2.500 yuans were a lot of money for Katara. Zuko had just given her six times as much to buy some clothes for meeting with his family and coming to the gala tonight, on top of her monthly salary. No matter how much time she would spend with Zuko, she would never get used to this.

Zuko's car parked on the parking place for visitors to the students of the dormitory. He had paid five yuans to be able to park there for half an hour, just to go up to her flat, ring the bell, and bring her back down to his car. She would have never paid for this, just hoping that five minutes were so little time that no inspector would be able to check if there was a ticket on her front windscreen. But Katara didn't have a car, so she didn't have to think about things like that.

Zuko opened the door to the passenger seat for her.

He could be a jerk, but at least he was a polite jerk. Or was trying to be. Politeness was very important to Zuko, and the fact that he was trying to be polite held the same value to him as actually being polite. It had taken Katara a while to figure that out, and it would even take longer to accept this. Maybe she never would. After all, this way, in his eyes he never did anything wrong.

She smiled at him, and one corner of his mouth lifted in a short, soft smile, as he walked around his BMW to get on the driver's seat.

Katara was cautious with her dress, when she sat down. The fabric was so soft and seemed so expensive, although the sales woman said it wasn't. The dress was just expensive, because of the way it had been sewn. The fabric was just 20 % silk with 80 % of different fabrics that had chemical sounding names. If Katara would sweat this evening, the dress would smell forever.

It had two parts. A dark purple underdress with a flowing skirt and a blue wrap dress without any sleeves or neck holders that had a white trim along her heart shaped décolleté. It ended just under her knees so that the purple underdress was seen, too. It had typical colours of the Southern and Northern Provinces, even the style looked a little like the old one from there, although more modern. The dress was perfect for Katara's purpose. Presenting herself as part of this society, part of the Kasaishi family, but heavily accentuating her origin. Half of her hair was even braided as was tradition for her people to do. Katara had maybe a little exaggerated with her hair, but she hadn't had the opportunity to dress up like this since prom, and she really had relished in it. She had watched ten YouTube videos about hair styles, and had sat there for almost an hour, fixing her hair. She had thought about asking Zuko for money for a hair stylist and make-up artist, since she had feared she would look silly doing it by herself, but in the end she had refused to do so. She liked doing things by herself, and she didn't want to spend any more money for useless things.

"Can you tell me a bit more about this gala?" asked Katara.

Zuko glanced at her, as he drove through the gate of the campus. "Yeah, sure. It is held by PaiLaBluSp. It's where we donate most of our money. Father has been fighting for becoming the most generous donator of PaiLaBluSp for years. This year, he donated twice as much as last year, and everyone is pretty sure that Father will win the award. PaiLaBluSp cares for building hospitals, they offer studentships to young people who want to become a doctor, but don't have the necessary means to do so. They send doctors to where they are needed, they care for orphans, and work with our military. They try to find jobs for former soldiers and even look into military crimes. They have several daughter companies like HeiBai, or Pohuai. But you don't have to know much about it for tonight. We're just going to stand at the entrance for a few photos, then mingle with the crowd, and wait until they announce that we can have dinner. The speeches are torture, and it is always lasting way too long." He sighed, clearly sounding annoyed. "What they do is good, but this event is simply for impressing the rich. It's just a lot of advertisement, and embellished speeches."

Katara frowned. There were people fighting over an award for the most generous donator? How could this be considered generous, when everyone only cared about the award?

"That sounds like a whole bunch of hypocritical crap," she said in a dry tone.

"Yep. It's been ten years since I last went to a charity event by PaiLaBluSp, but last year, I went to a gala from JINORA, which was pretty boring. Many people holding speeches, and some people reading… In the end, there was music," he said it, as if music had made everything worse.

"Ten years? Why?" Katara was curious.

There were a few beats of silence, and she looked over at him to find out why he was so quiet, when he opened his mouth. "I was in Ba Sing Se and Fire Fountain City, so er… my family couldn't bring me. I had school and was trained at the Academy… I had stuff to do."

Katara didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know this had been a lie.

Zuko was hopeless. His voice became too casual, too much as if nothing about what he said mattered, it climbed one octave, and everything he said sounded like a question.

Katara narrowed her eyes. Why did he lie about something like this? It was a normal question, how could the answer be not normal enough for him to lie about it?

She wondered if she should press the issue. She really shouldn't, she knew that. But that was just unlike her.

"I don't believe you. You can't lie, Zuko. What really happened?" she asked, trying to sound soft and persuasive and not suspicious and accusing.

He pressed his teeth together, the muscles in his jaw fletching. "I don't want to talk about it."

Okay. Shit. Seriously? Was he just being dramatic or had there… really happened something that had kept him away from the capital? From his parents?

"Okay." She didn't want to start a fight, but she would definitely try to find out if there was more to this. "Will it come up tonight? At this gala, I mean."

He shook his head. "No. It doesn't have to do with galas."

She slowly breathed out. Hm. Didn't have to do with galas. So there had been something that had kept him from here. What had it been? And why was he here now?

oOo

Fifty minutes later, they arrived at the old temple in which the gala was held. It was practically a ruin, in the middle of the jungle, but there had been roads, bridges, tents, and halls built into it. None of the original temples had somehow been changed, but a few things had been added to accommodate for today's comfort.

Katara couldn't stop her mouth from hanging open, gaping at their surroundings. Zuko and she were walking along an old path, and he told her there used to be booby traps all over this place. In order to prepare for the event, dozens of workers had been injured, but fortunately, none had died. Katara gasped.

"Why didn't they stop after the first person got injured? You can't just let people work for you, knowing there is a high probability for them to get injured or killed!"

Zuko nodded. "The families of the workers were trying to start a lawsuit, but the working conditions were deemed as not more dangerous than those of building labourers on normal building sites."

Katara huffed. "And the money and influence of PaiLaBluSp had nothing to do with it?"

Zuko shook his head. "PaiLaBluSp didn't build this. But the companies which support it. It should have been a special gift for caring for our society for so long."

"Was Kasaishi Enterprises part of those companies?" Katara asked, her eyes narrowed at him.

He nodded, his lips pressed together to a white line.

When they rounded a corner, where several voices seemed to come from, Zuko offered Katara his arm. She took it, her other hand clasped around her purse, but two fingers of hers held up her dress so that it wouldn't get dusty from the ground.

A red carpet was laid out to the entrance door of a large building. It looked like an original temple of the Sun Warriors, but when Katara looked close enough, she could see it was simply made of cardboard and polystyrene. It was built onto the broken side of an original temple, making it look like it was whole.

"We're not allowed to really go into the temple, right?" Katara asked.

Zuko shrugged. "I don't know."

A large crowd had gathered in front of the temple, which was held away from the red carpet with a metal fence, while the reporters were taking pictures. Several people walked down the carpet in front of Zuko and Katara.

All of a sudden, Katara felt as if she would have to throw up. Her stomach revolted, she felt sick. She didn't want to go in there. She didn't want to walk down this carpet, being photographed by so many people, judged by so many people. This was clearly worse than the Volcano Club. This felt more like a real volcano, and she was thrown into a pool of lava.

"Oh shit," she murmured. She had clearly underestimated this evening. Underestimated Zuko's position in society, underestimated her job!

He squeezed her hand. "It will be okay," he murmured, almost soothingly.

It didn't make Katara's sudden stomach ache go away. With each step they took, it was just getting worse. The world seemed to swim around her, as if she was walking underwater, not being able to hear all the people well enough, her sight getting fuzzy, as she focused on taking one step in front of the other. As long as she didn't vomit. As long as she didn't faint. As long as she kept smiling.

Lightning flashed in front of Katara's eyes, making her feel panic for a moment, until she realised it was the flash of cameras.

Her smile didn't show her teeth, and she clearly clung to Zuko. He kept them standing and steady for five seconds, until he turned around, dragging her with him to the entrance of the temple. The reporters kept shouting questions.

The light disappeared, and Katara could breathe again.

Inside, it was a lot darker, but light found its way in from several large windows put high into the walls. A lot of small lights were lit all over the place, shining in gold, red, blue, green, and purple. High tables stood around the room, candles and flowers decorating them. A stage stood at the other end of the hall, with a large banner hung over it, saying: PaiLaBluSp Charity Gala 2019.

Men in suits and tuxedos, women in dresses and sparkling with jewellery stood in small groups around the room, talking lowly and holding onto glasses of champagne.

Zuko's grip on Katara's hand, which was still lying on his other arm, tightened, as he pulled her into a more empty corner. They didn't stop, but kept walking slowly. "I'll have to talk to some people now," he murmured. "It's mostly going to be dishonest small talk, and I will introduce you. Even though zoning out will seem tempting, please pay attention to what we're talking about."

She frowned in irritation. "I wouldn't just zone out! It's not like I can't…"

He squeezed her hand. "I wasn't criticising you. Simply the quality of the talks here," he drawled.

Katara giggled. "So you're even a snob around other snobs," she chuckled. Zuko would probably also find something to turn his nose up on, if her were to have tea with the Queen of England.

He rolled his eyes, and then suddenly tugged her towards the left. "Quick. Grab a flute of champagne!"

A waiter walked past them, and they snatched two glasses away.

Zuko took a deep breath. "Not everyone here is awful. We'll talk to a few nice people, too." He sounded as if he wanted to reassure her. But even if these people were considered nice by Zuko, would it mean they were also nice to her?

"What about your family?" Katara asked. "Won't we look for them?"

Zuko shook his head. "We'll meet them in the next hall, when dinner will be served, but we'll just mingle here."

"Kasaishi Zuko!" a man's voice was saying to their left.

Katara and Zuko turned around to face the man.

He was around sixty, a little shorter than Zuko, had a well-groomed, grey beard, and short grey hair, that was slicked back. His hair heavily reflected the light around, and his light brown eyes, which almost looked red, were sparkling with something Katara didn't like.

Zuko bowed in greeting to the man, his face a blank mask. "Ueda. It is good to see you."

"Likewise, Kasaishi. Although it's been so long, I instantly recognised you!" the man commented. "And it seems you remember me as well. How long has it been? Eight years?"

"Ten," Zuko corrected the man, his voice on the edge of being polite. "My father raised me to know business. A capable man like you shouldn't be forgotten."

Katara felt surprised. Hadn't she known Zuko as well as she did, she would have thought he was actually polite. But his face looked way too much as if it were made of stone. His smile was small and tense, and his voice sounded as if he was suppressing his anger.

She pressed herself stronger to his side, hoping it distracted him from whatever grudge he held against the man.

Ueda nodded. "Yes, that is quite good. I hope we will be able to form a partnership of the same quality that your father holds with me, as soon as you take over."

Zuko nodded stiffly.

And with one final nod, the man turned around, before shortly glancing Katara's way, and walked away. He hadn't even asked Zuko how he was, what he was doing, or if Katara was his date or girlfriend!

Katara glared at his retreating back.

Zuko let out a long, suffering sigh/groan. "Come on," he said, almost tiredly, as he walked Katara through the room.

They had several more conversations with people who seemed to be similar to Ueda. They were all about business, but they didn't introduce the women on their arms, and they also didn't ask anything about Katara. It became very hard to smile after a while, and she envied the other elegant women who somehow managed to remain perfectly still and smiling, as if they were not real.

However, their last conversation was very nice. They talked to a woman working as a lawyer for PaiLaBluSp, and Katara vibrated with excitement to get to ask her things about her job. The woman was accompanied by her husband and was visibly pregnant. Her name was Ming, and her husband's name was Chey.

But Ming wasn't only interesting, because of her job, but because she really seemed to have a personality. Besides, she was wearing a long, elegant, black jumpsuit, and not a dress. Katara eyed it enviously, as it looked very comfortable.

Katara was still smiling from this conversation, when she noticed her champagne was empty. She just wanted to ask Zuko if it would be okay or deemed as vulgar for her to drink more than one flute, when a tanned, male hand landed on Zuko's shoulder, almost making him jump like a cat.

"Zuko." A warm, deep voice said, sounding, as if the man was smiling. He looked to be in Hakoda's age, but with more grey hair. He wore a short beard around his mouth and covering his chin, his hair was just as short, and he looked way more tanned than any of the other Westerners Katara knew.

It was fairly surprising, but also relieving to see Zuko's mouth spread into a smile. He bowed deep in greeting, his eyes closed. "Sifu Piandao."

Piandao raised one eyebrow and grimaced slightly. "It's been ten years, Zuko. I'm sure you're already better than I am, so please don't call me Sifu anymore."

Zuko blinked, looking confused, before he nodded. "Yes… Sir."

Piandao rolled his eyes, before he looked back at Zuko, his face softening. "How are you? I didn't know you were back here!"

"I'm fine, thank you. I study law and economics at the university. It's very fascinating. I've been back since September."

Katara narrowed her eyes. He… sounded weird when he was talking about law and economics.

"How are you, Sir?" Zuko asked back.

Piandao nodded. "Oh, I cannot complain about anything. My company runs itself, and I sit in my country house all day, training with my swords, or teaching students." He shrugged, before he turned around to face Katara.

For a moment there, she actually felt shocked.

"Now, please forgive me, Miss." Piandao bowed Katara, who returned it. "I have noticed you all along, of course, there were just a few things I had to get out first. Now, I'm Ken Piandao, the first martial arts teacher Zuko ever had. Everything he knows about swords originates from our lessons."

Katara grinned. "He certainly didn't forget anything then. He loves to talk about swords for hours!" Of course, she exaggerated a little bit, but she also wanted to test if this man was really as nice as he seemed to be.

Piandao actually threw his head back and laughed.

Katara smiled, pleased with herself.

"You have to tell me your name!" the swords master practically pleaded.

"I am Katara Qinu, Zuko's girlfriend," she introduced herself and bowed in greeting.

Piandao bowed back, smiling warmly. "Wonderful," he said sincerely, carefully regarding the two of them.

Katara consciously moved closer to Zuko, so that their arms would be touching. But he seemed to stand loser to her as she had thought. Had he moved towards her, too?

Then Piandao slowly shook his head, before he grimaced. "I don't think, though, that it was clever to bring her with you to this gala," he said to Zuko, before he turned to Katara. "It's boring as hell."

Katara allowed her chuckle to become a loud laugh, and she saw Zuko grinning from the corner of her eye.

He shrugged. "I warned her."

Katara turned her head to him, laying a hand on his chest. "I won't let you go to a boring event all by yourself. It's more fun when we're together," she said, hoping this didn't sound too much as if they only were friends.

Zuko's smile simply widened and softened at the same time. The skin around his eyes wrinkled, which was something Katara didn't see often.

Piandao bid them goodbye then and wished them a nice evening.

It was not yet time to enter the dinner hall, but Katara still had the feeling she would need another glass of champagne. Zuko agreed and said he didn't care if anyone thought he was getting drunk by two glasses of champagne. It even would make this evening more fun.

Katara resisted the urge to make him drunk then. She practically had his consent, but she also very much wanted to leave a good impression. Not because of Zuko or his family, but because of herself. A part of her thought that her leaving a good impression this evening wouldn't ever change the political or racist opinions of the people here. Besides, if anyone here really thought badly about Southerners, they didn't even deserve Katara acting nice to them.

After getting their champagne, Zuko pulled them into a dark corner, ducking his head.

"I'm done with small talk for this evening. I talked to everyone who is important according to Father, so I'm done," he declared, before taking a big sip of his drink.

Katara chuckled. "Zuko. I understand the urge, but we can't get drunk now."

He sighed. "I know."

Katara eyed him curiously. "Though I wonder how you would behave if you were drunk."

He grinned at her, obviously already losing some inhibitions. "The feeling would be mutual, but I already know how you are when you're drunk."

Katara frowned. "How on earth would you know that?"

Zuko leaned a bit back from her, looking at her with hooded lids. "You spent a lot of time at Jet's tree house during high school, you know. You never drank on a normal day, but on Fridays, or if there was a party. From what I observed, you became braver when you were drunk. You tried to pick fights with almost everyone. You also flirted with almost everyone. Sometimes you were the only one dancing, and sometimes you would snog Jet in front of all of us, until you were sober again."

Katara blinked at him, dumbfounded. He was right. Shit, how could she have forgotten? Her cheeks flushed furiously. Oh no, why did he have to think about her snogging Jet right now? That was years ago!

She smirked at him. "That's in the past. How can you know I'll behave the same way right now, if I were drunk?"

Interest grew in Zuko's eyes.

Katara bit down on her lip, feeling as if she needed to be braver. She drank from her champagne, downing it all in one go.

Yeah, she was brave enough now.

Zuko moved closer to her, barely noticeable, as he touched her hip.

Katara suddenly felt a pressing, hot, almost aching feeling between her legs. Her eyes widened in mortification and she cleared her throat, looking away. Urgh, why did she need to relieve herself now?

"Er, do you know if there's a bathroom here?" she blurted out.

Downing all that champagne at once had really increased the pressure on her bladder.

Zuko blinked at her, his eyes clearing as if he just woke up from a dream. He nodded. "Yeah. Just a few metres behind you."

Katara wordlessly put her glass in his hand and turned around to leave for the bathroom.

She hurried, not wanting to leave Zuko alone for too long. What if he would become bored and go away? Or if some girl would start flirting with him!

Katara frowned at her own thoughts, but then realised it would be good. For anyone to believe she actually was Zuko's girlfriend, she couldn't leave him alone for too long.

The bathroom was held in the design of the entire temple, lamps looking like flaming torches built into the walls, and fire bowls on every corner of the room. The sinks looked as if they were made of old gold, and everything else was held in this natural rock look. The mirrors were lighted by fire, too. Katara's eyes grew wide as she looked around. The other women in here stared at her with curious or haughty looks. Katara made an effort not to sneer at them.

Still in the cubicle, after putting her dress back in place, Katara heard high, shrill voices talk on the other side, probably in front of the mirrors.

"I cannot believe it's true!"

"Oh no, really. I saw them here just a few minutes ago."

"And you're really sure it's her? Are you sure it was him?"

"Maybe she's just tanned."

"Puh-lease. No tan looks so much like mocha. It's her natural skin colour! She's either from the North or the South!"

"It can't be. I really thought the video was a fake or out of context…"

"It certainly is not. She's even wearing blue tonight. There's no way she's not from one of these snow and ice places."

"I'm wearing a blue dress, too!"

"But you're a Westerner!"

A loud sigh was audible. "Oh, so he's probably into exotic women. I really thought I had a chance, but even for him I wouldn't go more into the sun than I need to."

"You really think it's just because she's exotic?"

"Why else would it be? He's curious. He never had one like her before. He'll sate his curiosity and then he'll throw her away."

Katara's hands had curled to fists, and she chose that moment to flush her toilet and walk out of the cubicle.

Three pale girls with brown hair stared at Katara through the mirror.

One of them wore a blue dress, indeed. A light sky blue; it was a lovely dress with a deep back.

Katara's face remained neutral, as she stepped forward, washed her hands, opened her purse to retrieve her lip stick and repainted her lips. The champagne had washed a bit of the colour away.

Then, Katara leaned back, looked at her face from every angle, and then pretended to finally notice the other women's stare. She blinked. "Is something the matter?"

The smaller one shook her head quickly. "No! Not at all! Your dress is lovely!"

The taller one pushed her out of the way. "Step aside, On Ji." She planted herself closer in front of Katara. "I was wondering, are you the girl associated with the Kasaishis?"

Katara feigned mock surprise. "Associated? I'd think that's an understatement. I've known them for years. Since high school, actually."

The girl looked triumphant. "So you're not Kasaishi Zuko's girlfriend then?"

Katara laughed. "Oh no, I am." She smiled broadly at the women, trying not to grind her teeth. "Well, if that's all, I will…"

But now the thinnest of the three women apparently had some things to say. "That is not all. Someone like you shouldn't be here. You don't belong here. I hope the Kasaishis will come to their senses soon." And with that, the woman stepped around Katara and left, the tall one behind her, their friend grimacing in an apologising way at Katara, before following them.

Katara took a sharp breath, her hands clutching the edge of the sink.

She had always known that the Western people looked down on hers, but Wednesday at lunch and now had been the only times that Katara had really been confronted with any sort of discrimination or racism. She had felt the disapproving looks on her more than once, and sometimes she had wondered how to interpret a sentence from a person, but never before had anyone outright acted in such a way against her.

It left her feeling slightly dizzy and angry at the same time. Tears of anger appeared in her eyes, and she carefully dabbed them away with a towel so she wouldn't ruin her make-up.

Blinking rapidly, she forced a few more deep breaths into her lungs, before she exited the bathroom, too.

And then, she saw red.

The stupid thin bitch from just now was talking to Zuko!

Something inside of Katara went very still. It felt like she was cold and hot in the inside at the same time. Like a soldier, she marched over to them, not caring that her walk didn't look the least bit elegant, as her hand clenched around her purse.

Zuko spotted her, looked back at the pale woman, nodded, and interrupted her, before he walked over to Katara, who slowed her pace, not knowing what to do with all her energy after slapping the bitch was not a possibility any more.

But what was wrong with Katara? She didn't think about how she should act as Zuko's girlfriend. She really was angry that the woman had thought she could talk to Zuko, after insulting Katara in such a way.

Her jaw clenched, she grabbed Zuko's wrist and pulled him with her. She had no idea where she was going, but the only thing she cared about was that it was far away from the girls. Close to the corner of the room, where the wall they were walking along met the one in front of them, a corridor branched to their right.

Without thinking about it, Katara pulled Zuko in there. They opened a small plastic door, which looked like the stone the temple was made of from inside the hall, but from the other side of the corridor, it was just a boring, white plastic door.

Katara looked around.

Cables, wires, and weird power contraptions were lying on the floor towards the door. Some were also fixed to the walls, and apart from the light of some small screens, or blinking lights on a junction box or large battery (Katara had no idea about electricity whatsoever. Physics had always been her worst subject), the corridor was completely dark.

She let go of Zuko's wrist. "What did she say to you?" she demanded to know as she rounded on him.

"Who?"

"That woman in the red dress!" Katara almost spit.

Zuko's eyes widened, as his eyebrows contorted in confusion. "Uh… Well, she told me her name and that our parents have worked together since last year. She just introduced herself." He shrugged.

"Introduced my ass," Katara murmured, kicking the ground with her shoe in anger.

"Katara…" said Zuko slowly. "Are you okay?"

Her head snapped up at him. "No, I am not okay! That… that bitch talked about us in the bathroom! She said I was just some exotic conquest to you and made it seem like us together would be disgusting. From both our parts! And then she outright told me that I don't belong here! And I know that! Of course, I know! How could I not? The way everyone is looking and staring, and how disgusted I feel by so many of the people out there! I don't even want to belong here!" she ranted and heavily bit her lip, as the angry tears welled in her eyes again.

She stared at the door, because she thought she wouldn't be able to stand Zuko's look right now.

"I don't want you here," he murmured. "I don't want you anywhere near most of the people outside. They are… Some of them are filthy excuses for a human, others have such a vile view of the world." He swallowed. "Some… hurt a lot of people. Even in their own family." His voice became raspier every second.

Katara shivered.

"Do you want to quit?" Zuko asked matter-of-factly.

Blinking in confusion, she quickly shook her head. "No, I…" She didn't want to miss on the chance of seeing him. And she wouldn't quit because she was a coward!

"I just hate that the best we can do is pretend that all this talk out there doesn't bother us. Because we cannot act out. We have to help your father," she said in a determined voice. "And I already think you're doing a lot against all that. The way you… er, keep close to me, and how you… kiss me on the head…I think it makes people think there is genuine affection between us," she explained further.

Zuko nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's… Er, well… You have nice hair, it's not… bad kissing it or…"

Oh gods, how did this conversation turn so awkward?

He reached out to touch the strands of her hair framing her face. "I like these," he said, twirling the strand around his fingers.

Unconsciously, she stepped closer toward him.

His knuckles brushed her cheek, and his eyes sunk to her lips.

Katara felt as if a heavy weight, but a warm, almost light weight like a hundred of air balloons had settled on her chest. Breathing became harder, and her breasts felt heavier, too. As if they were filled with warm liquid from the inside. It felt good, but oh so strange, and still familiar.

Zuko's hand wandered to her neck, his thumb still in her hair. She didn't know if he pulled her to him, or if the hand in her neck made her close the distance between them. Taking one final breath, she shifted her weight forwards, almost falling into him, and pressed her lips to his.

She took a step closer to him so that her body wasn't leaning too heavily on him, and she slowly lifted her hands to grab his dinner jacket, gaining back her balance, but pulling him automatically more in. Her lips moved against his, urging him to give her an answer.

For a second, Zuko didn't seem to respond, but then his other arm wrapped around her, and he bent his neck to increase the pressure on her lips, which also prevented her from having to stand on her tiptoes. He moved his lips against hers, fast, hard, passionately. At this answer, Katara's hands wandered onto his back, pulling him closer towards her.

Oh gods, his body was pressed against hers, and for the first time she felt his chest against her breasts. Their stomachs were flush against each other, and she felt his hips just pressing on top of hers. His evening attire thankfully didn't stop her from feeling what was underneath. In high heeled shoes, her eyes were on the same level as his chin, and Katara was glad in this moment that she wore those shoes, as she knew from Aang that having to lean up so much caused aches in her neck.

She took a deep breath through her nose, knowing she was ready for some serious snogging. She opened her mouth and trailed her tongue against Zuko's lips. What came next was nothing she had anticipated.

Out of Zuko's throat came a deep sound. Not like the groan from their first kiss, but much deeper, rumbling, and so full of desire. Katara's knees got weak, and she had to refrain herself from whimpering, as he suddenly pressed her harder into him and opened his mouth to hers.

She sighed, as he let her in. Her tongue met his, touched his teeth, the inside of his mouth, she wanted to be closer, to melt with him, but pressing her body more against his didn't work very well, as they were already pretty pressed up gainst each other.

In the back of her head she worried if this was too much for Zuko, if she overwhelmed him, and he didn't know what to do, how to draw back, as she was a little aggressive about this kiss. But just as she tried to shove these worries away, she got shoved against a wall. Not painfully, but with a surprising impact. Zuko had held her head with one hand, so it didn't hit the wall, and his other hand had pushed her.

Oh gods, this was even better. His body felt so good against hers. He was tall and muscular, and she hadn't felt so happy about having such a body pressed against hers for way too long.

Well, okay, her break up from Aang was six months ago, but they hadn't snogged for three months before she had broken up with him, or had sex for a month before she had broken up with him.

And Katara liked snogging very much.

Zuko's tongue entered her mouth, almost forcefully, but darn, did it feel good! She opened her lips willingly, welcomed him into her mouth, sighed into his, and hoped she didn't taste bad. He tasted like champagne and a little, still lingering peppermint. As Katara had brushed her teeth, before she had left her flat, she hoped she tasted like this, too.

But his taste wasn't the only delicious thing about him right now. Her nose was flat against his cheek, and he smelled so fresh and hot at the same time. As if he had bathed in spices and peppermint. The mint gave it a fresh and cold note, something that reminded her of the cold winds of her home, but the spices made his scent almost irresistible. As if he had worked at a spice stall at the market all day. Exotic and exciting. She almost chuckled at the thought that it was she who found him exotic. She would have never thought he smelled like this, or could even kiss like this.

His hand went from her neck to her bare shoulder and down her arm. Her sensitive skin tingled, and she breathed deeply. She almost let out a moan, as his hands began to roam her hips and rips, staying in the allowed zone, but Katara really didn't care about that right now. If he'd touch her behind, she'd probably just press her hips closer to his, hoping he would push her against him.

This was so much more than their kissing lessons had been until now, and she really didn't want it to stop.

It was as if he had read her thoughts, as his hand moved over her behind to her thigh, and Katara immediately knew what he wanted. She wrapped her arms tighter around him, shifted her weight onto one foot, which wasn't easy, as she was wearing very high heeled shoes, and then made a little jump to manage to get her thigh over his hip. He helped her a bit, yanking it up, holding it there. He immediately pressed forward, and she felt him even better now, in all the right places.

Her hands wandered up to his neck and she held his head to kiss him more thoroughly. He growled lowly, moved away and promptly attached his lips to her neck. She gasped, craned her neck back, stared up at the ceiling, open-mouthed, as her fingers waved into his hair.

Oh gods, he felt so good. Katara couldn't believe how good this was. Of course, she had been curious for weeks, but this overwhelmed her senses, aroused her heavily, and made her skin tingle.

His lips and tongue on her neck kissed, licked, sucked, and all felt incredibly sensitive. Katara was ticklish at her neck, and she wondered if this affected the feeling, too, as it was almost too much, but still so good, but her body wanted her to shove him away, because it was so intense, but darn, it felt so good! When Zuko stopped his ministrations, she noticed her head had begun to jerk a little, as if she couldn't stand the way he had kissed her. And she almost couldn't.

Zuko must have got very mixed signals here, her hands still in his hair, her neck craned, but her head trying to shove him away?

Oh man.

"I-I'm ticklish there," she whispered to explain her behaviour.

Zuko sighed against her neck, which felt very good, but also made her jump a little. "That explains it well," he answered, his voice even hoarser than usually, and she could hear him breathe heavily.

He didn't seem to mind much, though, as he simply continued to kiss her further down onto her shoulder.

Katara almost laughed in relief, but gasped as she felt how his touches were pure torture. He aroused her more and more, and she only wanted more, and she didn't want to be very aroused so that it would feel disappointing when they stopped their snogging session. Although, she'd probably feel disappointed no matter when they'd stop.

Moving against him and feeling his lips on her collarbone felt great, but it wasn't enough. Katara wanted to do something, needed to do something. She bit her lip as she looked down at his bent neck. Yeah, that'll do. She swooped down and began to suck. Zuko groaned loudly. He was definitely surprised, but he seemed to enjoy it, as his tongue began to work even more passionately against her skin. Katara answered by opening her mouth wider. Zuko pushed his hips against hers, and she rocked against him, their sighs, moans, and sucking noises the only thing audible in this corridor.

Oh shit, this was much. This was too much. She wanted… But they couldn't… There were… Oh, why weren't her thoughts more… oh, this felt good. Oh, he had cupped her breasts, holy ancient spirits! Yes, this… But… No, they…

Mmmhmhmmrrrrmrnnnghghhh!

Why couldn't her life let her snog in peace? Why did she have to think now and know they should stop and return to the gala, as there was still the dinner, and…

Shit. They would look completely dishevelled! It would be obvious what they had done in this corridor!

It took her a great effort to push Zuko away, and although her arms straightened between them, her body still followed him a little. Gods, she had really needed this snog.

She took three deep breaths. "We have to…" She pointed at the door, her arms not completely doing what she wanted them to, as they barely lifted. She cleared her throat. "… go back. Dinner and…" Oh, who cared about this stupid dinner? Katara had a hot guy snogging her and she thought about their stupid job arrangement?

It was like a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped over her head. She blinked a few times and saw clearly again. She had basically just snogged her boss.

Her boss Zuko, her high school nemesis, her awkward new friend, but essentially her boss. His hair was tousled, and he had a very cute look on his face. Still dazed, still hungry, and slightly confused. His lips were red and swollen, his cheeks rosy with warmth, and for a moment Katara wished she could see this face of his in a bed, in the not-so-far-away-future.

But they still needed to get through this gala. She still needed to pretend to be his girlfriend. Because she wasn't really in a relationship with him. Although, in this moment, she could imagine it vividly. It didn't feel wrong.


Let me know what you think!:)

So, Katara's dress is inspired by the one Yue wears in the series, but more modern and without fur or long sleeves. I liked the combination of blue and purple on Yue very much, and the idea of a simply blue dress seemed a bit boring to me, when I wrote this.

The name of the help organisation PaiLaBluSp is an acronyme of Painted Lady and Blue Spirit. As the only thing close to a help organisation in Avatar would be the order of the white lotus, and that would involce Iroh, I thought about something else. And the Painted Lady and the Blue Spirit (I mean Katara and Zuko, not the actual spirits) helped quite a lot of people. Of course, Zuko did not only help, but that's not important here. The things the organisation does were also inspired by what Zuko and Katara had done, or what they would be interested in to help people.

The banner says 2019, because if this fic would take place in this year, then there would be the Corona pandemic, and the future of my story wouldn't work.

Legend of Korra spoiler (I know some ATLA fans have never watched it): I chose Jinora's name for another help organisation, as the airbenders become something like a travelling help organisation in The Legend of Korra. By making the event from that organisation seem boring, I didn't mean to insult Jinora's personality, because I like her, but I know a lot of other people find her boring. For example her siblings.

Ueda is the name I gave that guy who wanted to sacrifice the 41st division of fire soldiers in the meeting, in which Zuko spoke up. In here, Ueda simply said something about stopping to produce a medicine product, which helped a lot of people, as it was effective and cheap, but would, of course, cause a lot of people misery, if it was stopped being produced. Zuko spoke out against that in the prologue, and then received the beating from Ozai. With his belt. That's why Zuko was so tense, when Ueda spoke to him. I hope to make Zuko slowly realising what his father had actually done, and how bad he is now, and how bad it would be to have him as president.

No clue who these other two girls were who were in the bathroom with On Ji. Maybe sisters of Hide. Just some made up OC bitches. And I needed a nice Fire Nation character here, and because Ty Lee wouldn't work, as she knows Katara from high school, I chose On Ji.

And we had some real Katara and Zuko snogging. Not the "studying", but in a way that makes it clear that it was simply what they both wanted! And it only took me twenty-two chapters!

I'm not very comfortable with writing snogging scenes or smut, for that matter, as I can't do it in this absolutely romantic, it-will-take-your-breath-away way. I always let the characters think about other things, or about uncomfortable things or whatever. I hope this snogging scene was okay, though, and although I think I do not excel at this, there will be equally as sexual scenes in the next chapter. I know I've said it for a lot of chapters now, but I will really change the rating soon. This story just stretches so much, it moves further away and away.

Answers to reviews: (Important: I think I'm going to reply directly to the ones having an account and reviewing in the future, as I just noticed how strange it is not to answer you for a month. So, if you'd rather have a faster answer from me, just say so in the next review and I'll make sure to do that next time.)

To Smckoy929: I'm sorry this took me so long, and that there weren't any confessions yet. But I think it would still be too early for that. But they will come soon, I promise! Let me just say that you definitely won't need to wait for ten chapters. Well, this chapter isn't much longer than the last one, but I hope you still liked it. Thanks for reviewing!:)

To uchihaNaruto247: I hope it wasn't too much uncomfortableness on Zuko's part. I just couldn't imagine him feeling relaxed. Maybe an end of book three Zuko could do this, but we still have beginning of book three Zuko here. Er, yeah, Zuko's luck sucks. I'll try to do the reveil of why Katara couldn't get any jobs in a similar way as the situation when Zuko tells the gaang about his task for Sparky Sparky Boom Man happened in canon. But this is still far away in the future from now. I hope you liked this chapter! Thanks for your review!:)

To audaciarose: Hey! Thanks for your review! It's always lovely to see a new name reviewing. I'm glad you like my story, and I can totally relate to your anger about liking it. I just read a fic which once had not been updated in five years! I'll probably be a grandma by the time it will be finished! But don't worry, I won't even leave this story for a year. I hope that I won't not update this for even half a year, but you never know what the future holds. All I'm saying is that I know how you're feeling. And thanks, I just kind of had enough of those Zutara fics, in which both of them are adult, but not behaving like adults. Or in which Katara acts like some fragile flower. There are, of course, Zutara fics out there, in which they act perfectly like adults, and I preferred this way to the other. I hope you liked this chapter!:)