Katara's ship is coming closer. There is no question now. She is coming back.
Zuko is tearing the palace apart. To build a new room for her chambers, he is expanding one of the courtyards and adding a lake. Soon anyone wishing to visit her suite must cross over a long and narrow bridge to reach it.
And then even sooner than expected she is here. She has returned. She is here.
In his throne room she is formal and polite, speaking of healing and trade. Of course, she is ignoring what was between them. It was nothing to her. She thought it was a mistake. She -
In private her gaze is for him again, her arms are for him again. He sinks into her and he thinks the uncertainty will drive him mad - when will she leave again, why does she stay.
When Katara sees the changes he's making in the palace she simply stares at him as if he's lost his mind.
He has. He has.
But she is with him again. There is no way for him to tell her what that means to him.
Zuko thinks of carving her a necklace. And then he thinks of summoning all the firebenders and earthbenders in his nation to create a new island for her out of the molten earth itself.