She walked into the lab and saw him lounging in the professor's chair with his feet propped up on the table.

"You have got to be kidding me," she growled in his direction.

His eyes lit up at the sight of her. "Ah! She exists. How are you, lovely?"

"What are you doing in my lab?"

"Now, now ma cherrie, is that anyway to speak to your fiancé?"

She growled again. "You are not my fiancé, our multiple break ups made that pretty clear. Now, what are you doing here?"

Zuko refused to answer, a smile playing at his lips.

Katara was glad no one else was here. Sokka was at his meeting with Dr. Panna, Haru was teaching a class, Aang was never here, and all the undergrads were in a test review for the exam the next day. Katara, being the only one to have already taken the research class was the only undergrad free at that moment. Free to interrogate her ex who was currently getting dirt on the table. She walked over to her ex and knocked his feet off the table, his combat boots hitting the floor with a dull thunk.

"You should get up before the meeting starts, that's Dr. Panna's chair."

She proceeded to walk past him and into the first testing room. If he wasn't going to answer her, then fine, she wouldn't allow him to bring her into his endless loop again. Katara was a serious researcher, in the middle of applying for graduate schools; she wouldn't allow him to distract her. She tensed when she felt him really close to her, his six foot three presence filling the whole room behind her.

"So this is a testing room," he said right next to her ear. She jumped slightly and his arms wrapped around her protectively. Katara fought the urge to fall into his warm familiar arms, and instead pulled away from him towards the computer.

"Yes it is. I'd tell you how to use it except I'm still not sure what you are doing here or who authorized your entry."

"Relax, P-Money will tell you all about it at this afternoon's meeting."

"'P-Money?!' No, her name is Dr. Panna. You will respect her."

"Chill, she and I are tight. She calls me Z-Dawg and everything."

Katara rolled her eyes. "That's right, your juvenile 'gangster' name. Absolutely ridiculous."

Zuko trapped her against the wall with his body, not quite touching, but close enough for her to feel his heat radiating from her. "You thought it was funny the first time you heard it." He looked into her eyes underneath his long lashes, lashes he knew to be her weakness.

Katara gasped and choked slightly. "Please, I'm asking you nicely, to let me by."

Zuko moved back, allowing her to move away from him. She practically fled the testing room and sat at a chair at the table just as a man entered the lab.

"Hey, Katara."

"Hey, Sokka. Oh, I printed off the debriefing notes you sent me, I'm missing 78 and 89 though."

"Right, I was discussing them with Dr. Panna. Let me add the suspicion codes and I'll send them your way."

"Awesome," she looked at her phone. "If you can do it in the next ten minutes, I can have them printed before the meeting. Oh, and if you wanted to print off the schedule, I can grab it on my way down to the printers."

"Are you using your printing allowance for this?"

"I told you not worry about how I'm taking care of this, did I not?"

Sokka and Katara looked at each other for a long minute, Zuko watching the exchange interested.

Finally Sokka turned away and shook his head. "Katara, if you're risking things or being charged for things…" he trailed off.

"Sokka, you're busy running around trying to get things taken care of, you're also trying to find a less populated place to accomplish everything you need to, I can handle some extra responsibility. Don't feel bad. I'm volunteering for this; you're not stressing me out. Okay?"

"Fine, but don't say I never tried to make sure you were taken care of too."

Katara smiled, "Of course not. You really listen to me, that's more than I could say for the last person I worked under."

"Yeah, at least when I speak of you as my slave, it's as a joke. Kay, they're sent. I just said 'Kay' didn't I? Dammit!"

Katara was laughing hysterically as she grabbed her keys and walked out of the lab. Zuko followed her, unsure of the inside joke he just missed.

"Ah! What are you doing? Are you just following me places?"

"No, believe me, there's a reason why I'm doing this."

"That's what I'm afraid of. " But she allowed him to follow her.

While they walked, he stared at her profile. Her skin tone was lighter than he remembered it, her hair much longer than it had been before, but everything else about her was exactly how he remembered. She smelled of rain and delight, and she wore a perfume that reminded him of encounters in his car and school hallways, back when they couldn't get enough of each other. She walked with a light bounce, a symbol of her inner happiness. People from across the building would call her name and smile at her, and would smile and wave back. Her smile hadn't changed; it was as bright and joyful as he remembered. Her eyes would light up, her deep blue eyes that he couldn't help but get lost in. Being away from this girl for years had done nothing to his attraction or devotion to her. He wondered if she felt the same way, and then he remembered her physical reaction in the testing room. She was definitely still attracted, even if she refused to admit it.

As they made their way to the psychology office, a professor walked out and greeted her.

"Good afternoon, Katara. How are you?"

"I'm great, Dr. Shu, just picking up some printing for Dr. Panna's lab."

"Oh that's right, you are in her lab. You will have an amazing letter of recommendation from her."
"Thank you, I hope so. I'm in the process of looking for another professor who knows me well enough to write one."

"Well, you are the office assistant. That gives you access to several other professors to ask, including the head of the department. I hear his letters are always taken seriously."

Katara smiled. "Do you think the head would really write a letter for me? That would be amazing."

"You know, I heard he can be kind of mean, but I think you're rather charming. He would probably say yes. And I could always put in a good word for you, you know." He winked at her then, told her to have a nice day and to think about asking the head for a letter before continuing on his way.

Katara waited until Dr. Shu walked around the corner before turning to Zuko with the biggest smile on her face. "Ohmygosh ohmygosh!" She started jumping ecstatically. Zuko couldn't even ask her why she was so excited, his chest was too tight from the emotion of seeing her so happy.

Katara got herself under control and then entered the office, Zuko trailing her. She picked up the printing and they left the office. As they walked up the stairs – Katara more running – Zuko watched her glow, and wondered why he ever left this girl.

Katara practically burst through the lab room and ran to Sokka, where she stood bouncing on the balls of her feet until Sokka finished typing and turned to look at her as he pulled his ear bud out of his ear.

"What," Sokka questioned, placing emphasis on the 'h'.

"Sokka, Dr. Shu just told me he would write me a letter of rec! I'm going to have a letter of rec from the HEAD of the department!"

"Congratulations, Katara! That's amazing! Though I can't say I'm surprised." He smiled at her and she sat in the chair next to him.

"I just, I can't believe it! I mean, I work with Dr. Panna, so I wasn't surprised when she said yes. I know it's like, proff's jobs and stuff, but they could always say no, but she said yes and I was happy. But Dr. Shu, like approached me and basically OFFERED. It's like, I can't."

Sokka laughed at her good-naturedly then. "Just what kind of student do you think you are? And what kind of student do you think gets good letters of rec from amazing professors?"

"You?" She said, her head tilting. "You seem like you would have been one of the students that got the good letters."

"I did get the good letters. And you're better than I was."

Katara shook her head. "No, I try to be like you. I'm good because you're a model I observe and learn from."

Zuko laughed then. Katara and Sokka looked at him. "Tara, you've always been this way. I don't see anything different in you then I did when you were in high school. Except perhaps, you're happier, and you have a larger vocabulary."

"You two knew each other in high school? I just thought he was the new RA Dr. Panna recruited."

Katara gaped at Sokka and Zuko then. "He's my ex. Wait, what? You're a new RA? Since when? You don't even go here!" Sokka and Katara giggled at that.

"Actually, I enrolled last year. And yes, I'm working here now."

Just then a bunch of RAs started entering the lab. "Looks like the meeting is about to start, Tara, did you want to sit next to me?" Katara rolled her eyes and kept her seat next to Sokka.

A minute later, Dr. Panna walked in. "Hello, hello." She sat in her usual seat and Katara stared at Zuko with an expression mixed between surprise and disdain.

"Okay, so today I wanted to introduce you all to the new RA. His name is Zuko and he is a sophomore psychology student. He will be working on Sokka's study. Katara and Sokka, will you two train him on the study and get him up and running as soon as possible? I want him running as soon as the new semester starts. He can be doing other things like coding and such until then, but I also want him running the script."

Katara looked at Dr. Panna in surprise. "You want me to help train?"

Dr. Panna nodded. "Yes, Sokka was telling me today some of the things you have helped him with and I think you're able to start helping with training and stuff."

A man in a fedora next to Katara interjected, "You're being promoted."

"That's a good way to put it, Aang, Katara is being promoted."

Katara smiled and looked shocked. "Wow, I don't know what to say. Thank you."

"Thank you for all your hard work. Aside from that, Zuko, would you like to introduce yourself?"

"Um, sure. I'm Zuko. I'm a sophomore, psychology major, I want to be a career counselor when I'm older, and I'm really into positive psychology: Maslow, Rogers, all that." He looked at Katara then, and she smiled back weakly, she looked shocked still, but Zuko could tell it wasn't over being promoted.

A week later, Katara was showing Zuko where he could find all the materials for Sokka's study. As she reached to get something off the top shelf, Zuko reached up after her, brushing himself against her. Katara froze.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. They were the only ones in the lab but her eyes searched the lab anyway.

"I was helping you. You needed the paper thing."

"I always reach it just fine. I was doing this before you got here you know."

"I know, it's why you're training me."

She turned away from him and covered her forehead and eyes with her palm. "Zuko, be honest with me. I know you don't give a damn about psychology or research. Why are you here?"

He sighed. "Because some you care about is in danger. I'm here to protect him."

Katara looked at him through her fingers. "What are you talking about?"

"Someone in this lab found a result at the same time someone else in another lab in Chicago did. The person in this lab published their findings first."

Katara nodded, "Yeah, it happens frequently. It's called 'scooping,' it's what keeps competition alive between research psychologists. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, the other person in Chicago is an angry individual. Very angry. He put a hit on the person who scooped him. I was going to take the person out and get the money. But when I came here, I saw the two of you together, I figured he meant something to you. So I decided to protect him instead of taking him out."

Katara sank into the nearby chair. "Where did you see us? How did you know I care for him?"

"In the hallway downstairs; he was sitting down, and you were standing next to him. The two of you were just talking, but I saw the facial expressions you two shared. I don't know how you care about him; I just know that you do."

Her breathing was ragged. "Who? Who was it in the hallway with me? Who is the one in danger?"

"Sokka."

"He can't know." Katara stood up. "He has a wife, and puppies. They can't know. No one must know who you are or what you're really doing here. …Zuko, for long are you going to protect him?"

"Until the hit is removed, or you order me to."

"What will happen? You can't stay in the lab the whole time; you're going to have to 'graduate'. …Are you really a student?"

"No, I'm not. I just have the paperwork and the computer program hacked to say I am. I have it all worked out. Yes, I will graduate eventually. But until then, I'm going to use this time to get to know Sokka and his habits. Then I'll be able to protect him from anywhere in any way."

Katara nodded. "I see." She looked at him then. "Thank you, so much. Thank you."

"Who is he to you?"

"My mentor, my friend, he's like a brother to me. An older brother I never got to have." A tear fell down Katara's cheek then. Zuko rushed to her and grabbed her face gently.

"It will be okay. Okay? I won't let anything happen to him; just like I would never let anything happen to you."

Katara nodded, looking into his eyes, her chest getting tight. Just then Sokka walked into the lab. Katara shook herself away from Zuko and stood up. "Anyway, like I said, the research cards are here, on this shelf. Give one to each participant. It doesn't do anything really; it's just a safety precaution."

Sokka stood there staring at Katara and Zuko. "Katara, can I get you to help me with making copies downstairs?"

"Yeah, let me set Zuko up with the survey so he can get a feel for it."

"Good idea."

A few minutes later, Sokka and Katara were walking to the office. "What was that? I walk in and I see him about to kiss you. Are you getting back with him?"

"What? No. I was just, upset and he was trying to make me feel better. Don't worry about it."

"If you say so," Sokka said. But he would carefully observe the two of them from here on out.