Disclaimer: I don't own anything ATLA related!

Notes: oh my GOD thank you SO MUCH! The response to this fic has been amazing. I'm so glad you all enjoy reading it.

Review replies:

Aaliyah92: oh man, thanks! Zuko's awkward, as usual. Although I don't know what I can promise with this reunion… I don't think y'all will like it as much as you think you will…

MisunderstoodMalfoy: WHOA THANKS THAT MEANS A LOT :') and, oh gosh, the Zutara kiss? Holy crap, I don't even know when that'll be. Hopefully soon. HOPEFULLY. We'll see how Katara and Zuko drag this…

Onward!

Chapter 21

Beside her, Zuko freezes, and ahead of Katara, her brother imitates him, almost in confusion.

Does he even recognize her?

"Katara?" says Sokka, and then he's running at her with no regard to the furious prince at her side. "Katara! Katara!"

But she never reaches her brother. Zuko darts in front of her, swords outstretched, fire wreathed around each one. "She's mine," he snarls to Sokka. The fire coating his swords jump at each word. "Don't you dare."

"That's my sister!" exclaims Sokka, and Katara's already crying at the sound of his voice—it's been seven long years, seven years tortured by the thought of never seeing her family again, never seeing Sokka again, and she needs to see him, needs to see how his hair has grown, how tall he's become, how his face has thinned, needs to hear how his voice sounds. At this moment in time, she can't care what Zuko thinks. This is Sokka. Her brother. Her brother.

Zuko stretches one hand back, about to launch a bout of fire in Sokka's direction—but Katara whips Zuko's wrist to the ground with a sliver of ice from her waterskin and he tumbles in a fright. A split second later, she's running to Sokka, clinging at him, grasping at his blue parka, the fur lining his shoulders, and she hears Zuko scream.

"Peasant!" Zuko's screaming. "Peasant! You dirty peasant! She's mine, dammit, and so is he—give the avatar to me, now!"

"Not a step closer," says a young voice which Katara barely hears through the pounding of her heart. But she has to look—suddenly the fact that this is the avatar reaches her and she needs to see him, needs to know who will be the world's saving grace.

It's a bald monk. A little bald monk, the last airbender in the entire world.

Zuko roars in fury, tilting his head back and letting out one of the most vicious dragon breaths Katara's ever seen. The ice melts from his wrist and he gathers his broadswords, about to lunge at the monk, when something in Katara runs cold. She can't let this boy be captured—she can't.

So she runs from Sokka and grabs the little monk, turning her back toward Zuko, who is wielding another fire-covered blade—

—and the bite of burning steel hits her back with agonizing pain.

"KATARA!" screams Sokka, and suddenly, she's eight again, on a ship to the Fire Nation, the last waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe, and Sokka is shrieking her name. "KATARA! KATARA!"

Katara forces the blistering pain on her back away as she turns to face Zuko, prepared to defend this boy to the very end. She's prepared to face Zuko's anger, his dragon-like fury.

But she isn't prepared to face the look of horror he harbors, his swords clattering to the stone ground, his eyes wide at the fire still licking at her injured back. Then the other water tribe man is on him, tackling him to the ground, sitting on Zuko's legs and holding his wrists—and Zuko does nothing to fight it, only staring wide-eyed and pale-faced at his surroundings, almost in shock.

It takes several long moments for what has just happened to settle. Zuko, starkly pale, is strung against a pillar with a special metal wire the older man wraps around him; the prince doesn't speak, doesn't even appear to breathe. Sokka doesn't stop hugging Katara, doesn't stop crying, doesn't stop from inspecting every inch of visible skin, including her wounded back, and she can't bother to calm him down because La, this is her brother and she hasn't seen him for seven years and she can't stop crying, either.

And the boy, the little young monk, the last airbender in the world, the avatar, sits calmly at the head of the six-legged creature the whole while, both sagely and with confusion. It isn't until Sokka manages to let Katara stand on her own and Zuko's safely tied against the pillar when the other man wanders over and tilts his head toward the monk. Against the pillar, Zuko sits, unmoving—probably attempting to wrap his head around what has just happened.

"You're the avatar," says the unfamiliar (yet, still familiar) water tribe man, cocking his head up to the monk.

The boy looks sheepish. "Yep. I probably should have told you… I'm sorry."

"You're WHAT?" says Sokka suddenly. "The AVATAR? How come you didn't tell us? I could've found Katara earlier! We could've—we could've—my poor sister!"

The other man gives Sokka a hard look. "Katara's fine. I told you she would be, didn't I?"

Suddenly, Katara doesn't feel quite so welcome. "What are you talking about?"

"You were taken hostage, Katara," says Sokka, pulling her into a hug again. "Hostage! My baby sister! What did that creepy firebender do? Does he always hurt you like this? Torture? Katara, you have to tell me, you're my responsibility!"

Despite herself—seven years—Katara pushes her brother away. "Torture? No, Zuko never—he never tortured me!"

"He's a firebender!" says Sokka indignantly. "Did he lock you up?"

Katara feels the color fill her cheeks. "Well, yes, but—"

"And he burned you! He BURNED you!"

"It was an accident, he didn't know he would—"

"And he's after the AVATAR!" Sokka points a finger directly at the monk sitting at the beast's head. "The AVATAR! Who, by the way, is the world's last chance for peace! And who, by the way," he adds, sending a disgusted look to the boy, "never told us he was the avatar! How do you forget to tell us that you're the avatar!"

Sokka's hand drops and he whirls back to Katara. "Why are you even sticking up for that guy, Katara? Are you—did he make you—" He starts to stutter angrily, unable to even come up with a sentence. "Did he make you—do—"

"No!" says Katara in horror, stepping back. She's a little angry, now, but she shoves the feeling away. She and Sokka haven't seen each other for almost half their lives. He's allowed to be worried. "No, of course not—"

A noise behind her stops her words. She looks back to see the other man at her side—he looks more familiar, now that she sees him closer. "You said his name was Zuko," says the man.

Katara nods.

He looks back at Zuko, who's staring at the dark sky blankly, still pale, his scar a stark contrast again his white, colorless skin. "The Fire Lord's son," says the man.

Sokka starts. Katara doesn't even want to hear it. "He's not like him," says Katara, even though Zuko's actions just a few moments ago clearly seem to prove her wrong. Sokka makes an offended noise behind her.

"That's how you escaped, isn't it," says the man, looking back at her. "That's the banished prince of the Fire Nation. Prince Zuko. You left with him after the siege of Ba Sing Se when he was banished by his father."

"I… yeah," says Katara. The more she looks at this man, the more he somehow manages to make her feel ashamed of herself, despite how kind his eyes had been only several moments ago. She's forgotten the nature of her tribe. She'd been only eight when she was taken, and the more she thinks about how she's spent some of the most important years of her life, she's starting to realize how much she's missed out on traditions she barely remembers doing when she was much younger.

"You were a prisoner," says the man, voice growing colder and colder by each word. "You left with Prince Zuko and left a spot waiting in the tower which needed to be filled, didn't you?"

"What?" says Katara. "I didn't—what are you talking about?"

"Kiwea, leave my sister alone," says Sokka. At once, Katara feels grateful… and annoyed all at once. She bristles at his voice. She can protect herself.

But the other man—Kiwea, yes, Katara remembers him now, only barely, one of her father's training warriors—approaches her slowly, his mouth accentuating every word with the slightest snarl. "The Fire Nation isn't kind to prisoners, you know. If a sentence needs to be carried out, it's carried out, no matter the consequence. Want to tell me who you left behind in the Fire Nation who could carry out your sentence?"

"No one," says Katara defensively. She grabs Sokka's hand. "Honestly. All I had was my family in the South Pole. I had to get back to all of you! I had to get back to Sokka and my mother!"

"Rei!" screams Kiwea, and suddenly he whirls toward Zuko, a spear twirling around his arms, prepared to be thrown. "Do you remember him? Do you?"

And yes, she does remember Rei. Her mouth goes dry. Her vision almost goes black. Her heart begins to pound again, and if not for the airbender suddenly holding her steady, miraculously showing up at her side, she might have fallen to the ground in a heap of terror.

"Rei?" she says, tasting the name on her tongue, remembering her one-armed friend, skin only several shades lighter than hers and hair so brown it almost glimmers gold in the sunlight. "How… how do you know Rei? What happened to him?"

"You happened," says Kiwea, slamming the spear's end to the stone floor. "You! You left. And someone had to take your place. That monster's father—" He gives an icy glare at Zuko, who is silent and unseeing, strung harmlessly against the pillar. "—is the one who threw Rei in there and left him to rot until you were captured. And what are you doing? You, our chief's daughter? You're running around loose with the banished prince of the Fire Nation with no care in the world! Did you ever care about Rei? At all?"

"I didn't know," says Katara, trying to steady her voice, trying not to think of Rei in the prisons of the Fire Nation Capital. She knows how bad those cells are, how the older you are the torture becomes more excruciating. "I swear—"

"You should never have left," says Kiwea. "You should've waited for your father to find you. You should've waited for me to find you! I was there, you know. I saw Rei. I've never seen anyone look more like the living dead than him. All he did was scream. Every night. I fell asleep to his screams every night!"

"Kiwea!" says the boy—the avatar—at Katara's side. "Stop. You're making this worse! She didn't know, okay? Leave her alone. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine for hiding from my destiny."

"You're right," says Kiwea, hard and furious, "it is your fault, Aang. If you'll excuse me, I have someone to deal with." And he turns toward Zuko, steps leaded and heavy.

"No!" Suddenly, the avatar—Aang—sprints in front of Kiwea with a burst of wind. "Stop. This isn't the answer. You're angry. I get it. But you can't solve your anger with revenge."

Sokka's angry voice pipes from behind Katara. "This is the same guy who hurt my sister and locked her up! He deserves what he's getting!"

"The monks said—"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT THE MONKS SAID," Kiwea roars, pushing Aang away. "THEY'RE DEAD, GONE, BECAUSE OF THE FIRE NATION. I WAS CAPTURED BECAUSE OF THEM, BECAUSE THEY TOOK THE CHIEF'S DAUGHTER AND WE ALL LEFT TO FIND HER. REI WAS TORTURED BECAUSE OF THEM. THEY ALL DESERVE TO DIE!"

Kiwea lifts his spear.

But a second later, the spear slices in half and the tip clangs to the floor; Kiwea whirls around in fury, trying to pinpoint what just happened, when Katara tucks her water back into her pouch and rushes toward Zuko.

He's awake, unresponsive, and completely blank to everything that's occurring. "Zuko," says Katara, unable to help herself. She pushes some of his bangs away and tilts his eyes to hers; he meets her eyes quietly, gold on blue. "Zuko, let's get you back to your ship." She starts to mess with the wire.

"Don't," says Zuko quietly, and when she looks up again, she sees him staring behind her to Kiwea, Sokka, and the avatar—Aang.

"They're going to hurt you," she says to him, hands cradling his jaw. "Look at me, Zuko. Please. Please look at me."

"You should go," he says finally, eyes on hers again.

She stares back at him, not because she sees swirling emotion in the depths of his dragongold irises, but because she can't see it. She can't see anything. There's nothing there. No emotion, nothing, just a blank look—empty and unresponsive.

"Katara, get away from him!" says Sokka. "He'll burn you again!"

Zuko looks away.

"No, you won't," says Katara, trying to force his eyes back onto hers. "Zuko, look at me. You won't hurt me, I promise. You aren't a monster. You aren't. I've seen you!"

But he doesn't look at her—she gets slightly frantic, then, she can't have him fall to where she can't go. Katara looks down at the metal wire and finds a frayed end; she drags the palm of her hand against it and holds back a wince as it cuts through her skin.

"Look," she breathes, holding up her palm, now stained red with blood. "I'll get hurt. I'm human, Zuko. It isn't your fault if I get hurt. Look, Zuko, please!" Katara pushes her palm up to his eyes so she's sure he can see her small wound. When his blank eyes lock onto the scratch, she draws water from her pouch again and heals the cut, watching his eyes as he follows the healing of her wound. "And if anything happens to me, I can fix it."

"You should go," says Zuko again, and she sees his jaw clench. Katara's stomach unfurls slightly at the sight in relief. At least he can feel something.

But then he looks past her again and toward the avatar. "You should really go," he says, voice going low, bangs falling into his eyes—her stomach fills with dread a split second, and he adds, "If you don't leave, then I'll just have to force you out of my way so I can get him."

"Katara!" yells Sokka. "Get away from him!"

"Leave her alone!" says Avatar Aang.

Katara's hands drop from Zuko's shoulders. Don't shake. Don't show fear, Katara. You aren't afraid of him. He's just moody—he'll be better in a few hours. He's still delusional. But inwardly, she knows he isn't delusional—the avatar is only several yards away, a prize for three and a half long years of searching… and she knows, deep down, that Zuko will stop at nothing until he has the avatar in chains.

"I'll go," says Katara, blinking rapidly and looking down at the wire around his middle. "But I'll be back in a few hours." She knows Zuko can't escape from the metal wire. There's no way to burn it off and he's in no position to reach his swords—he can't cut through them.

"We'll see," says Zuko.

She thinks about Lu Ten, who's gone. Jao Ra, who's gone. Rei, who probably hates her. Hua, who's gone. Maji and Tuzen, who are too awkward around her now after Hua's death and her previous imprisonment. Ming, who is more her mother than anything. Iroh, who is more her father than anything. A pang fills her as she thinks of her own parents, waiting for her to return. And now, with the avatar actually real, alive, here—she thinks she's lost Zuko, too.

"Katara!"

But she has Sokka now.

An incredible amount of fury fills Katara from her core to the tips of her fingers. Boys. She shuts her eyes, clenching her newly healed hand into a fist and exhales, trying to stay patient. Finally, she turns her head just barely over her shoulder and sees Sokka trying to rush over, held back by Avatar Aang as Kiwea stands terrifyingly behind all of them. Sokka slackens; Katara says with as much strength as she can muster, "Let's go."

She turns on her heals and marches toward her brother—her brother, La!—with as much courage as she can muster. There's no noise from behind her, nothing that can warrant her to stay with Zuko, nothing that can convince her that the boy—man—she actually likes is still there. No, the only person behind her is Ozai's son.

Sokka latches onto her with two strong arms, leading her away from Zuko. The patter of the other warrior, Kiwea, follows them—Katara imagines he's sending a dirty look toward the banished prince, who's wrapped around a pillar harmlessly, unable to do any damage.

But Kiwea passes her too, and he gives her an equally revolted look.

"Why don't we all just sit for a little bit," says the young monk. "We'll—um—start a campfire and have dinner. Somewhere else." He teeters behind them. Katara has a horrible feeling he wants to stick behind with Zuko a little bit.

"Fine," mutters Kiwea. "Come on, Sokka." He marches away into one of the many open arches of the temple. Sokka looks back at Avatar Aang before tightening his grip on Katara's arm, and they both follow Kiwea into the dark halls of the Southern Air Temple.

"You should tell me everything," says Sokka to his sister. "Everything. And we should send a note to Mom as soon as we can!"

Kiwea stares at the campfire ahead of him, the oranges, yellows, and reds dancing like the boiling anger in the pit of his stomach. He doesn't really listen to Sokka's rants, instead thinking of Rei and his promise to save the younger man from the terrible prison. Kiwea never intended to get angry at the chief's daughter. But he never thought she would be helping the fire lord's son. He never thought she would be voluntarily travelling with that monster. And all Kiwea can think about is how easily this girl has lost all value to her home, her tribe, and her friends.

"I don't know where to start," says Sokka's sister—Kiwea gets irrational just hearing her voice. He never would have imagined he would be so angry with her, but since he found out she had been voluntarily travelling with the banished prince of the Fire Nation, he had been wracked with fury. "But first thing's first, Sokka. How are you? How's mom? Have you heard from dad?"

"Mom's okay," says Sokka as he holds a small slab of meat over the fire. "She never talks. Well, she tries to. She's really strong, but… she wasn't the same. I can't remember what she was like before you were taken." He jumps as Katara moves closer to the fire to hold her own food over it. "Katara, no! Let me do it."

"I can do it myself," says Katara.

Kiwea snorts. "Sokka, don't bother. She's more familiar with fire than you are."

A long silence permeates the air after Kiwea's words. He looks away from the fire toward Sokka's sister. She's very clearly annoyed, but she tries to look pleasant.

"Do you have something you want to say to me?" she says with a strangled smile.

"I've said all I need to, traitor," says Kiwea. Katara's eyes flare.

Suddenly, a noise comes from the entrance of their dark room and Aang zooms in on his little air scooter, one that Kiwea is now used to. He's grown a little fond of the twelve year old boy. In the face of all that's happened in the past hour, however, Kiwea's thoroughly annoyed at everything, so the air scooter makes him snap. "What were you doing? That prince could have killed you!"

"He doesn't look that bad," says Aang. "Maybe he's just confused." He looks at Sokka's sister with big grey eyes. "Is he confused?"

"Hey! Lay off the questions about the crazy firebending prince who tortured my sister!" says Sokka.

Kiwea watches as Katara's brows furrow. "He didn't torture me," says Katara with tight lips. She looks like she wants to say something else, but Sokka looks offended, and Kiwea thinks it's better if she doesn't say anything at all. If she says one good thing about the Fire Nation in general, he thinks he'll go crazy.

But Katara obviously can't read minds. "And yeah, I think he's just confused." She flushes. "He really isn't that bad. He cares a lot about his crew."

"He's chasing Aang!" says Sokka defensively.

Kiwea continues watching Sokka's sister, who has the decency to look embarrassed. "Well… um, sorry, Avatar Aang," says Katara, looking down.

"Just Aang is fine," Aang pipes cheerfully.

A long while passes before Katara looks back up at the young airbender. "For a long time, I didn't think you'd show up," she says. "Ever since I was with Zuko, I thought everything he was doing was a waste of time. My only goal was to get home. But you're actually here," she adds, almost in a daze. "That's amazing."

"Well, not really," says Aang. "It's only thanks to Sokka and Kiwea."

"He was stuck in a ball of ice," says Sokka dryly.

Katara's jaw drops. Kiwea imagines punching her jaw up into her head so all her teeth crack and fall.

As Sokka explains the entire ordeal—as well as describing everything that occurred during Katara's absence, littered with bad puns and typical Sokka humor—Kiwea's eyes move back to the campfire. His thoughts go back to Rei, the teen who plagued his thoughts during his three years spent in South Pole. How could she just leave him there? As a warrior who prides and cherishes the loyal pack characteristic of his tribe, Kiwea finds himself horribly angry at his chief's daughter. Three years I've spent waiting for the chief. Three years I've spent with Sokka, hoping to catch the chief again. Three years hoping the chief would return with Katara. And all that time was wasted. Where had Katara been? Happily sailing the world with Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation? Descendant of Agni? Great-grandson of Fire Lord Sozin? Amazing. Three years of wasting time,only to find that the chief's daughter spent her time frolicking about the world with some tragic scar-boy.

It isn't normally his place to become so horribly grudged against one person, but Kiwea is so furious with the girl. He doesn't care if she's the last waterbender of his tribe. Here he and Sokka are, giving everything up to help the avatar and to find her, and they find her and some psychotic firebending prince sailing the world. Doesn't she care about her tribe? Her family? Her mother, her father, Sokka? To Kiwea, who has always acted for the best of his brothers, her actions are inexcusable.

So when Sokka finishes his story, all the while admonishing Katara if she approaches the fire too closely or looks back to where the prince is somewhere in the temple, Kiwea sees Katara inch closer to the fire and feels a string inside him pull taut and break.

"Cold?" says Kiwea. "Looking for something hot, are we? Do you want to have Prince Zuko make you a bigger fire?"

Katara freezes. "Excuse me?"

"You know what," says Kiwea, "I'm done. I don't want to deal with you. Anyone who willingly travels with someone the likes of a Fire Nation prince is no brother or sister of mine."

"I didn't willingly travel with him!" says Katara indignantly. Kiwea feels his fists itch with the need to punch her big mouth right off her face. "I did what I had to do to get home! It's not my fault Zuko's ship never reached the South Pole!"

"Zuko?" parrots Kiwea, standing rapidly and glaring at Katara over the glowing embers of the fire. "Zuko? Every word out of your mouth is a testament to your betrayal of the tribe. Calling that monster by name! Doing what you had to do for your own self-gain! You left Rei behind in the Fire Nation!"

"I didn't know!" exclaims Katara, rocketing to her feet and glaring up at him. The fire reflects orange off her dark skin while casting an equally burning look in her blue eyes. "I didn't know Rei would be in trouble! I'm sorry, okay? If I stayed, I would've been tossed into the prisons and I never would have been back home! At least now there's a chance we'll find my father and he'll come home!" Her voice catches. "I didn't know about Rei! It's my fault! I get it!"

"You better believe it's your fault," spits Kiwea.

Suddenly, Sokka stands, too. "Don't talk to my sister that way."

"Don't tell me what to do. I'm your elder. You owe me your respect."

"I don't care if you're my elder or not," says Sokka. "You said we're all family. What happened to that? You always compared us to moon wolves. We never leave a member behind. I don't know who this 'Rei' guy is, but he's clouding your judgment! We need to be logical about this! You're the one who taught that to me!"

"You're right," says Kiwea. "We shouldn't leave members behind. And I made a promise not to do that to Rei. But she—" He points to Katara with a shaking finger. "—is no member of my tribe."

"How dare you," says Katara, trembling with anger. Kiwea can't stand looking at her. Of all the laws to violate, she's violated every single one.

Sokka looks heavily offended. As Katara takes one step closer to Kiwea—one step closer to the campfire—Sokka says, "Katara, careful!" and Katara explodes.

"I am finished with you all criticizing what I've done for the past seven years," says Katara, whirling on her brother. "You! My own brother! I haven't seen you for half my life and you think you know what's better for me! You don't know me! We've been apart for so long that you can't know me!" Then she swivels to Kiwea, eyes alight and furious. "And you! You have no idea how I've spent the past three years, locked in one room on the ship with no way to communicate! You have no idea how much I've been through in the past several days, dealing with an assassin and trying to protect the only people who were willing enough to bring me home!" She rips up the left sleeve of her red tunic, trimmed with gold on the edges, and suddenly Kiwea sees the heirloom of the chief of the Southern Water Tribe around her arm—Chief Hakoda's arm brace. His stomach drops as Katara continues, "You have no idea how terrified I was when I thought my father was taken—or killed—by the Fire Nation, trying to rescue me!"

Her words finished and her hair disheveled, some loose strands catch in her mouth as her wide eyes stray from Sokka and Kiwea to the young avatar. She swallows and gives the avatar a terse nod. "Avatar Aang," she begins, voice cracking barely at the end, before she shuts her eyes, inhales deeply, and begins again, "Aang, thank you for returning to help us in the war against the Fire Nation. I wish you the best of luck."

She turns on her heel and marches straight out of the room. Sokka opens his mouth to call after her in shock, but Aang, standing now and looking heavily saddened, shakes his head. "That's my sister," says Sokka in shock, before he plops to the floor. "That's my little sister." There's no room for jokes in Sokka and there definitely won't be for a long time.

It isn't until several minutes later when Kiwea's sitting back down and staring at the campfire in silence when he pinpoints the awful drop in his stomach as guilt.

Katara spends several long minutes attempting to navigate the Southern Air Temple. The time walking has allowed her heart to still and for the trembling in her fingers to lessen, but she's still shaken.

I could leave, she thinks for what is probably the umpteenth time in the past five minutes. I could just… leave. Go home. Or somewhere in the Earth Kingdom, she adds in her head, thinking back to Kiwea's words about her "betrayal". How could he? She barely even remembers his name, and he thinks he has the right to call her out on the turmoil she's spent in the past seven years?

But thinking about Kiwea makes her think about Rei and she can't think about him, because now all she knows is that he's rotting away in a Fire Nation prison cell. All because of her.

So she takes her time trying to find Zuko. She doesn't know what she's going to do yet. Now that she's found her brother, she just wants to finally, finally leave. But seeing him again… hurts, and it hurts bad, because it's home and she hasn't been home in forever and Kiwea's words have torn her apart.

Because she could've gone home. She did have a choice. She could've picked up, left her room at any time, abducted Zuko's ship—she's strong enough to control all the water surrounding the ship, after all—and made her way to the South Pole. And she did have a choice in the Fire Nation. She could've stayed and accepted her fate as a prisoner of war. She could've saved Rei from whatever terror awaits him now every night in the dark and dank cells of the Fire Nation prison. The traits of the Southern Water Tribe are instilled into all the children from the moment they can understand the words: The tribe comes first. No member of the tribe strives for self-gain. And by leaving the Fire Nation to escape the prison, she strove for just that.

Katara is just about ready to scream and leave it all behind.

But just as she's seriously contemplating it, she finds Zuko, still strapped against the same pillar and staring out at the night sky, and she balks.

"Zuko?" she whispers.

Then his eyes find her, gold and tired, and his scar looks even harsher in the moonlight.

"You came back," he says. His fingers twitch in his lap. The dimples in his cheeks press in before fading as he swallows heavily. "Why did you come back?"

"Don't worry about that," she says, quickly dropping in front of him against and grasping his hands. Truth is, she has no idea why she's back. "Are you okay? Are you feeling better?"

"I don't know," says Zuko. The bag under his good eye is in stark difference compared to his pale skin. "It… feels like a dream." His fingers curl around hers. "I hurt you."

He hurt her? Then Katara remembers it. The flames at her back from his fire-wielding blades. She'd done a cursory healing session on her back and hadn't thought about it since, but it had been a pain to do because of the angle, now that she thinks about it. "I'm okay. You didn't hurt me."

Zuko grips Katara's fingers so hard the skin around his knuckles go white. "I feel sick," he admits, looking heavily troubled. "All I can think about is the avatar, and—and he's so close—he's still a kid—but if I just have him, I can go home—" He inhales shakily, brow furrowing, and then he unfurls his hands from her own. "But… you…"

It's stuff like this that makes Zuko so frustratingly annoying to work with. One second, he is furious, and with his long hair, he is the image of Ozai—only with a large angry blemish on the left side of his face. The next second, he is the most tortured soul Katara's ever encountered, and it's times like these when Katara thinks he really isn't like Ozai at all.

And Katara thinks it has a lot to do with Iroh. She wonders just what his uncle has said to Zuko over the past three years while she was "locked" away in a room on his ship.

Zuko looks up at her quickly. "Why aren't you with your brother? I thought—I thought you would leave with him."

Looks like we're back at this again. "Turns out spending half my life apart from him means we don't understand each other that well," says Katara, feeling her heart ache at the thought of him. "I'm so happy to see him again. I never thought that I would. But now that I did, I feel like I don't belong with my tribe anymore. I don't have a home. At least, not according to Kiwea."

She doesn't explain who Kiwea is, but it isn't hard for Zuko to understand. He doesn't question her. Instead, he says, "Do you feel like your home would accept you if you returned anyway?"

Katara locks eyes with him in surprise. "I'd like to think so," she answers after a long, quiet moment.

The prince in front of her squeezes her hands, which are still holding his. "That's something we have in common," he says, almost inaudibly. Katara can't help but think that the list is too long, now, too full of things they have in common and yet too full of things they don't.

Minutes tick by. Katara doesn't know how long she sits in front of Zuko, her fingers itching to pry the metal wire off of him—but she knows the risks of doing that, of releasing the Ozai-planted demon inside him. The second she unwraps the wire from around him and the pillar, the second she risks putting the avatar—Aang—at the forefront of his mind. So she waits as patiently as she can for the night to grow long and for Zuko to grow tired with it.

A shift in Zuko's fingers brings Katara's attention back to the present. Zuko is staring off the edge of the mountain, toward the direction his ship is in. "Do you want to know why I grew out my hair?" he says finally, rasping against the dark of the night.

"To look like your father. Right?" It's still a stupid reason, if Katara has anything to say about it.

Zuko barely dips his head in a nod. His eyelids flutter and drop slightly in fatigue. "That, and because of you."

Leaning back in surprise, Katara tries to deduce why before she gives up. She can't possibly understand why she motivated him to grow out his hair and to resemble his father (of all people for her to remind him of!). So she waits for him to muster up the courage to continue.

"I don't think I would've grown out my hair again," begins Zuko, watching her as if he's afraid of her leaving at any given second, "if not for the fact that you were on my ship. I wanted to show off my—my scar, because I thought it would mean I was ready to accept my punishment for speaking out of turn. I thought it would mean I was strong and unyielding—that I was tough and I could bring honor to my nation."

He breathes in deeply and exhales out smoke. "But then when I had you locked in your room—which clearly didn't work for that long—I started thinking about the consequences of having you on the ship. I wasn't bringing honor by harboring a prisoner on my ship. Never mind the fact that I'm banished!" The words come out quickly now, as if his reasons give him shame. Katara has to agree. His words about "harboring a prisoner" on his ship are pretty offensive. "So I grew out my hair to hide my scar—to look like my father and to show to others that I had power. That I was in charge. That the prisoner was, in fact, a prisoner, and I was doing what my father would do to any prisoner while on a mission. I tried to bring my father honor even though he couldn't—and still can't—see me."

Then Zuko flushes red and squeezes Katara's fingers until they go numb. "But then the Black Lightning killed Hua and I couldn't do it. I couldn't. I was killing a part inside of me. My answer to all my crew's requests had always been about the avatar. Even my own uncle told me to think for the crew, and every time, I thought about my father and what he would do—and I knew he would stop at nothing to get the avatar. Then Hua was murdered and I couldn't do it anymore. My men were in danger. My men are in danger." Zuko smiles bitterly. "That's how I got into the Agni Kai, you know. Back at home? I spoke up against a general because he was suggesting sending a bunch of rookie soldiers to their deaths as a distraction. I couldn't let them do that. Those were men fighting for the Fire Nation—innocent lives wasted for something as trivial as a distraction. That's why I started tying my hair back. I never used to, not until I had you come up on deck after three years. That way, I'd look different from my father again. I would give honor to my men by serving them as their prince."

He blinks rapidly and Katara sees both his eyes, good and bad, wet with tears. She wishes Sokka were here to see this. This is the Zuko that convinced her to fight with him against the Black Lightning. This is the Zuko that made her, deep down, not leave the ship and go home.

A tear breaks free and trails down Zuko's good cheek. He ducks his head and wipes it away against the fabric of his shoulder, unable to do anything else in his position tied against the pillar. After a long minute, he lets out a wet laugh. "It's all my uncle's fault, really. He taught me over the past three years, with you locked away… that I should do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

"Me?" says Katara in surprise. Up until this moment, she'd been quiet, attempting to listen to him. But now she's just confused.

She has a feeling the next four words takes a lot of courage for Zuko to say. "You're my… only friend," he says.

That is the most un-Zuko-like thing she's ever heard Zuko say.

Katara figures it's because he's so exhausted and hungry and confused. There's no way he would say anything like that in his right mind. But he keeps going with it, too, and Katara isn't about to stop him because she has an irrational warm bubbling sensation in her chest and stomach. Zuko's head lulls forward—he's tired, too tired, and all the emotions probably have him at the brink of sleep. "Uncle said that you're the only one who can challenge me… you're the only one who can make me see myself… for who I am…"

Sounds like Iroh.

"Get some sleep," she says to Zuko, untangling her fingers from his. "I'll keep watch. " As if she has anything to keep watch over.

"… 'tara…" Zuko's murmur is soft in his haze of sleep. He struggles to keep his eyes open and breathes something about "coming back with him".

"We'll see in the morning," she says to him, because she genuinely has no idea. "Right now, just get some sleep."

He does. Zuko falls asleep as soon as his head dips forward and his chin hits his chest.

Katara moves and settles next to him, awake by the moonlight in the sky. She wants to go back to Sokka, to ask what he thinks will happen if she goes home. Does he even want me to go home, or does he want me with him as he travels with the avatar—I mean—Aang?

The more she thinks about it, the more the night drones on, and the more she shivers, so she presses closer to Zuko to get as much of his internal firebender heat as possible—and the more she thinks about what Sokka would tell her. And the more her eyelids begin to drop, the more she knows that Sokka would only insist for her return home—"for her protection", and La, she can't do that, because then Zuko would have no motivation for whatever change he's undergoing.

But it isn't like I'm not changing, either, she thinks blearily to herself, feeling the heat off Zuko's arm seep pleasantly into her side. I'm stronger, too. If Zuko ever gets evil, she knows she can just leave.

Her last thoughts for the night are about the avatar.

She hopes he leaves.

She hopes that, by the time she wakes up and Zuko is alert, that the avatar is gone, and that Zuko has more time to consider his place in the world. It takes her a split second to realize that this means she's willing to travel with Zuko. Because, according to Kiwea, she doesn't have a home, not since she subjected Rei to the Fire Nation prison and took off with Zuko in the first place.

But Zuko has no home, either. According to his nation, he is rootless.

She thinks they'll sail the rootless seas together, and she'll be right in her element, and she'll help him find out how his element burns in him and which way the fire glows the brightest.

LMAO

OH MAN

I AM SO SORRY

I know you guys wanted this heartwarming reunion and everything and I just WANTED to give it to you and I tried to make it as heartwarming as possible from Katara's point of view. And then Katara kind of… tore away from me. Honestly, after spending a little less than half her life away from her brother, there's a lot of stuff they don't know about each other. I am SO sorry it didn't end on exactly the best terms, but I needed it to happen, and so did Katara. Sokka's still in his "girls can't fight" mode. (He'll be out of it shortly.)

And finally we get some sort of explanation from Zuko. Poor guy. I'm trying to relate it back to the actual canon timeline, here, because the part we're at now is around the time where Zuko releases Appa from Lake Laogai in the canon timeline, and then he gets super sick and experiences some weird illness of destiny or whatever the hell that's called. Keep in mind that Aang is released from his glacier about half a year after the canon timeline.

As for Kiwea… dude, I have a plan for him, promise. I know he's a dick. I am sorry that he's a dick. He will be better at not being a dick. But for now, he is a dick. I hope I made his explanation as to why he's furious with her understandable.

No Black Lightning today. (Although I'm pretty sure everyone knows who the Black Lightning is, because I'm pretty bad at keeping secrets, and also, there were pretty big hints when he confronted Katara a few chapters back in the brig.) He will be back within the next couple chapters.

And… oof, Katara, Katara, Katara… girl, what am I gonna do with you? It's HARD getting her in character because in canon, she goes CRAZY whenever Zuko's around. The thing I'm trying to convey here is what she felt in the crystal catacombs with Zuko (before, you know, he did the stupid thing to do). She trusted him there, and she trusts him here because they have things in common. But man, it's HARD! And getting Zuko's reaction to everything is even harder! Because in the canon timeline, he's hardwired to capture Aang no matter what. Here, after being exposed to Katara and her story, he isn't hardwired, not when he finds motivation in her to be strong (if only to compete against her). I know he's a lot softer here than in the canon timeline, but his inner struggle is there, I promise.

The past few chapters have been strongly dramatic and not very funny, but that will soon be fixed. I promise!

I had a lot of fun (and a lot of agony, HAHA) writing this chapter! Please review!

Thanks for reading!