A/N

Whew. I had a raging drawing streak, and everything I touched became color and swirls… Then I lost it. There are half a dozen projects that I was just forced to drop (if I tried working on them, they'd shrivel up and fall apart!). So, I decided to continue doing something I don't screw up (as often… I do screw up cough cough chapter four of the aftermath and chapter eight of rising from the mist cough cough total dud cough cough).

In other news:

It occurred to me the other day how long it'd been since I'd actually watched an episode of avatar from start to finish. Of all things, I picked the 'Avatar State', and I just cracked up at the total lack of gripping dialogue. The action, of course, is awe-inspiring, and it is very funny, but I think I've grown accustomed to the depth that fanfics provide. The fandom has grown to a level of coolness that the creators, I think, only dream of.

Rock on.

Omygawd. That was a Toph quote.

Take a deep breath. This is major actiony.

xxx

Katara mopped Sokka's feverish forehead once again. He groaned dramatically.

"I think I'm dying… Katara, I want you to have my boomerang… Just… don't… use it…"

"Oh, please. This is your own fault, you know." She replied haughtily.

"It's Zuko's fault! You told him to watch me!"

"Grow up, Sokka." Zuko warned from the doorway.

Katara wrenched her head painfully at the sound of his voice. Her face felt like it was on fire, and she cursed herself for feeling such a fool around him. Sokka, taking this moment of all to understand her, curled his lip at the embarrassed look on her face.

"Oh…please…" Sokka drawled, and promptly threw himself over the edge of his bed to expose his breakfast from the inside of his stomach.

Zuko cringed. "I just came in to tell you I'm going out. Do you two need anything?"

"No, thanks," Katara muttered, casting her eyes deliberately away from him.

"Yeah, just don't come back," Sokka mumbled.

"Sokka!" Katara exclaimed.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "You're just jealous because you can't hold your liquor."

"You didn't drink anything! How could I be jealous?"

"You were so drunk, I'm surprised you even remember we went anywhere last night. How would you know I didn't drink?"

"Zuko, just go." Katara demanded. "Take the high road here."

Zuko backed away to the sounds of retching, and in a more dignified state of mind, this would have brought Zuko some satisfaction. Anything to cause that snob of a peasant some discomort was a small victory to Zuko. But today, he didn't care what misfortune fell the other. This morning, he felt too ashamed of himself (although he hadn't done anything he wasn't liable to do) to care. Instead,vhe was ducking around Katara and Aang. He knew Katara had fallen for some trap that he hadn't realized he'd set for her. All that morning, he could practically feel the disappointment radiate from her to scorch his flesh. Exactly what she was disappointed about, he wasn't sure, and he kept reminding himself what he'd told Aang the night before: It wasn't his fault she was attracted.

As for Aang, he'd slipped out of the apartment as soon as Zuko had showed his face, and no one had seen him since. Katara had somberly explained that he had an early morning training session. Zuko had recoiled when she told him that.

"When did he tell you this? I was up before you…" Zuko asked.

"He woke me up earlier and told me." Katara mumbled.

Iroh's condition around Zuko hadn't changed, and Sokka was once more throwing sarcastic, condescending comments with every breath he had in between ducking into the trash can. In those two people, oddly, Zuko found the most comfort. Seeing as Sokka was sick and Iroh was just waiting for a chance to play Pai Sho, Zuko fled to the streets on excuse of making an 'errand run'.

xxx

"What was that?" Sokka demanded once Zuko had left.

"What was what?"

"I saw that, Kat-…" He heaved. "Tara…"

She pushed the hair from his brow. "Just settle down and be quiet."

"Don't change the subject! I saw you blush when Zuko came in!"

"I was embarrassed for you, you sorry mess!"

"You were not!"

"I was too! Don't you argue with me! I'm helping you feel better, remember?"

"Do you…" Sokka paused to chuckle at the absurdity. "Do you like him?"

"Wh-…What? He's a good friend…I-."

"Zuko's a good friend?" Sokka scoffed. "No he's not. He's an idiot."

"What's that say about you, then, genius? And for your information, he's a very good listener. I can never get you or Aang to listen to me."

"Aang listens."

"He…"

"Yeah, he does. But you'd rather have a psychopathic social outcast give you his attention than an innocent little-."

"Boy! He's just a little boy!"

"And Zuko's…what? A man? I know a man when I see one, and he's not a man."

"Sokka, you're impossible."

"Don't change the subject! I'm worried."

Katara frowned. "You're worried?"

"Yes! He's a fire bender!"

Her eyes flashed. "What do you think's gonna happen after the war, Sokka? Do you think everyone will just stick to their own nation again? Do you? Part of our job is going to be to act as diplomats! You and I will have to be friends with fire benders!"

"I don't know what this 'job' is that you're talking about. I'm going to help Aang win the war, and then you and I are going back to the South Pole."

"No! No, I won't! There is nothing for me there, Sokka! I want-."

"Something you…" He threw up again. "Can't have! You want your life to be some adventure that you cannot have!"

"I think I can take care of him from here," Iroh said quietly, resting a hand on Katara's shoulder. "He is just aggravating you."

Sokka threw her a strangled look that resembled a child being left behind by his parents with his babysitter, a tempered, old, rotund babysitter. She ignored Sokka's look and flounced from the room.

xxx

Zuko practically paced the marketplace, feeling more and more boxed in. He had thought society would make him feel more accepted, as if he belonged, but it had only alienated him even more. He was slapped in the face daily with the blunt truth that he would never fit in. He was an outcast from every social circle this world had to offer.

He had wondered if the problem was that he closed himself off to others, but after trying to get closer to Katara, his plan had backfired, and nearly gotten him pushed out of yet another circle.

He had been shunned his entire life. Was he doomed or did his father's sentence subconsciously affect every aspect of his miserable life?

He took a shaky breath. He could make friends. The others did it on a regular basis. It had to be easy (Sokka did it, didn't he?).

A boy a little younger than himself accidentally bumped into him, spilling the basket of figs he had tucked under his arm. Zuko knelt to help him scoop the rogue fruit from the ground.

Zuko held up a handful of figs to the boy. "Here you-…"

The boy was gone, replaced by three sturdy-looking earth benders that were glaring at Zuko so fiercely, he thought he might as well be back to ransacking villages for information on the avatar.

"Decided to rob that kid, did you?" The larger one grunted.

Zuko stood up uneasily. "No. I was helping him pick his stuff up."

"What's that in your hand?"

Zuko stared into his palms, dumbfounded.

"It's-."

They pushed him into an alley and slammed him against a wall.

Zuko was just shaking the black spots from his eyes as he saw a fist fly from his left and collide painfully with his stomach.

xxx

Katara took advantage of her post relief to find Zuko. As foolish as she felt, she was sure that just being around him would summon the waves of comfort his presence usually provided. She tried to calm her thoughts into a manageable string.

Sokka had to be wrong. Katara didn't really like Zuko in that way. Of course, she grudgingly admitted to herself, it wasn't as if she hadn't considered the possibility. Nights in Katara's room were torturous. She let no thought go unbidden. They flew at her from every possible angle, and she was helpless to stop them. One of these rambunctious blips of notions was that Zuko wouldn't be too bad of a boyfriend…

That thought had stuck with her, and she toyed with it for the longest time. She, the bender she was, approached it from each side, turning it over and over, much as the tide would the sand, and the more she dug, the more she found bliss. Just as she was cursing her comrades for being a clan of all boys (not one girl for her to talk to!), Aang and Zuko began their tussle in the lounge, and her disturbing ideas had ceased to come. Only now did she pick it back up again.

She shook her head and laughed out loud. He was probably only playing with her mind, pushing her to her limits. She'd seen sand-cats do something similar with mice. And when their torture was through, the mouse was either dismembered or had lost the very will to continue.

A large gaggle of girls passed her, giggling about some 'wanted poster' one of them had seen, and Katara realized how melodramatic she was being. Here the world was stepping up to one of its most fateful battles, and she was wondering about boys…

xxx

Zuko staggered away from the gang and fell to his knees a few paces away.

"Where do you think you're going?" The shorter, the 'runt' as Zuko called him, asked.

"Away…" Zuko grumbled.

He was completely torn. One side of his internal argument was to show them all who not to mess with, and make them run away like little girls crying out for their mothers, but the other side, his newly-instated logical half, was begging him just to walk away. What did these three peasants matter? He had bigger things to attend to. His honor would be upheld for simply choosing not to punish them.

But Zuko had never lost his lust for revenge, and the bitter flames of it were creeping into his limbs and blooming into his old actions.

Some small, feminine voice that sounded an awfully like Katara's called out in him, begging, 'just don't fire bend.'

Zuko halted his limping and boldly swiveled to face his attackers.

"You're a joke," The leader growled. "You think you can take us?"

Zuko's eyes were alight, "Yes, I really think I can." His hands flew to his waist, were his swords should have been strapped, but with a sickening let-down, Zuko realized he'd left them at the apartment.

He was utterly alone now, and he hadn't had such a will to overcome his situation for a long time. Rage filled him, and he ran at his attackers.

They barely flinched. Two of them moved aside, and the other simply knocked him down with a well-aimed stone. Zuko's wind was lost, and he fell back, flanked by the other two thugs. In a flurry of twisting heels and laughs, Zuko found his legs unable to do his will; they'd trapped his feet in the ground itself.

"What… have you-." Zuko wasn't even allowed a moment to speak.

His arms were grabbed and held firm, and the leader began to rifle through Zuko's pockets. He found his small dagger, Zuko's gift from Iroh, but nothing else. By sheer miracle, they didn't think to check the lining of his boot (they'd have gained quite a sum of gold if they had).

"This all you got?"

Zuko glared. "Let go of my hands, and I'll give you something a little more."

"Oh, shut up."

To Zuko's relief, his feet were released from their stony prison. To his horror, however, the idiot trio had somehow discovered the ability to throw a man through solid wall, and proceeded to use Zuko as a human projectile.

xxx

"Where is he?" Katara muttered aloud.

"Help! Thieves!" A boy was bolting down the lane, a half-empty basket of fruit flailing behind him.

Katara rushed to catch him. "What did they take?"

"Nothing of mine, but they're robbing some other guy right now! They're pulverizing him!"

"Where?"

The boy grabbed her hand and they took off in the direction he'd just come from.

"What did he-." Katara started to question, but a distant crash cut her off.

"Those guys are awful!" The boy supplied. "I'll bet they smashed a rock over his head or buried him or-."

"What did he look like?"

"The guy getting mugged? I don't know… It was kind of hard to tell 'cause he had a hood over his face, but he had a big ol' scar on the side of his face, though."

Katara gasped. "Zuko!"

xxx

Zuko's first conscious thoughts were that he'd never get the dust from his cloak. His entire body ached, and he had suddenly lost the will to try any of his limbs out. He was pretty sure his shoulder was shattered. He'd had broken bones before, and he had enough common sense to know that one is not thrown through a wall without some structural damage… And Zuko wasn't even thinking about the wall…

"Hey, are you okay?" A hazy voice called above him.

Zuko attempted to moan in reply, but his nose filled with dust, sending him into a coughing fit. Firm hands gripped his upper arms and pulled him to his feet. Zuko's body protested with waves of tear-wrenching pain. He gritted his teeth, refusing to cry out. The two men at his side finally released their hold on him, and he swayed; his form threatening to bring him to his knees.

Zuko turned to the gaping hole in the shop, searching with wild eyes for his attackers. They, the cowards, were gone.

"Listen," one of the men touched Zuko's arm. He flinched. "I know you were just… hurt… But I've got a house to feed, and this shop does that job…"

Zuko's eyes almost lost their focus on the man's face. "What are you talking about?"

"I can't run this shop with a gigantic, gaping hole in the wall! And seeing you're the only one around… I'm going to have to ask you to pay for the damage."

"You… what?"

"Listen, kid," the man's tone sharpened. "You'll have to pay for it. Victim or no, you were part of that escapade, and I need money to fix it!"

Zuko shook his head, taking his aching shoulder in his palm. "I'm not paying you. Go find those thieves. Ask them to pay."

"You're not leaving until you pay for this," the man motioned to his companion, and they took a bold step closer to Zuko.

Zuko shook his head firmly. "You won't get any money from me. Go find those guys! Get them to-."

"You think I'm crazy enough to do that? Don't you know who they were?"

"Cowards."

"They're the toughest gang in the eastern wing! Asking them for money is begging for death!"

"Consider that last statement as an application for me as well." Zuko answered gravely.

xxx

"Look! There's a crowd!" The boy called to Katara.

She abandoned her tour guide and wormed her way through the mob.

"Make him pay!" A woman to her left shouted.

"Leave him alone… Poor guy, he's just been beat up!" Someone else raised their opinion.

"What's going on?" Katara asked, clearly unable to reach the brink of the commotion.

"Some guy was pushed through a wall."

"No, no… He threw three earth benders through a wall! They turned and ran, but he stayed here and now he's threatening the shop keeper!"

"Hang him!"

"Give him some medical attention! Looks like he's hurt!"

"Hang him! Public execution!"

"No!" Katara screamed. "Leave him alone!"

xxx

Zuko thought he heard a girl call out in his favor, but he ignored it quickly. One voice in a mob didn't matter. The collective group of fists in a mob mattered.

The shop keeper and his chum were pushing Zuko farther and farther back to the crowd. Where did he have to run, they figured. He'll surely pay.

"We'll call in the guard," the shop keeper threatened. "They'll arrest you."

Zuko's blood, hot and simmering, suddenly chilled. If he was arrested...

"You have nothing against me." He muttered.

"All we know is that you landed in our shop, made a mess, and refused to clean it up. What proof do you have? Huh? What proof?"

"I've got blood pouring from several spots," Zuko snarled. "That proof enough for you?"

"How'd you get through the wall? Got proof for that?"

"You…fools! I wouldn't run through the wall! I was robbed and thrown though it!" Zuko clenched his fists.

"In any case, you're the only face here responsible. I demand some payment for this."

The injustice finally tore down Zuko's wall of self-control, and he leapt for the man.

His fist never reached him, however. Katara breeched the crowd perimeter and tossed herself onto Zuko's arm. He stopped mid-lunge and swiveled to glare at her. His eyes flashed angrily at his missed chance to pummel the man, but Katara held his gaze long enough for him to calm down.

"Let it go," she whispered. "There are some fights you are incapable of winning."

After she was sure that he would not make another move on the man, she released his fist.

"Here," she shoved her coin pouch at the shop keeper. "This is some. We'll return tomorrow with the rest. Are you satisfied?"

The man snatched the purse and thrust his gritty fingers through its contents. He eventually nodded. Katara grasped Zuko's hand and pulled him through the crowd.

"What did you do?" she asked, half-horrified to hear the answer.

He jerked away. "I didn't do anything."

"No, no… I know." She took his hand again. "I believe you."

He started at her impulse to entwine her fingers in his, and he threw her a bewildered stare.

"You do?"

"Of course I do. But… you've got to keep a rein on your temper. If you had struck that man back there-."

"He deserved it."

"It doesn't matter! I know you were about to flame, Zuko! I felt the heat in your hand! What if you had? You would have been arrested, identified… You would have lost everything."

"I haven nothing left to lose."

"Your uncle? Your life? Those two things alone should be enough!"

Zuko pried his eyes from the dirt road to meet her eyes. "I won't stand by and watch those thugs get away with this."

"I don't expect you to." Katara answered quietly.

Zuko stopped his march, his hand still folded inside hers. "What?"

"We're going to clean you up first. I think your shoulder-."

"What?"

Katara sighed. "I agree with you, and I want to help you."

"You believe me…You agree with me…And you want to help me…" Zuko repeated numbly.

"Yes."

Zuko deliberately tightened his grip on her fingers. It was all the reply that Katara needed.

xxx

"Where's Katara?" Sokka whined.

Aang sighed. He'd come back to the apartment an hour ago, feeling guilty about abandoning them (he really didn't have any training today), only to find that Zuko and Katara had both disappeared. Iroh had done his best to pacify the heartbroken boy, but Sokka kept making it worse. His stomach had finally settled, but his mouth was still heaving sour contents, only now in word form.

"I don't know where Katara is, Sokka," Aang grumbled. "If I did, I'd go after her."

"Why?" Iroh asked dryly, sipping his tea. "What would you say?"

"How about, 'Oh, Katara, I'm in love with you, come and be my temple queen!'?" Sokka mimicked.

Aang gave his glare as a response to his remark. "I'd just like to apologize to her for being such a jerk last night."

"I can't believe I missed a fall out between you and Zuko!" Sokka groaned.

"It wasn't a 'fall out'." Aang mumbled. "It was just an argument."

"Same thing!"

"Either way, it was immature of both of you." Iroh said.

"Thanks for the support." Aang answered.

"Wow! You've driven Aang to sarcasm!" Sokka cheered. "I always knew you had it in ya, kid."

Aang rolled his eyes. "Where did they go, anyway? Could it honestly take that long?"

Iroh shrugged. "Zuko went out to fulfill some 'errands', and Katara just left, after Master Charming drove her away."

"She needed a good reality rinse." Sokka answered bitterly.

"Is that what you call it? I was thinking somewhere along the lines of 'ungrateful cruelty'."

"Reality is a harsh, harsh thing."

"Don't I know it," Aang muttered.

"Quit feeling sorry for yourself." Sokka demanded. "Katara's not that great!"

"Yes, she is! And you were this way when Yue told you she couldn't be with you."

"Who's Yue?" Iroh asked.

"She kissed me! Of course I would be upset! Katara's never-."

"Yes, she did!"

"Did she do it again?"

"Well…No… But that's just because I never pressed it. I'm sure if I had showed a little more interest-."

"You couldn't have been more obvious." Iroh noted.

"To be frank, no one asked you." Aang replied sharply.

The door to the apartment finally swung open and a bandaged, bloodied Zuko stumbled in, flanked by Katara. Sokka instantly began to whoop.

"Go Katara! You're the man… uh… wo-man! You're the woman!"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"You beat Zuko's fire nation butt!"

"No, I didn't, Sokka. He was mugged."

"Did you have to put it so bluntly?" Zuko muttered.

"What would you have me say? You were pushed through a wall?"

"Katara…" Zuko muttered.

"You were robbed? Almost taken to prison by a heat-crazed mob?"

"Katara!"

"This is quite some story." Iroh said. "And you've got quite some wounds there, too."

"I'm fine." Zuko grumbled. "I'm going to my room."

"Wait, wait," Sokka pleaded. "Tell us the story. Obviously, Katara won't tell it right; she's a girl."

"Hey!"

"Sounds intriguing…" Aang rolled his eyes. "Did another twelve-year-old bender beat you up?"

Zuko stiffened. "There were three of them, and they were older than I am."

Katara helped Zuko down to the floor and into a seat. Aang's face twisted into some mangled form that Zuko gravely suspected was his way of containing the ferocious green monster housed in his heart.

Katara finally coaxed the story out of Zuko, and the others listened intently.

"… And then we found a healer on the way back to the palace."

"Only because the royal healers would probably recognize him," Katara explained.

"And they patched you up to look like a corpse rising from the dead," Sokka noted wryly.

"Not everyone can look as gorgeous as you do all the time, Sokka." Katara snapped.

"I know, I know. I have to keep reminding myself that." Sokka waved her comment away.

"So what are you going to do now?" Aang asked.

"I don't know." Zuko shrugged. "I'll figure it out."

A/N

-gasp- What? A cliffie sort of thing? I haven't done that since Rising from the Mist! Golly goodness!