Water

The Truce

"Hey."

Zuko looked up to find Katara perched on the rim of the pit, illuminated from behind by the faint, silvery moonlight. It wasn't terribly late, but the sun had disappeared ages ago, and Zuko was nearly half asleep.

He blinked a few times until his vision grew clearer. "Hey." Still a bit bleary, he surveyed the rest of the pit's rim. "Where are the others?"

She frowned, and her tone turned sharp and clipped. "What? Am I not allowed to go places on my own anymore?"

"Huh?" He suppressed a yawn and scrubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "What are you talking about? Can't I ask questions?"

"I don't go everywhere with them. I don't need an escort." Katara dropped down to the bottom of the pit and crossed her arms, glaring at him.

Okay. Zuko wasn't good with people—he especially wasn't good at figuring out others' moods—but he could tell that something strange was going on here. Something stranger than could be explained by the slight, sleepy haze around the edge of his mind.

Zuko pushed himself to his feet. "When did I ever say that?"

"Why are you assuming that I came here with Sokka and Aang?" she retorted.

He threw his arms out. "I don't know, maybe because they've been here the last few times anyone bothered to come out here?"

"Why are you yelling about that?"

"You started it," he snapped. "What's your problem?"

"What? What makes you think that I have a problem?" Her voice kept creeping higher, and for some reason, she didn't seem to recognize how agitated she sounded. The irony didn't escape even him.

Zuko shook his head and turned back toward his borrowed sleeping bag. "I haven't gotten enough sleep for this."

"What do you think you're doing?"

He spun back around. "I'm going to sleep! Unless you're going to start making sense, I don't see any reason why I should wait around here. Your brother already came to annoy me earlier today. I don't need another pointless argument." He stomped the rest of the way to the sleeping bag before he happened to catch another glimpse of her face.

Her arms were still crossed, and she still wore a scowl, but there were glimmers of confusion shining through.

Zuko stopped. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Her scowled deepened. "I'm annoyed."

"How? You've been here for two minutes. How could I have possibly annoyed you already?"

"Not with you," she snapped. "Well—not just you. I'm annoyed with you too."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Great. Glad to hear it. Can I go to sleep now?"

When he began angling for the sleeping bag again, a tendril of water snaked out, coiled around his wrist, and tugged him back.

"No, you can't."

"Ugh." He shook his arm free and glared at Katara. "Then what? What do you want from me?"

Katara's gaze didn't so much as waver. "You haven't said a single word about what happened before you came here."

What? He raised an eyebrow. "I've told you plenty. I said that my uncle smuggled me onto Zhao's ship, and that I stole a lifeboat to get here. What more am I supposed to say?"

"I mean before that."

"The explosion? You were there. I can't tell you anything more than what you already know."

She shook her head. "That's not it either."

"Then what do you want me to say?"

Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she burst out with, "You kidnapped me, Zuko! That's kind of a big deal to me."

He felt a bit like he'd been punched in the stomach. "I—I'm aware of that, okay? I know what I did. I can't go back and change it. The only thing I could do was let you go, and I did that."

"Would you?" Katara demanded. "If there was a way to go back, would you change it?"

"I—" Zuko's throat tightened, and he tripped over his words. All at once, the pit felt much smaller than it had before, like the sheer force of her voice was taking up more of the space and crowding him back against the wall. "I don't know. If I went back—back then, I just wanted to go home. I thought that capturing you was the only way. I didn't know—"

He had to break off again. It stung to think about the past, about what he'd done. He'd been so consumed by the thought of going home that he hadn't been able to think about anything else. He still dreamed about going home. Of course he did, but he couldn't even imagine going back to the way things used to be. He couldn't imagine trying to harm Katara or the monk ever again.

That didn't mean that he was content with the way things were now—he still wanted to go home one way or another—he just couldn't see any way for that to happen. Not unless Father changed his mind. Not unless Zuko could find a way to prove himself that didn't require him to cause any harm.

"That's it?" she asked sharply. "That's all you have to say?"

"What else can I say?" Zuko retorted. "I changed my mind when I realized what I was doing. I let you go, I gave up on chasing you and your friends, and now I'm trying to make sure that Zhao can't get to you. I don't know what else I can possibly do to prove that things are different now."

"An apology would be nice."

His jaw hung slack for an instant. Would that even make a difference? An apology was just words. "That—" He let out a sigh. "Okay." If that was what she wanted from him, then he could probably try. "I'm sorry that I held you prisoner, Katara. I should have seen what I was doing wrong a lot sooner than that. I want to make it right if I can."

Katara stared at him, stony-faced.

Zuko shifted a little nervously. "Are you happy now?"

She huffed. "I was a lot happier before you said the last bit." But after staring at him for a few seconds longer, she frowned, flounced to the side of the pit, and flopped down on top of his unused pile of blankets.

He glanced confusedly up at the rim of the pit, half expecting to find the others waiting there, but there was no one. He looked back at Katara and raised his eyebrow. "That's it?"

A shrug. "Either that or I can hold it over your head forever." She pulled her knees up to her chest. "That sounds tiring. It's nice to hear an apology if nothing else."

With a sigh, Zuko shook his head. "You're ridiculous," he said, sitting back down on the sleeping bag, just a pace or so away from her.

She made a face at him. "Bold words from the guy who swam through freezing water just to get into a city where he could have easily been killed just for showing his face."

He scowled right back. "Unlike some people I know, I don't have the luxury of flying everywhere. Besides, it's not like it was that bad. I'm a firebender. I can keep myself warm pretty well."

"If all you can say is that it wasn't that bad, it must have still been pretty bad."

He shrugged. "So far, I have a perfect not-drowning record."

"Mmm." Katara was quiet for a little while, looking downward. Then, after a prolonged pause, "You know—I've sort of been meaning to ask—" Her hands clenched and unclenched, and Zuko realized with a start that they were probably cold. He still had her mittens, after all. "How were you? After the explosion, I mean?'

He hesitated in the midst of searching for her mittens and rubbed the back of his neck. "I was—mostly fine, I guess. I had to stay in Uncle's cabin for quite a few days to keep out of sight, so I had plenty of time to heal." He didn't see any need to go into the specifics—that several of his ribs had been broken, and that the lump on his head had left him dizzy for the first few days. Uncle had been worried, but in the end, it didn't matter. Zuko had recovered, and he was fine now. Even his ribs didn't ache anymore, not unless he got really cold.

"Good." Katara's voice was quiet and even, but there was something that he couldn't quite recognize in her expression. Relief, maybe?

That was weird. That was really weird.

He was probably just imagining things. There was no way that she could actually care whether he'd been okay back then or not. She knew that he was fine now, and that was all that could really matter.

"I mean—it was a lot of work to get you out of the water," she added. "You're heavy. I would have been pretty annoyed if I went through all that work, and you weren't okay."

That was more like it. Zuko made a face. "It's not my fault that you're small." He found the mittens and tossed them across to her. "Speaking of which, you can take these back. I can't really use them."

Katara caught the mittens—if her hands were cold, at least they weren't stiff yet—and slipped them onto her hands.

He looked away from her, his forehead furrowing until he managed to speak again. "So—what about you? After the explosion—"

He could feel her eyes turn his way and linger on the unscarred side of his face for a while. "I was okay. I had quite a few cuts and bruises, but I healed them right away. And Sokka and Aang found me that same evening. After I got a lot of sleep, I was back to normal."

"You can really do that?" he asked.

"Do what, sleep?"

"No, heal yourself."

"Apparently." Katara pulled a small amount of water up from the ground and let it twist in midair. "I didn't know it was possible before the explosion, but I guess that's all that waterbending girls are normally allowed to do up here."

"You couldn't have healed me a little while you were at it?" Zuko said on impulse.

"Hey!" She flicked some of the water at him. "I had other things to worry about. Besides, I had already saved your life."

That made sense. "I did wonder about that," he said. "I couldn't figure out how you got me out. I should have drowned."

Katara shrugged. "The Avatar State did a lot of the work for me. You were already hanging over my shoulders by the time I came back around." She glanced his way. "I'm not sure if I would have saved you otherwise. But since you were already there—I made a big chunk of ice to keep us from sinking and swam back to shore."

Zuko gave a small nod. That made sense too. Much more sense than the idea of Katara pulling him from the sea by choice and swimming the whole way herself. He could understand her saving him if it were merely incidental.

"I guess I'm probably supposed to say thank you now," he said haltingly.

"That's what most people would do."

"Then—thanks." Zuko's voice came out stiff, and he had to look away.

She stared at him, narrowing her eyes until one of the corners of her mouth twitched ever so slightly upward. "You're not used to saying that, are you?"

"What gives you that idea?"

She snorted. "Have I ever told you that you're a terrible liar?"

"It's been mentioned. I can't remember if you ever said it, though."

"Well—good. At least someone is keeping you up to speed." She paused, and when she finally resumed, her voice was a little softer than before. "Thank you for getting me off of the ship."

A small, stiff nod. "You're welcome."

Silence fell between them, and incredibly, Zuko found that he didn't mind it too much. The quiet didn't feel heavy or tense, and her presence didn't feel stifling the way that it sometimes used to back on his ship. Back when being around her filled his head with unpleasant thoughts about his own mistakes—about the future and what it would look like if he kept to the same path. He was still aware of her, of course, but it was almost—comfortable.

"You know, I really can't figure you out," she said after a while, voice hushed. "I keep trying, but I never come up with anything that makes sense."

Zuko raised his eyebrow. "What is there to figure out?"

"A lot of things." She frowned into the distance. "Like what you're doing here for a start."

"I've already told you—"

"I know that. You came to warn me about Zhao. I get that much." Resting her chin on her knees, she watched him from the corner of her eye. "But what are you actually going to do? I mean—Zhao is coming here. If we can't stop him in time—or even if we can, there could be a huge fight. And what happens then? If you have to choose a side, then—"

He shook his head. "That isn't going to happen."

"Really? How can you possibly be sure about that?"

"I—I just—"

"Exactly," Katara sighed. "I hope that it doesn't happen. I hope that we figure out a way to stop him before he gets anywhere near the city, but if it doesn't work out that way—Zhao is still one of your people."

"One who tried his hardest to kill me," Zuko pointed out.

"Right, but he's not going to be alone when he gets here. What about all the rest of them?" She leaned back against the wall. "I know you're trying to help us. I'd like to trust you on that. It's just—I don't know if I could fight against my own people if I was in your place. If it comes down to us against the rest of your people, then—"

His jaw clenched. He'd been doing his best to keep his mind away from that possibility. Away from a lot of possibilities, actually, but that one in particular. What was he going to do if he actually had to fight? Zhao was one thing. Fighting the man who'd nearly killed him was fine. But the rest of the Fire Nation—that was his nation. His people. His family. How could he fight back when they were just acting under Father's orders?

Unless blowing up Zuko's ship had been part of those orders. Unless the Fire Nation hated him even more than he thought. Unless there were more people involved—and in hindsight, there had been at least a handful of other men moving the blasting jelly into place. Zuko hadn't actually seen them, but he'd heard enough to know that it wasn't just Zhao. Which meant that maybe, maybe, Zuko had a little more reason to fight his own people than he'd thought at first.

Or maybe he was just desperate to rationalize what he was doing. He'd made it into the North Pole. Like it or not, he couldn't turn back and change his mind now.

"I came here to stop Zhao," Zuko said. "Not just to keep him from getting to you. There's no good reason for him to attack the North Pole."

Katara kept watching him. "So—you would fight the rest of the soldiers coming here?"

He took a deep breath. "I—yeah, I think so. Only if I have to."

"That's fair." Her voice was unexpectedly soft, and she looked up at the sky. "This is weird."

"Yeah." Zuko leaned back against the icy wall too. The dark was beginning to weigh on him again, but at least it was actually drawing toward night now. It was reasonable for him to start feeling tired at this time of the day.

"I've been meaning to ask," Katara began after a pause, a familiar, prodding undertone to her voice. "How did you find your way here? It took us days, and eventually the waterbenders found us and brought us into the city. How did you manage it on your own?"

He shrugged. "I had a map. An old one, but between that and a few things that my uncle told me, I figured it out. The tunnels were the hard part, but I was only down there for a few hours before I found my way out."

"Only a few hours in freezing water?"

"I am a firebender," he answered a little harshly. "It's not a big deal to keep myself warm for a few hours."

He caught her shooting a significant look at the parka and scowled, crossing his arms over his chest as though that would be enough to hide it. He hadn't asked for the dumb thing. He didn't actually need it, it just made things—easier. More comfortable. The parka was heavy and soft and dense, and warmer than he'd ever thought that a single garment could be, more than enough to eliminate the need for his bending.

He sort of liked wearing the parka, but he certainly wasn't going to say as much to her. He didn't need the pity or the help. He just couldn't see much reason to overwork himself on this exact point as long as no one called attention to it.

Her expression had shifted a little, and she gave a small, thoughtful sound. "But you're still wearing Hahn's parka?"

He frowned at her.

"It's weird how well it fits you." She paused. "Even weirder that Sokka knew that it would fit you. But I guess it's good that it worked out."

He felt his frown falter, and his brow furrowed. "What are you saying?"

Katara raised an eyebrow at him. "That it's a good thing that you have a parka to wear? What else would I be saying?"

Zuko had to stop to think. He'd almost thought that she was making fun of him for accepting help in the form of the parka. But now that he thought about it, he couldn't actually imagine Katara doing that. It was weird, but he thought he trusted her more than that. He thought that she was kind enough not to hold that over his head.

"I—I don't know," he finally said. "It's nothing."

Katara made a face. "You're weird." She tipped her head back to look up at the sky. "I'd almost like to know how to warm myself up with firebending, but I suppose that would give me away. And if everyone knew that I was the Avatar, then—"

"Wait." Zuko sat straighter. "You haven't told them?"

"I—no, I haven't." She looked a little sheepish.

"Why not?" These were her people—or near enough to it. He couldn't see any reason for her to hide who she was from them.

She shrugged broadly, her hands turned upward. "There's only supposed to be one Avatar. How am I supposed to tell them the truth when they already know about Aang?" Resting her chin on her knees, she played with one of the soft tassels on her parka. "Besides, it feels like that would be cheating. I couldn't get into waterbending lessons at first because I'm a girl. I want to be good enough on my own, not because I'm the Avatar."

"I heard that the reason you got in was something about your teacher being in love with your grandmother." Not that that explanation made any sense to Zuko, but Sokka had seemed too matter-of-fact to be lying about it.

Katara frowned. "Yeah. I'm not happy about that. But I'm going to prove that he's wrong about me one way or another." Her eyes drifted toward Zuko and lingered there for a while. "It'd probably be easier if I had someone to spar with in my free time."

"What?" Zuko asked sharply. "Is there a reason why you're staring at me?"

"Nope. No reason." She stood hastily and brushed herself off. "I should probably get going. The boys are going to wonder where I am pretty soon."

She was lying. Even Zuko could tell that much. "I don't believe you."

"Well, that's too bad." She stepped to the far side of the pit, then turned back to face him again. "I should have a little extra time tomorrow. I'll see if I can bring you some food outside of my lessons." A pause. "And maybe a tent. You're going to need one sooner or later." With that, she summoned a good deal of water and lifted herself from the pit more gracefully than she had ever managed before.

He was almost tempted to compliment her. Even to him, even judging solely by how she hoisted herself in an out of the pit, he could tell that she'd been working hard on her bending. She was clearly making progress.

He decided against it, though. He was still stuck in a pit because of her improved bending. He didn't need to congratulate her on that.

"I hope you realize that you're impossible," he shouted after her instead.

"And I could say the same about you," she called back, her voice growing increasingly distant as she jogged away.


"For the last time," Pakku bellowed past her, toward the entrance. "If the two of you refuse to leave, I will have you both removed and confined to the city dungeons until Katara's evaluation is complete."

Katara didn't have to look back to know that Sokka and Aang were loitering in the street, doing their best to watch her test her skills against Pakku and Master Taqqiq. She didn't exactly want a pair of spectators for this, but she couldn't really blame them either. Pakku was amusingly flustered with this whole situation.

Sokka groaned loud enough that it echoed off of the icy walls. "All I want to know is how long this is going to take. We have places to be when this is over."

"It will be over when it's over."

"Ugh, fine," Sokka called in response. "We'll wait at the corner instead."

She heard him stomp away and breathed a sigh of relief when Master Taqqiq finally motioned for her to release the water that she'd been holding in a hovering orb ever since Pakku yelled at the boys the first time. Either this was a test of her concentration or Pakku was just too distracted by the boys' presence to remember what the test was supposed to be about—she couldn't really tell which.

"Begin with the starfish form," Taqqiq instructed. "I want to see everything you've learned with Master Pakku so far."

Katara obeyed. This was the part of the test that she was ready for—that she was good at. She worked her way through each of her forms as Taqqiq called them out to her, shifting her weight smoothly while her arms flowed along with the water. Neither of the masters so much as cracked a smile, but she thought she saw Taqqiq nod once or twice. Katara was doing well, she could feel it.

She just had to hope that it was enough to satisfy both of them.

The test carried on far longer than she expected, but Katara kept on moving, kept on bending right through all of it. But finally, Master Taqqiq let her reach the end of her sequence and didn't give her any further instructions. For a moment, everything was still.

Then Master Taqqiq nodded. "Good." He turned toward Pakku. "Is there a reason why she didn't take the test sooner?"

Pakku glowered. "Are you questioning my judgement?"

"Of course not." His tone was far from convincing. "All I'm saying is that half my students start off worse than this. She could have passed a while ago."

Pakku's scowl deepened. "Perhaps a day or two ago. No earlier than that. I have not held her back."

"Wait," Katara interjected. "I passed? So I get to go to intermediate lessons now?"

"Yes." Pakku looked like he was sucking on something sour. "You've passed."

Taqqiq nodded again. "Next arena up the street. You'll meet us at your normal lesson time tomorrow morning."

She couldn't contain her smile. "I'll be there early." That wouldn't leave her any time to visit Zuko before lessons, but that was fine. Starting in a new class with a less stodgy teacher would make it all worthwhile. Maybe there would be an element of fun in her lessons now rather than mere satisfaction.

"I'll look forward to it." At least he didn't seem to mind the idea of teaching a girl. "Be sure that you're ready. Sparring starts on your first day."

Grinning, she nodded. "I'll be ready." She bowed, and when Taqqiq motioned her back toward the street, she turned to go.

"Katara," Pakku called after her just before she reached the street. She stopped. "I believe that—" he paused to clear his throat. "I believe your grandmother would be proud of you."

Katara raised an eyebrow. "I know she would. She's going to be proud the next time I see her."

Pakku couldn't seem to find a way to respond to that, and when the silence lingered on, she turned away again. It was like a weight had lifted from her shoulders. She was free from dealing with Pakku, at least for a while. Things would only get better from here.

The boys ambushed her almost as soon as she stepped out of the arena.

"It's about time," Sokka said, hauling on her arm.

"How was the test?" Aang asked from her other side. He bounced eagerly on the balls of his feet. "Was it hard? Did you pass?"

Katara shook herself free from Sokka's grip and flashed a grin back at Aang. "Let's just say that starting tomorrow, we can walk most of the way to waterbending lessons together. We'll have to split up right about here.

"Whoa! That's great!"

"I know! I'm so—"

"Guys. Can we go? Princess Yue doesn't have all day to wait for us to show up." Sokka paused when Katara gave him a stink eye. "Good job on your test, Katara. Now let's go or you're not going to have enough time to explain the whole mess with Red."

"Me? What, do I have to do all the talking?"

Sokka shrugged as he started up the street. "Do you want us explaining how Red got here?"

"I—" Katara cut herself off. No, not really. Especially not Sokka. He was far too inclined to explain not-so-weird things in very colorful ways. "Fine. I'll do the talking." Holding her head high, she marched after him.

They reached the palace quickly with Aang trotting along beside them and caught just a few odd looks when Sokka made a big deal about the fact that Yue was expecting them. Katara rolled her eyes and dragged him by the elbow past the guards. They weren't strangers here anymore. Everyone knew who Aang was, and all of the guards had at least seen Katara and Sokka around. It wasn't like they had to give any special explanations for showing up to visit.

"Hello," Yue said brightly when they found her near the end of a long corridor. "Welcome. I was so happy to hear that you were all planning to visit me."

"Yeah. Hi," Sokka said through a wistful sigh.

Katara elbowed him, and he jerked back to attention. She made a face at him. The fact that Sokka liked Yue wasn't all that bad, but the fact that he insisted on making it obvious in front of everyone else was—a little weird, to say the least.

Yue smiled. "Hello, Sokka."

Aang looked a little weirded out too, and he cleared his throat. "Um—Princess Yue, we came here to ask for your help with a problem that came up a few days ago. If it's okay with you—"

"Oh!" She reddened, then looked between all three of them. "I'll certainly try to help if I can. What sort of problem is it?" Yue wound up looking at Sokka again.

Sokka flushed several shades darker. "See, what happened was that this—"

Katara elbowed him again. "It's a weird situation," she said, pointedly ignoring the annoyed look that Sokka shot her way. "Is there someplace private where we could talk about it?"

"Of course." Yue motioned them into a sort of broad sitting room encircled by thick cushions. "Make yourselves comfortable."

They all settled into a circle with Katara at one end, Yue at the other, and the boys on either side. It took a few deep, slow breaths before Katara managed to collect her thoughts—against all reason, she found that she was nervous to tell Yue about Zuko, even after sharing the news with the boys—but once she was satisfied that they were alone, she clenched her fists and began.

"A few days ago," Katara said, fixing her eyes on the furs that covered the floor in front of her, "I thought I saw someone sneaking around the city after dark. I wanted to figure out what was going on, so I went after him, and—"

"Then she caught the guy, stuck him in a hole, and he's been down there ever since."

"Sokka!" Her voice came out higher than she liked.

"What?" he asked. "It's true. Besides, I could tell that you were going to take ages to get to the point."

"You told me to explain what happened," she shot back at him.

"And you were complaining about it. Excuse me for helping."

"Excuse me," Yue interrupted, eyes wide. "Is there someone stranded in a hole?"

"It's fine," Aang piped in. "We're keeping an eye on him. Between the three of us, we're making sure that Red has all the food and blankets and things that he needs."

Yue looked even more bewildered. "He's—named after a color?"

Rubbing her forehead, Katara shook her head. How had she not expected things to get off course this quickly? "His name isn't Red. That's just something that Sokka decided to call him to avoid causing a lot of suspicion."

"Would his name cause suspicion?" Yue asked. She looked over at Sokka. "And why 'Red'?"

Sokka had turned a shade darker than usual, and he kept his eyes averted, apparently realizing his mistake in spilling too much information at once. "It's because—well—"

"He's a firebender," Katara filled in, glaring at Sokka. It was too late to backtrack and soften the blow. "All the Fire Nation's uniforms are red."

"There's a firebender in the city?" Yue sounded a tiny bit frantic.

"He's not in the city," Aang offered in his most soothing tone. "He's in the lake. Nobody is going to run into him by accident. And he's not dangerous anyway. Actually, he's pretty nice. Just—grumpy sometimes."

"But he's—in the lake?"

Sokka shook his head. "Not like—underwater or anything. Katara just made this big pit in the ice so that he can't get out." He glanced at Katara this time. "How'd you even get him out there anyway?"

Katara set her jaw. She really didn't want to answer, but she couldn't see any faster way to get back on subject. They were already hopelessly far off and only spiraling farther from the point. "I grabbed him by his stupid ponytail and dragged him there."

Sokka snorted. Then he tossed his head back and cackled.

She whacked his arm. "The point is," she said loudly, "that he's here. The same boy who helped me escape when a Fire Nation admiral tried to kill us both wound up on the admiral's ship, and then he found his way into the city a few days ago to warn me that the admiral is headed toward the North Pole." She paused just long enough to catch an expression of panic on Yue's face. "That's why we wanted to talk to you. We need help finding a way to get word to the chief without causing complete chaos."

For a few seconds, Yue apparently couldn't do anything but stare, wide-eyed and open mouthed at the three of them. And when she finally recovered herself enough to speak, her words came in small, short bursts. "I—yes. Of course I should—but what do you have in mind? How can I possibly—what do I do? How can I tell my father that—"

"Hey," Sokka interrupted. He put a hand on Yue's shoulder. "Just—breathe for a second. It's going to be okay. We've got a little time to figure out how to handle this, and all of us are going to help."

Hopefully there was time left. Hopefully it would be okay. Zuko had said that Zhao meant to set sail as soon as enough reinforcements arrived, which could as easily mean days or months or anything in between. Hopefully it meant that they had ages. Zhao could do more than enough damage even if they were prepared.

Katara chose not to say any of that, instead watching as Yue took a few slow breaths.

"Thank you," Yue said, giving Sokka a slight nod. "It's just—a bit overwhelming. I've attended plenty of meetings, but I've never seen anything like this." She took another deep breath and squared her shoulders. "How do we begin? Once we bring the news to my father, the council will decide how to proceed, but I imagine that we ought to share as much information as we possibly can."

"Well—" Katara looked between the boys before facing Yue again. "We were hoping that you might be willing to go out to the lake with us for a meeting in the next few days. The three of us don't know enough about the Fire Nation to guess exactly what they're planning, and we aren't sure what the council is going to need to know. We thought that if you could talk to him in person, then we'd have the best chance of telling the council what they need."

"Is that safe?" Yue asked. "If he's a firebender—"

"It's safe," Katara answered, then paused, startled by how quickly the answer came. "I mean—it should be safe. He hasn't tried to hurt anyone since he's been here, and we'll be there to make sure that doesn't change."

There was a considerable pause, but at last, Yue nodded. "I will meet with him," she said. "I believe that I should be able to make time on your next free day. Perhaps that would be the best opportunity for us to meet."

One by one, they all agreed to the arrangement. Katara did her best to look more confident than she felt—a few days felt like too long to wait for something so important, but Yue did have a good point. There was no telling how long their meeting with Zuko could take, and using their free day was probably safer than taking the risk of having Yue sneak out of the palace at night. It was certainly a better idea than having Yue meet Zuko on her own. A few days would have to be soon enough.

Just before they made it to the corridor on their way out, Yue caught Katara by the arm. "Katara, wait. Before you go—"

"Hmm?" Katara shot a glance at the boys, who were already partway down the hall, before turning back to find Yue looking a little nervous again.

"This boy—Red—what is he like? What sort of person do I have to meet?"

She looked up and down the hall to be sure that they were still alone. "His real name is Zuko," she began just over a whisper. "He's the crown prince—or he used to be. I'm not sure how that works now that he's out of the Fire Nation. And he's—" She faltered, searching for something, anything that she could say to adequately explain Zuko. "He's—different. He's weird. Grumpy and impatient and sometimes rude, but—I think that every time I talk to him, there's a little more good and a little less bad."

Yue frowned, looking off down the corridor. "I suppose that isn't so bad, then."

Katara offered a lopsided smile. "I definitely can't promise that you'll like him. But—there are a lot of people in the world who I'd trust less than I trust him."


Author's Note:

I think I have a thing where I just really like the messy, chaotic, still-figuring-out-how-to-be-friends stage of relationships. Chaos children are so much fun to write!

I hope you like the chapter! I barely got this one edited on time, but I should be able to start building up my buffer going forward. The next chapter goes up in two more weeks, and in the meantime, reviews are always appreciated!