A/N: Day Four! This might be my favorite prompt this year.


Katara had been in the Fire Nation for two months now. She had been an unexpected guest, arriving on the same boat with the men and women of the Northern Water Tribe. She hadn't gone directly to the palace, even though he'd made it clear a long time ago that every single member of the 'gaang' was welcome in his home whenever they wished. No, Zuko found her by chance at his favorite restaurant, taking lunch by herself on the balcony. There, he found out that she'd been staying in a hotel just a few blocks away, right under his nose for almost a week. When he asked her why she was there, her smile had faded.

"I just needed to get away," was all she would say.

Of course, Zuko knew right away just what she was getting away from. The one letter Aang ever sent that wasn't either scribbled in hasty excitement or full of long-winded stories about some tricks he was showing the children explained everything in perfectly depressing detail. The only reason he hadn't been nervous about Aang's visiting while Katara was staying at the palace (as he'd so graciously insisted), was a final communication from him that assured he and Katara remained on good terms.

On one hand, it was nice to know for sure that that was the case.

On the other, he'd just been caught spying. And he was only just realizing that he had never once spoken to Katara herself about this. Really, he'd been too busy lately to talk to her about anything, and knowing this sent a painful stab of guilt through him that was just barely alleviated by the sound of her voice.

"I'm guessing you heard that."

Zuko jumped back to his senses with a very stupid looking series of blinks.

"Oh? No, I… I was just walking by, and…that's it."

He wanted to sink into the floor right there in shame. How was it that he could handle heated political debates and court dinners with practiced power and dominance, and yet he could never keep his cool around his friends? Especially Katara.

She gave a mirthful little smile, one that coincided with an odd flipping in his stomach that he couldn't explain.

"It's okay, Zuko," she said. "You didn't hear anything all that private. Just a chat between friends."

It was way more than that and they both knew it, but Zuko let it slide. It wasn't his place to correct her, just be there if she needed him.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Katara shrugged her shoulders, her face going soft and wistful. "Yeah, I'm fine. A little sad, but… we both knew it had to end. It just wasn't good for either of us anymore."

They started walking, still with no direction in mind aside from forward. Somewhere in the back of Zuko's mind, he noted that the kitchens were just a short ways away. Maybe they could stop for a snack before dinner.

"Do you ever think you could have done more… if you don't mind me asking," Zuko hastily added when he realized what a personal question he'd just asked.

Katara was cool about it though, as she'd always been. Something flashed behind her eyes, too fast for Zuko to make out what it was.

"I wonder sometimes," she said. "And then I think if there was anything else that could've been done, I would've known when I needed to, and I didn't. That's how you know you have to just give up, I guess."

Zuko nodded along with her, though inside he felt the painless but dull thunk of a stone sitting atop his stomach, the only bit of sorrow that remained from his own failed relationship.

"Thinking about someone else?"

Zuko frowned. He thought about denying it, but one look at her told him there was no way he could ever convince her, so it was better not to try.

"Not as much as I used to," he admitted. "I was miserable the first few weeks thinking she left because of me, that I'd done something wrong. I'm not so sure anymore."

He slowed to a stop, and saw Katara do the same out the corner of his eye.

"Now I think it might be like you and Aang. It just wasn't meant to be."

They said nothing more, and then Katara walked to him coming more and more into the top of his vision. She ran gentle hands up to his shoulders, prompting him to look at her fully, and see her encouraging face.

"You want to come with me to the library?" she asked. "I need to write out a letter to Sokka."

If that was her way of cheering him up, Zuko wasn't sure he got it. Not that he really needed cheering up. Not before and definitely not after talking about it like this.

He nodded yes regardless and led the way to the grand palace library. There were a few off-duty servants and Officials browsing the shelves when they arrived. Everyone bowed respectfully as they passed and then went about their business. Zuko found them a comfortable and private table in the far corner, where a fresh roll of parchment and brand new pens waited for them, purely by coincidence.

"How are Sokka and Suki doing?" Zuko asked while Katara wrote.

She stilled the pen and brought it to her lips, biting the end. There was something about it that had Zuko's attention more than her words.

"They're fine now that Sokka's gotten the hang of being Chief," she answered without looking up. "Did you know they're trying for a baby?"

Zuko shook his head and let out a chuckle. "No, but I can imagine what kind of father Sokka would be."

Katara eyed him now, quirking a smile. "Sometimes I wonder."

"Just try to picture him: changing diapers, heating up bottles at 5am, reading bedtime stories."

"He'd be great at bedtime stories," Katara conceded.

She finished up the letter, and sealed it. Zuko immediately handed it off to a servant with instructions to get it in the mail as fast as possible. From there, their next stop was the kitchen, where they went ahead with Zuko's original plan of getting an early meal in the courtyard, next to the turtleduck pond. Their conversation came smooth and lighthearted, never straying to anything more serious than Herzio's failed attempts at wooing Katara during the last royal feast.

Zuko sipped the last of his fruit flavored drink and throwing bits and crumbs into the pond for the turtleducks. Katara finished hers long ago and was looking out at the empty sky with her hands on her forearms. She looked very much at peace with herself, in spite of the heartache he could imagine still lingered. But Katara had never been one to let that bring her down. She was one of the strongest people Zuko had ever known, after all.

There was also something strangely familiar about that look in her eye.

"I got a letter from my Dad the other day."

Zuko blinked, not really knowing how to take that. They had just moments ago been talking about something completely different, not even related to her or her life at home. She must have been waiting to bring this up.

"Is anything wrong?" Zuko asked.

"No," she answered casually. "He just misses me and wants me to come home soon. Mostly it was just about the rebuilding and how much he's enjoying early retirement."

She sipped on her drink, a hum of delight reverberating in her throat. She didn't seem at all bothered by what she'd just told him, and Zuko supposed she wouldn't. It didn't stop his chest from contricting the moment she mentioned leaving. He hadn't really thought about it before, but of course she was bound to eventually. She couldn't run from her problems forever anymore than he could for a day. Still, the palace would be lonely without her presence at the breakfast table, or in the gardens, or anywhere at all now that he thought about it. He really hadn't spent enough time with her at all. Instead he'd been busy working and thinking about his mystery woman. Weren't there more important things?

"And so I told him that I was doing well and I was glad to hear from him, but that was I wasn't planning on returning anytime soon-"

He only half heard her, but his thoughts still crashed to a halt when he suddenly got it a second too late, long enough to make her rather perturbed.

"Uh... Zuko?"

"Yes?" He said dumbly. "I mean, are you sure you're okay staying here so long?"

She shook her head. "Not as long as you'll still have me."

"Of course I will," Zuko said. "I'm glad that you're happy here, Katara."

Katara smiled gratefully, and was it just his imagination, or was she breathing a little easier all of a sudden?

The sky was darkening around them, the sun barely a line on the horizon. Katara looked up over his head, probably at the moon. It tended to rise earlier this time of year.

"Sometimes, I think I should go home," she said, dropping yet another brick in Zuko's stomach. A smaller one, since he knew she wasn't going to go, but a brick nonetheless. "I only came here in the first place because I wanted to get away from everything that reminded me of Aang."

She turned sad eyes downward. "I always knew breaking it off was the right thing, but..."

"That doesn't mean it didn't hurt," Zuko finished for her.

"Exactly."

They sat it uncomfortable silence for a time. A question sat unasked on Zuko's tongue, and likely would have remained there if it weren't for that strange, more forward side of him he'd first met last night with her.

"So why are you staying now?"

She blinked a few times, and Zuko might have regretted asking, but something kept him numb to it. And then she gave her answer.

"I've found something that I don't want to let go of." She looked directly into his eyes, but seemed to be a million light years away suddenly. "It's hard to explain but... I've found someone who makes me happier than I ever thought I could be."

"Happier than Aang?" Now there was a question he was going to hate himself for later.

Or would have, were it not for Katara's dreamy little smile.

"I think so."

Her eyes came back into focus now, in the most intense way Zuko had ever seen. He felt like she was stripping him bare with those eyes. She reached out across the table, brushing her longest finger over his. They both seized up.

"Zuko, I-"

"My Lord!"

Zuko whirled around, the loud cry ripping his heart straight out of his chest. It continued to race in his ears which didn't seem to be working with proper sensitivity as Terno's discerning gaze locked on them. His assistant stood at his side, arms bearing a mountain of parchment.

"Forgive my intrusion," he said, respectfully bowing his head to Katara. "But I'm afraid I cannot wait any longer to speak with you."

At a loss, Zuko turned back to Katara, who met his apologetic gaze with a wave of her hand.

"It's okay, we'll talk later," she said.

"Yeah, well I..." he said weakly, softly and far too late, as Katara was already halfway across the yard and well out of earshot.

"My Lord?"

Zuko nodded, but didn't face the councilmen again. "Wait for me in my office, Terno. I'll be there in five minutes."

If Terno wasn't pleased with that answer, or didn't want to wait any longer to speak with him about whatever this was, he didn't say a word. All he did was snap his fingers at the aide and lead him off. Zuko barely heard them, all his energy- both physical and mental- was centered squarely on Katara. She was still visible to him, moving almost in slow motion. He curled the fingers of the hand she had touched, the same hand he had place upon his mystery woman the night before, where that same jolt of electricity had coursed through him.

He thought of Katara now not in the simple red dress she currently wore, but in a beautiful and radiant blue dress that fit her culture. Her saw her face in his mind, knew every inch of it, and then covered it with a feathered mask that emphasized her eyes and saw a coy little smile play on her face, heard light, feminine laughter all around him.

Terno was going to be very disappointed when Zuko showed up late for their meeting. He was rooted to the spot, staring after her back and feeling a weight greater than any before it crashing down on his head like an apple off a tree.