Water

Eye of the Storm

"Do you think we should see how the others are doing?" The most that Zuko could manage was a hoarse crackle—after all the running, all the fighting, all the terror that they'd been through, it was a strain to even keep his eyes open.

Maybe that made sense, though. He'd barely slept—when had it been? Last night? It felt like ages ago, in any case. Maybe the fact that he was practically asleep already wasn't so absurd after all.

Katara gave a small grunt. She had settled back against the wall beside him, and her head rested hard against his shoulder. "If you want me to move, you'll have to drag me."

"Hmm. Yeah." His eyes slipped shut. "That's fair."

She took a long, slow breath and nuzzled against his shoulder. "It's quieter now anyway. If anyone is still fighting, they must be pretty far away. And Zhao's ship—isn't really a problem anymore."

The only response that he could manage was a small grunt, and Katara's hands closed around his arm.

"Worried?"

"Yeah. 'Course I am."

There was a pause before Katara spoke again. "We did everything we could. You didn't put them in danger, but if they got out safe, it's because of you."

Ordinarily, he probably would have questioned that. He probably would have pushed back against the idea that his efforts could ever make such a difference. But today—he wasn't sure what the reason was. Maybe he was just too tired to argue. Or maybe it was the fact that Katara was the one talking to him, that she was nestled in against his side, that they were together and safe because of the risk he'd taken to draw Koh away. Whatever it was, it made his breathing ease a little, and he could almost believe her. He knew that he couldn't do much more to save his old crew now. But maybe that was okay. Maybe Katara was right and he really had done enough.

"Guys! Guys!"

It was fortunate that the sun had sunk below the oasis wall. If the sky were any brighter, Zuko was fairly certain that he wouldn't have been able to open his eyes. As it was, he had to squint to make out Aang descending into the oasis, twirling his staff overhead.

"Guys, are you okay?"

Katara's head lifted off of Zuko's shoulder just a bit. "Aang, why are you yelling?"

Aang stopped halfway across the grass. "I—um. I guess I thought that you two were maybe hurt. I mean—you're not moving. And this place is kind of a mess."

Zuko could agree with that. Though the wall and the hatch seemed to still be mostly intact, there were a few large cracks in the ice, a few jagged shards missing completely after Koh had wedged his way through the opening. The grass was torn up and punctured in places leading from the entrance and across to the pond, then at the banks, the gashes grew both broader and deeper, leaving most of the stones that used to line the pond dislodged and lying in a jumbled mess. The only good thing that Zuko could see was the fact that the pond was slowly refilling, hiding a good deal of the rubble beneath a few feet of still-murky water.

"I blame Koh for that," Katara said. "If he wasn't so pointy, he wouldn't have ripped up half the oasis. But we're fine. Everything is taken care of now."

"Koh's gone?" Aang asked.

They both nodded.

"What about Admiral Zhao?"

"Koh—sort of got to him before we could," Zuko answered. "He's gone too."

"Oh." Aang played with his staff a little bit, brows furrowed as he looked at the two of them sitting so close together. "And—you're not hurt or anything? Just—"

"Just really tired, Aang," Katara said. Her head went back against the wall as she began to slump toward Zuko again. "We've been running around and fighting all day now. We need a break, that's all. We're okay."

Aang frowned ever so slightly, almost like he didn't believe that, or like he was upset about—something. Zuko didn't have the energy to ponder over what it could be.

"You can tell the others that it's safe to come back now," Katara added. "Zhao can't hurt the fish anymore. And as long as we leave the Spirit World alone, Koh isn't coming back."

Without answering, Aang nodded and launched himself back up into the air with an impressive leap and a twirl of his staff.

Zuko almost wondered what that was about. The few seconds of contemplative silence seemed like a lot, coming from Aang.

But before he could mull over it any further, he noticed that Katara had begun to fidget and shift a bit more than before. She probably wasn't especially comfortable sitting like this, leaning back against an icy wall with her head cocked to the side so that she could rest against Zuko's shoulder. It made sense. His neck was starting to feel a little stiff too, and he was at least sitting up straight.

He scanned around what was left of the oasis until he found a patch of mostly-undisturbed grass left just upstream from the pond. Farther than he really wanted to move, but still only a few paces away, and very welcoming after what felt like almost an hour of sitting up against an ice wall.

"Hey." He gave her a small nudge. "How long are you planning to stay like that?"

Katara looked up at him, eyes narrowing just a bit. "If you want me to move because your arm is falling asleep, it's too late. You should have spoken up sooner."

He snorted. "You keep moving around. I know this isn't a very comfortable place to sit."

"Hmpf. Nice try. Not moving."

Zuko glanced toward the inviting patch of grass again. He was tired, and he really didn't want to move if he could help it. But given the choice between the slightly muddy stretch of grass beside the ice walls and the thick, almost carpet-like grass just a few paces away—he wasn't sure he'd ever wanted to lie down quite so badly before.

"What if I carried you?"

At that, she lifted her head a little. "Could you carry me right now?"

Truthfully, Zuko wasn't sure. "Probably."

"Without dropping me?"

He paused. "I—I guess it's not impossible."

"I don't like those odds." She hugged his arm like it was her own personal pillow and nestled against his side again.

"Come on, Katara." He reached around with his free arm and gave her shoulder a small poke. When she looked up again, he gestured toward the soft-looking grassy patch. "Just over there. It has to be better than sitting up against an ice wall forever."

She followed his gaze, then yawned, rubbing her eyes. "I still think you're just grumpy that I'm putting your arm to sleep."

"I think you're forgetting about the night after we fell in the lake. This is nothing by comparison." Another small nudge. "If I can just lie down, you're more than welcome to put my arm back to sleep."

Katara made a face. "How generous of you." But then, after a pause, she sighed and slowly started up to her feet. "Fine. I guess you win."

Zuko raised his eyebrow. "I thought you weren't going to move unless I carried you."

She shot him a small smile when she'd straightened. "I considered that. But the more I think about it, the less convinced I am that you could do it without dropping me. This just seems safer."

With a lopsided smile, Zuko joined her. Then, when they had just begun to settle back down in the grass near the upper end of the pond, there was a familiar roar from over the oasis wall. A moment later, Appa soared into view and landed a bit less gracefully than usual on the now-uneven ground near the bridge. Sokka and Yue both piled off of the saddle in a rush, and raced across the oasis toward them.

"My goodness," Yue said, surveying the damage as she approached. "What on earth happened here?"

Katara shrugged. "Koh wasn't too happy about me trying to send him back to the Spirit World. He put up a bit of a fight on the way out."

Sokka leapt over Zuko's legs and crashed into Katara, knocking her onto her back in a hug that looked more like a tackle than anything else. Zuko winced at the sight of it, and slid a little farther out of the way.

"That's what I like to hear! My sister squashed that big old bug like—well, like a bug."

"Ouch! Sokka, you're squishing me. Stop it."

"No chance."

"Sokka! Can you at least get off of my hair, then?"

Sokka did eventually roll to the side, wedging himself in the already tight space between Zuko and Katara. Then, after a moment of hesitation, he clapped Zuko on the shoulder. "Heard you two got Zhao too. So—good work, man."

"Koh got Zhao," Zuko said flatly, pushing Sokka's hand away.

"Well, whatever." Since Zuko had pushed his hand off of his shoulder, Sokka patted Zuko on the head instead. "Not bad. Especially for a firebender."

Zuko leaned as far away from Sokka as he could. "Can you not sit that close? And where is Aang? I thought he would be coming back here with the koi now that Zhao is—not a problem anymore."

"Oh. That." Sokka clambered to his feet and took a few steps back to join Yue.

"That's—a bit of an unusual situation," Yue said, choosing her words carefully. "We aren't actually sure where the fish are. Or Aang, for that matter."

"What?" Though Katara remained seated in the grass beside him, there was enough energy and agitation behind her tone that he wouldn't have been entirely surprised to see her leap up to her feet. "How did you lose a couple of fish, Sokka?"

He tossed his arms up. "Hey, it's not our fault! And we didn't just lose the fish. We lost Aang too."

"How did you manage that?"

"Well, Aang made this nice little pool for the fish to swim around in a little way outside the city, and he kept checking in with us every so often to make sure that the water wouldn't freeze, and then the last time he came back—well, he said that you two had dealt with Zhao and Koh, and he leaned down to touch the water, and he just sort of started glowing."

"You mean he went into the Avatar State?" Zuko said a little flatly.

"No, I mean he started glowing. It wasn't just the eyes and tattoos like normal. And Aang normally goes completely berserk when he's in the Avatar State. This time, he seemed pretty calm. Right up until the part where the fish disappeared and glowy-Aang made himself at least ten times bigger by surrounding himself with water."

Zuko stared for a few seconds, then glanced to the side just to find Katara looking equally perplexed.

"Basically, we're pretty sure he's been possessed by a couple of fish. But—on the bright side, that's probably better than being possessed or eaten by Koh, right?"

Yue shook her head slightly, expression stuck somewhere in between exasperation and fondness. "We were planning to follow after Aang to be sure that he gets back safely after whatever this is. We just had to check on the two of you first. Is there anything that you need?"

Zuko rubbed his forehead. "About a week of sleep."

Katara took a more practical approach. "If the blankets are still in the saddle, those would be nice. And probably something to eat too."

"What, are you expecting me to go get that stuff for you?" Sokka asked. He paused, but not long enough for any sort of response from any of them. "Fine. I'll be nice. But there's no food in the saddle. We got hungry out there. It's all gone now."

Yue gave a small, apologetic smile. "We'll stop by the palace for more food before we come back again. It's the least I can do after all the two of you have done to help my people."


Katara wasn't aware of either lying down or going to sleep. In fact, by the time that she woke up bundled between two blankets in the grass, with her head cushioned by her own folded parka, it took several long moments of staring blearily up at the stars before she could even remember where she was. She remembered the battle, of course. It was just the fact that she was lying outside with relatively little to help keep her warm and was still perfectly comfortable that perplexed her at first.

But she did eventually remember the oasis and the immense weight of exhaustion that had come over her once Zhao and Koh were both gone and she and Zuko could finally breathe again.

Zuko. She turned her head just far enough to the side to find him lying on his stomach beside her, the scarred side of his face buried deep into his folded parka. His hair—the shorter bits, at least—stood at odd angles, flattened in some places and squashed upward into sharp ridges and spikes in others, and his tunic was rumpled and creased.

Katara didn't quite smile, but she felt herself inching toward it, her forehead relaxing while her mouth seemed to soften. She was happy lying next to him like this, only separated by a few inches of grass and messy blankets. Happy and warm and content, and—safe. That made for a nice change after the past few days. Safety felt wonderful.

Zuko, of course, would still have more danger to contend with now that he'd been spotted a few times, but that didn't seem quite so insurmountable anymore. They'd kept one another safe all through the battle. They'd faced an admiral and a spirit several dozen times the size of both of them combined, and still they'd made it through relatively unharmed. Surely Katara could protect him for a little longer. He deserved at least that much.

On an impulse, she reached across and tried to smooth down his hair. She froze when Zuko's forehead twitched and his eyelids began to flicker a little. Was he really that light a sleeper?

Sure enough, he stirred, then blinked a few times in a row before he finally succeeded in focusing on her face. "Katara?" His voice was muffled a bit by his parka. "What are you doing?"

Her mouth went dry. "I'm just—your hair is a mess."

"Mmpf." He closed his eyes again. "It usually is."

"How do you know that? I'm pretty sure you haven't been spending a lot of time around mirrors lately."

A small shrug. "Don't need to. You guys tell me that my hair looks weird often enough to make up for it."

"I'm starting to get used to it."

His eyes opened, and though the lids still seemed heavy, he focused on her. "Are you?" he asked. "You just said it was a mess."

"Just because you've been sleeping on it. It's sticking up in weird spots right now." She paused just long enough to pull her arm back. "Your hair is actually pretty nice, especially now that it's growing out. But that doesn't mean that a comb couldn't be useful."

Zuko rolled a little farther up onto his side and lifted his head like he was trying to get a better look at her. His forehead creased a little, and he started to say something, but a soft voice from behind cut him off.

"Katara? Zuko? Are you two awake?" Yue asked.

Zuko seemed to deflate just a little, and he sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand. Slowly, he sat up. "Yeah. Barely."

Katara's pulse sped up, and her face felt a bit warm. She'd forgotten all about the others. The possibility that they might have made it back to the oasis—that they could have been watching as she woke up and tried to fix Zuko's hair—had been the farthest thing from her mind. But rather than embarrassment, the main thing she felt was just disappointment. She didn't want to get up. She didn't want to have to think about the battle or whatever was coming next. She wanted to stay right where she was, lying comfortably in the grass, enjoying the quiet and the calm.

She wanted it to just be the two of them, just her and Zuko, for a while longer. She wanted to enjoy the brightness and the warmth in his eyes, the softness of his crooked, sleepy smile without interruption. She thought that they'd earned that much at least. A few more hours to rest, to maybe even drift off again, safe and within arm's reach of one another, before the world became real again.

But Zuko was already rising, so with a small groan, she sat up too. With her blankets still wrapped around her shoulders, she accepted his hand up.

It took a second after they'd joined the others for Katara to notice that Aang was back and lying, fast asleep, on Appa's tail. She glanced back at the pond and found that both of the fish had returned too.

"What happened?" she asked. "I thought you said that Aang disappeared with the fish or something."

Sokka frowned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah. He did."

"And?"

"And—let's just say that even if we split up the credit between Aang and both of the fish, he's got your ship-wrecking record beat pretty solidly."

Zuko stiffened visibly. "Did—" he began, then swallowed visibly. "Did all of the ships go down?"

"I'm afraid—most of them did, yes," Yue said quietly.

From the corner of her eye, Katara watched as Zuko seemed to deflate, his shoulders slumping and his head falling into his hands. She felt her heart sink a little, and although she wanted desperately to tell him that things were going to be okay, that his uncle and crew had to have survived, she couldn't find the words. All she could do was rest a hand softly on his shoulder, leaning in close enough that her cheek nearly brushed against his arm.

"It wasn't all of them," Sokka said. "I saw a few of the ships retreating, and a couple of skiffs took off when the Avatar-fish thing—the Fishvatar—started attacking. And as soon as they stopped fighting back, the Fishvatar lost interest." He hesitated, then reached across and patted Zuko's opposite shoulder. "It won't be that bad, man. Things could've turned out a lot worse than this."

Zuko raised his head ever so slightly. "Yeah? So everything else is fine, then?" The ragged harshness of his voice made it sound a bit like a challenge.

At that, Sokka pulled his hand back and scratched the back of his neck. "Well—"

"We spoke to my father a bit when we stopped back at the palace," Yue filled in. "From the sound of it, the battle is going as well as can be expected, and the rest of the fleet will probably be driven out of our waters by this time tomorrow."

Katara let her hand slip down from Zuko's shoulder to take hold of his hand instead. His uncle was probably still out there with the fleet, being driven far, far away from here. Away from Zuko. Still, that hardly seemed like the worst news in the world. They could stick together, and in time, they would find the general again. If the past several weeks had been any indication, it wouldn't be too difficult to send messages back and forth until they figured out a place to reunite. Maybe someplace in the Earth Kingdom—someplace where she and Aang could work on their next element while Zuko got reacquainted with his uncle after so much time apart.

"That sounds like good news to me," she said, giving Zuko's hand a slight squeeze. "It'll probably take longer than we were expecting to meet up with the general again, but everyone should be safe in the meantime."

Yue frowned. "It would be good news if that was all of it. But—my father also mentioned that there were rumors of a firebender sneaking around the city. One who didn't look much like a soldier, and—" She paused, inhaling deeply. "There's no doubt in my mind that the rumors were about you, Prince Zuko."

He grimaced. "Well, after Hahn and the old ladies in the healing hut, I sort of expected that much."

"Yeah, you might want to hear the rest before you say that," Sokka interjected.

Something in Katara's middle went tight, and she turned toward Yue again. How bad could it possibly be?

"We were still there when my father spoke to some of the warriors," Yue began. "He ordered them to search everywhere for any firebenders who might still be in our territory. And if they're not gone before midmorning, then—well, Father didn't leave much room for any sort of mercy."

Katara heard Zuko's breath catch, and his grip on her hand went tight.

"I'm sorry," Yue continued. "We did try to explain the situation a bit, but then Father started asking questions, and there wasn't much we could say without giving you away. Coming back here to warn you was really the best option we had."

This time, there was a sharp exhalation, and Zuko pulled his hand free from her grasp to rub both eyes with the heels of his hands. "Great. This is just perfect."

"They're not going to find you," Katara blurted out, entirely on impulse. "We can—hide you somewhere outside the city. Maybe at the northern hunting camps or something. Someplace they won't look for you." She looked back and forth between Sokka and Yue. "Right, guys?"

"That is the best option I can think of," Yue said.

Sokka nodded. "Yeah, we've got all the stuff we need to set up a decent camp. Plus a sky bison to get past all the guards. It's just a matter of picking the right place now."

For a few moments, Zuko didn't react. He didn't move. But then, slowly, he raised his head. "What? Did you all plan for this, or—"

A scoff, and Sokka shook his head. "No. I mean, we were sort of planning on not getting involved with the battle at all, remember? We've been winging it pretty hard ever since we came back into the city. But—you know. It seems like the fish are fine, and most of the city is still standing, and there's a pretty good chance that your old friends all made it out okay. I'm pretty sure we can handle one more teensy little crisis."

Zuko wouldn't look any of them in the eye. "They weren't—they aren't my friends."

"You were with all those guys for three years and you didn't make friends with any of them?"

Zuko shook his head again, chin resting on his thumbs with the rest of his fingers extended upward, almost pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm not—I'm not good with people."

Sokka glanced at Katara, then at Yue, then back at Zuko. He sighed, let his head hang for a moment, then looked up again. "Okay, I'm really going to hate myself for saying this later, but—you're not really the worst. Just look at some of the jerks we've had to deal with in the past few days. When it comes right down to it, I'd much rather help stash a minor jerk like you someplace for the next few weeks or months or whatever than deal with the major jerks again."

Katara frowned. "Sokka."

"Yeah?"

"You can probably stop there. The more you talk, the less helpful you get."

Yue nodded, giving Sokka a small, fond smile. "It was a nice thought, Sokka, but I think she's right."

Zuko just stared confusedly at Sokka. "How is it that I'm the one who's never had a friend before?"

"Hey!" Sokka reached across and whacked Zuko's arm. "I'm charming as hell. I've got charm coming out of—" he paused, gesturing broadly at his entire body. "—all the orifices. I'm like a charm lantern or something."

"If you keep talking about your orifices, I'm going to find one of your dirty socks to shove in your talking orifice," Katara said.

Sokka shrugged. "Yeah, you can try it. Somehow you don't look very threatening with the blanket cape."

Katara stuck out her tongue, and Yue wisely took the opportunity to change the subject.

"There is still a bit of time before we have to worry about leaving the oasis. My father asked that I stay here until at least noon so that the streets can be properly searched. I imagine seeing Appa leave before that time would draw some unwanted attention." She gave a reassuring smile. "If Sokka and I return to the palace on foot when the time comes, the rest of you should be able to leave the oasis with Appa and avoid the warriors completely. And then once we're certain that you're safe, I'll see if there's anything I can do to change my father's mind. It doesn't seem right to ban you from the city when you've done so much to help us."

Again, Zuko was quiet, but his face was tinged with red in places. Like he hadn't been expecting either the care or the help, and now that he'd gotten it, he wasn't sure how to react.

Katara nudged him gently. "Are you okay?"

He cleared his throat. "I—yeah, I'm fine. Just surprised, I guess."

"I probably could have told you that I'm not the only person here with strange taste in friends."

That was enough to pull a small, lopsided smile out of him. "I think you mentioned that once before."

From Zuko's other side, Sokka made a face. "Weird. You two are both giant weirdos, you know that?" Then, before Katara could respond, he hopped to his feet. "If I have to watch this nonsense, I need a snack first."

Katara glared at his retreating back. She wasn't being weird, and she had half a mind to give him an earful about it until he actually returned to the group, his arms piled high with food. Oh. She was hungry. Really hungry.

Somewhat grudgingly, she accepted the food from Sokka. That was rude, giving her food as a distraction right when she'd been about to call him a big jerk, but she supposed that it wasn't the end of the world. She would have plenty more chances to call him a jerk once she'd eaten.

But once she had, she found that she didn't care quite so much. Her stomach was full for the first time in more than a day, which made her head feel clearer and her eyes a little less heavy than before. Even Zuko seemed to perk up a little, and although he still seemed justifiably worried, he did manage to smile a few times. It was like the world had gone a little brighter, and the shadows encroaching from a distance were driven a little farther away. At least for now.

It wasn't too long after they'd all finished eating and sat back, watching the moon make its final descent over the oasis wall before sunrise, when Aang finally started to stir. With a great deal of yawning and stretching, Aang meandered his way over from Appa and plopped down into the space between Sokka and Zuko.

"What happened?" he asked groggily. "How'd we get back to the Spirit Oasis?"

"Don't you remember?" Yue asked.

Aang frowned, eyes half shut. "I remember coming to meet you guys out on the glacier. I remember that we were going to bring the fish back here, and then—" His eyes popped wide open. "Guys, I don't remember bringing the fish back here!"

"Calm down, buddy," Sokka said, patting Aang's shoulder. "They're back. Fishy and spirity as ever."

"How?" Aang asked. "If I didn't bring them back, then what happened? You guys can't move fish that far all by yourselves, you told me that."

"Well—I sort of think that they brought you back here. It wasn't really clear, though. You sort ofwent into the Avatar State, you sort of got possessed by a couple of fish, and—it was a whole thing, and what's left of the Fire Nation fleet is pretty much running for its life now." Sokka clapped Aang's shoulder again. "So whatever that was, you did good. And I think I might even prefer the Fishvatar State over the normal Avatar State where you're concerned."

"I got possessed by a fish?"

"Two fish, buddy. There's a big difference. Or—at least I think there is. I didn't know that fish possession was a thing before today, and hanging around with you just keeps teaching me weird stuff that I never wanted to know."

Aang gave a small, confused smile, and in the quiet that followed, Yue spoke up.

"It was an impressive sight from where Sokka and I were watching. I'm sure you'll be able to see some of what happened when you and the others take Appa back to his stable. But thankfully, we do still have a few hours. And—in the meantime, I am very curious about how exactly you managed to get rid of Koh."

Katara told most of the story. Aside from some small, hushed additions, Zuko seemed content just to listen, leaning slightly in her direction, close enough that their shoulders nearly brushed. It was nice. Comfortable. And when she carefully sidestepped the parts of the story where she'd had to heal either of them—she couldn't see the use in worrying the others now that everything was okay again—she could sense Zuko relaxing beside her.

It felt right. Some things were theirs and only theirs. It was like things were meant to be this way. She enjoyed the closeness and the relative quiet. She hoped that wherever they set up Zuko's new camp, it would be near enough for her to visit often, near enough for her to snatch more moments like this with just the two of them.

By the time that the moon disappeared completely and the sky began to lighten in the east, Katara had long since finished her story, and they had all veered off into other topics, into jokes and gossip. She even caught Zuko smiling a few times, and though he couldn't seem to laugh along with the rest of them quite yet, there was enough noise that she didn't hear the hatch in the wall opening.

"Avatar Katara?"

She jumped, then turned toward the familiar voice, heart racing.

"Have you by any chance seen my nephew?"

Beside her, she heard Zuko's breath catch, and before she could respond to the general, Zuko was already turning around and scrambling to his feet.

"Uncle!"


Author's Note:

A bit of a quieter chapter to start winding things down here! I figure that the kids deserve a chance to just take a good, long nap before they start dealing with the future and the consequences of... y'know, Zuko showing his face all over the city and such. Also, a reunion with Iroh is good for everyone!

I suppose at this point, it's not spoilery to talk about what happens with Yue anymore, since the guy who was responsible for her sacrifice in canon sort of got his face eaten off in the last chapter. Honestly, going into this fic (and even the NWT arc), I wasn't entirely sure whether she was going to make it through the end of the fic or not. I mean, on the one hand, I hate killing off characters that I love, but on the other, her sacrifice was emreally/em important in canon, and this is a story about a war. Realistically, not everyone makes it out on the other side. But I finally decided that I'd sort of let the story decide what had to happen with Yue for me, and since Zhao didn't know exactly where in the city to find the Spirit Oasis once I got here (plus the fish evacuation plan)... Yue lives! Which honestly makes me really excited for some post-war stuff. If most/all of the world leaders are kids who happen to be friends with each other, it's going to be a lot smoother sailing than it could have been otherwise. But smoother sailing in a teenage chaos sort of way.

One chapter left to go! For reference, Chapter 80 will be up in two weeks, then Book 2 will start posting the week after that! I've written the first... uh... fourteen chapters of Book 2 at this point, so even if editing takes a while, I should be able to maintain a pretty consistent schedule for A WHILE.

Hope to see you back here for the finale, and in the meantime, reviews are always appreciated!