On the first day of classes, Katara was already looking forward to the first break. Someone had recognized her from the debut and people were hounding her between lectures. Even in the halls with more than a hundred students, she could hear her name whispered among the ducked heads. Inevitably, someone near her would check their phone and their head would whip around, settling on her for a second before typing a furious reply.

Armistice Day was two weeks into the first semester, which would at least give her a long weekend.

However, when she tried to find something to do, nothing seemed to come together. After taking off so much time, Sokka was adamant about keeping the shop open. Especially, as he reminded her, now that he had to save for a wedding.

Rohan was traveling with Thuy to Gaoling. The Beifongs - who had worked with Avatar Kuruk's companions - had a daughter that was a professional fighter. On the one hand, it was assumed that such a wealthy and well-connected family like the Beifongs would be the ones to teach the new Avatar if they had the ability. On the other, Rohan knew it was because Thuy's unusual upbringing was the perfect match for the fact that Toph Beifong was blind and undefeated.

"So does that mean you're going to be Thuy's airbending instructor?" Katara asked as she screen chatted with them while in bed. "I mean, you're plenty unusual."

"Unfortunately, Pop is pretty insistent that she have some sort of reasonable and level-headed teacher. So Jinora is doing it." Rohan said.

"Has her firebending-"

"AZULA." They interrupted and Katara dropped her phone as she fumbled. Diving for it, she fell off her bed.

"Azula will teach her?" She asked, popping up onto her knees. Rohan nodded vigorously.

"Now, none of this is being confirmed in the press at the moment. But someone leaked our travel plans to the Fire Nation." They answered.

"You're going to the Fire Nation with her?"

"Yeah, I'm like her guide for a minute until she finds her group."

"Hmmm." Katara rested her head on her bead, staring up at the ceiling. It might be interesting to go travel the world with the Avatar. Maybe in another life.

"Hey, I gotta go, but chat soon? Unless you'll be elbow deep in some guy's guts." Rohan said and Katara looked down at her scream, grimacing.

"I told you-"

"I know, I know. Class work first, cutting up people later." Rohan flashed a quick grin and Katara sighed. "Say hi to your brother for me."

They ended the call and Katara pushed herself up, stretching her arms over her head. She could study, go over her anatomy notes one more time, but her head just wasn't in the right place. Laying back down on her bed, she pulled up the info page on Toph Beifong. She was only a little younger than Katara, but was a bit on the small side. Watching the recommended video, Katara guffawed loudly as she watched the woman launch a man twice her size into the stands.

This was exactly the thing Sokka was into. Hopefully as Queen of the Water Tribes, she could get the Avatar to introduce them.

Sighing, Katara dropped her phone onto her chest and put her hands over her eyes. She had to think about something happy.

Her thoughts for years had circled around being a physician. She wanted to go home to be a village doctor, spending her days assisting births and treating ailments. Katara fantasized about being a hero not for the destruction she wrought, but for ending the regular tuberculosis that plagued the tribes. Murdering viruses was much easier to swallow than the human body count that haunted her.

But now that was being taken away from her. Arnook had, for all of her attempts to avoid it, gotten her alone. He expounded on her the importance of her position, the necessary responsibility she needed to take for her people. She would be an icon of strength, of prosperity, and would be able to keep all three tribes safe.

Because Thuy was still vulnerable, and didn't Katara want to save her from the same fate of losing her home and her mother?

Thuy was capable for her age. She had told Katara that Avatar Aang came to her first when she was at the heart of the swamp. A massive tree, that was simultaneously all of the trees in the swamp, was where she went to hide from her noisy family. It was there she meditated and found how the tree was connected to all things, and how she was connected to all things through it.

It was then that Aang found her, and taught six-year-old Thuy hilarious things to do with mud. It didn't even strike her that she was earthbending.

Thuy explained that all of the elements were connected to each other, and that the Avatar was the heart of that forest. All she wanted, she said while they looked over the group of Avatar descendants, was that everyone would find their commonality and be able to celebrate their differences.

"Like how fire and water both flow so beautifully." Thuy had added.

Katara rolled her eyes just as she had then.

There was a certain romantic aspect to fire and water. And steam could be pretty, but more often than not it just scalded people who got too close.

Her phone started to ring and Katara picked it up.

"Well speak of the hogmonkey." She said as Zuko's face showed up.

"You were talking about me?" He asked.

"Tangentially thinking about." Katara said and then sat up. "Hey, I never got to ask, what did you think of Thuy?"

"She was nice. She said I looked like I belonged at the North Pole." Zuko answered and Katara snorted.

"I think that brat is trying to set us up." She said.

"Girls at that age are wild."

"I wouldn't know. I was getting ready to fight my way through Fire Nation territory."

"And Azula was leading a hit squad against me so I think you're going to need to take your trauma card elsewhere ma'am."

Katara laughed, shaking her head.

"A little birdie told me that Azula is going to be teaching the Avatar firebending." She said.

"Oh yeah? Did that little birdie also mention that they were the one to spill the beans to the press? I swear, Rohan can't keep a secret to save their life." Zuko said. Katara chuckled again and looked at Zuko's face.

"If you had been a normal teenager, what do you think you would have done at her age?"

Zuko let out a breath and looked off into the distance as he thought.

"If I were normal, my mother would still be around. And." He suddenly smiled and rubbed his eye with his hand before pushing his hair back. "Okay, so in my mother's village, there's this theater camp that runs in the summer."

"No way." Katara said, her voice breathy in astonishment. "Zuko, you are such a nerd!"

"I can't help it! You saw my father, I inherited the drama!" He retorted and they both laughed.

When they settled, Katara lifted the phone high above her face.

"Have you ever gone to your mother's village?" She asked. Zuko looked thoughtful, which made her feel better for asking.

"Once. After the war but before I was recalled." He said. "It's nice but homely and made me realize that I could never not be rich now."

"You're soft."

"I'm so weak Katara you don't even understand."

As they laughed, Katara saw him smile at her.

"You have off on Armistice Day right?" He asked.

Katara nodded.

"Why don't we go to Hira'a? The tourist season ends there really early and the people there don't mind me so much since I'm Ursa's son."

"Are we going to go to summer camp?" She asked.

"Maybe we can tangentially think about it." Zuko replied.

Katara focused on her schoolwork during the week prior to leaving. She didn't want to have to think about tests or her first research paper the entire weekend. What did bother her was a lack of supplies for the trip. Zuko said there was a legend about the woods surrounding Hira'a and suggested they go hiking. At first she had agreed, but then Sokka informed her that she would need gear for such a trip.

Luckily, a person in her lab had his from a cross kingdom trip. As Katara collected some of the basic things, she shook off others. Her hike wasn't going to be as intensive and she could just rely on her phone for directions.

Flying out, Katara was too excited to be nervous going through the airport. Her anxiety resurfaced only briefly when she made a layover in a larger Fire Nation city to board a very small charter plane.

There were a few other passengers on the plane and one little boy chattered endlessly for the entire trip. Katara, tired, smiled but looked out the window, trying to focus on something else.

The woods around Hira'a were thick and the canopy resembled broccoli florets. What was unexpected was the massive mountain and the few shining discs of the lakes.

Zuko met her as the plane landed, standing under a shaded area while the plane taxied to a stop. Suddenly shy, Katara held onto the straps of her borrowed backpack while she walked down the stairs.

"How was your trip?" Zuko asked as he met her on the strip.

"It was good only," Katara looked up with a small frown. "Do you think it'll rain?"

Zuko looked up at the sky as well. "The weather says no. And it tends to get overcast like this every day in the afternoon."

They looked at each other and Zuko held out his hand.

"Come on," He said. "Let's get to the house."

At the small luggage carousel, Zuko grabbed her suitcase and rolled it as they left the airport. Katara glanced up at the sky once more as they walked through the cool air curtain at the exit. It definitely felt like a storm to her.

To her surprise, they walked past the taxi stand.

"The house is close." Zuko assured her, having seen her face. "And the villagers prefer that there not be a lot of cars. It disrupts the environment."

The village was beautiful, even in the subdued light. The trees were a deep green, and bright flashes of fruit or clothing stood out against the leafy backdrop. There were roads, but people on bikes or motorbikes swarmed over them. Every once in a while, a delivery truck would rumble past, coughing out black smoke and Katara understood the facemasks.

"Ah, Prince Zuko!" Someone called out and they turned. A middle-aged man on a motorbike walked up to them, his flip-flops slapping his heels.

"Noren?" Zuko asked in disbelief.

"It's good to see you, la!" Noren replied and Zuko, leaving Katara's suitcase on the sidewalk, went to shake the man's hand.

"I didn't think I'd run into you." Zuko replied and Noren waved a hand in front of his face.

"I heard the crown prince was in town, so I knew I had to come and see." He said. Zuko laughed and rubbed the back of his head. He then stopped and looked back, waving Katara over.

"Katara, I'd like you to meet Noren. He runs the theater in town and was a friend of my mother." Zuko said as Katara got closer. "Noren, this is my friend Katara from the South Pole."

"Ursa was part of the theater troupe." Noren said as he shook hands with Katara. He then slapped his thighs and looked at Zuko. "So, dinner?"

Katara and Zuko made it to the house and Katara insisted on changing before they went to Noren's house for dinner. His wife Noriko was a sweet lady who doted on Zuko, but more hilarious was their teenage daughter Kiyi. While she tried to hide it, Kiyi was clearly excited to see Zuko and showed him pictures of her latest paintings on her phone.

Noren told Katara about Zuko's visit to the village years ago. Trying to find some piece of his mother, Noren had offered his assistance in any way that he could. During that short time Zuko spent in the village, he got very close to Noren and his family, becoming like an older brother to Kiyi.

While they were at dinner, all three of them turned on Zuko when he spoke about his plans to take Katara into the woods. Noren didn't like the woods at all and Noriko insisted that it was going to rain. Still, Noriko packed them both up with extra food and Noren gave them a ride in the dark on his bike.

Tired, full, and covered in sweat, Katara laid face down on her bed and fell asleep.

In the morning, Zuko packed their lunch while Katara reheated leftovers from Noriko to eat for breakfast. Zuko handed her a mug of coffee just as she served up the plates and they both looked over a map. The route Zuko plotted out was simple and they went over their supplies. Water, sunscreen, bug spray, and even a portable battery to recharge their phones should the worst happen. It was just a day hike, and the sun was even poking out behind some of the clouds, so it wouldn't be too bad.

"Can you bend humidity?" Zuko asked as they shoulder their backpacks.

Katara rolled her eyes and started toward the door.

The trail head was further from their rental than the airport, so Zuko called a taxi. Unsurprisingly, a young woman on a motorbike showed up and they piled on like they had when Noren had driven them home last night. What was nice was the moment when the driver handed them a face mask each, shaking her head at their clumsy application.

The humidity was disgusting and Katara was panting by the time they stopped at the park. Zuko peeled money out of his wallet and handed it to their driver, who saluted them before puttering off.

"Are your babysitters here?" Katara asked.

"No. Hira'a is small and they know when there's a visitor. And again, I'm Ursa's son." Zuko said.

"Oh good, so if I drown in this air, it's only you who can save me."

"We'll be fine."

The rain started fifteen minutes into their walk.

There was no warning. It was clear one moment and the next a gray sheet had dropped all around them. The rain fell like bullets and they ran to the nearest tree with leaves sturdy enough to hold up against the onslaught. It took awhile and Katara felt the sting of the rain on her scalp.

"It's just a burst." Zuko said, rubbing his hair vigorously. "It'll pass quickly."

Right as he finished speaking, a crack of thunder went off like a shot.

"We need to get to shelter." Katara said. Zuko sighed and nodded.

They moved blindly through the rain, stumbling over tree roots and exposed stone. Small rivers of muddy water rushed down the path and Katara worried about slipping. Finally irritated, she used her bending to repel the water from her. It was unnatural and made her feel weird, but she couldn't even see three feet in front of her.

"That's a lot of water you're holding." Zuko remarked as he stood in the dry spot with her.

"I can do better." She said and moved sinuously around. The ball of negative space undulated, but burst as Katara thrust out her arms with a sharp breath. The rain around them stopped.

Turning her head, Katara saw Zuko staring at her, open mouthed.

"Like what you see?" Katara quipped.

Zuko nodded and Katara blushed, losing her smirk and feeling her ears burn. Suddenly aware of her notice, Zuko coughed and swung his backpack off a shoulder, pulling it to his front.

"Where did you learn to bend like that?" He asked as he unzipped the main pocket and rummaged through it.

"War." Katara said simply. This was oddly easier to hold than the negative space, since she wasn't trying to keep the water away from her. The fat droplets simply hung in their air like strands of glass beads.

"It didn't do anything like that for me." Zuko said. "All I got out of it was this face."

"Zuko, your face is fine." Katara remarked.

"You only say that because you like me."

"I didn't find you ugly before I liked you. It was just surprising." Katara paused, listening to the heavy rain that fell around them. It was much more enjoyable now that she wasn't getting drenched.

"The burn surprised me too." Zuko said and held up his phone. "Here we go."

Katara walked over to him, pushing the rain out of her way. The fat drops burst against her hand the same way boba pearls would against her tongue.

"How did it happen?"

"The burn? After my grandfather died, my father insisted that my uncle step down since my cousin had died. My uncle is older and had no heir, whereas my father had two children and was young. My uncle refused and the war started. I defended my uncle and my father punished me." Zuko explained as he pulled up a map of the woods. He didn't look at her as he spoke and Katara stared at his burned eye.

"Zuko…" She murmured and lightly touched his face. Wherever Zuko went while telling the story, he certainly wasn't with her and her touch shocked him. Jolting back, he surprised Katara, who fell with a yelp. She lost her hold on the rain and it, plus everything held up on top, dumped on them, soaking them instantly.

Zuko went to her and picked her up, running with her in his arms.

"I saw a cave." He yelled over the sound of the rain. Katara just held onto him, feeling the wet soak into her skin.

When Zuko dipped into the cave - which was only moderately drier than the open - Katara used her bending to dry their clothes. Zuko found windblown debris and made a scant fire, again shaking out his hair.

"Sorry." Katara said softly.

"It's fine. It was an accident." Zuko replied with a weak smile. "The only downside is, I dropped my phone and it's fried."

"Okay, so that is bad." Katara said and then brightened. "Wait mine is in my-" She stopped as she reached into her back pocket. Slowly pulling out her phone, she stared dumbly at the shattered screen.

"But we do have the map!" Zuko said and went to his pack. He pulled out the map and sat down to open it over his lap.

"That sure is a map." Katara said as she sat down next to him.

"I know these are elevation lines, but…" Zuko tapped the map.

"You don't know where we are."

"Not a clue."

"And we can't call for help."

"No."

"So what do we do?" Katara asked, her voice strained with anxiety.

"Wanna makeout?" Zuko replied. Katara scoffed and then, seeing his grin, started to laugh.

"When the rain stops, we can try to find our way back to the path." Zuko said and put his arm around Katara's shoulders. "For now, let's just hang here and rest."

The rain lasted for nearly an hour and Katara forced Zuko to wait until the air felt right to her before leaving. As they walked out into the forest, nothing looked familiar. Having peered through heavy rain, the shimmering brilliance of wet leaves was disorienting. Zuko kept the map out, turning it in his hands before picking a direction.

"Zuko?" Katara asked cautiously and Zuko looked up from the map.

"Yes?"

"Why did you even go back if your father burned you?"

Zuko's thoughtful face was nuanced, as Katara now saw. He looked pained, but in a way that made Katara think he was going to tell her bad news.

"My uncle and I believe that my father wanted me to refuse to return. That was always an option for me. I could renounce my claim to the throne and stay with my uncle in Ba Sing Se. But if I did that, Azula would inherit." Zuko shook his head. "And I don't want to live in a world where Azula is a political force."

"But does that make you happy?" Katara asked.

"The future makes me happy. Knowing that I'll be able to do the things I want when I'm the Fire Lord." Zuko answered.

"But that might be decades away!"

"But it will happen. And my father can't really do much harm since he knows I'll oppose him."

"You made a really brave choice Zuko."

Stepping over a fallen log, Zuko took Katara's hand and helped her over. As she hopped onto the ground, he held onto her.

"Oh, I don't think I'm all that brave." He said softly. This pained look was more internal; something that hurt him alone.

He then patted her hand before releasing it and they started off again.

"Do you think I'm making the right choice?" Katara continued. "To be the Queen of the Water Tribes?"

"Well what does being queen mean to you?" Zuko asked.

"No more war."

"Then I think you're at least giving it an honest go."

"But I could do so much more for my people if I was a doctor." Katara replied.

"Really? Because what do you think will happen when Arnook dies?" Zuko questioned.

"What do you mean?"

"Yue was his heir, right? And not even a proper heir; she was going to have to be married so some guy could be the King of the North Pole."

"And?"

"My kingdom went to war over the prospect of there not being an heir to inherit. If Arnook were to die without someone clearly next in line, I can tell you war is exactly what will happen."

"No, my father wouldn't let that happen."

"It might not have anything to do with your father. Or it'll happen with or without him. The South Pole might want to keep their independence, same as the Swamp Tribe, but Arnook has made it clear that the North Pole wants unification. War would happen regardless."

"And you just know this to be true?"

Zuko gave her a look and Katara threw up her arms.

"Why does this have to depend on me?" She asked. Zuko shrugged.

"Circumstances of birth." He said nonchalantly. Katara lowered her arms, having them fall loose and slapping the sides of her legs.

"Spirits, is it really just that?"

Zuko walked up to her and rubbed her arms.

"Even something so mundane as when you were born can change everything. I mean," Zuko paused and huffed out a laugh. "If Thuy had been born a moment earlier then she wouldn't even be the Avatar."

"I don't want my whole life plotted out just because of when and where I was born." Katara said.

"Okay, so what's one thing, within reason, that you want that you can get while stuck with these choices?" Zuko asked.

"I want to be with you." She blurted.

When Zuko blushed, his skin turned yet another shade of red that didn't match any part of his scar. He gripped her arms for a moment before suddenly releasing her and walking away.

"Zuko?" Katara called.

Zuko whirled around and pointed at her.

"You wanted to go on a date." He said fiercely.

"Yes?"

"Let's go on a date."

"We're sorta lost right now."

"Not now." Zuko rubbed his hands on his pants and looked down for a second. "After midterms. A proper date."

Katara laughed, nodding.

"Okay. But how are we gonna get out of here?" She replied.

"I don't-" Zuko started but stopped as a call went through the woods.

"Zuuuuuukoooooo?" A woman yelled.

"Is that Noriko?" Katara asked. Zuko chuckled and took her hand. Jogging, but watching out for roots, they moved in the direction of the calls. Noren, Noriko, and Kiyi all were shouting from in front of them.

When they finally broke the treeline, the family was standing, each one holding an umbrella.

"Ay! There they are!" Kiyi shouted.

"Ah, thank goodness!" Noriko said and fanned herself.

As they all gathered, she swatted Zuko's arm.

"Why didn't you listen to me, boy?" She asked and Zuko laughed, rubbing where she had hit him.

"Mom! You can't just hit the prince!" Kiyi said.

"When the rain came, Noriko was really worried about you and insisted that I drive out. When you weren't at the trailhead, she knew you were lost." Noren explained.

"Tourists always get lost." Kiyi added.

"The prince isn't a tourist." Noriko said sharply. "He's just not as familiar with these woods."

"Well, we were lost and I'm really thankful you came out here." Zuko said. "I'll make sure to listen to you better, Auntie." He leaned in and hugged Noriko, making her blush.

"Dad borrowed our neighbors van so we can take you back." Kiyi said. As she looked at Zuko and Katara, she shook her head.

"It must be nice to be a waterbender." She remarked.

"They are very handy to keep around." Zuko agreed. Katara glared at him as he chuckled.

"I will put you in ice." She hissed. Zuko didn't reply, but took her hand as they all started to walk to the trailhead. His hand was warm and dry, which made Katara aware of the cool dampness that lingered on her skin. But she wasn't cold. At least, not with him.