The next morning Iroh watched his nephew poke at his breakfast. Zuko was slouched over his plate in the most unregal manner: he would alternate between pushing his food around the plate or poking at one item or another. Iroh's eyebrow raised in question but he didn't say anything. He turned his head to look at Katara. She was sawing at her meat with such ferocity that he thought she might cut through the plate and then the table itself. Both of his eyebrows raised in confusion as he looked between the two young people. -What happened last night?- he wondered to himself -Yesterday they had seemed so comfortable with each other and now….- he stopped unsure of what to call what he was seeing. It was as if they had switched roles somehow, with Zuko being the nervous one and Katara the agitated one.

Iroh's hand reached up to rub his chin in thought. Perhaps a change of scenery would bring them to a better understanding of each other. " So…" he started to say, hoping to get their attention, "I was thinking that perhaps we could spend the reminder of our vacation traveling around some of the Fire Nation and paying a visit to some of the villages." They both looked up at him with confused expressions. Katara's mouth started to open but Iroh quickly interrupted her, "I know it may not sound like much of a vacation but it would be it would be a good way to see the countryside and see how the villages on the outer islands are doing." he finished.

Zuko was frowning in thought when Katara said, "I think it sounds like fun. We could visit some of the villages that I traveled through before the eclipse."

Zuko turned to look at Katara with a surprised look upon his face, "What? When did you visit those villages?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes and sighed, " Sokka, Aang, Toph and I were traveled through the Fire Nation to meet up with invasion force on the day of the eclipse. We made a few stops in some of the villages along the way." She huffed and went back to sawing her meat.

"Oh" Zuko replied quietly as he watched her. He turned towards Iroh, "Well, I guess it would be okay. It sounds like a good idea. I am sure it is something the council would approve of."

"Of course they would and I think that we should start by going over to Shu Jing to visit with Piandao. I have not seen him since we won back Ba Sing Se." Iroh said with a grin, already coming up with a plan in his head.

Zuko just nodded his head and then turned it ever so slightly to look at Katara. When he caught her looking at him she narrowed her eyes and glared at him as she stabbed a piece of her sawed apart meat, jabbed in her mouth and chewed with menace. Zuko's eyebrow went up in a mix of shock and a small amount of concern for his safety. He knew that she was upset about last night but he really wasn't sure exactly why. Was it because he had almost kissed her or because he hadn't? He shook his head and tore his gaze from her eyes, tired of thinking about last night. "When did you want to head out Uncle?" he asked Iroh.

"Well, it is still earlier enough where we could head out today if we wanted-" he stopped and reached over a hand over to pat Katara on the back from where she started to choke on her food in surprise.

Katara coughed and finally had enough air to wheeze out, "So soon?"

Zuko stared in concern not sure if he should help or not.

"Why not?" asked Iroh, "It won't take us that long to get packed. My souvenirs I can get the servants to pack up and send on to the palace for when we get back there. We have done everything that there is to really do and I think an adventure would help get out everyone's tension. " he said with his grin still upon his face.

Katara just stared at Iroh slowly blinking her eyes trying to figure out what he meant. Zuko just shrugged his shoulders.


Three mornings later, Piandao came down to the breakfast table and informed Zuko and Katara that Iroh was not feeling well. They both looked at each and then quickly got up from their seats to head to Iroh's room.

"Uncle, what's wrong?" Zuko asked quickly walking into his Uncle's room.

Katara quickly started to bend some water out of her water skin to cover her hands, "Here Iroh, let me look at you." she said.

Iroh feebly waved her hands away, "No, no it is just probably just something I ate not agreeing with me, nothing overly serious."

Katara bite her lower lip in frustration but bent the water back in the water skin. "Is there anything that we can do Iroh?" she asked.

"No, not really." he said, "The only thing I would like for you to do is head on to the other towns. I am not really sure how much longer I will be feeling this way and I don't want to hold you two back."

"Uncle, I don't really like leaving you behind, especially if you are ill." Zuko said frowning at him.

"Oh it is fine. I will have Piandao and Fat to take care of me. Besides you must be getting tired of having to deal with an old man all the time on your vacation. You two go on and have some fun." he finished giving them a feeble smile.

Katara and Zuko looked at each from across the bed a mixture of concern and suspicion crossing their faces. They looked back down at Iroh and Katara said, "Okay Iroh but promise that if you start to feel any worse you will have Master Piandao send a hawk our way." she turned to make sure that Piandao, who was standing in the doorway, had heard her. He bowed his head slightly at her in agreement.

"Of course my dear." Iroh said, patting her hand softly. "I will go finish getting my things together." she told Zuko.

He nodded and watched her walk out the door. Then he leaned down to Iroh's side, "I don't know what you are up to Uncle but I do know that you are up to something. The only time I have ever known you to be sick from food was when you had poisoned yourself when we were on the run from Azula." he finished glaring at Iroh.

Iroh looked at him innocently, "I don't know what you mean Nephew." he said

"Uh huh." Zuko mumbled. He started to move away from the bed, when Iroh called out to him. He turned slightly.

"Just try to be nice Zuko. You and Katara have more in common than you think." he said quietly with a very small smile.

Zuko's eyes narrowed but he gave a curt nod to his Uncle and said, "I hope that you get better soon." and with that he left the room.

Piandao watched him leave and turned to look back at Iroh. He slowly shook his head and "I sure hope your little plan works."

Iroh shrugged his shoulders his smile remaining "The desire is already there, I have only provided the opportunity. It is up to them now. Would you like to play a game of Pai Sho once they leave"

Piandao smiled, "Of course. I will tell Fat to start the tea. And some snacks I presume?" he asked an eyebrow going up.

Iroh just chuckled.


Zuko leaned on the counter of the fish mart stand and watched Katara talk with the people of Jang Hui. He had been surprised at how excited she had been when they had arrived in the village the day before. He had been even more surprised about how excited the villagers had been to see her. She had told him a little bit about her time in the village before on the boat ride over. But he assumed that it was just like when she and the gang had put out the meteorite fire in Shu Jing, no one had been around to witness it so the villagers had been none the wiser. These villagers remembered her and were eager to show her how much progress they had experienced since she had helped them.

It was amazing to him how well she interacted with the people of the villages they had visited so far. In both Shu Jing and Jang Hui she had been an integral part of getting the villagers to talk about their needs and concerns to Zuko. Most of the people had been so shocked that their current Fire Lord had arrived personally to their little villages that they were either too nervous or too afraid to upset him to really talk. Katara had a way of speaking with the people to encourage them to share their concerns, ideas or in a few cases praises.

"Did you want some fish?", a voice asked next to him, making him jump off the counter in surprise. He turned to see Dock - or was it Xu?- standing there looking at him with a silly smile. "Oh uh… urr…no. I was just standing here." Zuko replied.

"Pretty sight ain't it." Dock/Xu stated.

"Yeah." Zuko said slowly, a smile forming. Then he realized what he said, "Uh… I mean …umm…." he grimaced as he tried to find something to say, starting to blush.

"Yeah, I've always thought that our village was a pretty sight too. Especially when the sun is setting." Dock/Xu said looking over the village. He turned to looked at Zuko and laughed, " Oh, hehe. You thought I meant Master Katara." Zuko turned bright red and turned away from him. "You should have seen her when she was dressed up like the Painted Lady. She really did our Lady honor." Dock/Xu said smiling, looking towards Katara.

Zuko turned his head to look towards where Katara was standing. -I bet she did- he thought to himself. At that moment Katara, who was laughing at something one of the villagers had said, looked in his direction and caught him staring at her. His eyes meeting her twinkling blue eyes. Her laughter decreased and her big grin slowly transformed into a small smile as she looked at him. He meet her smile with a small one of his own, her lips twitched up some more as she blushed. Then she quickly ducked her head to look back at the little boy standing next to her. He watched her a little longer as Dock/Xu chuckled next to him.

"Now about that fish." Dock/Xu said to him. Zuko just rolled his eyes and started to pull some coins out of his belt pouch.


The next day they stopped at the Fire Nation village where Aang had gone to school for a few days. Katara had been surprised to find out that school's students had gotten together to start an annual dance in honor of the one that Aang had hosted in the cave almost three years before. At first the headmaster resisted the idea but with the overwhelming majority of the students wanting to hold it and their willingness to hold in it secret if it was banned, made him allow it only with supervision. Zuko had dashed the headmaster's hopes of banning the dance all together by agreeing with the students and saying that it was something that all the fire nation schools should do. Zuko further approved the idea by deciding that he and Katara should attend the dance that just happened to be occurring the very next night. The remainder of the day and the next morning was spent visiting the rest of the village and speaking with the locals. During a brief break Zuko and Katara stopped at one of the shops to have some tea. While there they were there Katara told Zuko about Aang going to the school, how he got in trouble and her and Sokka had to dress as his parents to get him out of trouble. He had laughed when she told him about Aang calling everyone hotman and other 100 year old fire nation idioms and how confused the locals were by them.

The next evening Zuko stood on the corner of the dance floor watching Katara teach the students some of the Southern Water Tribe's dances. He was causally listening to some teachers talk and tapping his foot to the beat of the music when Katara walked up to him. She held out her hand and he quickly shook his head.

"How approving is it going to look if the Fire Lord doesn't dance at least once?" she asked him mischievously. He glared at her quickly but gave her his hand. She dragged him out on the dance floor.

"Katara, I really don't know how to dance that well." he whispered to her quietly

"That's okay Zuko, just follow me." she whispered back with a smile.

He followed some of her steps and then to her pleasure started to add some of his own. It started to feel as though they were sparring but in a much more sensual way as they twirled and ducked around each other. Moving further or closer to each other bodies depending on their steps. She made a final leap toward him as the music slowed and he caught her in mid air. He slowly lowered her down to the ground, her body brushing his as he did. They stared into each other's eyes as they both panted to catch their breath. His eyes were golden flames ,that were holding a strange possessive look, bored into her blue ones. Finally he became aware of the clapping and the people around them and he quickly dropped his hands. He took a step back and bowed to her, thanking her for the dance. She did the same for him and they smiled at each other quickly before heading in separate directions.

For the rest of the evening Zuko kept a distant watch over Katara as she mingled with the other people. Whenever she would catch his eyes following her she would look back at him with a question in her eyes but a smile on her lips. He would just nod at her, it was the protective look on his face that confused her but at the same time pleased her immensely.

Later that night as she lay in her bed she thought back to her dance with Zuko. It had slightly reminded her of her dance with Aang some many years ago. She remembered it being just a fun and full of tension. But she did not remember having to resist the urge to rip of his clothes as she had with Zuko. It was this thought that shocked and surprised her but at the same time excited her to no end. She had always thought that Zuko was attractive so that was no surprise but it was the intensity of the emotions that shocked her the most. Perhaps those dreams she had always had did in fact mean something. But did he feel the same way? There were moments that she thought so because of the way that he looked at her and sometimes the way he acted around her. But he had a chance to kiss her before and he hadn't taken it. So what did that mean?


AN: Sorry to take so long to post. It has been a busy week so far. Hopefully the next chapter will be up by the end of the weekend if not sooner. Thanks again for all the reviews. I truly hope that you are enjoying the story as much as I am.