The sun dawns bright and early but neither Katara nor Zuko see it. Katara snores lightly, tangled up in sheets and blankets with her hair like medusa around her. Zuko sprawls on the floor his mouth wide open. There were no nightmares last night, there were no screams or fires or frozen corners. Instead, the two actually slept well. Eventually the sun calls out to the fire bender, waking him. The memories of last night evade him. His hair has all but fallen out of the messy braid but that's not what bothers him. She touched his hair but other than that he hardly remembers a thing. Bits of conversations float through the fog in his brain but they aren't very helpful. Something about Azula and another time he asked her to come with him. He groans, not sure whether to hope she remembers and can fill him in or hope she's just as forgetful as he is. How could a simple offer to help her cool her tongue turn into something as potentially embarrassing as last night?

He stumbles to the bathroom, his limbs detesting every move. He looks like hell. The hair that was in the braid sticks out awkwardly and his brushing just turns it into a wavy mess. His eyes are a blood shot and no matter how much he tugs his clothes they don't seem to look good. His feet feel filled with lead but eventually he ends up in the navigation room standing beside Iroh. "Whew!" Iroh waves his hand in front of his nose theatrically. "You reek Prince Zuko! And you don't look so good either." The few soldiers in the room take in his ramshackle appearance and smartly get out of his way.

"Tell me something I don't already know," he grumbles. "I was hoping to get some of that tea you're always going on about to the men."

"Ah!" His uncle claps his hands together and heads out the door. Right before leaving he pauses. "How is Miss Katara feeling?" Iroh watches as Zuko's face turns a bright red to match his bloodshot eyes and shrugs looking thoroughly embarrassed. Good, it looks like she is safe. While he may trust his nephew, he knows how hard it is for him to hold his temper and leaving last night had worried him. He'll still have to check on her later, once his nephew gets some good tea into his system.

The old man brews the tea in is room, watching the leaves soak and swirl around the pot. His nephew has been odd these past few days. It's been easier to see the boy he once was instead of the man he's pretending to be. He tries so hard to be what he's been told his whole life a good man is supposed to be like but doesn't realize that the last hundred years have severely warped the Fire Nation's sense of good. Zuko should be at home having fun, flirting with girls, dodging boring political parties, and learning how to be a good leader. Instead he's learning how to shut himself off entirely from everyone and ignore the man he really is.

When Iroh comes back with a full tea set Zuko's head is pressed firmly against the wooden pai sho table. Iroh sets the tea pot down gently and begins to pour. Zuko raises his head and winces at the light. He winces even more at the smell of the concoction that apparently passes as tea. "You're sure about this?"

"Nephew, when I was a general at the siege of Ba Sing Se we - "

"Okay, okay." He waves his uncle off. "I don't want a full story I'll just trust you on this." He downs it in one go, screwing up his features and gagging. "That was awful! What's in that!"

Iroh smiles mischievously, "You don't really want to know. Anyway, I'm going to go give some of the to Miss Katara. I'm sure she'll be needing some."

"Damn right," Zuko groans, "Crazy woman challenging me to a drinking contest."

Iroh's eyebrows shoot up and the men in the room who had previously been trying to ignore the prince or at least not snicker openly now turn to him. "Well, who won?"

Zuko groans even louder and kneads his forehead with his palm. "We both did." This time none of the men can contain snickers but the prince's usually deadly glare holds little ammo this morning. Iroh waltzes out of the room, proud of the girl for holding her own.

He knocks politely on her door but doesn't expect an answer. After a moment he heats the hole in the door, unlocking it. It was good that it got installed, this way guards aren't quite as necessary and Katara can at least move freely inside the room. There's no movement inside the room right now though. She's not on her cot by the wall. There's no sound from the bathroom. Panic builds for a moment until Iroh sees the her twisted in the sheets of his nephew's bed. That's worrisome.

He pulls a chair up to the side of the bed and slowly rubs circles on her back the way he used to do to wake up Lu Ten. The difference is that Lu Ten was relatively safe or at least felt like it. Katara is on an enemy ship and is very very aware of it. Her cuts still haven't healed all the way and even in her sleep she looks scared. As soon as she tenses up Iroh stops, wishing there was something he could do for her. Soon her breathing changes and she groans. "Good morning dear." Iroh's voice soothes her eyes open and she turns to him, squinting.

"What happened last night?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," He chortles. "I've had some of the Water Tribe ale, Fire Whiskey shouldn't be a problem compared to that."

"It's not, I just drank a lot." She pulls a pillow over her eyes and growls. Her stomach flops. "Excuse me," she stumbles to the bathroom and the loud sound of retching follows.

Katara pukes, fire flakes tasting even worse the second time around. Her hair is in shambles, her mouth tastes stale and acidic. Cuts still wind around her arms, her torso, and down her legs. Mostly now she has a stomachache. Water pools around her hands, a soft glow emanating from them. It doesn't take long until the ache recedes and she stops wanting to puke her guts up. Her cuts absorb more water and she watches the tendrils sink into her skin. Her skin was normal, her life was normal, things were normal but now there's this ache inside. There's an ache that doesn't go away. The fire whiskey last night helped, for a little while she forgot about everything but it's all coming back. All the pain and the agony but no, she can't break. She's the strong one, she's the one that keeps the group together. There isn't a group to keep together though, no one's here for her to take care of. She's alone. She bites the inside of her cheek to stop the stinging in her eyes. It doesn't work. The hole inside of her chest just opens up and swallows her whole.

Katara sinks onto the floor and stays there sobbing quietly, the same way she cried in the middle of the night back home when she missed her mother and didn't want anyone to know. Her head is deep in her arms and the hot tears flow onto her pants. It's not fair. None of this is fair. Why her! Thoughts chase each other back and forth around her brain getting nowhere and having no escape. She feels broken, like she can never be put back together again. A hand touches her shoulder and she flinches without realizing it. Iroh helps her up and back into the bed which is apparently now hers and rubs her back. She trusts the strange old man and clings to his chest like it's her only anchor, sobbing like her world is ending. In a lot of ways it is, in a lot of ways the Katara that first met Aang is a completely different person from the Katara crying on the bed and she knows it.

She left her home. She left everything she's every known. She got separated from her family. She got tortured by Chang. She had handled it all until That. Even after him she pretended to handle it all and at times she almost forgot. She would almost forget about what happened until something brought it back to the forefront of her mind. She could have escaped with Aang if it hadn't been for Chang. She could sleep easily at night if it wasn't for the cold sweats and thinking Chang. It all goes back to him. She's not even angry at Zuko if she stops to think about it. She doesn't blame him or the Fire Nation for what happened. It's all her fault and she should have been more careful she scolds herself far too often. She feels broken and hurt and doesn't know how to cope with the sense of loss.

When Katara's eyes finally dry there's no sense of relief, no happiness now that it's finally out. Instead she just stares listlessly at the wall, still clutching onto Iroh. He still rubs her back in steady circles. "It will take a long time Katara." She doesn't move. "It will always bother you but eventually the pain and the fear will fade. You'll come to terms with what happened."

Her eyes hardly move, "How can I?" Tears threaten to clog her words again. "How am I supposed to move on after that. He took part of me! He hurt me, it's not fair!" She starts crying again, each sob wracking her body. "I should have fought back. I should have stopped him! There must have been something I could have done!"

Iroh grabs her shoulders and wrenches her face out of his chest to stare her in the eyes. "Don't think like that. You couldn't have done anything, it wasn't your fault. Chang was a sick perverse man and what happened was in no way your fault. If I had any inkling of what he was really like I would have thrown him overboard myself."

"But I should have -"

"No!" For once she sees the general in him. "I have seen men destroy themselves with that kind of thinking. It gets you nowhere and just hurts you. Save the blame for the people who deserve it and you most definitely are not one of them."

"Then why does it hurt so badly?"

Iroh melts at her sad pained eyes and draws her into a tight embrace. "It hurts because you're human. It's part of all of us. Someone took advantage of you and that hurts." He spends the next several hours sitting there comforting the occasionally crying Katara. He tells her stories of his adventures with his son Lu Ten and bedtime stories of the Fire Nation filled with dragons and heroes. He talks of a little Prince Zuko running around the halls of the Fire Nation Palace tripping on his own feet and of turtle ducks and bread crumbs. He's not sure how much of this she actually hears but continues anyway, knowing far too well that there are times when it's best to be alone but that this is not one of them.

Lunch is brought to them. Fire flakes are incredibly absent, not even a small bag of them off to the side like there have been with so many other meals. Zuko must have had a word with the kitchen staff. Iroh eats and Katara picks at her food. "I'm sorry about all of that, you shouldn't have had to see that," Katara eventually murmurs.

"Nonsense, as long as you're on this ship I will do my best to try and make sure you're happy. There's only so much I can do, but sitting with you is no problem at all."

She smiles weakly at him then resumes picking her food.

. . .

Zuko wants to go home. He wants his honor back. He wants his life back. He wants to not have to cremate his men. It's mid afternoon and four bodies lay on pyres. The pitch they're doused with reeks but it's necessary for them to burn. Each of the men had lives had hopes and dreams. Five of those men had wives back in the Fire Nation. Three of them had children. Zuko may not have known them well but it's his responsibility to see them off. Most of the ship is there watching. Iroh appears at the last minute right before flames engulf the bodies. The fire hurts Zuko's still aching eyes but he still watches as they lick the bodies clean of skin and dark smoke rises into the clear sky.

Everyone's mood is low as they return to the ship over the course of the next few hours. A few still straggle behind, watching their friends' bodies turn to ash. For once the Prince watches his men, he watches their slumping shoulders and weary eyes. His honor may be the most important thing, but these men want to go home and that's important too. He needs to catch the Avatar so that this can all be done and over with. The deck will take a few more days then they'll be on their way.

. . .

The two days later Zuko takes both his uncle and Katara out in port. The prince opts for a less traditional but more effect use of the manacles and walks around town joined to Katara by a heavy chain.

"Is this really necessary?" Katara yanks the chain.

"Is this really necessary," He mimics. "I don't know. Uncle, care to refresh us on what happened last time?"

"Well it all started with a beautiful shop keeper in a beautiful fabric shop, she took one look at me and stopped me in my tracks! Nothing existed except –"

"Uncle, I don't want to hear that!"

"No, no, keep telling us about it," Katara prompts. "What were her eyes like?"

"Oh like drops of honey that fell into the ocean only to swallow me whole!"

"Ugh, I can't listen to anymore of this crap!" Zuko tries to storm off but is brought to a halt when his wrist jerks backwards.

"Well maybe I want to listen."

"Well I don't."

"Well I do!"

"Don't you have something you need to buy. Don't you need," He gestures uncomfortably at her. "Stuff? Hair stuff or something?"

"Hair stuff or something?" She rolls her eyes. "Iroh, are you sure he's related to you? He seems to have missed the whole vocabulary section of schooling."

"Do you want to go back on the ship?" Zuko retorts.

If looks could kill, Zuko would be impaled. "Fine, hair stuff or something here we come." It's not long before he wishes he was impaled as they stop at every single shop that may sell 'or something'.

There's no rescue attempt made.

. . .

Five days later Appa is waning. Sokka and Aang have resumed their pattern of hardly speaking. They stop for food sometimes, stop for rest others, but over the course of five days they've hardly said twenty words to each other after Sokka erupted from finding out what happened. Aang was so close to her and he fucking flew off! Typical! Now his baby sister, the one he's supposed to be protecting no matter what and she's now in the room of the Fire Nation Asshole! He burns and wants to hurt something just thinking about it. A lot of trees where they sleep bear the marks of his frustration.

. . .

The ship has been dancing on the edge of Fire Nation water for days, waiting for the Avatar though it heads steadily north just in case. The two teenagers have fallen into the comfortable pattern of Zuko rising earlier than her by several hours. Then after a hearty breakfast she heals her cuts - mostly gone by now - and then they spar. He teaches her bending forms thoroughly different from her element and she teaches him - forcefully - how to respect someone. After that he sits with his Uncle and learns about the war and tactics. Katara wouldn't let it go and so she sits in on it too though no current strategies are used during those parts of the lessons. After that they split, Katara to her scrolls, Zuko bought her another one, and Zuko to current tactics and taking care of the ship. The three join for dinner then Zuko and Katara sit and drink until it's blurry enough to go to bed. Whoever gets to the nice bed first wins it for the night. They've come to an agreement, as long as they are at least a day away from considerable amounts of land she can be out and about on the boat with full guard without the shackles. She relishes the relative freedom.

Now, Iroh sits at a table with a large map spread over it in the navigation room - the brightest place without being directly outside. Katara sits on one side, her chin cupped in her hand trying to counter a frontal assault of Omashu and nearby coastal towns. She has five squads plus King Bumi and is trying to hold off three Fire Nation squads with komodo rhinos and war balloons. Zuko is in control of said Fire Nation troops and is trying to draw King Bumi out of Omashu by burning the crops around the villages. Bumi doesn't leave Omashu but instead has his battalions swallow up the fire benders, entombing them in the ground. The war balloons do incredible damage but don't last long against spires of stone. The earth benders miss several and the fire benders regroup and dance around the outskirts of the city and its holds. The guerrilla warfare is effective but the earth benders have the home advantage and use the terrain to find the foreign military, trying to get them before they move again. Citizens begin to starve and riots break out in the lower rings of Omashu. Politicians begin turning up dead. The Fire Nation takes too long on one raid. It'd been a day or two since they'd struck and they make sure to gather plenty of food since they don't know how long they'll be there. It was twenty minutes too long. Earth Kingdom troops show up and wipe the enemy out. Katara whoops, "Ha! In your face!"

"Your city's still a mess, it'd be no problem for me to come in and wipe it out now," Zuko retorts

"Yeah except you don't have troops left Mr. Princy Pants."

He shoots her a look. "Don't call me that." She huffs. Another term of the agreement that lets her walk about the ship is that she can't insult him or test him out here. Out of his room, he is The Prince of the Fire Nation and he has to demand the respect that is due with that title, whether he's banished or not.

"Good job Miss Katara," Iroh congratulates her. "However, there were places that you both messed up. Katara, what did you do wrong?"

"I let the enemy get too close. I should have wiped him out sooner."

"Zuko, what do you think she did wrong?"

"Hmm," he's had years of this. "She should have pulled her people into the city along with their crops as soon as she could."

"Yes, but then Omashu would have been overcrowded and it's possible that the riots would have started even earlier."

"Katara looks at the map again, taking in the mountain ranges and remembering the time she had spent in the city. "My men should have built walls. If we had had walls around the villages or raised them on top of a mountain like Omashu is then the Fire Nation would have a harder time getting to them. We could have picked them off as they tried to get to the towns."

Iroh smiles, "Exactly, you're getting the hang of this. Now Zuko, what did you do wrong?"

"I spent too long gathering supplies, I should have continued to rely on grabbing only what was needed for that day instead of try to stock up." He thinks for a moment. "Maybe if I had split my men into smaller groups we could have hit more places, affecting moral."

"Mhmm," Iroh encourages him. "And what do you think he should have done differently Katara?"

"He should have tried not attacking in the first place."

Iroh sighs, eventually she was bound to say it. "These exercises aren't just about military strategy. It's about learning to read your opponent. It's about knowing your own strengths and weaknesses and being able to adapt. The skills you learn here will be helpful in everyday life such as in your bending or even arguing. This is all about predicting moves and being one step ahead."

Obviously she finds value in it or she wouldn't keep demanding to learn each day however Zuko is getting fed up with her holier than thou attitude. It's not his fault that there's a war but he's sure as hell going to make sure he wins it.

"I've had enough for the day." The old man stretches. "Why don't you two kids run along now."

"I'm not a kid," Zuko snaps and Katara rolls her eyes.

"Oh, Miss Katara," Iroh stops her right before she exits, "Tonight is music night. I'd appreciate it if you joined us."

"Music night?"

Zuko groans loudly. "No, no, no you do not want to go to that! And just in case you get any ideas Uncle, I will still not play the tsungi horn this time!" Katara raises an eyebrow. "It was once, a long time ago and it's never happening again."

"Mhmm, sure," she drawls.

The walk down to the mess hall still gives her the chills. Each step lower sends shivers up her spine but she refuses to be crippled by her fear. Quite honestly she'd prefer to curl up into a little ball in the corner of her room, but she can't. There's no time for that. She has to keep moving forward and so she keeps descending the stairs. The men still aren't entirely sure what to think of her but they mostly like her. On one hand she's a filthy water bender. On another she was brutalized by a man on their crew and he's lucky that Zuko discharged him - several of the crew almost took it into their own hands after hearing what he did to the girl young enough to be their daughter. She travels with the Avatar - the one who killed eight of their crew mates. However, that's not her fault and she can't control what people do to try and get her back. Any of them would have done the same for their family. Plus, she's a healer. That much is obvious by the fact that the doctor doesn't have to see her and her gashes are completely healed. The fact that she offered to heal a man who smashed his finger and another who accidentally burnt himself helps a lot. Katara hates the Fire Nation, but these men individually are growing on her. She's surprised to find she holds little against them. Occasionally though a face will be turned just so and the flames reflect just the right way and she shudders away from them, away from the memory of the monsters who attacked her village but more recently the monster who tortured her.

"Thank you Lian," The cook smiles at her and hands her the best plate of tempura and rice - both very mild - with a little treat of custard. The big man would never admit it, but he likes having the girl around so that he has a valid reason to cook the sweets he so enjoys.

Yoro, a man in his mid forties with slightly greying sideburns and a weathered face, sits next to her as a guard. Jee, Asoko, Kuron, and Hyeng all wander over. It made her nervous the first day or two that they came to sit with her, but now she expects it. Jee and Hyeng see a lot of their grand-daughters in her while Asoko and Kuron look at her like a little sister. Mostly, even with her dark skin and blue eyes, she reminds them of home and makes it a little easier for them to bear the two years they've been at sea.

"So I heard you whipped the Prince at war today!" Kuron punches her lightly on the shoulder.

"He didn't pull his troops out fast enough." The men hide their smirks from her accidental double entendre. There's an unspoken agreement to not let their usual crude sailor ways prevail around her.

"Good job! Somebody needs to teach that guy a lesson in humility." Asoko grins but Jee shoots him a look. "What? The boy has his head up his ass, I'm glad she's here to pull it out."

"You know," she can't believe she's saying this. "That's just an act. He's not that bad of a guy once you get to know him." Oh Goddess forgive her for that. All five men look at her as if she's grown another head. "I'm just saying that if you don't let him talk to you like that then he won't. I think he thinks he has to be a jerk to be in control." She shrugs and immediately buries her face in her food.

"Just because he thinks it doesn't give him the right to act like it."

"No, it doesn't." The conversation starts to get angry but calms down when they remember Katara is still there. She doesn't need to get mixed up in this and they don't know if she'll say anything to the prince they so despise. Eventually the talk turns to letters from home. Yoro has a wife in the military. She's about to be offered command of a post on the southern tip of the Fire Nation. There are no women sailors so she can't command a ship and have Yoro on it though she might be able to get him at the new post. He doesn't mind serving under his wife, he grins wolfishly. Lieutenant Jee is a widower who went into the military command after his wife died. His two daughters went to live with his brother and now they have families of their own. Asoko is the oldest of five - the Fire Nation encourages large families. His two brothers are stationed on nearby ships and his two baby sisters - twins - are doing well in school even though they get picked on which pisses him off. Kuron has an older sister – married off to some ancient admiral - and a little sister who got shipped off to the Fire Nation Academy for Girls because she's such a good bender. His parents are sad because they only get to see her on holidays. Hyeng hates the war and has been in the military since he was a child. After forty years of busting his ass all he has to show for it is a string of exes, five children, and one grand daughter. He carries his children and grand child's pictures with him everywhere and puts most of his paycheck towards them.

Jee sets his chopsticks down and stretches "I have to get back to work. The Prince wants a full report of our spending on his desk or more accurately General Iroh does." With that the group begins to disperse. Katara's guard changes from Yoro to Asoko and they set off deeper into the ship so she can practice her bending. For the first few days her guards - whichever one it was at the time - got nervous being around the 'crazy water bender who ripped a guy's neck open with her teeth' but after seeing her struggle with her bending, the same way most of them had, and not make a single vicious move towards them, they relax. Once they relax it's easier for her to concentrate on her bending instead of being hyper aware that there was a man alone with her. Panic settles in her chest until they start to focus on something else. Today Asoko sits with a scroll of his own - some sappy romance that he doesn't read around any of the other crew members. Katara can connect to the water but it still doesn't stay with her mind if she moves too much and looses the concentration. Her bending overall has improved since learning about that technique though. She moves with the water instead of commanding it and hoping that it listens. Right now she's freezing an unfreezing the barrels of water. She pulls a thin stream out and copies the motions on her scroll. Pull the water closer. Push it out and let the momentum break up the water as it freezes into shards. Theoretically the ice can pin opponents or even kill them if necessary. She can pull the water in but ends up freezing it at the wrong point and a long string of ice ends up floating in the air. She tries again. This time it doesn't freeze until after it hits the wall. She groans in frustration. Again she tries. It's closer but still not the move she's trying to do. Asoko looks up. There's no fire bending equivalent to what she's doing and so he has no advice to offer. She continues, trying to isolate each movement.

. . .

Zuko reads the report from three days ago and a letter he received today. Spending is about the same it's been since this started and waste is too. The problem is that his father is cutting the budget, probably giving more to that bastard Zhou to fund capturing the Avatar. He swears. There's no way to avoid cutting crew members. Eight died and that made a tiny difference. Fifteen men - including two deceased - have been transferred to Zhou's ship. At least they're not loosing their jobs. Agni! He's loosing his chance to capture the Avatar! His father is doing this on purpose, he doesn't want him back home!

Iroh knocks on the door hesitantly and peeks in. "You okay?"

Zuko snorts. "We're going to end up having fifty-one people on this ship including me, you, and Katara after this news."

"What do you mean?"

"My father has transferred some of my men over to Zhou's ship."

Iroh's jaw clenches. "That bastard."

"Uncle?" Zuko's voice breaks. "He doesn't want me home does he?"

"Oh nephew, your father is -" He's not quite sure what to tell the boy. He could tell the truth, that Ozai is a heartless bastard, but that might break the poor boy's heart. He could spare Zuko's feelings and lie telling him that his father probably just wants him to build character or some equally untrue comment. Honestly his brother is cold, cruel, and sadistic. He decides on neither. "Zuko, home is wherever you want it to be." He pulls his nephew into a tight hug. "I am here for you no matter what and always will be." Tears drip onto Iroh's shoulder but when Zuko finally pulls away his face is clear. "You can do this."

Zuko squares his shoulders. "Thank you Uncle. Now we have to go meet up with Zhou's ships. According to this they're waiting about three days northeast of here near the Yu-Yan archer base." Iroh winces at the news. Yu-Yan archers are never good.

. . .

Katara sits with her head between her legs and occasionally sipping a cup of water. She hurts. Her arms are sore. Her legs are jelly. Her shoulders are on fire. Overall it's a painful situation. Asoko hands her the cup again and she sighs as she takes another drink. "I got it though! I actually froze it at the right time and now I can kind of do the octopus!"

"That you can! Good job." He pats her back and wonders again why more water benders aren't like her. They wouldn't need to fight this war if they were all this kind. Of course he's never met another water bender but still he's heard the horror stories.

"I might actually be able to beat Zuko soon."

He laughs, "Hopefully. You know, I'd pay to see that."

"Why do you all hate him so much? I can understand why I hate him, but you're all Fire Nation what do you have against him?"

Asoko stops laughing and thinks for a moment, trying to think of the best way to explain his loathing to the girl ten years younger. "Well, he's rude and thinks he's better than all of us. He seems to think we're only here for him to step on. He doesn't care about any of us and if we happen to get hurt, oh well. He just cares about himself. We've all been on this ship for about two years and the bastard - sorry - the prince still doesn't know any of our names. He called Yoro Akina the other day. How self-centered is he that he doesn't even learn our names? Someone like that shouldn't be in control of an entire ship, he shouldn't be a prince if he acts like that. Imagine what will happen to the Fire Nation if he ends up ruling. Besides, for his own father to make him fight an Agni Kai he must have done something awful."

Katara ponders over his words. She knows why he fought his father but doubts she should tell. However if it would make them a little less angry and more understanding then it can't be too bad to tell him. "He spoke up at a War Council. Some guy was going to sacrifice a lot of new recruits and Zuko protested. That's why he got burnt."

Asoko stares. "He told you this?"

"Well," she shrugs, "He was a little drunk but yeah he told me." Instantly she's embarrassed though not sure why and shrugs agains. "We both had had nightmares and were talking about it," she mumbles.

"So the Prince actually stood up for someone?"

"Yeah."

"That changes things..."

After a few more minutes Katara's sure she won't puke if she tries to move. She begins to stretch out all of her sore muscles, making sure she won't cramp up. Healing water helps. The knots that are beginning to form loosen with the blue glow and soon the pain is all but gone. "Come on." He stomach grumbles. "Let's get a snack." Asoko grabs his romance scroll and tucks it away before escorting her back to her room.

. . .

We see in season 2 Zuko Alone that even in the little villages in the Earth Kingdom people know what happened to Zuko so I think it's unrealistic to think that the crew didn't know. They may not have known why but they still knew what happened.

Also, thank you so so much to the people reading, favoriting, watching, and reviewing this! It's fantastic to know that people are enjoying this.