He and Katara walked together through the streets. He could tell something was bothering her by how stiffly she was treating the citizens around her. Zuko had barely made it through the door of their shared house when she showed up and dragged him with her to get some food. Now they walked the streets with him carrying a large bag in both arms. Everyone they passed gave him a broad smile and their thanks for saving one of their own, Zuko had to admit that he liked the change but Katara's jumpy attitude was starting to worry him. Something was wrong. And he had his own problems to worry about to.

His suspicions about her being jumpy were confirmed when the made it back to the house. She rushed ahead of him and closed all of the curtains and then closed the door and locked it. After setting the bags on the counter he grabbed her arm as she was racing by again.

"Tara stop," he said firmly, "What's going on?" She looked up at him with concern written all over her face.

"I was right," she stated simply before pulling her arm out of his grasp and ran down the hallway. Zuko stared after her in confusion before shaking his head and starting to put away the groceries. When he finished he turned around to see her sitting on the sofa in the other room with her head in her hands. He slowly walked over at sat next to her, not saying anything but allowing her a few moments of thoughtful silence.

"Katara, what's wrong?" He asked quietly.

She looked up and her body heaved with a sigh, "My father is having me followed. He already suspects that I'm going to try and stop him," she said, staring at nothing in particular. But her answer only caused more questions to rise up in his chest.

"Wait, what? Did I miss something?" He replied, surprised that she'd managed to get in trouble without him around to help.

She gave a lopsided smile and turned her head slightly so that she was looking at him. "Yeah, I went to a meeting with the Gaang and my father after you disappeared," Zuko felt queasy, hoping she wouldn't ask to many questions about that, "Suki and I explained what happened last night in the village," she paused and looked away from him with a angry look on her face.

"And?" He said urging her to continue.

She huffed and looked back at him, "My father and the council took a vote to attack the Fire Nation villages, and he wants to use you to do it."

Zuko's mind was whirling, he understood now why she was so anxious before. Chief Hakoda was going to attack people who had nothing to do with the war, he was going to cause unjustified death. It would be a massacre, a slaughter, a raid. It would be just as bad as the attacks that his father ordered. And the chief wanted him to lead them? No, absolutely not. Zuko was done killing innocent, harmless, and defenseless people.

"No, not going to happen," he finally said.

Katara was relieved to hear him say that; at least now she knew that she wouldn't be standing alone. But she was still worried about what that would mean for Zuko and she looked at him with concern.

"You do realize that defying an order from the council is treason right?" She asked quizzically, but she didn't need him to answer, she already knew that he wouldn't be used as her father killing pawn.

He scoffed and looked at her with glint of mischief in his eyes, "That's the fun part."

She laughed out loud at this and stood, stretching her arms as she walked into the kitchen, "Well good, then we can be executed together!" She called teasingly behind her as she got two cups and prepared some ice water for the two of them.

"He wouldn't execute his own daughter," she heard him say as he sat at one of the stools behind the counter, "Would he?" He added quietly. She put his cup in front of him and she sat in the stool next to his.

"He would if he thought I was a traitor," she grumbled, "My father would execute anyone even thought to be plotting with a captured traitor." She knew that he would too. If Zuko was found to be a traitor or the prince that he'd claimed he wasn't then she would immediately face the death penalty as well. But Katara wasn't worried about that, she trusted him. He'd saved her life after all.

"Harsh," she heard him mutter under his breath.

"Yeah, no kiddin'. It's a wonder someone hasn't already tried to overthrow him."

Not a moment after the comment left her lips, Zuko chocked on his water. She looked at him with an amused smile on her face before placing her finger on his chest and dragged it upward, drawing the water from his lungs and casting it into the sink.

"Thanks," he sputtered.

"You alright there, Sparky?" She asked teasingly, bumping his arm with her elbow. He grimaced at the nickname earning more laughter from her.

"We're going to overthrow your father?" He asked timidly; the solemn question silenced her laughs and she nodded seriously, "I thought we were suppose to be trying to figure out a way to defeat my- the Fire Lord," He spoke quickly and she almost missed it. But she heard it.

"'My' what?" She asked, suddenly on her feet, all of the possibilities rolling through her head. But only one seemed to fit.. 'My father'.

He stood frantically, reaching out to her, "Katara, no please lis-"

"'My' what, Zuko?!" She felt panic building in her chest.

No no no, not again.

"Leader! I was going to say leader but I realized that that wouldn't make sense since I don't follow Ozai anymore." He spat out as fast as he could, he'd seen the panic in her eyes and knew what she would have immediately thought; he could only hope that she accepted his meager explanation. He didn't want to hide his identity from her, he believed that he earned

He saw her looking at him with suspicion before she took a deep breath and she let out a nervous chuckle, "Wow, sorry. I don't know where that came from," she said before sitting back down, and he followed suit.

"I didn't mean to worry you," he said quietly as an apology, and he truly hadn't. And more then that, he hadn't meant to slip up so obviously.

She shook her head, "It's fine. But back to what you said before; yes, we do want to usurp Ozai's rule. But, I realized that it means nothing if there isn't better leadership ready to make the steps toward peace. And I doubt a man who want's to attack innocent people is going to be a good peacekeeper; and even if we take down Ozai, next in line is Prince Zuko and/or Princess Azula," she shook her head, making her point.

Zuko was slightly hurt that she doubted his abilities at peace. But then again, she didn't know that it was him who was next in line for the Fire Nation throne, "What do you know of the prince?" He asked, trying his luck.

She looked at him with a confused look on her face, "Don't you know anything?"

He shook his head in response, "I heard plenty about the princess, but it was like the prince didn't even exist for a few years," He said slowly, it was true after all, he imagined that his people would have thought him dead. There was no way his father would have risked damaging his reputation by announcing that he had a death wish for the heir to the throne.

She looked off thoughtfully, he could almost see the gears turning,"The scar... disappearing... Oh my gosh!" She exclaimed, her eyes growing wide, "That explains it!"

"What?" He asked, daring to believe that she'd actually figured it out.

Her shocked expression grew pained, "The Prince is an Ignis Furis! He must have been so young too, how could any father do that?" She scoffed in disgust. Zuko wanted to smile, she was the first person he'd met who'd been able to figured it out.

"I don't know," he answered simply, keeping a straight face.

"I can't believe any father would just kill his child," she spat.

Zuko furrowed his eyebrows at this, "What do you mean?"

She sighed, "Well, they're known for being cruel, heartless, and immune to emotion right? Never questions orders. The perfect soldier. When you do that to a person you're taking away what makes them human, he turned him into his own personal monster." She seemed so sure when she said it, like she knew without a doubt that she was right.

With every sentence she spoke Zuko felt like he was taking another arrow to the chest. If she found out who he was, what he was, no. He couldn't think about that, there are far more important things that he needed to worry about.

"Yeah I guess so," he reluctantly agreed, "But there is more to worry about too," he said, wishing that he didn't have more bad news.

She looked at him, narrowing her eyes, "What is it?"

"I went to see the archer," he replied after a few moments.

"Why would you do that?" She said with surprise lacing her voice.

"Well," he started, "That poison would only affect a fire bender, I'm the only one within the city besides the boy and no one could have known about him. So I figured that they must have been after me, not you." They sat in silence for a few minutes as she considered what he'd said.

"Why did they want to kill you?" She finally asked, breaking the silence.

Zuko released a frustrated sigh, "Apparently shes working for people who know who I am, and they know what I'm going to do. And they wanted to stop me before I had a chance to discover it for myself," he said, the anger clear in his voice.

He heard her scoff, "Of course, kill the bird before it can learn to fly," she replied bitterly before her forehead creased in concern, "But if these people are after you as well, then that means we have enemies on all sides."

"I know," he said solemnly, "But we have allies as well," he said, perking up as he remembered those who would help them.

"Who?" She asked.

"Well," he started wit a smile, "The greatest earth bender of all time, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors, and councilmen Sokka. I'd say we have a fighting chance," he said, earning a spout of laughter from her.

"Councilmen Sokka? Good luck getting that to stick," she replied with a smile.

"You never know, anything could happen."

Sorry, I had to cut it off there or I would have never been able to stop :p I'm getting so so so so excited about this! :D

The Fall Of The Phoenix is finally up! :D It's just a short oneshot about Azula after everything happened in the series. I'm pretty proud of it if I do say so myself, so check it out!

Another thing... only one review last chapter? Ouch guys, ouch.

Happy reading!

Kmsitterley