That night, when all was quiet, and after Jeong Jeong confirmed that he himself was departing for Hira'a, and that no, Zuko was in no position to go himself, and they all decided to retire their rooms, Katara bid Zuko a casual good night, made a cliché joke about having to wake up early, and then dropped the smile from her face after she entered the Fire Lady's room. Fifteen minutes later, she was dressed in black, darting across the south lawn with Aang in tow, having offered him help take care of Appa and put him to sleep.

Skeptical, Aang arched an eyebrow. "You want something."

For La's sake. She liked him better when he was gullible.

"I—" she grasped at straws thinner than the ones Appa ate, "I wanted to talk to you about your conversation with the Avatars."

They entered the barn house. The scent of something worse than Sokka's socks cocooned her in a pungent cloud. It harkened back to memories of cleaning Appa in rivers and throwing stones over who had the fine job of picking after his droppings.

Today, Aang had mercy on her and carried out the duty himself. The airbenders were the caretakers of air bisons for a number of reasons, but Katara wondered if one of them was because they alone could keep bubbles of clean air around their noses. She stood patiently, waiting until Aang was done bending the waste deep into the Earth and in turn helped with combing Appa's fur clean.

"What about the Avatars? I already told you guys what I could."

"I don't know, Aang. The other Avatars told you the only way to defeat Ozai was to kill him and you found another way, which meant they were wrong. What if they're wrong now?"

Aang's eyelids fluttered shut as though he was reliving a memory. "They warned it might become another battle that'll reopen wounds."

She nearly dropped a bundle of hay. "People feel that strongly about it?"

His eyes snapped open and he looked pointedly at her. "We do. And King Kuei does. Zuko obviously does. It's just, this hasn't happened before. There are entire cities of blended families that don't see the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation as their home. Remember when I pretended to be a student at that Fire Nation school? So much of what I did was written off as being a colony boy. The languages…the cultures, everything is so different that the Fire Nation colonials in the colonies don't see themselves as strictly Fire Nation anymore."

"Aang," Katara said in a strangled tone, thinking of Ika, "you know how those first families first came about right?"

Colonies were always established in violence.

How could Aang know? Despite his growing maturity, he was still innocent to the world's ways. He saw his people wiped out and didn't see what came after.

Annoyed, and worried he would respond with something that would further the tension, she amended, "Plus, that's not their land. What if the colonials brought their entire families back with them? Zuko can order Councilor Yang to ready more land for the influx of migrants."

"Can he?"

When the Harmony Restoration Movement first began, disbandment proceeded smoothly. Over six small colonies had been abandoned, their people resettled on various Fire Nation islands. There were minor issues with reintegration, food supply, and other economic issues, but she didn't see why the same couldn't eventually be done with Yu Dao. Yes, it was the largest and oldest colony and boasted a population that rivaled Omashu, but there was plenty of space in the Fire Nation.

She sighed to herself and stuck her head outside. The moon and stars' position told her it was right around the time Zuko would be preparing to sneak out.

"I can finish the rest," she told Aang.

"Are you sure?" Another face of suspicion. Her generosity was not so rare that this was strange!

Katara tried to keep the farce out of her voice, humming noncommittally. "It's been a while since I spent some time with Appa."

"You've been overworking yourself. I heard that conversation with Zuko. Some healthcare proposal?" Aang gave Appa a farewell pat on the head. The animal yawned and licked him head to toe. "Even though you say you hate this kind of thing, I think you're a natural. I honestly can't imagine you doing anything else."

A conversation from years ago came to fore: where Aang whined as to why she didn't put as much heart in traveling and listening to people's stories about the Air Nomads as he did, and her on the brink of tears that she was trying but that simply wasn't her and how she felt she was made for more.

"I had to be held back from fighting a Nobleman four hours ago," she deadpanned.

Aang grinned. "Exactly."

At that moment, Katara remembered why it was impossible not to be so fond of him, this boy who smiled and saw the world so simply despite everything he shouldered.

"Thanks. I definitely can't imagine you being anything but the Avatar."

"I thought about it. I'd be a world renown penguin sledder if I wasn't."

"The penguins are thanking La right now."

"Spending time with Zuko's made you think you're funny."

"I am funny!"

He laughed and flew back to his room.

The wait did indeed provide nice quality time with Appa. The air bison's eager growls and occasional licking communicated joy at having her to himself. Since Momo fell ill the month prior, Aang had reluctantly left him in King Bumi's care. The traveling had taken a toll on Momo, who after a trip to a veterinarian, was confirmed to be older than initially assumed and needed time to rest. Last they heard, Momo and Fluffy were enjoying a friendly relationship chasing each other around Omashu's mail routes.

Eventually Appa and Katara settled into the hay, her lounging on his tail, thinking of all the times they slept under the night sky waiting for the days until Sozin's comet to dwindle. In a way those were easier times. The enemy was clear, and they were a ragtag group of children with bright futures to look ahead to.

Measured footsteps muffled by the hay caught her attention.

"Did Aang forget to close the stables?" A raspy voice murmured to himself. Katara considered sticking a straw of hay in her mouth and speaking in a Jet-like drawl but quickly abandoned the idea—it wouldn't do to give the Fire Lord an apoplexy or send him laughing. Honestly, she wasn't sure her...ovaries could handle it right now. Her body had proven itself untrustworthy, for now.

She skidded down Appa's tail. "Good evening. The moon sure is bright today."

The Blue Spirit and a flurry of flames leapt a meter in the air. She made a small wave. A ceiling of water vanquished the fire before it could do the barn or her any damage.

The masked figure stopped, cursed, and yanked his mask off.

"What are you doing here?" Zuko's pale face, made paler by the dim light, and red scar puckered.

"I thought I saw you running towards the barns last night," mused Katara. "And Appa's unusually exhausted. Does Aang know you've been taking him out for joyrides?"

Zuko scowled.

"Did you think you could get to Hira'a and back in one night?" she guessed again.

She interpreted his resigned sigh as a confirmation. Appa groaned, tongue falling out of his mouth.

"Be glad Aang isn't here. He would—" she couldn't wait for Toph's creative input, "—he would be very mad."

Zuko snorted in the midst of preparing Appa's saddle. "He's a monk."

"Whose grudges carry over multiple lifetimes."

"The Katara I'm starting to know would spurn certain rules for the greater good."

"That Katara is also very sorry for…the trouble she's causing the Fire Lord."

He hiked a leg up and swung his body onto Appa's neck. "I'm the Fire Lord now?"

"I feel like I have to say this so I can tell Piandao I tried to do my job, but Fire Lord Zuko, I insist." Her fingers clutched the ropes and she looked up, making a pleading face.

His throat bobbed. "Then come with me."

"Right now?"

"No, I'm taking a nap here."

She climbed onto the saddle in the midst of exaggerated whispers of annoyance. "Sokka's rubbing off on you."

"Aang told me all about that upbeat attitude." He slid down to Appa's head and took hold of his reins. He held them delicately but firmly.

Katara plopped next to him.

"I think we should visit the metalbenders." She had anticipated his objection already, so when his shoulders hiked up, she continued, somewhat breathless, "Jeong Jeong will let us know what's happening in Hira'a but I think we're running out of time. You've said it over and over again that General Shen won't let you interrogate the metalbenders, and I want to know why." The fact that Sneers was involved didn't bode well. "And I know for a fact you haven't already gone there during these secret joyrides otherwise you would've told us about what you found out. Mind you, you are going to tell me where you've been off too. What if someone saw you? And what if you were attack—"

Each of his gloves hands landed on her shoulders. They gripped with enough pressure that she felt his thumb moving in a mesmerizing circular motion near her collarbones, and the pads of his fingers left divots behind her neck.

"Breathe," he ordered, and the edge of command in his voice like this—when he was confident and sure of himself—sent an addictive shock through her. "One by one."

Despite the contact hindered by at least a combined two layers of cloth, heat thrummed through her veins. What would it feel like to be run through an inferno with only his skin?

His hands fell away. Tension coiled her body until she returned to the saddle.

"You've thought this through." He sounded impressed. "But no. I have to check on my mother and Kiyi."

She found her voice again. "There's no way we're going to make it to Hira'a and back in a night. You'll leave the palace in an uproar."

"They're in danger!"

"I know! But—the metalbenders are key to all of this! I have a really good feeling about this and if I'm wrong, I'll fly you to Hira'a myself," she implored. "They're going to be okay. Ty Lee must be with them and Jeong Jeong evaded the entire Fire Nation military for years."

"Katara…"

"Zuko. Fire Lord Zuko."

He looked like he was fighting to formulate a coherent sentence. "Don't—don't do that."

"Do what? Call you the Fire Lord?"

He swallowed. "Never mind."

"Tell me!"

"If you tell me why you returned."

She looked skyward in frustration and counted to three. "After you tell me where you've been prancing off to during the nights."

"I don't prance."

She remembered the Ember Island Players scene with the Blue Spirit and begged to differ.

He returned to face ahead. Appa gave a low rolling thunder of a moan and his tail began to flap.

"I understand how you feel but please, please trust me on this," she said in a final plea.

She saw him fiddle with the Blue Spirit mask. Instantly she remembered: his mother loved plays. Did the mask belong to her? Before her placating hand reached his shoulder, ready to ground him like he had her, he let out a thin sigh.

"Fine. Yip yip."

The trip to where the metalbenders were being kept would take less than half an hour by his estimates. Appa was the fastest-known method of travel to exist, so Zuko spent the first five minutes lamenting his great-grandfather's crimes of animal cruelty that such a fine species was mostly lost to history while she was content to enjoy the birds-eye view over Caldera City.

Moonlight in the Fire Nation was an unusual sight, as a nation known for its affinity towards the sun wasn't built to reflect the moon like the Northern Water Tribe's ice castles or the South's domed huts. However, on clear nights when the moon was at fullest, its luminous glow cast an almost ethereal ambiance over the Fire Nation's landscape. It ricocheted off the roofs of distinctive red and gold architecture in a dazzling effect that highlighted the intricate details of buildings. The streets, which were usually bustling with activity during the day, took on a quiet now, a nonexistent level of nighttime activity for the perennially late-to-sleep, late-to-rise folk that she hailed from.

There was something darker, however, about the seemingly tranquil exterior and the dark realities that lied beneath the surface. Excavation, she reminded herself. The rot needed to be excavated.

Appa growled and dipped a few meters. Zuko clutched the reins in alarm.

"Did you feed him enough?"

She snickered. "You could feed him an entire cornfield and it wouldn't be enough."

He seemed to consider this. "Is there anything he doesn't eat?"

"Other than meat, no. I gave him a bushel of these purple berries once and even though it turned his tongue purple he was happy to eat more."

"The purple berry tastes delicious, actually. It's a staple during the fall festival."

She carried out a mental eye roll at the fruit's creative naming. "Interesting, I didn't know that. I knew it wouldn't make Appa severely sick, just make him look like it."

"…Explain."

Neck aching from the strain of watching the landscape below, Katara settled back onto her haunches and poured her eyes into his back.

"We were in a poor Fire Nation river village in the East. Sokka, Aang, and Toph didn't want to stay but it was awful. A military factory polluted the river and left everyone sick and starved."

"Were you in Jang Hui?"

The name sounded familiar. She dipped her chin in a quick nod though she wasn't sure Zuko could see it. "The houses were built on boats and stilts."

"Jang Hui," he confirmed. "When Azula and I…returned, we passed by many villages in the same condition. Wait—" Appa grumbled, cutting him off, "—I heard that Jang Hui's factory was destroyed."

She smiled ominously. "It was the Painted Lady."

"Nonsense."

"Did the Blue Spirit free Aang and Appa?"

"Ye—" he stopped. She watched his spine stiffen with realization. "I thought the Ember Island Players were messing things up again!"

She chuckled. "It turns out I look good in red. Or so goes the legend."

He laughed. It was the fullest laugh she had heard from him yet.

"Every day I'm more shocked you all made it through the Fire Nation undetected for as long as you did."

"Mhm. Did Aang tell you about when he accidentally joined a Fire Nation school?"

"I thought he was joking." For the second time in one conversation, he laughed. Not that she was counting. She was becoming enamored with the sound, and more so that she was the one to elicit it. He seemed happy. When he turned his face to direct Appa slightly to the right, she saw that his stress-etched wrinkles had smoothed over. The smile lit up his face more than the moon. "Agni, all the things I missed…"

Had Zuko changed earlier, would things have been any different? Would the Day of the Black Sun have been remembered for success instead of failure? She would have liked to never face Combustion Man, but otherwise she was at a point in her life that she felt everything unfolded the way it was supposed too. Unlike Sokka, she believed in the spirits beyond being "an unexplainable ghostly phenomenon". The stuff of fate, destiny, a future written in the stars—she believed in all of that.

They descended into a cluster of rolling hills and covered Appa with giant banana leaves, the air bison eager to rest. Katara belatedly recalled the task to rip into Zuko for whatever he was doing that was making Appa exhausted, but a secretive journey where the chances of getting caught were moderately high didn't provide the best setting.

At least a dozen guards were camped around a small base constructed entirely of wood and coal. Having poured over old war plans in Zuko's library before, she knew a few of these outposts existed around the Fire Nation, having been built to imprison earthbenders. She also knew none of the guards were firebenders, given they were all suspended from military activity until Toph was able to confirm everyone's testimony.

"What should we do?" she asked as they crouched behind a supply wagon. He slipped his mask off to inspect the scene. "Fight them?"

"Thank you for asking this time," he said.

Chagrined, she gave him a some shove. Rude, entitled nobles were not in the same category as secret fieldtrips on a stolen air bison.

"I don't see another way," Zuko was saying. "But then in the morning they would be punished. 'The Blue Spirit almost succeeded in freeing the metalbenders'. I can't afford to deal with another crisis."

Katara squinted at the guards. Three stood stiffly at the single door into the building. The others were sitting around a campfire chatting or snoring on a makeshift bed.

"In that case, how have you been carrying out your Blue Spirit frolics into the night so far?"

He smiled mysteriously. "Quietly and efficiently."

"Highly doubt you can do secret nighttime activities quietly and efficiently without me."

He stared. Was it something she said?

She turned.

"I can take them."

"No!" His harsh whisper sent a puff of spicy and sweet tingling into her neck, remnants of the roast komodo chicken and tart pie dinner. And if there hadn't been enough touching for the day, his hands slid over her waist, dangerously close to her hips. For a man whose fingers were long and graceful, they were as solid as the grip on his swords she imagined them to be.

No, no, there's no imagination—

The pressure around her waist left as soon as it had arrived. She shivered.

Zuko clicked his tongue. "What would your brother do?"

"Do you ask yourself that often?"

"Only when it's the two most volatile members of Team Avatar on a life-changing fieldtrip."

"I am not volatile!"

He gave her a pointed look, and she felt she had been bamboozled, or perhaps it was payback for her temper comment earlier.

They peered at the dozen men and women standing in their way to finally getting some answers.

He tsked. "Katara, is my word law?"

She gave him a withering glance. "I really don't think you need me to answer that."

"Just checking," he handed her the Blue Spirit mask that had been dangling from his side and began to shrug out of black tunic.

"What are you—are you stripping?" Her eyes caught on his exposed side, whatever he wore under his black adventure-time outfit riding up as he peeled back layers. Belatedly she averted her gaze. "Zuko!"

"Yes, exactly. I remembered Sokka and I got into Boiling Rock by dressing up as guards."

"So?"

"I'm dressing down. The Blue Spirit won't be needed for this one."

She watched him—was he sauntering or was she imagining things again?—approach the building. Notice of his arrival rippled slowly at first, and then the scattered guards immediately convened near the entrance, falling into a low bow. Two of the sleeping guards were dragged awake by their fellow countrymen, and Katara stifled a laugh as one smacked life into his friend.

From this angle she was unable to discern what he was saying, but a few hand gestures and indistinguishable snippets of conversation later, he turned to where she was squatting and beckoned her over.

She stood, straightening her hair loopies and hoping she didn't look like a common pirate, and strode over as properly as one could after having to reveal to a squadron they had been, for lack of better word, snooping.

None of them recognized her—how would they, especially when there was no blue outfit to scream her heritage to the world—until Zuko introduced her as "Lady Katara." Murmurs of "the Avatar's friend" rung out. She tried to ignore it.

"Isn't it dangerous keeping them here with only nonbenders keeping watch?" she asked as one of the guards unlocked the door.

"No more dangerous than firebenders," Zuko pointed out.

Everything was made of wood: the floor, walls, the holding cells, even the foot trays sitting atop a cart and eating utensils. Katara called to mind Toph's horror when they had been imprisoned after their failed scam. Wood and coal for earthbenders were analogous to a waterbender in the desert. There was no light in here either to avoid potential explosions; instead, regularly spaced hand-sized holes allowed in natural light.

"Over there, Fire Lord Zuko." The guard pointed down a narrow hall. "Turn right for the man, left for the woman. Shall I come with?"

"No need, Hui. Thank you. And I hope General Shen won't hear about this?"

Hui's jaw loosened. In the low moonlight, Katara mistook the guard's unease for defiance, corrected only when he lowered his chin to his chest.

"Of course, my Lord."

After Hui left them to stand guard outside, Katara began to twist her hands anxiously. What if she was wrong? What if his mother was truly in mortal peril in Hira'a, and her gut was wrong? Yui, help me, she begged the moon.

"Who do you want to interrogate? We should split," suggested Zuko.

She grabbed his wrist. "No, together."

He looked at his wrist, then at her, and then his wrist again. Embarrassment flooded her cheeks. She let go.

"Are you scared?"

"Wha—of course not. I beat her."

"Then?" His tone was curious, but not mocking.

"I'm worried—that I'm wrong."

"I have plenty of experience being wrong. It'll be okay." His lips thinned into a hard line. "Let's go."

The air was thick and suffocating, infused with the musty scent of rotting wood and stale sweat. The walls, rough-hewn and splintered, their jagged edges jutting out like crooked teeth, threatened to draw blood from anyone who dared to come too close.

Sneers was smaller than she remembered, or perhaps she had grown tall enough that his bulky frame seemed more compact in comparison. He snored in the far corner of his cell, curled as a small child would in a mother's arms, and every snore sent a bit of lint rolling across the floor.

Zuko ensured there was not a lick of metal on them before igniting a small flame on his forefinger. The additional light made Katara blink a few times, trying to focus simultaneously on the former Freedom Fighter and anything her memories could offer about him. There was not much; Sneers was one of Jet's minions and had been responsible for the heavy-lifting for the crew's mission. Nothing he did or said had been particularly notable, unlike the Duke and Pipsqueak's uncharacteristic names or Smellerbee's androgynous appearance.

"Sneers!" called Katara. The man continued to snore. She sent a tendril of water to tickle him awake.

"Wass that?"

"Sneers, it's Katara."

Either the dim light or lack of clear memories prevented Sneers from recognizing her immediately. "Katana? What's that?" Sneers' grating voice made her want to pour water down his throat. He clearly hadn't been given anything to drink in some time. As he sat up and slumped over, she and Zuko traded a skeptical look. This was the man who killed Ukano?

"Katara," she repeated. "Aang's friend. Remember…remember the forest and Jet?"

Recognition flooded Sneer's eyes. His expression, which had thus far carried the intelligence of a blubbering whale, immediately hardened into a sinister one. He studied Zuko and her in turn, and made a failed attempt at scoffing, devolving into hacking coughs instead.

"Here." Katara bent some water above his head into small spheres. It would be tangy as it was bending water, but he was in no position to complain.

Sneers looked at her merciful offering and spurned them. "Why are you here, Fire Lord Zuko?" he ground out. His teeth clattered over each syllable.

"Why are you here?" Zuko leaned closer to the bars. "Why did you murder former Governor Ukano?"

"I did you a favor."

"Who are you?" Zuko's voice pitched higher and remembering his words about volatility Katara joined his side, letting the water drift back to her. Sneers looked regretful and his fingers fluttered to reach out.

"Answer his question first," she warned.

Sneers clenched his outstretched hand into a fist. "You know who I am. You took Jet from us."

The spheres of water landed with splats. "What are you talking about?"

"He was supposed to stay and lead us! Him, Smellerbee, and Longshot. They all left for Ba Sing Se to start a new life! Because you and your gang," Sneers snapped accusatorily, "made him doubt all that we stood for."

"What he stood for was flooding an innocent village," said Katara, gripping the wooden bars. Her knuckles turned white. "What happened to you? Why did you leave Toph's school?"

The laugh that escaped him was hollow. "She told you everything, huh?"

"You're from Yu Dao," Zuko took another step forward. "Do you oppose the Harmony Restoration Movement?"

"Why, you going to kill me if I do?"

"Tell me!" Zuko shouted. "Jet died years ago after risking his life to save the Avatar. Why would you dishonor his legacy with senseless violence?"

Whatever mask of disdain and righteous rage Sneers had attempted to keep in place began to crumble. His round eyes dilated. "Jet…he…"

"He died fighting in Ba Sing Se," confirmed Katara. "During the war. Smellerbee and Longshot stayed with him until the end."

Sneers choked out a cry. "I didn't want to! Senseless violence is what got us here. Do you even know what's happening in Yu Dao? The rest of the Earth Kingdom is forcing out our families! They kicked my uncle's family out of their home—my girlfriend—" his jaw bobbed, the burly man dissolving into incoherent shouts.

Katara began to swirl more water in the air. Zuko placed a hand over her arm.

"He won't be helpful," he mumbled. She shook her head, having intended to leave Sneers with water to drink. After all, he wasn't the one who tried to kill Zuko.

They left Sneers to sniffle, feeling a complex rush of regret and pity and anger.

The woman was already awake, presumably from the noise. The building was smaller than an average palace tea lounge.

A tray of half-eaten bread and cold tea sat in one corner of the cell. In another was the woman, her body hunched over, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. Her hair was tangled and greasy, clinging to her face like cobwebs, and her skin was sallow and dotted with grime. Her musky clothes were clinging to her frame, but her golden eyes brimmied with bravado.

Without a mask covering half her face, the metalbender's gold eyes in contrast with the rest of her features confirmed Katara's guess.

An earthbending Fire Nation citizen.

"You're mixed."

The woman said nothing. Zuko grabbed one of the wooden bars and shook it.

"She spoke to you. Answer her."

The scene was oddly reminiscent of her time tracking down Yon Rha; Zuko was supposed to lead the interrogation, yet it was her that he directed the attention towards.

A startling smile grew on the woman's face, marred by gaunt cheeks and grimy hair falling to her chin.

"To what do I owe a visit from the Fire Lord himself?" The tinny ring to her voice stabbed Katara's nerves.

She stood before the woman, her eyes fixed on her with a fierce intensity. Her posture was rigid and unyielding, her muscles tense with the fury that burned inside her.

"How could you?" She hissed, her voice low and dangerous. "How could you try to kill him?"

The woman said nothing. Effective interrogation tactics was not a skillset Katara boasted, but she had rage and that was enough.

"Why did you try to kill him?" she tried again. "Why did your boyfriend kill former Governor Ukano? If you don't talk, we'll find out eventually. We know Sneers from before and that he studied metalbending with Toph." That managed to ruffle the woman. "He taught you," she accused, her voice rising to a thunderous crescendo. "Do you think you guys can ever go back after what you did?"

The woman glared back at her, her eyes turning dark brown. "He deserved it," she spat, her voice laced with venom. "He's a monster, just like his father."

A mix of shock and disbelief washed over Zuko's face. Katara's hands clenched into fists at her sides, her anger a boiling river.

"You have no idea what you're talking about. Zuko is not his father. He's a kind and honorable man."

The woman scoffed, her lip curling in disdain. "Then you don't know him," she sneered. "You can't see him for what he truly is. Him and the Avatar are razing our homes and families." She turned to Zuko. "Figures, when he doesn't have one and yours is in prison. You have no idea what it's like. Your palace doesn't employ a single mutt like me."

"You don't understand," said Zuko, his one flame multiplying into five atop each finger. "You don't know what I've been through, or what I've had to endure to get to where I am now. But that doesn't excuse what you did. You tried to kill me, to take away everything we have worked so hard for towards peace."

"Peace!" The woman cried. "A lie!"

"One."

Zuko and the metalbender continued shouting. Katara stomped her foot and they stopped abruptly.

"One. There's one—this attendant, she's quarter Water Tribe."

"Amazing. The Fire Nation continues to surprise." The woman placed her face between two bars. "And what excuse do you have, Master Katara? The Fire Nation colonized your people for generations. How can you trust him to keep your people's needs at heart? When he betrayed his own people just because we're earthbenders?"

Zuko seethed. "I never intend to abandon—"

"He has seen the worst of what his nation did and understands how important reparations are!" The force of Katara's interruption surprised even her. "If he dies, who do you think is going to care? Azula ? Or do you want a world with Ozai again?"

The woman glared at her, her defiance faltering in the face of Katara's unwavering determination. "Then you're a fool," she muttered, her voice barely above a whisper. "A foolish girlfriend blinded by desire."

Katara scoffed. "Still less foolish than you."

Silence.

Aware of Zuko's long stare into her skull, and that it was too late to eat her words no matter how much she wanted to shove them back into her throat, she continued.

"I—he—Zuko knows this is a new world. We all do. My brother's proposing to an Earth Kingdom woman. But we need to right the past's wrongs, and bringing Fire Nation citizens back to the Fire Nation is part of paying reparations to King Kuei."

"King Kuei is a puppet," the woman spat, but something on her face softened. Her eyes flickered between Zuko and Katara.

Zuko placed a hand on her tense shoulder. A signal to stop?

He spoke in a more contained rage now. "I would never abandon the colonials. I will always put my people before myself. Abandonment was never the plan on my council," Katara thought he was being generous by divulging this to a woman who had sea slugs for brains, "and there are other ways to resolve this."

"By what, making us into refugees? You ignored my father's multiple requests to visit." The woman's gaze rested on Katara. "An absent Fire Lord with apparently nothing at stake. A feeble one who can't make decisions on his own."

"You're Mayor Morishita's daughter," breathed Zuko.

Mayor Morishita…Morishita…Yu Dao's Mayor.

The woman laughed hollowly. "I challenge you to actually visit Yu Dao. Take your girlfriend while you're at it. See what'll happen in a world that's fine to set a precedent of splitting families on the basis of elements." She slid to the ground, her laugh turning into a small cough. "If you want to kill me, make it quick."

Zuko's eyes narrowed, his voice growing cold and steely. "You're wrong about me," he said. "I am not my father. Few people deserve to die, not even someone who wants me dead."

And with that, Zuko turned away, his hand still resting on Katara's shoulder, as they walked out of the cell.

"What in Tui's name is wrong with her? Doesn't she get that killing you gets nothing of what she wants?" Katara paced in circles around Appa. Frustration bubbled up her throat. "Why can't people be happy? The best Fire Lord in a century and they would rather risk an Azula? No offense, Zuko."

"None taken."

She flailed her arms. "I felt bad for Sneers. But that woman. What a nut-brained, metal-tossing, lily-livered—" a mutiny of curses that had been floating in her mind for the better part of an hour flew out of her mouth. Katara did not curse like a sailor. She also did not do things like reach for Zuko's hands or preen at his touch, but since all the rules were being broken tonight, she continued her tirade until she was out of creative insults and Zuko was looking at her like she had grown a fin.

On her second lap around Appa, Zuko crossed his arms and his lips started twitching. After she completed a third round, and she exhausted her vocabulary, a dam broke loose and he guffawed, looking to be absolutely beside himself. It was a rich, full-bodied laugh with a raspy undertone, coming from deep within him. All of the stress and worry that had been weighing on him seemed to melt away, leaving him looking young and carefree like the boy he should have once been. One who wasn't forced to grow up on a ship at sea, banished from his home.

Through gales of laughter he managed, "You forgot fuck."

She kicked the ground once. Twice. Dug her heel into it. She was right; her ovaries couldn't handle it.

"Fuck."

He doubled over. A tear escaped from a corner of his eye, one she had the instinct to wipe away but was too transfixed on his deep chuckles to move. "This has been one of the funniest days of my life."

"In your office you said it was hellish."

"The week was hellish. The day," mirth tugged at his lips, "was fun."

She looked at the ground, which had been unduly sacrificed in her fit of pique, in apology. "I should threaten to tell the everyone about your nightly costumed jaunt."

"Unless?"

"Unless you tell me what you've been up to."

"Or, you can tell me why you came back to the Fire Nation."

Feeling her fury melt into the ground, she loosened the muscles she hadn't known had tensed during her pacing. At least, the identities of both metalbenders were exposed. Mayor Morshita was going to cower in fear if she had any say in it.

They stood side by side, their bodies slumped with exhaustion as they gazed up at Appa, who was waiting patiently for them to climb aboard. The toll of four days-worth of stress was etched on their faces. Even so, a sense of determination in their eyes lingered, a steely resolve that spoke of unshakeable commitment to see this crisis through. Zuko redressed as the Blue Spirit, a redundant security measure but one she was too weary to remark on, and Katara wiped the dirt that had gathered on her shoes.

As they clambered onto Appa's back and settled themselves in for the journey ahead, he let out a long, tired sigh. She reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder, offering him a small, reassuring smile.

"Sorry about earlier by the way, that...comment. I don't know what I was thinking," she tugged one of her hair loopies. "It was keep her talking or freeze her to the wall type of situation."

She was worried he wouldn't know what she was referring too, but to her surprise, his mask bobbed in agreement as they took off. Her shock nearly upended the last of the water out of her waterskin.

"To be honest, I didn't expect to get that much information out of her," said Zuko. "It makes sense that someone mixed would be…more trusting of someone open to marrying outside his element."

Not nearly. The last of the water did spill out of the waterskin. In her haste to twist the cork fully her nail caught onto the strap and a twinge of pain sent her sprawling backwards.

"Katara?" Zuko looked back. The mask was as impassive as ever.

"Right—um, marriage ?"

Zuko blinked. Or that's what she imagined him to be doing behind the Blue Spirit's mild expression of haughty intimidation and mischievous disdain. He kept hand on the reins and lifted another to the back of his neck.

"What about it?"

"She said girlfriend, not fiance. Or wife."

"For the Fire Lord it doesn't make a difference. Anyone I date is assumed to be for the purposes of…" he trailed off. "I thought it was the same for the Water Tribes."

"We're not the North, but even they don't…" A cloud passed over the moon, and suddenly she was reminded of Yue and her arranged marriage, and the tragedy her brother carried. "They do sometimes. In the Chief's family arranged marriages are common, but the Southern Water Tribe never cared for them." She liked to think it was because of deep-rooted values about love, but a more jaded analysis would be that the tribe simply wasn't developed enough for marriage alliances to be necessary. Regardless, a smile tugged at the corners of Katara's mouth. "It's why Gran-Gran ran away."

"That's cool."

Katara looked out over the landscape below. The world stretched out before her in a patchwork of greens, browns, and blues, with rolling hills and winding rivers carving their way through the earth. The sky had been a velvet black on the way here, but now the first light of dawn was beginning to shine across the horizon.

"So are you going to go to Yu Dao? On the request of your failed assassin?"

His shoulders lifted in a shrug. She read hesitant agreement into his mask. "What choice do I have?"

"You always have choices, Zuko. Don't hide what you really want to do behind a position."

"Do you disapprove of me going?"

The wind whipped through her hair, and she closed her eyes for a moment, letting the rush of air fill her lungs. "I would prefer it if you didn't. The price to leave Yu Dao alone is just too high. It would break your promise to the world."

"I wouldn't be agreeing to anything. But she's right."

She felt as if he had pried her eyes open. Incredulous, she crossed her arms over the edge of the saddle. "If it's about the comment accusing you of not caring and being weak, she's not!"

Ripping his mask off, he rounded on her. Without someone navigating him, Appa dipped lower and his massive frame skated over the trees. A stray branch narrowly avoided hitting her shoulder.

"Ever since Mayor Morishita sent his first missive I was hesitant about the hardline responses my councilors," the and you and Aang went unspoken, "advised me to give. She's right that I should be there seeing the situation on the ground before preparing a response. Me. Not sitting comfortably in my palace."

Half of Katara's body was out of the saddle as she craned her neck towards him. "She tried to murder you in your own home!"

He pushed himself onto his knees so they met at eye-level. "People do all kinds of things when they feel threatened. She's terrible but that doesn't mean everything she's saying is wrong. You're not always right."

"Oh, so was your father ever right about anything?" Her diction muddied around her mouth, which moved faster than her brain processed. "You're a monk now who can see the good in everyone?"

"That," Zuko heaved, looking down his nose, "is going too far."

If Appa continued to drift their noses would touch. During the day, Zuko's lips were seafoam under a sunset pink. In the silvery night, they were a freshly bloomed rose, dimmed by gray clouds.

She reached for Appa's fallen reins. "Volatile, Zuko. Your words."

"Please stop. I haven't appreciated your support these past few days enough, but you only ever see the good in me. You keep saying things like what I say should be the law, but did you ever think it's possible that I'm wrong about all of this? I'm trying to stop myself from becoming my father. I want—" he pinched the bridge of his nose, "I can't. I refuse to rule by depending on my own morality, because Agni knows what I could be capable of."

"I'm sick of talking about this." Katara stood, promptly remembered that they were on an air bison hovering too close to the ground, and shoved the reins into Zuko's hands. "The whole point is that I, and Aang and Sokka and everyone, trust you because you've been on the wrong side before and that makes you value what's right. If you don't want my belief in you, you won't have to worry about it again. Apologies for the inconvenience, Fire Lord Zuko."

She tried to do the equivalent of a door slamming in open air by shuffling to the far side of the saddle and curling up against the edge. For a moment, she desired respite, to lose herself in the simple pleasure of watching him.

Pity that they were volcanos that erupted in tandem.

Nary a word was uttered the rest of the ride back to the palace. Fire Nation citizens would soon rise with the sun and the war balloon carrying Toph was about to land, if it hadn't already.

When they disembarked, he directed her towards the Residential Wing. "I can greet Toph and get her up to speed on what we found out, and see if Jeong Jeong's reached Hira'a. You should get some sleep."

She stared. "Is that an order, Fire Lord Zuko?"

He squeezed his eyes shut. "It's a request from a friend. Please, Katara. I don't want to argue with you again."

Then you shouldn't have, is her automatic response. The more honest one, the one she chooses to vocalize, because people had choices, is, "I don't want to either."

The next time she talks to him, actually and properly talks to him, which is two days later, after she has replayed their argument twice in her head and hated how it ended, hated how much he had grown on her in three days in a way no one had before, her first thought was: I missed this foolish man so much.

Her second, during a discussion of visiting Yu Dao and after Piandao says, "I think it's a strategic move that Lady Katara go posing as your consort," but before Aang spits out his tea, was: is it an act of sedition to want to kiss the Fire Lord?