A/N: This story starts in the middle of Southern Raiders. Zuko and Katara have just got back on Appa after confronting the current leader of the Southern Raiders.

Enjoy!

"Are you okay?" Zuko asked Katara.

"No. I'm not. I was so sure that was him until I saw his eyes. The eyes of a killer," she said. She violently spat out every word. Zuko had never seen her like this, even when fighting him.

"We'll find the man, don't worry," he reassured her, as his own uncle had done so many times for him.

He stopped, he couldn't think about this right now.

Once he allowed his mind to wander again he thought again of the encounter on the Southern Raiders ship. He had noticed something peculiar, it kind of looked like she was making him move.

"Hey, Katara, can I ask you something?" he said thoughtfully.

"What is it, Zuko?"

How did he phrase this? Making him move…hmm…oh!

"Well, it's just that, it looked like you were controlling that man back there…and I just, um, wondered…" He mentally berated himself, he sounded so stupid! Why was it that nothing ever came out right?

Her face hardened and she was serious once more, "It's called blood bending. With my water bending I can control and living organism with blood flowing through it. It's horrible, and I wish I had never learned." Katara's eyes started watering and tears threatened to spill over. Zuko didn't know what he was going to do if she started to cry, so he tried to keep the conversation moving.

"Where did you learn it?"

The tears receded slightly, for which Zuko was thankful, and she told the story of the southern water tribe woman tricked her into it.

Zuko thought about the story for a moment. Then he look at her, to see if tears were still threatening to spill over. It was too late, though. The story he had asked for had her sobbing, and she was trying to find comfort in Appa's warm fur.

"It wasn't your fault. Stop crying about it. It's done." In those three short sentences Katara was no longer crying and ready to hit him if he said anything else.

"For a minute there you sounded like your old self again!" she teased, feeling a bit better.

He had the hint of a smile, "And now you sound like your old self."

She laughed, but it was cut short when Appa landed. She started thinking of what she was going to do to the man who had killed her mother.

Zuko ran over the encounter in his head after he went into his tent and laid down.

.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

"Do you know who I am?" Katara asked.

The old man answered, "No…I'm not sure."

"Oh you better remember me like your life depends on it!" she said savagely. The old man looked scared. "Why don't you take a closer look."

"Yes, yes," the old man said, "I remember you now. You're the little water tribe girl…" He gulped, knowing what was coming.

"She lied to you, she was protecting the last water bender…" Katara closed her eyes and looked away.

The old man cocked his eyebrow up, "What? Who!" he asked, as if he had a right to.

Katara's face hardened again and turned to him, "Me!" she screamed.

.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

Then Katara had perform the most astounding act of water bending he'd ever seen.

But, Zuko thought, he hadn't paid attention to much water bending before.

She stopped all the rain drops that were falling around the three. Zuko had pulled down his mask to watch what Katara would do. She made a huge dome around them, and for a moment it stayed. Then she screamed her rage, at the same time turning the stayed drops and the water dome into hundreds of icicles. The man covered his face as they got closer.

Zuko's mouth dropped open, she had stopped them before they had touched the man. She stood up straight again, letting the water go.

After that he wasn't sure what had come over that guy, he suggested taking his mother. To be fair. Zuko felt sick at this, and he put himself in the man's place. Only with Ursa still as his mother. Who could offer up their own mother, without even sounding bad about it? He was ashamed for the man who had killed Katara's mother.

As he thought this Katara was saying that he was pathetic, and sad, and empty. She told the fire nation man she just couldn't do it, the two companions locked eyes for a moment, and then Katara walked away.

Zuko had looked at the man a moment more, then followed her.

He closed his eyes, and started to drift off to sleep.

"Zuko! Are you awake?" a voice whispered.

He shot up, "What is it? What's wrong?" he said and look around.

"Oh, sorry, I guess you were sleeping. Nothing's wrong, I was just going to ask you if you could make a fire for me. I can't sleep," she said.

"What about the rain?" he asked, he could hear the rain, and he always knew when it rained. Water was the opposite of fire, after all.

"Come on, I'm a water bender. I can deal with the rain. I'm not a fire bender, though, so I can't make fire in this rain," she said slowly, like she was trying to teach him. He was angry at this for a moment, but he calmed down because he knew she didn't really mean it, it was just teasing.

"Okay," he said, and climbed out of the tent. "Ugh," he groaned when the rain hit him.

"What?" she asked absently getting some wood.

"Nothing, I just really don't like the rain," Zuko explained.

"That's understandable," she said, making a bubble so Zuko could start a fire. He piled up the wood and lit it quickly. As soon as the fire was lit it stopped raining. "Huh," Katara said, looking up at the sky in confusion.

"I'll stay out here with you now that it's not raining, if you want me to, of course," Zuko quickly added.

"Sure, you can if you want to," she said. Katara sat down on a wet log and crossed her arms, laying her head on her arms. She watched the fire, looking entranced with it.

"I never thought I'd be sitting in the middle of the Fire Nation with a water bender as my friend," Zuko said quietly, also looking at the fire.

"Who said we're friends?"

"I-I-" he started.

She laughed, "Just kidding, Zuko. I'm glad you took me here, and we are friends."

He crossed his arms and looked down, slightly annoyed at her. She huffed, "Goodness, Zuko, can't take a little joking around?"

He sighed, "Nah, it's just weird that you're just joking around now. Being annoyed with you is obviously a hard habit to break!" He grinned at her expression. "Joking."

They both laughed then. It was quiet for a moment, and they watched the fire again. It swirled, and ate the wood. Aang and Zuko said fire was life, but she still didn't see it. Katara supposed that after all the years of hating the Fire Nation, she had developed a hatred for fire, too.

Zuko asked softly, "What are you thinking about, Katara?"

It took her a moment to process what he had said, "I'm thinking about how I can't see how fire is life, it just destroys things."

Zuko thought for a couple of minutes how to explain to her that fire really was life. Suddenly he reached for her hand and places it on his heart.

"What are you doing? Let me go!" she exclaimed and tried pulling away. Zuko held her hand there.

"Feel how warm it is there?" he asked her.

"Uh, I guess…" Katara said looking at him like he was crazy.

He started moving his hand down, "Whoa! I am not doing this, Zuko! I love Aang! And this is so wrong, and-"

He cut her off. "Katara, will you just stop talking for a minute? I'm trying to explain something here. I'm not making you do anything!" If it had been light out, Katara would have seen him blushing about what she had just accused him of.

"Now, feel how warm it is here?" he asked her. She nodded. Then understanding came.

"It's not warm, it's hot! Why is it like that, are you hurt? You can just ask when you need me to heal you, instead of this crazy-"

Again, he cut her off, "Katara! I'm not hurt. It's hotter because that's my inner fire." He let her hand go, but it stayed for a second, causing his blush to return.

"Oh," she whispered. She thought for a minute, "That's kind of amazing."

"Amazing how?" he asked, feeling she was getting to the point on her own.

"It's amazing that it doesn't burn you from the inside out!" she exclaimed.

"See, all fire doesn't destroy. I'm not sure what exactly would happen if I lost my bending, but I know my inner fire would go out, and I would become weak," Zuko said.

"Wow," Katara said softly.

Zuko shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. In the firelight the water bender looked…he tried for the word, but he stopped thinking of her instead. Instead, he looked at the fire.

Picking up a safer trail of thoughts, he went over their conversation from just now in his head. The more he thought about it, the more he focused on when Katara had protested, telling him it wasn't right and that she was in love with Aang. Zuko, of course, knew what she was talking about. She had thought that he would force her into giving him a hand job.

He was angry at this, even his old self wouldn't do that! He had been taught at a young age about women, and how they should be treated with the utmost respect. It did not matter that he was the prince. His mother would not have him shaming their family by forcing a girl to do anything.

At twelve his father had stepped in, saying how was he to learn unless he had actual experience with a woman? So the Fire Lord had gotten him a whore.

Zuko's hands balled into fists, and fire was dancing on his knuckles. His first time, wasted by a whore. Why had he cooperated?

Because, he thought, I wanted to please him.

He was sent back to the present when Katara yelped in pain. She had been sitting near him, and it was close enough for him to burn her accidentally. Without thinking about it, the fire dancing on his white knuckles grew, and it reached out to touch Katara.

"Ouch! What are you thinking!" she exclaimed. It was completely different than when he had said it to her a couple of minutes ago.

"Oh Agni, Katara! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to - I mean, I wasn't even thinking about it -" he rushed out.

She stormed off to her tent without looking at him, no doubt to heal herself. Zuko hung his head in his hands, why couldn't he do anything right?