A/N: I have Sozin's comet broken up into three parts. Helps me get the chapters out faster, anyway.
Thankyou to all my wonderful reviewers and followers! You guys are great!

"Broken lover,

Yes I made you

Believe that I

Would be the one

To heal you."

- 2am Club

There's an ache in the back of my head when I wake. I feel groggy and tired, though it oddly feels as if I've been asleep for days. Afternoon sunlight is streaming in through the window. There's a steady throb of pain between my legs. And I'm naked. Why am I naked? I try to sit up slowly, despite the panicky feeling that is settling around my ribcage.

What have I done?

I survey the area around me.

This is not my room. It's much larger, even the bed I'm on is bigger than the one I'd been sleeping on the past few nights. There's a wooden desk in the far right corner with a vanity mirror above it. And just beside it, a set of double doors that lead onto a balcony. Most of the other rooms in the house have a lot of plastic covered furniture and boxes. This one looks almost untouched. I've never seen this room.

The panic in my chest gives a squeeze and I lean forward, tucking my legs beneath me as I move toward the foot of the bed. I see my Sarashi wraps, leggings and robe crumpled in a heap on the plush red carpet. I slap my palm against my face.

You had sex with Zuko last night. Sex. With Zuko.

My teeth start to chatter. I could've sworn I dreamt all of that. Or rather, I was hoping that I'd dreamt it. The last thing I really remember is finishing off his bottle of fire whiskey. I don't recall making it back inside the house. I guess Zuko was right about that stuff being strong.

I clamber off the foot of the bed, slipping from the red sheets and onto the floor. My knees wobble slightly beneath me. Maybe it's a good thing that I don't remember the rest of the night.

I gather my clothes in my hands and pull my robe back over my shoulders. My limbs protest almost every movement that I make and my stomach is painfully queasy. It must be the lingering effects of the alcohol. So, first there's the awful taste and then there's the awful feeling the next morning. And the fact that it makes you lose time. What exactly makes alcohol so appealing, I wonder? I don't plan on drinking any again, not for a long time.

A picture hanging on the left wall catches my eye. The frame is gold and the entire thing is rather large. Bigger than most portraits I've seen. The painting depicts four people, a family. And I know right away who they are. But just to be sure, I read the engraving in the bottom right corner.

Ozai, Ursa, Zuko, Azula.

I study each of their faces. Ozai looks serious, or bored maybe, I can't really decipher. His face is drawn together in a hard line. He's shoulder to shoulder with Ursa. And she is beautiful. Her hair is pulled away from her face, which is relaxed and yet somehow…sad. Azula is standing in front of her parents, smirking. She is a very simple person to read. She looks as if she's contemplating doing something terrible. My guess is that she was. Zuko is beside her. I've never known Zuko without the scar that mars his left eye. He must have been very young in this picture. It's strange to see only pale skin covering Zuko's face. It seems off, somehow. I can't quite put a finger on why. But the look on Zuko's face is hard to understand. Happy in a way, but something about how the small smile doesn't reach his eyes is misleading. I wonder…

I hear a noise from the side of the bed and jerk with fright, so much so that I nearly fall over. After a long and shaky inhale, I force myself to search for the source of the noise. I inch my way back toward the bed, taking baby steps. I hear another groan, a sound that had become very familiar to me the previous night.

I peer around the bed and sure enough, Zuko is sprawled on the floor. His head is rested on his right arm, his left hanging awkwardly across his waist. One leg is hidden underneath the mattress frame, the other curled up to his chest. He's as naked as I was. I imagine him falling off the bed and being too drunk to find his way back on. It's a funny thing to imagine. Zuko drank a lot more than I did, that much I can be sure of. I wonder how badly he'll be hurting when he finally wakes up.

But I don't want to stick around and find out.

I tighten the sash on my robe around me and hurry out into the hallway, trying to run from the situation entirely. It takes me a few moments to find my room. I wonder how much noise Zuko and I made on our way inside last night. I wonder if Toph heard us…

That would be the icing on the cake, really.

I rush into the shower, desperate to feel the cold water on my skin. Atleast I can have this small comfort. Though I can't really say that what happened last night came as any surprise to me. It was bound to happen eventually. I guess. It just seems so wrong, given the fact that just a few weeks ago, Zuko was my sworn enemy. We've battled and fought eachother, lied to eachother, run from eachother. And then last night we… like it was nothing.

I don't want to think about last night. It makes my heart pound and my head spin and I'm already confused enough.

Maybe I'll just chalk it up to we were drunk and we got carried away. And I'll let it go. Maybe.

"There you are!" Toph shouts when I come downstairs. "I thought you were never gonna get out of the shower."

I smile nervously as I make my way toward her. I want to ask her about last night, but I figure it's a moot point. It's not like she could have anything comforting to say.

"Rough night?" She asks, her lips curling into an evil smile.

I nearly bite through my bottom lip. "Um…"

The back door is thrown open. I think I'm seeing things until I hear Sokka speak. "Well, it's about time!" His voice manages to calm and excite me all at once and I stumble over my feet as I launch myself into his arms. For a long moment, we stay this way. Just listening to the other's breathing and trying to be sure of eachother.

Dante walks inside and interrupts our reunion. "That's sweet." He says when he sees us. And he genuinely means it.

For the first time, I notice Sokka's appearance. He and Dante are both wearing red robes and black pants, doing their best to blend in with the Fire Nation citizens in town.

"Are you the only ones here?" I ask.

Sokka has distracted himself with the bowl of fruit on the table, so it's Dante who answers me. "The rest of the soldiers are a few hundred yards at bay in the submarines near the dock down the road. This is a strange place for us to be meeting. Who lives here, anyway?"

Always showing up at inopportune times, Zuko fumbles down the stairs, his hair still wet from the shower he must have had. Really, I would have atleast liked to give Sokka and Dante an explanation before they witnessed Zuko in person. Zuko sees the other men and his gaze turns to me. I look away quickly, trying to hide the furious blush that has settled on my cheeks and neck.

"Who's this?" Sokka asks, directing the question toward me.

Zuko folds his arms across his chest defensively. "This is my house."

Sokka's eyes meet mine for further explanation.

"This is Zuko. Crown Prince of the Fire Nation." Toph announces, delighting in the awkward tension that her words have created. Dante takes a very visible step back and Sokka straightens, dropping the apple in his hand back into the bowl. "Don't worry, he's harmless."

Zuko's eyes narrow at her comment.

"Yeah. He's harmless." I reiterate.

"Katara?" Sokka is incredulous.

Toph hops up on the kitchen table, swinging her legs leisurely. "You're way behind times. Zuko joined Team Avatar."

"Is this the same Zuko who-" Sokka catches my pleading stare to not, for the love of all things spiritual, finish that sentence, and pauses. "What do you mean you joined Team Avatar?"

"I'm fighting to end this war and my father's reign." Zuko says.

Dante coughs.

Sokka snorts. "You mean, you're fighting to restore your spot on the throne?"

"Sokka." I scold, not meeting anyone's looks. I hadn't given what would happen when they met much thought. Now I'm thinking that I should have.

"Who wants watermelon juice?" Toph offers, a huge grin across her face. She really loves this kind of stuff.

"Wait a minute!" Dante exclaims, looking every which way around the kitchen. "Where's the Avatar?"

All of our heads jerk up as we collectively notice his absence.

"Where's Aang?" I ask, stepping right in front of Toph.

A look of panic crosses her face. "I don't know. I was gonna ask you the same thing, but you took forever upstairs and then your brother showed up! I already checked his room."

"Brother?" Zuko asks, joining the rest of us in the kitchen. After another second of consideration he says, "Makes sense."

I can't believe this. We lost Aang. "Where did you see him last?"

"Going to bed. Same as you." Toph says, holding her arms out as if trying to prove that she has nothing to hide.

"We need to find him. Sokka, Dante, come with me. I'll explain the Zuko situation, but we need to find Aang. Now." I grab their arms and start to haul them out the door before they can protest.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Sparky." I hear Toph tell Zuko as we're leaving.

He's probably just on the beach or meditating somewhere. Don't freak out, Katara.

I can't shake the awful feeling that Aang decided to run rather than face the Fire Lord after all. I wouldn't blame him if he did. And that's basically how most Air Nomads would react to a fight. But Aang would never do that to us. He would never leave without an explanation. He has to be around here somewhere. Maybe he enlisted someone's help in the Spirit World. Someone who can teach him about the Avatar State. I don't know, but not knowing where he is at all times really terrifies me. Especially when we're already in the Fire Nation, so near the Fire Lord's clutches.

It took two hours for us to scour the beach and the skies, but there was no sign of Aang. The fact that Appa is still here is rather comforting, because atleast he couldn't have gone far. He even left his air staff! Toph and Zuko found a path of Aang's footprints in the sand, leading into the ocean. His body is gone, so he isn't in the Spirit World either. It's like he vanished.

Or was kidnapped, which seems like a more plausible solution. Sokka insists that isn't the case, because there were no other sets of footprints on the beach and no sign of a struggle. It would be comforting, if Aang hadn't just up and mysteriously disappeared. A sinister explanation seems most likely. I try not to dwell too hard on that thought because it makes me hyperventilate.

Dante went back to the other men in the submarines to let them know what's happened. Their plan for the day of Sozin's comet is to try and wrangle key trade and travel routes out of Fire Nation control, to help a larger fleet of those trying to take down the Fire Nation into enemy territory. The submarines are the only way of traveling in and out of Fire Nation waters without being detected.

Without Aang, we can't really formulate anything else as far as plans go. If he doesn't show up by the time Sozin's comet arrives, we're just going to have to go ahead without him. Do what we can to stop the Fire Lord from destroying the Earth Kingdom. Try our best to take back conquered cities before the Fire Nation becomes too powerful.

Sokka takes a seat beside me on the steps of the royal beach house. I rest my head against his shoulder. Toph is a few steps down from us, stretched fully across one of them. Everyone is quiet as we try and make sense of what is going to happen two days from now. Without the Avatar to help, we might as well give ourselves over to Ozai now.

Zuko walks up the sandy entryway with his shoulders slumped forward in a defeated way. I wish he would just go away. Whenever he's around, I feel myself start to sweat and there's always this dull ache in my chest to accompany it. It makes concentrating rather difficult.

"Well," Zuko sighs, wiping his arm across his forehead, "I checked the beach again. It's like he just…disappeared."

I feel Sokka shift beside me. It was no easy task trying to explain to him and Dante why "Team Avatar" was willing to accept Zuko into our group. Sokka knows that Zuko was responsible for Aang and me winding up in a Fire Nation prison a few months back. No one knows much about my encounters with Zuko between then and now, and Sokka knows nothing of them. Zuko has done a few questionable and sketchy things in the time. But he did save my life on multiple occasions, he did help us escape from Azula, he offered up his beach house as a hideout, and he makes tea. So I guess those events are redeeming enough. Sokka gave in, atleast. Now he just regards Zuko with suspicious indifference that borders on aversion.

"The comet will be here in two days." Sokka reports grimly.

Toph looks up, her head turned toward Zuko when she asks, "What should we do?"

Zuko frowns. "Why are you looking at me?"

"Well…" I answer, unable to meet his gaze. "You are kind of the expert on tracking Aang."

Sokka coughs.

"Yeah. If anyone's got experience hunting the Avatar, it's you." Toph adds.

Zuko considers this for a moment, alternating between scratching the back of his head and propping his chin against his fist. Finally, he nods. "Alright, I have an idea."

Well, that's never a good thing.