Author's Note: A big, big thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter :) Let's wrap this little package up! On with the show!

Chapter 19

Ms Joo Dee took the next week off of work. Rumour amongst the students was that she was taking a trip to a psychiatric hospital near Lake Laogai after being informed of Mr Long Feng's death. With two teachers missing from the school, classes were chaotically organized and supervised by whichever other teachers were free. A group of police officers came through the school and asked every teacher the same question, which several students caught wind of. "Do you know which students were closely acquainted with Azula?" The teachers, no longer fearful of her presence, were quick to point to the students they'd known to interact with her regularly, including the boys who had been involved in a scuffle with Zuko the week before, which had landed him in detention. The students indicated were taken away for questioning for possible knowledge or involvement in Red Army activity. Rumour had it that the students would be arrested and prosecuted if found guilty of involvement.

But Katara was relieved that one thing hadn't changed amongst the chaos of that week. That very Monday, she found Zuko sitting against the fence near the back of the school oval as she had found him the week before, his hair shading his eyes and his head down over the book he was studying for literature. She sat down next to him and tucked a lose strand of hair behind her ear, waiting for him to notice her. She caught the smirk that twitched against his lips as he tried to ignore her, so she shuffled closer to him until she was leaning on him. Finally, he snapped the book shut.

"Can I help you?" he said, turning to face her.

She shrugged. "I was just looking for a guy. He's pretty cute."

He scoffed. "I think I know who you're talking about," he said, putting an arm around her.

She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes for a minute, feeling the warm sunlight against her face. "I like the sunlight today. I know it wasn't raining over the weekend, but it feels like it was."

Playing with her hair, he chuckled. "It's supposed to rain later today." He watched the smile forming on her lips. "What are you doing after school?" She sat herself up, shrugging. "I have something for you, back at the café. Follow me home?"

Katara hesitated for a moment. "Can we go by the hospital first? Suki said Aang seems pretty close to waking up. I just want to see him for a moment."

After classes ended for the day and the home-bell chimed, Katara met him eagerly outside the front gates and followed him along the bustling streets of Ba Sing Se. The sky had clouded over and the smell of rain clung to the air. Just as Zuko had predicted, the first drops fell from the sky just before they arrived at the hospital. Katara led him down the familiar corridors and gave Dr Pakku a greeting smile as they entered a room with two beds; a room Zuko had been in only two days previous. Toph had not needed to return to the hospital, but in the bed Zuko had occupied, a familiar boy rested, eyes closed.

"He's been showing good signs, Katara," Dr Pakku said. "If he regains consciousness properly, I will have Suki alert you immediately."

"Thank you, Dr Pakku," she beamed. She took a seat next to Aang and searched out his small, pale hands, rubbing her fingers against his knuckles.

Dr Pakku turned to Zuko and looked him up and down. "Can I help you? How is your injury?"

Zuko shook his head. "I'm fine. Just visiting." He indicated to Katara. With a nod, Dr Pakku left them. Zuko lingered uncertainly in the doorway.

"You know you can come sit with us. It's okay, Zuko," Katara cooed. A half-smile broke through his scowl and he pulled a chair up. For a moment, he stared into the young face of the boy in the bed. There was something peaceful about his features that hadn't been there last time. Hope, Zuko decided. He won't die. His body has made it this far. It's pulled through the worst of it and he won't give up now. It made his stomach twitch strangely to think how very different Aang was to him, yet how much they had in common.

Katara gave a sudden gasp.

"What's wrong?"

She smiled. "He squeezed my hand. Sorry, it just gave me a shock." But her face was alight with that same peacefulness Aang held.

Zuko didn't think as he reached out a hand to place on her shoulder. "Everything's going to be okay, Katara."

She smiled at him, knowing how many different meanings those few words held. Aang, Ba Sing Se, the Red Army: there was still hope for a happy ending. "You're right," she said.

Iroh beamed at them as they sat down at a table in The Jasmine Dragon, though their clothes were damp and their hair was wet from walking back in the rain. "I'll put a pot of tea on for you both," he said happily.

Katara giggled. "Your uncle is so sweet."

"He's a great guy. I'm glad I have him."

She looked down at her hands and reached across the tabletop to run her cool fingertips over his. "Do you wish you had the rest of your family with you?"

His brow furrowed for a moment before he shook his head. "I'd like to have my mother back. But after knowing what awful things my father and sister are capable of, I'm happy for them to stay away."

The blue of her eyes was penetrating as she searched his face for something more, something deeper. "You considered going with Azula, didn't you?"

He heaved a long sigh. "You don't know what it's like to lose your family like that. I wondered when she first offered to take me back to Dad if it might be worth it to be with them again. But the more I thought of it the dumber I felt for even considering it. I have Uncle, and we treat each other the way family is supposed to treat each other, not the way my father and sister treated me."

Her smile was the closest thing to angelic he'd ever seen. "I'm proud of you. And I think your uncle is too."

He gave a small nod and smiled. "I'm proud of me too." He squeezed her hand. Iroh sat two teacups down with a teapot between them. They thanked him quietly and started sipping. "So when does your dad come back next?"

Katara's smile widened. "Next month. I'm really excited to see him again." She bit her lip after that and hesitated for a moment before she asked. "Would you like to meet him?"

Zuko smirked. "Sure. Is he less weird than your brother?" She couldn't stop herself from laughing. "I'll take that as a yes."

"My Dad is pretty cool."

He nodded. "He sounds pretty cool. I wish I could say the same for mine."

Her smile faltered for a moment and she drummed her fingers nervously against the tabletop. "Sorry, should I stop talking about family?"

"What? No, of course not. I'm the one who brought it up."

She shrugged. "I'm sorry, I always feel like I'm saying the wrong things to you."

Zuko shook his head. "You're not. Don't feel that way." He didn't like how demanding his tone was, but there was nothing he could do once he'd spoken. Katara looked down at her hands for a long time and he pulled them gently back into his grip. "Listen… It's hard for me to hear sometimes, other people having such nice families and whatnot. But I have my uncle. And he's all I need." He hesitated. "The police told me that they've been tracking Azula. I don't think I'm supposed to know. One of the rookies let something slip in front of me after the questioning. But he said that if they can track her for long enough, they'll have my father too. If they catch them both… Maybe your dad won't have to leave again. Not under the dangerous circumstances that come with the Red Army being in action at least."

She gazed up at him with her blue eyes. There was that peacefulness about her face again, that expression that came with hope. It reminded Zuko once again of the sky, and of the ocean, and of the way they reflected her every mood, like when she was happy, upset, mad. A smile tugged the corners of his lips.

"What are you smiling at?" she asked.

He didn't answer her in words, but brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it.

When they finished their tea, Zuko led her through to the kitchen and up the stairs to the apartment where he and his uncle lived. His bedroom was just as Katara remembered it; not too big, not too small and a little messy. She stood timidly in the doorway, blushing as she remembered how comfortable sleeping in his bed had been. Outside, the pitter-patter of rain echoed through the streets and hammered against the rooves and windows of the buildings.

"Come in," he said, taking her hand. He shut the door behind him and then turned back to her. "Okay, this is going to sound weird, but on that night, when it all happened and I came to your place to make sure Azula hadn't hurt you yet… well, I got this strange idea stuck in my head after you'd fallen asleep, just as I was about to leave."

Katara frowned. "What sort of an idea?"

"The sort of idea that eventually foiled Azula's plans to get those files to Ozai." He hesitated. "I can't explain how I knew. I just did. I guess, I remember when my sister wanted a really rare book in a library that wasn't supposed to be borrowed, or even touched. It was antique, and worth a lot of money. She stole it. She put it in a bin-liner and left quickly. No one could tell what she had and just assume that she was taking something down to the op-shop or throwing something out. I really don't know how to explain how I knew she would use the bin-liner to conceal the files… but I knew it, I just did. I took something from you. Something that I guessed would be about the same size of the files, or at least, would look the same as the files if I wrapped it in a bin-liner." She stared at him, confused. Zuko walked over to his desk and pulled a large A3 sketchbook out of a plastic bag. "I remember you saying you always liked to have one of these spare, so that you wouldn't suddenly run out of paper to draw on." He passed it to her. "I took your spare one when I left your house that night. I wrapped it in a bin-liner and switched it with the files from the palace, which Azula had wrapped in a bin-liner. I figured I should replace it before you run out of paper."

Katara stared dumbly, a wave of contradictory emotions rushing over her. "You stole it from me?"

His face faltered. "I made sure it was the spare one. Katara, please… I know you love your sketchbooks, but I promise, it wasn't one you'd used, I made sure."

She blinked and the rush of anger dissipated and was replaced with relief. "Nobody else could have possibly saved the day like that. How did you know that Azula…? Zuko, that's great!"

He sighed in relief. "So, you're not mad at me?"

Katara took the sketchbook from his hands and flipped through its empty pages, shaking her head. "No, I'm not mad." She closed the sketchbook and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you."

Zuko snaked his arms around her and held her to his chest. As the rain came pouring down outside, they enjoyed each other's warmth. She pulled away for a moment so that she could plant a small kiss on his neck. His grip on her waist tightened slightly and he tilted her face up towards his. Their eyes met for a moment and a moment turned into a minute as he pressed his forehead against hers. She remembered the first time he'd done that, in the same room, less than a week ago. Katara closed her eyes as she leaned her lips towards his and she felt her body jolt with pleasure when the kiss began. Zuko brought a hand up to the back of her head and deepened it. She let out a soft moan and entangled the fingers of one hand in his hair while the other hand gathered a fist-full of his shirt. The sketchbook dropped to the floor, forgotten, unimportant. They found themselves pulling closer to each other and then Zuko gently pushed her down onto his bed. They kicked their shoes off and felt the rush of excitement that overwhelmed their bodies as their kisses grew deeper.

A sudden knock at the door made them gasp and scramble off each other. Zuko winced as the sudden movement provoked his injury and he clutched the place on his chest where Azula had shot him. "Zuko, I have the shop under control. You can take tonight off. Just make sure you walk Katara home before it gets too late. It's a school night, do not forget!"

He blushed furiously. "Okay, Uncle!"

The man's footsteps drifted away and Zuko sighed, slumping back down onto the bed. Katara stared over at him, smiling, sly. He turned to her, smirking, and reached forward to tuck a strand of hair behind her ears.

"It's cold," she said, quietly. Zuko didn't say anything in reply. He pulled the blankets of his unmade bed out from underneath them and spread them over their bodies, tucking a pillow neatly beneath Katara's head. With his arms around her, she was able to rest her head against his chest. She could feel the bandage that wrapped around him. "Am I hurting you?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No. Just don't move too much," he said.

"Can we stay like this for a little while?"

She felt his chest shake with a soft laugh. "Of course."

As the rain beat down on the roads and footpaths and buildings outside, Katara closed her eyes for a moment and drifted into a gentle sleep with his arms wrapped snugly around her frame. It felt just like the night she'd spent with him after being lost in the park, except that she wasn't as badly soaked from the rain and it wasn't as freezing. A feeling of safety draped itself over her when she thought of how willing he'd been to protect her. "Thank you," she murmured.

"You're welcome," he said, knowing exactly what she meant. Zuko kissed the top of her head so gently that it felt like a dream, somewhere behind the rain, outside of the city's walls, away from the war. She dreamed of a house on a southern coast, overlooking the ocean, and the sunshine glistening off the water after the rain. She stood on the beach, the smooth, white sand beneath her feet. Zuko stood holding her from behind, pressing kisses into her hair as they watched the foaming waves roll in.

The End.

Author's Note: I'm actually a little sad that this story is over, but do tell me what you thought in a review. Oh that ending scene took me so long to be satisfied with, I hope I did it right by you guys.

A big, big, thank you once again to everybody who has read, reviewed, favourited or followed this story. My apologies to those of you who jumped on board under my original pretext of having a very short, 5 chapter or so fic. But I am so glad to see how many people stuck with me. All of your reviews have been really encouraging and there is no way I could have finished this story with such a feeling of self-satisfaction without your input. Hope to see you all around!

One last thing, which I kept forgetting to mention during the other chapters. JOIN TEAM ZUTARA! Check out my profile page for more info, or just PM me, or ask in a review :)

Love you all. Thank you for reading.

XD

A~A~A