In a New Light

Chapter 2 – A Sense of Normalcy

-/\/\/\/\/\/\-

Zuko flew Appa north for only about half an hour before diving lower to look for shelter. The storm was still raging around them and lightning was beginning to brew in the clouds just above them. There was so much electricity in the air that Katara's hair was beginning to flare out around her face. She was still curled around herself at the back of Appa's saddle, but she was becoming more lucid as she heard the static crackling through the sky.

Rain and fog obscured most of their view, but as they descended further from the clouds Katara could make out a large volcano in front of them. She sat up stiffly and the blanket that was wrapped around her fell to her shoulders. "Can we land here?" It was the first time she had spoken since her meltdown; her voice was raw and her tone was flat.

Zuko straightened, surprised that she had said something, "uh, yeah we can try. A lot of the volcanos in this region will have caves around their bases formed from the last time they erupted. We can look out for one of those to stay in for the night."

Appa growled in agreement beneath them. Katara felt a small pang of guilt; Appa had barely had any time to rest since they set off almost three days ago, he needed a night on the ground as much as they did.

They circled around the base of the volcano for a few minutes, there didn't seem to be any towns nearby and all the rocks were scooped into odd smooth shapes, like water that was turned to stone. This volcano must have erupted relatively recently, maybe within the last few years. Not too much later Zuko spotted an indent in the rock and veered closer to it, it was a large cave, tall enough to comfortably fit Appa but not deep enough to suggest that any creatures lived further within.

They landed smoothly at the cave opening and Appa immediately let out a loud groan and rolled over on to his side, tossing Katara, Zuko, and all their things onto the cave floor. "Well I guess now we don't have to unpack," Zuko grumbled to himself. Katara might have laughed if she wasn't so drained. She touched the ground where she had fallen with mild curiosity – it was soft, it was still earth but it was almost squishy.

Zuko had begun taking their pack and sleeping mats a little further in to their new shelter and Katara followed, watching blankly as he set down the two mats across from each other and made a small firepit between them. He shivered slightly and held his hands out toward the fire her had just lit. He was completely soaked from the rain, and she realized she was too. She looked down at her dripping clothes and moved her hands downward to bend the water out of her clothes, streaming the water behind her out of the cave and back out into the storm. Zuko was watching her with curiosity, she realized he had probably never seen her bend the water out of anything before.

"Stand up," she motioned to him to rise. He stood cautiously and she repeated her earlier movements to bend the water out of his clothes and his hair, and threw it out in to the storm as well. His eyes were wide with fascination as he lightly patted his forearms and then his hair, assessing their dryness.

"Thanks," he said and she nodded blankly in return. She turned to dry Appa as well, then walked over to the cave entrance. The rain was still falling steadily and there was a loud crack as the first bolt of lightning streaked across the sky. She yelped and jumped slightly; the sound and sight of the lightning immediately made her think of the last time she had seen it, when Azula had shot Aang down. She shivered and pushed the thought from her mind, she could only handle so many difficult memories right now, she needed to focus on doing something and regain some sense of self. She ran her finger tips across the rain like it was a curtain, pulling it in to her hand as she went. With a large ball of water gathered in her palm she swirled it between her hands and walked back toward Zuko and the firepit.

He had set up a pot on top of the fire and was pulling the bag of rice and the pear-apples from their pack. Katara took the water in her hands and streamed it into the pot. "I'll cook the rice," she said to him as he was about to pour the bag in to the water.

"Are you sure?" he asked hesitantly. She nodded back with an expression she hoped came off as determination. She didn't know how to explain to him that being productive would help her feel more normal. His eyes met hers and he seemed content with her answer. He got up and set the remaining bundle of hay next to Appa's head. Appa was now soundly asleep, but would no doubt happily eat all his hay when he woke up.

Katara stirred the boiling water and focused all her energy on bending it. After fully rolling out their sleeping mats beside the fire, Zuko sat near her and began slicing some pear-apples with a long dagger than he had pulled from his belt. When he was done he divided the pieces into two portions and put them into bowls, setting one down next to Katara. The rice was done a few minutes later and she did the same, divided it in to two and set his portion into his bowl next to him. They sat around the fire and ate in a surprisingly comfortable silence.

When they finished eating Katara lightly doused the dishes with water and placed them back in to the pack. "We should probably get some sleep," Zuko said it almost like a question. Even though it was only early evening now, he was right, they would need to get some sleep for the journey back tomorrow. Her body was exhausted but she was worried whether she would be able to get her mind to sleep. But she agreed anyway and laid down on her sleeping mat. She heard Zuko shifting around to get comfortable on his mat a few feet behind her and eventually heard his breathing even out as he fell asleep. She stared out toward the cave opening watching the rain fall and the sky occasionally light up until her body overpowered her mind and she fell asleep as well.

- \/\ -

Katara was eight years old standing inside her childhood home while her mother cowered in fear from Yon Rha who stood impossibly tall before her. "Take me instead!" her mother cried out. Yon Rha raised his hands and growled, "oh I'll take you both!" but it was not his voice that said it - suddenly Katara was the one wearing the Fire Navy outfit and it was Yon Rha cowering before her on his knees. Her hands were high above her head holding a single dagger made of ice and she felt her hatred drive her arms downward to gash open Yon Rha's throat. "Katara, NO!" her mother's voice bellowed from behind as Yon Rha fell limply on to his side. Katara turned to her, staring in horror at the blood painted across her hands, her mother's eyes were shocked and disgusted. Thunder boomed outside the igloo and lightning struck the center of her home, causing and explosion of snow and soot, jolting Katara awake with a pained gasp.

She sat upright breathily heavily with her hand clutching her mother's necklace around her throat, tears stinging familiarly in her eyes. "What, what… Katara?" she heard Zuko sit up off to her left, she could barely make out his shape in the dim lighting now that the fire had gone out. Her breath evened slightly as she remembered her surroundings. "Are you okay?" Zuko asked as he lit a flame in his hand.

She gasped again when she saw him, he had taken his shirt off when he went to sleep and his upper chest had a crisscross pattern of deep purple bruises across it. "Oh, oh my god," she looked down at her hands and half expected to see the slick crimson painted across her palms again, like her dream, "I did that to you, didn't I – when I hit you earlier?" She vaguely remembered how she had thrown her fists and forearms at him with all her strength - she hadn't thought about it at all at the time - she didn't realize how strong she really was.

"It's fine," he mumbled back to her, turning to go back to sleep, wincing slightly, and extinguishing the fire he was holding, "they're just some bruises alright?"

"No, I'm going to heal you!" she stood quickly and bent some water from her water skin next to her sleeping mat. Why wasn't he angrier with her? She was angry enough herself and she wasn't even the one who had been bruised.

She crawled awkwardly over to where she thought he was. "Zuko… Zuko, would you just light another fire? I can't see anything!"

"Katara, it's fine! I bruise easily anyway!" he said, lighting a flame in his hand again. She gave a small yelp, she had been much closer to him than she thought and his voice was louder than she expected.

"It is not fine! I did that to you and I'm going to fix it, now lay down and let me heal you!" She pointed forcefully at the sleeping mat beneath him, balancing the orb of water in her other hand. He held her gaze and after a moment, rolled his eyes and sighed, shooting the flame at the firepit to light up the whole cave.

"Good. Now lie back," she instructed. He huffed in resignation and did as she said. Katara scooted closer to him and sat on her knees next to his chest, the bruises looked even deeper in the light. She spread the water over both of her hands; as the water began to glow she placed her palms flat on his chest, starting near his collarbone and moving down slowly.

"This must have hurt when I was hitting you," she said quietly, aware of his eyes on her, "why didn't you stop me?"

He shrugged apathetically, "you were yelling at me, and I deserved it."

"What?" she stopped moving her hands for a second, "Zuko… everything I said earlier… I meant it about me, not about you. You were just there… It was easier to be mad at you than to be mad at myself."

He didn't say anything and just stared at her as she continued healing him. The bruises were fading quickly, he was right, they really weren't that bad, the purple just contrasted harshly against his pale skin, making it look nastier than it really was.

"But, what you said was true, I did make you come on this trip," he said somewhat defiantly. He must have really been convinced he had made another mistake.

She snorted and rolled her eyes, "you didn't make me do anything! Sure, you suggested we come here, but I wanted to steal Appa and go behind Aang's back, and I decided to bloodbend that guy - you didn't make me do that!" It was all very funny to her now, a smile spread viciously across her face and she started to laugh.

"But, but – wha, why are you laughing?" he asked confused.

"I had a full-on panic attack earlier and a terrible nightmare just now, and now I'm the one comforting you and healing you," she said pointing at herself and then at him, still laughing, "it's just so funny!"

"Uh, okay Katara, I think I'm fully healed now, maybe we should go back to sleep?" he said warily.

But she was still laughing, "here I am, in a cave, with the prince of the Fire Nation, and I offered to heal him – again! Ahaha, this must just be my life now, this is normal!" She threw her arms up in the air and her laughter got more and more maniacal.

Zuko was sitting up now facing her, "uh, I mean, I don't really know you all that well I guess, but this – "he gestured at her hysterical shaking, "– does not seem normal to me."

She stopped suddenly and her face changed to one of surprise, her eyes wide, "you're right! You don't know me that well - but here I am, feeling guilty about giving you a little bruise!" and she divulged into laughter again, "that makes it even funnier!"

"Ookaay, you definitely need to sleep. I'm going to put out the fire, why don't you just lie down here and I'll sleep over on your sleeping mat, okay?" he said, nudging her toward his mat as he stood.

Katara's laughter subdued somewhat and she laid down mechanically. Once her head hit the mat she felt exhaustion overwhelm her and she fell soundly asleep.

- \/\ -

The next morning, she awoke just as Zuko had finished packing up Appa. Sleeping had helped clear her head and she was feeling more like herself than she had in the last few days. She was looking forward to flying back to their camp and seeing everyone else again. She wasn't ready to explain everything that had happened yet, but she desperately wanted to get back to a routine with a sense of normalcy.

"Hey," Zuko saw that she had gotten up, "how are – "

"I'm fine!" she said holding up a hand to silence him. She did not want to talk to him about whatever came over her last night. Feeling guilty about her tone towards him, she paused for a moment before saying, "sorry… sorry for being crazy last night."

He stared at her a moment contemplating what to say, then just gave her a half-nod-half-shrug before rolling up her sleeping mat and throwing it into Appa's saddle with everything else.

"We're heading back today, right?" Katara asked casually.

"Right," he confirmed.

"I'd like to steer. It's only about half a day East of here right?" she said as she hopped up on to Appa's head.

"Okay, but I'll take over after we reach everyone else," he joined her in climbing into Appa's saddle, "I was thinking we should stay somewhere closer to the Fire Nation for when the comet comes and that we could stay on Ember Island."

She paused for a second to instruct Appa to take off, then asked, "What's Ember Island?"

"Oh right, it's like a vacation island for nobles and tourists of the Fire Nation, my father has a house there that'll have more than enough room for all of us."

Katara scoffed, "you want us to stay at the Fire Lord's vacation home in the Fire Nation?

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck, "yeah well he never goes there, and Aang needs somewhere secluded to practice firebending where he can't light a bunch of trees on fire."

She contemplated for a moment; it wasn't a bad idea, they would have to be careful, but they had hidden out in the Fire Nation for months already, if Zuko was right and the Fire Lord really never went there, then it shouldn't be much of a difference – and it would be nice to have somewhere semi-permanent to stay.

They were mostly quiet the whole way back, chatting occasionally. The wind and the clear sky were calming Katara's mind, and she was greatly enjoying flying Appa; even though Appa was the one doing all the work, it felt good to be in control, steering him which way to go. As they got closer to the Earth Kingdom coast she got apprehensive about seeing everyone else. She knew they would immediately want to ask her everything that had happened on her little field trip with Zuko, and she just wasn't ready to talk to them about it yet. Zuko was staring absently down at the ocean when she turned back to ask to switch so she could get some rest. They switched places and she asked him not to wake her up even once they picked everyone else up, she could talk to them once they landed at Ember Island. He nodded in understanding.

She laid down on the saddle but she didn't really plan on sleeping, she just rested her eyes and feigned sleep when they landed easily at the cliffside campsite where the rest of their friends were waiting.

"They're back!" she heard Aang call from the ground, "Appa buddy, I missed you!" he gave the bison a huge hug.

"Kataraaa! My sister, you're back!" Sokka cried in his overly-dramatic voice. She had to force herself not to smile as she imagined him running toward Appa with his arms flailing over his head.

Zuko shushed them all, "be quiet, she's asleep!"

"How is she?" Aang asked in his concerned voice.

"Come on, pack everything up, I have an idea of where we can stay until the comet comes," Zuko said, ignoring Aang's question.

There was a slight pause at the change of subject, then Suki piped up and asked what his plan was. After a little bit of convincing, and Zuko promising that Sokka wouldn't have to sleep in Ozai's bedroom, they all agreed that staying on Ember Island would be an okay idea. They all gathered up their things and clambered on to Appa to head out.

Still curled up in the saddle as they flew, she could feel everyone's eyes on her as she tried to keep her breaths steady and sleeplike. She suspected she wasn't fooling Toph, even with her limited vision while riding Appa, but the earthbender didn't let on to Katara's ruse if she did know.

"Really Zuko, is she okay?" Sokka asked with a worry that Katara felt in her bones.

She heard Zuko shift, presumably to check if she was still asleep. "I'm not sure… I think she will be," he answered.

"Did she, um, do it?" Suki asked with some hesitation.

"No, she didn't. But she kind of freaked out afterwards… I think she had a panic attack, and she's mostly been sleeping since then," he paused, "she probably wants some space before talking about it."

Katara was grateful that he left out her frantic punching and screaming, and the maniacal laughing attack - and also surprised that he knew to tell them that she wanted to be left alone. That was probably why he was being so quiet around her all day yesterday and today, and why he rarely brought up the subject. She would have to thank him later.

Aang was quiet during the vague conversation about her and Zuko's journey; she could feel him sitting right next to her the whole ride, and wondered what he was thinking.

She must have actually fallen asleep at some point because the sun was much lower in the sky when she finally opened her eyes, and when she sat up they were lowering onto a small secluded beach with a large house just up the hill beyond it.

Everyone gave her a big smile and a hug when she sat up, but no one asked how she was doing. Appa landed on the beach and Aang moved up to Appa's head saying that he wanted to do a lap around the area to make sure no one was around, and everyone else could stay check out the house. Sokka and Zuko opted to stay with Aang, while Toph an Suki hopped down with Katara so they could go explore the house and pick out their rooms. Katara told them to go on ahead and instead sat with her legs dangling into the water on the end of the run-down pier at the edge of the beach.

She sat there absentmindedly bending the water around her feet for a few minutes before Aang and Zuko came walking down the pier toward her. Reaching her, Aang asked if she was okay and said he was proud of her for what she didn't do. Zuko must have told him and Sokka what had happened in more detail while they flew around the island.

"I wanted to do it," she replied to his praise, "I wanted to take out all my anger at him, but I couldn't. I don't know if it's because I'm too weak to do it, or because I'm strong enough not to."

"You did the right thing, forgiveness is the first step you have to take to begin healing," Aang said as Katara stood from the end of the dock.

His world view was so different than hers in that moment, he seemed so focused on the abstract, general idea of forgiveness rather than the actual feelings Katara had about Yon Rha. She honestly didn't care about forgiving him, she didn't care if he deserved it or not, she didn't care what he deserved at all. But she was glad that she hadn't changed who she was when she saw him. Before she actually saw Yon Rha, she hadn't been sure what she was going to do, she thought she could become anyone to avenge her mother, but after seeing him she realized how important it was not to kill him, to not become anything like him. She couldn't forgive him, but she would never show him mercy either, instead she would practice indifference and let him live out his sad little existence. Katara wasn't sure she could ever explain that to Aang, or to anyone really, but she didn't blame him or fault him for that, now that it was all over she was glad to have someone like him to give his differing opinion so freely.

She told Aang that she could never forgive Yon Rha and she shifted toward Zuko. Aang was right in a sense, forgiveness was the first step in healing, and in a way her journey had been about forgiveness, just not forgiveness for Yon Rha. Katara had been so focused on getting closure and revenge that she had treated Zuko terribly the whole trip, and he never seemed to blame her for it. Originally, she had thought it was just because he was trying so hard to earn her forgiveness and approval, but after going through all of those emotions and him backing her up in his own way, she didn't care why he had come with her. He had been there for her, he had let her make her own decisions and he hadn't judged her for any of them. He had made a great ally, and even though she didn't want to admit it, a good friend as well.

She looked Zuko in the eyes, "but I am ready to forgive you," she said as she walked toward him and gave him a tight hug, which he reciprocated. She noticed vaguely that he smelled faintly of jasmine, just like the stealth clothes she had let him borrow, and she mentally rolled her eyes at how weird her life had become. Pulling back from the hug she met his eyes again and felt that focused stare of his burrow into her eyes, they smiled at each other slightly and she wondered if he knew how he was looking at her, and if she was looking at him the same way – like for the briefest moment she was the only thing he could see.

She broke away from his piercing gaze and saw that Sokka was standing on the beach waiting for her and she felt guilt swirl around her in stomach. She had been so blinded by anger the last time she saw him and felt terrible about how she had snapped at him.

"Hey," she said shyly as she approached him.

"Hey," he said with a small smile, "are you eally okay? Zuko told us everything, and well, I'm just glad you're okay."

"Oh, Sokka I'm so sorry for what I said before, I didn't mean it, it was a horrible thing to say to you," she just sort of blurted it out all at once.

He smiled back at her, "it's okay Katara, I know you didn't mean it. And I want you to know, I would have supported you no matter what you ended up doing. He deserved it. I mean, I'm glad you didn't do it too, but I'm glad you did something. Now he knows what he really did to our family."

She smiled back at him and gave him a big hug, "thanks Sokka," a small tear came up in her eye.

He hugged her back before lightly shoving her away, "yeah, yeah okay, enough smushy stuff, let's go pick out our rooms, we're gonna be living like Fire Nation royalty baby!" he made a small whooping noise and jogged up the beach a bit. Katara laughed to herself and followed him with a smile.

- \/\ -

By the time they reached the front steps of the house Zuko and Aang had finished whatever conversation they were having out on the pier and had caught up with Sokka and Katara. The four of them walked into the house together and Zuko gave a small disgusted sigh as he looked around. Katara didn't know what he was upset about, the house was quite beautiful and understated. She had been expecting red Fire Nation banners and gold ornamentations everywhere, but it was surprisingly simple. The front door opened in to the main living space, it had a couch that faced two arm chairs and had a low table between them, a large wooden staircase off to the right, and another long low dining table just beyond the couch that was surrounded by several maroon cushions - more than enough for all of them to sit around come meal times. To the left of the couch and chairs was an archway into the kitchen which was partly open to the rest of the room so that whoever was cooking would be able to see and chat with whoever was in the living space. Past the dining table were two sliding paper-screen doors that were open to a large courtyard with a fountain off to one side and stone steps surrounding the whole area, it was obviously designed with bending matches in mind. The whole place was so light and open, the wind flowed easily and peacefully between the open windows and doors – Katara couldn't believe that the Fire Nation had designed something so calming to live in.

"Wow, this is amazing," Katara said, taking it all in.

"Yeah Zuko, why didn't you take us here earlier? Trying to keep all your royal perks to yourself?" Toph had piped up from where she was sitting on the couch, her feet propped up on the table in front of her.

Zuko gave a disgruntled sigh in response. Hm, he really doesn't like this place, Katara thought to herself.

Just then Suki came running down the stairs, "you guys! You have to come see the rooms, they're so big! Come on Sokka, I picked one for us that has its own bathroom!" she said grabbing Sokka's arm to pull him up the stairs with her.

"Oh good, you guys are sleeping upstairs? I'll stay down here then, where I won't have to see you two rolling all over each other every night anymore," Toph said pointedly, making a face at them.

Sokka's mouth dropped wide open, and Katara, Aang and Zuko stiffened and shifted away from the couple as Suki gasped, "Toph!"

"Come on! You guys know I see with my feet, and we've all been sharing ground for a while, you really think I didn't know what was going on!?" she laughed, she was thoroughly enjoying embarrassing them.

"I, ah, you, but," Sokka sputtered for a moment, "it's been three days! Why did you wait until NOW to say something?"

Katara threw her hands over her ears, "oh god, I do not want to hear about this!" She had suspected her brother and Suki had been getting more intimate, and had in fact had planned on teasing him a bit about it, but hearing it from Toph in front of everyone else, along with the realization that the young earthbender would have essentially seen everything, was giving Katara a serious case of the oogies.

Toph laughed outright and shrugged as she answered Sokka, "I thought it would be better to bring up with an audience – and man was I right! You guys should see your heart rates right now, this is great!" she threw her head back with another satisfied cackle.

"Wait, when you say rolling around at night, you mean like…" Aang asked earnestly, causing Toph's laughter to roar even louder, and Zuko gave a suppressed snort too.

Sokka and Katara looked at him shocked, "what, you think this is funny too?" she asked.

He shrugged, not being able to hide his smile anymore, "I mean, the whole thing," he gestured between everyone, "and then Aang asking, I mean, it is kind of funny," he began to laugh openly.

"Okay, okay, big deal, so you all know now!" Suki said finally speaking up, "that just means we don't have to hide or try to be so quiet anymore," she said with a small humph and started to pull Sokka away up to their new shared room again. Everyone blushed at Suki's implication, except for Toph who just continued laughing, though she was beginning to wind down now.

Sokka looked like he was deciding something for a moment before he stuck his nose up in the air and followed upstairs after Suki, "yeah! What she said!"

Katara gasped, suddenly hoping she wouldn't be stuck in the room next to her brother's, "I'm going to go pick out my room!" She said quickly, scampering up the stairs.

Once she reached the top she just made out Aang whispering to Zuko, "they were all just talking about sex, right? I didn't even know Toph knew what that was…" Katara heard Zuko smack his palm to his forehead and Toph's laughter reached its peak again. Katara immediately tried to pretend she didn't hear him say that, she didn't even think Aang knew what sex was.

With Toph's laughter still echoing behind her, Katara looked around the hall, there were two doors on the left-hand side, two sets of double doors on the right side, and another single door at the far end of the hall. The second set of double doors was slightly ajar and she figured that was probably the one that Suki had picked out for her and Sokka. She opted for the first room to the left as it seemed to be the farthest away from her brother's. She opened the door and flopped down on the bed with a sigh. Pretending that whole awkwardness hadn't happened was going to be the best course of action, she decided. She actually didn't think it was that big of a deal that Sokka and Suki were sleeping together, it was just the situation that was weirding her out, so she pushed the conversation out of her mind and focused on her new surroundings.

The room was sparsely decorated, keeping with the style of the rest of the house, it had just the bed in the corner across from the door, a cushy chair on the left wall opposite the bed, a full-length mirror, and another one of those sliding paper doors that opened up on to a balcony. Sitting up from the bed she went to go look at her view and saw the sun was almost set over the courtyard down below; she would be able to watch Aang learn his firebending from her balcony tomorrow if she wanted to. When she came back into the room she saw there was a door near the foot of the bed that she hadn't noticed before. She opened it and saw that it was a small washroom with two sinks and another door at the other end. Looks like Suki didn't find the only room with a bathroom in it.

Two sinks were a little odd though, and Katara wondered if it was shared with the room next door. She pushed open the door and her suspicions were confirmed, Zuko was standing at the foot of the bed across the room from her taking his things out of the pack they had been sharing the last few days. She had been meaning to talk to him anyway to grab her things out of it so she could unpack herself.

"Hey, looks like we'll be sharing a bathroom," she said walking toward him.

"Aah!" he jumped into a bending position at the sound of her voice, but was too close to one of the legs of the bed and ended up tripping and falling backwards against the wall.

Katara snorted with laughter, "did I scare you? What are you afraid of bathroom spirits or something?"

He rubbed his head and glared at her, "Azula and I used to share the bathroom, and she had a habit of surprise attacking me when I was asleep," he said coldly.

"Oh, so then, no surprise bathroom attacks, got it," she attempted to give a serious nod, but he just continued to glare at her. "So then, that means, I'm sleeping in Azula's old room? Man, that's weird…"

Zuko paused for a moment then stood and brushed off his annoyance from having been scared, "yeah she and I had these two rooms, my uncle had the room at the end that Aang is staying in, and my mother and father had those two big rooms across the hall."

"So, wait," Katara paused with a hesitant smile, "you're saying, that my brother and Suki are going to be sleeping in the same bed that your mother used to sleep in?" she asked pointedly.

His mouth opened slightly with realization before he closed it again tightly. "Sokka!" he yelled as he stormed out of the room and across the hall. Katara could hear a small scuffling beyond the doorway and had to stop herself from laughing; if the situation were reversed and one of her friends was getting close where her mother used to sleep, she'd be upset about it too, but watching it happen to Zuko was decidedly entertaining.

Katara started to sift through the pack that had been left on the floor next to Zuko's bed while listening to the ruckus going on across the hall. She heard a girlish yelp which could only have come from Sokka, "Zuko let go of my ear! You promised me I wouldn't have to sleep in Ozai's room!" There was some more crashing and clanging and Katara continued to gather more of her things in to her arms when she heard Zuko yell at Sokka again, "no! You offering to do it on the floor instead does not make me feel better!" There was another scuffle and then a loud thud as Zuko landed on his butt out in the hallway. "Nice one Suki!" Sokka cheered triumphantly.

"I'm really sorry Zuko, but I think us being creeped out by sleeping under the Fire Lord's sheets wins over you being uncomfortable with us sleeping where your mom used to," Suki said with a sympathetic smile as she looked down at him from where she had knocked him over.

Zuko growled loudly as he stood up and stormed off downstairs as Toph's laughter echoed through the hall again. Suki saw Katara crouched by the bed and gave her a smile through the doorways and in meeting each other's eyes they burst into laughter as well.

"Hey, Katara?" Sokka popped his head out from behind the door frame, "now that you're back are you gonna cook us dinner? I'm reeeally tired of trying to eat Suki's 'Kyoshi Stir-Fry'" Suki glared at his use of air quotes and hit him lightly across the shoulder, "you don't have to keep rubbing it in ya know!"

Katara chuckled and told him she just wanted to finish unpacking her things from her and Zuko's shared pack, that she'd meet them downstairs soon, and that they should look around the kitchen to see if there was any food in the kitchen. Sokka agreed and headed down the staircase, while Suki lingered for a moment.

"I'm really glad to see you're okay after everything that happened, you seem a lot more like yourself than you have lately," Suki said, crossing the hallway and leaning down to give Katara a quick hug.

Katara patted Suki's back lightly and thanked her, "I think just being around you guys is helping a lot, it's nice to get back to some sort of normal," she looked up at Suki with a big smile, which she returned before going downstairs after Sokka.

Katara had now gathered everything out of the pack except for her comb, it was always getting stuck at the bottom. The sun was fully behind the horizon now and the light was fading fast so she fished her hand around the bottom of the sack blindly; she felt the comb underneath something square shaped and hard and pulled them both out.

She placed the comb on the pile of her things she had already taken out and examined the other object, it was hard to tell in the dimming light but she could just make out a drawing in a frame. Tilting it more to find the light she realized it was a picture of Zuko's uncle Iroh. If it was in the pack with their things, that meant he had it on their whole trip to confront Yon Rha – did he bring this with him everywhere he went? She suddenly felt ashamed, she had accidentally stumbled across something very personal, and she hastily shoved the portrait back into the pack, covering it up with some of Zuko's shirts that she had pulled out earlier to get to her things.

Feeling guilty now for teasing him about Azula's surprise attack, and Sokka and Suki's canoodling in his mother's bed, she remembered Zuko's look of disgust when they entered the house. He must have a lot of painful memories of this place. As she crossed back through their shared bathroom and in to her bedroom to drop of her things she decided that if she was really going to make an effort to be his friend she should apologize to him soon. After all, she would apologize in this type of situation if it were anyone else, even if apologizing to Zuko was a bit of a foreign concept.

Upon dropping her things on to her bed she saw that the sun had fully set, and she couldn't see anything in the room anymore. In the Earth Kingdom and even at the Western Air Temple there had been bioluminescent crystals in little sconces on the walls that would naturally add light to the rooms when it got dark, but they were in the house of the Fire Lord, of course everything would be done with firebending. She sighed loudly and left to go downstairs to look for Aang or Zuko to help light up the house, or at least the kitchen area so that she could see enough to cook.

She found Aang sitting on the counter that separated the kitchen from the main living area, trying to peek at what food Sokka was finding in the pantry. So far, he had only managed to pull out a lot of bags of rice and a few bundles of what looked like some type of dried meat.

"Hey Aang, I was wondering if you'd be able to light the rest of the torches down here and the ones in the hallway and bedrooms too? I kinda doubt this place has any spark rocks," Katara said, leaning on a column next to him.

"You got it!" he hopped off the counter joyfully and made an air scooter under his feet, "Avatar Hotman is on the job!" he gave a small bow and scooted off around the room, lighting torches as he went. Katara laughed and Sokka only groaned at Aang's use of hundred-year-old slang.

"Don't forget to do my room behind the kitchen too!" Toph called from the couch.

"Okay!" Aang said as he sped off toward the doorway next to the column Katara was leaning on, before coming back out a moment later, "hey! Stop doing that, you don't even need light in your room!" he yelled back at Toph, who responded by doing that thing she does where she waves her hand in front of her blank eyes.

"It never gets old!" she called back to him as he sped by her unnecessarily fast, causing her hair to fall out of its clip into a big frizzy mess.

Suki came out of the pantry with another bag of rice and joined Katara in laughing at Toph's now disheveled appearance. Sokka and Suki hadn't been able to find anything in the pantry other than the rice and meat, which Katara guessed was rhino jerky, so there wasn't much cooking to be done. They'd have to go into town tomorrow and get some supplies, Sokka and Aang said that they had seen a town not far from them when they had scoped out the area on Appa earlier.

When Aang finished lighting all the torches in the house he came back down to light a fire so that Katara could boil the water for the rice. By the time it was ready to be set on the dining table Zuko had come back from wherever he had huffed off to. She thought he might be in a better mood, he wasn't be snappy with anyone at least. Everyone chatted idly during dinner, Aang and Zuko discussed a schedule to start training again at sunrise tomorrow, while everyone else agreed to go in to town to get a feel for the area and pick up some more supplies.

Katara left the few dishes there were on the counter next to the water basin in the kitchen, opting to do them tomorrow instead of tonight, it was getting late and she wanted to get moving early tomorrow. Laying down on her bed everything seemed so quiet all of a sudden. She had been feeling so much better all day, but being in the silence of her own room suddenly felt isolating. She tossed and turned, feeling uncomfortable in the silky soft sheets, for what felt like hours before she finally slipped into sleep.

- \/\ -

She awoke with a start a few hours later in absolute darkness, the torch in her room had gone out, and the sound of rain pattering lightly outside filled her room. This time she couldn't remember what happened in the dream, but the feeling of fear, guilt, and absolute loneliness was heavy in her gut. She sat up remembering how Zuko had told her to breath yesterday, she took deep breaths in and out, trying to go at a consistent pace. Her heart slowed a bit but the darkness of the room felt like it was closing in on her. Wrapping the red silk blanket around her shoulders she tip-toed out of the room and downstairs into the still lit living area – she could hear Toph snoring loudly from the room just beyond the kitchen.

Some of the torches downstairs had gone out too, but there were enough of them still burning to give the room a cozy feeling. The low lighting combined with Toph's rhythmical snoring and the slightly lumpy couch felt more welcoming to Katara than the too soft bed she had upstairs. She laid her head down on one of the couch cushions, curled up under the blanket and fell into a light sleep.

- \/\ -

Some creaking of the stairs and light scuffling around the couch caused her to wake again some hours later. The sun hadn't peeked over the horizon just yet, but Zuko was awake, walking cautiously toward the kitchen in the low light of dawn.

"Zuko?" Katara asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

He stopped suddenly and turned to face her, "hey sorry, once I saw you were down here I tried not to make as much noise."

She shrugged, she had wanted to be up early anyway, "what are you doing up so early?"

"I rise with the sun, remember?" he said with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes and laughed, "I thought that was just some lame thing you said to sound cool!"

He shrugged back at her, eyeing her cautiously but still smiling as he sat on one of the chairs across from her, "why are you down here anyway?"

Her eyes avoided his eyes for a moment; even though he had seen her entire emotional breakdown the other day she wasn't sure if she felt totally comfortable actually talking to him about it. "I uh, had another nightmare, and the light had gone out in my room… it just felt better to sleep down here."

"Oh," he had a look of regret on his face, as if he knew he shouldn't have asked her something that would clearly have a personal answer, but he nodded in understanding, "uh well, if the light goes out again, you can ask me to relight it for you if you want."

"Really? You won't think I'm Azula trying to attack you again?" she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Ha, ha" he responded sarcastically.

An awkward beat passed between them, and he shifted to get up when Katara spoke again, "hey, Zuko?" he paused, "that uh, deep breathing thing you did with your hands the other day… where did you learn about that?"

He looked momentarily embarrassed and paused a while before answering, "my uncle used to do that for me when I would have trouble sleeping after… after my banishment."

"Oh," now it was Katara's turn to feel embarrassed about asking a personal question, she was curious to know more about his banishment but was wise enough not to ask and shifted topics slightly, "well, I wanted to say thank you for that, it helped me, and has been helping get to sleep since then too." He just stared her, unsure how to respond. "Also, I wanted to apologize to you for teasing you earlier about the Sokka-and-your-moms-room situation."

His face changed to an expression of confusion, "what? That wasn't your fault, it was Sokka's, and besides it wasn't even that bad, I overreacted."

Katara's face then changed to mirror his confusion, "well, you just seemed so mad about it and it seemed like I was a part of that, and friends apologize, so I apologized," she began to feel a little defensive that he wasn't just accepting her apology, and she began to feel silly for even saying anything - he was right in a sense, it wasn't her fault. But still, a person should accept an apology when it's given to them.

"I get mad easily," he waved his hand nonchalantly, "it's fine." He looked somewhat uncomfortable with the conversation now and another pause of silence passed between them.

Katara looked at him curiously before speaking again, "people don't apologize to you very often, do they?" He just stared back at her again. Realization dawned on her, he must not have had many friends before he joined their group, she knew he had been dating that tall gloomy girl – she had overheard him and Sokka talking about it after they rescued her father and Suki – but Katara couldn't imagine that she would have been the type to apologize much. "Well, here on Team Avatar we apologize to each other when we feel it's necessary, so get used to it," she crossed her arms with confidence as she said it.

His face broke out into a smile and he snorted, "'Team Avatar?'" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Ugh, just forget it," she said standing to walk toward the kitchen, "and don't tell Sokka I said that, he'll never shut up about it." She reached the pile of dishes that were sitting in the wash basin from lasts night's dinner and absentmindedly swirled water over them and stacked the clean ones off to the side.

"You got it, no teasing you about your guys' super cool nickname," he had followed behind her into the kitchen and was leaning against the counter facing her, his hands up as if admitting defeat, "I wouldn't want to have to apologize to you so soon after you apologized to me," his voice now dripping with sarcasm.

Katara turned toward him and opened her mouth in mock offense, "oh I see how it is mister Prince of Honor, I won't be so sensitive to your feelings next time, don't expect any more apologies from me," she made a small water whip from the dish water and smacked him lightly in the head with it, getting the left side of his hair wet.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly to get some of the water out, "mister Prince of Honor? Wow Katara, another great nickname, you should start writing these down!" he had a smug smile on his face.

"Oh, shut up and help me dry these! If you have to stand over here you might as well help me out," she had run out of retorts to throw back at him, and she didn't want to admit that he had been winning in this teasing contest. She had started the conversation attempting to apologize for possibly hurting his feelings and it had ended with him basically laughing at her; trying to be friends with Zuko was weird.

"'Team Avatar' wasn't even my nickname…" she grumbled under her breath, still trying to get the last word in. She felt him laugh silently next to her as he continued to warm the dishes in his hands to help them dry faster.

Katara eventually broke the silence to ask about his plan for training Aang today, and spoke about how the rest of them were going in to town – Zuko had some good advice of shops to try for food to bring back and even a small café they could all go to at lunch. When they were done washing, Zuko headed back upstairs to wake Aang, and as Katara began to put the bowls and plates away she was struck again by how well she and Zuko worked together, he was surprisingly easy to get along with when he wasn't angry or teasing her. Having him help her with the dishes everyday would be a good routine, she thought to herself, we hide from the Fire Nation right under their noses, while the Prince teaches the Avatar firebdending and helps me wash the dishes in his spare time. She chuckled to herself, what a weird new sense of normalcy.

-/\/\/\/\/\/\-


A/N: Thanks for reading, and thanks to those of you who left reviews, I really appreciate it! I wanted this chapter to have some more fun little moments after the first chapter (and the first bit of this one too) was relatively heavy so I hope you enjoyed it! It makes sense to me that the Gaang would be on Ember Island for a while before the comet comes and I'm going to expand out their time here a bit, so there'll be at least a few chapters all set here, and a chapter revolving around the Ember Island Players episode will be coming up soon too.

I know there isn't a ton of plot movement in this one, but I did want to have some fun with it as well, and there are so many little details and scenes I have swirling around in my head, so I'm doing my best to organize them in the best way possible for the story - turns out it takes a while for me to get all those details actually written down in a way I'm satisfied with. This chapter is 8,576 words, bringing the story total up to 20,297, and I have a LOT more story that I want to get through, so I really appreciate those of you willing to take this ride along with me!

Thanks again, and any thoughts or comments are appreciated!