Seeking Solace:

"Well, well, well," Someone chuckled from inside the bright coffee shop. "It looks like kitty-cat's back on the prowl." A tall, willowy girl sauntered over to Katara and Zuko. She flicked back her long, black hair and took out a tired looking notepad.

"Hello to you too, Jun," Katara said, giving a wry smile. "And no, kitty-cat is quite content to sit at home except that home is a bit dark right now." She looked at Zuko with an apologetic glance.

He only shrugged, getting the general feeling that Katara had just finished a rocky relationship. That didn't bother him altogether that much- it had only been a month or so ago when he had broken off things between himself and Mai for the fourth or so time. "Can we order?" he asked politely, trying to draw the subject away from Katara's current dating status.

Jun perked an eyebrow. "You don't seem the quiet type. You don't have a little, oh I don't know, spark in ya? Fine, fine. What do you want, you two lovebirds?"

Katara sighed heavily through her nose, crossing her arms in front of her. "I'll have a small mocha hot chocolate. Hold the whipped cream," she ordered. Jun had started writing before Katara even finished the first word, and Zuko read upside-down "Kat usual."

"I'll have a large caramel latte," he said. "Please," he added as an afterthought. With what he thought was a wink she nodded and turned to the next group entering. Katara rolled her eyes and moaned. "I'm so sorry about that. She's a little strange. But her coffee's really good, so that makes up for it."

That got a laugh out of Zuko. "I'll have to take your word for it." He glanced around the unfamiliar room. There were small round tables scattered about with one or two people seated at each. It was exactly the place where one could sit down and chat with an old school friend to reminisce or a classmate to talk about the latest chemistry lab. "Shall we?" he beckoned, waiting for her to lead. This was her area of expertise, not his.

This must be awful for him, Katara thought. Stupid Jet! Why does he have to be an ass all the time? And I'm not explaining anything. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She absently led them to a table between the side wall and one of the large windows. Sitting down, she noticed for the first time how his eyes flashed from one place to another, never settling in one place for too long. "So what is it you're majoring in anyways, Zuko? I'm in Biology. Go life!" She smiled at him and he returned with a cautious smile, sitting down across from her.

"Well, I'm actually majoring in Chemical Engineering. Boring stuff, actually. Destroying what nature gave us to make new and better things. Humanity, in essence," he said, taking the cryptic view of things. Not the best way to get the girl, I'll admit, but it's better than playing the person I'm not.

Katara shrugged. "Well, it is if you think of humanity as a plague or something like that, sure. But humans can have such good effect on things too, like conservation efforts. Or even in the more personal realms, people always will have compassion for one another." She looked him straight in the eye. "Humanity doesn't mean evil or good. We're just people trying to get by through whatever means we think necessary." What's he playing at? Cynicism. How typical and melodramatic. But very alluring. She wrenched herself from that line of thought. She didn't want to go looking for a relationship. She kept this thought firmly entrenched in her mind.

Zuko nodded. "I suppose so. But, cynicism is just so much easier to believe, you know? Survival of the fittest without care for those you crush. That's how it's done in my experience."

Katara perked an eyebrow. In his experience? "It sounds like you've been one of those losers, judging by how you strike down at the winners." She was playing the devil's advocate, trying to get at what Zuko truly meant.

He noticed her sudden change in tone from cheerful, happy-go-lucky earth-lover to objective observer. He opened his mouth to rebut what she had said, to reject that he had ever been anything other than a winner, when a waitress came over and clunked down two mugs full of steaming, hot liquid.

"One mocha hot chocolate, hold the whipped cream, and one caramel latte," read the server from a slip of pink copy paper. She looked up and smiled at the pair. "Is it one check or two?" The wink she gave to Katara struck the nerve of Zuko's that had been wincing for the past ten minutes and Zuko spoke up before Katara could answer.

"I'll cover the check, please," he insisted, slipping a twenty dollar bill to the server and smiling coolly.

"Of course," the waitress replied, smiling nervously back at the slightly intimidating youth. "Bye Katara," she said, leaving the two alone again.

Zuko took a sip from his latte, gazing over the rim to gauge Katara's expression. She was looking down at her hot chocolate, staring intently at the brown liquid. It was a moment before either of them spoke again.

"I'm sorry about that," Zuko finally said, looking down at his own drink. "I… don't really know what came over me," he apologized. "I guess this just wasn't the night for me to get coffee with you." He had overreacted, he knew. But he just couldn't help it! He didn't want to be just an object of interest- a possible place-taker next to this girl.

Katara waved away his apology with one hand. "No, its fine. I mean, it's hard to predict what people are going to say or do to react to anything. You hope for the best but, well, sometimes people happen."

Zuko looked up, a gleam in his eye. "People like Jet?" he said, a smirk spreading on his face.

Katara grimaced. "Don't remind me! Ugg, yes. Just like Jet." She stuck her tongue out, looking at Zuko from squinted eyes. "Let's not talk about him. Or people like him." But she said it with a laugh in her voice and a small smile touched her mouth as she sipped her hot chocolate.

Feeling relieved that she didn't flip out at his less-than-polite jest, Zuko settled into a comfortable position in the booth and finally took a look around at his surroundings. Nearby to their booth were scattered one and two person tables. The general buzz in the air was about the brown-out and lack of power. Zuko looked over at Katara, searching about in his mind for a new topic. "So," he began, just as she spoke too.

"Anyways," she started. "Oh, no you go," she insisted when he stopped and motioned for her to continue speaking.

"No, I didn't really know what I was going to say anyways." He mumbled. It was so hard to think of conversation. He didn't want to go off and offend her. Or bore her. Or otherwise make her regret going out for coffee even more than she possibly already did.

Katara frowned, looking down at her nails. "Neither did I," she quietly laughed. "It so difficult to think of something to talk about, isn't it? You can think of a thousand things not to speak about but nothing to actually talk about." She tried to think of something, anything. Why couldn't she think of anything to talk about except Jet and boys?

Zuko nodded, his mind trained on the same thought, minus the fixation on boys. "Well, why don't we talk about ourselves? Like, our personalities?" Rather than this uncomfortable situation were the unspoken words in his suggestion. Katara nodded, finding this to be acceptable topic. "I for one enjoy being a leader more so than following others. But I still love to spend time reading, especially the more "classic" literature. Orwell? My favorite author," Zuko supplied, trying to be honest.

Katara examined the youth's face, watching how his eyes moved- mostly his good one, the other was more lidded and hard to look at directly. They stared down at his hands while he was speaking, then meeting hers just as he finished. She flushed, sheepishly looking down at her own hands. "I prefer Vonnegut over Orwell, though I didn't hate reading 1984 or Animal Farm. At least the people in Cat's Cradle knew they were unhappy and could at least try to change that fact." She stopped her sheepish hand-fiddling, getting caught up in the momentum of discussion.

"I mean, both the thought police and the pigs had total control over the minds of everyone else. I just don't think Orwell thought enough of the intelligence of the common person or their ability to realize what's best for them," she said, sitting up straighter in her seat.

Zuko tilted his head, countering, "But you don't think that if someone or some group had control over the records of the past that the normal people wouldn't even notice that it was being manipulated? If there's no proof that something happened, can you prove it did happen?"

"If someone claims that something did happen, can you not believe that maybe they're telling the truth?"

"Define truth. Is it something that is proven absolute or is it something else?" he retorted.

Katara snorted. "The truth is what happened because of certain reasoning and chains of events. It can be proven absolutely because of the unlikelihood or impossibility of the other possibilities. You know what is true and what is manipulation- people have instincts."

Zuko shook his head. "I could say that I have two brothers and a sister, which is just as likely as me having no siblings at all. How do you know what's true? You can't. If I control the flow of information that you receive, you cannot know what is true and what is a falsehood with the possibility or probability of being true."

Katara blinked. "You have two brothers and a sister?"

Zuko shook his head. "Nope, just a sister. She's a sophomore, just like you." He made a face, correcting himself. "Well, hopefully not just like you since she is an ignorant, kiss-up ass."

Katara laughed, "Let's hope I'm not like that! That would absolutely ruin me if I was that girl."

Zuko grinned, feeling more relaxed now that the tense silences and long pauses were over with. "Well unfortunately that has yet to happen to Azula. She just keeps riding along, being daddy's perfect girl."

Katara drained the rest of her hot chocolate, wiping the foam off top of her lip with her napkin. "You really don't get along well with your family, do you?" she asked quietly, averting her eyes again, twitching them up to his face for a split second.

Zuko bit his lip, a small sigh escaping his mouth. "Well, I get along fine with my uncle. He's much more patient with me than my father ever was. My mother died in an accident, so she's been out of the picture. Azula finds comfort in making other people do what she wants them to do, just how my father does in business. I don't really fit in well with the business world so I don't fit in well with Father." He gave a wry smile, looking back at Katara. "So yes, I don't get along particularly well with them. I like to keep better company than them around. Its much more reassuring."

Katara blinked in mild surprise. "Wow," she said softly. "I might think that Sokka's a prick sometimes but we don't hate each other, really. And I'm sorry to hear about your mother." Her hand reached up, unconsciously, and touched a blue stone satin necklace around her neck. "I lost my mother, too."

Zuko breathed out, not a direct sigh, then said, "I'm sorry as well. She must have been a great woman." His breath caught as he finished. Why did I say that? Idiot. Lets talk about your dead mum, sure, that's a great way to get you to like me.

But Katara didn't start to sob or glare at Zuko. Instead she nodded slowly, a small smile on her lips. "Yeah, she really was." She looked up to meet Zuko's eyes. "I know she's still present sometimes too. I can feel it. Like when I've just fought with Sokka and I'm sitting out in the fresh air I can feel something that just reminds me of her. Its…"

"Comforting," Zuko supplied, being familiar with the same feeling.

She broke out in a wider smile. "Yeah. That's it."

Their conversation was broken by the sound of Taylor Swift sounding from somewhere near Katara's knees. She jumped in surprise, then laughed. "Oh, that's my phone. Hang on." She pulled out her phone and flipped it open without looking to see who it was.

"Hey Suki. What's up?" She asked.

"Nothing much. The main power grid just came back online and we're having a tourney over here. Its Aang v Toph right now, via SSBB. Guess who's going to win," Suki said with laughter in her voice. "You wanna head over here? There's plenty of room. Longhot and Smellerbee just showed up too."

Katara's mind flashed to twenty minutes ago and to who had been with Smellerbee and Longshot. "Um, well," she stalled, not sure what to say. She looked over at Zuko and mouthed 'the power's on now' to him. He nodded, looking distractedly at his now-empty mug.

Suki spoke again, "Oh wait, hang on." There were sounds of movement and footsteps before she added, "You-know-who's here too. I'm not sure you want to come now." Suki was much more hushed and quiet.

"Oh, jeeze, that's what I feared," Katara said, feeling relieved that Suki realized that she didn't want to see Jet. "I'll have to take you up on that offer another time. I'm with a friend anyways."

"A friend?" Suki asked, immediately becoming more interested. "What friend? Do I know him?" Katara could imagine her sitting up more in her couch.

"Um, probably not. I'll talk to you later, okay?" She said, trying to politely end the conversation. Zuko seemed even more interested in the exact shade of mocha that the walls were. "Alright. Bye." She snapped her phone shut, shoving it back into her bag.

"Do you need to go?" Zuko asked, his eyes finally returning from their intent staring at the walls to settle on her Katara's.

She shook her head. "Nope. That was one of my friends calling to say the power was back on. But she's got other people over. So no, I don't need to go." She looked at her empty mug.

Zuko followed her gaze. "Do you want a refill? Or…" he trailed off. His watched beeped softly. Ten o'clock. "I don't want to keep you from your work."

She grimaced at the mention of work. "Oh, I don't even want to think about my classes tomorrow. Bio lab, bright and early at 8:30."

Zuko smiled. "I've got you beat- Physics lecture at 7. Two hours listening to some professor talk about laws and experiments he hasn't done for twenty years."

Katara pushed her mug away and stood up, picking up her bag. The green glowstick still hung from her neck and she pulled it off, tucking it in a pocket. "Well, either way, I could use the extra rest."

Zuko stood as well, fixing the collar of his jacket. "Sounds like a plan to me." He followed her out, opening the car door for her before getting in himself.

When he dropped her off, he waited until she got inside the building before driving away.