First ever Zutara fic. My OTP is Zutara. Don't expect anything but Zutara here. And maybe unrequited Kataang. But Zutara.

Oh, and lots of lemon. Enough to make lemonade. Little children, take this as a warning. This fic is rated M.

Please, please review. I will respond if you review.

Disclaimer: I own no part of A:TLA. Obviously. Zutara would've happened otherwise.

Katara never got jealous.

Not even when she was five and Sokka was seven and Sokka was given a weapon (it was a boomerang that would break at the slightest sneeze... but still...) and she was given walrus-moose thread to sew with.

Not even when people spat the word peasant at her as though she was a disease in Ba Sing Se but bowed down to Toph Bei Fong's every will.

Not even when Sokka had found Suki and she had nobody.

Not even when she realised Aang was the better bender of the two. Okay, she was a bit jealous then, but she was only human.

Not even when she heard a group of soldiers drunk at a pub, "xirxiu" juice sloshing about in their cups, rejoicing over the fact that they got to go home, while Katara had no home to go to.

Not when she mended Sokka's socks, let Aang cry on her shoulder, read letters from Toph's parents to her, counselled Suki about her stay in the Fire Nation, talked to The Duke about Jet, made dinner, cleaned dishes, cleaned Appa, and smiled when nobody else would, even if she would get nothing back.

But she watched the Fire Prince (not ex, she thought to herself, never ex) and the way he would interact with Toph and Aang and Sokka and they would readily accept him with open arms as though nothing had happened between her group and him, while she sat, prodding at a hole in Sokka's pants with her walrus-moose thread.

And she thought she might be slightly jealous.

And so, on principle, because he'd made her give up so much of herself, she hated Zuko.

They had their regular sitting-around-a-campfire-and-pretending-to-listen-to-Sokka session later that evening.

She noticed, with chagrin, that they invited the Prince over.

To her satisfaction, though, he seemed quiet and withdrawn, hunched away, almost from the group.

Aang noticed this. "Sifu Hotman, if you're not going to share a story about how you ripped an article of clothing, we'll have to skip you and move on to Suki. And you'll have to wait until the next round."

Suki looked less than thrilled at the prospect, but she joined in. "Zuko, you're part of the group now. So stop sulking and join us?" she asked hopefully.

Zuko glanced at her, then glanced at the rest of the group. He didn't look at Katara. "I'm no good with anecdotes."

"Sure you are," Sokka comforted soothingly, "you have tons of anecdotes you didn't tell us! Like how you got to know Sparky Sparky Boom Man, or why the Fire Nation has to burn everything they eat, or your knife-throwing ex! Or maybe... you want to forego your turn and now it's my turn so I think I'm going to tell you that joke about the bison and the firebender-"

"Sparky." (Sokka found himself encased in a box made of rock.) "It's your turn. Because if you don't say something, I am, and it's going to be about the one time I found fungus in my ear."

Everyone shuddered, except Toph, who began digging in her ear for a specific something.

When Katara glanced back at Zuko, he was looking at the group with a half-smile on his face. Like he enjoyed their company. Like he belonged.

"Actually," Katara cut across just as Zuko opened his mouth, "he doesn't have to participate. Clearly, his highness doesn't think we're good enough for him."

She glanced back at Zuko. He was staring at his feet.

The rest of them stared at her.

"What?" she snapped.

And when Sokka murmured something about "she gets like this when the moon's full", she water-whipped him, and she went to her tent. She didn't come out for the rest of the night.

She heard another tent flap open after she went to her own room. She didn't hear the flap open again, and so its occupant hadn't come out.

She didn't need to be Aunt Wu to figure out who the occupant was.

Obviously, she couldn't sleep with him anywhere near Aang. She stayed up that night, like she did every other night since she'd felt the tough and uneven skin of his scar under her palm. It's that thought that kept her awake.

She hated, that for the few moments where he had looked at her and she had her hand on his scar, she felt as though he was like her, trapped in situations bigger than his comprehension. That he was like her, that he was human too.

She put her hand on her left eye as she did sometimes, and she blinked slowly, and carefully, so that she could feel her eyelashes dragging along her palm, so that she could feel her eyeball swirling in the socket.

This would have been how he would feel if she had healed him.

Then, she put a hand on her chest, right between her breasts, and she felt smoothness. This was how Aang would have felt if she had acted faster and taken him away from Zuko.

She stripped down bare, and she scrutinised her naked body, searching for scars, and healing anything that could be healed. She was so encased in her cocoon of water that she almost didn't realize a figure sneaking out.

She immediately bent the water into a nearby jug, finding a simple robe to slip on, and running outside, bare feet. She could not let Zuko get away.

He wasn't anywhere to be found, but he had left enough clues to suggest where he was going. She followed the trail of broken twigs and parted bushes to a nearby town. She winced at the sight of her bleeding feet, and took water from a nearby dock to quickly heal the cuts and bruises. She continued to run.

The marble floor felt cool and smooth against her newly sensitive skin, and she listened to the pitter-patter of her feet as they scurried along. She kept one hand on the top of her robes, just above her breasts, cursing herself. If she had known that they were going to go to a town, she wouldn't have dressed so shabbily.

She was immediately surrounded by the night-owls of the city, fishermen and drunkards alike, shady figures and teenagers with a flare of rebellion, but nobody with the physique and build that Zuko had.

She had lost him.

And now, she was stuck in a godforsaken town, with nobody to help her, and nobody to guide her back home.

She walked towards the most lit part of the town, a line of shops whose lights were reflected on the cool water by the dock. She started walking along the street, and noticed how the shops were actually pubs. Filled with lecherous men.

They were quick to notice her, and the noises of the night quickly morphed from boisterous laughs and the occasional clinking of mugs to catcalls and suggestive comments.

She clutched the robe closer to herself.

"What's the matter, baby?" someone to the left of her crooned. "Lost and all alone?"

A few men beside him laughed. She ignored them and walked purposefully back towards the entrance into the forest she had come through.

She was faced with a wall of men, grinning widely, showing a few missing teeth. They looked like pirates.

"If you'll excuse me," she spoke, loudly and clearly, disguising her own disgust and fear, "I have to get back. My husband is waiting for me."

"Now, baby, you look too young to be married. How old are you? Sixteen?"

"Eighteen," she corrected in a whisper.

There was a low whistle. "So young, so dangerous to be out at this time of night. Do you know what could happen to little girls like you?"

She shook her head. She could bend and defend herself, but the moment she let go of her robes, she would be exposing herself. Shame kept her rooted.

"Please," she tried again, not minding resorting to begging, "I am getting late."

"S'matter? You've got all night, honey!"

Bloodbending. Bloodbending might work. It's a full moon. I could knock them out. They might forget if I happen to expose myself. I'm okay. I'm okay.

She was scared.

And for the first time since he joined the group, she wished she had found Zuko.

Just as a knobby hand reached out to touch her shoulder, a figure landed in front of her.

She screamed and stepped back.

He was a masked figure wielding swords, and she caught the shimmer of blue and white against the moon's reflection.

Is that a Water Tribe mask?

She backed herself up against a wall, scrambling to get a clear hold of her robes. Her other hand was now free.

She bent the water with one hand, shaking with the strained effort of only using one, and she and the masked man slowly forced back the men.

She saw other men coming out of the pub, and she knew they would jump at the chance to brawl.

Apparently, so did her partner, because he held a finger up to his lips, and started running. She looked at the pool of water floating just above her hands, and quickly bent it into her hair. It would be a good holding place for now, having left her waterskin at the tent.

She ran with him, and the pitter-patter of her feet sounded loud and thundering in comparison to the silent footsteps of the man in front of her.

He led her to an alley, and he abruptly stopped.

She assumed the worst of his taking her to a deserted place.

She quickly bent the water from her hair and knocked him against the nearest wall. She used both hands to harden the water into ice, freezing him in place.

He didn't talk, but he did struggle.

"Who are you?" she shouted, taking out her anger and frustration on the man.

He didn't respond. But he did move his head fractionally down, as though trying to point at something.

She looked down her body, to see her robes coming apart.

Oh gods...

Even if she hadn't exposed anything vital, she had shown him more cleavage than she cared to show this strange man. One shift of her body and her robe would dislodge and more would be exposed.

She covered herself up quickly, turning herself away from the man and blushing. She tied the sash around herself more firmly.

She turned back to him, burying her embarrassment deeply. She didn't know where his eyes were, because the holes in the mask were shadowed by the dark. She crossed her arms over her chest.

After a few hesitant moments, she stepped closer to him.

She looked at the design properly. Blue and white mask? Why does that sound familiar?

She looked at the twin Dao swords laying a few feet away from him. And it clicked.

"You're the Blue Spirit, aren't you? My friend, Aa - Aaroo... had told me about you!"

She thought he could hear a snort.

She quickly unfroze him and bent the water back into her hair, undoing her braid to help the water stay easier.

The Blue Spirit was staring at her.

She looked at him, and he mimed a firebending stance.

She put her hand near her hair.

Then, he mimed squared shoulders, sharp movements, before returning to a stiff stance. Earthbending.

She blinked.

He mimed graceful and lightweight movements.

And finally, with uncanny resemblance to her own movements, as though he had observed a waterbender, he mimed waterbending stances. It was graceful and smooth, and she watch quite unabashedly as his muscles moved under his shirt.

She sighed. "You know, don't you?"

He nodded.

"I'm Katara. I'm the Avatar's waterbending teacher."

Again, he nodded.

"I'm lost."

He cocked his head sideways, as if mocking her.

"I was searching for Zuko."

He nodded.

"He's the group's firebending master."

He nodded again.

"I think he's up to something."

She didn't know what it was about this man. Maybe it was the way that Aang wholeheartedly trusted the Blue Spirit, or maybe it was the way he saved her from the... from the pirates...

She cleared her throat.

She trusted this man, more than she trusted Zuko. And she knew that if anyone could help her find what he was up to, it would be him.

"I need your help."

He didn't move.

"I need you to help me find Zuko."

He didn't move.

"Do you want payment?"

He didn't move.

Then, he nodded.

He started walking towards her, and she scrambled backwards, reaching into her hair. "If you think I'm going to give you sexual flavours-"

His head tilted upwards, as though frustrated.

He stepped closer to her once again, then pointed at the two of them. Then he pointed into the woods.

She understood what he means.

"You want me to show you where the Avatar is?"

He nodded.

She swallowed. She knew she could trust him. She knew he was on her side.

But she also knew how foolish she was when it came to trust.

"Find Zuko first, then we'll talk."

He gave her an imperceptible nod.

She looked at the slowly rising sun. "Tomorrow. Midnight. Don't be late."

He nodded, and he put his hands in his pockets. She thought he might be smiling.

She turned around, intent on walking back in the woods, when she realised she hadn't asked for a name. She turned back and opened his mouth, only to find him gone.

Hours later, when she finally found her way back to the tents, she peeked inside a certain someone's tent.

He was sleeping, albeit rigidly, face turned away from her.

She cursed.

The next time, she promised, she would find out what he was doing.

But for that night, she fell asleep again to the dreams of the Blue Spirit's muscles flexing, and his eyes burning into her soul.

So, that's it. Chapter 1. I expect this to be a 7 part fic.

I think the next chapter's really gonna start heating up. Ahem. Blutara.

I love you all, and please review!