Hi everyone! I've finally managed to get the next chapter out!

A big thank you to everyone who favourited, followed, or reviewed! You guys are the best! Special thanks to CeCeHigganbotham for even reading this! When you wrote me, you read this, I almost fell over from shock! That you read a story of mine!

I hope you all enjoy reading the next chapter!

I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender, nor its characters.


Chapter Seven

Katara woke up to the sounds of doors opening and closing, voices whispering and dishes clattering.

It was still dark outside as far as she could tell, and she wondered what idiots were already awake. It were probably just Aang and Sokka trying to come up with a scheme or simply talking about boys' stuff. But since when did Sokka get up so early?

More importantly, why was the air not biting cold, and how come her bed was so comfortable?

She sat up with a jolt, as she remembered the previous day. She'd found out she lost her memory, and now she was betrothed to the new Fire Lord, who had been the angry jerk prince who had chased them, kidnapped her, bribed her, and had fought her at the Spirit Oasis. And now he loved her.

Katara threw the dark, red curtains around her a dry glare. Well, wasn't that just lovely!

The sound of a door opening came to her ears again.

"I bet she's still asleep. You would need lots of sleep after such a day," she heard a male voice whisper.

"It's still weird seeing you having breakfast alone. Like some lonely puppy who nobody loves," a female voice taunted.

"Since you can't see, I should tell you, I'm rolling my eyes," the male voice replied dryly. Now, Katara was fairly sure she knew who these voices belonged to.

"She's actually awake, you know. Her heartbeat has got faster," Toph told him nonchalantly.

"Really?" her fiancé asked.

"Yes, really. Your attempts at whispering would wake anyone up," Katara grumbled, as she shoved the curtain of the four poster bed to the side and got up, putting on fancy house slippers with pearls kneaded into them. Outside the bed curtains, the curtains at the windows were also still shut, but with a few streams of sunlight falling in. No wonder she had thought it was still night.

As she walked around the bed to look at the entrance door, only Fire Lord Zuko was still standing there, Toph had apparently already left. The Fire Lord was already dressed for the day, in way fancier robes than yesterday. There was even a cape hanging from his shoulder plates, trimmed with gold. Today, all of his hair was up in that knot with the large crown sitting in it.

The whole image was a bit disconcerting. He was the most Fire Nation looking person she had ever seen. Not even his scar did anything against that, or changed it.

"Good morning," he greeted her with a tentative smile. "Have we really woken you up?"

Katara rubbed her eyes, feeling the sleepy feeling return at the sight of his smile. She had to tell herself again that he was no threat, and her body seemed to instantly relax. "Only a little. Doors opening and shutting, and dishes clattering actually woke me." She held a hand in front of her mouth, yawning.

He was still smiling at her, his expression went even softer than before. "I guess this means you never were a morning person."

Against her will, Katara grinned. "Nope, never. I still aren't then?"

He shook his head. "Oh no, of course not. But the days in the Fire Nation start way earlier. You're still the latest riser in the palace, although you usually get up around half an hour earlier to get ready. Then we have breakfast together."

She frowned at him. "And why didn't you wake me up?"

He rubbed his neck. "Well, I thought letting you sleep would rather make you warm up to me than insisting you get by your day on your previous routine."

She blinked. "Oh. Well, that makes sense," she murmured, looking away from him, hugging herself, as she wondered at how to proceed with the conversation.

"There's still breakfast set out if you want some," he said, nodding towards the antechamber. "I can call for Sokka, if you want to. I'm pretty sure he's still asleep, but if you want to get to the countryside today, you should hurry. Aang is already with Appa, he's very excited about the field trip." His lips formed a smirk, as if that was some private joke, which Katara didn't know about.

"Oh, er, sure," she said, faltering a bit. She had thought he would come with them. Not that she had been particularly keen on it, but the way he had talked yesterday seemed like he was determined for her to get to know him better. And what better way than spending time together? But he was probably too busy ruling, punishing people, signing prisoner sentences, and all that.

She frowned at her thoughts, when she looked back at him. He had already turned around to head back into the antechamber.

Katara frowned. She had just wanted to tell him something! And he just left!

Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she stomped out behind him. Her chest was still uncomfortably large. How could one live with this thing? Or two things.

Fortunately, she hadn't woken up in nothing but a short tunic again. Probably because fourteen-year-old Katara had dressed for bed, and not twenty-one-year old Katara. Now she wore light blue silk pants which ended under her knee with a silky dress made of a dark blue fabric with blue flowers on it.

She ran her hand through her hair, scratching her head, as she stopped in horror.

Quickly dashing around, she ran into the bathroom, stopping in front of the sink, staring at her reflection. What the dee sea was wrong with her? She had just got up and would have followed her former arch-enemy, now fiancé out of the room just like that? Had she gone completely mad?

Her hair was an absolute mess! She liked sleeping with her hair down, as it was more comfortable, the bad thing was just that it looked like a merle raven's nest in the morning.

Katara bent some water into her hair to make brushing it easier. She wondered if she should try one of the hair lotions in the dresser, but she decided she didn't want to read every tag on them before finding one that would make her hair smooth and give it a nice scent. After her hair looked nice and shiny, falling in soft waves, she tucked it behind her ears, and then proceeded to wash her face, before brushing her teeth.

Although she wouldn't mind the Fire Lord getting disgusted with her and then breaking the engagement off, it was firstly unlikely to happen, as it also stood for peace, secondly she was sure she wouldn't be able to stand herself without taking care of hygiene.

She picked up a shell shaped perfume bottle and sprayed it into the air. Katara almost groaned at that scent. It was incredibly sweet, she thought she had never smelled something so flowery. Well, she had never smelled anything flowery, but that was really nice. A tiny bit sour, too.

Flashing herself a smile in the mirror, she was relatively satisfied with her appearance. It was just breakfast, after all.

Before emerging from the bathroom, however, she braided her hair along her forehead to make sure it wouldn't fall into her face.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, as she told herself again and again that she could do this. Prince Zuko had never tried to really kill them, after all. He could have killed her at the Spirit Oasis, but he didn't. Incapacitating seemed to be enough for him, so he couldn't have been that evil, right? Or perhaps he had thought he'd killed her, or hadn't bothered to check if she still had a pulse… Her heart began to pound faster at that thought. No, even if, he had changed. She had to believe what Sokka and Aang had told her. She had to believe that he would stay as relatively pleasant as he'd been yesterday, and she had to believe that his understanding of love was the same as hers so that his "I love you" actually meant what it implied to her.

While Katara was eating her breakfast, sliced fruits, fried dough sticks, eggs, and rice porridge (which was a way more normal breakfast than she had thought the Fire Lord would have), the Fire Lord himself was only drinking a strong smelling dark brown liquid, occasionally glancing out of the window, or at her.

A scroll was lying on his lap, and she wondered if he was actually trying to get some work done, but he seemed no to be able to concentrate very much.

Katara chose to break the uncomfortable silence. "So, I read about how almost another war broke out six years ago," she said casually.

He stiffened. "You read that much? I thought the diary started just after the war?"

She nodded. "Yeah, but I didn't write often in the diary, so it didn't take many pages to get to that part." She shrugged, trying to sound nonchalantly, when she was actually bursting with curiosity. "And I just have to ask, did maybe another war happen during the last seven years?"

"No!" the Fire Lord shouted, looking shocked. "No, we… Well, there were civil wars, but no world wars."

"Civil Wars? Here?"

The Fire Lord grimaced. "Yeah, here, too. Although it was not as bad as in the Earth Kingdom, or the Water Tribes."

"What? The Water Tribes?" Katara was shocked. There had been a civil war? Why and when and how?

"It was more like a rebellion. The Northern Water Tribe was meddling too much with the South, and the Southerners wanted all the Northerners gone. They wanted to be independent, but we managed to sort it all out." He nodded at her in a reassuring way. Katara was surprised he managed to even make her truly feel reassured.

"We?"

"Yeah, all of us. Aang, Sokka, Toph, you, and me," he said, smiling.

Katara smiled. "Sounds like something we would do. Stopping a war and all."

His smiled turned almost into a grin. "You wouldn't have ever thought you'd say that about me, would you?"

Katara blinked, confused by this statement. Did he consider this funny? "Er…"

It almost looked like a blush was creeping up his neck. "Well, it's obvious you wouldn't have thought something like this."

"Er, no. But that makes it so surprising," she added, trying to get the amount of uncomfortableness out of the conversation.

He gave a strained smile, maybe he was feeling just as awkward as she. Then again, this in front of her was no insecure teenage boy, but a grown man, a head of state. He probably didn't get socially awkward.

"Does that mean the Southern Water Tribe is independent now?" Katara asked curiously. She had liked the Northern Water Tribe, but had hated their views on women. Being independent would probably not be too bad.

But the Fire Lord shook his head. "No. The rebel group was quite radical, as they wanted all meddling from other nations gone. They tried to kill people of other nations who were there at the time."

Her eyes widened in shock, as she wondered how her own people could have been so horrible. Did that mean they had wanted to kill Toph and the Fire Lord, too?

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door.

The Fire Lord let out a sigh, before he turned around to yell at the door. "Come in!"

At his command, the door opened, and a guard stepped through.

Katara's blood froze. He almost looked like one of the soldiers accompanying Prince Zuko chasing them, accompanying Zhao chasing them, and attacking the North Pole. Clad in red and grey with black trims, the guard wore a helmet, carried a sword at his side, and held a spear in his right hand.

She swallowed, hoping to successfully hide her fear. Her heart started to beat faster, and the blood rushed through her body. She felt apprehension building inside of her, and immediately looked for the nearest water source.

"Your Majesty," the guard greeted the Fire Lord and bowed deeply, before looking at Katara. "Your Highness," he addressed her with and bowed to her, too.

She blinked and tried not to show her confusion at being addressed with such a title. Did being the Fire Lord's fiancée already make it possible for her to be addressed with such a high title?

"Prince Sokka is requesting entrance, Your Majesty," the guard told the Fire Lord.

"Let him in," he answered in a normal, not stuck up tone.

Prince Sokka? What the deep sea?

The guard bowed again, and left the room, Sokka striding in right after.

"Katara!" he shouted, walking up to her.

Katara flinched by his loud voice.

The Fire Lord had his eyes narrowed at Sokka. "What's up? Isn't it a bit too early for you?" he asked.

Did he just seriously ask 'What's up?' The Fire Lord? Had just said 'What's up?' Katara blinked, feeling not only surprised, but also slightly amused.

"Well, we're late," Sokka complained, stemming his hands on his hips, glaring at Katara.

"Late?" She blinked in confusion.

"Sokka, you can wait a few more minutes. She's still having breakfast, and I let her sleep in."

Katara sniffed. "I'm right here, and I wouldn't have needed to sleep in," she said with a glare in the Fire Lord's direction.

Instead of glaring back, he just stiffened and took a deep breath. "You just lost your memory of seven years, and yesterday you learned that you're going to marry your former enemy, so I simply worried, and thought more sleep might be good for you," he explained, but not without a note of annoyance in his tone. Instead of looking at her, he grabbed his cup again and seemed to bury his face in it.

Sokka grimaced. "I still don't get how you can drink this stuff. It always makes me choke."

The Fire Lord shrugged. "I eat and drink a lot of things which would make you choke, you know," he said with a teasing tone to his voice.

She had seen them bickering yesterday, too, but it was still so weird and strange seeing them not only getting along, but clearly being good friends. Sokka seemed to like him a lot, she thought.

But now, he was glaring at their former enemy. "It only proves that you have no sense of flavour whatsoever."

"If you say so," the firebender replied, turning back, but grinning into his mug.

Sokka glowered a few moments longer, before turning back to Katara, who had no interest in knowing what Sokka was going to say, but in finding out what this had been about.

"What was that about?" she asked, before Sokka could say something.

"Your brother's insecurity about his manliness," the Fire Lord replied smoothly.

Katara sighed. She should have known that.

"No, this was about the non-existence of any taste buds in your fiancé's mouth," Sokka interjected. "The hot food here probably burnt it away."

Katara frowned. "But not everything yesterday was hot," she objected.

"Well, the cooks are adapting their food, because we're foreigners." Sokka shrugged, looking thoughtful, but that wasn't what Katara had thought about.

"Hot as in spicy, Katara," the Fire Lord interjected, and she found it highly disturbing how he had known exactly what she had thought. She had thought they were talking about warm dishes, not spicy ones. How could he know her better than her own brother?

"I knew that," she still held against him, but his raised eyebrow told her what he thought about her ability to lie.

He probably knew her well enough to say when she was lying or telling the truth, too.

Sokka gestured to the Fire Lord. "He just eats and drinks things which have too much flavour, and not even nice flavour like sweet, but bitter, sour, and he's immune to spiciness, too."

"Well, and Sokka thought I was challenging his manliness, when I ate something very spicy in front of him once. He tried to do that, too, every time, but it's just not everyone's thing. I simply like these flavours, I am not trying to overcome any pain I might get from that," the Fire Lord explained.

Katara grimaced. "That's Water Tribe mentality to you. Proving manliness was always held twice a week between the adults, and Sokka always sneaked away to watch them," she told him sarcastically.

Both men looked at her with a thunderstruck impression.

"What?" she asked apprehensively, before groaning in annoyance. "Please don't tell me they've really come up with something like this in the last years!"

The Fire Lord shook his head.

"No, it's just… You basically said the same thing, when we had that fight for the first time," Sokka mused, having a strange expression on his face.

Katara paled. "Oh." Was that good? Did that mean her memories would come back? Did she even want them to come back? She would remember important things, right. But she would also remember having a relationship with the former Prince Zuko, and that thought still appalled her a little.

"It's not a fight!" the Fire Lord objected indignantly, looking up at Sokka from his sitting position. "It's just you being stupid!"

Sokka rolled his eyes, and Katara was glad that for once in his life Sokka did not get into an indignant fight, but focused on the more important things. Or the things more important to him. He carefully glanced over their breakfast table.

"There's no meat here!" he whined.

The Fire Lord flicked his scroll on Sokka's arm, which caused Sokka to glare at her, and not at him. "Thanks for making him do that, too," he said darkly, rubbing his arm.

"I did?" She blinked.

"When you're spending a lot of time with someone, some of their mannerisms get adopted by you," the Fire Lord explained, looking at her from under his lashes.

"Anyway, Katara would you please hurry up? Aang is a very excited bouncy ball right now, and Appa is already ready to leave. We have packed food for lunch, and in the afternoon we'll be back here to do some sightseeing. If Mister Fire Lord Zuko Sir has time then, he will join us for dinner," Sokka told her in an excited, but also annoyed voice.

"Don't call me that," Mister Fire Lord Zuko Sir said darkly.

This name would ridicule him in her head, which wasn't a bad thing, but it was definitely too long.

oOo

Being up on Appa was like being back home. It had only been a day in her new, crazy life, but they also hadn't been on Appa for quite a few weeks, spent in the Northern Water Tribe, and Katara revelled in the feeling. Having for a change warm air whipping around her braid wasn't a bad feeling either.

She had immediately taken the place on Appa's head next to Aang to be able to caress he bison's head, although she wondered if he even felt her tiny hand between all his fur. However, she had clearly made up for this by tightly hugging him around his neck as much as she could, when she had seen him for the first time. His low rumble had definitely been affectionate. And when he had licked her face off, she hadn't even felt as disgusted as she normally way.

She was also very keen on talking to Aang.

What she had found out in the diary left her quite curious, but also a little worried about him. If the way she had written everything down was honest, then something had been clearly wrong with Aang back then.

"Hey, Aang? Can I ask you something?" Katara worried her lip, as she looked over a him, absentmindedly stroking Momo's stomach. The little lemur seemed to have noticed that she wasn't in the best of moods, and while he tried to make her feel better, he also clearly took advantage of her.

"Sure!" He beamed at her. "I guess you have loads of questions! But I'm not telling you where we're going! That's a surprise!"

She smiled fondly at him. "That's okay. It's just… Well, the F… er, Z-Zuko gave me a diary of mine yesterday, and I read that we became a couple after the war. Why did we break up?"

Aang's eyes widened, as he raised his eyebrows at her. "Until when did you read?"

"Er, the whole thing with the colonies, and how almost a second war broke out…"

He nodded, looking off across the ocean. "Well, we already had some problems then, and although we managed to get through them, they showed up again and again. And with time, we both just stopped loving each other. Nothing really bad happened, but we noticed how other things were more important to us. You used to suppress your needs in order to please me, and when you stopped and demanded from me that I should do the same thing, I realised that I couldn't. We didn't break up then," he added, shooting her a quick glance. "We were both in love with the idea of staying together to marry, you know. How you found me in the ice, and how we travelled. It felt like destiny to us, and we tried to force it to work. You went to the Southern Water Tribe for a while, and we barely saw each other, and none of us asked to see each other. A few months later, we met again, and somehow it was clear to both of us that it was over." He smiled sadly at her. "Although I stopped loving you in that way, I sometimes still miss our time together. It's odd, but it was nice having someone at my side. And we usually got along wonderfully, we didn't fight often. But in the end, there was something missing."

Katara bit down on her lip, thinking about his words. "When Sokka said yesterday I was going to marry, I thought of you first. Aunt Wu told me I was going to marry a powerful bender, and with the way you saved the town from a volcano… I just thought it would be you," she confessed, silently. "I wasn't very keen on it, as I only saw you as a little brother. I still do, I mean, at the Northern Water Tribe, I did. But you're not exactly little anymore," she ended awkwardly.

Aang giggled. "Of course you would believe Aunt Wu. But she was probably still right, you know. Zuko is a very powerful bender. I'd say the second most powerful firebender in the world, and since Iroh is not getting fitter with age, maybe even the most powerful," he mused.

Katara's eyes widened. Not in wonder, or amazement, but in fear. "When Aunt Wu said that, I never thought of a firebender…" Her eyes drifted down to Momo, who had his eyes closed, and he looked like he was asleep, but the twitching of his ears told her he was just really enjoying her ministrations. If her were part cat, he would surely purr by now.

Aang looked at her with a worried expression, as he grabbed her hand, squeezing it. "I get that you're afraid, Katara. But with time you'll see that there's absolutely no reason to worry. Zuko would never hurt you, and no one else in the Fire Nation would. Well, at least no one who isn't already imprisoned." He grinned cheekily at her.

She tried to look at him in a convinced and assured manner, but the twist in the stomach was still clearly there.

About two hours later – Katara had settled into the saddle – they landed on an incredibly green island. There were lots of hills, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls, all she had been able to see from above. The meadows were full of wild flowers, and blooming bushes and trees lined the edges of the woods.

"Are we still in the Fire Nation?" she asked, mouth agape in wonder, as she looked around, before jumping down from Appa.

"Yeah. There is no other place on Earth where the air is this humid," Toph snorted.

She was right. It was incredibly humid. The air was so heavy, Katara almost felt dizzy.

"Well, if we would have left earlier, the air would still be more pleasant," said Sokka in a flippant way.

"Well, we're actually in a more temperate part of the Fire Nation. It's still beautiful, isn't it, Katara?" Aang cried out, gesturing with his arms at the meadow and river.

Katara nodded, dumbfounded. "I can't believe it's so beautiful here. And there's so much water! I thought the whole Fire Nation would look like Crescent Island!"

Sokka frowned. "There are a few islands which look like that. It's due to the eruption of a volcano, mostly. But the volcanoes don't erupt often. Once in a thousand years one goes boom, and a few years after that, all kinds of plants grow on the hardened lava."

"Zuko mentioned that yesterday, but I couldn't believe him." She still felt slightly breathless from the humidity and beauty surrounding her. Without glancing at her friends, she walked closer to the river, seeing a waterfall ahead of her. Grinning wildly, she quickly tossed off her outer tunic and pants.

"What are you doing, Katara?!" Sokka shrieked, holding one hand over Aang's eyes.

"Why, I'm going for a swim," she said, rolling her eyes. "There's a waterfall!" she explained, excitement lacing her tone. It had been too cold in the Earth Kingdom to do more than take a quick bath on her first travels with Aang and Sokka.

"But you cannot undress yourself like that!"

Katara opened her mouth to remind him that to save time, they had always bathed together while being on the way to the Earth Kingdom, and she had always worn her bindings, which were covering enough. Okay, well, the Fire Nation underwear didn't cover quite as much, but still enough. The pants didn't stop short above her knee, but a little under her bum instead, for example.

"Katara, back then we were all practically kids! We were teenagers, okay, but now we're adults, you're a grown woman now, with a fiancé! You can't undress yourself in front of another man!" Sokka scolded.

Frowning, Katara looked over to Aang. She got what Sokka was saying, but she still thought it was silly. "But we're just friends," she objected.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "That might be. But…"

"Oh, stop it, Sokka!" Toph groaned. "You're so antiquated in your views on relationships! Fire Nation people undress themselves all the time in front of other people! How else would they bear this heat? Even if someone would see us, no one here would think it odd!"

The reasoning was not the same, but Katara still held the same opinion as Toph.

In the Southern Water Tribe undressing was, of course, taken seriously. One only did that in an igloo, where it warm, and only with family. Even children didn't run around naked, it was simply too cold for that, but in their igloo Katara and Sokka had always been bathed together with their family, as hot water had been difficult to make, and had taken too long to give everyone a private go.

Aang pulled Sokka's hand off his face, and chuckled, giving his friend an odd, but amused look. "Honestly, Sokka. The Fire Nation doesn't care, and the Air Nomads never cared either." He shrugged.

Sokka narrowed his eyes. "You separated women and men in different temples!"

Not being in the mood for any more bickering between her brother and friend over something nonsensical, Katara jumped into the river.

For a while, she let herself be pulled under, simply felt and enjoyed the familiar feeling of water around her. Here, in her own element, in nature, not a bathtub, not surrounded by red, not in a fancy palace, she felt finally a little lighter.

Water didn't only make her feel like herself, but it also always helped her to feel more confident of herself, to be surer in what she wanted and needed.

When she thought she had been submerged long enough, she bent a stream to rise her up again, and then stood on the surface, bending ice under her feet. The cold feeling made her feel more awake and focused, as she thrust her arms behind her, and bent a wave, which pushed her forward towards the waterfall.

oOo

After playing in the water (Toph's words), having fun (Aang's words), and nearly dying (Sokka's words), Toph bent them a few seats, on which they enjoyed their lunch.

Sokka had become serious and told Katara not to do so many dangerous, adrenaline requiring actions, as this could prove harmful to her mind. He said it was a fragile thing, and her mind was already injured through memory loss. She had to be careful what she was doing, or worse things could happen to her, or she might never regain her memory at all.

Apparently, the mind hadn't been thoroughly researched by scientists yet, so Sokka hadn't been able to find anything useful in the palace's library last night. The Fire Nation was the most progressed nation, and if even they hadn't any material on it… But Sokka was fairly sure that there were a lot of current studies, nothing yet proved or finished, though.

Sokka let slip that instead of ruling, punishing people, and scaring people, the Fire Lord was meeting with doctors and specialists today. He wanted to find a treatment to either make her memory come back, or to stabilise her fragile mind.

Katara only gave Sokka dry looks, as she groaned in her head over her rice pastries. She felt completely fine! Her mind was not fragile, and she didn't experience weird mind things!

To her dismay, Toph and Aang sided with Sokka on this. They said they believed Katara to be strong enough to get through this, but since no one seemed to know a lot about it, they would just feel better if they knew they were being cautious.

And just like that Katara also found out that this whole trip to the countryside had not only served to show her the beauty of the Fire Nation, but to get her to a calm place, which would not cause her to panic.

Even later, when they would go into the city, they would only visit a very calm area, since only extremely rich people lived there.

Katara felt treated like a baby.

oOo

Spending the day in the countryside was far nicer than yesterday had been, and Katara almost didn't want to go back. Okay, she definitely didn't want to go back, but she knew she had to.

It had always been kind of obvious to her that she would one day marry not out of love, but of need to keep her tribe populated. She would meet the men her age of the other villages, and hope that the one she had liked the most would ask her father for her hand. Maybe Katara would even fall for him, and he for her, maybe not. It would mostly still have been her decision who she would marry, but love was a rare outcome of these arrangements. After travelling with Aang, however, Katara had begun to wonder if maybe there was someone out there for her. She didn't have to think small, and she thought marrying a nice waterbender from the North Pole would be a good decision. This way, they could probably ensure the line of waterbenders in the South Pole to continue. This had been before she had noticed all of the Northern men to be sexist idiots, of course.

So having to marry someone she didn't care about was not so much of a shock to her. His nation was the biggest shock, his job the second, and who he actually was, and what he had done, the third.

But Katara tried not to think too much about Prince Zuko, because that would only make her panic and worry to no end. The Fire Lord also didn't seem like the person he used to be, so Katara felt comfortable enough, when she didn't dwell on his past.

The flight back to the capital was quite nice. Toph was dosing, snoring a little, Aang sat at the reins, and Sokka tried to tell her everything he knew about the capital, as they would visit it in a few minutes.

"The capital is like… Er, like the residences closest to the palace in the Northern Water Tribe. You remember these huge houses for just one family? Right? Okay, so only rich people live in the capital, but of course some are extremely rich. The people working for the government or in high favour of Zuko live closest to the palace. The little nobles, who are actually not doing anything to help ruling the nation, live at the edge of the caldera. It's all very luxurious, and there are quite a few public gardens, which are lovely, and two or three lakes. One is mostly for the royal family, or everyone who actually lives in the palace. After Zuko was crowned Fire Lord, he opened that place even to the servants, so they could relax during their breaks. The volcano is completely dormant, so you do not have to fear to be covered in lava all of a sudden," Sokka continued, lowering one of his fingers at every point he made. "Most of the people there are stuck up and completely stiff. They only loosen up for celebrations, like holidays, and when they're drunk. The people who have humour are mostly only the guards, servants, Uncle Iroh, Noren, and sometimes Zuko. But Zuko only developed a sense of humour due to constantly being exposed to us. He's terrible at normal jokes, but he sometimes makes funny remarks on how he used to be the bad, evil guy."

Katara raised her eyebrows. Seriously? Jokes about chasing children around the globe, aiming fire their way?

"Well, and now we'll go to a place close to the lake on the palace grounds. It overlooks the lake, actually, and behind it you can see the palace. Zuko has a private chamber in that restaurant. You loved going there," he added, almost in a sad tone.

"Around the restaurant, there is kind of the creative spot of the city. There's a theatre, an opera house, art galleries. We thought about showing you all this before dinner."

Her eyes widened at her brother's words. Honestly? She's never been to a theatre before! The closest thing to that was that stage of the firebender artist at the Fire Day festival. She didn't really know what to expect of all this, but her curiosity was definitely peaked.

"I'd love to see that!" she exclaimed with a wide smile.

Sokka's words proved to be true. Behind the lake were several streets holding music shops, galleries, book stores, small stages for poetry, larger stages for theatres, and the biggest building held the special fire theatre.

It was a rather calm afternoon, not many people were out in the streets, and all who were wore incredibly beautiful clothes, which seemed to be made of the finest of fabrics, their hairs all gleaming and shining in simple, but elegant styles. Katara felt a little out of place with her braid and fine, blue tunic, but definitely too simple for this environment. Her brother and friends, however, were similarly dressed as her. Practical, nice looking clothes of a good quality, but none of them was dressed up.

Fire theatre wasn't just theatre. The actors also sang and danced, and bent fire. They used it to form figures, mostly mythical creatures, such as dragons, and spirits. The fire was also used for the dances, spraying around the dancers, mirroring their movements, or rising around them like wings.

Katara was afraid at first, remembering how the stage artist at the Fire Day Festival had directed his fire dragon at her. Seeing so much fire made her uneasy, but clasping Sokka's hand, she managed to calm herself down, and after a while she found herself enjoying the show. It was a story of tragic lovers, being forced to live on different sides of a war for all their lifetimes. They either got to stop the war, or to be together, but never managed to make both happen within a lifetime. When they stopped the war, they remembered their past lives, and knew they could never be together. When they got together, they remembered, too, and knew they could never stop the war. Until a spirit, who took pity on them, stopped the war they were born in. Now, they could be together, but then the spirit fell in love with the mortal woman, too, and tried to take her away from her lover. Several family members and other spirits showed up, and suddenly there was a huge meddle of who loved who, and Katara was left completely confused.

"Oh, I think they hanged on the new part!" Sokka gushed.

Toph grinned. "Finally. I've been waiting forever to find out what Kosei will say to Shizuoka now that he remembers they made out. That stupid mage of the mind really annoyed me, but now that she knows she's actually in love with Atako, she's definitely going to help Kosei and Shizuoka along."

Aang groaned. "Kosei and Shizuoka made out? What? I totally missed that part!" he complained.

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Well, they showed that part last month, and you only arrived here about a week ago."

"Do you think the script is already available?" Aang asked hopefully, but quickly looked down, when Sokka shook his head, grimacing.

Toph took a step towards Katara and began talking to her from the corner of her mouth. "The play is performed every month, and they add a few scenes every time. That's how you find out what happens next, and it's never really over. The first performance lasted around twenty minutes, now it's three hours!"

Katara found that concept not too bad, but still weird. Why wouldn't the actors just perform a play for three hours once and be done with it?

Toph seemed to guess her thoughts, as she simply shrugged and said "The Fire Nation people love this sort of thing. It's traditional."

Slowly, Katara nodded and looked around more, as she didn't manage to keep making sense of the actions on stage. Only now, did she realise that the people were staring at them. They had landed on Appa next to the lake, secluded of the public eye, but still everyone seemed to recognise them now. Well, with them wearing their nation's colours it was actually no big surprise.

As she concentrated she clearly made out single words. "… Avatar Aang, because of…", "… Master Katara… the royal wedding… waterbender…", "Toph Beifong… metal… Republic City…", "Sokka… Southern Water Tribe… chief or coun…". Since Katara was sure, she lacked a lot of background knowledge to understand everything the crowd was murmuring, some things they said didn't make sense to her, and she dismissed them.

She began to fidget nervously. Although she trusted Sokka and her friends, when they meant they wouldn't be harmed by Fire Nation citizens, and Katara theoretically knew there was no war anymore, she still didn't feel completely at ease. There was so much red and fire around her, and now people were staring and whispering. As far as she could remember this had always led to accusations, shouts, and running away from fireballs.

Now that Katara had admired the little shops, huge stages, food carts, and ball shaped, orange lanterns hanging on the buildings and on strings over the streets, the real meaning of all this seemed to get through to her. She was standing in the Fire Nation capital, surrounded by Fire Nation people, and Fire Nation things. Everyone here seemed to know who she and her friends and brother were. She couldn't help herself but tense and wait for the moment of an attack.

The moment came, but not like she had anticipated it.

Katara was attacked on her elbow by a person from behind her. Tensing, she whirled around to lash out, but her wrist was swiftly caught in a fist, and her body was yanked forward to fall against a broader, taller one.

"We're in public, don't act like we're not a couple," a deep, raspy voice sounded at her ear.

The onslaught of emotions was almost too much to handle for her. Never ever had she been so close to a man or boy her age, standing almost flush against him. Her eyes were wide, as her breasts pressed into his chest, and she could feel all the hard planes beneath her, since he wore a simple tunic.

The Fire Lord was maybe a normal man her age, but for a fourteen year old girl, he was more than intimidating and fascinating on a whole different level. All other boys had always been lean, with some muscles, but only from work or survival. The waterbenders in her class had all been idiots towards her, and had been idiots by themselves, too. Not one had been interesting for her.

She could feel his arms around hers, his hands lightly on her waist, but she could still feel their form on her dress. He had large hands, something Aunt Wu had told her her future husband would have. His arms felt huge against her frame, but she also knew that she was still thinking of herself as a small, fourteen year old girl, not a grown woman. In comparison to an adult woman, the Fire Lord probably didn't seem so much like a volcano himself. Her nose was almost crushed against his collarbone, as she could peak over his shoulder, seeing four guards standing behind him with some distance.

The worst thing of all was his head next to hers. He had bent down to talk to her, and now his cheek almost brushed hers, his breath fanning against her hair. She felt breathless, and her hands twitched in his hold. She wished she could lift them to hold onto his chest to not completely lose her balance, and she didn't know if she felt fear or something else in this moment.

The Fire Lord moved his head as if to kiss her, lingered like that, his mouth close to her cheek. "It's just for appearances, Katara. Everyone still has to believe we're a happy, loving couple." His quiet, husky voice almost made her shiver. When he was talking like that, his voice sounded way nicer than when he was shouting. It almost remembered her of the way he had talked to her when he had bound her to a tree. Only that now, his voice lacked malice.

She could tell he tried to assure her, and she found herself nodding.

Almost feeling his smile against her cheek, she let out a shuddering breath, as he retreated, but kept one of her hands in his.

All of her concentration zoomed on his grip, on his warm, dry hand, slightly calloused, but still soft, and how well her hand seemed to fit into his. His seemed to envelope hers, completely engorge it, but the way their palms fitted into each other felt so different from her hand holding experiences with Haru, Jet, Aang, and Teo. Katara liked to think that holding on to someone else's hand could give a person strength, and whenever a person around her seemed sad, she would take their hand in hers. But it had never captured all of her attention like this. Gazing down on their intertwined hands, she couldn't help but marvel at the difference in colour. An almost creamy white against a walnut brown. They looked like complete opposites, and they probably were so, too.

As soon as there was some distance between them, a furry, white, flying thing affection-attacked the Fire Lord, pressing its nose into his cheek. Momo held himself upright by grabbing strands of the Fire Lord's hair.

Katara's eyes widened in astonishment and shock. She knew humans could be manipulated, but for an animal to show affection so genuinely, it must mean that the human couldn't be so bad. Or that he was trustworthy, at least.

"Hey, Momo," the Fire Lord murmured, giving the little lemur some dried fruits from his pocket. He smiled, as he lifted one hand to scratch Momo behind his ears.

Katara's mouth fell open. The Fire Lord, not only the Fire Lord, but the guy who used to chase them around, who used to be Prince Zuko, carried dried fruit around in his pocket to feed it to animals?

Her friends smiled or smirked at them, as they turned around to greet their firebender friend, too.

"Is it over already?", the Fire Lord nodded at the stage, "I'd like to go to a more secluded area," he said, glancing around a little uncomfortably.

They had attracted a rather large crowd, and many people seemed to point at the couple, whispering to each other about the soon wedding.

"Oh yeah! Finally!" Sokka called out. "Can't wait for the barbecue!"


Thanks for reading!:D