"There is no way my brother could eat this," she gestures to an abandoned bowl of stew at the fireplace. "It is far too spiced and chewy."

"Nonsense! I ate it growing up, he ate it growing up, we all did!"

...

Ah. Watertribe food isn't what Fire Nation nobles would call a delicacy. Then again, this is being a bit much of a brat, even for the brat. I was able to convert the sea water into drinkable stuff, but we had little to no food for about a day there. More or less. I'm not sure for how long I was riding that storm.

I wonder over to the pot. Prune stew. I taste it. a bit stronger than I'd have made it, but certainly acceptable. The argument has gone on while I made my own judgement of the situation.

Now I set the ladle aside and turn around to look at the brat. He might have a more delicate palate than I, but he certainly ate what I fed him during our journey with Azula. He's never complained. So should I take this as Mai's way of releasing tension? We have been on a ship for a long time. While it may have freed me, it must have been restricting to her. Especially since I was the one with all the control over where we went and what we did.

"Mai," I say quietly, "If we're going to shirk my sister tribe's hospitality, the least we could do was to make our own food."

She freezes, looking at me briefly, pressing her lips together. "From what?"

"We'll go fishing," I tell her with a shrug. "Enough for a few days, and then share it as an apology."

"Now?" her tone is incredulous.

"Yes, now," I reply. "Unless you want to go hungry until tomorrow."

"Fine," she agrees, looking for all the world like I've not just done her a favour.

"Katsuo. Our trapping expedition will have to wait until tomorrow, yeah?"

He nods. "No problem here," he says, eyes bouncing between Mai and me. I shake my head at him. There's nothing between us but the brat.

Which I am glad not to have said out loud.

"Right then," I turn towards the ship. "Hiraku!"

His head pops over the crow's nest's brim. "Come fishing with us!"

Without a word, he clambers down. Gorou appears at my shoulder. "I'm coming with you."

I look at him more closely. Why would he want to spend even more time in my vicinity, when he evidently dislikes me? Maybe I'll find out in a bit.

So where is Circus Girl, then, if almost all the crew is coming? Mai seems to notice my searching. "Ty Lee went to bed. She's exhausted."

A wry smile twists the corners of my mouth upwards for a moment. Aren't we all?

I turn to Hakoda. "Sorry about this," I say, "But you might want to keep an eye on the two still on the ship while Gorou isn't here."

He nods, frowning.

So, then. We're going fishing.

...

Somehow, I end up doing all the work.

Well, not all of it. Gorou sets up the fireplace and builds a rack for the fish we catch, to eat some immediately, because we're all still hungry. Especially Haruto, who didn't even get off the ship for food, perhaps because he was wary about Mai's screeching. The lout has decided that playing with the brat is a worthwhile contribution to our endeavours. I know he knows that the brat isn't a normal child.

Then again, they're both enjoying themselves. If the youngest two of our group can't even do that, it is a sad day indeed.

And Mai… seems content to watch us all work. I'd forgotten how much of a noble she can be. There hadn't been any other choice on the ship but to help out where it was needed. Now, seeing as there is someone who does the work, she deigns to grace us with her presence, but little more. Though I doubt that any commentary on her part would be well-received, and that is all she is prone to do at this point. One wouldn't be able to tell any more at her appearance, but she has the acidic disposition of a noble inside of her, and it looks like it came to the surface tonight.

To be honest, I am the most efficient at catching fish here, since I can scoop them out with the very water they swim in. So it isn't all that bad. But still. It's the principle of the thing, isn't it? Cooperation is what this is all about, in the end.

At least Haruto sits down beside me with interest once Gorou and I begin to clean out the fish we want to eat tonight. Only to turn away once the slippery entrails spill onto the ground. Squeamish, are we?

I snort, and continue my task. It is all a matter of practise. Besides, once you've bent the bodily fluids of living people, cleaning out fish isn't an act that requires much triumph.

Mai pokes a stick into the fire. By now, it's our only source of light, beyond the stars. So gentile after that storm. Still the remnants of its energy tingle along my arms.

"So," Gorou finally raises his voice, breaking the silence, "When do you intend to move on to Ba Sing Se?"

"Already tired of the Bay?" I ask in return, and he shrugs. "Well. At the very least we stay here for two to four more days. I need to speak with Hakoda again, and Katsuo is going to show me some of their damaged traps. During the invasion, my squad set up a few interesting and quite effective ones."

"You mean deadly," Mai says, voice cold, "I heard the waters in front of the city were red with blood and bits of flesh."

I meet her furious gaze with narrowed eyes. "Yes. I suppose that's what a good trap is meant to be. Since, after all, the invading forces did not show any mercy either."

She has no right to be angry about the deaths of Fire Nation soldiers when we were defending ourselves. We did not attack the Fire Nation. They came to invade us after a hundred years of war out of which we kept our squeaky clean fingers – until then – because Aang came to learn waterbending from us.

And both sides paid the price for it. Perhaps things could have been different had we had agents that relayed news to the far North. We could have sent a master and an escort to teach the Avatar without leading the Fire Nation to our city. Then again, it wouldn't have been a guarantee for the city's continued existence.

We are fortunate it did not turn out worse, with more than the almost bearable – population-wise – losses we suffered.

The Fire Nation was burnt – forgive the pun – badly. I can only hope they'll not attempt another invasion any time soon. We can only hope the Fire Nation treats it as they did Ba Sing Se. The great defeat of the Dragon of the West meant that Ba Sing Se became the impenetrable city. Perhaps Admiral Jhao's failure will allow my people some of the same supposed safety.

Finally, she averts her eyes. I do not know what she thinks of my response. I do not care to know.

I go back to cleaning out the fish. The wet squelch as the organs fall on top of the ones of the previous fish is barely audible above the crackle of the fire, the lap of the waves against the shore. And yet, it is so fitting to describe the current situation.

It is odd to sit at a shoreline, a beach, and not worry about hypothermia, or getting a cold.

"So," Gorou says and begins to spear the cleaned-out fish with the prepared skewers. "Ba Sing Se. What do you intend to do there?"

I deliberate for a moment. I won't tell them about the two people I hope to meet there. Or at the very least, I will not tell Mai. That I have known where Zuko and his uncle are all along without telling will be another reason for her to resent me. Although reasonably, I could not know about her feelings for him, since neither she nor Circus Girl ever speak of him. Not, that I would know what they do speak about.

"Well. It's time the Earthking was properly informed of the state his kingdom is in, don't you think?"

Mai gasps softly and turns away, whereas Gorou begins to smile. It's a terrifying expression on the man.

"How would you even gain an audience?" Haruto asks, awed, pausing in his finger games with the brat.

I shrug. "I have my ways." I fully expect Aang, Katara and Sokka to arrive in Ba Sing Se relatively soon after we do. "The Earthking himself isn't actually the one who needs to be persuaded. From what I hear, the capital itself is controlled by the Dai Li. It also isn't the place from which I would launch a counter-attack."

"Counter attack!" Mai bursts out, "How would that even work? There hasn't been a proper one for fifty years!"

"High time, don't you think?" I return and set the skewer on top of the contraption Gorou built together with the man himself holding the other side of it. "Before the comet arrives, at the very least."

"Comet?" Gorou asks, in time with Haruto.

I hadn't gotten as far to explain to the boy what a comet is.

"Haruto, you remember those theories about planets and so on?"

"Yes."

"Well, the comet is a large object that moves around our world in a hundred-year-cycle. The Fire Nation named it Sozin's Comet a hundred years ago. Before then, I imagine it was something like the Great Comet or Ball of Fire.

It circles this planet in an ellipse and comes close enough to lend firebenders incredible power whenever it does. If we don't counterattack by the time it's here, the war is over, one way or another."

...

Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

...

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