"Look, there's the ship! Aang, there's the ship!"

"Huh?" Aang's wiping the sleep out of his eyes from his midday nap not quite understanding Sokka yet.

"Aang, Zuko's ship, the one with Katara on it, the one we bombed, it's finally here!" He's gesturing wildly. "You remember our plan?"

"Of course. We split up to cover more ground. You look of the ship and I look in the town."

"Good, and what happens if you see my sister?"

"I grab her and run and if you're not back at the meet up spot by sunset then I leave and go to the Northern Watertribe."

"Exactly, no turning back, no trying to save us. You get Appa and get out of here."

. . .

Katara stands there with her best polite smile plastered onto her face as Iroh goes on and on about Goddess only knows what this time. From time to time she nods and mhmms but all she's thinking is about how much he and Sokka should go on a shopping date. They could ooh and aah at all of the little trinkets and silly statues together. She's also looking for a way out. There are five guards with her and at least three others following her though that could be one man seen three times or fifty only seen three times, it's impossible to tell with the Fire Nation armor. The manacles will be a problem, but she can bend enough to distract everyone.

"Hey Iroh, let's go look at some clothes if you don't mind. I saw a fabric shop a ways back."

He smiles, excited that she's taking some initiative. "Yes, that seems like a great idea."

There are bolts upon bolts of silks and cottons and everything in between heaped high on tables. The shopkeeper greets them and immediately Iroh strikes up an animated conversation. Out of the corner of his eye he watches as Katara meanders around the shop heading slowly but surely towards the back. He pulls the shopkeeper even deeper into a silly story about kamodo rhinos, thankful that he told the guards to wait outside because 'it would be too crowded with all of them in there'. He loves his nephew, but he loves the balance of the world and an end to war even more. Katara runs her fingers over rich brocades sneaking away from Iroh slowly. He doesn't even glance at her. The manacles clink together and she freezes, pretending to be engrossed in the weft of brown cotton in front of her. No one notices. She eventually gets behind the counter and into the back door without anyone saying a thing. It's a small living room with and thankfully there's a door leading outside. The door opens to an alley with no one in it, no Fire Nation guards, no one to bother her at all. A breath of air she didn't know she was holding releases. She's free, finally free. There's not enough water to bend in the air around her or at least she's not that good at pulling it out of the air in mass yet. She'll have to wait until there's a puddle before freezing the locks to break her manacles. Until then she crosses her arms, trying to hide her 'accessories'.

The best idea would be to go away from the ship, away from the docks, away from anything slightly resembling the Fire Nation. Katara heads towards the mountains. Her first turn takes her to a sewer. After backtracking and turning the other way, she again takes a wrong turn and somehow ends up beside a large statue of well she's not sure what it is. Five more minutes of avoiding main roads but getting lost in the back ones and she starts to worry. Iroh must have noticed that she's gone by now. Soon everyone will be on her tail. Five minutes later, once the nervousness has really kicked in and she's not so worried about hiding the manacles but instead sprinting around side roads trying to get out of there, she catches a glimpse of orange and yellow. No, it can't be! The boy clad in nomadic robes turns just slightly and his headband is slipping just a bit. His arrow shows, it is Aang! "Aang, Aang!" Without thinking or caring Katara shouts and dashes towards her friend.

"Katara!" She's not in her usual blues but is in Fire Nation reds so it takes a moment for the Avatar to realize it's her.

"Where's Sokka?" She looks around hopefully for her brother as they break out of a quick half hug.

"He's on the ship looking for you."

"We need to go get him then!"

"First let's get you out of those." He gestures to the manacles and grabs her arm. He grabs with too much force on a deep cut he doesn't know is there. She could have handled it except his finger catches on a cut. She gasps loudly, clutching her arm.

Aang forgets that he's supposed to be getting them out of there. He forgets that there's anything or anyone else except her and her apparent pain. "What happened, what did they do to you?"

"Nothing Aang. It's nothing." Obviously it's not from the fact that she's still shaking though. "Just get these manacles off!"

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Just do it!" They've been spotted. There's no time to free her.

A guard stands at the end of the alley his arms up, ready to attack. There's no hint of when he'll attack until the flames are already rushing towards their faces. Aang deflects with his staff and Katara tries to pull the water out of the pipes running underneath the street. A pipe bursts but only a small stream comes. Three more men appear behind the first one. "Run Katara, I'll hold them off." The fire comes faster now and the guards are approaching quicker than she likes.

"No, you can't get captured. You're too important. Get out of here while you still can!" Somehow they're fighting ten off. Aang does most of it while Katara's trickle of water swishes around them only able to stop the absolute closest of flames. What had at first been one quickly turns into ten then fifteen men. The water and air benders just barely avoid getting singed but their energy is waning, Katara's especially since she's still recovering. The guards form a circle around them, alternating who is throwing fire. A weighted net tries to engulf them but Katara slashes through it thankful the water responds that much to her. "Aang, get out of here!" The men are getting closer, the ring around the two tightening. There's no way she'll be able to get out of this but he still can.

"I'm not leaving you!" He blows one of the against the wall but the circle just closes around where he was.

"You have to. Please!" She can hardly fight with the manacles around her wrists but deflects more blasts.

"Aang," For a second she takes her eyes off the fight and looks straight at him. "I'll be fine. The world needs you to not get captured."

"The world-" The little boy's world is right in front of him and time stops as her big blue eyes plead with him. "I'll find you!" Another net yanks him into reality and again Katara cuts it with her water. Aang opens his glider and with a final whirlwind is off.

"Get Sokka and get to the North Pole! I'll meet you at the North Pole!" Those are her last words as she turns to look at him flying away. He nods, tears in his eyes and watches as a blast knocks her off her feet.

. . .

Sokka watches the ship for several minutes, waiting for the right moment. He waits as one man with a swollen face gets led off the ship in chains, the stuck up prince sneering behind him. As soon as the coast is clear he saunters aboard. No one notices Sokka on the ship. Most of the regular crew is on shore relaxing or whatever it is that Fire Nation jerks do. The Water Tribe boy has donned red and blacks and waltzes around the ship, looking for all intensive purposes like he's an errand boy for one of the mechanics. If no one looks too closely he'll be fine. Now to figure out where she'd be held. If they have a dungeon, she'll most likely be there. After all, the jerk bender isn't a nice person who cares about accommodating his sister.

The craftsmanship is amazing! He's got to get a look at the specs - no he's here for Katara. "Hey kid!" Sokka freezes and a big burly man stands with his arms crossed in one of the doorways. "You supposed to be in here?"

"Yeah!" His voice cracks. "Uh yeah, I'm just going to you know get some food. My boss needs something to drink."

"Ah okay. Just watch out. We have a lot of falling metal around here and I don't want anyone getting hurt." The Fire Nation man smiles and claps Sokka on the shoulder before turning back to his work leaving Sokka nervous and a little stunned. He hurries along trying to get far away from the man who had noticed him. After several wrong doors and keeping his head very low he finds stairs. He takes them all the way to the bottom where it smells mildly of mildew and cells line the walls. A table sits in the middle of them all and the farthest cell door stands open with a man struggling to unscrew a pair of shackles from the wall. Katara is nowhere to be found. His baby sister isn't here!

The man sees Sokks and frowns. "What're you doing here? This place is off limits."

"I-uh- um. I was looking for food for my boss and got turned around and lo and behold, would you look at that, I ended up here."

The Fire Nation man rolls his eyes. "You're lookin' for the the Water Tribe girl. You're the fifth person today. No one can seem to understand that she isn't here to be gawked at. Now get!"

"Water Tribe girl, psssssh, as if I'm here to see her. I didn't even know about her." Sokka laughs. "But since you mentioned her, where would she be?"

"Leave." The man turns back around to continue unscrewing.

"Come on, man to man, where is she?"

"If I tell you will you leave me alone?"

"Of course!"

"She's out in the town right now with a bunch o' guards. If you need to leave somethin' for her, which I doubt you do, put it up in the Prince's room, she's there now after the fiasco down here."

His blood turns cold Zuko has her in his room! Then the second part registers. "What fiasco?" He can't keep the panic out of his voice but the older guy doesn't notice it.

"Didn't you say you'd leave?"

"What fiasco?" Sokka demands.

"Ugh, fine. One of the soldiers went off the deep end brought her down 'ere and cut her up. So don't go trying to find her, she has enough to -"

Color drains out of his face and he goes cold. He can't move, he can't think. He's supposed to protect her but that's her blood on the floor. "What have you people done to her! What have you done to my baby sister!" In a millisecond Sokka's on him.

The Fire Nation man is pinned against the wall, his eyes widening as he gets chokes out, "You're her brother!"

"Yeah I am. And I'm going to keep her safe." He carries a knife at his side and it's pressed against the man's throat.

"No! Please don't hurt me. Your sister is safe! I heard she healed up all her cuts real nice and pretty. Please don't hurt me!" The knife breaks skin and a trickle of ruby liquid spurts out. He can't do this. He may have killed men with the bomb but that wasn't on purpose. This would be a murder in cold blood. Sokka just can't do it. The knife drops along with the man who wheezes clutching his neck. Sokka is gone before the man can think of raising an alarm.

He has to hurry, he doesn't doubt that any moment now people will be looking for him. According to that man Katara is off the ship and so he needs to get off of it too. He runs up to the deck before anyone tries to stop him. "Hey you, wait!" There's the first guard in his way. Sokka jumps to the side using everything his tribe and Suki taught him. The man goes down with a kick to the knees. Another guard is felled by a whack with his boomerang. The next two are completely avoided as he vaults over the side of the ship and into the water below. Fire boils the water above him but he dives deep. By the time he surfaces he's far enough away that the fire doesn't hit him. He swims farther down the harbor and eventually crawls out of the water. His sister is hurt. His baby sister is hurt and there's nothing he can do. He needs to go back and wait for Aang, that's all he can do and it breaks his heart. He'll get her back. One way or another, he'll get her back.

. . .

Katara has a bloody lip and swollen eye from the guards. She doesn't realize that Zuko was almost as angry about that as he was about loosing the Avatar. The man who did it was immediately put on bathroom duty. She's chained to the leg of a table that's bolted to the floor. She sits beside it and pulls but it doesn't budge, just makes her wrists sore. The manacles are closer together this time and despite her best efforts panic rears it's ugly head. The inability to move, the inability to protect herself, it's terrifying. When her roommate slams the door open with a huff of fire she flinches afraid that he'll take his anger out on her. She saw the vulnerable almost normal boy earlier but now he is every inch Fire Nation and that means every inch a monster. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't look at her. For all intensive purposes he acts like she's not there at all. She waits but he walks over to his bed and flops down. The candles in the room flare up then cycle with his breathing high and low high and low, a strange hypnotic rhythm. The silence stretches on turning from seconds to minutes. He doesn't talk to her and so she haughtily turns her nose up away from him. She has nothing to say.

The minutes grow longer and the air practically crackles with tense electricity. Zuko snaps first. "We almost fucking had him!"

"Yeah well I almost got away from you creeps. Almost isn't shit."

"You shouldn't have tried to run. I could have gotten him if you hadn't tried to run!"

"No you couldn't have besides -"

"You don't know that!" The candles inch higher.

"Yeah I do and besides what did you expect me to do huh? Stay with your uncle like a trained lapdog? I want to get away from you animals!"

"We're not bad people, why can't you see that?"

"Oh I don't know!" She rattles the chains for emphasis.

"You're impossible!" The candles jump erratically.

Katara tries to flip him off and he rolls over. How could he expect her to not try to get away? There's no reason for her to stay and every reason for her to go.

Eventually, after what seems an eternity, Zuko turns back to her and sits up, head in his hands. "I really wish you hadn't gotten hurt by Chang or the guards today. I wish I didn't have to hunt down the Avatar, he's a kid but he's the key to me getting my real life and my honor back."

"You're destroying your own honor by chasing after an innocent kid."

"Don't say that!" He roars though the crack in his voice is obvious.

Katara zeroes in on it. "Your honor is determined by your actions. It can't be taken or given by anyone else. What you did in that war room, that was honorable. What you're doing here isn't. Keeping me defenseless isn't honorable! Chasing after Aang isn't honorable!"

"You don't understand." Zuko stands on the middle of the room, agitatedly glancing around.

"You're right I don't."

The door unlocks with a spout of fire from the other side and Iroh walks in carrying a teapot and the man behind him carrying a large platter as usual. It's dinner time and Katara stares the prince down clinking her chains together annoyingly. He doesn't notice. "Uncle where have you been!"

Iroh laughs, "Actually Nephew, it's funny that you should ask that. Miss Katara and I were looking at a fabric shop when I became engrossed in a conversation with the loveliest of -"

"I don't have time for this Uncle. What happened that you let her escape? You were supposed to be watching her."

"Wow, thanks for acting like I'm not right here, really appreciate that."

Zuko huffs and Iroh continues. "Anyway, I looked up and she was gone. Of course I was frantic and started looking for her but I found out that all of the guards you sent had found her and so I decided to help myself to a nice big cup of tea and a few pai sho games." His nephew groans and his forehead smacks into his head. Iroh's face changes into sympathy. "I'm sorry you won't be going home soon. However, I'm sure it's for the best."

"Yeah sure." His and Uncle's ideas of the best must be radically different.

Iroh takes the lid off of his bowl and smiles. "Ah fried rice and fire flakes. I'm not sure how you'll feel about these Miss Katara but fire flakes are truly delightful."

"I'd love to try some," she smiles sweetly. "If someone would get these off of me!"

"No." Zuko's mutters.

"What, you expect me to somehow eat with my hands tied up or oh maybe you expect me to shove my face into it like the little lapdog you so obviously want!"

"Uncle please excuse us." Iroh is hesitant to leave but there's really not much he can say without angering his nephew even more. Zuko's head drops into his hands once Iroh leaves and he sighs. "This isn't what I wanted."

"That makes two of us. I want to go back to traveling the world with my brother and Aang but I'm stuck here with you instead. You realize that other than this afternoon I haven't seen sunlight since I got on this stupid ship! I haven't spoken to anyone except you and your uncle and some psycho who tried to kill me!

"I already said I'm sorry about him!"

"I'm not asking you to be sorry about him I'm telling you that I'm going crazy here. You're cutting me off from everything and you expect me not to run the first chance I get?"

"If you hadn't ran we could have caught the Avatar and then be on our way to the Fire Nation! You wouldn't have to be shackled there."

"So what you think I wouldn't try to leave the Fire Nation? You think I wouldn't lob your dad's head off the first chance I got? You think that just because you have Aang that I'd be docile or some equally pathetic bullshit?" Talking with her hands doesn't accomplish much other than hurting her wrists though she hardly notices it.

"If you just stopped fighting us and realized what we're trying to do you'd see! I want this war over as much as you do but the quickest way for that to happen is for us to get the Avatar and win. Without that who knows how long the war will go on!"

"You don't care about the people that are dyeing because of the Fire Nation!"

"And you don't care about the men that your brother and precious Avatar killed. Those were good men, innocent men with families."

"They aren't innocent, they're fighting this war and trying to wipe my people out. I don't want to hear anything about innocence."

"Trying to wipe your people out? We don't do that, we're trying to help people, the world will be better united under the Fire Nation."

"Really, tell that to my mother, tell that to the Air Nomads!"

Zuko's puzzled. "The Air Nomads? We wiped them out because they were trying to kill us. They started this with their armies!"

"Their armies?" To his surprise Katara laughs at him. "Their armies? Do you realize that they had no military? Do you know that they are fucking pacifists? Aang's a damn vegetarian for crying out loud, there were no armies!"

"Yes, there were!"

"No, there weren't! I've been to an Air Nomad temple, there was nothing military there! There were only corpses of people trying to defend themselves from ruthless Fire Nation attacks!"

"I've been to an Air Nomad temple also and there was plenty of - stuff - " He trails off realizing that no, he hadn't seen anything militaristic except for the Fire Nation stuff left behind. He'd thought nothing of it at the time but now he's not so sure. "Forget it. Why would I expect you to understand?"

"You know I'm right."

"Can we just drop it already?" He snaps.

She smirks, she's won. "Can you unchain me?"

"If you promise to be quiet and eat."

"No problem."

As it turns out, Katara despises fire flakes. They burn and no amount of water squelches the fact that if she opens her mouth, she's almost positive fire will come out. By her second glass Zuko is smirking but trying to hide it with mouthfuls of rice. By her fifth glass Zuko is openly snickering. After making it halfway through her bowl and through almost eight glasses of water she snaps, "How do you eat this crap without your tongue falling off?"

The prince doesn't respond just pours extra fire flakes onto his rice and takes a huge mouthful. Katara groans and tries not to eat anymore but her stomach is still growling. Zuko walks over to his nightstand and pulls out a bottle. "Try some of this. It'll take the burn out of your mouth." He pours her a small glass that she eyes carefully before swigging it. "Okay, now swish it around and spit -" Katara swallows it easily. " You were supposed to spit it out so your insides won't burn!"

"Really? That stuff helped my mouth but it's weak compared to what we have back home."

"You drink?"

"I could drink you under the table."

He takes in her small frame and age, wondering at how she manages to hold any liquor at all. He'll win this in a landslide. "You're on."

. . .

The fires dance and the table is slightly blurry to the two benders. The room is warm and there's no one else around. It's just the two of them and for this moment they've forgotten that they're enemies. They've forgotten that his father is trying to rule the world and that her father is off fighting him. They've forgotten about all of it except that they are two teenagers who have never really been around strangers their age before. Right now they might even be friends. Katara is on the floor, propped against the table and Zuko is sprawled out by her making little sparks in the air. Her fingers absentmindedly run through his hair. The ponytail twirls around her fingers. "Why don't you have all your hair? What happened to it?"

"I don't get the right to have it all." He giggles a little. "It's weird to feel it against my skin just swish swish swish." He reaches up to grab one of Katara's hair loopies. "What's with these?"

She swats his hand away and stick out her tongue. "Don't mess with them, I like my hair loopies. My hair used to get all over the place when I played so my parents resorted to this. Plus," she whispers conspiratorially. "Sokka use to try and pull my hair so the braid is easier to keep away from him."

"My sister used to do that to me though it usually ended up with my eyebrows getting singed. She and her friends would follow me around the palace. So annoying. And crazy."

"You have a sister?"

"Yeah, Azula. She's what, fifteen by now."

"Wow, that's close to my age."

An eyebrow twitches. "You're fifteen?"

"Sixteen, practically an old lady in my tribe." She laughs and takes another swig. Zuko grabs the bottle after her - they don't bother with cups anymore. The liquid swishes around the bottom. "They would have tried to marry me off but" she snorts "no boys! There's no boys. None, nada. Haru was cute though. But yeeeeah, no boys. If-" She blinks, and squints, "no, when I go back, they'll think I'm old. So so so old. A crone."

"Azula'd skewer anyone that tried to call her old."

"Azula doesn't sound very nice."

He shrugs, "She's not."

"Sokka's nice."

"I don't like Sokka."

"You would if you weren't angry all the time."

"I'm not angry all the time!" He slurs angrily with an angry expression. Katara bursts into a fit of giggles.

"Sure you aren't. Your face is like a sea prune half the time."

It's Zuko's turn to stick out his tongue and rolls over. Katara smiles and grabs the ponytail again. "Huh!" By the time the prince notices, she's already taken out the tie and divided the hair into three sloppy sections.

"'I'm braiding it. Now shush."

"No."

"Yes."

"No," Zuko's stubborn for the sake of being stubborn but the words aren't coming out as clearly anymore.

"Yes," Katara keeps braiding, quickly hitting the end and tying it off. "'s good." The hair sticks out haphazardly. She yawns loudly, not bothering to cover her mouth. "Now sleep. I get the bed."

"No."

"Yes."

"Nooo."

"Yeees."

"No," Zuko tries to get up and go to his bed but Katara already gotten into it.

"I am the Fire Lord! Go sleep on the floor peasant! Woosh, Woosh!" Katara declares, making little fire bending gestures to accompany the sounds.

"That's not how ta firebend, Agni!" Zuko groans and crawls towards his bed, exhausted but ends up collapsing after three feet groaning. Katara laughs and curls into the down mattress and warm blankets. "Tara, shorry about today and the other day. And about the other night. Didn't mean to tell you all that stuff." He pauses, "I usually don't drink 'fore bed." He rubs his hands slowly over his face, "Sorry. We're posed to be enemies, sorry. Real sorry for everything."

"I know," she mutters sleepily. "I know."

"I'm gonna get Aang and make it all better. You'll come home with me an live. You'd be free. You'd be happy."

"You come home with me to live. You'd be cold but free. Really free, really, really, really, really free."

"Too cold. You come with me."

"No. Sleep now." Her words are muffled by the pillow.

"Tara." His eyes are blurred but his words clearer. "You'd like it. You'd have water and warm bed and happy stuff. Come back with me." The water bender doesn't respond, she's fast asleep. Soon loud snores from both parties echo around the room.

. . .

I know this might come off as an odd chapter since it went from being pissed at each other to getting drunk together, but it's hard to be mad at someone for a long time especially when you're stuck being around them a lot. Katara may hate the Fire Nation, but she's at heart a mostly forgiving person. Zuko is a big dork who wants to make people happy and while he may try to act like an asshole, I never thought that it would last very long in close quarters with someone.

2019 edit: Wow you could tell I hadn't drank before when I wrote this chapter! Also, if anyone reads this and has never drank, don't start, you'll end up embarrassed at the very least.