The first thing Katara felt when she woke up was a buzzing in her head and on her chest, her mouth as dry as cotton. Slowly opening her eyes, she found herself staring up into two large ovals staring back down at her.

Her owl-cat was curled up on her chest, purring contentedly as she waited for her owner to wake up and feed her. She let out a meow in greeting and hopped to the side as Katara sat up and gathered her bearings.

"What time is it girl?" she grumbled, wiping a hand down her face and groaning as she felt something crusty around her mouth. "Oh no, did I puke last night? I knew I shouldn't have had that last cocktail." Her lips felt bruised and sore, and she wondered absentmindedly as she reached for her cell if she'd done something as humiliating as face-planting drunk the night before. She was having a hard time remembering any details.

Clicking her phone on, she jumped to her feet in a panic.

"Oh no! I'm gonna be late, and on my first day!" she cried, scrambling towards the bathroom to shower and dress herself as quickly as she could.

The hot water felt good on her body, her muscles aching more than they usually did after a night of drinking.

Not that she had much experience in the way of that. She'd gone out to celebrate graduating at the top of her class with her dad and brother before she'd left, but they'd had a beer or two each before returning home to celebrate with the family.

No, her muscles hurt more like when she used her bending. She hadn't used it in ages except for healing purposes in school. Pakku trained her when she was young after some persuading from Gran Gran, but being as she was the only bender back in the South, she didn't have a lot of people to practice with.

Letting herself focus on the water for a moment, she closed her eyes and could see through the lids the soft blue glow as she soothed her hangover and muscle aches all at once.

Satisfied, she toweled off and yanked on a pair of dark brown cargo pants and a blue button-down tee, braiding her hair and fixing her traditional 'hair loopies', as her brother liked to call them, into place. Touching a hand to her neck, she was startled to find that her mother's necklace was missing.

Oh no, I must have lost it last night at the bar!

But she was already behind and didn't have time to dwell on this, deciding to ask Song to go with her after their shift to look for it and racing out the door, colliding straight into someone standing outside.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, looking up to find, much to her horror, Pakku standing there with an amused smirk on his face.

"There you are," he said. "You're late," he chastised her gently, giving her a serious look for a moment before breaking into a smile. "Don't make a habit of it!"

Katara blushed, embarrassed that of all the people to run right into, it just had to be Pakku. "Sorry, Pak- I mean, Dr. Takret," she apologized. "I had a bit of a long night apparently."

Pakku gave her a sly grin as they walked towards the golf cart. "So I have heard," he said cryptically, climbing into the driver's seat.

Yep. You definitely face-planted last night, Katara.

Katara climbed into the passenger side, regretting more and more to ever agreeing to going out. She was not a drinker or a partier, and as her brother so often pointed out, was like a penguin-otter trying to drink like a tiger-seal anytime she got herself going.

In other words: a lightweight, through and through.

"Well, I hope to have a long, interesting day too," she said in an attempt to change the subject.

Pakku chuckled and said, "I would think so. Well, let's start our rounds and see how much you remember of my teachings."

And off they went, Katara's anxiety over her mother's necklace and her actions the night before slowly fading from her mind as they played with baby rabiroos and gave vaccinations and health checks to the zoo residents.

By that afternoon, Katara had completely forgotten all about it until she saw Song feeding the Tiger-dillos. On lunch herself, Katara made her way over to the young zookeeper.

"Song, hey!" she called, smiling and waving. Song looked up and saw Katara and her face flushed red, the girl quickly swinging around and walking quickly in the other direction.

Huh? That's strange.

"Song, wait up!" Katara called, jogging to catch up to Song. "Hey, why are you running away from me?" she asked.

Song shot her a dirty look and said nothing for a moment, before saying in a snippy tone, "I just figured you'd have better things to do, like hang out with your new boyfriend Zuko."

Uh oh, she thought. This can't be good.

"What are you talking about?" Katara asked, confusion plastered across her face.

Song raised an eyebrow and her expression softened slightly as she slowed to a stop.

"You mean, you don't remember?"

Katara shook her head no. "I'm having a hard time remembering anything after that second drink you brought us."

Song's lips tightened into a thin line as she looked at the water tribe woman. "You and Zuko spent the whole night all over each other, and you kissed him right in front of me Katara! After I told you how much I like him!"

Katara gasped and her hands flew to her mouth. "Oh, Song! I'm so sorry! I can't seem to remember any of that!" Her tender lips from this morning came to mind now, and shame settled into her stomach for her actions and the hurt they'd caused her new friend. "Song, I never meant to do any of that. I'm here to do an externship and get my DVM so I can be a vet, believe me I have no interest in anything romantic, with anyone," she added to emphasize her regret.

Song sighed and gave her a smile. "I guess I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have gotten so upset with you over a boy. You're one of the only girl friend's I have, and I don't want to let some rich hot guy come between us." She looked up at her shyly as she said, "Can you forgive me for being mad at you?"

Katara laughed and pulled the other girl in for a hug. "Of course I can, but only if you can forgive me for being a drunken butthead."

Song laughed then too, answering, "It's a deal. Hey, while I have you here, you should come check out our new residents! They're like nothing I've ever seen before!"

Katara's eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly, following her zookeeper friend closely as they came to the nursery. Four little cubs blinked up at them at their arrival, mewling and crawling over each other to get a closer look at the two women.

"Wow," Katara breathed, kneeling in front of the glass to admire the orange and black striped babies. "What are they?" she asked, unable to tear her eyes away.

"My mom said they're tiger cubs!" Song informed her.

"Like, Tiger-Dillos?"

"Nope."

"Tiger-seals?"

"Nope, just… tigers!"

Katara's eyes were wide in awe as she said, "Wow," once more. "They're so CUTE!" she exclaimed. "I just wanna scoop 'em up and snuggle them and eat their wittle faces!" At this, she remembered her owl-cat and the fact that she'd forgotten to feed her in her rush to get to work on time that morning.

"Oh my gosh! I just remembered something!" she said, springing up to her feet. "Can you let Dr. Takret know I'll be right back, I forgot to do something in my apartment this morning."

Song nodded, but Katara didn't see, already racing down the cartway to her room. Before she opened her door, something, someone caught her eye in her periphery. She turned to get a better look and her heart fell to her stomach.

Zuko Sozin was here, and he was walking straight towards her.

And, she noticed, he had her mother's necklace wrapped around his fingers.