A/N: My first attempt at Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfiction. Also my first post on in many years. It started off with one plot, then mutated into something entirely different. Enjoy, and please review. 

Disclaimer: I don't have my own car…how could I possibly own my own TV series? Avatar is not mine…I'd be much richer if it was.

Regrets, Reunions, and Romance

A cool, dark night in April found Katara unable to sleep. After trying and failing for several hours, she rose from her bed, pulled on a thin robe and crossed her bedroom to a floor-to-ceiling window that opened onto a cement balcony. After checking to make sure she hadn't woken her husband, Katara opened the window, walked onto the balcony, closed the window quietly behind her, and leaned against the cement railing of the balcony and sighed.

In less than twelve hours she would be leaving her home in the fire nation to meet with her brother, Sokka, for the first time in nearly three years. They had stopped speaking the day she announced her engagement to him.

[Three years ago

"Sokka, I have something to tell you." Try as she might, Katara couldn't keep the nervous smile off her face. She unconsciously fingered the thin gold chain attached to a sapphire around her neck as she waited for her brother's response.

"What is it, Katara?" Sokka was sitting comfortably in an armchair in the home he shared with his long-term girlfriend Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors. At the moment he was looking at his sister with a mix of curiosity and impatience.

"Well, as you know, Zuko and I have been together for a while now, and we've been getting pretty serious. And finally, two nights ago…" she trailed off for a minute to raise the necklace and let the ruby catch the light, showing the engraved water tribe symbol in the center of the jewel. "He proposed! I said yes! We're getting married!" Her last sentence was more of a joyful shout than anything else, partly because she was still riding the waves of euphoria and disbelief at the proposal.

To her immense disappointment, her brother barely looked interested. In fact he looked downright annoyed. "That's great, Katara."

"Sokka…what is it? You obviously don't think it's that great."

"Hm…what is it about your new fiancée that could be bothering me so much? How about the fact that's he's fire nation! And he tried to kill Aang and the rest of us multiple times!" he raised his voice as she fought to do likewise.

"I know he did. Believe me, I remember as well as you do. But Zuko's changed now. He's a good man and I wouldn't have accepted his proposal if I didn't know that."

"I think you would have said yes to him anyway! Just like with Jet, you fell for the guy without noticing that he's also an attempted murderer!"

"Don't bring up Jet," she snapped, and then continued. "I do know him, better than you think. I love him, and he loves me, and we're getting married. I just wanted to tell you myself but now I see that was a mistake."

"To tell me something you knew would upset me? Yeah, I'd say that's a big mistake. Katara."

The sarcasm hurt her more than any of his other words had. She blinked back tears and worked to keep her voice steady.

"I'm sorry I upset you, but I was just trying to be a good sister."

"A good sister wouldn't marry our former enemy."

She was about to explode at him, she could feel it and needed to remove herself from the situation as soon as possible.

"Well I'm sorry you think I'm so awful, but I'm not going back on my decision. Zuko and I are getting married, no matter how you feel. I thought it would be better for you to find out in person, like I said before, but I was obviously wrong. I'll see myself out."

She stood, turned and walked out of her brother's house. She boarded the waiting fire nation ship for her journey home and only when she returned to private quarters did she allow herself to cry.

A tear slid down her cheek at the recollection of those painful memories, which she wiped away hurriedly. Sokka hadn't come to the wedding, though both Aang and Toph had put in appearances. Katara hated the feud that was still going on between her and her brother, but she wasn't willing to give up the best thing in her life to make her temperamental brother happy.

These angry, depressing thoughts were whirling around in her head when two arms encircled her waist and hugged gently, as if trying to pull her out of her current train of thought. She leaned comfortably back into the embrace, still thinking in the same vein.

"It's funny," she finally said aloud. "When I was fourteen, I could face an entire army with nothing but a water skin and a twelve year old boy by my side and not break a sweat. Now it's six years later, I'm a grown woman, and I can't sleep because I'm scared to talk to my own brother."

"Well, the circumstances of this confrontation are infinitely different." His voice was soft in her ear, and she couldn't help but chuckle at the comparison of the two events. "I think it's going to work out well, though."

"I don't know about that, Zuko." She turned to face him so their eyes could meet. "You weren't there when I told him; you didn't see how angry he got."

"No, I didn't, but if I learned anything from tailing you all across the world for over a year, it's that Sokka's hotheaded, but he's a good person and he really cares about you."

"I know he does, but I'm still worried." She gently broke their embrace, walked across the balcony and turned to face him again. "Like, what if he won't listen to me? What if he's still angry? How am I going to deal with it if he won't accept us? Will he even be willing to acknowledge me as Fire Lady? Can I really live without ever talking to my brother again?"

Even though voicing her fears to her husband and the night air helped more than she had thought possible, a few tears still fell from Katara's full eyes. She felt them slide down, and for the briefest of moments she was a sixteen year-old again, scared of what would happen when her brother found out about her relationship with the Prince of the fire nation. Before she could begin to think of wiping them away, Zuko had pulled her into his arms again and wiped them away himself.

"I didn't know this was torturing you so much." He hugged her tightly, one hand running through her hair in an attempt to soothe her. "Do you want me to come with you tomorrow?"

She hugged him back and considered the possibilities. Having him along on the voyage would definitely allay her fears somewhat, but she wasn't sure about how Sokka would react to his being there. Plus, regardless of her brother's reaction, Katara knew she would have to do this by herself, whether Zuko was with her or not.

"Thank you for offering." She leaned back to look into his golden eyes, noticing how they appeared almost molten in the moonlight. "But I think this is something need to do on my own."

He nodded, not breaking their eye contact. "I understand. And just for the record, I think you're amazing for going through with this."

She blushed and smiled. "What do you mean?"

"You're trying to make peace with your sibling. Agni knows I could never do that. And you're facing your fears head on, even though it's the last thing you want to do. In short, you're amazing." He prayed she knew that he meant every word, and hoped that the words were helping her through the fear and sadness.

Her smile, her beautiful white smile, told him she knew, understood and appreciated the meaning of his words. "I love you, Zuko."

"I love you too, Katara." They kissed then, uninterrupted until a cool breeze whipped up, causing them both to shiver and break the kiss. "Let's get inside before it gets any colder out here." She nodded in agreement and followed him back to the bedroom.

Once they were in bed again, Katara snuggled close to her husband, feeling sleep steal over her quicker than she thought possible. Her last thought as she drifted off was that she was truly blessed to have him.

-Fin

A/N: Love it? Hate it? Should I continue? Review and let me know!!