Katara, of the Fire Nation

Chapter 23

A 'little while' ends up lasting for three years.

Katara, now nineteen, lives within her tribe, helping it grow and expand while growing herself. Katara teaches young waterbenders to fight and to heal, she joins with Pakku as more of the northern tribesmen migrate to the south. She helps her people and gets back to her roots, catching up on all the things she's missed out on.

Katara helps her brother where she can, she helps build and expand the walls of their tribe, she helps fortify the watchtowers and even builds her own hut where she teaches students how to heal.

But Katara's heart longs for the Fire Nation, she writes letters nightly to Zuko, she tells him everything about her day, what she's done and how much she misses him.

Zuko misses Katara terribly, the highlight of his day is when he receives Katara's letter no matter how bad his day is, Katara's letters always make him feel better.

With Katara gone and the Fire Nation becoming steady, Zuko's time becomes freer, and in his free time he even goes down to the prison and visits his father.

"You're going to tell me what happened to my mother," Zuko says, sitting down in front of his father's cell one evening.

Ozai outright refuses to talk to Zuko and it irritates him to no end, he leaves his father's cell and visits his sister who is at the end of the hall, but she too is uncooperative and downright nasty to talk with.

Katara receives his letter from Katara when he returns to his office, he reads about her day and smiles as he reads Katara's elegant writing.

Katara receives a letter from Zuko, she informs her that his father is still being difficult to talk to, he's refusing to cooperate, he hardly says more than five words, and those five words are what scares Katara the most.

'I'll only speak to Katara.'

Ozai will only speak to Katara, he'll only tell Katara what happened to Zuko's mum.

Katara reads Zuko's letter and she feels her heart pulling her home, Katara finally decides that it's time to leave the water tribe and return home to Zuko.

"Hey, chief," Katara says, walking into her brother's hut, "Can we talk?"

"Hey, Master Katara," Sokka teases, he hates it when his sister calls him chief, and she hates it when he calls her 'master', "What's up?" Sokka asks, gesturing for Katara to sit, he looks at his sister and reads her expression, "You're leaving, aren't you?"

"I have to," Katara sighs, she sits across from her brother as she nods her head.

"I understand," Sokka smiles, "Can I ask you something?"

"Hmm?"

"You've been sending Zuko letters a lot, as far as I've heard, you've sent Zuko a letter almost every day," Sokka says, "Is there something I should know about?"

Katara's cheeks flush and she sighs.

"I don't know," she says, "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Sokka repeats, raising an eyebrow at Katara.

"We grew up together," Katara says, smiling at the good memories she has, "I miss him, and I love him."

"Love him?" Sokka echoes, waggling his eyebrows at Katara.

"Shut up," Katara laughs, "I just... I don't know, I just feel something, deep inside of me, something that I've never felt for anyone else."

"Well, I just hope you know what you're doing," Sokka sighs, "I don't want you to get hurt, especially so far away."