Hey everyone!

I am so, so sorry for this long wait! I kind of got into reading actual books again (not just fanfics) and that stole some of my time, too. Generally, I'm not great at time management, so writing this and posting this was somehow delayed... But after I finished this chapter, I simply couldn't stop writing, so the next chapter is almost already finished, too, and I can promise you that chapter twenty-seven will be a little spicy.

So, I hope you're all still enjoying this fic, even though its progress is super slow (compared to the fics I'm currently reading and which all give me a bad conscience because I'm not updating thrice a week!). Anyway, please enjoy the next chapter.

I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender, nor its characters.


Chapter Twenty-Six

Master Pakku had thrown Katara and Meng out of the lecture hall, forbidding them from entering again.

He had told them to wait outside for him, as he would deal with them after the lecture. Katara sat on the other side of the hall in front of a window, glaring at Meng who rubbed over her back and occasionally glared back.

Katara felt her face, wondering what damage Meng's elbow had done. She thought about texting or calling Zuko, but it would probably be better to talk to him personally.

Instead, she had texted Aang, stating that she was sorry, as she knew how much he hated violence. She would have liked to defend her actions, but she kept that for Pakku and Zuko. Aang only needed to know that Katara knew how foolish and stupid and horrible she'd acted and that she regretted it.

Which was even true. Kind of. Finally fighting Meng back was nothing that Katara regretted, but knowing that other students had probably made videos and posted them on the internet was what had destroyed it for her. And she was maybe regretting the violence in it all now.

Aang didn't answer her, though. Probably too busy paying attention to the lecture.

Then again, since when did Aang pay attention to Professor Pakku?

Just then, Katara saw that Aang was online and had sent her several smiling emoji.

It's alright, Katara. What Meng said wasn't nice, and I know you tend to get violent when you're angered too much.;)

Well... After getting in fights with Toph, Sokka, and Azula so much... Yeah, Aang knew her. And he wouldn't judge her. She sighed in relief.

I want to send you my notes later, so I've got to pay attention now.

Katara grinned and texted back an emoji that blew a kiss.

To distract herself from the horrible lecture that would definitely come later, she scrolled through Instagram and looked at every post from Azula. It didn't actually interest her, but Katara liked Azula's brother, so... She was actually only hoping to see some pictures of Zuko.

Zuko's own Instagram page had none pictures of himself. All in all, he had posted eight pictures in the last six years. Five of them were pictures of swords. The other three were beautiful natural landscapes in the mountains behind the volcano.

Azula, though, had posted quite many pictures of her brother.

There was one post of three pictures showing Zuko at the Volcano Club from last month. He first stepped out of his car, giving the key to a worker of a Volcano Club. The second picture was of him noticing that Azula took pictures and scowling at her, before the third picture was a perfect shot of Zuko rolling his eyes.

Katara grinned, as she scrolled through more.

Most of the pictures on which Zuko was were taken in the volcano club or downtown, walking down streets or sitting in coffee shops with Azula. They even had a few selfies on which Zuko did not look annoyed, but smiled slightly.

Azula always wrote something along the lines of "Out with big brother!:D" or something similar. "Been shopping downtown, my brother tagging along. He's not happy about it.", "At the club with my big brother!:D", "I read this article about my brother being an eligible bachelor, asked (teased) him about it, and that's how he looks now.", "I promised I would stop mentioning the article, if Zuko will buy me waffles and ice cream. So we're at the ice cream shop now!", "Working out with my brother!:D", etc.

It was stupid, really but seeing these proofs of how Zuko was when she wasn't there just warmed her heart even more. Whenever she recognised one of his facial expressions or he did something that was typical for him (scowling, pinching the bridge of his nice, or smiling shyly), it felt like her heart grew.

But then Katara scrolled down even more and found pictures of Zuko and Azula at the military academy of Sozin. They both wore black uniforms with red trims and belts, their sleeves and pants red, their boots black. It looked like a modernised version of these old fashioned uniforms Katara had seen on pictures and paintings of the Kasai Empire.

But Zuko and Azula seemed to have fun. Azula stuck her tongue out at the camera, while Zuko looked at her fondly. Then there were pictures with Jet sometimes, or some of Zuko and Mai, or Azula and Mai. They had spent two years at this academy, spent so much time with each other. On these pictures, Zuko looked happy with Mai.

Gnawing on her lower lip, Katara tried to tell herself that that was in the past. Zuko had never seemed very sad about the breakup. Or angry. She hoped he was over Mai!

Katara had been so focused on finding out things about her fake boyfriend that she hadn't noticed how easily ninety minutes had just gone away. The students walked out of Pakku's lecture, casting glances at Katara and Meng, giggling or whispering. Katara stared back defiantly. Did any of them really want to challenge her directly?

Oh, she really had to check YouTube later for the video!

Aang walked past her with an encouraging smile.

After the last of the students had left, Katara and Meng stood up to re-enter the lecture hall.

Pakku made them sit in the first row, looking not only disappointed, but also... disgusted.

Katara became angry again. How dare he judge her? She had only defended Zuko and herself.

"You know why I became a professor?" Pakku began in a sour voice.

Meng looked confused and glanced at Katara, but she had no idea either. Why was Pakku telling them this?

"So that I would not have to do with hormonal teenagers who beat themselves up in corridors of high schools!" he bellowed. "I was apparently under the misconception that university students are adults who act accordingly."

Katara noticed how her mouth changed into something like a pout as she looked at the floor.

"And now..." Pakku sighed in an exasperated way. "Will one of you tell me what happened? And why? Miss Guolang and..."

"Qinu," Katara murmured.

Pakku raised his eyebrows. "Are you from the North? Or South?"

Katara looked up at him, feeling surprised. "South," she answered.

Pakku looked pensive for a moment, before he leaned back against his desk. "Very well."

Katara looked over at Meng who stared at the floor.

"So is any of you two going to answer me why you got in this fight?" The Professor sounded sterner again, his arms crossed in front of his shoulder.

Katara didn't want to outright accuse Meng of behind a bitch, so she said nothing at first.

"She started it!" Meng said, pointing at Katara.

Pakku looked at her. "Is that right, Miss Qinu?"

Katara let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes. But she provoked me. She wouldn't let it go! She provoked me on purpose!"

Meng took a sharp breath. "I did no such thing!"

Pakku held a hand up. "What did you say, Meng Guolang?"

"I only asked Katara about her new boyfriend," Meng grumbled.

Katara gasped. "You insulted my boyfriend. You don't even know him!"

Professor Pakku shut them up with one stern look. "Did the two of you get into a fight because Miss Guolang insulted your boyfriend, Miss Qinu?" It was obvious he deemed this reason to be unacceptable and idiotic. He spoke to them, as if they were kindergarten children.

Katara shook her head. "No, that was not the only reason. Meng also insulted my boyfriend's family, myself, and my family."

Pakku raised an eyebrow. "And why would you do that, Miss Guolang?"

Meng had her lips pressed together. "Because Katara's from the South, and her boyfriend is not only a Westerner, but..."

Pakku quickly held his hand up. "I really do not need to know more." He sighed again. "It seems these are mostly private matters, and I am no teacher, so I don't actually care. But here is some advice. If you don't like each other, keep away from each other. Ignore each other. It will make things easier." He pushed himself off his desk to grab his bag. "You might also try to act like adults the next time you get angry with each other. And do not ever do that in my lecture hall again. Before, during, or after my lecture." One of his eyebrows rose and gave him a little weird look.

Katara nodded and then glanced at Meng, who didn't seem to be too unpleased.

"Off you go, now," Professor Pakku said.

"Aren't you going to punish us?" Katara asked, feeling a little astounded.

Pakku blinked at her. "This is not a school, Miss Qinu. I can't give you detention."

"Oh, right." She bowed to him. "Goodbye." Then she turned around and walked the stairs up to the door, knowing that Meng was right behind her.

She was relieved to see that Pakku had not shouted at them, or punished them severely. Katara could also see that the Professor was indeed right. They had not acted like adults, and Katara could have really tried to be the bigger person and let the fight go.

The moment, Katara stepped out of the building for the department of law, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Zuko. She needed to see him, face to face. And then she would tell him how much she'd screwed up.

oOo

It was noon when Zuko received Katara's message, asking him if she could come over in the afternoon.

Zuko, of course, didn't feel comfortable enough already to see her, and gnawed on his lip, wondering what excuse he could tell her this time, as she sent him another message.

It's very important! I have to tell you something! We have to talk about that! It won't take long, so don't say you've got work to do!

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed, before he texted her back that she could come over.

He had a short day at uni today, and came home half past two, so he would be home when Katara came. He used the last hours to read through texts for uni, write some short summaries, and work on a few exercises.

Katara was there, before Jet came home.

When Zuko opened the door for her, the first thing he saw was the bruise on her throat.

"Shit, what happened?" he said instead of welcoming her and pulled her into the flat.

Katara gingerly touched her throat. "Ouch. Does it look so bad? I didn't have any time yet to look at it."

Zuko frowned and closed the door behind her, already marching into the kitchen. "Do you mean you came here directly after you got this?"

"After my last lecture today, actually," she said.

He rummaged through the freezer, looking for something that Katara could hold onto her throat to lessen the bruise. He found a package of frozen beans, wrapped it in a tea towel, and offered it to Katara.

She smiled. "Thanks."

Zuko really wanted to know what had happened to her, and if someone had done this to her, but he also knew that she probably still needed something comforting.

"Okay, let's sit down on the couch shall we? Do you want some tea? Or hot chocolate? Coffee? Or something to eat? Or both?" Zuko blabbered, before he burst out "What the fuck happened? Did someone do this to you?"

Katara had been about to sit down on his couch, but now she turned her head to him and sighed. "Hot chocolate, please. No food. I'm okay, but... I'll tell you when I have my hot cocoa."

For a second, Zuko glared at her, then he swiftly turned around and hurried to make her a hot chocolate. Milk in the pot, on the stove, power on, powder in a mug, wait till milk boils, power out, milk into the mug, pot in the sink, water.

He stirred the hot beverage with a spoon, then handed it to Katara and sat down next to her, staring at her searchingly. Okay, so there was the bruise on her throat, but he couldn't make out anything else. So it was just that? Maybe no one had fought with her. Maybe she'd just tripped and... fallen on a fist?

Katara took a few sips of her cocoa, before she heaved a deep sigh. "Okay, so... I managed to get into a fight."

Zuko blinked. "With whom?"

"A girl. She's a friend of Aang's, has been in love with him since she first saw him," Katara added in an annoyed tone.

Zuko frowned. Why did it bother her when another girl liked Aang? It shouldn't bother her. She always said that she didn't want to be with Aang again!

"And why? Because of Aang?" Zuko asked, tensing, hoping, waiting for a specific answer.

"No," Katara answered in a small voice. "No, it was... mostly because of you."

He blinked in surprise. What? "Me?" How? He seriously didn't know the girl Katara was talking about.

She nodded. "Yes. Meng... She said stupid things. Awful things, really. Well, she provoked me. She insulted us, and..." She trailed off, staring into her mug. "Then I swung myself at her and slapped her. She did this," said Katara and pointed at her bruise under the beans.

His jaw clenched. "What did she say about you?"

Katara shrugged. "Just the usual. Whore, slut. But she called you a monster. Your whole family, and..." She took a deep breath. "We also... shouted at each other, and I said... things in your defence. They were... Well, for pretence mostly."

Something behind his navel felt as if he'd been punched with shards of ice. "Oh."

"No! I didn't mean..." Katara groaned. "I said I loved you for pretence, but I didn't defend you for pretence."

"You said you loved me?" He didn't know why he needed confirmation, but it was his first reaction. He knew he sounded shocked, unbelievable, his stomach dropped, as if there was suddenly a hole in there, but he didn't forget that she couldn't mean it.

Katara took another sip of her hot chocolate. "Yeah. Meng said I was only with you because of your money, so I said it's because I loved you. I mean, that's what everyone should think, isn't it?"

He nodded slowly. Of course. He didn't know what he'd been thinking. His reaction had been weird.

"Well... I'm sorry you got hurt," he murmured and lifted his hand to her face, "but it seems like you got out well of that fight."

"That's not all."

"It isn't?" He pulled his hand back.

She shook her head. "We fought before a lecture in the lecture hall, and over one hundred students saw us. And some took pictures," she said in a clipped tone. "Some filmed us. They screamed 'Fight!' a lot. And I think one of these videos will show up online somewhere," she ended in a small voice, not looking at him.

Zuko sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry," he rasped, his voice hoarse. Of course this would bother Katara. She didn't like all this attention, and just because of who he was did she even have to defend him. And because of who he was, this was interesting enough to go online.

Katara turned towards him. "You're sorry? For what?"

"If it wasn't for who I am..."

She let out a hollow laugh. "No, this has nothing to do with you, really. I've been pissed at Meng for quite some time, and she always likes to say provoking things to me. It was all the anger from before, and I didn't like the way she talked about you. It was my decision to... well, charge. And it's my fault not to think about the fact that people would make videos. And I'm so sorry, I didn't think, and I was just so angry..."

He laid his hand on her thigh. "Katara. It's okay. There's nothing you have to be sorry for." He raised his eyebrows. "I've been in fights, too. I won't judge you for anything. And you defended me... That is very nice."

She shook her head. "That's not how people will see it. Because of your father's campaign..." She bit on her lip. "I should have helped you, but in the end, I just ruined it."

He swallowed. How could Katara be so sad that her actions had maybe upset his father, when his father felt so... cold towards Katara? It made Zuko angry. He suddenly felt that he wanted Katara to hate Ozai, or Ozai to like Katara better. It would be the best if Ozai started to respect and like Katara genuinely. Maybe this fight was a blessing in disguise. Katara standing up for his family... Surely, Ozai wouldn't mind that.

"I don't think so," he said, his voice raspy with emotions. "You defended me. Us. I think this will only strengthen the way the public sees our relationship as serious. I don't know how voters will see my father because of this, but surely not worse than before. Don't worry, Katara. It'll be okay," he tried to assure her.

She let out a snort of laughter. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one who mucked this up."

Zuko sniffed. "If it was really bad, I would worry, because then my father would be mad at me, since I picked you as my girlfriend."

Katara's eyes widened. "He'll be mad at you?"

Frowning, Zuko noticed he had just upset her more. "No, he won't. That's why I'm not worried." He stroked her leg in a manner that he hoped would be comforting.

Her eyes sought his, looking deeply into his golden irises, until she smiled. "Thanks. I know you're just trying to make me feel better." She clasped his hand in her free one and squeezed it.

He squeezed back.

But there was still one thing that he felt uncomfortable with. That Meng girl had said to Katara that she was only with him, because of his money. That may not be, but he knew that Katara didn't feel completely comfortable with this... job arrangement.

"You know how I see the two of us?" he said.

Katara blinked, looking surprised.

"I know you don't feel well with this... whole situation, but imagine I had a... A tea shop." Nothing else came to his mind than that. Well, it would be nicer to have a swords shop, but now he had said it already. "And you work there as a waitress. Yeah, and we get along, but we also... make out sometimes. There's got to be a bunch of people like that," he quickly adds. "I just mean that looking at this like that, it's not..." He trailed off, as he didn't know what else to say.

Katara frowned. "I'd rather think of you as a director playing in his own film. I am the actress who plays your girlfriend. We make out sometimes. But you're director and actor. The tea shop analogy is nice, but working together is different from what we do."

"How? This is your job, isn't it? It's work for you to be with me," he said.

She frowned. "It..." Her mouth opened and closed like a fish's, before she shook her head. "Thanks, Zuko. But I can't look at this that way. It's not like I really know when we're real and when we're acting. Our boundaries are fuzzy. There's no one shouting action, and we are always ourselves." She sighed, before she straightened up. "Things are how they are. We pretend to be together, but we also snog sometimes, and as this benefits one of us more than the other, the other one is paid for their acting." She shrugged. "We can't pretend that it's different."

"But it bothers you, doesn't it?" Zuko pressed on.

Shaking her head, she pressed her lips together. "No. It doesn't. I thought it did, but after we… well, started to get along well, it didn't anymore." She smiled widely at him. "You don't want to disappoint your father, and I help you, because I don't want you to disappoint your father." She nodded to herself.

Zuko couldn't help himself, as a very wide smile stretched on his face. It hurt his cheeks, and felt a little foreign to him. Something felt off in his stomach and chest, though. Oh, it was that air balloon feeling. His torso had just become full of hot, expanding air. "Thank you, Katara," he said sincerely, feeling like he might choke on his feelings.

She smiled back, then leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. She didn't retreat after that, and kept her face close to his.

Zuko swallowed. She just had to invade his personal space, and his nose was full of her and his eyes were full of her, and he wanted to taste her, too. This was so weird. How was she able to make him react physically so strongly towards her?

It didn't really matter. He just wanted to kiss her.

The door to the apartment opened and Jet came strolling in. He was wearing suit trousers and a white button down shirt, his sleeves shoved to his elbows, his tie flung over his shoulder. In his hands, he held some take away. "Zuk-, Oh, Katara! Hey!"

Katara had backed away from Zuko, her face looking confused, as she smiled at Jet. "Hey."

"I got us chicken, beef, and pork dumplings. You want some, Katara?"

She blinked. "Oh, I, uhm... I don't know if I should... stay?"

Zuko straightened himself. "No! You can stay! Of course you can!"

"You surely don't have too much work to do?"

"No. I would be eating now anyway." That was not even a lie. Zuko always liked a snack in the afternoon.

But this was uncomfortable. Zuko hadn't talked to Jet about kissing Katara. Or snogging Katara.

He had no idea how Jet would feel if he knew his best friend snogged his ex-girlfriend. He was pretty sure this went against some unspoken rule between best friends, but Katara and Jet broke up almost seven years ago, and he felt like they were both cool as friends. Besides, Jet had encouraged Zuko to ask Katara to be his fake girlfriend, even though he must have known that meant they would kiss. For pretence, and not for pleasure, but still. And it's not like Zuko had stolen Katara from Jet. They just snogged. They just had fun. It wasn't like they were really together, or as if Zuko wanted to be with Katara. And Katara definitely also didn't like him in that way.

He stayed silent, while they were eating, watching Jet and Katara talk, catching themselves up on his apprenticeship and her studies. She also told him about her fight with that Meng girl which made Jet strangely happy.

It didn't feel as if Jet had got the energy when he had entered the flat, though. He didn't look suspiciously between Katara and Zuko, and Zuko started to feel safer.

That is until they were finished eating and Katara excused herself to go to the bathroom.

Jet fixed a piercing stare on Zuko. "Now what's going on with you two? Finally on the way to Love City?"

Zuko felt his eyes widening in shock and surprise and to his utter horror, a blush creeping on his cheeks. "What? No! We are not... We do not... We're just pretending, you know that!"

Jet raised an eyebrow. "You like her, though. I think she likes you, too, although she's not as obvious."

"W-wh-what?" spluttered Zuko. "I don't like her! That way. I mean I do like her, just not like... that."

Yeah, Zuko liked Katara just fine. He liked her a lot, actually. He liked to spend time with her, talk to her, hear her laugh, see her, touch her, kiss her. He also liked it when she smiled, he guessed. He liked it when she didn't get angry at him like in high school. He liked that they got along now.

His best friend just frowned and kept staring at him. "You're in denial," he finally said. "Of course you like her. You almost kissed her when I came in!"

Zuko took a deep breath. He might as well get this over with. "I know how that looked like. And yes, I wanted to kiss her. But that doesn't mean I like her like that. It's just that... Sometimes we kiss. We make out. It..." He wanted to say that it didn't mean anything, but that didn't feel right. It meant something. He liked being with her this way so much it wouldn't feel right to say kissing Katara didn't mean anything. He knew she had a very strong physical power over him and although he still didn't know why that was like that, it meant something to him. It was special in its own way, and she meant something to him in her own way. Trusting her not to touch his back was a big step, especially since he hadn't given her the best explanation to it.

Jet's eyes widened. Maybe in amazement. He wasn't sure.

"We're friends, I guess. And a strong physical attraction has developed." Yeah. These were good words. This attraction thing had lacked his former explanations.

Jet raised his eyebrows. "So between you it's just physical?"

Zuko nodded. "And we're friends."

"But you never felt physically attracted to any other girl than Jin or Mai! Zuko, you need feelings to feel something physical! Of course you like Katara."

Frowning, he shook his head. "These things can change. Maybe I can separate this now." He said that, but he didn't actually believe it.

One of Jet's eyebrows climbed higher. "Keep telling yourself that. Damn, you're such an idiot."

Zuko opened his mouth to argue, when another thing came to his mind. "So you're not angry? Or think this is weird? Because... of everything."

"Oh no. This is weird. Crazy as fuck. I mean, you pay her rent. I can't believe she feels comfortable with that, even though this snogging business started later. But I'm not angry." He rolled his eyes. "Really, this has been more than six years, and I really have no idea why you kept thinking for all this time that I still have feelings for Katara!"

Zuko's nose wrinkled. "Maybe because you never fell in love with any other girl. You had so many girlfriends after Katara, but none was serious." He shrugged. "I just thought you always felt like these women lacked something that Katara had."

Jet gave him a dead panned look. "Oh gods, honestly? Yes, I haven't been in a serious relationship since Katara broke up with me. But maybe that's because I don't want a serious relationship. Or yes, because the women I had met were lacking something. I didn't compare them to Katara, though, but I just simply didn't fall in love. It doesn't mean there's no one out there I can't fall in love with again."

Zuko blinked, dumbstruck. "Wow. You..."

Jet straightened himself. "I sound like a girl? No, I sound logical."

Zuko frowned. "I was going to say romantic."

Jet simultaneously grimaced and shrugged. "It's okay to be romantic. Or sound like a girl. Although you shouldn't say 'sound like a girl'. The new French woman in my office, Chloé, she's quite into gender equality and told me a lot about how they do this in France. Something about their grammar really bothered her."

"Probably that they have two third person plurals, for females and males," suggested Zuko. "The female one is only used if a group only consists of females. If there's only one male in there they use the male pronoun. That's a little unfair," explained Zuko.

Jet frowned. "Maybe that's what she said. I honestly don't remember, but I'm practising to sound more gender neutral, because being very manly is a turn off for her." He shrugged again.

Zuko nodded. "Good for you." It was typical for Jet to only do something because of a woman.

"Yes, well, but the thing is, I have not had feelings for Katara for years, and you should really go for it." Jet lightly slams his fist onto the table.

Zuko rolls his eyes. "Honestly. It's not like that!" Why did Jet press him so much with this? Why couldn't he let it go? He already felt bad, because of what his father said about having fun with Katara. He didn't need to wonder if maybe the whole situation was actually worse, because he liked her too much. Or because she liked him. And if she did, wouldn't he be the worse arsehole in the world? Well, if he liked her, he would still be an arsehole, so...

"Zuko?"

His head whipped around.

Katara stood in the doorway to the corridor, still holding the frozen peas to her face. "Thanks for the peas. I, uh, I think I should..."

He quickly stood up. "Wait. There's something I need to talk to you about." He walked towards her.

She blinked. "Oh. Sure." Before she turned around to walk to his room, she looked over at Jet and nodded. "Thanks for the dumplings, Jet."

"No problem." He grinned at them, then wiggled his eyebrows at Zuko, after Katara had turned around.

Zuko narrowed his eyes at his best friend and made a cutting motion across his throat, before he quickly turned around to follow Katara to his room.

This was probably going to be uncomfortable, but Zuko had to find something out. For his own sake, and for Katara's. He wouldn't be able to meet normally with her until he knew. He wouldn't be able to look her normally in the eye before he knew, and he would definitely shy away from touching or kissing her before this was sorted out.

Did Katara feel used?


Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to review!:D

Sooo... I know this wasn't the longest chapter, but hanging on the next scene would have made a monster of a chapter!

So, Zuko is not angry at Katara for getting in this fight. He tries to comfort her, and he really thinks it might not be that big of a deal, because the fight was to defend their relationship. Besides, how hypocritical would it be of Zuko to be angry at Katara for something like this? And he's also super touched by her actions and blames himself for the trouble that it could cause her. I think I really nailed his reaction with this. Could it have been anymore more Zuko-ish?

Zuko needing to have feelings for a girl to find her physically attractive will be discussed more in the next chapter, and maybe some of you might find this strange, because I know there's this part of the fandom who thinks of Zuko as a sex god with a whole lot of experience, but well, I don't. To me, he's an awkward blob who feels uncomfortable around women and girls and who despises physical pleasure, because he HAS TO CAPTURE THE AVATAR! THERE'S NO TIME FOR THIS STUFF, UNCLE! I think Zuko can discover physical pleasures with women or girls he really likes, or is in love with, but I think he can't just stare at some breasts or behind like other males and ogle. I think he could only ogle if he liked that woman. Otherwise, he would just feel uncomfortable or think that he hasn't got time for this.

Jet knows it. Jet knows it all. He knows Zuko well, and he knows Katara well. And he's cool with it. Really cool with it. I've been thinking of pairing Jet with Azula, because that kind of has something interesting, but maybe I will just let it be.

Did I actually ever explain why I picked Jet for Zuko as his best friend in this fic? Because I honestly can't remember, nor do I know. It just happened.

What did you guys think of Professor Pakku? This was only his introduction scene, but he'll show up again. After all, he still has to find out that Katara is the granddaughter of the woman he once wanted to marry.

And that's about it for this chapter. Til next time!:D

Answers to reviews:

To uchihaNaruto247: Aww, thanks. I worried the cinema/restaurant scene was maybe a little boring. Yeah, Ozai ruins everything. I kind of hate him more in this fic than in the show, because he pretends to be nice in here. Urgh. Well, Katara got off quite well. Since no furniture was broken, nor bones, and professors are really not teachers, no one could really do something. I guess Meng could report Katara to the police for violence, but then she would also have to admit that she said nasty things about Elementia's new dream couple. So, from Meng's, Pakku's, and Zuko's point of view, it's all good. Thanks for your review!:)

To Katmora606: Thanks! I was worried about the fight maybe not being good. Well, I really wanted to know what you've written, so I didn't have any other choice but to translate your review, right? :D

To Smckoy929: Well... If Ozai would suddenly like Katara, he wouldn't be Ozai, right? I mean, I have read some fics in which Ozai was not that bad, but then it was because his whole past was different, and he had never had the chance to hurt Zuko, because he had bigger worries, but that didn't happen here, and to me Ozai is the second worst father on TV (not followed by Darth Vader as you might think, but by Gabriel Agreste from Miraculous). I'm not saying Ozai couldn't redeem himself, but I don't want him to. I don't want to think of what would happen if Ozai went suddenly good. Besides, for this to happen, there is more needed than a nice Southern Water Tribe member who becomes his son's girlfriend. 'Rid of her' doesn't mean dead in this context, though... Yeah, that fight was a rather silly decision. I actually only wanted Katara to wipe her hair off her shoulder and walk away, but then I thought about her fight with Pakku and the one with Toph, and it's just not like Katara to walk away from a fight. Maybe it would have been realistic, because she's older in here, but I really wanted it to happen. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what the reactions to this fight will be, because that would be a spoiler, but you will find out in the next chapter or the one after the next chapter. I wish I could just end this '...nation is better than all the others', but then my fic wouldn't be realistic anymore. I like writing realistic things as far as I can, you see. Anyway, Katara and Zuko do not think this way about their provinces anymore, and they know that a human is just a human like everyone else. But I definitely intend the message of this fic to be that people from a specific region are no better or worse than people from another region. I'm sorry this update took so long. The next one is going to be out here faster, I promise. Aw, thanks. You have no idea what this means to me!:D Thank you for your review!

To audaciarose: This fight definitely has the potential to cause problems. Thanks!:) I really love writing Zutara cuddling scenes, as I discovered!:D The next chapter will have one, too.