So… Zuko was gone. Sent to live with his uncle as punishment for starting a fire he didn’t mean to start. Separated from his sister and friends with an extremely high chance of never seeing them again…

Don’t cry… don’t cry… don’t cry…

Personally, Katara thought it rather stupid, sending him away like that. It wasn’t going to help anyone, nor was it going to bring Mrs. Sozin back. If sending Zuko away was supposed to make things better, she couldn’t see how. If anything, sending Zuko away was making things worse.

Don’t cry… don’t cry… don’t cry…

But what was done, was done, and they could do nothing to change it. Zuko had left and there was no way to bring him back. Katara didn’t even have a phone number she could try to ring to keep in touch with him. No address or e-mail address either.

Keep it together, Katara, don’t cry…

Everything was different now. With Zuko gone, nothing felt the same anymore… for Katara, nothing felt right…

Don’t cry… don’t cry…

And the photos she had left of him did weren’t enough, yet they were too much at the same time. Too much of a reminder, yet they weren’t actually him…

Come on, Katara, don’t cry…

Even with just one photo in hand (her favourite one – the one of just the two of them, Zuko and herself, sitting on her front porch as best friends), even that made her miss him that much more than she already did…

Don’t cry, darn it!

Katara fought them back for as long as she could, really she did, but no matter how much she scolded herself –

Don’t cry! Don’t cry! Don’t cry!

- she found that she couldn’t help but do the exact opposite: she cried.