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Chapter 3: The Singer, The Giggler, The Screamer, and the Benefits of Flying

Surrounded by her fellow travelers, Katara stood in the cold, dark corridor of the passenger ship, and as she waited for the ship to finish docking she clung desperately to the last bits of sanity she had left. Now, Katara had plenty of practice being patient- after all she did have Sokka as a brother, and she had been the one to train Aang in waterbending (although that about did her in)- but the past forty-eight hours had been an absolute nightmare, and she was about to lose it.

Surprisingly enough, considering the state her trip was in now, the journey hadn't started out horribly, in fact everything went exactly according to plan...for the first twenty-four hours of it at least. She had managed to pack her things, saddle Nola- one of the other sky bison-, send off a letter to Zuko with the messenger hawk he'd given her for her seventeenth birthday, look up the when the next ship to the Fire Nation capitol set sail from the nearest port near her, and get on her way in less than two hours. Katara even managed to be the one of the first of the passengers to arrive at the docks which meant she would get her first pick of the beds in the assigned rooms. Things were going perfectly...too perfectly, she should have known that it wasn't going to last. The trouble started when her fellow roommates arrived.

It was trio of girls, about Katara's age, from the Earth Kingdom who were traveling around the world for one last hurrah before their parents arranged their marriages, and made them settle down. Their names were Jin, Lei, and Ami, they all had the same brown hair and light skin common to the Earth Kingdom. Clothed in simple green dresses, there was nothing about them that hinted about what terrors they would really be.

The first day was fine, they were all very pleasant girls- albeit a bit childish at times- it was when bedtime rolled around that the problems began. When Katara first lay down she didn't expect the girls to stop talking (she'd had sleepovers before, and knew that was completely unrealistic), but she did expected them to lower their decibel to that of Toph's snoring. To say the least that didn't happen. If anything the girls' incessant chatter got louder, punctuated regularly by the laughter- if you could call it that, it sounded more like a dying pig rooster to Katara- of Jin. The waterbender tried to grin and bare it, but eventually she lost her patience telling them that they had to be quieter or go to sleep. Which then provoked an argument between Ami and Lei about who was being louder before they finally just went to bed.

Katara, glad that the room was finally in silence, quickly drifted off into a dreamless slumber, but some hours later was awoken by screaming. Now, after traipsing after Aang, and having to constantly fend off Fire Nation crazies who were trying to get their hands on the Avatar, Katara had trained herself to immediately awake prepared for a fight. Katara sprung out of bed water whip already poised to snap, only to realize that the screaming was coming from a soundly sleeping Lei. Turns out, as Katara was later informed, that Lei suffers from some disease where whenever she entered a new dream she would scream for five minutes straight, and there was nothing to be done about it, but not even Lei's screaming could compare to Ami's annoying habit.

Because not only did Ami snore like a sky bison with a head cold, she also sang...all the time. When she was bored she sang, when she was nervous she sang, when she was getting ready in the morning she sang, and she even sang when trying to go to sleep. The worst part wasn't the fact that she sang all the time, oh no, it was the fact that Ami thought she sounded marvelous when in reality she couldn't carry a tune. So in the end between the screaming, the giggling, the snoring, and the singing Katara got maybe eight hours of sleep all put together, so you can understand why she was more than a little irritated.

Turns out Aang was right there were some benefits to flying.

She shifted her bag to her other shoulder, and tried to place her weight on only one foot in an attempt to soothe the aching in her feet that came from standing on the hard floor for such a long time. This proved not to be the best of ideas since at that moment the boat dropped its hatch; opening the door and causing the eager crowd to surge forward almost knocking Katara to the ground on the process. After much elbowing and many mumbled curses Katara finally managed to exit the interior of the boat, and onto the unloading ramp.

The sweltering heat of the Fire Nation immediately began warming her skin as the sudden sunlight blinded Katara. Closing her eyes in an attempt to help them adjust she let the smells and sounds of the foreign nation assault her senses. From the city all around her the sound of venders calling out their deals mixed with the delighted squeals of children just getting out from school, and the constant sound of ship horns. Despite her upbringing in the small Southern Water Tribe these sounds were familiar to

Katara due to the amount of time she spent in large Earth Kingdom cities, it was the smells that were really foreign to her. Because the air just smelled...spicy. She knew this was a peculiar way to describe it, and anyone who had never been to the Fire Nation would think she was weird for calling a smell spicy, but it was true. In the Fire Nation it wasn't real food unless it was hot, hot, hot- a lesson she's learned the hard way after letting Zuko cook dinner after he joined the gaAng- and somehow the spiciness of the food , and the fiery temperaments of the citizens seemed to transfer to the smell.

Once she felt she was accustomed to the bright sunlight reflecting off of the red tin rooftops Katara opened her eyes and began scanning the crowd. All around her, passengers were being reunited with friends and families which was accompanied by lots of hugs and happy inquiries about their returned loved one's travels, and for the first time since she came up with this crazy plan to come stay with Zuko she began to panic. What if Zuko didn't get my letter, Katara thought worriedly, or worse what if he got it and he didn't want me around! Katara chewed on her lower lip as she continued to scan the crowd desperately, her doubt rising with every passing second because in all honesty she couldn't blame Zuko one bit if this was to short of notice for him to have her stay with him. Plus, she did lie to him by saying she could stay with her friend Xana. Well, she didn't lie exactly more like stretched the truth. Katara was sure Xana wouldn't mind having her, but her friend was a newly wed and the guardian of her three younger siblings, and no matter how profusely Xana denied it Katara knew she was a burden to her friend.

Katara admitted she should have told Zuko the truth about his home being the only place for her to stay once she got to the Fire Nation, but she didn't honestly expect the firebender to just leaveher stranded!

Sighing Katara shouldered her bag, and made her way down the ramp leading to the dock below, and as she thought about all the hotels she could stay at, out of the corner of her eye she saw a middle aged Fire Palace servant standing by a carriage, hooked to two ostrich horses, holding a sign. After a closer inspection of the sign a wide grin made its way onto Katara's tan face, because on that sign in eloquent script was her name.

Making her way over to the carriage Katara let out a sigh of relief, and laughed at herself. How could she have been so silly? Of course, Zuko wouldn't leave her. He was her friend, one of her best friends! He would be at the palace ready to welcome her with open arms.

The servant upon seeing Katara heading his way- sticking out like a sore thumb in her deep blue robes- straightened up, and extended the customary bow. "You must be Lady Katara." He said in a voice that was all business, "I am Jou, and I will be your carriage driver today, allow me to take your bag."

"Why thank you Jou," Katara said slightly flustered with the special treatment, "It's a pleasure to meet you, and please just Katara is fine."

To the waterbender's immense surprise Jou smiled, making him look at least ten years younger, but enhancing the laugh lines around at the same time. "The pleasure is all mine I assure you Katara. The tales of your beauty have not been exaggerated, now your carriage awaits."

Blushing and flustered because of Jou's comment Katara was easily maneuvered into the carriage where she sank into the soft black leather of the seats. Running her fingers along the the smooth glass of the window Katara let out a sigh of contentment. Lucky Zuko gets to do this everyday.

After fighting its way through the hubbub of the city, the carriage pulled through the main gates of the Fire Palace, and as Katara pressed her face against the glass to get a good look at it she was once again struck by the grandeur of it.

The roof was sloping and was painted an intense shade of red. Intricate, gold columns held up the overhang of the roof. The outside walls were some kind of white stone- that Katara thought to be ivory-, on the walls were large sets of windows, and positioned perfectly in the center was a set of large black doors, but the crazy thing was the part of the palace you saw when you pulled up wasn't even half of it, and the rest was equally (if not more) splendid.

Finally rolling to a stop in front of the ornate black doors one of the many palace attendants rushed forward to open her door followed closely behind by two more. One to retrieve her bag and take it to her room, and the other to assist her from the carriage-which Katara found quite ridiculous since if she could take on an army of Fire Nation soldiers with just a canteen of water surely she could manage to exit a carriage by herself.

"Welcome to the Fire Palace Miss Katara, its a pleasure to be able to have you as a guest here with us," said the attendant, a short dark haired man, who assisted her from the carriage, "Is there anything you currently need?"

"All I need right now is to see Firelord Zuko." Katara replied.

The attendant let out a hearty laugh, "Well that can be arranged! He is just inside the doors waiting for your arrival, but you better hurry. You know how he gets when he has to wait for something he really wants." With a wink he turned his back on a slightly confused Katara, who, after a brief hesitation, decided against questioning the attendant, and instead bounded up the steps toward the door. The attendants each took a hold of the door handle, and pulled the doors open with a flourish.

The doors closed behind her as Katara stepped inside, and froze allowing her eyes a moment to adjust to the sudden light change. When she could finally see, Katara looked around the exquisite entrance hall until her eyes landed on a figure leaning (in a very unfirelordly way) against the wall opposite her.

His pitch black hair was pulled back into the typical Firelord bun, held in place by his crown. He was dressed in the many layered, flowing, crimson robes of every Fire Nation ruler before him. His face had lost any of the last remaining roundness that made the distinction between a boy and a man, and was now chiseled to perfection.

Only three things remained the same that allowed Katara to recognize the man in front of her. First, and most obviously, his scar, but she'd long ago stopped really noticing the burn. It had become as much a part of him as any personality trait could. Secondly, his gold eyes that were boring in Katara's own. Lastly, his full fledged smile that was saved for special occasions only. It lit up his whole face, and frankly took Katara's breath away.

"Katara," He whispered, his voice deep and smooth as silk.

Next thing Katara knew she was in his arms.

Author's Note:

Yay! Chapter three is finally up now! I hope you readers are happy now since they're finally together. Thank you to everyone who has favorited , and review Longing For I'm getting a much bigger response than I ever thought I'd get, and I can't thank you guys enough. Now for the sad part. School is coming to an end which means things are getting pretty crazy, so for the next couple of weeks I'm going to try my hardest to get up one chapter a week, but that's really the most I can do. Just look on the bright side though, after school is over I can get more writing done faster!

Thanks again for reading I hope you enjoyed it! Reviews are always appreciated (they help me write faster just FYI).