When Katara awoke, it was still howling outside, and it seemed that she hadn't slept for long. Zuko was still asleep, his chin resting on her shoulder, and his arms wrapped lightly around her middle. Katara blushed, but was grateful for the warmth. She yawned and shifted slightly, and Zuko stirred. He pressed his face into her neck, unwilling to wake up, and Katara blushed madly, fighting the urge to pull away. "Z-Zuko?"

He grumbled and pulled her closer. His mind was finally beginning to pull out of his sleep. "What?" he asked sleepily. He straightened and Katara calmed down.

"Er, just wondering if you were awake," she said hurriedly, the blush fading. He didn't remove his hands from her hips, not realizing they were there. "How much longer do you think this blizzard will keep up?"

"Who knows," Zuko said with a yawn. "But I don't think the others will be able to look for us until it lets up."

Katara sighed, knowing he was right.

"What? Don't want to be with me for that long?" he mused.

"It's not that," Katara said quietly. "I'm just worried about the others."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "They'll be fine. The avatar and Uncle will be able to keep each other warm, never mind that giant beast with all that fur."

"I hope so," Katara said, pressing closer to him. Zuko realized that while he was sleeping his fire had cooled, and he made himself grow warmer. "Thank you," Katara said as she snuggled up to him. Zuko shifted uncomfortably, not used to having someone this close. "Who knew you could be such a gentleman?" she joked.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Very funny. I am a prince, after all."

Katara realized that this was the only peaceful time she'd had alone with him except for the caves in the Earth Kingdom, and after all that, he had attacked her. She frowned. "Hey, Zuko…?"

"What?" he asked, beginning to tire of talking.

"You wouldn't…"

"What?"

"…never mind," Katara said lamely. "It was stupid."

Zuko didn't push it, though he head heard the slight fear in her voice. He had a feeling that it was about him.

She shivered once more against him. "Take your hair down," he ordered.

"Why?"

"To keep you warm."

"You're doing a fine job of that," Katara pointed out, unwilling to move.

She heard him give off an irritated sigh and felt him remove his hands from her. He carefully began to undo her hair, slowly because he didn't want to hurt her, but he didn't quite know how to pull it out.

Katara felt him hesitate and pulled away, turning and reaching behind her. She smiled at Zuko and shook her head, amused that he couldn't figure out how to do it. Zuko glared at her, and she smirked as her hair fell around her shoulders.

Zuko blinked. She looked nice with her hair down like that, it framed her face perfectly, and its wavy texture rolled down her back. Without realizing what he was doing he reached forward and gently pulled it over her shoulders, away from her back.

Katara stared at him, blushing. The way he had gently brushed her hair was a little… affectionate.

Zuko looked at her eyes and gave her an odd look when he saw her confused face. "To keep your front warm," he explained, "Since your back's to me, it wouldn't help."

"Oh," Katara said, now blushing out of embarrassment. Of course Zuko would never…! She resumed her position in his lap.

She heard him say, "You know, you look better with your hair down."

"What?" she asked, not daring to turn around.

Zuko hesitated; he hadn't meant to say that out loud. So he kept his mouth shut.

A moment of silence passed, and Katara asked, "Zuko, why are you being so nice to me?"

"Why not?" he retorted. "Still expecting me to attack you?"

Katara bit her lip. He had hit it on the head.

"I know it sounds stupid, but how can your hands be so warm when your heart is so cold?" she asked in a quiet voice.

Zuko scowled. He didn't like being so distant, it was just the way he was, a result to all he had been through. In his time with the avatar and his group of friends, Zuko would watch them as they laughed and joked around. It came natural to them—but Zuko was different. He remembered that he had been like that, but when his mother…and then he had been exiled, somewhere along the way he had lost it. Zuko watched the group with something similar to envy.

Katara sat uncomfortably against him. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said—"

"You're right," Zuko interrupted.

"What?"

"You're not the first one to say that I have a heart of ice," he said indifferently.

"I didn't—"

"I always thought it was fitting," Zuko continued. "How I was a fire bender. When I was younger, I wasn't good at bending, and I struggled with my lessons. But after I was banished, I was so angry, and suddenly my bending got so much better," he said almost musingly.

"Zuko…" Katara said quietly, not sure how to react. She felt that Zuko had thought about this a lot, but didn't have any one to tell.

"It makes sense, I guess. Fire is normally associated with anger. And destruction. The person who I was is completely destroyed now."

"Zuko, that wasn't your fault." Katara felt like she should console him. She didn't feel pity for him, exactly. More…like it wasn't fair.

"That doesn't change who I am now," he spat, his hands on her flaring with heat.

She winced and said, "But Zuko that change made you stronger, smarter. I'm not saying that you should be proud of everything you've done, but be proud of parts of you. Like your determination."

"And my heart of ice?" he asked spitefully.

"Zuko, it isn't made of ice," she said stubbornly, turning to face him. "It may be cold, but if you were as icy as you think would you be holding me?" she asked.

Zuko realized his hands were still on her, now around her back.

In his hesitation, Katara pointed out, "If you were as cold as you think, you would have removed your hands in a second. Zuko, don't be so hard on yourself. You've done some rotten things," she said bluntly, "But you've also been through a lot. You are a good person, with a good heart, it's just been on ice for a while."

Zuko smirked. "So you're saying that I need to warm it up?"

Katara blinked, her face growing red. The way he had said that was so different from the normal aloof Zuko. "Uh, I guess you could take it that way…"

Still smirking, he leaned in and asked slyly, "And just how do you think I could do that?" He was curious to see how far she was willing to go with this.

Katara's face lost its blush as she said firmly, "Plenty of ways." She had a feeling that he was playing with her, testing if she really wanted to help him. She would prove to him she wasn't just pretending to want to help him.

Zuko sensed her change in attitude, but wasn't ready to give up. Somehow, this had become a game in his mind, and he wouldn't lose. He would just have to step it up a notch.

"Well…I have one idea that could help," he said quietly, his arms softening on her and his eyes gazing at her intently, pulling her a little closer.

Katara knew what he was doing and didn't even blush. "Like being friendlier? That would be a perfect start, you know."

Zuko chuckled softly, saying, "Why don't I start with you?" He now had her in his lap and was a little surprised to see that she didn't look in the least bit uncomfortable.

Katara had to force herself to look at perfect ease now that her knees were on either side of Zuko. If he was going to be stubborn, then so was she. "Or, you could start with Aang and not put it off since he's the one you will probably have the most trouble with."

"But Aang's not here right now," Zuko pointed out, now beginning to enjoy this game, amazed at how Katara still didn't even seem fazed. He ran his hand through her hair, this time pushing it over her shoulder.

Katara suppressed a shudder as his rough hand brushed her neck. How far would he take this until he realized she wasn't going to back down? "Zuko, if you haven't already realized, when we first crawled into this cave you were being friendly. You carried me, and you held me to keep me warm. Heck, that's a step away from being downright sweet. You don't have to prove to me anything."

"I didn't say I had to." Zuko's hand was still tangled in her hair. He tried to find a way to continue his game, he liked testing her. Correction—he liked touching her. It was completely forbidden and unknown territory, but Katara was letting him do it anyway, and that made him feel a little excited. "I wanted to see how much you trusted me."

"Zuko, it's going to take a very long time for you to gain my complete trust," she said, rolling her eyes. It was time to end this game, she was getting cold again and she was determined to show Zuko that she could be just as sly. "But I trust you enough to do this." Katara closed the space between them and pressed her mouth to his softly.

Before Zuko realized it, his hand in her hair tightened and pulled her closer slightly, and his lips met hers eagerly. But all too soon Katara pulled away, her cheeks only slightly red. Zuko stared at her, shocked, as she smirked at him.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her mouth, leaned in and whispered in his ear, "I win."

Zuko whipped his hand away from her hair and glared at her, scowling. Katara ignored him and settled her back to him, revealing in the surges of warmth he gave off in his anger.

Zuko was furious. Not only had she took the control away from him, she beat him to the kiss. That was supposed to be only a test, but she used it as a tie-breaker and to make him stop talking so she could feed off his warmth again.

That wasn't the end of it either. Zuko had realized that he wanted it. He wanted to kiss her, just for the hell of it. She had totally ruined his plan. The man was supposed to kiss the girl first, not the other way around. It was a matter of pride. It didn't help that it was obvious that Katara didn't think of it anymore than just a plain show of trust, not an act of passion.

Zuko silently fumed as Katara pressed against his chest, not thinking of anything more than trying to keep herself warm. She grabbed his arm and tried to put it around herself, but Zuko yanked it away.

"Zuko."

"What?" he snapped.

"I'm cold."

"That's nice."

Katara rolled her eyes. "You seriously can't be made that I did that. You were about to do the same thing to me."

"I was not."

"Yes you were."

"I gave you plenty chances to say no," he said heatedly.

"Oh, so becuase I did it out of no where it isn't fair?"

"Katara, be quiet."

"Zuko, I will not until you stop being so—"

He wrapped his arms around her, gritting his teeth. "There. Now shut up."

When the rest of the group went out searching for them, Aang quickly spotted the wall made of ice and dissipated it. Sokka was the first to crawl into the cave and found quite a sight. The fire bender had his arms wrapped around his little sister with his head on her shoulder, both asleep.

"GET OFF MY SISTER!" he yelled, and the rest of the group ducked inside to see what he was yelling at.

Katara and Zuko jerked awake, alarmed. They quickly understood why he was so angry and Katara hurriedly said, "It isn't what it looks like!"

"I was keeping her warm," Zuko said.

"More like taking advantage of my little sister!" Sokka yelled.

"Sokka, he didn't do anything I didn't ask him to!" Katara said loudly, then realized that wasn't the right thing to say. Zuko put a hand to his face as Sokka and Aang froze, while Iroh and Toph smirked. "I-I didn't mean it like that!"

After some hurried explaining, they left the cave. For the next few weeks, the two endured jokes and comments about the incident, and were never left alone since Sokka kept a glaring eye on Zuko and stuck to his sister like glue.

Katara just ignored them, rolling her eyes, but Zuko was having one hell of a time with it. Of course he didn't let the others know and only showed anger on the outside to their comments, but on the inside he was suffering. Everyone kept joking about it, so Zuko couldn't stop thinking about the incident like he had planned. He tried to reject the fact that he liked Katara, but it was impossible. Every time he was around her, his eyes would focus on her lips, he would watch her every move with intent, he would immediately recall the feeling of her in his lap, her mouth pressed to his.

Zuko would not accept the fact that he was infatuated with a water bender, much less an ally of the avatar. It was plain impossible.

So why couldn't he just couldn't stop thinking about her, no matter how hard he tried?

There. I'm not really happy about how sudden the kiss was, but oh well. Please comment, and thanks for reading.