*Disclaimer- I own nothing of Avatar: The Last Airbender*

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Chapter 5

A small knock on Zuko's office door had interrupted his thoughts. He grunted, but let out a loud 'come in'. Slightly surprised by who had come inside, he hid his amazement with a small smile. "Aang, what a surprise...I wasn't expecting you. Come on in."

The avatar smiled politely at his longtime friend and slowly closed the door behind him. "Were you busy?"

Zuko cleared his throat and shook his head, deciding it wasn't a great idea to tell the air nomad that he had been in deep thought of his ex-girlfriend. "No, I'm not busy at all. What is on your mind?"

"Honestly?" the firelord nodded, almost frowning at the boy's question. "Well, yesterday I found out that Katara's in a relationship with Kang. Have you heard about them?"

Zuko felt the annoying thumps in his eye as Aang said the word relationship and Katara in the same sentence. "I have heard the news...unfortunately." he muttered.

"I can't believe she would do such a thing!" Aang exclaimed. "Out of everyone in the firenation, she chose Kang; one of the firenation general's sons." Aang huffed.

Zuko raised his eyebrow in awe. He had never really witnessed the airbender in true disappointment or anger for that matter, and to see him like this over Katara was stunning. "Maybe it was for the best, Aang."

He shook his head. "No, I don't res111ally know who this Kang guy is, but I know he isn't good for her."

"Kang is one of my good friends, actually," Zuko stated with a small smirk. "Do you think that they are not good for each other?"

Aang frowned. "Do you think they're good for each other?"

Zuko cleared his throat once more. "My opinion doesn't even matter, I am a married man. Katara and her 'boy toys' may do as they please with one another."

Aang sighed, crossed his arms over his chest and grunted in disgust. "I hate that word...boy toy." Zuko tried to hide his grin, but the avatar had scoped it. "You laughing does nothing to help the situation, Zuko."

He shrugged. "Your innocence is very amusing."

The avatar rolled his eyes. "Well, excuse me for being raised by the monks, where we believed that a girl should not be violating her body by sleeping with different men every single week."

Zuko frowned in disapproval. "Firstly, Katara's a woman, and she may do as she pleases. And I'm pretty sure her and Kang are only seeing each other, making them a couple." Aang flopped down in the chair sitting across from Zuko's desk. "You seem disappointed."

"I miss her," Aang stated. Zuko absent mindedly nodded in approval, clearly thinking about the three words Aang had just spoken. "You miss her, too?" Aang asked.

Zuko, realizing his mistake, mentally slapped his forehead. "I miss her innocence, I guess." It was a lie, of course. He had been the first person to take away her innocence, and the first person to officially 'break her heart', he was told. Zuko sighed. Could he be the cause of all of this?

"Maybe, you should talk with her," Aang said, breaking the firelord out of his thoughts once again.

He shook his head. "Katara has her own motives. I'm sure me talking to her won't make a difference...besides, she and I aren't necessarily on good terms right now."

"Why not?"

"Nothing...just a frivolous argument."

"It must not be too frivolous if you guys aren't getting along," the avatar said. "The monks used to tell me that if you aren't in agreement with someone, make sure you do your part and show that you are regretful about the situation."

"Yeah, well that was more than 100 years ago, things have changed," the firelord decided to direct the question back towards the avatar. "Have you tried talking to Katara?"

Aang nodded. "I have, the other day, actually. That was when I figured out she was seeing Kang." He turned to look up at Zuko. "That's why you should talk with her. You guys seemed to have a good relationship even if Katara did used to hate your guts. It always seemed so weird, her laughing at your jokes, her continuous long stares when we used to train together." He paused to take a breath. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think that Katara used to like you..."

"Yeah, used to," he mumbled. He raised his eyebrow at the teen. "As time went on, we liked each other as friends. We were good friends."

Aang stared at him in confusion. "Were?"

He nodded his head in agreement. "Were."

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"I hate Zuko," Katara stated to her Kyoshi warrior friend. She picked up a small stick and tossed it into the small pond in the garden. "I really hate him and his big ego.

Suki laughed. "Because he certainly has a big one, huh?" she winked at her.

Katara raised an eyebrow at her and frowned, glaring at her in disgust, to Suki's surprise. "Shut up. You know what I mean. He thinks he can just waltz into my life and tell me he's gonna tell the world about our relationship. What type of shit is that?"

"Katara calm down," Suki told her friend, holding her arm from throwing a rock at a baby turtle duck swimming towards its mother. "It's Zuko; you should already know how he's going to act. Besides, Mai's his wife, shouldn't he at least tell her?"

"Hell no. That would mess up everything."

Suki rolled her eyes in annoyance. "What would telling Mai 'mess up', Katara?"

"Their relationship!"

The Kyoshi warrior rolled her eyes, not quite pleased with her excuse of an answer. "Because you definitely care about Mai and Zuko's marriage. C'mon, Katara, what's the real reason?"

"Just that!" she exclaimed. "If Zuko tells Mai about us, she'll possibly spread the word around, and soon the whole firenation will know about us. And whenever someone sees me and Zuko together, they'll think Zuko is cheating on his wife!"

"Quit over exaggerating, Katara," Suki hit her friend on the arm. "You're taking this too seriously. The most Mai would do is get angry at Zuko for not telling her sooner, and maybe a few threats at you. I'm pretty sure this situation would be kept low key."

Katara shook her head slowly, sitting down in the rocking bench. "Mai already hates me. If she found out about this, she'd probably..." her voice trailed off.

"But keeping this away from her, is potentially breaking up Zuko and Mai's marriage," Suki sat down next to Katara. "I know you don't actually care for their marriage, but maybe you and Mai should have a little talk about you and Zuko's past relationship, even if it was 2 to 3 year ago."

She sighed and rolled her eyes, but nodded in agreement. "Maybe me talking to her about it could probably take off some tension she's giving Zuko right now." Suki patted her thigh.

"I'm sure it will. As long as you don't mention anything about your strong desires for her husband, everything will go just fine," she smirked at the disappointing look her friend was giving her.

"Oh, shut up, will you."

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"I have a surprise for you today," Sokka said once he reached the ex-princesses cell. He dangled the key loosely in his thumb and index finger. "I took the guards key again. They actually are pretty inattentive to me taking their keys."

"Oh, goody," Azula said in a bored tone, staring at her low cut nails. "Were you planning on giving me a tour of the asylum?"

"No," he said proudly, giving her a big grin.

"Then what?" said Azula, not even half as enthusiastic as Sokka was.

"We're going to go out in to the garden! I'm surprised that they never let you out, you'd love it!" He smiled at Azula, and she frowned in response. "What? Do you not like flowers and sunshine? Or did your daddy tell you to destroy that, too."

She smirked at his witty comment. "Oh, please, Sokka, if I wanted to destroy any type of flower I would have already done it years ago. And, besides, the sun is practically my element, well, was."

"So you'll go to the garden with me?" Sokka was still grinning.

She crossed her arms over her chest and scoffed, "as if you'll get past the guards."

"They shouldn't mind me taking you out for some fresh air."

She rolled her eyes. "Assuming that they are a lot smarter than you, I'm sure they would. Besides, why would they want an ex-princess, who almost destroyed the nation roaming around their garden? It would be almost an insult."

He shrugged, deciding it hadn't been a good idea to mention the garden to her. "Well, I just thought you'd want to take a break from being in here; to maybe see how the world has changed in a couple years."

Azula stared at him with disgust. "Why the hell would I want to do that?"

"I don't know...never mind...just forget I said anything."

Azula frowned first before realizing what the watertribeman was suggesting. She dramatically sighed. "Fine, I'll go with you."

"Really?" he said, smiling.

"Yes, now unlock the door," she ordered.

Sokka hesitated with the key, holding it in the latch. A suspicious look was growing on to his face; a mixture of worry and anxiety. "But you have to promise me that you're not going to do anything that will make the guards have to—"

"What? Kill me?" She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, Sokka. I know when to fight my battles, and I know when not to. Besides, I didn't kill you when you decided to come in my cell the last time you were here."

Sokka blushed slightly, "That was on instinct."

"Of course," she said in a mischievous slow tone. Muttering to himself, he slowly pulled the key out and stared at her. Azula frowned. "What did I tell you about that? You know I hate to be stared at?" Her eyebrow rose in confusion as she saw him placing the key back into his pocket.

"We could go to the garden another time."

"Ah, so you don't trust me? After all we've been through, everything I've spoken to you...you still find me unworthy of your trust."

Sokka narrowed his eyes at her. "Just because you told me some secrets doesn't necessarily mean anything. I'm sorry, but yes, I just don't trust you just yet. I don't know why, but it's hard for me to—"

"Take a walk with an ex-princess in the garden?" she suggested simply, raising an eyebrow at him. "I guess I could understand that. Being a skilled fighter, I could easily take down guards and escape this hell hole of a prison."

"I thought you said the best thing that could happen in this place is death?"

"It is," she said in a chilling tone, "except I don't want to be killed by these petty people Zuko calls his guards. They can be simple killed by one swift kick to the throat. With or without my firebending, I am still a deadly adversary," she spoke proudly.

He shook his head in confusion. "You are giving yourself away, you know."

"Like anyone didn't know this information," she said with a bitter laugh. "If anyone comes into this cell, I could easily kill them. That's why no guard ever dares to come in here. That's why no guards allow me to go out."

"I'm here, and I actually came into your cell. You didn't kill me."

The ex-princess held in her astonishment. "Well you're a worthless peasant with nothing to lose. Of course I wouldn't kill you. There's no point."

Sokka shook his head at the mention of her saying the word peasant. "This peasant gave you that scar on your neck," he pointed to the scar just below her neck. "I don't think I'm too worthless, Azula."

"That is true," she admitted. She stood up, reaching her hand out for him through the bars. "Come in, I wanna show you something," Sokka just stood there, in shock that the princess was allowing him to come into her cell. "Come on, I'll show you the scar."

"A-Azula, you don't have to."

"I know. Come in," she repeated sternly.

"I can just stand out here." She rolled her eyes once more and placed her hands on either sides of her shirt and slipped it off. Sokka quickly closed his eyes at the stripping girl. "Azula, really?"

She rolled her eyes at him and shook her head in disbelief. "You can look now."

Sokka slowly opened his eyes and looked at the girl. She was wearing her bindings, thank Agni, but Sokka could see the damage his sword had done to her. The red, jagged scar line traveled lower than just at her neck. It started below her neck and ended just above her belly button. He bit the inside of his jaw, wishing she hadn't shown him. "I'm sorry." He looked away from her.

"For what?" she slid her shirt back on.

"For giving you that."

"Don't be ridiculous. I would've done the same to you if I had a sword and knew how to use it," He looked back up to her. She was sitting with one knee bent, sitting on her leg.

"Why did you show me that?"

She shrugged, cocking her head to the side. "I'm sure you wanted to see it, right?"

He blushed, looking everywhere but at the girl he was with. "I mean, you were talking to me about being worthless, I didn't expect for you to...—to show me that. It was very bold of you."

"So I shouldn't have done it, you're saying?"

"No," he said quickly. "I just...it was very abrupt, ok."

"Are you saying you were appalled by me taking off my shirt?"

Sokka sighed and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "No, I liked...I mean, I—it was very..." she raised her eyebrow at him, waiting for him to continue. He sighed again. "I wasn't appalled by it, Azula. I actually feel sorry for hurting you like that. But my hatred for you back then was strong," he looked away from her. "Back then and I actually wanted to kill you. But now, I feel a sort of regret, because now you seem to be—" he paused.

"What?"

"You seem different. After these couple days spent with you, I see the change, and it's a good change." He smiled meekly. "I think these little sessions we have together changed the both of us. You have the qualities of a friend."

She scoffed. "So you're saying that you want me, Azula, ex-princess of the firenation to be your loving friend."
"No, that's not it."

"Way to be subtle…" she said, staring blankly in front of him.

Before Sokka could speak, loud, thundering knocking echoed through the cell, it was time for Sokka to leave. Sokka stood up off of the ground and sighed. "You've changed a lot in these past days I've been with you. You're a good person, Azula. And I wouldn't mind us being friends." With a small smile, he turned on his heels and left the cell, leaving Azula in a state of awe.

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"Katara, what a bitter surprise," Mai's eyebrows scrunched together just slightly. "You were the last person I'd thought would come in here," she spoke in a bored low tone. "Nonetheless, what is it?"

Katara frowned, but held her tongue from outright cursing out the firelord's wife. "I wanted to talk about what happened the other day. I heard you were quite upset about the whole thing."

"It was unexpected, but I completely understand," Her face was perfectly calm, if not unconcerned. She shrugged and lifted one of her knives, sliding the silky, reddish cloth over backside of the blade.

"What do you mean by you 'completely understand'?" Katara asked, raising her eyebrow at her, giving her a confused expression. She crossed her arms over her chest and continued to speak. "If you 'completely understand' why did you blow up when Zuko and I were just talking?"

She was vaguely annoyed, but she continued to clean her knives as if nothing had went wrong. "I completely understand why you want him, Katara." She sighed. "I mean, who wouldn't want to hook up with the firelord."

Katara cocked her head to side and stared at the girl in pure disgust. "What are you implying, Mai?"

"I'm implying that you want Zuko all to yourself."

Katara raised her eyebrow and eyed her suspiciously. "And you somehow came up with all of this just because Zuko and I were just talking?" She scoffed. "That's some imagination you have there, Mai."

Mai just stared at her, holding a bored grimace on her face, while the waterbender spat out her irrelevant excuses. A couple of moments passed before she replied, "Say what you want, Katara, but you can't deny it."

Katara glared at her ex-lovers wife. No wonder Azula had picked Mai as one of her friends. As emotionless and heartless as the girl appeared to be, she clearly was a devious, dishonest, bi—girl that Zuko, also, appeared to be in love with. Katara silently cringed. What was she thinking? Coming to tell Mai about her relationship with Zuko was an outright waste of time, time she could've been spending with Kang….

"You know what, Mai?" Katara abruptly spoke, cutting the other women off her speech. "I didn't come here to argue with you. But apparently you insist on pursuing that." She started to make her way out of the firelady's room. "Maybe next time we could actually have a civilized conversation without you being jealous." Katara placed her hand on the doorknob and opened the door.

"You think that I am jealous?" Mai asked in an incredulous tone.

Katara paused. "Well, yeah, you wouldn't be arguing with me if you weren't. Don't try to deny it, Mai. You're jealous." Katara crossed her arms over her chest and smirked slightly, realizing that she had stricken a nerve with the girl. "But the question is why would the firelady be jealous over a simple girl like me? You're married to, Zuko, I'm not."

"Shut up," she muttered.

But Katara continued as if she hadn't heard her. "You're married to the richest and, well, handsomest man in the firenation, why would you be jealous of me?"

Mai frowned, stabbing her dagger into the table she was leaning against. "You just said he was the handsomest man in the firenation. Does that give you your answer, peasant?"

The waterbender pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at the firelady. Closing the door, she clenched both of her fists. "Peasant?" she shook her head and laughed bitterly. "I'll have you know that this peasant has done more things with your husband than you can ever think of doing." With a scowling frown on her face, Katara proudly walked out of the firelady's room, slamming the door behind her.

"Of course you have," Mai said, with a sly smirk growing on her face.

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Zuko took a deep breath, contemplating whether or not he should go into the room. From what Sokka told him, his sister seemed to be in good spirits whenever he came to talk with her. But he wasn't Sokka, and he was sure as hell that Azula wasn't going to be pleased that he was coming into her cell; the cell that he put her in…

Pushing all of his thoughts aside, he shook his head slowly and pushed the door open. Startled by the coldness of the room, he stared disgustedly at how the room appeared. For an asylum, the least they could do was try to make the room a little bit homier. Besides the irritating chills the room gave, it was practically pitch dark in the room, except for two barred windows on either side of the room. He lit a small fire in the palm of his hand, illuminating the room considerably, mentally reminding himself to come in the daytime the next time he came back.

Feeling something crawl over the top of his shoes, he looked down and saw two mice looking up at him in a sort of confusion. "Ah!" He sent a fireball at the two animals, but the two had already scurried away, sensing the firelord's fear. Zuko took a step back, regretting Sokka talking him into giving his sister a "friendly" visit.

"Don't worry about the mice, they usually don't bother you unless you bother them," a cold voice said into the dark silence.

"Azula."

"The one and only," the ex-princess said with a dramatic sigh. "If I knew the firelord was going to be coming in here I would have tidied up my cell a little bit better." Azula stood up from off of her bed and picked up a dirtied shirt she had worn recently and placed it on her bed.

Zuko sighed and walked towards his sister's cell, allowing for him to get a better look at her. She was older, much older than when he had last seen her; two years ago. "I thought I'd see how my sister was doing."

"Woo-fucking-hoo," Azula sat back down on her bed and crossed her legs over the other, staring at her now dirtied up nails. "A visit from my beloved brother," she shook her head at him. "Did Sokka put you up to this?"

"He might've mentioned it." He spoke confidently, not alarmed by her language. "He's said that the sessions have been going well?"

She cocked her head to the side and surveyed him severely. "He told you that?

"Yes, he um…said that you were doing quite well with him," Zuko hesitated before continuing. "How have you been, Azula? I know that the asylum hasn't been treating you with that much respect—"

She laughed, which surprised the scarred man greatly. "Well, what would you expect? This isn't the royal palace, Zuzu."

"I know," he said, frowning at the reference of his old nickname. "I told the guards to treat you like the other prisoners, not like some poor, savage peasant." The corners of his sisters mouth curved upward into a small smirk. Zuko held the flame up closer to the cell. "Two smiles in one day; Sokka was right about the progress."

Again she laughed at this. "I'm amused that you think that Sokka is actually 'helping' me out. Tell me, Zuko, what was your purpose for all of this?"

"To get you some help." She stared at him blankly. "I thought that if someone were to aide you, maybe you could return to the palace."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes at him. "Please, Zuko, as if the people would want me to return, including your little wife and the avatars friends. Trust me, the best thing they all want for me is death."

"I don't know about that and neither do you," he commented softly. "Besides that's their opinion. I'm the firelord, I make up the rules."

She shook her head slowly. "You have yet to understand politics, Zuko. The people get to have the last word. You see what they did to father, he's probably rotting in a cell right now, which I honestly don't care about," she paused, "but seeing what I did to the nation and its people, they will probably want to put me to death…burn me on a stake. Ironic isn't it?"

"Your bending was taken away for a reason, Azula. I know it's hard without your bending but—"

"Hard?" she spat venomously. "You don't even know the meaning of hard. It's impossible."

Zuko nodded his head in agreement. "I don't. But the avatar told me that you'll get used to it. But I was thinking that if you continue with these sessions with Sokka…maybe you could get it back?" His voice came out in a question more so than a statement.

"Why, aren't you so considerate, Zuzu," Azula muttered, rolling her eyes. "I'm positive I won't be getting my bending back, but thanks for the blind consultation, you may take your leave now." She nodded at the cell door.

The firelord sighed at his sister's abrupt impatience. "I'm trying to help you, Azula."

"You departure would benefit me the most at this time. Better yet…." she paused and looked up at him, "bring in that Watertribe boy. He's more of a help than you are."

It was then Zuko's turn to roll his eyes. "I will mention that to Sokka the next time I see him today. Goodbye, Azula."

"Good night, brother."
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Katara stormed out of the firelady's room, slamming the door behind her, and walked quickly towards her room. "Could this day get any worse?" Taking a deep breath, she leaned against her doors and sighed, realizing that she had exposed the secret of her relationship with Zuko…to Mai.

"Hey, Katara." The firelord said behind her.

"Zuko!" Katara jumped, startled and embarrassed that the firelord had come up behind her without her noticing it. He must have just finished his training—he was shirtless, his body still glistening from his exertions. Katara forced herself to look into his golden eyes, inwardly shaking away the sensual thoughts, she said, "Look, I didn't mean to, ok?! Mai was just pressuring me and I just snapped on her."

Zuko raised one of his eyebrows, clearly confused by the watertribe girl's rant, wiping his face with a towel. "What's going on, 'Tara?"

She groaned outwardly, placing her hands over her face. "Will you quit calling me that?! That just makes the situation even worse." Looking up, she gave the scarred man a desperate look. "I kinda told Mai."

"Told her what?" Katara sighed dramatically. Opening her bedroom door, she grabbed on to the firelord's arm and pulled him inside. "Katara, what's the deal? You can't just pull me into your—"

"I told Mai about us."

Zuko hesitated, closing the door behind him, "You did what? What the hell were you thinking?!" He let out a sudden sigh, and opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it shut, rethinking his words. With a little more success the firelord opened his mouth to speak, his voice coming out raspy, barely audible, "I thought we were gonna keep this to ourselves…."

"I know," Katara said softly, flopping face first onto her bed. "It just came out. She called me a fucking peasant!"

"Katara, you're the one who told me to not say anything to her!" He fumed quietly.

"Don't you think I know that!" she sat up from her bed and roamed around the room, pacing slowly. "I mean, I didn't necessarily tell her, I just kind of mentioned it."

He frowned. "Well, what did you say?"

She shrugged embarrassedly. "I told Mai that I've done more things to you than she can ever think of doing…"

Zuko frowned at the waterbender. Saying something like that so boldly, especially to his wife! He sighed, suddenly feeling lightheaded. He slowly sat down on her bed, resting his hands on his face. "Katara….Mai's gonna—"

"I know! Look, I can fix this ok," she said, sitting up, nervously tapping her fingers on her thigh.

"How?" he turned towards her. "How!" He said sternly.

Katara shook her head and groaned loudly. "I don't know." She looked up him. His golden eyes stared back at her cerulean blue ones with so much emotion; hurt, disappointment….desire? "What do you think?" she asked, quirking a brow and sitting back against the headboard of her bed.

Zuko shrugged. "I'm gonna have to just tell Mai the truth….she's just going to have to face the fact that we used to—"

"Fuck."

Zuko blushed madly at the thought. Katara…she really knew no boundaries, did she? He nervously cleared his throat. "I wouldn't necessarily say it like that to her, but it's going to have to come to that."

Katara stared at the scarred man and gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Zuko." Zuko turned around and faced the waterbender. There was a slight hesitation before she spoke again. "I'm sorry for everything, for ignoring you, for ruining your relationship with Mai…for ending our relationship," she muttered.

The firebender reached out and placed his hand on the young woman's hand. "You don't have to be sorry for that, 'Tara."

"Do you ever miss it….us?" she asked meekly. Zuko pulled away from the girl, surprised that the girl had brought up their previous relationship. "Sorry, I just—I've been thinking about you a lot lately, because all of this drama has been circled around one thing—"

"I've been thinking about you a lot, too." He said, interrupting her. "And the thing is that I actually do regret our relationship ending. Don't get me wrong, I do love my relationship with Mai, but I can't keep a relationship when I'm still in love with the g—women I first laid eyes on."

"Zuko, I—…"

"Let me finish," he spoke softly, placing a warm hand back on hers. "I know that our relationship in the past was rough at some times, but I loved it, and I loved you through it all. To be honest, I sometimes ask myself why I married Mai, and you know the reason I come up with?" She shook her head. "It was because I couldn't get you out of my head. After we broke up, I was devastated. The only person I thought about was you, and I needed something…someone to make me stop thinking about you, and that's how Mai came back into my life."

"You broke it off, Zuko," she stated slowly, giving Zuko a small frown. "You're the one who said that we needed to end the relationship, because you thought that we couldn't handle it. You moved on."

"And you didn't?" he questioned cautiously. "I called it off because I knew that after the war things would change between us."

Katara scoffed and pushed Zuko off of her bed and stood up. "What exactly has changed between us, Zuko? If you didn't want to fucking break up with me, why the hell did you?" She placed her hands on her hips, clearly angered. "See this is why we have disagreements, because of the idiotic things that you do!"

"Idiotic?!" he yelled back at her.

She nodded at him. "Did I stutter, firelord?"

"Tell me one thing that I've done that was idiotic, Katara!" he gritted his teeth.

"This secret!" she threw up her hands up exasperation. "I'm tired of holding in this secret, Zuko. Why can't you tell Mai that we used to date? What is it that's so bad that you can't tell her?"

"You tell me, Katara, because you were the one begging to keep it a damn secret," he growled quietly.

"If we would have told Mai, none of this would be happening."

"What are you talking about?"

Katara shook her head. "I'm in a relationship with Kang, Zuko! But I can't stop thinking about you."

"Well I'm sorry about that!"

The ex-lovers stared at each other with a sort of hatred. The only thing being heard in the room was the light breathing of the two benders. Katara had crossed her arms over her chest, standing her ground, while the firelord stared at the waterbender with an expression in mere puzzlement.

Shaking his head, Zuko sighed, but he doubted that she heard. He gave her a glare, but deep down, he had calmed down again. "Look, Katara, I think that—" but before he could finish, the waterbender quickly walked towards him and pressed her lips against his. She kissed him sweetly and rubbed her hips against him.

Zuko didn't hesitate to kiss her back, she made a soft, surprised sound and Zuko quickly stepped back.

"I'm sorry, Zuko I—"

"Don't apologize," he leaned into and kissed her again. Katara wrapped her own arms around his neck, clinging as he slanted his mouth across hers. Passionate was how Zuko would explain the kiss. But he wanted more than just passion. Lust built up inside of him as he felt the familiar touch of Katara's hands over his bare chest, the familiar territory as their tongues danced for dominance. But as soon as it started, it quickly ended with a small push on the chest from Katara.

She looked up at him, running her thumb along the bottom of his scar and then tracing a finger down his jaw line. "I'm sorry, Zuko."

"For what."

"Letting you go."

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*Please Read and Review. Yeah, late update. And I was actually kinda disappointed with this chapter. It seems a little rushed…idk, what do you guys think? But anyway, another chapter for you guys. I know its late, but I've been busy with college work and sports that I haven't really had that much time to do anything but exactly that. Give me some time, I will update. But if I don't, I will post an author's message saying that I have either discontinued or will be posting sooner than later. So just give me some time. Thanks again for the reviews.