"What?" Zuko stared up at the precocious waterbender in complete and utter shock.

Blood rose in her cheeks and she looked away, her fingers twitching against the skirt of her tunic. Zuko continued to stare at her. His hearing hadn't been damaged when he received his scar, but surely, there was no way he'd heard her properly.

"It's a mutually beneficial arrangement," Katara muttered, still not quite able to look him in the eye.

"How so?" Zuko barked out incredulously.

Katara gestured to his ostrich horse. "You have transportation, and food, and water, which I need."

"And what do you have to offer me?"

Finally, she looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "I'm sure it hasn't been exactly easy for you to travel around the Earth Kingdom. It's pretty obvious you're from the Fire Nation."

This time, it was Zuko who looked away, his expression twisting into a scowl. She was right, of course. His golden eyes were rather unmistakable. He had received strange and wary looks, and even some downright hostility in some of the villages he had passed through since he became wanted by his homeland and ventured off into the Earth Kingdom wilds.

"What can you do about it?" Zuko sneered irately.

She put one hand on her hip, jutting it out with an attitude that he found both grating and enchanting at once. "The Earth Kingdom doesn't bear prejudice against the Water Tribes like they do your people. And, unlike you, I'm actually likeable."

"That's debatable," Zuko muttered.

She scowled at him. "Either way, I can help us get more supplies, or directions, or whatever we need. And let's face it: people are more likely to trust a young couple traveling together than a young man on his own." Her tone dropped as she added, "And it's not always safe to be a young woman by yourself, either."

Zuko considered that. He thought about the state he'd found her in, collapsed in the dirt. She was skinny and dirty, her cheeks ruddy from the hot sun. She'd clearly been on her last leg. Even now, even with a bit of food in her, she still looked unwell. All of his uncle's endless lessons on chivalry told him that it wouldn't be right to leave her alone like this.

"Fine," he finally bit out. "We'll travel together—temporarily. I'll take you to where you need to go, but then we're going our separate ways. Understood?"

"Trust me, I don't want to be near you any longer than is strictly necessary," she bit back.

"Likewise. I'm glad we've established that." Zuko gestured to where she had been sitting. "Make yourself comfortable."

"You don't get to tell me what to do!"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Fine. Stand there all night if you wish. I frankly don't give a shit."

She glared at him for a moment before she sat back down with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest like a petulant child. The effect was diminished when her stomach growled loudly. Zuko felt the corner of his lips tug up in an involuntary smile.

"You can have some more broth, if you'd like," he offered her.

"It tastes like shit."

He threw his hands up in exasperation. "Then starve!"

Zuko glared into the fire, wondering if he had just made a horrible mistake. She'd been conscious for barely twenty minutes, and she was already fraying at his nerves. He decided that he much preferred when she was unconscious.

She continued to sulk for a few minutes, but then she snatched up her bowl and leaned forward to ladle more soup into it. The angle provided him a decent view down her tunic, and his eyes roved over the soft swell of her breasts and the white linen of her wraps before he managed to turn his eyes away, his cheeks burning. Then she retreated to her side of the fire, and he distracted himself by filling his own bowl with what was left of the soup.

"Where are you going, anyway?" Zuko asked her after they had been eating in silence for a few minutes.

She stirred her broth. "My brother, Aang, and I were travelling south when we became separated. I'm thinking that they might have gone to Gaoling."

"That's what, a week south of here?" Zuko mused.

Katara shrugged. "I'm not sure. Time is a little different when you're riding on a sky bison. All I know is that I've been walking for three days, and I've not come across another living soul." Her eyes landed on him. "Except for you."

"What exceptional bad luck you have," he muttered darkly.

She snorted. "You're telling me." She stirred her soup again. "Though I suppose it could be worse. At least I know you, no matter how lightly that term can be applied."

"I suppose so," Zuko said.

Kataa looked up at him. "But you knew who I was as well, when you found me. You could have left me there."

"What, unconscious on the side of the road to get heat exhaustion?" It was Zuko's turn to snort.

"Like you care," Katara muttered.

He looked at her levelly from across the fire. "Just because we have...conflicting interests doesn't mean I want to see you in harm's way. My grievance isn't with you anyway."

"No, just with the Avatar."

"So we circle back to this."

"What else can we circle back to?" Katara demanded sharply. "It's all I've ever known since the moment I laid eyes on you. You've done nothing but track Aang down and try to capture him, and for what? Your honor? Why does your honor matter more than the peace and balance of the entire world?"

Zuko bit his cheek and looked away as his shame burned through him. She wasn't wrong, and that was probably the worst thing. He had been driven for so long to capture the Avatar, but with all hope of going home, of reclaiming his throne, out of his reach, and his uncle no longer around, Zuko had plenty of time to practice introspection. And what he found was not pretty.

"You're right," he admitted quietly.

She let out an incredulous laugh. "I'm sorry, I'm what?"

"You're right," he repeated, his voice a low growl. "I was taught to believe that the Fire Nation is the greatest nation in the world, and that the war is our way of sharing it with the rest of the world. But it's a lie. It's all been a lie." He set his bowl down and drew his knees to his chest. "My father banished me from home. I was thirteen years old. He told me I could only come back with my honor if I captured the Avatar."

Katara's brow furrowed as she put the pieces together. "But...we only found Aang a few months ago. You're what, sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Sixteen," he replied quietly. His eyes closed as he let out a sigh. "I know. I...it was my only hope of ever going back."

"And now?" Her voice was soft, gentle. He wasn't used to that from her, who had only ever met him with ice and storms.

"Now my father considers my uncle and I traitors to the crown," he said darkly. "He's sent my sister to arrest us. That's why we're on the run. That's why my uncle and I are separated."

That wasn't the whole truth, but it was enough. He didn't even owe Katara an explanation.

"I'm sorry."

Zuko looked up at her, surprised. Her brow was knit with her sympathy, her blue eyes soft and glistening in the firelight. Even with her hair a ratted mess, spilling from its braid, and her clothes, torn and dirty, she looked...beautiful. And the way she looked at him, it was so unfamiliar, but warm, like spring sunshine. He didn't know what to make of it.

So he dropped his gaze and muttered, "Don't be. It has nothing to do with you."

To distract himself, Zuko got to his feet and went over to his ostrich horse, Scratch, stolen from that kind girl, Song, and her mother. At the time, Zuko hadn't cared. But now he felt guilt seeping in. He had done a lot of things he wasn't proud of, and stealing some peasant girl's ostrich horse was now one of them.

He removed the bedroll from the saddle and carried it over to Katara, holding it out to her.

"Here," he said gruffly. "You can use this."

Katara eyed it before she looked up at him. "Where will you sleep?"

"On the ground."

"It's your bedroll. You should take it," she argued.

Zuko shook his head. "No. You take it. I insist."

Her gaze flickered between him and the bedroll for a moment before she took it from him. "Thank you."

"Yeah."

Zuko retreated to his side of the fire as she stood up and spread out the bedroll. Zuko took off his outer layer and wadded it up as a makeshift pillow before he set it on the ground and settled down, closing his eyes. He listened to Katara shed her boots and climb into the bedroll.

He lay awake for a long while, wondering what he had just gotten himself into.