Pakku's former student briefly came to request Zuko's presence the next day. Iroh promised to pass along the message. Thankfully, the former student did not ask where Zuko was. Iroh said lessons with the water spirit were proceeding well. Katara said lessons with Master Pakku were proceeding very well. Kalika said it was too soon to tell how well the spiritual healing was going, but it was going well. It was agreed that everything was good. All parties retired for the night in high spirits.

Iroh woke up the next morning to find Zuko's blankets disturbed. He must have returned at some point during the night. But he wasn't around right then. Iroh decided not to worry about it.

His decision was correct. Zuko came downstairs during breakfast. He looked sulky. Iroh was surprised by how much of a relief that was. He realized that Zuko hadn't actually had a good, petulant, normal teenage sulk for a long time. Simmering rage and guilty reclusion had a subtly different appearance that Iroh only just now saw. He smiled at his nephew and let him sit.

"Master Pakku wants you to join his classes today."

"Everybody wants everything."

"Can you handle that?"

Zuko sighed. "Yeah. They're less demanding than I'm used to. I guess it's not that big a deal. It's just different."

"You'll adjust."

Iroh remembered having conversations like this with his son. Nice, normal conversations. The sort you had with a boy who hadn't been repeatedly traumatized for his entire life. How had he gotten used to the constant simmering tension that followed Zuko around? Its temporary absence was a physical relief.

He put a hand on Zuko's shoulder. "This is a good day."

Zuko smiled. "Yeah. It's strange."

"One day, it won't be."

.

Will he ask me to waterbend?

Master Pakku asked no such thing. The first words out of his mouth were, "Well? Have you brought that friend of yours?"

"Uh…" The ice began to creak. "Yes. Yes I have." The ice they stood on changed in a way that only Zuko could feel. It remained ice, but the water spirit moved it around as if it was water. A fin appeared above the surface, then disappeared. The flick of a tail. Then the water spirit leaped up from the ice, already in its full dragon form. It landed on its belly like a turtle seal and bowed its head. Then it turned to the students. It propped itself on one fin and used the other to wave to them. Hiiiii!

"Is that ice shaped like a dragon?" one student asked. "That's some powerful waterbending!"

Zuko crossed his arms. "Yeah. It's the most powerful waterbending in the world." He kept his arms firmly and obviously crossed as the water dragon flapped its fins excitedly. It turned to him and signed, They're such cute humans! "It says you are all cute," he translated.

All of the other students looked at his crossed arms, at the dragon, and back at his crossed arms. Aang laughed. "We told you Water was like a person! Right, Katara?" A pause. "Katara?"

Her mouth hung open as she stared at the dragon. It took a nudge to bring her back to reality. "Sorry, I was just thinking. A dragon. Wow. Uh, does it take this form all the time?"

"Yes," Zuko replied.

That seemed to mean something to her. "That's nice," she murmured. "Um, Aang and I have told the others a lot of what you told us. Let me summarize."

Sounds like they shared everything. What am I doing here? Do I come up with a new lesson? I mean, you come up with a new lesson. He looked at the water dragon. It shook its head and trotted over to interact with a student. It patted his head. Zuko glanced at Master Pakku. He sat at perfect ease, as if he was not waiting for the lesson to begin. This was the lesson. Zuko realized, Even the people of the Water Tribes don't know that Water is alive? But they looked at me like I'd insulted their grandmothers! They know water spirits! If they don't know that a water spirit is literally water coming to life, then what did they think I was talking about?

The water spirit seemed fine, so he shuffled over to Master Pakku and asked. The guy standing next to Master Pakku leaned in to listen. Who is this jerk? Whoever he was, Master Pakku didn't seem to mind, so Zuko tried his best to ignore him. "The people here believe that water spirits are like the spirits of the spirit world," Pakku answered. "They treat water spirits like a category of spirits that just happen to like water. Knowledge of the elemental spirits has been taught many times, and forgotten just as many."

"But it seems so obvious. When the wind blows, it sounds like it's laughing."

"The more obvious, the more overlooked."

Zuko looked again at the water dragon. It danced with happiness as it trotted around, trying to buck off the boy riding on its back. Aang laughed. He looked so young. I've never seen him be a normal kid before. The boy on the dragon's back finally let go and leaped off, stumbling once or twice before standing tall and proud. The water dragon sat and looked around, waiting for another playmate. I've never seen it be a normal dragon, either.

Maybe they're not the only ones who've been overlooking things.

.

The last hour of the morning class was spent on normal waterbending exercises. The water spirit gave up its dragon form and joined the exercises, twirling through the air in circles and sloshing. The other students waterbended much better, almost as well as Aang did.

Katara's performance suffered. She went through the motions, but her heart wasn't in it. She listened enough to obey instructions, but half her mind was elsewhere.

"Katara, do you have somewhere else to be?" Master Pakku asked sarcastically.

"Yes." Her eyes flicked towards Zuko. "But not right now."

"Then concentrate."

She concentrated for the last few exercises. Then the morning class ended. As soon as Master Pakku signaled for them to go, she went over to Zuko and grabbed his wrist. "We need to talk. Somewhere else."

The water dragon trotted over and signed something to Zuko before vanishing into the ice. He tried to pull his wrist out of her grip, but she didn't let go. "What is it?"

"Is everything okay?" Aang asked.

"It's fine, Aang. I just need to talk to him privately."

"Wow!" another student exclaimed, coming up to them. "I'd heard the rumors, but… You really are a spirit talker!"

"And I would love to stay and soak up your admiration," Zuko said while sliding Katara's hand off his wrist, "but Katara and I were just going to chat about stuff. Bye." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away.

He let go as they descended the stairs. They reached the base and turned in the direction of his house. "I thought you'd love being admired," she whispered.

"I do, but I'm not used to it," he whispered back. "Something about it felt weird. I need time to figure out what."

They passed the turnoff to his house. "Where are we going?" Katara asked. They seemed to be heading for the glacier.

He stopped and looked at her. "Promise."

Promise what? The look in his eyes was oddly intense. Katara realized it didn't matter. Whatever he was taking her to was important enough to make a promise about. "I promise."

He led her right up to the glacier, to a gaping hole in its side. Katara's eyes widened. This must be the legendary tunnel out of the city that he used for his training. Her steps slowed. He took her hand and pulled her along. He entered the tunnel first, her behind and to his side. They kept their hands linked the whole way up. It felt right.

At the mouth of the tunnel, he turned and led her uphill. "Can you see it from here?" When she squinted, she could make out a line in the ice. "It's an ice ravine," he told her. "It's perfect." They descended the hill, followed a trail of flags for three flags, then turned off. Zuko suddenly tightened his grip, making Katara stop short. Snow crumbled away from her foot. Her eyes widened. It really was perfect. Nobody would ever find him here.

Finally, he let go of her hand in order to slide down. When he reached the bottom, he looked up and scanned the ice she would have to slide on. It smoothed out before her eyes. Katara imitated his technique, sliding down on her side.

They stood together in his training grounds, his own private space, his refuge. Neither of them spoke. Zuko looked unsure of what to do. He had never brought anyone here before - if he had, the news would be all over the tribe. Katara also didn't know what to do. What did you do when someone placed absolute trust in you? She felt like she'd been given an irreplaceable glass treasure. On reflex, she froze to avoid dropping it.

"This is my training grounds," he muttered. He gestured all around. "The, uh, floor is really smooth because that's where I do most of my training. I turn it to water and practice wave riding. Or I did, until I started practicing light bursts. I should get around to practicing flying. I haven't tried that yet. I've been really busy."

"Zuko…"

"What?"

Katara struggled for words. She wanted to avoid applying even the slightest pressure, for fear of breaking that artifact. "...It's really nice."

He said nothing back. He put his hands in his pockets and looked out at the ravine. "What did you want to talk with me about?" he asked.

"I wanted to talk about the future," she said. "I think it's more complicated than you realize."

"How would you know?"

Katara took a deep breath. "I should start at the beginning."

.

Aunt Wu opened the door to a sternly glaring Katara. "I want another reading," she demanded. Her tone of voice allowed no argument. Aunt Wu led her to the same room as before, the one with the flowers floating in the pots. Before even sitting down, Katara stuck out her hand. "Read my lines again."

Aunt Wu gulped. She sat them down on the cushions and traced Katara's heart line. "You will marry a great man, a powerful bender and a defender." She traced Katara's head line. "You are very stubborn. This will get in your way as much as it will help you." And she traced Katara's life line. "Your life will be long and happy, with unexpected turns."

Katara took her hand back. "You're hiding something. What do you really see in my life line?"

"My powers aren't -"

"Yes they are!" Katara shot to her feet. Water flew out of the pots, spraying nearly the entire room. Aunt Wu flinched backward. "You predicted that we would save a man from a platypus bear. How could you predict that, but not anything important about my future?"

"I don't see everything," Aunt Wu tried to protest.

Katara growled. "What. Do. You. See?"

Aunt Wu sighed. Katara sat down and stuck her hand out again. Aunt Wu glanced at it. "You will befriend dragons."

"Thank you! Why was that so hard?"

"Because there are no more dragons in the world. The Fire Nation hunted them into extinction!" Aunt Wu put a hand to her forehead. "This doesn't make any sense. I must be seeing wrong."

"No," Katara protested. "I have faith in you. There must be a way it makes sense. Maybe I will make friends with a person who goes by the title of dragon?"

"I see fins and scales in your future," Aunt Wu said, shaking her head.

"Physical dragons?" Katara thought hard, but could not find any way that prediction could come true. "Maybe you're wrong. One or two dragons might still survive somewhere."

"I got my information from the Fire Nation themselves," Aunt Wu said. "I'm sure they know how the dragons are doing."

Katara clenched her fists. "I still have faith in you."

"That might be your stubbornness talking," Aunt Wu replied.

.

Zuko's eyes widened. "The dragons she saw in your future must be the spirit dragons I have."

"Yes. That means that your future and mine are linked."

"I'm not sure the water dragon can carry two people. And your home is in the Southern Tribe. Even if I wanted to be there, I would never be welcome."

Katara shrugged. "I'd like a more settled existence anyway. Maybe we split it - after the war, I go back home and help my family rebuild while you travel and learn. Then we adventure around for a while as you fight off monsters, helping the Earth Kingdom rebuild. Aang's probably going to be around for that; I don't need to ride with you, necessarily. Then maybe I go back home for a while. We can figure it out."

"I don't want to take you away from your family." In a lower, rougher voice, he added, "Your family that loves you."

Katara put a hand on his shoulder. "This isn't the first time I've had to make that choice. You're not even the first person to say that. Aang said the exact same thing. My family wanted me to stay and look after them, but I wanted to learn to fight. I want to look after the people I love, but I also want to see the world and have adventures. You're not the one taking me away from my family. My heart is."

Zuko looked at her sadly. "We're both misfits."

Katara took a deep breath. "You can't live your life only for others."

Zuko walked over to a platform made of ice and sat on it. Katara joined him. "I have to," he said. "I don't know how to live any other way."

"Don't you have dreams of your own?"

"Those dreams mean nothing without other people. I want to protect other people. I want to make other people happy. Without someone to serve, I am nothing."

"Okaaaaay. So… So you need to feel useful. You need to feel like you're making a difference. Those are your own needs. You're meeting them. See? You're not living just for other people. You're looking after yourself."

"By abandoning my family." He hung his head. "You understand how hard it is to do that, don't you? I only did it because I had no other choice. If I could be my father's honored son and protect the people of the world and survive, I'd do it."

Katara narrowed her eyes. "And survive?"

"It was abandon my father's ideals or die. I had no choice."

A shiver ran up her back. "You see? It is possible to love my family and still not be able to live with them full time. There's nothing wrong with that. I'll manage. We'll manage. It's okay."

He smiled at her. "You're a misfit in your family. Aang has no people. I used to think I was all alone, but I'm not." His smile faded. "But the war."

Katara looked down. "But the war."

The wind howled above them. The war. Even after everything, he still hadn't changed his mind about that. Katara understood why. He'd suffered enough letting go of his family. How could he let go of his nation, too? "I understand how horrible it feels to think you're abandoning people who depend on you. It must feel impossible to do that again. But, Zuko, you can't stay out of the war for the next year. You're going to get involved. Being indecisive about which side you're on could get you killed. But at the moment when you're in danger, in the middle of battle, you won't be able to make a decision then. It'll be too late. You have to make that choice before you're forced to."

He shivered. "I don't know if I can."

Katara held his hand. "It doesn't seem that way right now, but making a hard choice is easier on everyone. It puts an end to guessing, at least."

"That's what my uncle kept saying when I was traveling with you," Zuko muttered resentfully.

"That was different."

"No, it was exactly the same."

"You said your father wouldn't take over again. Without him, surely the rest of you can agree on something?"

The wind howled again. Zuko looked at her like he didn't quite know what to make of her. "...Maybe you're right." They didn't say anything more. They sat together and listened to the wind.

.

A/N: I think my brain did a glitch where it replaced one word with another. In this case, it mixed up ridge and ravine. Now that I think about it, isn't a ridge the opposite geographical formation from the kind that Zuko practices in? I might have to go back and replace all instances of that word. But then this note would make little sense. Hm.