Chapter Text
Spring, the Water Tribe village of Naamaruk, Earth Kingdom
The run-in with her nephew had left Katara vacillating between driving back to the city and staying just a little longer in the hopes of seeing her brother and grandmother for at least a few minutes before she truly needed to leave. Naamaruk was a strange little place, not made for comfort or convenience. The longer she stayed, the more she wanted to leave. Still, it had been months since she’d seen Sokka and even longer since she’d seen her grandmother. Today was a lonely sort of day and even a momentary flash of their company wasn’t an unwelcome prospect.
Shouldering her purse just a little higher, Katara ducked her head and continued down the street, putting Azula, the Jasmine Dragon, and that atrocious cup of coffee behind her. As she approached the corner, a series of signs on a vacant building pulled her to a halt.
It was an office space and it was for rent.
We’re going to be stuck working for other people forever, aren’t we? Toph’s voice echoed through her mind. We have to find a way to escape this vicious cycle…
She edged closer, peering at the signs.
The rent wasn’t outrageous. In fact, it was heaps lower than anything Katara would have to pay in the city. She could easily swing the cost…!
“What are you thinking?” she muttered to herself, shaking her head. “Opening a clinic in this dinky place? There’s not a good cup of coffee to be found and the people are just weird. Katara, you wouldn't be happy here.”
Disgruntled with herself, she turned herself back in the direction of her car and marched towards it with decisive steps. She was going to go back to Ba Sing Se and pick up the pieces. She was going to find steady work and continue on with her prescribed plan. No detours, no weird villagers, just her glossy life in her shining apartment surrounded by her socially respectable friends.
With the sun beating down on Naamaruk once more, the interior of Katara’s car was as hot as a sauna. Desperate for a reprieve, she punched the ignition button and prepared for a blast of cool air. She got nothing instead.
“What in the world?”
She jabbed her finger against the button with a little more force.
Still nothing.
A dead battery. Just the thing she needed to top off the past two days of hell. Mumbling a few choice obscenities to herself, Katara drew her phone from her purse and dialed the number on a card belonging to an auto repair service that she kept in her car. Instead of the familiar tones of a ringing line, she was met with a prerecorded message that her call could not be completed.
“What do you mean can’t be completed?”
Glancing at the screen, she realized the problem in an instant. There was no reception in this spirits’ forsaken parking lot. Grumbling and more than mildly irritated, Katara vacated her car and slammed the door behind herself. She set off into the village streets once more, searching desperately for even just one bar of service.
Not a blip on the main streets, nothing in the busy marketplace… No service, no service, no service!
Desperate, Katara ducked into the first business she could find, a rather empty restaurant decorated with a clash of both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom items. Amongst the clashing swarm of red and green decor was a woman in shocking shades of pink who grinned upon Katara’s entrance and darted close.
“Welcome to the Yoshida Family Restaurant! Just one today?” Her voice was as cheery and perky as her clothing.
“I suppose so.”
“Perfect!” Gesturing towards an empty table, the woman reached for a menu and looked utterly appalled when Katara thrust out a hand in protest.
“Could I just have a glass of green plum juice if you have it? And do you maybe have a landline I could borrow?”
“Green plum juice and…a landline?” The woman blinked. “Okay, then.”
“Thank you.”
Sagging into the offered chair, Katara buried her face in her hands and reminded herself that this series of misfortunes was not the end of her world. She was going to find someone to jump her car and she was going to leave this place in the dust. Her life would not be derailed by one little misadventure.
A glass hit the table and Katara looked up to see a cordless landline being shoved in her face. The woman was looking at her with clear distrust, but it wasn’t going to get to her. Extracting the card from her purse, Katara dialed the number to the auto repair service once more and pressed the phone to her ear. Obviously curious, the woman in pink lingered next to the table, but her attempts at eavesdropping proved fruitless. Katara’s call was met once again with the notification that her call could not be completed. Wordless, she offered the phone back to the other woman.
“Thanks anyway.”
“Pardon?”
“Your phone doesn’t work,” Katara said, pulling her glass of juice close. She planned to chug it and flee, escaping the weird, watchful gaze of the woman and hopefully the entire town.
“What do you mean?” Long nails painted bright fuchsia tapped a series of numbers into the phone. Another futile effort. The woman looked from the phone to Katara, as if ready to accuse her of damaging it.
“Can I please pay for my drink now?” Extracting her card from her wallet, Katara offered it up in the hopes that it would deter any further drama today intended on sending her way.
“Four thousand Earth Kingdom silver, okay?”
“That’s fine,” Katara said and nearly shoved her card into the woman’s hand.
In the ensuing few moments of solitude, she took a few steadying breaths and reminded herself that, at most, she’d simply wait for Sokka to come home and get his help. It wouldn’t be all that bad. She’d be fine, she’d… But the woman was walking back to her now, a frown on her lovely face. Katara’s heart dropped with alarming velocity.
“Our card reader isn’t working. Do you have cash?”
“I don’t carry cash.”
Nobody did in Ba Sing Se.
Unimpressed, the woman tossed Katara’s card to the table and folded her arms over her chest. “How do you intend on paying then?”
“Is there a bank nearby?”
“Up the street a way.”
“I’ll just run over there—”
“I don’t think so.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t know you. You’re obviously not from around here. For all I know, you’re going to run out on the check and leave me four thousand silver in the red.”
Affronted, Katara rose from her seat. “I’m a good person,” she asserted. “Honestly. Here, I’ll leave my purse with you as collateral. It’s a real—”
“It’s a real nothing. My sister got a degree in fashion design. You think I don’t know a knock off when I see it? And who would carry that purse while wearing those shoes. Please. You’re a fraud.”
“A fraud!”
Those stupid bathroom slippers… Katara hated whatever wayward spirit had stolen her other proper shoe.
“You can leave your phone.”
“My phone? No way! Even if my bag were a knock off—which it’s not—it would cost more than four thousand silver.”
The woman was staunch, though, unyielding. She stared Katara down with an unnerving sort of coldness that was at complete odds with her sweet appearance. Feeling as though she had no other option, Katara begrudgingly left her phone on the table and stormed out of the restaurant.
All the way up the street, she grumbled and griped to herself. With every step, she became more and more certain that returning home to Ba Sing Se as soon as possible was the right choice. That spark of inspiration to open a clinic here was simply a fluke, a moment of terrible judgment. She would never—never!—forgive Naamaruk for all it had taken from her. Her mother, her shoes, her dignity.
The place was hell.
And it didn’t have a working ATM. An out of order sign mocked her, stoking the fires of her rage and making her see red. Whipping open the door to the bank, Katara located the nearest teller and stomped over.
“I need to withdraw money. Four thousand Earth Kingdom silver.”
“Ma’am.” Her ire had had an immediate effect on the man behind the counter. He swallowed hard and cast a tremulous smile her way. “I apologize, but our systems here require that all technology be up and running and—”
“And your systems are down,” Katara completed. “Of course.”
Tossing an insincere word or two of gratitude his way, she left the bank. She’d simply have to wire money from the city when she got home. That was all there was to be done.
“No,” the woman at the Yoshida Family Restaurant said when presented with the offer.
Exhausted, Katara pulled one of her business cards from her (very authentic, thank you) purse and slid it across the table to her current nemesis of the hour. “I’m not a fraud,” she insisted weakly. “Honestly. My name is Katara and I’m a dentist in Ba Sing Se.”
But the woman slid the card back without looking at it, her cheap nail polish leaving pinkish-purple marks on the surface. “I don’t think so,” she said coldly. “Your bag is fake. This could be, too.”
Out of protests and arguments, Katara took her card back with a sigh. She had no further choices. There were no more ideas in her very tired brain. She’d just have to wait here for Sokka and hope that he could bail her out of this pinch.
The bell over the door jingled and the woman leaned around Katara to see who had entered the restaurant, her pink-painted lips splitting into a brilliant smile. Curious, Katara turned around as well and found herself once more face-to-face with the surfer from the beach. In that moment she could have broken down in tears rivaling those of Tarkik’s friend earlier that day. Which ancestor had she angered?!
“I see you kept the shoes,” he commented, glancing at Katara’s feet before turning to the woman in pink. “Hi, Ty Lee. I’m here on—”
“Do you two know each other?” the woman interrupted, motioning between the two.
“No,” the man said at the exact same time Katara said, “Yes.”
She looked at him, somewhat alarmed by his denial. “Of course we know each other! You lent me these shoes!” she exclaimed, pointing to the bathroom slippers.
Something that Katara didn’t like crossed Ty Lee’s face. She knew a busybody when she saw one.
Making a noncommittal noise, the man returned his attention to Ty Lee. “Just making the rounds. There was a fire at the telecom station a short while ago. All technology connected to it is down for the time being.”
Just like that, Ty Lee was all friendly smiles and graciousness again, though Katara was not the recipient of this change in attitude.
“And here I was thinking that this woman was a fraud.”
Katara found herself the victim of both their gazes. “I’m not a fraud!” she cried. “I just don’t carry cash!”
“I don’t think she’s a fraud, Ty Lee.” And then he plowed forward, not even sparing Katara a moment to express the first legitimate shred of gratitude she’d felt towards him that day. “Listen, do me a favor and go get the kids for Azula while she closes up the Jasmine Dragon. They went to play the claw machine.”
“Sure thing, Chief Himura.”
With a wink, Ty Lee flipped her long brown braid over her shoulder and darted out of the shop. As soon as the door had shut behind her, Katara reached out and grabbed the surfer’s arm. The fabric of his flannel was soft and well-worn beneath her fingertips, but he turned to look at her as though she’d grown a second head. Flustered, she released her hold on him and plastered on her most winning smile.
“Look,” she said, “I don’t ask people for things like this and I don’t know how to say it, but…can I borrow some money? I promise I usually don’t ask so many favors, but I’m having a terrible day today and this is an urgent situation.”
“You’re not normally like this?” he replied, unenthused eyebrows arching upward on his forehead.
“I refuse to be indebted to anyone.”
“So if circumstances were different, you’d be able to get out of this mess on your own?”
“Yes.”
Hopeful, Katara paired pleading eyes with her smile, but the whole effort appeared to have no effect on Chief Himura. He only sighed and gestured towards the door of the restaurant.
“Come with me,” he said. Every word sounded like it was the last thing he wanted to be saying to her.
“What?”
“I’ll help you earn the money instead.”
He was off and moving before she could stop him.
Up through the village they walked, Katara hardly able to keep up with Chief Himura’s long-legged strides. Every winding turn of the road took them further up the hill the neighborhood was built into. Although Katara called out for his attention several times and asked where they were headed more often than that, she received no answer. Instead, she proved to be more of an afterthought to his excursion. Worse than that, she felt as though he saw her as a nuisance, something he wanted to discard as soon as possible.
At a loss for what to do, Katara continued to follow in his tracks, eyes on the lookout for anything shady or underhanded that might occur.
One particular turn of a corner brought them across the path of an officer in the process of getting back into his patrol car. Katara had half a mind to ask the new man for assistance, but was thrown for a further loop when he turned to Chief Himura with a grin and greeted him with nearly as much enthusiasm as the woman in the restaurant.
“Zuko!”
“Kanto.”
To her utter astonishment, the two men, neither of whom struck her as particularly Water Tribe, reached out and grasped forearms in greeting.
“I’m assuming you heard about the fire?” the officer asked. “I’ve been trying to get around to all of the older people, but I also need to get down into the village. Everyone’s out responding at the telecom station, so I’ve been left to play hero up here. Only problem is, the grandmas don’t like me as much as—”
“I’ll cover the neighborhood for you,” Zuko offered.
The immediacy of it caused Katara’s eyebrow to jump upward and the subtle relief that followed on the officer’s face was even more peculiar. An officer accepting help in an emergency situation from someone not on the payroll? Who was this guy?
“If you insist.” The officer turned back to his car and then seemed to think twice, pivoting once more to face the chief. “Drinks soon?”
“Absolutely. I’ll call you.”
And then the cop was driving away and Chief Himura was stalking off once more, striking deeper into the neighborhood. Katara hurried after him.
“Are you a criminal?” she called out.
His steps came to a halt, shoes grinding over the dirt path they were on. “What?” he asked, turning around.
“You seem awfully close with the police.”
“And you think an officer would trust a criminal to help in an emergency situation?”
Katara bit back a scowl. He had a point, but it still wasn’t an answer. Why was it that he never answered any of her questions? And now he was hurrying off again, calling over his shoulder, “Come on! I need to make a few stops before you earn that money!”
Those stops turned out to be conversations with what seemed to be every elderly person in the village to inform them of the fire and recommend that they stay home for safety reasons. Sometimes that simple exchange evolved and he would eagerly offer to complete quick chores. Katara, lingering behind him by several yards, was the subject of many curious glances but never addressed. She couldn’t help but marvel at his attitude towards the people of the village. Friendly, helpful, even kind. Why wouldn’t he also act that way towards a total stranger?
“I thought you were going to help me earn some money!”
“I have to visit the grandmas first,” he called over his shoulder.
“This is taking a really long time. I could’ve just waited at the restaurant.”
He let out a barking laugh. “I’m sure you’d prefer sitting there with Ty Lee. You looked thrilled.”
As he glanced over his shoulder at her, Katara had the feeling he was deliberately angling the right side of his face in her direction. Once again, he wasn’t entirely wrong and she could only answer him with petulant silence. A knowing sort of smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth and the hint of a dimple popped into his cheek, but he said nothing else and continued on to the next house.
There was a woman sitting out front in a chair, a pile of thick fabric in her lap. From the look of it, Katara thought it might be a wedding parka. The sight saddened her. A grandmother sewing a wedding parka meant another young woman out in the world without a mom. The reminder of her own was another sharp, knife-like jab to her gut.
Eyes welling up, vision swimming just the slightest bit, Katara at first thought she was mistaken when she witnessed Chief Himura crouch down in front of the wizened Water Tribe grandmother and begin to sign to her. Sniffing back the tears and clearing her throat so shove down the unwanted emotions only clarified the situation, though. He was indeed holding a conversation in sign language with her.
Unwarranted, Katara felt a small sliver of her heart give itself away to him.
Maybe he wasn’t all prickles and thorns.
They walked on through the neighborhood of blue-roofed houses and she couldn’t help but wonder if he knew Gran Gran, if he knew Sokka. On several occasions during their trek, she thought to ask him and then changed her mind. It was better if she was as little involved with this man and this place as possible. After she got her car fixed, she’d not be returning for as long as she could help it.
“What exactly is it that you do for work?” Katara found herself asking despite her previous convictions as she followed the dark-haired man along the docks. “I’ve heard people addressing you as Chief Himura all day, but—”
The glare he sent her way was full of distrust and annoyance, the harshness of it enhanced by the scar tissue around his left eye. “Why do you care? You’ll be heading back to the city. What I do for a living doesn’t affect you.” Pointing to a pair of old ladies gutting squid, he continued on, “We’re here.”
Katara’s mouth dropped open and she found herself dumbfoundedly accepting the rubber apron and gloves he shoved in her direction.
“Are you… Are you telling me that I need to gut fish?”
“Yes.”
“You can’t be serious!”
But he was always serious. It was something she knew by now.
“But– But I’ve never—! I haven’t touched a squid since I was small!”
“I guess today’s your lucky day,” he sniped. “One of the women is out with her grandson today, so you can fill in. You need money and you’ll earn minimum wage doing this.”
Katara let out a noise of disbelief. “Do you know who I am?” she hissed. “I’m—”
“A penniless woman.” That smirk teased at the corner of his mouth again.
The nerve!
Chief Himura called out to the old women he’d pointed out, gesturing to Katara and yelling, “She’s here to work!”
“What are you doing?” she snapped.
“Heading to work,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll be back later to make sure you earned your money.”
Katara had lost track of how many times today this strange man had left her stranded in some part of Naamaruk or refused to help her in any truly helpful way. This was yet another instance to add to the list, though, another reason to despise him and the fact that she’d ever even thought of coming to this village.
As he walked away, Katara found herself flanked by the two grandmas. They introduced themselves as Yugoda and Hama and gushed about what a pretty girl she was as they guided her over to the gutting deck. The stench was overpowering; Katara thought she might throw up.
“How long have you known Chief Himura?” the one called Hama asked.
Longer than she’d prefer.
“We met for the first time today,” Katara replied as she tugged on the rubber gloves.
To her utter horror, the two old women exchanged a look that seemed far more significant than she would have liked.
Everything smelled like fish. The vacant gutting deck, the sea, her clothes, her hair. There was a squid ink stain on her shirtsleeve. And here she was, hours after the fact, waiting on a man who might never come as the sun sank into the water. Everyone else had vacated the area at least forty-five minutes prior.
She’d been conned, that’s what had happened. Chief Himura or whoever he was had obviously tricked her into doing his job and intended to keep the money for himself. It was rude, vile, flat out mean—
Footsteps sounded across the gutting deck and a familiar flannel shirt eased into her peripheral vision. She spun around, ire raising the hairs on the back of her neck.
“It took you long enough!”
The man scowled. “I have your money,” he said, extracting a wad of bills from his pocket. “Maybe you don’t want it.”
“Of course I want it! I earned it.”
“The grandmas said you were terrible.”
“I don’t gut squid for a living,” Katara snapped. “I’m a dentist.”
With a sigh, he counted out a series of bills and extracted several silver coins from a small change purse. The money was offered to her with little ceremony. “Three hours of work at minimum wage,” he said. “That’s twenty-six thousand one-hundred sixty Earth Kingdom silver. Congratulations, hard work earned you a way home.”
“For your information,” Katara said, shoving all of the money except for four thousand of it into her own wallet. “I’ve always been a hard worker. Here.” She held the four thousand silver out to him. “Give this to the restaurant worker for me.”
A wordless nod was all she got in return as Chief Himura took the bills back. Turning to leave, he waved one hand in a short gesture of goodbye. Katara watched him walk away, glad to finally see the back of him and hoping sincerely that their paths never crossed again.
And then it dawned on her that she needed help jumping her car.
“Excuse me!” she called out, hurrying after him.
Zuko attached the jumper cables to the woman’s car in silence. He’d lost count trying to keep track of all the times she’d asked for his assistance today. It hadn’t all been for naught, though. She’d turned out to be an extra set of hands in his busy afternoon. Thanks to her presence, he’d been able to have someone else take on the less important task of filling in for Ms. Amaguk while he’d gone to repair Mr. Piandao’s roof. Hama and Yugoda had assured him they’d be fine without Kanna, but it was much more reassuring for him to leave the strange woman there with them. Even if her help had been shoddy in nature.
He’d seen her there on the gutting deck near the end of the work day, smiling brightly as she held up a cleaned squid for the grandmas’ approval. As he’d watched her laugh with them and wondered exactly how many squid it had taken for her to get the work done right, it had been impossible to deny that despite her bristly attitude, she was pretty.
Annoyingly pretty. The kind of pretty he might have pursued in a different life. And frustratingly clueless. And she either had the worst luck he’d ever heard of outside of his own or was used to getting others to do things for her. He wasn’t sure which.
“I’m sorry to have asked for your help so many times today,” the woman said. She was lingering somewhere behind him as he worked. “I didn’t mean to be so rude about it. Thank you.”
Zuko didn’t spare her a glance. If he did, he’d risk getting drawn in far enough to finally ask her name. “Start your car,” he said instead.
She slid behind the wheel and a moment later, the car engine purred to life. A cry of victory followed it.
Satisfied that he’d done all he could to finally get this woman on her way home, Zuko set about detaching the jumper cables from her car and his truck. When he stepped back from her car, however, something silvery caught his eye for the second time that day. Leaning down to look at the tire, he sighed. It was flat, punctured by a screw.
“Did you drive here with your tire like this?” he asked.
The woman’s cheeks flushed. “Well, I… I mean, the pressure light was on, but I got here,” she mumbled.
“You might’ve gotten here, but you won’t be getting back on this thing.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, stepping out of the car to inspect the tire herself.
“What are you—a cat with nine lives?” he exclaimed, incredulous. “You’d be much safer getting this fixed at the repair shop in the morning. It’s just up the road.”
“You expect me to stay in this village overnight?” she argued. “I don’t have a change of clothes and I smell like fish guts!”
It was true. For all her pretty features and articles of clothing, she definitely didn’t smell great.
Zuko sighed. “There’s a sauna across the harbor,” he told her. “With what you earned today, you can afford to stay there for tonight and still get your tire fixed in the morning. Good luck.”
Stowing the jumper cables in the bed of his truck, he waved goodbye and started off for his last job of the night. As he drove towards the sauna, he found himself half hoping that she’d show up and half dreading that she would.
Freshly showered and changed into borrowed clothes that at least didn’t smell like fish, Katara stared up at the ceiling of the sauna’s hall, unable to sleep, her stomach growling. She couldn’t remember the last thing she’d eaten. Had it been dinner with Toph the night before? There was food here, she knew. It was just a matter of deciding whether or not spending part of the meager amount of money she had left was as important as getting back to her life in the city.
Her stomach let out a particularly loud groan of protest and Katara sat up with a sigh. Something comforting and sweet would be nice, at least. She’d deal with finding a proper meal after she was finally free of this spirits’ forsaken village in the morning.
She made her way to the snack bar, mentally tabulating how much she could spend. If she set aside ten thousand silver for her tire repair and anything else that might arise, she could spend somewhere around three thousand on some form of sustenance to get her through the night. It would probably be tight, but she could make it work.
The menu above the snack bar listed several enticing options within her budget, but Katara found herself distracted from making a choice when the man behind the counter turned around to call out an order that was ready for pickup. Bright gold eyes, the scar, that inky hair which constantly seemed to be in need of being swept out of his line of sight…
“You decided to stay here,” he said to Katara, pushing the order of eggs towards the person waiting for them.
She was gawking. She knew she was. “What are you doing here?” The words tumbled forth before she could stop them.
“I’m working,” he said. “Is that not obvious?”
“You work here?”
“Tonight I do. What do you want?”
Katara glanced back at the menu. “Sikhye,” she said, selecting the first item that met her eye and sliding over the required amount of money.
“Okay.”
Chief Himura turned away and grabbed a bottle of the drink she’d requested and Katara, flustered by everything that had occurred throughout the day, couldn’t help herself.
“This is really annoying,” she said to him. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m thankful for your help, but why do you keep turning up everywhere I go?”
“Do you want anything else?” he said, passing her the sikhye. Another unanswered question.
“No.” Her stomach growled once again, louder than it had before in the hall.
Chief Himura’s eyebrows quirked up. “Are you sure about that?”
“I’m on a diet,” Katara lied.
And then she fled.
Her feet carried her through the sauna and up to the roof access door. There were ways to have prevented this. Sokka’s house had still been an option. She knew it. But she couldn’t stand the thought of turning up there reeking of fish guts and wearing public bathroom slippers. She would’ve had to explain how she ended up in Naamaruk in the first place, walked him through the trials of her day, and then put up with his gentle teasing and laughing.
And perhaps she could have gone to Gran Gran’s, but Katara had had the feeling that her grandmother would have gathered her into a big hug, stinky fish smell or not, and showered her with love that she didn’t think she’d be able to stand after all of the emotional hills and valleys of the day.
After all of it, what she really needed was to be alone.
Here on the roof, hundreds of stars scattered overhead, the moon rising in the sky, Katara felt a small thread of what she’d been looking for all day—a sense of connection with her mother. Kya had always loved the sea, especially at night. Despite everything that had happened to derail her life in the past two days, Katara found herself feeling somewhat grateful as she stared up at the shimmering stars overhead and listened to the dull roar of the water. Her mom would’ve been happy she’d come all this way just to feel something. She’d spent too many of these anniversaries attempting to not feel a thing.
A soft, sad smile touching her mouth, Katara raised her drink to the sky.
“Happy birthday, Mom.”
“Chief Himura! Chief Himura!”
Zuko, making his way down the front steps of the sauna, paused and raked a hand through his hair. Yugoda, small and arthritic, was hurrying his way through the dark, small steps attempting to make up for the stress he could tell she was putting on her body.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, alarmed. It wasn’t like her to be out wandering at night without someone for company.
“Oh, thank the spirits I’ve found you, Chief Himura. Hama was collecting her laundry off the line and she hurt herself quite terribly.” Yugoda tugged on his hand, attempting to pull him up the hill she’d just come down.
Her urgency raised Zuko’s alarm to its highest level, claxons ringing in the back of his mind. Hama had looked after him. Hama had fed him when he wouldn’t eat. After everyone in his family but Azula had gone, Hama was all he’d had left. Pulling Yugoda to a stop, he shook his head and gestured towards the parking lot.
“We’ll drive,” he said. “It’s faster.”
The injury wasn’t nearly as bad as he expected. Crouched next to Hama, Zuko pressed an ice pack to her sprained ankle as she bickered with Yugoda and Kanna about whether or not she should go to the hospital. Loving barbs of Why can’t you two leave well enough alone? and You’re a stingy old woman! Why don’t you use your money to take care of yourself? flew around his head and he couldn’t help but smile. The three of them were quite the group. If they weren’t hounding each other, they were chasing after him to make sure he was taking care of himself.
“It’s too cold,” Hama bickered, turning to him. “Are you trying to freeze an old woman to death?”
“Do you need a hug?” Zuko said with a teasing smile. “Maybe a few extra blankets?”
His ribbing was met with an affectionate noise of discontent that had Yugoda and Kanna cackling like a couple of school girls. Hama turned her annoyance back on them, bopping them both on their shoulders with a hand-stitched pillow.
“What are you still doing here? Don’t you have your own homes to go to? Out! Stop pestering me! My heart can’t take it.”
Grumbled, half-hearted protests fell from the other grandmas’ mouths and they waved dismissive hands in Hama’s direction as they gathered their things and shuffled out of her house. The door shut quietly behind them.
“You should be nicer to them,” Zuko chided gently.
“I’m exactly as nice to them as they deserve, two cranky old ladies like that.”
Readjusting the ice pack on Hama’s ankle, he sat back on his haunches. “Stay home and rest tonight. I’ll make sure to bring you a compression wrap in the morning so you can get around.”
“I don’t think so,” Hama snorted. “I’m going to go to the senior center with those two crazies and watch my soap operas.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Of course I can! I’m a grown woman. I can do as I please. You can’t tell me what to do, boy.”
Zuko sighed. She was a stubborn one, Hama. The moment he left her alone, she’d be hobbling her way down to the senior center. Come hell or high water, Hama was determined to do as she pleased. Without another thought, he wheeled around on the balls of his feet, offering her his back.
“At least let me take you.”
There were several long, silent moments before she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. With some effort, he carried her out of the house and down the hill on his back, slowly making his way towards the senior center. They could have gone in his truck, he supposed. But the evening was just warm enough that he knew his favorite village grandma wouldn’t want to be cooped up in the car. She’d want a full view of the stars on her journey. A glimpse of the moon rising over Naamaruk Harbor.
“Why are you so nice to me?” she queried in her aging voice.
Zuko couldn’t help but smile. “I’m returning the favor,” he said. “After Uncle passed away, you fed me and looked out for me. This is the least I can do for someone who was my family when I had none.”
“I couldn’t let a kid left all alone starve,” Hama grumbled. “It was no favor.”
“Still. Even when I'm done working for the day, I’ll always be here if you need me. No charge required. It’s what you and I do.”
And he carried her on towards her desired destination, grateful for the thousandth time for her persistent care.
Naamaruk was a village that woke early. Katara had been able to hear action on the streets an hour before sunrise as people set out about their days. Foghorns blew low and deep through the mid-spring morning. She’d lain there for a while, staring up at the ceiling and feeling somehow conflicted, filled with an existential discontent.
It had taken her until sunrise to brush the feeling away.
The walk back to her car was lengthy, requiring her to cross the harbor once more. The gutting decks were crowded. The fishermen were bringing in their daily hauls. And there, in the middle of it all, was the man called Chief Himura, heading up a fish auction, his voice raspy as it cut above the din of the docks. He nodded in her direction as she passed and, somehow, she wasn’t surprised to find him easily catching up to her a few minutes later.
“What’s your deal?” she asked for what felt like the hundredth time. “Are you a con artist or something?”
“I’m not a con artist,” he replied.
Katara nodded, though she didn’t quite believe him. A morning breeze swept past, dislodging some hair from her braid. She tucked the strands behind her ear. Glancing at the chief out of the corner of her eye, she saw that he was about to speak, but he was cut short by the sound of his ringing phone.
“Hello?” Whoever was speaking on the other end of the line said something that made him smile, dimples popping in both of his cheeks. His surly demeanor vanished, Katara found the sudden change rather arresting and had to force herself to look out across the water. “I’ll be there soon.”
Clearing her throat, Katara did her best not to look Chief Himura’s way as he hung up his phone. “Where can I find the repair shop?” she asked loudly as a way of distracting herself.
“Are you dense?” he replied.
She rolled her eyes. So much for sparing a moment on the thought that he might be more than a grumpy charlatan.
“There’s no need to be rude,” she said. “I know I’ve been a pain, but… Spirits!”
He sighed, but whatever he was about to say was once more cut off by a ringing phone—this one coming from her purse. Katara fished it out and turned away in order to answer.
“Doctor Amaguk?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Yes,” Katara said. “Yes. This is she.”
“Doctor, this is Mrs. Kim, your patient from the dental clinic the other day.”
Chief Himura dodged into her line of sight once more, waving his phone insistently in her face. Katara shooed him away, turning just a little more to get her point across. Wind swept down the harbor again, carrying the strong scent of fish. Katara turned in the other direction to escape the smell. As she did so, she found Chief Himura walking away. Seeming to sense her eyes on his back, he waved his phone through the air once again.
In that moment, the realization that her phone was working again dawned on her like a splash of South Pole seawater to the face. Mortifying as this whole experience had been, maybe he was right. Maybe she was a little dense.
“Doctor Amaguk?”
“Yes!” Katara said, refocusing on the conversation. “Yes, Mrs. Kim. I’m here. How can I help you?”
“I just wanted to call and say thank you for your help in referring me to another dental clinic. I’ll be able to have my procedure done at a much lower price than Doctor Pakku quoted me. It will be far less invasive, too.”
Heart swelling, Katara couldn’t help but smile. None of her patients in the city had ever called to thank her before and she couldn’t help but chalk this up to the woman’s small-town spirit.
“I’m so glad to hear that, Mrs. Kim,” she said. “I hope you feel better soon.”
“I’m sure I will,” Mrs. Kim said. “Thank you again, Doctor.”
As she hung up the call, Katara took one last sweeping glance across the water of Naamaruk Harbor. It was a shame about the smell. Otherwise, the place really wasn’t all that bad. Maybe, just maybe, she could see what Sokka saw in it.
She called her brother as she walked. Maybe he’d be willing to meet her and make sure that the repairman didn’t rip her off.
“Is there nothing I can do to get you to stay for a few days?” Sokka asked. “Even just a cup of coffee?”
He, Katara, and Tarkik stood off to the side as the mechanic finished the final touches on her tire’s required repair. The little boy was clinging to her hand as though she might drift off into the sky if he didn’t.
“I’ve had the coffee in this village, Sokka,” she said. “I’d really rather not.”
“Azula’s coffee doesn’t count. Everyone around here knows to order tea if they go to the Jasmine Dragon.” He paused for a moment, considering this. “Even then, you want the right person behind the counter. She’s not great at that either.”
Katara sighed. “Sokka, I have about thirty missed texts from Toph and my professional life is in shambles,” she said. “If I don’t head home today, my personal life might head in that direction, too.”
“What personal life? Katara, you work constantly and Toph is the only friend you have in Ba Sing Se that honestly cares about you. What kind of life is that?”
“Who are you to judge me? You live here.”
“I moved here because of family.”
“Our family is in Ba Sing Se,” she snapped.
“Gran Gran is here,” he bit back and the words boxed her into shamed silence. After a moment, he sighed and tried again. “I just miss you, that’s all. Had I known you were here and in trouble, we would have hurried home sooner. And… Y’know. It’s not all that bad here. You liked it when we were kids.”
“I liked it because of Mom.”
“You could still like it because of Mom. I know it’s part of the reason I do.”
The little hand wrapped around Katara’s squeezed. Sniffing back unexpected tears, she squeezed back and whispered, “I don’t want to talk about this right now, Sokka.”
“I wish you would. With someone. Even if that someone isn’t me or Dad.”
Katara shifted her weight from one hip to the other. “I talked to Dad yesterday,” she said. “He clearly didn’t know you were in the city. Why didn’t you tell either of us?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her brother’s cheeks redden. He raised a hand to his head, ruffling the ends of his wolf tail. The corner of his mouth twitched.
“Sokka?”
“We were waiting to tell people about Suki until the doctor was confident,” he said. Leaning around Katara, he took a glance at his son who was preoccupied with picking something out of his teeth. Then, he leaned in close and whispered. “T doesn’t know yet. Suki’s expecting.”
The news knocked the breath out of her and she turned to her brother with bright eyes. There was a smile so like their father’s stretched across his face that it made her heart ache.
“We took Gran Gran as a surprise. She’s over the moon.”
“Sokka, that’s—!”
He delivered a jab of his elbow to her side, muttering, “T doesn’t know.”
Katara glanced down at Tarkik who was now picking his nose.
“He was so excited to see you yesterday,” Sokka continued. He walked over to inspect Katara’s repaired tire as the mechanic stepped away. “Wouldn’t stop talking about it. Even came into our room and woke us up in the middle of the night to tell us the story again. He’d like to see you more often, you know. We all would.”
“Sokka…”
“I know you’re busy, but maybe you could give us a weekend every now and then.” Seemingly satisfied with the repair job, he turned back to his sister and shoved his hands in his pockets. “There’ll be one more reason to come around soon.”
A tremulous smile touched her face. “I can’t make any promises until I get my life straightened out,” she said. “But I’d like that.”
It had been a long time since daily life in Naamaruk had been interrupted by something out of the ordinary. Zuko was used to fulfilling his jobs and taking time off when he felt like it. He knew the locals well and could predict what would happen in the little village on a regular basis. At any moment, Ty Lee would come breezing into the Jasmine Dragon for a cup of tea. She’d pester him for the story of what had happened with the woman from the city and impart any other gossip she’d ferreted away.
Azula would show up a few minutes later, ready to take over the cafe after having walked Kiyi to school. She would pretend to be annoyed by Ty Lee’s gossip and then proceed to make Zuko a truly abysmal cup of plain black tea before shoving him out the door.
He’d go about his day, moving from one job to the other. There would be the necessary small talk, lunch at Ty Lee’s, a routine check on his favorite village grannies, and just enough time somewhere in the middle of it all to work on the boat.
There’d be no strange woman pestering him for help or complaining as she followed him about and he almost thought he’d miss her.
“Why are you smiling?” Ty Lee’s voice asked.
Zuko looked up from the pot of tea he’d been brewing for her and scowled. He hadn’t even heard her come into the shop. “I’m not smiling,” he said.
“You were,” she replied, “until I pointed it out.”
“I doubt it.” Gesturing towards the small collection of bills on the counter, he changed the topic. “There’s four thousand silver there. It’s for you.”
“What’s it for?”
“It’s from that woman from yesterday. The one who couldn’t pay you.”
Ty Lee gave a snobby little sniff. “At least she paid,” she said. “But I’m still not convinced that purse was real.”
“I bet it was,” Zuko said without thinking.
“How would you know?”
“I don’t know.” He could feel his face heating. “It’s just a guess.”
“First a smile and now you’re blushing?” Ty Lee reached for the cup of tea he passed her. “What’s going on with you, Zuko?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is just my face.”
“Uh huh. Sure.” He could see the glimmer of suspicion in her grey eyes and knew the color in his cheeks was intensifying. Thankfully, she changed the subject instead. “I heard the Amaguks took Kanna with them into the city yesterday. Any idea what that was about?”
And so, it seemed, life in Naamaruk was back to normal.
Halfway home. Halfway. Katara breathed in a deep breath of relief and couldn’t help but smile as the greenery of the mainland flashed past her. There were a lot of pieces to pick up, but it wouldn’t be all that bad. Pakku was only one man and there were any number of dental clinics in Ba Sing Se that would be happy to have her on staff. Her resume was impeccable, she’d been in the top of her class, and her list of patients had been hefty. There was no doubt in her mind that many would be willing to follow her wherever she went. It would be a blow to Pakku and a boon to anyone who would take a chance on her.
Strangely enough, there was a nugget of regret in her soul that seemed to grow larger the further away she drove from Naamaruk. Sokka and Suki were expecting a baby, Tarkik had apparently been delighted to see her, and Gran Gran was there. It had been a long time since Katara had seen her grandmother and she knew, guilt pooling in her stomach, that it was something she should do more often. Gran Gran was getting old.
Maybe a weekend with Sokka every month or two wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe there would be enough good things to drown out the bad memories.
The peaceful silence of her drive was interrupted by an abrupt call, Pakku’s name popping up on the screen of Katara’s phone. The sight of it alone was enough to spark a little flame of anger in her heart. For a moment, she debated not answering, but instinct told her that she should.
“Pakku,” she growled upon answering the call.
“Is that any way to address your superior?”
“Why are you calling me?”
“Now that you’ve had a couple of days to think it over,” he said, “I thought I might give you the chance to apologize and return to the clinic.”
“Apologize?” Katara repeated, incredulous. The flame exploded into an inferno without warning. “Are you kidding me? Why would I work for you again? You specialize in ripping off patients! I would much rather take this opportunity I’ve been given to finally run my own clinic!”
“If you think—”
Furious, she hung up the call and pulled a rather dangerous U-turn in the middle of the highway, heading back in the direction in which her day had started without another thought. Impulse and rage fueled the hour-long drive back into that little Water Tribe village. Opportunity was there, the chance to flout Pakku’s idiocy in his face and open her own dental clinic even earlier than she’d originally planned. The discomfort of her old memories of Naamaruk would fade in time, she was sure, washed away by all of the good things that could be found there instead.
Azula was watering plants outside of the Jasmine Dragon when Katara stormed up with thunder in her eyes and her mouth set in a determined line. The only admission of surprise the golden-eyed woman allowed to cross her face was the gentle flick of one eyebrow upward.
“Nobody around here expected to see you again,” she said.
“You told me that you could recommend a good location for a dental clinic,” Katara replied without preamble, pulling one of her business cards from her purse. “Everyone here seems to think I’m insane or a fraud, so… Here. Proof.”
The other woman reached down to turn off the spigot and then took the card from Katara. She looked it over with critical eyes.
“I expect you’ll be needing a place to live, too.”
A place to live. In Naamaruk. She’d be giving up everything. Her sleek, modern apartment in an exclusive high rise. Quality coffee. A bustling social life. All that she’d worked for exchanged for…this. Katara swallowed hard.
“Yes,” she said.
Azula pocketed the card, swapping it out for her phone. “I know a realtor who can help you,” she said. “I can’t walk you over there because I need to be here at the cafe, but I’ll make sure he knows you’re coming.”
“He?” Katara asked. An inexplicable sinking feeling hit her stomach.
The question went unanswered. “Keep heading up the street here and you’ll come to a trail that leads up the hill,” Azula said instead. “Don’t deviate. There’s a boat at the top of the hill—”
“A boat?”
“That’s what I said. There’s a boat. He'll be there, expecting you.”
“You can’t…?” Katara gestured rather helplessly towards the hill.
“I have a business to run.”
“Right.”
“You’ll get a good deal.”
Turning the spigot back on, Azula went back to watering the various plants that littered the sidewalk outside of her cafe. She spared Katara no further attention and said nothing else. Feeling dismissed, the brunette turned towards the hill, suspicion creeping up her spine.
“It’s nothing,” she muttered to herself as she walked, pavement giving way to a dirt path, buildings fading into greenery. “The realtor could be anyone. And even if it is him… But it’s not! Because that would be preposterous.”
On she walked, soaking up the late morning sun and breathing deep, relishing the sweetness of the air. Pollution in the city was too prevalent for the air to ever be this fresh. Morning runs here might actually be more enjoyable, provided she avoided the docks and gutting decks. The landscape was wild, too. Imperfect. And, though she loved the manicured parks and gardens in Ba Sing Se, Katara found that there was a certain comfort in the natural growth of the island. It felt as if the people who lived there lived in harmony with the world as opposed to forcing it to fit their ideals.
There was a boat at the top of the hill; Azula hadn’t lied. It was old and weather-beaten. The paint was faded and peeling, but it looked as though someone was trying to fix it up. Tool boxes scattered the deck. Someone was hammering something near the prow.
“Hello?” Katara called over the sound. “I’m looking for a realtor? I was sent by Azula at the Jasmine Dragon. She said you might be able to help me and that I could find you here.”
Divergences in life were common. Katara had often found herself presented with fifty-fifty choices, one path or the other. There had been some tough decisions and some more frivolous. For a long time, Katara had grappled with decision paralysis, rationalizing first one option and then the other until it was nearly impossible to choose. And then, one day, Sokka had flipped a coin in the air, telling her that she’d know what she was hoping for as it spun heads over tails. Where the coin landed, he’s said, wasn’t important. It was about the ability to be honest with herself about what she truly wanted.
It had been a long time since she needed to flip a coin. As she stood there next to the boat, waiting for the mysterious realtor to make an appearance, however, a nervous part of her desperately wished she could fish a coin out of her purse and flip it without looking insane. Did she hope it was him? Or did she not? He was surly and peculiar, and he seemed to trigger the worst in her. And yet…
The hammering stopped and Katara’s heart crammed itself into her esophagus. A work boot appeared, followed by a denim-covered leg, and then the rest of him. He raked his dark hair away from his eyes and stared at her.
Katara nearly laughed, just managing to smother the sound into a disbelieving huff. “You're the realtor,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
In response, he tugged an I.D. card free from his pocket and held it out to her. His name, Zuko Himura, and his photograph were accompanied by his real estate credentials.
“What’s your deal?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, tossing the hammer into a toolbox aboard the boat and repocketing the I.D.
“Who are you?” Katara said. “What do you really do?”
He shrugged, arms folded over his chest. “I’m Chief Himura,” he said as if it answered her question.