AN: Wow! Thanks, quick reviewers! Five in one night - it was like Christmas! I'm posting this now, because I won't have access to my computer for a few days, so read it veeery slowly. Hope you like it!

badonyx: Thanks for all of your comments, throughout the chapters of this story - I appreciate every one! I hope you don't hold all that marriage talk against Aang; he's just trying to save the world with foresight, is all... ;)


Though it was not in the forefront of her mind, Katara realized instantly that the part of this adventure that had been a game was over, now.

Really, she was more focused on dodging and skittering back out of the way. The Dao swords slashed through the air where she had just been and one sent off sparks as it struck the fountain. Immediately, the Blue Spirit attacked again.

When she leapt back beneath the arbor, his blade sliced through the wood, sweeping the entire structure into kindling in a single stroke. He leapt over the wreckage before it had even had time to all hit the ground.

The Blue Spirit pursued her in the same way that he had attacked her firebending guard the previous night; he drove her back relentlessly, never allowing her a firm footing. It was a highly effective method of keeping firebenders from using their most powerful weapon… but Katara was no firebender.

In her next smooth motion of retreat, Katara pulled the entire contents of the fountain down over them both and immediately froze the water in place. His blades stopped a mere hand's width from her chest.

Her exhalation as she thawed the ice around her body was a sigh of relief.

Katara let the water fall away from her and then, walking slowly around the captured Blue Spirit, she thought hard and fast about what this man's presence meant.

It was possible that he was an assassin working for Zuko… but then why would he have attacked her, an ally, the previous night? It was also possible that he had been waiting to catch Zuko at this meeting… but if Zuko didn't tell him about it, how could the Blue Spirit have known to be here?

Under the ice, the man gave off a tiny, muffled sound.

With a thoughtful frown, Katara melted back the ice from his head and neck. Still frozen from the shoulders down in that final double thrust, he took several desperate gasps of fresh air and then turned his masked face to stare at her.

"Who are you and why are you here?" Katara asked. Her tone was quiet, her voice undisguised; she had already given herself away by waterbending, so there was no longer a point in pretending.

Except for his still-heavy breathing, the Blue Spirit did not speak.

With an impatient huff, Katara hooked her fingers under the chin of the mask and flipped it over his head. After the clatter of it falling against the stones of the walkway and on into the silence after, she stared down at that familiar, scarred face.

Zuko stared back. He looked just as surprised as she felt.

Eventually, the waterbender regained the power of speech. "You're the Blue Spirit?"

Zuko hesitated, then narrowed his eyes. "I thought you knew that already – isn't that why we're here?"

Katara crossed her arms and curled her lip at him. "No. We're here because I overheard you and Aang talking about how you were embezzling money from the Fire Nation, but running around in a disguise, striking terror into the hearts of your people really isn't much better, Fire Lord."

"Could you keep your voice down? And let me out of this ice – I'm-"

"I will do no such thing," Katara hissed, leaning close to point a finger in his face. "You attacked me. Twice. In under twenty-four hours."

"I did not! I saved your life last night and- well…" He dropped his eyes off to one side as it suddenly sank in, just how close he had come to sinking a sword into Katara. "I- I didn't know it was you, this time, but if I had, I wouldn't have-"

"What do you mean – that bit about saving my life?"

Zuko glanced around the empty courtyard, then met her eyes again. "Can we not talk about it, here? This place isn't exactly secure." Katara opened her mouth to shoot him down, but Zuko persisted, his expression earnest. "Please, Katara. I know it must not be easy, but… trust me, like you used to?"

The waterbender scowled and watched him for a long moment. It occurred to her that he could have melted or cracked the ice, himself, if he needed to, but instead he was asking her to release him, to trust him. He hadn't intended to attack her, really…

Then, his jaw shuddered involuntarily, teeth clicking together with the cold of the ice encasing him. Katara sighed and rolled her eyes; she really had to stop feeling sorry for him.

In a single, smooth gesture, she thawed the ice and guided the water back into the fountain. Zuko rose stiffly out of the lunge he had been caught in and, looking thoroughly drained and soaked to the bone, he sheathed his swords. Then, he stared down at her.

"Thank you."

"Just shut up and tell me what's going on, okay?" The waterbender crossed her arms. She'd dry him off when she trusted him again… if that ever happened.

Looking slightly stung, Zuko scooped up the Blue Spirit mask and gestured for her to follow him.

He led her up a remarkable number of flights of stairs and down some especially long and regal hallways before opening a secret door concealed behind a wall hanging. He stood holding the door open, waiting for her to precede him, and Katara, after a drawn-out internal conflict, stepped through.

The room was fairly large, decorated with silken hangings in shades of red and gold and a few lanterns scattered along all four walls. In front of the windows, there was a row of enormous stone pots, each containing a different arrangement of large, lush plants. The only piece of actual furniture in the room was a monumental bed in the center – which, of course, faced the east-wall windows.

"Is this your bedroom?" Katara tugged down the cloth that had covered her mouth and nose, then jumped slightly as the sound of the door locking cut the quiet. She peered over her shoulder at Zuko, as yet still unsure whether she should be worried.

He stood beside the closed secret door (which now looked like an unremarkable panel of wooden wall) and crossed his arms, a bit defensively. "It's the safest place I could think of."

"What's wrong with your office? Now that that tree's taken care of, it must be pretty secure."

"Apart from it reeking of smoke," he began in accusatory tone that Katara didn't care for, "my servants expect me to be here. If I do what they expect most of the time, then they're even less likely to suspect me of doing the things I've been doing." Zuko frowned. "And I liked that tree. I hope you don't expect me to thank you for making me destroy it."

"Making you? I don't remember so much as suggesting the idea." Katara set her hands on her hips and raised her chin. "My day would have gone smoother, in fact, if you hadn't blasted me across the garden."

Zuko's expression was incredulous. "You thought you could threaten me and the security of the Fire Nation to my face and I would just let you… sashay away?"

Katara's jaw dropped. "I don't sashay! I stroll or walk or sometimes saunter, if I'm in the mood, but I've never sashayed in my life!"

"Well, that voice you were using was the sort of voice used by women who, from what I've seen, sashay." His eyes flicked down her body as if he had just realized that she had one. "Not that… Not that I pay a lot of attention to that sort of thing."

Suddenly very aware of the shirt that was too tight, Katara crossed her arms and decided a change of subject would be nice. "Why are you stealing from your own people, Zuko? I never thought you were that sort of person."

His eyes widened and he held out his open hands to either side in a pleading gesture. "I haven't been stealing."

"Then why was Aang so mad at you about it?"

Zuko ran a hand over his head, shoving back his zukin and raking his fingers through the wet shag of his hair. Katara noticed it wasn't much longer than it had been the previous year, now that it was free from its topknot.

"The Avatar wants me to make a formal, legal inquiry into the embezzling and prosecute anyone implicated. I can't do that because I already know that a lot of the people involved are noblemen with a heavy stake in the government. If I legally remove them from their positions of power, it will look to my people as if I'm eliminating my political opponents – not bringing justice for the Fire Nation. After my father's rule, the people are… understandably suspicious that I'll go bad in one way or another."

Katara watched him levelly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "So, instead of pressing charges openly, you're running around in a mask, killing people? No wonder Aang doesn't approve. That's crazy."

"I don't usually kill people." Zuko stared down at the mask still dangling from his hand. "Usually, I find ways to expose what people are doing or punish them for it, to let them know they're being watched. There are a lot of guards in my garrison who extort the poorer people in this city. If I catch them at it, they live, but they don't forget what happened to them."

The waterbender frowned in thought. "When you said you saved my life last night… you meant from the guards, didn't you?"

"Yes. I thought you had it figured out, until you hit me with that water whip." The firebender offered a small smile.

Katara did not return it. "You killed one of the guards."

"He'd been paid to assassinate you. I watched him accept the money, myself."

"But, the other guard? He almost died…"

Zuko's brow furrowed, then he nodded, understanding. "The man I killed stabbed him in the neck with a knife; his plan, I think, was to make it look as if the Blue Spirit had attacked, killing you and the other guard."

Katara blinked. "Wait, did… did you say someone wanted me assassinated?"

The firebender nodded.

Feeling suddenly a bit overwhelmed, Katara made her way across the room and sat down on the edge of the ridiculously large bed. "Who?" Her voice seemed tiny, a wheeze.

Zuko followed her towards the bed, watching her closely, as if afraid she might collapse. "A wealthy supporter of Azula who misses the old days of war and profiteering… There are a few of those among the Fire Nation nobility, but I'm pretty sure I know which was behind that particular attack."

Katara stared at her shoes for a long moment. Then, she looked back at Zuko. "I want to help."

His eyes widened. "What?"

"I want to help you… catch them or scare them or whatever it is that you're going to do."

Zuko sat down on the bed, leaving a full foot of empty space between them, and stared fixedly at the mask in his lap. "You don't mean that, Katara… It's not all a thrilling chase for revenge, you know? A lot of it is boring… waiting around all night to catch someone doing something wrong… and it's even worse when you don't catch them and some innocent person gets hurt or dies…"

Katara touched his shoulder and immediately drew back – he was still soaked. With a sigh, she bent the water off of him and into one of the potted plants by the window. He offered her a half-smile. This time, she smiled back. "I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it, Zuko. Really… you need help with this and I want to help."

He held her gaze for a moment. Then, narrowing his eyes slightly, he asked, "Why were you spying on me, anyway?"

Katara laced her fingers in her lap and shrugged. "It was an accident, at first… I was hiding from one of your creepy guards, and then…" Her tiny smile grew into a smirk that she directed sideways at the firebender. "Then, it just got fun."

"Fun," Zuko repeated, expression disbelieving.

She looked back at her hands and tried to explain. "I know it's kind of weird, but I guess a year back at the village was… really boring after all the adventures I had last summer. I mean, you wouldn't think I'd miss camping and fighting and getting hurt… but I do. I'm not even sure what I planned to do, tonight, if you hadn't immediately tried to take my head off…" Katara met Zuko's yellow eyes. "I guess I wanted to tease you a little."

She watched him swallow and raise his good eyebrow. "You wanted to tease me."

"That, or teach you a lesson…" The smirk spread again across her face.

His eyes widened a bit and his mouth opened, seemingly of its own volition. "What kind of lesson were you going to teach me?" As he spoke, Zuko turned slightly, angling his shoulders towards her. His voice had dropped a little lower and he said the words slowly and Katara felt her heart beat a little faster, like she was walking on the narrow ledge on the side of the building again.

Suddenly feeling a bit shy, she looked back at her hands in her lap. "I thought you'd gone back over to the side of caring about no one but yourself – you know, the old 'give me the Avatar!' bit…" Katara held up her hands in scary-claw gestures and deepened her voice for the impression.

"I did not sound like that. Ever." Despite his serious tone, Zuko smiled at her effort as he turned back to face forward. His yellow eyes were still on her, though he held her in a sideways gaze, now.

Katara carried on briskly. "Point being, I thought blackmailing you might scare some sense into you and, if that didn't work, I considered unmasking myself and sending you on the guilt trip of a lifetime."

They were both quiet for a long moment, until Zuko chuckled softly.

"What?" Katara cast a suspicious eye on him.

He smiled at her. "You. Harassing me for fun. I can't remember the last time I did something fun."

Katara grinned. "You mean, after all that talk about capturing the Avatar so that you could fulfill your destiny and that enormous struggle you went through in order to become Fire Lord, you aren't enjoying every minute of it?"

Zuko frowned at the mask in his lap. "I never expected to enjoy every minute of it, but I thought I might get a minute to relax now and then. I work harder here than I ever could have dreamed of when I was a tea server. What you heard while you were spying on me-"

"I prefer 'overhearing' you."

"Regardless, that's what I do all day. On the ship, I got time every day to train, drink tea, play Pai Sho with Uncle – there were so many things I could do… but I was always in such a hurry to catch the Avatar, so that I could get back here." He sounded faintly shocked and amused, as if it was some kind of cosmic joke.

Katara's brow furrowed. "Why is there so much work for you to do? I mean, Ozai had time to nearly take over the world… It just seems as if a lot of the financial issues could be handled by your advisors."

"They could – and they will, once I straighten out the corruption and botched numbers… but that was how my father got the budget into this mess."

Zuko stood and began pacing alongside the bed, mask dangling from linked hands behind his back. "A single financier concealed over ten years' worth of exploitation and bad investments and my father never knew because he never bothered to check the numbers, himself. I wouldn't even have known about it, if it hadn't been for the financial strain of ending the war and Mai's father letting slip that he was somehow still profiting."

"Is that why they're still at their summer home?"

"Sort of." Zuko stopped and tossed the mask down on the bed, then crossed his arms, scowling at the floor. "When I figured out what he was up to, I threatened to strip his title and confiscate the stolen funds. He just laughed and explained that, if I did that, it would look like I was taking vengeance on his family because his daughter had left me – which she did, shortly after we had that conversation."

Katara's jaw dropped. "But… I thought… She really seemed to…"

The firebender met her eye and frowned, looked away. "I like to think her father led her to believe that she didn't have a choice. Probably, he told her I wouldn't marry her if her family name was damaged. She cut her losses."

"That's awful, Zuko…"

He waved a hand, as if to clear the topic away. "The point is, that was this spring and I've finally managed to figure out who's been stealing and how much. Now, it's time to recollect my country's money." Zuko stopped and his eyes settled on Katara. His good eyebrow tilted up in silent apology. "So I can give your country its money back."

Katara held his gaze, her expression grim. Then, she nodded and rose from the bed. "All the more reason why I should be helping you, then."

Zuko opened his mouth to protest, but he hesitated, blinked. It was funny, he thought, that she would choose red face paint to stripe across her eyes.

"Alright," he said, pulling the zukin back over his hair. "Let's go."

The waterbender's eyes bulged. "What, now?"


AN: Reviewers, I love you. Thank you and, also, please?