Author's Note: Hey everyone! This chapter was originally split in two, but both were fairly short, so instead I clumped them into one mega-chapter. As always, I love hearing from you all so please review and share with your friends! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own nothin'.

Zuko didn't hear about what happened in the Great Hall until the next day.

Toph had casually mentioned it in the breakfast line, as if Katara just broke a fingernail or got a bruise, rather than almost died.

"What?" Zuko exclaimed, slamming his tray on the counter.

"Whoa, calm down there Hotpants. She's fine, just a little shaken."

"I'm not surprised considering she could have died." Zuko knew he was talking a little too loudly, acting a little too angry. But he couldn't stop hearing the Empress's voice in his mind.

"Relax Zuko. I won't tell anyone."

"Really?"

She nodded. "In fact, I have a favor to ask of you."

Zuko wasn't sure what to make of this. At this point he would've done almost anything to make sure she kept his secret. Truthfully, he didn't want to have to kill her—she had just healed him. She and Katara were so alike in that way; too compassionate. And every time he looked at the Empress, he saw her daughter. He didn't know exactly what to make of this, or what it meant. But he did know it would be hard to kill the woman standing before him, drying her hands on a white embroidered towel.

"I want you to watch over Katara."

Zuko jerked back. "You want me to what?"

A crease formed between Kya's eyebrows. "There may come a time when I am not able to protect her," she said, her voice suddenly thick with emotion. "I need to know that you will be there. That you will protect her in my stead."

"I-I don't know…." He had no idea what to say. The whole reason he was here, at the palace, was to kill the royal family—namely Katara, the Emperor's successor. Not to protect her.

"I've seen the two of you," Kya continued, her eyes softening. "Whatever you believe your purpose is here, I implore you to look inside of yourself, to find the truth. She will need you to."

The terrible thing was, right after that he had went downstairs to talk to Katara, or Sokka, or someone, but had come across a certain open door that was never open. Despite it belonging to the most important inhabitant of the palace—or perhaps because of it—the door was very plain: simply carved wood and a gold handle. But he knew the two people who lived there. One of them was upstairs in a training room, healing or cleaning the dirty water she'd used to heal him. The other one?

Zuko's training kicked in. After looking up and down the hall, he pressed his ear against the open door. No voices or sounds indicated that anyone was in there, so he nudged it with his foot. It creaked further open, and he froze. But the room was dark, and silent, and so, like he had practiced a thousand times, he slid between the narrow crack between the edge of the door and its frame and clung to the wall like a spider-slug.

He was in the Emperor's chambers.

As it turns out, no one was in there. A maid or someone must have left the door open by accident. A pretty major accident, he thought. He got a good look at the place. It wasn't too different from Katara's chambers. There was one main room with a giant bed and dresser, as well as a bathroom off to the right. But there was another room with a slightly smaller bed and dresser to the left that smelled unmistakably of the Empress's perfume.

The Emperor and Empress were not sleeping in the same bed.

Zuko didn't know what this meant. From what he had gathered, both in his studies and by word-of-mouth, this was not a normal Water Empire custom. The Emperor and Empress always shared a bed. It was a symbol of the unity of the nation.

Distantly, he wondered if Katara knew.

He left the room soon after, returning the door to its slightly ajar state. So this hadn't been the right moment. Next time he was determined he would complete his mission.

Only as Zuko was walking up the stairs did the reality of it all really hit him. Had the Emperor been in his bed, could he have done it? Could he have walked up to him and sliced his throat? Could he have taken his life right there and then?

He was the Emperor of the Water Empire. He was a tyrant and a murderer.

He was also Katara's father. A terrible one, but her father nonetheless.

He was supposed to kill her too.

Whatever you believe your purpose is here, I implore you to look inside of yourself, to find the truth. She will need you to.

And now, here he was in Katara's room, lying on her bed, not knowing whether he was waiting for her because of what Kya had made him promise, or because he was genuinely concerned about what happened to her yesterday, or because he was going to kill her as soon as she walked through the door.

And then he sighed, because there was no way the latter was going to happen. At least not today.

He sat up when he heard the doorknob rattle. Katara walked through the door, hair disheveled, bags under her eyes. Her body sagged with fatigue and when she saw Zuko sitting there, she didn't even look surprised.

"Hi," she said, and closed the door.

"Hi." He had seen her only a few hours ago at her and Sokka's lesson, and though she looked tired, she'd been significantly more energetic. Now she was just burnt out. He hadn't gotten the chance to talk to her then because Sokka demanded Zuko give him a footrub immediately after his lesson— "A matter of life and death. For you, of course"—so he didn't have a choice.

Finally they were alone, and he moved over to give her room. "How are you? I heard about what happened yesterday."

She flung herself onto the bed. "Good news travels fast."

"Are you okay?" Zuko asked, leaning towards her. Her eyes fluttered open and focused on him. She searched his face for what seemed like an eternity before smirking.

"Zuko, we've got to stop doing this."

He frowned. What was 'this'? Caring about her? Believe me, he thought, I would love to stop. But apparently I hate myself, because I can't. "What do you mean?"

She chuckled tiredly. "This whole getting hurt thing. You get hurt and come to me, then I get hurt and you make sure I'm okay. It's kind of pathetic, and I'm pretty sure it's toxic for a friendship."

That make Zuko smile. "I agree. Let's switch it up a bit."

She pitched an eyebrow. "How?"

"What do you guys do for fun around here?"

Katara levelled a steady look at him. "Fun?"

He rolled his eyes and gave her a tired smile. "Yeah, fun. Even someone as boring and uptight as you must have had fun once in your life."

Katara stiffened. "I've had fun, Zuko. But I have more important things to worry about."

She strode over to the desk in the corner and sat down in front of the scroll she'd been writing on for the past few days. It had begun as an assignment for class—they had to translate a portion of an ancient scroll—but she had taken it upon herself to finish the whole thing. It was a lot of work and very time-consuming, but it was mindless. It helped pass the time. And because she was so engrossed in writing, she didn't have much room left to think about everything that was happening around her. Although visions of ice darts and her father's snarling face broke through every once in a while.

Zuko laughed from behind her and she huffed. Her brush moved more harshly now, and the strokes on the paper were thicker, rough. Where did he get off on talking to her like this? She knew she should put an end to it. It was stupid and dangerous, and if someone heard, they might assume things.

"Come on, Katara. What was your favorite thing to do as a kid? I know you didn't stay inside, copying old poems all day."

Her brush stilled as a memory flashed across the paper. She could see it now, like a moving picture in her mind: she and Sokka as children, a white hill, going impossibly fast, flying….

"Well…."

She felt him hover over her shoulder. "Well?"

"Our mothers did used to take us penguin sledding when we were kids."

He inhaled as if he were going to say something, but paused. When she looked at him, Katara saw a confused expression on Zuko's face.

"Mothers? As in, more than one?"

Katara cursed herself. She hadn't meant to let that detail slide.

She hadn't spoken of Reya in so long, and today had been the first time her name had been uttered within the palace walls for months. Most people knew about Reya, especially those who had been employed for years. But ever since her passing, the Emperor had insisted that her memory be just that—a memory. No one was supposed to talk about her. It was hard on Sokka; he hadn't had the chance to mourn properly. And now that she had been virtually erased from the palace—all her pictures taken down, her room emptied, her name prohibited—it was like she was a ghost. Worse—like she'd never existed at all.

She sighed softly and nodded. "Yes. Sokka and I share the same father, but have different mothers. His mother, Reya, passed only months ago."

There was a beat of silence, and when Katara looked at Zuko, his head had dropped. "Oh. I didn't know."

No, she wouldn't have expected him to know.

At times like this Katara felt sorry for her half-brother. Sure, he'd been a conniving jerk before his mother's death, but he really started to become the monster after she was gone. He hid his pain beneath his cleverness and ruthless jokes. Pain from losing his mother; pain from losing the throne he never had in the first place. He was technically second-in-line for the Water Empire crown, but he was a bastard; in the eyes of the Empire citizens, he was barely more fit to rule than Katara. Being a non-bender ruined any chance he had of obtaining power.

It was Kya's graciousness that allowed him to keep living in the castle after Reya was gone. And even though Hakoda hated letting Kya manipulate him like that, he did allow Sokka to stay. Katara hated her father for many things, but for this one matter she did not. In his own way, allowing Sokka to stay and grow up a Prince was her father's show of kindness. Of love. Katara still had yet to figure out how he loved her. Perhaps by not killing her as a baby. Maybe that was all the love she would ever get from him.

"So what's penguin sledding?"

Zuko pulled her out of her thoughts with that one question, and all the happy memories came falling back like an avalanche. She recalled the sharp chill of snow slipping in-between her parka and skin; the rush of sliding down the mountain on the back of the giant penguins that lived outside the city walls; the taste of the salty sea breeze mixed with the drifting flakes of snow that would fly into her mouth as she ran through the open air.

"The name is kind of self-explanatory."

Zuko chuckled and nudged her with his elbow. It made her mess up the scroll, but she found that she didn't really care.

And then she saw the glint in his eye, the dangerous, exhilarating look that she was beginning to recognize: he had a plan. She knew what he was about to say before he opened his mouth.

"I think I really need to see it to understand."

….

"I cannot believe you talked me into doing this," Katara hissed at him as they crouched behind a snow drift, close enough to each other that she could feel the heat emanating from beneath his parka.

"It wasn't that hard."

Katara playfully slapped him on the shoulder, but its effect was lost between layers of pelt and fabric. Zuko made a little motion with his hand and they bolted from the drift towards the guard station that marked the end of palace grounds and the beginning of the city. As they crept along the wall Katara heard voices from inside the hut and she held a gloved finger to her lips. Zuko nodded and they moved more slowly and breathed more softly until they were out of earshot. From there all they had to do was stick to back roads. The city itself was large, but the layout was uniform, like a grid. They made a straight shot for the city limits and Katara bent a hole in the wall just large enough for them to slip out of.

Zuko made a quiet noise of excitement as soon as the hole was filled and Katara had to admit she felt excited too. It seemed like ages since she'd snuck out with Toph. And even then she had told the guards where they were going. This time, no one knew where she was or who she was with. The thrill of it all was intoxicating.

The air seemed fresher, the snow whiter when she wasn't bound by her title. Now all they had to do was get back without being caught. Just the thought made her throat dry and chest clench, but when Zuko grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the Cliffside, she couldn't help but feel a little warmer inside.

Katara led them to the East where she knew a drop-off led to a valley in which a raft of penguins lived. Sure enough, when they peered over the edge to the ground below, they saw at least fifty giant penguins milling about without a care in the world. Zuko looked at her with wide eyes, even the scarred one, and a child-like smile.

"It's like you've never seen penguins before," Katara laughed.

"I haven't!"

Right, she thought. Stupid. Of course he wouldn't have seen penguins before. They couldn't survive in the Fire Nation. They needed the colder climate. Zuko didn't comment on her ignorance, though. He barreled down the side of the cliff, slipping every so often on a loose bit of snow, and she followed.

"So what did you do for fun as a kid?" she called after him, slightly out-of-breath.

There was no one else around, and the wind was quieter down here, so she could hear him when he replied, "Oh you know, the usual."

"No, I actually don't know." The usual for a Fire Nation peasant was undoubtedly different from that of a Water Empire royal.

Zuko stopped suddenly and turned around. He held out a hand and Katara looked down to see a small mound of snow hovering above a good three-foot drop. He was offering to help her.

She took his hand and tried to ignore the gentle spark of electricity that shot down her fingertips. He laughed as she jumped and landed unsteadily on the snow below.

"My sister and I did what all kids did—went to war council meetings and had tea with the Earth King."

"Liar!" she exclaimed and bent a snowball into his face. He shouted, half-mad half-joking as he wiped the moisture from his eyes. The snow had stopped falling and she could see him more clearly now. Even though it was midday it was still pretty cold, and Zuko's nose and the tips of his ears had turned bright red. But his eyes were bright and alive. She wondered if she looked like that, if the cold made her look alive. She didn't often feel alive, but today was the closest she had been in a while.

Zuko's cheeks flushed and he ducked his head. "You're right, I'm lying. Most of the time my sister and I fought with each other or our parents. But we had good times, too, playing with the turtleducks and visiting volcanoes and—"

"Wait," Katara interrupted as they started walking again. "Turtleducks? What are those?" She'd never heard of such a thing.

"Oh right," he mused, "I guess it's too cold here. They're the cutest things, but they have a nasty bite. I'll show you someday." He said this with such conviction, Katara actually stopped for a moment. He must have realized his mistake too, because she could see him flinch as his words sunk in. "I-I mean, if you ever go to the Fire Nation, you'll have to, you know, keep an eye out for them." He didn't turn around, but Katara could hear the embarrassment in his voice.

"Right. I knew what you meant," she said, trying to diffuse the sudden awkwardness that had fallen over them.

I'll show you someday…if only that were possible. Not that she wanted him specifically to show her. That'd be silly. No, she only wished to see the turtleducks he spoke of at some point in the future, preferably when she wasn't invading the country. Of course that's what she meant. And probably what he meant too.

By then they'd reached the bottom of the cliff. The penguins hadn't noticed them yet, and they crept around the group like they were hiding from the guards again. Katara approached the nearest penguin and, in one fluid motion, hopped onto its back. It bucked and tried to shake her off, but she held on tightly, laughing like a madman. She heard Zuko laugh too and she was glad the tension between them was gone. Before she knew it he had clambered onto his own penguin and was struggling to stay on. She squeezed the sides of her penguin and it took off, sliding on its stomach. She used her bending to smooth out the ice in front of them and their speed doubled, sending them hurtling towards a hill. Zuko was shouting behind her but she couldn't make out the words, and besides, she didn't care. She was suddenly transported 10 years into the past. She was a child again, and everything felt like it would be okay.

She screamed as they flew off the hill.

Only air lingered between her body and the ground. She was flying. Katara sat up and lifted her hands to the sky. She closed her eyes and felt the Southern sun on her lips, threaded through her hair, in the smooth space between her eyes. She could almost hear her mother cheering her on, Sokka calling her a cheater, her father telling her to slow down.

Or maybe that was Zuko.

Sure enough, when she opened her eyes she saw the ground hurtling towards her a lot faster than she had expected. She barely had enough time to bend a stream of water up to cradle their landing, and even then she tumbled off her penguin as soon as they hit the ground.

She lay there for a minute, in a daze, just staring at the sky. Up there, she'd honestly thought that she was 8 again. For just a moment suspended in time, she'd forgotten that everything had changed.

"Katara, slow down!" Zuko shouted, watching Katara become a blur in the distance. Although he'd never been penguin sledding before, and wasn't that good at it, it wasn't difficult to understand. Even he could tell that she was going way too fast.

As he watched helplessly, she caught the snowdrift, rising like a bird taking flight, and then she was gone, hidden beyond the white edge of the cliff. Suddenly Zuko was moving faster, hearing Kya's voice again, thinking foolishly that he could catch up, that he could still stop her, somehow….

And then he cursed out loud because how stupid could he get? Now he was running like a railcar towards the cliff and he didn't know how to stop and he was getting closer and closer and then he was airborne, screaming like a child and praying that his death would be mercifully swift.

Instead, he landed in a cloud.

A fluffy pile of pure white snow appeared beneath him and both Zuko and his penguin, now separated, landed right in the middle of it. He sunk down a few feet but the light blue sky still hovered overhead through the hole his body had made in the snow. And then Katara appeared above him and held out a hand.

"I'm so sorry, Zuko! Here, let me help you up."

Zuko took her hand and she pulled him up. The snow fell off of him like polar bear dog shedding its winter coat. Katara grabbed his other hand and yanked to get him out of the snow bank she had made, but Zuko tripped, his foot still stuck, and he fell towards her. His weight pulled them both to the ground and Zuko landed half on top of Katara, pushing her into the ground. Her hood fell back and her dark hair melted onto the pale snow like chocolate. He wasn't sure what had knocked the breath out of him—the fall or the sight of her.

What the hell?!

Why was he thinking stuff like that? What had possibly possessed him to think that way?

But obviously he wasn't the only one caught off-guard. Katara was blushing furiously, a dark rose color painting her cheeks and forehead. If her eyes weren't so bright and wild he might have thought it was just the cold. But she was staring at him like he had confessed some sort of secret.

He wondered if maybe he had.

Finally, the voice in the back of his head that always told him when he was acting like an idiot ordered him to get up. He obeyed and helped pull Katara to her feet. She seemed to find her voice again, because she wouldn't shut up.

"I'm so sorry, Zuko. I wasn't paying attention to the hill, and I was going way too fast. We should have found a safer trail, and I should have taught you how to stop, and—"

She looked so nervous that Zuko actually had to laugh. She stopped talking then, and her expression shifted from apologetic to annoyance in the empty space between a breath.

"Why are you laughing?"

This only made Zuko laugh harder. He was either being a jerk or a moron, one of the two, but he couldn't tell which, and at this point, he couldn't really stop. He doubled over which was pretty hard to do wearing six layers. The icy air scratched at his throat as he tried to manage a breath in between raspy laughs, and his eyes started to water. For a few moments Katara just glared at him, but then her façade cracked and she was smiling. Then she was giggling. Then she was laughing along with him, clutching her stomach and covering her mouth.

They both stopped when she snorted.

Zuko stared at her, wide-eyed, as she flushed bright red.

"Did you just…snort?"

"Shut up!" she shouted, her voice tinged with embarrassment and panic. But when Zuko started laughing again, she started laughing too. And snorting. Honestly, it was pretty cute. Not that he would ever tell her that. Or anyone. For anyone else he knew it would be weird, or gross, but it just fit Katara. He had a sneaking suspicion that she didn't get the chance to laugh—like, really laugh—very often, and who was he to deny her such a simple pleasure?

"It's—not—that—funny!" Katara managed to choke out between thrusts of laughter.

"It's pretty funny," Zuko shot back pathetically, earning himself a snowball to the shoulder. "Hey!" he shouted, and turned his back to another one coming for his face. He grabbed a handful of snow to chuck back at the Princess who had already begun making more. Of course when it got close to her she simply bent it back at him, but it distracted her long enough for Zuko to get behind a snow drift.

She definitely had the upper hand this time, being a waterbender surrounded by water. He wondered at how different this fight would be if he could use his bending too. He'd like to think it wouldn't be as difficult a fight. But as he got hit in the face for the third time, he wasn't so sure.

….

They returned to the palace as the sun was setting below the horizon, painting the sky a soft shade of pink. Zuko hesitated just for a moment before they snuck back in, drinking in the evening sun. It had been so long since he'd had the privilege to stand before it freely, even longer since he'd been able to use it to fuel his bending. It thrummed excitedly just under his skin and he had the near-irresistible urge to bend, just a little. Just to feel a flame in the palm of his hand. But Katara was standing right behind him holding the hole in the wall open for him.

"Zuko?" she asked, her voice soft but still brimming with the gaiety they'd both felt that day.

"I'm coming." Closing his eyes, he took one deep, final breath before following her back into the palace.

Zuko escorted Katara to her room, letting her lead him down a passage that he'd never been before.

"This place is full of secrets," she told him when he asked about it, a mischievous look on her face. "I'll tell you all about them someday."

It was precisely what he needed: Unlimited access, unique knowledge to give him the upper-hand. If he played his cards right, she would reveal everything he needed to complete his mission.

But it wasn't what he wanted.

He realized this with disheartening fervor as she reached back to take his hand and led him down another dark pathway, barely illuminated by the faint blue glow at the end of it. Just a flame in the palm of his hand. That's all it would take for her to realize what he was. She didn't have to know who. He couldn't share all of his secrets, but he didn't have to keep all of them in, either.

"Whatever you believe your purpose is here, I implore you to look inside of yourself, to find the truth. She will need you to." At the time, he didn't understand what the Empress meant, or why. He still didn't. But he did understand that things were changing. Things he used to think were true were being proved false. What he used to think was right was beginning to feel wrong.

They finally reached Katara's room and she went in, pausing at the threshold. "I had fun today," she said, holding the door open.

Zuko leaned against the wall. "Me too."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

They both stood still, watching each other, wanting something neither of them could identify. Zuko didn't want to leave. He thought maybe he could stand right there all night into the morning and he'd be perfectly content.

Katara smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling. "See you tomorrow, Fire Brat."

Zuko reached out and pulled on a loose strand of her hair. "Count on it, Princess."

Katara stumbled into her room, feeling like she'd drunk a whole barrel of cactus juice, and fell against the closed door. She could feel the dorky smile stretch across her face as if her skin were made of elastic. When was the last time she had really smiled like this?

It was then that she realized she wasn't alone.

At first she thought it was her father, and her heart began to race. Her blood boiled in her veins as her head went cold with fear. She'd been found out.

But when Toph emerged from the washroom Katara slumped to the floor with relief.

"Welcome back, Sugar Queen."

"Toph," Katara breathed, her face buried in her hands. They were shaking.

"Geez, what's got your royal panties in a bunch?"

Katara lifted her face just enough to shoot Toph a dirty look, even though she knew she couldn't see it. "I thought you were my father."

Toph laughed and walked to Katara's bed. She threw herself on it and spread out as if she owned the place. "Ha! Trust me, sweetness, I got nothing in common with your dad. If I were him, I'd have you under lock and key 24/7. Mr. Hothead's gonna get you in trouble one of these days."

"What?" Katara said. She sat up straight against the door, suddenly alert. Was she talking about Zuko?

"Don't try to deny it, Princess," she said in a deep voice, presumably supposed to sound like Zuko. "I know you like him."

"No I don't! What are you talking about?" Katara was usually a better liar than this. But her voice was too high and the inflection was all wrong. Toph had managed to catch her off-guard.

"You're lying. You like him," Toph sang with a smug smile on her face. Her black, stringy hair hung in front of her eyes, but Katara knew they'd be shining with the knowledge that she was right. She didn't know how it happened, but she wouldn't lie to herself. Not anymore, about anything.

Toph was right.

Still, she thought she'd done a pretty good job of hiding it. "How would you know?"

Toph shrugged and fell back to the bed. "I just do."

Katara wasn't very good at lying, but she was excellent at telling when other people were. Maybe Toph wasn't exactly lying, but she wasn't telling the truth either. But Katara couldn't waste time on figuring out what that was. She had to make sure Toph wasn't going to tell anyone.

She crawled over to the bed and knelt in front of the other girl. To a bystander it might look like she was begging. But Princesses don't beg.

"You cannot tell anyone, Toph. Promise me."

Toph sat up so they were eye-level, and Katara peered at her imploringly, hoping she'd somehow understand. She had to understand. If anyone found out about her and Zuko…well, it wouldn't be good for either of them. Toph simply stared back with an empty expression, contemplating. She had a pretty good poker face.

Finally, her eyebrows rose. "Tell anyone what?"

A sigh escaped from Katara's lips and her shoulders sagged as if a weight had melted off of them. "Thank you."

"But what's in it for me?"

Katara pulled back. "What do you want?" At this point she would probably give the girl anything in the entire world, but she didn't want to seem desperate. Toph stood up and walked the perimeter of the room, rubbing her chin as if considering her options. Although, knowing Toph, she probably already knew exactly what she wanted. Katara sat on her bed and started taking off her wet clothes. Her boots were soaked from earlier and her gloves were still caked with snow. She probably should have ditched the clothes before they came back to the palace, but she hadn't been thinking straight. Or at all. If she had been thinking, she would not have gone out with Zuko in the first place.

But then the day flashed before her eyes, and she realized that if she had the opportunity to do everything again, she wouldn't change a thing.

Katara stripped down to her undergarments and bent the moisture out of her clothing as Toph returned to the bed, still thinking. Finally, after Katara had hung up her clothes by the door, Toph announced her compromise.

"Alright, here's the deal Sugar Queen. I won't tell anyone about Hotpants if you help me with a friend."

Katara's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, 'help you with a friend'?"

"A friend of mine was shipped here with the refugees from Omashu. I need to see him, except that he works outside the palace, in the capital."

Katara gave her a level look. The request was fairly simple and straightforward. It wouldn't be too weird for Katara to take a trip into the city with one of her handmaidens; they'd already done it once before. No one would suspect anything.

But why did she need to see this 'friend'? How did she even know that he had come here in the first place? Distant alarms were going off in the back of Katara's mind, but she ignored them. Even if the circumstances were strange, it was a small price to pay for her secret to be kept.

Katara walked to the girl. She took her hand and shook it once.

"Deal."