Hina had been right. This War Council meeting was a disaster.
Qin's face looked like a skinny stormcloud. "You should have told us about the food situation in the Earth Kingdom last time. We should not have had to find out days later as an afterthought."
"I informed you as soon as I realized the problem," said Zuko. "No plans have been finalized yet."
"This directly impacts everything we discussed in the first War Meeting! If Ba Sing Se is in danger of starvation, there is no reason for the Fire Nation to retreat to the North-Western Zone. They can't fight on empty stomachs, and we should make the most of our advantage."
"Not piss it away trying to make barbarians love us," said Mung. "They never will, and they aren't suited to govern themselves. Just look at the current mess."
"The Fire Nation caused this problem," said Zuko. "Two months ago the people in this room created it by trying to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground! I WILL NOT use starving children to reach my political goals! We're better than that. Or we should be!" The fires flared up halfway to the ceiling.
Silence fell. He could see taken-aback expressions on some faces, scorn on Mung's, and cold anger on Qin's. Maybe he'd overdone it a little? Zuko forced his hands to unclench. "We are not going to let Ba Sing Se starve, and we are going to retreat to the North-Western line," he said more calmly.
Everyone looked at each other. "War Minister," said Mak, "didn't you get General Taiyo's report on the retreat from Ba Sing Se and the burning of the fields? I know I passed it on."
Qin reddened. "Yes, of course I did. But the Fire Lord did not mention any plan to feed the enemy, let alone take soldiers out of the army to do so. I resent being blindsided like this, and I resent the Civil Council's meddling in military matters that are not their purview!"
Mung nodded.
Zuko spoke. "As I said, plans have not been finalized, and I didn't know we were going to need soldiers to become farmers until yesterday - and it isn't as if we hadn't discussed major retreats in the previous War Meeting that mean we'll need fewer soldiers anyway! Check the minutes."
"Nobody took them. The scribe was missing," said Mung.
Zuko had forgotten that.
"How many former farmers and fishers do you need?" asked Mak.
Zuko told him.
"What if we prioritized sending the ones near the end of their term of service?" said Chan. "That would have the least impact on the military."
"They do need to stay on the farms for the next six months, preferably a year," said Zuko. "So we can't just send people who would have been demobilized in the next couple of months."
"Some of them will stay on as regular farmworkers and fishers after their terms are up, I'm sure," said Chan.
Shinu nodded. "It gives them a source of income at the time they're officially demobilized. It can be hard for soldiers to readapt to civilian life. If all goes as you plan and the war ends for good, that's a lot of people to find jobs for."
"That's a good point," said Zuko, reminded of what Murasashi had said about retooling the factories and the need to retrain the workers.
The rest of the meeting went more smoothly, but Qin and Mung sat in silence and sulked.
Zuko looked around wildly as he sat up, expecting a darkened central courtyard, flames and the sight of Azula and Katara fighting. But there was only the sight of his new bedroom, and the moon out the window. He put a hand to his chest, feeling the half-healed burn and his racing heart. He closed his eyes and breathed in, out, letting a tiny flame come with each breath out. His heart and breathing slowed to a more normal pace. Nothing wrong here... but he wasn't likely to get back to sleep any time soon.
He got out of bed and looked out the window. It was a nice night. Bright stars, and a thin crescent moon that gave little light. Perfect for blue-spiriting. He really shouldn't. He looked out the window again. The doctor would have his guts for garters.
Zuko went to the closet, and grabbed the plainest clothes he could find, including a dark burgundy cloak with a hood. He pulled the decorative rug back, opened the trap door, and slipped out into the system of hidden tunnels beneath the palace.
Zuko carefully closed the other end of the secret tunnel from the royal apartments as he slipped into the main network. The stone was so cunningly worked that the door looked like part of the wall, and could not be opened without very precise firebending. Even Zuko hadn't known about the passage until he found the other end under the rug after becoming Fire lord.
Not that he'd ever been in the Fire Lord's apartments much. Zuko was glad for that, as it meant he didn't have bad memories associated with the place.
Ten minutes later, he was in Caldera. The tunnel came out in the nice end of town.
Zuko hesitated. He'd wanted to get out more than anything else, and hadn't really considered what he'd do when he got there. Maybe go wander around and see what people were saying about all the crazy recent events? He started off, then stopped, spying Mai's parents' house. He smiled. This might go over better than sunsets...
He watched the guards for a little. They really weren't very alert... five minutes later Zuko had scrambled somewhat painfully over the outer wall, and climbed up the wisteria to Mai's window. He knocked on the glass. He heard someone rustling around, silence, and then the window opened a crack and Mai looked out. "Zuko, what are you doing here?" she whispered.
"Want to go wandering around town incognito with me?" asked Zuko. "It isn't orange."
Mai looked at him incredulously, "In the middle of the night?" Then she smiled. "Not boring. I'll be out in a minute. Don't peek, and don't let my dad's guards catch you."
"Wouldn't dream of it," said Zuko, feeling his face heat up. He jumped lightly down to the ground, and waited behind a rose-mandarin bush. He hadn't thought of that until she mentioned it, and now he couldn't get it out of his mind! Five minutes later, Mai was on the ground and he joined her.
They wandered around for a while, foregoing Zuko's usual roof-running for the sake of his injuries. It was different doing this with Mai, and without a mask or the pressure of necessity and danger against him. They had wandered into the less wealthy part of Caldera when a shrill scream caught their attention. They couldn't see anything, but it came again, and they followed the sound to a closed greengrocer's shop.
There was a cardbox box sitting under a streetlamp in front of it. A pygmy puma leaning over the box while a second trotted away and disappeared behind a trashcan. The box screeched. The first pygmy puma turned to look at them, looked back into the box, then hissed and ran away behind its friend.
Zuko and Mai approached, and looked inside. Someone had written 'Free Kittens' on the box, and there was a ball of fluff huddled in one corner. It looked at them with big eyes and meow-hooted, the fluff starting to fall back into place. "Easy there," said Zuko, kneeling down in front of the box. "You're safe now. It's gone."
"It will come back," said Mai.
"Yes," said Zuko. "We can't leave the kitten here." He looked at Mai. "Do you want a kitten?"
"Not really," said Mai. "My mom already has a catowl."
Zuko extended a hand to it. The kitten sniffed it, and rubbed its face against his hand. Zuko stroked it.
"Why don't you keep it?" asked Mai.
"Dad will say no, and Azula will..." Zuko stopped and began to smile. "I could, couldn't I?"
"Zuko, you're the Fire Lord. Nobody's going to tell you you can't have a catowl."
Zuko laughed, and picked up the kitten. It started to purr. "Yeah. I guess you have a home now. What should I call you?" They traded name ideas as they walked back, but hadn't come up with anything that stuck by the time Zuko left Mai at her house.
When Zuko returned to his own room in the palace, it was only about two hours before sunrise. He decided to try and get some sleep. Somewhat to his surprise, this worked, and he woke to the sun peeking above the horizon and a small warm weight between shoulder and neck. What was Momo doing here? Had Aang left him behind by accident? Zuko touched it, and it was tiny... and he remembered last night. Zuko laughed and moved the catowl to his pillow. Zuko stretched, but stopped suddenly with a wince. Apparently Katara and the doctor had had a point about not doing too much too soon.
Sei was puzzled when the Fire Lord asked her for kitten supplies. Where had her boss found a kitten? He hadn't had it last night, and the Fire Lord's quarters didn't spontaneously generate catowls. When she asked Masanori, he'd laughed, and said that when he'd still been a prince, Zuko had had both a habit of sneaking out at night, and a fondness for animals. Clearly, underneath everything that had happened, he hadn't changed much.