Girl

"Thanks for watching over me," he whispers.

Then he pulls her closer (gently, always gently) and kisses her on the head.

Oh.

Oh.

Yeah. Her brain might be broken again. There's all this fizzing and humming and … and light?

A bright flash. An intense stretching and unravelling. Then she blinks and finds herself a hairsbreadth from Zuko's face. He blinks back. Every colour is brighter. Her brown hair falls around them like a veil, unbound and crackling slightly with static. His hands are on her sides. The skin on skin contact is like a ping, ping, ping of warning, yet all she can do is blink.

"You … you're …" He stares at her wide-eyed.

Her eyes are just as wide as she moves back a little to examine her hands. No retracted claws, no fur. "I'm—"

They both glance down at her chest.

"—naked!"

Suddenly, he pulls his hands away from her and clamps them over his eyes. She scrambles off him, taking the blanket with her and wrapping it around her body. Heat crawls all over her face. It's absolutely no consolation that the unscarred part of his face is also bright red.

"Did you see?" she manages to squeak.

He bites his lip, hands still covering his eyes. "Um … yeah. Sorry."

She clutches the blanket tighter. "This is so embarrassing. This is so, so embarrassing. I can't believe you saw me naked."

Zuko doesn't respond. He's too busy having his own meltdown, eyes screwed shut and hands now fisting in his hair. "This is a dream, this is a dream, this is a dream. Cats don't turn into girls. Cats don't turn into—"

"Hey, I was never a cat to begin with!"

"You were a cat just a minute ago!"

"That's because a spirit changed me!"

At least she thinks it was a spirit. The memories are finally returning, albeit fuzzily. She remembers meeting a weird, sassy cat thing near the waterway in the Upper Ring. She's pretty sure she got sassy back. Maybe that's where the trouble started. Spirits don't like being sassed.

"Wait." He sits up more, eyes still shut. "You're saying you're actually a girl? A human girl?"

"Yes!" A beat. "You don't recognise me?"

That's kind of offensive. After all, he kidnapped her once and tied her to a tree.

All the colour drains from his face. "Then … then it's not just a coincidence you look like that waterbender who went missing?"

"Idiot, how do you think I went missing? I got turned into a cat!"

He just groans and flops against the futon, smothering his face with his palms. "This is bad." A louder groan. "I can't believe I got dressed in front of you all those times. I even shared a bed with you and—oh no, I told you all about my date with Jin and …" His mutters trail off into unintelligible sounds of mortification.

Katara's face burns. She hitches the blanket up higher over her breasts. "Well, you did think I was a cat. And now you've seen me naked as well, so I guess we're even."

"Even?" He laughs a bit hysterically. "I really, really hope this is just a lingering fever dream."

"It's not."

"Maybe I can pinch myself to wake up."

"Yeah, that isn't going to work."

He pinches himself and winces. Katara just slaps her palm to her forehead. That is how Uncle finds them, no doubt drawn by the sounds of their screeches and embarrassment. He is surprised to learn that the blue-eyed cat is really a blue-eyed waterbender, but he also pulls himself together a second later.

"Now it makes sense why you were so good at watching over my nephew," Uncle says with a smile. "I am grateful for your assistance."

Zuko and Katara blush and exchange awkward glances. Perhaps he's also thinking of the kiss he gave her. It was an innocent gesture when she was a cat … it's just kind of weird now that she's human and he knows it.

"Anyway," Uncle says, "I suspect you'd like some proper clothes. We don't have anything in the way of female attire, but Zuko can lend you some of his. Then perhaps we can have some tea and you can tell us more about what's going on, Miss … uh …."

"Katara."

Uncle makes an odd, choked sound.

"What?" She narrows her eyes.

"I'm sorry, my dear, it's just your name …"

Zuko shifts into a cross-legged position. "I didn't know it either, Uncle." He scratches his messy hair. "For some reason I kept thinking it was Sokka."

"That's my brother's name!" Her hands find their way to her hips. "I can't believe you! I can forgive your uncle for not knowing my name, but you have no excuse!"

Zuko just shrugs. "It's not like we ever introduced ourselves to each other."

This is true. It's not like she knows Uncle's name. Then again, that's also because Zuko only ever calls him "Uncle".

"Ah, no," Uncle says, clearly trying to fight a smile. "What I mean to say is it's a pun."

"Huh?" Zuko and Katara say in unison.

"Your name is Katara. You got turned into a cat. My nephew called you 'Cat'. Katara, Cat. Cat-ara."

Both teens slap their palms to their foreheads.

"Uncle, is this really the time?" Zuko grumbles.

"There is always time for puns."

Twin groans is all he gets in response. Uncle just beams and toddles off to the kitchen area to make tea.

Katara folds her arms and scowls at the prince. "Still can't believe you didn't know my name."

"I know it now, don't I? I won't forget it."

Heat spreads all over her face. She turns her back on him abruptly. "I'm borrowing your clothes."

Once out of eyesight, she leans against the wall and presses her hands to her hot cheeks. It seems that it doesn't matter if she's a cat or a girl, this idiot prince is always going to fluster her.