Katalina decided to stay home the next day rather than helping at the wall again. She had slept well the night before, but she was still exhausted; she knew she wouldn't have the energy to do much work. So instead she just lounged around the house. And by early afternoon, there was a knock on her door.

"Iroh, how are you?" she greeted him as she let him inside.

"I'm well. You?"

"Exhausted." She closed the door. "What brings you here?"

"Is Jet here?"

"No, he's out helping around the city."

"Good. I wanted a chance to speak with you privately again."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, I just want to discuss Zuko with you."

She sighed. "What about him?"

"Can you be honest with me?"

"About what?"

"How you feel?"

"Iroh, come on, it's been three years since I last saw him! I honestly don't know how the hell I feel about him or how I will feel once I see him again! So don't come here asking me about him because that's not fair!"

"Please calm down, Katalina."

"It's not fair," she said again.

"What isn't fair?"

She buried her face in her hands. "The truth isn't fair."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know what the truth is," she started once she removed her hands from her face. "But I do know that the truth hurts." She took a deep breath and let it out exasperatedly. "I haven't seen Zuko in three years. Who knows how I feel about him or how he feels about me? No matter what, though, one of us is going to end up being hurt."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because Zuko and I both have awful luck."

"Luck has nothing to do with it."

She shook her head. "I'm not even sure what our friendship will be like when he comes back."

"If you two were best friends then, you two will still be best friends now. Nothing will be very different."

"Of course everything will be different! We've both grown up so much. We've both gone through all these changes and—"

"Good changes," he cut her off. "Changes that won't have an effect on your relationship with Zuko."

"You don't know that for sure."

"I know you and I know my nephew."

"But it's not that simple."

"Because you're making it more difficult than it needs to be."

"Well, not everything can be simple. Because if everything was simple by choice then nothing would be worth fighting for. It's not a choice, though. I mean, if I had told myself that fighting the Colonies would be easy, it wouldn't have made fighting them any easier. It still would've been just as difficult as if I didn't tell myself it would be easy. So don't tell me that I'm making it less simple."

"Please calm down," he replied. "I just fought the same war against the Fire Nation and helped put an end to it. So I don't need to start a war against you now."

"I'm sorry. I just get aggravated when people claim life to be effortless when life is the most painful thing to go through." She sighed. "You know, maybe it'd be better if we just stay separated."

"Who?"

"Me and Zuko."

"How would that be better?"

"That way I couldn't screw anything up."

"This is something you've always done, Katalina. For whatever odd reason you always doubt yourself. Don't get me wrong, you do have self-confidence, but you still second guess yourself when it comes to making important and crucial decisions. Like yours and Zuko's friendship that you apparently just want to let go of."

"That's not what I'm getting at," she denied.

"Well, you best figure it out because Zuko will be back in Ba Sing Se by the end of the week."

Her eyes widened. "What?" she exclaimed. "That's not enough time!"

"I can use the time left to prepare you."

"I'd rather just work on the city as a distraction."

"You do need to be prepared, though."

"Because things have changed, right?"

"Good changes," he said again.

"Right. Because the last time I saw Zuko he was off to go capture the Avatar. Now, three years later, he's coming here to Ba Sing Se as the Avatar's friend."

"Yes, that would be a good change."

"Even good changes can have negative effects."

"What could possibly be negative about that?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, he's also coming here as the new Fire Lord. The last time I saw him he was the banished prince."

"All right. How about you stop thinking about the changes? Instead think about what'll be the same. For instance, the way you two feel about each other hasn't changed."

"Exactly. We're both still just friends."

He chuckled, shaking his head at her. "So long as you believe that you two will still be able to be friends, then yes, nothing has changed."

"No. You can't just deny that things have indeed changed."

"But you and Zuko will be the same. And isn't that what matters most?"

"I dunno. I guess…"

"Katalina, listen to me. The world changes just as people change. That's life. It's full of change, whether you want it to be or not."

"And that's what makes life the most painful thing to go through," she reiterated. "And it's the only thing we go through."

"Why do you think that? Why do you think it's the most painful thing?"

"I know it is," she corrected him in declaration. "Just look at me and Zuko. We have both been put through so much. I mean, with Zuko getting burned and disowned by Ozai. And then with me growing up in a country that started a war that I was against and my parents ignoring my existence because of that…" she trailed off, shaking her head. "Those are all things that are hard to deal with."

"That's true," he agreed, "they hard to deal with. But you and Zuko did deal with them. And you both managed to pull through in the end."

"And all the fighting has made us that much stronger."

"See? Everything has a reward, even if you don't realise it at first."

She smiled sheepishly. "I guess that's true." She let out another sigh. "I'm just glad this war is finally over. That's one change I'm obviously happy about."

"I would assume so."

"It's just that…" she trailed off again.

"Yes? What is it now?"

Katalina took a deep breath before looking Iroh straight in the eye. "What comes after war?"