Prologue

Katara had spent her whole life in the southern province of her country. The province was behind a mountain range which held any warm weather away. Katara's home were white snowy plains and valleys. Many lakes and rivers were providing the people there with the life giving water they needed. The lakes were frozen for three months of the year and the rivers only for one. There was only one big city in the southern province. It was situated at the most southern point of the province between mountains on a fjord, and you could already see the vast ocean from there.

This town fascinated Katara and she loved going there, since these people always showed her things she didn't know. It made her wish to see the rest of the world, to know where these things came from.

Elementia was a big country, one of the biggest of the world. It contained more than four climate zones and held a special flora and fauna unique to the world.

People never really wanted to leave Elementia, since itself already gave them so much.

Katara's father was a soldier and therefore not always at home. In a normal year she got to see him for three weeks. But despite his absence, Katara was far from being alone. She didn't only have her mother, brother and grandmother, she had a whole village which was there for her. The people in her village always cared for each other and they were all like a big family. Honestly, most of them were actually related, but sometimes some men would leave the village to find a wife elsewhere. It also happened that strangers would travel through their village, but would fall in love and stay there.

A young man from the capital had once come to their village and married Katara's cousin. That was exactly what Katara had always wished for. That a fascinating stranger would appear and fall in love with her, and marry her. This way she could stay in her village, but still find her true love. She was curious about the world, but nonetheless she did love her village more than anything else. Everyone had their role, their chores, served a purpose. Their way of living seemed outdated to most of the young people, which clearly made Katara an outsider. When her brother and the others would gather around one of the computers in the internet café, Katara loved to listen to the old stories her grandmother told her. It was only folklore, but a part of their culture and Katara was very proud of being from the southern province.

Her life seemed perfect to her. Her mother was always there for her, her brother liked to annoy her, but nonetheless loved and defended her, and her grandmother taught her all the important things of her culture.

But a few weeks after Katara had turned fourteen, her father told the family that he needed to move to the capital of the Eastern province.

Katara was horrified at the thought. He had never been that far away! Her father had always stayed in the southern province, their letters only needed a few days to reach each other, but Ba Sing Se was the country's biggest city. Why was her father needed there?

Kya, Katara's mother, laid a hand on her husband's arm and smiled at her children. "Your father will be further away from us than ever before. And he will have to stay there longer than ever before, too."

Hakoda, Katara's father, nodded smiling. "Yes, I'll be deployed there for more than two years, which is the longest time I have ever been deployed. You know that it's normally not even a year."

Katara looked at her brother who seemed to wait for something. Frowning she looked back at her parents.

"And since your father will stay there that long we decided that we'll go with him," her mother finally said and Sokka, Katara's brother, immediately jumped out of his chair, throwing his fists into the air.

"Wuhooo! I knew it! I knew we would all move! And spirits, to Ba Sing Se, this is so cool!"
Katara crossed her arms and tentatively approached her parents. "Is this sure? I mean, do you just want to let us know your plan or do you already have a house and everything?"

"Your father has been given a house already, yes," her mother replied.

"And before I came home I travelled to Ba Sing Se to see how it is. If it would be a good plan to take you with me. And I'm telling you kids, it is marvellous! Of course it is big, but we'll only be in the Middle Ring. I was even visiting schools and talking to principals. There are many good private schools, but unfortunately we can't afford that. Although the public schools are also really good. You'll learn much more there than you could ever learn here. Graduating from a school from Ba Sing Se will give you so many possibilities! The whole world will be open to you!" Hakoda laid his hands on his knees, eyes sparkling with joy and pride. He was glad that he could finally do something good for his children. His job had only separated them so far, but now they were all going to be together and Katara and Sokka would receive a better education.

Katara wasn't happy at all. She had planned to learn from aunt Yakona how to become a healer. Aunt Yakona was no doctor, but she knew the human body better than anything else and she was an expert with plants.

Katara didn't need any better education and she didn't need another school!

"But… but this is our home," she said.

Kya leaned forward and took her hand. "Sweetie, I know this is a lot, but we're all going to be finally together. We're going to be a closer family and I promise you that you'll always feel like home with us." She stood up and gave her daughter a motherly hug, which made Katara feel better immediately.

Suddenly she did feel bad for letting her own selfish wishes come before her family. Her father must feel so lonely all the time without his family. She pressed her eyes shut and decided that she could do it.

She tried really hard. But every once in a while she still felt angry at just being taken away from her home and the future she wanted to have. She replied sarcastically to anything good about Ba Sing Se and emphasised everything good about their home.

Sokka grew annoyed by her rather quickly and scolded her for being so insensitive towards their father. Katara always did feel bad then, but she was too stubborn and proud to admit it.

Two weeks later they had moved to Ba Sing Se and Katara tried to hate everything about the new house and the city.

It was just so big. She would never be able to know everyone, other than in her village, and people didn't greet each other on the street. She couldn't see any landscape at the horizon, only houses after houses. Most of all, she did feel afraid in that place, but she covered it with her anger.

The new school was even worse than the city. The people wore too loose or too tight clothes, everyone was constantly at the phone and the kids just talked about followers, views and selfies. Katara had no clue what that meant and decided these people were all idiots.

Sokka quickly didn't talk about anything else, too, but Katara already knew that her brother was an idiot.

But the students weren't even the worst. The new subjects weren't just difficult, they were totally unnecessary. She didn't need to learn that stuff. Everything they needed to learn was taught in their village. This school, this other province had nothing to offer to her.

Or that's what she had thought.

Her opinion changed quickly, once she met a handsome boy with a crooked smile who was standing next to her in line for the cafeteria. He didn't notice her, but she couldn't keep her eyes from staring at him, how he laughed and chatted with his friends.

She found out that his name was Jet and that he was captain of the fencing team. Her crush was highly secret and no existing soul knew about that. Katara didn't even know what to do about it. No one could ever find out, since Jet wasn't the best boy to have a crush on. She noticed how he did play with girls, always flirting and probably having already kissed every girl from his year. Besides, he would never even notice her.

Katara always tried to be invisible, didn't talk a lot and didn't do any nonsense. The only thing she was doing was being part of the dance team. Katara always had loved dancing and the girls in the team were all very nice to her.

What Katara had not noticed was that Jet had a few friends in her dance team and therefore watched their performances.

After the first one Katara was proud, but still nervous, since she had been so excited and afraid, but everything had gone well and her family had been there and had clapped very loudly. She only wanted to go home, take a shower and sleep.

But before she could go to her family she bumped into Jet who had been lurking outside the girls' changing room. He congratulated her to the great performance, saying that she had done great and asked her if she would come to the party at Haru's house, the boyfriend of one of the girls in the team.

Katara stared at his grin, blinked, but when Jet didn't just vanish she nodded and felt an electric shock as he touched her arm, leaned down and whispered "I'm really looking forward to seeing you there."

With Sokka's help, who didn't know anything about Katara's real intentions, but thought she finally wanted to get friends and like the school, Katara convinced her parents to let them go to the party.

When Jet saw that Katara was there he smiled and made his way to her.

oOo

His whole life Zuko had only known one priority: the company.

Everything was for the company, everything his family was doing was for the company, and everything he did was for the company. Even though he was just a child, and even didn't understand what the company was about. He knew it was important. It was what was giving his family money and made sure they could buy cool stuff, and go on expensive holidays to amazing places.

But he never really understood it. His father tried to teach him some things about the company, but Zuko barely listened. He was more interested in playing with his Playmobile knights, or practising for his Kung Fu lessons. He knew his father wanted him to become part of the company, when he would be becoming of age. But that was not what Zuko wanted. He had other career plans and hopes, and whenever his father would hear about them, he would get grounded, or his favourite toys would be taken away from him. His punishment always depended on what he wanted to become. The more fun he would have in his job the worse was his punishment. This made him understand that his job wish had to be a boring one in order to make his father happy. So he kept saying that he wanted to become a lawyer, a judge, a tax accountant or other lame stuff he had heard about somewhere.

But because of that lack of interest he made many mistakes when it came to the company and his father's expectations. Zuko's cousin Lu Ten, who would one day lead the company, helped him then, and explained certain things to him in a more patient and friendly way. Lu Ten was eight years older than Zuko and already an adult, when Zuko still only cared about knights and Kung Fu. But Lu Ten cared about that, too, and always listened to Zuko, when he talked about his knights' adventures or the last Kung Fu lesson. Zuko didn't only like Lu Ten, because he listened, but also because he asked about that. Sometimes, when they had the time, Lu Ten even came to Zuko's room to play knights with him. It was much more fun to play with his older cousin than playing with his little sister Azula. Whenever she would play with him, he always got caught or killed, and Azula was the queen, punishing all his loyal men and declaring war to the neighbour states to enforce her power over the world. She then often reminded him of those TV villains in the middle age films.

Although Azula liked to play cruel, she wasn't really cruel. When she was eight years old and Zuko had just turned ten, Lu Ten was murdered.

Zuko didn't understand everything about it, only that it had to do with their ancestors and some foreign people who didn't like the company and his family. But he knew that it was unfair. Those people hadn't known Lu Ten. If they had known how he told jokes and made everyone laugh, they wouldn't have killed him. They would have worked hard to be liked by him. Everyone always does – did.

Zuko didn't play with Playmobile after that anymore. Even after Azula had shyly asked him to, in order to cheer him up. But Zuko's grief was nothing compared to Lu Ten's father's. Uncle Iroh was a kind and nice man, but Lu Ten's death, just four years after his wife had died of cancer, depressed him so much that Zuko's mother feared for his life. Iroh left the city in order to wander around the world. Zuko felt sad for Iroh and was a bit angry as his grandfather decided to make his father the next head of the company instead of Iroh who was older and had more experience. But with Lu Ten gone and Iroh wandering around the world this line wouldn't secure the company's persistence. Because his father became head now, it was clear that Zuko would have to become head himself one day. He was his father's firstborn after all. And then the days of playing were completely over.

Zuko had to learn more and more about the company, things too serious to catch his interest, which frustrated his father a lot. Their relationship just suffered more because of this. They had never been really close, but now it only became worse. Zuko started hating every time he had to spend with his father, because he always feared to do something wrong. He strained himself a lot and worked hard, because he didn't want to disappoint his father. Despite the fact that he took his childhood away, Zuko loved him and wanted him to be proud of him. So Zuko spent nearly all of his time studying for school to have good grades, and after that he read reports about the company's actions.

When he turned thirteen he had become a lot more confident and knowledgeable about the company and asked to sit in an official meeting with partners from another company. It was a very important meeting, deciding on the future of his father's company. That's why his father didn't want him to be there, but his uncle who had returned two years ago, persuaded Zuko's father to let him sit in the meeting. It would be good for him to listen to the people as long as he didn't say anything. Zuko did listen very intently, though what he heard was nothing he liked. He heard about betrayal, corruption and greed. When his father agreed to the other company's conditions in order for them to get a deal, Zuko was outraged. The conditions said that the production of a medicine which they sold for a very low price, but whose production was much more expensive, had to stop. Many people suffering from this illness couldn't afford therefore their medical treatment, and the people working in the production would be fired. Zuko felt that this was very unfair and selfish of the other company. It would hurt so many people, people who were dependent on them, and who liked their company. It made him sick to know that his father would let all these people down. Without thinking Zuko stood up and spoke against that condition, stating that they could not betray their employees and disappoint the customers. The other company was not pleased at all and insulted his father for not being able to keep his child in check. They left without agreeing to a deal, and his father was so angry how he had never ever seen him before.

Clenching his jaw he guided him to his office, after dismissing everyone else in the room. Zuko's uncle Iroh had looked worried, but he was positive that his brother Ozai would only explain to Zuko why it was wrong what he has said.

Zuko expected that, too. He did expect his father to yell at him, maybe even to throw things through the room. He didn't expect being slapped across his face. He didn't expect to have to remove his shirt either. He even didn't know what to expect when he heard his father behind him taking his belt of. The pain which he didn't expect either was different from anything he had ever felt. It was burning, cutting, poisoning and he screamed louder than he ever had before. His senses all fused together, focusing on the pain. He didn't hear himself screaming, only feeling his back being ripped apart. After far too long time Ozai brushed his hair out of his sweaty face and pulled out a cloth to clean his belt. He put it back on and said: "You have got twenty whippings, because there were eighteen people in the room you had embarrassed me in front of. The other two were for the two million dollars I lost because of you. You need to learn, Zuko. Our company is about money and power. Not about helping people and giving them jobs," he spit out and took a deep breath, regarding the mess he had left on Zuko's back. He had reacted without thinking, doing what his father had done to him, but what now? Zuko couldn't go into the hospital, his wounds were obviously from a whipping and if his wife would ever even hear about it...

"Fuuuck," Ozai hissed, running a hand through his hair. He was imperceptive to Zuko's soft sobs and pleas to forgive him.

Zuko had to leave. Leave for a faraway place where he could receive equal wounds, so that no one could trace it back to Ozai.

Tears streamed uncontrollably over Zuko's cheek while Ozai called his chauffeur. Shi Yu was a loyal man, and even if he would be disgusted by what Ozai wanted his son to do, Shi Yu would still do it.

While waiting for Shi Yu, Ozai got some wet clothes to clean a bit the blood off Zuko's back. His wincing sounds and flinching at the touch reminded Ozai sharply of what his father had done to him. It hurt a little bit, knowing that he had become just like his father. But it had to be done. Zuko needed to learn physically how much it hurt to be embarrassed and to lose money.

When Shi Yu arrived, Ozai ordered him to put Zuko on a plane which would carry him to the other end of the country. There he would have to visit a military school which would teach him respect. The beatings at this school were worse than what he had done, but it worked. He had experienced it himself that suffering was a great teacher.

He took a last deep breath, when he saw Shi Yu carrying Zuko out of the room.

Shi Yu had followed every order his boss had given him, had even done illegal things for him some time. He knew that Ozai was a ruthless business man, but in his ruthlessness he was also rather brilliant.

Shi Yu also knew that he was a hard and expecting father, but he had never thought that Ozai was capable of whipping his own thirteen year old son. Shocked was too weak to describe his feelings. While he carried the boy out of the building, on a secret route he was thinking about what to do next. He could not just send Zuko to a military school. The boy was so kind and soft, he would not survive there.

Shi Yu brought Zuko to his home, where he cared for his wounds, giving him medicine against the pain, which left Zuko in a barely conscious state.

Zuko remembered that someone cared for him and that he got food, that he was accompanied to the bathroom and even got new clothes. But his mind wasn't fully there. He wasn't even strong enough to wish for his mother to be there.

But Zuko remembered clearly being in a car, his back feeling sore, a rucksack next to him. Shi Yu drove him to the airport, which scared him a bit, since he had no idea why he had to go there. He hoped to meet his family there, but Shi Yu would not answer. He helped Zuko with his luggage and to accompany him into the hall. But after a few minutes Shi Yu left, just telling Zuko to stay where he was.

Zuko had never felt any fear like that, but after a few more minutes in which he told himself that he had nothing to fear, his uncle walked towards him.

Iroh carried a bag with him, the same ticket as Zuko (which did not have the destination on it that Ozai had wanted), and a smile on his face. He was angry and enraged inside, hating his brother with more than he ever had before, but he shoved it all to the side, in order not to scare or worry his nephew. He needed him now.

Zuko was very happy and relieved to see his uncle, but flinched slightly, when Iroh wanted to hug him. Zuko himself was confused by that, but he didn't allow himself to think about the reason for that.

Iroh told him that they were going on holiday for a few weeks to the Eastern province. Zuko had never been there, being born in the Western province, but he was curious.

The weeks with his uncle were great. Zuko saw a lot of great things, such as a desert, ostrich horses or even a sea monster. So much happened and Iroh always kept him safe, happy and was a lot of fun. After a few weeks they reached Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Eastern province, and Zuko started to wonder when he'll be back home and see his sister, mother and father again. But he didn't ask Iroh about them. There was still a slight fear in him at the thought of his father, something he felt every time when he was trying to fall asleep and he couldn't ignore the pain in his back anymore.

After two weeks in Ba Sing Se an old strict looking man appeared at their holiday home door and demanded that Zuko had to come with him. Ozai had registered him for a military school, and Zuko was to leave for the next school year immediately. This was the first time Zuko had ever seen his uncle angry. He made the strict man leave and told Zuko to go to his room, which he did. But Zuko heard Iroh talking, probably on the phone for a long time. His voice first sounded very cold and angry, then it became softer and the last call gave him a matter-of-fact-voice.

The next day Iroh told him that Zuko didn't need to go to that school, since he had talked to Ozai about this. Then Iroh handed him the phone and told him that his mother would call. She explained to him that he was to stay with his uncle in Ba Sing Se and to go to school there. She told him that she would visit him, but that it would be better for him not to return to the capital.

Zuko was nowhere near being relieved or happy. He was more sad and desperate than anything. He didn't want to stay here. Sure, he liked uncle Iroh, but he didn't want to stay in Ba Sing Se. He wanted his room, his house, his mother, his sister, his father and his school. Feeling hurt he screamed and yelled at his mother and felt like they didn't want him anymore. Was it all because of the meeting? Had it been so grave that his own family was rejecting him?

Iroh did everything he could to make Zuko happy, but the boy was stubborn. The happy carefree child was gone and an angry, frustrated and deeply hurt teenager had appeared instead.

oOo

The schools in Ba Sing Se were supposed to be good, but Zuko hated his new school. Everything about it which was not his home. Every student, every teacher, every wall, every floor, every bathroom and every meal. The only good thing was that they had a martial arts club. So Zuko kept taking Kung Fu lessons and in the want of venting more of his anger he learned other martial arts, too. He was really good and the teacher praised him for his progress. That was until Zuko made it to tenth grade.

A twelve year old boy, apparently highly intelligent came into ninth grade and beat Zuko in everything. Any martial arts in the club, even in his music lessons and he heard the boy was only writing As. Zuko hated him. With every part of his being he wanted to beat him in something. Especially in Kung Fu. It went against his understanding that such a small and lean boy could bring him to the floor. Again and again. The worst thing was that Aang, that was the boy's name (stupid name in Zuko's opinion), was cheery and friendly. He had made a lot of friends only by smiling and talking a lot.

Well, both were things Zuko didn't do, but he still felt a bit envious. Aang was always nice to Zuko, smiling and telling him if he thought that he had done great in the spar. And Zuko could differentiate between the mock praise of his sister or serious praise of his mother. Aang was like his mother. He was serious.

When Aang once tried to show Zuko what to do in order to improve Zuko had enough and yelled at him to shut up, since he didn't care and didn't want Aang's help.

Aang might have been very intelligent and a good fighter, but he was still twelve years old and started to cry.

Everyone else in the club became immediately angry at Zuko, since everyone liked Aang. Zuko mumbled an apology and hurried away.

The next day a girl with brown skin, dark brown hair and blue eyes approached him at his locker in a nearly empty hallway. Zuko knew her name was Katara and that she was Jet's girlfriend. He was surprised that she wanted to talk to him. But she was only yelling at him for being an idiot, an asshole and mean to younger children. She was defending Aang and Zuko just stared at her, until he became angry and yelled back.

"So what? I didn't want his help and he was annoying me!"

"He is just a..."

"I don't care, okay? I didn't mean to be mean, I already apologised and it's not my problem that he has to cry because my bad mood like a little baby!"

"Aang's no baby, you jerk! He is young, but he is serious and great. All I want you to do is to apologise to him and not to ever do that to him again! From now on you're going to be nice to him!"

Anger and bewilderment coursed through Zuko. "What the hell, no! I did apologise. If he doesn't want to accept it, that is not my problem! I don't care!"

"I don't care that you don't care! Be nice or stay away from him!"

"Who do you think you are? You can't just order me around! I do whatever I want to do!"

"Yeah, I've seen that. What you want to do is obviously making younger boys cry!"

"It's not my fault he did cry!"

"It so is!"

"I... Aaaarrggghhh! Just leave me alone!" Zuko closed his locker and started to walk away.

"I'm only leaving you alone because I can't stand your presence right now! Not because you said so! And stay away from Aang, you hear me?" Katara shouted after him.

Zuko didn't care that Katara was two years younger than him, he didn't care that she was a girl and had until now always been nice to him. He didn't care what his uncle had told him about manners. He just lifted his right hand and showed her his middle finger over his shoulder.

He heard her gasp aloud. "Don't you dare show me your middle finger, you jerk!"

He lifted his other one, too.

"Well, aren't you a big boy now!" she scoffed, feeling very annoyed at the fact that all boys seemed to feel superior when they showed someone their middle finger.

"Bigger than you," he said and turned around a corner.

Katara balled her hands to fists and stomped one foot, before she groaned angrily. What a jerk, she thought.

oOo

Since then any encounter between Katara and Zuko was overshadowed by that fight, by Katara's insane requests and Zuko's asshole behaviour. Even Katara's brother, Sokka, who Zuko had kind of gotten along with well, was now behaving hostile towards him.

Zuko pretended not to care, only stood with crossed arms, a stoic face and when he didn't even want to give them a chance to insult him he scowled with all the evil force he could summon within him.

Even Aang's cheery smile always vanished then. Aang had excused himself for Katara's behaviour and had emphasised that he had had no idea about what Katara had been up to. Aang had told Zuko that she was just very overprotective. Zuko had just snapped that she didn't need to behave like his mother, which made Aang blush and stutter that she did not behave like his mother. Rolling his eyes and suppressing an annoyed groan Zuko had walked away.

In eleventh grade Zuko's partner for laboratory became Jet, much to his annoyance. But their teacher was a horrible and unfair man, only giving then bad grades, no matter what they did. He liked to insult them and provoke them in front of the whole class, sometimes making it even personal. Their hatred for the teacher welded them together and they started planning pranks and playing them. They flooded their teacher's office, stole his food and the answers for the test, although they weren't stupid enough to answer every question correctly, so that the teacher didn't even have any chance to give them bad grades. Jet boasted a lot about this which made Zuko feel uncomfortable, but he felt a little bit of joy at the thought of having an ally. With time they even became friends and Zuko met Jet's other friends Smellerbee and Longshot. Although meeting Jet meant also seeing Katara, Zuko was looking forward to seeing him. Jet was a very open and carefree person who liked to entertain and boast. He had a way with girls and was always interested in having the most fun he could. He remembered Zuko a bit of Aang, only in a more adult and slightly illegal way.

High School was more fun now and even Iroh noticed the change in Zuko. He was friendlier towards him and to others, too. Iroh hoped that Zuko's pain would subside with time. Ursa was still holding contact with Zuko, and even Azula called him or wrote to him from time to time. But Ozai was immovable. He said that if Zuko did not learn at the military academy which would form him into a strong and respectful man, he had no use for the boy. Iroh felt highly frustrated and felt more hatred for his brother than he had ever before.

But on the last day of Zuko's eleventh school year Azula suddenly appeared at his school. She tried to convince him to go to that military school, so that his father would accept him back. Azula told him that her mother and she missed him and Zuko nearly accepted. But this school... No, and if they missed him so much, they could have only visited him. But in Zuko's opinion Azula wanted him home for another reason. He made her leave and thought about that all summer. Fortunately, he met a girl named Jin in the tea shop he was serving at. Jin and Zuko quickly became a couple and he didn't feel that sad anymore. They didn't talk much, but Zuko felt loved, wanted and accepted.

That short happiness disappeared pretty fast when Azula showed up at his school again, this time to stay. She had convinced Ozai that being close to Zuko would make him see that the military school was the best way for him. That way he wouldn't stay a disgrace for Ozai. Furthermore, Ozai needed a stable family with what he wanted to do next. And so he agreed to Azula's plan. But Ursa had to stay behind, because Ozai would not lose his family and letting Ursa go to her children... It would probably end his marriage.

Azula behaved strangely in Zuko's opinion. She was mostly nice to him, but was still trying to convince him to go to the military school. Zuko refused every time, but otherwise was enjoying his time with his little sister. It was nice seeing her again and even getting teased by her. Zuko had missed her.

Azula was living with an old friend, Mai, who had moved to Ba Sing Se a few years ago, too. She went to Zuko's school and was a quiet and emotionless person who was friends with the ever enthusiastic and happy cheerleader Ty Lee. Ty Lee was strange, always talking about auras and soooooooo cheery, like the whole time and about everything, that Zuko wondered how Mai could stand her presence. Even Azula came to like Ty Lee which really went beyond Zuko's comprehension. Azula normally didn't like anyone.

There was another plus to Azula's presence at Zuko's school. She was smarter and a better martial arts fighter than Aang and always got better or, at least, the same grades as him. Azula saw that it did make Zuko happy to see Aang lose in fights in the club, so she made it her personal mission to beat Aang in everything he did. When she heard about how Katara and Sokka treated Zuko, Azula was making their lives hell, too. She didn't really want Zuko to go to the military school, but she wanted him home, with her, and she wanted her family to be whole again. She didn't like it to have all her father's expectations for the company on her and to see her mother sad and depressed the whole time, just because her son was not there. Azula felt crushed and missed her brother who was silly, yeah, but he always had made her laugh. Often out of schadenfreude, but she still loved him. Not that she would ever tell him that.

With Azula having his back it became way easier for Zuko to enjoy school. People never even looked his way and Katara always bit her lip instead of saying something mean. Zuko didn't even think it was embarrassing, because he knew his sister. She was scary as hell and if he told her he felt embarrassed, she would only make it worse.

Because of Azula Jet and Katara even broke up. Katara didn't like Azula one bit and she hated knowing that Jet was friends with Azula's brother. She had kept quiet so far, because Zuko's behaviour had been decent (Katara had no clue about their pranks on the teachers), but enough was enough. Katara did everything to make Jet see that Zuko was a bad influence and obviously also had a really bad family. But Jet liked Azula and he really liked hanging with Zuko, so he didn't want to listen. As Katara threatened him to break up, he told her that he would stay away from Zuko and Azula. But he didn't. In secret they were still meeting, hanging at uncle Iroh's tea shop or in Jet's impressive tree house on his parents' grounds to listen to music, smoke weed, drink stolen alcohol and pre-drink to go to parties. But Katara found out about that and broke up with Jet, shouting and yelling on the parking lot in front of the whole school. Jet complained about that to Zuko who shrugged and said it was clearly Jet's fault here. He did lie to Katara, after all. Zuko went even that far to say that Jet didn't even deserve her. Zuko should have kept his mouth, though, since Jet was drunk and beat Zuko. They fought each other pretty bad in the boys' bathroom and got detention. But that did not end their friendship. Later that day they were laughing with each other again.

Zuko even tried to talk to Katara and convince her to give Jet another chance, since he really loved her. Katara didn't want to listen, but felt her heart beat faster at the thought that Jet still loved her. Zuko told her that he wasn't a bad guy and that Azula was only mean to her, because she was mean to him. With a lot of stuttering and awkwardness Zuko even said that they could all be friends together. But at that moment Katara saw Jet walking down the hallway with Azula next to him, both laughing about something Jet had said. To Katara it looked as if they were flirting and she had to blink back tears. Under no circumstances she would ever let Zuko see her cry, so she only glared at him and walked away without saying anything else (Zuko had kept talking, since he hadn't noticed Katara looking at Jet and Azula and Katara had walked away, while Zuko had said: "Yeah, cinema is a good idea I think. You know there we all already have a topic to talk about and we could do that while…" He narrowed his eyes at her retreating back and sighed. "…eating burgers. Great Jet, you seriously messed up. Well, and I guess I did, too." He then noticed that he was talking to himself again, blushed and turned around, hurrying to his class room.).

When Zuko graduated, he was nearly persuaded by Azula. He chose not to go to the military academy to become a soldier, but to study there. Iroh didn't like the idea, he was afraid that Zuko was not doing it for himself and tried to convince him to something else, which made Zuko snap at him that he didn't need him anymore and that the only thing he ever did was keeping him from his family to have a replacement for his son. They didn't part on good terms.

Zuko and Jin broke up when Zuko moved away, because both thought that it was the best choice. To Zuko's big surprise Jet decided to come with him. Mostly because he had no clue what else he could or wanted to do after school, but also because he didn't want to be anywhere without his friends. And studying art like Smellerbee or physics like Longshot wasn't anything for him.

With Jet gone Aang was getting his hopes up that Katara would notice him as more than a friend. She was his best friend after all, and she was funny, pretty and friendly. He could talk to her and he really wanted a girlfriend. Sokka already had his second girlfriend and Haru and Teo were also in relationships. Only Toph wasn't, but then again Toph didn't seem to be interested in such things. He had suspected her having a crush on Zuko, since she always had been friendly to him (in her own blunt manner), but he quickly noticed that Toph had behaved towards the older teenager as to anyone else, too.

Katara had been really oblivious to Aang's crush and had been very surprised at his first try. But after one kiss at a party they didn't talk about it anymore and when he tried two weeks again she rejected him, because she wasn't sure of her feelings. They both had to prepare a lot for their future in this school year. Both were thinking about their futures and had to study for their final exams. When it was all done, both accepted by their favourite college Katara felt suddenly lighter and knew that she wanted to be with Aang. He was so sweet and kind and always made her laugh and feel better. It would be nice to date a nice boy after dating a bad boy.

Zuko and Jet were getting even closer at the academy, almost feeling like brothers. They shared a room for three years and were like family to each other, since both didn't really have anyone else. Azula was visiting Zuko in his first year and followed him to the academy in his second. She was a great soldier and student, of course. Always getting the best grades. Ty Lee and Mai were also there and Zuko found himself falling slowly for Mai.

They became a couple and started planning a future together. But everything changed when Zuko graduated from the academy.

He had been the best student from his year and received an honour for special achievements.

His parents showed up at the party, his father telling him that he was proud of him. Zuko was deeply shocked and didn't really know how to handle this, but when his father asked him to come back to the capital, Zuko immediately accepted. He would be with his family again! His father was proud of him and accepted him! Zuko had never felt such joy!

He tried to ignore the little uneasiness and fear he felt in Ozai's presence.

At the capital Zuko chose to study economics and law at the university to help and know more about important things for the company. His father bought an apartment for him, in which Jet moved in, too. Jet learned to be an estate agent and Zuko was rather relieved to have someone familiar with him in his new environment. He knew the capital rather well, but had a feeling that everything there had changed while he had been away.

Ursa was more than overjoyed to see her son again. She had tried many times to leave Ozai and take Azula with her to Zuko. But Ozai didn't trust her as much as he trusted Azula, and had threatened her or the safety of the people she loved the most. Ursa knew she hadn't been able to do anything, but she still felt a lot of guilt.

Zuko didn't seem to accuse her of anything and was the friendly and nice boy she was used to. But he was more taciturn than before. Sometimes he even seemed depressed to her, but Jet told her that this was just how Zuko was.

Still, Ursa felt her heart clench every time she did see that thoughtful lonely face of her once so cheerful son.

Having finished school Katara had no idea what to do. Aang decided to do a voluntary year in a different country, Sokka was already studying for a year and Toph decided to travel the world. Katara did feel confused about that, too, since for her travelling the world, when one couldn't see the world's beauty, didn't make any sense.

She knew medicine interested her or law. She wanted to study something to help people and fight injustice. But for now she thought doing a voluntary year was maybe a good way to figure out what she wanted to do. Aang and she were going to help build villages in Ethiopia, which did make Katara nervous as hell. She had never before been outside of Elementia and without Aang she wouldn't even feel the urge to leave her home country. But the time in Ethiopia was great. Katara felt like she was serving a purpose and thrived in helping people. She lived in a helper's village and didn't meet the indigenous people often, but she was always looking forward to it. They were so friendly and open all the time. Everyone gave her something to eat, children brought her drawings of her and she was invited for meals or overnight from various families. Sometimes her helping group would go to festivities of the indigenous which reminded Katara a bit of her own people. There was music, dance, a fire, food and folk tales which were told. It was way hotter than it had been at Katara's home, the people's skin was even darker, the music and the folk tales were not the same, but it still gave Katara the same thrilling feeling of companionship, solidarity and that there was something more in the world than the eye could see. The air seemed to hum and every living being to vibrate. These evenings seemed magical to her.

After that year Katara was happy to go back home, but received the message that her father would soon be deployed in the capital, which would again be a job for several years. Her mother would move with him and Sokka wanted to get a job in the capital after he would have finished his studies in Ba Sing Se. So Katara was looking for a university place in the capital. She had decided to study law and as Aang agreed to go with her, since he, too, wanted to study law, everything seemed to be fine and great. They went looking for jobs and an apartment the whole summer and bought furniture, painted the walls and decorated. Both decorated with things from their original province, but it was fine.

Katara was happy and she knew she was on the right way.