Chapter 101: Locked In

Upon reflection, Katara decided that the past week of near house arrest had been… utterly unbearable.

She'd left the house once during that time, to go to the market in the Middle Ring, and she'd been accompanied by Joo Dee and no less than three Dai Li agents. She'd been told that her friends were not allowed to accompany her. On the bright side, she'd forced her escorts to carry their groceries, so there's that.

Sokka had spent the week pacing back and forth, occasionally muttering under his breath. Every so often he'd clap his hands in excitement, and then his face would fall and he'd return to pacing. For the most part, the muttering was the only time Katara's brother spoke. He spent most evenings hunched over his maps and charts, scribbling away, plotting and planning. She'd tried asking what he was doing, but he'd just shake his head and say that it was 'nothing'.

Toph complained. Loudly and frequently. About anything and everything, from the Dai Li holding them as virtual prisoners to the fact that she didn't care for the spices Katara used in a meal. Katara was extremely close to losing her patience with the younger girl, but she was biting her tongue; largely because Zuko had taken up the job of keeping the Earthbender in check. Katara wondered how the Firebender did it; he didn't yell or threaten or anything. If anything he seemed to egg her on, which made Toph stop for some reason. For a while, at least.

Aang had grown progressively more sullen over the course of the week. It reminded Katara far too much of his attitude when they were in the Desert. The relatively positive outlook he'd had since entering the city had all but vanished. He snapped at anyone that spoke to him, lashing out. He spent increasing amounts of time alone in his room, ignoring them all.

As for Zuko… Well, Katara would argue that he was handling it the best. He spent large amounts of time out in the garden, meditating. He'd be out there before dawn and wouldn't move until the afternoon had started. Otherwise he tried to help Katara keep the group's morale in check; he pulled Toph out of her moods, forced Aang to meditate with him, and he'd started pulling Sokka outside to 'practice' their hand-to-hand combat. In reality, it seemed to Katara that Zuko was doing more teaching than practicing; Sokka could scrap and fight, and he'd picked up a surprising amount from his short time with the Kyoshi Warriors, however he was largely untrained.

When it came to herself, Katara was doing her utmost to keep busy. She went to the market every day, albeit with her escorts; she threw herself into her Waterbending practice, dragging Aang outside with her; she cooked, cleaned, sewed, and even baked, when she felt like it, though even she'd admit that her baking lacked a certain something.

"Taste." Toph would say loudly and almost cruelly.

When it came to those sorts of comments, Zuko would handle it by nudging the Earthbender's shin with the toe of his boot, glaring mildly at her. He'd then turn to Katara and say, "You just need practice, that's all. Baking's a skill."

Katara smiled softly when she thought of that.

For the most part, though, they'd passed the week in relative peace. No major arguments or fights; though, if Katara was honest with herself, she could feel one building up. Sokka was clearly frustrated, both with himself and the situation that they were in. Aang was angry, knowing that Appa was so close and yet out of their reach. Toph despised being controlled or handled in any way, and this was an extreme example of it happening. Tensions were mounting.

It was late one evening, after a week of being locked in, that Katara found herself sat on a small wall in the garden, staring up at the Moon.

Under her breath she asked, "What do I do, Yue?"

Zuko cleared his throat behind her. "Mind if I join you?"

She startled slightly, but nodded, patting the wall beside her. He sat down, their shoulders brushing.

They sat in silence for a while, just staring up at the sky.

Katara eventually said, "You know, we've been in the Earth Kingdom for a while now, but I still don't recognise the stars. They're so different from the South Pole."

Zuko nodded. "I remember thinking the same when I was deployed, and after I deserted. Everything about the Earth Kingdom was just so… different. The people, the country, the food, even the stars."

Katara tentatively asked, "What's… What's the Fire Nation like? We've technically never been, just to that one Temple when Aang was trying to talk to Avatar Roku. And we've been to some of the Colonies, of course."

Zuko was silent, and Katara peeked a glance up at his face. He was sat on her left and staring straight ahead, so she couldn't see the patch over his left eye. It startled her how different he looked when she couldn't see it. Not better or worse, just different. His face looked pensive.

She almost regretted asking the question when he said, "It's been a long time since I've been home. Years. The summers are scorchingly hot; imagine what it was like in the Desert and that's sort of like it. It's not a dry heat, though, there's humidity, like in the Swamp.

"As for the winters… It doesn't really get cold in the Fire Nation, not like in the Water Tribes or the Earth Kingdom, but we have the rainy season, and the monsoons will come."

Katara smiled. "I can't imagine it being that warm all the time."

Zuko smiled as well. "Yeah, well, I didn't see snow until I was fourteen and travelling through the northern parts of the Earth Kingdom in winter. I didn't know what it was, at first."

Katara chuckled. He continued, "Food in the Fire Nation is usually quite spicy; pretty much everything has everything has a base level. That was one thing I found difficult to get used to, living in the Earth Kingdom. Everything just tasted so… bland, plain. Flavourless."

Katara laughed again. Zuko frowned slightly and she shook her head. "I'm not laughing at you, I promise, you just made me think of something. You remember that Fire Nation Colony we went to? When we ended up splitting up, and we met Jeong Jeong?"

"Gisiro." Zuko provided helpfully.

Katara nodded. "Yeah, there. Sokka bought a bag of… What did the guy call them? Flaming fire flakes?"

Zuko started laughing, already seeing where the story was going. Katara was laughing too.

She said, "They about blew the top of his head off!"

Zuko shook his head. "The flaming ones are, like, the second hottest kind they make."

"What's the hottest?"

"Inferno fire flakes. They were always my favourite. My Mom wouldn't let me have them often, though, because they're kind of bad for you."

Katara chuckled slightly. Then she said quietly, "You don't talk about your Mom much. In fact, I don't think you've ever mentioned her."

Zuko shrugged, a little uncomfortable. "What's to say? I loved her, and I lost her."

She frowned a little. "What happened to her? Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever heard anything about the Fire Lady."

Zuko shook his head, sighing. "My mother wasn't the Fire Lady. She disappeared shortly before my father took the throne."

"Disappeared? What do you mean?"

He shook his head again. "Honestly, I'm not sure. One day she was there, and then she was waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me she loved me. In the morning, she was gone and everyone just refused to talk about her. My grandfather, Fire Lord Azulon, died within days of her leaving. It was actually the same week or so that my cousin, Lu Ten, died."

Katara frowned at him. "You lost three members of your family in the space of a week?"

He nodded slowly. "Technically, it felt like four at the time. Lu Ten was killed, Mom disappeared, Grandfather passed away, and then we received word that Uncle had called off the Siege and had disappeared as well."

Katara remembered. "You told us that he was missing for close to a year."

"He was. I don't know where he was, but when he reappeared at the Palace, he was different. Calmer, quieter, a little sadder. He seemed almost at peace, though."

"And your dad never said anything about what happened to your Mom?"

Zuko shook his head. "I asked once, that first day she was missing. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I asked about her again then I'd regret it."

Katara's mouth went thin with anger. "Just when I think your dad couldn't get any worse. How old were you when this happened?"

Zuko looked away, shrugging. "Ten."

She shook her head, huffing. "I'm sorry that you went through that."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Katara smirked. "Yeah, like that's ever stopped me."

He laughed. "True."

A comfortable silence fell between them. They sat and stared up at the stars, stars that were foreign to both of them.

Eventually she asked, "Have you heard anything more from Iroh? About Appa? I think Aang is close to his breaking point."

Zuko sighed. "Nothing. I know what you mean, though. Toph and Sokka aren't much better. Truth be told, I'm getting pretty sick of this. It's only been a week but… I don't know. I hate that the Dai Li has this power over us."

She sighed as well. She rested her head against his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her.

"I know what you mean."