"Don't leave!"

She takes a few steps and stretches her hand out towards him; the rain pours down around them in buckets as her and Zuko stand just yards away from the entrance to the train station. Street lamps glow a warm yellow, a halo of light outlined in the falling rain as one of them flickers across the street.

"Why do you even want me to stay?" He turns around to look at her, and the pain in his eyes throws a lance right through her heart. Dark hair is plastered to his face, and he squints against the rain. "I thought you wanted to be with him!"

It takes her a minute to figure out what he's even talking about; she watches her confusion register in his eyes as they flick back and forth between hers.

"Zuko, I just want to be with you!" Her voice cracks as she says his name. "Please don't leave." He looks almost like he's in pain, the lines around his eyes and mouth indicating the stress that he must be feeling.

"I have to." She almost doesn't hear him over the rain, but she doesn't move any closer. "You know I have to."

"You don't! You can stay, and we can—"

"We can what, Katara?" He splays his hands out to each side, and she sees tears in his eyes. "We can't just run away! I have to—"

"Why can't we?" She hugs her elbows to her sides as she looks down, and bites her lip hard to keep the sob in her throat where it belongs. "Why can't we just run away?"

"I'm sorry, Katara." His voice is broken, mimicking the fissures in her heart that threaten to split her in two. She looks into his eyes, and knows for sure that he's just as wrecked as she is.

He takes a few steps back towards the station that will pull him from her life with a one way ticket back to California, and she sees his knuckles turn white around the strap of his backpack before he turns around. The sound of his footsteps ring a harrowing sound as they splash through the solid inch of water that runs down the street, and as the large door to the station closes behind him, the flashing street lamp goes out. A sob crawls its way up her throat and escapes her tightly sealed lips, and soon she's crying in the middle of the abandoned street in front of the station. They had known that Zuko would have to go back to California after he graduated— his father had paid for him to get his degree so that he could work for the family company, after all. But somehow Katara had deluded herself into thinking that her love might be able to make him stay, that he might finally let go of his terrible family life and stay here with her. It was all just a pipe dream in the end, and she listens to the train's whistle blow against the backdrop of the heavy rain and her sobs.

They had never actually talked about their feelings, especially not after Zuko had walked in on her and Aang as he had planted an unwanted kiss on her lips. The look on Zuko's face, the unmasked pain in his eyes she had glimpsed before he left, had made it clear that he felt more for her than he had been letting on. That had been just days ago, and she had tried to tell him that the kiss hadn't been something she wanted, but he either hadn't believed her or it hadn't been enough to make him care. It was stupid of her to agree to drive him here, but they had made the arrangement a week before, and backing out would have been too cowardly. Even if she couldn't make him stay, she had wanted one last chance to try. And what good did that do me?

She manages a deep, shuddering inhale, and turns her face up towards the darkened sky to let the rain wash over her. Low thunder rumbles above— she shivers despite the balmy late spring air, and decides that she might as well get on with the wallowing back home and in dry clothes. Brushing her soaking hair off of her face, she spins on her heel, and with a painful lurch of her heart she starts walking back to the car. The train ambles out of the station, and the tail end is a hard stop to whatever relationship she had ever dreamed of having with Zuko. Her jeans stick to her legs and make it hard to wrestle her keys out of her pocket (it has nothing to do with the shaking of her hands), but she manages to hit the auto start, and the engine roars to life before settling into a calm purr.

"Katara!"

She whips around to see Zuko running towards her, luggage in hand and backpack slung on his shoulder. "Zuko?"

Her brain can barely keep up with him as he runs towards her, and in an instant he's there in front of her, and her face is in his hands and hers are in his shirt and he's kissing her like he's drowning and she's his life preserver. They break apart after a long minute, their breaths heavy in the space they share between their lips.

"I want to stay." He's so close that she feels his lips move on hers as he speaks. "I want to stay with you." He pulls back the tiniest bit, just enough to look into her eyes. "Will you have me?"

"Yes," she breathes the word into the dark night air before sliding her hands up his neck and pulling him back down to meet her lips. She has no idea what they'll do now, where they'll go from here, but she knows that together they will weather any storm that comes their way.