Hello everyone! Thanks for the reviews and I hope you are still enjoying this story! So, next week my schedule is going to be a little off...don't worry I'm still going to post next Wednesday! Just that when I do it will be right when I wake up so next week the newest chapter will be up probably before most of you are even awake. My schedule will be back to normal the following week so it's only next Wednesday that I will be posting a lot earlier than normal. Also I have a question for you because I am feeling nice...would you like me to post ch.'s 28 and 29 next week or would you rather have just the one? I can't make up my mind so I am going to let you decide so if you review please tell me what you would like to happen and that is what I will do. Ok I have talked for too long now so on with the story!

Chapter Twenty – seven:

-Zuko-

There was no one around when I opened my eyes the next morning. But more importantly, Katara was not where she had fallen asleep. "Katara? Katara?! Katara where are you?!" I shouted.

No answer. I tried again. "Katara?!"

After hearing nothing I ran out the door to be greeted with the sight of the Avatar's flying bison heading into the sky. On the bison were Aang and his friends…and Katara. They were taking her away. "NO!" Katara looked back in my direction, but was turned around by her brother. And my heart shattered. "KATARA!"

When I woke up everyone was still asleep. Aang was still curled up in a ball in the corner of the room. Toph and Sokka were still leaning against each other, looking more like a couple than ever. Then as I looked down I sighed in relief to see that Katara was still sleeping peacefully; her head still laying against my chest with Aang's pet…Momo still curled up on her lap purring in his sleep. I ran my fingers through her hair as if that would somehow confirm that I wasn't still having a nightmare. Katara started to shift and I froze.

"Zuko?" she whispered, slowly opening her eyes. I tried to smile but it felt like a grimace. "Are you alright?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't I be?" I tried to lie.

Katara brought her hand out of mine so she could reach up to rest it against my unscarred cheek. Unconsciously I leaned into her touch. "I thought I felt you shaking."

Nothing gets by her, I thought but I didn't want to worry her over a nightmare. "I don't know. Maybe it was just a cold flash."

Instead of arguing she shrugged her shoulders and started to sit up so she could stretch. "Iroh will probably be up soon and we need to get ready for work" she reminded me. With that we both sat up and started to get ready.

Then it was my job to wake up the rest of her friends as she went over to pick up Momo. The animal reacted to her scratching behind his ear and flew up to her shoulder. I chuckled quietly to myself. I started with Aang first by shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked at me groggily. "Wake up. Katara and I need to head to work with my Uncle." Aang nodded and sat up stretching as I made my way over to the 'couple.' I shook Toph first and she woke up immediately. "Time to get up" I said and she slowly sat up.

"Good luck waking Snoozles" she commented as she went over by Aang.

Sometime during the night Sokka had started snoring almost as loud as Uncle. No matter how many times I shook his shoulder he wouldn't stir. Thinking of what else I could try I smirked inwardly as I quickly flicked his nose. That did the trick. "Ouch!" he whined. "Alright who did that?!" No one answered and I had already started to walk away when he figured it out on his own. "One of these days I'll…I'll…"

"Come up with a good come back?" I asked rhetorically.

"Why you…" he didn't finish as he got up and I could feel him running at me ready to attack so I merely stepped out of the way as he went stumbling out of the door. Katara reappeared then with Uncle right behind her.

"What happened?" she asked panicked.

Sokka brought his head up to glare and point an accusing finger at me. "His fault!"

"I didn't touch you" I shot back. Sokka growled and Katara rubbed her temples. I changed the subject quickly. "We should get going before we're late." Everyone was in agreement. Aang said he would meet back up with us later, that he had some things he needed to do that he could try to get done while we were working. Sokka walked with us and spent the whole day with us sitting at one of the tables in the tea shop; not willing to let us out of his sight while Katara is with us. Toph came along as well, but I didn't mind. She actually seemed like someone nice to hang out with as long as you can deal with her antics and her sarcastic remarks which were sometimes funny; probably because she always seemed to pull them on Sokka and he always reacted.

The day ended quicker than I expected as we all headed back to the apartment. When we arrived Aang was already there with Momo flying around the room chasing a bug he had spotted. While he was gone he had found our basket and replaced them with fresh food; although it consisted of all vegetables and fruits. "Sorry, I'm a vegetarian so I was just going with what I could find since I don't normally buy meat. Plus Katara had always done the shopping for the supplies when she was with us so I kind of had to guess." Uncle had no problem with that and thanked him profusely as I just nodded my head as my way of telling him thanks. Then Uncle started dinner as we all sat at the table in awkward silence. It was just so strange for me. Being surrounded by my once thought enemies. Everything was really changing these days. We ate in silence up until Aang spoke up near the end. "So I was wondering…um…could Sokka and I talk to Katara alone for a few minutes?"

I brought my gaze to Katara, who had been sitting next to me quietly, as she seemed to freeze slightly. She didn't know what to do. She looked me in the eye asking silently if she should. "I'll be right here if you need me" I promised. With my promise made she nodded her head as she, Aang, and Sokka went to our room with Toph slowly following behind them.

"I'm only making sure you two don't continue with your track record of scaring Sugar queen" she stated. My guess is Sokka had started to protest and Toph wasn't about to hear any of it. That is one tough girl, I thought chuckling to myself. I started to clean up as Uncle headed outside saying he wanted to take a walk and get some fresh air. After a few minutes the three out of the four that were talking were speaking just loud enough for me to hear. Then I heard Katara finally speak again after a long pause created by who knows what.

"So that really was a memory?" she croaked in a broken sob and I immediately put down the broom I had just picked up so I could listen more. I got as close as I could to the door and made no sound, even my breathing was quiet. They started saying soothing words to her and it sounded like she had calmed down a little but I made a note to talk to her about it later without making it obvious that I was listening in. Then Katara's next question really sparked my interest. "So, just out of curiosity, how did you guys even know I was here?"

Aang started to explain. "Honestly we didn't. Like we said, we have been looking just about everywhere in the Earth Kingdom for you and after one of our journeys we made into a desert we found information that could help us stop this war. But out there we also lost Appa." He paused and I could only guess Katara was confused. "My sky bison." So his sky bison is missing? Well at least that means they can't be leaving anytime soon. I'm not an idiot and anyone could tell that he is attached to that animal. Sokka took over the conversation from here.

"For us it seemed like every time something good came our way something else would happen. We were going downhill fast but we tried to remain positive like you usually do and I thought that there might be a possibility that you could be here and we would find Appa at the same time. We asked around where we were living in the Upper ring and no one knew you. After about three weeks – we had made up a plan to search for you and Appa at the same time – we ran into Jet." Jet? That boy from the ferry? No wonder he kept glaring at us. He probably thought I kidnapped her or something like that.

"The boy from the ferry that kept chewing on a piece of hay?" Katara asked for me.

"Yup, that would be him" Sokka confirmed. "We ran into him the day before we found you. He told us that he found you on the ferry and that you seemed fine but that you were with two other people that he had never seen before. I didn't want to believe him but then Toph convinced us that he was telling the truth. He said he didn't know where you went afterwards but that you were probably in the Lower Ring so the next day we started to put up the posters and that's when Aang found you."

"I guess that would make sense."

"Yeah, so now that we found you all we have to do are find Appa, deliver our information to the Earth King, and we are out of here."

"We?!" Katara squeaked.

"Yes, Katara you're with your family now so pretty much the sooner we leave the better" Sokka concluded.

My inner fire was burning like crazy. They can't take her away from me! I am the one who took care of her! I comforted her when she had nightmares! I was there for her when she finally talked about what happened to her! I am the one who has kept my promise to hold on to her as long as she needs me! Don't I get a say in this?! This isn't fair…this isn't fair! My rage was so bad that I, without thinking, kicked the table over. It didn't really hurt my foot much, but it got everyone else's attention.

Toph came out first and marched right over to where I was standing and smacked my arm. Then Katara and the boys came out. "What happened?" Katara asked. Before I could even respond Toph stepped in.

"Sparky just stubbed his toe while he was cleaning. Right?" she turned her gaze over to me. She must have known I had been listening. I didn't understand why she was covering for me, but I went along with it and nodded my head yes; although I could still feel the glare on my face. "So I think I'll just take Sparky outside so he can stretch for a little bit. Aang just knock on the wood when you three are done talking." And with that she grabbed my shirt sleeve and dragged me along behind her until we were outside. Then she released me and crossed her arms across her chest and glared at me as if she could actually see. "Want to explain why you were listening in on the conversation?"

I have been tolerant with them up until now so my temper just boiled over and I started shouting. "Why do I have to explain myself to you?! You three are the ones that just showed up out of nowhere and tried to fit your way back into Katara's life! And now you expect me to just stand by as you take Katara away?! No! I won't do it! I…I…" I had to stop so I could catch my breath.

"Why would you care?" Toph asked. "I mean from what I heard from Twinkle toes and Snoozles after they spoke of you one time as to why you hadn't made some sort of appearance in a while I got the feeling you're not exactly their favorite person in the world. And my observation was proven correct after yesterday with you guys yelling back and forth. So, again I ask, why would you care if we left with Katara?"

I calmed myself down since I really didn't want to argue with her, especially since she seemed better than Katara's brother as far as maturity goes. "I have been taking care of her despite how we originally met and before you ask no I don't hate her."

"But you did hate her once." It wasn't a question.

"Only because she was traveling with Aang and helping him so I automatically thought of her as an enemy. But I don't anymore; once I finally realized that she was just doing her part in trying to end this war."

Toph nodded slowly. "Everything you said so far has been nothing but the truth."

"Wait, how can you tell?" This girl is confusing.

"Well obviously I can't actually see you, but then again I've never seen anyone. I was born blind but that doesn't stop me. Thanks to my earth bending I can feel the vibrations around me through my feet; except when I'm on wood…I need something made of earth in order for me to 'see.' So I can feel that you're standing in front of me and I could tell you were telling the truth, just like yesterday, because of the vibrations I felt from your heart beat. When people lie there is a physical reaction within their body – it varies for different people – but you didn't have that. The only reaction you had was yelling but that was because you were angry. That's also how I knew there was something wrong with Katara when we first found her and why I kept my distance from her. I was trying to understand what was wrong with her but it made sense to me once she found herself in your arms; knowing she felt safe. That's also how I knew Katara was going to faint because of her body's physical reaction to wanting to protect herself from the stress you guys were causing." She paused. "Make sense?"

"Surprisingly…yes. That's pretty cool that you can express yourself with earth bending."

"Yeah, yeah you don't need to get all sentimental on me" she pouted. "At least you guys like me as I am and don't see me as just a blind, helpless little girl. My parents saw me that way and they never did see the real me, even before I left." Talk about something we, kind of, have in common, but I wasn't about to say it out loud. I really didn't want to talk about my family right now. "So back to Katara, would it really bother you if she left with us? Like any other reason you want her to stay?"

I groaned inwardly. "I promised to take care of her as long as she needs me and I intend on keeping that promise. But then you three show up and just want to rip her away from me? Don't I get a say?!" I clamped my mouth shut just as I realized what I had said.

Toph smirked and began chuckling to herself. "Oh I should have seen this sooner! Sparky likes Sugar queen."

I felt heat rise up my neck. "What are you talking about? I don't like Katara."

"You are lying" she said in a sing – song voice.

"Am not!"

She continues anyway. "Zuko and Katara…together. Has a nice ring to it!"

I growled and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Look even if you WERE right, it wouldn't matter! Once she gets her memories back she will hate me! End of story!"

"So that's why you're so worried. You want her to remember but you don't at the same time." Keep your mouth shut, don't react, I told myself quietly. "You know sometimes for a person to be happy you have to push aside your feelings; plus I heard head injuries are unpredictable." With that she turned for the door. "We can go in now."

She left me standing there and just as I was about to head in something by my foot caught my eye. Leaning down I scooped up the smooth, red stone that was slightly smaller than the size of Katara's pendant and stashed it in one of my pockets. Maybe I can use this later, I thought as I headed back inside to hear what Katara had to say about leaving.

Hm, what do you think Zuko is up to now? Please review! Until next time!