"I'm sorry to bring up such dark things and on such a lovely day, in front of an even lovelier girl." Gua said, flashing her a smile. He continued before Katara could reply, "Have you ever had the deep desire to be understood? Even if it's by a stranger?"

She knew the feeling. It was how she felt when she first met Aang and discovered he was a bender, and with Haru. Growing up as the last waterbender in the Southern Tribe meant that she had always felt like a bit of an a bender was supposed to give her a unique connection with her culture. A way to let the stories and practices of her ancestors live through her. Sometimes it felt like this power that was supposed to make her feel special, somehow marked her from the rest of her tribe.

When she encountered Aang and Haru, the first benders to enter her world she automatically wanted to know them. She wanted to know there was someone else out there that knew what it was like to bend the chi within not only themselves but everything around it, to have their soul reach out to meld with the very building blocks of the world around them.

She nodded in response and continued. "For some reason Katara, when I met you that's exactly what happened to me. I wanted to know more about you and I wanted you to understand me." He paused for a moment, like he wasn't sure if he should say the next part. "Especially for the work we have to do next."

Katara raised a questioning eyebrow. Gua shrugged and looked away. "I just mean I've done this trip before and we've run into our fair share of hostile ships- anything could happen."

"Look I get it, when I traveled with the Avatar we were chased from the South Pole to the North by the Fire Nation."

Gua's mouth dropped open a bit. "The Avatar? You're traveling together?" Katara cursed herself, she knew that Aang wasn't in any danger from Gua or the little village being stowed away in the medical houses of the northern tribe but she wasn't trying to accidentally let anything else important slip. Zuko after all was still wanted by just about every nation.

She figured she better give him something or he may decide to go investigating. "No." She said, probably a little too quickly. "He was severely injured in Ba Sing Se a few months ago. Me and my brother got separated from him. I don't even know if he's alive." She felt her eyes sting as at least the last part was true, as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself. Aang could already be dead by now and this entire thing could just be one last pointless shot into the void.

Gua's face fell, "so the Avatar is no more?"

Katara shrugged. "Well...I don't really know anything for sure. Like I said we got split up, it's just me and my brother. He's not a bender though so he's waiting for me back at camp."

She hoped that would be enough to satisfy Gua's curiosity. Afterall, she could say from first-hand experience, that Sokka was way less interesting than the Avatar.

Gua gave her a long look but didn't push the subject, likely sensing Katara's hesitation at the subject.

"Come on, we'll be headed out soon for the mission. I should show you what your job will be. After seeing you throw half the crew overboard it shouldn't be anything difficult for you."

—-

Gua turned to her offering her his arm, she found herself inadvertently blushing not knowing what he wanted. Surely he wasn't suggesting that they jump from here. All she ended up mustering was a prolonged "uhh".

He laughed, throwing his head back. "You should see your face right now. I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you."

"Hey! I'm not-"

He cut her off. "It's okay! That was my bad. Do you trust me?" he asked.

She looked at him skeptically then decided to speak her mind. "Why would I? I just met you."

He smiled at her again and a strange look crossed over his face. "Smart girl, keep that skepticism. It'll keep you alive longer."

Katara raised an eyebrow that had taken a dark turn quickly. He shrugged, "This is faster - just saying and we don't have to mess around with the harness."

"Because we won't fall?"

"Because I'm that good." is all he replied.

Katara sighed and took his hand. He quickly pulled her in close, his hands were rough and calluses, hallmarks of an earthbender.

Gua pressed her body against his and wrapped an arm around her. "Hold on tight."

She instinctively gripped the fabric of his shirt and clung to his side. He nodded in silent approvement as he saw her follow her directions.

Then he lifted his empty hand, and a small collection of rocks leapt from a pouch and wrapped themselves around Gua's hand like a fitted glove. "Prevents rope burn." he said, and without further explanation launched into the air taking Katara with him.

Without meaning to Katara let out a scream and clamped her eyes shut. Moments later she felt herself stumble a few steps forward as she and Gua landed on the deck.

She opened her eyes to see that they had made it in one piece. Gua was smirking at her, "Well I guess we can rule out any airbenders in your ancestry."

She rolled her eyes, "just show me what i need to do."

He was still smirking but showed her to the other side of the ship. All that was needed of her was to help propel the ship forward at a faster than normal rate. Katara was told that in the world of business, time is money. So the faster she got these goods to the port, the more money the captain would make. She was going to help them round trip, and there was quite a heavy sack of coins in it for her at the end she was told.

She had sighed internally with relief at that, she figured that would be more than enough to get her and Zuko by for a few weeks- at least until they had time to figure out a solid plan for their next move.

They waited until nightfall to set sail, something about it being better sailing conditions. Flying around on a flying bison she hadn't had to worry about things like the tides before. When she and Zuko were on the raft they didn't have enough supplies or equipment to really need to care about such things. It was all about the luck of surviving then.

Katara had some time to think to herself, Gua had run off after showing her to her assigned post. He hadn't given much explanation, Katara had the strong feeling that he was off to pester Auntie Yanyu for some more goodies. She smiled to herself, imagining Gua having to dodge another barrage of cookware.

—-

They had been sailing for most of the night when Gua made his way over to Katara. She was glad he had, she had started to get lonely. The moon was a bright waning crescent hanging in the sky and felt far away from all her friends.

"Hey, I brought you this." he said, holding up a small sack in his hand.

"And 'this' would be?"

"Fresh bao bun, freshly made by Auntie Yanyu for the hard working crew!"

"And how many pots and pans did you have to dodge to acquire these?"

Gua laughed but he sounded tired. Katara supposed that made sense, she could feel the exhaustion from the night beginning to make her arms feel heavy. Although she had honed her skills in the past few months to become an excellent waterbender, she wasn't used to continuous bending like this.

She took one of the buns from Gua, it was warm in her hand. Katara gave him a smile and bit into it. She hadn't quite realized just how hungry she was until she felt the chewy and fluffy texture falling apart in her mouth. She gave him a smile to thank him and finished the rest of her bun in two bites.

"I should've brought you to the mess hall to eat, Auntie always appreciates those who enjoy her cooking." Katara shrugged at him a bit awkwardly, not knowing what to say to that. "Relax! It's a compliment." She knew he hadn't intended to be mean with the comment, but now she found herself suddenly self-conscious. Silently she chided herself for not having more manners, especially while eating.

Katara never bought much into the whole concept of acting "lady-like". In fact, the closest she had ever gotten to "high society" was when she and Toph had dressed up in fine silk robes and tried to infiltrate the Earth King's party.

Although they had originally gone there on a mission, she remembered the moment the carriage door opened and they stepped out into an entirely new Ba Sing Se. By then she and the rest of the Gaang had seen much of the city from dirty and dangerous streets of the lower ring, to the vast complex of shops and businesses that took up the middle ring. The house they were staying in was even located in the upper ring. But the air of elegance and wonder here was on a whole new level, especially for a little girl who had grown up on the nearly barren ice of the South Pole.

There were people everywhere, dressed in the finest silks that could be found anywhere in the four nations and more people than she could count! She saw that the crowd gathered in the outer courtyard was three, maybe even four times as big as her entire village.

She had felt self-conscious there. Earlier in the day, the rest of the group had poked fun at Toph for depictions of "high society". After-all being all prim and posh couldn't be that hard?

It definitely had been that hard. She felt herself flush and tried to hide her face. Why was she thinking of things like that right now?

Katara was determined to not make a fool of herself- and to not take such big bites. Unfortunately, that would have to start with her next meal as she had already stuffed the final bits of the second bao into her mouth.

The next thing she knew she felt herself begin to choke. She tried to push through it and swallow it, but this had a bit of a mixed effect- resulting in her being able to swallow some while a few runaway bits were coughed out. She jerked her head to the side, nearly missing Gua.

He was laughing at her now, hands on his knees to support his bent over form. Although she was thoroughly embarrassed she couldn't help but smile. It was a moment that seemed so simple it reminded her of her brother's teasing and their shared bickering growing up.

She shoved him playfully and he pretended to fall over, hands thrown over his face in protection. "Okay I surrender! Just don't spit any more of your bao at me! We'd send Auntie to an early grave if she knew how we treated her delicious treats."

Katara rolled her eyes, "Better be careful, my octopus form is much more dangerous than the bao." She smirked at him, remembering how easily she had thrown him out of the way when she had tried to flee the ship, even in her delirious state. It was one of the only times since she had met him that she saw through his facade of easy going self-confidence. She couldn't quite name the look on his face, but knew that something threw him off his natural rhythm then.

Gua wasn't going to let her get away with that though, "oh come on, you caught me off guard!"

"Mhmm." Katara said. "Whatever you say."

"Yes I do. You see my moves earlier?"

"Stopping big rocks?"

It was Gua's turn to roll his eyes, "Ha, ha. Very funny." He held out his hand, the rocks from earlier covered his hand in an earthy glove.

"Ahh yes, that move." She said, pretending to acquiesce. "Your powers of preventing rope burn, who knows next thing we know it you'll be taking on the Fire Nation by yourself with these powers."

He smiled at her again but this time, it didn't meet her eyes. In fact, she could be wrong, the little bit of moon that was out didn't provide much light to see by, but he looked a little sad. "Hey I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"

"It's nothing, you didn't do anything." He said, shortly before turning and walking away.

Katara looked at his retreating figure with utter bewilderment wondering what she had done wrong. One moment he was making a special effort to bring her food and the next he walked away in- anger? Over a joke.

She sighed and continued bending the ship along.