Disclaimer: I don't own the Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters.

The Shadow of the Past

Chapter 3 - First Threat

Story by Last Butterfly

Summary: Seven years passed since that tragic night in Zuko's life, and he and Katara had been together for a year now.
But after this peaceful time a shadow neared them from the past he tried so hard to forget... - Zutara, Zuko x Katara Modern AU

His fingers tickled her palm, and he smirked when he was able to make her laugh. She had been silent almost the whole way, and now they were walking on the street she lived in.

As she pulled away her hand to stop him, he wrapped an arm around her then blew a kiss to her forehead at her hairline. "What's wrong?" He asked lowly when she stopped before the house. "You didn't talk much to me…"

"I just…" She lowered her head when he stepped in front of her. "Don't know. This day was 'surprising'."

"Damn," His shoulders slumped as he lowered his head too. "I'm so sorry; I should have closed the door…!"

His voice trailed away as her dark skinned hand played with his hair that covered his amber eyes from her view. "It's no big deal." She said with a small smile. "But you know… you truly have a wonderful mom." Her eyes were teary as she'd finally said this out, but those never fell.

"And… you have an awesome dad." He said, smiling too. "Well, at least what I've heard of him…"

"Oh…" Katara's eyes rounded for a second before she got a hold of his hands. "Speaking of which, you do remember that you'll finally officially meet him on Saturday, don't you?"

Zuko averted his gaze and he swallowed before making a nervous smile. "Y-yeah, Saturday… I remember."

She made a half-smirk as he rubbed his upper arm. "Are you afraid of my dad, Zuzu?" She asked teasingly, making him slightly flush.

"I am not." He scowled, but she only giggled.

"It doesn't seem like that to me…" She sang but before he could have turned away with a scoff, she placed her hands to the side of his face and neck, kissing him softly. "Don't worry it was not him who walked in your door…" She smirked as he hung his head.

"That would have been… different."

"And rather dangerous for you…" She chuckled, but he only paled.

"You love to make me feel miserable, don't you?" He asked before heaving a sigh. 'You're just like Azula…' He murmured, but as she hadn't removed her hands yet, she did not let him look away.

"No, but you're always so sure and confident about what you're doing…" She said before they exchanged smiled. "And I can't help it, but I do love to see you insecure…" His eyebrow rose. "You're so cute then."

"Oh, yeah…?" He made a smirk as he wrapped his arms around her waist, closing the gap between them. Her hands fell on his muscular upper arms. "I thought you loved tough guys like me…" He whispered huskily and she giggled before he slowly leaned to her neck when…

"Katara!" Light fell upon them as the door of the house opened, revealing her brother. "It's past ten, come inside!"

The girl rolled her eyes as they stepped away just a bit, and Zuko turned towards the house. "Hi Sokka."

The brother let out a grunt, but at least nodded towards him before turning his gaze back at his sister. "Where were you? You were supposed to learn." He said disapprovingly.

"I was." She frowned, waving towards her boyfriend. "And Zuko helped me."

"That I see." Sokka murmured sarcastically while crossing his arms. He did not show any sign that he would leave them alone.

The scarred teen cleared his throat with a look to the side, before she turned towards him. "Then… good night." She said and he saw that this was not the goodbye she had in mind.

His golden glance bore into the blue depths of her eyes, and his expressions softened at once. "I love you."

Katara smiled tenderly at him. "I love you too…" She stepped to him again, pressing her slightly parted lips to his. But just as his hands touched her face, her brother let out a loud noise, imitating the ringing of a clock with a 'Rrrrr!'. Needless to say, he gained two annoyed looks.

"Time's up, dude. That was goodbye, now shoo." He said, waving at the last.

"Sokka!" She clenched her fists, but Zuko put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay." Then he raised his hands as her brother gave him a dark look. "I'm going!" He peeked back at Katara, offering one last smile. "Bye."

"Bye…" She smiled before he turned away, and she went in the house, followed by her brother's words.

"This guy…!" Sokka groaned after closing the door behind her. "When will you finally dump him?"

"I am not going to dump him." She said before giving him a narrow look. "Unlike you, I would like to stay in my relationship."

Sokka's mouth stayed open for a moment. "Why would you say that?" He asked with a hurt tone before lifting a finger. "I'm already together with Toph for about…"

"Ten months now?" She asked with a knowing smirk before folding her arms. "You're nearing your famous 'one-year-limit'." It was known about Sokka that he had never stayed with anyone longer than a year so far. But she hoped that Toph would eventually change this. "You should rather concentrate on that!"

Her brother could only stare at her walking to her room's door, but before she left him alone, she turned back to speak. "And I've invited him over for dinner this weekend." His mouth opened, but before he could have protested she added on a firm voice. "Dad already knows." Then she turned on his heel, closing her door.

Zuko's smile slowly faded as he started walking. In the meantime a car reached the end of the street, where it turned back.

Out of all her family members he had met so far, only her grandmother seemed to be happy about her choice. Sokka and he 'got know of each other' through a fight, sooner than he had ever talked to the other boy's sister, and until he did not even plan to change his attitude, Zuko was not going to start apologizing.

The other problem had been Mr Pakku. The first sentence which left the old man had been: 'Why couldn't she find herself a fine Water Tribe boy?' So this was obviously not the best start. But as he and Gran-Gran – every time he found it difficult to say this out – basically always disagreed, whatever the topic had been, Katara told him not to worry about it.

And only her father remained, who he simply didn't meet because of his job. Hakoda had been a fireman, and as such, most of his day was spent on either sleeping or working. He even guessed that when they could have meet, the man let him and Katara have privacy…

When he left a corner, his eyes caught sight of something out of place. Not much later a car took the corner behind him too.

He made a frown. The odd thing was that it moved almost unnaturally slow… and that its lights were not turned on. It was a black – maybe dark blue – Sedan.

As he reached the next corner he walked into the street on his right, instead of following his original direction. He hid his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He might have been just paranoid, but he wouldn't have made his way much longer this way either…

But then the car turned in the street towards him again, making him harden his frown.

It's just a coincidence… He told himself, but he had felt uneasy enough already. He let out a bigger amount of breath and seemingly slowed down, while his attention was fully turned to the Sedan, which he had only seen from the corner of his eyes.

Then the car also slowed down.

Zuko suddenly stopped. His fists clenched as the car pulled to the side on the other side of the road. No one got out of it.

He turned towards it with a dark look on his face. "Hey!" He yelled as he headed towards the Sedan. "I don't know who the hell you are, but this is freakin' not funny!"

He had seen that only one person sat inside, but he could not see the face out of the shadows. He just stepped down the road, but before he could have seen the registered number, the car's lights turned on at once, blinding him… He raised a hand before his face, and only looked there again when its engines roared to life.

For a long moment he stopped dead in his tracks, like a deer on the road… then the Sedan moved right towards him, with incredible speed.

Without a second thought he started running back towards the sidewalk, but before he reached it the car was right behind him… his heart raced and when he heard the noise of it leaving the road to follow him further, he jumped with his full strength to the side.

He was rolling on the wet grass several times before finally looking up. For a second his eyes could not focus on the black car. By the time he realized he could not see the license plate because there was none, the Sedan disappeared, leaving him panting on the ground.

What the hell did just happen?!

Ursa got up from the couch, going to the hall when she heard the front door closing but her smile faded at once as she saw her son.

Zuko's hair looked rather shaggy, his right arm was bruised and his blue jeans were tainted with green on several places.

Her eyebrows furrowed with concern. "Zuko, what…?"

"I've slipped on the grass." He said without hesitation. He usually avoided lies, but as long as it was not necessary he did not want her to worry. "I did not realize that it had been watered not much sooner."

His mother did not move. "What about your arm then?" She asked pointing at the big bruise but he only looked at it with surprise.

"Oh, I did not even notice it." He said while rubbing it with his other hand. "I was close to the path then, it must be because of that…" He murmured, but as he only showed his eyes after saying all this, her heart filled with doubts. "Don't worry, I'm fine." He added with a small smile, but as he walked towards her, the phone rang.

For a long moment Ursa eyed her son then went to answer the call while he left to his room.

"Ursa…" Uncle Iroh's voice sounded old now… time was still generous with him, but tiredness was something even the wisest could not avoid. "You know I'm not fond of telling bad news…" He started, but the woman could not feel worried again.

"Iroh, you're scaring me, what happened?" Her hand clenched on the speaker as the older man audibly sighed.

"My brother…" Ursa's eyes grew at once. "Ursa, he's out."

"H-how is that possible?!" Her grip strengthened further on the phone. She suddenly felt the air way too cold.

There was a pause before Iroh only said. "Probably his lawyer did something… I'm not sure."

The only move she made was looking up at the stairs where her son disappeared, before asking on a low voice. "Do you think he knows where we are?"

"I don't know. But keep that in mind if he ever dares to get close enough so that you could see him, he goes back to jail."

"Iroh," She started with a serious voice. "Could you keep an eye on my children? Especially on Zuko." She added while rubbing her temple. "I have a really bad feeling."

SMS, from Zuko:

Hey, where will you be at around 2 pm?
My uncle asked me to help him out at the teashop today… but I wanna see you.
He asked Azula to come too, but she basically laughed in his face. I should really talk to her about a thing called 'respect' once… (if she hadn't been so damn strong..)

SMS, from Katara:

Hi! ;) Well, after class I'll head to Gran-Gran's place…
Care about another staring contest with GranPakku? XD
You might actually play chess beside it too…

SMS, from Zuko:

Eh… sounds fun…
I'll be there.

The old man was sitting comfortably in his favourite armchair while a newspaper covered his face and upper body from view.

When the doorbell rang he only shifted the papers in his hands to peek up, but nobody else seemed to move.

His gaze just returned to the news, the bell sounded again, and he lowered his hands with a frown upon his face. "Someone is at the door!" He shouted, but as still only he cared about this fact, he let out a grunt and finally dropped the papers. He rose from his chair, murmuring about 'aching bones' but right after he took a step, his granddaughter yelled.

"I'm coming!" Katara ran through the room to open the front door.

When he heard the girl greet her 'boyfriend', he heaved a frustrated sigh, before hopping back to his place. Of course after this unnecessary extra movement he did not feel the armchair half as comfortable as it had been just a moment ago. "How infuriating…"

The two of them stepped in the living room when Gran-Gran appeared too. "Hello my dear." She said in a soft voice, and even her expressions showed care, making Zuko smile lightly.

"Good afternoon Mrs… G-gran-Gran." When the old lady cleared her throat he corrected himself. But Katara's grandmother couldn't help pinching his right cheek as she saw him embarrassed by the mistake.

The teen's good eye rounded for a moment after this as he glanced at his smiling girlfriend, then he rubbed his upper arm before finally looking around and he caught sight of the newspaper, which hid the old man again. "Good afternoon Mr Pakku."

There came a low grunt from behind the paper, before Gran-Gran turned with a narrowed look towards her husband. "Pakku…" Her hand moved to her hip. "Greet the boy."

Pakku showed a frown towards the news before lowering it with a half-smirk, which instantly made Zuko shift in his place. "Hello son. Are you still saving money for a decent bicycle?"

Auch. The teen's good eye twitched. In that moment the old man resembled his grandson, Sokka, way too much.

"Motorbike to be exact." He answered on a bit harder voice.

Gran-Gran rubbed the bridge of her nose giving up. "Now then, we still have some work to do…" She said before putting an arm around Katara. "I won't keep her away from you for too long." She spoke, but as she added a wink to it the two teens almost guiltily averted their gaze before the 'men' were left alone.

The scarred boy straightened in his place as his golden eyes met the man's cold blue ones. A silent moment passed.

Then Pakku finally made a shrug. "Chess?" He asked as he dropped the newspaper on the table.

Zuko relaxed. "Sure…"

"You know where it is." The old Water Tribe man said, when the boy already headed towards the shelves to get it from the top.

"Yeah…" He let out a small growl as he lifted up the marble chess board. "I do."

Pakku crossed his fingers before his lips, and didn't say anything till the boy sat down too and started to place the black and white figures on the board. "Boys your age usually have a car already." He said matter-of-factly.

Zuko's hand stopped with the black king, but he slowly put it down as he answered. "Well, I didn't have the luxury."

The figures all stood on the right place. Pakku was white, opposite to him Zuko was black. White started the game.

"Maybe…" The old man made his move. "You should get a job." His voice obviously had a taunting tone, but the boy didn't even look up.

"I already have one." Pakku slightly raised his head, but Zuko went on, only concentrating on the game. "I help out at my uncle's coffee shop. That way he doesn't have to look for another waiter…" He made his move.

"Once I've tried to get a second job too, but it only led into worse grades then a sleep-loss, which ended so bad that I've fallen asleep standing behind the counter…" He scratched his head, only looking at the board between them. "Or on the bus…"

The man hid a small smile with his hand while the boy spoke. "Though Uncle can't give too much, but I don't complain…" Now that he thought about it, however, he did complain – about rude customers, giggling girl groups or a certain trio of old 'ladies', who always managed to creep him out – but never about salary.

But now that he fell silent, he realized that maybe he gave away only more things, which Pakku could rub under his nose. But the moustached man only made his move, adding this: "It is honourable if someone cares about family… especially about the elders."

Zuko peeked up with surprise, but Katara's grandfather was only looking at the figures on the board. Was it even possible? Did this count as a compliment?

For minutes after that none of them spoke, but as the teen moved a certain figure forward… "Check."

Pakku heaved a sigh with a disapproving frown. "This is the typical example why people of the Fire Nation cannot play chess." He said, taking down the mentioned figure. "Using brute force is not the good way in this game…"

When he saw that Zuko's lips curled upwards into a smirk, his voice trailed away. Then the boy lifted the black queen, stepping to the same place again, taking down the white one.

"Check-mate."

Pakku's mouth hung open. He didn't even realize that Katara walked in the room, sitting on the armrest of her boyfriend's chair.

"I forgot to mention that I've learned chess from my uncle…" The scarred teen showed a genuine smile at her then looked back at him. "He had been national champion three times in a row."

A/N: Mwuhaha... I had always been a crime story fan, what about you? ;) Now guess who was driving the black sedan! XD Plz, plz! ;D

Well, well... hehe XD and I love Pakkana, that is actually something the dear creators did not mess up much. But still, I really loved how Pakku could be like Sokka, and just like him he has some problems with Zuko... well, at first anyway. Auch, bycicle... lol. XD

Who do you think would win in chess? ;) Iroh or Pakku? XD

The next chapter's title: 'Before the Storm'.

Readers are nice, but reviewers are loved! Bye-bye till the next time!