Here is chapter 4! WHOOOO WHOO! I love this chapter. I know that its nowhere near what happened in the series, but that is why its call fanfiction!

Hope you like it as much as I do!

I do not own ATLA, or any of the characters.
Except Salji, she is mine

A small tear escaped from his good eye. He didn't want to hurt Toph's feelings, but he had to. He couldn't tell her what happened in his past. The anniversary was tomorrow, and then after that he could shove it in the back of his mind until next year.

He heard someone stomping up the stairs, and he knew who it was. He knew that after Toph left his bedroom that Katara would be waiting for a full report over what was said. But he didn't tell Toph anything, so now Katara was coming t yell at him.

Katara didn't even bother to knock. The door came flying open, and she stood there enraged.

"You better tell me what on earth is the matter with you, right this instant!" she yelled at him.

"Katara, please close the door." He didn't want anyone else hear what was going on.

After she shut the door she waited for him to start talking, but he didn't. "Well…"

"Katara, I can't tell you just like I couldn't tell Toph." He said looking down at his hands.

"There is a girl down stairs balling her eyes out, because you wouldn't tell her what was the matter with you! She just wants to help you Zuko!"

Zuko knew that this was going to happen, but hearing the words come out of Katara's mouth just made him feel even worse. He knew that Toph and Katara just wanted to help, but he couldn't tell them. He couldn't tell anyone.

"Katara, I know she just wants to help me, but she can't. Nobody can." He whispered.

"Zuko, maybe if you told someone what was going on with you, they could help you."

"I CAN'T TELL ANYONE!" he yelled in her face. "They would only judge me if I did."

Zuko couldn't believe he lost it like that. This week had put him through a lot, and usually his uncle was there to help him through it, but this year he didn't even know where his uncle was. He looked at Katara. He could see the tears starting to gather in her eyes. He had hurt her feelings.

"Katara, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you, it's just… I can't tell you ok."

"Come on Zuko. Please tell me. I want to help, but I can't if you won't let me." She said as she wiped her tears from her eyes. "Please tell me who Slaji is."

"Katara, just forget you ever heard that name." he said in a stern voice.

"Who is she Zuko?" she pressed even harder.

"Katara! It doesn't matter who she is. Just drop it!"

She stood there with her hands on her hips. Zuko could tell she wasn't going to leave until he told her. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to tell her what was going on and if he didn't tell her she would hound him about until he did tell her. If he went ahead and told her then she would quit begging him, and then the day after tomorrow he could get back to normal life.

"Ok, I'll tell you, but you have to promise never to tell another soul, not even Toph."

"I promise Zuko." She said agreeing.

"I lied this morning; I do know who Salji is. When I was young she was my best friend. She was beautiful. She had long dark chocolate brown hair and perfect porcelain skin and the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. They were gold, but if you looked really close they had a rim of blue around her pupil. We spent every waking second together, where I was she was. Right after I turned thirteen I was told I had been betrothed to Mai since I was born. I didn't like Mai though; she was just Azula's boring friend to me, nothing more. I had already decided that I wanted to marry Salji, but it could never be because she wasn't born of any higher power, and the fact that she was a secret waterbender didn't help."

"Wait, she was a waterbender?" Katara asked baffled.

"Yes, her mother was Fire Nation, but her dad was from the Northern Water Tribe. She really didn't look Water Tribe, but she was a great waterbender. Nobody but her mother and I knew about this, her mom didn't want her to be banished or killed because of her heritage, so Salji hid her bending."

"Wow, that's amazing."

"She was amazing" he said with a small smile.

This was the only time he had talked about Salji to anyone. It felt good to talk about her, but it also made his chest even hurt more when he thought about how the story ended.

"So what happened?" Katara asked with wide eyes.

"One day Salji and I went to our favorite place to play, it was a big open field with grass that was almost as tall as me back then, just outside the palace. We were playing Hide and Fire, I found her and we just sat there and laughed for what seemed hours." His face changed so drastically within two seconds. It went from a small smile to a face full of anguish and pain.

"When we stopped laughing we heard this weird sound, I look behind Salji and saw a mongoose dragon ready to attack. We both start running as fast as we could, and I knew that Salji wasn't as fast as me, so I threw my hand out behind me for her to grab, but she never did. I came to a complete stop and turned around looking for her, but she wasn't there. It was then I heard her scream." He shuddered. He felt hot tears slowly starting to fall down his face.

"She was screaming my name and I ran as fast as I could to find her. When I got to her the mongoose dragon was on top of her, scratching at her face and body, and I reacted. I used my firebending to get the animal off of her and it ran away."

Katara would gasp every once in a while, but Zuko just continued on with the story.

"When I got to her she had lost a lot of blood, she was barely conscious. I tried to keep her awake as I ran her back to the palace. My dad and uncle were in a war meeting, and I couldn't find the palace healer, so I had to barge in on the meeting. My eyes caught my uncles, and he came rushing towards me taking Salji out of my arms and took her somewhere. I started after him, but my dad grabbed my arm. He told me I had disgraced him by barging in like that. When I tried to tell him what happen he wouldn't listen. He called an Agni Kai against us." The tears streamed freely down his face now, he looked over at Katara and tears also streamed down her face.

"Hold on. What's an Agni Kai?" Katara interrupted.

"It's what we do to resolve conflicts. Two opponents meet on a battlefield and duel with only firebending. The goal in the duel is to knock your opponent off-balance, and incapacitate them with a final blow. Whoever wins is the one who wins the argument or whatever the duel was called for."

"Ok, so why did your father duel you to one. The only reason you barged in was because you were trying to save her."

"He didn't like how I disagreed with the arranged marriage with Mai. To him it showed I wasn't loyal to the Fire Nation, and he knew it was because of Salji that I disagreed. So he really didn't care that she was moments from death, he was dueling me to an Agni Kia so I would suffer. I told him I wouldn't fight him, I had to be with Salji. So he decided to teach me a lesson." Zuko pointed at his left eye, to the huge burn mark that covered his left cheek bone, eye, ear, and went up into his hairline.

Katara was shocked. "How could he do that? The girl you loved was dying and he decided to teach you a lesson? That's barbaric!"

"I don't know." Zuko said in a small voice. "After he burned me I was out for a couple of weeks, and when I woke up he banished me because I refused to fight him, because it showed I was weak. He told me I couldn't return until I had the Avatar. I asked my uncle what happened to Salji, and he told me, that he had been told, she died while I was unconscious." At this point he could barely talk he was crying so much.

The next thing he knew Katara was wrapping her arms around his neck and was hugging him. He hugged her back, not holding back any of his tears. After a few minutes they finally broke apart.

"The reason I've been acting weird all day, is because tomorrow it's been three years since the accident." He said as he wiped his tears away with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Oh, Zuko that's terrible. I can't believe that you went through all of that when you were only thirteen!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's not your usual childhood. Usually at that age you're supposed to be worrying about puberty, or who you are going to ask to the school dance. I was grieving for the girl I loved." Fresh tears started to flow after he said this, and Katara grabbed him in another hug.

"I didn't even get to tell her I loved her" he cried into Katara's shoulder.

"Is there anything I could do to make this easier on you Zuko?" Katara asked.

"You could bring Salji back" he said in a very low whisper so Katara wouldn't hear.

"I wish I could" she answered to his surprise.

After they both stopped crying, they sat back and looked at each other. Katara was right. It made him feel better that she new. He had all of this repressed sadness about Salji, and it felt good to get it off of his chest.

"We should probably go down stairs and eat. Sokka's probably eaten Toph by now" he said trying to lighten the mood.

He shifted to get up off the bed, and Katara grabbed his hand. Her hand was soft in his. He could feel his cheeks turning red, but he didn't know why.

"Are you going to be ok?" she asked.

"Yes, I will be fine." He said giving her a smile.