Brian and Mike get the credit, the control and the money. Not me. Got it.

This chapter has undergone slight reconstructive surgery. Frankenwhat? Hope it's okay.

IlIlIlIlIlIlIlI

It was not the question he had been expecting, obviously. He turned his head back to meet her eyes, his right eye wide, eyebrow arched in surprise.

"I am seventeen. Why?"

"It's just, do you ever think about how young we all are? I mean besides Iroh, we're all basically just kids. Trying to save the world." From your family, was the unspoken conclusion. He frowned. She paused for a moment, a small smile cracking her lips. "I thought you were older than that."

"Well, how old are you?"

Instantly her chest puffed out, perhaps subconsciously, but he found himself noticing again her attributes. "I'm nearly fifteen!"

Nearly fifteen. Almost old enough to marry. Not that he would consider marriage. To her. Or at all. Marriage was a topic to be thought about in the future. This wasn't the future, he was pretty sure. The future was somewhere else, something he had been, until recently, very sure of. Capture the Avatar, regain honor, restore birthright, become Firelord. Marriage surely had been in there somewhere, along with signing documents, attending ceremonies and fulfilling other official duties. It was like he was hovering in limbo and he was very, very frustrated, under several definitions of the word. He was trying very, very hard to remain in control of his body and its stubborn will of its own. But she was just so vexingly close to him, so available but not available, so often. He couldn't look at her without wanting to touch her, feel her, be with her. And he could hardly blame her, she was merely existing, going about her business with absolutely no awareness of her own body and it's sneaky pheromones.

He had been shocked, at the river, when she had not meet his voyeurism with anger or disgust. Shocked enough to attempt a secluded conversation. What was he doing? He had no idea what he was doing. Girls were crazy, after all. A mystery he had been more than happy to put off exploring. Until she had sauntered into his proximity and set off some kind of hormonal time bomb.

Meanwhile, she was looking at him, hugging her elbows, and frowning. Damn. He had forgotten to say something.

"Fourteen --"

"Nearly fifteen!" She interjected, and he had absolutely no defense against the stubborn bundle of flashing blue eyed wonder that was Katara aged nearly fifteen.

"-- is a very nice age?" He stammered.

She stared at him for a second, then burst out laughing.

"Sorry." She said, shy cheerfulness seeping back into her face. He sighed, relieved. He never wanted to kiss her more than after she laughed. And he didn't even know why. He was not usually one to be attracted to "happy". Even though his only previous romantic experience had been limited to Jin, who was relentlessly chirpy (as well as frighteningly disarming) and Mai. If he counted Mai. If he was even remotely aware that what they had could have maybe been considered possibly potentially romantic.

He fought a weakness in his knees (damned mutinous body) as she smoothed her hair and rocked back on her heels, her light shift tugging up ever so slightly with the raising of her arms. It was long, but the side slits revealed slices of long brown leg. The bindings of her underclothes beginning at the middle of her thigh were exposed, somehow much more alluring than when they had been in plain sight. She was of course, completely oblivious to what she was doing to him.

He couldn't take much more.

Words. He needed words.

"So, uh... how do you like being almost fifteen?" He managed, kicking himself mentally (hard) as the words exited his mouth and he was helpless to do anything about them (damned mutinous words).

"It's very, very exciting, Zuko." She looked at him in the way he would expect anyone to look at him if he'd just said those words to them. A mixture of puzzlement and amusement. And was that sarcasm? He'd never been that good at detecting or appreciating sarcasm. One reason (of many) that Sokka made his head feel like it was going to pop. "How do you like being seventeen?"

Agni, she was cruel.

"It's... great?" Great, he echoed himself. Now he was ending all his sentences with question marks.

This. Could not. Be good.

IlIlIlIlI

A/N and UPDATE 1/28:

(This may or may not be a passive-aggresive cry for a beta.)

Next chapter is making me crazy logistically (logisti-what?), so it might be a few days. Sorreeeee! (wishes there was an emoticon for sheepish)

AND THANKS FOR THE COMMENTS, EVERYONE! SKWISHES!!