Three days had passed. Three days with notes sent back and forth between her and Jet between her meetings. Three days in which Zuko barely looked at her. Three days where the confusion only intensified. The notes Jet was sending her gave her butterflies, but she missed Zuko's conversations terribly. The morning of the ball, she'd been awoken by a package being delivered. When she opened it, there was a note from Jet, "My suit and sash match, I hope you like it." She dug through the wrappings to pull out a magnificently embroidered blue and purple dress with a sash that felt like it was made of woven water. She loved it.
The next moment, there was a knock on her door and she hadn't even said to come in before Suki had bounded in and launched herself at Katara, "Oh! I've missed you so much! What is that?"
Katara had let the dress slip back in the box before she had caught Suki, but the young warrior woman had noticed it anyway. "It's my dress, for tonight. A gift from my escort, actually."
Suki dragged them over to the bed and sat down, "Your escort?" her eyebrows rose, but Katara volunteered no additional information. "Did Zuko finally buck up the courage to ask you and bought you a dress for taking his sweet-ass time doing so?" She put her hands up to her mouth in mock-horror, "What will Aang say when he sees the two of you together?"
Flopping back onto the bed and covering her eyes with her entire forearm, Katara groaned.
"Oh, honey, I'm teasing." Suki pulled her back up. "Sokka and I have seen Aang so many more times than you have in the last year. He was mad at first and thought you had left him for Zuko. It took a while, but he eventually realized that he wasn't treating you very well and when you and Zuko aren't public about anything, it made it easier for him to come around. He says that he hopes you're happy and with someone who will protect you, even if you don't need it."
Shaking her head, Katara tamped down another groan. "Okay, well, that was a lot of information." She nodded, still processing, "But the main thing I think I need to clear up is that the dress is not from Zuko, nor is he my date tonight." She stood up and went back to the box, rubbing her fingers over the ultra-soft sash. "I'm glad to hear that Aang isn't upset with me anymore. It's hard to write to him, so we haven't talked much since it happened."
Standing and wrapping her arms around Katara's shoulders, Suki squealed, "Ooh! This is going to be juicy, I can just tell. I'm going to run to mine and Sokka's room and grab my dress and make up things and be right back. You're going to tell me everything."
The next few hours were filled with the two girls going to the hot-springs on the grounds and having their callouses smoothed and nails finished. Katara tried to derail Suki by asking about the honeymoon trip she and Sokka had just finished after their very small, private wedding ceremony a few months previous. That tactic, though she really did want to know where they'd gone and what they'd seen, only lasted until they got back to Katara's room.
"Okay, missy, you've stalled long enough. Now, spill." Suki unpacked her own gown and hung it up next to Katara's and began unpacking her supplies.
"Okay, you never met him, but have you heard of Jet?" Katara sat down in the chair in front of her vanity as Suki studied her colors.
"Hmmm, arrogant jerk from the forest you had an instant crush on but Sokka just knew, in his infinite wisdom, couldn't be trusted, but your feelings and his 'stupid good-looking smile and stupid flattery' had you and Aang fooled? Yeah, Sokka has mentioned the instance. But didn't he die?"
"He didn't actually." Katara tried not to blush, but couldn't tell if she was succeeding since Suki had made her close her eyes while she drew on the eyeliner. The pencil stilled against her lid. "Well, he showed up here a few days ago and we went out to lunch and ended up making out on the street in front of everyone. He asked me to the ball when we got back here and Zuko found out, because of course he did, there was no way he wasn't going to, and I wasn't trying to hide it, but he got super mad and then he kissed me and when I said I was still going to the ball with Jet, he got mad and hasn't really talked to me since." It all had just spilled out. She hadn't realized how much she needed to talk to someone about this, apparently.
"Open your eyes, Katara." She did as she was told and looked at Suki's work in the mirror. As she examined herself, a much prettier version of herself than she was used to, Suki kept talking. "And why did you tell him you were still going with Jet? Is it because you like Jet more or because you'd already said yes and didn't want to go back on your word?"
"Well, at the time, it was because I was pissed at Zuko for acting like I was supposed to just know that he wanted me to go with him and acting like I had no right to kiss Jet. But if he'd brought it up more rationally, I might have called it off with Jet." She began to braid Suki's hair. "I don't know what to do, but I know I've missed Zuko these past few days and I've enjoyed writing back and forth to Jet and he gave me this gorgeous dress and I'm excite to go with him, so I just don't know." She bent water into Suki's hair to set the waves and sighed.
"Katara, do you think Sokka was the only guy I'd ever gone on a date with?" Katara's head shook, no, it was unlikely. "But he's the one who, despite being a dork, despite how he sometimes acts, I love him. He feels like home. Yeah, stomach flips and sweet things are nice, but they aren't what makes a relationship last." She stood and walked toward the hanging dresses. "You don't need to make a choice between them tonight, but for what it's worth, we've all seen you find a home here with Zuko, and if you have romantic feelings toward him, it's obvious he has them for you and wants to be the one to take care of you even though you don't need it." She stooped down into the small liquor cabinet Katara kept stocked with the barest of essentials unless she knew Sokka and Suki were coming. "Then again, I don't know this Jet, what kind of muscles are we looking at?" Katara threw a throw pillow at her and watched as Suki dodged it before both girls dissolved into laughter.