Author's Note: This one grew from the seed that started it. Warning: does contain spoilers for the Search trilogy, which has sort of merged into my personal fanon of how Zuko and Katara get together. There's not a lot of romance in this one, but sometimes love is about the subtle ways you show someone you care about them.

Hope you like it!

One: Meloncholy

It is raining outside the small hut they have claimed for the night as Katara makes dinner and Zuko stares out the window. One leg sits up on the sill as the other dangles out, dampened by the rain. "The rain is good," she says, hoping to make conversation – filling his bowl with the soup she has made. "It means the droughts are over, right?"

The Fire Nation has had a hard dry spell. When Zuko got word of how the outlying villages were struggling, he had told the palace staff to only cook what they needed, nothing extravagant. The other nobles whispered of how stingy Fire Lord Zuko was being, but Katara knew the truth. She'd heard him yell at the cook in a fit of misplaced anger -

"People are starving out there, yet you made me a four course meal? I don't need it! No one here does! I refuse to put on another banquet until the drought is over, do you hear me?"

What he didn't tell them was how he'd been there before himself. He'd gone hungry many a night in the Earth Kingdom. Even Katara remembered how thin he'd looked when the Gaang had met with him and his uncle in that ghost town.

The droughts were only half the reason they had come here, though – Zuko figured if he was away from the palace, then the nobles would stop their whispers. Besides, between the two of them, they could spread Earth Kingdom irrigation techniques to the villages that were being hit the hardest. It was just one more way that the balance was being returned to the world, the nations helping each other.

The other reason, Katara knew, was why Zuko wasn't speaking.

She stood up and brought the bowl to him, resting a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. When he turned his face to her, his eyes were those of a man much older than his nineteen years. "Thanks," he whispered, taking the soup and eating a mouthful as she sat beside him and looked out at the rain.

"I'm sure she's alive, Zuko," Katara finally sighed. "Just because we haven't heard anything doesn't mean she's dead. Azula is stronger than that."

His sister hadn't been heard from since the day she'd run off into the Forgotten Valley, and despite all the hatred between them, Katara knew Zuko was concerned.

"She may be strong," Zuko finally said, a sigh escaping him, "but right now, she's also... broken. If she is alive out there... who knows what state she's in right now."

Katara didn't know what to say to that, so she said nothing. Zuko ate a bit more, then stopped, staring into his bowl instead. "Is it bad," he asked, "that I'm not sure I want to find her? That... I'm scared to find her alive, because she's probably going to fight me again. But I don't want to find her dead, either. Agni – Is it bad that I still love her, even though I hate what she is?"

Katara shook her head, tentative but sure. Her hands met his and stayed there, feeling the warmth radiate from his skin. "No, it's not bad, Zuko. It's just complicated. Love... usually is." She swallowed hard at that, and then sighed, bowing her head. "Remember what you told your mother. That you still have hope for her."

"Yeah," Zuko muttered, looking back out at the rain. "At least she knows what she is."