So, I got impatient to post this story. I haven't stopped writing The Djinn Dilema, but I need to make some decisions on where I want that to go. I have this problem where I know what I want the story to be and how I want it to end, but the middle parts give me trouble. I'm going to have the same problem with this story, but I have a better idea of what I want to happen in the middle- I've been planning this since the finale of A:TLA- I even did a retcon for this piece, so if you haven't read A Word Between Friends, please read it before you start this. It's really short and it develops some small- but important- points for this story.

Chapter 1

Aang gazed at the thick white swirl of clouds ahead of him as he guided Appa through the mist. For a while, he had tried to find shapes in them, but as the hours had dragged on and the sun got lower in the sky, they all just started to look like the same purplish, pinkish, whitish smudge. From behind him, he heard Toph's irritated.

"How much longer is this going to take, Twinkle Toes?" she asked, miserably. Aang glanced back, feeling just as irritable as Toph, but his anger immediately cooled when he saw her huddled in a corner of Appa's saddle, clinging to the edge. For all her arrogant bravado, Toph had never been comfortable with flying, and she was more sensitive to the choppiness than their other travel companions.

'We'll be at the palace soon,"Aang assured Toph. "I'm sorry we couldn't wait for better weather, Toph, but if we had we might have missed it." His friend said nothing, but the cutting look in the direction of his voice spoke volumes. She was in no mood to be placated, so Aang left her alone. He took the chance to look around to see how the rest of his friends were.

Sokka and Suki were sitting across from Toph, unaware of anything around them as they discussed their wedding plans in whispers and hushed giggles. Katara had been helping to keep Toph calm earlier, but she had fallen asleep. She was fighting off the last of a cold that had kept them from starting on their trip when they had planned, a week and a half ago. Aang's eyes lingered on her regretfully for a moment before he shook his head and faced the swirling mass of clouds once again.

About twenty minutes later, the clouds parted and Aang could see in the distance the peaks that surrounded the Fire Nation's capital city. With a sigh of relief, he guided Appa towards the massive volcanic crater that housed the city.

"Are we going down?" Toph asked. Sokka and Suki looked around them in surprise.

"We aren't there already, are we?" Suki asked. Toph snorted derisively.

"What do you mean already?" she retorted scathingly. She tightened grip on the saddle as Appa dipped lower in the sky. "Take it easy, Twinkle Toes!"

"Sorry, Toph," Aang said, glancing back. "We're almost there. We'll be landing in a few minutes.

"Good! The sooner I'm on solid ground, the better for everyone involved." Sokka moved closer to Toph, with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

"Well, if you're in such a rush to get to the ground, Toph, I'll help," he said, and putting his hands on her shoulders, he lightly pushed her closer to the edge of the saddle. With a shriek of fright, Toph turned and punched Sokka soundly on the chin.

"Ah!" Sokka cried, grasping at his face. "That hurt!"

"And you deserved it," Suki chided, punching her fiancé in his arm. "Why would you do that?"

"It was a joke!" Sokka insisted, alternating between rubbing his jaw and his arm.

"I hope it was worth it," Toph said darkly. "Because soon we're going to land, and I will make you pay for that."

"C'mon, Toph," Sokka pleaded. "I was kidding! I wasn't actually going to throw you off."

"And I'm not actually going to kill you."

"Wha's going on?" Katara ask groggily. "Did I fall asleep?"

"Oh, great! Sugar Queen's finally back among the living," Toph said, sarcastically, once more clutching at the saddle.

"Where are we?" Katara asked, trying confusedly to focus on the swirling clouds. She wasn't quite fully awake yet, and she was looking around as if she wasn't sure where she was supposed to be just then. Katara looked over and stared blankly at Toph for a few moments, before she remembered she had been trying to comfort the younger girl before she fell asleep.

"Oh! Toph, I'm sorry!" she said, scrambling into a sitting position. "I didn't even realize I was falling asleep. We were talking about you parents, right? What were you saying?"
"Forget about it, Katara," Toph said, exasperated. She pointed off into the distance. "Aang say's we're almost there." For the first time Katara could see the Fire Nation palace lying ahead of them. Appa tilted downwards and began a slow decent into the large courtyard where Katara could see Zuko and Iroh were already waiting for them.

"Oh!" Toph groaned. Katara slipped her hand into Toph's without looking at her. Toph made no acknowledgement of it except to squeeze it gratefully as the decent got sharper. It felt to the blind earth bender to take hours, but it was really took only a couple of minutes for the flying bison to land gracefully on the ground. Toph scrambled desperately out of the saddle and slid down Appa's leg to the ground.

"Land!" she cried gratefully. She bent the earth around her feet slightly so her could sink into the ground. "I'm never leaving you again! I'll walk back to Gaoling, thank you!" Iroh and Zuko walked over to help the others down, and the old general chuckled at Toph.

"Why don't I make you a nice pot of tea," he suggested. He went over to her and held out his arm for her. "It'll calm you down." Toph rolled her eyes- of course Iroh would suggest tea- but reached out for his arm, releasing her feet from the earth.

"Nothing calms me down like playing in mud," Toph said. "But what the hey? I've missed your tea."

"Thank you for your compliment!" Iroh said, smiling proudly. He looked around at the others climbing out of the sky bison's saddle. "We were expecting you sooner. I hope your trip was safe."

"The trip was fine," Sokka told him. "We just had to leave later because Katara's been sick." Zuko and Iroh looked at the water bender, immediately concerned, and suddenly noticed how tired she looked.

"Are you ok?" Zuko asked, going over to give her his arm. "We can have the palace physician see you."

"I'll have you taken to your room right away," Iroh said. "You need your rest."

"No, no," Katara said waving off their concern, but taking Zuko's arm gratefully. "I'm fine, really. The worst of it is over. I look worse than I actually feel." Toph snorted at that, and Katara glared at her half-heartedly. She knew her friend was still a little upset with her for falling asleep.

"Well, we should get you inside anyway," Iroh said. "We don't want you unwell tomorrow. It's a special day. I'm sure my nephew is glad that all of his friends are here to see him officially crowned Fire Lord." Zuko shifted uncomfortably and mumbled his agreement and thanks.

"We wouldn't miss someone crowning Prince Jerk bender," Sokka said, slapping Zuko on the back and chuckling at his lame joke.

"Not funny," Katara said, groaning. Aang climbed down from Appa last of all. He bowed to Iroh and Zuko respectfully. Momo leapt down next to him and mimicked his bow.

"Good to see you, Iroh. Sifu Hotman." Zuko rolled his eyes skyward.

"Stop calling me that."

"Don't mind them," Suki said, linking her arm through her fiancé' s. "They're just glad not to be out numbered anymore."

"Hey, we're all glad," Katara said. "This is the first time we've been all together in months! We have so much catching up to do! We have to have a reunion party, before we have to deal with all those stuffy nobles at the actual ceremony."

"Yeah!" Aang agreed excitedly. "There's a great little noodle shop in town. We can order food from them and I know the kitchen staff here makes great fruit tarts."

"It'll be just like old times!" Sokka declared. "Except, you know, without being on the run from Fire Nation soldiers or your crazy father."

"Sokka!" Katara chided her brother. She looked up at Zuko concernedly. His face darkened, but he just shrugged it off.

"That sounds like fun," he said. "I'll send someone for the noodles and ask the kitchen staff to prepare the tarts." A short, uncomfortable silence settled over the group, broken only when Katara sneezed.

"Didn't someone mention something about going inside?" Suki asked, looking at Katara meaningfully.

"Ah yes!" Iroh said. "Let's go in. Aang, I'll have the stable attendants take Appa to his new home for the next few weeks. I think he'll be very comfortable."

Iroh lead the group into his private sitting room and prepared tea for them, but he was called away to greet an arriving diplomat, leaving the young people to catch up. There were a lot of stories to be told. They had all been separated for a long time. Aang had spent the three years since the end of the war meeting with the various diplomatic powers helping to sort the details of the new and tenuous peace. He had found, to his dismay, that his youth had made it difficult for him to be taken seriously at times, but he was determined to give his all to his duties as Avatar. There were parts of his story that he left out. About the many people who thought him a fool for not outright killing the ousted Fire Lord. Being denied shelter in some towns who had an intense distrust of the Fire Nation and of anyone who would suggest that they were no longer the enemy. How deeply he still cared for Katara and how lonely he was without his traveling companions.

"I've missed having all of you traveling with me," was all he would admit. "Appa's great, but he's not nearly as funny as Sokka." Katara let out a bark of derisive laughter.

"I miss it, too," Toph said, shaking her head. "Home is just so…boring after all we've been through. I'm thinking about joining the army."

"They'll let you?" Sokka asked. "But you're so young. How old are you now? Eleven? Twelve?"

"Fourteen," Toph said, irritably. "Going on fifteen. I'm like two month's older than Twinkle Toes. Well, technically. Anyway, the actual age for enlisting in the Earth Kingdom army is sixteen, but King Kuei is willing to make an exception for me because of my 'extensive battle experience'. Basically I get to join a whole year early because I'm awesome."

"Good for you, Toph!" Katara said, pouring herself another cup of tea. "Meanwhile here I am closing in on seventeen, and what have I got to show for it?" She sighed melodramatically and threw her arm across her face in exaggerated despair. "You're joining the army. Aang's out saving the world one village at a time. My brother's getting married to a Kyoshi general and will be going on to bring the Southern Tribe into modern times, and Zuko is about to be the leader of the Fire Nation."

"Oh, please," Sokka snorted. He looked around at his friends and without sympathy told them what Katara left out. "My sister's been in the Northern Water Tribe for the last year training with Master Pakku. Katara, he's totally training you to take over for him as the Master of the school." Katara made a face at her brother.

"I have no idea what Master Pakku is doing," Katara complained. "He's been practically torturing me with lessons with the other students and before and after class."

"I'm telling you. He's training you to take over for him," Sokka insisted. "There's a rumor going around the Southern Tribe that he's been chosen to be the Ambassador for the Water Tribes. Someone's got to take over after him."

"I don't think that's it," Katara said shaking her head. "There's still a lot of misogynistic views in the Northern Tribe. I'm still the only girl Master Pakku has ever taught. I don't think they would feel too kindly to their sons being taught by one. "

"Hey," Toph said. "If I, a blind small blind girl, can join the army and become a general by the time I'm twenty- and I will- you can make a bunch of know nothing, water pushing, whiney little boys respect you as their teacher."

"If you need, I'll take time out of my busy schedule and light a fire under their disrespectful behinds," Zuko offered. Katara grinned at her friends.

"Thanks, you guys," she said. "But I don't know if I would want the job even if he offered. I don't know if I would like teaching."

"Why not?" Aang asked. "You taught me. You're a great teacher."

"Yeah, you were one student," Katara pointed out. "And a friend. I'd never mind helping a friend with anything. But I would wind up dunking a bunch of idiots who think being boys makes them better than me somehow. Anyway he hasn't offered, or mentioned leaving at all."

"Would you really turn it down if he did offer?"Suki asked. Katara shrugged and shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"I don't know," she said. "I guess I could see myself teaching when I'm older, but right now…I don't know. I'm not ready give my life to it. I want…something else. I don't know what yet, but I know it isn't teaching. But we're not here to talk about my lack of direction in life." She looked towards Zuko and the rest of their friends followed her gaze.

"She's right, Sparky," Toph said, grinning at the prince. "Or should I say, Fire Lord Sparky?"

"Stop it," Zuko said, looking away from his friends, embarrassed. "I'm not Fire Lord yet, and I'm not really sure I'm ready to hear myself call that."

"You'd better get ready," Sokka said. "Once they put that crown on you, that's all you'll hear for the next few decades."

"We're all real proud of you, Zuko," Aang told him, grabbing the last fruit tart. "You're going to be a great Fire Lord." Zuko resisted the urge to roll his eyes and mumbled some unintelligible words of thanks. Katara caught his eye and raised a brow questioningly. Zuko shook his head slightly. Katara said nothing, but Zuko knew better than to think she was going to leave it alone entirely. At any rate, she understood him well enough to know he didn't want to discuss his impending coronation and so she decided to change the subject to something less uncomfortable for Zuko.

"So," she said, with a sly grin. "How are things with Mai?" Zuko glared at Katara murderously as everyone's curiosity shifted to his love life.

Why did I want them here so badly? Zuko wondered as his friends had a hearty laugh at his expense.

They stayed in the study late into the night and ordered in the noodles as they had planned. They reminisced about their adventures together, and even laughed at the days when Zuko had hunted them obsessively. In the back of their minds, they knew that things were about to change, but not now. Things could be the way they used to be, if only for the night.

-:-:-:-:-:-

The night air was unusually crisp for the Fire Nation, but Katara found it more comfortable than the usual mugginess. She leaned over the balcony railing and took a deep breath of the jasmine and fire lily scented air, relishing in the peace and quiet.

"Nice night." Katara didn't move as Zuko joined her, leaning on the railing beside her.

"This is one thing we don't have in the Water Tribe," Katara said, taking another deep breath. "It always smells like ice and fish."

"And sea prunes," Zuko added with a shudder, recalling his first and last experience with the Water Tribe delicacy. Katara sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Wimp," she chided. The pair stood in silence for a long while, and watched the fireflies in the garden below lighting up the darkness.

"We don't have those either," Katara whispered after a while, enthralled by the dancing pin points of light. Zuko grunted his agreement and shivered slightly in the cool breeze. He suddenly remembered that Katara had been ill recently.

"Should you be out here while you're sick?" he asked her.

"I'm fine," Katara said, waving her hand carelessly. "I think that nap I took on the way here knocked out the last of it."

"That's good," Zuko said, turning back to the gardens below. He looked at Katara from the side of his eyes.

"So," he said casually, scratching his hand. "You want to talk about what's bothering you?" Katara turned and scowled at him, annoyed.

"If you go first," she retorted. Zuko shrugged.

"I think it's obvious," he said. "I'm about to take over leading a country full of people who hate me, and nobles who want to see if they can manipulate me into doing what they want. I don't know if I'm ready. I've got some big shoes to fill. Uncle has done so much good in just a couple of years, and I don't know if I'll measure up."

Katara nodded silently. She understood his fear. She was afraid for him. As isolated as the Water Tribes could be, she heard things. She knew about the unrest brewing around the world, and about the criticism the future Fire Lord was facing. She even knew there had been a few attempts on his life. Zuko had every right to be scared, but…

"You're going to be an amazing Fire Lord," she said confidently. "I know what you're up against, but I also know what you've already faced down. People may try to test you for a while, but you'll either win them over or put them in their place. Besides, you have us behind you. What can a bunch of petty, prissy nobles really do to you?"

Zuko chuckled briefly at her bravado, but it didn't comfort him much. He would be on his own soon. He believed what Katara said about her and the rest of their friends supporting him, but Zuko knew they would be apart most of the time. It had been nearly a year since he had seen them all together, and not for a lack of their wanting to get together. They all had separate lives that took priority over coming to the comfort of the insecure prince. Even Uncle wouldn't be around forever. He would be there long enough to see Zuko settled- however long that took- but then he had plans for a tea shop in Ba Sing Se. Zuko would be on his own then. A few years ago, he could have pretended that it didn't matter, but now he knew how lonely he would be.

"Zuko?" Katara looked up at her friend questioningly. Zuko hadn't realized how long he had been lost in his thoughts.

"Sorry," he mumbled, looking back over the garden.

"What were you thinking?" Katara asked him. For a split second, Zuko considered not telling her, but he knew that would be futile. She would get it out of him eventually. It was just easier to tell her up front.

"I was thinking about how alone I'm going to be soon," he admitted, and explained his musings on where life would take them.

"That's true," Katara said. "We'll all be in separate places, but you won't be alone. We're only a bison ride away if you need us. You know that."

"Yeah, I do," Zuko agreed. "But it won't be the same."

"You'll have Mai," Katara reminded him.

"Right," Zuko said sarcastically. Katara frowned. He had evaded her question about how things were between him and Mai when she brought it up earlier, and it had aroused her immediate suspicion, but Zuko was still in many ways a very private person, so she hadn't pressed. Now, however, her suspicion was raised again.

"You want to talk about it?" she asked.

"No," Zuko replied shortly. "Besides, I came out here to see what was wrong with you." He turned to Katara and folded his arms. "You know for someone who has such a knack of getting other people to open up, you're pretty sneaky about talking about your feelings."

"It's not my fault that people like talking to me," Katara said, sniffing haughtily. "I just have that gift."

"You're really not going to tell me?" Zuko raised his eyebrow. Katara smirked at him. He liked to pull rank in their friendship occasionally.

"I told you earlier," she said. "Remember? I feel like everyone is moving forward with their lives, but I don't know what to do with mine."

"Have you thought about setting up as a healer?" Zuko suggested. "I can't think of any place that wouldn't want someone with your talent. You could probably wind up running a hospital in a few years."

"Hmm," Katara said thoughtfully. She brought her hand up and rested her chin against it. "I never thought of that. It would be nice to do something useful."

"It's still not what you want to do, though, is it?" Zuko guessed. Katara shrugged helplessly.

"I've never considered it," she said. "I don't know, it just seems so small after everything. I want to do something that's going to change the world."

"What? Once wasn't enough?" Zuko snorted. "You've got a bit of a hero complex, haven't you?" Katara looked away and blushed.

"Don't say it like that!" Zuko smirked at her and nudged her arm.

"I don't know," he said. "I think I should warn Aang that you want his job." Katara threw her hands up in exasperation and headed back inside.

"Okay, I'm done talking to you!" she said, turning back to make a face at Zuko. He grinned and waved at her.

"Good night, Avatar Katara." Katara left in an indignant huff, leaving Zuko laughing at her as she went.

-:-:-:-:-

Iroh poured another cup of tea for himself and offered some to Pakku. The elderly water bender shook his head and politely declined.

"I've had quite enough, thank you," he said. "Does she know I'm here?"

"I didn't tell anyone I was expecting you," Iroh assured him. "Although I don't know why you don't want her to know. After all, this is her future." Pakku sighed and sat back in his seat.

"I realize that," he said, suddenly feeling drained. "But I didn't want to offer this to her until I was certain it would be there." Iroh stroked his beard thoughtfully and set his tea cup down.

"This is a great opportunity for Katara," he said. "I would never stand in her way, and I'm sure Zuko will support her, when the time comes."

"The time is now," Pakku reminded him. He closed his eyes wearily. "All this governing and politics business- it's a game for the young. Old men like you and I are getting pushed aside, and I'm not complaining, but I wish I could have prepared her more."

"I'm sure you've done your best," Iroh said confidently. "Katara is one of the finest water benders it has ever been my pleasure to encounter. And I've seen you in action."

"Katara is my best student." Pakku smiled proudly. "I've never had anyone catch on so quickly. She's creative and she has a stubbornness about her that I rarely see in water benders. She won't allow herself to do anything but succeed. It has served her well, and I'm sure it will continue to serve her well as she continues to grow into her abilities. However, her abilities as a bender are not what I'm worried about. She is young. There are some who won't like this."

"Yes," Iroh agreed. "But as you said, this is a young person's game. The Council and the leaders of the Water Tribes may have some objections to it at first, but Katara has proven herself not only a skilled warrior, but a stirring leader. As a diplomat, admittedly she has some learning to do, but she's still more qualified for this than just about anyone."

"Do you really think this will work?" Pakku asked, opening his eyes to look at Iroh.

"Do you really think Katara can handle this?" Iroh countered, taking another sip of tea. Pakku didn't answer him for a long time. Then a smile slowly spread across his face.

"I think Katara could bring nations to their knees if she set her mind to it," Pakku said. "But don't let her know I said that. I have a reputation to uphold."

"It seems we have our decision, then," Iroh said with a grin. He reached over and shook Pakku's hand firmly. "Now, how about a nice game of Pai Sho?"

-:-:-:-:-:-