Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of this fic except for Rei and a new Water Tribe character :)

Notes: omg you guys. Y'all are the best. It makes me so fuzzy inside to know you like Rei and you like the development of Zuko and Katara's relationship and that you miss Lu Ten and u g h you guys make me so happy!


Chapter 7

"Zuko," begins Katara, the question having burned on her tongue for the past hour, "when is your birthday?"

"There is literally no need for you to know when my birthday is," says Zuko as he tries to readjust his bandage.

"I want to know."

Zuko blows out an exasperated stream of air. "Why?"

She narrows her eyes at him as she tries to find what to do with his old cloth. He isn't bleeding anymore, thank the spirits. Zuko came up to her earlier and awkwardly asked her to help change his bandage—she had no choice but to agree, and now she's stuck managing his bandages.

Better than cleaning anything else, she supposes.

"Is it a crime to want to know your birthday?" she says.

"It could be," says Zuko. She knows that look. He's about to spout off on another rant. "You could try to make something horrible of it. There are tons of things you could—"

"I'm not going to try and kill you," she tells him.

He shuts his mouth, annoyed. "You don't need to know my birthday."

"It's just a birthday," she says. "It's not a big deal. Look, I'll tell you mine. I was born a couple days after the fall equinox."

"The fall equinox always moves around," says Zuko suspiciously.

"Whatever! Whenever the fall equinox is, my birthday is two days after it."

Zuko looks at her silently from one of the creaky beds in the medic tent. No one's in there with them—Gu left a while ago to replenish the water supply.

"So? When's your birthday?"

Zuko's brow creases his forehead horribly. "I'm not telling you."

"I just told you mine."

He huffs. "I don't have to tell you anything if I don't want to."

She folds her arms over her chest and gives him a hard glare. "I won't change your bandage next time. You can either have Gu do it, or you can do it yourself."

The prince cringes. He gives her a look as if to say I can't believe you're making me do this, and he mutters incomprehensibly.

She smiles to herself. "What was that?"

"I was born," says Zuko again, louder this time, "on the winter solstice."

She can't help it. She drops his dirty bandage cloth and laughs. When she can gather herself, she sees him sitting broodingly with his eye watching her every move. "Why is that so funny?" he demands.

"A prince of the Fire Nation," she says through her giggles, bending over and picking up the old bandage, "born on the winter solstice."

"I don't need that reminder any more than I need you laughing about it."

When she looks at him again, she can tell he's serious. He looks upset, more than she's seen him for a while, and in that moment he looks more like the terrifying Fire Lord Ozai than anyone else.

"Sorry," she says quietly.

He scowls. "Whatever. Forget it. Now you know when my birthday is. Happy?"

Katara dunks his bandage cloth in a basket and stands straight. "Sure, Zuko."

"Prince Zuko," he grumbles characteristically.

She shrugs and sits down in front of him. A little while passes as he fidgets, fiddling with his bandage. The burn doesn't look so painful anymore, but it's evident the mark is there to stay. She pushes the image of Zuko's burn away and says, "So… where do you think the Avatar is?"

"You are full of questions, aren't you?" says Zuko. "Hopefully in one of these air temples. If not, I'll search the rest of the world."

Katara doesn't say anything for a long while; Zuko's eye is full of determined menace, and she has to admit that the look doesn't fit him at all. She remembers the bright gold eyes back when she had been encased in the cell of the tower in the Fire Nation Palace; they were inquisitive and innocent, albeit eager to be recognized, and those eyes are nothing like what she sees in front of her.

These eyes are scary, and these are the eyes that did not exist until Prince Ozai became Fire Lord Ozai, and these are the eyes that only prove he is the Fire Lord's estranged and pitiful eldest child. She used to have those eyes, she thinks. She had them while she was alone in the tower, but then she was pulled out… and met the other servants.

"Do you have any friends?" she asks suddenly.

"What sort of question is that?"

"It kind of just—" She hesitates, unsure. "—slipped… out?"

"Of course I have friends," says Zuko. "You're ridiculous." He readjusts his bandage again, wincing somewhat, before he gives up altogether and lets his hands thump onto the cot.

"I had a friend," she says, more to herself than to Zuko. She remembers the pale skin of one and the tan skin of the other. "I had two, actually."

Zuko groans and stands. "I don't care. I have to go find Uncle."

"One of my friends' names was Jao Ra," says Katara, looking at her hands. "Did you know him?"

"No." The word is short and rather annoyed.

"He was a servant."

"Then of course I didn't know him," says Zuko. "I don't associate with peasants."

She lets her head snap up to his and levels him with a frigid glare. He only rolls his eyes. "I'm going to find Uncle. I need to figure out how we'll reach the Western Air Temple."

"Fine," she says. "Don't come crying to me when you injure yourself in your bending lesson later. I don't suppose you want a peasant healing you."

Zuko only turns on his heel and strides out, uncaring. Katara frowns at the tent flap when he's gone, wondering how in the four nations the prince became so grossly apathetic to everything but the Avatar.


Gu only shakes his head at Katara when she asks if he's coming with them around the mountain. "I have to stay here with the rest of the crew," says Gu patiently. "The prince has ordered me to stay behind in case anything happens. Iroh has asked me to lend you a kit so that you may tend to the crew that does travel with the prince."

"You're okay with that?" she asks.

"I've told you before," says Gu. "You are better at tending to immediate injuries. It's best if you go rather than me."

"Okay," she tells him. "I'll see you when we get back, then."

He nods to her and says the same, and she walks off to where Iroh is standing with Zuko, their tents and mats rolled up into large bundles on the three other crew members' backs.

"I don't understand why we can't take everyone, Uncle," says Zuko, annoyed.

"Because a group will need to maintain the ship. You have three capable soldiers here willing to help you."

The crew members—soldiers, rather—all look very unsure.

Zuko seems to notice this, too. "Let's just go," he says. "I want to get to the temple as fast as possible. We don't have time to waste. My father is waiting for me to bring back the Avatar."

When he turns his back to lead them away from the camp, Katara sees the crew members shoot guilty looks at each other, as though all of them know that Zuko's father isn't waiting for Zuko to do anything except fail.

They travel for a long while. It's a rather boring affair, with Zuko leading the way and Iroh following him—she notes vaguely that the grey in his hair has become very noticeable, pulling back from his temples and mixing with the deep brown of his natural color—and the other soldiers follow silently. After a while, it becomes clear that Zuko is pretty unsure about where he's going. None of the soldiers want to mention it to him.

Finally, Iroh speaks up. "Prince Zuko, aren't you getting tired? The sun is getting low in the sky."

"The sun can do what it wants," says Zuko. "I'm not tired." He stumbles a bit as he treads forward. Annoyed, he repeats, "I'm not tired."

Iroh looks unconvinced, and so do the soldiers. One of them speaks up (finally, she thinks). "My prince, if you would excuse me, I believe it would be best to restart in the morning when you have your strength."

"I'm not tired!" says Zuko again.

"You're tired," says Katara. The soldier who had spoken looks surprised at her blunt words, but then he looks relieved when Zuko turns around to face her.

"Don't speak for me," he says tersely. "We are going to get up that mountain tonight. We are going to find that temple as fast as possible."

"And what if you strain yourself in the process?" says Katara. "What if you find the Avatar at the temple and you have to fight him? You'll be too weak."

"She has a point, Nephew."

"Be quiet!" snaps Zuko. "You, waterbender—you have no right to tell me what to do. I will find the Avatar and I won't be too weak. Besides, that's the reason you're here, isn't it? You're a healer."

Katara bristles. "I'm not here for your personal use."

He glares at her before turning back to his route, mumbling something that sounds suspiciously like "whatever".

"Nephew," says Iroh, "please reconsider. You can hardly stand straight. We have been walking for hours, and your crew members are exhausted." He doesn't mention himself, although Katara can see the aging man trying to hold himself from panting.

Zuko rubs a hand over his right eye and groans. "Fine! Fine. Set up camp. I'm going to sleep. Don't disturb me. When I wake at dawn, I expect us to keep moving forward."

"What about your lesson?" says Iroh, surprised. "You have never wanted to miss—"

"Priorities, Uncle!"

Iroh closes his mouth.

"Set up camp," Zuko repeats.


When their sleeping arrangements are finally settled—Zuko in his own tent, Iroh in his own tent, the soldiers sharing a tent with one posted as watch and the other two sleeping until they rotate—Iroh catches Katara off guard by laying a hand on her shoulder.

"The moon will be rising soon," he says. "Let's have your lesson. Just because Prince Zuko will not be having his does not mean you don't have to."

"Thank you," she says gratefully.

They work through the lesson slowly but carefully. Katara enjoys the feeling of the moon; it makes her warmer, like the sun would do normally, but it does so from the inside. She feels warmer and energetic, filled with adrenaline.

Poor Iroh, she notices, looks more tired than ever—the night is getting long and as a firebender, the man isn't accustomed to working under the light of the moon.

"Are you sure you don't want to stop?" says Katara, unfreezing some water she had pinned into the ground. It seeps into the grass and vanishes. "I think we've done a lot. Right?"

Iroh relaxes. "There isn't much left I can try to teach you, Katara. You must be willing to practice and develop your skills yourself." He gives her a bright smile despite his obvious fatigue. "You have come a long way from when we brought you out from the tower." And then his face falls. He's remembering Lu Ten.

"You're right," she says awkwardly. "I'm not good, though. But thanks for teaching me and trying to help."

"Of course, my dear," says Iroh. "Why don't you go get some sleep?"

She agrees and bids him goodnight, slipping into her bag and trying to ignore the cold that is starting to settle in the night.


The morning comes harshly to her. Mostly because Zuko's irritated voice is cutting through their tiny camp like a million daggers. She groans and flips onto her stomach, doing her best to drown him out.

"Waterbender! Wake up. We're leaving!"

Her eyes snap open and she glares at the grass in front of her.

"Someone wake the waterbender up. We need to leave. If she doesn't wake up, we're going without her."

Katara feels her whole body erupt with exasperation. "I'm up!" she says, sitting up violently and fixing a cold look on the prince. "I couldn't sleep through your crazy screaming if I tried."

He doesn't say anything. He only turns and goes back to his tent, which is now densely rolled to be packed away.

Only ten minutes later, they are heading up the mountain again. Zuko is treading through the terrain with more vivacity than the previous day; to the credit of the three soldiers accompanying them, they are keeping up with him easily.

Katara isn't meant for scaling such land. She's never climbed a mountain before. Her lungs are killing her. Iroh seems to be at the same level she is. His care about his well-being deteriorated a good amount since Ba Sing Se.

She can't think about that.

Forcing the thought away with a newfound will to prove Zuko wrong—what she's proving wrong, she has no clue—she puts all her strength into her legs. Finally—finally—they seem to reach a long expanse of land.

They've plateaued. Grass stretches beyond them until it dips out of view. To their sides are lush forests, somehow surviving the thin air.

"Keep moving forward," says Zuko.

One of the soldiers looks at Katara and Iroh, who are both pale in the face. But one glance at Zuko causes the soldier to swallow. "Yes, my prince."

The soldiers move forward through the short grass. Katara and Iroh trudge behind them, and Zuko is at the front, his fists clenched and his right eye scanning his surroundings with a terrifying intensity. He looks like Ozai, thinks Katara.

The forests around them thin out until all there is left is short grass. It disappears into nothingness behind them, but at least there's no more hill, Katara notices with relief. She opens her mouth to suggest a break when Zuko beats her to it.

"We've gotten through the hard part," says the prince. "Uncle, let's have my lesson."

Iroh looks surprised. "Are you certain, Prince Zuko?"

"Yes. Waterbender, come here. Give my uncle some strength. Then we'll begin my lesson. You all can take a break," says Zuko. "But we're leaving as soon as my lesson is done. The temple is close. I know it is."


"That's enough for today, Uncle," says Zuko. His face is red with exhaustion. "Let's keep going. Not much further. This is as high as the mountain gets. I remember the location from my tutor."

Somehow, it's only just past midday. Then Katara remembers that Zuko woke them all up at dawn. They have been walking for a long time, but at least the terrain is no longer sloping.

"You know," says Iroh good-naturedly as Zuko begins to lead them through the grass minutes later, "you have done good work today, Prince Zuko."

"Thanks," says Zuko grudgingly.

The soldiers beside Katara don't say anything, but they look surprised. Katara can't tell if they aren't used to Zuko being thankful or if they thought Zuko was as bad as everyone said.

"But 'good work' isn't good enough," adds Zuko. "So don't patronize me, Uncle."

Of course. Katara rolls her eyes. The soldiers beside her sigh.

"I was just going to offer some tea as a reward."

"I don't want tea."

"Your loss," says Iroh, who somehow procures a cup of steaming tea from within his robes.

"How did you even have the time to—" begins Zuko, stopping in his tracks, before he throws his hands up in the air. "Unbelievable. I can't find this Agni-forsaken temple and all you're doing is sipping on tea."

"It's a special blend," says Iroh.

"If it's that good, maybe we can give it to the Avatar as a peace offering when we find him! But we need to find him first to do that." Zuko shakes his head. "Come on, men. We need to find this temple. Which seems to be completely nonexistent!"

One of the soldiers points over the ledge. "I don't know, Prince Zuko. The Western Air Temple has always been described as backwards."

Zuko's eye widens.

Across the ledge, on the other side of the chasm between the two mountains, is a massive structure built into the side of the other plateau across from them, halfway consumed by mist.

"That's the temple?" says one of the soldiers. "That's… incredible."

"Don't gawk!" says Zuko. Katara's pretty sure he's gawking himself. "Let's think about how we'll get to the other side."

He stands still for a moment as Iroh sips his tea contemplatively. "We could use vines," thinks Zuko aloud. "Or we could—we could—"

"We could take that land bridge," says Iroh, pointing.

"We could use the waterbender," says Zuko, too absorbed in his thoughts. His face morphs into an ugly scowl. "But she's not strong enough."

"I'm right here," says Katara.

"We could take that land bridge," says Iroh again.

"What?" says Zuko. He looks in the direction Iroh's pointing and sees a ledge pointing dangerously close to the temple. It's a dozen meters below them and to their left, masked by fog. "Don't be ridiculous, Uncle. That's a dangerous ledge. It doesn't connect with the temple."

"It seems as though it used to," says Iroh. "Why don't you take Katara with you and let us know if you can get across?"


Here I am, thinks Katara bitterly. "Don't put your foot there. You'll slip."

"Be quiet. You have no clue what you're talking about." Zuko's foot experiments with his hold on the ledge, which turns out to be a destructed pathway to the temple—but it's enough debris to connect with some part of the temple, and rather than take the safe way of letting Katara freeze some of it (because she's not good enough for all of it), he's aiming for not using her at all.

"At least I've been outside the Fire Nation," says Katara. "You've been in the palace all your life."

"And the faster I get the Avatar, the faster I get to go back," says Zuko. "Ow!"

He refastens his hold on the ledge above him. Katara peers past his hands to his ankle, which is twisted weirdly to the side. "Really, Zuko?"

"Prince Zuko," he mutters. "And it's not a big deal. See?" He lets go and stands rather unsteadily on the rocks. "Look. I'm good. Call Uncle and the soldiers. We'll wait here a bit so I can gather my strength."

She turns over her shoulder and narrows her eyes; the mist is strong, and she can barely make Iroh and the three soldiers out from the plateau. "I don't know if your uncle can make it down this ledge," she says to him. "Your men, sure. But I don't know about him."

Katara can practically hear the grimace in Zuko's voice. "We have to try. Unless you know a different way."

"No," says Katara. "I don't."

When she turns to look at him, she sees Zuko's brow furrowed in something she can't pinpoint. "Lu Ten would be better at this," he says to himself. "What would Lu Ten do…?" Then, as though catching himself, he turns a bright red and sputters at her, "Hurry up and call them down here!"

She hollers to them and sees their figures move to the edge of the plateau. One soldier anchors a rope on the ground and begins making his way down. The other two fasten Iroh with a rope. She holds her breath.

The man makes it down the edge of the plateau with amazing grace and poise. She breathes a sigh of relief. This is Iroh you're talking about, she thinks to herself. The Dragon of the West. He'll be alright.

"Good," says Zuko behind her as the soldiers and Iroh approach them at the ledge. She and Zuko are already waiting on the other side, past the mound of rubble. "Can you make it down?"

"We'll find a way, my prince," says one of the soldiers.

Satisfied, Zuko says to Katara, "My men are strong. Don't doubt them."

"You're right," she replies. "That's not what Lu Ten would do."

Zuko flushes and doesn't say another word.


She's busy healing Zuko's ankle when a messenger hawk comes for him. "Who is it from?" he demands, trying to stand. Katara holds his ankle in place and he almost trips before catching himself. "Who?"

"A message from… Commander Zhao," says the soldier, looking confused.

Something akin to hope brews in his eyes. "Give it here," says Zuko, holding out his hand. "It—it could be important!"

When he has the scroll in his hands, Katara has to wrestle his ankle in place. "Sit still!" she says. "Calm down. You'll aggravate it."

He tears the scroll open and reads it aloud hastily, ignoring her. "Prince Zuko," he reads. "It is with pleasure I inform you of my departure from the Fire Nation to sail the seas in search of the Avatar—" He halts mid-sentence, hope turning to anger. "This is ridiculous! That snake? He's searching for the Avatar too?"

"Who's Zhao?" says Katara. Then she bites her lip. She didn't mean for that come out.

"He's filthy," says Zuko, ignoring her slip of tongue. She guesses if it'd been any other person, Zuko would have corrected her lack of a title when referring to the commander. "He's on my father's war council, and everything he does is… he's a conniving sneak!"

She lets the incandescent blue fade from the water around his ankle and she tucks her element back into her waterskin. "And he's hunting the Avatar, too?"

"Yes!" The word is sharp with fury.

"Calm down," says Katara. "All you have to do is stay ahead of him. Just one step ahead of him at a time."

"Easy for you to say," says Zuko. He crumples the letter, not bothering to read any more of it. "I'm not even fourteen. I'm on my own with one measly ship and a small crew of men who don't know anything, stuck with a failed general who couldn't even finish the siege of Ba Sing Se. Zhao? He's got a whole fleet. He has power up to his eyes." Zuko's words are bitter—even more bitter than when he tells Katara every so often that she shouldn't be there. "I know the man's a liar. He'll tell me he'll help me find the Avatar, but he'll take all the honor himself, and—and I'll never be let back home."

His voice has long since faded to a whisper. Katara pushes herself up from her knees and takes the rumpled letter from him. "I'm going to hold onto this," she says. "And I'm going to read it. Okay?"

Zuko folds his arms over his chest. "I'll bet you ten gold pieces that he doesn't say anything worthwhile."

She shrugs and cautiously unravels the scroll. What a shame—the penmanship is beautiful, something Katara most likely will never achieve in her life. Calligraphy has never been her strong suit.

He's right when he says Zhao doesn't mention anything worthwhile. All Zhao talks about is his new fleet and his blessings from Fire Lord Ozai—she specifically holds this fact from Zuko—and Zhao soon reaches one of Katara's top most detestable people, even though she's never even heard of him before today, let alone seen him or anything of the like. When she's done, she crumples the letter back up and looks up at Zuko. "He sounds like he has his head sorely up his backside."

Zuko snorts. "That's the first reasonable thing you've said all week," he tells her. "And you're probably right. His head is so far up his rump that all he hears is his asinine success." He aims his finger at the ball of parchment in Katara's palm and shoots a line of fire at it. It jumps and bursts into a small flame; Katara yelps and lets it drop as it flickers into ash.

"That's his opinion," says Zuko darkly. "We're not getting involved with him."


Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe is, by nature, not an inquisitive man. He takes things as they come and solves the problems that arise as a result. His son is certainly inquisitive. But he can't think about that. He hasn't been home for a long time.

He can't go home, not until he finds Katara. I'm sorry, Kya. I have to find her. He hopes that Sokka will be able to hold his own without him. He's a strong kid, Hakoda thinks. He'll learn what to do.

There's a knock on his cabin door. "Chief Hakoda?"

Kiwea, he thinks. "Come in."

The warrior opens the wooden door and steps inside, shutting the door with barely a click. "Chief, there are Fire Nation ships on the horizon."

Damn.

"If you ask me, Chief Hakoda," continues Kiwea, eyes alight with young adrenaline, "we can take 'em."

Kiwea reminds Hakoda of his son. But even more than that, Kiwea reminds him of Katara, because he's stunningly smart. But the young man has been a warrior for a long while. The similarity with Hakoda's children ends there.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Kiwea," says Hakoda. "I don't know if we can."

"We can!" The warrior pumps his wrapped fist. (Ironically, he got it from a scuffle with a Fire Nation soldier a week ago.) "Lemme at 'em, Chief."

Had they still been at the Southern Water Tribe, Hakoda probably would have left Kiwea behind. Just so Sokka would have a friend. But they need all the hands they can get, and Kiwea is a young warrior whose motivation is distinctly difficult to come by naturally.

"I can do it, Chief," Kiwea adds.

"You probably can," agrees Hakoda. "But I'm not going to steer our wooden ship to a significantly larger fleet of Fire Nation soldiers. We'll be burned to the bottom of the ocean."

Kiwea's face drops. "So how are we going to get past them?"

"I don't know. But if we can see them, they can see us. Take down our flags. Hard a-starboard. We're avoiding those ships."

"But they might tail us," says Kiwea. "Right?"

"Get out the fishing gear, then. We're on a fishing mission today."

"Yes, Chief," says Kiwea. He opens the cabin door and tells Bato, who's standing outside. The door shuts behind him.

A second later, Hakoda hears Bato yell, "Chief orders hard a-starboard. Everyone get their fish nets! Might as well be useful—we're feasting on hippo catfish tonight, boys!"

A distinctive whoop! follows Bato's words. Hakoda smiles. At least these kids are pretty happy.


Kind of a filler chapter… with stuff happening soon! Thanks for the patient wait, guys. The last week has been a huge exam week for me.

I will be putting up rough sketches of character designs in the coming week on my profile. Stay tuned! (I especially want to introduce Rei and Kiwea to you guys!)

Thanks for reading! Please review!