Zuko knows something is different, and it frustrates him that he cannot name it.

Perhaps he would need another sickness to overcome him so he could release that ever present frustration. But seeing his Uncle Iroh so happy filled him with a lightness that he was not familiar with.

The fragrant smell of jasmine tea filled the shop and Zuko felt the cloying heat of the steam waft over his face from the cups on the tray he carried. He served a couple at the far table and tucked the tray beneath his arm with a smile.

"I see you are getting the hang of this, nephew." Iroh spoke from behind the counter. He stirred a large pot of tea that was steadily simmering on the stove - his latest experiment with various tea leaves and extracts. On the counter beside the pot lay a knife and the grated peels of two fresh lemons.

"What else are you putting in that?" Zuko asked, nodding to the pot.

Iroh glanced at it, smiling wide. "Ah, you'll have to wait and see! Perhaps I will test you later."

Zuko smiled, still feeling strange at the unfamiliar freedom to express happiness when he wanted to. He felt unshackled, as though a visor has been over his eyes, but now he could see clearly.

It was with these unclouded eyes that he saw someone sitting at a single table in the tea shop. Someone he had not expected to see.

Zuko's hands tightened on the tray he held, and he watched with wide eyes as his uncle lay out a cup of tea and gestured to where she sat.

He wondered if she had already seen him. Who would she tell? The Avatar?

Zuko felt a strange stab of uneasiness. What if the Avatar came here? To fight him? Would this tentative peace he had found dissolve into the rage that had fuelled him for so long? Did he want to return to that boy he had been?

Katara. He remembered her name. But even to say it in his mind was too intimate for what they were. He walked to where she sat and kept his gaze on his own feet as he set the cup on the table. She didn't look at him. Perhaps she didn't know he was there. He could get away unseen, and untroubled.

His hand knocked the cup over as he set it down, sending the hot tea spilling over the table edge and towards his feet.

Zuko let out a yelp of surprise when the hot liquid hovered just above his shoes, and his mind made the connection easily.

He glanced up at Katara, watching as her hands guided the tea back into the cup she had righted. Zuko watched in horror and dread as she smiled and raised her gaze to him.

Her blue eyes flashed with recognition and then fury. He saw her hands rise again - to waterbend the hot tea back into his face perhaps.

Zuko's hand shot out and caught her wrist, his unburnt eye wide and earnest. "I'm not here to fight you." He said.

Katara scoffed, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How am I supposed to believe that?"

Zuko swallowed and glanced around the shop, but it seemed they were unnoticed. "This is my uncle's tea shop."

The second the words had left him, he winced. It sounded so domestic, so normal. He wondered if she would laugh at him. The Fire Lord's son and heir, working in his uncle's tea shop in Ba Sing Se. The same uncle who had attempted to, and failed, to take the city for the Fire Nation.

But Katara only glanced at Iroh behind the counter, and it was now her turn to wince.

"I didn't know." She said.

"You didn't see us in here?" Zuko asked, and they both realised he was still holding her wrist to keep her from bending.

Katara yanked her hand from his grip and Zuko let go, standing back to put some space between them.

"I was… preoccupied." Katara said, her voice edged with steel. She stood up to leave and Zuko stepped back to let her.

Katara looked to him and frowned. Zuko could practically see the wheels turning in her mind. He knew what conclusion she had come to when she sank into a fighting stance and siphoned the hot tea from the cup.

He raised his tray in defence, but Katara did not wait. She shot the water at him, catching him across the hand and making him drop the tray.

He held up a hand, flames appearing in his palm.

The customers in the shop got up. The scrape of chairs on the stone floors and their panicked chatter echoed throughout the tea shop as they ran towards the doors in their fear that they would be caught in the middle of these two benders.

Katara attacked again, hands rising and directing the hot tea towards his legs. The force of it shook him, making him stumble.

Zuko fisted his hands, shooting two lacklustre fireballs towards her as he stumbled back and caught himself.

Katara snarled, launching herself forward and lifting the tea from the floor. She formed shards of ice with it, sending them flying towards him. One ripped into his green uniform, but Zuko raised a wall of flame to melt the others.

He spun, the firm and certain movements of his arms forming a sweep of fire in front of him, that Katara was forced to duck under.

There was not enough water for her, so she drew it from her water skin that she kept at her hip.

Zuko took the opportunity to speak, "I don't want to fight."

Katara laughed and raised the water on either side of her, both arms raised. "I don't believe you."

Zuko took a breath and straightened up, letting the flames die. He would show her he didn't want to fight then. If she would not believe his words.

She did not stop her attack, and Zuko didn't blame her. She sent her water towards him and Zuko felt it freeze around his torso as it shoved him back against the far wall and held him there. The air rushed out of him on impact, and a throbbing pain started at his back from the force with which he had hit the wall.

She approached him, fury in her eyes. "Are you here for Aang?" She demanded.

Zuko shook his head. "I knew he was here. I've known for a long time."

Katara frowned, "Been planning something?"

He shook his head, "No."

Katara hesitated, her eyes narrowed still as she watched him with hostility.

Zuko met her gaze. "If you want to end me, do it."

"End you?" Katara spoke, a hint of shock in her tone and in the way her eyebrows rose.

Zuko thought about it for a moment, wondering if she would really do it. He didn't know this girl. From what he had seen, she seemed the most reasonable out of the group following the Avatar. And she was tough, that much he knew. But would she really take him out? To protect Aang and her friends? Probably. But could she do it?

Katara lowered her hands, and Zuko had his answer.

She stepped up to him, getting right in his face. And he had the decency to lean his head back against the wall.

"If I ever see you anywhere near Aang, I will do it." Katara hissed, "I'm going to be watching you, Prince Zuko. You can serve tea in your uncle's shop like a good nephew all you want, but I'm going to be right here reminding you of who you really are and what you've done."

Zuko blinked with surprise and watched as she turned and stalked out of the tea shop.

"That went well." Iroh said, getting out from behind the counter.

"Thanks for all your help." Zuko said, resting his head back on the wall in exhaustion.

Iroh laughed, "I had to watch my pot. Don't you know that an unwatched pot always boils over? I'm sure there is a saying about it." Iroh mused as he began the process of melting Zuko off of the wall.