After Aang and Katara left in the morning, Sokka prepared to find Princess Yue. Pursuing her was a bad idea. He understood that now. What had he been thinking? Now that his hurt feelings had cooled, he was going to go to her and be open and honest. Hopefully Katara was wrong and despite her royal upbringing she would be able to do the same. But even if she couldn't, being frank with her was the right thing to do.

He was very surprised, then, to find Princess Yue waiting outside. Standing in a rooftop courtyard with no tall buildings around to shadow her allowed her to glow like a beacon. She looked otherworldly, something more than human. Sokka stared at her, enchanted. "Hey Sokka," she began.

He snapped out of it. He shook his head vigorously. "Princess Yue. I was just gonna look for you. We need to talk."

"Yes, we do," she agreed. "That's why I came here. I'm sorry I left you yesterday."

"No, it makes sense," Sokka said. "I understand, and I'm fine with it. We would never work out. You're a princess, and I'm a peasant. A nobody. I get it. I'll stop trying to ask you out."

"What? No!" Princess Yue exclaimed, a look of horror on her face. "Is that how you thought I felt? It's not true. I really do like you."

"I know," Sokka said. "But being royalty comes with a lot of responsibility. It means you can't just have everything you want." He was horrified to hear himself speak these words, because he knew where they came from. The Angry Jerk had said them. He didn't want anything that that guy had ever said or done to even exist in his life from here on out. He wanted to wipe Zuko out of his memory, forget him entirely, wipe him off the map as if he never existed. That was how much Sokka hated that worthless, good for absolutely nothing, betraying humorless jerkwad. He facepalmed. But he couldn't take the words back; they had already left his mouth.

"That's true," Princess Yue said. "I avoided you before because I thought my responsibilities prevented me from being with you. But now I think I was wrong. Hear me out."

Sokka's hopes, which he had been keeping quashed this whole time, threw off their restraint and dared to rise. He took his hand down from his face. "...What do you mean by that?"

Princess Yue reached up and pulled down the fur-lined collar of her coat, revealing a necklace just like the one Katara wore. "I'm engaged," she said. "It's an arranged marriage. My father thought I should marry this boy whose parents are high-ranking court members, for diplomacy. He's also high ranking among the warriors, though I think that's just because of his parents. I've met him a few times, and I don't get along well with him. We have nothing to talk about. He's nowhere near as interesting as you."

"In other words, we definitely can't be together. You're literally engaged." Sokka slumped.

"Yesterday, Katara said you can't live your life just for other people," Princess Yue continued. "And that got me thinking. I went to my father and told him everything. I told him how much I hate spending time with my arranged fiance, and then I told him how much I love spending time with you. He might be a king, but he's also my father and he wants me to be happy. He's given me a chance to change the arrangement."

Sokka's hopes soared into the sky. "Change the arrangement? How?"

"You're close to the Avatar," she said, her eyes sparkling in a way that made his knees weaken. "That makes you highly placed, in a way. If you join the warriors and demonstrate good fighting ability, he'll consider breaking the engagement. Then, after you've defeated the Firelord, you can come back and marry me. We can have a future together."

Sokka's mouth fell open. She looked so happy, so excited, to deliver this news. But it hit Sokka like a bag of rocks. He had been in a daze of growing happiness right up until she said the word, "marry." That snapped him out of it. Now he felt like he'd been hit with a bag of rocks and immersed in ice water.

"Sokka? Are you alright?" Princess Yue asked.

He tried to speak several times before succeeding. "M - marry you? If we defeat the Firelord before the end of summer, I'll be sixteen. Married at sixteen. I - I never thought about marriage before now."

The princess looked down. "That's how being royalty works. Especially being a royal daughter. Boys get more leeway."

Sokka was all torn up inside. He hadn't truly thought through the ramifications of her royal status until now. "I'll give it some thought and get back to you later," he told her.

"Of course," Princess Yue said. "It's a lot to ask. I'll be at the palace in the evening. You can ask for me there." She turned and walked away.

Sokka walked back into the house. As soon as he did, a pack of unwelcome memories ambushed him. He heard Zuko's voice as clearly as if the firebender were speaking to him. Being royalty meant responsibility. Debt. Commoners could enjoy the right to do pretty much anything without it affecting anyone else, but for royalty, everything has consequences. Even eating meant forcing palace cooks to labor for several hours. Dressing, the labor of servants. Just by existing as royalty one made demands on the world around them, which meant working to make it worth it. No goofing off. No playing a prank just because. Nothing would ever be simple again.

Chills ran up Sokka's spine. He was the simplest man he knew. Deep down, he believed the world was there to be enjoyed. He'd never envisioned a life where that wouldn't be possible. With Zuko's help, he envisioned it now. Relaxing in a garden, only to be interrupted because an important decision needed to be made. Going for a walk…with several guards nearby at all times. Always having servants nearby at all times. The idea made him shiver. He liked his privacy.

He'd gotten what he wanted. Now he had to reject it.

.

"Stay out of this," Zuko told the water dragon. It flapped its fins once and slid into the pool of water from which it had emerged, turning back to water and then freezing the whole thing back into ice. Zuko now stood alone in an empty ridge.

How do I start a training program? He tried to remember what his firebending instructors had done. A tap on his shoulder made him turn. "I said stay out of this."

A water tendril pointed at him, then upwards towards an imaginary head, then joined a second one in holding an imaginary object. You. Head. Object. These were the signs for: Your idea.

My idea? Have I had ideas for how to start a training program? Zuko realized he had. He had told the Avatar that when training, you should always start by practicing the one thing that made that element unique. You were guaranteed not to know it, and paying special attention to it showed respect for the element. "Okay," he muttered, turning back to face down the length of the ridge. "State changes it is."

First, he had to take control of some of the water surrounding him. Zuko felt around inside and realized this was going to be very difficult. He was entirely surrounded on all sides by water. His inner feeling for all the water he was surrounded by included a massive amount. In order to take control of a reasonable amount, one that wouldn't crush him flat if he made a wrong move, he would have to very carefully use his inner grip to take control of the smallest portion of it he could manage. He closed his eyes and tried to do that. Too much. Too much again. That's all of it! That's better, but still too much. He relaxed his inner grip and tried to simply get a feel for the water around him. He felt the ridge, the ice around it… Now he narrowed his attention to the floor of the ridge. He tried to get ahold of that, and only that. Got it!

He opened his eyes. Now all he needed to do was turn it to water. That should be easy, except... What do I do with my inner grip to make it change state? He couldn't push or pull - that would just move the ice around. He needed to leave it in place, but still do something to it. He tried tightening his grip, squeezing it. The ice all along the ridge in front of him cracked. The sound of it was like a thunderbolt directly above his head. He was startled and lost his grip. Grr!

Zuko repeated this whole process again, then tried to loosen his grip. Maybe pulling the ice apart would make it into water? The cracks widened. He had to take a step back to avoid them.

The training was not going well.

He glared at the stupid ice that refused to turn to water. Then he looked aside. Maybe the training was working after all - the water spirit had done exactly what he asked. Now he could give it a new command. He cleared his throat. "Demonstration, please."

The water spirit obeyed. A very small amount of ice - how does it get so precise? - turned to water and rose up into a tendril. It waved back and forth, awaiting a signal. Zuko closed his eyes and felt around the ridge again. "Go."

The bottom of the ridge did not immediately turn to water. The water spirit demonstrated slowly and carefully. First, he felt that part of his inner water landscape grow very cold as the water spirit's power infused it. Said power worked its way into the ice very thoroughly, becoming hard and rigid. Then it broke out of its hardness and rigidity and flowed around. Zuko opened his eyes to see that the bottom of the ridge was now water.

The water spirit turned it back to ice, then hid itself again and did nothing more. Zuko prepared to try again. So first I have to become the ice. Only then can I change the ice. It sounds like something Uncle would say. He got his grip on the ice. Then, squinting with effort, he let his grip somehow sink into the ice. It's like I'm manipulating it from the inside, like having my hand inside a sock puppet. He loosened his grip, which was much more difficult than it had been before. But he succeeded; the ice turned to water. Now I have to do that in reverse.

Zuko did five sets of one freezing and one melting each. Then he got a feeling like he shouldn't do any more. He released his inner grip and shuddered as the normal flow of energy inside him resumed. For a moment, he feared that something terrible would happen, that he would start to feel ill and pass out again. Thankfully, he'd only been using his inner grip for half an hour. No such event happened. I'd better take a break. Fifteen minutes.

He sat on the outcrop. Then the water dragon reappeared. He shot it a glare. It looked back and tilted its head as if to say, What? You only meant I should stay out of your way during lessons. This isn't lesson time. He couldn't argue back, because it was completely right. He just crossed his arms to make it clear he was not going to be friendly.

The water spirit sat for several minutes, not doing anything. It shifted its tail back and forth. Sometimes it looked up at the sky. That was all. Then it got up, turned to its left, and began using its flippers to dig in the ice. Its flippers had strong claws at the end of each finger for use in climbing, so the dragon could scratch at the ice, but not very forcefully. And because those were its only two limbs, the only way it could dig was to support itself on one flipper, scratch across the ice, then roll onto the other flipper and repeat. The only way it could scratch and still maintain balance was starting directly in front of itself and moving down and out to the side. It couldn't actually dig a hole. The spot right in front of itself became the deepest part of the resulting wedge shape because both flippers scratched there, but that was hardly an achievement. Zuko winced at how poorly it dug. "You are not good at that," he told it.

The water spirit turned its head and nodded. Yes. It resumed "digging."

"You should stop and do something you're better at."

No.

"Whatever." Why do I care so much what it does with its free time? I don't care about its hobbies at all. And it's been fifteen minutes - break time's over.

The water dragon turned to water and rejoined the ridge wall. Zuko got off the outcrop of ice and did five more sets of melting and freezing. Then he relaxed his grip and checked himself. He felt able to do something else, but not another five sets. He decided to move on to another move. He turned the ice to water, then lifted it up. While it was in towering wave form, he tried to freeze it. It worked. He smiled.

After freezing a wave once more while it was moving - surprisingly easy to do - he took another fifteen minute break. The water spirit took its dragon form and resumed digging in the same spot, which he hadn't disturbed. He watched it for five minutes before pulling his head away and wondering why he would ever care.

This general pattern continued for a couple more hours: 20 to 30 minutes of practice, followed by an approximately fifteen minute break (he didn't have any timepieces with him), during which he ate parts of his lunch and the water spirit "dug." He couldn't resist asking it once more, "Why are you bothering with that? You are horrible at it."

The water spirit nodded. Yes. It gestured around at the landscape. Look at all these things I am good at. I like this one thing I am not good at. It is precious.

"You're so skilled you have to look for failure. That's a problem I'll never have," Zuko muttered enviously. From then on, he didn't stop himself from watching the water spirit as it dug. The sight of it made his mind itch. He couldn't ignore it.

After a couple hours of practice, Zuko sat down for another break with a groan. He didn't feel right. The breaks prevented him from leading himself off the cliff of collapse, but they didn't prevent him from straining himself. He shivered and wiped sweat off his brow. His hands clenched. What was he supposed to do with the rest of his day if he couldn't keep training? But after that nightmare of a morning with Master Jeong Jeong, he knew better than to try to force it. I guess training's over for now.

The water dragon dug for a while. Then it sat back and flapped its fins loudly, waving its head and tail back and forth. It came over and poked Zuko on the shoulder. It lifted its barbels up to its eyes and flipped them forward. Look! He followed it over to the wedge it had dug in the ice. The water spirit sat there flapping its fins on the ground proudly. He looked at the wedge in disbelief. The deepest part of it wasn't quite deep enough to contain his foot.

He looked up at the water spirit, who started another round of proud fin-flapping. It held its barbels up just below its chin and crossed them over each other. Very nice, yes?

Zuko remembered one time, long ago, when he took drawing supplies out to the garden and drew pictures next to the pond. He wanted to surprise his mother. He looked around and saw no guards, so he held out the picture. "Is it good?" he asked. The water spirit reached up one tendril from the pond and danced back and forth happily before tickling him on the head. He laughed. It made the same gesture then that it was making now, holding two tendrils up and crossing them over each other. That was the first time it had made that sign, so he didn't know what it meant. He stared at this sign in confusion, then copied it. He put one hand on top of the other and held it just beneath his chin. He gasped. It felt like a gesture he would make when looking at something he liked. "It's really nice?"

The water spirit made a circle, then slashed the air. Yes and no. It poked him in the forehead. You are really nice.

He couldn't help but grin. That was the warmest praise he had ever received. Then the grin slipped off his face as he realized powerful people were coming, and the water spirit slipped back into the pond. Guards found him and returned him to his mother. There, he showed her the picture he had drawn. She thought it was a wonderful picture.

Zuko blinked, returning to the present time. His mother was dead. He was crown prince. He had responsibilities to his nation, and that meant ditching the water spirit before his father could find out about it and permanently disown him. But still, the water spirit looked down at this thing it had made that wasn't very good and made that sign. It liked this awkward little wedge in the ground. If he'd understood right, it liked it because the pathetic attempt at a hole wasn't very good. If it was as effortlessly majestic as the sweeping snowdrifts around them, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

Zuko left his training ground in a state of confusion, filled with questions he dared not ask.

.

Iroh secretly went up the steps to meet with Master Pakku after the morning class was finished. "Iroh," Pakku greeted. "It's been quite a while." He looked around. "I teach a junior class for an hour in the middle of the day, so we don't have time to sit and drink tea like you prefer."

"I didn't come here for that. But if you ever have time, I would gladly accept an invitation." Iroh stepped closer. "It's about my nephew."

Pakku's eyebrows rose. "Come," he said, leading Iroh to a discreet seat out of view of the wider city. "What is it?"

"He's having problems," Iroh said. "One of them is that he doesn't trust me anymore. He won't tell me what's bothering him, and he refused my advice to take reasonable safety precautions. I'm very worried. He's starting to act like his father."

"Well, he can't be allowed to," Pakku said. "It's as simple as that. If he complains, remind him that there are more important things than his own comfort at stake."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you," Iroh said. "I can't. I've lost my power to influence him just when I need it most."

"Are you asking for my help?"

Iroh nodded. "I've already gotten a skilled spirit healer on his case, but that's a lot of pressure to put on a young lady."

"What makes you think I can convince him when you can't?"

"Something tells me it might work. Please, give it a try."

Pakku nodded. "I can do that." He then got up to take a quick lunch before his junior class came.

Iroh went on his way. He still had much of the city to explore. He'd already found a nice, quiet diner where the people got along well with him. He should bring the Pai Sho set and see if anyone was interested in playing. He hurried back to his house, hope in his footsteps.

He did wonder briefly why Pakku had been so accommodating, but he didn't think too hard about it. It didn't seem like a big or important question.

.

After the afternoon class ended and the Avatar and his waterbending friend left, Pakku stretched. He rested for a few minutes, then went to brief the king on his newest student's progress. He went up the steps and looked at the guards. They stepped aside and bowed to him. There were definitely some perks to being the foremost waterbending master of the tribe.

The king was not in his audience chamber, so Pakku searched for him. He climbed a hidden staircase along the side of the room to reach the upper floors, where the king's private chambers were.

As he reached the top of the stairs, he heard a voice. It was quiet and hushed. He flattened himself against the wall immediately and edged closer. Anyone who spoke like that while inside the king's personal chambers had better have a good reason!

"That's all?" Pakku's eyes widened. That voice belonged to Ola, the grey-haired advisor to the king. He had served as one of Princess Yue's guardians when she was younger, a duty that would only be given to someone the king trusted very much. Such a trusted person speaking in this way inside the king's private quarters… Pakku looked around for water. He didn't see any, so he was forced to take part of the wall. He was glad he'd come. If trouble was brewing, he was in the perfect position to prevent it.

"Yes." Tarao? What was Tarao doing sneaking around the palace? "I am confident that they told me everything."

"Perhaps the old man's biding his time."

"Perhaps," Tarao muttered. "I have more interesting reports about the boy with the scar."

"Go on."

Pakku restored the wall to its former condition. Ola and Tarao were not planning harm to the king, after all. They were just suspicious of Iroh and his nephew. Pakku edged closer, as far as he could. He wanted to hear everything.

"My watchers saw him escape the hospital last night," Tarao reported. "He walked out the back of it. The hospital has no back entrance. Then, they followed him across the city. He walked across the canals as surely as if they were solid land. He made it to the seal-hunter's exit and went through. My watchers did not follow him out of the city; it would have been too much of a risk. He came back through the tunnel early this morning, then left shortly afterward and spent several hours outside the city. Who knows what he's doing out there."

"Did your watchers actually see anything we can condemn him for?"

"No. He came back around midday and went back to the hospital for a checkup, then took a walk, then went back out. If we want to catch him at anything, we'll need to leave the city and find out where he's going."

"When did the most recent hunting party go out?"

"Around a week ago. They'll be due back tomorrow or the day after."

"Let me know as soon as they return. They might spot something. No need to risk our own men just yet."

"What do you imagine he could be doing out there?" Tarao asked. "Assuming you're right, and he is a firebender, what is there that a single person could do outside the city to benefit the Fire Nation?"

"There is plenty a single spy can do," Ola replied. "Do as I say and keep watching them."

"Of course."

Pakku slipped away before he could be caught. His hands tightened. Blast it! Iroh and his nephew were already under suspicion. Pakku knew that if he was right, and he was quite sure he was, Zuko needed to be here in the Northern Tribe very badly. He had to be allowed the freedom to roam, and he especially required a secret place that no human being could disturb him at. Ola was a fool, and a dangerous one at that. The man did not know how many people he was endangering.

Pakku returned to the entrance to the palace, composed himself and pretended to be waiting patiently. Ola came down the stairs. "Ah, Ola," he greeted. "I must speak with the king. Perhaps you can tell me where he is before my dinner freezes over."

"He and his daughter were conferring privately, last I knew," Ola replied. "I will send a messenger to tell him you are here." Ola spoke to one of the guards, who spoke to someone else, and in a short time a man came running in and went up the steps. Pakku nodded at the old advisor and thanked him politely.

Ola left. Pakku frowned. He needed to compose his thoughts about his intended message and speak with the king regarding what he had come to speak about. But later, when he returned home, he would spend as long as he needed devising ways to foil Ola's plans. Oh yes. Master Pakku had not earned his title for being helpless.

.

A/N: I know nothing of Chinese, so I was forced to break with the tradition of meaningful names established by canon. ("Yue" is Chinese for "moon.") I do know Spanish, which is why I named the grey-haired advisor "ola," Spanish for "wave." Though it's a Western language, I thought this particular word wouldn't sound too out of place.