In The Night

Five- Confrontations

Sokka
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"We want to take this group out as quiet as possible. That means no more men on the ground than we need."

Katara and I were eating breakfast together, while we waited for Zuko.

"Katara, are you going to answer me?"

"I heard you. I'm thinking."

At that, Zuko walked in. "Well, you're going to have to think faster. The spy we sent in says the rebel group is planning to attack Omashu in four days."

"We have time to put a team together by then, don't we?" I asked the group.

Only Zuko responded. "We're going to need an earthbender if we plan on taking the Dai-Li," he said. "We need Toph."

Finally, Katara spoke up. "No, she just left to see her parents. She deserves a break."

As much as I agreed with my sister, Zuko was right. We didn't have a chance without her. "Sorry, sis, but Zuko has a good point."

She huffed. "Fine."

What was her problem today?

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Zuko
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Katara was intense. I could tell she was mad at me, but I wasn't sure for what. After the last night, I had been trying to think what would make her walk out on me so abruptly. Especially after I had just shared so much with her. Laying in bed, I could only remember the times we had after the war, and before my coronation.

Training with her, me teaching her to redirect lighting. "Let it come to you naturally, my uncle said he learned it from waterbending, it's in you!" I said.

"I don't know why you're being so stubborn with this Zuko, we've been at it for so long," she said that day. "Why does this matter to you so much?"

I had walked up to her and took her hand gingerly. "What if I'm not there next time?"

She looked up at me with sympathy in her eyes and hugged me tightly.

Now, looking at her across the table from me, almost two years later, she seemed like a completely different person. Almost like the way she behaved before I gained her trust. I had upset her many times before, over things like cactus juice and such, but she never behaved like this afterword. This was cold. And I didn't even know why.

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Later that day, I asked a guard where I could find Katara. I was surprised to find that she was back on the same balcony we talked on last night. When I reached the glass door out to the balcony, I stopped. She was bending. A water whip was tracing the path she lead with her hands, around her body, and out in front of her. I stepped outside and sent a stream of fire to flow alongside her stream of water. For a second there was beautiful symmetry, water and fire coexisting, but as soon as she saw me she dropped the water, extinguishing my flames.

"What do you want?"

"I just came to tell you I sent a messenger hawk to Toph. She should get it by the end of the day." It wasn't a lie.

"Thanks," she said sarcastically.

"And," I said hesitantly as I approached her, "I wanna know what's going on."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Sokka briefed all of us this morning."

"I mean, about us. You've been avoiding me all day," I confessed.

"Maybe you could spend all that extra time with Mai," she spat.

At this, I became confused. Was she jealous? "Mai? What does she have to do with this?"

"Come on Zuko," she said. "You know there was a time when we had something. But you were with Mai, and I thought it was because you loved her. So I put up with it."

"Katara, of course there was something between us," I remember it like yesterday... "But if we were together, do you know what they would try to do to you? I couldn't put you in danger!"

"So instead you shut me out and marry someone you don't know?!?"

"IF IT KEEPS YOU SAFE, THEN YES! ALRIGHT?" I was fuming, literally. I shot a burst of flames into the air.

She calmed down, but her eyes were still cold. Maybe they were a little sad. "Zuko, if I needed you to protect me, would I be here after two years without you?"