Breakfast was relatively uneventful, with Aang mainly switching his focus between staring at his food and staring at Azula, who ate in silence. Aside from the regular glare that Azula returned back towards Aang, the only sound that permeated through the room was the quiet whistling of the wind blowing in from the window. With the calm permeating in the wake of their "battle", Aang leaned forward slightly, resting his head in the palm of his hands, meditating on his current situation.

He could feel his stomach churning in anxiety as he assessed the volatility of his current situation. He was harboring a fugitive, and a dangerous fugitive at that. Practically the entire world was searching for her, and here she was, living with the Avatar in relative solitude. Rubbing his temples in annoyance, Aang realized how delicately he had to treat the situation. Once little slip on his part and the secret may be out, and all-out war over a single person could erupt all over again.

But, they couldn't stay here forever, with the provisions that Aang had gathered previously slowly dwindling. They needed to move, and silently at that. But he knew Azula was a capable women, and with any luck, and suitable disguises, they could travel almost anywhere in relative safety. Five years can lead people to forget things, no matter how important at the time they were.

He drew a deep sigh, registering the dull soreness that tore through his body as he breathed in. Locating the source of the annoyance on the upper left side of his chest, Aang gingerly massaged the affected area, but its angry redness convinced Aang otherwise, eventually resting his hand back on his lap. The five years have been relatively peaceful for Aang, with the rebellions rarely requiring force to calm down. Aang never realized that the lack and lull in training through combat could have such an impact on his skills and his fighting technique. As he recalled the flame filled skirmish he had just partaken in, he could recognize the lack of preciseness in his moves, recreating the images in his head. His stance, sloppy; his movements, lacking fluidity; his clarity in combat; weakened. Giving a another sigh of disappointment, Aang realized that the regular sounds of eating have ceased and he looked up, resting his gray eyes against the piercing golden ones that were staring back into him.

"Oh by all means, don't let me intrude on your brooding." Azula said, rather condescendingly with a smirk on her face. She was staring at the Avatar intently, almost like she was analyzing him, reading his thoughts.

"I just have a lot on my mind."

"It's been a while since someone beat you like that, huh?" Azula read straight through him, reading his thoughts exactly. She was on the offensive, though it was simply just to poke fun at the Avatar.

"If I recall correctly, the person that beat me a while ago was you."

"I like living up to my reputation." she replied matter-of-factly, leaning back on her chair while analyzing her nails for emphasis.

Despite losing her title as princess of the fire nation, she still managed to maintain a sense of pride in her accomplishments during the war. She was in fact the one that killed the Avatar, though it was only for a brief moment. These accolades solidified her rank as a brutally skillful fighter, leaving even the most experienced soldiers quake in the boots under her command. Though her fall was less than graceful, her accomplishments will forever be remembered. She was the one who had beaten a kingdom. She was the one who ruthlessly took down a god, for a minute destroying the last vestiges of hope the good had of winning a one-sided war.

She was a monster.

But that was the past, and although he would like to believe that five years of solitude would change a monster, he was wrong. Once a monster, always a monster. Though the situation was less than optimal for her at the current moment, she was determined to find what she once was.

Turning her attention away from her nails, she redirected her attention towards Aang, who had the strange smile on his face. Azula scowled at the Avatar. Something was up, she figured, judging by Aang's seemingly playful smile.

"What's so funny?" she said accusatorially, leaning forward, placing both hands down on the table for added emphasis.

"Oh, nothing… Just thought of a really interesting idea…" he replied, leaning forward to mimic Azula, his smile expanding into a grin.

"Well what is it? Spit it out."

"Let's go to Caldera City! It's about time you returned to your home." He spoke with sense of finality, kind of what Sokka would do when he was presenting one of his "master" plans.

Although a sense of surprised rushed up her spine, Azula was tactful enough not to let Aang read that on her face. Although the sense of surprise soon rushed off, it was replaced by a sense of disbelief for the Avatar.

"I figured you were naïve, not stupid." she spat back, crossing her arms in disapproval of the idea.

"Wait, hear me out! We're just going to be there for a day or two at most, enough to get some more provisions…" Aang's glance shifted downward, and Azula could tell he was staring at her garb, a simple prison garb from the asylum. For a split second, Azula felt a twinge of self-consciousness, though she was quick to disregard such a frivolous concept, "and a new change of clothes…" he muttered, returning his focus back to Azula.

"And how do you expect me to be unrecognizable? I'm not exactly a forgettable person." she replied questioningly.

"Simple. I have a spare change of air nomad robes, and you can wear that. I'll just say that your one of my new recruits…" that slight smile returned to his face as he whispered the last part of his sentence, barely audible to her. His face soon flushed into a light shade of pink.

"What do you mean by new recruit…" Azula could not be sure about what the young monk meant, but deep down in the pit of her stomach, she could feel that she knew what he meant.

As if on cue, Aang's face flushed an even deeper shade of red as he a nervous grin and chuckle. Bringing up this subject to Katara was one thing, but to Azula? That's just plain suicide. He pressed his hands together, fidgeting slightly.

"Well, you know, to repopulate the air nomad population…"

Aang instantly tensed, cringing and preparing himself for the pain worst pain of his life. He had already raised his arms in defense, hoping that it would defend him against her impending wrath. He could see it already, angry blue flames erupting from the opposite end of the table, all directed toward him. Punches, kicks, he was readying himself for anything, just general pain. But, after one second passed, and nothing, Aang realized that Azula had not even stirred from her seat, and he peered back across the table. Instead of finding Azula seething with anger, she was quite the opposite. Fingers laced behind her head comfortably, leaning back on the seat, she seemed actually quite calm actually, a slight grin on her face.

Admittedly, Azula's heart registered the idea and skipped a beat, but the ensuing reaction from the Avatar was just too good to give up, and she couldn't help but to just smile at her handiwork. She licked her lips hungrily, sensing the fear of the young monk. So after all those years, the Avatar couldn't help but fear the former fire princess, and that pleased Azula to no end.

"If you're wondering why I didn't kill you on the spot, your reaction was too good to pass up. Just knowing that you still fear me is more pleasing than simply killing you." she answered his blank look haughtily. Still enjoying the Avatar's downright confusion unfold before her, she slowly stood up, leaning on the table, resting one of her hands on Aang's shoulder. Almost as if under a spell, Aang stood up, and it slightly surprised Azula that Aang was quite tall, a good 6 inches taller than her.

But before he could respond, Azula dropped down low, delivering a swift sweep kick across the Avatar's legs, dropping him quickly to the ground. Once again, she stood triumphantly above the Avatar, looking down on him as he looked up with a dazed look in his eyes.

"And that was for your comment." she answered his confused look with triumph.

Quickly, Aang clambered back to his feet, giving a slight cough as he dusted off his robes. He eyed Azula curiously, at this point definitely questioning her motives.

"Well… come with me then. I'll let you try on those robes now." His voice still twinged with questioning tone. And with that, he turned, making his way toward his bed chambers to collect that extra pair of robes. With a sigh of accomplishment, Azula silently followed.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Those are the words that echoed through the office as Zuko relayed the current situation of Azula to Katara, who furrowed her brow in thought as she slowly soaked in the size of the current situation. Lazily leaning on the wall next to the open window, Zuko needed a breather, and the dull golden luster in his eyes seemed to reflect the situation. For Katara, too much has occurred while she was gone, and she was not informed of any of it.

"Why did you tell me about any of this?" she shot towards Zuko , feeling indignant about being left out of the loop about Zuko's current state of affairs.

"Well, I didn't want to bother you about it." he replied, a sense of genuine concern in his voice. Rarely was there time for Katara to return home to visit her family, and Zuko did not want to drag his problems on top of her.

"Zuko, I didn't choose to stay with you just because I love you. I chose to stay because you need a companion, someone to help you out…" her voice quavered, feeling the words flow slowly off the tip of her tongue, gently resting her hand on his shoulders. She could feel the built up tension in Zuko's muscles, and she felt that it was her duty to relieve him of some of the burden.

"That's good to know Katara," turning to face her, placing a hand on top of hers' for emphasis, "but this is all my fault, my fault that she got out. Now it's my job to make things right again." There was a hardness to his voice that made Katara not wanted to pursue the subject any longer. Fortunately, she was not given the chance, when a knock that the door broke the conversation between the two.

"Enter."

Unsurprisingly, it was Jee at the door, briskly walking in. He gave a quick, curt nod to Katara, muttering a quick, "my lady..." in her direction as he proceeded towards Zuko. After another quick bow in front of Zuko, Jee finally was able to get to the matter at hand.

"Sir, Toph and Iroh have arrived to the Palace from Ba Sing Se as per your instructions. They await for you in the main hall."

"Excellent. Thank you Jee."

With another quick bow, Jee turned around swiftly, giving Katara another quick nod before leaving the study, closing the doors with a barely audible click. With only the two of them left in the room, Katara waltzed over to Zuko, quickly rustling his long hair with her hand. With a slight grin, she ran her hands down his back all the way to his hands, firmly grasping it.

"So, shall we?" she asked, a warm smile on her face. Leave it to Katara to soothe all of Zuko's troubles away with one simple smile. Zuko could already feel the load on his shoulder lighten ever so slightly as he held her hand tightly, returning that smile.

"Yeah, let's go."

Exiting the study and making their way towards the main hall, Zuko couldn't help but think about how long it has been since he had last talked to his uncle. Ever since his acceptance of the position of Firelord, Zuko had wished that Iroh would stay at the Palace, teaching him the ways of successfully rebuilding a nation.

But Iroh simply declined the young Firelord's offer. When asked why, Iroh simply smiled and told him, "Dear nephew, I would love to help you. But like the sun, my life has already passed its' peak. It is time for new player's to take the stage, to shape the world as they see fit." When Iroh saw the nervousness in the young Firelord's eyes, he simply chuckled and gave a reassuring pat on Zuko's shoulder, "Rest assured Zuko, if you ever need someone to talk to, a warm cup of tea is always waiting for you at the Jasmine Dragon."

That was nearly five years ago, and despite Zuko's inital nervousness of taking on the full responsibilities of Firelord, things have went better than he first expected. With the help of Aang, many of loose ends and diplomatic issues of the aftermath of the war were closed up. Talks of trade with the four nations restarted again, and for the first time, Zuko was looking at the beginnings of peace.

After Azula broke out of the asylum, chaos broke out, and almost overnight, the peace that Zuko had long wished would happen halted to a standstill. Even after two weeks of reassuring the other nations that they had everything under control, the other nations, particularly, the Earth Kingdom, were in complete uproar, and Zuko was looking at a more and more hopeless situation. Only with a disaster like this did Zuko finally sound the bell for help, and Iroh was more than willing to lend a hand.

Reaching the brightly lit floor of the main hall, Zuko and Katara made their way towards the two familiar figures standing at the center of the hall. Without a moment of hesitation, Katara's face lit up as she ran over to the earthbender girl, giving her a warm hug.

"Toph! It's been forever!" her happiness brimming to the top in her words.

"Hey, Sugar Queen. Nice to see you too." the blind girl replied happily, a wide smile on her face.

"My, My, Toph! You've grown so much since I've last seen you!"

"Yeah, well, the years have been good to me." she replied with a grin. Pulling back from the hug, Toph turned her attention to Zuko, walking over to the young Firelord and giving him a quick jab in the arm. Naturally, Zuko flinched, pulling his arm back, rubbing the area in slight pain.

"Hey Sparky! Having some sibling trouble I hear?"

"Ow! Do you always have to do that?" Zuko cried indignantly.

" 'Fraid so Sparky. Now, Gramps here told me about your sister problems. My question is: When do we get to beat her sorry ass again?" she emphasized the "beat" by smacking her fist into her palm.

"I believe the better question is: Where can we find her?" Iroh calmly said, stroking his beard gently as he stared at Zuko.

"Aang went out searching for her about two weeks ago..." Zuko replied, his words deeply troubled by the gravity of what followed next, "we haven't heard from him since." he finished gravely.

"Oh come on Sparky, if anything Twinkletoes can hold his own against your deranged sister!" she replied confidently, "We should probably contact Aang. I mean finding a flying bison can't be that difficult right?" she asked no one in particular in the room, though the meaning of her words were clear to the other three in the room.

"It's a start. I'll send some scouts out to look for Aang. With any luck we'll find him." Zuko answered briskly, the firmness in his voice somewhat assuring everyone in the room, "In the meantime, you two should stay at the Palace for now, just in case things get worse." he directed towards Iroh and Toph, who both nodded their approval.

Within a few moments, a few servants came through the hall to direct Toph and Iroh to their rooms, while Toph was busy explaining to Iroh the intricacies of metalbending. As the two left the main hall, their voices faded into the hallway, leaving another silent moment as Zuko and Katara were left in the hall. Drawing a sharp breath, Zuko looked up at Katara, who returned the stare with zeal. Despite, the foreboding that Zuko felt of the issues to come, Zuko couldn't help but feel at ease around Katara.

Feeling his shoulders slump, he gave Katara a weak smile as he moved in close to give her a warm embrace. Melding his heat into hers, Zuko felt truly content as he nuzzled his head against Katara's, feeling the unique bond between them that the two shared. For a moment, he felt the love that he had missed growing up. For a moment, he found a place of serenity that could draw him away from his troubles instantly.

For a moment, he felt complete.

A/N: What a surprise! I actually manage to finish a chapter early! *confetti* Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I'd also like to take the time out to thank a special someone (I'm sure your reading this!). Honestly, if it were not for her, this story may have never moved forward, and for that, I say thank you! I love you with all my heart.