'Katara?'

Even with her eyes closed, she was aware of several things: the knowledge that she was moving, it was early morning, and there was a bad knot at the side of her neck – a result of sleeping on her stomach. Her throat felt raw and scratched, and Katara realized that she had been sleeping with her mouth open. She blinked. A young, tanned face with bright blue eyes was peering down at her. For a minute she thought that it was Sokka, but then she remembered that Sokka was seventeen years old and the boy in front of her was Koji.

'What?' she mumbled.

'We're almost there.'

'Oh.' Katara sat up, stretching her arms. 'So what did you think of your first ride on a flying bison?'

Koji shrugged. 'It was cool. But Sokka says that it's more fun when you loop-the-loop.'

'Sokkasayswhat?'

'Oh wait, he told me I wasn't meant to say that.'

'Sokkasayswhat?!'

*

Even though Katara wasn't wearing her parka, and had removed the long sleeves from her dress, it was hot. She clambered down Appa's tail, legs feeling slightly wobbly. The sky bison had landed in the stable courtyard – several of the ostrich-horse grooms were staring at them with wide eyes.

Where's –

'Katara!'

She didn't know how Zuko ended up standing up in front of her, but there was no time to dwell on it, because all that mattered was he was here – a little taller, he had shadows under his eyes – and so was she and nothing had happened to either of them. He looked almost happy.

'Hi.' She couldn't help it. She was smiling.

'It's good to see you. How was the-?'

Katara wasn't listening. She literally flew across the courtyard – who cared if anybody saw her? – and wrapped her arms around Zuko's shoulders, squeezing hard. Too late she saw the court members standing in a small, crimson-robed flock behind their Fire Lord. Several of them were smirking.

'Missed you,' she whispered – and realized just how true her words were.

'You too.' Zuko seemed unable to say anything else.

They stayed that way for about three more seconds, and then Toph loudly cleared her throat, suggesting that they go inside where it was cooler.

'Sorry about them,' said Zuko in a low voice, glancing backwards to the court members, 'Toph must have flown Appa really fast – you were here ahead of schedule. I was in the middle of a meeting and-'

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. 'It doesn't matter.'

Zuko glanced at her quizzically. 'Are you okay? It's almost like you're …' he searched for the right word, 'happy.'

'I'm fine.' She beamed. 'It's just good to be back.'

*

Zuko went back to his meeting, while Toph showed Katara where she'd be sleeping. It wasn't her old one, this room was part of the block where the palace guests slept – hers was right next to Akako's, and conveniently situated only a minute's walk from the palace courtyard, where she could train with her pupil whenever she wanted.

Toph left her so that she could have a few minutes to settle in – but Katara knew it wouldn't be long before her friend would be back. She looked around the room. There was a letter on her pillow.

Dear Katara,

I feel ridiculous writing a letter that's never going to be delivered. Hopefully you'll be here this time tomorrow.

Zuko

She smiled, and reached for the letter inside her bag – the one she had written while she had been riding on Appa to the Fire Nation.

Dear Zuko,

I don't know why I'm writing to you. This letter is never going to be delivered; after all, I'm on Appa's back right now. It's amazing to watch Toph fly him, they both work together so well. I bet she'd work better with a badgermole, though. Are there any records in the libraries of earthbenders who rode badgermoles? Would they have to ride in saddles? Sokka rode on one once, he said it was pretty uncomfortable. And how would you steer them?

Anyway.

Wait. Did firebenders ride dragons? Aang once told me that Roku had a dragon. He said that he rode it in the Spirit World – there was no saddle, he just sat on its neck. But I suppose you can't really get uncomfortable when you're a spirit.

Waterbenders are lucky. Our spirit is the moon, and I don't see any extra ones of them floating around for me to travel the world on!

Katara

Although his letter had barely lasted two lines and hers had dragged on into paragraphs, Katara continued smiling because she knew that they had both been trying to say the same thing.

She faltered, unsure of what she was going to discover next.

***

Even though the food was spiced and burnt her throat raw whenever she ate it, Sokka was wolfing it down quicker than Katara could say 'Tui and La'.

'This…' Sokka forcibly swallowed, 'is really good!' He shoveled some more rice down his throat, made a strangled choking sound, and gulped down a mug of water.

'Sokka, that was my –'

He started fanning his throat.

'Hothothot!'

Toph sighed. 'And he realizes this after how many plates of the stuff he's eaten?'

'He was always like that at home. One winter it took him six servings of salted polar-lion jerky before he realized it made him violently sick.'

'Five,' corrected Sokka in between gulping down water as fast as humanly possible.

Zuko looked faintly amused, but said nothing. There was the sound of footsteps, and Hakoda entered the room. Sokka was still chugging down water.

'Son?'

Surprised, Sokka coughed water up over his lap. 'Oh, hi Dad,' he wheezed, wiping the water off his chin with the back of his hand, 'having a good morning?'

Hakoda said nothing. Toph snorted. The corner of Zuko's mouth twitched and Katara sighed, and then proceeded to bend the water out of Sokka's lap and back into the mug.

'Don't make a habit of that,' she warned.

'Or what?'

The water splashed back down into Sokka's lap. Katara stood up.

'I think I'll be going now. Akako needs training. I'll see you all later.'

'Hey, Katara – wait –!'

*

Katara arrived at the training grounds and when she saw what her apprentice was doing, felt her jaw drop.

Akako was simultaneously fighting two firebenders, they looked roughly her age, both of whom were blasting fire at her from all angles. She wasn't even using the octopus form – which was Katara's preferred option when facing multiple attacks. Instead, the young girl was wheeling two water whips around her, flying high above her head, then bending them low below the firebender's knees and knocking them down.

'Oh, hiKatara!' Akako bent down low, arms spread, sending a firebender flying. The other three advanced.

Suddenly, one of the firebenders doubled over, gasping. His knees smacked against the ground.

This couldn't be happening.

Katara glanced up in time to see Akako make a pulling motion with her arms, and watched in silent terror as the firebender was dragged across the ground.

Bloodbending.

She couldn't speak. How had Akako found out?

Akako must have released her grip, as the firebender stood up, smiling, raising his hands in defeat.

'Fine, you win.'

Akako smiled, and ran over to where Katara was standing. 'So what did you think of my bodybending, huh?' she grinned widely, her blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight. 'I came up with it all by myself – it's bending the water in people's bodies.'

Katara took a deep breath. 'Akako,' she said quietly, 'I already know about it. It's called bloodbending.'

In less than a second Akako's face completely transformed. 'You mean I was bending …' the girl looked like, at any given moment, she would be sick.

Somewhere, deep inside her, a flame was lit, and Katara was taken back to the night she had leant bloodbending. As Hama had been dragged away, she remembered the self-horror and fear that had completely consumed her. She had needed Aang and Sokka for support that night. Sympathetically, Katara placed a hand on Akako's shoulder.

'I'm sorry,' she said, 'I wish you didn't have to find out this way…'

Akako hung her head. 'So I was bending their … blood?' The final word was barely audible.

'More or less.' Katara opened her arms and gave Akako a small hug. She looked down, trying to smile. 'Come on, let's start training.'

Akako blinked, tears running down her cheeks. 'Okay.'

Katara forced her lips up into a smile and stepped back, one hand on Akako's shoulder.

'Come on, let's train in the gardens instead. It's much nicer there, and we can feed the turtleducks after.'

The two left the courtyard, Katara still keeping her hand on Akako's shoulder, ready to catch her when she fell.

***

Zuko blinked in wonder, watching Katara and her apprentice – what was it? Aka-something … Akaka? That wasn't it … – leave.

Where does she find the strength?

He turned around and left the courtyard.

AN: Gah, sorry for how long this took. I'm incredibly lazy at times - no surprise there - and when I have to choose between eating shortbread or mustering up the self motivation and muse to write another chapter for my fanfic, I'll usually pick the former.

Notes:

- Yup, Sokka is a terrible influence on all young people. Gawd knows what he's gonna to do Saika.

- So the reunion scene was kinda mushy. I have a feeling that Katara would have reacted the same way if the person in question had been Aang.

- Okay, I know that Akako is nine-ish - but she's got Katara for a master and bending's more about a person's spirit, right?

- And 'bodybending' was the name that bloodbending was given in the Avatar DS game. I figured that Akako's going to experiment with her bending because she's the inquisitve type, and it wouldn't have taken her too long to figure out you can bend the fluids in a person's body.

- Katara placing her hand on Akako's shoulder was supposed to be a reference, of sorts, to the bond between Iroh and Zuko. However, I doubt that, unlike Zuko, Akako will betray anybody below Ba Sing Se in the crystal catacombs, get scarred, or relearn firebending with dragons xD

- Also, I'm considering illustrating some of the scenes from Now and Then. So what were your favourite parts? Which ones would you like to see drawn?

- Please review!