Thank you to everyone whose taken the time to read this. I hope you're enjoying it. Leave me a review and let me know what you think!

Oh. By the way, I was asked if these are in chronological order and, yes, they are.

There were very few similarities between the Fire Nation capitol and the quaint village at the South Pole that Katara called home. Some days it was a shock to walk through the streets, but most days it was just fascinating. Though she missed her home, Katara was no stranger to travel and was beginning to thoroughly enjoy the Fire Nation (even despite the fact that it was so hot all the time).

The city was alight that night and Katara thought it was one of the most beautiful things she'd seen in her life. It reminded her of the winter auroras in the South Pole that glowed brightly in the sky at night. Where the auroras glowed in varying shades of green, blue, and violet, the lights that danced in the sky before her were a warm orange hue and it filled her with excitement.

Zuko walked to the fountain where Katara sat gazing out at the night. The square was crowded with people doing the same, and the firebender slid onto the cool stone beside her.

"Here," he said softly. He extended an arm toward her and Katara looked down at the thin paper cylinder he held. There were intricate designs painted onto the sides in faded shades of red and orange. As she took it from him (not quite astounded enough to question his sanity), she noticed that he held another with his other hand.

"They're lanterns," he explained when she continued to stare at it with a puzzled expression. He lit a small flame in his hand and held it underneath the lantern he was holding and her eyes widened as it began to glow. Zuko lifted his hands gently and his eyes followed it as it rose into the sky, joining the thousands that were already flying proudly.

Katara was staring in wonder.

Zuko chuckled, a soft smile lightening his severe expression. "What did you think they were?" He lit hers as well and she held it in her palms for a few seconds before slowly lifting it high, her arms lingering as if in longing as it drifted away.

Her voice was quiet. "I've never seen anything like it. I've seen every star the northern theatre has to offer, I've seen hundreds of winter auroras. I've even seen meteor showers and had one land ten feet away from me. But this is just…breathtaking." Her hands slowly folded in her lap as she watched the lanterns rise higher and higher. "What are they for?"

"We're celebrating the summer solstice. Every year at the beginning of the summer, we let the lanterns into the night to thank the gods for allowing us a season of continuous sun and restoring our health—you know, since firebenders draw energy from the sun. It's an old tradition to return the favor. We hold a similar ceremony at the end of the summer to show our appreciation so that the gods may continue to honour us with the warm season."

Katara was listening, transfixed and her eyes lit with golden light. He thought it was strange seeing her eyes look so close a colour to his own.

When she didn't speak, he filled the silence. "The festival lasts for a fortnight, so you'll probably be tired of it by the time it's over."

The woman shook her head. "I don't think I could get tired of this. It's amazing."

Faster than her eyes could register, a small spot of light flitted by her eye, landing on Zuko's hair. He immediately reached up and brushed it away.

"What was that?" Katara asked, looking around to try to find where it had gone. Three more small lights flickered and disappeared before her. "Is that a firefly?" She'd seen fireflies in the Northern Air Temple and what the swamp people called glowflies in the Earth Kingdom, but she hadn't remembered them looking like this.

Zuko stared at the small insect. They had always annoyed him, and though his mother had attempted when he was young to teach him to appreciate the small wonders around him, he never did grow fond of the small glowing pest. He shrugged a shoulder in an unsure gesture. "I guess they're sort of like fireflies. We call them lightning bugs though. Or sparkflies, in the west." She reached a hand out and a small bug landed on her palm. He frowned in distaste. "I wouldn't do that. They have a nasty tendency of setting things on fire."

She drew back her palm. It was scorching, as though a coal had fallen onto her skin where the bug had landed. A small burn was already in its place, but she didn't mind. It would be easy enough to heal.

"You don't seem to be very fond of them," she noted, watching the way he dodged around the flitting spots of light.

"They're a menace." He swatted away a bug that landed on his knee and after that they mostly kept away. "In the country a small swarm of them have devastated entire farms. They burnt down half of Ember Island once long before I was born." He didn't mention the summer when he was a child that he had to have his hair cropped because they had set his head on fire (though that was the more legitimate reason he disliked them).

Katara looked back up at the lantern show. "Is there a reason they're called lightning bugs?"

He found it annoying that the waterbender was so transfixed by the swarm. "It's an ancient fable, that's all."

She waited, but after it became apparent that he was going to leave his answer there, she grew impatient. "Come on then, what's the fable?"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "It's just a boring old story that superstitious old bats came up with."

"If you weren't going to tell me, why did you even mention the fable at all?" Her look was flat. He knew that she would want to know. Katara loved hearing folk tales and fables from all sorts of cultures, and she'd told him during their travels that it was one of her favourite parts of traveling with the Avatar.

"It's just a dumb story, Katara."

"I'd still like to hear it."

He knew all to well, and finally conceded. With a huff, Zuko answered her question, his voice bored—he'd heard the story a thousand times growing up, and it was one of his least favourite in Fire Nation lore. "The story goes that the first bolt of lightning was the birth of the first lightning bug. They say that the fire god grew jealous of its luminescence and cast it from the stars, banishing it to earth. If you notice the way it flies, it resembles a lightning strike. The legend says that it burns everything it touches because it's trying to anger the fire god who banished it in the first place as retaliation for its banishment."

The last time uncle had told him the story he'd been banished himself. More than briefly, he'd considered doing the same in revenge against his father (of course his mangled idea of honour stopped him, but he'd thought so long about it).

Katara smirked at him. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

His good eye narrowed and he grumbled something out under his breath. Katara simply laughed at him and continued to watch the lanterns.

-/-/-

Firewhiskey was strange.

She'd had drinks from the Fire Nation before (how could she not, having lived there for several months before Sozin's comet?) but firewhiskey was so different from rice wine and spiced cider that the difference was stark. Her first drink of the amber liquid had left her coughing for ten minutes without reprieve. Zuko had laughed so boisterously at her that he too began to choke and cough on his own breath, and the episode left them both red in the face and gasping for air.

"You've been here over a year and you've never had firewhiskey before?" Zuko had to practically yell to be heard over the sounds of the ongoing festival, and to his convenience, a group of musicians struck out in song at the exact moment he started to speak.

Katara shook her head as she slowly lowered the cup from her lips. She didn't know not to hold the liquid in her mouth, and when she finally swallowed, she stuck her tongue out as though the warm summer air would somehow aid the burn that followed.

"Sorry, your lordliness," she gasped out. Her voice was raspy and he almost felt guilty for laughing at her intolerance of the strange drink. "I'm not a heavy drinker like you are. I actually like my body being hydrated."

Despite his years of learning from the best tutors, he hadn't ever put the two together (and he felt a bit embarrassed that the waterbender understood the effects of alcohol better than he did).

"I think you just don't know how to let loose and have fun," he said. It was the best he could come up with, and it was a blind shot.

She quirked an eyebrow at him and scoffed. "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black."

He stared blankly at her. He would never understand tea humour.

Katara sighed and rolled her eyes. She couldn't bring herself to finish the drink in her hand. She stood up off the stool she sat on, abandoning the foul drink, and extended her hand towards him. "Come on. Let's go dance."

A group of people had gathered just outside the small café they were sitting in. The cobblestone roads were illuminated by the soft light from the lanterns in the sky and the people had started dancing around each other. The way they moved together using their hands and fluid movements reminded her of the Dancing Dragons stance that Zuko and Aang had so proudly displayed after visiting the Sun Guardians. She'd danced in the cave with Aang while they were hiding out in the Fire Nation, and she remembered that it had been as easy to catch on to as learning a new bending move.

And sometimes, it was just as exhilarating.

Zuko gaped at her. "Excuse me?" He looked between her face, her outstretched hand, and the dancing crowd in the street. And still, he couldn't comprehend what she was saying to him.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Dancing, Zuko. I know you know how to do it—you're the Fire Lord." He shook his head, still trying to understand what she was saying (and he could be just so dense sometimes). The waterbender huffed and pulled on his arm. "You said I don't know how to have fun—let's go dance. That's fun."

It was beginning to dawn on him. "Katara, I don't dance."

"Yes you do. I didn't ask if you wanted to. I said, let's dance." He still didn't budge. At last she dropped her hand from his and put her fist on her cocked hip. Her head tilted and suddenly, her expression was all taunting. "Or are you afraid I'll show you up?"

He didn't respond to her offer of fun, but she knew he'd respond to a direct challenge (and he thought she was the one who didn't know how to let loose).

That was all it took. His golden eyes narrowed stubbornly and Katara didn't have time to react. He threw back his firewhiskey and stood in one fluid moment, and before she could catch up to what was happening, he was pulling her by the arm, stumbling, out into the music-filled streets.

He was the Fire Lord. She was insane to think she could outshine him in a Fire Nation dance.

The music was lively and quick and Zuko didn't give her any time to adjust to the tempo before his feet began to move and he whisked her into the group of dancers. Their forearms locked against each others and a tight circle began the dance before suddenly, they were moving around each other as naturally as birds moved around each other as they flew through the sky.

When Katara had danced with Aang at his party, it had been choppy—she had never danced before (at least not anything that wasn't a style of the water tribes) and while it looked impressive, she was simply mirroring the motions she played out when she sparred. She hadn't been sparring, however, and she couldn't help but over think her every move.

This, however, was as though the music had come to life through them.

Their hands remained joined, creating the illusion that they were moving as one entity. Zuko pulled her in close and she dipped, under his arms she spun out until their arms were fully extended until it felt as though they were separated by a vast space. With a minute twist of his wrist, she was suddenly against him again, their bodies close enough that a thin sheet of paper could wedge between them. Her vivid blue eyes gazed up at him, alight with exhilaration and he could nearly see the overjoyed laughter spilling out of that simple gaze.

Back to back, they turned about each other, their fingers interlocked by a tender touch raised above their heads (the touch was less physical and more of a static sensation that was keeping them together). Katara could feel his breathing like the rise and fall of tide and when they parted—this time, the feet between them with no connection felt to last for eons—the light caught between their eyes was like electricity.

The pair paused, breath caught in each of their throats. Zuko's jaw twitched and Katara's chest rose slowly, her skin tingling with the magnetic pull of the dance. The music had waned in suspense, but neither noticed. Without warning, the waterbender and Fire Lord were moving again, inches apart without a hint of contact and the music picked up like a whirlwind, drawing them up as though their feet were insubstantial.

Zuko's arms were strong as she spun into him, her back pressing against his chest, and when she was in his arms, she dipped back, gracefully bracing his arm as she flipped herself backward onto the ground, her legs lean and languid with her skirt fanning through the air, and fell into a low stance. As she slowly rose (his hand lightly resting against her shoulder) their eyes met and when she was fully standing, her hand rose to his chest—as though gravity were pulling it there. Each of their gazes searched the others face, their breath falling steadily, and then the force surrounding them melted away, its only lasting existence in the hypersensitive feel on their skin.

The music played on, but a few onlookers stopped to applaud. A circle had formed around them where there had before been many dancers and now they stood alone in the center, her hand on his chest and his on her cheek.

But the magic had gone.

Katara blinked twice, thrice, and looked around them. Her hand that rested against him pushed ever-so-slightly, easing the pair apart and his fingers slipped from her cheek leaving her skin warm to the touch and his prickling at the loss of contact.

Zuko cleared his throat and bowed to her—as was tradition—and after she had bowed back, the pair walked off, through the gathered crowd. They walked no differently than they had any other visit to the city, but this time it was different. In their eyes, this time was imprinted to a memory— ingrained by a touch here, a smell there, the flickering lights cast across the night, the sting of firewhiskey on their tongue.

This time it was different because now the distance between them was tangible.

-/-/-

Her name was Akimi and she was lovely.

She was the granddaughter of the eldest fire sage on the Royal council, which meant she was highly respected nobility, as well.

Zuko's board of advisors was adamant that she was a perfect match for him.

He sat across from her at the formal dining hall and watched her closely. She sat demurely, her back straight and head held high. Her movements were delicate and precise and she chewed her food slowly, blushing when she noticed him watching her.

She was very lovely, he would admit. Her skin was fair (though darker than his) and her hair was long, falling down her back in a sleek curl the colour of expensive coffee beans. Her lips were thin but naturally flush and the kohl that lined her almond shaped eyes looked pretty on her where on many of the other women he'd paraded before him the kohl outline looked severe and off putting. In fact, Zuko thought, it was her eyes that were probably her most alluring feature. They looked nearly glassy from here, and he thought that perhaps they were a light shade of grey—or maybe it was green—which contrasted nicely against her heavy lashes. She was tall and lithe and looked as if she'd never seen a day of hardship in her life. And if he was being honest, it was almost refreshing to meet someone so untouched by the world's harsh nature.

Yes, Akimi was absolutely lovely.

But she wasn't his perfect match.

She was so quiet that when he'd started up a conversation, he had to ask her to repeat her answer just so he could have small pieces from which he could guess what she had said. She giggled at his stories that hadn't even been funny and when he caught her off guard, her cheeks flushed a pale pink. She seemed perfectly kind and she had just returned from Ba Sing Se University where she studied ancient languages (he assumed that somewhere in there, she was very bright, but her years of nobility's mold shaping her into the 'perfect Fire Lady' had told her that she mustn't discuss intellectual matters with her suitors or her husband).

The pair finished their meal and he walked her to the door where her escort waited patiently for her return. He bid her farewell, bowing to her, and then he went his own way without looking back once.

His head advisor had stopped in on him that evening while he sat in his office pouring over colony reports and had asked if the Fire Lord would be pursuing the young woman further. He set down the scrolls and gave the man a flat look—it was a rather personal question and was fairly inappropriate of the man to ask—but gave him a simple and polite answer before waving him away in dismissal. The man looked disappointed and closed the heavy door behind him.

Zuko stared at the blank scroll before him and wondered when they were going to leave the matter alone.