A/N: QueenofCornez this one is for you, I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 19

Sparring

After Zuko's sparring session Katara had felt oddly inspired. She hadn't had time to waterbend at all since her engagement. Unfortunately for her everyone knew it was her day off except for Gran-gran who insisted they talk about the wedding whenever Katara wasn't in training. Katara was lucky to escape after Gran-gran met Purya. Her grandmother had wanted to start talking about the wedding dress which brought up the issue of what style and color Katara would wear. She was water nation so it was assumed by her grandmother that she would wear traditional blue water nation robes but Purya was insistent that since Katara was being adopted into her country she should wear the red of the fire nation. Katara had sat through their argument for some time and realized they both had valid points. She tried to picture herself in a dress of red and blue but it looked kind of ridiculous in her head. It was going to be tough but it seemed she would eventually have to make a decision.

Currently she had no idea how she was going to make that decision and she was far too confused to think about it. What Katara wanted now more than anything was some time alone to think. She found her way to the private training ring inside the palace. She smiled as she saw that someone had taken the time to install a deep basin of water at one end of the court. Apparently, without her knowledge small changes were being made around the palace for her convenience.

She made her way to the center of the court and took a deep breath. She crossed her arms in front of her and took another deep breath slowly raising her arms up over her head and then back down again as she exhaled. She gave herself a minute to calm her mind and block out all of her distraction before extending and arm and calling the water to herself.

She smiled as she swirled a coil of water around her body. She spun nimbly on her toes and swayed easily moving with the water. When she'd amused herself with her short water dance, Katara got down to business. Taking another deep breath she brought herself into a fighting stance. Moving in a rapid series of footwork and hand motions Katara ran through a basic attack routine. Afterwards she looked around herself slightly bored, somehow she needed to make this more interesting. She explored the small exercise area and finally came across a ladder. Laying it flat on the ground she stood on the first wooden wrung. She wobbled for a moment and then resumed her balance. Calling the water to herself again, she repeated her practice this time trying to make it from one end of the ladder to the other without stepping off of the skinny wooden rungs.

"What are you doing?"

"Wha-" Katara gasped, whipping around too fast and dropping the water everywhere. She slipped on the wet wood and would have hit the ground if Zuko hadn't been standing close enough to catch her. He'd caught her bridal style as she'd fallen backwards into his arms. Katara's face flushed.

"Sorry, I wasn't trying to startle you." Zuko laughed.

"How did you get so close without my noticing?" Katara asked.

"My secret ninja skills." He gave her a wicked grin.

"Right." She rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Came to blow off some steam."

"I thought you did that this morning."

"I'm only 18 and am supposed to be running an entire nation. I've got a lot of steam to blow off."

"You make an excellent point."

"What about you? Training to be a waterbending acrobat or something?"

"Um, no. I was just trying to make my practice a little more interesting. It was kind of lonely in here. It's funny too because just a moment ago all I wanted was to be by myself and then I was and I was suddenly very bored."

"Well, at least that means you're getting used to the chaos of this life style."

"Is it always like that?" She asked.

"For me, yes, I think so. For you, probably not. In fact, a lot of the time you might be bored."

"Why?"

"Well, there's not much for you t do. Not that I know of anyway. In the past, the only real job of the Fire Lady was to look pretty, support her husband, give him heirs…"

"Be pretty? What am I a doll? Surely there's got to be something for me to do. Aren't I supposed to help you?"

"Well, I suppose you could. It's a lot of just sitting around listening to people whine all day though and then trying to make decisions based off their whining."

"I think I can handle that."

He shrugged. "It's your choice I guess. What I got out of the treaty last time I saw it was pretty much we stay together, travel together, keep in touch with the other nations about what the fire nation is doing and teach our kids to love all nations. It seems simple enough."

They were silent for a minute. She wondered what he was thinking about.

"Um, would you like to spar with me? I could really use a partner." Katara asked.

"Eh, I got nothing better to do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."
She gave him a look.

"Nothing really, it's just what I happened to say."

"I'm sure." She replied. 'Did he have nothing better to do when he kissed me too?'

'She definitely takes after her grandmother.' Zuko thought as he prepared himself in a fighting stance. "Are you ready?"

"You're not going to go easy on me, are you?" Katara asked.

"Well, not if you don't want me to." Zuko shrugged.

"Good, because I'll know if you're not trying, I've seen you fight enough. So don't expect me to hold back even if you do." Katara grinned.

"Let's go then." Zuko smirked, beginning the match with a burst of flame aimed at her head.

She jumped out of the way of his attack and summoned the water to herself. Taking a step back to balance her weight she slashed her hands at him causing a waves of water to rise up at him and then narrow down to a point as it came at him.

Zuko thrust a hand upward evaporating the attack with one hand and thrusting the other in Katara's direction sending a fire ball after her. She cut it off with a shield of water and then retaliated with ice daggers.

Zuko pivoted out of the of that attack then looked down at his right arm, his shirt sleeve was torn.

"Nice." He said, slightly shocked that she had managed to hit him already.

"I told you I wasn't holding anything back." Katara smirked.

"Apparently." Zuko grinned. "Looks like I'll have to step it up a bit."

Her ran at her blasting shot after shot of fire at her. She jumped and ducked to get out of the way as she looked for an opening for her next strike. She got her opening when a huge stream of fire was blast directly at her center. She dropped to the ground and slid under it, surprising Zuko with her proximity because he'd assumed she would jump to the side to avoid it. Taking advantage of his shock she created a water whip and lashed it at him. He threw himself out of the way and looked at the dent in the floor where the whip had hit.

"You know, you might be better than I've given you credit for in the past." Zuko panted as he picked himself up off the ground. "I might need to call a physician in here to sit on the sidelines."

Katara laughed as she coiled some water around herself, to give him a moment to prepare himself. As soon as he set his stance she didn't give him any time to think as she rushed at him this time. Unfortunately, she didn't make it to him as he really had stepped up his game now. His attacks were coming faster and he was moving with the same speed and grace he had earlier. It only occurred to her now that he was shirtless again and suddenly she was fighting the distraction of staring at him and keeping him from burning her to a crisp. Why exactly had she asked him to go all out, again?

Her distraction proved to be her undoing because in the next moment she felt her own feet being swept out from underneath her and she was promptly pinned to the floor.

"You're good…but I'm better." Zuko said smugly.

"Oh, I don't think so." Katara growled. Though her hand were pinned his knees were on either side of her legs which gave her the perfect idea. Spreading her own legs to do the splits he had the option to either let go and regain his balance on his hands or be forced into the splits as well. He chose the hands. Katara took advantage of his distraction and shifting weight and placed her hands against his chest and pushed back with all her strength. He fell backwards and she made her move pouncing on him this time gripping his wrists in her hands and sitting on his thighs.

"Ha! Looks like I win." She smirked.

"You're delusional, Katara. You're only on top because I'm allowing you do be because you are forgetting one very important thing."

"And what's that?"

"I will always have you beat in brute strength." He grinned, repositioning his legs so his feet were on the ground since she wasn't actually heavy enough to hold him down. He twisted his hands around in her grasp so that he could get in palms against the dirt. Then, planting his heels he thrust upwards sending her flying and him into a sort of back hand spring. He held himself up in a handstand for a moment as she crashed to the ground. Her back hit the dirt and the air was knocked out of her at the impact.

He came down from his handstand this time sitting on her hips with her wrists firmly in his grasp.

"I'd say I win now don't you think." Zuko smirked.

Katara just nodded and coughed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had the wind knocked out of her like that.

"Sweet Kami, you're some kind of demon ninja thing…" She wheezed, trying to sit up. He'd loosened his grip on her wrist enough that she could sit up some but for some reason he hadn't gotten off of her yet. He was just staring at her face.

"What?" She asked, making the mistake of trying to find the answer in his eyes. His eyes were like molten lava. She was completely frozen yet again, caught in their stare.

His face was closer now and she was tilting her own face up towards his for the kiss that was so obviously coming. She could feel his breath on her lips.

And then as if snapping out of a dream he pulled back, turning away. She was too shocked to move as he was suddenly standing up.

"I've got to go…I've got a…meeting or something. So, um, thanks for letting me spar with you.'

And just like that he was gone.

Katara sat there completely shocked. Shaking her head she tried to make sense of things. She got absolutely nothing.

'It's official, boys make absolutely no sense.' She groaned, picking herself up and dusting off her clothes. 'Where the heck is Sukki? She's going to have to explain that one.'

- -

Zuko ran a hand through his hair as he walked briskly back to his room. At this point there was absolutely no denying that he was attracted to his fiancée. 'When did that happen?' It seemed just the other day they were arguing and sharing friendly banters but nothing more. Where were all these 'feelings' coming from? Wasn't he still hung up on Mai? He couldn't be over her that fast.

- -

"Where's my brother? Somebody fetch my brother? I demand an audience with my brother?" Azula was ranting in her cell. The guards weren't quite sure if they should send someone to find Zuko or if she was just being crazy again. She'd seemed to be more lucid lately and so they were tempted to listen to her but her repetitive speech held an air of insanity to it. She seemed entirely too scattered and agitated in her cries.

"Calm down? I will not calm down. Don't patronize me with your speech, I'm not crazy. Go and get my brother you foo.." Azula stopped. Yelling at these guards and calling them fools probably wasn't the best way to start out her new life as a good person. She'd have to be nice. 'Nice, nice, nice, nice? How does one be nice? What are some of the words I would use if I was nice?' She paced her cell for a moment which probably did nothing to help her appear sane. One minute she was yelling at the guards, the next she was pacing around plotting. 'Nice people say sorry a lot but I don't think that fits this situation. They ask people how are you but I don't particularly care how these guards are. What should I say…Oh! Please, please, they say please a lot when they're being nice.'

Whipping around to face the guards again she offered them her first attempted at a serene smile.

"Would you please be so kind as to fetch my brother for me…um, kind, uh, sirs?" Azula tried.

The guards stared at her horrified.

"I think she might need some medication." One whispered to another.

"I'll go see what the doctor left." The other replied.

"You might want to get the psychologist too." The first one called to his retreating partner.

"You fools! I'm not crazy! I need to see my brother. I demand to see my brother. Don't confuse my reform for insanity. I'm a good person now so let me out to see my brother." She shouted.

"Nice try, sweetheart, but you're not getting out of here for a long time and your brother has more important things to do than listen to you ramble on about nonsensical things all day.

"But I'm not being nonsensical. I make plenty of sense." Azula pouted. Why hadn't her niceness worked? Why were they still treating her like she was crazy?

"I'm sure you think you do." The guard said sympathetically.

'Argh! I'm stuck down here with a couple of idiots!'

A/N: Okay guys, so I really am torn. What color do you think Katara should wear for the wedding? Red and gold for the fire nation, blue and silver for the water tribe, or white and gold with perhaps hints of blue (I'll find someway to put blue in there) to be neutral (since I figure the main body would be white but gold accents for the fire nation and blue accents for the water tribe). Does anyone know of any wedding fan art I might look at to see what other people think she might look like? I will take everyone's opinion into consideration. Though please remember when I do write the wedding if I don't pick your choice colors, I'm sorry. I am going to go with what looks best in my head and what I can describe but I've got three ideas warring in my head right now and your input might help me make a decision. (If you want to know, I really am leaning towards the white just now because I just came up with it as I was debating red or blue and then I was like hey neutral but I'm sure that'll wear off and I'll just be stuck like crap now I have three equally good choices.) I've tried to imagine a red and blue dress but it looks terrible in my head though if you've seen a picture of a nicely done blue and red wedding dress, let me know and I'll check it out. Thanks again for reading.