The rule of thumb for the first day of a new job is to always arrive early. Which was why Katara found herself sitting alone in the official council chamber several minutes before anyone else would arrive. In an effort to leave a good first impression with her newfound coworkers, she came early and set about organizing her binders and pens to sit squarely in line with the table in front of her.

It was likely that they wouldn't think very highly of her. The odds were against her in that aspect. She was an outsider. What she knew of the Fire Nation came out of the mouth of the fire lord himself, which was, quite honestly, an objectively privileged perspective. And to address the elephant mandrill in the room, the timing of her hire and the start of her relationship with Zuko didn't help. Perhaps accusations of nepotism could fall on deaf ears if it wasn't for her clear lack of experience. Zuko was right that she did have a PhD in political science, sure, but that alone didn't qualify her to be a trusted member of the fire lord's counsel. Her jobs at EKPR only tangentially counted as experience. Her jobs in the political realm consisted largely of canvassing and intern work. She had no idea how such a background would stand up against the other ministers, and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

As silly as it was, she hoped that an early arrival would persuade her coworkers that she was their equal. Someone that they could take seriously. It would be horrible if she were to arrive late, or worse yet, arrive at the same time as Zuko, and have the whole room jump to conclusions about her character. Plus, some time alone before their arrival gave her some time to organize her thoughts.

She cleared her throat and it echoed throughout the room. Maybe it was counterproductive arriving this early. For a nation whose core values included "fire" and "light," their rooms felt alarmingly dark and foreboding. The chamber she found herself in currently had a haunting aura that ran shivers down her spine. A portrait of Fire Lord Ozai watched her from across the room. Why hadn't they replaced that yet? She remembered Zuko mentioning that he wanted to paint his own royal portrait. From some of the doodles she caught glimpses of, he was quite skilled, but since his main duties demanded most of his attention, she figured that it was difficult to complete those side projects. He'd finish it sooner or later.

Tomlin was next to arrive. Despite his young age, Zuko had always described Tomlin as being the most responsible, level-headed member of his staff. As his personal assistant, Tomlin was charged with taking minutes at these kinds of meetings. Katara knew him decently well. He managed Zuko's schedule so the two of them often worked together to find times that she could meet Zuko to record episodes of The Burning Questions. He seemed like a sweet kid, but he knew about as much Earth Tongue as Katara knew Fire Tongue, which made most of their interactions brief. She smiled and waved at him. He returned the gesture, before taking his seat on the opposite end of the table.

Despite having spent nearly half a year in the Fire Nation, Katara felt like a novice when it came to speaking in Fire Tongue. As a gesture of kindness, Zuko spoke to her almost exclusively in Earth Tongue. She could get by with the basics. She knew how to order her food and ask for directions. It was much more 'hit or miss' when it came down to talking about the complexities of the political entanglement that the Fire Nation found itself in internationally. Still, Katara was a fast learner and she prayed that she had what it would take to mount the learning curve.

With this in mind, Katara let out an audible sigh of relief when it was the minister of finance, Renshu, who came in next. At least now she wasn't the only one who stuck out. He probably thought the same thing. The green of the tie he donned matched his eyes perfectly. She wondered if the color choice was his own tiny rebellion or if it was pure coincidence. He sat down next to her and extended his hand to shake hers.

"Minister Katara. It is a pleasure to meet you in person finally," he said to her in Earth Tongue.

"The pleasure is mine, Minister Renshu."

A smile played on his lips. He continued. "We'll get along just fine as long as you don't go over budget for international spending. If you can do that, we'll be just fine."

Before Katara could respond, a woman, who she presumed to be Jian, the minister of war, snorted loudly from the doorway.

She sat across from Renshu and Katara, and set her bag down on the table with a reverberative thud. "Is that why you are always mad at me, Renshu?" she gasped in mock horror, "I am wounded." She spoke Earth Tongue pretty well. Jian directed her attention to Katara. "Don't worry about him. I'm beyond the budget always." Katara didn't know what else to do except nod. Jian directed her attention back to her bag and pulled wrinkled papers out from the bag directly and stacked them haphazardly in front of herself. Renshu bristled.

Katara looked back and forth between the two of them, amused, and then at Tom. Was he already taking minute notes?

Before Renshu could shoot a response back, the final and oldest minister of the group, Yat-Sen, came into the room. His near-translucent hands shook as he lowered himself into the chair next to Jian. The bickering stopped. Jian gave a glance in his direction before winking at Renshu and started digging at the cuticles of her nails with ferocity.

Yat-Sen started a conversation with Tomlin in Fire Tongue. Katara couldn't make out most of it, but it was an interesting interaction nonetheless. Tomlin made an effort to sound friendly but serious, like he was chatting with a grandparent who had asked him how school was going.

Zuko was the last to arrive. And though he was late, his entrance was anything but fashionable. Instead he seemed overworked and under-rested. A stray hair had escaped his top-knot and dangled above his eyes. He blew it out of the way every couple of minutes, only to have it fall back where it had been before.

Still, when he saw Katara, he smiled. It was a familiar expression by now, one that he often reserved for her. Normally it was reassuring, but today she wished he hadn't done it. It felt too personal. It felt like it scratched the professional veneer of their meeting. She returned the smile, quickly and half-heartedly, so as to not hurt his feelings. She hoped the other ministers didn't notice.

"Everyone," Zuko began in Fire Tongue. Around the table, everyone snapped to attention. "This is Katara, our new minister of international relations. Some of you may remember her time working here as a journalist."

So that was her introduction. Zuko had kept it brief, and she was grateful. It didn't need to be a whole thing.

She contemplated following up and introducing herself to the room. She had an introduction prepped too. By the time she got the nerve to speak up, the moment had passed. Zuko shuffled some papers in front of him and addressed Tomlin, "What's first on the agenda today?"

Tomlin pushed a folder towards him and then one to everyone else in the room. "Well, we have to discuss the Southern Water Tribe alliance and what that means for the future of the Fire Nation."

Jian laughed, "War. That's what that means."

Renshu rolled his eyes. "Well, I for one think it's good that the Fire Nation is finally trying to help some of the nations that it has wronged."

Zuko nodded at them, "So you both approve of continuing the alliance? And support of the Southern Water Tribe independence movement?"

Jian shrugged, which was presumably her way of agreeing.

Renshu nodded but added an addendum, "I support an alliance. Not a war. We can't pay for something like that."

Zuko nodded politely back at him, "What does everyone else think?"

Katara's reaction was delayed as she translated the conversation into Earth Tongue. She glanced at Yat-Sen, whose head was tilted back against his chair, eyes closed, and snoring quietly.

She cleared her throat. "I agree with Renshu. The alliance has my support but I think that a war would be painful, especially so soon after the last." She was slow in her translation, but she was almost certain she got her point across. The group nodded along encouragingly, propelling her further, "I believe we should cautiously push forward on this issue but do our best not to antagonize the Earth Kingdom more than we have to. Prime Minister Kuei is in an election year and it will not be wise for him to start a needless war either. There is a big difference between supporting an independence movement and going to war over it. We will do what we can to help our southern allies while still keeping worldwide peace." She made a formal effort to make eye contact with everyone in the room and not just Zuko.

Tomlin paused from taking notes to give her a quick thumbs-up.

The meeting continued like that. From that point on, they discussed more domestic matters, which, thankfully, let Katara take the backseat and get acquainted with her new coworkers. So far, Yat-Sen's main personality trait was that he was old. He slept through the majority of the meeting. A couple times he snored loud enough to wake himself up. It would startle him and he would listen into their conversation wordlessly until a few minutes later he inevitably fell into a slumber once more. Meanwhile, Zuko would barrel through the cacophony of snorts and grunts unfazed, indicating the high frequency at which Yat-Sen took his naps.

Jian was much like Yat-Sen, in that she paid little attention to most matters. But unlike Yat-sen, Jian was full of life and would interject at random intervals with witty remarks or oddball descriptions of some of her side project inventions that she had been working on. She talked the fastest of the bunch, making her the hardest for Katara to understand. Although Katara had to wonder if anyone else could understand her either.

Renshu talked more coherently and at a greater length than Jian did, much to Katara's relief. Renshu took his job as minister of finance seriously. He behaved as if these financial matters affected him personally, like the mere suggestion of overspending was a direct insult to him and his sensibilities. Nevertheless, she respected his dedication to his duties and quietly concluded that he was her favorite minister of the lot.

She heard Zuko say her name, and tuned back in just in time to hear him finish his thought.

"Minister Katara and I will be travelling to the Southern Water Tribe next week, but we will still have our weekly conference as planned. Tomlin will make sure that the two of us are both caught up on what you all discussed before we return. I have an appointment I have to get to, if you will all excuse me." With that, Zuko left. Tomlin followed behind.

Katara packed up her things and made her way back to her new office. As the minister of international relations, and with the Fire Nation in the middle of an international tug-of-war between the Earth Kingdom and the Southern Water Tribe, she had her work cut out for her. There was a lot of adjusting that she had had to do since she came back from the Earth Kingdom, but she had no problem with having work to do, having had just spent such a long stretch of time without it. Thankfully, her time living under Sokka's roof was starting to feel more and more like a far off fever dream. She hadn't been able to fully shake off the lethargy from her bout of depression, but the newfound sense of purpose that came with her new job helped lift her spirits tremendously. The giddy sense of satisfaction she got from her work reminded her of the early days at EKPR when International Hour got its first pilot. She was starting on a brand new adventure, and even though she felt largely out of her league, she trusted in her adaptive abilities and hoped that the imposter syndrome would fade with time. She was just grateful to have a direction in life again.

Of course, having Zuko by her side helped, even if their relationship was still uncertain. They didn't quite know how to treat each other as they wandered from the safehouse that was their friendship into the murky waters of their burgeoning relationship. Everything was so new and fragile that made the both of them act skittishly in front of each other. For all of its bumbling awkwardness, there was something electrifying about it. There were moments when they fell back into step with one another that reassured Katara that it was worth all the heartache. Of course, they were both always so busy. She hoped that their trip to the Southern Water Tribe would give them more of an opportunity to get accustomed to their new dynamic without interruption.

But Katara had a lot of work to do before their departure. So she did what she did best, and threw herself into the work in front of her.