This is ridiculously late, because I went to see my friends yesterday and hadn't expected us to stay up all night... However, my two last fics for Zutara Week will be late as well, but they will be up as soon as possible!

This prompt was really difficult. This story is the only thing I could come up with that's not been written a million times before and wouldn't break my heart in writing it. This is not one of my favourites at all...

Since all my previous fics have started from Katara and Zuko already being a couple, I figured I should write one where they're not...

I hope you like it!

*I don't own Avatar or any o its characters!

Unrequited

The moon shone big and round in the sky as Zuko sat at the fountain in one of the courtyards of the Western Air Temple. He had been seated by the water for at least half an hour now. But he wouldn't leave until he had talked to her.

Katara hadn't spoken a word to him since the day he had arrived, when she had given him that warning. Not those few times he had addressed her and not even when he and Sokka had returned with her father and Suki. All she had given him then was a look that wasn't angry or distrustful like they usually were, but still not accepting or grateful.

Zuko was growing tired of her silence. The glares, he could put up with, but her lack of words started to get on his nerves.

He could not be completely sure she would come out here tonight, but considering he had noticed her sneaking out the last couple of nights around midnight and the fact that the moon was full tonight, Zuko had thought it was worth a shot.

And sure enough did Katara come walking towards the fountain maybe an hour after midnight. The moment she saw him, she froze, a glower finding its way onto her face.

Zuko held up his hands in a surrendering gesture. "I just want to talk."

"I don't wish to talk to you", Katara answered through gritted teeth. She hadn't moved an inch since she noticed him.

At this, Zuko shot up from the edge of the fountain, making Katara adopt a fighting stance. Before he could stop himself, he said with a sharp tone; "No? It doesn't suit you if you're not threatening me to my life?"

Now, Katara took a few intimidating steps towards him. "Shall I take that as a request?" she questioned in a voice he had never heard before.

Zuko was slightly taken aback by her reply. He didn't know what he had expected her to say, but it certainly wasn't this. He had no idea what he should say, so he said nothing.

Katara stood only a few feet away from him now, and she reached out a hand and pulled a small amount of water from the fountain, moving it in circles above her fingers. "Do you know what a waterbender is capable of during the full moon?" she asked and pulled the water to coat her fingers, freezing it to ice claws.

Zuko stared at the sharp tips of the ice and shivered. He knew that Katara was a very talented bender – at least as powerful as himself, if not even more – and he knew that waterbenders grew a lot stronger with the full moon. But he wasn't sure exactly what she was referring to.

"No?" Katara said. "Maybe you shouldn't throw words such as 'threatening' around so carelessly then", she finished and walked past him to stand in front of the fountain, her shoulder bumping into his as doing so.

Katara sounded strikingly much like Azula, Zuko thought. How could the warm, caring girl he had seen with the Avatar and the others so many times and this cold, frighteningly akin to his sister and almost cruel young woman be the same person?

Zuko blinked and shook his head as he reminded himself of why he was here. He turned and walked over to her silently. Apparently Katara didn't hear him move, because when he came into her field of vision beside her, her reflexes kicked in and she raised a dozen sharp ice daggers from the fountain towards him with her arm.

Zuko stumbled backwards and fell to his back, the daggers stopping only a few inches from his face.

"Relax, I'm just here to talk!" he shouted up at Katara.

"I can never relax with you around", came her cold reply, but she pulled the ice daggers back and dropped them back into the fountain after melting them.

Zuko sighed and stood up. "Look, I get why you don't trust me. I know I've done many stupid things. But we all make mistakes, don't we?"

Katara scoffed humourlessly. "There is so much more to this than just the fact that I don't trust you. I despise the things you've done. Because of your actions, Aang got struck by lightning. Because of you, the Earth Kingdom has fallen. Because of that father of yours, my mother is dead. I feel anger rise every time you enter the room, I feel anger from just looking at you. After all you've done, I can't believe everyone else here is so trusting, so ignorant to what you really are. You don't belong here", Katara hissed with a piercing glare.

It hurt. Zuko knew he shouldn't care about the waterbender's liking. He needed to make her trust him, but he didn't need her liking. But her every word hurt him in a way he hadn't expected, and it made him want to hear her say the opposite even more.

"Yeah, well, I don't feel the same!" he threw back fiercely. "I don't despise anything about you! I don't feel anger rise from just looking at you! In fact, I don't have anything against you at all! I want to be your friend...", Zuko trailed off. He wasn't supposed to want to be her friend, he couldn't afford to care about such virtues with everything else going on that needed his energy. Yet, there was something about Katara that kept drawing his attention. For some reason, his heart wouldn't stop beating faster every time he was in her presence.

At Zuko's outburst and unexpected wish, Katara's face shifted into something that Zuko thought looked an awful lot like distaste. Maybe even disgust.

Zuko's temper flared up again and his hands shot up to grab her shoulders roughly. This probably wasn't the best way to approach her aversion to him, but he didn't care.

"Look, I know the consequences of my previous decisions and actions, I'll probably have to live with them for the rest of my life", he said heatedly and pressed aside the pang of guilt he felt at the thought of the people he had betrayed. "But if you just listen to me, if you just look me in the eyes, you'll see that I'm honest when I say that I don't wish you – any of you – any harm!"

For a moment, Katara's angry stare wavered, as she looked into his eyes. But then, as though catching herself contemplating something completely out of mind, she once again let a glower onto her face and yanked herself out of his grip.

Zuko sighed exasperatedly. "Can't you see that all of your feelings for me are unrequited?!" he shouted down at her. He knew he would soon have to gain control of himself, he was losing his temper with her.

Katara's glare seemed to deepen as she drew in a breath of air. "No, I'll tell you what is unrequited! This delusion you seem to have that we might actually become friends!" The last few words, she practically spat out with antipathy. "You could never be a friend of mine, because friendship requires understanding, trust and in this case, forgiveness."

Zuko looked into her eyes steadily. "Then I'll have to earn your forgiveness", he said. "No matter what it takes, I will earn your forgiveness."

Katara scoffed a cold laughter. "Good luck with that", she said and turned around to leave.

She had taken a few steps when Zuko reached out and grabbed her wrist, making her spin around back towards him.

"There's one thing that's not unrequited", he said. "This heat between us – I know you feel it too. This deep tension that keeps growing stronger and stronger."

For a blink of an eye, Zuko caught a glimpse of something in Katara's eyes that looked like shock at being discovered doing something you shouldn't. But then she composed herself, and scowled up at him. "Don't mistake scorn for whatever it is you think is between us", she hissed and yanked her hand from him. She spun around and started walking away from him.

Just as she was about to turn the corner to leave the courtyard, Katara stopped and threw a strange look at him over her shoulder. Then she turned her head and disappeared into the corridor.

Zuko just stood there beside the fountain and stared at the spot where she had disappeared for a while. When he finally decided to go back to his room, he couldn't help but feel pretty satisfied. Sure, his meeting with Katara had contained some shouting and insults (on Katara's part). But he had gotten her to speak with him, and now he was determined to earn her forgiveness.

Besides, her defensive last reply and that weird look she had given him told him he had managed to get onto her mind. And the thought that Katara would spend some time thinking about him the way he had been pondering about her for the last few weeks was enough to let a satisfied smirk onto his face.