AN: Thanks for your reviews, reviewers! To fully display the depth of my lack of self-control, here's the rest of Team Avatar!

"Sokka…" Aang peered over his shoulder toward the mouth of the cave in which they had set up camp for the night. "It's sunset and Katara's still not back. Shouldn't we be, you know, getting worried right about now?"

The Water Tribe boy looked up from the slowly bubbling concoction in the pot before him and took in the delicate crease forming between the young Avatar's brows. Outside, the light was orange and sharply angled. In his focus on his next culinary masterpiece, Sokka hadn't realized the day had come so quickly to an end. Aang had a point – Katara had been gone for hours.

…but then, she'd been in an awfully bad mood when she left to wash the laundry. She'd even commanded him – the man – to do the cooking. Sokka had put it off most of the day, preferring to nap in the chilly sunshine and snack on gathered nuts than to bend to his sister's will, but his past experiences with these sorts of snarled parting demands had taught him one very clear lesson; if Katara said 'cook' and Sokka didn't do it, there would be no hot food.

Really, when she entered what the young warrior privately called the 'berserker blood-lust phase' of her moon cycle, it was best to stay clear and let her take her frustrations out on the laundry. Not that Sokka expected Aang to understand this…

"You know," the Water Tribe boy remarked with a thoughtful squint, "I'd actually call that a quarter-till-sunset. Let's wait until the food's ready. One whiff of this stuff and she'll pop right up – just you wait!"

Even as he said the words, though, Sokka's gut started doing that little flipping thing. His instincts were telling him that something wasn't right.

"Alright, one more test before we panic. Ready?"

Aang nodded at him and his wide mouth set in a grim line as he laid both hands over his ears.

Sokka marched out into the growing gloom outside the cave, raised the pot and spoon in his hands, and began banging them together. Behind him, Appa gave a reproachful groan and Momo made the usual screechy protests, but none of this distracted the young man from his task.

"Katara! I dirtied dishes and I'm never ever going to wash them! I didn't even rinse the food off, so it's all dried-on and gummy, now!" He paused to listen. The island was silent below him, the conifers black and jagged in the dimming light of day.

With a sigh, Sokka turned back into the cave, laid aside the pot, and went about calmly making a pair of torches. His movements were steady and practiced, but his gut was flipping like he'd swallowed a live fish.

His little sister was in big, big trouble.

Zuko lay in his bed and scowled at the ceiling in the faint light.

The Fire Prince was no stranger to invasive thoughts. He had thought about the Avatar in his every waking moment for over two years now and, since the boy's reappearance, had had many occasions to lay awake at night, seething. Usually, long sessions of physical activity and meditation were enough to sooth his nerves and propel him forcibly into sleep. Tonight, though, it was not so easy as exhaustion, deep breathing, and emptying his mind. He could only assume this was because the source of this night's invasive thoughts was actually aboard his ship.

That, and his pillow smelled faintly of salt water and her hair.

Images kept popping into his mind. At first, it would be just those angry blue eyes and her furious voice, challenging him, denying him what he wanted. From there, his mind would flow seamlessly to laying his hands on her, gripping her hard and holding her still beneath him.

And this… excited him. Unbidden, his mind shot through an array of delicious details – her legs clamped against his sides, her blue-and-white clothing in disarray, the narrow gap that had separated their intimate parts. Even her fierceness itself was pleasing in a way that Zuko did not fully understand. Over and over, the firebender caught his arousal building and, over and over, he narrowed his thoughts to the precise measure of his breathing, willing it away.

Because the Fire Prince refused to accept the obvious solution for this particular frustration. To derive pleasure from a situation that had clearly frightened the Water Tribe girl smacked of dishonor. And she had been frightened. He could clearly picture her bound wrists, her helpless rage, and the stretch of her blue eyes as fear took her and these things sickened him. No, he would not behave like the man she thought he was.

He would show her honor.

Regretfully, Zuko could not exactly show her this particular display of his good behavior, a fact that only served to further frustrate him. He gritted his teeth and rolled to his side to scowl at the Imperial tapestry hanging on his wall for a while.

In the steadily-turning mill of the firebender's brain, frustration was inevitably ground down to anger. This sleeplessness was all the girl's fault. If her people weren't such savages, she wouldn't have gotten the wrong idea about him. She was probably uneducated and therefore ignorant of the Fire Nation's strict code of honor.

But not knowing the inherent honor of the Fire Nation was no excuse for assuming that he, the prince of the greatest nation in the world, would stoop to molesting her, a peasant. Just who did she think she was?

Zuko jerked the blankets over to one side and gave his pillow one good, completely necessary punch. He was a doer. He should be doing something about this annoyance, not struggling unnecessarily to ignore it.

Slowly, a smirk crept onto his face. If he should be forced to lie awake at night because of the Water Tribe girl's lack of an education, it was only fair for her to lose sleep learning the truth of things.

After trudging around the island in the dark for half the night, Sokka and Aang finally stumbled upon the laundry. The Water Tribe sleeping bags were draped over a line tied between two trees, along with a procession of worn socks, some of Katara's underclothes, and Sokka's parka – which had so recently fallen victim to the ducks at Aunt Wu's.

The airbender ran one hand over the clean fabric, expression hopeful. "This stuff is all pretty dry… Maybe she just finished and went to do something else."

Sokka, scanning the edge of the nearby stream by the light of his torch, pulled up short. "I don't think so, Aang. Look." On a large, flat rock beside a wide pool, he had found a pile of dry fabric wadded next to the bar of laundry soap. "Katara wouldn't just stop working mid-task. She must have been interrupted. Help me look for more signs."

The stream was mainly lined with large stones, so there weren't any immediately noticeable tracks. In their rising panic, though, it didn't take the boys long to find something. "Sokka!" The Water Tribe warrior sprinted back up the stream to where Aang was crouched over the sand on the far bank of the pool. He didn't even really notice wading through the icy water, didn't feel it filling his boots. All he really saw was the younger boy's huge eyes and the wide shape pressed into the sand before him.

"Platypus-bear. Big one." Sokka turned back to view the scene again and signs seemed to appear before his eyes – stones torn from their places, puddles unusually far up the bank. He could almost see it happening. "She didn't hear it coming through the bushes because of the noise of the water… but – see this? – there's still ice between these rocks. Katara must have tried to freeze it down, here." He swallowed. "It was too strong, broke free…"

Sokka began to dash down the stream, eyes darting from sign to sign. How could he have missed all this before? There were raw stripes in the streambed where the beast must have slashed at the ground, sending rocks and water flying in an aggressive display. On a branch hanging low over the water, there were leaves sliced neatly in half; Katara must have hurled blades of ice as she retreated.

Her voice came back to him, echoing from just days ago. Run downhill! Then climb a tree!

Sokka whirled back to the frightened-looking airbender. "She ran this way! Look for a good climbing tree."

Katara burrowed deeper into her blankets as she heard the clank of an opening door, the murmur of voices. She was sore and her skin was grimy with sea salt, but the bed was so soft… Did Aang always have to get up this stupidly early? What was the point when Sokka wouldn't move until mid-morning?

"Wake up, water peasant."

At the familiar voice, the waterbender jerked out of bed to crouch on the shockingly cold floor – the steel floor – blinking in the half-light of the guard's candle. It took her a moment to remember where she was, that she was already captured and, in the time it took her to realize there was really no point in running away while in a cell, she had backed up to the rear wall of her enclosure. On the other side of the bars stood Prince Zuko, looking as cross as usual.

As she watched, his scowl deepened further. "Those are my clothes. How did you-?" He cut himself off and shut his eyes long enough to draw a deep breath. "Never mind. I know."

Katara peered down at the over-sized red tunic and breeches that Iroh had given her. These were Prince Zuko's clothes? She wasn't even wearing her bindings under these clothes! That was… incredibly weird. Watching the still-distracted firebender, she slowly crossed her arms to conceal her unbound chest. Her face was blazing. Maybe he hadn't noticed. Though, she had certainly noticed that she wasn't the only one underdressed…

The Fire Prince folded his bare and very muscular arms over the sleeveless black tunic he wore and leveled a frown at her. It was oddly less threatening and more aristocratic than any expression Katara had ever seen on his face. "Since you're just a simple peasant, I've decided to forgive your ridiculous assumption that I might molest you. Your people clearly don't understand the concepts of honor or royalty and you're obviously ignorant of the seventeenth clause of Fire Nation Protocol, which states that a prisoner shall be treated with dignity within reason of-" He stopped and his frown returned to the intensity she was familiar with. "Pay attention and quit gaping at me like a moron."

Katara, blinking, managed to shut her mouth, but not for more than an instant. "You woke me up in the middle of the night… to forgive me-" She planted a palm against her chest. "-for believing that you were going to… molest me." Her face still felt warm, but she hardly noticed. A terrible force was building within her.

Prince Zuko's eyes narrowed slightly. "I also planned to explain that the Fire Nation does not condone such barbaric practices, but since you're having trouble keeping up, I guess we could slow down." He mimicked her gestures, touching his chest and pointing at her and speaking at a reduced speed. "I… wouldn't touch you… because you are as far beneath me as a common crab-rat and I wouldn't want to dirty my hands with your unwashed hide."

The waterbender wasn't sure how she had gotten so much closer to the Fire Prince, but the bars were the only thing stopping her from reaching out and slapping him. She glared up at him and there was no echo of scolding Sokka in her mind, now. There was only the face of the enemy, the mind of the enemy. "How dare you talk to me that way! If you honestly believe that being the son of that… that murdering psychopath makes you better than me, you're crazy! You evil, arrogant… jerk!"

Prince Zuko loomed over her, fists balled at his sides as his tone built up from a snarl. "You impudent peasant! Who do you think you are to so much as speak of the Fire Lord, much less-"

"And another thing!" She pointed a finger in his face, quivering with her fury. The Fire Prince's eyes darted to that finger before returning to meet her gaze, his expression struggling between anger and shock, but Katara was beyond noticing. Her rage was blind as a storm. "Those 'barbaric practices' you mentioned happen everywhere the Fire Nation invades! It's as much a calling card of your people as burned houses and imprisoned benders and, after some of the stories I've heard, I had every reason to think what I did about you! You forgive me? Hah!" She barked the sound and it rattled through all the bars in the brig. By the door, the guard shifted in his chair and stared determinedly down at his game tiles. "As if I wronged you! As if I tied you down and jumped on top of you and threatened you!"

Prince Zuko regained some of his bluster, leaning closer so that he could shout down into Katara's face, which only served to further infuriate the waterbender. "Hey, I didn't order that you be tied to my bed! That was a misunderstanding! And I didn't jump on you and, besides that, you gave me little choice in how to deal with you when you refused to stop destroying my prop-!"

"And another thing!"

Sokka was pretty sure he'd lost the trail when they got to the waterfall. The sheer cliff offered no hand or footholds to climb down and none of the surrounding trees had damage to their bark like he would expect from a frustrated platypus-bear. Besides, none of them had the low branches he knew Katara would prefer – not an ambitious climber, his sister.

He really hoped he would get the chance to tease her again about that.

With their torches, Aang and Sokka circled the area for what felt like hours, but they found no trace of either bear or bender. The Water Tribe boy stood on the cliff's edge, watching the falling water sparkle in the firelight before vanishing into the darkness. From far, far below, he thought he could hear the steady crash of waves. His gut was flipping again.

Aang came to stand beside him. "Do… do you think she-?"

"There's no way Katara would jump from a height like this just to get away from a stupid platypus-bear. Just no way." She knew better than any of them that hitting water from too great a height was just like hitting earth, that there could be rocks below the surface, and that it was much easier – even for a waterbender – to drown with broken bones than to swim with them. Sokka shook his head slowly, as if to deny what instinct was telling him.

Then, the ground beneath him shifted.

As the rocks of the cliff's edge gave under the boys' combined weight and began to crumble away, just did a fancy backflip and blew a little air to reach safety. Sokka wasn't so lucky. The ground dropped out from under him and, with a squawk, he grabbed at whatever stable thing he could reach. Stones and earth broke away under his hands and, in the scrambling seconds before what would have been a very long fall, his fingers found something ropey and tough, something that held.

Aang's face appeared above him as the young airbender grasped the new edge and peered desperately down at him. "Sokka! Are you okay?"

"Yeah… Yeah, thanks to these tree roots…"

He stopped and stared at the roots. They were thick and broken where they stuck out of the cliff face, as if…

"Aang, I know what happened to Katara!"

The younger boy beamed. "That's great, Sokka! Er…" He reached down toward him, sticking his tongue out to one side in focus. "Want a hand?"

"Oh… yeah! Thanks!" As the Avatar helped him climb up to solid ground, the warrior strained and explained. "She would have climbed a tree with low branches – the kind that grows in places where they get lots of sunlight, like this cliff. Ow!" He quickly went on, trying to ignore the pain from banging his shin on a protruding rock. "So, she climbs this tree right by the edge, thinking it's stable, but platypus bears are pretty persistent, so this one probably stood up and started shoving the tree and-" Aang tugged him over the edge and, both panting, they sat down a safe distance away. Sokka swallowed, peering back. "And then the whole tree went down – probably the platypus bear, too."

They were silent for a long minute, sitting together in the fading light from the torch Aang had dropped. Finally, the airbender spoke very softly. "And Katara."

Sokka swallowed and forced out the words. "And Katara."

He was remembering that time, so many years ago now, that his sister had fallen into the ocean near the village. Their father had jerked Sokka back by his coat to keep the boy from diving after her before laying on his belly on the edge of the ice, only his huge arms submerged. It seemed like forever before Katara's limp body finally rose out of the dark water and, though Hakoda immediately rushed her inside, her skin had been so blue with the cold and her eyes had been dull for days after, as if a good friend had unexpectedly betrayed her. She'd had more respect for her element after that; Sokka knew this, because he had been watching his little sister more closely ever since.

He didn't notice when Aang withdrew, but the sound of the monk opening his glider threw Sokka into motion. "No, Aang!" In one powerful leap, he managed to grab the collar of the boy's tunic and stop him from running off the cliff. Grounded, the airbender jerked away and, in the dying light, Sokka could see the scowl on his face. "You won't be able to see down there and if you crash into something, I won't be able to get to you without going back for Appa."

"So you just want to leave Katara down there? She might be hurt!"

"You think I don't know that?"

They were silent for a long moment as both absorbed the panic and frustration of Sokka's shout. The young warrior took a deep breath and went on in a low voice. "I want to save her, too, but we can't just dive in after her, Aang. We have to wait for daylight."

The Avatar stood firm for a moment, quivering with his frustration, his anger, but then he seemed to melt. With a deep sigh, he closed his glider and sank to the ground.

Sokka knelt beside him, his heart feeling like a big open sore and his guts twisting themselves into knots.

Slowly, the torch died. Had it not, the two boys would never have spotted the spark that appeared on the western horizon.

Zuko wasn't entirely sure what was going on, here. Usually, when he yelled at someone, that someone withdrew. That someone got tired or discouraged or finally came to understand that Zuko was right. Then, there was usually an apology, perhaps a little self-deprecation and the natural order was at last restored.

The waterbender was relentless. She seemed to draw upon wave after wave of fresh fury, new and different things that she could yell at him about. It was almost as if she had been keeping track of everything she had ever seen him do that struck her as morally hazy and the Fire Prince was now getting a full statement of his account. Some of the things she yelled about weren't exactly his fault, but more a general result of the war. For instance…

"-but there was no one to teach me! You know why? Because the Fire Nation took all of the waterbenders away, decades ago! Rounded them up like a bunch of stray cow-sheep and herded them off to prisons or death camps or whatever inhumanly horrible place they thought was appropriate! Is that how you think of us? As animals?" She gestured at herself sharply, face curled in scathing disbelief. "Is that how you can justify all of the despicable things that you do?"

The Water Tribe girl finally seemed to be losing steam, though; her chest was heaving and her voice was a little hoarse from the hideous volumes and pitches she had been reaching. Zuko, who had stood for a long while with his arms crossed and his face locked into a tight frown, decided it was time to attempt a new tactic.

He had tried arguing with her in the beginning, had tried to overwhelm her temper with his, but it was like trying to put out a campfire with blasting jelly – she just came back at him, harder than before. The temptation to shut her up with a little fire was almost irresistible, but Zuko was well-versed in self-control (unlike some lunatic waterbenders) and, besides, frightening her into submission defeated the purpose of his presence… though it admittedly seemed impossible to teach this opinionated girl anything about the honor of the Fire Nation. He had also considered just going back to his quarters and pretending that this had never happened, but that seemed a lot like retreating and Zuko wasn't about to accept defeat.

So, in the silent moment after her question, the Fire Prince tipped his head to one side, narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, and spoke in a low voice. "Are you unwell, waterbender?"

He barely contained his smirk as shock suffused her features. The flow of rage was dammed. "I… what?"

"Are you unwell - did you sustain a head injury or eat any mood-altering plants?"

Her face was reddening and her eyes seemed only to grow wider. How interesting… "No… Why- why do you think…?"

"You're clearly not in your right mind. I could call the ship medic to check you, if it's necessary."

Zuko watched through narrowed eyes as the Water Tribe girl pinched hers shut and rubbed her forehead. Yes, she was definitely losing the edge of her temper. Now, if he could just…

She sniffed.

To the Fire Prince's bewilderment, the waterbender started wiping her eyes with the over-long sleeves of his shirt. Zuko stared, wide-eyed. What had happened? Was it something he had said? Was she actually as crazy as he suspected she might be? "Are… Are you crying?" he demanded, though it was obvious that she was.

"No!" She spoke through the fabric, voice muffled and regularly interrupted by her sniffling. "I'm just so… so tired and I miss Sokka and Aang and I really wish I hadn't been so mean when I left and they're probably so worried about me right now but I don't know how they're going to find me since I just kind of fell… and- and I'm not even sure how I got here and-"

The Fire Prince jumped on the opportunity to offer the Water Tribe girl something to do that did not involve expanding on this sob-story. "You washed up on a sand bar. Did you say you fell off the bison?"

The waterbender snapped a reddened, suspicious eye onto him, frowning. "I didn't say where I fell from. I just fell and got separated from the others."

He narrowed his eyes, but accepted this. At least she wasn't blubbering on his shirt anymore. However, Zuko was beginning to wonder whether the Avatar and the Water Tribe oaf would be able to figure out where the girl had gone. If they didn't find the sand bar where he had left the evidence – or if it was washed away before they had the chance – they would not know she was his captive. Then, how could they know to follow him?

It was becoming clear that he would have to take further action. He turned on his heel to march from the brig, but paused when she spoke.

"Um…"

Zuko turned back, posture rigid with no small amount of trepidation. Agni only knew what sort of emotional extreme he was about to experience… "Now what do you want?"

"Hey – I wasn't the one who barged in and-!" The Water Tribe girl shut her eyes and drew a deep breath, forcibly calming herself. When she again settled her steady gaze on him, her mouth drew into a tight line, seeming to rebel against the next words she spoke. "I'll need to talk to the medic, tomorrow."

The Fire Prince looked at her more sharply. "You're injured?"

"No…" Her eyes shot off to one side and, beneath them, her cheeks were reddening again.

Zuko waited for an explanation, but it clearly wasn't coming. With a huff, he crossed his arms again. "Well, if you aren't injured, you have no reason to pester my medic."

As he stalked from the brig, the firebender thought he heard her mutter the word 'jerk,' but he chose to ignore that one; he now had a more important matter to attend to.

He made it into the corridor before the guard's low tone caught him. "Prince Zuko?"

The Fire Prince turned a frown on the cautious soldier. If the waterbender's impertinence was spreading to his crew, he would have to take disciplinary action. "Private Nu. Is there a problem?"

The man stood straight in the doorway with his eyes locked on a distant point, speaking quietly. "Sir, as the father of four teenaged daughters, I only wanted to offer you a word of wisdom… We'll all be a lot happier if you allow the prisoner to talk with the medic."

Zuko settled his hands on his hips. "And why is that, Private?"

The soldier blinked but maintained his otherwise straight face. "She is clearly having woman troubles and will need herbs and other supplies."

"'Woman troubles,' Private?" He had no urge to soften the incredulous tone of this question. For one thing, the prisoner was hardly a woman at all and, for another, 'woman troubles' sounded like some sort of made-up phenomenon that would win her whatever little luxuries she wanted.

"Yes, sir," the guard said. "Woman troubles." Under the Prince's annoyed glare, Nu cleared his throat. "I think your esteemed uncle could explain better than I can, sir."

Zuko growled faintly in frustration before snapping, "Fine. Summon the medic in the morning." With that, he strode away down the corridor.

He had a more important matter to attend to.

The Fire Prince made one stop in the munitions room before arriving on the deck. The night was clear, but dark in the absence of the moon. That was good; it would make this tactic more effective.

Zuko set up the little wooden frame containing its projectile and, with a blast of flame, lit the fuse.

The flare shrieked into the sky.

Katara watched the guard return to his seat by the door without so much as a glance toward her. He began again to shift the tiles around on the table, the picture of calm.

The waterbender fought the urge to burst out in tears of gratitude.

She hadn't heard everything, but Prince Zuko's chronically raised voice had carried those awkward words back to her.

Woman troubles.

Was that what they called it in the Fire Nation? It had never really occurred to her that Fire Nation women would go through the same ordeals as Water Tribe women. It had also never occurred to her that an enemy soldier might ever act to help her with such an uncomfortable situation. Yet, there he was, playing his game as if nothing had happened at all.

"Private Nu?" Katara gripped the bars of her cell as she spoke. Her voice came out a little strained, an unpleasant reminder of her diatribe against the Prince. The guard peered up at her, his moustache still limply hanging and his expression one of bland interest. "I… I just want to thank you… for that. It was a very kind thing for you to do."

"It was only my duty according to Fire Nation Protocol." He paused a beat, tone turning a little dry. "…as Prince Zuko attempted to explain before you ignited."

The waterbender frowned, nonplussed. "He's not my prince."

"Clearly." Nu tipped his head back slightly and settled an elbow on the table. "In the Fire Nation, no one would have dared speak to royalty that way. Such disrespect can have very serious repercussions."

Katara heaved a sigh and drew away from the bars, making her way slowly to her bed. "Then maybe he should have stayed in the Fire Nation."

She did not see the guard thoughtfully watching her burrow into her blankets. Her feet were stiff and icy from the steel floor and weariness had built into an unbearable weight in her back and belly.

When the flair sounded, she only opened her eyes long enough to roll them.

Jerk.

Maybe he could be worse, but there was still a lot of room for improvement.

AN: So, if you haven't noticed, we're kind of playing the 'how many cliches can we get into one fic' game. I don't know why we're doing this to ourselves, but we are...

Actually, I do know why. I had trouble with this chapter because I was being drawn into heavy culture-clash angst - lots of 'your people are evil' 'well, your people are uncivilized' crap going back and forth. That led to soul-searching, which is boring when compared to Zuko getting 'the talk' from Uncle Iroh. Thus, Katara's berserker blood-lust phase allowed me to bury actual serious arguments and direct changes of opinion on political matters with something more in the spirit of this fic - Zuko's shock at having someone determinedly defy him. If anybody finds this to be out-of-character for any party involved, please let me know - I do like to know.

Also, it pleases me to no end to imagine Sokka seeing his crazed sister give the Fire Prince the dressing-down of a lifetime. "Oh, you really shouldn't have said that..."