A/N: I like this chapter best. Most definitely.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ATLA

Socks

Katara has no idea how he remembers, or how he had even been able to keep track of the days. She suspected that he didn't actually know. It was probably a well-educated guess. But when Zuko woke her up before the sun had risen to pull her onto the roof of the small residential home with him, fatigue was too heavy on her bones for her to care.

Sure, when the first rays of light passed over the glittering water she was silenced by the beauty, but that didn't mean she was remotely happy to have only gotten a few hours of sleep. When she turned to Zuko to say as much she was silenced by a pair of socks dangling in front of her face.

"Happy Birthday, Katara." Her eyes widened and she couldn't snatch them from his hands quick enough.

"Socks!" A faint smile spread across his face as he watched her frantically unlace the top of her hightop converse. She began to pull on them, but her hands kept slipping.

"Here." She was hardly surprised when Zuko gingerly took her foot from her own lap and pulled the shoe off in one try. She reached for her other foot, but he got there first. He unlaced and pulled the shoe off calmly and a lot faster than she would have taken. The socks she was currently wearing were old and mismatched. They both had holes on her heel and the balls of her feet. When she pulled them off she balled them up and threw them over the side of the roof. Her grin was infectious as she picked up her new (still packaged) blue socks that came up just above her ankles and were covered in starfish and beach umbrellas. The feeling of the new clean fabric on the soft part of her feet was more than she could've ever asked for, for her birthday. Socks were something they often forgot to grab when they went on supply runs. Katara wiggled her toes in her socks, and when she was satisfied she threw her arms around Zuko's neck. Her entire body weight rested on him as a fell backwards, laughter following him the whole way. His chin was resting on the top of her head as her nose nestled into the base of his throat and her lips pressed gentle kisses just above his heart. The warmth and love that she emanated seeped into his skin and filled his body from head to toe; the nerves and almost pain that came with her set in at the pit of his stomach.

"Thank you one-hundred times over, Zuko." The hem of her t-shirt had ridden up as she fell and Zuko's fingers set into a rhythmic movement at the small of her bare back.

"You're welcome one-hundred times over."

Then Zuko was flipping them and Katara was giggling as he hovered above her on his forearms. A small smile settled on her face as her blue eyes sparkled in the new light of day. He ran his knuckles over her curls as they fanned out around her head. Slowly he had fallen in love with the small repeating motion. He found it nearly as comforting as she did.

"I love you, Katara." His face had fallen to where his lips tickled hers when the words left his mouth. Her lips puckered so that a short kiss was placed on his chapped mouth before her whispers glided across his mouth as well.

"I love you, Zuko." Zuko's weight settled comfortably against her body as he leaned all the way into her kiss.

"If you don't get off my sister, I'm going to pretend like you're one of the zombies, just so I don't feel guilty when I hack your head from your shoulders." Screams emitted, chaos ensued, and two pairs of matching blue eyes met for the first time in months.

"Sokka?"

A/N: Drop a review if you still like me, or if you just don't like me. Tell me how you feel!