You said I'm stubborn and I never give in

I think you're stubborn 'cept you're always softening

You say I'm selfish, I agree with you on that

-Adele, My Same

"That…really does not look right."

Zuko's nostrils flared as the half-formed tent in his hands crumbled into a mess of poles in his hands. "I wasn't finished."

"I can tell." The smug, lilting tone in Katara's voice was infuriating. "Shouldn't someone who's been travelling for years know how to pitch a tent?"

"I'm great at pitching tents." Zuko growled, turning around to scowl at Katara, only to see her bust into a giggle fit. Realizing what he had said, Zuko blushed and turned away. "That's not the way I meant it."

"I know." Katara smirked down at him. "Do you need help?"

"I'll be fine." Zuko muttered, attempting to continue building his tent. It was well into the evening, firebugs flashing everywhere around him. Romjak's speech about everyone working together, village safety precaution, and more of what Zuko considered 'Avatar-feel-good-words' had lasted only over an hour. Newcomers had been directed to grab a bowl of stew and report to their assigned living space. Zuko had retrieved tents for himself and his Uncle and had reported to the base of a group of ironwoods like a good little villager. Iroh was busy chatting with a group of Earth Kingdom villagers beside the roaring bonfire in the center of the clearing, and Zuko had taken it upon himself to set up for both of them. In the next few days they were supposed to receive a more permanent placement once things were shuffled around up above in the treehouses. Iroh's tent had gone up without a hitch, but his was refusing to cooperate. And of course, now the spirits-cursed waterbender would show up.

"Are you sure?" she sounded like she was struggling not to laugh at him again. "I've done hundreds of these."

"You've pitched hundreds of tents?" Zuko's eyebrow twitched.

Katara opened and closed her mouth. Zuko felt a smug satisfaction. He could play too.

"What job did you get?" She blurted, stepping around him to grasp a couple of the tent poles and snap them together.

"Blacksmith. Sort of." Zuko said, pulling fabric onto the ends of poles. Stupid design. Stupid Earth Kingdom design.

"Moswren's nice." Katara said. At Zuko's blank look, she said: "The blacksmith. His name is Moswren."

"Oh. That's good." The tent popped up, properly assembled. "Listen, Katara-"

"Chizu." She amended quietly.

"Chizu." Zuko cleared his throat. "I know that, you know, I used to chase you and your friends around the world, but-"

"Zuko-"

"Lee."

"Lee." Katara sighed. "That was…a lifetime ago. So many things have happened since we were under Ba Sing Se." He saw her hands twitch reflexively in her lap, saw the look of loss on her face. "I know people can change. I have." She met his eyes, hands clasping together in front of her. "But," He cringed: there was always a 'but'. "the last time I extended my trust to you, you slammed it back in my face and tried to kill Aang." She smiled, he thought sadly, at him. "I don't know if I can ever fully forgive or trust you."

"I understand." Zuko said, bowing his head. "I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking for a chance at redemption."

"We can only receive redeem from ourselves, nephew." Zuko and Katara jumped as Iroh spoke from behind them. The old man beamed at the tents. "Wonderful job, Lee! The tents look wonderful."

"Thanks, Uncle."

"Miss Chizu." Iroh bowed his head towards her, and she returned the gesture. "Thank you for allowing two travelers to rest at your lovely home."

"Of course, Mushi." Katara smiled at him. "I hope you find it comfortable." Her eyes darted to Zuko and back again. "Do you know how long you'll be staying?"

"As long as my nephew will let me." The old man chuckled. "His feet are restless, much like his spirit."

Katara's smile only looked a little forced. "Great." She looked around her, at the bonfire in the clearing, at Zuko's tent, and down to her own hands. "Well, I'll see you both at breakfast?" She directed the question to Iroh. He beamed at her.

"Of course! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

Katara left with a laugh. Zuko watched her wind her way through the camp, waving at people she recognized, but never touching anyone. He remembered the Avatar's waterbender being much very…liberal with hugs.

"Are you alright nephew?" Zuko nodded. "It is hard to face one's past demons, especially when one has worked so hard to leave them in the past."

"Yes, Uncle."

***Line break***Line break***Line break***

"That's stupid!"

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, it is! Why would you boil them when you could fry them?"

"That's a stupid question."

"No it's not!"

The people around them rolled their eyes and smiled as the pair wandered across the forest floor. After two months of hearing it, they were used to Chizu bickering with the newcomer Lee over…pretty much everything. While the newcomers were slightly shocked, the longtime residents only smiled. It was so nice to see her speaking in a way that wasn't a part of her chores, of her duty. They get to see her, not her doing a job. Most of them had grown up around Romjak's adoptive daughter, and while she did have friends, they were few and far between. She wasn't known for being an open person about herself. But if someone's clothes had been chewed on by a lemur or someone didn't like their neighbor's smelly socks on the clothesline, she was the first one there with a smile and a solution.

The newcomers had been introduced to Chizu as someone of importance, someone they had to listen to. Seeing her bickering over how to cook eels with someone they arrived with was…weird. Like they knew each other. And had for a long time. The residents had questions of their own, but kept them to themselves. For the time being, anyway.

"Well, if you ever took a turn cooking, we'd find out which is better!"

"I'm a man! I have manly duties!"

"Hahahahahaha! Duty…"

"Wow, you're so mature."

"Shut up. At least I don't throw temper tantrums."

"It wasn't a temper tantrum! He dropped a hammer on my foot."

"Wuss."

"You're rude."

"Yup."

"Don't you have work to do?"

"Don't you?"

"…Shut up."

Zuko retreated, going back to his job at the blacksmith's tent near the edge of the village. He heard Katara's laughter following him and steam bellowed from his nose. But at least she was talking to him. It hadn't taken her long to take up teasing him. And while he was glad she felt comfortable enough around him to jibe him at every chance she got, he wasn't sure it was better than the silent treatment. He knew people were talking. Questions wouldn't be far behind.

The blacksmith, Moswren, was Romjak's cousin and was even more platypus-bear in form than he was. He was a tall burly Earth bender with massive arms and a beard only slightly less bushy than Romjak's. His laugh was deep and his eyes were bright. He glanced up at Zuko from his place by the forge, a pair of long tongs in one mitted hand, a red hot sword blade in the other. Sparks flew in dizzying circles around him, threatening to ignite his beard. He jerked his chin in greeting as Zuko pushed aside the tent flap.

"Keep the flames steady while I pound this motherfucker out." He also had a foul mouth. Zuko grimaced and shed his outer tunic and shirt, leaving him in his light sleeveless undershirt. It was hot, tedious work. When Romjak was handing out jobs their second night in the village, the blacksmith had jumped at the chance to have a fire bending assistant. Iroh hadn't been let off easy either: he was the new assistant instructor of the children's lessons. Zuko hadn't seen his Uncle's face light up at the idea.

He pumped fire from his fists into the forge, keeping the flames at a constant heat while Moswren brought his hammer down on the folded steel. Zuko knew it would be folded over and over again to remove impurities in the steel and forge a harder blade capable of withstanding battles for decades. He had watched swords being made in the Fire Nation, where it was a sacred process. The swords were considered the soul of the soldier and must be pure.

A giggle reached them from outside the tent they worked in. Zuko looked around, seeing a pair of girls standing beside the flap. They were young, maybe seventeen, and dressed in the common brown and green leggings and tunics that most of the villagers wore. As he met their eyes, they giggled harder and ran off. Zuko shook his head and wiped the sweat from his brow, turning back to the forge. A few moments later the giggles returned. Zuko whipped his head around to see a trio of different girls, who scampered off when he glared at them.

"What's their problem?" Zuko gritted his teeth, feeling the burning sparks from Moswren's blows landing on his skin. He grimaced, but kept the heat steady.

Moswren snorted, bringing the hammer crashing down. "Isn't it obvious, boy? You're new meat!" He bellowed with laughter.

"What?" Zuko yelled, the fire blazing hotter for only a moment.

"You're the new 'object of desire' to these poor girls." Moswren grunted. "They can't go in to town, they've grown up with most of the men here. You're new blood, fresh cock, whichever."

The redness of Zuko's face no longer had anything to do with the flame in front of him. "That's…great." His voice cracked just a little, and Moswren roared with laughter again.

Even Fire benders need breaks from the flame sometimes. Zuko sat outside Moswren's smithing tent, an almost empty cup of water in his hands. No less than seven girls had stopped by to ogle him. He really did feel like meat on display.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Zuko twitched. He glared up from under his hair to see Kaya standing in front of him, golden eyes staring at him.

"Taking a break." He wiped sweat from the side of his face, wiping it on his trouser leg. "You?"

"Visiting you." Kaya sat down next to him, stretching her legs out on the grass.

Zuko observed her from the corner of his eye. The shape of her face reminded him of Katara. Her hair, braided back from her face and curled into a knot, definitely reminded him of her. It was darker, but just as wild as hers. But her eyes…the shape and slant of them reminded him of someone else. Her skin, just a few shades lighter than Katara's but darker than his own was a nice mix. He liked the soft brown.

"Do you have a job?" he asked her, more out of awkwardness than curiosity.

"I gather berries." An edge, a slight tone to her voice was familiar too. She spoke with a sort of sharp quickness, like she had everything she was about to say already planned out. But it was not a cruel voice. She was a nice kid. "I help to go fishing. I take care of the ostrich horses and eel hounds. I do a lot." She grinned up at him. "I like to help people."

"That's good." Zuko said. "That's…a good way to be."

"Do you like to help people?" Kaya pulled up a handful of grass and let it drop on his knee. Zuko's eyebrow twitched.

"Yes."

"That's good." Kaya said, adding more grass to his knee. "Do you like sea prunes?"

"I don't know. Probably not."

"Mushi does. He ate twenty of them for lunch." Kaya giggled, adding a purple and white flower to the small pile on his knee. "I don't like them. They smell awful."

"I would imagine." Zuko looked down at the girl. "I have to go back to work."

"Okay." Kaya sprung up. "You should keep the flower. It's mom's favorite."

"What's it called?" Zuko twirled the short stem between his fingers. It was a simple flower, its five petals colored with reddish-purple swirled together with white.

"Moon fire drop." Kaya skipped off. Zuko brushed the grass off his pants and stood, shoving the flower into his pocket absently.

***Line break***Line break***Line break***Line break***

He woke to the sense that something was very, very wrong. His tent was warm, the ground was dry, and he had actually slept through the night for the first time. It was hard to live around people again after almost a decade of quiet nights on the road or in the forest. People were noisy. And a constant potential threat.

Zuko strapped his swords to his back, knowing that if everything was fine he'd get strange looks, but Uncle had taught him to trust his senses and instincts. He pushed the tent flaps aside to find the sun barely rising, the sky splashed with orange and purple, streaks of black running through the waking sky. He stretched, noting the sentries along the tree line. There were more than usual. Their bows were in their hands; some even had arrows notched to the bowline. The hair on the back of Zuko's neck prickled. He turned, scanning the perimeters of the village, and noted a solitary figure in blue at the southernmost entryway.

Katara didn't flinch when Zuko stood next to her, just continued scanning the forest. The wind rustled through Zuko's hair, blowing the long dark strands across his face. The forest was silent. Something was coming.

"Your sister chased us too."

Zuko looked over at Katara as she spoke. "What?"

Katara took a big breath of air, letting it out slowly. Zuko looked down to notice her hands shaking. "For almost a week, Azula and those two girls with her chased us and we couldn't get away. We couldn't sleep because she would find us. Toph could sense them coming and warn us, but finally we were too exhausted to run." She glanced at him. "I have that feeling now. The feeling of being chased, and having nowhere to run."

"That was the last time I saw you before Ba Sing Se." Zuko muttered, remembering. "You offered to heal my Uncle."

"I'm glad he was okay." Katara's head snapped up as, in front of them, twigs snapped. "Zuko?" He looked over at her. "Watch my back."

It was less a request than a plea. Zuko saw the look on her face: half brave, half petrified. In response, he extended his hand to her. She laced her fingers with his, and turned to face the menacing forest. Zuko saw her jaw clench and chin raise before he faced the forest as well.

From behind him, loud footsteps approached, crunching over leaves and twigs. Zuko didn't turn as Romjak came to stand on Katara's other side as his Uncle strode forward to stand at his. He could feel the press of bodies amass behind as the able members of the village came to stand in defense of their home as the first warning arrow whistled through the trees from the sentries. Another arrow followed. Then another.

Zuko lit his fist as the first red armored body appeared through the trees.