"It could be worse," Katara said.

"It could be better," Zuko muttered.

"The point is that it's ours," Iroh remarked cheerfully as he crossed the small apartment to open the shutters. "And we can make it however we want."

Katara looked around the tiny apartment. The living area was an open space, sparsely furnished. There was a small kitchen area, complete with a stove. There was one washroom and two bedrooms behind rice paper doors. The floorboards were scarred and worn. The exterior of the building had told a tale of halcyon days when the Lower Ring wasn't flooded with refugees.

It wasn't much, but it was the first time Katara had had a stable roof over her head since she and Sokka had left the South Pole. And Iroh was right. They could make it however they wanted; they could make it home.

They didn't have much to furnish the apartment, but Iroh still had the money from the sandbenders and Fung, so they could at least eat and buy some new bedrolls. Iroh had already spoken of finding work for them.

Once they were settled in, Katara could turn her attention back to finding Aang and Sokka. She wasn't sure how she would do that, but she would figure it out. Katara only hoped that if and when she did find her friends, Zuko would be willing to join their cause.

"Why don't the two of you head into the market and see if you can buy some groceries, and perhaps some bedrolls?" Iroh remarked as he ran one hand along the dusty window sill. He inspected the dirt on his hand. "I shall see about getting this place cleaned up a bit."

"Sure!" Katara immediately agreed. After spending a day in a crate, another on a sand sailer, two days on a ferry, and a night on a train, she was eager to stretch her legs. And she wouldn't mind seeing more of the city.

Zuko huffed out a breath. "Fine."

"Excellent," Iroh chirped as he handed his coinpurse over to Katara. "Make sure you pick up some tea leaves as well. Jasmine, if you can."

Katara chuckled as she and Zuko started for the door. "I know. It's your favorite."

The two of them walked down the dim, dusty corridor of the tenement, nearly being bowled over by a trio of small children, whose tired mother reached the top of the stairs and offered them a thin smile, one hand pressed to her swollen belly. Katara smiled back at her in a friendly way. Once they were halfway down the stairs, Zuko scowled at her.

"Why do you have to be so nice all the time?" he griped. "It's better if we keep to ourselves here in the city."

"It doesn't hurt to make a friend or two," Katara replied. "Especially in a city this size. It could be useful."

Zuko's expression darkened for a moment as he looked away. Katara frowned at him as they reached the bottom of the stairs and headed out onto the crowded street.

"What?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing," Zuko said.

Katara arched a brow at him. "It's obviously something."

"I was just going to say that the last friend you made turned out so well," Zuko said darkly.

Katara looked up at him. "Are you talking about Jet, seriously? Why are you so hung up on that?"

Zuko stepped closer to her. "He saw my uncle heat his tea."

"And?"

Zuko gave her a pointed look before he leaned even closer, his mouth near her ear as his voice dropped to a whisper. "I think he suspects what we are."

Katara swallowed as she understood. She knew firsthand, far better than Zuko did, what Jet's opinion of the Fire Nation and firebenders were. She also knew what his hatred for them had driven him to. She hoped that he would leave them alone, but she suspected that he wouldn't.

"He has no proof," Katara murmured quietly as they set off in the direction of the market.

"I don't like feeling like I need to look over my shoulder," Zuko returned, his voice still low.

"I'll handle Jet, if he comes back," Katara assured him.

"Hmph."

Katara looked up at him. "What, you don't think I can? I wasn't joking when I said the last time I'd seen him, I froze him to a tree."

"I don't doubt that," Zuko replied. "But I don't think Jet would require that kind of handling from you."

Her brow furrowed as she stared up at him, but Zuko refused to look down at her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Katara demanded to know.

Did a blush rise in his unscarred cheek? Katara thought so, although he still refused to meet her gaze. What was going on with Zuko? He'd been acting so weird ever since she'd told him that Jet had kissed her.

"It means…" He sighed. "Jet still likes you, I think. He asked me to join his gang so that I could help him win your trust back, or whatever."

Her jaw dropped open. "Seriously?"

Zuko nodded stiffly. "Yeah."

"Wow." Katara snorted. "You kiss a guy once…"

"You're too good for him anyway, Katara," Zuko said suddenly. "He's a tool and a jerk. I think we should all just stay away from him."

"Don't worry. I have no plans of looking for him now that we're here in the city," Katara muttered, a bit touched by Zuko's unexpected words. "He can stay far, far away from me. I learned my lesson."

She and Zuko arrived in the marketplace. It was a bustling center of activity, with dozens of stalls and shops. The smell of cooking food hung thickly on the air, although beneath it, Katara could smell the odor of the Lower Ring: like ostrich-horse dung and rotting fruit. Merchants and sellers shouted for people to look at their wares. Barefooted, dirty children ran underfoot, and Katara made sure to keep one hand on the coin purse.

"I don't understand it," Katara murmured to Zuko as they walked around. "Why does the city keep all of the poor people down here? All of these refugees?"

"It's the way the class system works," Zuko answered quietly. "The poor, the uneducated, they remain that way, growing up to follow in their father's footsteps to work with their hands while their women rear children. Only those born into any sort of wealth can truly live prosperously."

Katara looked at him, but Zuko's eyes were trained on the marketplace around them. She could hear the despondence in his voice, and she wondered if he was speaking from his knowledge of the Fire Nation. Katara didn't know much about it, about what life was like there.

"That's so sad," Katara murmured. "In the South Pole, we're all equals. We all work hard to keep the tribe alive. The elders are the most respected, and aside from the children, they get the best of everything—but it's not a matter of wealth. It's about honoring them for their wisdom."

"It probably helps when your currency is valuables rather than coin," Zuko remarked.

Katara pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Perhaps."

They spent an hour in the market, purchasing the supplies they needed. Then, with their arms loaded down, they started back for the apartment building. Katara studied the area, noting how most of the buildings were rundown. It was clear that the people here lived in terrible squalor, in cramped conditions. How could a king allow his people to live this way?

At last, they made it back to their apartment. Iroh had somehow come up with a broom and duster, so the apartment was fractionally cleaner than it had been when she and Zuko had left. He was pleased with their purchases, and immediately began to put them in what he had deemed their proper places in their limited kitchen storage.

"I can get dinner started," Katara remarked as she stepped closer to Iroh.

He waved her off. "No, no, I think I shall prepare a meal for us tonight, to celebrate moving into our new home. Why don't you get your room set up, and then perhaps you can take a bath and relax a while?"

Katara bit her lip. She hated leaving Iroh with the task, but she knew him well enough now to know that he would insist on it. She acquiesced with a small smile.

"Alright, then," Katara said. "Let me know if you need my help."

She took her bedroll and went into her room. It was small, with just enough space for her bedroll and the rickety dresser along one wall that looked like it might collapse at any moment. There wasn't even a window, although it wasn't as if there was much to see.

Katara went into the washroom, and was pleasantly surprised to find that one of them—she couldn't know if it had been Zuko or Iroh—had lit the bed of coals beneath the basin, so the water was now warm enough to bathe.

Katara stripped down until she was bare and scrubbed the dirt, sweat, and grime of travel off of her skin. She took her time washing her hair and clothes before she wicked the moisture from her skin and her outfit and redressed. By then, she could already smell dinner cooking, and her stomach growled.

She left the washroom. Iroh stood at the stove, adding the finishing touches to their evening meal, although Zuko was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Zuko?" Katara asked as she walked over to him, sniffing the air appreciatively.

"He has a room with a door again," Iroh remarked as he offered her a plate. "I think that he will return to his old habit of sulking in the dark."

Katara snorted as she and Iroh folded themselves on the floor. Without a table to eat at, they were forced to hold their plates as they ate.

"Is he prone to that?" Katara inquired, and Iroh nodded. She laughed before she jokingly added, "Wow, I had no idea. I never would've imagined Zuko to be one to sulk."

Iroh chuckled. "Oh ho, you have no idea, Master Katara. He would spend many hours in his room on the ship. He said he was meditating, but I was once a moody teenage boy myself. He was definitely sulking."

"Oh, poor Zuko," Katara teased.

Suddenly, Zuko's voice came through his bedroom door, and although it was muffled, she could hear his irritation. "These walls are thin, you know! I can hear everything you're saying!"

Katara and Iroh buried their laughter behind their hands.

Later that night, Katara was roused from sleep, although she wasn't sure why. She thought maybe she'd been having a nightmare, but she couldn't recall what it had been about. She experienced a moment of disorientation as her eyes adjusted to the dark, unfamiliar room before she remembered.

Her first instinct was to look around for Zuko or Dusty, before she remembered that Zuko was sleeping in his room, and Dusty was back in the desert.

"I guess I'm not used to sleeping alone," Katara muttered to herself.

She realized that she was thirsty, so she got up and padded out into the living room. She was surprised to see Zuko leaning against the open window, looking out at the city. He glanced back when he heard her door open, and offered her a half-smile.

"What are you doing awake?" Katara asked him as she joined him by the window.

"Uncle is a terrible snorer," Zuko remarked with a dry chuckle. "It's nearly impossible to sleep through."

"My brother is the same way," Katara grimaced. "You get used to it after a while."

"Considering Uncle sounds like a herd of camelephants are sleeping in there, I don't know if that's possible," Zuko said. "I think I may just bring my bedroll out here and sleep in the living room."

"That's silly," Katara told him. "You can sleep in my room with me."

Zuko looked up at her, clearly surprised. "Seriously? Are—are you sure?"

She felt heat rise in her cheeks. "I mean, why not? We've been sharing a camp together for weeks. We've shared a room before too. And I don't snore. At least, no one has ever told me that I do."

"You don't," Zuko informed her, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. Then he sobered. "But seriously, it's not a big deal. I can sleep out here."

"And like I said, it's not a big deal for you to sleep in my room. It's big enough for the two of us."

That wasn't quite the truth, but it was easier than telling Zuko that it was strange and a little unnerving to sleep by herself. She had always slept with another person close by—Gran-Gran and Sokka back home, then Sokka and Aang during their travels, and then Zuko, and Iroh as well.

Zuko bit his bottom lip for a second. Katara's eyes flickered to his mouth before she looked away. She needed to stop doing that. Looking at his mouth made her think about the fact that he had never been kissed, and she had only kissed Jet (that kiss between her and Aang in the Cave of Two Lovers did not count, Katara told herself), and that led to her wondering what might happen if she kissed him...and that was not a path she wanted to wander down right this moment.

"Okay," Zuko said after a moment. "If you're sure."

"I am," Katara said confidently.

"Well, okay. I'll go grab my bedroll."

Zuko slipped silently into Iroh's room while Katara got her drink of water. He came back out of Iroh's room as she was walking towards hers. Katara slid the door open, meeting Zuko's gaze for a moment before she went inside. Zuko followed her in.

Katara slid her bedroll over to make room for his bedroll. Zuko laid it out across the floor before he settled down. She slipped into her own bedroll and laid down on her side. She could barely make out his form in the dark, but the sound of his breathing was enough reassurance for her.

"Good night," she told him softly.

His voice, husky and comforting, whispered back, "Good night."