AN: Written as a Christmas present for the ever-faithful DefyGravity2502. Posted on because I really, really want another 9 reviews so that I reach a total of 200 so that I can write the 200th person a prize. Want to be the 200th person? Review my other stories too and you could be ;) Then you get to request me to write ANYTHING you want. So. Without further ado, here's the short fic. Written with a whole lot of thanks for Defy's constant support.

Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA or 'Defying Gravity', which was first sung in the musical 'Wicked' and then redone by the cast of Glee. (The latter version is the one used here)

Something has changed within me

Something is not the same

I'm through with playing by the rules

Of someone else's game

Her blue eyes were caught in an unbreakable stare with his grey ones. She willed herself to see past the emotions plainly reflected in the two points of grey. But no matter how hard she stared, she could not see what she used to. There was nothing in him any more that made her feel giddy and weightless, that made her heart beat frantically and her lips curve into a smile on their own accord. She used to be able to see into him and find all the answers to the question they called love, but now all she saw were the eyes of a powerful child.

"Katara?" he asked her again, confusion colouring his voice as well as his expression. "I asked what time you'll be ready to leave tomorrow."

There it was again. His immediate assumption that she'd fall into his plans without a complaint or a question. Had she always caved to him that easily? Had he really been running her life like this without her noticing? A full year ago, during the war, they had never had problems with their travelling arrangements because they had both wanted and needed to go to the same places. But the war was over, and she wanted to spend some time doing the things she had missed out on during her time of saving the world. And if she really couldn't have that wish, she at least wanted to spend some time with her family in her home. Five days in the South Pole was nowhere near enough time, surely Aang understood that? And yet he had come to her, out of the blue, and told her that they were leaving the next day for the Earth Kingdom again. Not only did he expect her to suddenly leave the place she called home and held dear in her heart, but he had given her no choice in the matter and, when they had discussed the travel plans before, they had both agreed that it was time to visit the Fire Nation; they had been in the Earth Kingdom for most of the past year since the war ended.

"Okay then… What about just before noon? That'll give Appa plenty of time to digest his breakfast so he flies easier."

"I don't want to leave." Her voice was quiet.

He blinked a couple of times. "You wanna go later?" A frown creased his forehead. "That's gonna be cutting it real close… I want to be there an hour before the feast starts. I can't be late for my own party of honour."

"No, Aang." Why wasn't he listening to her? She tried to think back to the last time she had made her views known and, to her growing horror, found that she had been following Aang's plans almost blindly. "I don't want to leave tomorrow at all. This is my home. I want to stay here. Sokka and Suki's house will be done in two days and I want to be there to help them move in. You know Suki can't do much pregnant as she is. And I want to be here for the birth of my niece or nephew…"

Aang sighed and rubbed his bald head almost irritably.

"I'm sorry, Katara. But you know how it is. I'm the Avatar; the world demands me." Was it just her, or did he sound smug? "And you, as the Avatar's girlfriend, have to play by those rules too." His face softened into a smile at her expression. "Hey… I know it's hard, okay? I would have loved to st-"

"No, you wouldn't." Her voice was shaking slightly. "You don't like it much here. Past the penguin sledding and the fancy things you can Airbend the snow to do, you don't like it here. Can't you understand that this is my home? I'm probably not even going to live her after I get married, and I'm okay with that. But then I want to spend as much time as I can here. And you… you don't care about that."

"How can you say that?" Aang protested.

"You care more about Appa than me! You're taking into account how comfortable he will be whilst flying and yet you don't even ask me if it's okay that I leave my home long before we agreed. You just assumed that I'd drop everything and blindly follow you."

"That's what couples are supposed to do!" He was exasperated. "They're supposed to make sacrifices for each other. And anyway, we said that all we wanted was what the other one wanted."

"Yeah but when was the last time you made a sacrifice for me? And what if that's changed, Aang? What if I don't want what you want? What if I want to stay here, no matter what you say?"

Blue and grey eyes refused to leave each other. Aang folded his arms stubbornly.

"As long as you're my girlfriend, you have to play by the rules of my game."

Too late for second-guessing

Too late to go back to sleep

It's time to trust my instincts;

Close my eyes and leap

She stared at him as he said those words. A thought entered her mind. It was not the first time that thought had come, but all the times before her body and mind had rejected it, finding it too painful to bear. But this time, it only brought a sense of conviction. She tried to remember the last time Aang had held her hand for the sake of touching her and not just to show the world they were together. She tried to remember the times before when he would ignore the world to be with her, the times his kisses told her stories of how he cared, the times when his eyes would tell her how beautiful he found her. That had all been long ago, back when they had had a relationship, not just a pretence. She had been sleeping for a long time, refusing to wake up and see the hole they had fallen into.

Had the others seen it? A memory of Suki's gaze swam before her eyes. They must have. They must have picked up from her behaviour that she was following blindly, not questioning, not following her instincts. She had lost herself in trying to love him.

"Well, I guess then there's only one answer," she said calmly.

Aang relaxed and offered her a timid grin.

"Noon, then?"

"You can leave whatever time you want. I'm not going along."

At the look on his face her calm shattered, and doubts began creeping in. What if she was making a grave mistake? What if Aang was the one and she was letting him go? She'd been happy with him before; was she just being paranoid now? But her heart and instincts were screaming denials to the doubts and she squared her shoulders. She was not going back to sleep.

"Katara." He let out a nervous laugh. "That's not something you should be joking about…"

"I'm not joking, Aang. You said the only way I could stay was if I was no longer your girlfriend. Well…" She spread her hands out and shrugged.

"You… You're not…"

"Aang…Listen. I'll always care for you but we just want different things. We're too different in all the wrong ways. Or too much the same; I can't really figure out which. If you really think about it, you'll see we haven't been together for a long time now. I finally woke up and realized it enough to verbalise our actions."

She left him staring at the place she had stood, snow covering his head and shoulders.

It's time to try defying gravity

I think I'll try defying gravity

Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity

And you won't bring me down

It had hurt. A lot. Aang's expression had bored into her mind both dreaming and awake. She found herself thinking about him, wondering if he was alright. She couldn't even eat meat without imagining his expression at her choice of food, something Sokka became highly worried about. But although guilt and doubts sat in her chest, she still felt lighter than she had in a while. She did things she wanted when she wanted with whomever she wanted. She could make her own plans and be seen as Katara, not just the Avatar's girlfriend. Despite the pain losing him in that way had left in her, she felt free, almost as if she was soaring. And she realized after only a short two weeks that Aang would never bring her down to earth in that way ever again.

I'm through accepting limits

'Cause someone says they're so

Some things I cannot change

But 'till I try I'll never know

It was so rewarding to see the smiles of thanks after she was done healing the people. In the beginning they had all mistrusted and mistreated her. To most of them she was from a lesser people, a savage who could decide to turn on them at any moment. But she had kept her hope up and had struggled on, healing even when they did not want her to touch them and after a few months they started warming to her. A few had even started jokingly referring to her as 'the only Waterbender that has sense'. Not only did that tell her the people were accepting her but it also proved that, no matter what had happened in the past, they were all still intensely loyal to the Fire Nation.

She was proud of her achievement for more selfish reasons too. Her entire family had thought she was insane when she had told them that she wanted to go to the Fire Nation to help heal the people who had fallen victim to the attacks from the rest of the world. Most people still did not trust the Fire Nation, and despite the many peace movements it would take a long time before they even began to trust the people clad in red. Until then, small attacks still happened almost weekly. None were too serious, but people still got hurt. And she had thought that it was her duty as a healer to help them out. Her father, brother and grandmother had not agreed with that statement. They had all thought it was beyond her to help, that she was only setting herself up for disappointment and maybe even hurt. They had all thought her insane idea was due to her and Aang breaking up, that she was hurting and needed some crazy way to relieve herself of her feelings. Sokka had even compared her to a penguin attempting to fly, forgetting about logical gravity as it was swept up in its impossible dreams. But now she could truthfully look around her and say that the penguin in her had defied gravity.

Too long I've been afraid of

Losing love I guess I lost

Well, if that's love

It comes at much too high a cost

"What are you doing up here?"

His voice startled her so much she nearly fell off the edge of the broken balcony.

"Don't do that!" Her eyes glanced wearily at the long drop, which would hold no way of escape if she fell down. She had never been much afraid of heights before, but that chasm made her weary at the least.

"Sorry." His apology was genuine as he sat beside her, more at home than she was on the lonely rooftop.

"Why don't you fix it?" She indicated the broken walls of the balcony.

"It would cost money that is better off going to the people. Nobody but me, and apparently you, come up here."

"Oh… Uhm… This wasn't a… private place or anything, was it?"

He laughed slightly. "Not in the way you're thinking, no. Most of the guards are just too scared to come up to this crumbling mess, so it gives me some peace and quiet."

She saw dark circles under his eyes and remembered Iroh's disapproving statement that Zuko had not been allowed to sleep very long in a while. The attacks on his people were directly affecting him, especially seeing as he was doing the majority of the ruling alone.

"Do you… want me to leave?"

She didn't want to impose on his quiet time. He had been nothing but hospitable to her since she had arrived. Not only in giving her a room and whatever she asked for, but also being the one to keep up her morale. She had first thought he would share the views of her family, but he had had much more faith in her than she would have thought. "You can do whatever you set your mind to; I know you" he had said after the first harrowing day had caused her to dissolve into tears. And above even the constant faith and encouragement, Zuko also provided a way for her to release her anger and tension, not to mention that sparing with him also kept her bending in tiptop shape. And so, all in all, she owed the young Firelord a lot.

"No," he answered her calmly, leaning against a broken pillar. "Having you around somehow calms me better than being alone. That, and Haru's latest letter arrived so I have a feeling you'll want to hide up here for a while."

She groaned at his words. It had taken the Earthbender exactly seven days to find out Katara and Aang had broken up, and then another four to get a letter to her. Apparently, he felt that it was his duty to fill the void Aang had left. And although she had told him time and time again that she was not interested he continued to send her letters.

"How can I make it any clearer to him that I'm not interested?" she moaned to nobody in particular.

"Send Toph a letter asking her to beat sense into him?" Zuko offered. "She's going to be in his village soon; Aang's taking her to their festival to celebrate their an-" He shut up abruptly, but Katara smiled.

"Aang and Toph are still together, then? I'm glad," she told him as he looked at her. "They make a great couple, and everybody knows it. It took some getting used to in the beginning but now…" Her soft smile said it all.

"Maybe that's how you can get the Earthbender off your back." At her raised eyebrow, he explained. "From what I gather he thinks the main reason you're not accepting him is because you're jealous of Aang and Toph. If you let him see he's wrong, maybe he'll be forced to accept the truth."

She let his words sink in, sitting in comfortable silence with Zuko. She found that she could talk to him about anything. Over the past couple of months they had poured out everything to each other from their mothers to their love-lives, although she'd admit they talked about hers more often; he seemed very closed on the subject of Mai's departure. Because of this trust and friendship, she felt the need to explain to him the real reason she was refusing Haru.

"I don't want to ever love again." She could feel him looking at her steadily, but she did not return his gaze. "It costs too much… Any man I let in will make me lose myself for him… Make me his… his… object… Order me around… I'm playing by my own game, and won't let anyone stop me."

"I wouldn't make you my object."

She spun to face him so quickly she heard her neck click. He seemed to realize what he had just said, because his face was turning pink. She hadn't seen him blush since he was crowned.

"I… I mean," he stuttered. "If you were… if we… You know… Uhm… So… so what I'm actually saying is not all men… Not just me…"

As he continued to babble, blushing and slipping quickly to his feet, Katara looked at him. And, for the first time in her life, she saw Zuko.

I'd sooner buy defying gravity

Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity

I think I'll try defying gravity

And you won't bring me down

"You would," she said to his retreating back.

"Sorry?"

He turned back in confusion to see her standing up, an unfathomable expression on her face.

"I think you would," she repeated. "Make an object of me. In the hypothetical case that we… you know."

"How are you so sure of that?" His face and voice were blank.

"I know your personality. You are just born to give the orders. And arrogant enough not to take any."

"I've been taking Uncle's advice," he countered calmly. "And you know very well you can beat me in an argument. It's happened enough times before."

Why was her heart quickening at his words? Why was she agreeing with him with such pleasure? They were talking about a hypothetical case, so why was she putting so much importance on this?

"You would put the whole kingdom before me."

He thought about this for a moment.

"Maybe…" In a very quiet voice he added, "That's what Mai said I did before she…" Guilt gnawed at her insides, but he carried on before she could answer. "But then you'd tell me I was doing it. I'd listen to you eventually. You are the most important person in my life. I mean would be! Would be… hypothetically…"

He sort of trailed off as they looked at each other.

"So you… would take my views seriously?"

"I'd be a fool not to; I know how you can bend."

But she doubted his last sentence would make much difference. She did not doubt her power at all, but she knew his. She could sense something in him that she knew nobody would be able to defeat. He was powerful, free, proud… and looking at her in a way that was making it difficult to breathe.

"Besides," he continued softly. "I would not want to lose you. Mai leaving hurt a bit but it was not… the same. After a while I felt almost…"

"Relieved?"

"Yes…"

"Like you were free from gravity."

"Yes…"

"I want to try something." She was so very close to him now. "Gran Gran told me once that there was a way for human's soul to soar. I told her back then that it was impossible but she said that it was a rare thing, but that there was one way…" He was looking at her steadily. "She told me in order for it to happen there had to be a very, very special guy… One in a million… And all I had to do…"

The broken balcony was still to her left, the fall still treacherous and deadly. But she didn't care any more. Even if she did fall off she would not crash, because Zuko's lips on hers were making her soar above the clouds. Together they were defying gravity.

I'd sooner buy defying gravity

Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity

I think I'll try defying gravity

And you won't bring me down