'I wonder how much of the list they forgot' she thinks to herself as she rummages through her brothers' bag, finding the pastry flour, rice, noodles, a few vegetables, her feminine products (thank the spirits!), and a loose paper crammed at the bottom. Pulling it out, she inhales sharply as she sees the face of the firebender. Her eyes grow wide as she reads the commentary below the picture.

She stares at the wanted poster for a few minutes, feeling conflicted and emotionally numb. He was a terrible person…but his own Father ordered him to be killed on sight? Did he know about this? If he did then he still went into a Fire Nation jail to save her brother. She feels sick and confused, unsure what she should be feeling, anger, concern, gratitude, hatred, relief?

"Hey Katara. Oh…what's wrong?" Sokka yawns as he enters the courtyard, stopping short at the look on his sister's face. She's staring at the paper in her hands with a strange expression. She looks up pleadingly with glassy blue eyes. "Katara, what's wrong?" His voice firm yet calming.

"I…I don't know…what to…" She stammers choking on her words as he takes the paper from her. She brings her empty hands up to her arms, hugging herself.

"Oh…yeah…I found this in town yesterday. I think we should show him…wait, are you ok?" Sokka turns to his sister.

"Yeah…I…no…I don't know! I don't know what to think! Just because he's wanted doesn't mean we should trust him! But that's terrible that his father wants him killed on sight…but after all he's done!" She can't decide which way to direct the emotions that are threatening to spill over.

"Katara, what's wrong with you? Yeah, he's done bad in the past, but he's trying now and obviously he's been telling the truth! He's wanted by the Fire Nation as a traitor Katara! What more proof do you need?!" Sokka fumes, pushing her over the limit. She starts crying uncontrollably, all the frustration from the week's events escaping at once.

"None of you get it! I'm trying to protect everyone! This group is my family now, my tribe, and he's already betrayed us before and Aang almost died! It feels like no one's listening to me! Like everyone's turned against me but I'm just trying to look out for you guys! I feel so powerless! I love you and I don't want anything bad to happen to you cause I…I can't lose anyone else! And I'm afraid that if we trust him, he's gonna hurt one of you…again! It's happened before and I just…I just couldn't forgive myself if it happens again! And…" her voice is choked off by her sobbing and she buries her face in her hands.

Sokka pulls her into a bear hug like their Father used to do when they were upset as kids. Holding her tightly, he says softly "Katara, we all love you, you know that right? We are family and we're all looking out for each other. I know you're scared; I am too…but I'm telling you it's ok. You don't have to trust him right now, but just…let up on him a bit…please…for me?" He strokes her hair to soothe her and slowly sways side to side, feeling her breathing slow.

"Katara…I never thought I'd say this but…can we please stop fighting? I love you too and if you lay off Sparky a bit then I'll let up on you." The siblings are surprised by the uncharacteristically gentle tone of the little earthbender who'd snuck up on them. They pull apart to look at her.

Katara sniffs and wipes a few tears away, "I love you too Toph." It's her way of agreeing to the terms and she flings herself onto the younger girl who allows herself to be hugged for a moment.

"Ok, that's enough Sweetness. Don't go all soft on me." Her tone returning to normal as she shrugs the older girl off. "Is breakfast ready yet?"

Rolling her teary eyes and smiling, she turns to the giant pot and begins making breakfast. *****

"Maybe it's down this hall?" Aang suggests after their fifth wrong turn.

"Tao said it was on the left, I don't think that's the one…we must have passed it." Zuko responds, annoyance clear in his voice. They'd been wandering the temple all morning looking for the secluded courtyard Tao had told them about. And now it seemed, they were lost.

"Well, we might as well take a look. It might lead to a good place to practice firebending!" Aang adds cheerfully. 'Does he ever stop being so positive?' Zuko wonders to himself as he follows the boy down the hall. Taking another right, they're met with a giant door with strange tangled pipes. Zuko considers it for a moment, unconsciously bringing his hand to his chin. It reminded him vaguely of the door to Roku's statue in the fire temple.

"Oh neat! Stand back a bit Zuko." Aang warns. He takes a step back as the child uses his bending to send a whirlwind into the pipes, the ends of which turn with the force. They hear a mighty click of a lock and the massive door creaks open. Aang quickly steps into the room. Zuko hesitating briefly, follows suit. The room is pitch black and his one good eye tries hard to adjust.

"Um, Zuko? Could you, you know, give us some light?" Aang requests from somewhere on his right. He lifts his right hand and a small flame appears. He's too intrigued by what he can make out in the room to notice how small the flame he'd summoned was. His eyes scan the figures arranged around the room and fall on a familiar face. His heart skips a beat. He hadn't seen that face since he'd learned of his relation to it and somehow this felt like a very intimate reunion.

Slowly, he walks towards the statue of his great Grandfather, not hearing a word of whatever Aang is excitedly chattering on about. He stops before the figure and studies his face…yup…those were his eyebrows…and cheekbones. His stomach feels as if it'd disappeared altogether. 'Would you be proud of me now?' he asks in his own mind. After a few moments, he hears Aang's voice change from cheery to nervous and it grabs his attention.

"Zuko?" Aang tries again.

"Hm?" He responds quietly, feeling a bit depressed.

"Uh…this is going to sound really weird…but…I feel like Roku…wants me to tell you…'yes'? Does that mean anything to you?" Aang asks sheepishly, he really didn't want to sound dumb in front of the older boy.

Zuko's head whips around to face Aang, golden eyes wide and glassy with emotion.

"Wh…what? What did you say?"

"Uh…I think Roku wants to say… 'yes'?" Aang responds his face contorting with apologetic uncertainty. He was seriously confused by Roku's sudden request and the prince's behavior.

He stares at the Avatar for a moment then smiles gently and turns back to face his Grandfather. He feels overwhelmed…assured…proud? He's not sure what exactly this emotion is but he suddenly feels very confident that he's where he's supposed to be and doing what he's meant to do. He bows to the figure fondly and turns to leave, holding back tears.

"Uh…what was that about?" Aang asks as they make their way back down the hallway.

"Hm? Oh, I'm…I'm not sure." He lies, not ready to share that particular information just yet. *****

"So…uh…Prince Zuko? Did you two find a good place to start practicing?" Haru asks timidly. It appears that by saving Sokka from the Fire Nation jail, he'd earned the earthbenders trust, despite his apparent loyalty to Katara.

Zuko looks up, shocked at being address by the teen in a not-hostile manner. "Uh, no, actually. We got a bit turned around in the temple." He keeps his voice as pleasant as possible, trying to not test the truce.

"But we did find the Avatar sanctum! We explored that for a while." Aang adds optimistically and Zuko is relieved that he doesn't bring up the fact that Roku had talked to him.

"Oh…well…I could…uh…show you where that courtyard is after lunch. It's pretty hard to find actually…" Haru offers, smiling meekly.

"That would be great. Thanks Haru." The prince says reassuringly, smiling at the peaceful offer. He sees movement below and moves his plate just in time to save his rice from Momo's fuzzy hand. "Nice try biddy." He says to the lemur. Looking up he sees Haru laughing timidly at the scene and he smiles, forcing a laugh in return. *****

"Wow! Haru, this is perfect!" Aang jumps around the wide courtyard excitedly. "Thank you for showing us here!"

"No problem guys! I'm glad to help. I'll…uh, let you two get on with training then." Haru smiles weakly and turns on his heel to leave.

"Thank you." Zuko calls to the teen's back, still trying to sound as friendly as he could. "Ok, Aang. It's getting kind of late so I don't think we can get into any forms tonight. But we can start on some of the basic principles of firebending." He says encouragingly, seeing the relieved look on Aang's face. "Are you still afraid to firebend?" He asks seriously.

"I'm still nervous…but I don't think I'm afraid." Aang admits.

"It's ok to be nervous but try to control your emotions when we practice. Like I said, it could affect your bending. You see, emotions affect your energy and in firebending, we use energy to create fire." He explains to his young pupil. "I know you said that your previous teacher left you alone for hours to breathe. Well, that was a weird way of teaching you but he did have a point. In firebending, we use the breath to create energy, which then turns into fire. So, breath control is extremely important. Which is why today we're going to start working with the breath." He rolls his eyes as Aang groans his disapproval.

Retrieving the candles he'd brought and setting them down in a row on the floor, he explains. "It won't be for hours and there will be fire to manipulate…with the breath. Now, sit down next to me." He tries to light the first candle and has to try a second time to produce a small flame. Shaking it off as nerves, he lights the remaining candles and continues with his lesson.

"Focus on feeling the flames in front of you. When you take a deep breath in, feel the flames get smaller. When you breath out, feel them grow larger. Let me show you what I mean." He takes a deep breath in and the candles almost go out, then the flames triple in size as he exhales. He repeats the demonstration a few times until he's sure the Avatar gets the simple exercise. "Ready to try?"

Aang nods excitedly and turns to focus on the candles. After a few tries and more than a couple annoyed sighs, he's finally able to feel the flames and control its size using his breath. They continue with the exercise for a while until it starts to get dark.

"Very good Aang. You've got the hang of the basic principles of firebending." He smiles at his young pupil who beams back. "I think that should be enough for tonight. We can pick back up first thing in the morning. Do you want to extinguish the candles with your breath? Just focus and breath in as deeply as you can, imagining the flames going out." He instructs the boy, who instantly breathes deeply, chest expanding dramatically as his lungs fill with air, face turning slightly pink. The candles finally go out and the Avatar coughs violently, making the firebender laugh softly while shaking his head.

"Good job Aang."

"Thank you, Sifu Hotman!" *****