Is it your own destiny? Or is it a destiny someone else has tried to force on you?

-Uncle Iroh

Then

He sent her a note, it read: Uncle says I should send you notes.

Katara laughed and immediately set down to pen one herself: It's a good thing your maid delivered that. I burned it. I think they should probably pass the test of a stranger's eyes reading them. Burn this, because it doesn't.

Zuko smiled and then set fire to the small blue card.

"My lord, should I wait for your reply?"

Zuko shook his head, sent a kind and sober look to his maid, "I'll have a regular messenger take the next. Thank you."

The next read: I hope you'll join me for morning training again tomorrow. Perhaps alone.

So she sent back: I didn't bring the company, you did.

Zuko received the reply when sitting down to lunch with representatives from the other nations there to discuss trade. The men and women gathered noticed his smile and the blue of the card he set at the table to his right. He tapped his fingers on it as they spoke and, after hours, picked it up again to read as they were leaving. He was motioning for ink and paper before the last delegate had fully exited.

His note read: Meet me in your garden tonight after dinner. We can make a plan for the morning.

Hers read: You could have just said you'd like to see me alone. See you at moonrise.

Now

"I need to tell you what it meant to me, Katara, what it still means to me."

"Stop. Please." She walked, quickly now, heading further down the beach, half-expecting at every step for his guards to stop her, turn them around. Or, more honestly, she kept hoping they would. "I've heard this all before."

Zuko had longer legs so it was easy enough to catch up, to keep up. "You don't know everything I'm going to say."

"I do, though!" Of course, she did. They were his family and family for him, before them, had been such a tangled, complicated thing full of fear and disappointment. With them, he was so awed and thankful that he was quick to show his appreciation for even small acts. Of all of them, Zuko was the most vulnerable. It had been surprising, to learn that. "You're so thankful we were all there, that we saved you and the Fire Nation, and probably world stability in the bargain. You love us like family, and you wouldn't know what to do without us. I've heard it all before. "

His raspy voice was serious and sure when he answered, "You haven't heard this because I've never said this."

They both stopped, staring at each other with years of unsaid things strung taught and volatile between them. "What haven't you said, Zuko? What surprise do you have about how thankful you are?"

"I asked the Fire Sages to let me marry you."

Then

They spoke only a little at dinner, another formal affair though there were fewer guests. Iroh had seated Katara down the table and Zuko was frustratingly unable to do more than greet her as she entered and try not to stare and strain to hear what she and Aang were discussing that made Iroh laugh so scowled through most of the meal.

Which Suki couldn't stop laughing about. "He's so good , though, Toph. You said he couldn't act."

Toph snorted. "That is not an act, Suki."

Sokka, coming into the room with after-dinner snacks he'd gotten Aang to help carry said, "What's not an act?"

"Zuko," Toph answered, but before she could elaborate Suki nudged her foot. "What? Why'd you kick me? He's not acting. His heart speeds up every time Katara comes into the room. I'm not saying it's love, but I'm not saying it ain't either."

Aang smiled brightly when Suki's gaze sought him out. "Who wants Fire Flakes?" It was a smile that wasn't fooling anyone.

Now

"You did what?"

"Before you ever left. I asked the Fire Sages to consider our marriage. I didn't do it as part of the...I wanted them to allow it. I wanted to marry you, Katara."

Then

In the garden, unaware of their friends' gossip, Katara sat with Zuko by the pond with the turtle ducks. They'd started in the night-blooming garden and wandered to his favorite spot.

"You're wearing your hair loopies."

She was also wearing her comfortable water tribe leggings and a light tunic; Zuko was wearing his crown of gold-flame. If anyone were watching, Katara thought they'd probably go right back to not believing this whole farce. "I don't want to forget who I am."

"That's a pretty big responsibility for some hair loopies."

Katara laughed and leaned in, nudging him with her shoulder. "It's...odd. Being here. Like this."

"Do you hate it?"

She tipped her head, really considering it. "I don't. The more we visit, the more other memories we make, the better it is. There's still that one courtyard…." The one where she froze Azula, the one where Azula tried to strike her down and Zuko had taken the strike of lightning mid-air. The one where her heart stopped, afraid that she'd watch him die. "What about you? Do you hate it?"

Zuko plucked some grass from the embankment and tossed it toward the water. "Not always. Not tonight."

Now

She took a step back, into the water, the tide rushing over her bare feet. The water swept the sand out from under her, but it was no more unsteadying than Zuko's confession.

"I asked them again after we caught the conspirators. And again after you left." Zuko watched her steadily, searchingly. When she said nothing, he continued. "I spent months trying to convince them that there were other ways to get an heir if they were that set against a Water Tribe lineage. We could adopt. We could trace the line to a cousin and one of them could be heir. After all, it should have been Iroh and then Lu-Ten. I was never meant to be Fire Lord anyway."

She couldn't make the fact of his marriage and what he was now saying compatible. "But you were engaged three months later. I don't understand."

Then

Every morning they trained together and every evening they spent time alone in one of the gardens. During the day, Zuko was busy. Exceedingly so. During the day, she and the others were doing their best detective work. But after two weeks, nothing.

Or, almost nothing. Sitting by the edge of the turtle duck pond, his guards having cleared the area for a midday picnic for Zuko and his friends, Zuko waited until they were almost out of time before saying, "My mother's coming to visit."

Katara's head shot up, her eyes huge. Zuko made a point offeeding the turtle-ducks carefully and intently. "She, uh, she heard the rumors, I guess, that I might be...anyway. We sent her away when everything got bad; she's not bringing my sister but she insists on coming. She wants to meet you." He glanced at Katara then, not certain what he expected to see on her face.

"Uh, you are going to tell her this —"

Zuko cut Katara off with a rough, "Of course. But I can't send a note. She'll be here in a couple of days."

Katara sent Suki a glance, tipping her head toward a door and lifting her eyebrows suggestively. The Kyoshi Warrior took the hint, urging everyone else to get moving while Zuko more slowly got to his feet. He stared after their swift retreating forms with a shake of his head, probably because Sokka was mumbling a protest over the dessert he'd shoved in his mouth.

Katara only just waited for the door to close on Toph saying something snarky about the Love Birds before she said, "This could be the thing that does it."

Zuko glanced up at her. She was standing too, at the edge of the water, her entire body rigid. "Katara, are you scared about—"

"A parent visiting, that's...that's pretty serious. And if she were to like me…" She glanced at him and then around, indicating she was saying it that way in case . "Then...Zuko. This is…" She hated not being able to speak plainly, but there were only a few places they were truly safe to do so.

Zuko walked to her side. After a moment's hesitation, he put his hand on her shoulder, turned her gently to face him. "It's going to be fine. Of course, she's going to like you." Katara's mouth turned wry and Zuko couldn't help but return the look. "Besides, she's already met you. You helped bring my family back together."

Katara opened her mouth but nothing came out. Then she flung herself at him, wrapped her arms tight. He was So Stiff that she almost wanted to laugh despite the jumble of conflicted feelings making it hard to sort out what to say. She turned her head into him, her mouth skimming his jaw as she whispered, "I hope you can take her straight to your rooms and explain everything. I don't want you to have to lie to her at all."

Now

"Azula escaped." Zuko sighed, rubbed a hand over his face. "It was brief. She was caught and put back but...But I realized, I realized if I didn't secure the line with an unimpeachable heir, she could still end up on the throne. After everything we'd done and sacrificed." Zuko took a long, deep breath while stared into bottomless blue eyes.

"I went to the Sages and asked them to make me a list. And I chose Ming Na because, well, you met her. She was a good woman, a good Fire Lady. She would have been a good mother." He hesitated, looking away, towards the horizon in obvious discomfort before confessing what had tipped the balance for him. "And she was in love with someone her family considered unsuitable: a woman, Lan."

Then

Zuko awkwardly put his arms around her and turned his own face into her hair. "She'll understand. I'm sorry you haven't been able to tell your father. I'm sure he's heard rumors by now."

"Sokka sent him a message." She laughed, buried it in his shoulder. Zuko found himself squeezing her close. "It said: Don't worry about what you hear. I got it covered." Katara leaned back to roll her eyes where Zuko could see.

He laughed in that subtle way he had, kept smiling at her, his arms warm and strong around her back. "That wouldn't bring me comfort."

"I doubt it brings Dad any either." And then they were looking at each other, really looking, and sharing breath, and body heat, and Katara forgot, again, that this was all just a ruse. She stepped closer.

Zuko did too. He leaned down. She was so small. In just two years he and Sokka and Aang had gotten taller than her. Even Toph was growing. But not Katara. He tipped his head, she tilted hers. He wanted, he knew, to kiss her. But this was pretend and that wasn't something they'd negotiated and even if they had no one was watching so there was no excuse.

He skimmed his lips along her cheek. "Uncle says," he whispered against her skin, "we should start to show more..more physical affection."

'Your uncle wants us to make out?"

She sounded so confused and appalled that she surprised a laugh from Zuko. He dropped his face into the crook of her neck so he wouldn't shout the laughter in her ear. When he could trust his voice, he answered, "No. I don't think so." Then again, this was uncle. "Wait. Maybe?"

Katara pushed back, frowning hard at the Fire Lord. Zuko could only shrug helplessly. Katara slid her arms off him and Zuko missed them, missed them and the curve of her waist as he reluctantly dropped his own arms from her.

"Let's try holding hands first." She curled her fingers in his. Zuko thought she was brilliant.

After only two days of holding her hand in the relative public of the palace halls, he found it hard not to reach for her automatically even in private. They would sit close, he and Katara, in case anyone peeked in or came delivering a message. Sometimes he edged his hands under his legs so he wouldn't be tempted to curl his pinky with hers where they brushed on the seat. He didn't know Katara left hers there, hoping he'd curl them together.

Ursa arrived a day late, due to a storm at sea. She arrived and Zuko's face lit up like the Northern Lights, emotion and love and just joy dancing visibly across his face when they hugged. There at Iroh's urging, Katara averted her eyes, feeling an intruder. Ursa hugged Katara just as warmly as she had Zuko, then slid an arm through each of theirs. "I'm so glad you've all been able to come and stay with Zuko. I hated to leave but he insisted."

"It wasn't safe, Mom. It's still not."

"It's safe enough for Katara," she returned softly, glancing at her son.

His cheeks pinked and a muscle leapt in his jaw but it was Katara who answered. "I'm a Master Waterbender, Ursa, and I fought in the war. Zuko asked me and the others here to help because he knows we can defend ourselves, and him, if it comes to it."

"Things change, though," she said it softly but the implication was clear: if the rumours were true, as Katara's presence in her family only greeting party indicated they were, a great deal had changed.

"Mother, please. I'll..we'll…" He floundered. She was supposed to have time to freshen up and rest. They were going to tell her at noon, with everyone, so she'd see that it was a well-thought-out plan and that he was as safe as he could possibly be. He only had to wait five hours.

"I know you must be tired, but, if you'd like, while your things are being brought in, we could all have tea together," Katara interrupted.

Zuko shot her a grateful look that his mother, between the two, didn't miss. She also didn't miss the way they ranged themselves together and opposite her as they explained the plan, the ploy. "I see. And whose idea was this?"

Zuko sighed. "Does it matter, Mother? It's the one we're going with."

"But after two weeks there's been nothing?"

"It may not seem serious enough yet."

Ursa wondered at that. Looking at them, hip to hip, she was convinced. Sitting there, they were obviously a team, a unit, her son's left hand linked in Katara's right; she wondered if it wasn't more serious than they realized. She said as much to Iroh that evening while Katara and Zuko wandered the garden, whispering and sometimes laughing, sometimes scowling while the other laughed.

"Aren't you concerned that they're," she paused, watching Zuko tuck a flower behind Katara's ear, "forgetting to play pretend?"

Iroh sighed, watching his nephew and Katara, seeing exactly what Ursa did. "That was always why it had to be Katara. Zuko already had feelings for her," he confessed.

Ursa's shock was real and immediately transmuted to concern. "Iroh, they can't marry. The Sages won't allow it."

"I know."

"Then you're breaking his heart."

"Not just his."

Now

"So you picked her to keep them apart?" She lashed out, knowing it was unfair even as she accused.

A muscle in his jaw ticked but he continued, calmly, "I asked her if she wanted to be my partner in ruling the Fire Nation and healing the wounds. I told her she could have her partner move to Caldera or the palace itself. We'd have to make an heir but otherwise, otherwise we'd be parents and partners in ruling together and that would be it."

Zuko wasn't sure what to do with his hands, with his eyes, with the truth. "So we married. And Lan came with Ming Na and she told me," he hesitated again, repeated as if to steady himself, "she told me I could do the same. If there was someone I felt that way about." He sighed. "She knew about you. Everyone did. But I couldn't...I couldn't ask you to do that."

"To be your mistress? I should hope not." She sounded disgusted at the idea. She sounded righteously enraged. But did she really feel it? Or was she hurt that he hadn't asked?

"Consort," he corrected sharply. There was a difference. To him, anyway. "But, yes. That's not what you wanted or deserved. So, I didn't."

"Do you want a prize for that?" Her voice now as cold as a Southern Winter.

"No." In another life, a decade before, he would have said that with anger. Now, he just sounded tired. How could he blame her for her anger when he'd...Or maybe he could. She should know better. Know him better. "Damnit, Katara, will you just listen?"

Her teeth snapped closed on her retort. With great effort, she gestured for him to continue and lost control of her hair in the wind.

"When I saw you the day before my wedding. When we-"

"I was there, I don't need a reminder about what happened."

"For a moment, for just a moment, I thought I could have everything. And I'm sorry for that. "