Chapter 97

"I think I should have simply grown another Rhododendron and leave playing the Boat tile until a few moves later, what do you think, Uncle Iroh?" Aang asked, together with Azula and Iroh sitting at the Pai Sho board in the upstairs gaming room at the Ba Sing Se estate.

"Now that's an interesting proposition, Aang," Iroh spoke sagely. "It opens up several fascinating possibilities. Shall we take a look at them in detail?" Aang nodded eagerly, while Azula just about resisted the urge to groan aloud.

The Ba Sing Se Open was slowly drawing to a close, and throughout the whole event Azula had come to realize several things. Aang was not as good a sparring partner as she had initially believed and it seemed that Yue's warnings based on having a rough time with Aang earlier in Agna Qel'a were justified. Aang was just a little too distracted at times and couldn't remain focused for as long as Azula needed him to stay sharp. He wasn't used to doing prep for as long as Azula and her girlfriends often forced themselves to do.

Also, Aang together with Iroh were just a terrible combination. Iroh simply loved to go on wild tangents, exploring unrealistic variations that would never occur in an actual Pai Sho game. Aang encouraged all these thought experiments and between the two of them, Azula felt like her time was being wasted instead of being spent productively. Azula was becoming exhausted by always having to keep Aang and Iroh tightly focused on realistic and concise solutions, and even if she succeeded at that, Aang and Iroh simply became tired if they couldn't let their imaginations soar. Also, Iroh no longer possessed the stamina for long practice sessions, and usually when Iroh excused himself, Aang used it as a pretext to also disappear, leaving Azula feeling like she hadn't actually done any meaningful prep. As a result, she often went into her games feeling unprepared and her results suffered for it.

Yue had noticed how frustrated Azula was becoming, and she had tried to force herself and sit down with Azula to help with the prep, but Azula had quickly realized that despite trying her best, Yue's mind was simply not in the Pai Sho gear. Azula had made it clear to Yue that she shouldn't feel guilty about not being able to help, but she didn't feel as if her reassurances had fully sunk in. Yue kept up to date with tournament results, and since she knew that Azula was underperforming, it made her feel even worse for Azula's sake. On several occasions, Azula had caught Yue getting up during the night, working to put together dossiers on Azula's next round opponents, including notations of their most recent games, a very helpful tool for preparation. In short, Yue was desperately trying to be supportive, even if Azula would have preferred that Yue take care of herself before doing anything else.

"I don't know, Uncle Iroh, maybe we're veering a little off course," Aang said perceptively. "It's getting a bit late and we haven't even looked at Azula's game or helped with her prep for tomorrow."

"We haven't?" Iroh blinked. He looked rather taken aback. "I thought we started with that today," Iroh said. Azula frowned at her uncle. He was really starting to show signs of aging.

Aang shook his head. "No, Uncle Iroh, that was yesterday," he said. "And then we ran out of time to do my prep, but fortunately it didn't matter." Aang had won against Long Feng earlier, a victory he was rather proud of. Azula had endured the embarrassment of having to agree to a draw with Kori Morishita, and she had little interest in her sparring partners dissecting that game.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Azula, we didn't mean to ignore you," Iroh said apologetically. A few years ago, Azula would have assumed that Iroh had totally meant to ignore her, but she knew her uncle a little better by now and she had witnessed the signs of him becoming rather forgetful. This time, there really was no ill intent here. "Who are you playing tomorrow, niece?" Iroh asked.

"Pakku," Azula snorted. "I could do with a refresher in case he opens up with the Frost Lily Defense."

"Of course, I think we have enough time to look into that," Iroh smiled at her, clearing the board from tiles and setting up for a new game.

Azula took the time to reflect upon how her tournament had progressed, and with two rounds of play left, she could already state with confidence that it hadn't gone well. It was one of the largest and most prestigious tournaments of the year, with sixteen participants, grandmasters such as Bumi Dhawan, Pakku Karetak, Gyatso Jetsun and Long Feng among them. From the younger generation of Azula's peers, aside from Aang, Haru Tamang, Kori Morishita and Joo Dee were also taking part, Haru and Kori having finished serving their disqualification and now playing under the flag of the Earth Kingdom while no longer attempting any kind of open protests. Kori had even toned down her pro-independence rhetoric while in Ba Sing Se and under the watchful eye of the Dai Li, which was probably a good decision for her long-term health benefits.

With two rounds to go, it looked like Bumi was set to win the tournament with Gyatso coming in second and Aang contesting Pakku for the third. Azula was lodged firmly among a tightly bunched pack together with Long Feng, Haru and Kori, and she looked set to finish anywhere between the sixth and tenth place, hardly a rousing success. Normally, Azula would be way ahead of the players that she was currently tied with on points, but she was simply not in a good Pai Sho mindset. It wasn't just that her prep was poor. She didn't want to put it all on Aang and Iroh. After all, Aang was doing amazingly well with even less prep than Azula, which simply further illustrated how much being in a healthy mental state mattered. Azula was struggling to beat players weaker than she was because her heart and mind weren't in it, and her thoughts lingered mostly on Katara, despite the constant phone calls and reassurances that Katara actually seemed to be doing a little better, and she had started to respond positively to the medication meant to improve her sleep patterns. Those were incredible news, but even so Azula remained off her game, so much so that she had even drawn her match with Joo Dee, and over the years Azula had made Joo Dee her bitch to such an extent that she had once told Joo Dee to get a permanent tattoo spelling 'Azula Nakamura 1 – Joo Dee 0'.

Some half an hour later, with both Iroh and Aang starting to yawn with increasing regularity, Azula decided to end the practice session and put her sparring partners out of their misery. She felt a little better prepared for Pakku tomorrow, but not prepared enough, resolving to do a little bit of extra practice on her own just before going to bed, and to also study the notes that Yue had lovingly put together for her, with some helpful suggestions to use against Pakku. With Aang heading downstairs and Iroh lingering behind slightly, about to follow the Air Nation lad, Azula called out to her uncle, deciding to ask him a question that had been on her mind for a while now.

"Uncle?" Azula said, making Iroh freeze at the top of the stairs. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, niece," Iroh replied kindly as he stepped back inside the gaming room. "What is it?"

"I was just thinking about something," Azula said, feeling a little uneasy. "The girls probably told you that I had a difficult time playing my father earlier this year, right?" Iroh nodded at her, looking upset. Azula supposed that she hadn't simply had a difficult time, that was putting it much too lightly. She had experienced a serious breakdown. "After I had to watch how he got to Katara, and how it's also affecting Yue, I am even more desperate to destroy him, but I'm also even more concerned that I might not be mentally prepared for it," Azula admitted, hating that she had to appear weak in front of Iroh. However, she needed his assistance if she was serious about beating Ozai. And if Iroh were to help her, she needed to be honest with him. "Uncle, I need to find a way to become mentally tougher."

Iroh looked both sympathetic and concerned about her request. "I don't know if your therapist would approve," he said reluctantly. "I don't want to jeopardize your therapy, Azula."

"But you know that I'll seek this confrontation with Ozai, anyway," Azula insisted. "All I'm asking is for your help to be better prepared for it. You are a former world champion. You must know of some methods that would let me shrug off all those attempts in which my father bullies and intimidates his opponents."

"I was never that good at fully shrugging off Ozai's taunting, despite what you might think, Azula," Iroh sighed. "I did practice yoga regularly to center my mind, together with drinking plenty of tea, of course."

"Of course," Azula forced herself to smile. "I don't think yoga and tea is for me, though. What about the methods other past greats have employed? I want to learn to focus my mind with such laser sharpness that no amount of taunting can dislodge me from my goal," Azula explained.

"Well… the best past great who could center himself like that was my old friend Pathik," Iroh said.

"Oh, that so called "Guru"?" Azula asked. Pathik was something of an almost mystical character in the Pai Sho world, but Azula knew that Iroh and Gyatso kept in touch with him, albeit not regularly.

"Yes, that's right," Iroh nodded. "However, his methods are quite extreme. In fact," Iroh hesitated, looking unsure about what he was going to say. Azula narrowed eyes at her uncle. "Do you remember when Ozai humbled both me and Zuko during the qualification two cycles ago?" Azula nodded. "Well, after that disaster, Zuko asked me the same question as you did just now, and I actually took him to "Guru" Pathik. But Zuko couldn't endure this mental toughness training, it was much too hard. That's why I don't want you attempting it either. It could cause untold damage to your psyche."

"If you think I'm weaker than Zuko-"

"It's not about that," Iroh shook his head. "Pathik's methods are quite radical, and I won't be responsible for ruining all the progress you have made in your therapy. Please, niece, forget about attempting something so drastic. Keep working with your therapist, learn from the past experiences, both your own and those of your girlfriends, and you will build up your mental toughness naturally."

"That's all very cute, uncle," Azula frowned. "Now, tell me how to get in touch with this "Guru"."

"I won't do that, Azula," Iroh sighed at her. "Please, don't ask me that. You don't need it. I believe that you can defeat your father without resorting to such methods. Katara almost did it."

"Mhm," Azula muttered as Iroh turned to walk down the stairs. Without truly realizing it himself, Iroh had just got to the crux of the matter with his comment. Katara had almost defeated Ozai. Well, she actually had defeated her father, because Ozai should have been disqualified for his rampant cheating. In a world that was fair and just, Zhao and Ozai had both lost their games against Katara. But that was the problem, there was no justice or fairness in this world, and cheating was just another hurdle that Azula had to overcome by any means necessary. And fortunately, Iroh had told her something crucially important during their conversation. If Zuko had met with Pathik, then Zuko could also tell her how to find this illusive "Guru". Azula felt confident that she could somehow extract this information out of Zuko.

By the time Azula made her way down to the living room, Iroh had already retired to the remaining free downstairs bedroom where he was staying throughout the course of the tournament, leaving Yue, Aang, Toph and Teo sitting around the TV and idly conversing over the evening news. Azula immediately shooed Aang away from his place next to Yue, wanting to sit next to her girlfriend on the sofa.

"So," Toph turned to look at her, appearing amused. "Think you've prepped enough to avoid another ass-beating?" she grinned.

"Not so sure about that," Azula grumbled. Pakku was one of her least favorite grandmasters to face, mostly because he really knew how to turtle down in a defensive posture and frustrate the more attacking players. "I guess we'll see tomorrow," she shrugged, then noticing that Yue was glaring daggers at Toph. Azula smiled softly, reaching out to take Yue's hand. Yue was always so protective of her and Katara, and she couldn't stand it when anyone made fun of their lack of success. However, it was true that Azula didn't exactly have much to boast about when it came to her achievements in this tournament.

"Pakku doesn't have much to play for anymore, he can't get higher than third," Teo reasoned. "He should be amenable to a draw. And if you can beat your final round opponent, it's going to be a decent placing."

Azula frowned, feeling as if she was being patronized. Then again, Teo and Toph were no strangers to finishing in the middle of the pack, so perhaps she was overreacting. In any case, she was also hoping for the scenario that Teo described. If it all panned out, then she wouldn't place worse than eight and while that felt a little ignoble, her rating wouldn't suffer too badly because of the strong lineup.

"You're right, I suppose," Azula said, deciding to accept a non-confrontational agreement, mostly to placate Yue. "You know, I'm actually quite glad that I didn't sign up to more tournaments in the near future. I think I need to do what I tried to convince Zuko of doing in the previous cycle and just take some months off to get my game back on track."

"Are you going to pull out of Agna Qel'a?" Yue asked, trying not to sound too worried, but not quite succeeding.

"Oh no, I'm playing Agna Qel'a," Azula smiled reassuringly at her girlfriend. "I've already confirmed, besides, you know the other reason why I want to go." Even if Yue would be spending the lion's share of time with Katara during the exposure therapy, Azula still looked forward to spending as much time with Katara as possible. Hopefully just being with Katara more would also inspire her to a better performance at the Pai Sho board. She really couldn't afford two middling tournament performances in a row. It was doubly embarrassing because she was supposed to document her experiences for The Harmony Ring, and that was a lot less fun when she wasn't winning.

"What are you going to do about prep for Agna Qel'a?" Yue asked. "Even if I were to feel better about Pai Sho by then, I doubt I would have the time to spar with you. Are you going to ask Iroh to accompany you?"

Azula frowned, casting a glance towards the corridor leading off to the ground floor bedrooms just to make sure that Iroh could not overhear what she was about to say. "No, it's not really working out with Iroh," Azula said quietly, shaking her head.

"Why don't you ask Zuko?" Aang asked innocently. "He has nobody to prep with either if Uncle Iroh isn't going."

Azula had already been thinking about somehow getting past her embarrassment to ask Zuko to be her sparring partner for the Agna Qel'a tournament. And now she also wanted to ask Zuko about Pathik, so… perhaps he would be more amenable to sharing this information if she spent time prepping with him? It would be really weird, Azula knew that, they hadn't really sat down together at a Pai Sho board amiably since Azula was seven or eight, but maybe it was time to change that? They had been getting along quite well as of late. Zuko had even started to tell her some more personal stuff, which Azula thought was completely uncalled for, but she had listened anyway, not quite having the heart to interrupt him. Maybe… maybe they could actually take another step in mending their relationship through preparing for their games together? Azula supposed that it was worth considering.

"I've actually been considering asking Zuko, Aang," Azula nodded at the Air Nation boy. "I suppose I'll just have to… bring it up with him, without dying from shame and embarrassment," she sighed quietly. With the corner of her eye, Azula noticed Yue smiling at her, looking happy. Azula knew that Katara also would have been happy if she knew that she was considering mending bridges with Zuko even further. It made Azula feel a lot better about her decision.

"Whoa, Aang, you mentioned Azula spending time with Zuko and she didn't blow up at you," Toph looked amused. "What's next, raining cats and dogs?"

Azula rolled her eyes at Toph, wanting to utter a snappy retort, but then remembering that there was something she actually wanted to discuss with the Earth Kingdom girl. "Any updates from Yu Dao tonight?" she asked first, pointing at the TV.

"Only that fighting in the streets continues," Teo replied. "The report was very sketchy on the details."

"It probably means that the Dai Li are getting their asses beat," Toph added, very perceptively.

The conflict in Yu Dao had resumed a couple of weeks ago, the Fire Nation counterattack coming as if from nowhere. It had been another smartly executed maneuver. Fire Army paratroopers had landed near the important towns of Senlin and Gaipan, and the Earth Kingdom military had reacted by transferring troops from Yu Dao to the defense of Senlin and Gaipan, at which point the main Fire Army force had hit the by now weakened Earth Kingdom garrison in Yu Dao. In less than a day, the Fire Army had pushed the Dai Li forces out of the city, save for a few unimportant suburbs, and the Earth Kingdom army had been struggling ever since to maintain at least some presence in Yu Dao. The conflict was back on in full force, and didn't look like resolution was coming any time soon.

"Toph, there's actually something I wanted to talk to you about," Azula said. "And I mean a serious conversation between adults. I know you're capable of holding one."

"Wow, smooth," Toph snorted. "What do you want, bitch?"

"In private, please," Azula insisted.

"Don't be stupid," Toph was starting to get annoyed. "Teo is family, Aang as good as, and Yue is your family. Just say your piece, dumbass."

Azula bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from lashing right back at Toph, controlling her irritation. "It concerns my father, as well as your parents," Azula said. "Are you quite sure you want to discuss that mess openly?"

Toph seemed to reconsider. "Alright," she frowned, rising from the sofa. "Doesn't sound like a fun conversation I want to have, but whatever, let's step outside." They both put on their coats and stepped outside on the estate porch. "So, what's on your mind, Azula?" Toph asked.

"I've been thinking a lot about something I overheard my father saying back in the Fire Fountain City," Azula began. "When he was celebrating stealing the title from Katara, he told Long Feng something about launching the second phase. And then, less than two weeks later, the Fire Army carries out this big operation."

"Well, your father is an influential man, you've always scared us with that," Toph shrugged.

"Yes, but I never thought that he had the influence to literally start wars," Azula sighed. "I thought that he was just exploiting the opportunity and making a tidy profit producing military equipment for the Fire Army. And lobbying for the war to continue, of course, but this sounded more than just lobbying."

"Okay, I see your point," Toph nodded. "Where do I come in?"

"I'm not sure you've caught on to the main issue here, Toph," Azula sighed. "My father was speaking with the literal power behind the Earth Kingdom military, asking him to resume this proxy war, with no other reason than to profit from it. That's actual treason, Toph."

"Which you can't prove," Toph replied.

"No, which is why I'm talking to you now," Azula said. Toph looked surprised. "You said that your father is tied in with the military industrial complex, right?" Toph nodded reluctantly. "Well, he's tight with both Long Feng and my father as well. If they had a plan about resuming this proxy war, your father would probably know about it, because the Earth Kingdom army would need supplies, makes sense?"

"I think so," Toph nodded, scratching her head. "I don't know how deep my father's involvement goes, though."

"But wouldn't you like to know?" Azula asked, holding her breath.

Toph looked conflicted. "Honestly… yes, and no," she replied eventually. "I'm curious, sure, but I'm also afraid of what I might discover. But you don't really care about my father, do you? You just want to bring down Ozai."

"Sure," Azula admitted. "But it also might have the added effect of stopping the war. If the people of both nations were to learn that there's no other reason for this conflict than just the greed of some of the already wealthiest men in the world, I think that soldiers on the ground would simply lay down their arms and refuse to continue fighting."

"Damn, that's really hard to argue against," Toph laughed uneasily. "What do you want me to do?"

"Uh, just… see if you can learn how exactly your father is involved in this," Azula replied. "If you were to spend time with your family, maybe he'd let something slip or maybe you might happen to overhear a phone conversation or something…"

"You want me to spy on my own father," Toph summarized. Azula nodded uncertainly. "I mean, I don't disagree with your overall goal. I just hate spending time with my parents. They're always such assholes to Teo."

"I wouldn't ask this if it wasn't important," Azula sighed. "But I can think of a very good excuse for you to spend time at your parent's estate." Toph gave her a very skeptical stare. "The Gaoling invitational in February," Azula pointed out.

Toph chuckled, shaking her head. "Damn, it's scary the way you have everything planned out like that," she said. "It's not a bad idea, though, I'll give you that much. I'll run it past Teo, but I think if he learns about our real motives, he will be on board. He's far more anti-war than I am, probably because his home village almost borders the warzone."

"Thanks, Toph," Azula smiled at her Earth Kingdom friend. "You're sometimes really frustrating to talk with, but you're a good friend."

"Well, you're still a major bitch," Toph smirked, punching Azula's shoulder, a little painfully. "Nah, I'm kidding. You're actually pretty alright."

Katara stood on the pavement just outside the gate of their Ba Sing Se estate, holding the cat carrier in her hand while she waited for the taxi driver to retrieve her light luggage from the car's trunk. She had left most of her stuff back at the sanatorium, since she would be returning in two week's time, but despite nurse Kya promising that she would take good care of Ran, Katara had still decided to bring the cat back home. Just like she deserved to spend the winter holidays with her girlfriends, Ran deserved to spend time with his equally adorable brother.

Katara then paid the taxi driver and watched him take off before picking up her suitcase and turning towards the gate of the estate. She had been away for six whole weeks which was longer than she had ever been absent before, so returning to Ba Sing Se was filling her with all sorts of exciting emotions, mostly positive, but also with slight anxiety. Her medication was at least making sure that her anxiety was being kept under control. The combination of Prazosin and Tofranil had proved to be effective, and her sleep patterns had definitely improved and she was now getting at least six uninterrupted hours of sleep every night. Yagoda had said that it would be fine for now, and hopefully with more progress in her therapy, her sleep patterns would continue to improve.

When it came to her therapy, Katara supposed that she was doing quite well and Yagoda seemed to be in agreement. She often praised Katara for the willingness to work with her, and being very open about communicating the slightest changes in her condition, which in turn allowed Yagoda to fine tune her treatments. Katara felt like she had made a lot of progress in understanding her trauma, and all the reasons why the experience had affected her so powerfully. This in turn allowed her to better deal with the emotions of guilt and shame that she still strongly associated with her reaction to the event.

The progress in her therapy had prompted Yagoda to conclude that Katara was ready to start the exposure therapy they had discussed before. When it would be time to return to Agna Qel'a, Katara would not be traveling alone. Yue and Azula would be coming with her. Yue would be working with her during the exposure therapy, and she would be staying at the sanatorium possibly for up to two months. Azula was taking part in a tournament in the Water Tribe capital, but Katara fiercely hoped that Azula would still find the time for regular visits at the sanatorium and perhaps now and then stay the night. Because of all these plans, Katara was actually quite looking forward to going back to the sanatorium, and hopefully with enough time emerging a stronger person with her past trauma well under control.

Katara was a little surprised that the estate was completely dark as she walked up to the porch and put down her suitcase and cat carrier to fumble around the pockets of her winter coat, looking for the key. She had told Azula not to bother picking her up at the airport as she was happy to flag down a cab. Katara was well aware that her girlfriends knew the time of her arrival, so the empty looking estate could mean only one thing, that a surprise greeting would be sprung upon her. Katara smiled inwardly as she unlocked the door and entered the small foyer, but she resisted the temptation to flip the light switch, the streetlights coming in from the outside provided enough illumination to let Katara remove her coat and shoes. Katara then opened the cat carrier and a slightly confused Ran stepped out, sniffing around and then darting off. Moments later, Katara winced at the sounds of Ran and Shaw loudly reacquainting themselves, yowling and chasing one another into the kitchen.

"Ah! Watch it, you crazy cats!" Katara immediately recognized Azula's voice, followed by a loud crash and cursing from several people coming from the kitchen.

"Okay, whoever is grabbing my boob better stop that!" Katara blinked, having recognized Suki's voice. She hadn't expected Suki to be present, not that it was an unwelcome surprise. The Kyoshi Island girl was always a delight to have around as far as Katara was concerned.

"Uh, sorry," Azula apologized, sounding embarrassed. "Look, can someone just turn on the damn lights?" she exclaimed.

"I've got it," Katara laughed, having made it to the light switch first and turning on the kitchen lights to reveal quite the mess. Azula and Suki were still sprawled on the ground, trying to disentangle themselves. It seemed that Azula had been spooked by the cats before crashing into Suki, who had then gone down with Azula and in the process, splashed her wine all over Sokka and Zuko standing nearby. In all the chaos, Yue had planted her hand straight into the chocolate cake on the kitchen table, all but ruining the cake.

"Kat!" Azula and Yue both yelled, springing into action. Azula scampered to her feet as quickly as she could and managed to reach her first, while Yue lagged a little behind, having to first wipe off all the chocolate-y goodness from her hand. Azula wasted no time in pulling Katara into a tight embrace and starting to kiss her, with Yue holding mistletoe above their heads. Azula released Katara only once the latter was starting to feel a little lightheaded, but now Yue and Azula swapped, with Azula holding the mistletoe and Yue almost slamming Katara against the wall and kissing her with previously inexperienced intensity. From their phone conversations, Katara already knew that she was being missed a great deal, but it certainly didn't beat the actual, physical reminder of just how much she was wanted.

"Don't kill your girlfriend, you two," Suki laughed at them while Zuko and Sokka were pretending to look anywhere but at their sisters engaged in this extensive making out session.

"I'm so glad to see you, Suki," Katara smiled as the three of them made their way back to rejoin the others, Katara embracing Suki the first.

"We didn't want Suki to spend her winter holidays alone again, so we talked her into tagging along," Sokka said once it was his turn to embrace his sister.

"An excellent decision," Katara agreed. "If we still have a free bedroom, I'm sure you can stay with us for a bit, Suki."

"Tempting," Suki clicked her tongue as Katara took a moment to lastly give Zuko a hug as well. "But after seeing how the three of you went at it, I think I'm going to pass. I've been told that you can get pretty loud." Katara, Yue and Azula all yelled in protest at that, making Suki's grin only broaden.

"If you are quite done grossing us all out, Suki," Sokka sighed at the Kyoshi girl.

"I'll never be done with that, Sokka," Suki sniggered. Katara smiled to herself at the exchange, although privately she felt a little sad for Suki. She still wasn't over Jet and her renewed attempts at dating hardly ever went beyond the third or fourth date. Suki had been hopeful during the summer that with things in Yu Dao calming down, perhaps following a peace agreement the draft dodgers might be issued a pardon, but now the hostilities were back in full force and it meant that Jet was bogged down in Yu Dao even further, if he was even still alive.

"But I'm going to stop by tomorrow again," Suki said as she gave Azula a pointed stare. "My junior coworker here needs some instruction for her next assignment." Azula didn't look particularly happy about that.

"How is The Harmony Ring gig working out, Zula?" Katara asked. They hadn't really discussed it, because it had to do with Pai Sho, which had been a taboo word around Katara for months now.

"Uh… it's been alright?" Azula replied. She looked a little conflicted, as if trying to figure out how to explain without mentioning Pai Sho too much. "You can imagine that I didn't particularly like to cover the Ba Sing Se event because of how poorly I was playing," she said eventually.

"Yes, that couldn't have been fun," Katara nodded in agreement. Again, she didn't know all the details about the Ba Sing Se tournament because she had avoided reading about it, but she knew that Azula had placed only eight and couldn't have been happy about her performance. Katara suspected that her situation had also been a distraction for Azula, but her therapy was helping her not to feel too much guilt about that. "I think you'll do much better in Agna Qel'a, love," Katara smiled encouragingly. "Was that what you wanted to talk about, Suki?"

"Yes," Suki nodded. "Azula's going to be the only Harmony Ring rep at the tournament, so she needs to know a few extra things. But like I said, we can discuss that tomorrow. I don't want to overstay my welcome tonight and run cliterference for you guys."

"Suki!" the five others all yelled at the smugly grinning Kyoshi girl.

"Anyway, like I said, I'm sure Azula will do well in Agna Qel'a, even with this reporter side gig," Katara gave her girlfriend a supportive smile. "Also, I'm glad that you and Zuko agreed to prep together," she grinned at Zuko, having noticed that the Nakamura siblings still appeared a little apprehensive at the idea. Yue seemed strangely downcast, however, and Katara reasoned that she must be feeling guilty about not being able to help Azula with her prep as much as she normally would. Katara privately resolved to put her newly taught techniques of managing her guilt into helping Yue learn to do the same, and if necessary, beg Yagoda to spend a little time with Yue as well. They had never really discussed it at length, but looking back at everything that Yue had been through since turning eighteen, Katara reasoned that her girlfriend would also benefit from some therapy.

"Anyway, can we finally sit down and have whatever is left of the cake?" Sokka asked, looking hungry, which was pretty much the normal look for him. "No, Suki, no comments about how some of us around this table are starved for something else!" he then exclaimed, spotting that Suki was about to open her mouth.

"Hey, you said it, not me," Suki grinned.

"Must you be so embarrassing?" Zuko groaned.

"I can't believe it, but for once I have to agree with Zuko," Azula nodded.

"I thought that pigs would learn to fly sooner before that happened," Yue pointed out with amusement, but the fondness with which she regarded Azula didn't escape Katara and didn't fail to warm her heart. As they all sat down to enjoy the slightly battered winter holiday offerings, Katara knew that there was no other place she would rather be than with her beloved girlfriends, and the people she had come to view as her family. And even if Katara knew that she still had a long road of recovery ahead of her, during this moment of prolonged happiness, it was hard not to feel positive encouragement when thinking about the challenges she was about to face.

Next chapter: Katara, Yue, Azula, Zuko and Sokka visit Agna Qel'a. We'll spend the next couple chapters exploring what they're up to.