AN: Full chapter title is supposed to be "TINWIBSS 3: Old friends (who don't want to attack us)". There's a character limit.

"The Official Avatar Aang Fan Club Ba Sing Se Chapter Clubhouse … or the Central Air Temple, for short."

"Can't you just call it the Clubhouse?" Aang said. "I really hate it when you call it either of those."

"We know," said Toph.

He may have hated the name, but it fit perfectly: an apartment complex on the outskirts of the Middle Ring, decorated in the style of the Eastern Air Temple, resplendent in the late afternoon sun. A pudgy girl in white and yellow robes came out to greet them.

"Hel~lo Aang!" she sang out, and Katara instantly disliked her.

Oh come on don't be ridiculous. We just got here.

"And you've brought some new Fans!" she went on. "What a crowd, six of you now." Her eyes skated past Zuko to Katara.

"Uh, they're not Fans," said Aang. "This is Katara, my waterbending teacher, I told you about her? And her bodyguard, Guo. This is Won-Yee, co-founder of the Clubhouse."

"No, you've never mentioned her," said Won-Yee, and she pulled Aang into a side hug and ostentatiously kissed him on the cheek. Zuko's gaze went from her to Aang, looking supremely awkward; to Katara, who'd gone very still, before she broke out into a smile showing slightly more teeth than usual; to Sokka, his expression unusually smooth; to Toph, bored; to Suki, awkward.

"Can you leave that for later?" Toph asked. "We actually came here for the men."

Won-Yee relented, and led them into the complex. "You know, Toph, you could stand to study a little Air philosophy. We have robes your size …"

"Could you give me a pamphlet?" Toph asked.

"Just to be clear," Katara said, as they passed another girl in the same robes, "you're not actually Air Nomads or benders, are you?"

"We weren't born to it, if that's what you mean," Won-Yee said. "We chose this life. We believe in Avatar Aang's teachings and we want to help him revive the Air Nomad culture. We believe Ba Sing Se has fallen too far from its connection to the spirits, and from the air ideals of peace and freedom, and that by teaching his philosophy, we can bring it back on the right path."

I mean, honestly that sounds like a pretty good thing.

So what's bothering us?

She glanced at Zuko. He certainly didn't care.

"Yeah, see, that's the part I don't get," Toph said. "You say you want freedom, and okay, I'm buying what you're selling, but then you go and make up a whole bunch of different rules you have to follow instead?"

"The Air Nomad customs and way of life are voluntary," said Won-Yee. "We choose to follow those rituals for the clarity they bring us. You're a powerful bender, Toph, and as a spiritual art, you should try to be open-minded about expanding your spirituality."

"I've got your spirituality right here," Toph undertoned, and it was lucky Zuko was in the way and Katara couldn't see the gesture she made.

Won-Yee led them to the base of a tower, gave Aang another ham-acted kiss, and sashayed back to whatever she'd been doing. They headed upstairs.

"So, you found a girlfriend!" Katara said brightly. "I'm so happy for you!"

Yeah, absolutely! We totally are!

No mixed feelings at all! That's what we're going with, right?

"She's not my girlfriend, exactly," Aang said.

"She's pretty much your girlfriend," Sokka said. "You see her just about every day, and you kiss."

"That's just how she says hi. Besides, I see Toph every day. Does that make her my girlfriend?"

"I'm straight," said Toph. "No offence."

"Is there an interpretation where that isn't an insult?" Aang asked.

"She's pretty," Katara said.

"Pretty well-fed," Toph undertoned.

"A lot happened," Aang said. "You were gone for a month, we were sure you'd been captured again …"

"Yet again," Sokka said.

"It was complicated," Aang said. "Can we focus on this?"

They reached the third storey and knocked. There came a brief grinding, and the door swung open, revealing Teo on a new wheelchair. Behind him, the Mechanist was tinkering with a pile of clockwork spilled out across a long workbench.

"Teo!" Katara said, and she stepped past Aang to bend over and hug him as tight as she could. "You made it here!"

No mixed feelings at all! Whee!

"Katara!" he said, face breaking out into a grin, until he spotted Zuko. "Oh, hey, Zuko."

Do we say 'hey' back?

I don't know. I think he expects it, but it's kind of informal for my taste. We are still a Prince.

Greetings?

Being a Prince doesn't mean we have to be stuffy. It's either hello or hi. I think I prefer –

"It's Guo these days," Katara said.

"Mm," said Zuko.

clap clap clap

"Oh … kay," said Teo. "Anyway, what's up? Did you get anywhere with the government?"

"Not yet," said Sokka. To Katara and Zuko, "You need permits to do anything around here. We've been trying to get the government to let these guys make stuff, but they've been dragging their feet like you wouldn't believe." Turning back to Teo, "We're going to have to push hard tonight. The Fire Nation's started attacking with gliders, they must have captured your blueprints and set up a factory." Teo did a double-take; the Mechanist went still; Toph's eyebrows beetled. "We need you to start up your own factory and make them for our side to hold them off."

"That'll be hard," Teo said, glancing back at his father for confirmation. "That was the first thing we asked, and they said no. Kind of fair enough, actually, I almost crashed into someone's home when we got here. Oh yeah, and they don't work as well here, either. The thermals are weaker here than at the Temple, it's harder to take off and you can't carry much. Come to think of it, how could they fly?"

"That piece of machinery we saw outside the city," Zuko said, looking at Katara. "I think it was a drum for making artifical thermals. Line up firebenders around the base, they bend fire in, the air heats up and rises. You could let gliders take off anywhere. Or, the Fire Nation can."

"We could do the same thing by burning coal," Sokka said.

The Mechanist came over. "In theory," he said. "It'd be expensive, you'd need to find a noble to sponsor me for that much coal –"

"No problem," Aang said. "I'm the Avatar, I'm sure I can convince someone."

"– but I'm not sure it's a good idea anyway," he continued. "For two reasons. One, firebenders don't have to waste weight on weapons, so they'll be lighter and faster than our gliders, and don't forget, gliders are flammable. They'll have the advantage in an aerial battle. And two, even if I did think up something to give us an edge of our own, who's to say they won't just reverse-engineer that too? If they're certain to get air superiority, it might be better not to give them any more ideas, and fight them from the ground."

"Aang's going to fight the Fire Lord in four months," Sokka said. "We just have to hold out until then, and he'll settle things. If it takes the Fire Nation longer than that to copy whatever we make, it won't matter. Can you do something with balloons? Those are big enough that it won't matter if we have to waste some weight bringing rocks for earthbenders to shoot."

"I'd be worried, what if enemy gliders soared overhead and attacked the envelope. Well … I might be able to do something to protect them … but I have a net idea I like better. If I could build a large enough trebuchet, with an earth counterweight that a team of earthbenders can move, that might have enough power to send a net high enough to snag a glider …"

"What if they just went around, though?" Sokka pressed, getting into his element of ideabending. "A giant catapult wouldn't be able to move, and you couldn't make enough to protect the entire outer and inner walls."

"Hmm … perhaps if I put the trebuchet on a balloon … I don't know if I could scale a balloon up enough to handle that much weight, and the stability would …"

"What about that thing with the mirrors, Dad?" Teo asked.

"It wouldn't be able to set anything on fire, but it could dazzle the pilot, and that might just make them crash. It would be most effective in the morning, and they like to attack then, so if we –"

"Are you coming to dinner after, or do you want to eat here?" Aang asked Sokka, but it was too late, he was lost to the world, along with Teo and the Mechanist. "… We'll leave you to it and handle the government, then." They waved off and filtered back downstairs.

"You must be really popular here," Katara said, "to have a fan club already. Like Kyoshi Village, but bigger."

"I guess," Aang said. "At least there's no foaming mouth guy here, that was weird."

"What was his name, anyway?" Katara asked Suki.

"I never found out," she said, "the Warriors always just called him Foaming Mouth Guy too."

They came to the courtyard, where another two of the Fans were busy sweeping. They smiled and approached.

"Good evening, Avatar Aang!" chirped one. "Will you be eating with us again?"

"Uh – not tonight, Anji," Aang said, smiling apologetically. "We have to meet with the government."

"You can't tease us like that!" said the other girl. "You spend as much time with them as with us. We need your guidance."

Zuko fixed Aang with a disapproving look. Aang fidgeted.

"Is there a problem?" asked Anji, reading them.

"We have a difference of opinion," said Zuko, "on whether to focus on business or pleasure first."

"Avatar Aang spending time with us Fans is business," she said. "We're helping restore Air Nomad culture to the world, to help bring it back into balance. But we don't understand their lessons perfectly. By teaching us, he helps ensure their wisdom is passed on to the future."

"I wonder if there's anything else he could focus on to help secure the future."

"Lay off him, Guo," Katara said, ruffling Aang's scalp. "He's been training hard while we were just riding ostrich horses all day."

Aang smiled. Zuko did not.

"Do you mind if Katara and Guo eat here?" Aang asked Anji. "The government won't let them come to our thing, it's fancy dress only."

"Our doors are always open," she said warmly, "and any friend of the Avatar is an especial friend of ours. We're getting quite good at making Air Nomad cuisine. Do you have any dietary restrictions?"

"Actually," said Katara, "Sokka made us a reservation at a restaurant. I have some old friends I want to catch up with."

"That's too bad. Another time, then."

"It's getting late," said Aang, "and it'll take a while for the trains to take us to the palace. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon?"

"I'll take that as a promise," said the second Fan.

"~Won-Yee will," Anji lilted, snickering.

Aang fidgeted, and they waved off.

"She seemed nice," Katara said brightly.

"… She is," he said. "Katara –"

"Can you braid each other's hair later?" Toph asked. "I'm starving already, and it'll take ages to get back."

He frowned, then swallowed his pride and smiled again. "I'll see you tonight," he said.

Aang, Toph, and Suki set off one way.

"So, the Avatar has a girlfriend," Zuko said as he and Katara walked the other way.

"I'm happy for him," she said.

"Katara."

"Guo."

"Don't Guo me. Your brother and the Avatar might let you get away with everything, but I don't."

"This is why everyone keeps attacking you wherever you go."

"That's not even one of the top ten reasons people attack me. Did I have the wrong idea, and you actually had a crush on him all along?"

Katara sighed. " it was nice that he had one on me."

"He still does. He's not subtle."

"I know." She took a moment to think how to word what she was feeling. "Before you joined us, it was me, Sokka, and Aang, best friends forever. We'd meet other people, but sooner or later they'd leave and do their own thing, while the three of us stuck together no matter what. They were only ever friends, but we were family. So then you and I left and did our own thing, and the four of them stuck together. Now they have in-jokes, and they've learned to earthbend, and found a girlfriend, all without me. I'm just a friend now, I'm not family any more."

"Sokka's your brother, he's literally family," Zuko said.

"Thanks, Princeling. I knew I could count on you not to miss the point."

"Hmph. Where do I fit into this metaphor?"

You're even more persistent than we are. Enough to count as family, except you're also a constant pain in our butt. I mean, more than family usually is.

An annoying cousin who I wish wouldn't visit so much? Except it's at least half put on, and you're actually brave and kind when push comes to shove.

"You don't," she said. "It shouldn't be a big deal anyway, because now we're back together; except I can't even have dinner with them, because they have to talk to the government, and I'm not allowed in with them because they don't like my dress."

"Is dinner that important?" Zuko asked. "You got to train with them all day today."

"Yes, dinner's important. Why d'you think I bothered cooking for you ungrateful lot all this time?"

"Because you get murderous when you're hangry, you're too much of a control freak to let anyone else do it, and it's no more effort to make enough for everyone?"

"It is when one person never eats meat and another only eats meat, and a third wants everything soaked in poison. Dinner's the big family meal you have to have together."

"…" said Zuko, remembering family dinners back home. "Is tonight you trying to replace them?"

"No! These are just … also my people. It matters. Wait here."

They'd come to a cluster of apartments in the Outer Ring. Katara knocked on the door; a small Water Tribe boy answered. Somehow, between this moment and the previous, Zuko had vanished.

"Hello, I'm Katara. Is Master Pakku here?"

The boy shook his head. "Master Pakku didn't come to Ba Sing Se."

Worth a try. Who else did we meet at Agna Qel'a?

Yue, Yagoda, Hahn …

She kept her smile in place. "There were some girls. Akini, Nauja, Taupek?"

The boy thought, then nodded. "Come on."

He led her up to the third storey, then knocked and let them into an apartment. It was crowded: Water Tribe men, women and children, all talking over each other. There was meaty smoke thick in the air.

"Katara!" The girl pushed her way out of a crush of bodies, waved her friends and family off.

"Akini, how are you doing!"

"Pretty okay. I was wondering when you'd get here. Are you staying for dinner?"

"Actually, I have a friend downstairs, we're going to a restaurant in the Middle Ring. Do you want to come? The government's paying."

"Awesome," she said, grinning. The two of them dodged any adults who might've possibly objected to her sneaking out for the night, and made it downstairs, where Zuko reappeared from the shadows. "Oh, hey, Zuko, you're here too."

"Do I know you?" he asked, looking the Toph-scale Katara over.

"I saw you mostly naked once," she said.

"… You'd think I'd remember that."

"Akini and I took steam together a few times," Katara said. "And we're calling him Guo for now."

Zuko gave her a look of How is taking steam a social occasion for you? What do you talk about? "So you're naked, huh? Me too, we should be friends!"

She chose to ignore this.

They found their restaurant, a large, brightly-lit place. A pretty young waitress with twin braids running in front of her shoulders came, gave Zuko a twice-over, and gave them a bowl of prawn crackers and some menus.

Zuko gave Katara a look of Shoot, did she recognise me from somewhere?

She gave him an irritable look back, She was checking you out, idiot.

He blinked. No way. My scar is hideous.

She rolled her eyes. You're a hundred and sixty pounds of lean beef, and aside from your scar, which is loads better than when we met, you're handsome. Every girl in here is fantasising about you.

… Every girl?

"So you two just got here, right?" Akini asked. They blinked and paid attention to her. "Sokka's come over a few times. He's funny."

"Just last night," Katara agreed. "You might not know, but is there a hospital in town anywhere?"

"Yeah, of course. I've been working there. Are you thinking of joining in?" She took a bite out of a prawn cracker.

"Mm-hmm. I healed some people at the refugee camp, coming in, and I got interrupted. I don't think I'd be able to find them again, but I can still heal someone."

Akini nodded. "Not many of the men have found work," she said. "They all want to be hunters and warriors, but you can't hunt in a city, and there's no war in Ba Sing Se," she rolled her eyes. "But the bender girls can heal. The people here really like doctors for some reason, they pay us enough to feed everyone. But the boys keep sulking because they don't get to feel special about hunting any more."

"I don't suppose Yagoda made it out?" Katara asked. Akini shook her head. "What happened with Azula?"

"Who's Azula?"

"Firebender girl who was captured at the battle, her signature is blue fire. Horrible things happen whenever she's around."

Akini shrugged. "Maybe one of the grown-ups knows about her. All I heard was, Princess Yue disappeared, then the Kilabuk and Saila people were attacking everyone, and we had to get out of there."

"Hang on," Zuko said abruptly. "You said Sokka came over. Just him, not the Avatar."

Katara went very still.

"Yeah," said Akini. "I guess he's been busy."

"He really is a busy little beaver bee," Zuko said, giving Katara a perfectly smooth look that sent a shiver down her spine.

"Anyway," Katara said, fighting back a fidget, "it looks like you're doing great, Akini. You were so quiet back at Izumihanto."

"Huh? I guess. It's really busy at the hospital, you don't have time to be quiet."

"I'll come help out tomorrow," Katara promised. "I could stand to get more practice healing. The boys keep getting hurt and I only know the basics."

Akini nodded. "Definitely. It's four blocks … north? of the apartment, it should be easy to get to by the trains. What's it like in the Inner Ring? This is the first time I've even been let into the Middle Ring."

"Zuko, I can explain."

"I don't think you have to. Sokka's been running interference. You both have been, for a long time, that's the only way it could've worked. He couldn't let the Avatar visit the refugees, they would've told him. You never let him find out, did you?"

"It wouldn't have helped anything to make him think –"

"That it was him who killed most of the Water Tribesfolk up north?" he asked. Katara winced.

They were waiting at the station, having already walked Akini back to her apartment. The almost-full moon was high in the sky. Just out of sight, they could hear a train approaching.

"I wasn't sure you knew," she said.

"After the battle, I searched the wreckage for survivors," he said. "I saw you doing the same, before you went back to the healing huts. Zhao intended to destroy the Moon Spirit, which would have stripped you all of your bending, so he ignored the rule against taking waterbenders captive. He marched everyone to his ships, including all the healer women. The kaiju didn't attack Water Tribesfolk, but it didn't pull out the ones locked up belowdecks."

"That's how I know Aang wasn't in control. If he had been, he would have saved them."

"You asked Akini what Azula did, so you could pin whatever happened after we left on her," Zuko went on. "But it wasn't her. Whatever damage she did on her way out, maybe that tipped them over the edge and started the civil war, but they were only on the edge in the first place because of the battle. If Water Tribe political leaders led from the front, they all would have been captured: the Avatar must have wiped out most of the city's leadership."

Katara rubbed her temple. "Yes. And if you tell him that, it'll break him, at a time when we need him at his best. We have to deal with this city, he has to keep training …"

"You can't keep babying him forever."

"It's not going to be forever. Just until –"

"Until it blows up in your face?" Zuko prompted. "Take it from someone who you personally chewed out for keeping quiet about inconvenient truths because I didn't want to upset you and of course I'd tell you before it became an issue: this is a bad idea."

"This is different."

"It's exactly the same."

"You didn't tell me because you thought I might give you the cold shoulder," said Katara. "We're not telling Aang because if he panics and runs away again, it'll probably mean the end of the world. I don't like any of this either, but we can't take that risk."

Zuko gave her an unimpressed look. She fidgeted but held his gaze.

"… You told me I should let other people make the calls sometimes," he said at length, "even when I think I know better. I'll let you make this one. But do you honestly believe the best plan is to lie to the Avatar about something important that he deserves to know that he's going to figure out sooner or later, or can you just not stand the thought of seeing him sad?"

The train finally arrived, slowly grinding to a halt. An unusually petite Joo Dee opened the doors and ushered the passengers out.

"Is there ever going to come a time when you stop being a pain in my butt?" Katara asked, which he took as an answer more than a question.

"If you close your eyes and relax, eventually you'll learn to love the relentless enema that is my life –"

Katara elbowed him quiet as Sokka and more to the point Toph appeared, both of them changed out of their formal robes and into what they probably thought of as ninja outfits.

"Hey guys," Sokka waved. "Are you ready for a night on the town?"

"Yeah, let's – wait. Meng?!"

They followed her gaze to the little Joo Dee playing train conductor.

"Oh, no," she said, smiling, "my name is Joo Dee."

"Before I joined?" Toph asked.

"Before I joined," Zuko said.

"You'd joined," Katara said, pitching her voice low, "but you had a concussion, or you were sulking, I don't remember. Probably both. She's from Aunt Wu's village. She's just a kid, we can't leave her."

Toph tapped her feet. "She feels about the same size as me."

Sokka ran his hands through his hair. "Okay, change of plan. Katara and I will get her back to Aang –"

"I'll do it," Zuko said, "you two couldn't kidnap your way out of a wet paper bag."

"Excuse me," said Meng Dee. "This train is now departing."

"All aboard the Beifong Express," said Toph, as she and Zuko climbed on. Sokka and Katara watched the earthbender engine-men kick it off and take off into the night.

"Are you okay?" Sokka asked.

"I could too kidnap someone," she said.