Piandao missed his home in Shu Jing. His workshop contained everything an expert bladesmith desired in his most creative endeavors, as the birthplace of space swords and peppy young Watertribesmen seeking valour from humility. His three story mansion was modest in comparison to the palace, but carried the memories of a prodigy swordsman abandoned because he had been born to two firebenders ashamed at having a nonbending son. His home represented all that he built from his own hands. He openly missed his curmudgeon butler, too.
Nonetheless, the space Zuko gave him was phenomenal in its own right. A corner of the East Wing dedicated to the growing interest in bladesmith. A training courtyard in the heart of the palace where swordmanship could be openly practiced, a fact that was impossible under Fire Lord Ozai. A resolute student in the Fire Lord himself, hardened with every defeat and humbled with every win.
The matter of a discontent people, in Piandao's view, was a blessing. It was a blessing that the Master had lived to see an era in which Fire Nation citizens were free to be discontent and rebellious. He knew this was why Jeong Jeong had returned from isolation, not a threat that his hermit home be overrun with bumbling childen firebenders (that threat was Sokka's bit of genius).
A stern knock displaced his musings. Piandao folded the letter from Jeong Jeong asking for a confirmation that they were departing for Hira'a tonight. Details were scarce. Zuko had entered the security meeting yesterday with a resolute fire in his eyes and no more than one awkwardly worded sentence. It was as if he had woken invigorated, but Piandao doubt he had woken at all; the deep circles under his eyes and his frequent tea-refills implied he had been awake all night. Whatever it was, he ascended to the throne room a renewed man, that week's hesitation and gone.
"We will go to Hira'a, and then depart for Yu Dao," Zuko had announced.
A chill had crawled down Piandao's spine for the third time in his life. The first was when he realized what his nation had done to the rest of the world. The second was when Princess Ursa bowed, requesting that he teach the young Fire Prince the art of the sword.
Looking at Zuko, a wall of flames behind him, Piandao had realized he was witnessing an unsure boy growing into a man.
A second, snappier knock persisted.
"Come in," said Piandao.
Councilor Jin, of the temporary Ministry for Resettlement, stepped into his office. The swordsman internally wilted. Now was most inopportune for an abrupt meeting. He had a meeting scheduled with King Kuei at the hour's end, and then an early start towards the harbor to ensure security detail was accounted for. Lady Toph had insisted General Shen was hiding something, though there was little ground as of now to detain the man for further questioning in light of the growing crises.
"I respect few more than you, Master Piandao," started Councilor Jin. She was a daughter of a general, one highly respected under Ozai and vilified under Zuko's reign for his relentless sieges. The man was long dead, however, and his daughter one of the most progressive members of Zuko's council, referred by Princess Ursa herself. That she was here with no notice in the midst of hurried preparation for a potential battle in Hira'a made a sense of foreboding wash over Piandao.
"Councilor Jin, thank you for visiting me. May we skip the pleasantries today? As you know, we have urgent preparations."
"Yes, yes, urgent. Sudden. Fire Lord Zuko has suddenly overturned our way."
"Pardon?"
Councilor Jin shook her head. "This matter is of urgent statecraft. I beg you this remains in confidence."
Piandao grew progressively alarmed. "Is something the matter with Fire Lord Zuko?" He inched towards his sword, a trusty companion that never remained out of reach.
"Something dire is the matter." Councilor Jin shook her head again, extremely grave. "Lady Katara. He is preparing her to be Fire Lady."
At first, Piandao strained his ears. Surely the strain of his responsibilities interrupted some mental facility that processed Councilor Jin's words incorrectly. Next he stroked his sword and watched Councilor Jin's expression grow increasingly hysterical.
Ah.
Lady Katara, sister of his student Sokka.
Piandao was not impervious to all palace gossip. Willingly or not he was made known of many happenings. One of them was that Lady Mai, the respectable dagger throwing woman, was being readied to step into the role of Fire Lady.
Finally, cutting into a long exhale Councilor Jin currently saw it fit to do in front of a desk with at least a dozen unfurled scrolls, Piandao spoke. "Two questions. One is why this requires my attention and two, why is so urgent it cannot wait for our return?"
"I would think that the answer to the first be obvious, or do you worry General Iroh were to replace you if he returned?"
He bit his tongue. Where was this coming from? He had never known Councilor Jin to be a malicious woman.
"I would be honored if he did," he said coolly.
"Then how is this not urgent?! Our entire culture is being shredded. Considering a nonbending Fire Lady was difficult enough for the court. But a woman from another element..."
Piandao sat back in his seat, flabbergasted. "Are you not a champion of the progressive seat?"
Councilor Jin eyes widened as she tilted her head slightly, projecting an expression of innocence and confidence. "But of course!"
"And you and Lady Katara have put up a strong support for the Harmony Restoration Movement..."
"She is a competent, if a bit tenacious, ambassador." Councilor Jin maintained her plastic expression. "But welcoming her and her folk into our Nation, accommodating them and respecting them as foreign visitors is a very different question from being one of us, much less leading us."
Piandao didn't see the difference. He recalled the incident with Nobleman. Anyone worth being called a man would have done what Zuko did, whether it was Katara or any stranger. Bender or nonbender, water or fire or soil, for all he cared, a person was worth respect on their own terms. If he had not learned that lesson in his tragic childhood, then he was a fool.
"The matter of a Fire Lady would have been brought in a formal proposal to the council, pending the Fire Sages' fortunetelling. What reason to do you have to make such a radical proposition?" he asked.
A stray comment Iroh had made to him came to mind; it had been in the day before Sozin's comment, in the White Lotus camp outside Ba Sing Se. Suki, Sokka, and Toph had just been sent off on an eel hound, and Zuko and Katara on Appa. Iroh had turned to him after the young fighters left, and said, "My nephew chose water to accompany him. It seems he knows what he needs to keep him balanced!"
Many disparate incidents that he had filed away as odd but attributable to young, high-sprited behavior began to piece together as something more. He tapped his sword as Councilor Jin licked her lips and started in what was obviously a rehearsed spiel.
"My assistant's brother reported that he escorted Lady Katara leave to visit the home of the previous potential consort, Lady Mai. My daughter reported that her friend mentioned witnessing Lady Katara in a negotiation with Councilor Bengwa without the Fire Lord, and the soup the kitchen prepared for lunch was the most curious, blandest form of meat I have ever consumed. Delicious yes, but curious! And I have seen with my own eyes servant girls wearing their hair in Water Tribe fashion, and whispers that Lady Katara is quick to heal should you need aid on short notice. And!" Councilor Jin sucked in a long breath. "Exiling Nobleman Hua! For questioning the Fire Lord about her stepping outside of bounds! What do you think of that?"
Piandao's patience with the councilor was rapidly dwindling, and he was a man who prided himself on patience. Patience alone had accompanied him on his training of Sokka.
"Lady Katara has matronly qualities, it is how she displays her care," he responded at last.
"She is involved in matters that are far beyond appropriate of an ambassador of a simple tribe!"
"I'm not sure what you are asking of me."
"Is the Fire Lord indeed planning to wed her? Because I may warn, the Fire Sages and our laws will not tolerate such a ridiculous notion," she finished with a saccharine smile.
Katara's quick response to the intruder, running off to comfort Zuko after the young man had grown angry with him. Their fight, which was equally a dance as it was a combat. And the eyebrow-raising scene of Zuko pouring over her while she lay curled on the couch in his office. Their fierce defense of each other, each pulling the other back only to swing forward when Nobleman Hua and Lady Hina's insults went to far, two diametric pendulums skidding past the other.
Had previous discussions for potential Fire Ladies been the pressures of the country, and Zuko's true desire actually lay with Katara? And she was the reason for his sudden ferocity?
Radical. Radical indeed.
Piandao wondered if his life would stretch long enough to witness another era, one that the Fire Nation—no, the world—had never witnessed. Was the Fire Nation ready for this?
"It will truly be astonishing," Piandao mused out loud. He left his sword alone, his nerves calming. There was no threat. "What would the other nations think?" They would trust a Fire Lord willing to cross unspoken lines and truly embody what it meant to pay their dues to a tribe they destroyed. Even for the current crisis, King Kuei would unequivocally back Zuko's efforts to remove the colonies if he knew that the Fire Lord himself engaged personal inter-element relationship. It could quell the rebellion and grant Zuko credibility.
"They will think us weak and to be trifled with," Councilor Jin answered.
"I'll see what I can do," Piandao said.
Placated, Councilor Jin conveyed effusive gratitude.
He put a scroll weight on a new piece of parchment and began to pen a letter to General Iroh.
Let the record delineate a clear sequence of events that surreptitiously led to that pivotal discussion: One Day Earlier.
Katara's unfinished dream was torn through by an earthquake. She rolled out of bed, using her bending water to ice her to the floor. Her eyes spotted a blur of green, then yellow and blue, and suddenly there was a Toph Beifong sitting on a mound of her own making while picking at her toes next to the Fire Lady's desk.
"Toph!" she squealed.
Toph pawed the desk like a heathen. "Afternoon, Sunshine. You didn't finish your letter." Her fingers clutched at the unfinished letter to her father and half-closed pot of ink.
Katara pitched forward to seize it out of her hands. "Don't read that!" A prolonged silence. "Please stop doing that."
Swiveling on her earth chair, Toph's unfocused eyes landed somewhere on her forehead. "I didn't do anything. Good to see you too."
"You can't see. I'm not going to fall for it this time."
Puberty caused Toph to grow at least two inches in six months and it was unsettling. Part of the girl's appeal (read: power to get away with so much nonsense) was in the ability to pack a vast quantity of ferocity in a small body. Now that Toph was becoming a woman, Katara feared for anyone who would ever find themselves in the unfortunate position to oppose not just the world's best Earthbender, but the world's best Earthbender who was on her way to potentially becoming the Boulder's height.
Other than the sight of a longer, leaner Toph, everything else remained unchanged. Thank La. Or maybe not , seeing the pieces of grime fall from Toph's feet onto the floor.
"Please do your foot-picking outside," she groused. "This is Princess Ursa'a room."
Toph lifted a hand and the foot-earth boogers compliantly flew outside. Rather, they would have, if the window were not closed. Katara grimaced and opened the window, narrowly avoiding a booger on its journey home to brethren soil.
"So I've heard. Apparently Zuko kicked out some nobles yesterday and whaddaya know, I'm just a normal guest staying in a normal guest room. Those Kyoshi warriors wouldn't let me into this Wing so I exploded the North wall."
At Toph's mention of Zuko, Katara's tongue stuck to the side of her mouth. By the time the girl finished speaking, Katara's attempt at oral gymnastics were an utter failure. Her tongue refused to move and she willed herself to calm. There would be time later . Later, she would go to Healer Joru and figure out how to heal whatever ailment was making her so cold around Zuko that she wanted to be warm. Later, she would sort herself out and reconcile with him. And then she would leave all of this behind because Toph was here and she wasn't needed anymore.
Her tongue loosened. It was an unusually long time to respond to Toph, but the girl blessedly was too busy trying to dig under her pinky nail.
"Good for you. Now if you aren't busy doing your job, come here and give me a hug." Katara extended her arms for a hug and leaned forward.
"No, no—ew, your breath! What have you been eating? Get away! Get away!"
The updates Toph gave her on the way to the dining hall were as follows: the firebenders were telling the truth, and other than the two deserters the rest plainly suffered from a syndrome called ditzy incompetence; she was going to find a way to corner General Shen because he was giving her suspicious vibes; Lady Fa was as nasally as Mrs. Beifong (Toph's exact words); she was absolutely going to tear into Sneers and his girlfriend tomorrow; Jeong Jeong had arrived in Hira'a and was trying to locate both the Kyoshi Warriors and Zuko's family; and Zuko himself looked horrible and in desperate need of sleep.
"You can't see, Toph."
"He sounds horrible."
They exited into a courtyard. A minute, very infinitesimal bubble of concern expanded in Katara's chest. His state of mind probably nothing to do with their argument. His stress could be attributed to any of many reasons.
"You did all that in a morning?" asked Katara.
Toph raised her hands skyward. Katara followed the motion with her eyes and admired the bright sky. Unfortunately yesterday's break in being mildly colder ended; it was back to a humid, sweaty sort of heat today.
"It's way past lunchtime, missy."
"It was a long night." Long day. Long week.
"Heard you got beat in a sparring match too."
Katara shot the girl an impatient glare as they entered the dining hall. They were among the last of the guests, most already filing out. If there had been an official state meeting or event, Ika would have woken her up.
Actually, no the attendant wouldn't have. Because Katara wasn't here right now as an ambassador, and her guard duties were over, so she was just…what? A guest?
"If you have time to gossip—"
"Blah blah, I thought we'd at least get through a meal before you sounded like my mother."
Katara sighed and slipped into a seat. She had no mental energy to spare about that sore point, though she knew Toph meant well.
The lack of response must have had some impact, because Toph, either out of post-travel delirium or growing maturity, added, "Zuko can survive for an hour by himself. I wanted to eat with you and then go together to the meeting."
"Aw, Toph." She dug into the pickled fish. It tasted similar to pickled tuna fin Bato's wife would prepare on the solstice but the tang was overwhelming.
"Because I need a first-hand retelling of how he barbecued you."
Katara cut through the air with two fingers. Toph blocked the incoming ice dagger with a dirt cylinder that shot up from the ground and cleanly through the table. A passing servant cried about having to inform the carpenter again.
"It's okay, I won't be going," she said.
"It's a security meeting Zuko called when we saw Piandao. I didn't know he came back to the city. You think he'll let me get a sword?"
Katara thought that was a terrible idea. She also wanted to confirm, "Do I need to be there?"
"Why, you got something more important?" Toph stuck her chopsticks into her spiced fish and let them stand up while she felt around for a salt shaker. Three nobles sitting further down the table watched the ordeal in tight-lipped horror. They must be new here. Katara turned to them and smiled politely, and the trio immediately blushed and ducked their head downs.
"There's a couple things I need to do, so if it's not urgent…I also don't know what I'd help out with." All true. There was Mai's request and also a letter waiting to be fully written sitting on her desk that she needed to think about.
Toph shrugged. "Suit yourself. Zuko said to update you. He did say he figured out who the woman metalbender was. I'm dying to know who I have to pummel."
"Did he?" Her voice pitched higher. She carefully lifted her feet. Toph couldn't feel vibrations through just air, right? "Interesting. Let me know what you find out."
What ensued for the rest of the day was a palace-sized game of hide-and-seek. Katara and Sokka played this game once in their youth, but it wasn't fun in a tiny snow village where the only interesting location to hide was the sunken Fire Nation vessel made strictly off-limits by a stern Gran-Gran.
Today, it was a nice lesson in how Tui and La probably felt circling each other, and how Zuko was clearly a master of evasion. And her. Who was the hiding party and who was the seeking party was unclear.
It began like this: free from her Silent Turned Loud Disavowal of Bureaucracy, Katara put a foot in the direction of the main palace gates. Instantly she was accosted by Ika.
"Where are you going, Lady Katara?"
"Mai's place. Errand."
Ika's eyes expanded in surprise as she glanced around with apprehension, furrowing her brows. "I think you should take the palanquin."
"I think not. It's literally across the palace." She had sat in a palanquin thrice, one being this week. It was uncomfortable.
Ika took both of her hands in her own. The girl wore her hair loose today, half pinned back in a loose bun.
"Please," she begged. "The others are watching, and it would be a means of speaking ill about Fire Lord Zuko if you don't."
"What are you talking about?" Katara smiled tightly and shrugged out of her grasp. But the girl stepped in front of her again, her face hardened as though she was to be put to the guillotine if Katara failed to comply.
She turned her gaze from Ika and scanned the entryway. A gorgeous hedge saturated with fire lilies, azaelies, and carnations guided visitors up and down the stairs. An expanse of red lacquered stone and marble flooring stretched from the foot of the stairs to the gates. Made of gleaming bronze, the gates were intricately detailed with images of dragons and flames and seemed to tower impossibly high above her. Two imposing statues of previous Fire Lords stood guard on either side of the gates, possessing fierce expressions and Agni Kai-ready stance.
"At least some security," pleaded Ika.
"I'm a Master waterbender."
"It's for appearances," the attendant insisted.
It was already mid afternoon. Unwilling to waste more time squabbling, Katara agreed. Perhaps independent Water Tribe women weren't to be trusted rifling through a noblewoman's house without supervision.
After a guard arrived, Katara quickly skipped down the stairs two at a time, absently noting the curious stares following her. A Councilor she seldom interacted with—Zo or Za or something of the sort—standing over a bush of lilies looked up to meet her eyes and carefully looked away. Near the gate a pre-pubescent girl, walking in hand with her mother, another noble, waved. The mother gave her a polite nod. Katara's unease deepened. In her confusion, she didn't remember until later that it was strange Ika had found her in the first place, as if someone had sent for her.
Whatever it may be, she had an errand to finish. Entering Mai's home felt ominous, considering she had been in here just a week prior when the woman's father was alive, and rushed to find the room mentioned in the letter. Past a tea garden, a tea lounge, a tart lounge, and a tart kitchen, Katara found the brunch room and armoire. Finding the financial records Mai listed was an easy affair.
When she moved to close the armoire, a colored folder slipped out and fell open, scattering its contents, mostly sketches and random scraps of paper, across the floor.
"Spirits." Katara crouched to clean the mess. The guard watching her helped, surprisingly considerate, and the passing desire to assess his attractiveness was quashed at the sight of his perfectly symmetrical face. She preferred a little more imperfection.
Her hands fell across a sketch. It contained Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, and Zuko in beachwear, flames in the background. Zuko was wearing a form fitting robe, the neckline falling in a sharp V halfway down his chest. He had an arm wrapped around a cross Mai. Ty Lee was the only one laughing, and Azula's gaze rested on Zuko, her face a combination of sly intrigue battled genuine care.
No way. Azula hates him.
Yet in every interaction Katara had with Azula, the girl had brought up Zuko. It was as though the girl's very sense of being, whether it was sowing evil or doing her father's being, was somehow intertwined with her brother. Could it be possible that somewhere in Azula existed a part that truly cared for Zuko?
"Lady Katara?" the guard prodded.
She shook herself out of her reverie after allowing her nosiness one more indulgence of looking at the portrait. Estimating by the ages they looked, the sketch must have been completed after Zuko returned to the Fire Nation, when the world thought the Avatar dead.
Azula's expression stuck with her even as she departed. Within minutes she was back at the palace, and the top of the stairs Ty Lum, in civilian wear, greeted her warmly.
"You missed the security meeting," the warrior said after they exchanged pleasantries.
"I was running an errand. Anything that requires my attention?"
"Well—we're officially deploying to Hira'a tomorrow. We're waiting on Minister Jeong Jeong to confirm."
Katara's muscles tightened. "Without Zuko."
" With Fire Lord Zuko," said Ty Lum.
Was he out of his—?
"Where is he?" she demanded.
Ty Lum held up her hands, looking fearful despite her towering size. "Mingxia is on duty right now. We changed shifts before his visit to Ambassador Hoko."
Katara was already on her way to the offices before Ty Lum finished, her brisk pace turning nearly into a run. Her own office sat empty, awaiting her return, which would be officially in two months for Fall session. Hoko had a similarly sized office next to hers, looking characteristically Northern Water Tribe from the thick seal skin hanging on the door.
A noticeable lack of a thin Sulan sulking around indicated that Zuko was likely already gone. This was confirmed when she knocked and only Hoko's thin voice filtered through, calling her to enter.
"Lady Katara? What brings you here?" Hoko reclined on his chair, a flicker of supreme satisfaction breaking through a charming visage. A medium sized scroll tied together with red ribbon sat semi-unfurled on his desk.
"Master," she corrected.
"I hear a congratulations are in order. Malina is my mother's cousin. Chief Hakoda chose wisely."
She ignored the sharp ache in her heart. "Is Zuko here?"
Hoko pinched one edge of the scroll between his thumb and index. Katara knew what its contents were without looking because of the ribbon's color and stylistic markings on the paper: a Northern Tribe wedding invite. Her father was sending out wedding invites etched in vellum decorated the way the North did.
"And Fire Lord Zuko, hmm? I suppose the South…has decried our practices unfairly." Hoko studied her carefully.
"I'm sorry?"
"Do keep the sister Tribe in mind in your negotiations. We'll be family."
"Did you have a sea slug for lunch?" she snapped. La punish her for ever thinking Hoko might be worthy of her affections, and she didn't want to dwell longer than necessary—precisely nill—on the new fact that they would be family now.
Ty Lum aided her search by sticking her head into the office. "It's an emergency, Ambassador Hoko. Did he say where he would go next?"
"That hairy secretary of his mentioned something about the health ministry."
It was a pity no such thing as mini hawks or some internal system of sending mail within the palace exusted, because the grounds often resembled a city itself in how bustling and large it felt. At least a quarter of an hour passed before they were able to pinpoint Zuko's exact location, and that too through the help of Toph's vibration sensing skills.
"A promise to feed me no sea prune stew the next time I'm in the South," Toph negotiated. The girl sat on the steps of the stairs leading to the training courtyard where General Shen barked at a regiment of soldiers.
"There's not much else to eat in winters," Katara reminded her.
"What about Sokka's jerky?"
"Come on, Toph. I need to find him. He's being stubborn about—something."
Toph stood up and cracked her knuckles in General Shen's direction. Katara did not envy General Shen at this time, or ever, really.
"Fine. I'll save you some jerky," she conceded.
Toph pumped a triumphant fist in the air. "Sparky is in the first floor tea lounge closest to the dining hall."
Ty Lum chuckled. "The Fire Lord's nickname is Sparky?"
Toph jumped onto a boulder. "It was that or Firecracker."
"I call Katara moping queen."
"Hah! She does mope, doesn't she?"
A friendship was born. Katara allowed herself a moment of grief and soldiered on.
In the cursed tea lounge where Katara made a lifelong enemy out of Lady Hina, she was relieved to find both the vase that had been sullied with Bosco's spit and the Fire Lord. Sulan stopped them and yanked them aside, taking a large breath that could only signal the subsequent withering rebuke in the longest string of words she had ever heard the secretary speak at once:
"The state of this court! I will be posting an announcement to every door, room, and staircase that Fire Lord Zuko is not a common monkey! He cannot be made to prance"—Katara bit down on her tongue at this—"about for every whim! There are rules! Procedures! A month's notice for a common meeting, a week for a moderate level request, twenty-four hours for an urgent, non-security matter as per the Fire Sage scrolls, and at least a polite may I come in? Manners! How are we a military people with no manners!—ah, Lady Katara."
"Beard—Sulan."
His beard quivered at a faster rate than his body did as he evaluated her from hair to toe. "Should you not already be with the Fire Lord?"
"Oh—that was—" she wasn't sure. Now that the temporary guard assignment was over, was it appropriate for the court to know her presence was because of national security issue? Did they see her not hanging around him anymore and assume it was a friendship breakup (it most assuredly was not)? "I was charged to ensure his safety," she said smoothly. "In that vein may I be allowed entry?"
Sulan's eyes watered. Had the poor secretary never witnessed someone following his instructions? "His meeting is due to end in three minutes. You may speak to him then as he has sometime before meeting King Kuei…"
The secretary's voice faded into the background as the curtains shifted enough for Zuko's face to shine through the gaps. Like magnets, the further they were pulled away the quicker they were to snap together. Katara drifted through the curtains, certain that her esteem in Sulan's eyes were already falling but finding herself unable to care. Ty Lum followed warily/
Their argument did nothing to dim Zuko. For how pale he was, he was positively vivid in the colors that surrounded him, even the orange-red chaise he sat on. He did a double take at her, his expression one of disbelief.
"Lady Katara," he said her name formally in the same tone he did, "Warrior Ty Lum."
She forgot why she had sought him out for a moment. "Fire Lord Zuko, Councilor Bengwa."
Councilor Bengwa was a skittish middle aged woman with sticky fingers, literally and metaphorically. She also had an overgrown mustache and thick upper lip.
"Lady Katara, this is a…delight," drawled Councilor Bengwa. By delight did she mean misfortune? "Fire Lord Zuko mentioned his inspiration for his proposal came from you. I must confess, I did not know you were an expert on Fire Nation healthcare."
Katara spared a longing look at the vase. Was there still spit in it? Then she braved a glance at Zuko. His hands were tensed and his body inclined forward as if he was preparing to flee.
Ah, yes, he had neither need nor want for her faith in him. He could do as he wished, and as an off-duty ambassador on Fire Nation premises she was mildly obliged to obey.
She clasped her hands and addressed Councilor Bengwa. "Calling me an expert is being too kind. I merely conducted a survey with Healer Joru. Over the course of three months we visited most villages outside the city on this island and assessed the quality of care being provided, and the types of injuries most commonly suffered in those areas. Most injuries we found keep individuals from traveling to the city. Fire Lord Zuko is the one who made a conclusion using the data as to what the best course of action is."
Initially Councilor Bengwa remained haughty. As Katara continued to speak, however, a flash of curiosity, and then a precursor to respect, loosened the woman's smirk into serious concern.
"Untrue," Zuko intoned, "Lady Katara was most helpful in the initial proposal of a stipend."
"I assure you Fire Lord Zuko developed the proposal, I was thinking only of how we view healthcare in the South."
He chuckled. "Which has much to offer the developed world—"
"—as much as I am learning in the Fire Nation as well," she finished.
"Interesting." A dark hair on Councilor Bengwa's upper lip twitched. "Free healthcare? How does that work?"
Katara sat onto a lounge chair, prepared to explain the contours of a traditional economy and trade network. In the past she had included in her ambassadorial duties a duty to correct whatever notions the world had about the South. When someone actively asked her about her homeland and it seemed to stem from a sincere curiosity, it ignited an unassailable enthusiasm. She hoped Councilor Bengwa was ready.
"I will leave you two to it." Zuko stood.
Katara met his eyes and lowered her chin in a single nod. Ty Lum waved.
This was the most professional way she had conducted herself in—some time, actually. If Katara put herself in the shoes of Toph's mother, she didn't think she could find anything of complaint.
She hated it.
For most of the afternoon, Councilor Bengwa remained locked in a weighty discussion. To the Councilor's credit the woman was a curious listener, and apart from a few sly comments, Katara felt there had been massive character growth by the time she finished her explanation of the effects of the weather on the housing market.
"Thank you, Lady Katara. This has been most enlightening," Councilor Bengwa bowed. "You will forgive me if I send the proposal your way to review?"
"Would that be appropriate?"
"Councilor Jin does, so I don't see why not."
Speaking of Councilor Jin, Katara had not seen her since the day she departed (tried to depart). However, Councilor Jin's position in the ad hoc ministry handling the Harmony Restoration Movement was international by nature. Helping Councilor Bengwa meant impacting domestic policy in an official capacity.
She beamed. "I would be honored."
A spring in her step carried her to the hawk room where she would have collided with Aang were it not for his delicate feet launching him above her in a somersault. He chatted amicably, gossiping about Suki and Sokka dancing around each other like a pair of stubborn lemurs and nagging her about the thick pile of papers she was sending Mai.
"It was an errand." That it conveniently doubled as an excuse was a fact she acknowledged.
Aang leaned against the cage carrying long-range hawks. "Must have been important if you missed the meeting."
She tied a string around the package and tightened one end around a hawk's foot. It squawked.
"Very important."
"Zuko was looking for you," Aang scratched his ear.
The hawk tried to bite her. It wasn't happy with the weight of the package. Aang dropped some nuts from his glider's snack compartment into his hand and offered them to the screechy bird. It snatched the nuts and yapped happily.
"At the meeting or more recently?" asked Katara.
"Both. We finished meeting with King Kuei a quarter of an hour ago."
She patted the hawk and cooed nice platitudes into its ear before holding it over the bannister. "Are you guys still deciding to leave for Hira'a tomorrow?"
"Zuko already decided that. We just confirmed with King Kuei that we'll visit Yu Dao after."
The hawk, whom she decided to name Screechy, wriggled out of her grasp. Startled, she dropped him (she also decided his gender was man for all the trouble he gave her).
She exhaled so slowly through her nose the sound that came out resembled an angry tea kettle. "Inform Fire Lord Zuko that is fascinating. I wish him well and pray for his family's and this country's health."
"Um. Are you practicing being a Lady?"
She paused. "No."
He cocked his head. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Aang!"
He took a step backwards. She should have said she was preparing for an audition with the Ember Island Players.
"If you say so…" he tiptoed towards the exit. "Right, you should meet with Zuko today. The boat's scheduled to leave tomorrow evening but it'll be a packed morning."
"I'm sure he'll find me before he leaves."
Aang began making choking noises. "You're coming with us, aren't you?"
"Am I?"
The look he gave her was halfway to flabbergasted. "I'm going to get Toph," he said, panicked. Whatever that meant. He zipped down the tower and Katara trudged the same path at a slower pace. As she reached the bottom Toph erupted out of the ground. The Fire Nation summer was relentless on the girl's hair too. It was starting to frizz every which way and made Toph's head resemble a sparrowkeet's nest.
"Twinkle toes thinks it's that time of the month and asked me to help you, woman to woman."
Katara tapped her foot. "I'm going to kill him."
"If the big baddie Ozai couldn't you definitely can't." Toph wiggled her hands and a dark seam snaked down the hall. Within half a second Katara's feet were locked into the ground in blocks of earth, and soon they were shooting through the corridors past shocked faces and dodging palace workers in a blur.
"I call this dirtwalking!" Toph called, laughing as they rounded the corner. They gained speed towards the throne room.
One of Katara's hair loopies snapped. The detached strand smacked her in the face. "I—can't—breathe! Please—put me— down! "
The glow appeared first and then the man who carried it.
"Zuko!" shrieked Toph. The ground stopped moving, its ironclad grip disintegrating. Katara's momentum did not. Her body flung forward and despite her best efforts to skid to a stop, she glided into a warm body.
Familiar hands clutched her shoulders. Despite her immunity to seasickness, it seemed earth-wrought spinning was capable of making her nauseous. Her head swam and eyes watering, she grasped whoever had caught her in simultaneous shames and thanks as she struggled to regain footing.
"I'm very sorry—thank you—"
She met amber-ringed golden eyes, one wide and the other narrow and tapering into red flesh.
Zuko looked down his nose at her, the surprise on his face mirroring how she felt. The group of old men surrounding him watched the hall's morphing floors in stupefaction.
"Your loopie," he rasped.
She released her grip on his silk robes. "Toph!— Toph —I'd really like to get back to my room—"
"But you said—"
"Pick me up!" she cried.
Not a moment too soon she was flung across the corridors again, her feet going numb by the time Toph deposited them in the Residential Wing.
She sidled up to Topg, waiting for the pounding headache to subside and her brain to stop scrambling. She shivered.
"Are you cold ?" asked Toph, dragging her into the room.
"I...a little bit."
"Omashu's hole," Toph cursed. The girl's hair was past the bird's nest phase and squarely in hit-by-lightning territory.
Ignoring the fact just last night she had cursed a metalbender to the moon and back, Katara, breathless and while toppling onto the bed, reprimanded her severely.
"Yeah yeah, madame fussy britches. I'm fourteen," Toph declared in defense, as though that was any better than being twelve. Preoccupied with the Awkward State of Affairs that was her day, despite the delectable sleep she was able to catch up on, Katara rolled onto her back and prayed to Yue to manifest calm in the universe.
"Hello? Fussy britches?"
Yue, how did you do it? How did you make up with my brother after a fight?
"Sweetness? Katara?"
Katara frowned. Why was she comparing her situation to Sokka and Yue?
"Can't believe Twinkle Toes was right about the moon cycle."
She grabbed a pillow and chucked it across the room. Toph scowled as she rubbed her shoulder. Katara had been hoping it was her face but the girl had to go and have the audacity to grow.
"Be quiet. I'm trying to sleep."
"I can practically hear you thinking." Toph settled onto a corner of the bed. "Can't you bloodbend your cycle away?"
"That's disgusting."
"I would."
"That's exactly how I know you're not a woman yet."
"Gee, I thought the lack of breasts would have given that away."
Morbidly curious, Katara swept her eyes over Toph and confirmed that there was no décolletage as of yet.
"Are you checking me out? I knew it. I'm pretty."
"Toph."
"Katara." Toph stuck a finger in her ear and pulled out a bit of wax. Tilted her head. Her hair vibrated with electricity. "Zuko's on his way up."
She sat up like a springboard. "Why?"
"I read vibrations, not minds. Weren't you looking for him earlier?"
"I wasn't!"
Toph arched an eyebrow.
"I was," admitted Katara, "And then I wasn't. I got busy." She scrambled off the bed.
"So," Toph's voice became airy, "are you busy now?"
"I am, yes," she poked her head inside the restroom and found her appearance decently acceptable, sans the hair. "How close is he?"
"Two halls down."
Katara made the sound of someone screaming with their mouth closed and scrabbled for a hairbrush on the dresser to fix her loopie. Never mind, she cut her losses and made her way to the balcony.
"I thought you were sleeping!" shouted Toph.
"I'm busy!" Katara bent leftover bathwater and created an ice slide from the bannister to the bushes below. She swore that she heard a raspy voice just as she vaulted over and her hands made contact with the ice, but it was gone to the louder sounds of rushing air, chirping hawks, and ice crackling under her haunches.
A solitary figure looked up in the midst of his duty hanging Zuko's laundry. The sideburns gave him away before his bewildered, "Lady Katara?"
She caught her breath, keeling from sliding down four stories. "Milo," she greeted. She needed to leave before Toph gave her away because that was exactly what Toph would do.
"Are you looking for Fire Lord Zuko?" Milo smoothed over his brief confusion into neutrality. Unlike Ika, he was a master of order and the unruffled.
She scrutinized the red and white underclothes he held, fighting back the heat that threatened to flame her cheeks. "I'm not."
"Ah." Milo flipped out a long bedsheet. It was made of pure silk: a deep maroon carrying flecks of gold a shade darker than average Fire Nation eyes, embroidered with motifs of suns and dragons. The attendants' discerning eyes flitted over her while he threw the sheet over a clothesline. Then they focused on something beyond her.
"If you change your mind, Fire Lord Zuko is entering the Fire Lady's balcony."
The squeak that left Katara was inhuman. She darted behind the sheet, and immediately was horrified to be puffing like she had run a marathon through the Foggy Swamp. This was such a small matter yet she acted cowardly, as a silly girl would.
In the calm of hot air and fresh linens, she let her thoughts marinate.
She mentally replayed their argument, stopping at specific moments. When he had asked "do you disapprove of me going?", she answered honestly. There was no regret in an honest answer communicated directly but respectfully. Then he had made the comment insinuating she hated to be wrong, that somehow her concern for him was a matter of personal pride instead of genuine care for his and his people's quality of life.
Her response invoking his father was wrong.
Stupid. It had been a bombastic ending to a day that without it could have earned a warm spot in her memories.
Napping in his office, trading stories, his fingers falling over her neck.
"Lady Katara? Fire Lord Zuko is gone."
Straightening her top, she stepped out of the safety of Zuko's fluttering bedsheets and the wafting scent of fresh incense.
"Thank you for your discretion, Milo."
He bowed with an armful of more underclothes. She bolted, an idea taking hold of her.
Hours later found Katara, who was not hiding but merely taking a break. In the kitchens. Where no one would think to find her, if they wanted to find her, but that was impossible because she wasn't hiding to be found in the first place.
"So you see, with just salt and rosemary we make the most of the meat's flavor and prioritize its taste over drowning it with spices and sauces…" she was explaining to Chef Obin. Like any flamboyant chef, he decried in loud whispers her abdication of teriyaki sauce, her delicate cuts of hippo-ox into strips instead of chunks, and her refusal to sprinkle a single fire flake over the finished product. Two of his assistants watched her as a Fire Sage would an act of blasphemy, but a third poked at the meat reverently. After distributing the cuts to everyone, she held her breath in anticipation.
"It's delicious!" Chef Obin goggled. All three of his assistants threw their hands up in hurrah until one vomited into a waste bucket. "Ignore him. He is allergic to salt."
Ika peered into the kitchens. "Lady Katara! I've been looking for you. It's almost dinner time. You should be joining the guests in the hall."
Elbow deep in hippo-ox entrails, Katara's eyes fluttered shut. She still needed space to collect her thoughts. Her body couldn't be trusted and now her mind, and it was a betrayal requiring deep processing. Acknowledgement of wrongdoing also meant it wasn't repeated, and right now she wasn't confident that there wouldn't be a repeat of their argument.
Somehow, she didn't think this was analogous to her fights with Sokka or even Aang. They were…family. The kind of family that was resigned to being in one's life forever. It was a given that squabbling happened, and no matter what they continued on.
This felt more delicate. This represented a standstill; either it created a permanent fragile edge to their relationship, or it proved they were volatile volcanos capable of cooling.
"Can I take dinner alone in the gardens? Unless attending is necessary."
"No dinner time meetings scheduled today," confirmed Ika.
Katara cleaned her hands and bent the excess water into a bucket. Chef Obin bowed with a plate of some of the meat she had prepared outstretched.
"I am grateful for your hands showing us this method of preparation. May we carry this tradition of cuisine for years to come."
Satisfied that she had possibly stopped future generations of Water Tribe ambassadors from falling ill, Katara mentally patted herself for a job well done and took her dinner outside near the turtle-duck pond.
This was a meal she ate every bite of happily. It reminded her of the foursome her family used to be, her Gran-Gran's gentle hands showing her how to use salt to cure meat, and bitter winters. Winters in the South Pole meant more time inside their tents, huddling together with cups of warm milk and sewing new parkas for the season.
Ika's loose hair caught her attention.
"Sit in front of me," Katara instructed after putting aside her plate and bending pond water to clean her hands. Ika cautiously shuffled closer. "Do you see the beads in my hair? They're called sungaujait."
Understanding washed over the attendant. "Hair loopies and sungaujait."
Katara nodded and began to undo her hair. The beads she wore were made of ivory and carved by the South's only jewelry maker. When girls in the Southern Water Tribe turned seven, they were taken to the jewelry maker to choose a material and shade of blue for their beads. Her father had grinned proudly at Katara's choice of ivory dyed in sky blue, saying it indicated a strong heart and gentle exterior.
"My mother used to do my hair like this." If her mother couldn't come back, there were other ways to keep her alive. In moments like this, Katara felt closer to her than ever, and prayed she grew to be half the woman she was.
"You must miss her so much," said Ika.
Sometimes Katara forgot that strangers knew of her life as much as they knew of Aang's or Zuko's. That she was a friend of the Avatar, but also a Master in her own right. She was glad it was Ika commenting, because it didn't seem to stem from nosy curiosity into a war hero's life but a genuine desire to connect.
She confessed, "I think about her every day."
Ika watched in awe Katara weave nimble fingers through her hair to create thin ropes. The beads slid flushly onto them and she created another rope to attach the ends to the girl's temples.
Content with her work, she put some space between them to appreciate the way hair loopies framed a person's face. "You can keep them."
"Oh! I couldn't possibly…they're a piece of your home."
She shook her head. "It's not the same home without my mother."
"Still…" Ika raked a finger through her hair and leaned over the pond to catch her reflection. "Wow. I look good. I'll keep them."
Katara stifled a laugh. As Ika continued preening over her appearance, she noticed a lonesome silhouette trail over the bridge.
Zuko emerged from the shadows, wearing an unreadable demeanor. He looked utterly exhausted. Did you sleep at all today? Did you rest? she wanted to ask.
She wanted to care.
He nodded once, shifted his gaze to Ika, and raised a brow. Katara lowered her chin in confirmation. This was the one palace worker who was the sum of many elements, and was just as Fire Nation as anyone else, hair loopies and all.
His tight smile loosened into a content one. He placed a fist into the palm of his hand, then clasped his hands together and left.