Disclaimer (Woohoo, I didn't forget) : I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender, or its characters. If I did, Zuko would be less of a pride-centered jerk, but just a little less because he's pretty hot as he is.

A/N

Yay, I'm back.

If you haven't read my other fic 'Rising from the Mist' I suggest you do. This is a sequel, and may be overwhelming (no, not really).

Now, I and many others have said that in my first fic I had a lot of patience with the blossoming love of Zuko and Katara. In fact, you could say I almost had… Heh. No love at all in that one. That was more of a set-up for this one. It took twenty chapters. Haha. That's the way I wanted it; it wasn't a mistake.

My vast supply of patience has run out, and this is the product. I'm going to try and make this twenty chapters as well, but it may run over. This is going to be a lot of fun for me, and I hope you enjoy as well!

xxx

The group fell into an uneasy pace. Just when they would settle into a comfortable traveling silence, someone would pass a friendly comment, but the receiving end of the remark would flare up in anger. Most of the temper risings occurred between Sokka and Zuko. The two boys would've killed each other multiple times daily had it not been for the other three mediators.

Iroh found good use of Appa's saddle and reclined in it while the group walked towards their destination: Ba Seng Se.

After a lazy day of resting in Nishe, they had finally decided to set off towards the great city by air travel, when Iroh remembered the ostrich horse still lying off the road. Luckily for Zuko, his uncle recalled where the animal was bedded down, and finding it was easy, however, it rendered flying impossible. Sokka demanded that they sell the beast, but because it was Sokka asking, Zuko refused.

On the road, Zuko rode the bird, Aang guided Appa from atop his head, and Sokka and Katara walked.

"Zuko, couldn't you just… I mean, we could use the money, and-." Katara attempted to persuade him.

"No." he answered steely. "I'm not selling it."

"We'd get more money than we paid for it." Iroh grunted.

Zuko threw him a glare.

"What did you pay for it?" Aang asked.

"None of your business." Zuko snapped.

Iroh leaned his head back and lowered his eyelids tiredly. "There was no gold that passed through our hands and hers."

"Uncle." Zuko said threateningly.

"Hers?" Katara asked, peering at the stolen bird's rider.

"None of your business!" Zuko replied loudly, hoping to nip the conversation in the bud.

"Seriously, Zuko, we could make it to Ba Seng Se in a fraction of the time if we could fly." Aang offered.

"And why is that my problem?"

"You joined Aang! You're supposed to support him, not drag him down!" Katara retorted.

"She's right." Iroh noted.

"I could just meet up with you." Zuko growled. "No one has said we have to travel together."

"Well, that's the smartest remark I've heard all day." Sokka muttered.

"Shut up. No one gave you an invitation to this conversation." Zuko snapped.

"If your sister has wiggled her away out of that ship and is on her way to crush us right now, shouldn't we all be together and not alone? Wouldn't it be easier for all of us to fight her and not just you?" Sokka pointed out.

Zuko groaned. "Your banter is pointless."

"Why aren't you going to sell the ostrich bird, Zuko?" Aang asked. His voice carried all of his one hundred twelve years.

"Because he's a selfish, spiting jerk!" Katara exclaimed.

"I'm not selling it. End of story." Zuko said, setting his jaw and staring ahead with grim determination.

No bothered to push him any further at that moment.

xxx

"This is boring." Sokka griped.

Katara rolled her eyes. "I've heard that somewhere before."

"Yeah." Iroh agreed. "About five minutes ago."

"And ten minutes before that." Aang sighed.

"And thirty before that time." Zuko chimed.

Sokka folded his arms across his chest. "Well, it is. Let's talk or something. We've," he gestured to Katara and Aang, "never been this bored. We can always come up with something to do."

"I spy something… green." Aang said.

"The trees." Iroh offered.

Aang nodded.

Iroh cast an eye over his surroundings. "I spy something blue."

"The sky?" Aang asked.

"Very good."

"I spy something red."

"Your shirt. This is boring." Sokka grumbled.

"Let's tell stories." Katara said.

"What stories?" Sokka whined.

"I have a story. This is about young prince Zuko," Iroh said.

Zuko groaned. "No, Uncle."

"It's a nice story. It's about that time you tried to run away on a rhino, but you couldn't get on top of it…"

"No, Uncle!"

Sokka snorted. "Too short for a rhino? I wasn't even that short."

"Don't be stupid, of course you were!" Katara scolded. "What about that time you thought you'd try and catch that seal, but you got stuck between the ice?"

"Katara…" Sokka whined.

"You wiggled and then started screaming, and by the time we got to you your face was all frozen because you cried so much!"

"That never happened!" Sokka cried out.

Zuko chuckled. "Not 'manly' enough?"

"Look who's talking, shorty!"

"Um… does anyone want to hear about the time I almost blew myself off the temple?" Aang offered, trying to calm down his angry comrades.

"Sure, Aang, let's hear it." Katara said.

Zuko and Sokka tuned him out and continued to throw each other icy glares across the lane.

xxx

"Is it done yet?" Sokka complained, clutching his stomach.

Zuko curled his lip. He was somewhat impatient himself, but the other boy riled him up so much he wanted to choke him. Zuko settled into a pleasant day dream of throttling Sokka.

"And so Zuko can cook dinner tomorrow." Katara finished.

Zuko jerked awake. "What?"

"Katara was saying how it's not fair for her to do all the cooking, so she thought it'd be better if we all shared the work." Aang explained.

"I don't think it's fair that we never had to cook before." Sokka grumbled.

"Well, there were a lot less mouths to feed." She replied, dishing out some stew and handing it to him.

"I'm not cooking." Zuko said coldly.

All eyes in the camp focused on the rebellious one.

Iroh coughed. "What do you mean? We are all going to pitch in."

Katara raised an eyebrow and returned Zuko's stare. "If you don't cook, then we won't eat."

"Fine."

"Maybe you'll change your mind by tomorrow," Aang said in his typical peace-making way.

"No."

Katara dished out the rest of the stew, ignoring the urge to slap some sense into the spoiled prince. She finally scraped up the last of the food and handed it to Zuko. He took it grudgingly, giving her a hard, determined look.

"He's moodier than a girl," Katara mumbled to Sokka. "One minute he's kind and heartfelt, and the next he's arrogant and cold."

"Mostly arrogant and cold." Sokka replied between gulps of stew.

"Only around you," Katara said honestly.

xxx

Zuko had a habit of rising early and meditating a few minutes before everyone else roused themselves. Katara knew of this, and skirted around him to give him his time, however on this morning she headed after him. She found him sitting gracefully against a thick tree trunk.

"What do you want?" Zuko drawled, not opening his sedated eyes.

"I wanted to talk to you about your horse," she said cautiously.

Annoyance coursed through him immediately and he turned to give her his startlingly angry face.

"What about it?" he asked, every word conveying his very hatred for the subject.

"What I said yesterday still stands. You're bogging Aang down. He has until the end of this summer to master the elements to…"

Even though this topic had remained open and relatively explored between the two of them, Katara was still uncomfortable pointing out the fact that their friend's destiny was to kill his father.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Just say it."

"To… stop the Fire Lord. And if we can't fly it will take up valuable time!"

"I'm not selling it."

"But… why?" she asked, exasperated.

"Because it's not mine to sell!" he snapped. "I stole the thing, Katara! If I sell it, then I'll have no hope of ever returning it to those people."

She drew back. "You… you stole it?"

"Yes. I thought I had no choice. At that time I still wanted to capture Aang, and I thought…"

"That you had to steal it?" Katara choked.

"Thanks for the support." Zuko muttered sarcastically.

"Who were the victims?" she demanded. "What else did you do to them?"

"You're acting like I'm a villain. I'm not a villain!"

"Who were they?"

"A family from the Earth Kingdom."

"A family… So… they could get along without the ostrich horse? There was a mom, a dad, and kids?"

He squeezed his eyes shut again. "I don't need to be interrogated."

She gasped. "You robbed an innocent family and you don't think that's cause for concern? I can understand trying to capture Aang for your honor and all, but I don't understand how you could rob someone, Zuko. What kind of a man does that?"

"Leave me alone." He snapped, standing to stalk away from her.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Katara asked sharply.

Her words penetrated his mental wall without effort. He whirled back around to her.

"We've all had our fair share of mistakes. Can't you just let this drop?" He spat.

His eyes were cold, and she met them with just as much bitter determination.

"I didn't hurt those people," Zuko growled. "And I plan on giving the bird back, so what's the problem?"

Katara clenched her fists and tossed them harmlessly in front of her. "You're so…Ugh!" She stormed away, her body tense and jerky.

Zuko rubbed a hand through his hair. Why were girls always so confusing and indirect?

xxx

'He really can't figure out what he did,' Katara thought bitterly.

The group had continued their march without knowledge of Zuko and Katara's tizzy. Zuko, in fact, seemed a bit mellower than he had been the night before, and it was due in part by sheer bafflement. Katara was buzzing with fury. She wanted to believe he was a good person. Why did he have to make it so hard? Couldn't he just be respectful and slightly selfless like the rest of them?

"You're all very quiet," Iroh noted.

Sokka shrugged. "I'm just preparing for the boredom that's coming. What about you, Aang?"

Aang snapped to attention from his daze. He'd been staring deep into Katara's hair from atop Appa and reminiscing on their forgotten kiss in the secret tunnel. Did she even remember that they had kissed? Had it even happened at all, or was that just a part of the tunnel's ancient magic?

"Oh… I'm just thinking." Aang replied quietly.

"And Katara's probably mad at something." Sokka said.

"I'm not mad." She answered through gritted teeth. "I'm just… frustrated."

Sokka glanced at Zuko, who feigned an innocent shrug.

"What about?" Aang asked.

"Who do you think?" she snapped.

Aang glanced at Zuko, who once again feigned an innocent shrug.

"Zuko. You really should try and get along with her." Iroh muttered so that only his nephew could decipher.

Zuko glared at him. "I'm trying. She's the one being difficult."

Iroh shook his head in his wise, stubborn way that drove Zuko to the brink of insanity.

xxx

What was right? How could so many thousands of people both be divided so deeply by aims and values and both be right? How could life be determined by right and wrong when the misconception of each was so far undergone that everything blended into one mess of feelings?

Zuko's mind was seared with these thoughts for hours. He found himself lost in staring at her. She had believed in him, and that was what opened his heart to her. In one sitting, she knew more about him than his own family, save Iroh.

Zuko wasn't dumb enough to disbelieve that Iroh felt obligated to stand by his nephew, to corroborate his plans. He felt appreciative that Iroh did stick with him, but he wanted someone outside his old life to look at him as something more than a spoiled, banished prince. Katara had been insightful enough to forgive the wretched past Zuko had made with her and embrace his new mind set.

Aang had done so first, of course. He looked past Zuko's bruised record and into the man he knew was beneath the scarred surface, and Katara had found Zuko's altruistic self, and she had dragged it out and dusted it off.

It was Zuko himself who'd shoved it away again.

How could he find himself in the right? What he saw as 'borrowing', she saw as 'stealing'. Were they both wrong? And did that constitute a right? Did two wrongs make a right?

"What do you say Zuko?"

"I don't know!" Zuko snarled with frustration.

"It's not that hard. You're either ready to stop or not." Sokka said dryly.

"Oh… Erm… Sure. Let's stop." Zuko muttered.

xxx

Her jaw was set in a fierce line. Crisp, clear eyes were hidden from his gaze by her down swept lashes. Zuko found an empty part of him crying out for her to raise her gaze to meet his, but Katara didn't look up at him in her anger. He would've taken her fury better than her disregard of him. Zuko was adept at coping with rage directed towards him, but her elusion was causing him a pain he didn't know he could feel.

He felt his stomach clench in hunger, but he'd forgotten about eating for the moment. Her attention was all he craved.

Iroh, on the other hand, was enjoying the desolate look planted on his nephew's face as he stared at the girl. They would make such a cute couple…

Sokka shoved another piece of jerky down his throat. He glanced at the old man, grinning at Zuko. Sokka looked to the prince, frowning at Katara. He looked to Katara, staring determinedly into her lap.

"Am I missing something?" Sokka asked, spewing chunks of meat across the ground onto Aang's knees.

"What do you mean?" Aang brushed away the half-chewed food from his pants.

Sokka jerked his head towards the feuding couple. Aang followed his friend's attention, then shrugged.

"It's new to me." Aang replied nonchalantly.

"Lover's spat." Iroh murmured.

Sokka and Aang both choked at once and began violent coughing fits. Katara and Zuko's focus on each other (or avoidance, in Katara's case) was broken and they stared at the other half of their party.

"Did I miss something?" Katara asked, in startling comparison to her brother.

Sokka grasped at his throat and shook his head wordlessly at a sly grin Iroh passed him. Aang finally composed himself and waved Iroh's comment away.

"You're joking." He said, more to convince himself than Iroh.

"Not entirely." Iroh replied.

"What are you talking about?" Zuko snapped.

"You." Iroh smiled.

Zuko scowled back at him, but decided to let the topic drop. He figured he probably didn't want to know the specifics.

Katara, however, found a sudden outlet to her pent up anger against Zuko.

"What about?" Katara snarled.

Iroh was caught unaware by the edge in her voice. "A…"

"You're acting weird." Sokka said scathingly. "And Zuko keeps looking at you funny."

Aang nudged Sokka, but he didn't take the hint.

Katara swiveled her gaze to Zuko. "Something wrong?" she said through clenched teeth.

Zuko gave her a blank stare. "No."

Katara let something loose from her mouth that sounded like a dying monkey. No one bothered to ask her anything more after that.

xxx

She was furious at him. He was dumb. He was so… confusing, almost as if he had a split personality. The part of him that was mean and tyrannical was what took over him usually when he his brain was constricted of oxygen in his uniform. Something about that soldier's suit made him intolerably callous.

But there was a fraction of Zuko that was soft, and Katara wanted to explore that part of him. She had, but only slightly. She wanted to know him and wished that she had the chance. There was a light in his eyes that she ached to be familiar with. She had that same feeling in the rain, hand extended to the sky, wishing she could reach the clouds.

He was no more accessible than the fluffy rain clouds of her imagination.

xxx

Traveling always had Zuko doing and thinking strange things.

On his ship, he'd locked himself in is room to plunge his mind somewhere dark where no memory could reach him, and it was there that he'd fester. Then someone would drag him on deck, and the onrush of reality and sunlight would sour him to the point of shouting and throwing fire balls at anyone who dared so much as to cross his path.

But here, in the open, communal way the avatar traveled, he had no way to escape, and he was abandoned with his pestering thoughts.

Iroh caught Zuko staring at the back of Katara's head once more. He cleared his throat, and Zuko looked up, startled and on queue. Iroh motioned to the girl. Zuko turned his gaze back to her, but she hadn't changed since that last fifteen minutes of watching her. Zuko swiveled his gaze back to his uncle and shook his head in misunderstanding.

After a few moments of Iroh simply casting his frown upon his nephew, it finally dawned on Zuko, or, at least, he thought he comprehended.

Zuko pulled the ostrich horse alongside Katara.

She noted his presence, but didn't bother to acknowledge him.

"Ahem." Zuko waited impatiently for her attention.

She raised her gaze to meet his with an intense air of disappointment.

He reached his hand out to her. "Do you want a ride?" He asked. His voice was gruff. He already knew the answer and wasn't quite ready to accept it.

She scowled. "Are you seriously asking me that question?"

Zuko withdrew his hand, lest she detach it from his body.

"Why would I want to ride it? I don't approve of you having it at all, and here you want me to ride it?"

"Look…" Zuko started defensively. He hated playing defense. He wanted to be the one barking. "I only asked to be polite."

"Polite? I haven't heard anything that ironic for a long time! A thief trying to be polite?"

"Woa." Sokka stepped into their loud conversation. "Zuko's a thief?"

Zuko frowned. "The situation was-."

"Yes." Katara snapped. "He stole the ostrich horse."

Iroh groaned.

"Wait… you stole that?" Aang asked.

"We never would've run away from Azula fast enough without it!" Zuko growled. "They practically gave it to us anyway."

He was instantly bombarded by three virtuous voices. Iroh did not chime in on his nephew's behalf, as he thought that if he did attempt to save him, he'd just be digging Zuko deeper into this hole he'd gotten himself in.

xxx

Zuko had been stung, and it was by his own past actions from which he was suffering from.

He stepped deeper into the creek and stood as still as his body would allow. He took a wavering breath. It caught in his throat. He was jumpy and shaky, and that was unusual for him. He took another breath. Just be calm, he told himself, don't mess this up.

The end of his makeshift spear shook slightly, causing the water beneath it to ripple with its reflection. Zuko steadied himself. No movement. He'd been fishing before, and it hadn't worked out too well. He'd been impatient and had finally speared a tiny, wriggling little creature, and it barely made a bite for himself and Uncle.

Surprisingly to himself, this instance of fishing was more important than the life-threatening one that he and his uncle had found themselves in only a few weeks past. This was to win back her trust.

He didn't really understand the mechanics of it. One dinner did not counteract a crime of theft. However, after a brief meditation, he found himself in her mind sight, and to Katara making dinner would prove his worth.

Sokka and Aang had disapproved as well, but their scowls directed towards him were not nearly as scathing as the glare sent from those shining, blue eyes of Katara. Her discontent towards him had morphed his stubborn, callous exterior into something porous. He felt her anger in his gut; it was at the tip of his conscience, and in every breath he took.

His spear began to waver once more. He gritted his teeth. If he could do anything, if only one thing, it would be to catch this stupid fish!

His body shook with frustration and dehydration. He made a mental note to chide himself later for not drinking more water.

A silvery flash brightened Zuko's hope. He tensed his arm.

It curled its way towards Zuko's soaked knees. His head swirled. He gasped slightly; he'd almost forgotten to breathe.

It swam closer. He fought with himself. Now? No. It's almost getting out of reach… Wait for it… What if it turns around?...Wait for it…Now!

He struck, and his spear point sank deep into the muck of the creek; his shimmering treasure nowhere to be seen.

"No! I had it! Where is it? Gah… Stupid fish!" Zuko growled and slashed around in the water.

His foot connected with a rebellious stone, and he fell face-first into the cold stream.

"I don't think you have a knack for this." Katara said mockingly.

Zuko struggled to right himself but only succeeded in splashing more water onto his torso.

"How long have you been there?" he sputtered.

"Only long enough to know that you couldn't fish to save your life."

He huffed and finally managed to rise to his feet. "I'm trying to catch something decent for dinner."

Her eyebrows rose. "Really? You're making dinner?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise." Zuko muttered, working his way to the shore.

"It is." She said, holding out her arm before he tripped on dry land.

He ignored her offer, but caught her eyes in a thankful glance. He was relieved to see that the look she returned to him was peaceful.

"Now." She smirked. "Would you like me to show you how to catch a fish?"

He nodded.

From the shore, she bended a fish from the water and slapped it, wriggling, at his feet.

"That's not fair." He said, a grin spreading across his face in spite.

She smirked. "I landed it for you, and now you get to cook it."

Zuko groaned. Pleasing her wasn't a simple task, but then again, when had his life ever been easy?

xxx

A/N

Eh. I want to get to the good parts, and it's killing me to write in chronological order. My stupid logic is frustrating me.

Yes, I too wonder if I have a split personality.