The Letter You Were Never Meant to Receive.

I'm bored. That is why it exists.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar...

Zuko's iron boots crunched on the rocky ground, scraping against blackened earth and hard soil alike. The great flying beast the Avatar rode was a speck against the dark sky, flying north-east. For a moment he though to pursue straight away, but he suddenly noticed that in their haste to leave, a small skin bag had been left behind.

Curious, he walked over to the bundle, crushing the remains of a makeshift fire under his feet. Picking it up, he opened it and found a baffling array of items.

A pen and ink, the feather of a Jade Bird, black edged with green, a warm, furry hood, leechie nuts, a bunch of white-brown fur that seemed to belong to that beast, a bracelet and numerous other keepsakes. He decided that they must belong to the waterbending peasant. Everything was just petty trifles.

He scoffed with disgust, and was about to close it when he noticed a scroll tucked away at the bottom of her bag. Two symbols on either end bearing the crest of the water tribe told him that this was a waterbending scroll. With a sharp realisation, he sucked in a breath.

Is this… THE scroll?

Could it be the one she had stolen, the one that had led him to her?

There was only one way to find out.

Removing the clasp, he unrolled it as gently as his rough hands could and watched the ink figures come to life as they endlessly displayed their waterbending prowess. He glanced over it, and with a sigh began to roll it up, when something caught his eye.

A stain of ink, one that was obviously not made by the creator of this scroll, stood prominent in the high corner of the page. Confused, he turned it over.

And saw a letter written there, in rather untidy characters. Conjuring a handful of light and holding it open on his knee, he sat down to decipher this letter, which, curiously, was addressed to him.

Dear Prince Zuko,

I'm not sure why I'm writing this. I don't plan on giving it to you, and I don't even know what I'm supposed to be saying, so… I guess I'll just let it all come out.

I think you're beautiful. I'm not quite sure why, but I think it's because of your eyes. We don't have gold eyes like yours in the Water Tribe. I can see the fire in you when I look at them, all consuming, destructive, filled with passion… and also pain.

Lately, I've found myself thinking about you. I wonder where you got your scar. Does it hurt? Was it an accident? Is it why you're suffering? What's it like to be able to firebend? Damn you, but it feels like you've put a spell on me. I was up all night thinking about you, and how it is between us. Enemies. Opposites. But I also think what MIGHT be. What is, and what should never be. You'll never give up on Aang, will you, though? All I know is that you've been banished, set on a then-hopeless quest to retrieve the Avatar so you can return home. I know it's hard, and if our places were reversed I would probably want to return home too.

But then, I always think, the hardest things and the right things are often the same.

Will you do the right thing? I hope so, Zuko.

Listen to me, musing like this. If Sokka caught me, or Aang… I don't want to think about it.

So one last thing…

Do you remember when you caught me, that time by the river with those pirates? I don't know why… but all I can remember from that night is your eyes, and the touch of your hands on my wrist, and my neck. Secretly, I wanted you to give that necklace to me. I wish you had, not Aang, but the thought that you had once touched its surface is enough for me.

I think I have fallen in love with you, Zuko. Spirits save me, but I think I love you.

So I sign now, in the hope you never see this,

Katara.

Zuko paused with shock, his stony face revealing no emotion at all. A million thoughts whirred in his mind. He rose and gazed up to the moon, the parchment crumpled in his fist.

And that was it. The flame in his palm blew out like a candle.

Yeah. Bored. I know it's not good, but I posted it anyway. Just cuz I can.