And now the plot thickens! Who am I kidding? This is the first time the plot even shows its face.

Chapter 3

In These Arms

The next morning Katara awoke feeling something shift beneath her head. As she cracked her eyes open in the early morning sunlight, and her sight met a familiar blue arrow on the back of the hand attached to the arm upon which her head was pillowed.

"Mmmm," she moaned, stretching out her limbs and turning around to smile in greeting at a groggy, but happy looking Aang.

"Mmm, to you too," he mumbled, brushing the hair from her face with his free hand.

They both sighed contentedly, feeling warm and comfortable in each other's arms.

"Oh my god! Would you please shut up!" Toph groaned, rolling out of her earth tent.

They each proceeded with their morning routines, Katara brushed out all her long hair and arranged half of it up in a low bun, with her usual "hair loopies," as Sokka called them. Then loosened up with a few yoga stretches before getting together a breakfast of fruit for everyone, humans and animals alike.

Aang did his customary meditation and breathing exercises, and then started on warm ups for his bending drills.

Toph, meanwhile, picked methodically at the various crevices of her body.

Soon they were all up in the air again, making their way to their first stop inside Fire Nation territory.

"I see you two have become even more disgusting during our time apart," Toph grunted while reclining across from Katara in Appa's saddle.

"We're just getting closer, Toph. Don't make our relationship sound like it's some kind of catastrophe," Katara threw back, arms crossed in irritation.

"I'm just saying I'll be glad when we finally get there. Surely you guys don't act so icky when you're around Sokka."

Aang nervously fidgeted with Appa's reigns as he stammered, "Well…. I don't- I mean we…"

"Save it, Baldy! Let's just focus on our destination, so I can watch Sokka beat you up when he finds out that you sleep all cuddled up with his baby sister."

"Let's just change the subject, okay?" Katara advised.

"Sure, whatever you say, Princess. So, Zuko still cheerful as ever?"

"The last time we saw him was also the last time you saw him, about six months ago during that peace meeting with the Earth King and his military leaders," Katara reminded her.

"You haven't even heard anything new from him in all that time?"

"He is pretty busy, you know. Running a country that was previously under the hand of a vicious dictator bent on ruling the whole world and all."

"But what about his life? Do you think he's still with Madam Mopey?"

"If you mean Mai, then yeah, I don't see why he shouldn't be," Aang answered. "She seems to really make him happy, and a guy needs that when he's got a lot of things on his plate," he said, glancing over at the most beautiful waterbender in the world before turning forward again with a dopey smile on his face.

"I don't know," Toph responded with a careless shrug. "I'm just saying he might could do better."

"Yeah," Katara said, smiling at Toph slyly. "He'd be really lucky if he could land someone half as great as the Blind Bandit."

"Hey!" Toph sniped with a finger pointed at Katara. "The Blind Bandit takes issue with that comment! But… I suppose there's truth in what you say…" she mused with a smirk as her friends chuckled.

0o0o0o0o0

"What did you bring us here for? Don't we have enough bad memories of this place?" Toph questioned indignantly as they landed near a familiar city in the Fire Nation surrounded by mountains.

"Toph, things are different now," Katara countered gently. "We have to face these people now as friends instead of enemies. Besides, everyone knows that the new Fire Lord is on good terms with the Avatar."

"Are you forgetting that these people locked me and you up in a wooden cage?"

"Okay, yes, they did that. But we also tried to scam them out of their money. We're trying to move past all that now. If they still have hard feelings about that, then we'll do our best to even things out with them."

"Wouldn't it be better to just teach 'em all a lesson for treating us like that?"

"Look, Toph," Aang offered sympathetically. "I'm not really comfortable with the idea of coming back here either. My first instinct is to avoid any kind of confrontation at all. In fact I would be just fine with camping out in the outskirts like the old days, but now we stay in the inns whenever we're traveling through towns so that we can form positive connections with as many people as possible. So far there haven't been any major mishaps."

"Yeah, but don't forget that was when you were traveling in the Earth Kingdom. Aren't you worried things will be different here?"

"It very well could be, but we'll face it head on like a rock!" Aang joked with a hand on her shoulder.

They left Appa with a few heaps of grass by an outcropping of rock. "Stay here, buddy. We'll be back for you in the morning!" Then they began making their way down the streets of the Fire Nation city.

They began to notice a sort of eerie quiet fall as they passed by shops and vendors. The people stopped their conversations and watched the three benders as they progressed through the crowds. Momo was the only one unperturbed as he sat happily on Aang's shoulder.

"Does everyone here seem a little… odd to you?" Katara whispered in Aang's ear.

"I don't know," he muttered back, slipping his hand into hers. "I can't say they look thrilled to see us."

They continued on, smiling uneasily at the unabashed stares. As they got closer to the town center, something huge and looming met their eyes. "I completely forgot about that thing!" Katara exclaimed in shock.

"Oh…" Toph murmured awkwardly.

"The statue of Fire Lord Ozai," Aang stated with his mouth hanging open. "It's still even shooting out fire."

The all stopped wordlessly at the foot of the towering figure.

"Do you think Zuko knows about it?" Katara finally uttered.

"I have no idea," Aang said worriedly. "And I don't even know what it means that it's still here. Maybe it's nothing. It could just be meant as a memorial to the previous ruler and nothing more."

"Or it could mean exactly what you think it is!" yelled a gruff voice behind them.

They turned around quickly, startled out of their disturbed thoughts.

"I know who you are! You're the Avatar!" A bearded and uniformed official stood glaring at them, his huge finger pointed in Aang's face. "And I know who you are too!" he said, turning to Toph. "You're the Runaway! Don't think we've forgotten the trouble you caused here just because you're big shots now!"

"Look, Mr. uh… sir. We're very sorry for what we put your city through. We are here now only with a desire to create peace," Aang tried saying calmly. "If there's anything we can do-"

"You can pay for all the money you stole and the damages you caused and get the hell out here! Before I have a mind to throw your asses in jail!"

"Listen here, you old fart! If you think you're gonna push us around like that, you got another thing coming!"

"Toph, no!" Katara shrieked, pulling her back away from the angered official who seemed to be inflating before their eyes. "Sir, please forgive our friend. We completely understand your point of view and we want to do whatever it takes to solve our differences."

"Is that so? Well it's gonna take more money that you'll ever have to solve our differences, and your friend here just made the price go up even higher!" the man continued to shout, this time advancing on Katara.

"Alright!" Aang finally roared back, stepping forward to place himself between the furious, bloated man and Katara. "Just tell us how much we owe you and we'll work it out!"

The official was silent for once. His red, sweaty face was twitching and his eyes were bulging as if he were trying to hold in a sneeze. Aang and Katara could only guess that he was trying to add up numbers in his brain, and it seemed to be giving him a really hard time.

"Ahem. That is, I'll have to take you to the law enforcement office. You'll work it out with them, and I'll stay there to make sure you cooperate!"

They followed him to a large square building with ornate columns on the front. He gestured for them to go inside and he walked in after them.

"These renegades are here to answer to the charges against them," their escort said to a man who was bent over some papers at a desk.

The man's eyes widened and the monocle fell from his face. "The Avatar!"

"Yes sir, I am. And my friends and I would like to know how far the city was put back when we were last here."

"The damages were quite extensive. Not to mention the amount of money that was recorded as being stolen from all the citizens who were bamboozled by the Runaway!" he cried, eyeing Toph.

"I didn't steal money from anyone. Most of them just lost it in a game of chance. I guess I'm just lucky," Toph shrugged.

"I don't know how you did it, but the alarming amount of testimonials from the people of this city is far too great to doubt."

"But the damages you're talking about weren't even our fault!" Katara added. "Those were caused by an assassin who was sent to kill Aang! You shouldn't expect us to pay for that."

"I don't see why we shouldn't. If he was after you, then you were the reason he was here. Therefore, your fault!"

"Just tell us how much it all is," Aang said looking aggravated.

"Let's see…" the man contemplated, going through some papers. "Ah! Here we are. The damages, plus money owed to the victims of thievery, plus fines for being wanted criminals… plus tax… it all adds up to 1,247 gold pieces."

"That's insane! How do you expect us to pay that?!"

"I'm sure I don't know, but you may want to figure that out soon. Before a price is put on all your heads."

"Oh, man! You do not know who you're talking to! Put anything on my head, and you're gonna find yourself in the land of pain, bozo!"

"Toph, we have to negotiate this nonviolently," Katara reminded her under her breath.

"Crud, I miss the good old days."

Aang stepped up to the man at the desk. "Sir, we're good friends with Fire Lord Zuko. Perhaps if we could speak to him about the money owed to the city-"

"No! What makes you think we want him involved! This needs to be settled today!"

"But he's your leader! He should be involved; and anyway, he's the one who hired the… uh… actually, maybe I shouldn't mention that."

"Either you pay up or suffer the consequences!"

"FINE!" Toph marched up to desk, pulling something from her pouch and slamming it on the desk with a solid sounding THUD! On the desk sat a massive golden bracelet encrusted with what appeared to be diamonds. The man sat staring at the jewelry, dumbfounded. The official, who had been silent up to this point, came forward to stare as well.

"Is that gonna cover it?" he asked, confused.

The man at the desk placed the monocle back on his eye and held up the bracelet for further scrutiny. "I-it'll m-more than cover… I mean, ahem, I suppose it will do." He tucked the bracelet away in a drawer. "You are free to go."

"Finally," Toph huffed, making her way out the door.

"Where in the world did you get that?!" Katara demanded after she and Aang followed Toph outside.

"Oh, you know. A person picks up a few things when they get around."

"Really? Where do you pick up stuff like that?"

"Eh, I only had it because carrying around priceless jewelry is a heck of a lot easier than thousands of gold pieces."

"Um… wow," was all Aang managed to say.

0o0o0o0o0

All throughout the rest of the afternoon, Aang, Katara, and Toph continued to get weird looks from the townspeople. As darkness fell over the city, they found an inn and paid for their rooms. They couldn't help but notice that the innkeeper seemed hesitant to let them stay before she finally gave in to the sight of their gold coins.

"Maybe we're just going to keep running into this sort of thing no matter where we go in the Fire Nation," Katara suggested.

The three were sitting in the inn's dining room eating their meals before going up to bed.

"I sure hope you're wrong," Aang replied, looking troubled.

"Who cares what they think?" said Toph. "The Fire Nation's always been too stuck up for its own good."

"But it's more than just that. What about the statue of Ozai? And the way those guys responded when I mentioned Zuko? It's almost like… I don't know. Like nothing has changed." Aang looked down at his plate, his mind lost in thought.

"Are you really that oblivious, Avatar?"

They turned to the direction of the steely voice coming from the next table.

"Excuse me?"

The man sitting there was smiling nastily as he watched them with a hooded gaze. "Ozai may have been overthrown, but that doesn't mean all of his supporters have vanished."

"What do you mean? Ozai needed to be stripped from his power. People all over the world were suffering because of him, even in his own country. Zuko is his rightful heir and he's doing a really good job fixing what his father messed up."

"You may be all-powerful, kid, but you don't have a clue when it comes to politics. Just because that boy is our new Fire Lord, doesn't mean everyone wants him to be. I'd watch my back if I were you." The man stood up, left a few coins on his table, and walked out the door without another word or even a look back.

"I don't like this. I don't like it at all," Katara muttered uneasily, resting her hand on Aang's arm as she sought his gaze.

He stroked the back of her fingers reassuringly. "It'll be alright, but we do need to let Zuko know about this as soon as possible."

"Can you believe this?!" Toph suddenly sputtered angrily. "After all we've done, all we've sacrificed! We worked our asses off for this world and this is how it thanks us?! This whole day has been a nightmare!"

"Hold on, this is just one city," Katara said. "It doesn't mean we're going to keep on getting this kind of reaction. Also, it would be naïve of us to assume we could make everyone happy."

"But weren't you listening to that guy? He practically threatened us!"

"I have to admit it was pretty sketchy." Aang looked around anxiously "Let's go ahead and turn in so we can get an early start tomorrow."

0o0o0o0o0

While this conversation took place at the small table the three of them occupied, a man wearing black clothes sat unnoticed in the corner of the room, taking note of every detail. He watched them leave money on their table and begin to get up. He also stood and silently slipped out into the night, making his way to the messenger hawk post office.

0o0o0o0o0

The three companions went upstairs, still feeling shaken from the unsettling events of the day. They decided that under the circumstances, it would be safest for them to all sleep in the same room. After lying down on their individual pallets, Toph quickly fell asleep, snoring lightly. But Aang couldn't get that guy's final words out of his head.

I'd watch my back if I were you.

He looked over at Katara lying on her side a few feet away with her back to him. She was so vulnerable looking when she was asleep. He felt his heart pang at the thought of someone trying to hurt her. After several minutes of watching her sleep, he finally resolved that he needed to just let himself move closer. He crawled off his sleeping mat and joined Katara on hers, lying on his side and wrapping his arms protectively around her as he pulled her to his chest.

She sighed in her sleep and smiled, as if any distress she had been feeling had suddenly disappeared.

0o0o0o0o0

"The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.

But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now

mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater."

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings