...Poor planning. She tries to avoid Zhao's command whenever possible.

Difficult to do when deploying towards the South Pole.

Yeah.

They'll keep the men on the ship, just do a quick resupply - Jialin can keep them in line, and Iroh can dangle the promise of a longer shore leave somewhere less frigid for those who behave.

And Zuko will try not to start any fights.

Iroh believes in her restraint.

It's not her restraint that's in question.

She'll trust Zuko's judgement as well.

Hopefully it doesn't need to be much exercised.

Around Zhao it might.

...Fair.

They'll both be cautious.

See how far that goes.

It doesn't, unfortunately, go far enough to prevent Commander Zhao from approaching them as they disembark. 

Well. Let's get this over with.

"Princess Zuko, General Iroh," he calls, jovially, "What brings you to my port?"

"Commander. Fuel and supplies."

"Surely you have time to join me for some tea while your men load all that up."

Okay, what's the trap here? Probably something in the conversation. Or the tea is poisoned. In which case Aunt might actually kill him, which seems worth the risk. Or he's trying to pull something with the supplies, but Zuko's got Lieutenant Jiahao supervising who will catch anything like that. And etiquette doesn't give her much space to refuse.

So, "I... suppose."

He smiles. It isn't a very pleasant smile. "Right this way."

Ugh. Hope this wasn't a mistake.

"How has your search been going, Princess?" he asks once they're settled.

She doesn't like the way that title sounds in his mouth. Slimy.

"...I have found a positive lead. Evidence of airbending."

"Is that so - ? What sort of evidence?"

(Iroh is very subtly stepping on Zuko's foot.) "Rumors, mostly," she says, pleasantly. "It'll take us a while yet to track down the truth of them."