A/N: So, I bet you are all wondering why the hell I'm writing an overly cliché plotline of "somebody getting turned into an animal, mainly a cat, and having to break the spell by getting someone to love them, like some kind of Beauty and the Beast parody." Well, I have a perfectly logical explanation, really…

I read a Zukaang where Zuko was a cat, but I wanted to make my own version, so I started to draw a cover and the first two pages of a doujinshi version after having planned out an entire plot, but then I realized that I really an not cut out to be a doujin artist because I'm really not that good of an artist, especially not in sequence, so I better just stick to what I know best, which is writing.

So here I am, pathetically enough. And yes, I do realize that that hadn't been a very logical excuse whatsoever. #laughs# Oh well. Enjoy this anyway, because I promise that it will be as awesome as I am capable of.

Takes place:
Immediately after Katara removes an unconscious and lightning-struck Aang out of the crystal chambers in – or, rather, under – Ba Sing Se. Continues throughout pre-season three and the entire third season.

Pairings:
Mainly Zukaang, but also tiny hints and semi-fluffy moments for other pairings, like Teoph and Taang and Kataang and Zutara and Toko and Sukka.

Rated:
T, if you hadn't noticed; for swearing and sexual innuendo and fantasy violence and gratuitous amounts of fluff.

Extra notes:
Focuses on Zuko, but is not in first-person POV. Present-tensed, despite the fact that the series is finito. I have no beta, so please excuse typos (if I see them, I will try to fix them as soon as I can, but if you see them, please tell me).

It is funny how you can be at one place one moment and then an entirely different place the next. And it's not that teleportation is at all possible; it just seems that, given the proper timing, location, and circumstances, spiritual transportation is possible instead.

Zuko knows that this is true mainly because of the Avatar and his own uncle's alleged trip, but he also knows this because he, too, seems to have stumbled into the Spirit World.

Chapter I

The wind begins to pick up, blowing snow directly into his face. He reaches a hand up to block the bright glare of white, and keeps the flakes out of his eyes. They cling to his hair, and a shiver runs through him. But it isn't cold here; the snow is soft like cotton sheets, and warm like candlelight. This is no winterscape; it might look like one in the sense that snowy hills roll on for miles and miles in every direction, but the sparkling precipitation is not real. It hardly possesses any substance.

This must be a dream.

But no, Zuko doesn't remember falling asleep, nor being knocked unconscious. The last thing he remembers is staring up at the waterbending peasant and the Avatar, shooting up in a waterstorm to the surface of Ba Sing Se's streets outside of the palace. He was beneath the Earth King's little mansion, in an underground city lit by glowing green crystals.

Zuko remembers being there, about to leave with his heavy heart and sick stomach to meet up with his sister, whom had moved ahead to the throne room above, when…

When…

He shakes his head, because the next part is a bit of a blur. It involved losing his balance and splashing into a pool of crystalline water, the blue-green light surrounding him as he struggled to resurface, but only seemed to fall further down, until he was blinded by some kind of light.

And so, here he is. In the Spirit World. He has no idea where his body is, only that he must be without it because he isn't dripping wet like he should be, and isn't dead, either. At least he hopes he isn't.

The ex-prince of the Fire Nation wanders steadily onward, looking for a way out of this Agni-forsaken place. He doesn't know why he's here, but he is all too intent on getting out somehow. He doesn't like feeling lost like this; he's been lost enough in his life, constantly straying from the proverbial path.

He sighs, and drops to his knees. The snow crunches beneath his legs, and his hands run through it like sand. The snow above continues to fall, but it flows straight due to the sudden lack of wind once more. He can taste sugar, and he doesn't know why. A few snowflakes linger on his cheeks, warming them.

"This is too bizarre," he whispers to himself. He forces himself to stand and look around. Angered, he shouts, "Just why am I here, huh? What do you damn spirits want with me?"

With a gust of almost white-hot air, Zuko is knocked onto his bottom. He gazes up after shaking himself from his startled daze to find a figure standing before him. Where had this woman come from? She is decked out in white, even her hair, and her eyes are a freezing blue. Her lips palely pink, she parts them to speak.

"I know you, Zuko," she says, and her voice echoes hollowly. Zuko shivers again, this time not from the surprising warmth of his location, but instead from the eerie way that this girl feels familiar to him. "I've been watching you ever since the North Pole."

"The N-North Pole?" he sputters, because that might explain the snowy wasteland around him. "What do you know about the North Pole?"

"I know that Zhao nearly succeeded in killing the Moon Spirit. I know that you tried to kidnap the Avatar. And I know, too, that you are in dire need of help. Your heart is like this landscape: trying to be warmed, and yet persistently becomes iced over. You have a cold heart, and yet warm blood. The contradiction living inside of you is tearing you apart, and unless you take the help I am about to offer you, you will surely have misfortune befall you."

Her words sting him like the pricks of frozen needles on skin during the process of frostbite. He scrambles up to his feet, staring her down with the most powerful glare he could muster, his golden eyes hardening. "And what if I don't want your help? – Just who are you, anyway?"

"My name used to be Yue," she murmurs gently. "But that is unimportant now. What is important is fixing you before your further break yourself. You made a poor choice tonight, Zuko; the spirits have all seen this, just as they see everything. And they thought that, being a god of shapeshifting as I am, I might be able to assist you."

"And just how do you plan to do that?" he remarks skeptically.

"There is but one option I think would be suitable," Yue says slowly. Zuko's heart races a bit in anticipation. Then, Yue closes her eyes, only to flutter them open again as she tells the firebender, "In order to warm your heart and mend the consequences of your ill decisions, I have decided to take it upon myself to transform your body into an animal, only granting you your usual form when your heart is warmed by another."

He understood now: this girl used to be the princess of the Water Tribe, but when the Moon Spirit died, she had to give up her own life to restore balance. And since the moon has many phases ranging from crescent to full to none at all, and since it had once been a koi on the Earth, it can project shapeshifting onto others. And, it seems, the only way to break such a spell is to, what, fall in love?

"Yes, Zuko, it is as you must be thinking at this moment: you will have to fall in love with somebody and get them to care for you in return before you will be able to be human again. However, I can permit you to have a semi-human body when the moon rises each night; but your animal ears and tail will remain, because they are too difficult to get rid of, and would signify that the spell is broken." Yue floats down to touch his face, and he shrinks back from her touch, because it feels like a ghost: misty and cool. "Now, then: do you accept, Prince Zuko? Or will you dismiss this chance and have misfortune befall you?"

Zuko blinks rapidly a few times, his mind racing frantically. "What kind of misfortune?" he asks hesitantly.

Yue nods once before casting her arms off to the side. An icy sheet, much like a mirror, appears. She holds it up to him, and shows him five images: his uncle in prison, and himself barking insults and stubborn remarks at the old man; his father shooting lightning at him in some underground rocky chamber; the waterbender, Katara, threatening him in some room with windows and a dusty bed and endtable; himself in prison on what seems to be the Boiling Rock, with an ugly man with fat, girlish lips smirking at him (the warden, he guesses); and, finally, Azula striking him with lightning during a battle as a comet flies overhead.

"Some of these awful things can be avoided if you chose to take my offer," she tells him. "But other things will happen anyhow, because it is fated." She makes the mirror vanish before looking deeply into his eyes, as if peering into his heart. He can feel himself grow tense. "Knowing this, what will you choose?"

Zuko mulls this over. On the one hand, he isn't sure if he can trust what this spirit has shown him, but on the other, he can't seem to disbelieve her. But life as an animal? He thought he had it rough before, living as a fugitive; but could he really live as an animal? And depending on which he became, how would he get somebody to accept and, in a matter of speaking, love him? And how can he love anyone at all? The person he has ever loved was his mother. And, to some extent, his uncle.

Oh, Uncle. How could I have betrayed you like that? He thinks offhandedly, his mind elsewhere, and yet still having enough heart to think about how he had chosen to go with Azula, something he already regrets.

"I can feel your regret, Zuko," Yue says gently as she places a hand on his shoulder. He glances up at her face, and finds her smiling. "And I think I understand. You will accept, won't you?"

He nods, his throat constricting. It doesn't settle right with him, and yet, what other choice does he have? He doesn't much like his future otherwise. So, an animal it is. He nods once, unsure, but it is as sure as he can possibly be.

"Very well," Yue says in finality, as if something is ending. "Then so shall it be." She touches his forehead, and he feels sudden sleepiness fall over him. He feels as though he is falling, but he can still hear Yue's voice speaking to him, her words swirling around his mind and following him on the way down. "When you awake, you will be lying beside the pool you had fallen into, and you will be in your animal form. You will then head up to the palace and out of the city, until you come across a group of Fire Nation soldiers. Hop into one of their bags. You will be taken onto a ship that will be taken over by a band of people you know well: the Avatar and his friends. Among them, you will meet your one true love. Good luck, Prince. I wish you well, because you are entitled to a happier ending."

xXxXx

Zuko groans, his voice sounding odd to his ears as he rolls onto his side and wearily pushes himself up on his hands and knees. He wobbles for a moment, but quickly regains his balance as his eyes come into focus.

He peers over the edge of what he's sitting by, and finds a pool of water. But as he looks into it, he doesn't see himself. In his place, he sees the face and pointed ears of a little black cat with gold eyes, its left eye furless and surrounded by a reddish, leathery burn scar. He reels back in shock, but as he does so, memories flood back to his mind.

So it hadn't been some horrible nightmare like part of him had wished; Yue is real, and she had done this to him. Turned him into a cute little kitty, and a teenage one at that. He hisses in disgust, but soon clamps his paws over his fanged mouth, because humans don't hiss. But cats do. Which only makes this reality all the more unbearable. He groans again, a long mewl escaping his throat like a painful cry.

Frustrated, his claws pop out as he scratches at the surface of the water. He shouldn't have agreed to this! What good is being a cat? He can't firebend, and what's worse, people will probably fawn over him now. People love cats. He, personally, could identify now with why most cats like to go off by themselves, and why they are so independent and hot-headed: it's because they don't like being so cuddly, nor fawned over.

Snorting at his predicament but accepting that he can't do a thing about it, Zuko heads up to the palace above and out into the city. It is still nighttime, and in the distance, he can hear a bison's roar.

He might as well find a place to rest for the night before the moon rises and people see him; he doubts that a cat-eared, cat-tailed human being will be widely accepted into an inn. So, he heads off into the direction of the outskirts of the vast city, his kitty feet running at full speed, his lungs astonishingly not tired.

Zuko comes across a safe alleyway with a thrown-out mattress lying in it. He curls up on the mattress beneath a ratty, dirty blanket, hoping that he will be able to catch that ship he's supposed to be on.