Zuko's good news came as a surprise although she had expected it. After the comedy show at Public Square, the young couple visited Omashu's Tea & Eatery, a lively spot just outside of campus. As they waited in line, Zuko gripped Katara's hand a little tighter, and when she looked up, he disclosed in her ear that his application had been accepted to the Boiling Rock Graduate Program.
For the past two months, Katara had kept his head up, assured him that his application was sure to be accepted. She reminded him that his father, Ozai, although distant and uninvolved, was the dean of Four Nations University. Zuko was head of the Pro-Bending team, top of his class, and he had excelled in his bending exams last quarter. There was no reason, Katara asserted often, that he should worry. But Zuko, humble and unsure of his own abilities, hadn't thought he'd get this far.
"Zuko, that's so great," she said. "But that means you'd have to move back to the Fire Nation."
He didn't seem to notice her tone. "Yeah, I'd be moving at the end of the semester."
"That's an entire ocean away," she said.
Katara noticed he didn't pull out a chair for her the way he used to when they first started dating. She pulled out the green wooden barstool with force, the legs scraping against the ceramic tile. The noise echoed through the shop and a neighboring table of girls looked at Katara with narrow eyes.
"It's two thousand miles away," he said with wonder, and handed her a cup brimming with chai.
She asked, "So you're okay with moving?"
"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" He drank from his own cup and smiled, golden eyes sparkling in the sunlight that shone through the windows. She must have been frowning as she watched him because his smile dropped, and he asked, confused, "Isn't that what you wanted? You just told me that it's great news." He laughed and shook his head. "I mean, I didn't even think I had a chance there! It's incredible. I'm so glad I listened to Azula when she told me to apply."
"I told you to apply too!" Katara defended lamely. What Sokka was to Zuko, Azula was to Katara. Zuko's younger sister couldn't have been more disliked by the waterbender, and Zuko knew this, and the fact that he had given her credit made Katara's face flush a deep red. "I told you to apply the day I fucking met you."
"Hey, relax!" he exclaimed. "You're the one whose acting like this is a bad thing. You just told me that you think it's great. Now you're cross-examining me."
"It is, it is," she replied hurriedly, shaking her hands in front of her face. "It is so great. You just don't get it."
"What does that mean?" His left brow bunched upwards and his tone plunged low. His fist tightened on the table, the veins bulging like small, blue ropes. "I wish you'd stop talking in circles."
"Stop getting upset," she said. She brushed her fingers over his tense arm lightly, feeling the skin there, and looked up at him. But she was too angry to calm him down, and his gaze didn't soften when she touched him. "You know what? It's such great news that you can celebrate it alone. I'm going home." She stood up abruptly and spun on her heels before he could stop her.
"Fuck," he said, loud enough for her to hear him. "Fuck. Katara, come here. Katara." He stood up and pursued her, but she was fast, and by the time he was outside, she was already in her brother's car, the engine revving.
She said from the window, "Do you want a ride back?"
"Stop being stupid," he said. "Why did you get angry? What did I do?"
"Do you want a ride back or not?" She pressed. "No?"
"No, I don't – I want you to come out here and talk to me."
"No? Then have a great walk home, Zuzu." She flicked her sunglasses down – they had been over her forehead holding her wavy curls back – and shifted the Oldsmobile into drive.
It was impulse to look in the rearview mirror, and she did so, watching him as his arms dropped, as he sent a hand through his hair, as he kicked at the curb and took out his cellphone to find another ride. She felt she had overreacted, but she didn't care. Zuko was oblivious to the fact that he was moving and leaving her behind.
He didn't mention how this would affect their relationship – if at all – or ask if she would be interested in being with him despite the fact that they would be physically apart. What was he expecting, she wondered now. Was it a given that they were over? Or that they would stay together? She did what she always did when she was angry beyond words, and talked to herself the entire drive home. Later, while walking to her dormitory, she would run into an airbender named Aang, and Zuko would try to call her, and she would sleep restlessly until Energy Anatomy, which met at the ungodly hour – 6 in the morning.