My Friends are Frightened, They Don't Know What's Going On

"No, I get what you're saying, I just don't see what you expect me to do about it."

"Oh come on! You can't tell me you don't see the problem."

"She's out of the way and doesn't talk to him any more. Yeah, definitely not seeing the problem."

"Ugh. The problem is he's going to leave! They both are! Sooner or later they're gonna go back halfway around the world, and then what?"

"...Still not seeing where I come in."

"Because you're good at this stuff, obviously!"

"Just because I like black doesn't mean I'm a natural spy."

"Then how do you explain that time at the Admiral's ball?"

"...You're seriously doing this. You're bringing that up?"

"If that's what it takes, then yes! Yes I am!"

"...You owe me. You owe me big. ...You do realise she will absolutely kill us if she finds out, right?"

"Oh come on, I'm sure she won't! ...I'm mostly sure. Almost entirely sure."

"I hate my life. Now can we please get out of this broom cupboard?"

Even after all this time, Zuko couldn't quite get over the way she walked. It was like she was holding a grudge against the landscape for not being more convenient to her.

"Yeah, so I'm gonna have to cancel tonight," she grumbled.

"Oh," and it must have shown on his face, because her features softened, from a face like thunder to whole trees in motion, effort needed to walk against wind.

"Sorry. Ty Lee's blackmailing me into spying on your sister while she's on a date."

Zuko gave this due consideration.

"Huh."

Mai sighed. "Yeah."

He blinked. "Wait, she's blackmailing you?"

She glowered, and, metaphorically speaking, branches began to break off trees, and umbrella use became impossible. "She's bringing up the Zhao thing."

"..The Zhao thing? The thing where you found proof that Admiral Zhao was embezzling money? Which got him fired? Which let Ty Lee come home without having to marry him? ...Mai, does she know what blackmailing actually is?"

Zuko was one of maybe three people in the world who would recognise the look on Mai's face as acute embarrassment. "...Yeah. I might have ...embellished that. A bit. Don't get me wrong, he was still crooked, but it... didn't look enough? He might have still had his title if Azulon was in one of his nice moods. So I might possibly have forged a couple of documents and planted them in his house. Maybe. A little."

"...Have I mentioned that I love you?"

"Yes," she replied, swallowing relief. "Anyway, I guess it's not blackmailing so much as she's reminding me of what a natural I guess I am, so. That's my evening gone. You can, I don't know, hang out with the Water Tribe girl or something."

Zuko raised an eyebrow. Mai huffed.

"Ty Lee's basically the only person she talks to, and who knows what'll happen if she runs around without a minder. Just try not to marry her while I'm gone, okay?"

Azula knelt, spine curved in a perfect display of subservience. She knew the rules. She just had to wait, and listen. Father, she knew by the small sounds, had moved over to the window (and she remembered from earlier days, when he had not demanded she kneel, that he would be staring out over the city like he had forgotten there was anything else in the world).

"Events are in motion," he intoned, every syllable precisely cut and weighed, giving her nothing more than he judged her to need, "that could bring ruin to this nation. I will call on you, soon. You must be prepared to do what must be done."

All this meant little to Azula, but that didn't especially worry her. He would explain, when she needed to know. She was sure of it.

"Oh, and before you go, I must congratulate you. Involving yourself with Hakoda's boy was an excellent display of initiative, in light of your brother's failure. Continue, for the time being. It will prove useful later."

"Yes, Father."

The more luxurious guest quarters in the palace had proved woefully inadequate to the task of housing the influx of dignitaries, and so those deemed least likely to complain had been put up in guest houses throughout the city. A great deal of thought had gone into this selection process- the nobles of the Fire Nation were notoriously proud, and with the looming promise of Sozin's Comet coming ever closer, nobody wanted to take any chances.

Among this number of people that had been determined to be no trouble were Sokka and Katara, which just goes to show that nobody can be right all the time.

It was to these quarters- which seemed perfectly decent to anyone who didn't know better, and would have been a slap in the face to a minuscule fraction of the population- that Katara was returning, from a brief visit to the Palace. It was the only time she had been there since the funeral, and had only gone because she thought she should take the opportunity to finally meet Avatar Aang.

All things considered, her coincidentally running into Prince Ozai on her way out was very unlikely indeed.

Katara nearly collided with the tall figure as he stepped out of a side room.

"Oh! I am so sorry!"

"Not at all," he responded, stepping backwards, and oh Spirits she'd nearly crashed into Prince Ozai.

His brow furrowed in recognition. "Ah. Princess Katara."

She coughed, politely. "It's just Katara, actually. Sorry."

Ozai considered this. "Of course. In any case, I was hoping I might encounter you, or your brother. You were planning to sail with the tide, correct?"

Katara let out a hum of consternation. "Planning might be too strong a word."

"I was wondering," Ozai continued, carefully, "if you might be persuaded to stay longer."

Her panic must have shown, because he waved a conciliatory hand. "You are worried about the betrothal. I understand." He sighed. "The betrothal was my late Father's idea. My brother has expressed little interest in cementing such a formal alliance."

Katara's expression remained guarded. "Then... why?"

Ozai sighed. "My children, I'm afraid, do not have a lot of friends."

"Can't imagine why." She couldn't stop herself muttering before it was too late, but Ozai just laughed, a short bark of amusement.

"Quite. Having more people their own age around might be good for them."

Katara shuffled, inexplicably anxious. "Well, I shall certainly write to my Father. If he doesn't need us back, we might be able to enjoy your hospitality for a little longer."

"I do hope so," he intoned, seriously. "Now, I shall not trespass further on your time. Enjoy your evening."

Katara slammed closed the door of their guest rooms, and leaned heavily against it.

"Is it just me," she announced, to the room at large, "or is Prince Ozai incredibly creepy?"

"Yes!" Sokka replied, looking up from a page covered in scrawled figures and pictures of triangles. "Yes he is!" He sounded relieved that someone else had made the observation first.

"I swear, he is up to something," she muttered, hopping out of her outdoor shoes.

"Yep, probably." Sokka went back to his scribbling for a moment, before a horrible thought crawled across his brow. "Oh no," he groaned, looking back up at her, "oh no you've got that look, this is the Pakku thing all over again, Katara no!"

"You said it yourself! You can't deny something's wrong here!" she retorted, on the back foot.

"Yeah, but I don't see how that means we have to do anything about it! He's a Prince! A Fire Nation Prince! You don't go around snooping in the stuff people like that are doing!"

Katara folded her arms. "You just don't want your girlfriend's dad to be angry with you."

"No, I- wait, yes! I don't want that! That's a pretty reasonable thing to not want!"

"Sokka, could you for one second stop thinking with your-"

"Katara, please, can we just... not? Can we please go to one major city in the world without a senior official trying to petition to have us arrested? I know something's weird, but maybe we can just have a calm and normal and completely tranquil visit, and whatever's going on can get sorted out by other people? That'd be really nice, I think."

Katara relented. "Okay. You have a nice evening."

"Okay," Mai muttered, shifting to try and get comfortable. It was a losing battle, roofs not being generally designed with comfort in mind. "He's been standing around for about ten minutes, and it looks like she's about to arrive." She adjusted the telescope, and frowned. "Yep, there she is. Okay, she seems a bit off. They're being shown to their table, and we're pretty lucky they've got a window space. She's threatening the waiter, but it doesn't look like her heart's in it."

Further down, below the crest of the roof, and out of sight, Ty Lee scribbled in a small notebook. She was beginning to wish she'd learned shorthand.

Katara was just finishing her book when there was a sudden knock at the door. Frowning slightly, and taking note of where the water jug was in this room, she paced over, and opened it.

She'd been expecting Sokka, if she was expecting anyone. A sheepish-looking Prince Zuko was a surprise.

"Oh. Hello?"

He coughed, awkwardly.

"Hi, uh. Sorry this is probably weird, it's just everyone's out this evening and I thought you might like, no wait this is stupid I should go-"

My children do not have a lot of friends. That, at least, was probably true. "Slow down," she said, not unkindly. "Come in?"

"Sure!" he exhaled, radiating relief. "I just thought, since there's pretty much no-one around and I know we haven't really talked since the whole betrothal thing, but" he shifted, and Katara noticed the long wooden case he held under one arm "I brought some board games?"

"She said a thing, and he laughed so hard he actually fell off his chair. I always thought that was just an expression."

In the brief lull that followed, Mai felt Ty Lee tap her on the ankle.

"So, you told Zuko to go hang out with Katara for the evening? That's so nice! They'll get along, I think."

Mai had more experience reading Ty Lee than most, and was almost sure she could hear the question in the statement. So, you told your boyfriend to go visit the girl he was supposed to go marry. What's up with that?

But what could she say? Hey, I'm pretty sure every second Zuko spends in that palace is killing him? Or maybe I literally trust a nearly-total stranger to have fewer bad intentions towards him than literally all his blood relations? Perhaps at least she seems less likely to give him another scar because she's bored.

"I figured it was about time he started getting used to other people that can talk in whole sentences. Might be good for him."

"I agree! ...You wanna switch places? My wrist's getting tired."

Katara sat back, and considered her next move. Honestly, she wasn't great at Pai Sho, but at least Zuko wasn't much either.

"So," she said, to fill the air. "Where is everybody?"

Zuko shrugged. "Azula and your brother are on a date. Mai and Ty Lee are spying on them."

"Oh." Katara's brows furrowed as they untangled that sentence. "...Why?"

Zuko sighed, in a defeated sort of way. "Eventually you stop asking that."

"Oh wow, look at her! She's smirking with both sides of her mouth!"

Mai sighed.

"Not really sure how to write that down. Azula discovers what a smile is meant to look like." Mai had heard of hypocrisy, and had decided long ago to not let it slow her down.

"Oh you shut up, this is great! They're actually really getting along!"

Katara was facing a problem. Sokka, she knew, wouldn't have been in this situation- he seemed to be better at not offending people. But the curiosity was burning inside her, and she just had to know-

"Zuko, if you don't mind me asking-"

"Hm?" he intoned, mildly, still intent on the board.

"How did you get that scar?"

Instantly she knew asking had been a mistake. His jaw locked and his hands bunched into fists.

"It was an accident," he recited. "A long time ago. It was my fault."

"Oh. Sorry," she said, trying too late to undo the damage, feeling acutely guilty. "I shouldn't have-"

"No, it's fine," he sighed, slowly unwinding, but that look wasn't leaving his eyes and she would have given anything for the sea to swallow her up right then and there. "It's just..."

"No, I understand. Sorry."

The awkward silence that descended lasted for the rest of the game.

"Well that definitely wasn't a waste of time."

"You can say that again! Did you see her?"

"We were literally spying on her the whole time. What are you- never mind. So, what're you planning to do with this information you think you've gathered?"

"Well, now we can move on to phase two. But I'll need your help."

"Before we go anywhere, I guess I should ask: what is your actual goal here?"

"Didn't you see? She was happy! I don't even remember the last time she looked like that! Why, what did you think we were doing?"

"...Finding a way to distract her so she'd never talk to Zuko again?"

"...Oh. Well, I guess we can work with that. Anyway, now we can move on to phase two. ...Your parents are away, right?"