Thank you all for your patience! It's been a busy couple of days coming into summer, but now that it's here I can't wait for all my free writing to commence. With that being said, here's the next chapter of my story.

Please don't go easy on me, I adore constructive criticism, enjoy!

Since Zuko's disappearance, or Katara's "moment of insanity" as Sokka coined, life for the tribe had not just been pleasurably normal. They would go so far as to say that life was easier, well, easier from the previous hardships it had endured.

There was always enough food being picked and hunted by Sokka, much to the tribe's dismay, the fire was always lively, and chores were not so displeasing.

Katara's shared tent had never been warmer; it left Sokka and Gran Gran sweltering, drowning in their own sweat and confusion about the heat that the girl seemed to drag around the village.

"I swear to Tui and La Kanna, your granddaughter must really be in heat because I'm cooking just looking at her." Kojaa, the tribe's youngest mother, joked. "We might as well use her to lure in some Polar Dog pack for the long season."

"Normally I would disagree to anyone comparing my Katara to an animal, but I think you must be on to something." Kanna chuckled, eyes traveling the restless village and settling on the young girl. Katara sat with the children, stirring a pot in the intervals between telling the young ones old folktales and dragging the even younger ones away from the fire.

"She's a real blessing, your Katara. Even before her womanhood she was already burning with an intuition and wit uncommon for her age. I can't imagine her marring any man resembling anything close to that of a Polar Dog." The light atmosphere dimmed with Kojaa's allusions of a nonexistent suitor for the fairest woman the tribe had been graced with since Kya. It was a tragedy, to say the least.

"There will be someone Kanna." Kojaa reassured easily, resting a cool hand on the old woman's back.

Kanna smiled obscurely, eyes drawing back to her compassionate granddaughter, so full of heat and love that it poured out of her. Quite literally. She watched as Katara finished her story, making the children clap and laugh happily. Kanna's granddaughter bowed at her audience then stumbled for the spoon, seemingly remembering the meal she was supposed to be looking out for. When she managed to secure the spoon in her grip, Katara stirred the pot so naturally that it looked like the stew was stirring itself. It only proved Kanna's deduction more.

"I know there is."

"You can have it all. Just not all at once."

― Oprah Winfrey

Two Years Later

"It's not getting away from me this time. Watch and learn Katara. This is how you catch a fish." Sokka said determined, scouring the ocean with his spear, ready to pounce. The fish had been taunting him, splashing Sokka whenever he got close. Hungry and tired, Sokka pledged to capture and eat the scaly creature if it was the last thing he did.

Katara rolled her eyes, over her brother's antics, quietly removing her glove. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on the choppy waves. Face determined much like her brother, Katara began to motion her exposed hand. She had been feeling impulsive in the past few years, a feeling that had only grown since the longing to harness her abilities sparked.

Emotions previously unfamiliar to Katara had also developed out of nowhere a couple of years ago, and emotions that hadn't been felt since her mother's death as well. The tribe blamed them on her teenage body; laughing at her mood swings, but still very aware of their severity.

And right now, Katara was feeling severely confident.

Slowly and hesitantly an orb of water containing the very fish Sokka sought hovered above the canoe. "Sokka, look!"

"Shhh Katara," Sokka silenced. "You're gonna scare it away. Mmmm I can already smell it cookin'!" He waved a lazy hand at his sister, not bothering to look up as the floating orb inched closer to the siblings.

"But Sokka! I caught one!"

"I think I saw it!" Sokka announced, ignoring his sister and drawing back his spear, precisely popping the water bubble Katara struggled with.

The icy water splashed onto the young tribesman, drenching him in the liquid and lugging down his heavy skin coat. Just as the fish was about to flounder from the boat, a gust of hot wind passed by, nudging the fish just far enough to hit the edge of the wood and flop back into the confines of the canoe. "AHA!" Sokka cheered. "You caught it! Not by any means I should appreciate though. Thanks for getting me wet." He shrugged sarcastically. "But I guess I could let your cheating slide, you are a girl after all. So, decent job. You know I had it right?"

Giving the underhanded compliment, Sokka plucked the fish by up by its tail and waved it in front of his sister.

"Hey!" Katara exclaimed, pushing her brother and snatching the fish with her ungloved hand. "I did NOT cheat! I caught the fish before you and pretty well at that, you know 'for a girl.'" She mimicked the boy, waving the fish in front of his face.

"Ugghh," Sokka complained, now fully feeling the consequences of being wet in the tundra. "Why is it that every time you play with magic water I get soaked?"

Katara held her breath, exasperated, "it's not magic. It's waterbending, and it's- "

"Yeah, yeah," Sokka interrupted. "An ancient art unique to our culture, blah blah blah. Look, I'm just saying that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

"Are you calling me weird?" Katara asked, pointing to herself.

"Well I'm not saying your weird, exactly, I just saying- WATCH OUT!" The siblings quickly turned their full attention away from their bickering and onto an ocean suddenly spotted in thick, round, blankets of ice.

Beginning to work frantically to maneuver the canoe between the iceburgs, Katara shouted "Left! Go left!"

Sokka, turning right, managed to avoid getting crushed between the colliding icebergs. As the pair continued their attempt to stay afloat, icebergs collided all around them, their safety margins decreasing rapidly each time they passed up another match of deadly ice blocks.

But as soon as the ice appeared, it begun to disappear. Katara and Sokka watched in disbelief as the ice seemingly melted from the water, raising the sea level just enough to accelerate the canoe straight into a large boulder of ice.

Splintering the boat, Sokka watched sadly as the fish jumped back into the water. Giving the Water Boy a final splash of provocation before swimming away.

"Aww man, my dinner."

When I died, I didn't know why I couldn't leave Katara's side.

Two years later, I still don't.

My recollection of what happened before I awoke in this land of water had come back in chunks at long intervals. Which for the most part was just great because all I had now was time, but it seemed that the longer I spent in this purgatory my memories and remembrances became fuzzier and fuzzier.

And it was only just recently that I have been able to put them all together.

But for two years I sat in a cold, barren land, plagued with confusion and doubt. Only able to recall the buzzing of adrenaline through my veins, the excited pounding of a crowd, and the burning copper sensation of tears and blood in my throat.

Everything had been distorted save for the exact moment of my death.

"You will learn respect Prince Zuko, and suffering will be your teacher"

I avoided the reflective water surrounding the land at all costs, startled of my own gaze, but my mutilation was not the only reason I spent time away from the water. It was Katara.

I met Katara at my first arrival in the South Pole, unbeknownst of my fatality, which only took a few minutes after I was flat out ignored for me to connect. Frustrated with my lost attempts at recognition, I tried to walk away and wallow in my own self-pity. After a couple of feet, though, a tug on my chest became so intense that I was forced to follow the Water siblings back into the camp.

I have not been able to successfully leave Katara's side since.

Not that I would want to anyway, where else would I go?

I didn't loathe where I was placed, Agni knew there were definitely worse places to be left. In fact, I rather liked it. So much so that I don't think my time alive was any better than being here, better than the life I had with my father and sister.

With all the hours I spent with Katara, I realized just how much we had in common. But I would often wonder why I, Prince of the Fire Nation, was put on this wasteland with Katara?

Within the years, I had come up with an idea, but deftly choose to overlook my prediction. I would not question the spirits.

I spent my spare time learning of the tribe's culture and daily life, and from what I had seen, it was not the savage place I had been taught to believe. Never having to do a single chore in my short life, I watched and followed Katara dutifully everyday as she followed her list. A list that, from what I could tell, had not been given to her, but made by her. Happily so.

It was a concept. Everyone did their part in the small village. And although they could not see me, I would not overstay my visit or make the spirits angry, I did my part as well. A part that consisted of helping Katara, that is.

Or being around Katara.

Pretty much anything to do with Katara.

I could never get enough of her. I was never bored, and still never am, even though we do the same thing every day. I do not tire of her like I did with my servants or my sister and her friends. I was perfectly content with just spending my bottomless amount time with her, which was a good thing considering I couldn't stray too far without my chest imploding.

I had grown a fondness for the fierce girl. A fondness that, I guess, I would've held for my sister if I hadn't been so careless and selfish. I know that now. Katara has helped me see the wrong of the palace, of the war, of my father.

Of myself.

It's a tragedy that I cannot enlighten my family in the palace, and the people in the court, of my new revelations. I might not be able to help the tribe politically, but I would do what I could to make Katara's life easier. That I was sure of.

She was my family now.

So, I warmed the camp and aided in catching food or lifting ice, as long as Katara was near the area of struggle. Which she always was.

I guess you could say I was protective.

If not wanting my new companion to get hurt is protective.

I often would catch Katara's arm if she slipped on the ice, or throw snowballs at an unsettling and disruptive Sokka, or even melt an ocean full of ice to prevent the canoe from crashing.

What I could not protect Katara from was a wave of said newly melted ice from crashing the canoe.

"Sokka are you kidding me right now!" Katara chastised, throwing her head in her hands in an attempt not to cry out in frustration.

"No, I'm not! Did you not just see our food get away, again, no thanks to you that is."

"Me?"

"I don't know why you keep asking specifics about yourself today but definitely, yes, you!" Sokka blamed, jumping out of the shattered boat and away from the ledge of ice. Katara followed grumpily in suit, feet crunching the snow a little harder than need be.

"You're the one that went right, I had told you left." She grumbled.

Sokka shook his head. "If I had gone left that still wouldn't have stopped the ice caps from melting." He said, looking without faith at the ice under his feet and then back to his sister.

"You think I'm the reason that the ice melted. Please Sokka, how would I have achieved something like that?" She was not an actual bonfire, Katara thought, rejecting the hearth that the tribe had so pleasurably dispensed onto her for comparisons at meals.

Sokka threw his hands up as if it was the most obvious thought for miles. "YOUR MAGIC WATER!"

Katara scoffed, hurt that Sokka wasn't completely confident of her capabilities, or of her sincerity. "The magic water I don't even know how to control!"

"So you admit it!"

Katara was already at the height of her pent-up anger. A strategically set bomb, Katara could feel her fuse drawing near the end of the string. "Admit what? That I don't have control over the water, gee, I wonder why? Hmmm? May it be because-"

"Admit that it's magic water." Sokka stated directly, cutting the Watertribe girl off.

Katara took a pregnant pause just studying her brother, feeling the abrupt momentum of the explosion Sokka had just catalyzed. "UGH! You are ridiculous. So it's me and my magic water's fault?" She screeched.

Sokka shook his head, disreguarding his sister's outburst. "I knew I should have left you home. Leave it to a girl to screw things up."

Previously unaware of Katara's explosion, Sokka suddenly wasn't so ignorant of his sister's willingness to be taken seriously. "You are the most sexist…"Katara started, immediately skipping the ascend of a normal humans patience level.

Katara was a strong climber and was already at the fourth level, the inclusion of limbs, as she was already throwing her arms for emphasis.

Getting more caught up in her rant, Katara's fury raged, heating the inside of her jacket enough to create a trickle of perspiration down her brow. The bead of sweat swiftly disappeared as if an unknown entity had wiped it away, making Katara shiver. Unconscious of that, she continued, "immature, nut brained..."

As for the emergence of Sokka's nervous sweat, he wasn't so lucky.

"Ugh, I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since Mom died I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier!"

Along with her longing for waterbending, Katara also gained an even more fiery temper to match. Strongly tied to her opinions, the impulsive, easily tempered, prideful young woman rocked the water unknowingly. So much so, that the iceberg they were standing on began to heave.

The ground shook violently and, in the midst of Katara's oration, a huge crack in the ice left from Katara's heel all the way to the base of the ice boulder behind her. Sokka, who had noticed the quite large and intimidating crack, tried to intervene. "Uh... Katara?"

"I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, NOT PLEASANT!"

"Katara!" Sokka said worriedly, watching the crack form up the glacier with every increased alteration in his sitter's voice "Settle down!"

Katara fumed. "No, that's it. I'm done helping you. From now on, YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN!" With that, and a last knocking of fists, the iceberg behind her split open entirely. Disintegrating in a puff of cool smoke, the siblings watched and shielded their eyes as major pieces fell into the water. They held their ground on the ice desperately until the iceberg settled.

"Okay," Sokka sighed. "You've gone from weird to freakish, Katara."

Katara looked at her brother incredulously. "You mean I did that?"

"Yup. Congratulations." Sokka praised sarcastically. "If your magic water was able to do this without you being able to control it, I'd really hate to see what it could do if you did know."

At that moment, staring up at the crumpled monstrosity she had destroyed singlehandedly, Katara thought that maybe it wasn't so outrageous for her to have melted the icecaps.

My Uncle used to tell me when I would become defeated in my bending that 'I would learn better in time.' I often think back and reflect on that. Before, I had complained back to him that time was the only obstacle standing in my way, as if it was a monster that had only tortured me, only glancing at my sister.

It was ironic, because my Uncle had also said, 'you never know a good thing until you don't have it'. With all my reflection, I also found that it works backwards, 'you'll know a good thing when you get it.'

And now, all I have is time.

And Katara.