Staring Contest II
Zuko knew that Katara didn't like him; the threat of torture and pain made that all too clear. So when she hung around the first few firebending practices, he couldn't really blame her or find fault in it. She was really just protecting the only hope the world had left - it was fair (if she kept that false belief that he was still bad, which he obviously wasn't!).
But then she had eventually come to trust him, if the playful shoves and smirks meant anything. He still didn't know if the waterwhips to the back of his head were a good or bad sign.
So it confused him as to why she kept coming to watch over their practices, even at Ember Island when the beach sounded like a better place for her to relax. Then he noticed that there was a change now; while she had watched Zuko with narrowed, skeptical eyes with her water pouch firmly attached to her hip, she now sat there in lightly grinning, not giving a care to him.
Her eyes used to keep fast to Zuko's movements and fire, but now her eyes were focused solely on the arrow-headed kid.
Zuko had thought it interesting, funny even, how she could just sit there with her head tipped to the side as she played with a piece of hair or just kept her hands crossed in her lap. She would ignore her loud brother and that rowdy earthbender and just sit there, doing nothing but observing the drills with a different criteria.
Of course, he had to train Aang and so Zuko kept his main focus on that, but he couldn't help but take notice of her and her attitude towards their fighting sequences. The way she would bite her lip or hold down a grin whenever Aang did a particularly tough or multi-stepped move; it made Zuko roll his eyes.
She was just as bad as him.
AN: I wanted to do a second part... so I did. Review naow?