Water

Advancement

"You're going to pay."

Sokka didn't have to turn around. He barely even had to think to know who that awful, sneering voice belonged to. Hahn was just way too predictable.

He sighed, tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling. "Hey, Hahn," he said, keeping his tone as flat, as monotonous as possible. "It's a nice day, isn't it? It's good to see you too."

"Don't play dumb with me."

Sokka took his sweet time placing his practice spears back into the rack and turning them all so that the sharpened ends faced precisely the same angle before he turned around and dignified that with even an instant of acknowledgement. "Right. My mistake. I forgot that that's your job. Didn't mean to horn in on your territory like that, man."

Hahn flushed red, and his snake-ish eyes narrowed.

"What do you want?" Sokka asked. "Come on, spit it out. I've got places to be. I don't have time to wait for your stupid thoughts to ooze out like usual."

Somehow, Hahn's scowl deepened even further. If Sokka kept pushing, he was half convinced that the jerk's fuzzy-caterpillar eyebrows would creep all the way down onto his cheeks. "You little shit. Just wait until I get you alone. You're going to regret ever crossing me."

"Crossing you? How?" Sokka demanded. Spirits, this was even stupider than he'd been expecting. "I haven't even talked to you in—what, four days now? I think we were both enjoying that. Why don't we just go back to ignoring each other like two civilized human beings?" He shouldered his way past Hahn to retrieve his mittens from where he'd dropped them toward the end of the lesson.

Like it or not, Sokka really did have somewhere to go this afternoon. Despite all his best efforts last night, he hadn't been able to glean much useful information from Zuko's uncle's letter. In fact, outside of what Zuko had been able to tell them about the navigational symbols and the fact that the fleet was going to arrive on the day of the full moon, there didn't seem to be much useful information in it.

But they had a messenger hawk cooped up inside of Zuko's tent. Even if they couldn't understand a word of what the old man was saying, they could still send a response. And this afternoon, with Yue's help, they were planning to all gather at Zuko's campsite and work out how best to squeeze more information out of the old guy.

Sokka had to be there. And frankly, even seeing more of Zuko's weird mushiness toward his sister sounded like more fun than sitting around here and arguing with Hahn.

"My parka, to start with," Hahn snapped. "I know you had something to do with it going missing."

It took effort to hold back a snort. Yeah, Sokka had stolen Hahn's parka, but it wasn't like anyone could prove that. He and Aang had been very careful and very sneaky about their thievery.

"Seems to me that you just need to keep a better eye on your stuff," Sokka replied dryly. "You still haven't found that?"

Hahn leaned in closer. "Of course I haven't. Where'd you put it, you little weasel? You got me in so much trouble with my dad."

Wow. This guy really was going to be the world's worst chief someday, wasn't he?

Sokka pulled on his mittens. "Sorry, man. Maybe you should talk to your dad about that. If he doesn't trust you, then there's nothing I can do about it."

"Hey!" Hahn grabbed Sokka by the shoulder and pushed him back against the wall. "You don't get to talk about my family, understand? This isn't about me and my dad." He jabbed a finger into Sokka's chest. "I know that you're up to something."

Sokka wasn't scared of Hahn. Not even a little. It didn't matter that the jerk was taller than him, more muscular, possibly older, and undeniably better trained as a fighter. None of that mattered to him.

Still, being pushed up against the wall by a jerk who was bigger than him, more than a little dense, and convinced—somewhat rightfully—that Sokka was up to something, was an unpleasant feeling. Really unpleasant. Sokka wasn't scared, and he wasn't doing anything that he had any reason to be ashamed of, but his pulse did speed up a little.

"Like what?"

"That 'Red' thing, to start with. I know damn well that you're still hiding something, and it's not a pet that you don't want your freak of a sister to know about." Hahn leaned in so close that the heat of his breath hit Sokka's face. "And I know that you've been spending more time with Princess Yue than you have any right to."

He held his expression as still as possible. "Yue's been hanging out with my sister." It was only half true, but a half-truth was still a truth. Sort of. "What am I supposed to do about that? Kick her out? Forbid my sister from making friends?"

"Polar leopard shit." This jab at his chest was hard enough that it felt like it might leave a bruise. "There's more to it than that, and we both know that. One way or another, I'm going to find out what you and your little friends are up to."

Shit. Sokka was not equipped to deal with situations like this. It wasn't that he was worried that Hahn would be able to guess the truth—there was no possible way that Hahn was smart enough for that. But Sokka wasn't always the best liar, and if he slipped up even a little, there could be a chance that Hahn would find the inconsistencies in time and stumble his way into something near the truth. Which wouldn't be good. Not at all.

Really, Katara ought to be here instead of him. Shewas a much better liar than Sokka, and she never had to deal with Hahn's idiocy. It was only fair that she take a turn at dealing with this annoyance every once in a while.

"How did you find out about the invasion?" Hahn demanded. "I know you have to be involved in that somehow. Tell me!"

Sokka shoved Hahn back. "We already told you. The three of us took Princess Yue out for a ride on Appa, and we happened to see a ton of Fire Nation ships. What more explanation do you want?"

Hahn returned the shove. "I don't know, asshole. I don't know what you and your little friends are up to."

For a moment, Sokka could only stare. Then he blinked, shaking his head, and rammed his shoulder into Hahn's and stepped through the resulting opening. If that was the best that Hahn could come up with, then obviously he was just being paranoid and making up excuses to try to get Sokka into trouble. And since Sokka wasn't the world's most convincing liar, his best choice was probably just to act like he hadn't heard anything at all.

"Hey!" Hahn didn't try to grab at him, fortunately, but he did trail along a step or two behind Sokka. Like a lost wolfotter pup or something. "Tell me what you're hiding, asshole, or I'll tell everyone—"

"What?" Sokka turned back just long enough to glare. He had a clear path to the door now—at least he could afford to be a little bit snarky on his way out without any danger of being trapped. "What are you going to tell people? You know as well as I do that you don't have anything on us. And if you don't have any proof, no one is going to believe a word you say."

As Sokka turned back around and made his way out the door, a small pang of regret hit him in the middle of his chest. Provoking Hahn and half-admitting that he and the others had something to hide probably wasn't his best idea ever. Hahn was just the right combination of stupid and stubborn to think that he could get away with following Sokka around to figure out where he was going and what he was doing.

Sure enough, when Sokka reached a corner and took the opportunity to peer back over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of Hahn sneaking after him. Damn it. Once he rounded the corner, Sokka broke into a run, darted out of sight around the next corner, and then set off on a winding path through the city in the hopes of throwing him off. Sokka was supposed to be out on the ridge outside the city right now, meeting with all the others to take another stab at figuring out the general's letter now that Yue had time to join them. He really couldn't afford to have Hahn following him around right now.

Not that he was worried. Sokka could very easily take a few extra twists and turns around the city to really confuse the idiot, but he was definitely going to be late to meet the others. And, if they weren't careful, Hahn might actually seize on their comings and goings and do his best to follow them.

Idiot or not, he'd probably succeed eventually. Which meant that Sokka had to try his hardest to throw Hahn off for as long as possible.

He picked up his pace a little.


Zuko was having a very hard time paying attention to anyone who wasn't Katara. But it wasn't weird. At least he didn't think so.

Today, Katara looked—well, tired. Really tired.

When the others' attention was directed elsewhere—they'd all gathered at Zuko's camp, but Sokka had yet to arrive, and Aang and Yue were both occupied with waiting for him—Zuko edged toward Katara and gave her a small nudge.

"Are you okay?" His voice didn't raise much above a whisper, and he didn't dare to look at her for fear of drawing the others' attention.

Yawning, she nodded. "I'm fine. Just didn't get enough sleep last night." A pause, then she stole a sideways glance at him. "Why? Is it that obvious?"

His face warmed. "I don't think—no, it's not really that—"

Katara scoffed. "Thanks. It's always nice to know that I look awful."

"That's not what I'm saying," Zuko insisted. She didn't look awful. Just tired. And Zuko didn't know how to say that he sort of wanted to pull the sleeping bag out of his tent and bundle her up so that she could rest for a few minutes without it sounding positively terrible.

"You always look really pretty, Katara," Aang said brightly.

At that, her amusement faded a fraction, and she made a face. "I think the flattery might be even worse than the brutal honesty."

Zuko started to protest—he wasn't being brutally honest, he was just terrible with words—but Aang spoke up at precisely the same moment, and he had to shoot a scowl at the monk. What did he think he was doing?

But Yue spoke before either of them could get out more than a word of argument. "Is anything the matter, Katara?"

Katara shrugged. "No, I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping enough recently, and apparently it shows."

"Yeah, she and Zuko stay up really late most of the time," Aang inserted.

"It's not that late," Katara retorted. "Just—you know. A few hours for sparring and talking and stuff. The problem is that I have to get up so early for lessons." She yawned again, then bonked softly into Zuko's shoulder with her forehead and lingered there for a moment. "You're supposed to be a morning person, right? You should start going to morning lessons for me."

His heart skipped, and it took a second before he remembered how to breathe. "Um—I'm pretty sure your teachers would know the difference. And I know I wouldn't be any use in the healing hut."

"Ugh." Katara pulled back again. "Fine. Then I guess I'll just come out here earlier when I don't have my regular waterbending lessons. That way, I can have a short day and a normal bedtime every other day. Perfect solution."

Zuko's pulse sped up and his mouth felt dry. It hadn't occurred to him before that he could ever be a priority if she had to rearrange her routine. Or—well, it was probably less about him than it was about their bending practice, but even that was so much more than he could have guessed at.

"I—um—" He fumbled for words. "That sounds good to me. I don't—I don't exactly have a busy schedule out here." Even if he did, even if there were other things that he had to fill his time with, there was no way that he could not find the time and the space for her.

"Maybe you can start sparring with me too, Katara!" Aang said eagerly. "I'm going to be in your class starting tomorrow. I think it might be fun if we practiced a little more together."

Zuko's insides twisted. No. What if that took her away from him? What if she didn't need Zuko as a sparring partner anymore?

Katara frowned, hesitating for an instant. "I don't know, Aang. You haven't really enjoyed it when we've practiced together before. At least since we got to the North Pole."

"Well—yeah, but we were just drilling forms before. That's boring, but it seems like you and Zuko have a lot of fun with sparring. Maybe if I could join you guys—"

It took an immense amount of restraint to keep from saying what he really wanted to say—that Zuko could think of a hundred different things he'd rather do than give up his sparring time with Katara to spar with Aang instead, not the least of which was tearing off his own fingernails. But his jaw tightened briefly, and eventually he managed, "Have you ever sparred before?"

Aang shrugged. "Well, not exactly, but I've had to fight before. Remember? I had to fight you on the way here."

"Yeah, and you're a slippery little shit," Zuko grumbled without thinking.

Yue pressed a mittened hand over her mouth in an apparent attempt at suppressing a laugh.

Katara rolled her eyes—Zuko wasn't sure who that was directed at, but he suspected that it was him—before she spoke. "Why don't we wait to decide that until after you've sparred in class a few times? I know you don't like fighting very much, but you'll have a chance to try sparring with the other kids tomorrow. Maybe you'll like it. But until then, I don't know if you should tie yourself to anything like that."

Aang frowned in thought. "Then—okay, I guess that makes sense."

Zuko crossed his fingers inside of his mittens. Maybe it was selfish of him, but he hoped that the reality of sparring would scare Aang off. All the others had—well, each other. They had freedom to go places and see one another and talk things through when they got thinking too hard.

Zuko didn't have any of that. He had brief snatches of time with Katara, their time and length all out of his control. The others had multiple friends who they could turn to whenever they felt like it, and Zuko had one almost-friend. One person who he could be honest with, one person who would really listen to him. It only seemed fair that he be able to hold onto that.

"Congratulations on passing your test," Yue said kindly. "I've heard many good things about Master Taqqiq. I think you'll enjoy working with him."

"Yeah, and it'll be fun to be in the same class as Katara again." Aang looked around as though checking to be sure that no one else was listening. "The kids in my old class are nice, but I think the oldest one is nine."

Yue made a small noise of agreement, then glanced back toward the city. "I'm surprised that Sokka isn't here yet." She turned to Zuko. "Before he does arrive, would you mind if I saw your uncle's letter? I understand that the rest of you have read it already."

"Oh. Yeah, sure." Zuko returned to the tent just long enough to retrieve the letter before returning to his spot by Katara's side. He did his best not to notice the significant look that Yue gave the two of them, but fortunately the look was gone as quickly as it had appeared.

For a while, they were all quiet while Yue read over the letter. When she reached the end, she frowned and rolled it back up again. "Your uncle is a rather interesting writer."

Zuko grimaced. Though Yue was too polite to phrase it any other way, her meaning was obvious enough. "The letter makes him sound crazy. You can say it. I already know that."

"Well—he sounds eccentric," Yue admitted. "But I assume that he's trying his best to hide his meaning. It's not so strange when I think of it that way. Even if I don't quite understand it."

"Did you see all that stuff down at the bottom?" Aang asked. "Zuko told us that it means—"

"My guess is that the circles represent the phases of the moon," Yue interrupted. "Probably the quarter and the full moon?"

As guesses went, that was honestly a little impressive. Zuko nodded. "Exactly. Uncle says that they're sailing at the quarter moon and arriving here at the full moon."

A laugh burst out of Katara. "This is perfect. We have to tell Sokka that you figured that out all on your own. His head is going to explode."

"I don't want to embarrass him," Yue said, but she did smile, apparently pleased with herself. "I do have to wonder what the rest of it—" She broke off when Sokka finally appeared over the ridge.

"Where have you been?" Katara asked. "You got so fussy about all of us being here on time, and yet—"

"Hahn's onto us," Sokka answered, still walking. As soon as he reached them, he plopped down into the snow next to Yue, sticking his legs out in front of him as far as they could go. "Had to zigzag a little to ditch him."

"What?" Katara's voice came out higher than usual. "What do you mean that Hahn's onto us?"

Sokka sighed like it was a great inconvenience to explain. "I mean that Hahn hasn't forgotten the fact that Aang and me swiped his parka. Or the whole 'Red' thing. And he's pretty convinced that it's all connected somehow." He shrugged. "No big deal, though. I mean, obviously it is all connected, but I didn't give anything away, and there's no way he's ever going to guess what's actually going on. And nobody else is gonna listen to him either after that stunt he pulled in the council meeting a few days back."

By the look on Katara's face, Zuko suspected that Sokka was technically right, but that his rightness wasn't exactly reassuring.

"Yes, big deal, Sokka. That's a very big deal!" Katara exclaimed. "We need to—"

"Do what?" Sokka retorted. "He doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't know where any of us are. He sure as hell doesn't know that there's a firebender wearing his parka right now. And as long as he doesn't find out, all he's going to be doing is making himself look like an even bigger ass to the rest of the tribe. As far as I'm concerned, that's a win-win." He paused, then added, "Win-win-win," pointing to each of them in turn. When he got to Yue, he paused again. "I mean—maybe a little less for you. Sorry."

Yue sighed. "I've hardly spoken to Hahn in almost a week. It's been—nice." The last word was so quiet that it nearly disappeared. "If there's something I can do to hold him off, I'm happy to do it."

Sokka grinned. "I knew it! See? Everything will be great if we can just stall for the next—I don't know. Week or so? We can do that." He crossed his legs and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "So do we have anything new to go on with the letter?"

For all that any of them talked, though, they couldn't come up with anything more meaningful than what they'd determined the night before. It was maddening. And worse than maddening too. If Zuko couldn't figure out what Uncle was talking about, then he couldn't write back to Uncle. And if he couldn't write back, then Uncle would never get a proper warning about the Water Tribe's intention to sink Zhao's ship, and—the weight of the futility came to rest on his shoulders, and he began to feel a little sick.

"He's talking about the moon phases," Katara said, rubbing her forehead. "Maybe that's it? They're trying so hard to leave enough time to get here by the full moon that there has to be something special about that day."

"That doesn't make sense," Yue replied. "I think you're right that the full moon matters, but—that's the day when our benders are the strongest. It's hardly an ideal time to try facing us."

"Maybe that's the idea?" Sokka offered. "Beat the Northern Tribe when they're at their strongest as a show of power or something? It'd be a gamble, but—"

Zuko shook his head. "You've met Zhao before. You should know that he doesn't pick fair fights. He'd never put himself at a disadvantage without a very good reason." The old burn on his arm started to ache and itch, and he held onto the spot, trying his best to squeeze away the memory. He could feel Katara watching him, and he pretended not to notice. He didn't need sympathy. Not for this. Especially not when there were other people watching.

Another few minutes passed in silence, and Yue glanced over the letter again.

"Prince Zuko—I have to ask—does it matter what your uncle intended to say?"

He bristled. "Of course it does!"

"For the battle, yes. But since we do still have almost a week, couldn't we write him for some clarification? You can send him any messages or questions that we have for him, and if we figure out what he means in this first letter before he responds—then where's the harm in that?"

Zuko stopped. That did actually make sense. Uncle wasn't great about clarifying things when asked, but they would still have his letter when they sent the new one off. It wasn't like they would have to stop thinking about it and trying to work out what he meant by blathering on about the spirits once they sent off a reply.

Katara sat up a little straighter. "Aang, did you bring the ink and the paper like I asked?"

Aang nodded eagerly. "Yeah!" He reached down the front of his tunic to retrieve a slightly crinkled roll of paper, bottle of ink, and a brush, then handed them to Zuko.

Katara scooted a little closer and pulled a bit of the snow upward to form a flat, icy table for him to work on. "It only took four days last time," she said. "We still have a little more than that left."


"This is really great, isn't it, Katara?" Aang somehow managed to bounce high enough with every step that he nearly reached eye level with her. "I haven't been this excited about waterbending lessons in—well, probably since we started."

"I can see that," Katara answered. She had been a little wary about Aang's promotion to intermediate lessons, at least at first, but now, his enthusiasm was beginning to disarm her. It was hard to keep from smiling, and eventually, she gave into it. "The other kids are really good at all their forms, but they aren't very creative. I think you'll do pretty well."

"Yeah?" They rounded the corner into the arena, Aang still bouncing. "What are we going to learn today? Do you think it'll be fun?"

She shrugged as she made her way to the far side of the arena. "I don't know, Aang. It's been a while since our last regular lesson. I'm not sure if we're going to do anything new or if Master Taqqiq is just going to have us review old forms." Once she'd reached her usual place at the side of the arena, she stopped and looked back at Aang, whose brow had furrowed considerably. "What's wrong?"

"Why are we way over here?" Aang asked. "Shouldn't we go and stand by your friends instead?"

"I don't really have—"

"What?"

Katara felt her face flush. "Aang, it's not a big deal." Why would it be? She had enough friends outside of waterbending lessons that she could hardly care less whether a bunch of boys who couldn't think outside of their training liked her or not. "We're going to start practice soon anyway."

He started to say something else but didn't get very far before Master Taqqiq entered and called for them all to pair up.

"Hurry up," Taqqiq added, clapping his hands. "We only have half of our normal classes, and I'm sure you're all out of practice."

"Yeah, we are," one of the boys called. "But what about her?"

"Good question," Master Taqqiq said. "I guess you'll all find out soon, won't you?"

Katara grinned, and on the other side of the arena, a second boy smacked the first. "I told you we should've been practicing, dumbass."

"Thank you for volunteering, Tallimat. You're up against Katara today."

Tallimat groaned but slouched across to Katara.

Aang looked alarmed, and he shot a hand up into the air. "Wait! Katara's my friend. I want to practice with her."

"Aang, I told you, it's fine," Katara repeated, a bit irritated. What did he think was going on here? Did he think that the other kids were being mean to her? That she felt left out? Because she absolutely didn't. Actually, she sort of enjoyed the way that things were in class. Sure, some of the boys still got an attitude from time to time, but Master Taqqiq always made sure that those boys were the ones who she got to fight. Which suited her perfectly fine. Better than fine, actually. If they didn't want to be her friends—and none of them had enough in common with Katara for her to see that as any great loss—then she could just show them all up day after day until Master Taqqiq decided that she was ready to move to the next class.

Master Taqqiq shook his head. "I know that you are the Avatar, but it is your first day in this class. You ought to pace yourself."

"But—" Aang protested.

"Katara and Tallimat." Master Taqqiq called. "It seems that Avatar Aang has some doubts about the way we match up for practice. Why don't the two of you give us a quick demonstration? Same rules as always. First one to immobilize the other wins." He paused. "Katara, if you've been practicing, let him make the first move."

She nodded, dropping into her stance. The very first time that Master Taqqiq had asked her to hold off until her sparring partner had the chance to make the first attack, she'd been annoyed. She'd begun to think that she was just being shuffled back to the beginning of her training again—back to when no one would take her seriously or give her a fair shot. But then she'd beaten her sparring partner anyway, then the next and the next and the next, over and over. Until she'd begun to realize that this was Master Taqqiq's way of saying that she was the best fighter in the group. That this was the nearest thing to a challenge that they could offer her when it came to sparring. She didn't have the same rote mastery of her intermediate forms as her classmates, but what she did have made up the difference.

Tallimat took his time gathering up a wave, concentrating on his form while he still had the chance, checked his stance and braced himself, then finally, finally, sent the wave sailing in Katara's direction.

It was an elegant wave. Almost perfect on a technical level. But it was slow, and Tallimat's control loosened once the water was more than two paces away from him. Katara spun, her arms sweeping out to the side so that the wave arced around her, gathered both speed and force in the turn, then launched right back at Tallimat. The water hit him full in the face, knocking him onto his back. And in the spare moments while he lay flat on the ground, spread out like a starfish as he tried to catch his breath, Katara dropped a thin film of water over his limbs and froze him in place.

Master Taqqiq snorted, then nodded his approval. "I think we need to start giving you boys credit for how long you can stay on your feet. You're never going to win if you don't take her seriously and practice like real warriors."

Katara beamed. She didn't think that she'd ever won that easily before. Her sparring sessions with Zuko were really paying off. Not that she really needed an excuse to keep sparring with him—she enjoyed that so much that she would have been more than willing to continue even if it made no difference at all.

"Are you still certain that you'd like to be paired with Katara, Avatar Aang?" Taqqiq added.

Katara glanced back just long enough to catch Aang staring at her, wide eyed. He shook his head.

"Well, then. Everyone into rows. We're only going to run your sequence once before we go back into sparring. Make sure that you have your partners."

Through the rest of the lesson, Katara could feel Aang's eyes trailing after her every so often. She didn't think she minded it quite so much as before, though. At least now Aang didn't think that she was being bullied. At least he didn't think that she needed any sort of pity here. She had her place in waterbending lessons. She didn't need to be popular. She needed to learn and to keep moving forward.

She ran through each of the forms along with the rest of the class—there were still a few places where she needed more work, more practice to become really precise—then returned to sparring with gusto. It was almost too easy after a while, and when she'd knocked Tallimat over a few times in a row, she decided to turn their matches into a game. Rather than defeating him outright, she spent one round dodging his attacks for as long as she could before she finally landed one of her own. For another round, she limited herself to bending with ice and snow, then for another, she used only liquid water.

It wasn't sparring with Zuko, but it was more fun than she'd expected. Enough so that she barely heard it when Master Taqqiq asked Aang to use more waterbending and less evasive maneuvers in his sparring. Enough so that the lesson seemed to be over almost before it had begun.

When Master Taqqiq dismissed them, Aang appeared a little torn between running over to Katara and avoiding her, but the former eventually won out. "Katara, that was really—I mean, when did you learn how to fight like that?"

For a second, she just stared at him as she stretched the tiredness out of her arms. There was something that she didn't quite recognize in Aang's tone—something that could just be surprise, but that sounded a bit like alarm or disapproval.

Slowly, Katara let out a breath. She couldn't assume the worst. Not right now. Not when the battle was so close, and things seemed to be going at least marginally well. "You know that I've been practicing. What did you think I was working on?"

Aang still stared at her, wide-eyed, his expression inscrutable. "I really thought—"

He didn't get any farther than that before Master Taqqiq came over to them. "Good work today, Avatar Aang. It's never easy starting off in a new class."

Aang only gave a watery smile in response.

Taqqiq clapped him gently on the shoulder. "You'll get there. I can already see that you've got good instincts. You just need to get over that urge to dodge and use some more solid attacks. We'll work on that." Then he turned to Katara. "I see you've been keeping up your practice too."

Smiling, she nodded. "Every chance that I can."

"It shows. Now—truthfully, there are still a few forms that you could use a little work on. I think you know that. But you're running circles around all the others, and if you're ready—"

Katara's breath caught. "Are you saying—"

Master Taqqiq smiled. "That you might be ready to move on again? That's up to you. Are you ready for another test?"

She felt a smile creep onto her face, then broaden until it felt as though her face was going to crack. "Is today soon enough?"


Author's Note:

Is it petty of me to have Katara move on to the advanced waterbending lessons the same day that Aang gets bumped up to intermediate? Possibly. But TBH, I think she's earned it. Also, this is a fun opportunity to show their relationship fracturing a little bit more while Katara is simulatenously growing closer to Zuko because their values are way better aligned than Katara's values are with Aang's.

Also that cute little head bonk "you should go to class for me" thing is definitely drawn from real life. Or at least partially, anyway. But then in real life, I was the morning person, and people would (semi-jokingly) ask me to go to their classes for them in college.

I hope enjoyed the chapter! As usual, I'll have another update ready to go in two weeks, and in the meantime, reviews are much appreciated, and I suppose that I can invite you to visit my Tumblr again, now that I've finally remembered to mention that :)