The Si Wong Desert is thrust upon them with a stiff heat and the vision of a beige, flat expanse dancing with shimmering mirages spanning as far as the eye can see. If Zuko had thought the heat was oppressive before, he realizes now that the shade of the towering ash trees and the slight breeze had been a blessing. His feet drag through the sand that seeps into his shoes, his clothes, his hair, his eyes, and everywhere else that sand shouldn't be. A thin layer of tiny grains covers every part of him, itching his skin under his clothes and clumping in his hair, and after only a few days he'd rather take on the wasps in the massive chasm they had crossed than continue through the barren desert.

It takes them a week to get to the Misty Palms Oasis, a week of brutal dry heat during the day and frigid nights spent in a "cuddle puddle," as Aang so affectionately called it, with Zuko's higher body temperature acting like a human space heater. The first night he had been totally against the idea until Katara had pressed herself into his side and wrapped her arm around his waist, and he had been so blinded by the sparkling warmth that had spread through his entire body that he hadn't even minded when Aang curled up on his other side and Toph laid across all of them, conjuring a rock pillow conveniently under her head where it poked out over Aang's shoulder. He hadn't been able to relax for quite a while after that, but eventually the sounds of his friend's even breathing around him lulled him to sleep. The stiff limbs and crick in his neck had been worth it when he woke up before everyone else, a stubborn tear falling from his eye as he realized that he hadn't felt as loved in that moment as he had in years. After that it had become their nightly ritual, and Zuko found that he strangely looked forward to it as they dragged themselves through the desert. Of course, the best part of it all was being able to sleep with Katara curled into his body to soak up his heat. She had been strangely distant since their trip through the canyon, and the sinking feeling that he had done something wrong had made a queasy nest in his gut. So he revelled in her closeness during the night, trying not to cross any boundaries while his heart tried to rip itself out of his chest to get closer to hers so violently that he was surprised that she couldn't feel it.

The Oasis was as he expected it to be; run down and full of seedy people, consisting only of a bar, a tiny inn, a small market, and a teahouse. They were all able to get their hands on wide brimmed straw hats to match Katara's, which they kept on as they entered the grungy bar and grabbed a table.

"Okay," he says in a hushed tone as the four of them lean onto the middle of the small, sticky table. "Aang, we'll wait here while you go see what you can find. We'll see if we can get a couple rooms at the inn so when you come back we can rest for the night. If you don't find anything before nightfall, come back and you can go out again tomorrow."

Aang nods as the barkeep brings them the over priced water they had ordered. "Sounds good. I'll head out after we're done here."

"Make sure you're far enough away from the Oasis that people don't see you before you go." Katara's whispered warning is well founded; every person in the Oasis bar had a sketchy look to them, each of their faces home to a perpetual scowl.

"Definitely."

They use some of Toph's copious amounts of money to buy a bland meal before leaving the bar and bidding Aang goodbye.

"Look," Zuko points as discreetly as he can to a stall on the other end of the Oasis with a small fenced-in area housing a handful of animals.

"What are they?" He sometimes forgets that Katara has never left her small village in the north, and that subsequently almost everything on this journey is new to her.

"The ones with the humps are camels. They store fat and water in the humps so they can go a long time without food or water. The big grey ones are elephants, I don't really know a lot about them, honestly." He watches the curious wonder in her eyes shine, making the ever present blue glow just a little more pronounced. She smiles, and his world gets brighter.

"They look weird." Toph rubs her nose. "At least I can see them here." She had explained to them begrudgingly that the sand messed with her unique way of seeing the world, making everything fuzzy and indistinct, and had been grateful when they had stepped onto the hard ground in the Oasis. Zuko knows that she doesn't want his pity, but he can't help but wonder how hard it must be for her, travelling for days on end without really being able to see like she usually does.

"That's our best bet to get to the library." He nods at the animals. "We probably shouldn't shell out the money for the elephants, but a few camels will be a big help." There's only two camels in the pen, and he looks forward to sharing one with Katara even as he dreads it.

The sun makes its way through the sky while they restock their supplies, Zuko all the while watching the people of the Oasis over his shoulder. There's probably only a few people that actually live here, and they're innocent enough, but the weight of eyes weigh heavy on his back, and he knows that their motley crew is drawing too much attention. He herds Katara and Toph into the small inn to get out of the open, walking up to the counter and praying to any god that will listen that they have rooms.

"Two rooms." He doesn't want to meet eyes with the man behind the counter and see the look he's giving Zuko for checking into a hotel with two pretty young women, and hopes that his declaration of needing separate rooms dashes any nefarious thoughts from the man's mind.

"Only got one." Toph scoffs quietly behind him. "Two beds, though." Zuko slides the coins across the counter and takes the key, not looking forward to sleeping on the assuredly sandy floor.

The room is at least clean, if not sparse. The room does have two beds like the man had promised, but they're tiny, barely spanning the width of two bedrolls. Toph immediately pushes past him and flops on one of the beds, splaying her limbs out as much as she can and sighing.

"It's been too long since I've slept in a real bed!"

Both Katara and Zuko hum in agreement, their packs landing with hearty thunks on the floor in the middle of the room.

"I'm gonna find the washroom." He doesn't think he's ever been so glad to bathe in something that isn't a river or stream; the water is warm due to the heat and soothes his aching muscles, and the quality of his bag has mercifully kept the sand out of his clean clothes.

Once he's done, he leaves the girls to get cleaned up and waits outside for Aang. The sun is almost completely below the horizon when he finally shows up, glowing grey eyes flashing in the pinks and purples of the last moments of sunset. Zuko doesn't want to admit it, but he's mesmerized by the color of Aang and Toph's eyes. Not that he isn't mesmerized by Katara's eyes, but this is different. He can recognize the beauty of his friend's glowing grey and shining soft seafoam green without the haze of romantic feelings clouding his vision. He wonders if his eyes are as pretty as theirs.

Aang nods at him, a promising gesture, and Zuko leads him to their room for the night. "I found it, but it's far out. If we have to walk it'll take the better part of two weeks."

"We don't have to walk. There's a stall with some animals that we can rent that'll—"

"Oh, what kind of animals?" Aang's face lights up, and Zuko isn't surprised that he's an animal lover.

"Camels and elephants, but we'll be taking the camels." He smiles at Aang's enthusiasm, glad that he still has some child-like wonder left in him.

"Oh, I've read about those! I can't wait to ride them! Plus, that'll probably cut our travel time in half. This is great!" Aang chatters to noone about the other animals he's read about while gathering his things, and heads off to bathe while the rest of them head to the inn's main room to get a meal.

Once they've all eaten and it's time to sleep, Zuko mentally prepares to sleep on the floor and grabs his bedroll.

"What are you doing?" He looks up at Katara's wide blue eyes, doing his best to ignore the way his heart swoops in his chest.

"Um, getting my bedroll? To sleep?"

"I'm going to sleep on the floor, you take the bed."

"No." He stands up, and her eyes follow him. "You take the bed. I don't mind sleeping on the floor."

"Don't be ridiculous." She crosses her arms in front of her chest, the universal signal that she's not planning on backing down any time soon. "You take it."

"That's not—"

"Oh my god, both of you just sleep on the bed!" Toph flops down next to Aang on the other bed, unburdened by the trepidation that comes with love. "We literally cuddled every night for the past week, just get on the fucking bed and shut up."

"Okay, rude," Katara mutters to Toph, but uncrosses her arms and looks away from him as a pretty blush blooms on her cheeks. He clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck, his own blush migrating up to his good ear and down his neck. "Inside or outside?"

"Inside."

He hesitates before climbing onto the bed, and presses himself up against the wall to give Katara as much room as possible before she lays down next to him. Okay Zuko, just breathe. It's so much different than how they had slept out in the desert, the buffer of Toph and Aang's presence glaringly absent in the small bed. They haven't slept this close since before Aang had joined them, before the cave and- don't, don't go there. He wonders if the rapid beating of his heart is powerful enough to shake the bed, because it's definitely powerful enough to shake his bones. Katara's breathing is a forced calm beside him, and he knows that she's thinking about their kiss too. Stupid cave, stupid crystals, stupid perfect kiss. He rolls over onto his back, still trying to stay as far away from Katara as possible, the miniscule space between them spanning for what might as well be miles on the small, lumpy mattress. Katara shifts beside him, and his breath catches in his chest as she turns towards him and moves closer. Instinctively his arm raises so that she can rest her head in the crook of his shoulder, his stomach doing backflips when she lays her hand on his solar plexus. There's no doubt in his mind that she can feel his heart jackrabbiting in his chest almost directly under her ear, and he has no choice but to accept that he's doomed.

Eventually his heart slows down enough that he can consider sleep, but he does everything he can to stay awake. Katara is warm and soft where she presses into his side; his arm behind her head is totally asleep, but worth every second of her closeness. He fights it for as long as he can, but after a while he has to move to save his dead arm and get more comfortable. Katara goes still in his arms for just a moment before his bravery rears its head and guides his arm around her waist as he moves onto his side to face her. Soft brown hair and the scent of lilies flood his senses as she ducks her head, the tip of her nose brushing against his neck and small hands fisting lightly in his shirt making his heart rate pick back up all over again. The peak of her hip is a cresting wave that threatens to drown him, the dip of her waist the deep blue trough, and he tries to measure his breaths; it's all he can do to stay afloat in the ocean that is Katara. Waves of curling hair roll out onto the thin pillow they share, smooth and shining in the moonlight that filters through the small, dusty window. He tries to commit every detail to memory, tries to brand the feeling of her body pressed up against him into his skin, tries to memorize each breath she takes and the tickle of her eyelashes on the underside of his jaw. Her heart beats a lullaby against his chest, soothing him into a gentle sleep and leading him by the hand into dreams filled with bright, glowing blue and fields filled with gently swaying lilies.

Xx

The morning sun brings with it a dry heat and hot cheeks. Zuko has been spoiled by waking up with Katara in his arms, and he knows that sleeping alone will be even worse now than it was before. The four Othered head out to rent their camels, and Zuko feels eyes on his back, the shady patrons of the Oasis' bar and inn watching the group as they prepare to leave. They rent the only two camels at the stall, meaning they will have to ride two at a time. Getting onto the damn things is enough of an adventure to last Zuko for the rest of his life. He knows how to ride a horse, but this is totally different. The man working the stall helps Katara get situated in front of Zuko on the saddle before urging the animal to stand up. Zuko has to grab onto her waist and pull her torso to lean back with him so that she doesn't fall off when the animal rises with its back legs first.

"Oh my god!" He can't help but laugh at Katara's terrified exclamation. "Shut up, you." He hears the smile in her voice, and is suddenly nervous about riding through the desert with Katara seated very close in front of him.

Toph yelps as the camel her and Aang are riding on rises, but Aang's laughter rings out crisp and clear in the soft morning light of the unrisen sun. The guide relays the commanding words to the four of them, and just as the sun touches the horizon the group is heading off into the desert.

"Relax." He tries to reassure her; the guide had suggested that Katara hold onto the handle in the front of the saddle, and that Zuko hold onto her waist with one hand and use the other to grip the handle behind him. "You have to move with it or else you're gonna make us fall off."

"Easy for you to say." She relaxes minutely in front of him. "Since when are you the camel riding expert, huh?"

"I'm not an expert, I'm just not a chicken." She scoffs and slaps his leg. "I'm just telling it like it is, Katara." He loves teasing her like this; there's something so natural about the simple fun they have, and if his teasing toes the line of flirting, she doesn't seem to mind.

"Will you two shut up? I'm scared shitless and hearing you both having the time of your lives is gonna make me puke!" The two of them try to stifle their laughter as Aang does his best to ease Toph's nerves.

By the time the sun has reached its apex, Zuko has had enough of riding on the animal. His ass hurts like it never has before, and as great as it is to have Katara so near, the sway of her body so close to his is not working to his advantage. He thinks it might be worth it, though, when she relaxes against his chest completely and closes her eyes. The camel ambles on below them, and he tightens his arm around her waist to keep her steady as the sun inches its way toward the horizon.

Xx

"We should be getting there soon." Aang's voice comes to him from behind where he and Toph ride on their camel.

"Thank god!" Toph's words are felt by all of them. After more than a week riding every day, he probably has a permanent bruise on his tailbone, and he'll be glad to leave this desert far behind him.

"There it is!" Zuko looks back at Aang to see him pointing enthusiastically off into the distance, but when he turns back around—

"There's nothing there," Katara says the words before he can get them out, dread coiling thick and hot in his stomach.

"No, it's there, look!" He squints to try and see what Aang is talking about, and sees the slim silhouette of a tall spire.

"That's it? Are you sure?"

"Yup!" The spire grows thicker as they get closer, the strange obelisk out of place in the barren desert. "The rest of it is underground, but that's definitely it."

"Did you go inside?" Katara twists around to look at Aang as best as she can. Think about Uncle's feet, think about Uncle's feet, think—

"Not really, no. By the time I got here I had to turn right back around. I did peek inside, but I couldn't see anything through the darkness."

Once they get close enough, the four of them dismount from their camels with a collective groan, Zuko's back popping when he twists to stretch his spine. The spire is huge, at least forty feet high, and there's a tiny window at the very top that will act as their entrance.

"Wow." Toph is leaned against the spire, her hand splayed out on the weathered sandstone. "It's big inside. Like, huge. You guys will probably be in there for a while."

"Will you be okay out here alone?" He remembers the mean faces and watchful eyes of the travellers at the Oasis.

"I'll be fine. Just don't take forever." Toph waves him off, so he buries the anxiety he feels deep in his gut and turns towards the library.

"Aang, grab some rope and fly up to the top to tie it down. We'll climb up behind you." Aang nods and fetches the rope from his pack, coiling it around his arm before snapping his glider open and soaring into the sky.

"Don't let the camel spit on you while we're gone!" Katara quips, and Zuko fakes a cough to cover up his chuckle; Toph had tried to mount the camel on her own one morning and had been met with a fat glob of spit on her shirt.

"Shut up, Sugar Queen." Toph does a good job of sounding put out, but he can hear the smile in her voice, and he knows Katara can too.

Aang waves a gangly arm down to them and they begin ascending the spire. He lets Katara go first, and when she gets to the top he heads up, wrapping some loose fabric around his hands and pulling himself up the rope. He casts one last glance at Toph down on the ground before following Aang and Katara down a spiral staircase, a small flame resting in his palm to light their way.

After a while they get to the base of the spire, and the library opens up around them. Somehow the entire library is lit from the inside, even though the journey down the spire had been pitch black, but he barely has time to think about that before his mind is overloaded with information. The library is huge, bigger than he ever thought it would be. The scale of its grandeur reminds him of home, but instead of gilded hallways and armored guards, there are just shelves and shelves full of books. Columns stand sentinel in organized rows, and bridges span between one massive section and another. The depths of the library are visible through cutouts in the floor, but the true bottom is unknown and incalculable even from their high vantage point.

The stairs come to an end, spitting them out into what looks like an atrium of sorts. Thankfully there's a directory in sight, and the three of them make their way towards it to see if they can find somewhere to look for information on The Source.

"Who are you?" The three of them shriek and jump in tandem, spinning around to come face to face with a gargantuan black barn owl.

"We— uh—" he swallows around his nerves. "We're travellers. We're looking for the location of The Source." The massive owl bends down, bringing it's large, white face and unblinking eyes down to look at Zuko.

"You are gifted." The owl's beak doesn't move, and it's ethereal voice does not echo throughout the library.

"Yes."

"Hm." The bird straightens out, and Zuko lets out a shaky breath. "Why are you looking for The Source?"

"Someone is trying to destroy it. Or, they're going to try to destroy it. We have to protect it."

"Oh? Is that so?" Zuko gets the feeling that they are being analyzed, but the bird's eyes don't move. "I am Wan Shi Tong, the spirit of knowledge, he who knows ten thousand things." The spirit bends back down to look at the three of them. "I usually don't allow humans in my library. They tend to use knowledge only for destruction. How do I know that you won't use any of the information you find for evil?"

"Please, you have to trust us. We just want to protect The Source and then go back home." Zuko's heart pangs at the mention of home, and he feels like the bird is looking straight at him. "We won't even look at anything else."

"Were you followed?" The spirit owl is still looking at him, suspicion somehow manifesting in his black eyes. "I am willing to trust you three, but no one else. Humans are disgustingly destructive, and there is no place for that hostility here"

"No, it's just us and our friend outside." Wan Shi Tong stands stock still for a long moment, and the three Othered wait with bated breath.

"Fine. You may look around, but don't break anything." He bends down closer to Zuko. "You better hope that no one has followed you." The spirit twists in a swath of black and disappears without a trace.

"Well that was scary. Why was he so worried about us being followed?" Zuko ignores Aang's question, thinking about the sketchy men that had their eyes on their group back at Oasis, and leans over to look at the directory.

"Alright," he sighs. "I have no idea where to start." The directory offers no insight on where they could find the information they need, and hope drains out of Zuko faster than he thought it possibly could.

"Wait, look!" Katara points down a hallway where two orange foxes are sitting and looking straight at them. One stands up and turns around, a paw raised as if it's about to take a step. "I think they want us to follow them."

"Sure, let's follow the creepy spirit foxes, what could go wrong?" Zuko's muttering goes unheard as they jog after the two foxes.

They're led down two grand flights of stairs before one fox splits off and heads down through some shelves while the other keeps running forward.

"I'll follow this one!" Aang doesn't even give him and Katara a chance to respond before he follows the forward running fox, leaving them no choice but to tail the other one.

It weaves them through a few different shelves before stopping abruptly and sitting down in the aisle they currently occupy. Katara and Zuko catch their breath, and the fox runs straight up one of the bookshelves and disappears over the top.

"I guess this is where we start looking." Katara nods at him, and they each pick one of the large bookshelves and start scanning the titles.

There's way more books than Zuko could ever fathom even just on these two shelves alone, the titles in all different languages and fonts and colors. A book about the banyan-grove tree catches his eye, but he bypasses it, knowing that it probably won't contain the information they need. They spend a fair amount of time poring over titles, and he's only about half way through his shelf when Katara speaks up.

"Zuko?" She's right next to him, absentmindedly flipping through the pages of a book.

"What's up?"

"Can I ask you something?" There's something in the tone of her voice that makes him sweat, his nerves coming to life as she closes the book and slides it back onto the shelf.

"Anything." She turns to look at him, her blue eyes wide and luminous as they stare into his.

"Why did you kiss me in that cave?" Blood rushes to his cheeks at her question, his feet going numb where he hopes they are still attached to the floor.

"I—" she doesn't look angry or sad. If anything, he thinks that she almost looks… hopeful? "Did you not want me to?"

"No— I mean, I know it was my idea, but..." Her hands come up to play with the ends of her hair, a nervous gesture of hers that has become quite familiar. "When I kissed you again, why did you kiss me back?" His heart is pounding in his chest, the sound of blood in his ears deafening as she looks into his eyes. Fuck it.

"Because I—" he's interrupted by a violent rumble, one so intense that books start shaking themselves off of the tightly packed shelves.

Their eyes meet and they both break into a run, Zuko's confession pushed back in the face of what is unquestionably danger. Somehow they find their way back out to the main hallway, just in time for Zuko to run almost bodily into Aang as he lands in front of them.

"What's happening?" The library is still shaking around them as Zuko shouts his question over the cacophony. "Did you find anything?" The three of them start to run towards the spiral staircase that they had used to enter, dodging books as they fall from the shelves, the repeating thuds echoing in the massive space.

"Yeah, but it's not much!" Aang answers. They're about to ascend the first set of stairs when Wan Shi Tong appears behind them, his form warped into pure nightmare fuel, neck elongated and massive black form stretched out into terrifying wings.

"You lied to me!" Rage rolls off of the spirit in waves, so powerful that it's almost tangible, and it pushes them to continue up the stairs as fast as their legs will carry them. "You said that you weren't followed!" A massive wing swings out and just misses them as they duck and continue running, books flying behind them as the spirit tries to catch up.

Aang sweeps his glider behind them and sends a strong gust of wind slamming into Wan Shi Tong, who is knocked over the side of the railing that surrounds the large gap between the library's different sections. Air rips through Zuko's lungs as he runs as fast as he can towards the spiral stairs, almost tripping in his haste as they skid around a corner. The sandstone stairs crumble beneath them with each step they take as they race to the top of the spire. Finally they see the light of day shining through the small windows they had come in; when they look out the ground is much closer than it had been before, and there are seven of the men from the Oasis trying to attack Toph, who is simultaneously holding the library up with one hand and blasting waves of sand towards the attackers with the other.

"Toph!" Zuko doesn't think as he launches himself out of the window, landing with a roll and immediately spraying fire in a sweeping arc towards the men attacking his friend.

He hears a few screams and knows that he's hit his mark, and doesn't slow as he punches plumes of flame towards two of the men who approach him wielding long scimitars. The ground quakes beneath them as the library sinks into the ground, the sounds of Aang and Katara fighting behind him mixing with the shouts of one of the men he just burned. The other is quicker, dodging most of Zuko's attacks until he drops down and launches fire from his feet in a swirling arc and catches the man's legs, pulling a pained howl from him as he falls to the ground. He looks around and sees the rest of the thugs already taken care of, most lying unconscious on the ground while a few others groan in pain.

"Toph, are you okay?" Katara runs up to an exhausted looking Toph, who Zuko now realizes had been holding up the entire fucking library by herself.

"Yeah. Those bastards came out of nowhere! They rode up on those big animals, the ones that aren't camels. Those bad boys are fast! I didn't sense them until they were already too close."

"It's alright. What matters is that you're okay." Aang lays his hand on Toph's shoulder, and Katara pulls her in for a quick hug.

"Please tell me you guys got something useful from that stupid library."

"Well, it's nothing amazing, but I think I know the general location of The Source." Luckily their camels hadn't run too far away during the fight, and Aang is able to wrangle them back so that they can get the map from their supplies. "Here," he points to the very edge of the south east corner of the map. "It's somewhere around here. Supposedly there's a giant sea monster that guards the only way in and out of the area. Someone somewhere must have heard about a giant sea monster, right?"

"I really hope so." He's so tired, and Katara's question from earlier weighs him down like a lead blanket. "Let's just get out of this fucking desert."