A/N—I am SOOOOOO sorry it's taken me like a month to update! I wanted to update sooner, but my English teacher (who I call combustion man because he makes my head spontaneously combust) has been giving me a TON of homework. So, I tried to make this chapter a little longer to make up for it. Also, I hopefully will have more time to write over the holiday, so you can probably expect an update within the next week. Enjoy! :D

**Disclaimer** I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender no matter how much I wish on stars. I am confident that I could have ended it better than certain people though… BOO KATAANG!

Zuko awoke to the calling of the rising sun. That was the one downside of being a fire bender—you always had to rise with the sun whether you liked it or not. Zuko groaned and pulled himself into the lotus position.

He concentrated on steadying his breathing as he began to become enveloped in his thoughts. He was just beginning to contemplate the past few years of his life when his uncle came walking in.

"Good morning Prince Zuko!" Iroh said loudly. Zuko stood up and put a hand over his uncle's mouth.

"You know, just because we get up at sunrise doesn't mean that others do. Especially relatives of Sokka," Zuko muttered quietly.

Iroh gave a hearty laugh. "I suppose you are right nephew. Sokka did have a tendency of sleeping in, didn't he? Is Katara as bad as he is?" Iroh asked Zuko.

Zuko answered without a second thought. "No, Sokka is worse than pretty much everyone. Still, Katara doesn't like being woken up really early in the morning."

Iroh chuckled. "I always forgot that I wasn't living with fire benders when we made camp near Ba Sing Se. They always got upset with my sleeping habits. But they were happy that they had that calming Jasmine tea every morning!"

Zuko sighed. "And I thought that I was the unobservant one that didn't think things through. Let's go downstairs and make some tea uncle," Zuko said.

"That is the best thing you've said all morning Prince Zuko," Iroh said contentedly.

"Come on uncle. Let's go before Katara wakes up," Zuko said. Zuko pushed his uncle out the door.

"Aren't you coming Prince Zuko?" Iroh asked as quietly as his extraneous personality would allow.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Of course uncle. But I can't easily go downstairs wearing just this," he said while gesturing toward his clothes.

His uncle looked him over and then smiled. "I suppose you're right nephew, but hurry up. I must make some tea for you and your water bender..." Iroh trailed off.

Zuko's could feel his jaw drop and his eyes widen. "She is NOT my water bender! And you really need to stop making comments like that uncle. At some point she might hear you!" Zuko said exasperatedly.

"That is sort of the point nephew…" Iroh said knowingly. Zuko could feel his body heat increasing. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.

"I'll see you downstairs uncle," Zuko said almost angrily. He slammed the door in his uncle's face so he could get away from the awkward situation.

He could hear his uncle chuckling behind the door, so he said, "I can hear you uncle." Iroh's laughter immediately subsided. "Thank you," Zuko said quietly.

Zuko then collapsed against the wall and let out a small moan. 'What am I going to do with him?' he asked himself.

He reached over to grab his rucksack when he saw something strange in the corner of the room.

'Is that what I think it is?' he asked himself. He crawled over to the corner and picked up the object.

Zuko stared at it for a moment and then turned the corner of his lips slightly upward. He looked down at the familiar blue and white maske which had caused him so much trouble.

"Now where did this come from?" Zuko asked himself quietly. He flipped it over to examine it more closely.

He noticed that the edges were particularly worn, and also that there were some pieces of grass and dried mud on the inside of the mask.

"Coincidental? Or the same mask?" he asked himself. He looked it over once again. Of course, his first mask had been blown up when Zhao tried to kill him, but the last mask that he had gotten was from a merchant in the Earth Kingdom, and it looked eerily similar to the one that was in his hands right now.

Zuko sighed. It was just another question that he had in his life that would remain unanswered. He slipped the mask in his rucksack and then took out some clothes.

He quickly pulled out his Earth Kingdom robes and pulled them over his head. He stood up quickly, wanting to get out of the small room, but he hit his head on the top of the cupboard and then shrunk back down to the floor and stifled a yell.

He rubbed the top of his head and then stepped out of the room carefully this time. He moved quietly towards the steps and then jumped down them in one fluid motion.

He saw his uncle quietly humming to himself while beginning to brew some tea. Zuko inhaled deeply, and then nodded. 'Ginseng tea was always his favorite,' Zuko thought to himself.

He stepped away from the kitchen and walked towards the entrance of the tea shop. He went outside onto the porch and took a huge gulp of fresh air while letting the sun warm his tense muscles.

Zuko stood there concentrating on the sun's energy for what must have been hours. Every once in a while, he could here his uncle bustling about in the kitchen making whatever type of tea his heart desired.

Zuko shut his eyes and again saw the cobalt eyes that he had learned to love over the past couple of months.

Zuko let out a deep breath. 'Oh Agni… Must you ruin every single thing in my life?' Zuko thought to himself sadly.

He slowly maneuvered back into the tea shop and created a small flame in his hand and lit up the lamps that were scattered among the store.

Zuko was about to light the last lamp in the shop when he suddenly saw his uncle standing right in front of him.

Zuko jerked upwards in shock and then immediately got into a fighting stance. After seeing it was his uncle he relaxed his stance and then said, "Uncle, don't snek up on me like that!"

Iroh gave a small chuckle. "You haven't changed in the way you react to things Zuko. I have a question for you. When was the last time you actually practiced your fire bending?" Iroh asked.

Zuko shuddered. He hadn't practiced in a while due to his busy schedule and also his near fatal wound.

Iroh nodded. "That's what I thought. You should go find an open space and practice your fire bending. It will give you a chance to calm down my nephew," Iroh said; his voice full of emotion.

"Okay uncle. No need to get all mushy on me," Zuko said while hoping desperately that his uncle would just leave it at that.

Of course, after Zuko thought that, his uncle did not let the subject go. "My name in Ba Sing Se was originally Mushi you know," Iroh said lamely.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "That is perhaps the worst joke you have ever come up with Uncle," Zuko said mournfully.

Iroh smiled. "Now go and work on that fire bending—if you keep practicing I'm sure you'll be a master in no time," Iroh said while all but kicking Zuko out the door.

Zuko quickly steadied his balance and then went of to find a large and quiet place so that he could practice his fire bending.

5 hours later…

Zuko put his hands in front of his stomach and took a harsh laborious breath. He had to go all the way to the middle ring to find an open space where he could practice, but it had been worth it.

Zuko had been practicing for hours, and he'd never felt quite so alive. Of course, his wound restricted him from doing certain fire bending stances, but that didn't stop him from practicing. In fact, his wound was still sore even though he didn't want to admit it.

Zuko picked up his discarded robe and wiped his forehead with it. Zuko's head leaned downward and the scar on his torso caught his eye. 'If only she knew why…' he thought to himself.

He sighed and went over to put on his bandages, but he heard a twig snap almost directly behind him. He swung around and immediately crouched into a fire bending stance.

He saw the person that was sneaking up on him hiding behind a tree. He relaxed a little when he saw who it was.

"Katara?" Zuko asked in disbelief. Katara stepped out from behind the tree, her cheeks a bright red.

"Hey Zuko," she said. "Sorry… I didn't want to interrupt, so I was just waiting for you to… You know what? It doesn't matter. I shouldn't have come to find you, so I'll just leave…" Katara said. She took a step towards the outside of the field where Zuko had been training, but Zuko ran over to her within a matter of seconds.

"It's okay, I was just finishing up anyway. But how did you find me?" Zuko asked. "I didn't actually tell anyone where I was going…"

Katara looked down at her feet, and then up at Zuko. "I swear I didn't follow you. I think that your uncle sent a messenger hawk to follow you or something… Iroh told me to look for you here, so I'm assuming he did something like that…"

Zuko placed his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose and pinched hard. 'The ideas the man comes up with,' Zuko thought to himself.

He felt like he needed to say something so he said, "That sounds like uncle. I'm assuming he wants to get us alone together so we can go on our 'date.'"

Katara looked back down at her feet. Zuko quickly tried to find the right words to say. "I'm sorry about him by the way. Sometimes the tea lover needs to set out his priorities, but he's family, and I don't want to let him down again. Anyway… it… well… I don't like… you know it isn't really a date," Zuko started to say, and Katara's head snapped up after he said that.

Zuko realized that he made a mistake by saying that. She must have misunderstood what he meant, so he quickly tried to fix that problem before it could come back to bite him. "I mean, it's not like I wouldn't want to go on a date with you, but we're both sort of in relationships, so… I…" Zuko trailed off into silence and then silently cursed. Why couldn't he have been better with words?

But Katara seemed to understand what he was saying and quickly nodded. "I know what you mean, but I honestly don't think I'm really in a relationship with Aang right now," Katara said.

Zuko gave her a skeptical look and then she began to explain what exactly she meant. "To master the avatar state Aang had to let go of all worldly attachments. Apparently I was one the one attachment he had, and to master the avatar state, he had to let me go. And seeing as he defeated Ozai by using the avatar state, he can't really love me. Not to mention that he thinks he loves me, but I think I'm more of a motherly figure to him," Katara finished.

Zuko looked into her beautiful blue eyes and he almost forgot what he was about to say, but he remembered at the last second. "Well, you must admit that you are sort of motherly," Zuko stated.

Katara's eyes widened and then narrowed into a glare. "However," Zuko continued, "you just wouldn't be the same if you weren't motherly. It's how you express just how much you care about people."

Katara gave him a small smile. "Thanks Zuko. Even though I may not want to admit it, I am motherly. But I don't treat everyone like they're my son or daughter" she said defensively.

"You do for everyone in the gaang…" Zuko said quietly. Katara gave him a light punch in the arm.

"Not you…" she said. Zuko detected some emotion in her voice that he couldn't quite place, so he looked at her face to see if her expression would betray her.

Katara cleared her throat after Zuko had been staring at her for about a minute. Zuko shook his head which rid himself of his previous train of thought.

"Sorry," Zuko said. "I suppose we should start heading to the town and get this over with. It's nothing personal, but my uncle can be a little…quick to judge people's emotions."

Katara nodded. "Sokka's a little like that too. He needs to learn how to keep his thoughts to himself. But I've never known Iroh to be like that…" Katara said.

Zuko gave a curt laugh. "You haven't lived with him after Music Night," he said jokingly.

Katara giggled. "I still want to hear you play the Tsunki Horn you know. I bet if I were to mention it in front of your uncle he would make you play," Katara said.

Zuko rolled his eyes and leaned down to pick up his bandages and shirt. Zuko did his best to put on the bandages himself, but he just couldn't do it all alone. He usually had his uncle or one of the healers help him, and he knew that he didn't want Katara helping him because that would just create an awkward situation.

Unfortunately for Zuko, the moment Katara saw Zuko struggling, she went over to help him. "Hold this on your stomach," she commanded while pointing at the end of the bandage.

Zuko did as he was told, and then allowed Katara to wrap the bandage around his waist. There were goose bumps at every place Katara's fingers brushed his skin, and Katara helping him did in fact make the situation awkward.

After Katara helped Zuko with that, she took a step backwards with a very light blush on her face.

Zuko put on his tunic and felt his cheeks grow warm as well. He then held out his arm in Katara's direction.

Katara smiled and then took his arm. "Since when are you such a gentleman?" she asked.

"Since I've been spending more time with my uncle," Zuko said as they started walking in the general direction of the city's main square.

A/N: And that is where I shall leave you. I promise something exciting is coming up, but I couldn't fit it into this chapter! Merry Christmas! And as a friend of mine says to those who celebrate many holidays, Happy Chrismahanakwanzakah!