"It's not a date." Katara reminded herself as she tried on the third outfit of the morning. For the moment, she'd decided on a blue outfit cut in Fire Nation style with a one-shoulder top and a flowing skirt that stopped at her ankles. "It's not a date" she said aloud, again, as she double-checked her hair for just the right amount of wave and as she dashed some black around her eyes and some light pink on her lips. "Ughh! Why am I acting like this?" She almost flopped down on her bed, but realized quickly that this action would undo all the perfecting time she'd put into her hair and clothes.

The sharp rap on her door had Katara springing up and then mentally telling herself to calm down again. It couldn't be Jet right on the other side, she had a guard at her door when she was in there, it was the guard who had knocked.

Opening the door, she realized that her logic had only been partially right. The guard was the one who had knocked and the female fire-bender gave her a slight smile as she announced, "A Jet here to see you, Ambassador Katara. He was on your pass list, and so was escorted straight here. I can have him escorted to another location to wait for you if you so desire."

Looking past the guard's shoulder, she saw Jet smirking, she guessed at the formality of the guard. "No, it's quite all right. Thank you, Hina." Katara closed the door behind her and walked toward Jet. "What, no piece of grass in the mouth today? I hardly think I've seen you without one."

Shrugging away from the wall, Jet grasped her hand and kissed the back of it. Katara's brain seemed to have stopped sending messages for just a moment. As he released her hand, she realized that he was speaking.

"… lutely beautiful." He offered her his elbow. "Do you know how far outside of this city I'd have to go to find grass to pick? It's much easier to find that when you're living in the forest or the lower ring of an Earth Kingdom city than in the capital of the Fire Nation."

She giggled at his not-quite-a-joke. Why was she giggling? It wasn't even that funny. She also found herself leaning into his side as she clutched the inner part of his elbow. He smelled amazing, but it was of pine and tree sap and everything that she associated with being in the woods. Zuko smelled of burning candles and parchment and a soap that was special to him that the palace had on hand. Wait, why was she comparing how these two men smelled? They were out the front door and walking down the steps of the palace by this point, having shared small talk about lunch locations the whole way there.

Distracted by her own inner musings and by the skirt that was rather uncharacteristic of how she usually dressed as an ambassador, Katara stumbled on the last step.

"Woah," Jet caught her hand and spun her around into his arms to steady her, "You okay?"

Nodding, Katara tried to put her weight back on her own feet, but Jet's arms were keeping her at an angle and she couldn't right herself. "Uhh, Jet, you can let me stand now."

"Oh, right" His cheeks turned pink as he slowly let her take charge of her own balance.

Katara was only slightly embarrassed to find her own cheeks heating as they continued toward the gate. Still, she kept a little more distance between them as she worked on getting her head on straight again.

The lunch was pleasant. They filled each other in on what had happened in their lives since they had parted in in Ba Sing Se. Katara on all of the ups and downs of helping Aang defeat Ozai and Zuko to defeat Azula and then how she had traveled with Aang for a few years before taking the position within Zuko's government and then realizing that she didn't want to be romantically involved with the Avatar anymore.

Jet had worked on his healing and then had begun training programs for non-benders in many cities throughout the Earth Kingdom, making his custom weapons to be sold in those training programs. He was considering starting some of these programs in the Fire Nation, which was what had brought him here in the first place. Well, that and hearing that he could meet up with Katara again.

Cheeks blushing over her desert at his admission that she'd been part of his reason for making the trip, Katara dipped her head. "Jet, why did you want to see me? I left you frozen to a tree, pissed as hell at you, and then you helped us find Appa and then I thought you had died. We didn't exactly have time to reconcile. We didn't really even leave off as friends.

Grasping her fingers, Jet smiled, "Katara, I know you felt it too. I was looking for a powerful waterbender back in the day and you came along, but I felt a spark with you. I was a jerk, don't get me wrong," Jet hurriedly cast blame upon himself, knowing that Katara was about to interrupt him. "But what I wasn't faking was my interest in you. Then I ran into you again and, you're just so beautiful and so much of a better person than I ever thought I could be and I just, thought we maybe owed it to ourselves to see if that spark is still there now that you're not saving the world and I'm not the cocky jerk who wanted to annihilate everyone associated with the Fire Nation."

Leaning back and almost pulling her hand away, Katara was silent for a moment. She had felt the spark, when she was 14. But that was close to six years ago now. This seemed juvenile. And then there was whatever she was with Zuko. Should she talk to him about this? She hadn't been single from Aang for very long and she was just trying to figure out how she functioned as an adult without being with the Avatar, so she'd never pressed him for a label or to really talk about his feelings. But if Jet was here talking to her about feelings, then did she need to have this conversation with Zuko first? She didn't know. It all felt really confusing.

"So, this was a date?" She pulled her arm back this time and crossed them over her chest.

Locking his eyes with hers, Jet responded with the same level of confidence that she associated with the cocky jerk he'd been, despite his assertions to the opposite. "Well, I hadn't been sure what you wanted to see it as, but I got more hopeful when you walked out wearing that and actually wearing make up. Not that you need it, but in my experience, girls who usually don't wear make up, don't decide to put it on for lunch with an old friend." When she didn't return his smile, he continued, "So, you didn't want it to be a date?"

Flicking her hair over her shoulder, she considered. "It's not necessarily that I don't want this to have been a date. It's been fun and I've laughed more than I expected to. I just," she broke off and began to run her fingers through the same section of hair over and over, "I just promised Zuko that it wasn't going to be a date."

"Ahh, so I'm too late." Jet settled back against his chair, "what girl is going to want to date me when our illustrious Fire Lord is her boyfriend?"

Taking issue with his tone, Katara's face set in pinched, barely concealed anger and she re-crossed her arms, "Okay, first, Zuko is not my boyfriend. But we're close friends. Second, he's a good man and a good leader. He sacrifices so much for his nation and to try to help others recover from the war of his family. So knock off that attitude about him or I'm out of here."

Holding up his hands in surrender, he backpedaled, "Hey, I don't know much about his leadership at all. I don't know much about him except that everything I did think I knew about him ended up being a lie. So, no, my experience with him isn't great, but I should have known better than to say anything like that when you're his friend. You choose your friends because they're good people and you're loyal. If you say he's a good dude, I'll have to take your word for it." He leaned forward onto the table and smiled, "are you mad at me?"

"No," Katara rolled her eyes and hesitated, "but I think we were talking about if this is a date or not." She adopted a playful smile, "So far, all I've seen evidence of is a friendly lunch, what's next on your plan to sweep me off my feet, Jet?"

Laughing as he stood from his seat and held out a hand, Jet answered honestly, "I didn't have a plan for after lunch, but I can always make something up." Jet paid and led Katara to the door, holding it open for her as she exited into the narrow alleyway ahead of him.

"So Je-"

"Watch out!" Jet cut her off and pulled Katara back just in time as she'd been about to walk out in front of a cart being pulled by two horses. It thundered past them. As the dust settled, Katara became aware of his hands on her hips and how closely her body was pressed against his, her palms flat against his chest. Jet seemed to not have noticed as he was still looking back at the cart as it continued, at far too high of a speed, down the road. "They shouldn't be allowed to go that fast so close to pedestrian paths in the city!"

"Jet," Katara tried to interrupt him.

"They almost hit you!"

"Jet." Katara repeated more insistently.

"Isn't there something we could do to figure out who that cart and horse team belongs to?"

"Jet!" Katara stated his name for the third time, even more loudly.

"What?" He finally turned to look at her and was met with a pointed look from him down to his hands. "Oh." He still didn't remove his hands or put any space between them, seeming to still be stunned.

Katara liked it. He felt solid and steady under her hands. She could feel his warm breath as he looked down at her and she met his gaze. It was no secret that if he made his career forging weapons and training people in their usage that he would be muscular, but the muscles she felt as he recovered his breathing were nothing she was going to speed up her separation from.

Still unsure that it was the right move, Katara slowly slid her hands up his chest, over his shoulders, to curl behind his neck. She felt his slowly shift from her hips to the small of her back to pull her even closer. She tipped her head up and he closed the distance. His lips were soft, fuller than Zuko's and the kiss felt more self-assured than Aang's, whose had slipped rapidly from nervous to lazy. She felt herself being pushed back to the outer wall of the restaurant they had just left. She gave no resistance, focusing only on the kiss, forcing herself not to think of Aang or Zuko again as she stood there, kissing Jet.

She pulled back to gasp for breath, but he swooped in to continue the kiss. She made no effort to stop it. They might have been there for hours if a shrill voice hadn't cut through their bliss, "Yuck, mom, they're kissing!"

Abruptly breaking the kiss, Katara felt herself turn red again as she turned toward the child and his mother, probably just trying to enjoy a peaceful dinner and ended up stumbling across her and Jet in this alley. She sprang away from Jet, who was, most unhelpfully, laughing, now against the far wall. She pushed past him, and, after checking for runaway carts this time, stepped into the street.

"Hey, Katara," he easily caught up with her. "Hey, I didn't think our kiss was 'yuck' like he did. I thought it was amazing." He reached up to cradle her cheek in his hand and she let him. "I'd like to kiss you again if you're okay with it."

Smiling slightly, Katara pulled back from him initiating another kiss, "Maybe not in such a public place next time."

"I'll take it, as long as there is a next time." He held out a hand and walked her back toward the palace grounds softly talking the whole way back.

At the gate, Jet pulled her close again, "So, can I come up with you? Maybe learn more of what you're working on?"

"Jet, I have a meeting in about an hour. I need to go get my files in order and collect my thoughts for it. But maybe I can see you again in the next few days?"

"Well," Jet looked up at the palace and the broad stone steps, "I did happen to hear that in a few days there's a pretty special event to celebrate the end of the war. Some type of ball. Would you happen to need an escort for that?"

"Hmm, I could maybe take an escort to that. Do you have a formal outfit for it?"

Jet leaned forward and held her face gently in his hands, "Just tell me what time to show up here for it, leave the formal-wear to me." He leaned down to place a chaste peck on her lips and then backed up. "I'll see you in three days, Ambassador Katara." He gave her a mock bow and a smirk before taking off back the way they had come.