Zuko strode toward his office, fighting to marshal his thoughts and failing. He should be mentally reviewing his priorities for this conversation. Solidifying his strategy to ensure Katara got all the information she needed inside the hour she had allotted him - or at least before she stormed out. Should she decide to storm out.

And yet, his heart drummed in his chest and he could not bring himself to focus past the present moment.

She walked beside him. They had not freely walked side-by-side since... not since the resistance base under the mountain. Being beside her now, here in these glossy well-appointed halls, was surreal, like one of his dreams had pierced through to reality. Though they did not touch, he felt her physical presence with the same immediacy as a hand on his shoulder.

Her dark clothes rustled faintly as she walked. He kept catching hints of her scent - sweat from her exertions and the subtle soap and oil she must have used yesterday. Rain. And, delicious and most enticing, that indescribable scent unique to her that seemed to hang especially in her hair.

When he had caught her and held her to his chest and his mouth had been so close to the waves behind her ear, it had been all he could do to look at the healers and focus, to narrow his thoughts to his mission. He was not going to make things right with Katara by fighting her into a submission hold and then burying his nose in the soft-looking fluff behind her ear to gasp in her scent like a drowning man.

In front of her traumatized people. Agni. Forget trapping him in ice. She'd have turned around and killed him.

Zuko shouldn't be thinking about the fight right now anyway. He mustn't allow himself to be derailed by his lingering heated thoughts. The only reason he should think of the fight was to assess her recovery.

And that, at least, was promising. She had lasted only a bit longer today before tiring, but she was obviously investing a lot of energy into her rescues. Her form had been strong and she'd managed to subdue him. With some solid rest, she could be ready after all. Not at her best, but strong enough.

They came to the office door and he waved Katara in ahead of him while he paused to send Yotsu on a few errands. Then he went in, and there they were.

Alone together. In private.

Not her public sitting room with the door open and people pretty obviously near at hand, listening. This was Zuko's office - a space he had come to think of as his own war room, where he labored over his desperate plans and ruthlessly reflected on his choices. He had spent long hours here consumed with thoughts of the girl who was presently dropping into the seat in front of his desk.

Not the tea table in the corner nearer to the door. Zuko had envisioned this talk happening there. For some reason.

But this was a meeting. Not some mushy reconciliation where they shared their hopes and dreams. They were allies at an accord, and while some pretty major points of tension remained between them that needed resolution, they had serious matters to attend to first.

There was a sound behind him and Zuko jerked around to see an attendant quietly shutting the door. He made a frantic gesture with his hand and the footman stopped, his eyes widening and flicking up to take in Zuko's expression in momentary confusion. Then, hesitantly, he pushed the door back open, bowed, and stepped out of sight.

Katara had turned to frown at him when he looked back. "How is it a private meeting if you leave the door open?"

"We'll talk quietly."

"Right," she said, assessing him. "Because we don't have any trouble at all controlling the volume of our voice."

"I've actually been working a lot on managing my anger lately-"

"It really shows." Sarcasm dripped off her voice and her slow, patronizing nod. Zuko glared but went on pretty evenly.

"-but it's a process." He drew a breath, then folded his arms over his chest and went on. "I've spent a lot of time being angry - years - and it's driven a lot of my decision-making in the past. I don't want to do that anymore, but it's not always easy to stop myself from something that's come to feel natural."

Katara watched him still, but her eyes had shifted in a way that was hard to put a name to. It made it easier for Zuko to shake his head and stand a little straighter.

"So... I hope you'll forgive me for intruding in your rooms and making a scene in front of your people. That's not my idea of showing you the proper respect." He meant to stop there but quickly found himself going on with a little heat. "It really did seem like an emergency though, and if I hear weird noises coming from your room again, I'll probably do the same thing. But... maybe with less shouting."

She squinted at him, then rolled her eyes and let out a sharp breath. "Yeah, fine, okay. It's not entirely far-fetched that there might be assassins. And I guess I can't really blame you for getting upset once you realized what I was doing. It was probably a pretty big surprise."

"I knew you wanted to do something about the healers," Zuko admitted with what he thought was pretty impressive grace, "but I didn't expect you to have taken direct action already."

"Did you think I'd work within the system," she asked, arching an eyebrow at him, "and trust Fire Nation justice to eventually do the right thing? Did you think I'd wait for your permission?"

"No! Not... I just kind of thought I'd get a chance to condone your actions publicly in advance to make it clear that we're working together as allies to improve things for both our peoples and the world."

"Do you have a speech planned for that, too?"

Zuko shrugged, unaccountably a little embarrassed. "An outline... I was gonna give it at the Longest Day festival."

Katara let out a breath and seemed to drag herself back from some ledge in her mind. Her voice was quieter when she spoke. "I would have told you today. I thought about it yesterday but... It was something that was just mine. Saving the healers is my destiny. It's the whole point of everything I've been through, here and before. I don't think I was wrong to keep it to myself a little longer."

She was touching the necklace tied around her wrist. Zuko watched the anxious slide of her thumb and remembered how she had had the last things that were just hers taken away. How could he be angry with her for trying to protect something of hers, people of hers?

And he understood immediately, unquestioningly, that she was right. This was her destiny. Like a perfect weapon, she had been crafted for this fight. This was her battlefield - and a part of Zuko exulted, because despite every mistake and misstep he had made, he had a chance now to stand beside her on it.

"Not wrong," he said, also quietly. "Just really dangerous. What we're doing... one wrong step and it's over, Katara. I wasn't overreacting about the risks, here. Azula is bad enough. If the Fire Lord catches you..."

He shook his head, but this time he made himself look in her eyes and say it. He made himself remember the expression on Ozai's face when he watched Katara's bending demonstration. He had seen on his father's face a lust and fervor for power that Zuko understood on a deep level-

-because sometimes, looking at Katara in all her glory, he felt it, too. Or at least, something uncomfortably like it.

"He might try to subjugate you, to make your power his own and to succeed where he thinks I failed-" His mouth twisted, disgusted and furious and horrified all at once. "-but if he couldn't bend you to his will before the full moon, he'd probably just kill you."

Katara had been sitting twisted in the guest chair to look back at him. At this, she searched his eyes for a long moment, then straightened and stared out the window behind the desk. Zuko hesitated, then slowly crossed the room to take his seat behind the desk. She watched him sit, a thoughtful frown on her face.

"Alright," she said. "I won't say that doesn't scare me just a little bit, but it doesn't change the fact that I have to go back. I can't leave the other healers up there. I won't."

"No, I agree."

He did not explain, did not really consciously realize, that his full support came from both aspects of himself. The rasping voice told him freeing Katara's people was the right thing to do. The hissing voice warned that his enemies would use any leverage against him and, since he was bound to her (for whatever weak, foolish reason) her vulnerabilities were now his, as well.

But Zuko did not notice this because he was preoccupied with the next fight he was about to start.

Katara watched him through narrow eyes. It was like they were back in the courtyard and he was giving away his next move with his posture. She just knew.

"Your disguise is... not gonna work here," he said instead.

For a long moment, Katara just assessed him. Then she slouched back in her chair and loosely folded her arms over her bound chest, looking kind of a lot like a rebellious boy called into the headmaster's office.

"It's mostly just for the healers," she said with a shrug. "They trust a random boy more easily than a girl waterbender who obviously shuns their traditions. A lot of them don't need it but a few would never have left with me if it was Katara doing the rescuing instead of Katto."

"Oh," Zuko said, a little sad to hear this. He shook it off quickly. "That's good, because it's not going to convince anybody else."

"Yeah, I kind of figured anybody who knew my story wasn't gonna be fooled."

"It's not just that. Thanks to Lady Gan apparently being some kind of gossip icon among the nobility, there is no one in Caldera who doesn't know about brave and noble and mighty Princess Katara, who honorably fulfilled her oath and won her freedom and is now focused on liberating her people."

Katara drew a deep breath and rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. "So everybody knows it's me. Great."

"And everybody knows we're staying here. Whatever path you've found up to Caldera, it's about to be common knowledge if it wasn't already. And then-" She was nodding along with a pained expression like she had already thought of this. He felt a terrible drumming in his chest. "-it'll just be a direct route for the Fire Lord to send his soldiers to our doorstep."

Her eyes popped. Clearly that hadn't occurred to her. Zuko waved a hand and shook his head.

"We were already going to move and the arrangements are made. This just means it has to happen sooner than expected."

"Like now," Katara huffed. "The pass is right above the Gan estate. Someone is probably already scouting it." She shook her head angrily. "I need more time."

"Yeah... about that." Zuko sat back in his chair, subconsciously putting distance between them and bracing himself. "I know you probably planned to spend the full moon saving healers, but I need your help to-"

"My people are my priority," she said, low and fierce.

Zuko took in that mutinous look on her face and unthinkingly glared to match it. She wasn't even listening! She didn't even know what was going on, and she was just rejecting him automatically! She was being so unreasonable!

But then he drew a deep breath, stifled his frustration, and kept his voice low and even.

"Look, I'm not asking you to abandon them. I wouldn't do that. I understand what it's like to have a duty to my people. Saving the healers is important - I think it really is your destiny. And it does need to happen quickly. But that's not the only thing going on right now. Just... hear me out before you say no."

She worked her jaw to the side, then shrugged. Zuko took the minor win in stride and pressed on.

"The airship armada is approaching its projected completion date. That means these things are still in the Fire Nation being manufactured and stored to keep them secret until the launch."

He pulled out a map - one of the smaller ones he used for general reference - and pointed out the red dots he had so carefully drawn in.

"These are the airfields I could identify. The larger marks indicate the five main repositories where the highest concentration of airships should be. If we can destroy enough of the fleet before it ever leaves the Fire Nation, we can prevent thousands of deaths and win at least another month before the Fire Lord can use Sozin's comet to launch a larger assault on the Earth Kingdom and the resistance."

Katara stared at the map for a moment with a deep furrow in her brow. Then she glanced up at him and took the parchment into her hands, turning it to glance at the scale and gauge the distance between the scattered dots and Caldera.

"There's no way we can do this in one night," she said grimly. "Even with the full moon, I can't move fast enough to cover this much distance."

"I arranged transportation. But you're right - it will take more than one night," Zuko nodded, watching her closely. "Which is why I want to start tonight."

Her eyes flashed up at him, sharp as ice knives. "And just when were you planning to talk to me about this?"

"Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to at all," Zuko said, a little louder than he meant to. "You've seemed so tired and distracted in training - seeing as you've been rampaging the city in the night instead of sleeping - and I didn't think you were ready."

"Shows what you know," she said scathingly, then waved the map at him. "What, were you just going to go off alone and try to do all this yourself?"

"Yes. Because it has to happen. That fleet can't leave the Fire Nation, or Ba Sing Se is as good as rubble."

"Oh, so it's okay for you to run off alone and be reckless but when I do it it's a problem."

"Hey, I'm not the one-" Zuko stopped himself and sat back in his chair. He'd been leaning forward, drawn as if by gravity into her orbit. Instead, he glared at the ceiling and took a few deep breaths. "It wasn't a good idea. I wanted you with me. I just didn't want to land you in another fight you couldn't win."

Katara sputtered. "Who says I can't win! I'm not frail!"

"Ten days ago I watched Zhao burn you nearly to death," Zuko said, pinning her with a stare he did not realize was a little wild-eyed. He was calm now, but the intensity returned to him in a flood, powerful emotions forcing the words out of him. "I sat there and watched when I could have done something to stop it, but I was such a coward, such an obedient loyal son, I did nothing."

Katara stared back at him, shocked. It had never occurred to her that Zuko might have intervened in that fight, that he might have wanted to.

To her mind, the duel had been purely her failure. Zuko had arranged it and it had seemed like a good idea, the best sort of escape he could offer her. It was Katara who hadn't been strong enough, who hadn't been balanced in her body or her mind, and so had lost. She'd had a vague awareness that Zuko worried about her - they were sort of collaborating, and her success equated to him getting things he wanted, namely revenge on Zhao and Katara's freedom. His relief when she first woke in the infirmary had been pretty evident. Beyond that, she had not thought too deeply about his feelings.

Because she shouldn't have to. She hadn't and still didn't owe him the deep effort it would take to unravel the absolute knot-ball of his interior life. In fact, she owed herself freedom from that burden.

But right now, Zuko's feelings about the duel were on full display - no unraveling required. There was anger, certainly, but a whole host of other feelings hid just behind that blazing veil. Guilt. Shame. Failure. And more than anything else, fear.

Fear for her safety.

This was where that fear came from. The duel. He'd brought it up more than once this morning, and now Katara was starting to understand why. He had seen her almost die, and it had changed... something.

"That time is over," the new Zuko went on, sitting up straighter than ever. "I'm done doing nothing. I will not put you at risk so I can use your power for my own ends, and I will not stand by and let you get hurt or captured. That's why you're not setting foot in Caldera again without me. It's your destiny; believe me, I get that. I'm not gonna try to stop you or take it away, but I meant it when I forbade you to go alone." He thumbed his chest hard. Katara watched with wide, suddenly infuriated eyes. "Because I will be there. Whether I'm standing next to you or chasing after you, that's your choice."

For a moment, Katara only blinked back at his sternly frowning face, scowling for all she was worth - or trying, at least. The feelings clattering through her were mixed up and confusing. Outrage and uncertainty. Frustration, irritation. Awe.

So arrogant to insist on his way like this! The audacity to insert himself into her destiny!

But... he really did mean to support her in fulfilling that destiny? He would really follow her into such terrible danger?

Again? Still?

His arrogance. His audacity. His support. It made her ears hot. It made her want to vault over his stupid borrowed desk and tackle him to the floor and rip the toggles off his stately robe and-

Katara stamped those thoughts down hard and reminded herself of the false choice he was offering her. Zuko was insisting on having his way; there was no 'or'. The thing he was insisting on here wasn't entirely unreasonable - he just wanted to watch her back - but it was an intolerable way to be supportive.

So she scowled, and when she felt steady enough, she leaned forward toward the desk. Unnoticed, her fist crinkled the map against her thigh.

"And I meant it," she said, low and nasty, "when I said you don't command me. You're not in charge of me. You can't forbid me from doing anything. Can you admit that all that is true? Or are we gonna have another negotiation before breakfast?"

Zuko's mouth twisted briefly and his hot eyes flicked down her face for just an instant, but he nodded. "I admit that's all true. It's not that I want to be in charge of you. We can't be as effective if we aren't working together."

"Why don't you try asking me, then?" Katara demanded, shaking her head in disbelief. "Ask to come with me. Don't just tell me what's gonna happen. Ask me what I think. Honestly, it's like you've never worked with another person before."

"That's not true! We worked together in the past!"

"Yeah, and you tried to boss me around then, too. The whole time at the supply station, you were trying to tell me what to do. And how'd that work out?"

His eyes narrowed further. "I don't recall that you listened to one thing I suggested."

"Maybe because your version of making suggestions is actually this other thing called 'taking charge'."

Zuko scowled. At her. At the ceiling. At the open door behind her. At her again.

"Do you want to do this together or not?" he finally demanded.

Insufferable.

Insufferable, overbearing, fretful... jerk.

Katara frowned back at him, fighting her own internal battle against the urge to tell him no, to make him ask nicely. But she reminded herself why she was here; her people needed all the help they could get. Finally, she sighed and sat back, rubbing her forehead.

"Yes. I'll go with you to destroy the fleet. Then you can help me finish saving the healers."

Zuko blinked in apparent surprise, all the irritation draining off his face. "You... don't want to argue? About saving your people first?"

"What, you want me to argue that?"

"No! I'm just surprised..." He shook his head and, under her impatient stare, seemed to force himself to say it. "I thought I'd have to work harder to get your help."

She watched him a moment, then huffed out a breath. "Amazing, isn't it, how people actually want to help you when you're doing the right thing?"

Zuko curled his lip at her faintly like he wanted to mock her, but then he only pressed on. Unbeknownst to Katara, he was marveling that this might actually be true - at least for Katara, who had grown up surrounded by mostly good, reliable people who cared about the difference between right and wrong.

"We'll get your people out of Caldera as soon as we return. Maybe we'll even get lucky and they won't be expecting us then." He couldn't manage to sound optimistic about their chances, so he rushed on. "Sabotaging most of the fleet should only take two nights. We'll hit the southern isles first and then proceed to the north-east for the full moon itself."

He gestured for the map and, when Katara laid it down, he showed her their angle of approach, the best order for their targets, and the surrounding terrain. Then he pulled out a much-referenced war balloon schematic he had managed to get his hands on and showed her the weak points and rare components he had been able to identify.

Katara nodded along, throwing out a few questions as they occurred to her and pointing out a couple things that Zuko hadn't considered. It gave him a sudden wash of nostalgia. This was so similar to how they had bent over the map with the other recruits while Palluk had given his speech about taking the training exercise seriously.

He peeked up at her grim, serious face. Back then, she had been one kid among a crew of kids - a skilled bender and a scrappy fighter. Now, she possessed a weight of presence that she had not had then. Poise. Self-assurance. She'd become more confident in who she was and what she could do. She'd also learned how to read a map - it did not occur to Zuko that he had been the one to show her - and she examined this one with a skeptical eye.

"Even dividing the targets this way, that's a lot of ground to cover in one night," she warned, shaking her head. Her next words came out on a long breath. "It's gonna be really tight."

Zuko's eyes flicked down to her lips and neck and bound chest, just for a second, and a thought shot into his mind with the sudden devastation of an arrow hitting its mark.

Every time, it had been so tight - that maddening slippery squeeze around his-

His eyes lit on the collar and he immediately felt vile.

"The two bases in the north-east should be manageable," she was saying, "but how are we gonna get around through all these islands in the south?"

"Eel- uhm! Giant eel-hounds." He focused very hard on flattening out a corner of the map that had creased and pretended his face wasn't burning. "Lord Hito keeps a stable and has offered his animals for our use."

"Hito. Alright."

Katara sat back and nodded as if this name met with some internal standard to which Zuko was not privy - as if the Hito name was on some unknown list of acceptable people.

Abruptly, footsteps sounded from the hall and a smiling Iyuma appeared in the doorway, rapping lightly on the frame. Zuko blinked at her, and must have pulled a face, because Katara turned to look as well.

"Hi," the healer said in an oddly warm tone, her grin big and lopsided, her eyes taking them in where they sat at the desk. "Sorry to interrupt but Bogara wants to know what a proper pre-waterbending meal should consist of?"

Zuko watched Katara shrug as if it hardly mattered. "I don't know. Whatever. Just not too much of it."

"Like..." Iyuma squinted. "Fruit or eggs or... doesn't matter?"

Zuko watched those slim shoulders shrug again.

This could not be tolerated.

"Something balanced," he said. Both sets of eyes snapped to him, but he remained unwavering, annoyed and impatient to get back to what he was doing. "It's exercise, same as firebending. Just ask Machi. She knows."

"Riiight," Iyuma said, nodding as if this hadn't occurred to her. "I'll just do that then..." She disappeared from sight.

Katara's eyes were still on him, faintly amused. Zuko curled his lip at her and shrugged in challenge.

"What? She was interrupting. She was rude first."

Her faint smile dug deeper into her cheeks, though she shook her head slowly as if to dismiss it. He got the feeling he was being stupid somehow, but didn't get a chance to puzzle it out.

"You said we're moving to the Piang villa," Katara said abruptly as if just remembering. "Why don't I know them?"

For a second, Zuko squinted at her. Because it was strange that she thought she should know every noble house, wasn't it? And then he realized and drew a sudden breath. "Because we never had an appointment with them. The whole family has been staying clear of the capital since Azula banished the heir."

Katara tipped her head to the side, thinking, remembering. "I heard about that somewhere... The guy who cheated on her."

"What?"

Despite every awful thing Azula had done to him and to Katara, he still felt a furious surge of defensiveness. Some guy had cheated on his sister?! The absolute nerve!

Katara watched him with a tiny frown, evidently unimpressed. "You gonna go beat him up?"

"I-!" Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and took a couple breaths. "It's so stupid. I know. I just... keep falling for it."

"Falling for..?"

"I keep thinking of Azula like she's a normal sister when she's not." He glared down at the map under his hands, the tangles of lines. "Every time I trust her, I end up making mistakes. Like the Agni Kai. And..." He hesitated, clenched his teeth, then looked back up at her and chose a less risky subject. He couldn't afford for her to storm out now. "She's devious and murderous and treacherous and... she's never going to be a sister to me. I just need to stop thinking of her that way at all."

Katara was quiet for a moment, then sighed. "Maybe. That'd probably be strategically safer."

Zuko could tell by the hover in her voice that she wasn't done. He looked up and found her looking past him out the window.

"But - Water Tribe wisdom time - family isn't something you can just discard. They're a part of you. You can't just decide they aren't really family and eliminate that connection. It's always there and - as long as you're interacting with them and not, you know, staying far away - so is the possibility of them hurting you. Even if they don't really mean to..."

Watching her now, Zuko could not help but think of Chief Hakoda. How he had chastised her in the throne room for saving Lieutenant Roshu's life. How small and uncertain she had looked in that moment as she dropped her eyes to the floor. He had never seen her look so like a little girl. In that moment, even though she'd been such a thorn in his side, he couldn't help but defend her. And now, the memory of it fed Zuko's long-simmering fury at Hakoda just a little more.

"...but if they do want to hurt you," Katara went on, "they live in your heart, so it's easy for them to rip it out."

.

.

It took positively ages for Azula to travel from the hidden war balloon hangar all the way along the north road and finally up the hidden footpath into Caldera. She had landed near midnight and spurred her racing lizard all the way - and yet here it was, long past sun-up and she was only now arriving at the base of the grand steps into the palace.

The beast must have turned lazy. It would simply have to be replaced!

She ascended the steps at a stately pace - because she certainly couldn't be seen to display any undue urgency. A proper royal scion did not rush about the palace and certainly did not run. No, a proper princess strode, direct and quick but never hurried.

Now more than ever, Azula felt the keen need to distinguish herself in contrast to the improper royal scion who was doubtless the reason she had been summoned. There had been no mention of him in the brief missive, but it had become clear that Zuko's blunders inflicted an inevitable stain on any who stood too close. Whatever he had done now - in just the space of four days - Azula felt a peculiarly intense turmoil in her stomach at the prospect of facing the fallout.

Her mind buzzed with erratic, clinging thoughts. The hawk had been delayed in reaching her. The Avatar's path had been erratic and impossible to anticipate. The restrictions on flight paths and hours intended to protect the airship's secrecy had slowed her pursuit to a tooth-gnashing crawl.

But excuses were for the weak.

Nothing had gone right since the old sword master and his lackey escaped. It had, at the time, crossed Azula's mind that burning his house to the ground only played into his presumptuous musings. Still, one didn't allow the taunts of vermin to prevent the eradication of the nest. The fine house had burned all the same – with complete disregard for Azula's inability to enjoy it.

For the entire journey that followed, Ty Lee had hovered nearby, radiating insipid optimism, and all Azula had heard was the old goat's words echoing endlessly in the back of her mind.

…will failure follow you back to the capital? How long will it hound you…

The words might have stuck, but they had no true bearing on reality. Father would find her late arrival displeasing, but he was unlikely to know any details of her fruitless hunt, and Azula did not have to reveal any more than absolutely necessary. She would shortly correct the situation.

After all, the Avatar had not yet left the Fire Nation. It was simply a matter of pinning down his location and striking before he moved on again.

...or perhaps crafting a lure tempting enough to draw him to her...

Azula entered the throne room to the usual grandeur and knelt before the fiery throne. Father dismissed the servants and, as soon as they were alone, began pacing with the slow fury of a volcano approaching eruption.

"I am beginning to question your judgment in ever-increasing measure, Azula."

Azula's eyes widened but remained fixed properly on the floor. Her buzzing thoughts buzzed more wildly still. Did he somehow already know about the string of failures her hunt had become? That the swordsman had not only escaped unscathed but had dared mock her? That the Avatar had been evading her with apparent ease-?

"Imagination fails," he spat, "when I attempt to guess just what it was your brother promised you that could convince you to divide your glory with such a weak, floundering traitor."

He paced slowly past, and Azula felt his glare on the back of her bowed head, hotter than the heat from the physical flames. She blinked at the floor beneath her and snapped back to reality.

Of course it wasn't really about her. It was only Zuko. Zuko, the obvious stone in her father's shoe. Last she had heard, he was off to visit Harbor City on his fittingly foolish errand, waterbender in tow. Azula had left the palace confident that, at worst, he would occupy himself with peasant concerns and perhaps fall back into his shamelessly sordid affair. In her defeated state, after all, his slave would likely resign herself to his overtures if he bothered to make any.

But of course, Zuko couldn't just shame their family in the privacy of his own rooms. He had to make some kind of scene that would draw Father's attention and force reprisal. Really, Azula should have known better. She should have anticipated that her brother would never just accept and obey the rules of his role.

...Why hadn't she anticipated that?

Azula shook off the unsettling question and focused on the moment at hand.

"I at one time thought Zuko might be useful, but he has since proven himself to be no more than an embarrassment to the royal family. Even, somehow, when he has been removed from circles of influence..."

Ozai stopped over her, his growled words barely audible over the rush of flames. "It would seem his reach widened significantly during his diplomatic assignments. Some in the court openly support him in his humanitarian endeavors. And if there are open supporters, there are no doubt a hundred shadowed conspirators."

Azula dared a glance up to find him scowling and pacing once more. What had Zuko done?

"Humanitarian endeavors, Father? Is he not simply wasting his time with petty diversions?"

The Fire Lord bared his teeth as he replied. "So it seemed. At first. It was my intention that he would defy my command and make some effort to see his men freed from that jail. Then I might have simply locked him away somewhere to prevent further embarrassment-"

Azula nodded. She had anticipated something to that effect after the scene he made in the dueling court. Father had been clever to arrange such an incident before Zuko could decide on his own to further his disgrace.

"-but he went so far as to proclaim himself some sort of hero of the unfortunates and has created his insipid relief programs here at home with the help of his sympathizers in the court. He has grown so bold as to openly defy my summons-"

He fixed her with a furious look. The sort of look he might direct at Zuko. Excuses were for the weak, but Azula felt them clawing at the back of her throat all the same.

She felt an incredible pressure building inside her, not unlike drawing lightning in the air, the screaming cold vacuum between what presently was and what had to be.

"-and now he huddles like a coward at the Gan villa, stirring the pot and inciting the court to treasonous whispers beneath my very nose."

"Surely the royal guard could extract him easily enough from a villa."

"Yes," Ozai snarled, "were it not for the militias."

Azula's mouth went dry. "Militias?"

"The masses of dirty beggars your brother has roused to his defense!" There was a flash of light as the flames flared hotter, then settled. "The westernmost end of Harbor City is clogged with mobs of defective veterans whose fighting spirits have been miraculously restored."

"Veterans, Father?" Azula asked, finally looking directly up at the Fire Lord towering over her. "From their actions, they sound like traitors."

"Indeed. But the royal guards I sent to collect Zuko were reluctant to exert their full force against our nation's own."

"More traitors, then, to be disciplined just the same-!"

"Haste makes you foolish, Azula. You have already taxed my leniency to its fullest extent."

The words were a shrill friction in the back of Azula's brain and she could not help her widening eyes, her grimace. Ozai had already turned away, though, pacing once more.

"The harbor and much of the city is still under control, but it would take just a spark to ignite a full uprising. Attempts to make an example out of a few only drew out more support for the rebels. If we press them, a mob of chaos will break out on our very doorstep. Zuko must have learned more from that old failure than I gave him credit for."

Azula clenched her teeth together so tightly they ached down to their roots. It seemed all but impossible that Zuko could manage much better than bumbling into a lucky strategy - as he had when he freed that earthbender. But Father sounded almost... impressed.

It chimed a discordant note in a tune that was normally perfect, a tune that had to be perfect. The pressure in her built, inescapable, a maelstrom sucking her downward, inward.

"But he has made a grave miscalculation with his waterbender." Ozai linked his hands behind his back, his tone softening to chilly satisfaction. "He's apparently let her off her leash and she has been slinking up to Caldera in the night, stealing slaves. Witnesses have reported she appears to be alone. It will be a small matter to snare her."

A smile began to spread over his face, sharp as the points of his gleaming flame crown.

"And if that mewling turncoat was so stricken by the sight of Zhao roasting her, he will not recover when he sees what I will do."

Azula felt a familiar rush of anticipation at the thought of the waterbender getting exactly the punishment she deserved - because that was the sort of punishment the Fire Lord delivered. His justice was the only justice: the justice of true power.

"The moon will be full tomorrow night," she ventured. "She will likely be overconfident so close to the peak of her capabilities."

"Yes," Father said, his smile cutting deeper. "And we have no shortage of hostages with which to bait our trap. How fortuitous that such a powerful weapon can be so easily redirected. Perhaps, once the reins are back in place, I'll command her to retrieve my errant son."

A tight frown cut across Azula's face. If Zuko had freed the waterbender and she had not immediately run off to join her allies, it was likely they were working together - but there could be no doubt her bother was still groveling at the mercy of his war prize. From the very beginning, she had pulled his overdeveloped heartstrings to get what she wanted. A royal entanglement. Turmoil in the Fire Nation. And now, he had freed her and broken with Father, perhaps irreparably this time.

Likely, this had been the wolf's scheme from the moment she demanded that collar. Azula had gone to all the trouble of reuniting her family and maneuvering Zuko into some semblance of a presentable public figure, only to have it all torn apart…

Creaking, straining, cracks spreading across the surface of her mind. Like a sad ghost over her shoulder, that old voice whispered, Oh Azula, he never trusted you. You were never going to hold him here without earning his trust.

No… torn apart by her.

Azula bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper, forcing her mind back to the present. Forcing away that terrible, torturous voice. The waterbender was the reason Zuko had betrayed them. He was soft and gullible – he always had been – especially for a pretty girl with her teeth sunk in his heart. If he wanted to make himself an enemy over her, Azula would certainly fight him and defeat him...

But that waterbender wasn't coming back to the palace. Not even to suffer a just punishment. Not even to serve the Fire Lord's will. And not even to bait a trap for the Avatar. That peasant princess was simply going to die. Azula would settle for nothing less.

"Father, there is still time before the full moon, and all signs suggest the Avatar is lingering in the Fire Nation for the time being. Send me. I will bring my brother to face justice."

He stopped between her and the flames of the dais, casting down his calculating eye. "It is perhaps short-sighted to delay the Avatar's capture when the competing threat is only Zuko... but if he has pulled one trick from his sleeve, he may have more in reserve. Besides," he spun and stepped easily thought the flames, which parted before him, never once licking the dragging hem of his robes, "the Avatar is weak. Whatever legendary power he is supposed to command, he does not possess it now. When I looked into his eyes, I saw nothing but a frightened child. His greatest weapon is his ability to evade capture."

He arrived at the newly-rebuilt structure over the throne and smirked back at her. Azula's heart sped up with vindictive anticipation.

"Zuko, on the other hand, can be easily dealt with - especially now that my agents have discovered a clear path by which you may reach him..."

.

.

"There actually is other news," Zuko said at length, "and I don't want to run out of time before your bending lesson, so..."

Katara fixed him with a look of bland curiosity and adjusted her slouch to hitch one elbow over the back of the chair. The terrible posture pulled her tunic snug to her bound chest.

Zuko huffed out his nose and tidied up his maps instead of looking at her for a moment.

"The Gans fled the capital the day before yesterday. I mean, publicly they went to see to some of their holdings that are conveniently a long way from here, but it's all a precaution to avoid reprisal for helping me."

Katara was staring at him, aghast and then angry. "Some allies they turned out to be!"

"They couldn't just stay in their townhouse and wait for the royal guards, Katara. They did what they could do, and now they've stepped back until they can do more."

"How much could they have possibly done in a day?"

"A lot, actually." Zuko turned his eyes to the ceiling as he began reciting. "Lord Gan had his agents arrange food distribution and startup for several schools and homes for the displaced, and he put me in contact with all of his friends in the Fire Court. Which... I guess he's a popular guy. Between the lot of them, we now have enough capital and resources to stay afloat for the time being. Although-" He jotted down a quick note with a charcoal pencil on one of his sheets of figures. He would need to have Toh Min recalculate some of these estimates with the healers in mind...

"And Lady Gan?" Katara asked, too-sweetly. "Did she hand out dumplings in the street?"

"No... Lord Gan mentioned she threw some kind of brunch party."

"Hah."

Zuko peered up at her without raising his head from his note. "That's how she operates. She throws some exclusive little event and suddenly the entire Fire Court is talking about whatever she wants."

Katara narrowed her eyes at him. "And she just wants me to seem like some kind of hero? What else are people saying about me now? About us?"

Feeling his face heat, Zuko set his pencil aside and sat up straighter. His eyes flicked to the open door behind her. "I heard it from Lord Shuro, who heard it from his daughter, so if there was anything salacious, I didn't hear it. But... it has gotten around that I never... that the rumors weren't true. About what was happening behind closed doors."

She didn't even blink, just stared steadily back at him, and it was a struggle not to break eye contact with the shame beating in his face like it was. Finally, she ended the silence.

"Good," she said, low and dark. "Now don't you feel a little less like an evil ice-hole?"

Zuko felt his expression crack, his shock and relief bare to her eyes. "Actually... yeah. I do."

"And aren't you glad you listened to me and admitted the truth?"

"Yes," he said, growing annoyed despite himself. He already felt bad! Why was she just rubbing it in?

"Do you feel less strong or less manly or less worthy of respect now?" she asked, tipping her head to one side in withering inquiry.

Zuko glared at her, then drew a deep breath and frowned up at the ceiling. "No. I don't."

In fact, he could not bring himself to say it aloud when she was actively needling him, but he was beginning to feel like a better man. He felt clean in a way he hadn't since his return. Honest and true. When the nobles he met with looked at him, something was subtly different. They respected him more now. Maybe it was the work he was doing, but that didn't quite ring like the full truth to Zuko.

He was more inclined to believe that in this, as in an ever-growing list of other things, his father had been wrong.

He drew another breath and forced his irritation down, focused on what was really important here and now. He met her eye - though he wasn't really aware of how annoyed the set of his face was. "I'm sorry. I disgraced you and myself by letting that go on. I'm taking action now to make sure it doesn't happen again."

At first, she just went on watching him coldly with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. Zuko could almost read her thoughts in her eyes; Not sorry enough! She seemed just a breath away from some caustic rejection. So he braced himself to stay steady, because it wouldn't help his cause to lash out in frustration over her refusal to even consider the measures he was taking.

But then Katara drew her own deep breath and slowly began to thaw. The tension around her eyes faded. Her mouth gentled to a soft downward curve. She didn't look happy or even entirely not-angry... more just... accepting of a reality that could no longer be denied.

"I noticed," she said. Then, as if each word was a struggle to squeeze out, she went on. "I... appreciate... that you're making an effort to... honor and respect me."

It wasn't forgiveness exactly. But it was a big step nearer to forgiveness than where she had been a few days ago - because she hadn't cut him off to stop him this time. She hadn't refused to let him even say the words. Maybe she wasn't ready to accept his apology, but she was willing to hear it. She was willing to acknowledge that he was doing something right. She was ready to appreciate his efforts - grudgingly, but still.

It warmed him, fed the hope in him that he was making progress. Stoked his hunger for more.

Abruptly, Katara shrugged and examined her fingernails as if bored.

"I guess Lady Gan is alright," she said. "For a conniving, manipulative, gossipy Fire Noble."

Zuko blinked, momentarily thrown by the sudden non-sequitur.

Her grudging acceptance of Lady Gan's enormous contribution to their reputation was arrogant and dismissive and completely devoid of gratitude. As if making the choice to do something good was the bare minimum of acceptable behavior and a person oughtn't be congratulated for fulfilling the least of their responsibilities to other people.

Zuko could remember a time when that attitude, directed at him, had cut him and salted the wound. Now, when it was directed at one of the aristocracy, it made him want to kiss her impudent mouth.

Instead, he fixed her with a look of mild reproach. "What she did for us has changed the game. Half of winning support in the Fire Court is telling a story they care about. Katara, whatever you told her during that walk, you inspired her to throw her family's entire weight behind our cause."

She scoffed out a disbelieving laugh. "Shockingly, again, it turns out telling the truth can work out okay for us."

Zuko stared at her, trying to understand. "If you mean you told her the truth about me, I can't imagine how that day turned into a win for us."

Katara pinned him with a look that was part assessment and part censure. "You have been a pretty terrible person," she said. "But not as terrible as she thought you were. So I guess you won the 'Not As Terrible As You Could Have Been' award. Congratulations on not tripping over the bar. Because it was so low."

Zuko scowled at her but was spared from having to wrestle back a pithy response because, at that moment, Yotsu arrived with breakfast. With his usual efficiency, he arranged the meal on the tea table - steamed buns and sliced fruit and a pot of tea. He left as swiftly as he had come but the pause was just long enough for Zuko to tamp down his irritation. Mostly.

Katara was watching him very closely, waiting. Whatever she expected, Zuko didn't care. He fell back on good manners - though any graciousness he might convey was entirely accidental.

"I'm going to eat and have some tea," he said with lofty and only slightly disdainful beneficence. "You may join me if you want. Or not. Whatever."

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AN: Sorry this ends so abruptly, but the Private Conversation was way too long for one chapter. The next chapter will be up in a few days - I had to write them together, so it's pretty much ready to go. If I don't post this now, I'm going to make myself crazy editing forever. They've been real bears to write. Hopefully more fun to read!

Let me know! Your reviews (blessings to those of you who review frequently and so thoughtfully!) dramatically brighten some pretty sucktastic days.