Author's Note: It is 120 years since the signing of the Entente Cordiale between France and Britain on this day, so happy entente cordiale day (?) to my French readers from your friends across the channel.

RonaldM40196867: Boomerang. It comes back.

61494: Even in AUs, some things remain consistent, like Katara's blatant disregard for the property rights of Outlaws.

As Always, Please Review!

They returned to the camp at dusk, and Gembul greeted them with a jovial grunt. Yue patted him on the nose, and he closed his eyes and nuzzled into her.

"He likes you already," Rinzen remarked.

Katara was trailing along slightly behind the group, and kept looking around furtively. Eventually she came over.

"You know what happened on the pirate ship?" She asked eventually.

"What?" Sokka asked. Then he saw the look on his sister's face.

"What did you do?"

Katara didn't answer for a moment. Then she reached into her bag and pulled something out. She held it up to the light and Yue saw-

"That scroll?" Sokka asked incredulously. "You... stole it?"

"I didn't steal it!" Katara replied defensively. "That pirate said it himself- I did some high risk trading for it."

"I don't know you any more," Sokka lamented. "My sister, the thief. I was thinking we'd get a little bit further before resorting to a life of crime at least!"

"They stole it from the water tribe!" Katara said. "And then tried to rip us off! I did nothing worse than them."

"Will they agree with you?" Yue asked. "They may be unscrupulous, that doesn't mean they'll be all philosophical and decide that all's fair in love and war when you do it."

"Why did you do it?" Rinzen asked.

"Something just came over me," Katara shrugged. "I got so angry when he tried to rip us off and then when you pushed that statue over-"

"I did not!" Rinzen said indignantly. "I touched it! It just did that!"

Katara looked at him for a second, and then carried on.

"When you touched it, the distraction was too good not to take it," she said. "Come on, he absolutely deserved it."

"He did," Sokka nodded. "But won't they come after us?"

"Oh they won't notice," Katara shook her head. "And even if they do they won't know where we've gone. We're in the middle of nowhere here!"

Yue looked around and had to agree with Katara's assessment there.

The southerner opened the scroll and gazed down at it thoughtfully.

"There's some interesting techniques in here," she said. "Controlling multiple water arms at once, surfing on ice..."

She folded it up and began walking quickly towards the river they had been practicing in that morning.

"We should give it a go now!" She called.

"Shouldn't we wait for morning?" Yue asked. "I don't know about you but I'm pretty hungry."

"Hungry for knowledge!" Katara retorted. "Come on!"

Defeated, Yue trailed the other waterbender to the river, where Katara spread the scroll out over a nearby rock where she could see it. Yue had never seen Katara like this before. She seemed almost manic.

"Are you feeling alright?" She asked.

"Yeah!" Katara looked at her. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Yue debated whether to tell her.

"You just seem... more excited than usual."

"Of course!" Katara chirped. "All my life I've wanted this."

"That scroll?"

"To be a combat waterbender," Katara clarified. "To fight. But our culture does not like that, and so I was forced into healing instead. I like healing, I'm good at healing, and I do think it's useful, but I want to fight. For years I had to make do by copying techniques I saw the boys do. I wasn't the only one, either. And now, I have the chance to learn properly. Nobody else is here, nobody can stop us. It's just you, me and this scroll."

She gazed at it for a moment.

"And I'm going to use it."

Katara turned back to her.

"It's alright for you," she said. "You're the Avatar. For you, the Water Tribe will make an exception and give you a master. But for the rest of us, this scroll might be all we have."

Yue chose not to take the sudden note of bitterness in Katara's voice personally. After all, she wasn't the one who had made those decisions.

"Who knows?" She said instead. "Maybe once we've won this war we can change their minds."

"Maybe," Katara replied. "We should probably focus on the Fire Nation for now though."

She looked down again.

"I see," she said. "This one seems to involve a fluid motion with a spin."

She practiced the motion. "So we get the water and fling it like that."

"Away from Sokka!" Sokka shouted.

"Away from Sokka," His sister nodded. "Like this?"

She reached down towards the water and pulled, at the same time doing a little twirl. A small stream of water obeyed her command, flowed around her body and launched itself out into the lake, landing with a feeble splash.

Yue watched as Katara frowned.

"Huh," she said. "I'm sure I did that right."

She assumed a bending stance and did it again, this time attracting slightly more water and achieving a little more range.

"That's better!" Yue said approvingly. "Let me try!"

Katara nodded and stepped out of the way, and Yue took up position where she had been standing. She repeated the other waterbender's motions as best she could remember, and achieved a similar amount of success as Katara.

"Not bad." Katara said. "Look at us, we're doing a good job! The Fire Nation won't know what hit them!"

"No it won't," Yue agreed.

"You'll miss out on your dinner!" Sokka called. "I'll throw it in the bushes!"

"You wouldn't," Rinzen said, shocked.

"I would!" Sokka called. "You can't waterbend on an empty stomach!"

"He is right," Yue straightened up. "I'm hungry."

"Alright," Katara nodded reluctantly. "We'll carry this on tomorrow then, shall we?"

Yue nodded and began walking back towards the others, a sense of satisfaction permeating her. She was going to be a combat waterbender after all. She would be able to fight, rather than relying on running away or talking her way out. Yue did not look forward to the idea of combat, but if the Fire Nation wanted to fight then she had no choice but to confront them on their terms.

Finally, it seemed like she had a way forward.