I'm not very happy with this chapter, but I didn't feel like completely rewriting it. I'll do better next time, I promise!

Chapter 7: Waterbenders meet

Wondering what was taking her brother so long to get home, her mind was going over all the reasons why he would be late. Mostly getting worst-case-scenario's, she wanted to think positive and not listen to that little voice in the back of her mind.

Staring out the window waiting for her brother, Katara was so happy that Pakku accepted her request to take her in as a student. 'He must have been impressed because of my waterbending.' she thought.

Finally seeing her brother rounding the corner, she saw he was talking to someone who was walking next to him. The first thing she recognized about the person was that he had wavy blonde hair. Knowing that it was that older boy who caught her staring at him, Katara's face instantly heated up and began turning red. Not wanting the boy to see her face so flushed, she quickly bend a stream of cool water onto her face so her temperature would drop a bit.

When she was pleased with her appearance, Katara decided to meet Sokka and his friend at the doorstep.

Coming up to the house, Sokka asked Mako inside when suddenly the door swung open with Katara standing in the doorway.

"Where were you?" she asked, almost yelling.

"I told you this morning I would be training today." Sokka said calmly, knowing his sister would react this way.

"The sun has nearly set, Sokka! Nobody trains that long!" she said, not lowering her volume.

Sokka was beginning to frown when he said, "Katara, I really am in no mood to fight about this." was his warning.

Standing idly at the sidelines, Mako knew he had to intervene or it would get ugly. Watching them ripping each other to pieces wouldn't be a pretty sight, especially for Sokka. Wanting to try something, Mako loudly cleared his throat.

"Miss Katara, Sokka's tardiness was completely my fault and u shouldn't blame him for something I did ." Mako interrupted the siblings and saw Katara looking at him with a 'are you making fun of me?' face. Sokka on the other hand, recovering quite fast from his confusion, was grinning happily that his new friend had taken the blame.

Mako wanted to top it off. So he took her hand and bowed down to it, placing a feather light kiss on her knuckle.

Katara began to turn as red as a beet when the young man in front of her was kissing her hand. She wanted to say something but realized her throat closed up, with nothing coming out of her mouth as a result.

When Sokka's smirk fell off of his face, Mako had to suppress a little laugh. Thinking that changing the subject would be best, Mako delicately let go of her hand and asked Sokka if he could come in 'cuz it was freezing'.

Seeing Katara's hand still floating in the air, Sokka tried to process what just happened when he heard Mako's request. Naturally, Sokka let him enter and gave a tour of the place, all the while leaving Katara standing at the front door.

When they went to the living room, Katara was already seated on the couch when Sokka threw himself on the other end of it. Gesturing for him to sit down in the middle, Sokka stood up and said something about showing him his weapons collection.

When Sokka left, Katara and Mako were sitting right next to each other in an awkward silence. Wanting to start a conversation with her, Mako decided he should introduce himself properly.

"So… I'm Mako, nice to finally meet you." he said in a somewhat nervous voice while holding out his hand.

"Yeah, you too. My name's Katara by the way." came the automatic response. "Uh… are you gonna kiss my hand again?" she asked while blushing, remembering what had happened just moments ago.

"Oh… n..no, I did that to tease your brother." Mako explained, trying to hide the embarrassment in his voice.

For some reason not being pleased with that answer, Katara took his hand and shook it.

Mako wanted to talk about something else when he saw Katara frown when she took his hand.

" oh by the way, you did great against master Pakku today. I have to say, not many people would last that long against him." Mako rapidly said after coming up with the topic.

"Thanks, but I didn't win. I don't think he'll ever want to teach me." Katara said in a sad voice.

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that. You won his respect with that fight, he'll come around eventually." Mako said, trying to be optimistic.

"You really think so?" she asked, wanting to believe what the waterbender was telling her.

"Of course, at first he didn't like me too. I defended my best friend when she wanted to learn waterbending… and he held a grudge until now. But I worked hard to get back on his good side, and now I think he's starting to like me."Mako explained, briefly summing up the situation with master Pakku.

Katara's eyes went wide when he said 'she'. 'Does that mean he actually wanted a woman to be trained in waterbending?'

"Can I ask you something Mako?" Katara asked in a very inquisitive voice.

"Ask me anything." he said not noticing the underlying tone.

"What do you think of me?"

Mako's mind went blank. 'What kind of question is that? Say something already! C'mon talk!' his mind was screaming at him repeatedly but nothing came out. He just sat there with a gaping hole where his mouth should be.

"Uh… uh…I think… you're…beautiful." He answered honestly.

Katara was surely not expecting that. Now it was her mind that couldn't think clearly for a moment. "Oh, that… wasn't exactly what I meant. I thought you would look at me as something less than a man, not an equal." trying to suppress a blush, she awkwardly explained to the boy next to her what she meant.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid, why did I have to say that? She obviously thinks I'm some kind of freak now!' he kept berating himself in his mind while she was talking. About a second later, he processed what she had said and quickly got his mind back in order.

"What? Oh no, I know what women are capable of doing. Kyra, has shown me first hand." reliving old memories when he mentioned Kyra.

Seeing the unfocused look in his eyes, Katara wondered if something happened to this Kyra. "Good, because the majority of men have been quite rude to me. Just this morning there was a guy I didn't even know, who wanted me to wash his clothes." Katara said, balling her fists at the thought of a stranger ordering her around like some slave.

Outright laughing after she told him, Mako knew immediately who she was talking about. "Let me guess, he introduced himself as Hahn, right?" still chuckling when he asked her.

"Yes, how did you know?" confused that he instantly knew the boy's name.

"Well he once asked Kyra the same thing." Starting to lightly laugh again because of the memory.

'That's the second time he mentioned this Kyra.' she thought while feeling a little jealous for some unknown reason. Being a little annoyed because of the feeling, Katara decided to ask him what was up with that. "Is Kyra your girlfriend or something?" she practically snapped at him.

Mako was stunned for a second by the tone of her voice, but soon recovered and told her briefly of his situation with Kyra. "No… I was supposed to marry her." looking at his feet, he didn't want to think about his near-marriage.

"You… you're… betrothed?" she asked, fearfully awaiting the answer.

"No, not anymore. She was in love with someone else. She ran off a couple of days ago." Mako looked back up at her and saw a concerned expression on Katara's face. "But it's okay. I'm more sad that I can't check up on her from time to time, she's like my little sister." reliving the moment on the pier brought a small but sad smile on his features.

Katara didn't like seeing the older boy in front of her so depressed, so she wanted to do something to comfort him. She shuffled closer to Mako and put her left hand on his back. While she rubbed his back up and down, Mako felt her breathing close to his ear.

"It's okay if you're sad that she left, you don't need to keep it bottled up." Katara said in a comforting whisper.

Not being able to speak, Mako turned towards Katara and slung his arms around her form. "She was everything I had. Now she's gone and I don't know what to do." He was trying to stay calm, but the his emotions were too intense.

Katara immediately reacted when she felt his arms around hers in a hug. When she heard what he said, she knew she had to help one way or the other. "Don't worry, you'll figure something out." She tried to reassure him that everything would be alright, when she suddenly heard something clattering to the ground.

"What are you doing to my sister!" Sokka came back into the living room when he found his weapons collection. He was gone for 5 minutes and his new friend already had his arms around his sister.

Katara knew that Sokka jumped to conclusions, so she tried to explain the situation they were in. Before she even had the chance, Mako turned around and apologized to Sokka.

Sokka saw the tear marks that were on Mako's face, so he knew he just made a mistake. "Why are you crying Mako?" he said in a soft voice, abandoning his hostile demeanor.

Mako was cursing in his mind, knowing that he was caught during a moment of weakness. "I… I have to go" he said, wanting to get out of there as fast as humanly possible.

Katara didn't want to leave Mako like this, she tried to stop him by calling out to him. "Mako, wait!"

"I'll see you tomorrow morning at the waterbending arena, Katara." Mako ignored her, wanting to be alone for awhile. Though he hoped that she would be at practice tomorrow.

Do to Katara's personality, she didn't like leaving someone who needed her. But she realized he needed space, so she let him be for a while. She heard him about the waterbending lessons though, but she doubted Pakku would welcome her. 'Trust him Katara.' the voice in her head kept repeating.

"I'll be there." she mumbled while watching Mako stumbling of in the thick snow.

AN: Still the same message here: R&R guys!