Chapter Twenty:

-Katara-

I woke up late this morning, it must have been a little after 10 when we normally wake up by 8, and was afraid that I caused everyone to be late for work. I didn't see Zuko anywhere in our room (although he has been rather quiet since the day before) so I went out to the main room to see if he or his Uncle were there. As soon as I walked in I was greeted with a beaming Uncle hiding something behind his back. "Good morning!" he greeted my cheerfully.

"Good morning. I'm sorry that I slept in. We must be late for work now" I apologized.

"As a matter of fact you and Zuko have the entire day off today because we are celebrating!"

I'm extremely confused. "Celebrating what?"

"All of us being together a whole month already; so needless to say this day is for you." Iroh was still beaming as he said this.

I was still in complete shock. A celebration for me? "Iroh…you shouldn't have."

"I will hear no complaining from you Miss Katara. Zuko and I both wanted to do this. We both care greatly for you. Besides," he brought his arms out from behind his back to show me that he was holding a medium – size package wrapped carefully, "I wanted to get you something nice." He put the package in my hands. "Open it" he requested as cheerful as ever.

Just as he had said this I heard the bedroom door slide open and Zuko step out to see what we were doing. Funny, I was sure I didn't seem him in there. Shaking it off, I sat down placing the package on the table as I opened it. Zuko came to stand behind me to see what his Uncle had given me. Once the paper was out of the way I gasped.

Standing up again I pulled out the Earth Kingdom dress and brought it up against me. It was the perfect size. The dress was long sleeve. The colors used were baize white near the collar and at the end of the skirt with a light green for the rest of the dress and a slightly darker green with gold around the edges of the embroidery. "A nice lady I was serving tea to yesterday mention that her daughter was about your age, but she had grown out of this dress. She didn't want to just toss it away and she thought you might like it. She dropped it off this morning while you were still asleep" Iroh explained as I was still examining the dress.

Holding the dress carefully I hugged Iroh with all my strength. "Thank you Iroh. It's beautiful."

"You are most welcome Katara" Iroh said returning the hug.

Zuko coughed and we both turned to him. "Um, Katara," he started and for a second I thought he was going to give me something too, but instead he said, "I accidently forgot – my dagger on the desk table in our room. Could you possibly-"

Not what I was expecting. I laid the dress carefully down on the table. "Sure" I mumbled. I walked by Zuko, who just kept his back to the wall. I walked in our room and forgot all about his dagger and gasped for the second time in just a few short minutes.

Laid out on my bed was the Water Tribe outfit that had caught my attention the day before.

It was just there with the navy blue pants that came with it and I noticed a pair of slim dark brown boots resting at the foot of the bed. Just seeing the blue that for some odd reason I felt that I missed greatly made my eyes sting with tears that wanted to be spilled. Very gently I stroked the blue material as if I was afraid it would disappear under my touch. "And you said you didn't want it" Zuko stated rather smugly from behind me.

I turned around to face him and Zuko's face fell. "Did I do something wrong?"

Shaking my head I tried to come up with a coherent sentence. "Zuko…you shouldn't have done this. I mean I love it, but…" I cut myself off when I started rubbing at my wrists. Zuko walked up to me then so he was standing only a few inches away from me. He started to reach for something behind his back and kept his hand there. "Zuko?"

"Close your eyes." I raised my eyebrows, bemused. He sighed. "Just close your eyes please" he tried again. Not wanting to argue with him I closed my eyes. "No peeking" he ordered. I only heard the sound of his slightly steady breathing. I felt Zuko reach for my hand, take it gently, turning it over so my palm was facing up and then I felt a light pressure of…fabric? "Ok, open your eyes." Opening my eyes I saw that Zuko had placed a pair of matching, navy blue gloves in my hand.

"Zuko?" I questioned him again. Gloves?

"I hope I'm not being disrespectful to you, but I know how much those," he indicated to the bruises on my wrists, "bother you. They seemed to go with the outfit and…I just wanted to give you something you would like and make you happy." When I didn't respond he continued rather quickly, "Plus I thought you might you like those for when you're practicing your water bending. I don't know if you could possibly hurt your hands while you're practicing like I could when I was younger and just learning to fire bend and-"

I cut him off as I hugged him tightly, burying my face in the crook of his neck. After a couple of seconds Zuko returned the hug; wrapping his arms around my shoulders. "Thank you Zuko. I really appreciate it."

"I wasn't being disrespectful?"

"Not at all."

We held onto each other a little longer until Iroh called us to eat something. For the next few hours we all stayed in the apartment just talking and laughing. Honestly though Iroh and I did more of the laughing whereas Zuko chuckled quietly here and there. Around five in the afternoon Iroh started to stand up telling me to put on the new dress he had given me; I had been wearing my old one deciding to save the other two for different times.

"I'm afraid I have to go back to the tea shop soon to help serve" Iroh apologized. "But rather than have you two just sit here or go back to work I have arranged it so that you two can have an evening to yourselves."

"What?" we both exclaimed at exactly the same time.

"You two get to go out tonight." Iroh talked about this like it was no big deal. "Katara you can go get ready while I try to help Zuko."

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?!" Zuko shouted indignantly.

"Zuko that robe is filthy and you cannot go out looking like that. Don't worry Katara he will be ready soon. Zuko follow me."

Groaning Zuko stood up and followed Iroh to his room. As soon as they were out of view I half ran to my room and changed quickly into my new Earth Kingdom dress and combed through my hair to get out any snarls and, to try something different, pulled a small bit of my hair into a small bun. When I was done I couldn't help but hold onto the skirt of my dress as I looked it over and even spun around like a little girl. It really was a beautiful dress.

As soon as I stepped out into the main room I heard a door and Iroh stepped out. "Why Miss Katara, you look breath – taking." I couldn't help but blush. "However something is missing." Iroh looked around and spotted what he was looking for by the window. A single pink flower. "May I?" I nodded and he very carefully tucked it into my small bun. "There, now you are all set."

I smiled at Iroh. "Where's Zuko?"

"He'll be out shortly. He's just finishing up. And unfortunately I have to head over to the tea shop so I won't be able to see you both off. There is a basket near the teapot that has dinner for both of you when you're both hungry." With that he headed for the door. "Have fun you two!" he called out before he shut the door.

Not soon after Iroh left Zuko slowly opened the door. My hands went flying to my mouth. Zuko came out, shoulders hunched and hands balled into tight fists, looking very uncomfortable. He was wearing pants that almost looked dark green with a matching vest over an almost olive green shirt with a pale green sash tied around his waist and on his feet were black boots. The outfit looked nice on him, but what had me absolutely shocked was his hair. It was gelled and patted down with his bangs parted down the middle. "Don't…laugh…at me" Zuko ordered in a tight, controlled voice.

Before I could stop myself a giggle passed my lips. Zuko scowled. "I'm sorry, but you look so uncomfortable and…not yourself." He hung his head. "Here, let me help." I walked up to him and ruffled up his hair until it had its shaggy look again. "There, now you look like yourself." Zuko smiled and I smiled in return. Grabbing our basket Zuko waited by the door and offered me his arm. Smiling I took his arm and we headed out.

For a while we just wandered the streets in comfortable silence gazing at everything that was around us. Neither one of us really seemed to feel the need to talk. Along the way I spotted a hill that overlooked a majority of the city and pointing to it I asked Zuko if we could go up there to eat our dinner. Zuko grinned and nodded his head.

As we walked towards the hill a group of girls, possibly around Zuko's age, were walking the opposite way of us. They started snickering and I heard them whispering to each other, "Do you see that girl? Talk about skinny." They were talking about me and I couldn't help but listen to what they were saying; basically saying there is nothing pretty about me, just like that other fire bender that had me captive made me feel. Then the last thing I heard them say really struck home. "What is a strong, handsome man like him doing with a girl like that?"

I hung my head and I felt Zuko stiffen and stop. Briefly looking up I saw him turn his head towards the girls and glower at them, but nothing more. Regardless I heard the girls give out a shriek under his glare and the scurrying of their feet as they left. Before we continued walking Zuko released my arm in place of wrapping it around my shoulder; drawing me slightly closer to him and squeezing my shoulder.

Once we reached the hill we sat down and ate our dinner quietly. We both finished around the same time. "Katara don't pay attention to those girls and what they said" Zuko spoke up as I stared down at my dress. "They don't know what they're talking about."

"It's hard not too" I whispered. "Considering that it felt like…how that fire bender made me feel that way every moment I was with him." I took a shaky breath. "Not to mention, I can't help but wonder why you even still want me around anymore."

"Katara…"

"Zuko, I've gotten to the point where I can almost completely take care of myself. You even said yourself that I was free to leave when that time came. Maybe that way I wouldn't feel like such a burden to you and your Uncle."

"Katara don't talk like that!" Zuko shouted startling me, making me look at him for the first time since that incident. He was sitting up on his knees, fist clenched, horror etched all over his face, and an indescribable amount of pain in his eyes from what I said. "You have never been a burden."

"I'm sorry Zuko" I apologized. "It's just that…I don't know what to say or think sometimes. I don't know anything about who I really am, I can't help but feel and think things like being a burden and not being pretty, and sometimes, even though I know you're there, I can't help but feel…alone." I closed my eyes briefly before I brought my gaze to him again. "I just wish I didn't have to feel this way. I wish I could remember something, anything that would help me know who I am."

Zuko lowered his gaze and turned towards the sun that was just beginning to set. "I'm sorry" was all he said. I turned my attention to the sun as well, feeling bad that I had ruined our evening. I didn't even hear Zuko stand up until he was standing in front of me with an unreadable expression. "Katara," he began, "would you like to learn how to dance?"

And...cliff hanger! Sorry, but I had to stop it there! Also, just so everyone knows the earth kingdom dress Katara received was the one from the series finale and Zuko's outfit was from when he went on his first date in season 2. And yes, the water tribe outfit is the one from season 3 because that is one of my favorite outfits of Katara's. So thanks for reading and I'll have Ch. 21 for you guys next week. Until then, please review, and I'll see you later.