Katara and Zuko made an appearance on the deck around sunrise to throw off suspicion. Why would they be out this early if they'd snuck out for a rescue mission the night before?
Iroh was the only other person out on the deck. The old man was playing his tsungi horn for an audience of confused-looking penguin-seals. Katara couldn't tell if Iroh was a good tsungi horn player or not. The instrument generally sounded like something between a polar bear-dog's fart and a walrus-whale dying while calving.
Iroh put down the mouthpiece of his tsungi horn when Zuko and Katara approached. "Nephew," he said. "You missed music night. Lieutenant Jee sang a stirring love song."
Poor Iroh always tried and failed to get his nephew to attend the music nights held every week for the crew.
"I'm going back to bed," Zuko grumbled. "I didn't sleep well last night."  He brushed past his uncle and turned back towards his cabin.
Iroh's eyes twinkled at Katara. "The only thing music night lacked, aside from my nephew, was a certain lovely soprano voice, perhaps singing Leaves from the Vine."
Katara's heart pounded. Had Iroh heard her singing on the deck last night?
"Leaves from the vine, falling so slow, like fragile, tiny shells, drifting in the foam..." Iroh bowed to Katara before taking leave of her.
Across the way loomed Zhao's ship. Everyone on board was probably waking up and would soon realize that the Avatar was missing.
Hopefully, the poor boy was many miles away by now and heading somewhere safe.
Avatar Aang reminded Katara of a baby penguin seal with his big gray eyes and filled her with a desire to protect him. It was nice to be the protector for once after a lifetime, being the one who needed protection.
Iroh poked his head out from behind the cabin door. "Have you eaten yet, my dear?" he said.
Katara shook her head no.
"Then why don't you come in for some tea and Manju buns?"

She followed him inside. A nice hot cup of green tea and a steaming Manju bun were precisely what she needed to steady her nerves enough to face the coming storm.
Breakfast and a long chat with the Iroh about how music night went almost made Katara forget that Zhao would be there any moment to confront Zuko about the missing Avatar. The General's hot tea and pastries lulled Katara into a false sense of security. His voice itself was like tea: warm and soothing.
"You and Prince...Lord Zuko were nowhere to be seen last night," Iroh said. Calling his nephew by his new title still apparently took getting used to. "Where were you keeping yourselves?"
Katara lowered her eyes. "We were in our cabin the whole time." Sometimes the most obvious choice for a lie was the most effective.
"Ah, young love... should we all expect a royal baby in the near future?"
"If Tui and La will it?" Katara turned away from Iroh. Spirits, this was embarrassing. But, it wasn't as bad as admitting she and Zuko had snuck out to free the Avatar from Zhao's clutches.
When Katara looked back on the night after the summit, at her and Zuko's second kiss, at how they fell asleep entwined together, it was with shame and unfulfilled longing. The Fire Nation saw her as a conquered savage on her back. To the Water Tribe, she was a traitor who'd opened her legs for the enemy.  Katara was neither, despite what her unruly passions wished had happened.
Was committing a sin in your heart as bad as committing it in the flesh?

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Iroh rose from the table when Zhao strode into the room. "Good morning, Commander." He bowed and sat back down again. "To what do we owe this honor?"
Zhao brushed past him and went straight to Katara. He grabbed her chin. "So, little princess, where's that prince of yours?"
"The Fire Lord is still asleep." Katara jerked away from him. How dare that bastard think he can lay hands on her, a Water Tribe chieftess and the Fire Lord's consort, like this.
"Still asleep at this hour?" Zhao chuckled. "I guess being kept up all night by a particular water savage is a pleasant enough distraction  from the stress of his royal duties but..."
Water savage? Distraction? Katara wanted to strangle him. "But what?" she asked, more as a challenge than a question.
"...But not a pleasant enough distraction to keep him from insulting those most loyal to him."  Loyal? Zhao was as trustworthy as he was charming.
Here it was. The storm had broken.
"How did my nephew insult you?" Iroh said.
Zhao lunged at him. "Don't act like you don't know, Old Man. You and this little water savage must be in on it!"
"If you have a problem, Zhao." Zuko stood in the cabin's doorway. "Take it up with me. Or are you only brave enough to take on women and old men."
"I consider myself a reasonable man." This statement made Zuko laugh. "But I won't stand by while my honor is disrespected like this."
Zuko rolled his eyes. "And what does this have to do with me?"
"You...You're responsible for my prisoner escaping. You couldn't bear to let anyone else have the honor of capturing the Avatar. You'd let that little bald brat run free if it means nobody else can upstage you."
Zuko sized Zhao up. He stretched to his full height, trying to hold his own against the older, larger man. Katara thought she noticed a spark of intimidation in Zhao's eyes.
"It sounds like you're trying to shift the blame for your failure onto someone else. I don't see how it's my fault that you can't keep security on your ship under control."
Zhao frothed at the mouth like a rabid boarqpine. Katara prayed that this confrontation wouldn't lead to blows. "You're jealous of me, you pathetic stripling! You're jealous of me because I did what you never could."
"I imagine your crew did most of the hard work." Zuko smirked. He was unfazed by Zhao's bluster.
"...and I earned my position."
Zhao had climbed the ranks of the Fire Navy by being a gifted officer but coming from an aristocratic family and having powerful connections certainly helped.
"A position you're in great danger of losing."
Katara shuttered when Zhao grabbed her wrist.
"And what part did you play in this, Little Wolf." Zhao chuckled. "Maybe the Southern Water Tribe has been in league with the Avatar all along, and she whispered into the cunt-struck Fire Lord's ear that he should let the Avatar slip away?"
Katara's nostrils flared out like an angry ostrich horse. "My Lord is capable of making his own decisions."
Why did men always feel the need to blame their bad choices on a woman? Why couldn't Zhao be more original?
Zuko ripped Zhao's hand away from Katara's wrist. "This is between us, Zhao. Leave her out of it."
Zhao looked up at the Blue Spirit mask on the wall, and a cat-like grin crossed his face. Katara didn't like the look of it.
"My guards told me that a blue-faced demon freed the Avatar," Zhao said. "A demon summoned by a water bending witch."
He reached for a cup that Iroh had just filled with tea. Such rudeness made Iroh gasp. The steaming, amber-colored liquid sloshed everywhere as Zhao aimed the cup at the old man's head.
Zhao met Katara's gaze. This was a challenge, a provocation, bait Katara couldn't resist taking.
With a flick of her hand, Katara bent the tea away from Iroh's face.
Iroh blinked at her. "You're a bender?"
How good it felt not to have to hide who she was anymore.
"So our boy king was harboring a dangerous water bender all along," Zhao said. "I expected better, even from a banished prince who's own father didn't even want him."
Smoke came out of Zuko's nose and ears. His eyes blazed like white-hot embers. Something of the old Zuko who frightened Katara had returned.
Zhao twisted the knife in further. "No wonder Fire Lord Ozai didn't want you as his heir."
"That's enough, Commander." Iroh said.
"You know I'm right." Zhao circled around Zuko. "You know you're unfit to sit on your father's throne."
Zuko spat back at him. "Get out of here! Get off my ship!"
But the Commander disobeyed these orders. Instead, he got even closer in Zuko's face.
"That's why we've all been frozen here at the ass-end of the world for so long: you know you can't handle being Fire Lord, so you're stalling."
Zuko's hands glowed, and he looked ready to set the entire ship ablaze. If there was going to be a fight, Katara didn't want to stand around being useless. She was a dangerous water bender, after all.
Knocking over the bowl used for hand washing, Katara bent the water that splashed all over the table and froze it in mid-air. Then, she aimed the ice shards in Zhao's direction.
Her intention wasn't to hurt him. This was merely a warning shot.
But Zhao refused to heed the warning. Instead, he just laughed and swatted away the ice shards as if they were flies.
"As if you weren't enough of a failure, he said. His face twisted into a sneer. "You need a slip of a girl to fight your battles for you. You're a disgrace to the Fire Nation and have that scar to prove it."
Katara cursed the ship's central heat for melting her ice daggers. O how she would have loved to plunge one into Zhao's chest.
From the look on Zuko's face, he wouldn't have done anything to stop her if she did try to stab Zhao. "How would you like a scar to match?"  A ball of flame just about missed the Commander's face.
"Boys, Boys, what did I tell you about playing nice?" Azula leaned against the door frame, eyebrow raised and arms folded like a disapproving schoolmistress.
"Princess," Zhao stammered. "What brings you here?"
Azula rolled her eyes and gave a contemptuous toss of her head. "I smelt treason and incompetence."
"Then you must have smelt it coming off your brother. He couldn't bear to see anyone else succeed where he failed, so he betrayed his country by freeing the Avatar rather than let me take the credit for the Avatar's capture. To make it worse, he did all this with the help of a water bender witch."
"Is that so?" Azula furrowed her brow.
Katara stood defiant. She was of noble birth and a powerful bender: every bit Azula's equal. But the Princess didn't seem to care that her brother had been consorting with a water bender. "I expected Zuzu to do as much when I told him that the Avatar was in Zhao's custody."
"You told him, Princess?" Zhao said.
"You should really be more careful who you share things with. You know what they say about loose lips?"
Zhao blushed like a schoolboy. He must have been trying to impress the beautiful Princess when he showed his captive off to her and hadn't expected her to go running to her brother.
Katara smirked. Zhao's reckless arrogance was his greatest weakness. If you show your weaknesses to Azula, you were asking for her to exploit them.
"And what was in it for you?" Zuko asked.
"I never could resist putting a fool in his place, and Zhao made it so easy." Azula gave a girlish giggle. "If the news about his capture of the Avatar pleased you, I would be the bearer of glad tidings, and if you weren't pleased, then I would be the loyal sister who uncovered a plot. Whichever side the coin falls on, I win."
Zuko smirked at Zhao. "Azula was right, you did make it easy. Looks like you aren't as tough or clever as you think you are, Commander." The word Commander oozed contempt.
"Watch your tone, boy," Zhao barked.
"I'm the Fire Lord. You can't make me do anything."
This moment must have been as satisfying for Zuko as showing off her bending had been for Katara. The boy he'd been three years ago would have whimpered like a dog whipped for barking out of turn. Now he could bark all he wanted and bite anyone who tried to put a muzzle on him.
Zhao smirked. "Is that a challenge?"
"Tomorrow morning. An Agni Kai at sunrise."
Iroh's jaw dropped. Azula gasped. Katara put a hand on a bookshelf to steady herself.
"Very well." Zhao snorted with contempt. He clapped Zuko on the back. "It's a shame that your dearly-departed father can't be bere to watch me humiliate you. So I guess your Uncle and your sister will have to do."

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Azula scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You're lucky you're getting the dignity of an Agni Kai instead of being roasted alive here and now."
"And let's not forget about his little consort." Lumbering over to Katara, Zhao took a lock of her hair between his fingers. "If I win, maybe I'll take the water bender into my personal custody as compensation for the Avatar."
Katara's heart dropped. No, No, this can't happen. Onboard Zuko's ship, she'd been treated with kindness and respect for the most part. She couldn't expect the same treatment from Zhao's crew.
Much to her relief, Zuko replied with "I don't agree to those terms."
"It doesn't matter. I can always take the water bender after you're dead." He played with the lock of Katara's hair between his fingers. "Yes, I can, Little Princess."
Katara ripped herself away from him. His hot breath on her neck was unbearable. She had never hated any this much, even the monster who had murdered her mother. It was so tempting to freeze more ice shards and end Zhao right there, but that honor was rightfully Zuko's.
"Sleep well, Commander." Katara copied the disdainful tone Zuko used earlier. "Tonight'll be your last."
If Zuko didn't kill Zhao, Katara just might.
"Allow me to show you out," Iroh said. He rose from his seat and waddled over to open the cabin door for Zhao.
As he was shown out, Zhao gave Zuko a mocking bow. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, bastard.
Azula also turned to leave. "Come spar with me later, Zuzu," she said. "Let's make sure that Zhao gets a lesson he'll never forget."
Zuko nodded his affirmation as Azula left the room.
"That was a rash decision you made, Lord Zuko," Iroh said.
"If you're trying to talk me out of the Agni Kai," Zuko grumbled. "Don't bother."
Iroh gave an indulgent laugh. "I know I can't, so I'm not even trying. The rash decision I'm talking about is helping the Avatar escape."
"It wasn't just me. Katara helped." Zuko flushed and stared down at his shoes.
"A wise man sees the value in having a strong woman by his side."
Iroh winked at Katara, and the two shared a smile. He then swept Zuko into a crushing embrace. "Even in exile, you still have more honor than Zhao ever could." With a clap on the back, he set his nephew free. "Make me proud tomorrow."
"I will, Uncle."
When the two of them were alone, Zuko turned to Katara and looked her in the eyes. "Do you have anything to say, My Lady?"
"Only that I hope you're victorious tomorrow." Katara looked up and met his gaze.
"Because you don't want Zhao to take you?"
"I would have thought that was obvious?"
If Katara gave any thought to what Zhao might do if he got his hands on her, her strength and courage would falter.
Zuko took Katara's hand. "I want you to stay with Mai and Ty Lee tonight."
"Alright." Katara squeezed his fingers. "But why?"
"The night before an Agni Kai is supposed to be spent alone. It's a time for spiritual preparation: fasting, meditation... abstinence."
Zuko and Katara chuckled. Abstinence would only be a continuation of the status quo, despite what they both desired.
Katara squeezed Zuko's hand tighter. She didn't want to let him go. Letting him go came with the risk of losing him forever.