Kyuri was firmly with Katara on the fact that Appa shedding was very gross. Hair was getting all over everything and tickling her nose and making her sneeze. Granted, Sangilak was doing the same thing, so she couldn't really talk. However, dragon scales made far less of a mess than sky bison fur, and had a variety of uses. Currently, Kyuri was gathering up the scales she could find and keeping them in a pouch on Sangilak's saddle. She refused to tell the others why she was keeping them, or even what they could possibly be used for, only that they would like it.

Kyuri, who had no use for a tent or fire with Sangilak, had contributed to the effort of setting up the campsite by cooking up a hearty stew with meat Sangilak caught and vegetable they had gotten on their last stop in a village. Now she was going through the scales she had collected and polishing them with a soft cloth. Once gone, they began to lose their jewel-like luster, which was something she had to fight against by wiping them and treating them with animal fat from the hog used to make their stew, much to Sokka's horror.

"Why are you wasting it?" he had wailed. "That's the tastiest part!"

Kyuri, who disagreed strongly and had a deep loathing for the texture of fat, replied, "It forms a protective layer," and said nothing more on the matter. It was a mystery around the camp, and Kyuri was keeping tight-lipped about it, keeping up her careful, precise polishing of individual scales until night fell and they all went to sleep.

It was Toph who woke them up a little before midnight.

"Something's coming!" was the cry that went up and it roused Kyuri and Sangilak instantly.

"What is it?" Aang asked drowsily from where he lay on Appa's leg.

"It feels like an avalanche," Toph explained slowly, kneeling with a hand pressed to the ground. "But also, not like an avalanche."

"Your powers of perception are staggering," Sokka grumped, never happy to wake up.

"Do you think we should move on?" Katara asked, looking around nervously.

"Better to be safe than sorry," Kyuri said. "Do you remember the Mechanist's tanks? They could produce an avalanche-like feeling in the earth."

"Fire Nation," Sokka said grimly, perking up and pulling out of his grumpy mood into a much more serious one. Nothing more needed to be said. They immediately split and went about packing up the camp. Aang saddled Appa with a few deft movements and Sokka and Katara loaded their supplies while Kyuri took down their tents and sleeping bags and packed up her own things into Sangilak's bags. They took off not ten minutes later, rising over the tree tops and squinting back in the direction Toph said the 'avalanche-but-not' was coming from. A cloud of dust could be seen trundling across the plain they had crossed earlier in the day. It obscured the details of what was following them, but whatever it was, it was big and moving fast.

"What is that?" Katara asked. "That dust cloud looks a little big to be one of the tanks."

"Maybe they modified it?" Aang theorized, but he didn't sound very sure.

It was maybe two hours before dawn when they landed again, a significant distance from their first campsite. By that point, everyone was exhausted. Katara and Toph were the ones really showing signs of strain. They hadn't even been on the ground a full minute before the two other girls blew up at each other over Toph's lack of teamwork. . Even Appa and Sangilak were beginning to show signs of tiredness. Sangilak's head drooped and the beating of his wings was slower than usual.

"Are you okay?" Kyuri asked, curled up inside Sangilak's wings.

"I'm fine," Sangilak replied, but even his mental voice was a bit weary. "Ready to fly another ten leagues."

Kyuri sent a wave of disbelief towards him and Sangilak gave a tired humph.

"Why can't I lie to you? It's not fair."

"It's a fact of our relationship that helps us communicate openly and with trust," Kyuri sighed, curling tighter and scratching at a patch of newly-forming scales. Sangilak hummed gently.

"It is. I doubt you'd be half so open with me if I could, and you're ten times as open with me as anyone else."

"It's too late for math Sang. Go to sleep."

"Gladly."

It was nearing dawn when Toph's cry went up.

"It's back!"

This time the camp was cleared up faster as no one had felt like putting up tents and unloading.

"Seriously, what is that thing?" Katara grumbled, looking back over the edge of the saddle.

"And how does it keep finding us?" Toph added.

"I don't know, but this time I'm making sure it doesn't find us," Aang said grimly, flicking the reins.

They flew out of the trees and up into the mountains. Aang drove them on until he found a small, flat plateau with a vague trail leading onto it. Presumably it had once been a pit stop for travelers, but it looked well and truly abandoned when they landed. Appa immediately rolled over onto his side and Sangilak landed, only for his legs to collapse. He crashed to the ground, his horn clacking on the ground with a loud, sharp noise.

"This works."

"Forget setting up camp," Sokka groaned. "I'm finding the softest piece of rock I can and going to sleep. Good night."

"Sokka agrees with you," Kyuri said with a weak, weary smile as she curled up between Sangilak's forelegs, reveling in the warm breath blowing across her back and ruffling her hair. It was a delightful rhythm that she cheerfully fell asleep to… for an entire thirty seconds.

Momo's chittering woke her up. The other had apparently not even managed to get to sleep.

"Don't tell me," Sokka groaned.

"There's no way they could have followed us up here!" Aang protested disbelievingly.

"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph said.

Aang ran forwards. Sure enough, that dust cloud was just coming over a ridge in the trail leading to their plateau. The dust was revealed to be smoke from burning coal. They could see a strange sort of transportation machine. It was clearly related to the Mechanist's tanks, running on the same sort of slatted metal treads, but it looked like a series of interconnected sections pulled by one main lead section.

"Let's go!" Katara said.

"Maybe we should face them," Aang said hesitantly. "Maybe they're friendly."

"Always the optimist," Sokka sighed.

The machine stopped and steam billowed from around the door as it lowered to the ground, forming a ramp. Three saddled mongoose dragons made their way down and into sight. On their backs were Azula and her two friends from Omashu. Kyuri locked eyes with the girl in pink and narrowed her eyes coldly, sinking into a defensive stance. Her fingers itched. It only it were a full moon, she would show this girl what it was to have control of your own limbs taken away…

"It's those girls from Omashu!" Katara recognized as they all sank into stances. The girls kicked their mounts on, racing towards them along the path. Mongoose dragons were notoriously fast, capable of running on water, and they ate up the distance between the two groups quickly.

"We can take them!" Toph said confidently. "Four on three!"

"Actually Toph, there's five of us," Sokka corrected.

"Oh, heh, sorry. I wasn't counting you. No bending, see."

"I can still fight!"

"Okay then. Three on four… plus Sokka."

Toph's hands flicked precisely and sharp spurs of rock shot from the ground, sliding down towards the attacking trio. The agile mongoose dragons simply ran over top of them, unfazed. Mai's hand flashed forwards and Sangilak snarled, his tail flicking out. The knives clattered off his scales and dropped to the ground.

"Well, we found out who they were," Sokka pointed out. "Now let's go!"

They sprinted for Appa and Sangilak and took off, a jet of lightning from Azula's fingertips sending them off, and then they were flying for their lives again.

"I can't believe t hose girls followed us all the way from Omashu," Katara gaped. They were still shaky and hyped up on adrenaline, but soon that would fade and they would be exhausted again.

"I still think we could have taken them," Toph humphed.

"Are you kidding?" Katara demanded. "As if the crazy blue Firebending and the flying daggers weren't enough, last time we met, that girl did something that took Kyuri's bending away. That's scary."

"She blocked my chi," Kyuri sighed. "It's no mystery Katara. Her style of fighting employs the natural weak spots of the human body. By striking specific points on the body she can deaden limbs and even block the flow of chi, thereby preventing any kind of bending. It's not permanent though obviously. I should have been prepared though. I just didn't expect such a style…" Kyuri trailed off.

"Oh no," Sokka groaned. "The sun is rising. We were up all night without sleep."

"Sokka, one night won't kill you," Aang said wearily.

"Are you sure?" he demanded. "I've never not slept before. What if I fall asleep now and something happens. And something always happens!"

A small burst of laughter came from Sangilak's back and they all turned to Kyuri in shock, who was holding her hand over her mouth, the hint of a small laugh lingering in the crinkled corners of her eyes. They'd never heard her laugh before, so it was rather shocking. Probably the slip was due to lack of sleep.

"Sangilak offered to poke you if you fell asleep," Kyuri said almost apologetically, by way of explanation. Sokka eyed the dragon's sharp claws nervously. Sangilak knew he was looking and flexed his claws, curling them together with a sharp shick.

"Thanks, but no thanks, big guy," Sokka gulped.

In the end it came down to simple exhaustion. Appa had been carrying four people and supplies for two solid days with little to no sleep. His body finally gave out and he fell from the sky. While Aang scrambled to wake Appa, Sokka, Katara, and Toph clung to the saddle desperately to keep from being jerked free by the rushing air. Kyuri acted fast, grabbing Toph, who wasn't able to see to get a good grip fast enough, and yanked her onto Sangilak's back in front of her. She seized Sokka, who was clinging to Katara and holding her down, and dragged the pair of them down behind her, landing safely in the woods below. Appa came down and slid in a mighty shower of dirt, passing out in the middle of a rut carved by his skidded landing.

"Appa's exhausted," Aang said weakly as he pulled away from the sleeping bison.

"The plan right now is to follow Appa's example. We've put a lot of distance between us and those girls," Sokka said.

"Good idea. Of course, we could have gotten some sleep sooner if Toph didn't have such issues," Katara shot.

"What?" Toph shrieked, her voice going shrill.

"Alright alright," Aang said, trying to settle this before it got ugly. "We're all exhausted. Let's not fight…"

"No, I want to hear what Katara has to say," Toph said, standing furiously. "You think I have issues?"

"I'm just saying that maybe if you'd helped out we could have set up camp, and then maybe we could have gotten some sleep, and we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"HEY!"

They all jerked upright in shock and stared at Kyuri, whose shout was echoing in the trees around them.

"Kyuri…" Aang said slowly.

"Both of you just shut up!" Kyuri roared, eyes flaming and mouth twisted into an angry scowl. "Toph, it wouldn't kill you to pitch in and help the rest of us out. It's great that you can 'carry your own weight,' but quit pulling that out as an excuse. However, so long as you handle yourself, frankly I don't give a damn. Katara, taking cheap shots and picking a fight is just plain stupid, especially when we're all exhausted. Let her do what she wants, so long as she doesn't get in everybody else's way. You're not in charge here, so stop acting like it. And for the love of the spirits, if you really feel the need to have this conversation, do it where the rest of us don't have to listen to you fight like a couple of hair-brained shrieking swamp birds!" When she finished she was panting, her hands fisted at her side, and her eyes were wild.

It was silent in the face of such a violent outburst from the usually stoic Dragora, but Katara broke it."So you're siding with her?" she demanded, pointing a damning finger at Toph.

"I'm not siding with anyone," Kyuri snapped. "I don't take sides in petty squabbles like this, but if you act like children, I'm going to treat you like I would a child that needs discipline."

"I gave up everything to help you all out!" Toph yelled. "Don't you think you have the right to discipline me!"

"And I came out of a decade-long period of hiding," Kyuri retorted. "If anyone is to blame for slowing us down it's the pair of you, with your stupid fights over nothing!"

"As if!" Toph protested. "It's Sheddy's fault over there!" she said, pointing at Appa.

"Whoa, whoa," Aang said angrily. "You're blaming Appa for this?"

"How do you think they keep finding us?" Toph demanded, seizing a hank of hair from Appa's side. "He's leaving a trail of fur a mile wide for them to follow!"

"How dare you blame Appa?" Aang demanded. "He's saved your life three times tonight alone! You talk about carrying your own weight, but it's Appa that does that!"

"I'm out of here," Toph said sharply, a sharp contrast to all the shouting. She kicked and her bag shot up into her hand. She threw it over her shoulder and started stalking along the riverbank.

"Wait," Sokka said, stepping in front of her. Toph bent him out of the way and continued moving. They watched her go silently and her absent seemed to be the cue.

"What did I just do?" Aang wailed. "I just yelled at my Earthbending master! Now she's gone. "

"I know," Katara said guiltily. "We're all just trying to get used to each other. And I was so mean to her."

"I shouldn't have shouted," Kyuri said grimly. "Losing it like that didn't help anything. I'm… embarrassed."

"Yeah, you three were pretty much jerks," Sokka agreed.

"It was kind of funny though."

"Hush!"

"Thanks Sokka," Katara said dispassionately.

"No problem."

"Come on," Katara said. "We need to find Toph and apologize."

"Okay, but what are we going to do about the tank of dangerous ladies?" Sokka asked.

"She wasn't wrong about Appa," Kyuri reasoned. A slow smile broke across Aang's face.

"I have an idea…"

His idea was a bath is which Appa was sudsed up, scrubbed to within an inch of his life, and rinsed off with massive waves. Sangilak dried him off with a blast of hot air. Aang gathered up the sopping chunks of air into a bag.

"I'm going to make a trail leading away from here," Aang said. "You guys take Appa and go on. I'll catch up later."

"Is he okay to fly?" Katara asked nervously.

"So long as we leave his saddle and everything behind, yes," Aang said. He flicked his glider open as Katara and Sokka got on. Sangilak and Appa took off, Appa dipping dangerously and clipping the tops of some pine trees.

They flew in silence for a few minutes.

"I hope Toph is okay," Katara said nervously.

"She's a survivor," Kyuri reasoned. "She'll be fine. She seems like a person who thrives in adversity."

"She can't have gone far," Katara reasoned.

"Oh no!" Sokka said suddenly from the back of Appa's saddle. "Katara!"

"How did they find us?" Katara demanded, staring back at the two girls racing after them on mongoose lizards. Azula wasn't there. Presumably she hadn't been fooled and understood that it was Aang who would have to fly and lay the trail. She had gone after him.

"Faster," Sokka pleaded with the bison, but it was no use. Appa was already dipping, the short journey too much for him in his exhausted state. "We just need to get across that river," he said, pointing to the landform ahead of them.

"Come on Appa, just a farther," Katara encouraged. Kyuri turned Sangilak behind Appa and he let a controlled stream of fire from between his jaws that didn't connect, but started a burst of heat behind Appa. The bison roared and perked up from a moment, long enough to clear the river, and then crashed into the opposite bank.

"We made it!" Katara cheered, hopping off and hugging Sokka. "We're safe."

"No we aren't," Kyuri said grimly, landing beside them and dismounting, turning back towards the approaching duo. "Mongoose dragons can run on water."

And sure enough, they could. The river barely slowed the advancing girls. Katara jumped forwards, sending a wave of water towards Ty Lee. It connected with her mongoose dragon, but she had already jumped free, leaving her mount to be swept back to the opposite shore. She grabbed a tree branch and repelled off of them towards Katara, who dodged admirably until the other girl hurled miniature arrows at her. Sokka deflected them with his boomerang, followed by another group headed specifically for him.

The knife-throwing girl charged for Katara while Ty Lee switched to Sokka. She quickly disabled his arms, followed by one leg, leaving his standing. Sokka's hard head prevented her from completely disabling him, her fist connecting with a solid thump that hurt her more than him. Katara had gone for the riverside and mad to bend water at Mai, but knives pinned the cloth covering her wrists to the tree.

"How you doing?" Sokka asked, hopping over and collapsing as her overbalanced on his one working leg.

"Oh, you know," Katara said weakly.

"I figured when we finally caught you guys it would be more exciting," the bland girl said in her depressingly bland voice. "Oh well. Victory is boring."

"Allow me to correct that."

Kyuri dropped from a tree and landed in front of Katara and Sokka. Mai drew back her arm to threw and Ty Lee made to strike at her with stiffened fingers, but neither of them were expecting Kyuri's attack. The grass around them blackened, distracting them for the moment necessary for the water drawn from it to ice around their ankles and wrists. Kyuri's hands rose, lifting the girls free of any ground and anything they could use to break away the ice. With a series of complicated flicks of her wrists, she raised both girls arms over their heads and the ice melted together, forming a pair of handcuffs. The same thing happened to their feet. Very carefully, Kyuri guided them out of the river. Four columns of water rose and attached to the four sets of cuffs. Both girls ended up stretched our over the water, parallel to the river, their hands and feet completely encased in ice. They could do little more than wiggle their torsos back and forth.

"Exciting enough?" Kyuri asked as she moved to Katara and unpinned her from the tree.

"You have to teach me how to do that," Katara said, rubbing her wrists nervously. Her skin hadn't been cut, which was actually a testament to the thrower's skill, but it was still a startling sensation to have a blade that close to a major vein. Kyuri nodded and moved. She flipped him over, then poked and prodded along his spine and shoulders. With a sigh of relief, Sokka found his limbs back under his control.

"I'm accumulating quite a collection," Kyuri commented as she put the girl's two knives in her belt next to the one she had taken in Omashu. She turned to face the girl stretched over the river. Even in such a submissive position, her face was still blank. "Although I'll admit, I've never met anyone with your kind of accuracy and technique. I'm curious. What's your name?"

"Mai," the girl replied, her tone still bland.

"I'm Ty Lee!" the girl in pink interjected. Kyuri's eyes narrowed.

"I care shockingly little about your name," she said coldly. "Be glad it's not the full moon, or you would understand exactly what it is that your little technique does to one's body."

"Kyuri," Katara said hesitantly, laying a gentle hand on the girl's arm. "We need to go after Aang. Azula will be tracking him."

Kyuri sighed. Her anger was coming out again, and that was never good. Perhaps it was lack of sleep, or a hatred of this girl, but whatever it was, it didn't bode well. The last time she had lost control, someone ended up dead. She wouldn't allow that to happen again.

"Let's go," Kyuri agreed, walking to Sangilak. Katara and Sokka got on Appa and they took off.

"The thing is, where has he gone?" Sokka asked as they flew.

"If he's finished laying the trail he'll meet us on the way back along it," Katara reasoned. "If not, we'll find him at the end.

They did indeed find him at the end. He had run out of hair in a small, abandoned desert town. At least, it used to be abandoned. They arrived to find several buildings on fire or with large sections blown away. A familiar, scarred boy lay in the middle of the road and Kyuri's gut clenched. She hadn't seen Zuko since that night in the North Pole when she lost her control and revealed far more than she meant to in front of him.

Katara was the first off Appa, sprinting for the building a figure had just vanished inside of. Moments later she emerged with Azula hot on her heels. Sokka burst from a doorway an attacked, backing her out into the open where they had room to maneuver. Kyuri dropped from Sangilak and they began moving, boxing Azula in tightly.

Predictably she went for Aang first and her reply was a volley of sharp snaps from two water whips and a shot from a boomerang that she dodged. Aang snapped out a kick that she deflected with fire. They shifted their positions around her and began backing her into an alley.

Her feet were suddenly swept out from under her and Azula dropped to the ground, just as surprised as they were. A pale figure dressed in green and yellow stood behind her.

"I thought you guys could use my help," Toph grinned.

"Thanks," Katara grinned.

They moved forwards, again as one group, and forced Azula back down the main straight, dodging her fire blasts as they went. She dodged down an alleyway suddenly and they rushed after her, only to find General Iroh knocking her to the ground with Zuko at his side. Azula hopped to her feet and looked around.

She saw two Water Tribe peasants. She saw her uncle, a celebrated general. She saw her brother, the picture of obsession wrapped up in anger. She saw the Avatar. She saw a Dragora. She saw that she was alone. She saw that she was pinned into a corner.

"Well, look at this," she said, a plan forming. "Enemies and traitors all working together. I'm done." She raised her hands over her head. "I know when I'm beaten. You've got me. A princess surrenders with honor."

Kyuri narrowed her eyes, waiting for Azula to move. This was not the kind of girl that surrendered that easily. Kyuri saw at least four moves she could make from here that would get her away. If she saw them, then so did Azula, and that meant there was a trick in her somewhere.

Azula struck.

Lightning shot from her fingertips, not towards Aang, not towards Katara, not towards Kyuri, not towards Toph. Not towards Sokka or Zuko. Towards Iroh. It connected with his chest and he spun from the force of the blow, dropping to the ground with a yell from Zuko. They all stepped forwards and struck, sending blasts of all four elements and a boomerang at Azula, but she pulled her fire into a protective dome around her. It exploded, choking the air with smoke and dust, and giving her the chance to escape.

The group then turned to their erstwhile enemies, who had just fought on their side, one of whom was wounded. Zuko knelt by his unconscious uncle, hands covering his face and groaning. Toph looked into the direction of Iroh, horror etched on her face. Somehow, she knew Iroh.

"Get away from us!" Zuko snarled, not removing his eyes from his uncle.

"Zuko, I can help," Katara offered.

"Leave!"

Zuko whirled, fire streaming from his fist in an arc towards their heads. They all ducked, but they needn't have. Kyuri's hand shot out, pulling water from Katara's flask, and stopping the fire with a thin line of the liquid. Steam erupted and clogged the air.

"Don't let grief turn you into a fool," Kyuri said coldly. "It doesn't suit you."

"Kyuri, come on-" Sokka began. Kyuri tossed him a silencing look and took a step forwards, then another, advancing on Zuko. Zuko watched her come in surprise. What did she intend to do? Why wasn't she backing away? She should be backing away…

He punched again, a fireball flying towards her head. She simply slid one foot forwards and smoothly dropped into a split before rising again and taking one final step forwards. She dropped to her knees beside Zuko and her hands fluttered over the scorched marks on Iroh's chest and tunic. Kyuri flicked her wrist and the steam around them formed back into water. It flowed through the air gracefully and twined around her hands. She placed them over Iroh's chest. Like when she had healed him underwater, the water around her hands glowed.

Just as it had then, the light flickered across her face. Underwater it had made her look pale and almost dead. Her hair had floated around her like some kind of water spirit. But now it highlighted her features flatteringly and for the first time Zuko realized that his long-time opponent was… well, beautiful.

Kyuri felt Zuko's eyes on her, and for some odd reason she felt her cheeks heating up. She thanked her dark skin for the fact that it would be hard to tell. She kept her eyes on her work, watching intently as the blackened skin sloughed away and was replaced by new, pink skin, but half her mind was painfully aware that everyone was staring at her.

Kyuri pulled her hands away finally, and when she did, Iroh groaned and his eyes fluttered open.

"Uncle," Zuko gasped, leaning forwards and letting his eyes rake over the familiar, pudgy form of his beloved uncle with relief. He looked up at the Dragora who was making to stand and leave. "Thank you." The words burst from his lips without him meaning for them to, but they were true nonetheless. She paused, turning to look at him. Her eyebrows were raised almost comically in questioning surprise.

Suddenly, those two words didn't seem nearly sufficient. His mother had always told him that he was a passionate person, and that everything he did he attacked with single-minded determination. Two little words didn't seem to be nearly enough to thank her for ignoring everything he'd done to her and her friends and aiding him.

Without really realizing he'd made a decision to do more, Zuko leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around her tightly, crushing her against his chest. He felt her spine go stiff under his hands, felt her gasp against his neck. Dimly, he heard her friends protest before it was abruptly cut off by a sharp word from the Water Tribe girl.

Kyuri couldn't breathe. She'd been hugged by her friends before, had even become used to it enough to initiate her own hugs on rare occasions. But to have Zuko hug her… this was something else entirely. To her surprise she felt no revulsion or anger. Her cheeks were flaming, she was vaguely aware. Things like that seemed to pale in comparison to the desperate way he was holding her against him. One of her hands was crushed against his chest. She could feel the beating of his heart and the smooth muscles under his shirt. It made her eyelids want to flutter clothes.

Abruptly Kyuri became aware of the fact that her friends still stood there, watching. Her hand against his chest pushed forwards gently. Zuko drew back, his hands falling into his lap. Kyuri just stared at him blankly, her lips slightly parted, her hand still raised between them. She felt a hand come down gently on her shoulder and she snapped back to herself, looking up to see Katara standing beside her. Kyuri grabbed the offered hand and pulled herself upright.

"We need to go," Katara said softly. "We're done here."

She lead Kyuri past the others. Sokka and Aang were staring at her in shock and Toph was just watching with that blank expression on her face. Katara walked Kyuri all the way to Sangilak. Kyuri got on with practiced motions, swinging into her seat. To her surprise, she felt Katara get on behind her. That seemed to be the cue to everyone else, because suddenly they were scrambling onto Appa and taking off.

"What was that?" Katara asked softly. Sangilak flew a descent distance away from Appa, leaving the girls free to chat.

"Really Kyuri. What was that? The way you felt…"

"I don't know," Kyuri said her voice tinged with desperation. "Yoshio told me to open up, and I've tried so hard. I've been angry and sad and proud and happy, and I've showed it. I've been doing so well. But I don't know how I felt just then. I don't know what that was…"

"What did it feel like?" Katara asked softly.

Kyuri searched for a word. "Warm," she finally said. "It felt warm."

Katara knew Kyuri wasn't just talking about the temperature, even though, as a Firebender, Zuko probably was warm.

"Kyuri," Katara said slowly. "Do you… like him?"

"NO!"

The thought echoed in the minds of both of the girls on Sangilak's back. Kyuri, who had been aware of the turbulent shifts in Sangilak's mind, wasn't quite as unprepared, but the vehemence of the shout shocked her. It was enough to make Katara jerk back and gasp.

"Kyuri, you cannot," Sangilak begged. "Please, don't make me lose another Dragora to the Fire Nation royals. I can't do that again, I can't lose you… He would hurt you Kyuri, don't you realize, he would injure you, physically and emotionally. You can't allow yourself to-"

"I don't know," Kyuri replied softly, speaking over Sangilak's rant in her mind. The dragon became quiet, listening intently as she spoke. "I admire certain qualities around him," she admitted. Kyuri was not so emotionally barren as to not realize Katara meant more than mild fondness when she said like. "Does that mean I like him?"

"Well, I don't know," Katara said slowly. She couldn't believe she was sitting here having this conversation with Kyuri. That it was Zuko they were talking about only made it even more unsettling. "What sort of things?"

"I admire his determination. I find him to be a challenging opponent in a fight."

"You think that's a good thing?" Katara blinked. On the few occasions she had ever mused about hat facet of her friend's life she had always supposed that Kyuri would be the type to prefer a relationship where she dominated. Now that she thought about it though, it made sense. Kyuri would have to respect someone first to even consider furthering a relationship with them.

"Why would I want any man that served no more purpose to me than a rug?" Kyuri asked in complete confusion, confirming Katara's thoughts. "It seems as though that would make for a very unbalanced seat of power."

"Anything else?" Katara pressed. "Do you think he's cute?"

"Small animals and babies are cute Katara," Kyuri deadpanned. "Men are not."

Katara almost snorted, shaking her head in wonder. Kyuri was capable of girl talk. Who knew? She probably just needed sleep. After all, they'd gone without it for quite a while, long enough that Kyuri had actually lost her cool and screamed at them.

"Okay, so do you think he's physically attractive," Katara rephrased, trying to mimic Kyuri's slightly clinical way of talking. Even she had to admit that Zuko was pretty hot.

"He is strong," Kyuri nodded slowly. "I appreciate that. And I suppose his eyes are a nice color."

"Kyuri, no!" Sangilak broke in. "You cannot. Please don't do this to me!"

"I am doing nothing to you, Sangilak," Kyuri replied. "I am… I don't know what I'm doing," she admitted weakly. "But… I don't believe that he is like Sozin or the rest of his family. If he were, he and Azula would not be so at odds. He would not have rescued Aang from prison, and he wouldn't have taken me with him. He would have attacked me for using aokniortitok on him. I think he is different."

Sangilak paused. "Kyuri… You know very well how I feel about the Fire Nation royal family. But I have never in my life felt this emotion inside you. If it is the Fire Prince that inspires it, I must accept that, though I would rather it be any other. I won't take that feeling away from you. That would be too cruel."

"Thank you Sangilak. But… what is this feeling? I don't know it, and I need to know it, so I can control it."

"Kyuri, no one can control this emotion."

With that, Sangilak withdrew from her mind, leaving Kyuri wondering. What emotion couldn't be controlled? She had controlled all of them at least once throughout her life. She had controlled grief and rage and sadness and embarrassment and happiness. What could be beyond her to control?