Author's Note: Here's chapter two! Let me say again that I claim no rights to the characters, places, songs, or artists in this fic. Please enjoy and review!

The trio pulled into a relatively good parking spot once at Club Phoenix and Zuko killed the engine. "Let's just get this over with," he muttered, still pessimistic.

"Thank you Zuko!" Suki exclaimed, glomping Zuko. He waved her off and rolled his eyes, saying something negative under his breath.

Getting into the club proved easy enough as Zuko was friends with the manager, a beautiful young woman by the name of June. She seemed to be pretty lax about the regulations of the place, probably because she was reasonably confident in her abilities to handle any ugly situations that erupted in her club.

"Okay, uh be careful you two, please," Zuko started beseechingly, "I used to work here and there are some freaks that come here, I would know. For instance, my dad's friend, this real perv-asshole Zhao comes here a ton, but we don't have to worry about him tonight because he's eating dinner with my father back at the house. I would not have let you come here tonight if I thought he would be anywhere near this place." He directed the last part to Katara.

"Ew, your dad's friends come here?" Suki asked in disgusted disbelief.

"Yeah," the blue eyed girl agreed, "I didn't think anyone in your dad's circle of millionaires would bother coming here."

"They've got to spend all the dirty money they get on something," Zuko said bitterly as he addressed his father's activities as the more-than-local drug lord, "drugs, booze, and prostitutes are right up their alley." Zuko made a wide gesture with his arm, indicating the aforementioned drugs, booze, and prostitutes cluttering the area. Zuko's words were swallowed by the blaring music as the three walked further into the flashy atmosphere.

In a particularly dense area of the crowd, Katara was cut off from her friends when two unfamiliar forms stepped in front of her, blocking her view.

"Hey there," said the slightly more burly of the guys. The other just nodded a greeting, his eyes scourging the waterbender's person.

"I'm Chan," the first guy declared in a voice that gloated arrogance, "and this is-"

"I'm Ron Juan," the other cut off his friend to introduce himself, stepping between Chan and Katara. "You look pretty hot; I'd love to buy you a drink." The one called Chan cut his eyes at his friend-turn-adversary and shoved him backward into the crowd to move in impossibly close to Katara. Chan put a hand on her shoulder, another on the bare small of her back. Nervously, Katara tried to slip away from the overtly forward teen. She mumbled an unheard phrase of resistance, but with the slightest sign of protest, Chan's grasp around her just got tighter as he pulled her closer to him. Her worries rose as her heart thudded in her throat as she quickly thought of a plan of action. Chan said something revolting but was cut short as he yelped out in surprise. Katara had been free enough in her arms to bend the drink of a passerby into her oppressor's eyes. Ron Juan was about to reenter the scene when he felt his back slammed onto the hard floor of the club. The familiar face of Katara's firebender friend appeared in his place. Katara breathed out a sigh of relief and yelled a thank you to Zuko over the blare of the music. He leaned down into her ear, asking that she would be more careful. They hadn't been there for five minutes and already he feared the worst. He couldn't stand to let anything bad happen to Katara while under his protection. Her overprotective boyfriend would go avatar state on his ass and not to mention her brother's instincts being released to lash out on him. Yet what scared Zuko more than an Avatar's wrath or a brother's fury was his own fears of letting anything happen to her. He wasn't her boyfriend, that was Aang, but he still cared about her, more than he could ever let her know. Just then, Suki danced back to her friends, two drinks in hand.

"Here Kit-Kat," she handed one to Katara, taking a sip from the other. "Wow, what happened to those guys?" Suki asked as she noticed Chan and Ron Juan's forms, which had presently both been knocked unconscious by Zuko seconds ago. Zuko and Katara exchanged a glance.

"I dunno."

"Yeah, no idea."

Suki shrugged off her friends' responses as they feigned innocence as that new hit single from Lady Gaga began to blast out of the club stereo.

"That's my SONG!" Suki squealed, "Be back guys." And she once again disappeared into the crowd. Katara just rolled her eyes and downed the rest of the drink that Suki had brought her.

"C'mon, let's go over there," Zuko motioned to a few empty seats at the bar as he led Katara over that way. "Um, you want another," he asked, noticing her empty glass.

"Yeah, thanks, but I don't know what." Zuko ordered her something mango.

"How is it?"

"Really good."

Zuko nodded, slightly pleased with himself that he hadn't failed epically at anything yet. Then he noticed Katara sway a bit on her seat. Oh, no. It hadn't occurred to him until then that perhaps the somewhat sheltered teen wouldn't be as experienced and tolerant of this kind of thing as he was.

"Wait, Katara,"

"Huh?"

"You have, um, drank before, right?"

"Not really, well, a little bit, why?"

"Uh, nothing, no reason." She finished the rest of the glass as they spoke. This was going to be a long night, Zuko thought pessimistically to himself.