"You're going to love music night!"

"No one in their right mind loves music night Uncle." Zuko retorts.

Iroh acts as though he's been struck through the heart. "You wound me, Prince Zuko!"

Katara laughs. "Come on Zuko, it can't be that bad."

"You have no idea," he mutters. They take their seats by the fire pit. The crew has been looking at him strangely the past few hours but maybe he's just being paranoid.

A huge man with gargantuan biceps sits beside Katara and the prince tenses. That is until she smiles at him. "Lian! You're out of the kitchen."

Lian smiles back and his deep voice rumbles, "Yeah and I made you something special." He pulls taffy of all things out of his pocket.

"What is it?" She pulls one piece and to her amazement it doesn't come apart.

He laughs. "Salt water taffy. It's a desert." He doesn't tell her that it's his favorite snack too. He loves making them but usually can't manage to since making enough to feed the entire crew is unreasonable.

Katara pops one in her mouth and her eyes widen. "Oh wow! This is amazing!"

Lian's face lights up and he dups a handful onto her lap. "Okay, I'd better go. Akina needs help tuning his instrument."

"Who was that?" Katara and Iroh both look at Zuko incredulously.

"That's Lian, the head cook."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's been making your meals for the past two years," Katara comments.

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'."

A darkly tanned fire bender, or at least darkly tanned by Fire Nation standards, strums a few notes on a pipa then stops to retune. There are no horns but two flutes, an erhu - a violin of sorts -, and a drum. Akina and Lian come back out, Akina with his five stringed pipa and Lian accompanying on the triangle. Thirty or so men lounge about on deck, done with their duties for the day. Iroh stands and coughs for quiet. "Tonight is a very special night! It's the first time that our guest Miss Katara has been able to join us for music night so let's show her the best that the Fire Nation has to offer. However, it's a special night for an entirely different reason also. It's the last time we will all be together as a crew for music night. Unfortunately, the Fire Lord has seen fit to cut costs and transfer thirteen of you to Commander Zhao." There's a hiss of discontent. "Please, I know how most of you feel about him but orders are orders and there's nothing we can do. We've already changed course to meet up with his ships. I'm sorry." Iroh reads out a list of the thirteen who are going to be transferred including Asoko, Kuron, and Akina. Their faces twist into disgust. Silence falls after the names are read until a long melancholy note cries out from the erhu's strings. These men have been together for the past two years, they are a family and now the Fire Lord has decided to rip them apart. How typical. Most of the men on deck are thinking various versions of the same thing and finding anger boiling up inside of them. The Fire Lord always separates families, the military always does! They thought they were safe from it here, at first the younger ones were annoyed to be stuck in this potentially dead end job but they grew to love their comrades and eventually were happy when no orders came to transfer. The two pipes join in with plunking chords. They aren't even really fighting a war on this ship, it's its own little floating island where the cruelties of war don't exist. They can forget about it here. The flutes carry a haunting tune and the drum underscores them. They've all heard about Zhao, his bloodlust is legendary and no one wants to serve under him if possible. Zuko's an ass who acts like he's better than everyone else, but Zhao is a bloodthirsty ass and that's a million times worse. Lian doesn't play his triangle, it lays forgotten at his feet.

The song sends chills down Katara's spine and the fire closest to her burns a little warmer until they pass. "Zhao is the one who attacked us during the winter solstice right?" She whispers to Zuko. He nods and she shudders. "Will your men be okay with him, he seems kind of," she pauses, "Off."

"He is. He's a psycho who's determined to capture the Avatar." The look she gives him speaks volumes. "Hey, I may be hellbent on capturing Aang but I need him to return my honor. Zhao is a sick animal who doesn't know when to stop and would rather watch the entire world fall to ashes than anything else," he hisses as the song continues.

"The men who are going, do you know any of them?" Zuko shakes his head and Katara decides right then and there to fix this. No one should be around the same people for two years and still not know them, it's not healthy! "Okay well the one playing the bigger pipa is Akina. He and Lian - the man who gave me the taffy which is delicious by the way - are best friends. Akina has no family back in the Fire Nation, they all died on a ship over to the colonies seven years ago. Asoko is the man who served as my guard this afternoon. He's over by the railing," she nods in his direction. "You see the man with the neck tattoo, that's him. He's the oldest of five and joined the military to help support them. His mother is sick right now. Kuron is standing next to the erhu player. He has an older sister who bullies him still even though he thinks she's amazing. He has a girlfriend on Ember Island though he doubts that he's the only sailor she writes to."

Zuko is dumbstruck. "How - what! You've hardly even been allowed to interact with people for five days. How do you know all this stuff?"

Katara shrugs. "I just listen and ask questions. You know, you have a lot of good men here."

"I thought you hated the Fire Nation," he jabs.

"I do hate the Fire Nation, I'm just finding that the people themselves aren't as bad as I thought. Now, do you want to learn more about your own crew or not?"

"Why should I? It's not like they care if I know them."

"Wrong. They don't like you and I don't blame them because you act like a jerk all the time. You need to start getting to know your men, it'll make your life a lot easier and it'll make them trust you more." The songs continue and Katara points out as much of the crew as she knows, giving Zuko little details about their lives and encouraging him to actually talk to them. He's moderately unreceptive but mostly because this girl that has hardly been on his ship at all knows things that he already should have learned forever ago. Iroh watches from the corner of his eye, smiling.

. . .

Katara lays on her back on the bed with a bottle of spiced wine - much better than fire whiskey in her opinion. Zuko sits at the table scowling at her for drinking in his bed and downs his fire whiskey. "So which of the crew think I'm a bad leader?"

She rolls her eyes. "All of them. They think you're an ass who doesn't care about anyone except yourself."

"That's not true! I care about Uncle!"

"You're expected to at least try to care about them. If you want them to like you -"

"I don't need them to like me."

Katara continues as if he hadn't said anything. "You need to show some interest in them. You'll come off as nicer and they'll be more willing to listen to you."

"Hmpf."

"It's true."

"I'm not arguing about this."

"Now onto the next problem of what the hell do you have against music night? That was cool."

"That was not cool."

"Yeah it was, I've never even heard most of those instruments before. I've seen them and people have tried to sell them to me, but I've never heard them before."

"Really?" He looks at her as if she's crazy. "I grew up around those."

"We had drums and bone flutes in my tribe but not a lot of time to play them." She falls silent, thinking of the icy cliffs and black waters of her home. "Your ship destroyed what was left of our wall but the little kids probably had a great time sliding down the mounds once we left. Hell, they probably had a contest to see who could pee the farthest off the top of it."

"That's gross."

"Hey, it's what kids do. Are you telling me you never did that or spit seeds or bones trying to make them go further than anyone else's?"

"No." The fact that his lips is curled gives a good explanation of what he thinks of those activities. "I spent my childhood doing much more dignified things."

"Oh really. What, did you do practice sitting up straight and never smiling? I bet I could tickle you and you wouldn't even crack a smile."

"For you information I do smile and I fed turtle ducks when I was little. I used to play with Azula and her friends and I chased lizards around the palace trying to catch them. I got into all kinds of trouble with that. Minister Guri absolutely hated them so I ended up with candy for each one I caught."

Something hits him squarely in the forehead. Fire sparks barely from his fists until he sees that it's a piece of salt water taffy. Katara sticks her tongue out. "You've probably caught a lizard or two since then."

"Oh um, thanks." He isn't quite sure how to respond to being pegged in the head by it but he'd been eyeing the candy since she got it so he doesn't try to hit her with it. "Agni, this is good! You have any more?"

Without her permission and definitely with the encouragement of alcohol he scrambles into bed with her, searching the blanket for more. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!" She kicks him solidly in the chest. His mind detours before coming back to his body which is spread eagled on the floor. "You can't just get up here like that!"

"It's my bed, you shouldn't be in it in the first place."

"Well you didn't seem to be using it."

"That's because you're in it."

"Well that's because you're not in it."

Zuo glares at her then takes another swig. "Fine," he grumbles and gets into bed, sitting as far away from her as he possibly can. "I'm in my bed. Now you get out."

"No." Katara's states, monotone, and crosses her arms over her chest. "I claim it, it's mine." She wedges a foot between him and the wall, electricity jolts through Zuko. Unfortunately for him, the electricity doesn't move him but again he ends up sprawled on the floor. Katara's foot hangs off the bed.

"Come on Katara, one more piece of taffy and I'll leave you alone."

"Somehow I doubt that."

"I promise. I haven't had taffy since I was little let me have another piece." She remains silent "I'll learn the names of all of the crew members if you give me another piece."

"You're not drunk enough to forget about that tomorrow morning okay."

He sighs and rolls his eyes. "Okay." She hands the piece to him this time instead of throwing it at him.

Katara may not be fully drunk, neither of them are, but she's had just enough to make the conversations between them easy. "Zuko, I want to go home."

Her comment takes him by surprise. "I know. I want to go home too."

"Aang's not coming back for me. You could just let me go."

"I know." He sighs. "I'd miss you though. You're my first real friend."

"I think you might be my friend too but I'm not a possession. You don't get to set me up on a shelf. We can't be real friends if I don't have the option of leaving."

"If you go I can't protect you. You almost got killed under my watch, I don't want anyone to hurt you again. You could stop being a captive here. You could help me catch Aang and end the war. We could go home and you could live in the palace, there would be plenty of servants to do whatever you want them to and plenty of guards to stop people from hurting you." He isn't sure when he started calling the Avatar Aang.

"I don't want that! I want to see my brother and Aang again. Zuko -"

"No!" Alcohol and emotion make his tongue thick. "You don't get to! You have to help me regain my honor."

"No I don't! Aang isn't coming back for me and neither is my brother. I might never see my family again because of you! I won't help." Tears prick at the corners of her eyes but she ignores them and ignores the crack in the bottles as her anger mounts.

"Katara just -"

"Fuck you!" Crash! Her bottle is in shards on the blanket and his is in pieces on the floor. "You can have your bed back." She scoots off of it and goes back to her own bed roll ignoring fuming Zuko as he tries to clean the mess without hurting himself too badly. Eventually he goes to sleep in his bed. Neither of them drink enough to stop the nightmares. Zuko however is slowly but steadily needing to drink himself to sleep for other reasons.

. . .

"Aang, we're running out of food and money! We'll never make it to the North Pole at a decent rate like this." Sokka's stomach growls loudly.

"I know I know I just want to get there as soon as we can."

"We shouldn't even be going there, we should be trying to get Katara. It's been almost a week they won't be expecting us now."

"No Sokka, she said go to the North Pole so we're going to the North Pole. We can stop and look for some food though if you want."

Sokka huffs, pissed off that this little kid controls where they go and he's not able to move fast enough on his own to get back to his sister with any amount of haste. "Fine, I saw a village half an hour back let's go there."

"Good idea," Aang beams, "There were boats there maybe you can do some fishing, earn some money that way."

. . .

Katara wakes up late and alone in the room. The blankets are twisted around her and the walls are covered in a thin layer of frost. She's sweating bullets but can't remember her dream which is probably for the best. Her cuts are completely healed by now but she runs healing water over herself regardless. It's soothing and helps regulate her temperature, returning it back to normal after the nightmare. She strips off the red clothes she's been wearing and showers, letting the water rinse away the dregs of dreams. It still feels like her memories - what she has of that night - are muffled and fuzzy. She shakes off the thoughts, there are other things to do than mope. She has to keep going. The water bender dresses, pulling black pants on underneath a long crimson top similar to her Water Tribe clothes. The red is beginning to grow on her and while there's no mirror in the bathroom she still likes the way it makes her skin glow. She stops, disgusted with herself for that thought. She pulls her long hair back into a braid and ties it off with a leather strip when a reflection catches her eyes. There's no way! Her mother's necklace sits in the center of the table. In all honesty she'd forgotten about it in the mess of the past few weeks. So much has happened that the necklace slipped right out of her mind. Now though she can't tie it around her neck fast enough. The comfortable weight settles on her neck and an empty space she didn't realize was there fills up. Now it's time to face the day.

Hyeng is her guard this morning and they walk to the mess hall together. "You've made quite an impact little lady."

"What do you mean?"

Hyeng just laughs. "Just wait and see." He opens the door to an odd site. Instead of Prince Zuko holing up in the navigation room or attempting to pummel some of the crew in sparring matches he sits at a table awkwardly making conversation with the men. Her eyebrows shoot up, apparently he did listen to something she said.

He sees her and relief washes over his face. "OhKatarayou'rehere! Let'sgosparyouneedpractice." The words tumble over themselves as he tries to get out of the situation that is far out of his depth.

She stares at him blankly. "No Zuko, I need breakfast."

"Okay," his voice is strained. He wants to get out of here, he has no idea what the hell he's doing. The crew understands that and surprisingly is actually trying to make it a little easier on the prince even if they will get a laugh out of the awkwardness later.

Jee sits beside him, trying to coach the poor boy through small talk as Katara sips her morning tea and munches on warm oatmeal. After watching him struggle for another five minutes she finally opens her mouth, "So where's your uncle?"

"He's playing pai sho. He started two hours ago and is still playing the same game! How long can a game of that possibly go on?"

"I've played a pai sho game that went on for seven hours once," a sailor interjects, mostly to watch Zuko try to hold it together.

Miraculously he does. "That's great Nii. Come on Katara, let's train." He grabs her wrist and they're out the door in record time. The room explodes in chatter once the door closes.

"Did you see that! He almost turned purple but didn't blow!" Nii roars.

"The girl's making a fucking difference. I told you she would!"

"Who knew, we should have picked her up two years ago!"

Far out of earshot Katara leans against the wall laughing, their fight last night forgotten. "You should have seen your face. Oh Goddess you looked like you were about to strangle one of them!"

"Hey! You're the one who told me to talk to them, you don't get to make fun of me for it." Against his better judgement he's laughing too.

"You did a good job, you did! I'm proud of you it was just so funny! If you'd seen it you'd laugh too." She collapses onto the floor, holding her ribs. The barrels of water are beside him and oh it's too good to resist. She bends a bubble over his head with a wave of her hand and pops it, water going everywhere.

"What the hell!" His mouth hangs open. "What was that for?" Katara just starts laughing harder and so he pounces. Years of avoiding this from Ty Lee have taught his fingers exactly where tickle spots are.

. . .

An old woman shoves her pointed fingers into an equally old man's chest, berating him. "I hope your brain can find someone else to haul that fish cause I ain't comin!"

Sokka hears it but his ears don't perk up until the old man retorts, "Then I'll find a new fish hauler and pay him double what you get! How'd you like that?"

At that Sokka practically salivates. He can already hear the clink of coins and smell fresh juicy meat. The cooking quality has decreased drastically since Katara got captured. "I'll go!"

"You're hired!"

"See Aang, simple as that. Soon we'll have money and food." Neither Sokka nor the old man realize that the clear sky will soon turn dark and vengeful.

. . .

Both Katara and Zuko emerge from the training room dripping with sweat. The humidity in there is deadly. "Did I hurt you?"

Zuko's slightly favoring his left side but says nothing. That is until she jabs him in-between the ribs. "Ow!" The sconces nearby flare and a cloud of smoke escapes his mouth.

"Come on, we're going back to the room. I'll heal you."

"That's really not necessary."

They're already at the bedroom door which he opens. "Sure it isn't." she replies sarcastically. "Now take off your shirt, I need to see it."

"No way. I don't need your help." He turns back to the door which she blocks.

"Yeah you do, you winched pretty badly a minute ago and there's no point in you going around hurt. Now shirt, off!"

He grumbles. "Can you at least turn around?"

"Come on Zuko, you don't have anything I haven't seen on my brother or Aang before." She resolutely refuses to turn so he does instead mumbling about the indecency of disrobing around her and how he is neither her brother nor a twelve year old kid. She notices both of those fact as the shirt drops. A faint blush rises in her cheeks but she ignores it and leads him into the bathroom. More bruises dot his back and sides. "Are these from our sparring matches?"

He grunts. "Some of from sparring with my men too."

She frowns. "This might sting a little." The water pools around her hands and glows at it presses against his skin.

He inhales sharply, the tingling feeling odd underneath his skin. The muscles relax and the bruises begin to heal as blood flows properly again. Zuko sighs and leans into her hands. "That feels really nice."

"I'm almost done. None of it is very deep."

He lets out a throaty sigh. "Don't stop." Her eyebrows rise but she continues. This is thanks for her mother's necklace, even if he did take it in the first place. She continues to work on his back, letting the water sink deeply into his muscles. His whole spine is in knots which she slowly begins to work out. She can feel the twists and turns inside of him and the way the energies are locked up inside. She delves in, working out the muscular kinks and straightening things out. By the time she's done tears of relief leak out of his eyes. "Thank you."

"It'll take a few more sessions to work everything out." She rubs his back for a moment then walks back into their room. That whole experience was odd to her. She could feel the anger deep inside of him and the strings of energy flowing through him. It's all jumbled inside of him. She keeps rubbing her hands, trying to get over the weird sensation of healing him. Someone knocks on the door before it swings open. Iroh peaks his head in.

"Is my nephew here?" Katara nods to the bathroom where he still sits. "Thank you. Prince Zuko, are you alright!" The sight of Zuko slumped over his knees sends spikes of worry through Iroh. "Are you sick?"

"No Uncle. Actually I feel great." Zuko smiles and for a moment Iroh sees the boy who disappeared two years ago.

"What happened?"

"Katara."

"Uh huh." At least they two are no longer at each other's throats. "Nephew, I'm afraid there's bad news. We've arrived at the port a day and a half ahead of schedule." The previously happy prince's shoulders drop. To add insult to injury Zhao barges in without announcement. Katara jumps into a battle pose, the water from the sinks bounding to her hands.

The slimy commander gives her a once over that makes her hair stand on end. Zuko is immediately on his feet, charging in between Katara and Zhao. "So, it's true. You did capture the Avatar's water wench." The water freezes until the angry heat radiating off of Zuko melts it. Zhao just laughs.

"What do you want?"

"I just wanted to make sure you got the orders for me to get your men."

"Of course I did," Zuko spits.

"Good, I want them on my ships by nightfall." Zhao begins to saunter off before pausing at the doorway. "Oh and I wanted to see if the rumors were true that you keep herclose by." Zuko roars, the fire spewing towards the closed door. Iroh is fuming too but Katara is shaking with rage.

"Is that what people think?" Her voice is as icy as the tundra.

Iroh steps in, Zuko's still too infuriated to think clearly. Smoke is pouring out of his nose and mouth. "No Miss Katara. Zhao will say whatever he can to make a situation bad. I'm sure someone said that you two are in the same room and it just got twisted or Zhao made it up right on the spot. He's not above that."

She's still shaking but at least no pipes are in danger of bursting though the tempers of the two young benders make the room fluctuate drastically. "How dare he come onto my ship like that! He barges in here and ugh! That bastard is a piece of work." Katara nods in agreement. After a few deep breaths they both calm down.

"I'll go inform the men," Iroh states.

"Thank you Uncle. One thing though, don't have them leave until morning." The general grins, proud of his nephew for the small victory, and leaves.

"He's going to get the Avatar."

"No he's not! Aang is already well on his way to the North Pole, he won't get him."

"You don't understand Katara, Zhao has nearly twenty ships under his control and he's probably working on the Yu-Yan archers right now! They can shoot the flies off of wings." Zuko flops onto the bed. "It's hopeless."

"Fuck him." Zuko blinks at her harsh words. "You heard me, fuck him. If you can't get the Avatar then no one can. You've chased us through hell and high water and you haven't been able to get Aang. Zhao won't be able to do any better. If nothing else, make sure that asshole doesn't get my friend." For a moment she looks like a fire bender to him with the rage burning in her eyes but then he realizes, that's not the rage of a fire bender that's a water bender through and through.

"You're right. Fuck him. If I can't get the Avatar no one can."

Panic floods Katara for a moment. "Alive right?"

"Of course. What use is a dead Avatar? Now tell me, if I leave you alone in this room tonight will you swear not to try to escape?"

"What are you going to do?"

"Do you swear?"

She hesitates, "Do you swear to keep Aang out of Zhao's filthy hands?"

"Yes."

"Then I do too. Now, where are you going?"

Zuko goes to the wardrobe and pulls a black outfit off of the very top shelf. A blue mask sits on top of the neatly folded clothes.

. . .

Enter Blue Spirit! Just so the timeline is clear, the storm is going on right now it's just a little north and very localized. I'm putting the last night of the storm episode and the first night of the blue spirit episode on the same night.

Sorry Carolyn but Zuko actually doesn't find out that she told anyone.

Thank you to everyone for being absolutely wonderful and loving this story!