Iroh sat down on the floor next to a panting Katara. "You're quite talented, my dear. I wish you had the proper perspective to know how quickly you're learning."

She flopped down on her back and looked up at the cave ceiling. "It just doesn't feel fast enough. I'm not learning so that I can become a Master. We're trying to stop a monster and end a global war."

He chuckled, "just remember what happens to charcoal under tremendous pressure."

"It becomes diamonds, Uncle."

"True, but it means it becomes something it's not. It completely changes."

"For the better," Katara pointed out.

He shrugged, "and also, remember that organic matter under pressure becomes petroleum."

"I'm missing your point," she said, sitting up.

"You're under pressure; make sure you like what you become. Be a diamond."

"Still not clear, Uncle," she teased.

"You're under immense stress already by being a waterbender, and a chief's daughter, in the Fire Nation. Adding in self-defeating thoughts will produce results in the end. Can you live with those results?"

"So get over myself and become a diamond?"

Iroh smiled, "Exactly. Now, how is it going with my nephew?"

"He's not mad that I stabbed Mai if that's what you're asking."

"I'm not, and I assumed that after how decisively he took care of the last threat to you." He sighed and said, "I hate the killing now, but even I was proud of him. He is protecting what matters, and Ozai would have had tortured before killing him."

He shook his head and said, "no, what I was asking about was your relationship. Not your physical one. I really don't need details on that part," he said wryly.

"I try to help him and build his confidence. He needs that so much. It's odd, really; Ozai and I both want a more confident, assertive Zuko, just with wildly different end goals. He wants a copy of himself, and I want a man who can stand up to his father, a man who's terrorized him for years. I love who he truly is, and I want that to be how others see him." She then blushed. "I don't know if that makes sense or answers your question."

Iroh smiled, "mostly. Is he good to you?"

"Yes. He adores me, and he tells me constantly, the thing is, and even more importantly, he shows me constantly. He has absolute trust in me, and it's... It feels incredible." She blushed red and said, "I stabbed Mai in the thigh and took off to tell Ozai what happened, and he stood by my side, not flinching as I told his father I stabbed his betrothed."

Katara then stood and stretched. "What do you think about Councilman Haru?"

Uncle groaned as he stood, "I'm getting too old for sitting on the floor." He then tried to stretch out the kinks in his back.

"His father died young in a battle that Ozai didn't mind losing. I doubt he knows the extent of Ozai's duplicity in that one. There was a man the Fire Lord wanted dead, and he had to do it quietly. He made sure that battle would be lost."

Katara frowned, "I don't think it would be kind to explain that to him. It can't bring his father back."

"But you're tempted because it would cause him to hate Ozai," Uncle pointed out kindly.

"Tempted, yes. That doesn't mean I will, but you know that already."

"Yes. I also know very little about him."

"That's not really helpful," Katara stated.

Laughing, Iroh said, "actually, I find it exceedingly helpful. Men that are that guarded have secrets worth guarding. For better or worse, he's cautious and good at keeping things to himself. I suspect so is Aya. But that's a guess based on the fact that I believe he loves her. He burns all his correspondence, even those from family, and doesn't write things down."

"So that means he's probably set to betray someone, and we have to hope it's the Fire Lord?"

Iroh shrugged, "if he is on your side, you don't have to worry about him being careless."

"Aya came to me explaining her bite mark; she said she asked him to do that to impress Ozai, and it worked. She also said that Haru considered Zuko, a 'good man.'"

"And now you wonder if he's helping Ozai expose the truth behind Zuko's recent turnaround into the obedient prince or if he's looking to help you."

"Yes."

"Do you know that the last two dragons are still alive?"

She groaned, "more riddles!?"

"Just the truth," he said. "I didn't kill the last two dragons. Yet, I easily lied and told everyone I had defeated them. Know why?"

"I know it's not because you aren't strong enough. Why?"

"I went to kill them and prove myself. And then I saw them. They were just so majestic. So I didn't kill them because I didn't want to. It was as simple as that. What does Haru want? Understand his desires, and you can figure out what he will do."

"I think he loves Aya. So she would be his desire."

Iroh gave her a large smile, "and he can't marry her because she's from the harem. But now, an observant man might suspect that Zuko has deeper feelings for you. Ozai hasn't figured it out, because all he cares about is that Zuko is behaving himself. But Haru, if marrying Aya is his desire, might believe that Zuko will be looking for a way to marry from the harem too." He then added, "and he would burn the letters from his mother because they would show his resistance to marrying someone else."

She cocked her head and looked at Iroh. "And you didn't care about being the Fire Lord because you lost your deepest desire. You're saying we all need something to motivate us."

Katara then added, "I find I'm jealous of your son sometimes. Not his fate, but your love. I wasn't ever loved like that by my father."

"No, but if you just look in the right direction, you'll realize you're loved that way by Zuko. You are his biggest desire and the motivation for what he does."

She smiled kindly at Iroh, "and he's become your new desire. He won't ever replace your son. But he's your new hope."

Katara stepped into Zuko's room, and he was waiting there excitedly with a beautifully carved wooden box in his hands. "What's that you have there?" She asked.

He blushed and looked down at the box. "A compromise really of what I wanted to get you. But… My father… He won't always be a consideration, but I needed to keep him in mind. Only because of what it is."

She lovingly rolled her eyes at him. "Zuko, you make less sense than your uncle, and that's saying something." She then walked forward and touched his cheek on the scarred side of his face. "Tell me about the box."

"It's not the box; it's what's in it." He then handed it to her. "I wanted to get you something nice, but I know my father will only tolerate them if they were Fire Nation symbols. It will appease him to see the water tribe 'peasant' wear Fire Nation… You'll see."

The box was heavy, and she was extraordinarily curious about what could be inside. She opened the lid, and there were three exquisitely made gold bangle bracelets. They were three unique dragons in a circle, each biting their own tail. They had to be worth a fortune. She moved and, with rapt attention, set the box down and pulled them out of the box to examine them. One hand flew to her mouth in shock when she turned them and realized they all had diamond eyes.

She looked at Zuko in awe. "Right now, at this very moment, you have no idea how you couldn't have gotten me a more perfect gift." She gingerly placed them on her wrists and smiled at them as she studied them. "These are too perfect."

Zuko rubbed the back of his head. "They are Fire Nation symbols, though."

Katara drew Zuko to her and kissed him tenderly on the lips, and then told him all about her conversation with Iroh in the hidden cave beneath the palace. The one a very uninventive Fire Lord never discovered, but Iroh and his love of mystery and intrigue had managed to find the hidden passage to.

Eventually, the conversation died out like it always did. Not because they lacked things to say but because one of them would give a heated look to the other, and it always ignited both of their passions.

Katara slipped her clothes off seductively, with Zuko's eyes glued to her body. She then held up her left wrist. "The bracelets are the only thing staying on. You worried about marking me with a Fire Nation symbol. The title of Fire Lady will do that too. Don't you know yet that I don't mind? In fact, I desire to be a part of the Fire Nation. Your wife would have to be, which isn't something I could ever lament. I see the truth now. I can be Fire Nation and a Waterbender. I choose to be a diamond."

Zuko stripped quickly and pulled her flush against his body, kissing her and kneading her ass in his strong hands. He then ground his cock against her core and nipped her lower lip.

He next pulled her with him to the bed, and he crawled on and laid down. "Sit on my face and suck my cock." Her words of acceptance had gone straight to his heart and his dick. He didn't want to mark her as his with bites and bruises, but he did want to with titles and jewelry. For him, the marking wasn't to dominate but to honor.

She sat on his face, and he instantly went to pleasuring her. She screamed out in delight, cupped his balls in one hand, held his cock with the other, and immediately took his cock as far down her throat as she could, swirling her tongue and sucking in her cheeks. He realized that quickly it had become a race to see who could make the other orgasm first. She moved to work the tip of his cock while her left hand stroked him expertly. He knew it was her left hand because he heard the clinking of her dragon bracelets. She then moved her hand and plunged his cock back deep into her mouth. He held her thighs open with his hands as he licked, sucked, and nipped at her. He couldn't decide what he wanted to focus on, so he worked to overwhelm her with it all. He kept her gloriously off balance by moving from one zinging pleasure to the next. He loved to suck her clit and the, lick down to her cunt, and fuck her with his tongue. He didn't let up. He loved how dripping wet and wild he had her. Then he yelled, "fuck!" into her cunt, and he came down her throat. As he did, he went after her pussy with a renewed passion, and soon, she was screaming out in orgasm.

He smiled as he felt her gently kissing his softening cock and his balls. "I love the bracelets you got me. Did I thank you yet for those?"

He laughed with his head still between her thighs. "If you thanked me any more, I'd have died of pleasure. A situation I find myself in every time you give me a blowjob."

She moved and crawled to cuddle up with him on the bed. "I hated my training until it was you. I'm happy to put it to use now. And I'm glad I can make it feel so good. I'd compliment you too, but I know that no one is in doubt how much you please me."

He gently caressed the bracelets on her wrist. "I wanted to show everyone you're valued. It might be silly, but it was important to me."

She held up her wrist, smiling. "It matters to me, Zuko; it isn't silly. I had a necklace, it had been my mother's. It had been the only jewelry that was mine. I'm happy to have them."

"What happened to your necklace?"

"You mean what happened to the necklace with the water nation symbol on it in the heart of the Fire Nation? When they stripped me and scrubbed me down, none of my things reappeared."

"Katara, I'm so sorry-"

"It led to this," she said, interrupting. "Yes, I wish I had that necklace; it means a lot to me and was all I had left of my mother. But right now, I'm choosing to move forward. I found happiness, and I'm not taking that for granted."

The following day when she woke, she was alone, and that was what she had expected. Ozai had wanted Zuko up early for training and early in the Fire Nation was brutally early for a water tribe member.

What she hadn't expected was what was lying on his pillow. Her mother's necklace. She grabbed it up, clutched it to her heart, and cried tears of joy.