Disclaimer: You know the drill. Not mine.

It had been a full three days since Sokka left and Katara was beginning to get rather anxious. The longer she was stuck hanging around the Fire Nation palace the more she began to have second thoughts. At the present moment she was stuck in the Fire Lords study pouring over maps of every age and of all four nations.

She rubbed her sore tired eyes. She'd been in the stupid study with Zuko since she had woken up that morning. Her head was killing her and her eyes were bleary. All of the blasted maps were starting to look the same to her- a bunch of squiggly lines with words written here and there.

Ever so slowly Katara's head began to droop. She's been at this for hours now…a nap wouldn't hurt. Her eyes drifted shut and she stifled a yawn…yes a nap. Her head finally hit the table.

"Katara…wake up," a voice gently whispered, "Come on get up."

Katara sat up quickly, so quickly in fact that she managed to knock her chair over backwards and go toppling with it. She let a quiet stream of Water Tribe curses as she attempted to right herself.

She heard a deep, warm chuckle as Zuko moved to help her stand, "Are you alright?"

Katara swatted his hand away, giving him a rather scary look, "I would have been fine if you had just let me sleep. Why in Tui's name are we doing looking at blasted maps?"

Zuko chuckled again, "I woke you up because you were drooling on a rather ancient map of old Ba Sing Se. We're looking at 'blasted' maps to gather a picture on where my mother might be."

Katara rolled her eyes, finally managing to get herself standing again, "We've pretty much determined that she could be ANYWHERE."

Zuko held up his hands in defense, "Okay I've learned something new today. Never wake Katara up when she has reached the drooling stage. Hey I'm just kidding," he said with a teasing smile, "You weren't drooling. I was just waking you up to tell you to go to bed."

"I'm sorry for snapping at you," She whispered, "I'm just feeling incredibly stressed right now. I haven't even started packing… I don't even know what to pack… and I've never really been good at reading maps that was always Sokka's job."

Zuko placed a warm hand on her shoulder, "You're tired Katara, go to bed. I can do this on my own. Hopefully Aang will finally return tomorrow and we can be on our way."



Katara grimaced, Aang was returning tomorrow? Why was he coming back again? Oh yes, Zuko needed him to watch over the palace. Hopefully Toph would be back too. As much as it bothered Katara to admit it she missed the troublesome little earthbender, Mai was just no fun.

"If I'm going to bed you should too," Katara whispered gently shaking off Zuko's hand.

"Don't worry about me," he laughed, "I'm used to sleepless nights. Good night Katara," He smiled giving her a little hug.

Katara turned to leave, "Before I go to bed, what did my brother say to you?"

Zuko turned a rather brilliant shade of crimson, "Well… I think I'll go to bed now… Yes, bed…. Good night," He mumbled pushing Katara out of his study and shutting the door behind her.

Katara pouted to herself walking down the hall. She'd get it out of him eventually.

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Author's Note: Really fond of this chapter but I felt I needed to upload something. I promise it will become more action filled and the chapters will be longer really soon.

As always feedback is appreciated. Please let me know if ya like it.