Chapter 44.5- And so the Dragons Danced

_ It was a day and a half before they got to see him again, and he looked much calmer.

“The situation in the city remains tenuous” He told them, silently asking them to leave but not saying it. Oh she wished they could. She hated every part of living in this palace, but she could not. She had to make sure that he kept his promises- the most important being ending the war.

“We’d love to make your life easier by taking off on Appa, but you have to live up to your end of the deal” She pressed. Aang was silent, just as she had begged him to be. Sokka himself had taken charge of their occupation of the city and was busy putting out one fire or the other. That was the latest in the long list of things that the Nation’s upper class had taken to- setting their own buildings on fire. So silly.

“Ending the war doesn’t just happen with the stroke of a pen, Katara. There are thousands of soldiers out there, each in a different arm of the military. We have prisons to decommission, training camps to stop, cities to evacuate, and a million other small things. I can not sit on my throne and end the war simply by declaring it so” He said with a sigh.

“You say there are millions of things to do, but I do not see you doing any one of them” She pointed out. And she was right. They had staged a rushed coronation with a few fire sages basically held at sword point, and announced Ozai’s death, but beyond that, Zuko had been twiddling his thumbs. She understood that he wanted his Uncle back, but that was no excuse for this much inaction.

“I need to make sure they listen to me, Katara. I was banished. I was told never to return unless I captured the Avatar to regain my honor. Now look at me here colluding with said Avatar. The city is at a knife’s edge because they feel I have stolen from Azula and collaborated with our enemies. They think I killed my own father. I need to do something to get them on my side because if I don’t then there’s no point. I could issue a million decrees and get nothing from it” He said. She sighed. She had no idea how the Fire Nation worked, but she knew Leadership. He was the Chief here. Why couldn’t he just tell them what to do.

“What are you doing to get them on your side?” Bato asked, hand on his chin.

“I have invited the Governors from across the territories and the various Lords from their castles to attend to me here. I will host them, and force them to submit. If they submit, the rest of the realm will follow” He said.

“And this Natsu fellow? What about him?”

“He is with my sister, and he has my Uncle. I never met him when I was younger, but I heard a lot about him. The initial plan had been to force his surrender on threat of his Grandfather’s life, but that is no longer open to us” He said, directing as glare at Aang.