The entire courtyard of the Western Air Temple was covered in mud: the cracked tiles, the solomonic columns, and the weathered fountain, as well as a tuckered out Aang and Toph. They sat contentedly in the mess, Aang juggling mud balls that splattered in midair while Toph criticized his footwork.

"You can't be dancing around when you earthbend," she stressed, roughly pushing Aang over when he ignored her. "See? You have to be solid."

Off on another level of the Temple, safe from the trashed remains of the practice battle, Katara sat with a dented pot over a small fire, waiting for the water to boil. She stared into the steam, her thoughts clouding in synchronicity with her vision. There were too many things to do and not enough time to do it, and that troubled her.

Her lengthy list of chores included all of the mundane tasks that a simple housewife was expected to do. Cook dinner, clean the dishes, force everyone to gather their dirty laundry then actually wash it all and hang it to dry, gather fresh fruit for the next day, and still have enough time to spar with Zuko and get at least four hours of much-needed sleep.

She felt her cheeks grow warm as she realized that she didn't really need to train with Zuko; it was an indulgence, that hour where it was just him and her and a lot of exposed skin.

As she waited for the water, she mechanically got up and treaded down a flight of stairs to the muddy mayhem that her friends had created in their mock fight. "Clean up, would you? Dinner will be ready soon. I'm just waiting for Sokka to get back."

"Sokka is back!" the aforementioned Water Tribe boy announced, striding down the stairs with a toothy grin on his face, his boomerang in one hand, and a hogtied animal slung across his back. When Katara turned around from disdainfully picking flecks of dirt off of a pillar, she was met with a flattened, distorted, and bloody head of a dead animal.

The waterbender screamed and stumbled backwards, the mud gulping at her shoes and throwing her wildly off balance. She slid through the muck as she tried to get away from the carcass with lifeless eyes and snapped neck that her brother had shoved in her face. Sokka laughed and threw the skin back over his shoulder. "Caught a boarcupine!" he chirped, chuckling to himself. "So when's dinner?"

Katara gaped at him, tugging dripping hair from her face and trying to wipe her hands on her already-soiled dress. "Make it yourself!" she grumbled, carefully standing and regaining her footing. Gentler, she said to Aang, "Could you help Suki finish dinner? I'm going to clean up."

With another glare at Sokka, she stormed off through a side corridor, slipping once in the slick mud but catching herself before she fell again. She tracked the gritty goop across the floors and spattered it on the walls with every twitch of her head. Quite obscenities coursed though her mouth as she stomped down toward the baths.

On the way there, Haru was gifted the untimely misfortune of crossing her path. "Katara?" he asked, concern lacing through the syllables of her name. "What happened?" He reached out to touch her arm, but she irritably flinched away. She muttered a cryptic answer and pushed past him.

She stormed into the bath house, letting the mild humidity of the room engulf her. Sighing in relief, she enjoyed the way the steam found its way into her pores as she discarded her muddy tunic and started working on her pants.

Suddenly, her hands froze at the waistband of her pants as she processed something that was out of place. Why was there steam?

Frantically, she ticked off the names of her friends in her head, trying to locate the ones that could possibly be in the baths. The original gang was in the courtyard, Haru was heading in that direction, and Teo and The Duke were out flying or something. That only left…

Katara stiffened as she heard water splashing at the last tub. Looking up, the eyes of the distressed and partly undressed waterbender met Zuko's naked backside. She gasped softly as he stepped out of the bath and went to collect his towel.

She couldn't move an inch of her body. It was like she was held there by someone's hand, gravity down pouring on her shoulders and adhering her to the floor, forcing her to watch as the firebender shook out his damp hair and dried his taut body. He didn't turn around but instead tied the towel around his waist. Katara didn't quite know if she was relieved or disappointed.

Then he turned toward her, sighting her through the steam. His eyes widened, mirroring hers, as he stared at her. The waterbender fiddled with her pants, biting her lips as she did so. "Um…" She cleared her throat. "I didn't know you were…um…"

"How long have you been standing there?" Zuko asked quietly.

Katara swallowed heavily, chancing a look into his golden eyes. She opened her mouth, whispering hastily, "I have to go." With that, she gathered up her tunic, turned toward the door, and ran. A bath could wait. She didn't need one right then.

...

The Western Air Temple at night was uncomfortable to Katara. Not scary. She refused to be scared. But the shadows that scaled the walls as she walked towards the baths and the eerie sounds that came from no where were unnerving, to say the least. She quickened her pace and kept her eyes trained to the floor.

Dinner that evening had been awkward in every sense of the word. Katara took up her usual task of serving the food, and when it was Zuko's turn to collect his share, she never made eye contact. Instead, she mumbled a quick "here" and had shoved the bowl into his hands. He quietly thanked her while she had tried to hide the furious blush on her face.

Now, feeling utterly disgusting and thoroughly creeped out, she wound her way to the bath house in just her bindings to make up for the time she hadn't gotten earlier. Once she was out of the hallway and in the cavernous room, a flood of serenity tingled in her fingertips and toes. It was the water that she could feel beneath her, gurgling in pumps to be used for baths.

That exquisite sensation was soon trampled, however, as she saw a lanky, shirtless figure sitting on the edge of one of the stone tubs, feet submerged in the water. Inwardly, she groaned and outwardly glared at him.

"Leave," she grumbled. "Just…I don't want to talk about it."

"What's done is done. No hard feelings, okay?"

She huffed and felt the inevitable sting of tears on the bridge of her nose. "Yeah," she muttered, blinking away the burn behind her eyes. Zuko didn't seem too pleased with her unconvincing answer and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Get in," he said, nodding at the water. She stared at him, appalled, her mouth agape. His entire face flushed several different shades of red, but he caught his mistake before she could explode on him. "I-I mean, not like that."

The dirtiest expression he could have ever imagined crossed her face then. "It's already warm," he tried. Frankly, she was too tired, too aggravated, and too exasperated to put up much of a fight. And she was in desperate need of that bath now. Katara dramatically blew at her hair loopies as she reluctantly walked toward the tub.

She refused to look at him as she awkwardly stepped into the warm water. The drastic change of temperatures caused goose-duck flesh to sprout on her skin as her back came in contact with the edge of the tub.

Several seconds of uncomfortable silence settled between them. "…Can—can I help you with your hair?" The waterbender arched her eyebrow before she hesitantly nodded her head. It would have been hard enough to manage her hair without help, and if he was offering, she would take it.

His warm, soothing hands found her mocha hair, slowly trying to comb through the tangles. After tugging at her roots once, he stopped as she flinched. Withdrawing from her tresses, he grabbed the bucket that had been left next to the tub. "Close your eyes. Please."

"Why?" she asked.

"To, um, to get your hair wet."

She was about to tell him that she could waterbend the water onto her head, or even just submerge into the bath, but instead, her blue eyes disappeared behind her lids.

"Are they closed?" Zuko questioned.

Katara made a noise in the affirmative, and he filled the bucket, then let the collected water cascade down over her head. Setting the bucket down, his hands went back into her hair.

She let the feeling of the warm points of pressure against her head consume her. It had been so long since she got pampered, all of the months ago at the Fancy Lady Day Spa in Ba Sing Se. As much as she hated to admit it, she could have stayed there all night.

"Why do you know how to do this?" she asked quietly, tilting her head so his fingers reached different spots.

"My mother taught me. She used to tell me that every man should be able to give a massage. I thought it was stupid, and now that I think about it, she probably had this kind of thing in mind."

"Well…thanks." After a second, she added, "Um…you can go," hugging her arms around herself. Zuko looked as if he wanted to say something else, but he squared his jaw and swung his legs over the side of the tub.

"As you wish," he conceded with what he hoped came off as ambivalence. "Goodnight." Before sauntering away, he dipped his hand back into the bath to reheat it. Once his footsteps were mere echoes in the room, Katara shimmied out of her wraps.

Smoldering, golden eyes glimpsed soft, bare curves in the scant light as she settled further down. Silently, he closed the door behind him. They were even, he supposed, for now.

I have finally published this!

This is a collab fic between IFeltHope44 and myself. We are both responsible for the making of this fic. If you review this one, please, go to her account and review hers as well. Even if it is the exact same review. Thank you and enjoy!

I will try my hardest to get the last two out as quickly as possible.

-Gina