Katara gasped for a breath as she broke through water with her feet unable to touch anything, she cried out when a wave crashed over her.

She fell under the water but grunted when she hit something under her and suddenly the water was gone as she ended up in the middle of the halls of the fire nation palace. She looked around wide eyes and turned around fully to see blood splattered against the wall.

She looked in the mirror at herself to see she was in a champagne color wedding dress that had blood on the bottom of the silks.

"Hello!?" Katara yelled in the dark halls as her body was trembling.

She ran outside seeing the sky was burn orange and smoke made it seem like clouds, the smell of something terrible burning surrounded her. Was she to late?

"Katara!" Her brothers voice called out for her.

"Sokka?" She whispered confused.

"Katara!"

"Zuko?!" Katara heard his voice more panicked as she ran towards the voices as she found herself in the royal gardens.

But she saw a body by the pond with no turtle ducks anymore, the water was full of blood as she went to the body. Tears burned her eyes not ready to see who is was. Was it her brother? Her father?

She knelt down to the bloodied body as a sword was loosely in their grasp as they laid on their back. Tears started to fall down her face as she saw who it was. Blood was everywhere she couldn't even see where it was coming from. They weren't moving, he wasn't breathing. She was to late.

Katara felt a sob rip from her throat as she felt someone shake her awake.

"Hey, kat, it's okay,"

She looked up wide eyes seeing Zuko who looked terrified holding her wrists. She hiccuped another cry wrapping her arms around him shaking.

"It's okay, it was just a dream, you're okay," Zuko didn't ask what happened as he held her tightly in his arms letting her cry.

"You were dead, I heard you and I was to late, I'm sorry I'm sorry," Katara buried her face in his shoulder as he rubbed her back gently.

"I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine, it was a dream," he assured her.

Katara sniffled trying to get herself together as she curled against him not wanting to let go yet. How did she even get to this point in her life that she would be finding comfort in him. That she had a nightmare of his death...

"Wanna tell me what happened? I'll get you a water," Zuko grabbed the blanket to wrap around her shoulders as he slowly let go to get her a drink from the pitcher of water.

"It was just a bad dream," Katara sighed a little as he handed her a cup.

"I get it, especially being here," Zuko sat on the ground in front of her.

"Do you get nightmares?" She asked.

"Yea, or I don't remember," he nodded leaning against the bed next to her knees.

"Can You tell me what about?" Katara held the cup to her lips. Her nightmare sounded stupid from what she could remember.

"I use to have some of drowning when I was traveling, that there was a bad storm and I would've never gotten to go home, then when I found Aang it was being forced to fight him and one of us being forced to kill the other, I use to get night terrors when my mom died," Zuko listed with a shrug.

"When did You first started getting nightmares?" She asked putting the cup in her lap.

"As long as I could remember," he nodded. "Before my mom even died I got them, she just was there to help,"

"Well with the type of dad you have I don't blame You," she scoffed.

"You haven't had nightmares in a while?" Zuko raised a brow looking at her.

"Once in a while, mostly about Sokka or my dad getting in trouble or missing my mom, but this one was about You... I was in a wedding dress and I found your body out by the pond and the sky was red and not from a sunset, and it smelt like everything was on fire, and you were already dead when I..." Katara looked down, why would she have that kind of dream.

"You think something bad is going to happen when we get married?" Zuko asked gently.

"I don't know, it's possible, any thing is possible at this point," she sighed looking down.

"It was just a dream, you should go back to bed you look exhausted still," Zuko stood up with a grunt patting her hand.

"What time is it?" She asked softly.

"Still early, you need some rest kat," he smiled leading her down to lay on the bed as he covered her with the blanket. She sighed nodding knowing her body wasn't ready to get up yet. Zuko waited for her to fall back asleep before leaving the room for her to have privacy while she slept.

"Trouble with the bride?" Mai was passing by.

"She just had a nightmare," Zuko closed the door as he kept his hand on the knob.

"Why was she even in your room?" She frowned.

"Fiancé stuff, husband and wife stuff, so and so, you wouldn't know," he smirked a little seeing her getting flustered.

"You're such a pig, jerk," Mai scoffed crossing her arms.

"It was sarcasm, we just hang out and she fell asleep in my bed," Zuko lied, she didn't need to know they snuck out.

"Does she make you happy?" She gulped a little as he kept his back to her.

"Yea, she does," he didn't miss a beat which surprised Mai a little.

"... can I ask how?" She pursed her lips.

"Why?" He frowned looking back at her.

"I want to know how a girl your forced to marry makes you happier than a girl that you've known all your life and you chose to be with," Mai snapped a little and Zuko leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

"It's not how we met and maybe it is a little how our situation is, it is her as a person for sure, Katara and I have a lot in common and we've bonded over it, even with how we've been forced to this marriage we've bonded over it, and she's a good person, a good person that I've been able to relate to and I hope she feels the same," he tilted his head to the side with soft eyes.

" I guess I've succeeded in being able to befriend the woman I'll be spending my life with, and her happiness is just as important to me, she's earned my trust, I think she's just really amazing and fun and I'm proud to say that's who I'm going to be marrying," he smiled as Mai listened.

"We communicate, we listen, and we find solutions to our problems, just like any other relationship, I'm doing my best to make sure it's a healthy one," Zuko sighed a little not looking at her.

"But your not in a relationship, she was never your girlfriend, this engagement isn't even real and the marriage is fake, it's just for politics and war, why does it matter?" Mai didn't understand.

"Maybe that's the difference between someone I knew my whole life and someone I'm forced with, we're actually trying to not make it just for politics and war and maybe..." he trailed off swallowing a lump in his throat.

"What?" She didn't hear the rest.

"I don't know maybe after the wars done..." Zuko felt stupid for even thinking it. Everyone's gotten to his head of the stupid possibility.

"You think she's going to love you?" Mai blinked.

"No, no, I know she won't, I'm not dumb enough to believe she'll ever love me but I just want her to be happy," he ran a hand through his hair.

"You're happy right?" Mai asked again.

"Happier than I've been in a while, she's given me a purpose," Zuko explained a little and she nodded.

"Alright, well it'll be interesting to see this shit show relationship go down in history," she waved him off walking away as Zuko looked at the ground.