Disclaimer: AtLA is property of VIACOM and Nickelodeon. No profit is made from this story.

Thankfully, Katara wasn't needed anywhere the day after the dinner with the Earth Kingdom admiral. She had decided to finish packing for the South Pole, and Toph was happy enough to sit and talk to her while she did.

After finding her Water Tribe clothes, Katara had put them at the bottom of her 'stuff pile', as Toph had named it. She was surprised to find the girl holding them when she re-entered the room, after an impromptu trip to the kitchens for some cooking pots.

'These are your old clothes, right? I thought you told Sparky to burn these.' Toph's voice sounded hurt.

Katara shrugged, putting the pots down on the floor. 'Yeah, I did. I found them the other day in one of the storage rooms.'

Toph pursed her lips. 'Why didn't he?'

'I don't know,' sighed Katara, a slightly irritated undertone in her voice. 'I wish I knew.'

'Why don't you ask him?'

'What?'

Toph shrugged. 'You said you wanted to know why he didn't burn your stuff – so ask him.'

'Yeah, but … we're not talking right now.'

'Oh phooh,' said Toph, sounding unimpressed. 'If you don't ask him, I will.'

Great – what would everybody think when she had to start getting Toph to fix her problems for her? Katara quickly grabbed her blue parka. 'No, no, it's okay, you're right, I'll ask Zuko. I'll ask him after dinner.'

What had she just agreed to? Hadn't she promised herself that she was going to completely ignore Zuko until she left the Fire Nation? Katara groaned.

Toph smiled. 'Good choice.'

*

There was an undeniable look of surprise on Zuko's face when Katara and Toph joined him for dinner that night. Katara noticed several of the guards on duty snickering, and made herself keep her face blank.

It was another rice-based meal, although thankfully there weren't as many spices in it as last night's.

And although Katara really wanted to, and she knew that Toph was 'watching' her every move, she couldn't ask Zuko why he hadn't burned her Water Tribe clothes.

Because, unlike Toph, she could see that Zuko was completely, utterly totally miserable – and even though she was still furious with him, Katara couldn't bring herself to make Zuko's day worse. From the look on his face it had been awful.

*

'What was THAT all about?' yelled Toph angrily, slamming Katara's bedroom door shut.

'Toph, he was really upset about something,' said Katara, trying to explain, 'and it wasn't the right time.'

'Of course he was upset – I'm not stupid!' said Toph, her voice returning to a normal volume. 'He was really upset – his heartbeat was all over the place.'

'I wonder what it was,' mused Katara as she walked over to her bed, preparing to change – one of the benefits of having a blind friend was that you never had to be modest in front of them.

'Wait,' said Toph quickly, suddenly sounding excited, 'maybe there's a way for us to find out!'

Katara stopped, putting down her nightgown. 'What do you mean?'

Toph grinned. 'Sparky's got some all-night meeting thing tonight, right?'

'Yes,' said Katara, 'he's having a conference of sorts with several high-ranking Fire Nation officers. He was also speaking with them today.'

'Katara, you're a genius!' cried out Toph. 'Zuko was fine at dinner last night – sorry for bailing but I didn't realize just how boring that guy could be – so whatever made him all weird probably happened today with the same people he's meeting tonight.'

'So we've established the cause of the problem,' said Katara, 'which is nice, but what do we do?'

Toph smiled. 'We spy on them.'

'Yeah, I'm sure if we sneak in with Zuko nobody will notice us,' said Katara sarcastically – there was something about spiced noodles on rice that always made her irritable after consumption.

Toph sighed. 'Really, Sweetness, I don't mean to be rude but you're pretty stupid for someone so smart. You've been here much longer than I have, months more, and you never once noticed the ventilation shafts over the major conference rooms?'

'The what now?'

'Pardon the pun, but in the old days Fire Nation meetings often got a little heated. So ventilation shafts were installed above the rooms to keep them from getting too stuffy. They all open at the very back of the palace, near the gardens, which is probably why you never saw them.' Toph walked back over to the door of Katara's rooms. 'Are you with me?'

'Do I really have a choice?'

'Nope, so hurry up. When does this thing start?'

Katara shrugged. 'Knowing Fire Nation politics they'll be arguing over the flavoring of their tea for half an hour before anything officially starts.'

'Good,' said Toph, 'that gives us plenty of time.'

*

Another handy thing about having a blind earthbender as a friend was that, if you chose to spend your free time with the aforementioned earthbender crawling through a complex tunnel system of ventilation shafts, you didn't waste any time getting stuck at dead ends. It took only twenty or so minutes of crawling on elbows and knees, grazing them in the process, and suppressing claustrophobia for Katara and Toph to arrive at an opening situated just above the conference room that Zuko was meeting in. It was already in process when the girls arrived.

Katara leaned forward, scanning the room for Zuko. She eventually found him seated at a chair at the end of the room, his face completely emotionless – she knew that he reserved this look for when he didn't want people to know what he was thinking.

For several minutes Katara peeped through the criss-crossed metal of the shaft opening, trying to figure out what the conversation was about.

'Fire Lord Zuko, as much as we respect your personal lifestyle choices,' said a young woman, 'you need to understand that marrying a woman from within your own nation is a politically bad choice.'

Even though Toph was blind, Katara still spun around to gape at Toph. 'They're telling him he can't marry Mai!' she hissed. Did they understand anything about love?

'Shut up!' whispered Toph, sounding frustrated. 'I can't hear them!'

Katara, a little surprised by Toph's outburst, stayed quiet and continued listening to the meeting. Zuko must have said something in the time she had spoken to Toph, as another man was speaking now.

'You must understand, Fire Lord Zuko, if you marry a woman from within the Fire Nation, it will isolate us from the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes. The Fire Nation has been seen as the enemy for so long in the eyes of the world, separated from the other nations. We must act now in establishing political bonds with the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes and –'

Katara stopped listening, instead searching out Zuko's face again, trying to see his reaction. Of course, his face was still smooth and emotionless. How did he do that? Where had the old Zuko – rage and frustration – gone? Why did this Zuko feel the need to shut himself out from the rest of the world?

The answer hit Katara like a fireball to the stomach.

Because he's grieving for Aang just like you are, but in his own way.

Katara couldn't think. Her thoughts were all tangled together, with no beginning and no end, heart hammering away in her chest. She was so right – it made perfect sense.

Toph seemed to sense something was wrong, her head jerked in Katara's direction.

'Sweetness, you okay?' she whispered.

Katara swallowed, her throat suddenly very dry. 'Yeah, I'm fine,' she said, peering down into the room again.

'Here,' said a man with a black beard and a topknot, 'we have a list of suitable women from the Earth Kingdoms. Since this no official dominant monarchy in the Earth Kingdom, instead several strains of them, only women from politically high-ranking families have been listed.'

A man sitting at a table loudly cleared his throat. 'And the Water Tribes?'

For several seconds there was complete silence in the conference room.

Of course – Yue.

Even from the ventilation shaft, Katara saw the first man swallow nervously.

'As we all know, Princess Yue was killed last winter during the siege of the Northern Water Tribe.'

Katara gritted her teeth. She didn't die, she sacrificed herself.

'– While Princess Katara …' The man trailed off.

'You're a princess?' hissed Toph between her teeth, clearly dismayed. 'Why didn't you ever tell us?'

Katara turned away from her friend, even though she knew Toph wouldn't be able to see her face.

'Back home it never mattered,' she said softly. 'Royalty doesn't guarantee you safety from dying of starvation or Fire Nation raids.'

'Yeah,' agreed Toph, 'it doesn't really guarantee you anything, does it?'

Notes:

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