"Katara? What's wrong?"

Katara lowered her comb and turned to Aang. It was very early. Sokka had already left to go to warrior training. She and Aang were almost done preparing for the day ahead. "Nothing's wrong."

"Then why were you staring off into space just now?"

Katara sighed. "It's hard to explain, Aang. It has to do with what Zuko said last night, and what Sokka said, and some things I've been thinking about lately…" She touched her necklace.

Aang searched for words. "Well, it's okay! We're gonna meet Princess Yue later. That sounds like fun, right?"

"I'm a Water/Fire kind of person, Aang. Trying to distract me from my feelings won't work."

"...Oh." Aang put on his thinking face. "Uh… Then… Um… What are you worried about?"

"I just said it's hard to explain."

"You're just worried about thoughts? Nothing serious?"

Katara sighed, this time in frustration. "Sokka thinks I don't listen to him. He's right, but I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong. Doesn't Zuko need someone's support more than Sokka does right now? I want to be kind to all people, not just my immediate family and friends. When being kind to one means being unkind to the other, how do I find the balance?"

Aang's face changed. Katara smiled. He might be an Air person most of the time, but on this topic he could get serious. "Oh. I get it now," he murmured. "I've been having similar thoughts."

"You have?"

Aang nodded. "Sokka's right. It doesn't make any sense to try and be kind to Zuko when all he does is throw it back in my face. I shouldn't keep trying what doesn't work. I should focus on saving the world and forget all about him. But I tried that, and it ruined my waterbending. I felt awful. And I like hanging out with Zuko somehow, even after all he's done. I don't understand. My feelings don't make any sense."

"It's not practical to reach out to Zuko. The return on your investment is almost nothing, so to speak. But you're an idealist, Aang. The idealist in you doesn't care about practicality and sense. It wants to keep the hope alive that even the worst people, if you try hard enough, can be redeemed."

"Yeah. That sounds like it," Aang agreed. "When should I give up on idealism?"

Katara finished combing her hair while she thought. They were asking hard questions, the sort that old wise folk knew. "Sokka said he wanted Princess Yue to talk with me and Kalika. Kalika hangs out with Iroh before dinner. If we go over, we can ask him our questions. The worst case scenario is that Zuko comes back and catches us, but we'll have our training and Kalika on our side. It shouldn't be too bad."

"I think Sokka meant you should ask her to come over to our house. He's going to hate this plan."

"We need our questions answered, Aang. They're very important."

"He's going to think we don't care about his opinions, though. I don't want to look like I'm snubbing one of my friends."

Katara winced. "You're right. I…we…need to have a looong talk with Sokka about our values. I've been avoiding telling him that I just don't care about his practical style. I don't think he'll understand what I care about, and he might not take me seriously, and he'll be hurt. But I can't avoid it forever. Will you come with me, Aang, to talk to him?"

"Yeah. I'm supposed to be learning the ways of Water, right? Then I should act like it. I should take these big perspectives and stop distracting myself from my problems."

Katara punched him on the shoulder. "You can tell Sokka it's part of your training. Now come on. We're already late."

.

Iroh stretched in his bed. There was one thing he missed about being royalty, and that was the comfortable mattresses. Pelts on the floor just weren't cushioned enough. He sat up and performed different stretches to loosen up his back. Then he looked at Zuko.

Zuko lay in his bed sound asleep. He was on his right side, facing Iroh. His hands were partially underneath his pillow. His breathing whistled softly sometimes, and his face was untouched by anger or worry. When he slept, he looked like a boy again. He put so much effort into seeming like a man when awake that it was easy to forget how young he really was. Iroh's heart overflowed with love. He crept over and carefully, not wanting to wake his little prince, pulled the blankets up. Then Iroh crept away and selected breakfast in the same manner.

When Zuko awoke, there was a plate next to his bed. It held precooked meat, warmed up by the fire, and a salad. Iroh watched his face, both awaiting and dreading the moment the boyish look would disappear. Iroh saw the sadness that filled it, just for a moment. Then Zuko sat up and put on his usual stern face. He ate as if nothing was wrong.

Normally, Iroh would have ignored it. He would have convinced himself that Zuko needed space to handle his own feelings. But Kalika had said this was the wrong thing to do. It only made him think that Iroh didn't care. Iroh had to reach out, as if Zuko was a young boy again. That was a good way to think about it; treat Zuko as if he was a young boy again. It summarized everything neatly.

"You looked sad just now," Iroh said. "Why?"

Zuko looked away. "You were imagining things."

"Are you saying that because you don't want to talk about it? I can stop asking, if that's really what you want."

"It's just been a long time since anyone gave me breakfast in bed. It reminded me of Mom."

"Do you miss her?"

Zuko looked sad again. "Yeah."

Iroh came over and put a hand on his shoulder. "She was a wonderful woman, and you honor her with every kind thing you do."

Zuko snorted. "Yeah right."

"Why do you say that?"

Zuko shrugged him off. "It's nothing." He gathered their plates and started to wash them.

Iroh was not deterred. When Zuko finished his little stalling tactic, Iroh said, "Do you believe your mother's spirit isn't honored when you do kind things?"

Zuko stopped moving. "I don't feel like talking about this anymore, Uncle."

"Alright." Iroh wondered what he'd done wrong. He stretched some more and opened the toiletry chest, put on some lotion, combed his hair. He put on his coat.

Kalika came in. "Oh, am I late?"

"No, I was just giving my nephew some space," Iroh answered. "Something I said upset him. I'm sorry for whatever it was, Nephew." Zuko grunted.

"Do you want me to help prop up another conversation, Lee? Or do you want to talk in private?" Kalika asked.

"I don't care."

"...I don't know what to do with that, Lee."

"Fine."

Iroh raised a hand, telling her to wait. "Nephew, what did I say? Clearly I did something wrong. You normally like pointing out my mistakes. Tell me what it was."

"It's not important, Uncle. Can't you let anything go? Why are you so obsessed with everything I'm thinking all of a sudden?"

"Because I told him to be," Kalika said. That brought Zuko to a stop. "I told him to get to know you again from the ground up, as if you were a stranger. He's just following my advice."

Zuko looked at her. "He's not doing a good job."

"Do you mean he's assuming things about you?"

"Not…exactly."

"Do you know what he did wrong, Lee?"

Zuko shook his head.

"It might have been a good idea to say so instead of trying to convince him not to care," Kalika said gently.

"I just wanted him to stop asking. I didn't know that… That I didn't know." Zuko lost his anger. He seemed confused.

"When you do know, be sure to tell him. Now then. Private discussion, or structured conversation?"

"If you choose conversation, I would like to talk with you about spirits," Iroh said.

Zuko sighed. "I don't feel like looking at my own thoughts right now. Fine. What about spirits, Uncle?"

"How long have you known about the elemental spirits?"

"My whole life."

"Who told you about them?"

Zuko blinked. His eyes wandered away from Iroh, to his left, towards the door. He stared in that direction as if he could see through the wall to the city beyond. "They did, Uncle," he replied.

Iroh stroked his beard. "But the elements don't talk to human beings. We're like grains of sand to them: too small to notice."

"That's not true, Uncle," Zuko said. He still stared at the city beyond their door. "They think about humans all the time. And they are always speaking."

"I've read all the accumulated wisdom about them that exists. Everyone I spoke to agreed - the elements gave us life, and now they leave us to our own devices. We do as we please."

"Then everyone you spoke to was wrong."

Iroh shook his head, at a loss for words. "How could generations of wise men be wrong?"

"Because they weren't like me." Zuko took a deep breath. "I am…special. I speak for the spirits. I know what I'm talking about." He gasped. He gripped his head. "Oh no. No. I should not have said that. Forget I said anything." He ran for the door. Before anyone could say anything, he was gone.

"What just happened?"

"Has he ever done that before?"

Kalika and Iroh asked their questions at the same time. They looked at each other. "I've seen him back down from things he was in the middle of saying," Iroh said. "But he's never done that before. Did he give himself a headache somehow?"

"No idea."

They looked after him. Kalika sighed. "It feels like every time I come here, some new thing pops up. It's going to take me forever to treat him. Have I told you that I'm not seeing any other patients?"

"My sympathies," Iroh said. "It's not easy caring for him."

"No, it sure isn't."

.

After the morning class ended, Aang and Katara asked where the warriors did their training. They found Sokka sparring with someone else, sword versus spear. His opponent had a greater reach, but Sokka had already learned a few tricks to counter that. His opponent was soon disarmed, which counted as a loss.

The leader praised Sokka for his quick learning. Sokka preened. Then he spotted Aang and Katara, and asked for a quick break. "Did you see me just now? Did you hear what he said?"

"We came, we saw, we heard," Katara told him.

"This was so worth being chased by firebenders!"

Katara cleared her throat. "Sokka, we need to talk to you about something complicated. We're going to need more than a quick break."

"Okay." Sokka was so happy he didn't question it. He went right back to the leader and told him that he had to discuss something important with the Avatar and it might take a while. The leader gave him permission to take as much time as he needed.

Katara led them some distance away, to a nook in the ice where they could sit together. "Sokka, you're a practical guy," she began. "You keep our heads on straight. You remember our goals and make sure we stay on track. We need you."

Sokka blushed. "I like what I'm hearing. Keep it coming."

"You're not going to like the rest of it," Katara warned him. "I'm saying this because Aang and I aren't practical like you are. You value accomplishing our goals and doing it efficiently. We value...other things. That's why it seems like we haven't been listening to you lately. We're not doing things that are practical, or efficient, or logical, because there are other things we value more. You're right that continuing to engage with Zuko doesn't make sense. But I don't care about making sense. I'm not deliberately snubbing you, and I do recognize how valuable you are. It's just that, right now, I want to take a break from being ruthlessly practical. So to speak."

"We have a world to save," Sokka pointed out.

"The comet is half a year away," Aang said. "We can afford to do other things for a few days."

"Other things like endangering the whole quest? He ruined your waterbending, remember? He wants to capture you!"

"One of the four elements won't let him," Katara pointed out. "If we were in a desert, he might be a threat. But here? Come on."

Sokka made a bunch of garbled sounds. "Why do you people insist on throwing yourselves into harm's way?! Are you crazy?"

"I'm glad you asked," Katara said. "I've been thinking about who I want to be. I want to be a person who is kind to everyone, who never acts out of anger, who is protective and loving and keeps people safe. Traveling with Zuko has shown me that I can't wait to be that person until other people let me. If I waited until Zuko was pleasant and inviting before I was kind to him, I would never get around to it. In order to be the kind of person I want to be, I have to act like it now. Even if that means I'm putting myself in danger."

She gestured to Aang. "And I need hope," Aang said. "I mean I really need it, the same way you need air. Without it, I can't keep going. I have to believe that I really can make the world a better place. And part of that is believing that I really can reach out to people and make them want to be better. Giving up on Zuko means giving up on myself. It means telling myself I can't do it. And that ruins my hope. That's the real reason why I lost my waterbending. It wasn't because of what Zuko said. It was because after he said it, I tried to give up. Giving up felt awful, so I became angry, and I took my anger out on my bending. I'm sorry, Sokka. I can't just ignore him."

"So, you want to get yourselves burned both literally and metaphorically, in pursuit of hope?"

"Yes," Katara replied.

"That makes no sense."

"I don't care."

"Why can't you hope and be nice and indulge in all kinds of fuzzy feelings without endangering yourself?"

"Same reason you can't be a brave warrior without fighting," Katara shot back. "I have to prove that it's real. The only way I can believe that I'm really a good person is if I can do it even when it's hard."

"I'm going to fight the Firelord before I've even become a teenager," Aang said. "Hanging out with Zuko is nothing next to that."

"Except when it's the same thing," Sokka pointed out.

"Exactly! He can help me practice. I thought Firelord Ozai was dangerous because he's a powerful firebender. Now I know he's dangerous in other ways, too. I have to fight the anger and hopelessness he creates. Zuko's helping me train for that fight, though he doesn't know it."

"We're warriors too, Sokka," Katara said. "We're training just like you are."

Sokka looked between the both of them. He blinked. "But…"

"But what?"

Sokka hesitated. "But you're not fighting him. You're just giving in to everything he asks."

"Really?" Katara shook her head. "That's what you think? You're wrong. He and I are locked in vicious combat."

"It doesn't look like it."

"Women usually don't fight with our fists. But trust me, we do fight."

Sokka raised a hand."We should stop here. We're starting to get into stuff I wanted to talk about with Princess Yue."

"Oh, that's right! Thanks for the reminder, Sokka. There's been a change of plans," Aang told him. "You said you wanted to talk to Kalika. Well, she hangs out with Iroh around dinnertime. We're gonna go over and meet her before dinner, when Zuko won't be there."

"What."

"These are big, big things we're talking about," Katara explained. "We need an old, wise person to help. In the worst case scenario, Zuko will come back before we leave. If that happens, Kalika will be there and Aang and I can practice our waterbending. It won't be too dangerous."

"You decided all of this without me?" Sokka sounded like a little kid who'd been left behind. The expression on his face made Aang and Katara avert their eyes. It was exactly as bad as Aang had feared.

"Yeah," Katara muttered. "Because I'm going over there no matter what you say."

"Nothing I have to say matters to you? I'm your brother. I'm supposed to look after you. You know, like family?"

Katara closed her eyes. "Right now, looking after me means not looking after me. It means letting me follow my own path."

"So I'm a jerk now for not wanting you to get burned by a known dangerous firebender."

"Sokka, that's not -"

"I'm the only one keeping this quest afloat," Sokka snapped. He flung his hands around in frustration. "I'm the only one who puts the fate of the world first. I'm the only one who cares about doing the sensible thing. You two don't even try to care! You're going to do whatever you want, even when it puts us all at risk, and expect me to let it slide. Then when you're done, I'm supposed to go back to my old job with a big smile on my face. I'm only involved in decisions as long as it's convenient. I'm feeling a total lack of respect here, like I'm not equal to you. I'm just some footboy who carries all your stuff and does all the chores."

"That's not true!" Aang protested.

"Remind me of something you've done in the past week that proves me wrong. Go ahead. I'll wait."

"It's just temporary, Sokka," Katara argued. "I have to do this right now. But that doesn't mean you're not important to me. You'll always matter."

Sokka rolled his eyes. "As much as your new boyfriend?"

Katara sputtered. She looked at Sokka just the same way he'd looked at her minutes before. "If you're resorting to personal attacks, then maybe we shouldn't talk anymore right now." She got up and walked away.

"This isn't what I wanted," Aang said.

"Well, it's what you got," Sokka replied. He got up and went back to his training. Aang was left sitting in sadness and fear and confusion. How could people who all wanted to do the right thing disagree so badly?

.

Kalika knew that Yagoda had lessons that day, so she was surprised to see the old woman walk up to her at the hospital. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Yagoda said.

"We were just discussing how much better Mallum looks now that he has hope. Maybe we should put more work into hiring entertainers and such for the hospital," said the head nurse.

"An excellent idea! I need to borrow Kalika now, if it's not a problem."

"Oh, of course not." The head nurse departed.

As soon as she was gone, the carefree look disappeared from Yagoda's face. "We have to go back to your hut," she told Kalika. "I can't discuss this in public."

Kalika made tracks back to her private hut. In that sacred space, she asked Yagoda, "What is it?"

Yagoda reached under her coat and pulled out a pile of records. Some were recorded on skins, some on paper. She handed them to Kalika. Kalika lit a lantern and sat down to read them.

Sitting down was a good choice. Kalika lowered the records. She stared off into space, not speaking. She looked up at Yagoda. Yagoda looked visibly worried. On the face of such an experienced doctor, one who had spent decades mastering her emotions so as not to frighten patients, the visibility of her worry was terrifying.

"Thank you," Kalika said, standing up. She held out the records.

Yagoda shook her head. "Keep them. You need them."

Kalika realized she was right. After Yagoda left the hut, she stood and shook her head slowly, wondering how she could have been so very wrong. Then her training kicked in, and she snapped into action. There was no time for shame. Kalika pulled out all her notes on Lee and spread them across the floor. She did the same for the records. Then she piled blank scrolls next to herself and got to work.