DISCLAIMER- I do not own ATLA

Motorcycle

Katara and Zuko were racing their long boards down a particularly long hill when he first heard it. The distant grumbling of vehicles making their way towards them on the road. Katara continued to speed down the road exclaiming about the unfairness of it all.

"It's because you weigh more!" Her voice was faint over the air rushing past them and through their hair.

"There is someone behind us, Katara!" He watched as her long brown curls flew behind her and she watched with a keen eye as the road started to narrow and even in front of them. Her eyes turned to him for less then a second before she was lowering her stance on the board and leaning with the bend in the road. Followed very closely by Zuko who had grown nervous with the growing noise of what he could now safely assume were motorcycles. Katara either couldn't hear him, or wasn't listening. When the ground evened out completely and the wind that had been drowning out most the noise ceased to block the noise of the motorcycles in Katara's ears, she turned her board and stopped rolling. Zuko did the same a few feet in front of her, and soon the motorcycles turned the corner and slowed when they saw spotted Katara and Zuko. Who had moved so that they were standing beside each other. Zuko's hand reached forward so that it rested against the small of her back as what seemed to be six men. A couple seemed to be young teenagers.

The one in the front stopped behind them and switched off his motorcycle. He hopped off the vehicle and Katara and Zuko turned so that their back wouldn't be to anyone.

Zuko's hand that was on her back, bunched in the fabric of her shirt to pull her closer to him. While Zuko glared at what appeared to be the leader Katara looked warily at the others surrounding them as they sat on their bikes. None of which were wearing helmets.

"Well, well, well." Katara's face turned towards the too smooth voice and watched as he moved to stand in front of them. He was almost as tall as Zuko, who towered over her, and his hair was brown and stuck out in all directions. He looked confident as he chewed on what looked to be a piece of wheat and crossed his arms to look at them through squinted eyes. "Look who we have here." The man tilted his head to the side as his smirk grew. His eyes slid over to Katara and she watched as he looked her up and down. Zuko took a step forward so that the attention shifted to him.

"Who are you?" Zuko's voice was low and gravelly as his fist loosed on her shirt until his palm was moving in circles on her back. When the leader's eyes moved to watch the movement, Zuko moved his hand so that his arm was wrapped around her waist and he was holding her close to him.

"The name's Jet." Jet's smirk faded into a frown as he watched Katara's body weight shift toward's Zuko. "These are my boys." Katara smiled in an attempt to be relatively friendly. She held her hand out for Jet to shake.

"I'm Katara."

"Extremely pleased to meet you, Katara." When Jet reached forward and kissed the back of her hand instead of taking it in a firm handshake, a rosy blush spread across her cheeks. Jet's calloused fingers lingered where they gently held her hand in place. She pulled away quickly when Zuko cleared his throat and pulled her even closer to him than they had been before.

"I'm Zuko."

As Katara conversed with him and introduced herself to all the boys on the motorcycles, Zuko refused to leave her side. It made him uncomfortable how all the men's eyes lingered on her every movement. In the past she had amazed him with her uncanny ability to make people happy. Now he grew frustrated as he watched Katara begin a one-sided conversation with a guy Jet proclaimed was a mute who had never so much as smiled at a joke, but then Katara moved to push her hair behind her shoulder and flash the guy her award-winning grin. Within seconds he was reaching out to shake her hand as the corner of his lips twitched into the faintest of smiles. Nearly all of these men were putty in her hands as she talked to them like they were transfers in her high school and not dangerous looking men they had met in the middle of a road soon to be overrun by dead people looking for humans as their next meal.

The entire situation made Zuko wonder how long it had been since this motorcycle gang had seen an actual girl.

Zuko was too busy glaring at the mute guy, Longshot, to realize that Katara had struck a deal. It wasn't until all the boy's were loading up on their bikes that Zuko looked down at the girl next to him to find her grinning. He leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"What's happening?" Katara's hand squeezed his before she let go to pick up the board and pack that lay forgotten on the road.

"I just got us supper and somewhere to stay for the night." Zuko rolled his eyes before picking up his board and taking the pack from her, laying it over his dao swords on his shoulders.

"How do you know we can trust them?" His voice was quiet as Katara looked at the group of men before her.

"Don't trust them. Trust me."

Zuko's frustration only seemed to double as she went to sit on the back of Jet's motorcycle and gestured for Zuko to pick a bike. He took a blow to his pride as he moved to sit on the back of a teenager's bike. Zuko was almost positive he was a she. Then "it" turned around to glare at him before revving the engine, and Zuko was positive that she was a girl.

Zuko was surprised to find them stop in a shed to keep the motorcycles. Then instead of going into the house they turned in the opposite direction and moved into the forest. Zuko walked closely behind Katara as his blood began to boil at the easy conversation passing between her and Jet. Jet was obviously interested in Katara, and she was too lost in her kindness and trusting nature to realize it.

Five minutes into the trek through to forest, Jet stopped and silenced everyone with a finger over his mouth. As he placed his hands over his mouth he made a series of noises similar to a birds before Zuko thought to look up at the heavily wooded sky. He could barely make out wooden floors and bridges between trees before he realized, they were staying in tree houses. Rope ladders flew from the trees and hit the ground surrounding them. Jet waved for them to climb and Katara turned to Zuko to raise an eyebrow, in a gesture thats meaning came across clearly. I told you so.

That evening, after the sun set and Jet had given them fruit and tough meat, Katara and Zuko lay in sleeping bags beside each other under the stars. The other men (including the one Zuko discovered to be a girl) had gone across bridges to different small wooden tree houses.

Katara lay on her side watching Zuko who throughout the night had purposely avoided her eyes. His lids covered his eyes as he tried to feign sleep as he lay on his back.

"Zuko?" Her voice was tender as she scooted her sleeping bag closer to him. When he didn't respond to her she pulled her hand out from the warmth of the sleeping bag to poke his bare bicep. Since she could remember he took his shirt off to sleep. She never understood how he could bare the chill of the night air; she was cold in her simple t-shirt and shorts. She let out a puff of air as he ignored her completely. She moved even closer so that he could feel her breath against his unscathed cheek as he lay on his back. "Zuko?" She reached forward to poke him again, but his arm shot out and he wrapped his hand around hers.

"I'm trying to sleep, Katara." He turned so that he was laying on his side facing her. He didn't let go of her hand, but instead turned it so that their fingers were intertwined. Their faces were inches away and the edges of their sleeping bags overlapping.

"You're not mad at me?" Her voice was tired as he noticed sleep entering her eyes.

"No, not you." She squeezed his hand in hers before her eyes fluttered closed, and she fell asleep beside him.

—

That next morning Zuko woke her up before dawn to take her back to the shed. They had taken the sleeping bags and another pack. They sprinted through the forest when they found a hoard of zombies below the trees.

The poor gang had made it all too easy for them to steal one of their motorcycles, and when the sun finally rose they were miles away from the group of weird men and a single girl.