Disclamer: Avatar is not mine! But OMG I can't wait for the movie!!!

AN: Please review! I just really neeed the encouragement right now.

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Chapter 3: Heartbeats and Butterflies

Katara run away after that, not bothering to clean the room. She didn't want to see him, this man that had whispered 'your beautiful' before she'd become too startled to stay there any longer. She ran into the elevator and pressed the button so many times her hand was a blur. Pressing her back up against the far end of the elevator, her heart pounded so loudly in her chest it sounded like a drumbeat.

Zuko, Zuko, Zuko…

It sounded like it was saying his name. Katara turned and rested her head against the cool metal of the elevator. "This isn't me… How could I get all flustered over someone like that? Why'd he say those things? Was he just screwing with me, messing with me for the thrill of it?" She scowled. He had to be – he was some playboy after all! He probably did that to all the girls he met!

But… why did he seem so sincere about it? The way he looked at her when he opened that door, the way his eyes had lingered on her for so long, the way he'd trembled. She muttered curses to herself and turned over onto her back again as the elevator came to a rumbling stop.

"Katara!" Toph's voice rang throughout the elevator. The doors slid open to reveal the blind girl standing in the way. She placed her hands on her hips. "I just got a certain call from the grand suit – what's the meaning of this?"

"Toph!" Katara sprang forth and clutched the other girl's shoulders. "Don't send me back up there, please! He-he's… he said I was beautiful!" She said it with such horror in her voice that Toph began to laugh.

"What? Katara, you are beautiful!" Toph retorted back. She placed a hand over Katara's chest. "You have a beautiful heart, it's only natural people would see you as beautiful on the outside as well. Even I can tell that. I just wish you wouldn't starve yourself while thinking you're not."

"Please… don't tell me that," Katara muttered. "And don't send me back up there, I don't think I can take it." She didn't want to go back there – just remembering his face and his words made her knees weak and her heart start to dance wildly in her chest again. She didn't want to face these people that told her things she was sure were false.

Toph sighed. "Fine, take the day off if you want. But you're going back up there tomorrow. He called and said he didn't want anyone else to clean the suite but you."

"You're not serious, are you, Toph?" Katara's hands clutched to her uniform tightly, nervously.

The younger woman smirked at her. Suspicious. "He offered to pay you a huge tip if you went. Haven't you been trying to save up to buy some better clothes? Just grin and bear it. Besides, don't you feel sorry for him?"

Katara paused, struck by her words. She stood there, looking obviously lost and confused by what she meant.

Toph shook her head, picking up that her friend had no idea. "You're hopeless at following the news, Katara, I sweur. The reason he's staying here is because he was displaced by his family – apparently he's out of the inheritance. There was some sort of fire at their mansion, cuased by him, they say."

The throbbing in her chest faded a little. "Lit a fire…" she muttered. He was a bad person after all…

"Although," Toph interrupted her thoughts. "I have my doubts. It was his sister that said all these things on the television. Her voice was… suspicious. I could tell she was lieing. She's got such a snobby voice, she seemed proud that he was kicked out. I wouldn't be surprised if the rumours about him being abused as a child were true."

Katara fell silent. Now that she thought about it, she had heard those rumours too a while ago. Toph was an expert at telling people's emotions through the way they talked, and she wouldn't lie about something like that.

Guilt. She felt it heavy and hard in her stomach like hot lead. He'd been kicked out of home, abused, suffered that wound to his face… and she'd run away when he'd tried to speak to her. She almost felt a little ill at her behaviour. Even if the things he'd said were bizarre and untrue, she shouldn't have run away like that. Katara chewed her bottom lip for a moment before she backed up into the elevator and pressed the button to go back up. As the doors shut, she saw Toph give a encouraging smile. Her heart began to pound again, saying his name.

Zuko, Zuko, Zuko…

The walk back to the grand suite was the longest she'd ever had to endure. Every step closer set her body trembled more and more, guilt mixed with other feelings she couldn't even begin to describe apart from anticipation. It took everything she had to knock on the door again. She placed a hand on the trolley she had left behind there to keep herself steady.

When she opened the door, there he was again; dressed in black skinny jeans, a t-shirt and a wristband both adorned with the name of some band she didn't know. He'd run a towel over his dark hair, making it seem more like a lion's mane than a proper hairstyle. Her eyes lingered on the collar of his shirt, remembering what his body looked like underneath it. A blush rose over her cheeks. "I-I'm sorry about earlier," she apologised. "Do you still mind if I clean the room?"

He smiled. Katara felt her hand grip tighter around the trolley as his serene smile seemed to dazzle her. "Please, go right ahead," he insisted, stepping out of the doorway for her to pass. She could feel his eyes following her while she began to work. "About before… I'm sorry as well."

She turned to face him, lamp in one hand, duster in the other. "Wha-no, no! It's fine. It's just…" She gulped. He lent against the doorframe of the bathroom, staring at her inquisitively. "It's just that nobody has ever called me beautiful before…"

Zuko stared at her, even more curiously than before. "But it's the truth." She couldn't help but be enraptured by his gaze for a moment.

"No! No, it's not! I'm anything but beautiful!" she exclaimed suddenly, snapping out of it. She covered her mouth, surprised by her outburst.

The young man's expression showed he'd definitely heard what she meant though. "Your name is Katara, right?" She nodded, slowly. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach from nervousness and excitement as he walked towards her. He smiled again and offered his hand to her. "Come with me, Katara. Leave the cleaning and I'll take you wherever you want."

Hands first clutched to her chest, she reluctantly took up his offer, entranced again by his smile. In the moment that her fingers touched his, she felt like she was Alice, following the White Rabbit down a rabbit-hole to some wonderful new adventure. Or maybe she was Wendy being swept off her feet by Peter Pan, away to Neverland on a handful of pixie dust and joyful thoughts.

Regardless, she was off to a world she'd never dreamt of, with a man she thought would never exist in her wildest dreams.

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AN: Next chapter coming sooooon! please review though, I need the support, baaaaw