DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN AVATAR. ALL RIGHTS GO TO ITS RESPECTIVE OWNERS

"Barrier"

1.) anything built or serving to bar passage, as a railing, fence, or the like

2.) any natural bar or obstacle

3.) anything that restrains or obstructs progress, access, etc

He was always so withdrawn, so indifferent. He seemed more machine than man. Never expressing any kind of emotion whatsoever, never apologizing, never regretting. No remorse, no love, but plenty of hate.

The only time he expressed any emotion at all was when he expressed that hatred. Declaring that the world was full of hate, what did it matter that he was too?

To tell the truth, Katara was scared. Not because she thought he'd hurt her, never that. But because she was scared for him. He was so lonely it seemed, so vulnerable, so fragile. He sculpted a barrier so impenetrable, without one single crack, that she feared the pent up emotion would just suddenly come tumbling out, without warning and crush him, bury him alive.

It scared her to see him like this, so much more dead than alive. He fought, he won. He never questioned, never had to think about what he wanted.

When Katara had asked him what it was that he wanted he had looked at her, deeply staring into her eyes as he spoke, never blinking, never a hitch in his throat. As emotionless as he always had been, he spoke, "Nothing... except you."

She had been so surprised, so completely shocked that she hadn't been able to move, to speak. He had taken this as a sort of rejection and slinked away, as if she hadn't cracked the armor he never took off.

The way his eyes had looked, though, had told her more than his voice ever could. They were sad and anxious. Scared. But of what?

Those haunting questions were what led her here tonight, right outside his tent.

With a deep, inaudible breath, she pulled the cloth aside and quietly disappeared into his tent.

It was quiet, only the sound of his steady breathing alerted her to the fact that someone else was in the tent.

Reaching blindly out to find him, she felt a hand on her wrist. She never even noticed the breathing stop.

She sucked in a surprised breath when she felt another's warmth on her arm.

A shadow slowly moved, up to where its outline was in front of her. She could see his warm, familiar, golden eyes and the pale face that they lay within. She saw the look of surprise flash through those eyes when he realized that it was she that came to him in the night.

"Katara?" he whispered, as if her name was a foreign concept he could not even hope to comprehend.

She managed a small smile. "Yea," she whispered.

"What… are you doing in my tent?" he asked voice still thick with sleep.

She took a deep breath. She was going to ask the questions she had come here to ask, it was now or never. "Why did you walk away like that? And what did you mean…" she trailed off when she saw his face.

It wasn't pained or surprised… just blank. Like it always was. Terrified that he would slip back into his mask of indifference, she quickly began to talk to him again.

"No! Don't do that! Don't try to push me away anymore! I hate it; it kills me!" she whispered hoarsely, on the verge of tears. His eyes widened and he managed a small smile, tears of his own in his eyes.

"Never," he whispered as he pulled her closer to him. He rested his cheek on her head as she buried her face between his shoulder blades and sobbed quietly, happily. She felt tears of his own trickle down onto her arms as she looked back up at him and smiled.

And that was when she realized that the barrier was down, completely and totally gone. Only she could have caused it to crumble; only the woman that Zuko had loved was strong enough to save him from himself …and for that, Zuko is thankful.

****Okay, I see Zuko as a pretty withdrawn individual with only a select few who can bring him out of that place of loneliness. Katara is one of those people, at least in my eyes. So tell me what you all think!!!

And yea this one was fluffy (yet slightly angsty) Zutara goodness… but I don't know… is it missing something?

R&R!!!!
Kisses,

~Moonlit- Silhouette