Surprise! Another chapter!

A couple of ideas have been bouncing around my head recently, so i thought it would be fun to update this silly little one shot. It was never something I intended to do. I tried to continue in the same vain as the original, but I think they could be considered separate entities if you like.

And without further ado, the next chapter.

The soft, fuzzy state of mind that resides quietly between awake and asleep was slowly creeping over Katara. With a happy sigh, she burrowed deeper beneath the soft blankets and slid her hand up to the arm wrapped snugly around her waist. It was late, and this bed was always her favorite, being at a perfect place between too soft and too hard. Her body hadn't been this relaxed in weeks.

Katara could just feel herself begin the final tip into sleep when the arm loosened its hold and the warm chest against her back pulled away. She tried vainly to grab at his hand, but it was too late. Katara rolled over in time to see Zuko stand up from the bed and pull his shirt over his head.

He was doing it again.

Katara flopped onto her back with a huff and stared up at the ceiling. "Zuko, why?" It came out as a whine, not at all how she'd planed it, but Katara chalked it up to fatigue after a stressful day. At any rate, the thought made her feel better.

"Katara, we go through this every time." Zuko's voice was strained, and he sounded as tired as she felt. "You know why I can't stay."

Angry, she sat up and glared at him. "No, I don't, actually. Would you care to explain?"

Zuko finished pulling his pants up and he glared back at her. "This doesn't mean anything," he gestured between the two of them, "remember? Besides," he sat down on the desk chair and began pulling on his socks and shoes. "Everyone wouldn't want to know. It'd just make things weird."

Katara's jaw dropped. "Weird? You think that would be – no, I'll tell you what's weird!" She could feel herself working into a good rage. The rest of Zuko's palace be damned. They could all wake up from her screaming for all she cared. In fact, she wanted them to! "What's weird is having sex, and then you running out the door as soon as you've caught your breath!"

He cringed. "Katara, please. I know the walls are thick here, but you shouldn't risk waking King Bumi up." Zuko looked at the wall on the other side of the bed fearfully. "The man is insane."

"Then I guess you should have thought of that before assigning him the room beside mine!" Katara shouted.

Zuko looked down nervously and fiddled with his pant leg. "I usually do, but we're still in the process of fixing his room after his last visit."

Katara growled and gripped the blanket tightly in her fists. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she counted to five before looking at Zuko again. "You know what, that's not the point. The point is that you're too ashamed for people to know that you associate with a lowly water tribe emissary in such a way. Admit it!"

He held up his hands, a pained expression on his face. "Katara, that isn't – "

"Then what is it, then!" she was shouting again. "Because as far as I can tell, we never really followed through with the whole friends with benefits thing."

Zuko sighed and rolled his eyes. "Katara," seeing her glare, he gulped. "Well, I guess I did spend part of the past summer with your family at the South Pole. And you do come with me as moral support when I make my monthly visit to my father. But that doesn't mean - !"

He stalled out again when he noticed she was still glaring. "I suppose I did take you dress shopping once." Her fingers tapped an angry staccato on her knee. Zuko laughed nervously. "Or was it twice? Three times? And you did accompany me to that formal dinner last spring. You looked gorgeous by the way. Did I ever tell you that? But still! Those don't mean anything!"

Katara threw her hands in the air and fell back on the bed again. "Ok. That's it. I give up." She mumbled pitifully to the ceiling. "Alone forever, that's what I'll be. I've endured the pitying looks from people asking after my love life for over a year now. And it's all because I'm the Fire Lord's mistress." She sighed. "How degrading?"

Zuko shifted nervously in his chair. "I," he stopped and cleared his throat. "Mistress is such a harsh term. And really, I feel it goes both ways. I mean," he spent a frantic moment searching for a way out of this. His poor brain was currently at an unfortunate level of 'fried' from hours spent in the policy meeting that day, and just wasn't ready for this sort of encounter.

"I, I would never call you that, Katara." He stuttered out.

Eyes flashing dangerously, Katara sat up once more. "Then what would you call this?" she asked sweetly.

Zuko cleared his throat again and scratched at his neck nervously. "I guess I'd call it friends with benefits?"

"Leave."

He knew from the quiet tone of her voice that he was in big, big trouble. "Katara, wait!"

"I said get out!" She screamed as loud as she could.

They both paused as there was a sharp creak, not unlike the sound of a splitting boulder. Suddenly Zuko was ducking flying bricks the size of his head. "Damn it all! You kids keep quiet. People are trying to sleep!" After the bricks stopped flying, Zuko had just enough time to see King Bumi in nothing but his bright green skivvies before the wall separating the rooms began to crumble. With the collapse of the wall, parts of the ceiling began caving in chunks as well. Katara screamed as bits of dust and rocks showered down on her.

Using the chaos as cover, Zuko made his escape.

Katara sat in bed with the blanket pulled up to her chin, shaking with barely contained rage, as she listened to King Bumi argue with the people in the rooms above them.

She was going to kill Zuko.