It took most of the day to make it through the line to get their tickets. It was long and boring with little to do but look around at all of the half-starved refugees or listen to his uncle talk, in detail, to Katara about the different tactics of Pai Sho.

Zuko almost couldn't fathom how many refugees were here. It made him feel uncomfortable as something cold and oily pooled in his gut. These people had their lives uprooted because of his forefathers' war. He was reminded suddenly of Song, the girl from whom he'd stolen Dusty. She and her mother had once been refugees too.

He looked at Katara. He knew that his grandfather had ordered the raids against her tribe that had turned it into the pitiful collection of igloos and animal skin tents that he had seen when he was there. His family's war had caused an unimaginable amount of pain and suffering. Zuko didn't know how to feel about that.

He thought of what Katara had offered him. She hadn't brought it up since, but it had been weighing heavily on his mind. Could he do it? Could he choose this girl and the Avatar over his own family?

At last, they were next in line to receive their tickets. Zuko was glad. He didn't want to spend another night in this underground refugee camp. He didn't know what awaited them in Ba Sing Se, but it had to be better than this.

"Let me do the talking," Iroh said to them from the corner of his mouth.

Zuko and Katara nodded, willing to let him take the lead. The two of them hung back as Iroh walked up to the ticketmaster and produced their forged passports.

"Three tickets, please," Iroh said politely.

Zuko held his breath as he watched the grouchy-looking old woman pick up each passport and inspect it closely. He didn't want to imagine what might happen if she realized that they were fraudulent. But after a moment, she handed the passports back to Iroh and stamped three tickets.

The ticketmaster pointed them in the right direction, and soon, they were boarding one of the large wooden boats that were carrying people across the bay to the city. They were handed a rough woven blanket when they boarded. Zuko breathed a silent breath of relief when they finally made it onto the open deck of the boat.

"We made it," Katara breathed beside him.

"Not until we've made it into Ba Sing Se," he replied as his eyes cut across the deck.

He was disappointed to find that it was almost as crowded here as it was in the cavern. The Earth Kingdom was clearly ferrying as many people as they could on each trip. Zuko, Iroh, and Katara picked their way across the deck and found an open space near the rails.

It was late afternoon, and the sun was starting to sink towards the western horizon. In two days' time, they would arrive in Ba Sing Se. Full Moon Bay stretched out before them, the land on the far side barely visible. To the right, a tall strip of jagged earth cut Full Moon Bay off from the other side of the large lake. Zuko looked straight ahead, where Ba Sing Se lay waiting.

"The western side of the lake is controlled by the Fire Nation," Iroh told them quietly. "They use the various rivers and waterways to transport soldiers and supplies to the colonies and bases."

Katara rested her elbows on the rail next to him. "You know quite a bit about that, don't you? You were a general."

Iroh looked out across the choppy water. "Once, a long time ago."

"We shouldn't talk about that here," Zuko said roughly. "You don't know who might be listening."

Katara looked up at him before she nodded once. She stepped away from the rail. "I'm going to go see if anyone needs my help."

"Be safe," Zuko told her as she walked away.

He leaned against the rail and looked out over the water. Neither he nor Iroh spoke. Part of him wondered if he should have gone with Katara. It was impossible to know what kind of people might have been on the boat. But she was more than capable of taking care of herself, and he knew that with as much water as she had at her disposal, it would be too easy for her to overpower anyone who tried anything.

After a while, a servant brought them some food. It appeared to be some type of stew, but it smelled atrocious. Zuko was reluctant to even try it, but Iroh happily ate it without complaint. Sometimes, he envied his uncle's humility.

When he was finished, Iroh held his empty bowl in his hands, a serious expression on his face as he looked out over the water. Zuko watched him expectantly.

"Who would have thought, after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace…" Iroh looked up at Zuko with a grin. "As a tourist!"

Zuko scowled. "Look around. We're not tourists. We're refugees." He dared to take a sip of his soup. It tasted so foul that he immediately spat it out. "Ugh! I'm sick of eating rotten food, sleeping in the dirt. I'm tired of living like this!"

"Aren't we all?" a new voice drawled from behind them.

Zuko and Iroh turned around quickly, finding a gangly young man around Zuko's age stepping out from beneath the shade of the upper deck of the boat. Zuko saw two other kids, younger, standing behind him. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"My name is Jet," the young man said with an easygoing grin. He pointed at the two kids behind him. "These are my Freedom Fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot."

The shortest of the three, who had thick shaggy hair, looked at Zuko and Iroh. "Hey." The third companion simply nodded.

Zuko appraised them, uncertain of their intentions. "Hello."

Jet sauntered forward. He oozed an arrogance that Zuko found annoying, but there wasn't much he could do about it at the moment.

"Here's the deal. I hear the captain's eating like a king while the refugees have to feed off of his scraps," Jet said harshly. His eyes cut between Zuko and Iroh. "Doesn't seem fair, does it?"

"What sort of king is he eating like?" Iroh inquired.

Of course my uncle is thinking with his stomach, Zuko thought dryly as he continued to watch Jet warily.

Jet's expression hardened. "The fat, happy kind." His gaze landed on Zuko, his eyes flickering briefly to the dao swords strapped across his back. "You want to help liberate some food?"

Zuko looked down at the bowl of slop he held. Didn't he deserve better? Didn't Katara deserve better? The decision was all too easy. He chucked the bowl out into the water before he turned back towards Jet.

"I'm in," he said.

"Jet?"

Everyone turned to look. Katara came stomping up, one hand already reaching for the water skin on her waist.

"Katara!" Jet exclaimed, clearly surprised. He took a wary step back from her.

Zuko looked at Katara. "You know him?"

Her eyes were steel and fury as she glared at Jet, her teeth bared in a snarl. "Unfortunately, I do. But the last time I saw him, I froze him to a tree."

Zuko turned towards Jet distrustfully, taking a step closer to Katara. Jet held up his hands in a gesture of peace.

"I'm a different person now, Katara," Jet said, seeming to speak only to her. Zuko's eyes shifted between the two of them suspiciously. "I swear. It's just me and Smellerbee and Longshot. We're just looking for a fresh start in Ba Sing Se."

"Katara," Zuko said, and she glanced over at him. "What do you want to do?"

Katara's eyes darted between him and Jet as she contemplated it. Zuko didn't know her history with Jet, but his appearance had clearly raised her hackles. If Katara didn't trust him, neither would Zuko.

"What do you want?" Katara demanded to know as her gaze landed on Jet again.

He spread his hands. "I just want to help these people until we get to the city. Your new friend here seemed like a capable guy, so I asked him to help."

Her eyes narrowed. "Help how?"

"Jet says that the captain has better food for himself and his crew, while the rest of us get to eat this shit," Zuko told her as he grabbed Iroh's bowl and showed her what remained of the rotting food. "We were going to help give some of it to the refugees."

Katara's lip curled in disgust as she looked at the bowl's contents. Then she looked up at Zuko. "I've been healing the sick and wounded all afternoon. These people could really use some help." She took a step towards Jet and pointed a finger at him. "We'll help you for now, but if you make one wrong move, I won't hesitate to throw you into the bay."

Jet offered her a short bow. "Thank you, Katara. I'll show you that I've changed."

Zuko saw the way she looked at him. He was really curious about what happened between them now. "We'll see."

They made their move long after dark, when most of the refugees were sleeping and only a handful of guards were on patrol. Zuko, Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot crept up to the highest deck of the ship, clinging to the shadows. He noticed how Jet and his crew were well practiced in stealth, almost admirably so. He wondered where they had come from, what their story was.

Katara had been left behind with Iroh. She had volunteered to stay behind under the guise of healing more refugees, but part of Zuko thought that she had opted to stay so that she didn't have to be around Jet. She had been cold to him all afternoon as he and Zuko worked together to come up with a plan. But it was a strange kind of anger. Almost spiteful. He hadn't gotten the chance to ask her about it, but he planned on it.

Leaving Longshot on guard duty, Zuko, Jet, and Smellerbee pulled themselves up the rope until they reached the deck. Pressing themselves into the shadows, they made sure their path was clear before they ducked into what Jet had said was the food storage area. He was proven correct when they entered a room loaded with food—delicious, ripe food that already had Zuko's stomach rumbling.

The three of them worked smoothly together to gather up what prepared foods that they could, bagging it up before they slipped back out onto the outer deck. They heard footsteps approaching.

"Guard's coming!" Smellerbee hissed.

There was a soft thud as Longshot fired an arrow into the railing with a rope attached to it. Jet quickly sent their pilfered bags of food down the rope before he gestured for Smellerbee to follow it. Using a length of cloth, she slid down the rope. Jet unsheathed his swords, hooking their curved tips onto the rope before he went after Smellerbee.

Zuko, feeling the cool rush of adrenaline in his veins, pulled out his own swords and, carefully balancing their hilts against the rope, went down the rope after Jet and the others. Jet gave him a nod when he made it back onto the deck.

"Let's go give these refugees something good to eat," Jet said quietly, his teeth flashing in a proud smirk.

They went back to their own deck. Katara saw them, and quickly approached. She eyed the bags of food that the four of them were carrying.

"Everything went okay, then?" she asked as she looked up at him.

Zuko pulled a mango out of his tunic and offered it to her, her face lighting up in a smile that warmed his heart. "I'd say so."

"We should get this stuff handed out," Jet said.

They handed out the food. This Katara did help with, pointing out those who were the most weak and malnourished first. Zuko could see her concern for these people clearly on her face. She was always so compassionate towards other people. It was admirable.

Finally, they made it back to Iroh, with Jet and his Freedom Fighters joining them as they ate some of their liberated food. The atmosphere on the boat had shifted to something lighter, hopeful.

After a while, Katara got up and made her way down towards the bow. Zuko watched after her for a moment before he set his bowl aside and stood up. He felt Jet's eyes on him as he followed her, but Zuko didn't look back.

He found Katara leaning against the railing, her eyes on the half-moon above them. The warm breeze lifted her hair off of her shoulders. She looked beautiful like that. Zuko swallowed hard as he forced himself to relax. He rested on the rail beside her.

"Hey," he said.

Katara glanced over at him. "Hi."

An awkward silence stretched between them. Or maybe it was just awkward on Zuko's part. It was stupid, really. It was just a simple question.

"So uh, how do you and Jet know each other?" Zuko finally asked.

She huffed out an irritated breath. "We ran into him a few months ago, before the North Pole. He and his band of merry misfits nearly flooded an entire town. Aang, Sokka, and I stopped him. Jet's insane."

"He seems decent enough to me," Zuko remarked.

"Maybe he's changed, but he's still a jerk," Katara muttered.

Zuko arched his brow at her. "Sounds like something else happened."

Katara turned her face away from him, but not before he saw her cheeks darken with a blush. Now he was very intrigued.

"What, was he your boyfriend or something?" Zuko asked, meaning it as a joke, but it came out sounding more defensive than he meant it to.

"No, not exactly." She let out another sigh. "We kissed. That's all it was, but I don't know. I thought he was a good person, you know? He was so confident and self-assured. I guess I should've seen those as red flags."

Zuko didn't say anything, uncertain of what to say. Katara peeked over at him.

"Lesson learned, I guess," she muttered. "Tell me you also had an awful first-kiss experience so that I can feel like I'm not alone, please."

Zuko's eyes widened as he felt heat rise in his cheeks. There was no way he could tell her that he'd never kissed anyone. "Um, no, not really—it was, you know, a pretty normal thing, I guess."

She turned towards him fully now, her mouth dropping open. "Don't tell me—you've never kissed anyone?"

Zuko looked away, scowling. "Of course I have."

"Really? Who?" Katara wanted to know, putting her hands on her hips.

"Does it matter?" Zuko snapped.

She leaned closer to him, a teasing smirk playing at her lips. Which he was definitely not looking at. Nope.

It was like she could see right through him. "You haven't kissed anyone, have you?"

Zuko felt embarrassment burn through him. He couldn't look at her. He wasn't sure why he cared. It didn't matter to him before. Things like kissing and dating and girls had never really been that important to him. He was driven by his goal—capturing the Avatar. It wasn't like he'd had the luxury of worrying about normal teenage stuff.

"Wow," Katara said incredulously.

"What?" Zuko snapped, daring to look up at her with a glare.

She blinked, her eyes wide and silvery-blue under the light of the moon. "I'm just...surprised, I guess."

Zuko looked out over the water. "It's just stupid teenager stuff, anyway. I've had more important things to worry about."

"Right," Katara said. "Well, whoever it is that you kiss, it can't be any worse than Jet. Trust me."

Zuko stared up at the moon, wondering what it might be like to kiss her. But then she turned and headed back to the others, leaving him alone with his thoughts.