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Chapter Text

It was an old legend, that the one the spirits led you to was the other half of your soul. In the old tales, there were countless couples who followed the spirits' guidance and were united with the one who would complete them. Warriors grew stronger, braver, and mothers grew mothers kinder, wiser, with the strength of their bond, with their soul completed by the other. 

In many places, these were considered only legends, but the Southern Water Tribe kept their traditions alive, requesting guidance from the spirits as each member of the tribe reached sixteen, asking to be shown the path to true peace and happiness. 

Sokka was approaching his eighth birthday, and had already decided he'd had enough spiritual mumbo jumbo to last a lifetime. 

He already had to deal with his little sister discovering her affinity for magic water, making roughhousing with her increasingly dangerous, and didn't want any spirits sending him on epic quests to find his one true love, thanks. He'd decided he would refuse outright to participate in the ceremony. Sixteen was lifetimes away, anyway, he thought. Probably as old as Gran-Gran even. 

He never even imagined the spirits would seek him out personally. 

---

It was a bright summer night, a thick pelt draped at the entrance of the igloo to keep the rays of the low-hanging sun at bay, and Sokka was wrapped comfortably in his thick, cozy bedroll. Across the room, their mother sang Katara a familiar lullaby, stroking her hair and coaxing her into a restful sleep. 

His dream started out normally enough. He was leading an army of penguins against a ferocious arctic leopard that was threatening the village. Sokka brandished a spear, shouting bravely. The leopard looked terrified, bounding away from the mighty warrior and his honking army in fear. Feeling triumphant, he stuck his spear into the snow and stood tall. Turning to return to the village, he saw only an empty expanse of arctic tundra, his penguin army mysteriously gone. Behind him, he heard a heavy huff, some large animal approaching him from behind. Frightened that the arctic leopard had returned, he reached for his abandoned spear. 

His hand swiped through empty air. 

He turned slowly, warm courage replaced by chilly fear, to face the creature that stood behind him. He froze, staring, confused. 

It was no creature he'd ever seen before, or even had heard about in tales. It rose tall above him, and he had to tilt his head all the way back to see its head. It had eight long, thin, hooved legs. Long, golden fur drifted in the light winds. Atop its graceful head sprouted huge, sprawling antlers, meeting in the middle to form a bony halo. From the topmost points grew several soft, brilliant green leaves, the likes of which were terrifically rare here on the south pole. 

As Sokka stared, the creature turned slowly, graceful despite its many legs, and paced away from the boy. Uncertain, Sokka continued to watch it, feeling frozen in place, until it turned its horned head back to face him, huge green eyes looking directly into his own, and nodded in a gesture Sokka understood as 'follow me'. 

The young tribesman scrambled to obey, working his short legs overtime to catch up to the loping creature. 

As they walked, the land beneath them went through a rapid transformation. After the snow came the sea, then golden beaches, then lush trees, and finally, the bare, rocky earth surrounding a volcano. The creature looked back at him, huffing and puffing at the difficulty of keeping up with its long strides, and the scene changed one last time. 

Walls appeared around him, dark and foreboding, draped with tapestries of reds and golds. In the center of the room sat an absolutely enormous bed. Clutching the thin, shiny sheets to himself, huddled near the headboard of a bed far too big for him, cowered a boy roughly Sokka's own age, with hair dark as the pitch used for the fishing boats, and eyes golden as a warm sunrise. 

"Who are you?! How did you get in here?! Guards! Guards!" The boy suddenly began shouting. 

Sokka, panicked, waved his hands furiously. "Wait, wait! Don't yell!" 

"Why shouldn't I? You suddenly show up out of nowhere and expect me to trust you?" 

The boy had a point, Sokka realized. He'd have to actually explain. Unfortunately, he didn't really know what was happening himself. "A big deer thing brought me here!" He tried to explain.

"A deer? That doesn't make any sense! Guards!" The boy yelled again. He seemed frustrated when no one answered his call. "Ugh. Did Azula put you up to this? Is that why the guards are ignoring me?" 

Sokka frowned, crossing his arms. "I don't know who that is!"

"Oh." The boy's shoulders fell from their tense position, relaxing as he realized Sokka wasn't doing anything bad. "Azula is my little sister. She likes to pull really mean pranks on me." The boy explained. 

Sokka brightened. "I have a little sister, too! Her name is Katara. We pull pranks on each other all the time! Well..." Sokka frowned again, remembering Katara's new skill. "Since she learned to play with magic water, it's mostly just been me getting buried in the snow." 

"The snow?" The boy titled his head, confused. "I've never seen snow before. It's cold, right? Is that why you're dressed like that?" 

Sokka looked down at himself, still wearing his warm coat. He nodded. 

"Oh." The boy said again. His eyebrows scrunched up. "Aren't you hot now, though? It's too warm for those kinds of clothes tonight." 

A swift shake of his head sent Sokka's wolftail swinging back and forth. "I don't feel hot at all! I think this is a dream." 

"A dream? Why would I be dreaming about you? I've never seen anyone like you before." 

"No, no, it's my dream! I'm the one dreaming about you!"

"What? That doesn't make any sense. How could you be dreaming me? I'm a real person!" 

Sokka crossed his arms and huffed. "If you're a real person, what's your name?" 

"Zuko." 

"See!" Sokka stomped. "That's not a real person's name! That sounds made up!" 

"Oh, yeah? Well then, what's your name?" 

"I'm Sokka!"

The boy huffed, slamming his fists down on his shiny red blanket. "Your name is the one that sounds fake! No one is named 'Sock-a'!"

The two boys glared at one another, both pouting stubbornly. Suddenly, the walls began to fade around them. 

"Wait!" Sokka shouted in a panic. "I don't wanna go yet! I wanna talk to my new friend!" 

"Where are you going?" The boy's- no- Zuko's voice already sounded further away. "Sokka! Where are you going?!" 

And then he was gone. Sokka stood before the huge creature that had shown him here once more, the huge bedroom long gone. 

"I wasn't ready yet! I wanna go back!" He pleaded with it. 

The creature did not reply. It turned slowly, gracefully, and began to lead the way. Sokka, stubborn, did not follow it, but as it grew further and further away, he realized that he didn't know how to get home. Scrambling, he dashed after it. 

The land shifted beneath them again, in the opposite direction. Sokka was relieved to feel snow beneath his boots once more, knowing home was just around the corner. He grinned up at the enormous creature. It watched him solemnly, green eyes staring. 

"Thanks for everything! What's your name?" He asked. The creature merely continued walking, fading from view. "Aww..." Pouting down at the snow, he barely felt someone shake his shoulder. A second, more firm shake got his attention. He swung his head around, seeing no one nearby. 

"Sokka! Wake up!" His mother's voice called. 

"Mom?" He responded, confused. 

"Yes, Sokka. It's time to wake up." 

"I don't wanna..." Sokka suddenly felt tired, like all he wanted to do was curl up in the nearest snowdrift and fall asleep. 

"You do if you want breakfast. Come on, let's get moving. Up, up!" 

Sokka opened his eyes, eyebrows scrunched tight, to see sunlight streaming into the igloo, the pelt over the entrance pulled back. His mother hovered nearby, gently shaking him by the shoulder. She laughed. 

"I knew that would work! Get up, Sokka, before the food gets cold!" 

Sokka scrambled to obey. The igloo was full of the smells of breakfast, and already his stomach gave an excited grumble. Katara was rubbing her eyes, holding a bowl, and yawned widely in the middle of trying to say 'good morning' to him. 

There was someone missing. "Where's dad?" Sokka asked, looking around for clues. 

"He went fishing early this morning. He'll be back soon." Their mother assured him. Sokka nodded, accepting the explanation, and filled a bowl for himself. 

By the end of the meal, he'd nearly forgotten about the dream. 

It was Katara who reminded him. She began to chatter about her own dream, their mother listening intently as she recounted the fantastical events. Sokka began to tune her out when he realized it was all about waterbending. She talked excitedly about controlling the oceans, moving glaciers, and building palaces out of snow. 

"Do you think I could really do all that, Mom?" Katara asked. 

"Maybe someday, Katara. I'm sure you'll be so good at it someday. You're very smart and talented, after all." 

Katara beamed. Sokka frowned, a dark feeling stirring in his heart that he couldn't put a name to. 

"I had a weird dream, too." He piped up. 

"Oh, really?" 

"Yeah!" 

"Well, tell us about it!" Their mother prompted. Sokka was happy to oblige. 

"It all started out with me being super brave and protecting the town from this big ol' arctic leopard..." 

Sokka spun his tale, using the full length of his arms to gesture. He described the creature he saw, and how, strangely, he knew it wanted him to follow it. 

"Oh, Sokka!" His mother looked surprised. "That was a spirit, Sokka. What did it show you?"

Sokka scrunched up his nose. He was much less excited about his dream knowing it was spirit mumbo jumbo , but he didn't let it stop him. 

He told her about the land changing, like it was showing him a place really far away. He told her about the huge bedroom, and the boy he met. 

His excitement grew again, telling her about his new friend. He was a little confused about how she looked worried, instead of excited, but kept going anyway. It wasn't until he mentioned the boy's pretty golden eyes, bright like the sun, and she looked downright terrified, that he stopped telling the story. 

His mother cleared her throat. "Was that- was that it? Did you wake up after that?" 

Sokka nodded. He didn't think it was a bad dream, but his mom looked so scared... 

"My dream was way more exciting!" Katara pouted. Sokka hunched his shoulders. 

"Yeah... I guess it was." 

Sokka didn't tell their father about the dream when he came home.

---

The next morning, Katara was kicking up a fuss. 

"I wanna meet my soulmate, too!" She pouted. 

"You're too young, Katara." Their mother tried to explain. "You'll get to meet them when you're older, sweetheart, I swear it."

"But Sokka got to meet his!" Katara argued. "And he's not that much bigger than me!" 

Sokka scrunched his nose in confusion. "No, I didn't! I don't even believe in that stuff!" 

"I heard Mom telling Dad that you did! She said that boy you met was your soulmate! And it's not fair!" 

"That doesn't even make sense! Why would my soulmate be a boy?" Sokka huffed, crossing his arms. "My soulmate's supposed to be my future wife, right? My wife can't be a boy!" 

"Well..." Their mother began. Both children stopped bickering long enough to listen. "Your soulmate is someone who will make you very, very happy, who will complete you in a way no one else can. Whether that person is a girl or a boy makes no difference to the spirits, Sokka."

"Oh." Sokka tilted his head, considering this new information. "So, my soulmate can be a boy?" 

"That's right." 

"And Katara's could be a girl?" 

"No!" Katara shouted. "My soulmate's gonna be the strongest warrior of all time, like in the stories!" 

"Katara's soulmate could be a girl, yes." Their mother cut in, stroking Katara's thick hair to calm her. "And we'll all find out together when she's older. "

"But mooooom!" Katara whined. 

Sokka watched his sister argue with his mother, thinking hard about what he'd learned. There was still something he didn't understand. "Why do you think he's my soulmate? It was just a dream, right? Don't you have to do some sort of... ritual stuff? To ask the spirits for guidance? That's what the stories always say, right?" 

Katara stopped whining, blue eyes wide, also curious for the answer. Their mother was quiet for a long moment, thinking over her words carefully. 

"Sometimes, the spirits have very important things to show us. The ritual that we do makes it easier for us to ask for their guidance, but sometimes they... offer it freely, instead. Does that make sense?" 

Sokka nodded. Spirit stuff never made sense to him, but his mother was very good at explaining things to him. 

"What you told me about your dream was just like what I saw when the spirits introduced me to your father, and the same as what other members of our tribe have seen when they receive guidance, as well. It's not always the same spirit, but the journey is the same. For you to talk to someone you've never met in your dreams... that means the spirits wanted you to meet him. He wasn't just a part of your dream. He's a real person that lives... somewhere far, far away." 

Sokka pouted, kicking at the floor. Why did weird magic stuff always find him? 

Katara was getting grumpy again. "It's not fair! It's not! Sokka didn't have to wait until he's all big! I'm just as big as him! It's not fair! I wanna meet the big deer spirit and see my soulmate, too! I wanna, I wanna, I wanna!" She whined. 

Their mother sighed. "It's very dangerous, Katara. The herbs they use to put you to sleep so you can meet the spirits are made for big bodies. You could get hurt, sweetheart." 

"I don't care! I'm strong!" Katara lifted her arms like she was showing muscles, even though she was wrapped snugly in a thick coat. "I can even waterbend! Nothing can hurt me!" 

Their mother laughed, scooping the girl into her arms and swinging her around. "You are very strong, Katara! Tell you what, I'll ask the elders and see what they say."

"Yay!" Katara cheered. "I get to meet my soulmate!" 

"But remember," Their mother said, sternly. "If they say no, you have to respect that. Okay? What the elders say goes, even if you don't like it. You have to respect them."

"Okay..." Katara pouted, deflating. Their mother smiled, softly. 

"I'm sure they won't say no to a strong little girl like you, though. My brave little Katara." 

---

The elders did say no, however. Katara whined and pouted, shouting that she was big enough, strong enough, that anything her brother could do, she could, too. Their mother scolded her, reminding her that she'd promised to respect the elders' decision. Gran-Gran frowned, pity in her eyes, and told their mother she would try to get them to reconsider, disappearing back into the tent. 

Katara had stopped yelling and started sobbing while their grandmother was gone. Sokka stood by uncomfortably, knowing he'd started all of this, even on accident. He might like to mess with her, but he still hated to see Katara cry. 

Finally, Gran-Gran returned, flanked by another of the elders, She smiled gently at Katara as the old man explained that they'd reconsidered, and would prepare the guidance ritual right away. He explained to their mother that they would be using as little of the herbs as they could, taking into account the girl's small body, and that the ritual may still be dangerous or may not work at all. He asked if she was sure, and their mother nodded her head.

"I trust your wisdom and expertise. I know you'll keep my daughter safe." 

---

They took some time to prepare, and it was several tense days before they came to tell the family the ritual was ready. Their mother squeezed their father's hand tightly, seeking reassurance, before scooping Katara up. 

"Sokka, you stay here with your father."

"Aww, I wanted to come see..." He pouted. 

His mother smiled, but he could see worry still in her eyes. "Don't worry, we'll tell you everything when it's done. Have patience, okay?" 

Sokka nodded. His mother crouched down to plant a reassuring kiss on his forehead. 

"We'll be back soon." 

And then they were gone. 

Sokka waited restlessly, carving fish hooks with a small knife. They were terrible, his knife unsteady with worry, His father came over, seeing him nick a finger again, and placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. 

"Come on, son. Let's leave the hooks for now, okay?"

"Okay..." 

He let his father take away the mangled hooks and bloodied knife. He carefully bandaged the small cuts now littering the boy's small hands, one after another, and Sokka felt the shaking in them subside. All finished, his father firmly patted him on the shoulder, smiling warmly. 

"How's that? All better?" 

Sokka nodded, paused, then shook his head. "I'm still worried about Katara... they said it might be dangerous. I'm her big brother, I'm supposed to protect her. I can't do that if they won't let me go." 

His father grinned. "Well, they wouldn't let me go, either. Guess we're both a couple of useless lumps, huh?" 

Sokka laughed with him. His father's smile turned sad. 

"This isn't the kind of danger we can fight off with clubs or boomerangs, Sokka. Sometimes, people need protecting of another kind. This is a good opportunity to learn a different kind of strength." He explained. 

Sokka scrunched his eyebrows together, not quite understanding. "A different kind of strength? What does that mean?" 

His father gripped his shoulder with a strong hand, putting comfortable pressure on it. "Sometimes, patience can protect people, from all the chaos in the world. Sometimes, understanding can protect people, from their own fear and doubt. Sometimes, compassion can protect people, from all the meanness and ugliness that's out there." 

Meanness and ugliness, huh? "Like the Fire Nation?" Sokka asked. 

His father winced. Sokka didn't know why. "Yeah, Sokka. Like the Fire Nation."

Sokka grinned. "But I can fight the Fire Nation just fine with clubs and boomerangs, right?! I'm gonna beat them up so good!" 

His father laughed, a bit strained. "Someday, sure. But until then, you can use other kinds of strength to help people who need it. Your sister will need your strength when she gets back, I'm sure." 

As though summoned by his words, their mother burst through the entrance at that moment, clutching a shivering Katara in her arms. 

"Kya? What happened?" Their father rushed over, taking Katara from their mother. Sokka caught a glimpse of her face, eyes closed, lips blue, shivering hard, before she was tucked gently into their father's embrace. 

Sokka was reminded grimly of another child from their village, who had looked just like that when he was rescued from falling through the ice into the freezing water below. Sokka tried not to think about the funeral they'd had to hold for him. 

"Something awful happened during the ritual… oh, Hakoda, I knew i shouldn't have let her do it! This is all my fault!" 

Their father pulled her into his embrace as well, Katara wrapped snugly between the two of them. "No, shh, shh, Kya. It's not your fault. You couldn't have known this would happen. You know Katara, she's stubborn. Just like her dad, huh?" He grinned, the expression obviously strained. 

Sokka hunched in on himself. If it was anyone's fault, it was his. He was the one who got Katara hung up on the idea of meeting her soulmate, after all. Telling them about it had only hurt them. 

And now, his sister was suffering because of him.

Their mother was sobbing into their father's shoulder now, petting desperately at Katara's hair. The small girl still shivered violently, and they took some small solace in the clear evidence that she clung to life. 

"Kya, take a deep breath. What can we do to help her?" Their father said, his tone steady. 

Their mother took several shaky breaths, still too fast, but the panic began to melt from her eyes. 

"They said she just needs to be warmed up, like she has hypothermia. They said it didn't seem to be the effects of the herbs, just some unnatural coldness."

Their father nodded. "Then let's stoke the fire some, get it warmer in here, and then we'll all share our body heat with her. Okay?" 

A few more shaky breaths, followed by a sharp nod. "Yes… yes."

"Sokka?" The boy snapped to attention at his father's voice. "Go grab the kettle and put it on the fire. We'll need to make her drink some warm tea when she wakes up."

Sokka nodded furiously, following instructions. As he finished his task, he joined his parents on the pile of furs and blankets their father had gathered, helping to wrap Katara up in as much heat as possible. He held back his own tears, wanting to be as strong as his dad was being. Strong in a different way…

---

It took a long time for Katara to wake up. The kettle whistled, Sokka followed instructions to make the hot water into tea, and the tea had time to cool from boiling hot to drinkably warm before she stirred. 

"Mom? Dad?" Her small, confused voice shattered the tense silence. 

Three sighs of relief rang out in unison, the whole family rushing to check on her condition.

Katara coughed and shivered a little, far more gently now. Sokka helped her drink the warm tea. 

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" Their mother asked, voice soft, brushing hair from her daughter's face. 

"M'cold…" Katara complained, voice weak and grainy. 

"I know, honey, I know. We're trying to fix that. Drink your tea, okay? It'll help."

Katara complied quietly, obedient in her exhaustion. She finished the cup, letting Sokka pour her another, before she spoke again. 

"What happened? Did I get to meet my soulmate?"

Their mother looked troubled. "We tried, sweetheart, we tried. You went to sleep and began your journey, but you were suddenly so cold… what do you remember from your dream?"

Katara frowned, thinking hard. "I remember… I was out on the ice, and a big animal, like… like a buffalo? It led me out into the water. I followed it out for a while but then… it was really, really cold and really, really dark and I got really, really scared and-" Tears began to well up and spill over, Katara suddenly overwhelmed by the memory. Two sets of hands rubbed calming circles on her back and arms, as both their parents rushed to comfort her. 

"Oh, honey… We were so scared, so worried for you. But you're safe now, okay? Safe and warm back home."

Katara sniffled, sobs subsiding. "I still didn't get to meet him… it's not fair…" 

Their mother hid an amused smile. All of this and Katara could still only think about her potential soulmate… stubborn girl. "Don't worry, you will. Someday. The spirits just weren't ready to show you yet, Katara. They will, though, they will. But later." 

Katara wiped her eyes, still frowning, but didn't argue. "Okay." She said, pout obvious in her voice. 

"Okay." Their mother scooped her into a tight hug, then returned them to their comfortable lying position under the blankets, Sokka and their father joining them quickly. "Let's get some more rest, Katara. I'm sure you're very tired still."

The girl yawned widely. "No, I'm not… I wanna go play…" She mumbled, sleep slurring her words already. 

Their parents shared a fond smile, letting her heavy eyelids do the convincing for them. 

The family, warm, safe, and reassured, relaxed into the comforting embrace of one another.

---

The giant deer creature was waiting for Sokka in his dream. 

He stomped a foot. "Hey! Your friend hurt my sister! What's the deal?!" He shouted up at it. 

Silent, as always, it turned to lead him away. He hesitated, for a moment, afraid he might end up frozen like Katara, but followed anyway. 

As before, the spirit led him to the enormous bedroom, Zuko tucked into the fancy, sprawling sheets. 

Sokka tiptoed over, peeking at Zuko's sleeping face. As he approached, the other boy's eyebrows scrunched up and he huffed. 

"I know you're there." He said, not opening his eyes. 

Sokka retreated. "Hi." He said simply. 

Zuko grumbled, tossing his blanket aside and sitting on the edge of the bed. He patted the mattress next to him, showing Sokka where to sit. 

"You're back." He said as Sokka settled in beside him. 

"Yep." 

"The deer thing again?" 

"It's a spirit, not a deer!" Sokka argued. "...I think." He appended in a more subdued tone.

"Deer spirit thing, then." Zuko huffed a small laugh. Sokka couldn't help but giggle with him. Zuko tilted his head curiously. "Why does it bring you here, though?" 

Sokka picked at his nails, kicking his dangling feet. "Mom said it was a soulmate thing. That spirits show you to people that are supposed to make you happy." 

Zuko flushed a little, turning his face away. "Aren't boys' soulmates supposed to be girls, though?" He squeaked out. 

"That's what I said!" Sokka threw his hands up dramatically, flopping back on Zuko's enormous bed. "Besides, how is meeting you supposed to make me happy when only bad stuff has happened since then?!"

Zuko looked a little guilty. "What kind of bad stuff?" 

Sokka frowned, regretting the way he said it. He didn't mean to make it sound like he was blaming Zuko. 

He sat back up. "When I told my mom about my dream, she looked really happy until I told her about you. She looked at me all scared the rest of the day." He lifted his knees up, hugging them tightly. "She said it's normal for boys to have boy soulmates sometimes, but I don't think she meant it. She looked extra upset when I told her how pretty your eyes are."

Zuko flushed bright red, blending into his room's decor. "You said my eyes are pretty?!" 

Sokka tilted his head. "Yeah. They're really pretty. I've never seen gold eyes before." He admitted, wondering what the big deal was. Zuko couldn't meet his eyes now. 

"...Thanks, I guess? I've never seen blue eyes, either." He cleared his throat, hesitating. "Your… your eyes are pretty, too." 

Sokka scrunched his eyebrows up. As far as he was concerned, his eyes were just normal. 

"What else happened?"

"What?" The sudden change in topic took Sokka by surprise.

"You said lots of bad stuff happened after you met me. What else happened?"

"Oh." Sokka squeezed his fists shut, hesitating. "My sister, Katara, I told you about?" Zuko nodded. "She was really jealous I got to meet you. She wanted to meet her soulmate, too, even though I told her you weren't my soulmate or anything. She made the elders do the guidance ritual for her, even though she's too little."

"Guidance ritual?" Zuko cut in. 

"Yeah, where the elders make you sleep and get the spirits to show you your soulmate?" 

Zuko still looked confused. 

"Do you… not do that? Where you're from?" Sokka realized he didn't actually know where he was, where the boy lived. He must be some kind of fancy noble, right? They didn't have those on the south pole.

Zuko shook his head in response. "We don't really… talk about soulmate stuff here. I only know what my mom told me. Does everyone get to meet their soulmate, then?"

Sokka nodded. "If you want to. When you get big. I wasn't gonna, but then… I didn't really get a choice."

"Oh." The other boy looked like he was mulling the new information over. "So, did she get to meet her soulmate, then?"

Sokka shook his head. "She got super cold suddenly, like she was frozen. Nobody knew what was happening."

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah. We know how to help people who are frozen. It happens a lot when you live on lots of ice." 

"That's… that's good then. I'm glad your sister's okay."

"Me too."

Both boys got quiet, lost in thought. 

"Did you tell your family? About me?" Sokka finally asked after a long pause. 

Zuko shook his head. "I don't want Dad or Azula finding out. I know something really bad would happen if I did." He curled in on himself, looking defeated. Sokka was desperately curious about Zuko's words, but knowing better than to ask a lot of questions when someone looked so sad. He went back to kicking his feet. 

---

He was still thinking about his conversation with Zuko when he woke up the next day. 

Katara was up and about, running around happily like she hadn't nearly died the day before. The only sign that yesterday wasn't a dream was Katara's unusual clumsiness, like her feet weren't where she wanted them to be. She tripped yet again, nearly falling face-first to the ground, but their father neatly scooped her up, laughing off the accident easily. 

Sokka wondered what kind of dad a kid would be so scared of. 

---

The spirit didn't come again for a long time. 

At first, Sokka missed the boy, having no friends his own age (besides his sister, but sisters don't count). But over time, a young mind finds many things sliding away, and Sokka nearly forgot all about the strange boy with the big bedroom in a foreign land. 

Katara, likewise, had allowed all the soulmate business to slip her mind, moving on to more important things, like penguin sledding. 

The day everything changed started out so normal. He and Katara played in the snow, carefree as ever, not knowing what was coming. 

When the snow started to fall, black with soot, and the warriors prepared for battle, he wasn't ready for it. He and Katara split off, her going in search of their mother, him joining the older warriors, armed with a boomerang too big for his small arms. 

He tripped and stumbled in the snow, short legs working hard to catch up with the speed of the adults. The warriors were already clashing with armored soldiers when he managed to make it. He aimed his boomerang carefully, its weight still awkward to him, despite his father's patient lessons, and let it fly. It flopped uselessly into the snow and he pouted in disappointment. 

One of the warriors tossed a soldier in his direction, the armored man crashing into the packed-snow wall below. Eager to help the warriors, Sokka bundled up the biggest snowball he could and smashed it onto the soldier's exposed back. The warrior swung to glare at him, scrambling to his feet, but lost his stance as he realized his opponent was nine years old. 

Sokka likewise lost his gumption, looking at the man's eyes. He was suddenly, sharply reminded of the only other person he'd ever seen with eyes the same golden color. 

The soldier broke eye contact with him, returning to fight the adults, and Sokka realized he'd lost the opportunity for a surprise attack. He bundled up another snowball, selecting a new target, but the ball fell out of his hand without finding one. 

Beneath the red and black helmets, it was hard to see what colors their eyes were. That gold, though, now that he was looking for it, shone from several soldiers' angry faces. One, two, three… not many of them, but he'd never seen anybody before that had shared his eye color.

Feeling a deep cold settle into his gut, Sokka realized why his mother had looked so scared when he'd told her about him.

He felt sick. 

The soldiers suddenly turned tail, retreating into their ships. Sokka couldn't find it in himself to be excited, or even relieved. Several of the warriors lay, wounded, hurriedly patching themselves and each other up as best they could, watching the ships depart suspiciously. 

Sokka's father rushed over to him from the thick of the battlefield, blood seeping into the sleeves of his coat. 

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" He asked, checking the boy over for injuries. Sokka allowed it, limply. His heart felt strangely empty, his stomach still twisty and cold.

"M'fine…"

"Where's your sister? Where's Katara?"

"She went to find Mom…" Sokka mumbled. His father rushed off, heading straight for their igloo. 

Sokka stumbled back to camp, slowly, the big day already exhausting him. He wanted his mother to wrap him up in a big hug, tell him everything was fine, just like she always did. 

At their home, Katara stood outside the entrance, shoulders shaking, cheeks streaked with tears. Snapped out of his funk, Sokka rushed to comfort her. Little sister tears always took priority. 

She turned and sobbed into his chest, crying random words that may have been intended to be an explanation, but didn't really make any sense. He began to walk into the igloo, hoping to ask their mother what had happened.

He was stopped in his tracks by a raw, agonized wail. 

The voice was unfamiliar, at first, but the realization dawned on him that it could only be their father, crying out in grief.

In grief? 

Dread gnawed at Sokka's gut. He hoped he was wrong.

The universe was never so kind.

---

That night, held tightly alongside Katara in their father's strong arms, all three exhausted by their despair, the spirit showed itself to him again, for the first time in over a year. 

He nearly followed after it out of habit, before he remembered where- no- to whom it would lead him. 

He dug his feet in the snow. 

"I don't want to! I'm not going!"

The spirit stopped, slowly turning its majestic head back toward him. Sokka folded his arms, huffing. 

"Those people did this! Took her from us! And he's one of them!" He couldn't quite bring himself to say it, even here, in a dream, to a spirit. 

The spirit nodded, once, great horns dipping and rising slowly, deliberately. Sokka felt like his throat was closing up, tears threatening to spill over again. 

He'd guessed, but for the spirit to confirm it… it felt like he'd lost two important people tonight. The betrayal of the boy was nothing compared to having his mother ripped from him, from them, so cruelly, but the second blow was way too strong to take all at once. 

The spirit faded as he sobbed, kneeling in the snow. 

---

By day, the family worked hard to get what needed to be done, done, without the steady hands and expertise of their mother, with the added burden of the gaping hole in their hearts her absence left. Sokka felt numb, detached, working dutifully if clumsily, as hard as he could. 

By night, the spirit continued to insert itself into his dreams.

He supposed it was lucky, in a way, that he dreamed only of the spirit. Katara awoke with nightmares every night, howling awake. She'd been there, apparently, just before the soldiers had… 

It left a deep wound in her heart, too young to process her flooding emotions. When they were lucky, she'd cry herself back to sleep eventually. When they were unlucky, she would stay up sobbing for hours, then would be tired and cranky and lashing out with massive tantrums and meltdowns during the day. 

On the other hand, the spirit's constant presence continued to open a secondary wound. He couldn't see the revelation of the other boy's nation as anything but a betrayal. He'd talked so easily with the boy, worried about him during the day. He hated to think that he'd invested any emotions but hate and anger into… one of them. 

The spirit was persistent, though, waiting patiently to guide them to one another again, the divide between their nations be damned. Sokka wore down, his natural curiosity eventually winning out over his anger. The spirit led him to their destination more quickly than normal, impatient. Or, perhaps, worried that Sokka would change his mind and turn back. Either way, it was with a disorienting jolt that he found himself in a familiar yawning bedroom with a familiar golden-eyed boy. 

"You!" The boy gasped, sliding out of bed. "I started to think I made you up!"

"Stay back!" Sokka warned him. "Ash maker!" The insult felt foreign on his tongue, trying it out for the first time. The other boy seemed confused, drawing into himself, but stayed back as instructed.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" Zuko asked, wide-eyed. 

Sokka chewed his lip. "Are you… are you really Fire Nation?" He nearly mumbled. Zuko heard him anyway. 

"Yes, I am. You're… you're from a Water Tribe, right?" 

Sokka nodded, too upset to form words. 

"Mom said those were the only people that lived on the ice, so I guessed… Dad called you 'savages'." 

His rage boiled over. "Savages?! The Fire Nation are the ones attacking people for no reason, destroying stuff, killing- killing moms!" His voice cracked, choking on a sob. Zuko's eyes went wide with worry. He nearly rushed over before recalling the other boy's earlier demand.

"I'm sorry…" He muttered instead. Sokka cried openly. Awkwardly, he sat on the edge of his bed, patting it to coax Sokka over. Surprisingly, the boy did, climbing onto the soft mattress and burying his face into an incredibly plush pillow. Zuko reached a hand out to touch his shoulder, or back, or something , but he was no good with feelings or comfort. He hunched in on himself, instead. 

"I can't imagine what it's like… If my mom wasn't here, I'd be left with Dad and Azula. It'd be horrible…" Zuko chewed his lip, trying to figure out what to say. Sokka's sobs had grown softer already, boosting his confidence. "You have your Dad and sister there, right?" 

The little ponytail swung with the nod, Sokka's face still in the pillow. 

"I bet they're really sad, too. My uncle has this thing that he always says at funerals…" Zuko scrunched his nose up, trying to remember. His uncle was so hard to understand, sometimes. 

"'A burden shared is a burden… made smaller'? No, it was… 'Pain that's shared is lighter'? No, it'd make more sense for the burdens to be lighter…"

A muffled giggle drifted from the pillows. Zuko pouted.

"Hey, I'm really trying here!"

A loud sniffle, then Sokka's head lifted again. "I think I get what you're trying to say."

"Oh. You do?"

"Yeah. It means that even though it really hurts, and even though I feel really lonely, I'm not all alone. My family might be hurting, too, but if we all help each other out, it won't feel so bad."

"That sounds really smart." Zuko flushed with embarrassment. 

Sokka grinned. "My Gran-Gran says stuff like that sometimes, too. She makes us explain it back to her to make sure we understood."

Zuko gave him a small, soft smile, relieved to see him stop crying. 

"Thanks." Sokka said, hiding his embarrassment into the wet pillow. 

"For what?" 

"For the good advice."

Zuko looked genuinely confused. "But I didn't do anything?" 

"Still helped." Sokka peeked one eye over at him, still hiding most of his face in plush fabric. "Y'know, the spirit's been trying to get me to come here since it happened. I was too scared to come."

"Why?"

"Because you're Fire Nation, and they're the bad guys." Zuko frowned at that. "And I was worried I'd come visit and you'd be, I dunno, evil or something." He turned to fully face the other boy. "But you're still really nice. So, I'm glad I ended up coming, after all."

Zuko smiled with him. 

"Hey, can you firebend?" Sokka asked suddenly.

"Huh? Why? Where'd that come from?"

"Can you?"

"Yeah, of course I can!"

"Can I see?" 

Zuko was as shocked by the sudden change in topic as he was by Sokka's apparent enthusiasm. "Uh, sure." 

Zuko slid off of the bed once again, taking up a stance in the large open space between his bed and the door. Sokka sat up properly, getting into a comfortable place where he could see well. 

The firebender took a deep breath, then another, then worried that he couldn't feel his inner fire. Not wanting to disappoint his friend, so eager to see him perform, Zuko continued anyway. 

The stances of the kata came stutteringly, as usual, lacking the grace and smoothness they should have had. Two punches in with no fire and Zuko was panicked.

"No, no, it's supposed to…" He tried starting over, performing the kata more slowly, but more neatly. Still, his fire remained out of reach. "I can't- I can't-" He pulled at his hair, breath coming quick in his chest. 

Sokka's expression slid from disappointed into worried, scrambling towards his friend. 

Zuko had sunk into a crouch now, face buried in his knees as both hands gripped his hair. His lungs heaved hugely, visible even from the bed. 

"Hey, it's alright, you can show me some other time!" Sokka placated.

"I'm sorry- I tried, I'm- I can do it! I swear!" Tears had begun to streak, one by one, down Zuko's terrified face.

"It's okay! I believe you! Calm down, it's alright!" Sokka tried. He reached out, a comforting hand, but Zuko flinched before it could touch him.

"Don't hurt me, please! I'll get it right, Dad, just don't-" 

The dream ended suddenly, Sokka shooting awake in bed. A now-familiar rage began to bubble up in his chest again. 

This time, though, it had a new target. 

Startled awake by the sudden movement, his own father groaned. "Sokka? What's wrong? Bad dream?"

Sokka threw his arms around his dad's neck, holding him tightly. He never thought he'd feel so happy to have a father he wasn't terrified of, but Zuko's face was so clear in his memory still. 

"Thanks for everything, Dad." Sokka said into his shoulder. His father relaxed, huffing a short laugh.

"Where's this come from?" He asked.

"I just… I realized I'm really lucky to have a dad like you. I love you lots."

"Well, I love you, too, Sokka. Even if I still don't know why you're suddenly saying this now. What did you dream about?"

Sokka shook his head, leaving the question unanswered. His father didn't push. 

"How's Katara? Did she sleep good last night?" 

"She had some bad dreams, too, but she slept all night."

"I'm gonna make some tea, then. So she has some when she wakes up, in case she's still upset." Sokka slid out of his father's embrace, pacing over to the where he'd left the kettle.

"Look at you, being all responsible. I'm really proud of you, son."

Sokka glowed with pride, hiding his smile as he got to work. 

He could be strong, as strong as he needed to be. For his dad, for Katara, for Gran-Gran, and for a scared Fire Nation boy a million miles away. They needed him, even without any special magic powers. 

He set his pain aside, just for them. 

---

The aching void where their mother should be never quite closed up, but it became smaller, less tender. 

Their lives readjusted. Katara took up a lot of the chores, having learned many of the skills she needed already, and Sokka, now without a playmate, started to spend far more time with their father. He learned to hunt, fish, and fight with his father, preparing for whatever may lie ahead.

Their Gran-Gran started to spend more time with the family, as well, taking leave of her duties as village elder to help Katara with keeping the household. Just as Sokka trained to be a hunter and warrior, Katara learned to be a mother. 

They were both far too young, but time is a cruel thing.

Sokka continued to visit Zuko in his dreams, sometimes every night, sometimes not for months at a time. He could never predict when the spirit would decide it was time. Between the more spaced-out visits, he would miss the other boy dearly, thinking constantly of things he wanted to tell him. The boys carried so much weight, and it brought Sokka no shortage of joy to see Zuko's burdens lift from his small shoulders by the end of the night. 

They told each other about their families, about their homelands, about whatever they could think of at the time. They sometimes argued, usually about the war, but they always made up again quickly enough. Sokka discovered that the Fire Nation's stories about events of the war and everyone else's didn't always match up. They both began to question truths they held close, Zuko about the righteousness of the Fire Nation's brutal campaign, Sokka about the inherent evilness of Fire Nation citizens. 

Some nights, the arguments made his head hurt. 

He still refused to tell anyone about the other boy, always claiming he'd had some sort of bad dream when he woke up still fuming from a spat with the other. If anyone was suspicious, they never said anything, but paranoia is a natural side effect of secrets, and Sokka was always on edge, thinking everyone knew about his traitorous friendship with the Fire Nation boy. 

Because that's what it was, he knew. Traitorous. To be so friendly with the enemy, an enemy he was becoming increasingly sympathetic to. 

Unfortunately, every time he nearly resolved to push the other boy away, he remembered how small and vulnerable and scared Zuko often was, and couldn't find the strength to follow through. 

---

It was about a week after Zuko had told Sokka his birthday was (eleven! Sokka didn't know Zuko was older than him!) and Sokka was overjoyed to see the spirit waiting for him in his dream. He couldn't bring Zuko any presents, since they met in the spirit world, after all, but he'd been writing the other boy a poem as a present instead. 

He rushed forward when the room materialized around him, grinning ear to ear, but was halted in his tracks by Zuko's condition. 

The older boy was crying, holding a hand to a painfully red arm. His shoulders shook, his knees tucked to his chest, and Sokka couldn't help but feel worried about him. The feeling tore at his heart, driving him forward again, reaching out to wrap his arms around the distressed boy. 

His hand never connected. 

Confused, he tried again, but saw his hand melt through the other boy's shoulder. 

Spirit world, of course. He couldn't even comfort his friend properly. Instead, he had to use his words. Not a strong suit. 

"Are you okay?" He asked. Zuko shook his head, ponytail swishing behind him. It had gotten really long lately. "What happened?"

Zuko glanced up at him, eyes puffy and red, face slick with tears, before hiding his face in his knees. 

"It's like everything's happening all at once." He mumbled, muffled by his pants. "Grandfather died, Mom went missing, Dad's Fire Lord now-"

"Your dad's the Fire Lord?!" Sokka exclaimed, then slapped his hands over his mouth. He hadn't intended to cut the other boy off, but his impulse control was awful at the best of times. 

Zuko just nodded into his knees. "They said Grandfather wanted the throne to pass to him instead of Uncle, even though Uncle is older. Even though yesterday, Grandfather said…" Zuko squeezed his legs tighter to himself, a choked sob forcing its way out of his throat. "Yesterday, Grandfather said that he'd only let Dad have the throne if he- if he killed me." 

Sokka was speechless. He swallowed hard. "Is that- is that what the- why your arm is hurt…?" Sokka guessed. Zuko shook his head, still buried in his knees. 

"He didn't really do it. Try to kill me, I mean. This is… I asked him about Mom after Grandfather's funeral. He got mad about it. No one can get mad at him because he's the Fire Lord, so he…"

"I'm sorry." Sokka had no idea what to say. What do you say? 

"It's okay." Zuko claimed. "In the real world, the healers bandaged it up and put salve on it, to treat the burn. It'll get better."

"It's not okay!" Sokka insisted, fuming. "No matter who your dad is, he can't do that! Dads are supposed to protect their kids from getting hurt, or from being sad!" 

He clenched his jaw, holding back the rest of what he wanted to say, seeing tears well up anew in Zuko's eyes. 

"He was right, though…" The other boy mumbled. "I'm next in line for the throne now. I have to act like it. I can't be whining, or asking unnecessary questions, or being a nuisance. I shouldn't have bothered him. I brought this on myself." 

His voice sounded flat, like he was repeating words that had been said to him. Sokka didn't doubt they had. 

"He was not right, and you know it! You didn't do anything wrong!"

"You don't know anything about it, Sokka!" Zuko suddenly shouted, his short temper rearing its head. "You don't know anything about the expectations on me as royalty! You're just a Water Tribe peasant! I have to be perfect , okay?! And I'm just-" He crumpled. "I'm anything but perfect." 

"You know what? You're right!" Sokka threw his hands up, his own temper flaring. "I don't know anything about it! We choose our leaders based on who deserves it, and we know perfectly well that everyone, everyone has flaws! Of course you'll never be perfect! Nobody is!"

"Azula is." Zuko argued, subdued. "She's a genius and a prodigy. She can never do anything wrong. Dad's always proud of her. I can't compete."

"Azula's also evil and heartless! You told me she 'plays mean pranks'," Sokka emphasized with air quotes, "but the things she does are downright cruel! That's a flaw if I've ever seen one! So no, nobody's perfect! Not even your awful little sister!"

Zuko looked like he wanted to argue, but bit his tongue. Sokka stared at him for a long moment, arms crossed, brows furrowed. They'd reached a stalemate. 

He turned on his heel and marched out the door. The sound of Zuko sobbing afresh paused his steps, but he steeled himself and continued.

The room melted away, and he stood before the deer spirit once again. 

"Take me home." He ordered. The spirit nodded, turning to lead him, as always. 

As the land shifted beneath them, Sokka mulled over the new information he'd recieved. His secret Fire Nation friend wasn't just some noble, he was royalty. The crown prince, first in line for the Fire Lord's royal seat.

If he hadn't felt like a traitor before, he sure as hell did now. 

---

When the news came that there was a new Fire Lord, weeks later by way of letter, Sokka pretended to be as shocked as the rest of the village. Shortly thereafter, the fighting all over the world amped up, the new Fire Lord stepping up the presence of troops in the Earth Kingdom. The men of the village worked hard to build ships, craft weapons, and cure foods for long journeys. Sokka helped where he could, putting in his fair share of the work. His father assured him that they would stay out of the war for as long as possible, the village too small to lose so many members at once, but there was an unspoken understanding that it was only a matter of time. 

More often than not, Sokka's sleep was dreamless, exhausted after a hard day's work. 

Every once in a while, the familiar spirit would show itself, trying to lead an increasingly stubborn Sokka back to Zuko. When he did follow, his interactions with the Prince were strained, arguments breaking out constantly. Zuko became stubborn, ignoring Sokka's advice, playing the good little prince. For a while, Sokka stopped coming altogether, steaming over the last argument. For the first time ever, the prince had referred to him as an "ice savage", sneering at him like he was less than trash, despite having known each other for nearly four whole years at that point. It was only when the spirit began to show up every single night, without fail, for an entire month, that Sokka finally gave in, intending only to give the asshole prince a piece of his mind. 

The spirit did not lead him to Zuko's sprawling bedroom this time. 

The tiny room was cramped, full of medical equipment. Zuko lay on a stiff cot, hunched in on himself under a thin blanket. His long hair had been nearly shaved completely off, leaving only enough to pull into a ponytail. All of the anger Sokka had been building up bled out of him.

He padded over carefully, reaching out slowly, forgetting entirely that his hand wouldn't connect. 

"I know you're there." Zuko said, not turning over. 

"Hi." Sokka said. 

"You're back." The prince swung his legs off of the cot, the blanket falling away to reveal bare shoulders. He remained resolutely faced away.

"Yep." Sokka loudly popped his lips on the 'p'. He sidled over, lowering himself onto the cot beside him. 

Zuko turned his head away stiffly, only allowing Sokka to see him in profile, even holding a hand to the other side of his face for insurance. 

"What do you want?" Zuko spat, tone more accusatory than inquisitive. 

"Hey, I don't get to choose when I come here, okay? A big deer plops me here, remember?"

"Oh." 

An uncomfortable silence falls between them. 

"I shouldn't have-"

"I'm still-"

They both started at the same time. Zuko cleared his throat. 

"You go first." He mumbled.

Sokka sighed. "I was just going to say- I'm still mad about what you said last time. It was way out of line."

"I know."

"I may not be from the Fire Nation, but I'm not stupid."

"I know."

"Then why would you say that? I was really hurt, you know. I thought we were friends."

"We are friends!" Zuko interjected, defensively. He nearly turned to face Sokka, before remembering he was hiding his face. 

"Well, it sure doesn't feel like it lately. All you can do is insult me and my people." Sokka huffed, feeling the same anger that had accompanied his last several visits looming. 

Zuko shrank into himself. "I don't know. I haven't really been able to… I think, maybe, it's because I feel like you're, I dunno, like you're the manifestation of my own weakness. Or something." The last part was barely audible, Zuko losing steam partway through the sentence. 

Sokka frowned, not sure if he should be insulted. "What does that mean?" 

"I dunno." A heavy sigh. "I guess I mean, like… I'm meant to be the symbol of my people, ruthless, decisive. Future Fire Lord and all that. But my closest friend is… someone like you."

"There it is again! How can you say I'm your friend and then turn around and say something like that?!" Sokka pointed an accusing finger at him. Zuko glared, then dropped his gaze, looking guilty.

"I just mean that… I feel like I'm betraying everyone, just by talking to you like this."

Sokka couldn't argue with that. "Honestly? I feel the same way." 

Zuko winced at that. Another awkward silence fell. 

"Where are we, anyway?" Sokka finally said, desperate to break the tension. 

"Ship's medical bay." 

"Oh. Are you hurt?"

"You could say that." 

"Is that what you won't show me?"

"Yeah." 

Sokka stared at what he could see of Zuko's face, searching his expression. He had the distinct look of a boy resolutely distancing himself from a great pain. Sokka had seen it often enough in the mirror to recognize it. 

"Will you show me?"

Zuko shook his head, paused to consider, then nodded slowly. 

"I just don't want to gross you out. I know the salves and bandages don't show up here."

"Pretty bad then, huh?"

"That'd be an understatement."

"Show me."

Hesitantly, Zuko lowered his hand, turning his face to see Sokka properly. 

Sokka's stomach turned. 

The skin was shiny and bubbling, wrinkled like it had melted. He remembered the burn wound he'd seen on Zuko's upper arm two years ago and thought it probably had. 

It was by far the gnarliest wound he'd ever seen, and several of the warriors had been badly burned during the raid. 

"Ouch." He said simply.

"Yeah."

"How'd it happen?"

Zuko turned away again, hiding his face once more. 

"I'm not really… ready to talk about it. You can guess, though. You're smart."

He was. His hands clenched into fists. "That asshole can't get away with shit like this!" He growled, teeth gritted.

"He can. There's no one who can question him."

Sokka swallowed his argument. It always led to a circular argument that left him angry for days after. 

"And why is this injury being cared for on a boat and not in like, the royal infirmary in the royal palace by the royal physician?" He asked, instead.

"Normally, it would be." Huh, he'd been joking. He really didn't get royalty stuff. "But I was also banished."

"Banished?!" 

"I can't return to Fire Nation soil until I've proven my honor unquestionably. My father gave me a task. I intend to follow it through." 

"I guess… best of luck with that, buddy. But…" He chewed his lip, warring with himself whether to start the argument. "You know, whatever wild goose chase your asshole dad sent you on probably won't prove anything. That bastard's the least honorable guy I can think of."

"Don't you dare speak of my father in that way! Like you know anything!" Zuko snarled. Sokka barely flinched, expecting that response.

"I'm just saying." Sokka shrugged. "He can't restore your honor any more than he could take it away in the first place."

"You don't get it! Ugh, I don't know why I always expect some backwater peasant to understand what I'm talking about!"

"You're the one who's not getting it! Whatever you're after, your dad's approval or love or whatever, that's not honor! And it's not worth killing yourself over, either!" 

"It's worth anything , Sokka." Zuko insisted with finality. "Just… go."

"Zuko…"

"Leave!" Zuko lashed out, forgetting he couldn't summon fire or make contact. Sokka obeyed anyway. 

"Just… just think about it, okay?" Sokka pleaded to Zuko's tense back. When he got no response, he turned to leave. 

The ship's cabin faded from view and he followed the spirit home, heart heavy. As always, despite leaving on bad terms, he missed the other boy already. 

He didn't know it yet, but that would be the last time they saw one another in nearly  three years. 

Chapter Text

It was two years after their father and the other warriors had left to join the war effort. Despite their frustration at having been left behind, Sokka and Katara had no time to dwell on it, constantly having more work to do. 

Today, the siblings were taking the rare chance to do a chore together, spending the day together for the first time in longer than they'd care to admit. 

Sokka had announced he was going fishing, and Katara had leapt at the excuse to practice her waterbending on something practical. Sokka wanted to argue, but it was true he hadn't spent nearly enough time with his little sister lately, and a little bit of magic might go a long way in speeding up the process. 

Their little canoe floated out between the icebergs, the two navigating around chunks of ice drifting this way and that. Katara would attempt to gently push smaller chunks out of the way, but the rippling waves would rock the canoe, earning her a grumpy glare from her older brother. 

Sokka returned his focus to the clear water beneath them as the small waves settled again, angling his spear towards a glittering shape near the surface. Katara's voice rang out behind him, excited, but he barely heard her, mentally calculating the change in angle to account for the water's refraction. 

Without warning, he was suddenly soaked in icy water. 

"Katara! What was that for?!" He rounded on her, glaring again. A small, silvery fish flopped in the canoe between them. Katara wasn't looking at him. 

"I... recognize this place..." She murmured, eyes unfocused. 

"Recognize it? I'd certainly hope so, we're not that far from home." He groused, crossing his arms. He shivered, clothes still soaked. "Hey, uh, Katara? A little help here?" 

Finally, her focus returned to him, snapping out of wherever it had been before. "Oh, right, sorry. Let me get that..." 

With unpracticed motions, she struggled to pull on the water. Several drops followed her pulling, drifting out from his parka and falling to the deck of the canoe. 

"Thanks." He'd meant to sound sincere, but was still grumpy enough that it came across as sarcastic. 

"Hey, I'm trying!" She huffed, fists on her hips. "There's not exactly anybody who can teach me what I'm supposed to do! You should be grateful I can even do this much!" 

"Yeah, yeah, thanks for doing your fancy magic and helping me get dry- well, less wet." He waved a hand dismissively. She grumbled, crossing her arms. 

"As I was saying..." She started, gaze sweeping around the ice surrounding them, "I recognize this place. From a long time ago… it feels like a dream, though." 

Sokka felt his eyebrows draw together. It sounded familiar. "You recognize it from a dream?" 

"It's probably nothing. Let's get back to it. Forget I said anything." 

"No, no- You think it's the place from the guidance ritual?" Sokka clarified. 

"Guidance ritual? Sokka, I'm only fourteen. I haven't done it yet. And neither have you, as far as I'm aware." Katara smirked at him, as though he was being an idiot. Sokka glowered.

"You're right. I haven't. Technically. But you have." Now she just looked confused. Sokka rolled his eyes and groaned dramatically. "You don't even remember?! Well… I guess you were just six at the time."  

Katara's eyes went wide. "I did?" She furrowed her brow, trying to remember.

"Yeah. After I… well, you just got it in your head that you wanted to do it. You said you went to an ice field like this and then you almost froze to death. You really don't remember?" She shook her head, hesitantly. "I'd think something like that would be traumatizing, honestly. Well, I guess you were just a little kid back then."

Katara chewed her lip, looking back out onto the still water, considering this new information. She glanced over at her brother, wringing her hands, then started to turn the canoe using the water beneath them.

"Woah! Give a guy some warning!" Sokka shrieked, toppling backwards, almost onto the fish still struggling on the deck. Feeling bad for it, he righted himself and drew his whalebone knife, putting it out of its misery and onto the ice they'd gathered for the purpose. 

"Sorry. I'm trying to remember where I went…" Seeing the look of complete concentration on her face, Sokka sat back and kept quiet. As long as she didn't go too far, he could navigate them back home just fine. Let her have her little detour. 

She struggled to control the boat properly, but grew more confident as the long minutes passed. The canoe's path leveled out, gliding more seamlessly down the path Katara had chosen. 

Sokka grew nervous, seeing the icebergs increasing in number. Soon, they wouldn't be able to dodge them all. "Uhh, Katara?" 

She didn't slow or change course. She looked as though she were in a trance. 

"Uhh, Katara!" His voice cracking in his panic, he scrambled to grab their little oar and forcibly push them off path. As soon as he did, they overcorrected and the canoe slid between two ice chunks that were crashing together, crushing the canoe between them. Grabbing Katara instinctively, Sokka pushed off of the deck just in time, sliding up onto the ice. 

"Sokka! Why did you do that?!" Katara shrieked.

"Me?! You were gonna plow right through all of this! I was trying to save us!" Sokka argued.

"Save us?!" A huff of incredulous laughter. "By steering us right into a death trap?! If you'd been a second slower-!" She cut herself off, trying not to think of the end of that particular thought. 

"Well, I wasn't, so maybe a 'thank you' is in order?" Sokka crossed his arms.

"Sure, Sokka! Thank you so much for wrecking our boat, stranding us out here!" 

Accompanying her stomping foot and wild gestures came a terrible cracking of the ice. For one panicked second, Sokka thought she'd damaged the ice they were standing on, before seeing the deep crevasse creeping up the towering iceberg behind her. 

"You never believe in me! I do so much work, all the cooking, and sewing, and teaching myself bending on top of it, and you never appreciate any of it!" 

Another crack streaking up the iceberg and Sokka was gripped by a terrible panic.

"You didn't even want to bring me with you today, even though you know I'd be helpful! Which one of us actually caught a fish today, huh? Me! Not you! What do you even do when you're gone all day?! While I'm hard at work doing all the chores?! Huh?!" 

Large pieces of the iceberg began to slough off, splashing into the water below and jostling their precarious perch.

"What, nothing to say for yourself?! I've HAD it with you!" She finally noticed his finger, pointing nervously behind her. "What?!" She huffed, turning around, in time to see the last of the glacier tumbling in chunks, the displaced water heaving under them. They scrambled to get a grip, knowing the chances of their survival were they to fall in were dour. 

"Did… did I do that?" Katara murmured in wonder. 

"Yyyep." Sokka clapped her on the shoulder. "You're officially terrifying." 

Seriously, he thought, that was way too much power for one hormonal teenage girl to wield. He was downright lucky she didn't know how to use it properly. 

A rising glow under the surface distracted them both from their argument, lighting up the sea with eerie light. They stared, twin expressions of shock on their faces, as an enormous, perfectly round orb of ice bobbed to the surface, the source of the glow. Illuminated from within, the dark outline of a human figure hovered. Someone unlucky enough to get lost out here, Sokka assumed. 

That is, until glowing eyes broke the silhouette. 

"He's alive in there!" Katara shouted, grabbing Sokka's club. 

"Wait, Katara!" Sokka lunged after her, too slowly. She'd already hopped across the water, fearless, driven. 

By the time he made it to her side, she'd driven the blunt end of the club into the sphere several times, sending long cracks up its sides. Sokka moved to grab at her, trying to pull her out of the way, as the cracks began to spread on their own. 

"Watch out!" 

A great gust of air spews out of the ice, nearly blowing the pair into the freezing water. As abruptly as it had begun, it ended, an eerie stillness settling in instead. The siblings blinked their cold, dry eyes, struggling to focus. When they did, their jaws dropped in shock. 

A boy, younger even than Katara, with glowing tattoos was lowering gently to the splintered ice before them. Behind him yawned an enormous beast, some sort of six-legged buffalo creature Sokka had never heard of. The moment the boy's feet touched the ground (gently, gracefully, as though gravity had no pull on him), his tattoos faded and he crumpled in a heap. 

Katara rushed forward, gripping his shoulders so he wouldn't slide off the precarious ice shelf. 

The boy groaned, leaning heavily into Katara as he attempted to right himself.

"Where are we…?" His voice was scratchy with sleep, as though he'd merely woken up from a nap. 

"The south pole, near the Southern Water Tribe." Katara explained gently. "We just rescued you from inside this iceberg."

"The south pole?" He rubbed at his eyes, voice growing clearer. Suddenly, his expression grew bright, all traces of sleepiness vanishing like they'd never been there at all. "There's penguin-otters there! Oh, we have to go penguin sledding! You'll come with me, won't you?" 

A hesitant smile bloomed on Katara's face, the boy's enthusiasm was infectious. 

"Sure, why not?" She agreed.

"Heck yeah! Woohoo!" The boy whooped, jumping into the air in glee. The wind whipped around him, propelling him a dozen feet into the air. 

"What the heck was that?!" Sokka demanded. "How did you do that?!" 

"How did I do what?" The boy cocked his head, as though he hadn't just casually flown above them.

"You flew! Straight up! Wind doesn't work like that!" He waved his arms emphatically, nearly hitting Katara in his frustration. She dodged, smacking his arm in retaliation. 

"It does for me!" The boy said proudly. He spun, lifting himself in the air again, sending himself spinning around the remains of the ice sphere on a barely-visible cushion of breeze. "I'm an airbender!" 

Like it was possible. No, not just possible, like it was completely normal. 

"Wow! A real airbender!" Katara gasped. Sokka scowled. She was always so trusting. 

"That's impossible." Sokka argued. "There haven't been any airbenders in, like, a century." 

The boy laughed. "Whoever told you that was pulling your leg! There's a whole bunch of us, not far from here! At the Southern Air Temple!" 

A bunch of airbenders that had escaped the brutal genocide? Hiding out in their own temple? Unlikely. Sokka held his tongue. 

"I'd love to see it!" Katara was downright bubbly now, stars in her eyes. Suddenly, her shoulders drooped. "But it'd take too long to get there. We have so much to do at home. There's not many of us young and able-bodied left." 

Sokka put a comforting hand on her shoulder, rubbing gently. 

"It won't take long at all! We can take Appa!" The boy motioned to his buffalo. 

"I'm sorry, how is a buffalo supposed to get us there any faster than a boat?" Sokka groused. 

"Not a buffalo! A sky bison!" The boy explained. "He can fly!"

"Riiight." Sokka rolled his eyes. "Can you believe this guy, Katara?" He nudged her with his elbow, trying to get her back on his side. She didn't respond. "Katara?" He repeated with more concern. 

She continued to stare at the buffalo- no, sky bison. Appa, the kid said? Her eyes were far away, lost in thought, mesmerized by the beast.

Sokka waved a hand in front of her face. She blinked, then scowled, smacking his hand away. 

"I recognize him." She explained without really explaining anything.

"You do? How?" Sokka tilted his head, getting a new angle on the bison. Nope, not ringing any bells.

"He led me here." She chewed her lip, eyebrows drawing together. "It feels like water slipping through my fingers, but… I feel like I remember following him out onto the water." 

"During the guidance ritual dream?"

"Yeah."

"Huh."

"Hey, hey! What's this all about?!" The airbender interrupted. "You guys know Appa?" He turned to the bison. "That's great! These guys are your friends, buddy?" 

The bison lowed, a deep, gravelly sound. 

"He came to me in a dream. He led me here, to you." Katara explained. "I think he wanted me to save you."

"Woaaah… Thanks, buddy! You're the best." He leapt up, breeze carrying him all the way to the crown of the bison's head, and gave his beast a wide embrace, burying himself in the thick fur. That had to be nice and warm, Sokka thought, especially with a sharp, chilly breeze blowing through. 

"And thank you, too!" The airbender touched gently down before them once more, ending up more in Katara's personal space than her brother was comfortable with. "I dunno how I got in there, but I'm sure glad you showed up when you did!" 

"Can we wrap this up?" Sokka groused. "It feels like a snowstorm is gonna start soon. We should hurry back."

"Want a lift?" The boy asked brightly. Sokka frowned suspiciously at the bison. 

"No." He said with finality, spinning on his heel towards the canoe… the canoe!

"You ran the canoe up on the ice, remember?" Katara taunted, already seated in the bison's saddle. "We don't have a choice." 

"Guess that's settled, then! Come on!" 

Slumping dramatically, Sokka stomped his way up the bison's wide tail. 

"Don't be so glum! You're about to get to fly!" The boy grinned.

"I'll believe it when I see it." Sokka grumbled. 

The boy just laughed and cracked the reigns between the bison's horns. "Yip yip!"

With a great leap, the bison launched into the air. For a moment, Sokka almost believed it would actually take off flying, as promised, before it splashed heavily into the icy water, soaking his parka again. 

Of course. 

"Wow, that was really something." He said flatly, sarcastically. 

"Appa's just tired. Aren't you, buddy?" The boy scratched the bison's head as it lowed in response. "He'll be up in the air as soon as he's had a chance to rest!" 

Sokka rolled his eyes. He almost missed the gooey eyes the boy was giving his sister. 

Almost. 

"What's your name, by the way? You never told us." Katara asked, leaning over the front of the saddle. 

"Who, me?" The boy asked. Sokka groaned. Who else, genius? "I'm Aang." His face split into a doofy grin. 

"I'm Katara." 

"Wow, what a pretty name…" Aang was still fawning over her. Katara blushed. Sokka gagged. 

"The jerk- " Katara shot a sharp look back at Sokka, "is my brother, Sokka." 

Sokka lifted a hand in an easy wave. Aang returned the gesture, more enthusiastically. 

"So…" Katara started, biting her lip and looking away. "Do the Air Nomads know about… soulmates?" 

Ugh. 

"Yeah! The monks are really in touch with the spirit world, after all!"

"Do you… know who yours is?" 

Aang shook his head. "I meditated on it a while back, but the spirits told me it 'wasn't time yet', whatever that means." Aang did a silly, deep voice and air quotes to represent the spirits' words. Sokka was amused to see being 'in touch' with the spirits didn't necessarily preclude irreverence. 

"Huh. That's really interesting." Katara said, faux casually, but Sokka was able to pick up on a weird tone. 

"What about you?" Aang asked. His voice seemed innocent enough, but Sokka sensed an ulterior motive. It was in that dopey smile and gooey eyes the kid had for his sister. 

"Well… we mentioned the guidance ritual earlier, right?" Aang nodded. "That's what our tribe does to ask the spirits to guide us to our soulmates. Maybe it's nothing, but… when I did the ritual, Appa led me to you."

"Hmm…" Aang responded, barely hiding how excited he was by the prospect of Katara being his soulmate, "Appa isn't a spirit, though… I wonder what that means?" 

"It's probably nothing… I'm sorry I brought it up." 

"No, no! I think it's really cool! Maybe we'll figure out what it means later?" 

"Yeah, maybe. Thanks, Aang." 

"Of course!" Then, apparently just remembering Sokka was there, "How about you, Sokka? Did you do the soulmate ritual, too?"

"Guidance ritual. And no, no I haven't." He answered honestly, although he knew that wasn't what Aang was asking, not really. 

"Oh… maybe you'll get a chance to, soon, then!"

"We usually do it when someone turns sixteen." Katara explained. "Sokka just had his fifteenth birthday a few months ago." 

"Oh." Aang looked a bit awkward. Good, Sokka thought, it's not just me, now. He always had trouble lying, and the soulmate talk was dicey at best. 

He hadn't even seen his soulmate in so long, now, and was torn between missing him terribly and feeling relieved. Talking to him had been so easy, and fun, and Sokka looked forward to doing so, but he had a bad taste in his mouth afterwards every time, like he'd been feeding secrets to the enemy. 

Not that Zuko, personally, was the enemy, but his father certainly was, and that counted for something. Counted for a lot, if Sokka was being honest. 

Aang steered his bison onward, closing the distance to the village surprisingly quickly for an animal unsuited to swimming. The rest of the trip was uncomfortably quiet, Aang and Katara being all awkward and weird and gross. Sokka was relieved to get off the bison and greet their village, the entirety of which had gathered on the outskirts to see the giant animal approach. 

"Sokka, Katara!" Gran-Gran exclaimed. "What have you two been up to?" 

"Hey, Gran-Gran." Sokka greeted, accepting her warm hug. 

"Gran-Gran! Look who we met!" Katara slid from the bison gracefully, landing in a run and sweeping Gran-Gran into a hug of her own. "This is Aang, he's an airbender!" 

"An airbender, eh? Haven't seen one of those in near a century." 

"That's what Sokka said!" Aang pouted. "But we're really real! Watch this!" The airbender spun around his staff, startling the gathered villagers when cloth wings sprung out from either side. He took a running leap, gliding into the air unnaturally. The entire crowd watched with mixed expressions of shock and glee. Katara even clapped. 

"That was amazing, Aang!" She enthused. 

"Aw, that's nothing." Aang rubbed the back of his neck, mock-humble. "All the monks can do that much!" 

"It's still incredible! I've never seen anything like it!" 

"Ugh, stop making goo-goo eyes at each other already..." Sokka grumbled.

"Come, now, Katara." Gran-Gran swooped in to rescue him from an incurable case of the oogies. "There's much to be done." 

Sokka watched his sister be led away, glancing back at the airbender as she went. Aang waved when he caught her. She blushed and waved back. 

"Whatever. You… entertain yourself. I've got work to do, too." 

---

"Prince Zuko, this is a fool's gambit and you know it." Uncle admonished. 

"I can't afford to ignore any phenomena that might lead me to the Avatar. You know that full well." Zuko turned from his uncle and returned his gaze to the spyglass. 

"We are near the south pole, nephew. Mystical lights illuminate the skies on the regular. You cannot simply chase the celestial lights and expect results."

"This was different, Uncle!" Zuko insisted, sparks flying from his lips. "You saw it as well as I did! A perfect ray of light, shining from a specific point on the horizon. That's unnatural." 

"Be that as it may," Uncle sighed, snapping a tile down with more force, "chasing headlong after every strange event without regard for your own wellbeing or that of your crew is going to come back to hurt you. The majority of strange events in this world have nothing to do with the Avatar, and everything to do with the Spirit World."

Zuko grit his teeth. "Maybe I'd like to antagonize the Spirit World…" He ground out. Uncle hummed disapprovingly, but declined to respond, knowing Zuko had not been speaking to him.

Since his banishment, Zuko hadn't seen the strange Water Tribe boy once. In this time of turmoil and suffering, he needed the other boy's disarming cheer and unburdened smile more than ever. For so long, he'd relied on Sokka to be his rock, a safe place to return to when the waves of his life tore too turbulently. Now, those waves were greater than ever, and he was simply dragged ever deeper into the sea. 

He'd been abandoned, betrayed… no, the other boy was the enemy to begin with. A rebellious spirit who resented the Fire Nation's attempt to civilise the land. It was ridiculous to feel hurt by his absence. Zuko should feel relieved, in fact! No more distractions, no savage drivel filling his head with lies, turning his heart from his homeland and his mission. 

Zuko had convinced himself this excursion to the southernmost point of the earth had nothing to do with the other boy. He hadn't checked this far south yet, was all. There were no rumors coming out of the area, but there was also no news leaving more generally. It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that the ice had concealed his quarry for so long. Combined with the brilliant, celestial phenomenon he had witnessed, Zuko held more hope than he had in the last two years that this was finally it, finally his chance to secure his honor, his throne, and his peace of mind. 

Ignoring his uncle's pleas to rest, Zuko ordered the crew to push onward, chasing that pillar of light. It had long since dimmed, but its imprint remained in his mind. 

---

Babysitting duty was always annoying. Sokka did his best to teach the gathered children what fighting techniques he knew while he was in charge of watching them, but none of them could so much as hold a spear properly. 

Katara had run off the moment she could with Aang, taking him up on his offer to ride the penguins with her. He huffed, crossing his arms and tapping his toes impatiently, waiting for his charges to finish their potty break. He had a sneaking suspicion at least half of them had just said they had to pee because the rest of them had. 

For all Katara complained about doing 'all the chores', she spent a lot of time playing around. Sure, she called it 'practice', but he didn't see how it was any different than playing in the snow. 

He, on the other hand, had many important things to do. He caught all of the fish and meat for the village, single-handedly shored up all of their defenses (he was particularly proud of his recently-completed watchtower), and, of course, handled the babysitting while the women of the village prepared meals. No time in that schedule for playing around. Not that he was jealous, no. His baby sister deserved to have fun. He just resented that she thought he was the one having fun. Like he didn't feel the full weight of the village on his shoulders. 

Grousing about being left behind in favor of penguins and some boy, Sokka didn't see the flare go off, but the kids stared and pointed. He spun around, heart plummeting into his stomach at the sight of the bright light hovering in the air so near the village. 

They'd been so stupid! He hadn't even thought to guess the boy may have been some sort of spy. Of course! That would explain how an airbender was still alive. Some of them must have sold themselves out! 

It was all Zuko's fault Sokka was so soft, so unguarded! Stupid of him, to be so taken in by a pretty face with pretty eyes and a soft smile, forgetting so easily who the real enemy was. 

Sokka steeled himself, gathering up the children and herding them towards the relative safety of the village. If they were lucky, no Fire Navy ships were nearby to signal. If they were unlucky… well, Sokka was always unlucky. It was only a question of how many now.

---

A flare, a guide, and Zuko finally had eyes on his quarry. Despite everyone, everyone's insistence that he was a fool for even trying, for believing his mission had an end, for believing the Avatar might still exist. 

The airbender fled toward a tiny plot of snow, short walls packed haphazardly around a gathering of tents and igloos. Zuko's heart leapt into his throat, but he swallowed it down, hardening his heart. The likelihood that this little village was his little village… actually, it was pretty high. 

He ordered his men to pilot towards the village anyway, as quickly as possible. The ship built up speed, a more concrete goal in sight. 

Zuko gripped the railing of the ship hard enough to turn his knuckles white. His fingers had been losing feeling slowly, but heat rushed through him once more in his excitement. 

He was going home.

Chapter Text

Sokka sent Aang away from the village the moment they'd returned. Luckily, Gran-Gran was on his side about this, even if Katara wasn't.

He had a bad feeling she'd never pick his side over Aang's ever again. 

She chose not to abandon the village, though, so Sokka counted that as a win, at least. 

He ordered the children to attend to their battle stations, seeing the snow already starting to blacken with soot. 'Battle stations', of course, meant they should all return to their mothers and stay in their tents until the danger passed. Sokka claimed it was so they could ambush the enemy if need be. They didn't argue. 

Sokka busied himself, in the meantime, preparing to actually participate in the oncoming battle.

Alone.

The war paint went on easily, practiced hands smearing the paints quickly and seamlessly. His battle garb was lighter than his usual thick furs, but the weight of it wasn't in the fabric. As the only warrior in the village, he bore the full weight of protecting everyone he loved on his own shoulders. He feared he wouldn't be strong enough. The war paint masked his worry. 

---

Zuko was rarely allowed to dress himself, and donning his armor was no different. His crew settled the heavy metal across his shoulders, buckling it into place. He took a deep breath, calming his racing heart. 

When, finally, the helmet settled atop his head, he strode forward with purpose, climbing back onto the deck to observe their approach. 

With alarm, he saw the ship encroaching far too quickly on the little village. His memory supplied an old, nearly forgotten conversation between his soulmate and himself. 

The boy had talked at length about the time it took to build up the walls of snow around the village. Zuko had been confused about such a task. Surely, some snow couldn't provide much protection from an attack? Why waste their time?

Sokka had explained that the walls weren't for keeping anything out- they were for keeping the heat in. On the icy tundra, it was difficult to make and keep enough warmth to keep everyone safe. Fires could blow out, clothes could get wet, but the snow was thick and insulating. Those snow walls were what let their people survive out here on the ice.

And Zuko's ship was on course to plow right through them.

"What's going on?! Helmsman! Why aren't we stopping?!"

"We are, Prince Zuko!" Came the answering call. "The ship should come to a stop somewhere near the edge of the village!"

"That's not good enough!" Zuko snarled in response. "Stop faster! Weigh anchor if you have to!"

"I'm telling you, we already have! We can't stop any faster than this!"

Zuko spun on his heel, watching them plow forward, too fast. He took a deep breath, pushing his swirling emotions out of the way, and returned below deck to join the landing party. No pity, no weakness. These people were hiding his quarry from them. They deserved what was coming to them.

---

Sokka took his place as sole defender of the village, perched near his watchtower on the low wall. He held his club before him, as much for his own nerves as for expressing a threat. 

Slowly, it dawned on him that the warship was not stopping quickly enough. It began to tear through the ice shelf, the resistance aiding in its deceleration. Still, it grew closer and closer, pushing the packed snow with its advance. Sokka nearly lost his footing, but held firmly upright. It was all for naught, though, as the snow beneath him slid into a slope, bringing him down to ground level and out of the way of the ship as it finally halted. 

He took a deep breath, fighting the encroaching fear as the hull began to open, steam spilling out of it in thick clouds. 

A handful of Fire Navy soldiers spilled out, their boots ringing out on the metal ramp. Leading them was a soldier in a differently-styled helmet than the others, face partially visible, and significantly shorter than the rest. He strode forward with purpose, the others trailing behind. 

Sokka set his sights on that one. He had to be the leader. 

He charged forward, club raised above his head, boots sinking deep in the piled snow before gaining traction on the ship's solid ramp. 

Without flinching, the leading soldier swung out a shockingly quick kick, sending his club flying into the snow, followed shortly by his face. 

Sokka gathered himself, shaking the snow off of himself. Judging by the wetness of his face and the gray smudges in the snow, his war paint was mostly gone. Fair enough. He felt less like a warrior than ever. He gripped his club anyway.

---

Zuko had been expecting some resistance, but the village had a single warrior standing guard.

Well, warrior was a bit of a strong word. Within moments, it was clear this boy was untrained and inexperienced. He'd deflected his advance in moments, focussed on his goal. 

He led the landing party to the snow, crunching beneath their boots, already beginning to soak through with freezing water. Their uniforms weren't designed for this awful place. 

Villagers, all clothed in familiar blue and white furs, spilled from the surrounding tents, looking on in fear and horror. He smothered the guilty feeling in his chest with triumph. Surely, they reacted like this because they knew who he was here for, the guilt they felt for hiding such an important fugitive eating at them.

"Where is he?" He demanded. "Over one hundred years old? Master of all four elements?" 

The villagers played dumb, shaking their heads in mock confusion. He seethed. He knew they were hiding the Avatar, but they lied straight to his face!

A cracked war cry alerted him to the teenage warrior making another charge. He dodged smoothly, watching with boredom as the boy overshot. Zuko sent a blast of fire his way, a warning shot. Surely, the boy would think twice before attacking a bender. 

Instead, he reached for another weapon, spinning around to fling it. The weapon spun through the air, missing Zuko by a wide margin. He watched it go, then rounded on the boy in fury. 

The anger bled from him in an instant. 

The snow had wiped away the majority of the war paint the boy had previously worn, revealing his face. Young, angular, and terribly familiar. 

Crouching before him, wielding a spear of bone, was his soulmate. 

He stared, shocked, wide-eyed, frozen in place. How could he be… no, he knew this was his home. The other boy had mentioned other villages scattered about the pole, but that didn't lower the likelihood of him finding the right one by all that much. 

The tip of the spear dropped. Sokka's brows furrowed in confusion. Probably wondering why Zuko was here. He'd begun to wonder that, himself. 

"Sokka…?" He began. The other boy drew in a sharp breath of surprise. He held his gaze for a long moment. 

Quite suddenly, the moment was broken. Something fast and solid smacked into his helmet, sending it flying. He snarled, holding his head and watching the helmet tumble into the snow. Returning his gaze to the young warrior, he caught his expression of dawning recognition. 

"Zuko…?" 

--- 

Of course he hadn't recognized him, not at first. His face was older now, more angular, the baby fat having mostly burned away. His awful burn had healed only in the loosest sense of the word, the skin pink and puckered around a glassy eye. 

His hair, though, was still shaved into the style he had last seen it in, and the gold of his eyes remained bright as ever. 

It was undeniable. 

The name slipped from his lips unbidden, almost a prayer. A prayer that he was, somehow, wrong, that the boy he'd spent so many sleeping hours befriending wasn't the boy presently attacking his village, his people, in exactly the kind of betrayal he'd always feared but never expected. 

His prayers always went unanswered. 

Instead of the firebender in front of him miraculously not being Zuko, the miracle that presented was Aang's sudden presence, taking the boy out with a wildly sliding penguin. 

Fight the Fire Nation with fun, huh? 

--- 

The fury searing through him melted the snow piled on his armor in an instant as he rounded on the boy. Just a kid, looking disoriented as the penguin he was riding honked off into the distance. Zuko motioned his soldiers forward, surrounding the boy. He looked nervous, clutching his staff to himself. 

Something was incredibly suspicious about this child. Strange clothes, strange tattoos, clearly not dressed nearly warmly enough for the climate. 

Zuko's suspicions were confirmed as the boy sent an unnatural gust of wind into the snow, forming waves that forced his soldiers back. 

"You're the airbender?!" He couldn't believe it. "You're the Avatar?!" 

A murmur of surprise spread through the gathered villagers. Zuko felt much the same. All this time, he'd expected to face a master, well past his prime, but with the fury of the combined elements at his back. This? This boy was so young, so untrained. 

Zuko struck out impulsively, angry that his years of hard training had been wasted. The airbender forced the flames away with an easy spin of his staff, catching the fire in the wind and snuffing it out. 

"You're just a child!"

The boy tilted his head in confusion. "Well, you're just a teenager." 

As though he didn't understand the weight of Zuko's fury. As though his age wasn't so incredibly important. 

What did it mean? Had the Avatar been reborn through the entire cycle without anyone knowing? How was this boy even born, or trained, for that matter? Did he even know what he was?

Well, yes, he had to. He hadn't reacted with surprise when Zuko had accused him of being the Avatar, only the villagers had. 

This was giving Zuko a headache. 

His mission hadn't changed. Bring the Avatar to his father, prove himself worthy of his throne. He struck out with more precision, sending bursts of flame towards the airbender. 

It was foolish of him, knowing how easily the airbender had deflected him before, but it still worked in his favor. The boy gave up almost as soon as the battle began, demanding Zuko leave the village untouched in return for his compliance. 

Zuko readily agreed. 

The Avatar was his.

---

The village scrambled to repair the damage as soon as the ship reversed course. The sooner they could get a wall up, the better. Unfortunately, much of the ice shelf had been damaged, so the entire village would have to be moved further inland soon, but for now, a temporary wall would have to do. 

Sokka and Katara weren't helping. 

Sokka was busily readying a canoe, filling it with whatever he could think they may need. Food, weapons, changes of clothes… he couldn't be sure how long it would take to overtake the Fire Navy vessel. 

Katara was ranting to herself, or maybe she actually expected him to hear her? She stood out on the ice, watching the ship shrink into the distance. 

"Katara?" He finally cut in. She just continued without him, voice becoming more shrill with panic. "Katara!"

"What?!" She rounded on him furiously, tears at the corners of her eyes. 

"Are you gonna talk to yourself all day or are you coming with me?" 

"Sokka!" She flung herself at him, strangling him into a tight hug. 

"Come on, let's go save your soulmate." 

"We don't know that he's-"

"What are you two doing?" Gran-Gran shuffled over, stomping through the deepening snow. Already, the new flurries were beginning to cover the soot. "You'll need these. You may have a long journey ahead of you." 

She held out two bundles. The sleeping bags! Of course, how could he have forgotten! 

"Thanks, Gran-Gran."

The trio shared tight hugs and warm goodbyes, Gran-Gran imparting some last-minute sage advice, before sending them off. 

"Although… I don't think we'll ever catch up to them in a canoe." Katara murmured. 

"Well, what's your plan, then?" Sokka huffed. 

"Aang's bison must be somewhere around here, remember? He couldn't have gone too far." Katara raced off, climbing the nearest hill. Sokka heard the now-familiar lowing. "Appa! You came back all on your own!" She cheered. 

Sure enough, the bison was trudging steadily towards the village, forming deep grooves with his wide, flat tail. Katara raced forward to meet him, Sokka trailing begrudgingly behind. He couldn't deny that the beast was a decently fast swimmer. 

They climbed into the saddle easily, the bison using his tail to aid them, and stowed their belongings into the space clearly designed for the purpose. Katara took the reigns, leading them towards the ship, already invisible over the horizon. 

She cooed and coddled, coaxing the beast into the air. Sokka combed his brain, remembering Aang had given some sort of short command when he'd wanted the beast to fly. What was it? Katara's incessant gabbing, interspersed with insults for Sokka, was distracting. 

"Yee-haw? Hup-hup? That was closer… Yup-yup? Yip-yip?" 

Bingo. Without warning, a gust swirled around them, then below, sending them speeding into the sky. Sokka couldn't believe it. Nervous, delighted laughter bubbled unbidden from his chest. 

"We're flying! We're really flying! Katara, are you seeing this?!"

The smug look on her face killed his elation. 

"Right, whatever. Big deal." He hated proving her right. She was insufferable.

---

Zuko had barely made it to his quarters when he heard the commotion in the halls. Well, the bait had already been delivered to his room. The Avatar wouldn't leave without his staff, he hoped. No, he was sure. 

He laid a trap, forcing the boy into another confrontation. 

Sure enough, the boy recklessly barrelled into the room, loudly announcing his arrival, and was caught completely off guard when Zuko sealed the exit. 

"I suppose we underestimated you. No matter. You won't escape so easily." 

The confrontation was just as short-lived as their last, but ended far less well. Zuko feared he'd have a concussion from the force with which the boy threw him into the metal walls of the ship. 

And then he was gone. 

Zuko scrambled to catch up, chasing him up to the bridge, where he saw the boy leap out over the deck. Surely he wasn't so reckless… no, the staff released cloth wings and the boy glided away. 

Seized with panic, Zuko flung himself after his quarry, his one chance at redemption. He couldn't fail, not when he'd had his first glimpse at the end in over two years. His fingers barely made purchase on the Avatar's boot, but he gripped tightly. His weight threw off the glider, sending them both crashing down to the deck in a rare stroke of luck. The universe was giving him chance after chance today, and he wouldn't waste it. 

---

Appa flew far faster than either of them had ever moved, but the wind whipping around him settled into a more gentle breeze in the saddle. Airbending, Sokka assumed, which would explain how it flew without wings. 

They closed the distance to the ship in minutes, just in time to see Aang forced off the side of the ship with a blast of fire. His body splashed, limply, into the frozen surf. Sokka felt sick with panic. Katara's voice rang, distantly, in his ears, screaming Aang's name. 

All hope was lost. No matter how little the cold seemed to affect him, even he couldn't survive a plunge into those icy waters. They wouldn't be fast enough to rescue him. 

The universe, luckily, loved to prove Sokka wrong. 

The sea bubbled and swayed, a familiar glow rising from the depths. A whirlpool formed, then rose, bringing Aang's body with it, tattoos once again alight. The water obeyed him, dropping him gently on the ship before whipping into the gathered soldiers. 

Katara guided Appa to land on the deck, catching Aang as he crumpled. Seems like the glowy thing he did took a lot out of him. 

"Are you okay?" Katara worried. 

"Hey guys… thanks for coming." Aang smiled weakly. 

"Yeah, well…" Sokka shrugged, faux-smug. 

"I dropped my staff…" Aang began. Sokka rushed over before he finished. 

"Got it."

He snatched the staff up, already turning back to Aang once it was in his grip. Unexpectedly, it gave him some resistance. He tugged at it, turning to see what was holding it back.

Zuko's panicked yellow eyes stared back at him, trying to scramble up the side of the ship.

Sokka jerked the staff once more, sliding it out of Zuko's grasp. He slipped, grasping for a hold, but was falling away from the hull. 

"Shit, Zuko!"

Unthinkingly, Sokka dropped the staff, flinging his arm out to snag the firebender before he fell. Zuko grabbed hold, hands shaking, and pulled himself back up. 

"Sokka?! What are you doing?!" Katara's panicked voice brought him back to the present. Right. They were on opposite sides of this conflict. 

"Thank you…" Zuko whispered. Sokka's heart leapt, but he swallowed it back down.

"Don't mention it, seriously." 

He dived for the staff again, narrowly dodging his sister's uncoordinated waterbending freezing Zuko's feet in place as he did. 

The other soldiers had received similar treatment while he was distracted, frozen solid to the deck. Katara helped him into Appa's saddle, even as he shouted for the bison to take off.

"Yip-yip! Yip-yip!" 

Appa obediently took off, leaving the ship behind. Sokka watched as an older man swooped over, helping Zuko melt the ice around his boots. Appa had nearly cleared the looming glacier when the two sent a combined fire blast at the beast. 

So much for gratefulness… 

Aang easily swept the blast aside, sending it rocketing into the glacier, and sending the glacier rocketing into the Fire Navy vessel. Sokka held his breath for one awful second, watching the heavy snow bury the ship, and let out a heavy sigh of mixed relief and disappointment as all of the soldiers were unharmed. 

"That was a close one." Katara sighed. 

"Yeah… Hey, Sokka! How did you know that guy?"

Sokka grit his teeth, tension gripping him. Of course Aang wouldn't just leave it well enough alone. 

"Yeah, Sokka. How is it that you happen to be buddies with a Fire Nation soldier?"

"We're not buddies ." Sokka argued.

"Aren't you? You seemed pretty buddy-buddy back there. Putting Aang in danger to rescue him and all."

"Hey, don't be so hard on him!" Aang waved his hands. "All life is sacred! I wouldn't want to see people die just to keep me safe!"

"Not the time, Aang." Katara snapped, still fuming at her brother. "When did you even meet him? You knew each other's names!"

"It's… a long story, okay, Katara? Maybe another time? When we're not running for our lives?"

"We're running away from a friend of yours, apparently! I think now is the time!"

"Guys, seriously! Please don't fight on Appa!"

"I told you, he's not my friend! Not anymore, anyway…"

"And just what does that mean? I feel like I don't even know you anymore! This is a huge secret you've been keeping from me! And I don't even know how big! What's going on, Sokka?! Talk to me!"

Sokka winced. She made a point. He had been keeping this from everyone, and for this exact reason. 

"Okay. I'll tell you. But-!" He cut off whatever she was going to say next with a raised finger. "But you have to promise to listen quietly and not get mad at me."

"If you have to say that, you probably deserve for me to be mad at you…" Katara grumbled. 

"Ah, ah, ah!" Sokka shook the raised finger. "None of that!"

"Fine! Just tell us!" Katara threw her hands up, groaning. Aang turned himself around on Appa's head, trusting the bison to lead them. 

"Alright, then. It all started one night, seven whole years ago, just a little while after my eight birthday…"

He told the story Katara should have already known. How he'd had some sort of spirit dream, which led him to Zuko. How he'd told everyone his dream the next day, how that was why Katara had tried the ritual in the first place. How their parents had looked so scared when they heard about it, knowing he was tied to a Fire Nation noble.

"Wow! So that guy was a noble?! He didn't seem very fancy, though!" 

"He's not just a noble, though." Sokka chewed his lip, still fighting with himself over how much to tell them. "He's the crown prince." 

"Woah… hey, if your soulmate is a prince, that makes you kind of royalty, too, huh?" Aang grinned. Like the guy in question hadn't just attempted to kidnap him and turn him over to the Fire Lord. 

"I don't think that's how it works, Aang. Besides, I don't even know if he is my soulmate. There's no reason to just believe that soulmates exist, anyway." Aang's face fell at that. "And even if they do, I can't say from one spirit dream that he's definitely my soulmate or anything!" 

There it was. No lies of omission or anything, he'd cemented it. He'd officially lied to his sister about the guy. He hoped she didn't look too far into how he could possibly recognize the guy seven years later after one single meeting. 

"That's a crazy coincidence, though, Sokka! I guess the spirits have something really important planned for all of us!" Aang responded optimistically. 

"Of course they do." Katara said matter-of-factly. "You're the Avatar, after all. You're our only hope of ending the war, once and for all!" 

It was Aang's turn to tense up. He turned away, focussed on steering Appa suddenly. 

Katara looked guilty. "Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar? We could have done more to help, to keep you safe." 

"Because… I never wanted to be."

Sokka could get that. A destiny forced on him by the spirits that he never asked for? It wasn't the same, but it was awfully familiar.

---

"So, nephew." Uncle stepped up behind Zuko as he watched his men clear the ship of piles of snow. As they dug, more fell from above. "You never told me you had a friend from around here. You must grace me with the details sometime." 

Zuko clenched his fists, steam sizzling from within them. "He's not a friend." 

"Ah, my mistake, then. It's just that you two seemed so friendly."

Zuko huffed. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Very well, nephew. I will be in my room if you change your mind." 

Zuko watched him go, clenching his jaw. If he could talk to anyone about this, just to get it off his chest, it would be Uncle. This, though… this wasn't something he wanted to be out in the open. If he never talked about it, it wouldn't be quite real. He could still deny it, focus on his goal. 

No distractions. He couldn't afford to make any more mistakes. 

Chapter Text

The Southern Air Temple was nothing like Aang had described. It was empty, the monks long dead, the sky bison and lemurs scattered, at best. The one lone survivor, the lemur, chittered as he scampered about the saddle. Sokka pretended not to notice the way Aang's eyes watered at Momo's antics. It was clear enough that he was remembering home. 

It was those watery eyes that had the siblings acquiescing to his ever detour. 

The boy had heard countless rumors about fun things to do, apparently. Despite insisting that every stop was 'on the way', their route meandered all around the southern islands, hopping from place to place and circling back and forth without any sort of pattern.

The stops weren't always even fun. The hogmonkeys, in particular, had been traumatizing. Momo had nearly been eaten, Katara had narrowly escaped her hair being torn out, and Aang had ended up with more scratches than healthy skin. 

Now, they were searching any islands with bays for giant koi fish. Aang couldn't even remember where he'd heard they lived, except for the shape of the island and that it was on the southern side of the Earth Kingdom. 

They'd had to stop in various townships to stock up on supplies, trading a few hours of work for a few days of food, and Katara was beginning to get antsy about reaching the Northern Water Tribe. 

Worse, Sokka got the distinct feeling half of these trips were just excuses to impress Katara, and that he was so hung up on the giant koi for that reason. 

So, here they were, flying into another bay of another island, when Aang finally spotted his quarry. 

"Look! There they are! That's what I've been looking for!"

The fish were even bigger than Sokka had envisioned. If a normal koi was the length of your forearm, a giant koi couldn't be more than, what, human-sized? 

These fish rivalled Appa in terms of sheer mass.

When the bison touched down on the shores, Aang had already begun to divest himself of his layered clothing. 

"Come on, Katara! You have to watch this!" 

---

It was just Zuko's luck that they'd run into that damned Captain- no, Commander, now- when they needed to dock for repairs. His favorite pastime was to be a thorn in Zuko's side. He'd make snide remarks about how Zuko's mission was impossible, and shouldn't he give up already? He'd never had any honor to reclaim, anyway. Then he'd commandeer supplies from their vessel, claiming he'd be putting it to much better use, and citing some bullshit maritime emergency protocol to excuse it. Uncle had said that while the protocol didn't technically apply, they had no authority to fight him, anyway.

And now the bastard had been promoted.

Zuko grit his teeth, stretching out a sore shoulder from the Agni Kai the day before. Zhao was easy enough to defeat, completely lacking any control and throwing reckless attacks, leaving him with huge openings to exploit, but the duel itself had worn Zuko out. Soon, he told himself, the repairs would be done and they could finally be on their way. 

Not that he had any clue which way that was, to be fair. They couldn't ask any questions which might tip people off to their quarry, so they'd have to lay low and get creative. Where would they even start? 

Uncle would know, he reasoned. The old General had overseen enough of this war to have some experience. 

Zuko braced himself for the conversation, needing extra mental fortitude to endure the endless riddles. In times like these, he missed Sokka's ability to translate proverbs into normal human speech. 

Shaking that thought from his head, he knocked on Uncle's door. 

"Come in, come in, I'll have a pot of tea ready in a moment." Uncle's voice called from within. Zuko wondered if Uncle knew it was him, but knew the man would likely treat all the men on board the same way. 

He gently opened the door, unable to avoid the squeaking of the hinges, and let himself in. 

"Ah, Prince Zuko! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Uncle smiled warmly, indicating a cushion at the low table for Zuko to sit at. Zuko accepted the offer. 

"I wanted to ask for your advice on tracking the Avatar, Uncle." 

"Of course, of course. Ask away, then." Uncle warmed the pot gently, slowly, on a low fire, while he prepared leaves into a decorative steeper he must have just purchased at market, since Zuko didn't recognize it. 

"I'm not sure where to begin. We have no leads. I presumed you would have some experience with this."

"Indeed I do, my nephew. Although, it is not quite fair to say we do not have any leads. I heard something very interesting at the market this morning." He paused, pouring the light-colored tea into two small cups, placing one nearer to Zuko. Zuko accepted the cup, swallowing his impatience along with the beverage. "You see, it is not every day that one sees a bison soar through the air. Many find such a thing notable enough to chit-chat about during their morning shopping." 

"What?! Where?!" The low fire beneath the teapot surged with his excitement, flames licking up the sides of the pot. He took a deep breath to calm himself, returning the little fire to its former size, but the damage had already been done. Uncle peeked into the pot with a frown, seeing the tea instantly darkened, the leaves scalded.

"From what I could hear, the sailors spotted the creature on their way into port from the Earth Kingdom. Here, it will be easier to show you."

Uncle pulled out a map from a shelf nearby and unrolled it. He pointed to a spot on the map near where they were now. "This is where the bison was spotted." He slid the finger northeast. "And this is the direction he was flying. If we ask around here," he indicated a fishing village on the map, "we may hear something useful." 

"Then we know where to start. Thank you, Uncle." 

"Of course, nephew. Perhaps you'd like to come along next time, visit the market with me. Perhaps you may overhear something valuable, as well."

Zuko knew exactly the kinds of things he'd 'overhear' in the market. The common folk were rarely tight-lipped about their opinions, and he'd heard enough speculation about his face and 'training accidents' to last him a lifetime. 

"I'll consider it." 

---

Riding the giant koi looked fun and all, but Sokka didn't think it was worth nearly being eaten by a sea monster or being captured and tied up in the town square, let alone both in quick succession. He tensed as his blindfold was removed, squinting into the sunlight while his eyes adjusted. 

They were surrounded by uniformed girls, none much older than he was, all ready with bladed fans. 

"Where are the men who ambushed us?" Sokka demanded, confused. 

"There are no men. We ambushed you." The girl in front, who bore a different headdress than the others, asserted. 

"But you're just a bunch of girls!" 

Sokka winced. That wasn't how he'd meant to phrase that. He was more surprised seeing the lack of any adults than by the gender of the teenagers. 

"The Unagi will eat well tonight." The girl threatened. 

Katara jumped in to defend and insult him in one breath and, when that didn't work, Aang revealed his identity as the Avatar. 

The mood shifted instantly. 

Sokka could get used to this kind of hero worship. Being friends with the Avatar apparently came with perks. A feast was thrown in their honor and the most luxurious rooms the village had to offer were theirs for the night. He and Katara were ready to move on as soon as they had their fill, maybe grab some things at the market, but Aang had found yet another distraction: the group of young girls who worshipped the ground he walked on. 

The village was strangely full of young girls. At least half the village was girls below the age of twenty, with most of them Aang's age or younger. Sokka wandered the village, seeing only a handful of adults and no young boys, until he happened upon a dojo. 

The leader of the uniformed squad was barking orders inside, to the time of shuffling feet. Sokka peeked around the corner of the sliding door, and saw the entire squad, in full garb, running kata in perfect unison. He whistled, impressed at their precision and timing, attracting the attention of the leader. 

She turned sharply, tassels swinging around her face, and glowered at the intruder. 

"This is a private training lesson, not a dance class. Get out."

Sokka tensed, guilty. "Look, I'm sorry for what I said yesterday-"

"That's nice. I'm busy." She turned away, barking at the squad to start at the top. 

"Please, I just want to apologize." 

She sighed heavily, waving to the other girls. They snapped their fans shut, relaxing their stances. The leader turned back around, lips pursed. 

"Fine. Go ahead." 

He bowed low, speaking to the floorboards. "I didn't mean to insult you, but I did. I was surprised. I shouldn't have been. You clearly work really hard to defend this village." 

"We do, thank you. Is that all?"

"No… I wanted to ask…" Sokka sat up, leaning back on his heels. "I don't have the kind of formal training that you all do. I was hoping that, as long as we're here, you could show me some things."

"Hmm." She cocked her head, tapping her fan against her painted lips. "Normally, we don't allow boys to train with us, you know." 

"I… understand."

"But." She sighed, sizing Sokka up. He sat up straight. "It would be against our code to deny aid to the Avatar where we can. Since you're traveling with him, protecting him, teaching you to fight will serve the greater good."

She turned over her shoulder, addressing the other girls, who had begun to whisper to one another. "What do you think, girls?"

A murmur swept through the crowd, before one girl spoke up. "We'll trust your judgement, Suki. As always."

The leader turned back to Sokka, offering her hand. He took it, letting her pull him to his feet. "You understand that while you train with us, you'll be required to follow all of our traditions?"

"Of course." Sokka readily agreed. "Whatever it takes."

"That's the spirit. Be here an hour before dawn tomorrow." 

"Yes, ma'am." He bowed, taking his leave of the dojo. The girls returned to their training immediately, Suki's voice ringing out orders as he wandered down the street toward the inn. 

Katara was purchasing supplies as he passed, and he waved her down. She looked to be in a sour mood. 

"Hey, Katara. What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. Why would anything be wrong? Everything's just peachy-keen!"

"Oookay?" Sokka scratched his head, confused. "Listen, I wanted to ask if it would be okay if we stuck around for a while." 

"Sokka…" There was acid in her voice. 

"Just a few days!" He hurriedly added, waving his hands defensively. "The girls that ambushed us agreed to train me. I figured it would be good for all of us if I was… well, if I could handle myself in a fight better." 

"Hmm." Katara looked like she didn't quite trust him. "Fine. Whatever. I'm sure Aang will be so happy to know we're spending more time here!" She bruised a zucchini as she slammed it into her basket. Sokka gulped. 

"Well, uh, okay… I'm gonna head back to the room now… gotta make sure I'm ready for whatever they're gonna throw at me tomorrow…" 

"You do that." Katara spat, icy. That was the tone that warned you that you would be icy soon if you didn't leave, now. 

He wondered what Aang could have done to piss her off. 

---

The ship followed the rumors around various ports. Taking into account the general time of each sighting, the direction the bison seemed to be heading, and rumors about water tribe visitors to various markets, the crew was under orders to plot out the Avatar's path. Zuko asked Uncle to extrapolate a projected path and destination from the information gathered, and to report to him when he was finished. 

The firebender was full of nervous energy in the meantime, too worked up to train effectively or safely. After singeing a bit off of Lieutenant Jee's sideburns, Uncle had suggested he take some time to meditate while the others carried out their orders. Zuko had reluctantly acquiesced. 

He sat, legs crossed, before the small shrine in his quarters. Feeling the flames from the candles and the flames in his chest as one, he breathed deeply, steadily. In, and the flames dipped low, drawing into himself. Out, and the flames grew, the buzzing, nervous energy leaving his body, burning into smoke. In, drawing warmth into his chest. Out, pushing warmth into the cold, metal room. In, filling his lungs with the fuel for his fire. Out, putting that fuel to use. In- 

The hatch opened, creaking loudly. 

He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the intruder. "Uncle, you have news?" 

"You will not like it." Uncle warned. 

Out. 

"You are the one who taught me that a great leader can keep a level head even under the most stressful of circumstances. I can handle it."

"Very well. I've charted the Avatar's path, and I have no idea where he is."

"What?!" The candles burned brightly, the wax melting and burning away all at once, consumed with his anger. "How can that be?! What have you even been doing all this time?!" Zuko snatched the map out of Uncle's hands, unrolling it before him. Several notes were scratched at various points, darker symbols painted onto points where multiple eyewitness accounts aligned. The sightings were sporadic, with no sort of correlation or path immediately visible. Even Uncle could not piece out this puzzle. 

"Airbenders specialize in evasive maneuvering, I suppose…" This route was oddly reminiscent of the Avatar's fighting style, hopping and floating around the battlefield just as he hopped around the map. "Set a course towards his last known location. We'll pick up the trail one way or another."

---

Unused to waking up early, or following times set by the sun more generally, Sokka was bleary-eyed and sluggish when he entered the dojo before daybreak. The girls were already dressed in their uniforms, painting their faces. 

"You're late!" Suki's voice barked from behind him. He yelped, tumbling forward onto the soft flooring. 

"Sorry." 

She smiled, holding out a uniform. "You're excused. This time. Get changed, then we'll show you how to apply the paints." She pointed out a decorative screen on one wall. "Girls? Give the boy some privacy." 

The girls all tittered, glancing his way as he sidled behind the screen. 

The uniform was nothing like he'd ever worn before, generally avoiding putting on dresses when he could, and it took him an embarrasingly long time to figure out how it all worked. After some struggling, Suki took pity on him, swinging around the screen to show him how the armor worked. 

"I won't do it for you, but I can demonstrate on my own." She explained. "It's important that you put on your own uniform. It symbolises taking on the responsibility of the role of your own free will. It also means that if you get injured, you'll be able to get out of your armor without help." 

Sokka nodded, watching her deft hands carefully and emulating the motions himself. The armor tightened, fitting oddly around his chest and hips, but it was functional enough. 

"Sorry for the fit." She looked genuinely apologetic. "For fully-fledged warriors, we usually make the armor custom. This is an old spare we had."

Sokka nodded. "I sort of… expected it to fit weirdly. Since, you know…" 

Suki hummed. "It's not unusual for us to have girls… shaped like you, you know." 

Sokka frowned. "What…?" 

She seemed to consider her next words carefully. "When I said we don't allow boys to join… Kyoshi herself believed that all one needs to be a woman is to understand oneself as a woman, so we believe the same. No matter the circumstances of that woman's birth."

"Oh." Sokka didn't really get it, but he nodded anyway. 

"Well, you're all dressed! Let's get you those paints."

Suki presented him with three pots, each containing an oily paint. They were similar enough to the war paints he'd used back home, and he applied them with expert ease. Suki seemed surprised and impressed, but didn't ask about it. 

"Like the uniform, the paints must be applied by each warrior herself. This part is less about safety and more about symbolism, though." She laughed, and Sokka couldn't help the dopey smile spreading across his face. 

He also couldn't help the vaguely guilty feeling gnawing at his gut. 

"Thanks for all the help, Suki. What's next?" 

Next, it turned out, was a salutation to the dawn. The warriors ran through stretches and kata from each of the four nations, out of respect for Kyoshi, who was an Avatar herself. The sturdy stances of earthbending, the shifting stances of waterbending, the fierce stances of firebending, the lithe stances of airbending. Already, Sokka felt muscles he'd never used before at work. 

They took a brief respite after, eating a simple meal together as a group. 

"Eating together promotes unity. It's a symbol of our community and the cohesion of our unit."

"And what does the rice symbolise?" Sokka joked. 

Suki laughed. "The rice is for fueling your muscles for the workout we're about to put you through. Try not to throw up."

The smile fell from Sokka's face. He really hoped she was joking.

She definitely wasn't joking. 

---

Uncle's passive approach to information gathering again proved the most fruitful. Waiting in port for the soldiers to report, Zuko sat for a quiet breakfast with his uncle. The cook swept in with some fresh-caught salmon, and delivered news along with it. 

"There are rumors out of Kyoshi Island, sir. A boy claiming to be the Avatar landed there yesterday. I cannot say if he's still there, but…"

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!" Zuko snapped, rising from the low table. "We need to set course immediately!" 

"Yes, sir." The cook bowed in apology. 

Uncle pointed at the steaming plate of fish. "Are you going to eat that?"

"Yes!" Zuko snatched the plate from him, snagging his bowl of rice as well before storming away to inform the helmsman. 

---

After a long, brutal day, Sokka sat with Suki watching the sun set on the little village. He hadn't thrown up, after all, but he was pleasantly exhausted in the way that guaranteed he'd be unpleasantly sore the following day, even ignoring the bruises sure to be blooming soon. 

"You learn fast." Suki complimented. Sokka preened. 

"Oh, really?" 

She laughed. "Don't get a big head. It was hard enough to find a headband that would fit you." 

Sokka held a hand to his chest. "Ah! I'm hurt! Genuinely hurt! How could you wound me like this?" 

Suki laughed, elbowing him in the side. Sokka couldn't help but join in. It was comfortable, easy… 

Suki leaned against his arm and that guilty feeling came gnawing back at him. 

She must have felt his tension, because she drew away, sitting upright once more. "Sorry." She murmured. 

"No, no, you don't need to-" Sokka sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. I just… have a lot on my mind."

A weak smile tugged at her lips. "You didn't strike me as the deep-thinking type."

"I'm full of surprises! A man of many talents, if you will." 

"Hmm." She rolled her eyes playfully. 

Sokka scrambled to change the subject, hating being so hung up on Zuko when there was a pretty girl clearly interested in him right here. 

"So… where's all the adults?"

"Hmm?"

"In the village, there's… I dunno, it seems like not enough adults to have this many kids running around. And all girls, too."

A laugh bubbled out of Suki's chest. "I guess I didn't realise… you really hadn't heard of Kyoshi Island, huh?" 

Sokka shook his head. "Not a lot of news travels all the way to the south pole." 

She hummed again. "Kyoshi Island isn't your average village. It's specifically here for training warriors."

"What? Really?"

She nodded. "People from all over the Earth Kingdom send their daughters here to train. It has the added benefit of keeping us safe from the war while we're here. I came here when I was eight, and I've been training here since." 

"And you haven't seen your family in all that time?"

She shook her head, looking down. She picked her gloves. 

"Where are they? Where are you from?"

"A little farming village. Near a Fire Nation colony. When the war started heating up, the soldiers at the colony got antsy. Mom didn't want me to get caught up in it."

"I'm sorry. That sounds tough." 

"Yeah, but it means I get to be here. After the older warriors left to defend their own homes, I was left as the leader. It's a big responsibility, but… it's worth it."

Sokka knew something about responsibility. "I was the only warrior left in my village after the men left to join the war front." He chewed his lip, feeling a weight settle on his chest. "I left them all defenseless when I left with my sister and Aang, though. I abandoned my duty."

Suki nudged him with her shoulder. "You didn't abandon anything. One untrained teenager isn't much of a defense, anyway." 

"Gee, thanks." 

"What I meant was… you didn't abandon your duty. You picked up a new one. If the Avatar doesn't succeed, you won't have much of a village to defend, anyway."

Sokka let all of the air escape him. He ran a hand along his hair. "Way to put pressure on a guy." 

"Sorry." Suki stood gracefully, extending a hand to him. "Let's get you as much training as we can. The more I can teach you, the better you can perform your duty."

---

The ship pulled into the small bay smoothly. Zuko gripped the reigns of his komodo-rhino. With luck, the Avatar would still be here. 

Luck was rarely on his side. 

The hatch swung open, the ramp descending to the beach below. The moment it touched down, Zuko prodded his mount along swiftly, the rest of the landing party following suit. 

The beasts surged forward, claws digging into the soft sand, tails sliding curving patterns behind them. 

The sandy path swirled before them, shifting to rock a short ways up through the bare trees. The komodo-rhinos' claws clicked and scratched, tap-tapping a rythm to their advance. 

---

Training the next morning had to be cut short early. A Fire Navy vessel had been spotted in the bay, and Sokka had a sinking feeling he knew which one. 

The Kyoshi Warriors, along with Sokka, spread out around the village. The villagers took refuge inside their homes and businesses, watching fearfully out of their doors for encroaching soldiers. 

Sokka heard them before he saw them. 

The shuffling of heavy, clawed feet drew ever closer, broken by the shouting of a familiar voice into the still air. 

"Find the Avatar!" Zuko ordered. 

Sokka gripped his borrowed fans tightly. 

The other warriors used the opportunity, as the komodo-rhinos put distance between one another to canvas the village, to unseat the soldiers. In the chaos, Suki sprinted towards Zuko, hanging back from the rest of the group. Sokka surged after her, trying to shout a warning of some sort, but only making it as far as shouting her name before several bursts of flame seared towards her. She deftly dodged, but was too slow for the swining tail of his mount. 

Sokka caught up, putting his body between Suki and Zuko, failing to fall into any sort of fighting stance.

He could tell the moment Zuko recognized him. 

The firebender's shoulders fell, his eyes widened. "Sokka…?" He murmured, nearly a whisper. 

A third warrior swooped in from the roof above, unseating him and tossing him to the ground. She smacked the komodo-rhino with the flat of her bladed fan, and the beast sped away. 

Suki returned to her feet swiftly. "You know him, Sokka?" She murmured. 

"You can say that." 

Zuko groaned, eyes narrowed. He attempted to push himself to his feet, but three pairs of fans were suddenly leveled on him. The girl (whose name Sokka hadn't learned just yet) rushed forward, tying Zuko's wrists together with a ribbon deftly. 

"Wait!" Sokka shouted. "Don't do that, he attacks with his-"

As expected, Zuko kicked out a blast of fire from the soles of his feet, sending Suki flying and wrenching himself out of the other girl's grasp. Sokka, expecting the attack, narrowly avoided it, only to be faced with a smoking fist inches from his face. 

"You can't keep him from me! You know what this means to me!" Zuko shouted, sparks flying from between his teeth. 

"And you know we can't just give him up like this!" Mindless of how reckless it was, Sokka surged forward, knocking Zuko back with open palms against his chest. The firebender dropped his fist. 

"Why not?! What difference will it even make?! My father's as good as won already!"

"Exactly!" Sokka shouted back, just as vehement. "He's the last hope we have!"

"He's the only hope I have!"

"No, Zuko!" Sokka fought the tears trying to form. Zuko's own wet eyes didn't make it any easier. "You make your own hope, Zuko! That guy can't define for you what your hope is! " 

The fight left Zuko's shoulders. 

"Come join us. Help us fix this, fix everything. You aren't as helpless as you think, Zuko."

Zuko's eyebrows furrowed, face tensing into a grimace. He squeezed his eyes shut against the tears threatening to come. The war in his heart threatened to tear him apart. 

"Sokka?! What are you doing?!" Katara's voice rang from a nearby home, shielding the villagers within with her body, and the moment was gone. 

Smoke billowed from Zuko's nose as he exhaled, shifting into a fighting stance once more. Sokka staggered back, clumsily gripping the unfamiliar fans, but nowhere near fast enough to block the flames licking toward him. 

At the last moment, a gust of wind knocked the fire off course, careening into the nearest building. Aang drew Zuko's ire, allowing Sokka to meet up with Katara and rush to ready Appa. 

The bison was more than ready to take off, having already lumbered out of the stables and toward the commotion. Sokka retrieved his bag from inside the dojo, throwing it up to Katara, who caught it neatly. 

"Wait!" Suki's voice shouted from behind him. She held her side gingerly, still aching from Zuko's attack. "Before you go!" 

"What is it?" 

She rushed forward, grabbing him by the face. Before he could react, she pressed her lips to his cheek in a quick kiss. "Be safe, okay? And remember your duty!"

"Sokka! Let's go!" Aang had been sent off by a couple of the warriors towards the group. He neatly landed in the saddle, dropping his glider before climbing onto Appa's wide head. 

"I will." Sokka assured her, dashing up the bison's tail. "You be safe, too." 

"I will!"

"Yip-yip!" Aang sent Appa quickly into the air, speeding away from the little village and towards the open sea, passing Zuko's ship on the way. 

Sokka began to wipe the paint from his face, smearing into the singed and dirty sleeve of his borrowed uniform. He hoped they'd get a chance to clean and repair it at some point. It was a good memory. 

His train of thought was instantly derailed by the sight of Aang dropping recklessly into the waves below. 

"What does he think he's doing?!" His voice cracked in his panic, leaning half his body over the side of the saddle in an attempt to see where the boy had landed. 

The Unagi, the great sea monster of the bay, reared its enormous head, and Sokka's stomach dropped.

But there, tiny against the sheer mass of the sea serpent, was Aang, clutching a whisker for dear life. Impossibly, the boy wrangled the monster, aiming its breath of water to rain on the burning village.

They may not be able to save everybody, but damned if Aang wouldn't do everything in his power to try. 

Appa caught the boy midair after the Unagi finally managed to fling him off, and Sokka was at last able to let out the breath he'd been holding. 

"I know, I know." Aang rolled his eyes as he climbed into the saddle. "That was stupid and dangerous."

Katara rushed to give him a hug. "It was. It was also very brave." 

Sokka made exaggerated gagging motions where neither of them could see him, too wrapped up in one another to notice. 

---

Zuko slammed every door on the way to his quarters that he could, ignoring every crew member that tried to talk to him, especially his uncle. He threw himself onto his mattress and screamed into the pillow.

He was well aware that he was acting like a petulant teenager right now. He certainly felt like one. 

After all that work to hunt down the Avatar, and he's immediately distracted when he finds him! Again! 

It was awful, how easily he recognized the Water Tribe boy, even through his disguise. The hair, the expression, the way he carried himself… Zuko didn't know when he started paying attention to those things, but he had an awful suspicion it was around the time of their second-ever meeting. 

And his eyes, those awful, expressive, ocean-blue eyes, the color he could never escape, banished and confined to this ship, cursed to roam the very seas which reflected those eyes. 

Seeing tears gathered in those damned eyes had torn him apart, stripped his defenses, rendered all of his resolve meaningless. 

Was he tempted by his words? Or was he only tempted by the sweet promise in those deep blue eyes? 

Zuko took to throwing things across his room, smashing them against the metal wall, instead. Allowing himself to think was torture. 

A knock at the door. "Prince Zuko, perhaps consider against destroying what precious little decorates your room, hmm?" Uncle's voice advised. 

"Leave me!" Zuko ordered. The temperature in the room sweltered. He imagined he'd even affected the fires in the boiler room with the sheer heat of his rage. 

"It would be irresponsible of me to leave you in such a state. Please, come out. There must be something we can do to calm you."

"No, Uncle!" Zuko kicked over the low table in the center of the room. "I don't want your damn tea, I don't want your damn proverbs, and I don't want your damn coddling!"  

"Very well." He waited until he heard the distinctive sound of Uncle's feet shuffling away before throwing himself onto his bed again. 

---

"Sooo… Suki, huh?" Katara asked as Kyoshi Island faded into the distance. 

"Yep." Sokka shrugged. 

"Well, aren't you the ladies man." 

"Guess I am. Can't keep their hands off of me." 

"Riiight. And what was the deal with Zuko back there? Didn't you say you were 'totally not friends'?" Katara said, emphasizing with air quotes. 

"We're not, seriously. That was… look, he's a stubborn guy. I figured, maybe we put a little doubt in his head. Maybe make it so he won't wanna chase us anymore. Get him to see our side of things. No big deal." Sokka waved a wrist lazily, demonstrating how not a big deal it was. Katara wasn't convinced. 

"So you weren't serious with the whole 'Oh, you should join us, Zuko! Come with us on our adventure! I don't care that you've tried to kill us or anything!' thing?" She put on a swooning-romance-heroine voice for his parts. He didn't appreciate it. 

"Hey, I don't sound like that!"

"What's this about Zuko joining us?" Aang swiveled around, face in his hands, elbows on his knees. 

"It's nothing, Aang. Katara's just trying to get my piggoat." 

"I think it's a great idea!"

"You do?" Both siblings responded in unison. 

"Yeah! I'm gonna need a firebending teacher eventually, right? Why not him? I feel like we could be friends someday! I mean, he's already friends with Sokka and all!"

Sokka grumbled, "We're not friends…" at the same time as Katara shouted, "Absolutely not! That's beyond reckless, Aang! You saw what he did back there, just to get to you!" 

Aang drooped. "Yeah… I guess you're right. I just hate the thought of fighting someone with no chance of peace." 

Sokka was horribly aware that Aang wasn't just talking about Zuko anymore. This whole war was against his pacifistic nature, and he was expected to spearhead it. 

"I know, buddy." 

Chapter Text

"I'm telling you guys, it wasn't rock candy!" Sokka insisted. 

"What? But we saw him eat it!" Aang protested. 

"Like I said, when they put those rings on us, I tried to bite it off. It just tasted like rock!" 

"Why do you insist on putting everything in your mouth, Sokka? It's a wonder you haven't died yet." Katara chided. She raised a hand to her neck, miming the way she would normally play with the pendant before realizing her fingers closed on thin air. 

"Quit it, Katara. You won't have any skin left if you keep rubbing at your neck like that." Sokka snapped. Katara wrenched her hands away, holding them in her lap.

"I know! It's just… ugh, my neck feels so naked without it!" She complained. "And knowing it's still in a Fire Nation prison of all places… I can't stop worrying about it!" 

"Well, sometimes we have to leave things behind when we're literally on the run." Sokka reminded her pragmatically. She glared at him. 

"Hey, guys, look at this!" Aang called out. They tore their attention from bickering to see what Aang was showing them. 

He opened his glider, spinning loop-de-loops around Appa as they flew through the clouds. Sokka rolled his eyes. He appreciated the attempt, but it was too transparent. 

"That's great, Aang." Katara's voice lacked its usual enthusiasm. The airbender frowned, leveling out the glider and continuing on ahead. 

"Listen, Katara… I know you're upset about losing Mom's necklace, but-"

"Then why are you being such a jerk about it?!" Katara snapped back.

"I'm not being a jerk! I'm just being sensible! We don't have time to get hung up on anything-"

"Oh, so now missing my only memento of our mother is being 'hung up on nothing'?!"

"I didn't say-"

"Hey, guys, look!" Aang interrupted. 

"Not the time, Aang!" Katara snapped. 

"No, but really! You guys have to see this!" The worried tone in the boy's voice was what finally convinced them to listen. The clouds had thinned, revealing more of the land beneath them. Unlike the rolling green and yellow fields they'd seen so far in the Earth Kingdom, the earth here was scorched gray, ash blanketing the entire area, and only charred sticks remained out of what must have once been a dense forest. 

"Oh, no…" Katara covered her mouth with a hand, eyes going wide. 

"Fire Nation." Sokka spat. "No one else could have done this." 

He guided Appa to follow Aang as the airbender descended to the ash-cloaked ground. The Avatar had sunken to his knees the moment he landed, scooping handfuls of ash into his hands. The first to make it over to him was Momo, settling into his lap and warbling. A tight smile tugged at Aang's lips, and he brushed his hands off to stroke the lemur fondly. 

Katara slid from Appa's saddle gracefully, striding across the space to reach Aang's side, deep footprints packing into the ash behind her. She leaned down to place a warm hand on his narrow shoulder. He lifted a hand to cover hers. 

"I was gone for so long… I let everyone down. This wouldn't have happened if I had been around to do my job as the Avatar." Aang murmured. Sokka couldn't argue. He held his tongue. 

"You know what I think?" Katara smoothed her dress beneath her knees, kneeling down to get on the same level as the airbender. "I think you are exactly where and when you need to be." 

"What?! How can that be possible? So much bad stuff's happened without me!" 

"Bad stuff happens all the time, everywhere, and even you can't be everywhere at once." She said softly. Sokka winced.

"Gee, thanks for reminding me." Aang drew his knees up so he could bury his face in them. 

"What I mean is, you can't focus all the time on what you can't do, or what you didn't do. You have to focus on what you can do." She takes a deep breath, thinking over her words before she continues. "I really think that here, in this time, at this place, is where you're supposed to be. I think here and now might be the best time for you to do some good." 

"What makes you say that?" Aang grumbled, but he was looking up into Katara's eyes hopefully. 

She held out a hand, closed into a fist. Aang held his out beneath hers unquestioningly. She opened her palm, allowing something small and round to drop into his hand. 

"An acorn?" Aang peered at the little seed suspiciously. 

"There are a lot of them around here. The trees that were already here may be gone, but their legacy lives on. Someday, this forest will grow back, just as beautiful as it once was."

"Yeah… there's still life here." He said, a little wistfully. 

"And there wouldn't be, if the generation before hadn't hidden away the new generation, ready to sprout as soon as the danger's passed." She said, emphasizing her words oddly. Aang just looked confused, before his eyebrows raised in surprise. 

"Oh! Like me! I get what you're saying now!"

"Exactly!" Katara clapped her hands, a little cloud of ash puffing out. 

"It's a tactical advantage." Sokka finally chipped in. "Barely anyone knows you're alive, so we have the element of surprise on our side. A lot of people think you're just a legend. On top of that, nobody who's still alive and fighting today knows how to go up against an airbender. You've seen how Zuko fights, he has no idea what you're capable of. And I'm sure the rest of the Fire Nation's the same way." 

Aang frowned, hand clenched around the acorn in his palm, considering the siblings' encouraging words. He hummed noncommittally. "I guess that makes sense. I mean, it's still not good, what's happened to the world, but… it's not all bad, either."

"That's the spirit." Sokka clapped Aang gently on the shoulder. The boy's smile was a little stronger now. 

"Excuse me." An unfamiliar voice called out from the woods nearby. The trio all squawked, startled. 

"Who are you? Where did you come from?" Sokka demanded. 

"My boy, you're an airbender, aren't you?" The voice belonged to an old man, approaching slowly from the healthier trees. 

"I am." Aang readily divulged. 

"Then are you, perhaps, the Avatar?" He asked tentatively. 

Aang looked to Katara for permission. She'd been the one to suggest they lay low, after what happened on Kyoshi Island. She nodded, so Aang turned to the man and did the same. 

"Please, Avatar, my village needs your help." 

Never one to turn away anyone who needed him, Aang readily agreed. "Sure thing! Where is your village?"

"Follow me. It's not far."

---

The Avatar had grown significantly easier to track after they had fled Kyoshi Island, opting to simply put as much space between themselves and Zuko as possible, rather than throwing off the trail. Omashu had been wreckage by the time they arrived, and Zuko couldn't imagine what sort of fierce battle had done that kind of widespread damage to the city, but the rumors confirmed the appearance of the flying bison and the trio of teenagers onboard. 

From there, they had ostensibly left due West, and rumors along the way confirmed more sightings in that direction. When they chanced upon the site of a recent prison break, several displaced Fire Nation soldiers scrambling to resume their duties somehow, Zuko knew the Avatar had to have been behind it. The soldiers told him about a waterbending girl and a prisoners' rebellion. He sent his men out onto the prison barge, ordering them to search for any clues they could find. 

A flash of blue had caught his eye. He retrieved it, gently catching the light of the setting sun on its masterfully carved grooves. Sokka's mother's necklace, inherited by Katara after her passing.

Zuko wrapped it around his wrist for safekeeping. A sentimental part of him wanted to make sure it wasn't lost here forever. A more practical part of him knew he wouldn't be giving it back. 

"Where did they go from here?" Zuko demanded of a nearby guard. He pointed off in a vaguely northern direction. 

"That way. There's a trading post that way they may have been headed to?" He said uncertainly. "It's known to attract, uh, unsavory types, though." 

"That's enough. Let's move." Zuko rounded up his men, directing them back to the ship. "Get me the helmsman, we've got a course." 

--- 

As promised, the village was relatively nearby. Having spent so much time in the bison's saddle, Sokka was almost glad for the chance to stretch his legs. 

It was immediately evident the extent of the trouble the village was facing the moment they arrived. Several buildings had been destroyed in some unnatural way, leaving much of the village uninhabitable. 

The villagers, gathered in the town hall for safety, explained to the group that a dangerous spirit had taken up residence after the Fire Nation had passed through, leaving the village unsafe. They pleaded with Aang to do something about it and, despite having little experience with the spirit world, the Avatar agreed to help. 

Watching him stand out at the village gates, Sokka couldn't help but feel like he himself might be more suited to this task than anyone else here. 

Aang shouted into the forest and slammed his staff down decisively, then relaxed into his usual posture. He turned around, wandering back towards the town hall, shrugging. 

By the time he noticed the Hei Bai, it was too late. 

Sokka gripped the windowsill in fear, tension locking his jaw. Aang was tossed around by the spirit like he was nothing, a fly-bee buzzing just near enough to be annoying. 

Luckily, his quick airbending reflexes mitigated most of the damage, but Sokka noticed him quickly wearing down, covered in little scratches from debris and out of breath. 

Unthinking, Sokka hopped out through the window, charging over to where Aang stood, arms in the air, still trying to talk to the Hei Bai. Katara shouted after him, but he'd made up his mind. 

"Aang, I'm here with you, buddy." 

"Sokka! Don't hurt him, I don't want to fight unless-" 

Aang looked like the air had been knocked out of him as a hand closed around Sokka's middle. 

"Shit! Aang!" Sokka called, the spirit charging off with him in its grip, too fast for Aang to run after.

The airbender snapped open his glider, sprinting and leaping after them. He matched pace with the spirit for a long ways, both racers ending up deep into the forest and coming out the other end. The trees no longer an obstacle, Aang was able to pick up enough speed to finally reach the Hei Bai, then further to grasp at Sokka's hand. 

"Sokka! I've got you!" Aang called. 

He didn't. Not really.

The feeling as Aang's hand grew incorporeal, sliding through his fingers while the scenery shifted slowly around him, was viscerally familiar. Finally, the Avatar disappeared, Sokka still firmly in the spirit's grasp. 

This is it, he thought. I'm gonna be dinner. What a way to go. 

The Hei Bai continued to race through the woods, trees zipping past at a fast clip, when he suddenly stopped. Sokka twisted around in his grip to see what was happening, where they were, and saw a familiar golden coat, atop eight thin legs, and couldn't move enough to see the familiar spirit's familiar face. 

It huffed, stamping its slender hooves, and the Hei Bai spirit dropped him to the ground. Another huff from his spirit guide, and the Hei Bai raced away, fading quickly into the distance. 

"Hey, thanks." Sokka patted himself off, finally getting a good look at the place. 

This should have been around where the ash-coated, scarred earth was on the mortal plane, but here, there were thick trees. 

That's not to say the trees here weren't completely abnormal, though. They definitely were. Gnarled, spiraling, twisting in on themselves, and, most notably, thorned. Huge, thick thorns, as long as his hand, and devilishly sharp covered every inch of every plant. He wondered how he'd managed to scrape by without any, well, scrapes, but the moment his elbow bumped a branch, it crumbled to ash. 

"What happened to this place…" Sokka murmured. 

His spirit guide stepped closer. Sokka was startled to find he'd grown so much taller compared to the spirit than he remembered. If he reached up, he could almost reach the base of it's neck with his fingers. The spirit bent its huge head down, nudging its own forehead against Sokka's. 

A memory, not his own, flashed through his mind. 

A Fire Nation tank, flanked by three komodo-rhinos, marched through the forest. The soldiers, faces covered by the skull-like plates, sent waves of fire before them, into the trees. While the trees of the mortal plane were eaten up into ash, the trees of the spirit world twisted into the shapes he had just seen. 

The memory ended. The spirit pulled away.

"Woah. What was that? Was that… your memory?" 

The spirit nodded, its circular horns dipping, leaves sprouting from them rustling in the slight breeze the movement created.

"Weird." Sokka looked around. "Man, I wonder what we're gonna do about this…" 

The spirit began to dip its head again. Sokka held up his hands. 

"No, no, it's okay. I know Aang's taking care of it." He did wonder where the Avatar went, though. He wasn't a big fan of having been left here. 

Speaking of which…

"Hey, where have you been, anyway? You didn't show up for like, what, two? Three years? What's that all about?" Sokka put his fists to his hips, raising an eyebrow at the spirit. Obediently, it dipped his head. 

This time, he allowed it. 

It showed him memories of Zuko now, living on his small Fire Navy vessel. It showed him the prince on the deck in the middle of the night, dark bags under his eyes, barking out orders Sokka couldn't hear. It showed him resting, finally, in his room, only to be startled awake by nightmares, sweating, panicked, panting. It showed him kneeling by a game board, tea in hand, and slowly nodding off, his kind uncle gently taking the cup from him and draping a soft blanket around his shoulders, encouraging the rare moment of rest, even if it was in the middle of the afternoon. 

The spirit pulled away. 

"He really hasn't been sleeping… that much?" A humorless chuckle escaped his chest. "No wonder he's so cranky, am I right?" 

The spirit blinked slowly at him, those brilliant green eyes watching him carefully. He cleared his throat. 

"Well, I know that, before, when you visited, you kept me from having nightmares. Why can't you do the same for him?" 

Sokka was ready for the flood of memory this time, tilting his head up to meet the spirit's touch. 

What he was not ready for was for the memory to be his own.

Like all those years ago, he saw Zuko crouched on the floor of his enormous (princely) bedroom, clutching at his hair, panicked because he was unable to perform a fire kata on command (they hadn't figured out yet that bending wasn't possible here in the spirit world). He had reached out to help, but had been shaken away, Zuko trapped in a memory of his father, thinking Sokka's small, gloved hand was his father's burning palm. 

The memory ended. 

"What…? Wait, how does that answer my question?!" Sokka huffed. The spirit just blinked at him again.

He groaned. "Gonna make me think about it. Okay, fine." 

That memory… it was one of his least favorite. Feeling completely useless like that when his friend was clearly so in need of some sort of help? And then, before he could even find the right words, he'd woken up, expelled from the dream like a bucket of cold water had been poured on him.

Wait.

Was that it?

That had been the only visit where he had not been led back home before waking up. Even when he'd been forcibly dragged back, he had to follow the spirit back home. Back to his body. But that time…

It had been as though the dream itself had just spat him out. There had been no transition, just dreaming and then… not. 

"You couldn't bring me to him even when we were both asleep at the same time because… what? He was scared?" 

The spirit huffed, tilting its head. 

"You know, this would be a lot easier if you would just talk to me." Sokka complained.

The spirit opened its mouth and let out a low grunting, a purely animal noise. 

"Oh. You can't. Sorry." Sokka felt a bit embarrassed. "So, you can't lead me to him when he's emotional or stressed or whatever. Is that what you're getting at?" 

It tilted its head, then nodded once. 

"Ha, was that you saying 'close enough'?" Sokka grinned. The spirit nodded again. "Ha! Alright, alright. Well, what about right now? Let me guess, not sleeping?" The memory of their current situation punched its way into Sokka's consciousness. "Working overtime trying to find the Avatar, probably." 

The spirit turned away from him. Sokka tilted his head curiously. It turned its head back to look at him, then nodded in its familiar 'follow me' gesture.

Sokka obliged, curiously. 

---

Iroh had rarely regretted a nice, long soak in a hot spring in his life, but this time surely made the list. Ostrich-horses were not well-suited for carrying prisoners, and he'd been jammed into a saddle built for one behind a very unlucky Earth Kingdom soldier. The journey was long, the roads winding, and Iroh questioned these soldiers' judgement, thinking they could haul him all the way across the kingdom without any sort of proper transportation. Ba Sing Se, after all, was no short distance from Prince Zuko's ship. 

Still, it had been an eventful ride, despite its length. Shortly before dawn, after he'd abandoned a sandle to the road to help lead his nephew down the right path, he saw a peculiar sight. 

It was rare that spirits lingered in-between this world and their own, after all, and even more rare for a human to be there, especially one who was clearly not the Avatar. 

The loping strides of the Jin Lu took it dancing across the ostrich-horses, who seemed to tense, but did not spook. They were well-trained, it seemed. Iroh was ready to call it an oddity, the graceful spirit merely taking a strange stroll, until he saw a familiar boy trailing behind it, dodging around the ostrich-horses even though he could not possibly run into them, in-between worlds as he was. The Water Tribe boy jogged to catch up, the Jin Lu not pausing to wait for him as it continued on, its eight long legs taking slow but long strides which far outpaced a human's. Iroh chuckled.

"What's so funny?" One of his guards demanded. 

"Oh, I just remembered an excellent joke. Would you like to hear it?"

"No." Came the blunt reply. 

"Really? It is really quite funny, I'm sure you would love it." He insisted, playing up the doddering old man angle. 

"No way, old-timer. You can keep your Fire Nation jokes to yourself."

Iroh snorted. What a thing to get stubborn about. Ah, youth. "Suit yourself, then."

The travel continued in silence for a long while, the day stretching on, finally broken up just past midday as another strange sight appeared. 

Two spirits lingering in-between in one day? And both with a human companion? At least this one actually was the Avatar. 

Again, the ostrich-horses tensed. Iroh smirked, seeing an opportunity. 

"You know, my old joints are feeling a bit sore and achy…"

---

The spirit wasn't moving any faster than it normally would, but Sokka was finding it hard to keep up. He supposed it was lucky that spirit-world shenanigans didn't leave him tired or thirsty or even hungry, but the pace left much to be desired. 

They traveled a great distance, passing by a caravan of Earth Kingdom soldiers astride ostrich-horses, and Sokka almost lost pace with the spirit as he recognized their prisoner. 

Zuko's uncle was stark naked for some reason, and thoroughly shackled. Sokka had to laugh. Had they never dealt with a skilled bender before? The old man certainly didn't need his hands free to deal a whallop. Not that he could warn the soldiers now, though. He'd realized long ago that in this weird spirit world place, or dream zone, or whatever, normal people couldn't see him. Them. Zuko's guards could walk right past, or through him, and never be any wiser to it.

He'd found it fun, when they were younger, like he was part of a big secret. The mischievous part of him loved doing secretive things.

Now, the secrets weighed on him, vicelike, making him stressed and paranoid. 

The ostrich-horses passed on, Zuko's uncle chattering about something inane to mess with his guards. 

Sokka's spirit guide continued forward. 

A long while later, they reached their destination. Zuko charged forward on his komodo-rhino, looking tense, dark bags under his eyes. Sure enough, he hadn't slept last night. Sokka hated being right, sometimes. 

The prince spotted something in the road that had him pulling his mount to a stop, descending to investigate. Sokka bit back a laugh as Zuko sniffed the sandal, looking disgusted with the smell. 

"Yeah, that's Uncle Iroh, all right…" 

The spirit kept pace with the komodo-rhino for a while, Sokka jogging to keep up. Zuko pushed on at a relentless pace, desperate to rescue his uncle. Unfortunately, by Sokka's estimate he wasn't going much faster than those Earth Kingdom soldiers, and certainly wouldn't be able to catch up any time soon with their sizable lead. 

Sokka noticed Appa pass by before Zuko did, and was relieved for a moment, thinking Aang was looking for him. That relief was doused by chilly fear in an instant, though, seeing Zuko tug the reigns of his mount to give chase. 

"No!" Sokka shouted in frustration, knowing full well his voice wouldn't reach the other.

Still, Zuko reconsidered. 

He tugged the reigns back towards the road ahead, returning to his original mission to save his uncle. 

Sokka watched him grow smaller down the road, shocked into stillness. On some level, he shouldn't be surprised Zuko chose saving his uncle over the chance to capture Aang, but on the other…

Zuko prioritized capturing Aang over everything right now, pushing aside anything and everything that could possibly stand in the way of that mission. Nothing took precedence, not his own safety, not the safety of his oldest friend, and surely not the safety of his uncle. 

He remembered the way Zuko talked about Iroh, when they were younger and still on good terms. Some days, he'd gush about the older man, like he was a second father to him. A better father, surely, though his own son, Lu Ten, took priority. Other days, though, he chastised him for his 'weakness', that robotic tone taking over his voice, like he was repeating what someone else (usually his father, sometimes Azula) had said to him, and was trying to make himself believe it. 

The older firebender could surely take care of himself, and Zuko seemed to resent the kind of 'weakness' that he represented, if you considered patience and compassion to be weaknesses. 

So this, now… this was a surprise. 

"Guess he hasn't changed as much as I thought…" Sokka murmured, chewing at his lip. His spirit guide tilted its head to look him in the eye, unblinking. "Was that what you wanted me to see?" 

The spirit nodded. 

"Huh. Well, thanks, I guess. Now I'm even more confused about all of this." He spun his hands around, miming the tangling of his thoughts. "Why couldn't you let me accept that he's just gone totally evil and that I should give up? I was ready to, you know!"

The spirit nodded. Oh. 

"You wanted to make sure I didn't." Another nod. "Something's important about us staying on good terms." Another nod. "Having to guess what you're trying to get at like this takes forever." A huff, and the spirit began to walk off, down the road once more. "Hey! Wait up!" 

Sokka jogged after it, its long legs pulling it quickly across the distance. They sped past Zuko and his komodo-rhino, then past the Earth Kingdom caravan, where Iroh had begun to stage an escape, and onward, back towards the forest they started in. 

Night fell as they at last breached the trees, the spirit leading him to a warped bamboo grove. 

"What? Where are we now?" 

His spirit guide leaned down, but did not share a memory, as before. Instead, it nudged him forward. 

"Hey! Not so rough! I get it, I get it, I'm going!" 

Pushing aside the thick, knotted bamboo, he found himself inside the twisted grove. An odd, dense fog drifted around, but only inside the perimeter of the bamboo, and three human figures wandered aimlessly within. 

He turned back to his guide in an unspoken question, but the spirit was already gone. 

Huh, weird. 

"Hey, do any of you know what's going on?" He asked to the indistinct figures. A woman's voice yelped in surprise. 

"Stay- stay back! I don't want to fight you, but I will!" A man's voice followed, shaky. 

"Hey, hey, no need for that! I'm just as confused as you are." Sokka stepped towards the figures, until the dense fog no longer obscured them. "Hi."

"Oh, it's just a boy." The woman sighed in relief, holding a hand to her heart. 

"You gave us quite the scare there, kid." The third person, another man, chastised. 

"Sorry, sorry." Sokka held up his hands disarmingly. "Did you guys get scooped up by the Hei Bai, too?" He asked. 

Nods all around. "I've been here for days." The woman admitted. "The monster only comes back to put another captive in here. We don't know what he plans to do with us, but it can't be anything good." 

"Don't worry. I'm friends with the Avatar. I can personally guarantee you that everything's gonna be just fine." 

"That's quite something to ask us to take on faith, kid." The man who had threatened him said. "How can we believe you?"

As though in response to his question, the gnarled bamboo straightened out, the colors brightening. Sokka felt a smug grin stretching across his face. "You were saying?" 

The fog lifted, the village coming into view through the stems. The quartet of captives pushed their way out, their families and friends rushing to meet them. Sokka groaned, the wind knocked out of him with the impact as his sister threw herself into him for a tight hug. 

"Hey guys. What happened?"

"You were taken by the monster. You were in the spirit world for twenty-four hours!" Katara explained. 

"Yeah, no, I got that. I meant what happened on your end?" Sokka laughed. 

"Turns out the Hei Bai was actually the spirit of this forest and not a monster at all! He just went home!" Aang piped up.

"Just… went home?" Sokka raised an eyebrow. "All of this, and it was that easy?"

"Well, I am the Avatar, after all. I'm naturally suited to this kind of thing!" Aang preened, despite his anxiety about the whole thing the day before. 

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say, buddy." Sokka deadpanned. 

"You've saved our village. How can we repay you?" The old man who originally requested their help cut in. 

"We could use supplies! And money!" Sokka helpfully supplied. Katara broke their hug to smack his arm. 

"Sokka!"

"What? We need stuff." 

"No price is too steep. We will gladly supply you for your journey." The villagers scattered, some to their homes, others to gather what supplies they could part with to donate to the Avatar. 

"We need to be ready to head out as soon as possible." Sokka warned the others. "Zuko isn't far from here. And he knows where we are." 

"What?! How? And how do you know?" Katara demanded. 

"I saw him, while I was in the spirit world."

"Oh!" Aang looked cheery. "Did the deer spirit you told us about show up again?!" 

"Well, yeah, but that's not the point." Sokka was desperate to wrench the conversation off of this path. He couldn't understand how Aang was so perky about the jerk being his soulmate. "The point is he saw Appa. He didn't give chase, but it's only a matter of time, I'm sure." 

"Why didn't he give chase?" Katara worried. 

"I don't know." Sokka lied. "But it doesn't matter. He's stubborn. He hasn't given up, for sure." 

"Well, then where's the next destination, Aang?" Katara turned to the Avatar, who looked uncomfortable suddenly. 

"Well, there's a certain temple I need to go to on the Winter Solstice, so I can meet Avatar Roku." Aang explained. 

"That's tomorrow!" Katara gasped. "I hope this temple is close!"

"Well…" Aang hesitated. "It's close enough for Appa to make it, but it's in the Fire Nation."

"That's too dangerous!" Sokka argued. 

"But if that's what you need to do, we'll be there for you." Katara rested a gentle hand on Aang's thin shoulder. 

"I don't want to put you guys in danger, though! It would be better if I went alone!" Aang argued. 

"No, no, out of the question." Sokka crossed his arms. "Putting the Avatar in danger would be way worse. Safety in numbers, Aang, always remember that." 

"We're coming with you. No arguments." Katara put on her best Mom Voice. Aang smiled weakly. 

"Okay, okay. I guess I have no choice. Thanks, guys."

"Avatar Aang! We have supplies for you!" One of the men of the village announced, carrying several small bundles. The siblings helped pass the supplies up to Aang, who strapped them into the saddle securely. "Now, go! Make haste!" 

The trio all safely in the saddle, Aang cracked the reigns. "Thanks again, everyone! Yip yip!" 

"Thank you , Avatar! May your travels be safe!" The man called out. The gathered villagers all waved their goodbyes until Appa was far enough to be out of sight. 

A Fire Nation temple, huh? Sokka couldn't think of many things more reckless, but when had anything to do with Aang been anywhere close to safe , anyway? 

Chapter Text

Sokka was beginning to doubt this mission was worth what they had to go through for it. They'd had fire hurled at them three times by three different parties and they hadn't even gotten into the temple proper yet. 

Aang led the way, airbending his steps faster, rushing as far away from their most recent assailants as possible. Just as quickly, he turned on his heel, bowling over Sokka and his sister on the way, another of those red-robed guys shouting behind him. 

"How did he get over there so fast?!" Aang shrieked. 

The siblings rushed after him, putting distance between themselves and their pursuer, but Aang led them right into a dead end. 

"Wait!" The man called out. 

"Shit!" Sokka ducked behind Katara, using her as a magic-wielding meat shield. She shot him an unimpressed glare.

"I don't want to hurt you! I am a friend!" The robed man claimed. 

"Yeah, right!" Sokka shouted, peeking over Katara's shoulder. "You were just shooting fireballs at us with the rest of them!"

The man knelt, then bowed low. "I know why you are here, Avatar. You wish to speak with Avatar Roku. I will take you to him."

"Why should we trust you?" Katara folded her arms, cocking her hip confrontationally. 

The man stood, moving a lamp on the wall and pushing fire into the hidden indention behind it, revealing a secret passageway. 

"Ooh, a secret passage!" Aang chirped excitedly. 

"Find them!" A voice shouted, the leader of the men from earlier. Their would-be guide ushered them into the tunnel, closing it off behind them.

He explained, as they went, the origins of the temple, and of the fire sages he was a member of, how the others were ignoring their duties to the Avatar despite their organization's purpose. 

Sokka's attention began to wane, tucking the conversation away as Avatar Stuff, focus shifting to how annoyed he was they had to climb seemingly endless stairs and inclines to reach their destination. Why couldn't the entrance be closer to the statue they needed? It'd save them a lot of effort. The oppressive heat of the volcano wasn't doing them any favors, either, Sokka's tunic sticking to his back almost immediately. He wondered if this was what the Fire Nation royal palace felt like. It was in a volcano, too, right? No wonder Zuko had been so shocked when he'd turned up in heavy furs the first time. This heat would kill him in even his summer parka. 

He pushed those memories from his head firmly, returning to the moment. The sage, Shyu, had finally exited the secret passageway, leading them out into a large chamber with carvings of dragons curling around each pillar. On the far wall, an ominous-looking door, decorated with even more dragons, stood tall, filling most of the space. The sage gasped when he saw it.

"The sanctuary doors! They're closed!" 

The group gathered around the ornate doors, Shyu looking devastated, Aang trying his best to force them open. 

Sokka peeked into one of the dragon's mouths, seeing a hidden mechanism inside. It was immediately reminiscent of the locking mechanism for the sanctuary from the Southern Air Temple, which Aang had been able to grant them access to before. Presumably, this door ran on firebending. 

Shyu confirmed that theory, explaining that they would need the power of all of the sages to open the door. 

The gears clicked together in Sokka's head, springing from firebending, to the plumes of flame produced by a certain mixture his dad had once shown him, to running inventory of what they carried with them currently, to what materials he could use as substitutes for what they lacked. Already pulling out what he'd need, he began to explain his plan. 

"We'll use these as explosives to simulate firebending. With these, we'll only need one fire blast, just to light the fuses. Then, bam! Door open!" 

The oil from the temple lamps wasn't the same as what they used back home, and the rope they had wasn't waxed, but he was sure it would be close enough. Working quickly, uncomfortably aware of their time limit, Sokka shoved the makeshift explosives into place. 

"Okay, go ahead!" 

The sage complied, setting the fuses alight. Immediately, Sokka knew something was wrong. He urged the others to stand back further, taking shelter behind the pillars. 

The rope sparked as it burned, the fire traveling too quickly towards the bags of oil. The bags caught, instantly, the oil within burning all at once in an explosive fashion, rather than the slow and sustained flames he'd been aiming for. Worse, the resulting explosion was nearly deafening, doubtlessly giving away their location instantly. 

That wasn't much of a substitute for firebending at all, and the door agreed, standing resolutely closed. 

Sokka cursed under his breath. His failure meant they'd lost their chance to do the one thing they came here to do, and now they'd have to fight their way back out. 

It was Katara who scraped a victory out of his mistakes, quickly formulating a plan involving the scorch marks and Momo that would fool the other sages into opening the door for them. Oh, his brilliant little sister. He could kiss her. 

She shoved him away. "We need to get moving. If we aren't hidden by the time they get here, the ploy won't work." 

---

Zuko steered the little river boat quickly, dodging around his own ship and aiming for the island's docks. If he was fast, the Avatar would be in his grasp before that asshole, Zhao, even knew what was happening. 

The temple sanctuary was near the highest level, situated to catch the most sunlight for the longest possible amount of the day. Zuko had been here only once before, to ask what the sages knew of the Avatar before setting out on his journey, and the useless old men had only been able to say that he was an airbender. At the time, Zuko had been furious, but it turned out to be an incredibly useful bit of knowledge, in the end. He supposed he owed them an apology, of sorts. 

He recalled the inner temple being a networked maze of tunnels and secret places, winding around before reaching their destination. Without a guide, he'd never make it in time. 

He glanced back. Sure enough, Zhao's ship was following Uncle on his, and making good speed. 

Zuko stretched his hands and began to scale the walls.

The ornate structure afforded a plethora of easy handholds, allowing for a relatively quick ascension. Rapidly, he made his way ever higher, until he estimated the sanctuary was nearby. He slipped through a wide window, perched high above the floor on the other side, and cast about for some sort of landmark to recover his bearings. 

A loud noise, like an explosion, rang out through the halls. Light on his feet, he dropped to the floor, chasing that sound. Sure enough his gut was correct, the corridor he was in opening into the great chamber lined with dragon-wreathed pillars that led into the sanctuary. Gathered around the ornate door were several familiar faces, including the Avatar. 

Luck was on his side, for once. 

The Avatar and his friends discussed a hasty plan, and Zuko took the chance during their confusion to dart between the pillars towards his quarry.

The other Sages entered the chamber, falling hook, line, and sinker for their ploy, unlocking the sanctuary doors with plumes of flame. 

Under cover of the roaring fire, Zuko grabbed the Avatar, swiftly maneuvering both arms behind his back to limit his movements.

The Avatar, as usual, didn't struggle when he was captured, merely craning his head around to see who had him. 

"Zuko?" The boy said, as though he were genuinely surprised. 

"You're coming with me. I should thank your friends for giving me this chance." 

Behind him, Sokka and his sister shouted for the Avatar to complete their plan. Their chance lost, they were quickly overpowered by the Sages. 

"He's mine! Close the doors!" Zuko ordered, leading his captive into the staircase leading back down to the entrance. The Sages complied, chaining Sokka and Katara for good measure. Zuko hesitated. 

"Are you really gonna let them do that?" The Avatar looked up at him, brows drawn in worry. Zuko clenched his jaw. 

"It's a necessary sacrifice. You don't understand." 

"Well, then explain it to me! I'm sure I'd get it if you told me! Any friend of Sokka's can't be all bad!" Zuko tensed, squeezing the Avatar's wrists tighter. The airbender flinched, glancing over Zuko's shoulder to where the doors were sliding shut. "Oh! Gotta go!" 

That was all the warning he got before a gust of wind tore the Avatar from his grasp, propelling the little monk over the crowd and into the sanctuary. Zuko scrambled after him, boots sliding on the metal floors before he regained his footing, but too late. 

The doors shut, a familiar blue light shimmering forth, and they would not reopen. 

Zuko whirled around, aiming his fury at the traitorous Sage. "Why were you helping them?" He demanded. 

"Helping the Avatar is our duty. Even if the others have forgotten." The traitor replied, voice steady. 

His interrogation was quickly interrupted, the sound of several sets of boots clicking across the floor announcing the arrival of another party. Loud, slow claps rang out into the wide chamber, echoing around its walls. 

"An admirable effort." Zhao's slimy voice purred. "Too bad you failed. Unsurprising." 

One of his men gripped Zuko by the wrists, restraining him. He struggled weakly, knowing he was outnumbered and outmatched. 

"It was stupid of you to come here, but it all works out for me, in the end. Your father will be so pleased to finally have an excuse to punish you more permanently. I always thought the banishment was too soft. Men, detain the sage, as well. And be ready for the Avatar to emerge." 

"It's too late! The doors won't open." Zuko grit out, a weak argument in the face of his own failure and Zhao's imminent victory. 

"He has to come out eventually." The Commander said confidently. "It's only a matter of time before my victory is complete." 

With a wave of Zhao's hand, the soldier restraining Zuko dragged him off, chaining him to the pillar adjacent to the one the others were already bound to. His task complete, the soldier joined Zhao's firing line, ready to apprehend the Avatar. 

Zuko huffed, smoke trailing from his nostrils. So close, and then victory was tugged out from beneath him like a loose rug. He tried to burn his way out of his chains, his captor's back turned, but to no avail. The metal simply heated up uncomfortably against him.

"Psst, Zuko!" A stage-whisper drew his attention. Sokka had slid around in the chains, ending up on the side of his pillar nearest to Zuko's. "What's that guy's deal?" The Water Tribesman nodded his head at Zhao. 

Zuko snorted, rolling his eyes. They hadn't run into the asshole yet, had they. 

"Is he after Aang, too?" Sokka pressed.

Zuko nodded sharply. "Yes." 

Sokka seemed disappointed by the curt response, expression tugging into a dramatic frown. "Hey…" 

"Sokka, what are you doing!" His sister's voice hissed, her face peeking around the pillar at them. "Is this really the time to chit-chat? Aang's in trouble!"

"Hey, I'm just… gathering information! This guy's a new threat!" Sokka defended. Zuko huffed with amusement. 

"What's wrong, Katara? Can't he catch up with an old friend?" Zuko taunted. The waterbender scooted around in her chains to glare at him more fully. 

"Not if it's you ." She spat. She punched Sokka lightly in the elbow, the nearest part of him she could reach. "He knows my name?!" She hissed. Sokka shrugged.

Their banter was interrupted by the glowing of a blue light from within the sanctuary, smoke billowing out in plumes as the doors finally parted. 

Zhao ordered his men to attack, great plumes of flame billowing into the chamber. They warped oddly upon entry, and were bent aside to reveal not the young, airbending Avatar everyone expected, but the spectral visage of Avatar Roku. The specter swept the flames easily, building their fury and sending them back at the line of soldiers, scattering them. Zuko braced himself against the blast. 

A pained shout from beside him tore his eyes back open. 

Sokka had been too near the doors in his attempt to scoot nearer to Zuko, and the flames had licked dangerously at his exposed skin. A surge of adrenaline jolted through him, his hands growing hot, protective instinct pushing him towards the other boy. He summoned a great flame, stronger than any he'd ever summoned before, and melted his bonds in an instant. 

Behind them, Avatar Roku's spirit battled the Sages and the soldiers, but Zuko only had eyes for the Water Tribesman. 

He surged forward, grabbing the chains on either side of Sokka's body in his hands, crowding him against the pillar. Sokka's eyes were wide with shock, inches from his own. 

"What are you doing?!" Katara's voice shouted from the other side. Zuko let out a heavy breath, that surge of energy from before coming to his aid again, melting the bonds from the siblings and the rogue Sage. Katara shouted, startled, and jumped away from the melted metal, but Sokka remained frozen in place. 

"Thank… you?" He breathed. 

"I… I don't know how I did that." Zuko admitted. 

"You have to get out of here!" The rogue Sage warned. "Avatar Roku is going to bring down the temple!" 

The specter, having chased off his assailants, began to draw upon the lava beneath them, destroying the structure. 

"Not without Aang!" Katara shouted back. "Sokka, come on!" 

"Go." Zuko murmured. Sokka nodded. 

At once, they split apart, Sokka returning to his sister's side, Zuko sprinting for a destroyed section of wall. His river boat was far below, but there was no time to do this the safe way. 

He slid down the wall, using the crumbled sections as footholds, and made his way precariously all the way back down to sea level. Nearby, Zhao's men tumbled towards their own ship, escaping the tumbling lava and debris. Zuko noted with some satisfaction that there were fewer here than had been in the temple. Zhao would have trouble piloting his ship with the loss of crew. 

Luckily, his little boat was just where he had left it, undamaged by Zhao or his men. He thanked the spirits for small graces, and took up the helm.

Time to meet back up with Uncle.

---

As Roku's spirit left him, Aang collapsed to the ground. Sokka rushed over, Katara close behind, and scooped him up. 

"Come on, we need to get out of here." 

Aang wobbled a bit, but regained his footing quickly. "Thanks. Where's Shyu?" 

"I don't know, but there's no time." Katara responded, dragging Aang by the wrist towards the descending staircase. "Oh no!"

Sokka looked over her shoulder, seeing what she was gasping at. "Oh, no…" He agreed. Lava was bubbling up from below, filling the entire structure. "Where do we go?!" 

Just then, Momo swooped in, the sound of Appa's lowing coming from behind him. Aang whooped, embracing the lemur. "Good going, buddy!" 

Their escape secure, the trio piled into the bison's saddle, Aang taking the reigns. Just in time, too, as the temple fully collapsed behind them, into the sea. 

Sokka leaned out of the saddle, glancing about for signs of Zuko's ship, worry settling in when he only saw a much larger one floating in the harbor. 

"I'm sure he's fine. He's a damned beetleroach." Katara huffed, crossing her arms. 

"Hey, you don't know what I'm looking for!" Sokka replied defensively. 

"Yeah, because you always look like your boomerang just fell off a cliff when you're watching for enemies." Katara rolled her eyes. 

"Don't even joke about that." Sokka said, tone serious, pointing directly at her. He deflated, seeing Aang looking tense. "Aang? What's wrong?" 

The monk tensed up further, curling in on himself. "It's about what Roku told me in there. It's… well, you guys might want to sit down for this." 

Sokka refrained from pointing out that they were already sitting, as securely as the bison's saddle allowed. Katara wrapped an arm around Aang's shoulder, pulling him close. 

He explained about the comet that was coming, and the great power it would grant all the firebenders of the world. They suddenly had a time limit imposed on them, and all the fun little detours he'd already taken ate him up with guilt. Aang had drawn his knees up tightly to his chest by the end of the explanation, Sokka having joined Katara in wrapping him into a comforting embrace. 

"Don't worry, Aang. We'll all face this together. We're already on our way to get started. You're not alone, you'll never be alone with this." Katara murmured, rubbing smooth circles into Aang's back. 

Sokka grinned, patting him firmly between the shoulder blades.  "Yep. Next stop, North Pole!" 

--- 

Zuko stepped off of the little river boat and into the ship's hangar, his Uncle's arms immediately drawing him into a tight embrace.

"My nephew! It is so good to see you return safely!" 

"Thank you, Uncle." 

"It seems, though, that your mission was… less than successful?"

Zuko scoffed, pulling out of Uncle's embrace. "Zhao wasn't fooled by the smokescreen. He ambushed us." 

Uncle hummed. "You may tell me all the details over a warm cup of tea. I'm sure you can use the chance to wind down after your ordeal. We saw the temple collapse from here." 

Zuko nodded. "Okay." 

Uncle ushered him up onto the deck, then into his quarters for the promised tea. He prompted Zuko to tell his tale, reacting appropriately at the right moments, despite Zuko's clipped and dry storytelling method. 

It was when he began to talk about how they escaped their bonds that Zuko hesitated. 

"Uncle… it was like I was suddenly more powerful. I hadn't been able to burn the chains just moments before. Is that… is that because of adrenaline? I don't think I've ever felt that before." He asked, uncertainly.

Uncle nodded. "The heat of the moment can certainly draw strength from us we would never think possible. However, I believe you are correct in your guess that that was not the extent of it."

"Then what, Uncle?" 

He smiled, that knowing twinkle in his eye. "You were only trying to save yourself the first time, yes? Then, when you tried again, you were protecting someone else. You were worried for that Water Tribe boy, weren't you?" 

Zuko flushed, indignant. "What are you implying?!" 

Uncle hummed again, pouring himself another cup from the pot. "Do you know of the Jin Lu spirit?" He asked. 

Zuko failed to see the connection between the two trains of thought. He shook his head. "No."

"It is a golden deer, eight-legged, with antlers like a halo." Uncle described. Zuko felt his eyes go wide with recognition. "The Jin Lu is also known as the Far Strider spirit, as it often acts as a guide across far distances. It is a spirit of nature, concerned primarily with maintaining the balance of man with the natural world, and seeks to aid those that would protect its domain."

Zuko looked into his teacup, still mostly full, just for an excuse not to meet his Uncle's knowing gaze. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I had the honor of laying eyes on this spirit recently. You will recall my short-lived capture by the Earth Kingdom army, yes?"

Zuko smiled. "Yes, I recall."

"Well, the Jin Lu walked by as I was being so kindly escorted by those soldiers. Following it was a boy I believe you know well." 

There was the connection. Uncle knew. 

"Sokka." Zuko breathed. 

"The very same. It was clear the Jin Lu was guiding him somewhere. Knowing as I do that you were mere steps behind me then, I can imagine where that may have been."

Zuko swallowed, regretting stepping into this line of conversation. 

"To return to your original question, you may recall from the old tales your mother and I loved to tell that fighting for one's soulmate can often make both parties more powerful and resilient. Your spirits are matched with one another perfectly, and that resonance can empower you both with unimaginable strength. Until now, you have fought against him, both emotionally and very literally. This time, though, you were fighting for him. That makes all the difference."

Zuko was sure his emotions were etched clearly on his face. He was embarrassed beyond belief that his uncle had seen right through him like that, guilty for keeping secrets from him in the first place, feeling foolish for having forgotten something like this in the heat of the moment, focussed so wholly on keeping the other boy from danger… The turmoil ate at him in a horribly familiar fashion. 

"I can see I have given you much to think about. Come, let me take you to your room. The helmsman is already charting course following the Avatar's bison, no need to worry."

Zuko stood, leaving his full cup behind. "Thank you, Uncle." 

"Of course." 

He allowed himself to be led down the hall, entering his room as Uncle opened the door, and stood, lost, just inside. 

Stronger together, was it? 

Fate was truly cruel. 

Chapter Text

Watching waterbending practice was about as fun as it had always proven to be in the past. Sokka was almost glad to be bathing Appa, if only for the chance to do something while the others splashed around for hours. 

The bison enjoyed the pampering, Sokka scrubbing between his toes and combing out loose fur thoroughly. 

"Alright, buddy. Ready to roll over so I can get the other side?" Sokka asked. The bison lowed in response, lazily flipping his hulking body. "There we go. Thanks, Appa." 

Sokka scrubbed at the joints where the saddle usually hooked around him, loosening the mats in the fur beneath. The sun had risen from low on the horizon to high overhead while he worked, before Aang got too enthusiastic with his bending and sent a huge wave over them all. 

"Hey, watch it!" 

"Sorry!" Aang called out. "Guess this waterbending stuff is easier than I thought!" 

Katara grumbled behind him as Sokka watched the current capture their belongings. 

"You just waterbended all our stuff down the river!" 

Sokka began to strip his tunic, chasing down the supplies. 

"We can buy replacements in the market nearby, don't worry about it!" Katara tried. 

"My Kyoshi uniform was in there! Not to mention the food and the fishing rod and- we don't have enough money for all that!" He slid down the short drop, the supplies gaining distance quickly, until they dropped off a second waterfall further down. He groaned. 

"We'll have to make do. Come on, let's go see what we can buy." 

---

"Didn't the guards at that prison mention that this market attracts 'unsavory types'?" Zuko asked as he and Uncle descended the gangplank onto the wharf. 

"Bah, they simply do not trust any port that is not under Fire Nation control. I assure you, Prince Zuko, this trip will go perfectly smoothly. Just let me check the shops and we'll be on our way." Uncle waved off his concerns with a brush of his hand, and tottered off to the nearest shop. 

Following closely behind, studiously ignoring the stares from passersby, Zuko followed his Uncle to shop after shop, the old man using their funds freely at each stop. Nothing he purchased was the tile he was ostensibly searching for, and none of it was useful, either. 

"We're losing valuable time." Zuko grumbled through gritted teeth. "Their bison is as fast as our ship. We can't afford to waste so much time here!" 

"Nephew, please. It won't take long. I'm sure the next shop will have what I'm looking for."

Not for the first time, Zuko wondered if his Uncle was stalling on purpose. It wouldn't do to accuse him of traitorous intentions, though, so Zuko held his tongue. 

---

The last of their money did not stretch nearly far enough, not even covering all the basics they needed. Worse, just when Sokka was beginning to calculate how to ration out their last three copper pieces on nonperishable foodstuffs, Aang shows up having blown money on a whistle. It didn't even make a noise! 

And they still wanted to shop! They ended up in a shop nestled inside of a ship on the pier, boasting fantastic wares they definitely couldn't afford anyway. Sokka perused their weapons, scrutinizing their make for methods and materials he might be able to replicate by hand, while Katara and Aang attempted to barter for a waterbending scroll horrifically far out of their price range. 

As suddenly as they arrived, Katara was ushering them out once more. Sokka grumbled about it, having been in the middle of investigating the wrapped-leather grip of a boomerang, but allowed himself to be dragged out of the shop anyway. 

They hadn't made it far when the shop ship's crew, a band of heavily-armed pirates, descended upon the three of them, brandishing arms and threatening words alike. 

As usual, Aang headed the escape, his airbending especially suited to pulling them out of scrapes. A blast of air sent an oddly familiar cart of cabbages flying into their pursuers, to the dismay of the merchant. Several more of the pirates swung around the next corner, aiming to execute some sort of pincer maneuver, but Katara iced up the ground between them, slowing them down. Not for the first time, Sokka wished he had some magic powers of his own, something that could put distance between them and the pirates' blades. 

Instead, powerless, he was cursed to follow the airbender blindly into yet another dead end (seriously, how did Aang always manage to corner them?) and watch as their pursuers gained quickly on them. 

"Stand back!" Aang warned them, not waiting to see if they listened before pushing a gust into the sand-swept cobblestones of the alley, sending a billowing cloud of dust into the remaining pirates. It bought them only a moment, but it was just long enough for Aang to unfold his glider and sweep the three of them away. 

---

The game tile Uncle was looking for was not in the next shop. Or the next. Or the one after that. 

Zuko had long since run out of patience, moments from strangling the old man when he finally announced, after checking the very last shop and purchasing a tsungi horn, that the search was a bust. 

"Great. Good to know this whole detour was a complete waste of time for everyone!" He snarled. Still in good spirits, his Uncle simply chuckled, pleased with the 'bargains' he'd found. 

"If that was the last shop, can we finally leave?" Zuko whined. 

"Ah, ah, ah! We have not checked the ships docked here! I noticed a few of them are open for business, as well! I'm certain these far-traveling traders will have even more rare goods!" 

As frustrated as Zuko was with his Uncle's antics, he still followed along, like a turtle-duckling following its mother. Uncle ooh-ed and aah-ed over the exotic wares available in the ship's shop, particularly enthused by an ape inset with rubies. 

This shop, however, had more than exotic goods. They had something infinitely more valuable- information. 

A flashy man leaned over the counter, complaining in hushed tones about stolen scrolls and bald monks. Long past caring about seeming rude, Zuko inserted himself into the conversation. 

"This monk… did he have a tattoo of an arrow on his forehead?" 

The flashy man turned to look at him slowly, the color draining from his face telling him plenty. The man behind the counter, tall and imposing, frowned deeply. 

"What's that information worth to you?" 

"How about I pay you in a favor? You tell me about this monk you saw, and I'll retrieve your stolen merchandise. Deal?" 

The man studied him carefully, then stuck out a hand with force. Zuko took it, shaking firmly. "Deal." The man agreed. "Where should we start?"

---

Katara had no remorse. She apparently had sticky fingers Sokka had never known about, and thought a single scroll with a few kata was worth their lives. 

She and Aang took to the water once more, studying the drawings in the scroll to learn the stances. 

"Here, let me try this one first, and then it's all yours." Katara promised Aang. The monk, too infatuated with her to argue, held the scroll open obediently. 

Sokka took a step back, considered, and then put several more feet of distance between them. With his experience with bending, he didn't want to tempt fate or its tendency to drench him in bending water. 

Katara took a deep breath, clumsily mimicking the stances of the kata painted onto the scroll. She drew some water up from the river, but it failed to take shape. Groaning, she started over, trying to connect the stances more fluidly. Still, the water refused to obey. 

More violently this time, striking the poses sharply, she drew on the water a third time. This time, a huge volume of water followed her command, darkening the sky and swinging wildly. Sokka scrambled to duck behind the rock he was perched on, but the water suddenly rocketed the other way, pouring onto Momo and driving the lemur underwater. Katara panicked, rushing into the water to retrieve the furious creature, chittering angrily at her and grooming himself dry. 

"I'm so sorry Momo! I got a little worked up, it won't happen again!" 

"Here, Katara." Aang set the scroll down gently, padding over to the riverside. "You need to concentrate on shifting your weight through the stances." He smoothly pulled the water up and into shape, sending it cracking out as intended. "It's really similar to airbending-"

"Shut UP!" Katara suddenly shouted. "I don't need your infinite wisdom right now! Why do we even need a scroll, right?! You're so naturally gifted !" 

"Katara…" Sokka warned. 

"What?!" Her fury rounded on him, a wall of water shivering dangerously behind her. Sokka nodded back towards Aang, who looked close to tears. Finally noticing his expression, Katara deflated, water splashing back into the river as she did, and she stuttered out an apology to him. 

"Oh, Aang… I don't know what came over me. Here, let's put this away for now, forget all about it. I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore." 

"No, Katara, it's fine-" Aang tried. Sokka cut him off.

"It's not. Let her apologize. She's being a jerk." 

She turned to glare at him, but sighed, letting the anger go. "He's right. I got really worked up there. I even put Momo in danger." She stroked the lemur, still licking at a small, pink wound where he'd scraped the rocks. 

"Okay. Thank you for your apology, then, Katara." 

Sokka pat Aang's shoulder. "Alright, now that that's settled, let's get to bed. Don't wanna be out in the open like this for too long."

---

As expected, Zuko found Katara on the river, using the scroll she'd stolen to practice her craft near the river. The pirates and his own men worked in sync, capturing her smoothly and binding her to a thin tree. Zuko waved them back. 

"Tell me where he is, and I won't hurt you or your brother." He promised.

"Yeah, right. Go drown." Katara snarled.

Zuko worried his lip. "Please, understand. I'm sure Sokka's told you why I need him-" 

"No, he hasn't." She bit back. "Why would he even know something like that?"

"I- has he… not told you?" Zuko had assumed Sokka had told his sister everything, remembering their early encounters. She'd hurt herself trying to meet her own soulmate after he'd told her, hadn't she?

"I know that you're his soulmate , and he told me how he met you." Zuko stiffened at the way his men began to murmur between one another. "And I know that you're a big pompous prick who doesn't deserve him!"

"Just listen to me!" Zuko groaned. "I don't want to be fighting you or Sokka!"

"Then stop chasing after Aang! Simple! Easy fix! You never have to worry about fighting your soulmate ever again!" She spat the word 'soulmate' like it was poison to her.

Zuko grit his teeth, punching the tree above her head, fist smoking. "I can't ! If you would just listen-" 

Katara's gasp cut him off. She was staring at the arm still poised over her head. "You- where did you get that?!"

It was then that he remembered the necklace carefully clasped around his left wrist for safekeeping. He drew it to himself, cradling it gently. "This is your mother's necklace, right? Sokka said it became yours after… after she passed." 

His words only seemed to rile her up more. "Oh, so you know how important it is, and you're just flaunting it like a trophy?!" She used her bonds as leverage, kicking up at him. He dodged easily, getting out of range with just half a step. "How do you even know about it?! Mom was still alive last time you-" Her eyes grew wide, realization dawning behind them. 

So Sokka had been keeping him a secret. Just as well, as he'd been doing the same, but… 

"How about a trade, then? This is important to you, and capturing him is important to me." He unclasped the necklace from his wrist, holding it out in a show of good faith. 

"What's all this jabbering about?!" The pirates' leader demanded. You promised us the scroll!"

Zuko whirled on the tall man, huffing out a puff of smoke. "You'll get it when I get what I came for."

"That wasn't the deal!" 

Zuko tucked the necklace into his armor for safekeeping, pulling the scroll out and holding it aloft. 

"You all are really fixated on this. It must be worth quite a bit of money." He lit his hand, drifting the flames just close enough to tickle the parchment, but too far away to light it. The collective gasp from the pirates confirmed his theory. "Bring me the boy, and I give you the scroll." 

The pirates' leader grumbled. "Fine. Boys?" He motioned his crew out into the woods. 

"Wait!" Zuko demanded. The captain raised an eyebrow. "Don't hurt the Water Tribe boy. Just bring the monk." 

The pirates cackled. "No promises." The captain scoffed. 

"Oh, now you're worried about him…" Katara rolled her eyes. Zuko shot a glare at her. She returned it with full force. 

---

It wasn't their most elegant of escapes, sure, but they'd managed to outwit a crew of pirates, a band of firebenders, and recover the scroll while they were at it. Better, Zuko's boat was scrap metal, crippling his pursuit, and Aang's impulse purchase actually came in handy. 

"Good going, turning them against each other like that." Aang praised Sokka as they flew off, astride Appa's strong back once more. "I wouldn't have thought to use me being the Avatar like that! That was really quick thinking!" 

"I know, I know. I'm a genius." Sokka gloated, puffing up under the praise. 

"Don't congratulate him." Katara snapped. "He's a big fat liar who's been keeping secrets from us." 

"What? What do you mean?" Aang asked, eyes huge.

"Yeah, Katara. What exactly are you getting at?" Sokka crossed his arms. What was with the sudden suspicion? 

"Well, Sokka, I seem to remember you claiming that you'd only met Zuko once, when you were eight. " 

Oh, yeah, he had said something like that, hadn't he? "Yes?" He responded, hesitantly. 

"So why did he know about Mom's necklace? I didn't get that until you were nine. Do the math for me, would you? Because that doesn't add up." 

Whoops. He should have considered that, running into Zuko so often, the Prince might be the one to spill the proverbial beans. "Okay, okay, you got me. It was maybe more than once?" 

" More than once, he says! Let's try another question, shall we?"

Oh, spirits, what else had he said?

"Zuko seemed to be under the impression that you would know why he was so fixated on capturing Aang! Has he been after the Avatar since he was, what, ten? Or is there more recent news for you to cough up?" Katara stood, stalking slowly across Appa's saddle to get right in Sokka's face. 

"Before he attacked our village , when was the last time you'd seen Prince Zuko?" 

Sokka swallowed, tearing his gaze away. "It was about six months before Dad left." He finally offered. 

"Six months before… Sokka, you kept this secret for that long?! You can't be serious!" 

A gust of wind swept past, jostling Appa's flight path. Katara, nearly losing her footing, finally sat back down. "How many times did you meet up with him in that time?"

Sokka sighed heavily. "I… couldn't say. I lost count a long time ago. It was… it used to be pretty often. We'd meet up every so often and just… talk." 

"Wow, no wonder you know him so well!" Aang chirped. 

"Not as well as I thought, apparently. I always thought he was some kind of exception. That the Fire Nation evilness hadn't infected him. He was… he used to be really nice. He was my best friend. And then…" 

Aang pat him on the back, gentle. Katara was still dubious. 

"Even if you say you haven't seen him in nearly three years, how can I trust you? You just admitted to lying about him for that long. Not to mention, you said you saw him when you were in the spirit world just a few days ago!"

"That was different!" Sokka tried to explain. "He wasn't asleep that time, we couldn't talk-" 

"You still saw him! How do you know he can't do the same for you?! Maybe that's how he keeps finding us, ever thought of that? Your spirit connection goes both ways , Sokka!" 

"Um, Katara makes a good point, Sokka…" Aang winced, drawing his hand back. 

Katara was close to tears now. "Sokka, please, just… give me a reason to trust you. I hate feeling like this, being suspicious of my own brother! We never kept secrets from each other! But this… you were hiding this the whole time! " 

"Katara, I… okay. Okay. I'll explain everything, okay? No holes, no lies. Just promise to listen, okay? Can you do that?" 

She nodded, choking back tears and not trusting her voice to hold steady should she speak. 

Sokka launched into his explanation, starting with how upset their mother had been when he'd first talked about Zuko, that that was the reason he'd kept it a secret. He told her about the two of them sharing their grief, their pain. He told her about how awful Zuko's family was, how fragile the Prince had seemed, how even now Sokka could only see the scared kid beneath the angry asshole. 

Finally, he told her about Zuko's banishment, and his mission. 

Aang looked guilty. "He just wants to go home… that means I'm the only thing in his way, right? Maybe I should-"

"No, Aang." Sokka cut his train of thought short. "His dad never meant for him to succeed. It's not you that's keeping him from going home, it's that asshole." 

"Besides," Katara added in, "Without you, we can't stop the Fire Lord and end this war. We need you here." 

"Yeah… I just wish there was something I could do to help." 

Ever the bleeding heart. That's why he was the hero, though, right? 

"If you could help convince him his dad's a jerk and he's better off without him, that'd be a big help. Just putting it out there." 

Somehow, that cheered Aang up. "You know what? You're right! That sounds like a really good idea!"

Katara seemed to calm down as well. "I'm… I'm sorry for blowing up at you. I know why you kept it a secret. I just wish… I just wish you'd trusted me enough to tell me anyway. I hate having secrets between us."

"I know." Sokka sighed. "Me too." He grinned. "Actually, I've got a little peace offering for you. I couldn't get Mom's necklace back, but…" He pulled out the waterbending scroll. Katara gasped gleefully. 

"Oh, Sokka! You're the best!" 

"Yeah, I know. You could stand to say it more often, though." 

She swatted his arm. "I take it back. You're an unforgivable jerk."

Sokka held his chest, mock-wounded, and made an offended noise. "How could you! I regret offering you peace!" 

The tension finally lifted, laughter settled in its place. 

---

The damned tile hadn't even been missing! The Avatar slipped through his fingers again, they would lose hours of time trekking back to the ship on foot , and the tile hadn't even been missing!

It sure was now, now that Zuko had thrown it into the river, and he was sure he'd regret the impulsive action the next time Uncle found a port with a bustling market and a potential avenue to come across rare game tiles, but for now it felt like fitting revenge. 

He did not wait to see if Uncle followed behind as he stalked back to town. 

Chapter Text

Jet signalled the other Freedom Fighters to take positions. The soldiers in the camp were winding down for the evening, relaxing their guard. Over the shared meal, even the watch was comfortably relaxed. Soon, their moment would come. 

Smellerbee sent up a warning whistle, the one to denote reinforcements on the way. Jet whistled back the acknowledgement, and skirted around to where the soldiers approached. 

Judging by their heavy footsteps and raised voices, they weren't trying to be stealthy. Good, that meant the camp hadn't been tipped off about the Fighters, after all. This was, maybe, some sort of scouting party. 

When the first of the group breached the clearing, Jet realized he'd been dead wrong. He also realized luck was definitely on his side tonight. 

The three foreign children took up unpracticed battle stances, startled by the presence of the soldiers. Only one even carried any weapons, but the others could still be benders. 

Sure enough, as the children were attacked by the ash-makers, the girl defended with unnaturally floating water. 

Jet took her in. Young, probably a couple years younger than him. Likely at that 'boy-crazy' stage. Pretty, crazy pretty, they didn't make girls like that around here. 

All of the soldiers in the camp moved to surround the intruders. He signalled Longshot to take the chance.

A skillfully placed arrow penetrated the soldier's armor and he went down like a sack of grain. 

Jet hopped down from his perch, seizing the opportunity granted to them. He swung his dual blades around effortlessly, relishing in the stretch and pull of his muscles, in the freedom of movement the weapons afforded him. 

The younger boy, the one in the strange orange clothes, shifted through bending stances, but nothing seemed to happen, until an unnatural gust of wind sent a soldier spinning around the clearing. An unusually subtle earthbender, maybe? Or a relic of a past era, an actual living airbender? 

The older boy wielded an odd club, an unusual weapon Jet had only seen once or twice. He was obviously related to the girl, probably her brother. They could practically be twins. She was a waterbender, so he was likely Water Tribe, himself. Explained the weird weapons. 

The boy swung his club, too slow, and Jet took out the soldier facing him. He thought he saw a moment of hesitation in the boy's eyes, but chalked it up to inexperience in battle. 

Longshot easily took out many of the soldiers' sword hands, shooting three or four arrows at a time into the crowd. Jet then used his own blades to unbalance them, letting Smellerbee get in close with her knife. It was a strategy they'd employed countless times before, falling easily into the rhythm of it.

Again, Jet took out a guard facing the Water Tribe boy, and this time the hesitation was all too obvious. The boy held his club above his head, breath caught in his chest, and didn't bring it down. A niggling little thought snuck into Jet's brain, whispering Fire Nation sympathiser. Still, he'd complained about Jet 'stealing his shot'. He couldn't be sure of anything yet. 

Jet finished off the last of the guards, a pikesman who looked about ready to piss himself, and used the momentum of his attack to carry himself over to the waterbender girl. 

"Hey." He smirked, noting how he towered over her. Her breath caught. Seemed he'd nailed it with the boy-crazy guess. 

"Hi…" She flushed, brushing the styled strand of hair out of her face. Avoiding his gaze, she looked out over the Fire Nation camp. The other Fighters had begun to clear the bodies, leaving Pipsqueak and The Duke to loot the supplies. 

"Wow!" The airbender boy exclaimed. "You took out, like, a whole army! All by yourself!"

"Army?" The older boy scoffed. "There were only, like, twenty guys." 

You would know what a proper Fire Nation army looks like, wouldn't you? Sympathiser. That little voice intruded. No, he couldn't be sure yet. He could use these guys, no point in alienating them yet. 

"My name is Jet." He grinned at the trio, sweeping an arm out to indicate the others behind him. "And these are my Freedom Fighters." One by one, he introduced the members of the ambush party. The airbender kid immediately took a liking to Pipsqueak, and the brawny boy to him, in turn. 

Jet invited them to help with the cleanup and looting, and the waterbender girl readily agreed, trailing behind him like a lost cub. She was really too easy. 

Her brother, on the other hand, merely kept out of the way, shooting suspicious looks to the Fighters as they passed. Wary for himself and his friends? Or something else?

Well, Jet reasoned to himself, he was being way too obvious to be a spy. As long as they kept an eye on him, they wouldn't be taken by surprise. He murmured an order to Longshot to take the duty of watching the boy for now. 

"I wanted to thank you. For saving us." The girl's soft voice interrupted. 

Jet let his lips tug into that cocky smirk he knew worked so well. "I should be thanking you. We'd been waiting for an opportunity to ambush this camp all morning, and you guys crashing the party gave us the perfect distraction." 

She giggled. "Well, then, you're welcome. We'd gotten kind of lost… we were relying on someone's instincts. " Her sweet voice took on a hard edge, glancing at the Water Tribe boy. 

"That'll get you killed." Jet frowned in put-upon concern. She looked relieved he'd agreed with her.

"Thank you!" She huffed. 

"Hey, Jet!" The Duke's high-pitched voice cut across the clearing. "There's barrels of blasting jelly over here!" 

"Ooh, useful. Nice find." Jet called back.

"And these boxes are full of jelly candy!" Pipsqueak added. 

"Also good. Try not to get those mixed up." 

"Candy? In an army camp?" The girl questioned. Her brother finally rejoined the group, answering her for them. 

"Firebender fuel. Their bending takes up a lot of energy, so they'll use candy or alcohol. Candy has fewer unintended side effects."

"You're knowledgeable." Jet noted. "I'd wondered why we found so many candy stashes. Where'd you hear that?"

"Oh, you know." The boy answered vaguely, waving a hand dismissively. "We've had some run-ins with the Fire Nation before."

"Uh-huh." Jet's suspicion spiked. "Well, let's get the stuff back to the hideout. We're done here."

"Ooh, you guys have a hideout?" The airbender enthused. 

"Yeah. Wanna see it?" 

Like clockwork, the two benders eagerly agreed. Their third, unsurprisingly, was less excited. 

The Fighters loaded up a cart with their haul and they moved out, leaving the clearing behind and heading towards the hideout. They took a roundabout, swirling path to get there, hoping to muddle the cart tracks as best they could. It wasn't perfect, but better safe than sorry. 

Along the way, the waterbender stuck close by Jet's side. He basked in the attention. 

"Hey, we introduced ourselves, but I didn't catch your names. Who do I have the pleasure of meeting?"

"Oh!" She laughed nervously, fiddling with the hair hanging in front of her face. "I'm Katara. The grumpy one is my brother, Sokka." 

So he'd guessed right. "And the bald one?"

"That's Aang." 

"Is he really an airbender? He did some wild stuff back there." 

"I am!" Aang piped up, jogging to reach them. 

"That's pretty cool, man." 

The kid grinned like a doofus. 

"We're just about there." He announced. He sent Sneers ahead to find someplace to keep the giant bison, and had The Duke work with Pipsqueak to pulley the containers of various jellies up to the canopy. 

"There's nothing here." Sokka complained. Jet smirked. Not observant enough for a spy, either. 

"Here, hold this. Tight." Jet instructed, handing a pulley-rope over to him. 

"Why? What's this do?" He asked, but held on to it anyway. 

The rope pulled taut, propelling the surprised teen up into the leaves. 

Jet offered another to the airbender. "Aang?" 

"No, thanks. I'll get up on my own." Sure enough, a few gusts of wind later and the boy had disappeared. Show-off. Jet could work with that. 

That just left the girl. "Grab hold of me, Katara." He instructed. She tentatively offered her hand, and he tugged it close, spinning her gracefully into his grip just as the rope pulled taut. This close to her, he felt her heart racing in her chest, saw the flush rising in her cheeks. 

The pulley drew them through the hole in the platform, and Jet swung them both easily onto it. 

The airbender was already enjoying himself, making full use of the zip lines between platforms. 

"Nice place you got!" His cheery voice cut across the space, dying as he sped further away. 

"It's really beautiful…" Katara breathed, her gaze sliding across the collection of clustered treehouses and platforms, taking it in in its entirety. 

"It is beautiful, but more than that, it's somewhere the Fire Nation can't find us."

"Why would they be looking for you?"  

Jet pulled the stalk from his mouth, switching it to the other side to create a dramatic pause. "We've been giving them plenty of trouble." He gestured her to follow him, leading her to a free treehouse, abandoned when its previous occupant had been wounded in a skirmish. "A few years back, Fire Nation troops invaded an Earth Kingdom town nearby. Now, soldiers prowl the streets, and it's a home base for troops in the area. So, we've been doing the people a favor, ambushing the troops, liberating their supplies. The works. Soon enough, we'll be able to drive them out of here for good." A plan for that was already ticking in his mind. A big boost to their blasting jelly cache and a waterbender in the same day? It felt like fate.

"That's so brave of you, Jet." The girl cooed, her face flushing again. 

"Nothing braver than a guy in a tree house." Her brother snarked. 

"Ignore my brother." She snapped at him, that hard edge icing her tone again. 

"I'm not worried about it. He probably had a rough day, right?" 

Sokka held his gaze for a long moment, features settled into a harsh glare, but the tribesman backed down. 

"So…" Katara started, loathe to let the conversation lull. "You all live here?" 

Here was the part he had best rehearsed. Telling each member's history in a way that was both quick and painful, tugging at the girl's bleeding heart, that was something he'd done plenty before. It was his number one recruitment method, after all. It helped that those ash-makers were so brutal, that nearly everyone had some painful memory connected to them. 

"Sokka and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation." Katara offered, voice low. There it was. Jet felt a familiar rage boil beneath his skin. Those damned savages couldn't stop taking, couldn't help but destroy everything they touched. No one was safe, not until every last one of them was wiped out.

"I'm so sorry, Katara." He said, instead of what he wanted to.

She was quiet the rest of the way to their lodgings, clearly deep in thought. Jet allowed it, giving her space to feel her grief. Grief was useful. It was all too easy to turn it into anger. And if that icy edge to her voice was any indication, she had a great capacity for anger. 

"You guys can stay here as long as you like. I'm gonna go to the kitchens to help prepare our victory feast for the night, if you need me." 

She nodded, quietly. Jet let her be.

Putting the tree house behind him, he noticed Sokka had disappeared. He spotted him a couple of platforms over, investigating the pulley system under Longshot's watchful gaze. Good. 

The airbender was still zooming around, exploring the space with full freedom, gravity completely meaningless to him. Some of the younger Freedom Fighters, those too young or untrained to be on the ambush party, crowded around to see the airbender show off. Aang loved the attention, practically glowing under it, showing off at every opportunity. It was weirdly relaxing, watching him goof off. For all the Fighters were just kids, they had so few chances for levity. 

Jet shook the feeling off. He had too much to do to get swept up in Aang's rhythm. 

First, the kitchens. The fires were already blazing, pig-chickens roasting on spits, turning slowly under Mince's watchful gaze. She glanced up as he entered, nodding in greeting. 

"How's it going? Think we have enough for our guests?"

She huffed. "If the boys eat anything like you do, Jet, it'll be tight, but I think there'll be plenty." 

"Good. It's a celebration feast, after all." 

She waved him off. "I know, I know. You've gotta stop doing so many, though. The last feast was only a couple weeks ago. The foragers can only forage so fast. Especially with the troop activity getting closer to here."

Jet smiled. "Don't worry about that. We just took out a big camp nearby. I think we finally ousted the soldiers from around here. Besides… the plan to finally purge the ash-makers from this area once and for all is suddenly closer to completion than I thought. So you can relax a little, maybe let your hair down." He gestured to Mince's tight bun with a laugh.

"Not unless you want hair in your food, Jet." She waved him off. "Go on, get out of here. I'm sure you have more to do than bother me." 

"Damn right, I do." 

She rolled her eyes. "Sure."

Jet chuckled, leaving the kitchens behind. He needed to seek out Smellerbee, iron out some details with her… 

There she was, whittling a small block of wood with her dangerously curved knife, legs dangling off the edge of the platform. 

"Smellerbee!" Jet called, announcing his presence. She didn't look up right away, making a couple more strokes across the face of her wood block, and he politely waited a few steps away. 

Apparently reaching a better stopping point, she set the project gently beside her and looked up. "What's up, Jet?" 

He closed the distance between them, taking a seat beside her, one leg drawn up casually. 

"I don't trust that Sokka guy." 

Smellerbee didn't look surprised. "He seemed pretty suspicious of us, too. What are you thinking?" 

Jet shrugged. "Something just seems… off about him. I don't think he's a spy or anything-" Smellerbee snorted at the very idea, probably having noticed how loud and unobservant the boy could be- "I just don't think we can be sure of where his loyalties lie." 

She scratched her cheek, war paint flaking off. "You think he's, what, a Fire Nation sympathiser?" 

Jet nodded. "That, or he's just soft. I wanna make sure, though, before we trust him with anything. His sister and the monk both seem cool, but he's still a mystery."

Smellerbee nodded. "I can arrange something. You want the whole ambush party along?" 

Jet nodded, then paused. "Actually, leave Sneers here. I think he's growing attached to that bison. Besides, we can't take all the good fighters away too often, and he's a good lookout."

"Okay, no Sneers, yes to the rest. I'll gather some info and let the others know what's up. It'll be up to you to get the Water boy on board."

"Naturally." Jet stood, stretching out his legs. "Thanks, Smellerbee. I owe you one."

She waved a hand dismissively, reaching for her paused project. "You owe me a lot more than that. You'll be in danger once I go to collect." She warned.

Jet laughed. "I'll make sure to keep on your good side, then! See ya!" 

Without looking, she waved, knife in hand. It wasn't necessarily a threat, but Jet chose to take it as one. 

Business concluded, he busied himself with preparing for the feast, letting everyone know it was happening, distracting the younger Fighters from their games, rounding up what scouts and lookouts they could spare. 

Before he knew it, night had fallen, and it was time to actually attend the feast. 

It never failed to fill him to bursting with pride, seeing all his Freedom Fighters gathered in one place. The little army of war orphans fighting back against the monsters that took their lives, their futures from them was a sight to behold. And on a night like this, revelling in their recent victory? It made the sight all the sweeter. 

Jet held his arms up, commanding silence. 

"Today, we struck another blow against those Fire Nation swine." He called, rousing up a chorus of cheers. "I got a special joy from the look on one soldier's face as The Duke dropped down on his helmet and rode him like a wild hogmonkey." He gestured to the young Fighter, so skilled for his age, and the boy climbed up on the table to gloat amidst the cheers of his fellows. Falling into the rhythm of recounting the deeds of the day was as easy as breathing. The Freedom Fighters drank up his words like sweet honey, addicted to the taste of his rallying cry. It was invigorating. 

"Now, the Fire Nation thinks they don't have to worry about a couple kids hiding in the trees. Maybe they're right." Jet paused, allowing the expected chorus of booing. He took a slow sip from his juice, smirking into the cup. "Or, maybe, they're dead wrong." 

The cheers following the proclamation were deafening, the Fighters whooping and hollering like hogmonkeys, a chant of 'freedom, freedom' swelling in the crowd. 

Satisfied, Jet took a smooth step off of the table, sitting between the Water Tribe siblings. He'd noticed the harsh glare in Sokka's eyes through the speech, the flinch during the big finale, and moved to put physical distance between him and his sister, before he poisoned her with his traitorous disposition. 

"Hey, Jet! Nice speech!" Katara congratulated. 

"Thanks." Jet chuckled as he settled in beside her, turned slightly to put his back to Sokka, physically shutting him out of the conversation. "By the way, I was really impressed with you and Aang, earlier. That was some great bending I saw today." 

She blushed, waving him off. "Well, he's great." The airbender flushed at her words, rubbing the back of his bald head in embarrassed modesty. "He's the Avatar. I could use some more training." She admitted. 

"The Avatar, huh?" That explained the airbender bit, probably. And if he was the Avatar, that made him a waterbender, too, technically. Another piece clicked into place. "Very nice."

The boy glowed under the praise, as expected. "Thanks, Jet!"

"So… I think I know of a way you and Aang can help us with our struggle." Jet tilted his torso toward Katara conspiratorially. She giggled, tilting toward him minutely. Jet heard movement from behind him, Sokka moving around to butt in again. 

"Unfortunately, we have to leave tonight ." The tribesman snapped. He stood, brushing past Jet resolutely, striding towards the sturdy paddock where they were keeping the bison. 

"Sokka!" Jet called, voice heavy with mock-disappointment. "You're kidding me! I needed you on an important mission tomorrow!"

The boy stopped short, reluctantly turning back to face him. Bingo.

"What mission?" He ground out, curious despite himself. Jet grinned. Turns out all three of them were easy. 

"Get some rest, I'll give you the details in the morning. I'll come get you when we're about to head out, so make sure you're ready." 

Sokka huffed, crossing his arms. "Okay." 

Jet turned back to Katara, helping her to her feet. Her hand lingered in his. "You can show him to the treehouse you're staying in, right?" 

She nodded, helping Aang up in turn. "We're going to bed, then. Thanks, Jet. For everything." 

He smirked, flipping the stalk between his teeth. "No problem. Good night." 

As the trio headed off to their lodgings, Sokka shooting just one glance back at him, Longshot following a safe distance after, Jet sought out Smellerbee again. It'd been a few hours since he'd given her the task, and he hoped she'd have news by now. 

He found her in a lychee eating contest with The Duke, the two of them neck-in-neck. Pipsqueak cheered them on, munching at his own bowl of fruits. 

Jet joined in the encouragement, rooting for Smellerbee since The Duke had his own cheerleader, and laughed as the older Fighter finally gave in, conceding defeat to the boy. 

"Good try, good try!" Jet laughed. Smellerbee leveled a glare at him. He nodded for her to follow him, away from the well-lit banquet area. 

She scurried after him, promising The Duke a future defeat, as he led her to a nearby platform, devoid of prying eyes and listening ears. 

"Were you able to figure anything out?" 

She nodded. "Scouts said word didn't reach the town. Seems like those soldiers we took out were just passing through, and not on assignment here. Normal foot traffic will still be happening."

"Good, good. Anything else?" 

"Seems like a few civilians were talking about traveling tomorrow, through the woods to the next town over. Most of them Earth Kingdom nationals, but one or two were Fire Nation." 

"Do you think we can time it?"

Smellerbee waved a hand in a 'maybe, maybe not' motion. "Eh, depends. If we move early enough we'll be able to intercept whoever we want. We'll need luck on our side to run into who we want first, though."

Jet grinned, playing with the stalk with his tongue. "That's fine. Luck's been on our side so far with these three. I'm willing to bet on it for tomorrow, too." He pat her shoulder firmly, knocking her off-balance. She punched him in the shoulder in retaliation. "Good work today, Smellerbee. Get some rest. We'll be up at dawn." 

---

Jet was honestly shocked to see Sokka already dressed and ready to go at dawn, just finishing rewrapping his forearms when Jet arrived. Katara and Aang still slept comfortably in their respective bedrolls, Aang's gentle snoring creating small dust devils. 

The Water Tribesman stuck close behind as Jet led him to the gathered ambush party. A shadow in the trees nearby alerted Jet to Sneers leaving his post watching the trio's treehouse overnight. He'd earned a good morning's rest. 

Jet signalled to the party to group up. They fell in line without hesitation, Sokka even moving around to join in. "Alright, everyone. We've got a routine scouting mission today. We're watching the road to make sure no soldiers are gonna come looking for the ones we dealt with yesterday. Everyone, you know your positions. Sokka?" The boy perked up at his name, awaiting orders obediently, well-trained despite his suspicion. "You're gonna shadow me. You'll be my backup. The soldiers around here know about me already, probably have plans to combat my special fighting style, but you're a total unknown. We don't see anyone from the Water Tribes around here, ever." 

Sokka nodded, taking his words at face value. Excellent. 

"Let's move out!" 

Silence fell over the group as they moved away from the hideout and into the surrounding canopy. Though the wooden platforms absorbed a lot of sound, their voices would carry out here in the natural wood. 

The ambush party was a well-oiled machine, spreading out and keeping a rigid distance from one another as they moved. At set intervals, Pipsqueak would send up a call for the all-clear from the very front of the group, waiting to hear the answering call from Jet bringing up the rear before moving on. 

They'd lost too many Fighters without realizing it before, and the added checks assuaged everyone's anxiety. 

Another interval, another all-clear. Jet prepared to call back, but Sokka waved him down. The boy shoved a knife apparently made from a jawbone into the tree.

"What are you doing?" Jet hissed. If they wasted too much time before responding, they'd have to regroup. 

"Quiet! It amplifies vibrations." Sokka explained, holding his ear to the knife handle.

"Good trick." Jet whispered back. Resourceful. He'd have to teach that to the other Fighters. 

"Nothing yet." He claimed. 

Waste of time, Jet thought. 

"Wait, yes! Someone's approaching!" 

"How many?"

"Sounds like just one." 

Jet sent out the alarm for approaching soldiers, followed by a single tweet indicating a single person. The rustling of movement in the trees indicated the ambush party was moving into position.

"Good work, Sokka. Ready your weapon." 

The boy retrieved his knife, crouching low to the branch in preparation to hop across to Jet's tree. The traveler approached. 

Luck was indeed on Jet's side, seeing the red of the man's robes. An old man, too old to be out here alone. A messenger of sorts, most likely. It didn't matter, though. Ash-maker was ash-maker. Jet readied himself to leap down. 

"Wait! False alarm!" Sokka hissed. "It's just an old man!" 

Typical. Jet hopped down smoothly, confronting the man. "What are you doing in our woods, you leech?" He sneered. 

"Please, sir! I'm just a traveler!" The old man claimed.

Jet's blood boiled. Traveler or not, the Fire Nation had no place here. They consumed all they touched, a drain on the very land they lived on. Jet knocked the man's staff away, removing the potential weapon. No matter how old he looked, it would be stupid to assume he was frail. A good spy could put on an act as convincing as this easily. 

Pipsqueak had descended, backing him up. The old man was trapped between them, cowering. 

"Do you like destroying towns?" Jet accused. "Do you like destroying families? Do you? " 

Smellerbee dropped from above, pinning him in from the side, as well. Nowhere to run. 

"Oh, please!" The old man begged. "Let me go! Have mercy!"

Jet's rage bubbled over. How pathetic, this damned hypocrite begging for his life. "Does the Fire Nation let people go? Does the Fire Nation show mercy?" Drawing his leg back, he aimed to take his fury out on the man's ribs, but was nearly bowled over as his foot was caught. 

Behind him, Sokka had dropped down, and the traitor had leveled his weapon against him, restraining him. Jet sneered. He had his answer.

"Jet, he's just an old man!" The tribesman argued, defending the ash-maker scum. 

"He's Fire Nation!" Jet bit, getting into Sokka's face. The boy looked pitiful, seeming genuinely distressed over their treatment of the damned leech. Jet turned to the others. "Search him!" He barked. 

"But he's not hurting anyone!" Sokka insisted. 

"Have you forgotten how the Fire Nation killed your mother?! Remember why you fight!" 

Sokka clenched his jaw, expression steely, even in the face of Jet's burning fury. 

"Jet! We got his stuff!" Smellerbee called out. 

"This doesn't feel right." Sokka growled, refusing to back down. 

Of course it doesn't. Not to you. Jet really hated being right, sometimes. "It's what has to be done. Let's get out of here." 

Jet led the way, the other Fighters close behind him, but Sokka lingered behind. 

"Come on, Sokka!" Jet snapped. 

They walked for a good few minutes before the boy caught back up to them. He hoped Longshot was doing his job right, still up in the trees, keeping an eye on this traitor. He needed to know what kept him for so long. 

"So?" Smellerbee whispered while Sokka still lagged behind. "What do you think?"

Jet snarled. "I don't think he could have failed that test any harder." 

---

Longshot reported in shortly after they returned, letting him know that Sokka had stayed behind to help the man to his feet and check him for injuries. He'd also passed something over Longshot hadn't seen, though it sounded like coin.

"Can't be too sure, though. Could be something else small and metal. Good work. Keep doing what you're doing." 

Jet fumed about Sokka's betrayal, mulling over what to do about him. He hadn't poisoned his sister or the Avatar against them yet, but he couldn't know the extent of his sympathies with the Fire Nation. He'd need to keep his plans quiet from them if he wanted to use them as planned. 

Disturbing his train of thought, the trio burst through the fabric of the entryway, Katara demanding answers. It seemed she was more upset at Sokka for accusing him than of anything they thought Jet had done. He hid the smirk threatening to pull at his lips, putting on an expression of concern, instead. 

"Sokka, you told them what happened but you didn't mention that the guy was Fire Nation?"

"No." Katara folded her arms, turning a glare onto her brother. "He conveniently left that part out." 

The added stress to her words spoke to some underlying tension between them. It seemed she was aware of where his sympathies lie, and was less than pleased about it. 

" Fine , but even if he was Fire Nation, he was a harmless civilian!" Sokka argued. 

This was the moment. Jet produced the deadly knife from behind him, stashed for dramatic effect. They'd found it on a raid weeks ago, before the last feast, in fact. It was just the prop he needed. 

"He was an assassin, Sokka." He reached out, twisting the handle to free the vial hidden within. "See? There's a compartment in the handle for poison. He was sent to eliminate me." Jet forced his features to soften, covering his fury with false gratitude. "You helped save my life, Sokka." 

Katara looked relieved, letting out a breath. "I knew there was a good explanation."

Sokka looked angrier than ever. "I didn't see any knife." The tribesman argued suspiciously. 

Jet groaned. "That's because he was concealing it!" 

"See, Sokka?" Katara said softly, placating. "I'm sure you just didn't notice the knife." 

"There. Was. No. Knife." Sokka bit out each word aggressively. He let out a harsh breath, forcing himself to calm down. He turned abruptly, brushing out the entrance. "I'm going back to the tree house and packing our things." 

Jet felt a moment of panic. If the others followed Sokka's lead, he'd lose his chance. "Tell me you guys aren't leaving yet! I still really need your help!" 

"What can we do?" Aang asked immediately. Jet relaxed. It seemed Sokka had little pull on them, after all. 

He began to spin the story he'd been working on since the plan clicked into place. "The Fire Nation is planning to burn down this forest to get to us. They want us to either go down with it or get smoked out." The two benders gasped, reacting just as he'd planned. "There's a reservoir nearby, but there's not enough water in it to fight the fires effectively. If you both use waterbending to fill it, it would be a huge help. But, if you leave now, they'll destroy the whole valley." 

The shared looks of concern on both of their faces convinced him his story had worked. He'd secured victory. 

---

Before dawn broke, the cart had already been filled with stacked barrels of blasting jelly. They'd checked one last time to make sure the new kids were still asleep, and then they set off for the dam. It wasn't until they'd reached the winding pathway down into the valley, breaching the trees and thinning his cover, that Jet realized Sokka had been tracking them. He grit his teeth. Stinking traitor was sneakier than he'd given him credit for. He sent Pipsqueak around to grab him. 

"Where do you think you're going, ponytail?" Smellerbee snarled into Sokka's face, curved knife pressed to his neck. 

"Sokka. So glad you decided to join us." Jet smirked as the traitor was brought before him, Pipsqueak throwing him to his knees. 

"I heard your plans to destroy the Earth Kingdom town." The boy's face was twisted into a grimace of barely-repressed fury. 

"The plan," Jet bit back, "Is to rid the valley of the Fire Nation!"

"There are people living there, Jet!" Sokka shouted, rising to his feet. Pipsqueak and Smellerbee stood ready to hold him again. "Mothers and fathers and children!" 

I know exactly which people you're really concerned about. Jet snarled at the thought. "There can be no victory without sacrifice." Jet asserted, speaking to the other Fighters as much as to Sokka. 

"You lied to Aang and Katara! You told them there'd be a forest fire!" Sokka's accusatory finger was shoved right into Jet's face. He brushed it aside. 

"They don't understand the demands of war." Jet excused. Then, a last-ditch effort to convert Sokka back to a righteous cause, "Not like you or I do."

"I do understand. I understand that there's nothing you won't do to get what you want!" Sokka accused. 

Jet sighed. It was a lost cause. "I was hoping you'd have an open mind. But I can see you've made your choice."

Sokka lunged at him, but Jet countered him easily. The Fighters jumped in in an instant, pulling the boy's arms behind him. 

"I can't let you warn Katara and Aang. Take him for a walk!"

"You can't do this!" Sokka shouted, struggling as his hands were bound. 

"Cheer up, Sokka." Jet felt his smirk twist into something mischievous. "We're gonna win a great victory against the Fire Nation today." 

The flash of emotion across Sokka's face told him it cut exactly where he'd intended it to.

Sokka was led off into the forest, The Duke and Sneers pulled the cart down into the valley, and Longshot headed off to his own special post. Everything was falling into place, with only one loose end left. 

Jet returned to the hideout, waking the two benders from their late morning, and had them get ready. 

"As quickly as you can. The Fire Nation wakes up early, I hear." 

The two were still sleepily rubbing at their eyes by the time Jet brought them to the weak little stream feeding into the reservoir. He showed them what he needed done, pointing out the little geysers dotting the area. The two caught on quickly, with a minimal pep talk beforehand, and summoned the water with little trouble. 

Their perfect synchronicity and the sheer power they unleashed was eerie, even a bit unsettling, but it was exactly what Jet needed. "Yes! Good job. A few more geysers and the reservoir will be full." 

"Look! There's another vent!" Aang chirped, dashing over to it. 

"You two keep it up. I've gotta check on the other guys." 

"Okay. When we're done, we'll meet you over there." Katara's soft voice assured him. Jet flinched. 

"Actually, it'd be better to meet back up at the hideout. Less likely to give away our plans and movements, you know." 

"Oh." She sounded disappointed. "Okay, then."

"Come on, Katara!" Aang's chipper attitude distracted her. 

Jet breathed a sigh of relief. 

---

Seeing Aang and Katara standing near the pathway into the valley, Jet realized he'd relaxed too soon. He should have realized Katara was more stubborn than she seemed, if she'd survived this long with a brother like that. 

Aang realized their plans first, eyes darting between the barrels of jelly and the stone walls of the town.

Katara, sweet Katara, still held faith in him. "Jet wouldn't do that!" She argued passionately. Still, Aang opened his glider, rushing towards the edge of the cliff. Reacting impulsively, Jet flung himself into it, knocking the glider away. Only the airbender's quick instincts kept it from being a fatal mistake. 

"Yes, I would." He asserted. 

"Jet? Why?" Katara sounded devastated. 

"You would, too, if you just stopped to think. Remember what the Fire Nation did to your mother. We can't let them do that to anyone else, ever again."

"This isn't the answer!" Katara argued. 

"I want you to understand me, Katara." Jet pleaded. He switched to a different approach. If Katara was really sour at Sokka for his difference in opinion , she might be open to his reasoning. "I thought your brother would understand, but-"

"Where's Sokka?" She demanded, that hard edge to her voice suddenly appearing.

Whoops, wrong move. Jet scrambled to recover. "Katara…" 

Her expression twisted into a grimace. A powerful surge of water distanced them in an instant, throwing him to the ground. Tears streamed down her face as she held her fighting stance. 

"We need to get to the dam!" Aang shouted, diving for his glider. 

Jet snarled. Traitors, all of them! He'd thought they hadn't been infected, but the poison of those damned ash-makers ran deep.

He swung his blades around, using them to trap the glider. "You're not going anywhere without this!" 

Aang danced away. "I'm not gonna fight you, Jet!" The airbender claimed. 

"You'll have to if you want your glider back!" Jet snarled. 

Abandoning Katara, Jet chased after Aang deep into the woods. They were evenly matched, Aang's bending giving him as much freedom in the trees as Jet's unique blades did. For once, instead of feeling like freedom, like power, they felt like restraint. They could only reach so far, could only dig so deeply, could only grip so tightly, whereas the airbender had full freedom, held back only by his lack of familiarity with the forest. 

This wasn't a fight Jet would win, but that wasn't the objective here. 

The fight dragged on, Jet chasing Aang as far away from the reservoir as he could manage.

His fatal mistake had been forgetting about Katara. 

She pulled huge streams of water from the little creek, slamming into him with enough force to knock the wind out of him. The second pulse, and he felt a rib crack. A third, and his back slammed into the sturdy trunk of a tree, the rib snapping fully out of place. He steadied his breathing, keeping it shallow, and was unable to defend as the final blast turned to ice around him. 

Katara panted with exhaustion and fury. Tears began to prick at her eyes once more. "Why, Jet?" She breathed, disbelief evident in her tone. "I can't believe I trusted you." Her hands gripped into fists, fury overtaking her regret. 

Jet finally recognized the hard edge to her voice was ice, cold, ruthless, punishing. At least the very real ice she'd encased him in was helping with the broken rib. 

"You lied to me! You're sick and twisted and I trusted you!" 

Before Jet could come up with a suitable response, the All Clear sounded from down in the valley. Despite everything, they'd still secured their victory. 

He sent back the answering whistle and allowed the smug smirk to twist onto his features.

"You're too late."

"No!" Katara gasped. 

Aang tried to dash off, having retrieved his glider, but it had taken too much damage and he failed to lift off. They watched with horror as the burning arrow launched across the dam, setting the blasting jelly ablaze. The water they had obediently collected burst forth, rushing across the valley and into the earthen walls of the town, drowning the Fire Nation scum and all the traitors who'd tolerated them alike. 

"Sokka didn't make it in time." Aang said, defeated. Jet scoffed. Of course not. Pipsqueak and Smellerbee were too good for that. 

"All those people…" Katara mourned. "Jet, you monster!"

"This was a victory, Katara!" He reminded her. "The Fire Nation is gone and this valley will be safe."

"It will be safe!" Jet felt the wind knocked out of him by the horribly familiar sound of that traitor's, Sokka's, voice. "Without you!" 

Heavy footsteps and a deep lowing accompanied him, as he crested the rise astride the bison. 

"I warned the villagers of your plan, just in time." He explained to them. 

Jet growled furiously. "What?!" The damn traitor! He never should have trusted him! He knew from the damn start the guy was a Fire Nation sympathiser!

"At first, they didn't believe me. The Fire Nation soldiers assumed I was a spy." Sokka continued. 

You were a spy! Jet thought. 

"But one man vouched for me. The old man you attacked." 

That you paid off. Jet couldn't believe this. He'd been outwitted at his own game by this damned oaf. 

"He urged them to trust me. We got everyone out in time." 

Jet slumped as far as he was able, held in place by the thick ice. He began to shiver, his body heat being sapped out. His jaw clenched with familiar rage. 

"Sokka, you idiot! We could have freed this valley!"

"Who would be free?" Sokka snapped. "Everyone would be dead!"

"You traitor!" Jet snarled, finally voicing the accusation aloud. 

Sokka's eyes widened, a guilty look flashing through them. He swallowed and looked away. 

"No, Jet." Katara cut in. "You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people." 

Sokka let out a heavy breath, seeming shocked. Katara smiled up at him. 

"Katara? You, too?" Jet couldn't believe it. Just hours ago, she'd been wrapped around his fingers, eating out of the palm of his hand. She would have given him anything he asked for. 

How swiftly those damned ash-makers swayed loyalty. 

He vowed never to make the same mistakes again. 

Chapter Text

It was stupid of him, going out on that rickety boat. He should have learned long ago that tempting fate was a fool's gambit, especially with his awful luck. As usual, Aang had swept in moments before imminent danger, dragging him back to safety.

Unlike usual, though, that safety didn't last long. 

The waves were just so huge and Appa so ill-suited for travel during a storm, it wasn't long before he was underwater again. 

As his consciousness slipped away, he imagined he saw that familiar scarred face diving to his rescue. 

---

The room Sokka woke up in was distinctly unfamiliar, but he got a creeping sense of recognition anyway. The dark metal of the walls draped with red tapestries brought with it a sense of nostalgia. How like Zuko's bedroom, back at the palace, just like when they were kids… 

Sokka sat up abruptly, heart hammering in his chest. The tapestries bore the familiar Fire Nation insignia, leaving no room to doubt he was not where he was meant to be. 

The hatch creaked open, revealing a familiar face, gentle golden eyes searching out his own. 

"Oh, you're awake." Zuko's raspy voice was quiet, at odds with the panic Sokka felt waking up here.

"Where am I? What am I doing here?" He demanded. Zuko closed the hatch as quietly as he could behind him, the metal creaking in protest regardless of his intentions.

"This is my room, aboard my ship. Do you remember what happened?" 

Sokka searched his memory, settling back down on the black mattress. Zuko joined him, folding his legs underneath him, and the familiarity of it all jostled something inside him.

"Some, but not much. It's like it's foggy… I remember going out on that fishing boat, and the storm coming in. We weren't able to turn back in time. I think… I remember Aang coming? On Appa? But I don't remember much after that." 

Zuko hummed in consideration. "Your boat capsized. The Avatar was able to rescue you from the boat, but his bison got hit by another wave. My ship was nearby, following him, you know, like we do." Sokka snorted. Zuko glared, the effect ruined by the fact that he was also flushing with embarrassment. "A-anyway… he got everyone else back on but you were still sinking so I kind of… dived in after you. Without thinking." 

"Oh." Sokka ran his hand through his hair, just now realizing that it was undone and also wet. "Thanks, I guess." 

Zuko nodded. "I couldn't… there was a chance you were in danger." He said, as though it were a full explanation. 

An uncomfortable silence dragged on, Zuko looking pointedly away from him while he gathered his thoughts. 

Despite the dampness of his hair, he didn't feel particularly wet or cold. He patted his torso. Yep, all dry. 

But…

"Zuko? Where did I get these clothes?" 

Instead of his usual blue tunic and leggings, he was wearing a red and gold ensemble, a loose-fitting robe and pants. 

"You, uh, your clothes were all wet, so… they're drying now." Zuko offered. 

"Uh-huh. That doesn't tell me where these ones came from, though." 

Zuko mumbled through his response, fiddling with the hem of his pants. It seemed like he'd changed, too, wearing a more casual outfit instead of his usual armor. 

"Sorry, I didn't catch that. You'll have to speak up." 

"They're my pyjamas." Zuko bit out.

"Oh." Sokka considered the clothes he was wearing again. It was hard to imagine the stuffy Prince, with all of his stiff fabrics and armored pieces, wearing something like this. "They're pretty comfortable."

Zuko nodded stiffly. "I thought… well, other than Uncle, I'm the only one on the ship close to your height, and there's no way you'd fit anything of his, and maybe since we know each other it might be less weird, although things have been pretty weird lately, so maybe it's actually more weird-" 

"You're rambling." Sokka interrupted. It was a bad habit they both had, using a bunch of words to mask their discomfort, and this was far from the first time he'd had to disrupt a deluge of words like this. "They fit just fine, and I guess it's not all that weird. I needed something to change into. This is fine." 

"Good! Good. That's… good?" Zuko flushed down to his neck, looking anywhere but at Sokka.

"Did you…" Sokka gestured to the outfit. "While I was unconscious?" 

"Oh!" Zuko waved his arms defensively. "No! I wouldn't- the medic- you weren't breathing, he resuscitated you, got the water out. He's the one who helped you change, I just brought over the clothes." 

"Okay." Sokka searched his face. "Why are you acting so weird?" 

"What?! I'm not acting weird! You're acting weird!" 

Zuko abruptly rose to his feet, rushing out the door and slamming it behind him. The loud metallic clang rang throughout the ship. A long moment passed, Sokka trying to sort out what had just happened, before the hatch creaked open again. 

"Uh, dinner- in the mess hall, soon." Zuko managed, before closing the hatch behind him again. 

"Wait, Zuko!" The Prince did not return. "I don't know where the mess hall is…" 

---

It was strange, being given full freedom on what was technically an enemy ship. He hadn't been locked into the room, and the sailors were friendly, giving him directions as he asked for them. 

On the way to the mess hall ("Big door on your left, can't miss it, it's where all the noise is coming from."), he overheard… strange snippets of conversation. 

"Is that-?" One sailor murmured. 

"Yeah, that's him." Another chuckled in response.

"I wonder if it's really true, what the girl said?" The first pondered. 

"Gotta be. What reason would she have to lie about that? And you saw the way Prince Zuko dived in like an idiot." The other grinned. 

"Don't let him hear you say that!" The first warned with a guffaw, no longer keeping his voice low. 

Sokka shook his head, pushing down his rising curiosity, and walked through the open doors of the mess hall into the cheery atmosphere within. 

The full crew, likely minus a few guards and maybe the helmsman, was settled into benches along the long tables, spooning food from the large dishes scattered at strategic points. Zuko was nowhere to be seen, but his uncle sat nestled between two other sailors, engaged in lively debate on the relative merits of different instruments. It seemed he was carrying the debate himself, offering most of the opinions, and was slowly warming the others up to the tsungi horn. He waved when he noticed Sokka hovering in the entryway, gesturing him over to the table. 

"Come, come! Eat something! You must be famished after your ordeal!" The jovial old man chuckled. 

"I am, actually. What's on the menu?" 

The sailors seated across from Zuko's uncle shifted, making room for Sokka to sit between them. He drew curious glances, but none of the hostility he should rightly expect. 

"Pickled fish and dried vegetables!" The man laughed. "The freshest the ship has to offer!"

"Ah, preserved food! My favorite!" Sokka joked back, serving himself a plate. "Mmm, but the rice smells good."

"It's jasmine rice. We keep a well-stocked tea cabinet around here, you see." 

Sokka grinned. "I wouldn't doubt it. Zuko's told me about your world-famous love for the stuff." 

The sailors murmured to each other, sharing quiet chuckles and pointed looks at him. The attention was starting to grow uncomfortable. 

Uncle Iroh waved him off, holding a hand to his face in mock-embarrassment. "Surely, it is not that notable! The way the boy talks, I can't go five minutes without the stuff!"

In lieu of a response, Sokka gave a pointed glance to the little teapot atop a portable flame sitting near the man's elbow. 

Uncle Iroh let out a hearty guffaw. "I suppose my habits speak for themselves, after all!" 

Sokka bit into a strip of something-or-other, unrecognizable after the dehydration process, and tears sprang to his eyes. 

"Oh, spirits, I think my mouth is on fire." He waved a hand in front of his face, fanning the imaginary flames, almost expecting actual fire to spill from his lips. Uncle Iroh pushed a glass of water near him.

"Here, drink! And have some of the rice, it will help." 

Sokka gratefully followed his advice, the burn cooling to a more tolerable level. He felt his nose running, and almost wiped in on his sleeve before remembering this shirt belonged to Zuko.

"Give the boy a napkin." Uncle Iroh called, a nearby sailor responding to the order quickly. Sokka accepted it gratefully. "I'm sorry, it completely slipped my mind. Your people don't have much in the way of spicy food." 

Sokka shook his head, eating more of the rice. "You guys all eat that stuff?!" 

Following Uncle Iroh's lead, none of the sailors were laughing outright at him, but he noticed with embarrassment nearly all of them were stifling laughter. 

"You become used to the sensation. It's really quite delicious, once you are able to enjoy it." The old man explained calmly. "I'll ask the cook to prepare you something with less spice." He rose from the bench, making his way over to the kitchen. 

Left alone now, the sailors leaned in towards their unexpected guest. 

"Hey, kid. Are you really Prince Zuko's soulmate?" 

Sokka choked on his rice, not expecting such a direct question. They knew?! 

The man who asked slapped him firmly between the shoulder blades, dislodging the grains and opening his airway again.

"What?!"

"How do you know? Love at first sight?" Another sailor grinned, conspiratorially. 

"What? No, that's not-" 

"Come on, guys, quit teasing him." Sokka sighed in relief. At least someone was on his side! "He came in here wearing Prince Zuko's clothes, we already know what they're getting up to!" 

Amid the raucous laughter, Sokka took back every positive thought he'd had about any of these guys.

"Ah, I leave for only a moment and you all bully the boy. I'm disappointed." Uncle Iroh's voice cut through the clamor, laced with no small amount of amusement. He leaned over Sokka's shoulder, handing off a bowl. "Here. We had some cured meats from an Earth Kingdom port that hadn't been spiced yet. Eat your fill." 

"Ooh, meat!" Sokka accepted the bowl happily. The mystery jerky was a bit too salty, but far more edible that whatever mouth-burning mystery spice the rest of them were eating. He ignored the snickers amongst the sailors at his enthusiasm and scarfed the whole bowl down. 

A sudden hush fell across the mess hall, leaving it quiet enough to hear the click of boots taking measured steps across the floor. 

Sokka looked up, mouth still full of unchewed jerky, as Zuko approached. He wore his armored chestplate again, looking as stuffy and pompous as he normally did. 

"Oh, you're still eating… um, meet me on the bridge when you're done, then. Goodbye." The Prince turned sharply back to the doors after his curt statement, sweeping back out of the hall. Murmured conversation bubbled back up after he disappeared, the enthusiasm curbed. It seemed Zuko was less than well-liked around here. Sokka resumed his chewing. 

"Wonder what that was all about." The sailor seated beside him murmured. Sokka shrugged. 

"What, you guys don't have some kind of telepathic connection? Can't tell what he's thinking just by looking at him?"

Sokka tossed a piece of pickled fish right into the sailor's grinning face. 

The smile fell along with the food. "Hey, you shouldn't waste food." 

---

Zuko was pacing impatiently by the time he made it up to the bridge. Sokka knocked on the open entryway to announce his presence, but Zuko was still startled enough to trip over his own feet. The other man in the room, presumably the helmsman, gave him a judgemental look.

"Sokka! You're here!"

"You told me to come here." He reminded him. 

"Oh, right. Of course. Uh…" Zuko brushed himself off, pulling himself together. "I wanted you to tell us where your friends might be." 

Shock quickly burned into anger. "That's what this is?! You, what, kidnapped me to interrogate me?!" 

"What? No!" Zuko smoothed a hand over his head, holding a palm up defensively. "That- sorry, I know how that sounds. I didn't mean-"

"Then what? You just asked to make small talk? 'Oh, nice weather we're having, how was your dinner, where's the Avatar?' You expect me to believe that?" 

"No! I'm asking because… I don't want you to feel like a prisoner here. If I know where your friends will be, I can make sure you can get back to them."

"Oh." The fury bled out of him. 

"I mean, I'd rather you stay, but you already made it pretty clear…"

"Yeah." Sokka sighed, looking over at the helmsman, who kept glancing at them out of the corner of his eye. Nosy sailors, the lot of them. "Normally, I'd assume they'd be looking for me, but you would have noticed the giant flying bison roaming around."

Zuko nodded curtly.

"So… probably they went back to the original plan, heading North. We didn't have a next stop in mind yet." Sokka pushed his loose hair back, scratching at his scalp. "I don't think Aang can read a map." He laughed, but it died out with the concerned look in Zuko's eyes. "What? What is it?"

Zuko looked away, nodding to the map on display in the center of the room. He tapped a spot on it, what Sokka recognized as their current position. "We're here. So North is…" Zuko slid his finger up, landing on a red square. "There's a Fire Nation fortress here. If you're right, they'll be passing right by it. I don't need to tell you that that's a dangerous place for them to be." 

The wind was knocked out of him in one slow breath. "Then… they're in big trouble, aren't they?" 

Zuko nodded. "I'll… gather information." Zuko moved to leave the room, glancing back just as he reached the door. "I'll get you back to your sister as soon as I can." He promised. 

"And Aang?" Sokka prompted.

Zuko left without another word.

---

Sokka stayed on the bridge for a while, studying the map and asking the helmsman questions. Despite his discomfort, he answered dutifully, acknowledging Zuko's trust of the foreign boy. 

It was a lot different from reading a star chart, which Sokka was used to, but it was honestly much easier to pick up. He traced the paths they'd taken so far, noting several marks and pins in the map tracing their route already, and estimated distances and times to approximate Appa's usual flight speed. Judging by his estimate, it would have taken a full day for Aang to have reached the fortress Zuko had indicated. He would have needed to stop to rest nearby, putting him far too close to be safe. He hoped he was wrong, that Aang had taken another stupid detour and that Katara had given into his whims again, that they'd headed West and ended up… where… this island over here? Maybe the volcano nearby? That probably sounded like fun, right? 

Sokka tried not to think about the scared and determined look on Aang's face after the Temple of Roku. 

There was no way he didn't go directly North. 

A cough rattled Sokka's chest. He attempted to hold back another, but it escaped and amplified, sending him into a fully-fledged coughing fit. 

The helmsman pat his back, rubbing his shoulder blades. The hand paused, then moved to press against his forehead. 

"Kid, go see the medic. You're burning up." He ordered. 

"What? But I feel fine." He argued, reluctant to leave the map. 

"Listen, no matter how long you stare at it, the fortress isn't gonna move. You heard Prince Zuko, he's already checking it out. Go see the medic." 

Sokka gave in, turning towards the door, before remembering he wasn't familiar with the ship. "Um, where…?"

---

Between the helmsman's directions and a helpful sailor on deck, Sokka made it to the med bay. An older gentleman, with a bald head and a long beard, was taking stock of his shelves inside. 

"What is it? More burn cream- oh. It's you." The man seemed surprised to see Sokka hovering in his doorway. 

"Expecting someone else?" He asked, sliding into the room proper and closing the hatch. 

"Oh, you know. Prince Zuko's training while frustrated again. I always expect someone to come in with some minor injury. What do you need?" 

Sokka frowned. That didn't sound like 'gathering information'. Still, he was here for a reason. "I've got a bad cough coming on and the helmsman thinks I have a fever." He explained. 

The medic hummed. "You were out in that storm and nearly drowned. I'd honestly be surprised if you didn't get pneumonia." He swept over, feeling Sokka's forehead and directing him to sit on the cot. 

As he did so, Sokka felt a wave of memory hit him like a punch to the gut. 

He'd been here before. 

This was the same cot in the same med bay where he'd last talked with Zuko in his dreams. The memory of the freshly burned skin, still bubbled and raw, turned his stomach. 

"Woah, there. Lie down. You look like you're about to faint." The medic gently guided Sokka into lying properly on the cot, but he fought him off. 

"Not here…" Sokka pleaded. "Please? Anywhere but here." 

The medic scratched his chin through his beard. "Well, Prince Zuko had you rest in his chambers last time. I guess he won't mind if I have you do that again. Would that be better?"

Sokka nodded. "Yes, please." 

---

Uncle always berated him for training while frustrated, but it was really the only reliable way for Zuko to cool off. He needed to burn off the excess energy to recenter himself. 

And with Sokka suddenly on board the ship, he had a lot of frustration to burn. 

It used to be so easy! They could talk about anything and they would just work it out! Now, he finally has the chance to have a normal conversation with the guy again, and he keeps making it weird or screwing it up! 

The crew he was sparring with only narrowly deflected his blasts, flying wide of their marks but burning more hotly than usual. They grumbled about it, but didn't back down.

Zuko kept an eye on the sun as they went, anxiously waiting for it to set. As the sky bled red, he waved off the crew, letting them know training was over. Uncle offered him a cup of tea to help relax, but Zuko brushed past him and towards the living quarters. 

"I'm going to go bathe and meditate. Don't disturb me." He ordered. Uncle hummed and nodded. 

Moving quickly and with purpose, he made his way to his chambers. Slamming the door behind him, he made a beeline to his armoire, digging for a suitable outfit. Coming away with an armful of black fabric and a mask, he closed the wardrobe and turned to leave the room. 

It was only then that he noticed he wasn't alone. 

In his bed, wrapped tightly in his comforter, sweating like a roasting pig-chicken, was Sokka. The boy mumbled in his sleep, shivering. An empty cup sat near him on the floor, a few drops of some green substance still pooled at the bottom. He hesitated, wanting to be sure that Sokka was okay, that he was being taken care of, but he reminded himself of his time limit. If he was going to make it to Pohuai Stronghold and back before dawn, he needed to be quick. 

The broadswords hung on the wall slid easily into their hidden sheath, before being wrapped into the bundle of clothing. 

With one last glance at Sokka, seeing his condition unchanged, he slipped through the window, sliding down to the deck. 

---

The little river boat made good time, the newer model proving much faster than the one that had been destroyed in the skirmish with the pirates, especially with the heat of the flames Zuko produced in his anxiety. 

He steered the boat quickly and quietly towards the fortress, slipping past the guard under cover of darkness. Finally, he was near enough to make his entry, mooring the boat in a secluded cove draped with low-hanging branches.

From here on out, no fire. Fire was always bright, sometimes loud, and would bring suspicion back on him all too easily. Knowing benders as he did, few ever relied on other skills to confront problems, making the broadswords his ideal cover.

It helped that he had far more talent in them than he'd ever had with his elemental skills. 

He slipped through the shadows towards the fortress, keeping a close eye on the movement of the guards. No need to be hasty, to arouse suspicion. This was only a reconnaissance mission. 

Above him, the sound of a terse argument caught his attention. He drew near, using the distraction of the guard nearby to scale the wall. The roof of the post was poorly lit, flat enough to be hidden, and posed the perfect hiding place, but the space between was too bright to make it past safely. 

He clung to the wall below, listening to the two voices shout at one another. One was apparently the official in charge of this fortress, but the other was disturbingly familiar. 

Zhao. 

The Commander was demanding resources to aid him in his quest to recover the Avatar, intent on snatching Zuko's prize out from under him. 

The arrival of a messenger hawk drew their attention, and Zuko used the distraction to scurry up. 

The hawk bore a message direct from the Fire Lord himself, giving Zhao yet another promotion, as thanks for his 'admirable service in ousting traitors from within the Fire Nation', in reference to the part he played in arresting the Fire Sages. 

The newly-appointed Admiral Zhao immediately used his freshly-granted power to simply take the resources he demanded as he pleased: in this case, a famously efficient team of archers. 

Zuko nearly cursed, refraining only in the interest of keeping himself hidden. 

---

Zhao gloated for some time before Zuko was finally able to descend from his hiding place, the normal guard rotation resuming. 

He could feel the dawn too-rapidly approaching as he finally returned to his little river boat, and he pushed the vessel past its limits to return as soon as possible. Dawn had already broken as he did, and he changed quickly before guiding the smaller vessel back into its place on the ship. He just finished tying his hair back up before the lookout spotted him, opening the hangar to draw the boat in. 

Zuko ignored the crew's questions as he swept by, making a beeline to his quarters. 

Inside, Sokka still slept, but it seemed his fever had broken sometime in the night. He'd thrown the blanket across the room, torn his clothes off, and lay, mostly naked, on the cool metal of the floor. 

Zuko drew closer, kneeling next to the unconscious boy. "Sokka?" He called, softly at first. "Sokka, wake up." 

The boy stretched, rolling away from him. 

"Sokka." Zuko said, more firmly. 

Belatedly, he realized this was not the spirit world, where they usually dreamed. He could reach out and… 

He grabbed Sokka by the shoulder, gently shaking him awake. The boy startled, eyes flying open, staring at Zuko in confusion. The blue of his eyes was cloudy, glassy, unfocused. 

"How are you doing?" Zuko asked, softly. The skin under his fingers was warm, too warm, especially considering Sokka was not, as far as he was aware, a firebender. 

"M'hot." Sokka whined. "Too hot here. Where's the ice?" 

Zuko felt a fond smile creep across his face. "You're not at the South Pole anymore, remember?"

"Mmm… Yeah, we're on the sun now. Why are we on the sun?" 

"Okay. I'm going to go get the medic. You stay here." 

Sokka gasped. "Why? Are you hurt?" 

Zuko paused with his hand on the hatch, looking back at Sokka's confused expression. "Yes." He decided to say, getting the feeling Sokka wasn't present enough to understand a real explanation. 

"Oh no!" Sokka struggled to sit up. "Where?"

Zuko sighed, crossing the room and forcing Sokka to lay back down. 

Sokka's face split into a mischievous grin. "I could kiss it better for you." 

Zuko felt himself go hot, face flushing. "No thanks." His voice squeaked badly enough to sound foreign in his ears. He cleared his throat. "I'm just gonna get the medic, okay?" 

"Aww." Sokka flopped back to the floor, an exaggerated expression of disappointment on his face. Zuko slipped out of the hatch, closing it gently behind him. 

He leaned against it, letting out a heavy sigh. 

"Long night, Prince Zuko?" His uncle's amused voice echoed slightly in the hall, startling him out of his skin.

"Uncle!" 

"How is the boy doing, nephew? I heard from the medic he is very ill." Uncle's voice took on a gravely serious tone. 

Zuko indicated the hall behind him. "I was just about to go retrieve him. His fever's broken but he's delirious." 

"Well, then, let us make haste, hmm?" 

---

Medic Isha clucked as he hovered over Sokka, now unconscious. The boy had begun to shiver again, fever spiking once more, and they'd redressed him, tucking him into the thick winter blankets to sweat it out. 

"This isn't good. He's not responding to the medication we have. We may need to make our way to a proper market to find something to help him." 

Zuko frowned. He was reluctant to abandon the Avatar's trail, now for various reasons. "The Pohuai Stronghold is nearby. We can request supplies there. I'm certain they'll be well-stocked." 

Uncle looked surprised. "Prince Zuko, are you sure that's wise?"

"It's worth the risk." Zuko said with finality, turning to leave. 

As he opened the hatch, he ran into a crewman, fist raised to knock on the door. 

"Oh, um, Prince Zuko. I was just coming to fetch you. There's, ah, another ship hailing us." 

Zuko grit his teeth. "What do they want?" 

"I'm not sure. They've signalled an order to let them board." 

"Under what authority?!" 

"Well, sir, under the authority of the Admiral." 

Zuko pushed past the soldier, stalking up the stairs. What could that asshole want this time? 

By the time he made it on deck, the shadow of Zhao's ship had already overtaken it, sending an unseasonable chill up his spine. 

The gangplank dropped down, allowing Zhao's men to board. They approached Zuko confidently, with authority, and whipped open a scroll for him to read. 

"By order of the Fire Lord, all information regarding the Avatar is to be reported directly to Admiral Zhao. He has been given full authority over the search for the Avatar at this time." 

Zuko felt the smoke puff out of his nose as he struggled to keep his temper in check. 

"Oh, Zhao has been promoted? We owe him our congratulations, then!" Uncle's voice was jolly, coming up behind Zuko to pat him on the shoulder. It did nothing to assuage his anger. 

"We have nothing to report." Zuko asserted. "Get off my ship and let us pass." 

"Admiral Zhao has given orders not to allow anyone in or out of the area. Turn back." 

"Off. My. Ship." Zuko spat along with a shower of sparks. The soldiers complied, returning to their own vessel and drawing up the gangplank. 

As their ship faded from view, Zuko slumped against the railing, the fight draining out of him. 

"Prince Zuko, what do you want to do? Admiral Zhao has made it very clear he will not support our efforts in any way. And, besides, if he learns you have one of the Avatar's companions aboard-" 

"I know!" Zuko threw an arm out, fire trailing unbidden in its wake. Uncle was unphased, continuing to level an expression of calm concern at him. "I know." He repeated, softly, despondent. "Just… give me time to think." 

---

Zuko returned to his chambers, stripping methodically out of his armor. The gears turned in his head. Would it be better to move on, searching out another harbor town that might house an apothecary with the supplies they needed? Or was the risk to infiltrate the fortress worth it? 

Zhao didn't have the Avatar yet, that was certain, but he was suddenly a far greater threat than before. Surely, it'd take only the slightest foray into the town they'd just left to learn that the Avatar had been there, and he now had the manpower to canvas the area thoroughly. Zuko still had a skeleton crew on a little patrol ship, relying on marketplace rumors to stalk his quarry. 

If he were to leave to seek out the medicine he needed, would he lose his chance forever? 

"Zuko?" Sokka's voice crackled, muffled through the blankets he was cocooned in. 

"You're awake." Zuko dropped the breastplate unceremoniously, rushing over to the mattress. 

"Can you get me some water?" 

Zuko glanced around. A little pitcher, half-full of water, sat on the low table. Near the bed, an empty cup sat beside a small tub, filled with more ice than water. Zuko filled the cup quickly, peeling back the comforter to reveal Sokka's sweaty face. The boy attempted to take the cup with shaky hands. Zuko allowed him to guide it, but didn't let go, helping him gulp down the water like a dying man in the desert. 

"Thanks." Sokka cracked a smile, immediately ruined by a cacophany of harsh coughs. 

A small towel, folded square, fell from his forehead as he coughed. Zuko retrieved it, dipping it into the iced water to cool it off and wringing it out. 

"Lay back. I'm giving you your towel back." 

Sokka followed instructions obediently, humming happily at the coolness of the towel. 

"Oh, that feels so nice…" 

Zuko couldn't help the small smile tweaking his lips. "I'm glad. You seem more… yourself now." 

"Hmm, yeah… I still feel kind of foggy, though. Like my brain's as stuffy as my nose." He sniffled for emphasis. Or just because he was very, very ill. 

"Why are you in here and not the med bay?" Zuko asked, the curiosity having burned at him but having been unable to ask before. 

"Oh… Um, it's gonna sound stupid, but…" Sokka looked pointedly away, examining the tapestry hanging nearest the bed, instead. "I couldn't help but remember… the last time I was in there. The last time we talked." 

Zuko recalled. It was so soon after the day everything changed. Their conversation had ended on a sour note, Zuko still hurt and angry, grappling with the enormity of his most recent failure, not knowing it would be the last time they'd get to meet like that. "I'm sorry. I said some harsh things back then." 

"That's not-" Sokka turned back to him, looking him in the eyes. He retrieved an arm from the depths of his tightly-wound cocoon of blankets, reaching for Zuko's face. He flinched, but allowed him to graze his thumb along the scar's edge. "I couldn't stay in there remembering seeing you hurt. I thought… for the longest time, I thought you'd died. " 

Zuko felt like his heart stopped. "What?"

"For, what, two and a half, three years? The deer spirit just… never showed up. It had gone a long time without showing up before, but… seeing you hurt so bad, and then… never again? What was I supposed to think?" 

Zuko held the hand against his cheek, feeling something fall out of place within him. "I thought… all that time, I thought you hated me. I thought I'd finally screwed up badly enough, said something awful enough, even disgusted you with- with my face , but…"

Sokka shook his head. A little laugh, derisive, self-deprecating, escaped him, setting off another little coughing fit. "No… even after all of this, even when I tried to just hate you, to let go of everything… I couldn't." 

Zuko crumbled, leaning down to press his forehead against the cool towel, that barest separation still between them. "I don't deserve your forgiveness…" He murmured. 

"You really don't." Sokka agreed. "You've been a stubborn ass." 

"I'm sorry." 

"But, you know what? You've always been a stubborn ass, and that didn't keep us from being friends before." 

Zuko pulled back to see Sokka's grin, the one that always pulled the breath from his chest. "I miss you." He admitted.

"Mmm. Miss you, too." Sokka murmured, breaking into a yawn that ended in several rib-cracking coughs. Zuko pulled away from him, letting him turn away to cough, and stood. 

"I've got to go. Get some rest." 

"Mmkay." Sokka mumbled sleepily, tucking his face back into the blankets. "Night night."

"Good night, Sokka."

---

Zuko released the river boat at sundown, having reached a firm decision. 

Even if they went off on a search for supplies, he couldn't be sure they'd find what they were looking for. How many ports would they have to check? Too many, and the entire time, Sokka would be sweating and shivering, suffering through his illness. 

No, the fortress was worth the risk. They imported supplies to their med bays from top-notch military suppliers. There was no question he'd find what he needed. 

He'd asked the medic before leaving, doubtlessly drawing his suspicion, but he knew what he was looking for now. 

He stowed the river boat in a new place, further from the fortress. He'd be infiltrating further in now, and needed to be more careful. 

Luck appeared to be on his side tonight, as a supply cart rolled past. He slipped underneath it, holding tight to the undercarriage. 

The guards were strict, searching every inch of the cart methodically. Zuko had plenty of time to slip from under to inside while they did so, riding the vehicle the rest of the way through the layered walls. 

From there, it was easy enough to hide himself among the piles of supplies from other carts that had apparently come in just before. He slid into a small space afforded by the stacked boxes, getting bearings. 

The nearby tower entrance was unguarded, all of the guards focused on sorting and stacking supplies, leaving openings in their rigid security. 

Zuko hurried up the spiraling staircase and on top of the final wall. 

In the interior yard, hundreds of guards were lined up. Luck after luck tonight. From high in the tower, Zhao gave a rousing speech to the assembly. 

Zuko's blood ran cold at his claim that he'd successfully captured the Avatar here, tonight. 

Lucky, lucky… was this luck? Zuko was no longer sure. Which took priority? Wresting his prize from Zhao's grasp? Or… 

He dropped a rope to the ground level around the opposite side of the tower, invisible with so many gathered to hear Zhao's words. From there, he had easy access to the drainage system, a quick and unguarded route into the tower itself. 

Whichever he came across first, the med bay or the Avatar, that would take priority. Lady Luck had led him this far, and he would be remiss not to trust her hand now. 

---

The heavy guard at the end of the hall could only mean one thing. This had to be where the Avatar was being held. The guards were easily distracted, made lax by the presence of their fellows and willing to move on their own, believing they had backup. 

It was less than a minute before Zuko was inside the room. 

The airbender was fully restrained, the room far more suited to holding him than anything Zuko could have managed. The manacles fell away with several quick movements of his blades. 

The Avatar was… absolutely horrible at stealth. He yelled out endless questions, grating at Zuko's limited patience. The frogs were… weird, though. 

"Wait! My friend needs to suck on those frogs!" 

Zuko hesitated. He'd refrained from speaking so far to hide his identity, but… 

He pulled the Avatar with him around a dark corner, no guards in sight. He held a finger to the mouth of his mask, indicating the boy should stay quiet. He nodded, holding his lips together tightly. Zuko lifted the bottom of his mask. 

"Zuko?!" The boy shouted, before slapping his hands over his mouth. Zuko winced, glancing around for evidence they'd been heard. It seemed he'd successfully neutralized every nearby guard, for now. 

"What are the frogs?" He hissed.

"Oh!" The boy even whispered loudly. "My friend is sick! Uh, Katara, you know her, right? Since you know Sokka?" 

Zuko nodded. "The frogs are the cure?" 

He nodded vigorously. "The herbalist lady said if she sucked on a frozen wood frog it'd cure her fever! But she said they had to be frozen and these…"

"They're already thawing." Zuko sighed. "Sokka's sick, as well. I was here looking for medicine for him. Our troops are always well-stocked." 

"Really? Then why don't you have the medicine on your ship?" 

Spirits, this kid was annoying. Zuko felt his good eye twitch. 

"Oh, is it because you're banished? They don't give you the good stuff or something?"

"Just shut up! What matters is the medicine we have isn't working! If these frogs will help, then I'll help you get the frogs." 

"Really? That'd be great!" The kid completely forgot they were keeping quiet. Zuko slammed his mask back down, slapping a hand over the Avatar's mouth and dragging him off. 

---

Their escape was only very narrowly successful, the guard having resumed rounds after the speech concluded. Zuko lost consciousness at some point, waking up in a forest clearing nowhere near the fortress, the sun already rising. 

"You're up! Come on, let's go get those frogs!" The Avatar chirped. 

Zuko rubbed his head, a pounding originating from the center of his forehead, where a tight knot had formed. "What happened?"

"Oh, one of the archers knocked you out. Your, uh, your mask is over there." The boy pointed somewhere to Zuko's left and, sure enough, the mask rested there, gently placed on a bed of leaves.

"Thank you…" He stuffed his hair back into the hood, sliding the mask into place. "Frogs?"

"Frogs!" The airbender spun his glider open. "Hold onto the glider, it'll be faster!" 

Zuko reluctantly agreed. This seemed like a less than ideal way to travel, but he had limited choices right now. 

The Avatar bent a gust of wind beneath them, shooting them off into the trees. Zuko was glad he'd put the mask back on, as it afforded him protection from flying into branches at high speed. The airbender seemed to be keeping them from his own face just fine, but the extra weight obviously threw off his balance. 

They ascended, sweeping over the canopy and towards a murky river. 

"Here we are!" The boy announced, dropping them heavily into the muddy riverbank, stumbling at the landing. "The frogs are hidden in the mud, you have to get in there deep." 

He reached his hand down, tongue sticking out in concentration, and reemerged with a fully-frozen frog.

"See? The herbalist said to get plenty, in case they thaw early. Like all the ones I had at the prison." He turned his back, picking up several more frogs. Zuko watched him, thrown off by the display of trust, but followed his lead, gathering a half-dozen of the frogs himself. His black clothes were caked in brown mud, likely ruining them completely, but he'd nearly lost far more in this reckless gambit, so he supposed it all worked out in the end. 

"Um, I don't wanna show you where we're staying, but…"

Zuko shook his head. "When Sokka is healthy, I'll have my men drop him off at the shore. So you can get him. I didn't mean to kidnap him or anything, so, um, truce? For now."

"Oh! Okay! That's… you're really nice, you know? Katara keeps saying she doesn't know what Sokka sees in you, but I think I do." 

Zuko let out a heavy breath. "I… appreciate that." 

"The invitation's still open, you know. If you want to help us fix the world and everything." 

Zuko squeezed the icy frog in his hand. Giving the mission to Zhao was a kick in the face, for sure. The moment it seemed to become possible, his father had entrusted the Avatar's capture to someone else, someone he trusted not to fail him. 

Still, wouldn't that make success that much more impressive? For him to swoop victory against such staggering odds? 

To pit him against an imposing opponent, his father gave him the opportunity to prove himself worthy, and then some. Even if… even if it wasn't his expected, or even desired, outcome, it could still…!

"I'm sorry. I don't think I can." 

"Oh. Okay then. I'll see you around, I guess. Since you're still gonna be following us and all." The airbender flicked the glider open once more, frogs stashed safely in his shirt, and sped off. 

Zuko slogged through the mud in his soft-soled shoes back to where he'd moored his boat. 

---

"What is this! This is delicious!" Sokka groaned around the frozen frog. As it thawed in his mouth, his eyes cleared up and his skin cooled off, as if by magic. Zuko wondered if this was some sort of spiritual affliction common to the area, rather than a simple case of pneumonia. 

"Better?" He laughed. Sokka smiled at him, frog beginning to squirm. He laughed again, hiding his mouth behind his hand, as Sokka spat the frog out violently, wiping his tongue on the sleeve of Zuko's pyjama top he still wore. 

"Gross! What the hell was that?! Did you make me eat a frog?" 

Zuko shrugged. "The Avatar said it would work. Guess he was right." 

Sokka stilled. "You… ran into Aang?" 

Zuko nodded. 

"Is he… here?" Sokka made a face like he'd swallowed something sour.

"He's not." Sokka looked as surprised as Zuko was that he'd apparently passed up an opportunity to complete his mission. 

"Why not? I mean, I'm glad he's not, but… you know?" 

"I needed his cooperation to make sure you got better. He had the cure."

"Couldn't you have captured him after he told you about the frogs, then?"

Zuko frowned. "Are you sure you don't want me to capture him, because you seem to be arguing the other way." 

Sokka shrugged. "I just don't get it."

Zuko chewed his lip. "He said Katara was also sick. I don't know where she is. You would have been upset with me if I left her alone like that." 

Sokka sighed heavily. "You know, you could just admit you can do the right thing just because it's the right thing. You don't have to make all these justifications to yourself." 

"I set up a rendezvous point with the Avatar. I'll bring you your clothes, and a couple of my men will accompany you to shore." 

He felt Sokka's eyes on him the entire time as he left the room once more. 

---

Sokka watched the small boat chug off, back to the larger ship, dressed again in his Water Tribe blues, feeling the gap between himself and Zuko grow at the same time. 

Still, it was… changed, somehow. Maybe it was Zuko who had changed, maybe it was Sokka himself, maybe it was the object he clutched tightly in his fist, but… It felt like, when the time came, he could bridge that gap again. 

Appa's lowing drew him back into the present, Aang and Katara shouting enthusiastic greetings over the side of the saddle. 

"Sokka! You're alive! We were so worried!" Katara cried, reaching out a hand to help him up. 

Even Momo was happy to see him, wrapping his long tail around Sokka's face and hugging tight to his head. 

"You think Zuko's really gonna keep his word? He said 'truce', but…" Aang watched the smoke begin to thicken above the ship again as it began to move. 

"He always keeps his word." Sokka assured them. 

He held out his clenched fist, finally uncurling his fingers from around the object pressing its imprint into his palm.

Katara gasped. "Mom's necklace!" She lifted it as though terrified it might disappear or crumble into dust, and moved to clasp it around her neck. Fingers pressed to the familiar surface, tracing out its patterns, she murmured, "I thought…" 

"If he said 'truce', he meant 'truce'. We can trust him." 

"Where to next, though? We can't go North, that'll just lead us straight back to the fortress." Katara reminded them. 

"Actually, while I was looking at the maps on Zuko's ship, I did notice this one place…" 

Aang was just as excited about the active volcano as he'd expected him to be. Their course set, they flew off into the late morning.

Zuko's ship turned away slowly, heading to the nearby harbor town. 

Zuko was always a man of his word. 

Chapter Text

Katara wasn't sure if Sokka really didn't remember much of his time on Zuko's ship, or if he was keeping secrets again, but she did remember the fever making her memory pretty foggy, and Sokka had apparently had the same illness.

She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, simply appreciating the return of her mother's necklace and moving on. 

No Fire Nation ships appeared on the horizon, even as they landed on the shores nearest that volcano Aang wanted to see, and she breathed a tentative sigh of relief. 

"Let's set up camp and go exploring in the morning, okay, Aang?" She suggested, passing down supplies to Sokka, already on the ground. 

The airbender slumped but did not argue. "Okay... I guess Appa is pretty tired..." 

The bison lowed in agreement, curling his legs underneath his belly. 

"Thank you for being so understanding." Katara smiled at him, gently placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Aang beamed back up at her, bouncing back quickly from his disappointment. 

She really admired that about him, she had to admit. She, herself, had so much trouble letting go of negative emotions, of grudges, and had a bad habit of letting resentment simmer below the surface. Even after everything, she still felt that gnawing jealousy at her gut when she saw Aang waterbend, even knowing he'd been training as an airbender since he could walk. They really were just so different, in some ways. 

Sokka was quiet as he fished just downstream, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. She let him be, knowing how irritable he could be when he was in one of those moods, and sat near the fire with Aang. 

The boy had gathered several shells and a length of spare fishing line, deftly weaving them together. It was mesmerizing, watching him work. The look of complete concentration on his face was such a jarring difference from his usual carefree attitude, it always took her by surprise. 

"What are you making?" She asked. 

"Shh, it's a surprise!" He shot a grin at her, continuing to weave without looking. 

Sokka was having terrible luck, it seemed, his cursing growing louder over time. As the sun dipped low to the horizon, and Aang neared the end of his project, Sokka screamed with frustration at the river itself. 

"Katara! Where's the extra line? This damn jerk-fish just snapped my line!" He called, stomping over. 

"Uhh..." Katara glanced at Aang, his tongue stuck out the side of his mouth in concentration, tying a slip knot into the end of the shell jewelry. 

"All finished!" Aang announced, holding it aloft. 

"Is that the fishing line?! What the hell, Aang!" Sokka snatched the completed project away, glaring at it. "It's all tangled up, now!" 

"It's for Katara! To go in her hair!" Aang chirped, seemingly unphased by Sokka's ire. 

Katara held a hand over her heart, a wave of fondness for the airbender sweeping over her. "It is? That's so sweet!" 

"Ugh, this was my first chance to have something fresh to eat in days , and you tangled up the fishing line! Do you know what they serve on Fire Nation ships? It's all either pickled or spicy! " 

Katara took the jewelry back from him, his attention still on Aang, and slipped it over her braid, tightening it to sit properly at the base. 

"Well, there's plenty of fresh fruit around here. You don't need to have meat with every meal, you know!" Aang argued cheerfully. Sokka glared. 

"How do I look?" Katara interrupted, showing off her hair, shells decorating it. 

"Wow..." Aang turned a dopey grin at her. 

Sokka rolled his eyes. He tossed the now-useless fishing rod to the ground, stalking off into the nearby woods, grumbling under his breath. "Dang lucky jerks, get to be all mushy and oogie with their soulmate , 'cause their soulmates aren't jerks who're trying to sell us out to the damn Fire Lord... " 

"He seems upset." Aang noted, uselessly. 

Katara sighed. "Leave him be. He's just in a mood since he can't have meat for dinner." 

"I'm never in a mood, and I don't ever have meat for dinner." Aang pointed out. Katara laughed. 

"Um, guys?!" Sokka's panicked voice squeaked out, drifting from just past the treeline, followed by the nasal roar of a platypus-bear. 

"Oh, no..." Katara rushed off, Aang close on her heels, following the sounds to their source. 

Sokka was standing between an unperturbed man and an angry platypus-bear, brandishing his boomerang to draw the beast's attention. The glint of red sunlight off the bladed edge caught the beast's eye, allowing Sokka to lead it away from the man. 

Katara used the opportunity to rush over to him. "Are you hurt? What happened?" 

"Oh, no, I'm fine." The strangely calm man assured her. "Just as predicted, I have had a safe journey so far." 

Katara glanced to the angry platypus-bear, then back at the man. "Safe?" 

"Yes! I have yet to be injured!" 

"That's..." She was too confused to argue, turning back to Aang. "Can you do something? Sokka can't distract it for long!" 

"Leave it to me!" The airbender sent a gust of wind into the beast's back, drawing its attention away from Sokka, who had scrambled his way into the boughs of a tree. The beast roared into Aang's face. "Uh-oh." 

"Aang!" Katara wailed in fear as the airbender was forced to turn tail and run. She pulled the stopper from her water skin, drawing the water out of it and into a long stream. She whipped it toward the beast, cutting some fur off with the force of it, but it continued its furious rampage, Aang's maneuvering far more enticing than her weak bending. Fear gripped her, flashes of worst-case outcomes spinning through her mind, and she raced after them. 

They cleared the trees, nearing the water's edge. Katara drew on it, attempting to pull enough water for another whip out to stymie the beast's advance, and a great wave obeyed her command. The water ascended, towering, its shadow cloaking them all like a dark stormcloud. It was eerily reminiscent of the waves during the typhoon just days before, and impacted with just as much force as she drew the water down onto the creature threatening Aang. 

The soaking wet platypus-bear sprinted off, and Katara was left staring, shocked, back at Aang. 

"Wow, Katara! Good one!"

"Did I… do that? No, you helped, right? I can't… I can't do anything like that!" Katara looked at her trembling hands. How had she done that?! Waterbending never came that easily to her, and the last time she'd summoned that kind of power was… when they found Aang in the iceberg, maybe? 

Slender, tattooed hands slid into hers, a comforting warmth, and squeezed. "Hey, are you okay?" Aang's voice was soft and gentle, carefully quiet. 

Katara nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Of course. I'm fine. Are you hurt?" Turning her concern to Aang, she took stock of his appearance. His clothes were still dripping wet, having been caught in the heavy wave, but he seemed unhurt. 

"Yep! All thanks to you! You did great!" His hands slid from hers, reassured that she was okay, and summoned a great gust to force his clothing dry. 

"That was freaky, Katara." Sokka accused, pointing a finger at her. He spun that finger around at the man they'd rescued, stepping gingerly around the now-numerous muddy puddles. "And you! You're lucky we were here! What's wrong with you?!" 

"Like I said," The man shook his head, chuckling, "Aunt Wu predicted I'd have a safe journey. I was never in any danger. Thank you, though."

"Aunt Wu? Who's that?" Aang blinked up at him. 

"The fortune-teller from my village!" He explained enthusiastically. "It's awful nice knowing your future, don't you think?"

Katara understood the sentiment. With how much everything had changed, and kept changing, all so suddenly? To know what was coming, to be able to prepare for it? That sounded like a dream come true. She desperately hoped the others would agree to getting their fortunes told, even a small or vague prediction would be so nice. 

"'Knowing your future'? But the fortune-teller was wrong! You didn't have a safe journey at all! That platypus-bear could have killed you, almost did before we showed up!" Sokka argued, irate at the man's poor logic. 

Katara rolled her eyes. He was so predictable, no fortune-teller needed. 

"It didn't, though, did it? Have a good day, safe travels!" The man wished, bowing as he left. Abruptly, he pulled short. "Oh, one more thing! Aunt Wu said, should I meet any travelers, I should give them this." The man bowed, handing a package to Aang, and continued on his way. 

"What is it?" Katara asked curiously. The shape gave away nothing. 

Aang wasted no time in tearing through the wrappings, revealing a brilliant orange parasol within. Almost instantly, the skies opened up, a deluge of rain pelting them. Aang was spared the brunt of it, already holding an open parasol, and Katara bent the rain above her to keep her hair dry. 

"Wow… Seems like that fortune-teller is really accurate!" Katara marvelled, joining Aang under the orange fabric protecting him from the rain. "We should go into town, have her tell our fortunes! It'll be fun!" 

"No, absolutely not." Sokka crossed his arms. "Fortune telling is bogus."

"Well, we need to get out of the rain, anyway…" Aang considered, tapping his chin. He glanced at Katara out of the corner of his eye at her, sharing a conspiratorial grin. 

"You're right! It'd be a shame if we stayed out in the rain like this and got sick again, especially since Zuko's not here to take care of Sokka." She teased. 

Sokka glared, the effect ruined by the heavy rain soaking him to the bone, but couldn't come up with a witty reply. "Yeah, yeah, let's go, then. You two can waste all the time you want instead of using the opportunity to put as much distance between him and us as we can." 

"Oh, shush, Sokka. A quick visit won't hurt." 

---

The village was further than expected, the rain not letting up until Sokka 'predicted' it would continue. Really, he should know by now the spirits loved to mess with those who didn't respect them. 

Aang generously air-blasted them dry, forcing her and Sokka to enter the town while taming their hair. They were greeted just past the gate by a man who was already expecting them, Aunt Wu having foretold their arrival. 

Katara was giddy with excitement. She had a dozen questions buzzing in her head she wanted to ask. Would she find a master at the North Pole? Would they continue to evade the Fire Nation successfully? Was Aang really her soulmate, and what would their future look like, anyway? Even knowing the weather forecast for the next few days would go a long way, allowing them to make travel plans accordingly. 

They were led into Aunt Wu's residence and made to wait in the comfortable lobby area. It was so hard to sit still, knowing the super-accurate fortune-teller would be showing up soon. 

A young assistant came by, offering snacks and eyeing Aang oddly. The airbender didn't seem to notice. Sokka jumped at the chance for free food, but was brushed aside.

"You know, Aunt Wu can do more than just fortune-telling." The girl mentioned pointedly, leaning too close to Aang to be strictly professional. "She can also show you your soulmate! Did you know that every person has somebody who's absolutely perfect for them, someone that compliments their very soul?" 

"We're very familiar with the concept, believe me." Sokka grumbled. 

"Oh, really?" The girl tilted her head at him, confused by his confrontational tone. "Well, she can show you who that person is! Aren't you curious?" 

"No." 

"Sokka, don't be a jerk. She's just offering a service." Katara snapped at him. She turned a smile to the assistant. "You'll have to forgive my brother. You see, he's already met his soulmate, but their relationship is… contentious." She explained. 

"Contentious? Are you sure she's your real soulmate? Soulmates are supposed to bring you joy and happiness and you just work together super well and it's totally romantic!" The girl had hearts in her eyes by the time she finished. 

The three shared meaningful glances with one another. Their experience with soulmates up to this point had been so far outside of what the stories said they should be, but when had real life ever been as romantic as a story?  

"Thank you for telling us about the soulmate readings, Meng." Katara desperately wanted to change the subject, watching Sokka's expression go ever darker. 

"Of course! I think someone might see something very interesting if he asks for one!" She gave very obvious, pointed looks Aang's way, grinning. Katara had to wonder what she saw that made her so certain Aang was the one. 

A shoji door slid open in the wall, revealing an ostentatiously-dressed, older woman. She smiled warmly at the three of them. 

"You three are here mighty late. Come, now, who's first? We don't want this to take all night." She said, amusement in her eyes. 

Katara spared a glance at the boys, gauging their reactions, and feeling no small amount of relief that neither seemed particularly interested in what Aunt Wu had to say. 

"I guess that's me." Katara smiled, standing carefully so as not to seem too eager.

Meng reentered the room as they left it, delivering Sokka's snacks to him and giving Aang another glance-over. 

Aunt Wu slid the shoji shut behind them, guiding Katara by the small of her back into the room.

"Sit, sit, be comfortable." The woman took her own seat on one of the heavily-embroidered pillows, indicating the other to her guest. "Now, what kind of reading would you like? I'm certain Meng already suggested the soulmate reading to you all, she's been very passionate about them since I did hers." 

Katara laughed. That was an understatement. "Um, I think I already know who it is. I might like to be more sure, though?" 

"Oh?" Aunt Wu seemed intrigued. "And why are you so uncertain?"

Katara smoothed her dress down, getting her thoughts in order. "Well… It's a long story, if that's okay?" 

Aunt Wu nodded. Katara took a deep breath. 

She told her of the ritual, of the importance their tribe put on the bond between soulmates. She told her of the journey her brother had been on, how unusual it was, and of her own. She told her how they later found Aang in the iceberg, by following the barely-remembered route Appa had led her down. 

"It was weird, though, since the spirit that guided me wasn't really a spirit, and I didn't actually get to see Aang, since he was in the iceberg."

Aunt Wu was staring, slack-jawed. "Wow. That's… a lot to take in. Okay." She held a hand to her head, processing the incredible tale she'd been told. "I see why you have such uncertainty, now."

Katara nodded, twisting her fingers impatiently. 

"I can do a soulmate reading for you, though it won't be so… vivid as your tribe's spirit journeys. You said your brother met and spoke with this boy? And that that was normal? It was just the… spontaneity of it that was strange?" 

"Yes. Please, Aunt Wu, even if it's something vague. I need to know for sure." 

"Very well." The fortune-teller gathered an herb-filled vessel from nearby and held it over the flames in the pit between them. Sickly green smoke began to rise from it, and Aunt Wu wafted it towards herself, breathing deeply of the fumes. "Show us, spirits, the bond of the soul!" She rasped out, voice harsh and low with the smoke of the herbs. 

The fire flickered, shifting shapes and colors before settling into the familiar outline of a bald boy, clothed in oranges and reds. As she watched, the figure changed, growing tall, posture proud, but still recognizable. Katara gasped. 

"I see the boy he is now, the man he will become. You already know, dear, who it is you seek." 

"Yes… thank you, Aunt Wu." Katara felt the words escape her in a breathless near-whisper. As it turned out, it was one thing to suspect, and another thing entirely to have confirmation. "What does that mean, though? For us?"

"Well, that's entirely up to you. All I can tell you is the usual, the tales we've all heard. Though, I'm sure the tales where you're from are a bit different." She smiled to herself before continuing. "Your spirits will resonate with one another, making you stronger, better at anticipating each others' thoughts and moods. None of that necessarily means you need to launch into a romantic relationship right away. From what you tell me, your brother found a close friend in his soulmate, rather than a romantic pair. Nothing is set in stone, dear, and your fate is what you make of it." 

Katara sighed. It was one thing to hear from others, but to hear even a fortune-teller say 'nothing is set in stone'? Was the world really so unpredictable? Even something like soulmates, which had seemed so incredible and immutable when she was little, were up to debate. 

She had loved the idea of soulmates for so long, loved that there was a destiny out there waiting for her, that the spirits had chosen someone special just for her, made for her. 

Now, confronted with a real person she needed to work out real problems with, the romance of it seemed to die. 

"Thank you. You've given me a lot to think about." 

---

Aang was entirely too pleased with himself after having Aunt Wu read his fortune. He'd gone to eavesdrop on Katara's fortune, and had barely made it back on time before they returned, failing utterly at playing it cool. As expected, the fortune-teller told him exactly what he wanted to hear. Katara's his soulmate, they're gonna have a zillion babies together, and there'd be sunshine every day forever. 

At least, that's what Sokka assumed was putting an extra-high spring into the Avatar's step. 

"Come on, you." Aunt Wu ordered, snapping at him, pretenses gone at the late hour. 

"What? I thought you said I was going to bring myself a bunch of misfortune and unhappiness and that you didn't even need to read my fortune." 

"I did, but perhaps it's not your questions I want to answer, but my own." 

Sokka frowned, but followed her anyway. All trace of her manufactured personality was gone, leaving an impatient woman kept awake too long by chatty children. 

She snapped her fingers. "Sit." 

He did. 

"You know, I usually don't do readings for people like you. The contempt you have for the art of divination is an insult. I've spent my entire life learning various channels and mediums, and it's with great pride that I can say the spirits give me very clear signs now."

"Oh, great." Sokka rolled his eyes. "It's not hocus pocus, it's mumbo jumbo. That really changes things." He moved to stand. "Listen, it's been great, but I'm gonna go join my sister and Aang. They've gotta be getting tired by now-"

Aunt Wu snapped, pointing back at the pillow. "Sit." She repeated, with more venom this time. 

Again he obeyed. She ran a palm along her carefully-styled hair, heaving a heavy sigh. 

"Your sister claims your first encounter with the spirits was when you were eight years old?" 

"Yeah, some magic deer." 

"Magic deer." Aunt Wu repeated. She seemed unimpressed. "Many people spend their entire lives working towards spiritual enlightenment to have the kind of encounters you did as a child. Do you understand that?" 

He didn't. "Why would they want to?" He replied, flatly, returning her unimpressed expression. 

"The spirits have power and knowledge far beyond our limited human capability! With their cooperation, we humans can know and do and be so much more than we are!" 

"My sister can do stuff I've never seen another human do before, but you don't see me worshipping her. "

"You- ugh, really, you are the least spiritual person I have ever had the displeasure of speaking with."

"So why am I still here?!" Sokka threw his hands up, falling backwards onto the floor.

"Because there's something special about you, and I would very much like to know what it is. Now, I'd like to do a reading for you, just to see what happens. Can you sit still and shut up long enough for that?"

In response to her no-nonsense tone, Sokka sat back up on his cushion. He sighed. "Okay." 

"So generous of you." She sneered. "Alright, any requests?"

"Oh, you're gonna let me choose? Not just gonna lay a bunch of vague predictions that sound nice on me and send me on my way?" 

The glare she sent him was withering.

"Well, um, I guess… I don't need to ask about soulmates, obviously, and anything I could ask about the war or our quest with Aang would be too important for me to trust your word with… I'm not sure."

"How about this, then. Instead of asking who your soulmate is, why don't you ask why the spirits chose him for you?" She suggested. 

Sokka's eyes widened. "Can you do that? I thought your soulmate predictions were really vague?"

She huffed a short laugh. "Not normally, no. I get the feeling things will be sharper with you, somehow." 

"Oh, right, because of the… okay. I guess that, then." 

Aunt Wu nodded, lifting the vessel of herbs. She wafted the fumes, and spoke the words, summoning the distinct shape of Zuko into the flames. 

The way the fire flickered around the edges, forming the reds and blacks of his armor, was haunting but gorgeous. This was how the armor was intended to look, wasn't it, wreathed in flames like a phantom phoenix. 

"Well, there's your boy. Now…"

"Why do you ask for this vision, boy?" An approximation of Zuko's voice rasped out of the crackling flames. "Has the Jin Lu been neglecting his duties?"

Sokka shrugged. "Nah. The old bag's just testing me or something." 

"Is that so? And how does she find the results?" The specter of sparks inquired, turning its indistinct, flickering face towards Aunt Wu. 

"Oh, my!" She held a hand to her mouth, hiding the way her jaw fell in shock. "I've never seen anything like this before! Tell me, are you the spirit of fortune? Suan Ming?" 

"The very same." The voice confirmed. 

"This is truly something special, then. Thank you for your guidance. I am ever in your debt." Aunt Wu dipped into a deep bow, pressing her forehead to the mat before the fire pit. 

The flickering shape of Zuko in the fire dipped its head in acknowledgement. "You have been good to me, as well."

"Hey, spirit. Uh, Suan Ming, she said?" 

The specter turned back to Sokka, listening patiently.

"She was gonna ask you- why is Zuko my destined soulmate? Who decided that?"

The flames morphed shapes and colors again, pausing briefly in the shape of the eight-legged deer spirit, shining a brilliant gold, before shifting again into the shape of a man. The flames burned a hot blue, indicating the blue garments of the Water Tribe, and the spirit spoke with an approximation of his father's voice. 

"Patience. Compassion. Understanding." It said, the fire crackling and popping emphatically on every word. "These lessons you have learned, he needs them as well. Without them, the world will not heal." 

The flames then dissipated, burning into low embers. 

"The spirit… actually spoke directly to you…" Aunt Wu finally sat back up, resting on her heels. "Even the Avatar didn't get that kind of special treatment." 

Sokka groaned. "What can I say, I'm one-of-a-kind."

---

The following day, well-rested from a good night's sleep in a real bed, Katara rushed back to Aunt Wu's doors. Sokka had been vague about what she had talked to him about, but told her she communed directly with the spirits to achieve her frightening accuracy. 

Katara, stars in her eyes, said she wanted all the wisdom they could offer her. 

Sokka watched her run out the door with barely-concealed contempt. "What's got her so excited?" 

"It's a rare chance to know the future! You don't think that's exciting?" Aang's voice was muffled through his shirt, not pausing to speak while getting dressed for the day. 

"If it's a future the spirits chose for me, I think I'd rather not." Sokka shoved his boots on roughly, channeling his frustration into the motion. He was expected to be the patient and understanding one? If the spirits wanted patience and understanding for Zuko, they could have picked a million more qualified people for the job. Like Katara, for instance. Not for the first time, Sokka got the impression 'the spirits' were just making this up as they went along. 

"Hey, Sokka? You've got lots of experience with this whole soulmate thing, yeah?" Aang kicked his feet off the side of the bed, looking pointedly away. 

"You're really gonna ask me for relationship advice for getting with my sister? " 

Aang shrugged. 

"Besides, I really don't think me and Zuko are the soul bond you want to emulate. You and Katara are already leagues ahead of us. Not trying to kill each other, for starters." 

"Well, still! I've never had any kind of relationship before! I don't know where to start!" 

Sokka met Aang's pleading face with a flat look. 

"Okay. Fine. I'll impart my endless wisdom on you, then."

"Thanks, Sokka!" 

--- 

Touring the town was basically torture. Everywhere they looked, people were making day-to-day decisions based on Aunt Wu's mumbo jumbo predictions. A man wore red shoes because 'his soulmate would recognize him by them'. A man refused to bathe because of some imminent disaster related to water. Even Katara, who usually had a decent head on her shoulders, was buying fruit she hated for breakfast on the batty old woman's orders. 

"Ugh, how can all of you people be so willing to just let the spirits tell you how to live your life! Make your own choices!" Sokka complained to Aang, but the boy was suddenly no longer there. Swiveling around, he saw him approaching Katara, failing miserably at looking cool and aloof. The flirting was doomed to fail horribly.

Well, what did Sokka know? It had worked on Suki, sure, but that was entirely on accident. He'd been giving her mixed signals due to his confusion about Zuko, and not in order to play 'hard-to-get', but it had had the same effect. 

Katara, though, was more confused than seduced by Aang's awkward attempts at reproducing the technique, brushing past him to join the crowd gathering at the village center. 

"What's going on?" Sokka asked a passerby he'd given up on arguing with.

"Aunt Wu is about to do her cloud reading! She'll tell us about the major events coming up this year, including whether the volcano will erupt!" The man explained cheerily. 

Great. 

---

Following Aunt Wu's proclamation that the volcano would remain dormant, Aang dragged Sokka up the side of the mountain. 

"There's a super-rare flower that grows inside the volcano! Isn't that cool?!" Aang leapt up the jutting rocks with short pulses of air, leaving Sokka to struggle behind him. "And, since the volcano's not gonna blow up, it'll be safe to pick them!" 

"Not you, too! I thought you were on my side!" Sokka groaned.

"I dunno, Sokka, I'm on the side of the evidence! And it really seems like she knows what she's talking about!" 

Sokka grumbled his way up the rocky incline, cursing the airbender and his flighty nature.

Ha, flighty. That was a good one, he'd need to remember to say it out loud sometime. 

Aang froze at the lip of the volcano, the air before him shimmering with heat. 

"Sokka… we need to warn the village." 

Below the rocky ring enveloping the volcano, lava bubbled and popped, boiling red and angry. It seemed it had no intention of remaining dormant, after all, despite the fortune-teller's bold assurances otherwise. 

Sokka's panic greatly overshadowed his vindication. 

---

It was a massive effort, joining together work from benders and nonbenders alike to stave off the destruction of the lava on the village below. 

With no body of water handy nearby, Katara was forced to use barrels of drinking water to combat the fires catching at several buildings near the edge of the town while Aang put himself between the onslaught of lava and the homes of the citizens. 

Despite the depth of the earthen trenches the citizens had managed, the lava flowed too quickly and thickly to be contained. Aang took a deep breath, centering himself.

Great gusts of wind spread out from him, a veritable hurricane billowing into the volcanic path. 

With this terrifying yet impressive display of power, he cooled the splashing lava in an instant. She recalled the surge of power she'd summoned just the day before, when Aang had been in danger. 

Was that really the power of the soul bond? Or was this simply the level of power expected of the Avatar? Despite everything, all of her questions, all of the fortune-teller's words, she was still so uncertain about so many things.

Somehow, Aunt Wu had been both right and wrong. Had they not been here, the village would surely have been lost. On the other hand, they had been here, right when they were meant to be. 

Was that the power of fate? The will of the spirits? Had they reshaped the village's fate, or was this what was meant to be all along? 

Katara sighed, feeling a headache coming on. 

---

They packed to leave immediately after, knowing their actions had likely attracted far too much attention. If anything said 'the Avatar's been here', it would be the wall of volcanic rock now defending the village's northern edge. 

If, as they gathered their belongings, she saw Sokka slipping a black-and-white bloom between sheets of parchment, pressing the petals carefully flat, she didn't say anything aloud. 

Chapter Text

It had been another long day's travel, following the coast, and Appa was flying low by the time Aang found a good place to stop. The clearing was large enough that the bison could safely and comfortably land, and the trees thick enough to provide them decent cover. 

"Do you think Zuko's following us again, yet?" Aang asked, leaping from Appa's saddle, landing softly in the grass below. 

Sokka shrugged. "It's been a couple days now. We'll have to wait and see. Better to be safe, though." 

"Aang, will you go find some firewood for us? I'll get camp set up in the meantime." Katara called. Aang eagerly agreed. 

"Sure thing!" He sped off, diving into the trees to rifle through the underbrush for good wood. 

"Don't forget the kindling! I'm not letting you use my jerky again!" Sokka added. 

Most of the fallen wood was still damp or green after the recent storms, and Aang found himself searching low for promising areas. Buried in piles of other branches, he was able to scrounge up a few good bits.

Something glinted nearby as he dug through the foliage, and he hopped over the pile to investigate, the gust billowing behind him rustling the fallen leaves. 

"Hey, look! Is this made out of whale tooth?" He lifted the spear tip, waving it over his head, task forgotten. 

"Let me see!" Sokka called, abandoning Katara to finish setting up her ring of rocks by herself to come look. 

Aang handed over the blade, allowing the warrior to look it over more carefully. 

"Yeah, that's definitely whale tooth. This is a Water Tribe weapon! Look around, maybe we can find something else!" 

Their shouting attracted Katara, who left Appa and Momo to watch the camp and come see what the fuss was about. "Did you lose something?" She asked, looking between them. 

Sokka lifted the weapon, not looking at her as he pushed aside underbrush to see beyond it. "No, we found something. Water Tribe warriors were near here."

"What?!"

The three, following Sokka's lead, followed a trail of battle damage out to the beach, Sokka's extensive tracking experience coming in useful. 

The trail led to an intact Water Tribe vessel, grounded just out of reach of the high tide, and the siblings stared at it in wonder. 

"This is from Dad's fleet!" Sokka sounded overjoyed. "Dad's been here!" 

Katara met his grin with a teary smile of her own, and Aang couldn't help the answering smile on his own face, sharing in his friends' excitement. 

"I wonder if this means someone's still around…" Katara murmured, gazing up at the vessel's bright blue sails. 

"Why don't we move camp down here? Then, if anyone is still around, you guys can be here to see them!" Aang suggested brightly. "Oh, wait… it's probably too open here, right, Sokka?" Aang's shoulders drooped, glancing over at the warrior tentatively. 

"It'll be fine for one night. I think it's worth the risk." 

The smile returned to Aang's face. "Great! Let's go get Appa!"

---

"Uncle." Zuko called, opening the door of the older man's room. "I want you to help me contact the spirits."

Uncle Iroh placed his tea cup gently on the table, sighing before turning his gaze up to his nephew. "What's this about, all of a sudden?" 

Zuko sat on the pillow across from him, tucking his feet beneath him. "Now that we've lost the Avatar's trail, we need a new way to pick it back up again. We cannot afford to ignore any tools at our disposal to do so."

Uncle hummed, giving him an appraising look and sipping at his tea slowly. "You say this as though it were out of your control, and not due to the choices you have made. Do you regret your recent actions, regret making the promise you did with the Water Tribe boy?" 

Zuko's jaw tightened, unable to meet his Uncle's gaze. "I should not have allowed my weakness to cloud my judgement. The Avatar is my father's first priority, and should have been mine, as well."

"Hmm. Then you're saying you should have kept him prisoner? Or that you should have left him to die?" Uncle clarified.

"No!" Zuko felt a creeping panic at either option, twisting in his gut. 

"Or are you simply saying that you should have betrayed him, using his trust in you to achieve your goals?"

"No! Yes!" Zuko rubbed his hand down his face, eyebrows drawn. "I don't know!"

Uncle sighed heavily. "It is this turmoil and doubt that makes me hesitate to assist you in this endeavor, you know."

Zuko slammed a fist down on the table. "By refusing to help me track the Avatar, you're betraying the crown!" 

"No, Prince Zuko, you misunderstand me. In order to contact the spirits, your own spirit must be calm. Here, have some tea, soothe yourself." Uncle poured him a cup from the pot, pushing it near him. "I ask you to settle these questions not to convince you away from your task, but to make it so what you ask of me is possible. Now, I will ask again- Why do you want to contact the spirits?" 

Zuko sipped his tea, allowing it to warm his fingers, and took the time to compose his racing thoughts. 

Uncle waited patiently, refilling his cup as it ran empty, and allowed him to take the time he needed. 

Finally Zuko set down the cup, taking a deep breath, the candles in the room flaring with his exhale. "When he was here, sick, he told me something. Since the- since I was banished, I've only seen him once. He visited me in my dreams while I was recovering from-" Zuko waved a hand at his face, "When I was recovering. I thought he was simply choosing not to see me, which he had done before. I- I insulted him badly, once, and he refused to come for months on end." 

Zuko's fingers gripped his teacup more firmly, the last of the tea inside coming to a boil. Uncle did not react, watching him calmly.

"But, while he was sick, I came to check on him, and he told me the spirit had never come to him, that he thought I'd- that he thought I'd died." Zuko let out a shaky, rushed breath, pushing back the flood of emotion at the memory. Sokka had been so close, inches away, holding his face in a way he hadn't allowed anyone to since his injury, and yet he'd been too cowardly to do what he'd yearned to, to close that last small distance and finally feel his lips against his own. 

"It got me thinking…" He began again, hands beginning to shake despite his efforts, "What if the spirit stopped visiting him because… because we were no longer… compatible. If I'd changed too much to still be… If my failure had been too great to- to deserve him."

"Zuko. Nephew." Uncle pulled one of his hands away from the teacup, squeezing it in his own. It wasn't until the first tear dripped onto their entwined hands that he realized he'd begun crying. "The spirits' plan is not so short-sighted that something like this could alter it in such a way. If they believed the two of you needed one another, if they knew your souls were two halves of the same whole, even something like this could not destroy that plan. Do you understand?" 

Zuko breathed deeply, ashamed of his vulnerability. He recalled his father's disgusted tone, telling him to 'rise to his station', to 'act like a Prince', and used his free hand to wipe the tears away. "Yes, Uncle."

"I will do what you have asked, but know that contacting a spirit is no trifling thing. Should this fail, know that it is not your own shortcomings that prevent it. I need you to give me your word before we begin."

Zuko nodded, returning his breath to a steady rhythm, the last of the tears subsiding. Focus on the mission. The Avatar was a slippery opponent, and self-doubt was only a weakness. 

"You have my word. How do we begin?"

---

Sokka found it difficult to sleep, under the shadow of one of the ships he'd had to watch sail away from the village, leaving him to protect his people alone. 

His father had assured him that he was being left behind to defend the village, that he was simply too young to come along. 

The next-youngest warrior was four months older than him. They'd needed all the extra hands they could get, after how their numbers had been dwindled.

It was difficult, had been constantly difficult ever since, to convince himself that his father was telling the truth. The quiet, mean voice in the back of his mind always whispered they don't trust you and they know you're destined to betray them. The voice reminded him of his father's face, when the topic of soulmates had been brought up, expression pinched and eyes darting to Sokka, always gauging his reactions. 

Sokka always studiously schooled his expression into something neutral, but his father never forgot. He'd already made his mistake, telling his mother about the boy with the yellow eyes in the red bedroom, and none of the other warriors ever trusted him again. 

A crunching in the sand behind him startled him from his thoughts, and his boomerang was in his grip before he'd fully grasped the situation. 

"Who's there?" He called, both to alert the potential threat and to awaken the others.

"Sokka?" Two voices called at once. One was Katara, slowly rubbing the sleep from her eyes. 

The other was their father's best friend and right hand.

"Bato?!" Sokka replied in disbelief.

"Who?" Aang yawned. 

"Bato!" Katara called, dragging herself out of her sleeping bag. 

"Sokka! Katara!" Bato spread his arms wide, welcoming the siblings into a tight hug. They were delicate around his bandages, but he took no such care himself, squeezing them like he wasn't quite sure they were real. "It's so good to see you two! You've grown so much!" 

Sokka grinned up at the tall man. It was hard to tell, since he still barely came up to his chest, but he'd definitely gained several inches in the last two years. 

"Hi, I'm Aang!" The monk's chipper voice called from behind them. 

"Where's Dad?" Sokka asked eagerly. 

"Is he here?" Katara continued. 

"No." Bato's shoulders fell and he distanced himself from the siblings to look them both in the eyes. "He and the other warriors should be in the Eastern Earth Kingdom by now. Come, this is no place for a reunion. I'll tell you everything at the abbey." 

Bato placed a hand on each of their shoulders, guiding them to their destination. After a few steps, he paused, seeing the airbender hesitating behind them. 

"Are you coming?" He asked, taking the hand off of Sokka's shoulder to wave the boy over. 

A simulacrum of his usual bright smile glossed over the strangely lost expression he'd been sporting. Aang kicked sand into the flickering flames, tossing their bedrolls onto the saddle haphazardly and motioning for Appa to follow. 

---

Uncle requested Zuko's assistance in pushing the low table over to the wall, leaving room to pull the mattress to the center of the floor. Satisfied with the new setup, he began to place tall candles at regular intervals around the bedding, gesturing to Zuko to lie down. 

Zuko stepped carefully over and around the candles and settled onto the bed. Completing his task, Uncle lit the candles in a wave, spreading out from himself and curling around the foot of the bed. 

"Now, you must synchronize your breathing with mine. We will use the candles to help us get the timing right. Feel the flames rise and fall with my breath." 

Zuko fell into the slow and steady pattern his Uncle set for them, allowing himself to relax. 

"You will continue to breath and concentrate, visualizing the spirit you wish to speak with, while I reach out to it." 

Zuko nodded, not interrupting his breaths. Uncle resumed the rhythm, the candles obeying him, and Zuko altered his pace to match. 

Long minutes passed, Zuko trying to put together an idea of the spirit's appearance from Sokka's and Uncle's descriptions, keeping all other thoughts pushed away. His many long hours of practice with meditation made the task much easier, but his doubts still tried very hard to push through. 

Uncle's voice began to mutter a low chant, too quiet to make out the words. Zuko allowed himself to get lost in it, the droning of his voice drowning out his own disquiet. 

The image behind his eyelids grew slowly clearer, details coming into focus. A sea of grass waved before him, tall trees stretched to the sky, heavy boulders hovering between their boughs. 

He blinked and the scenery remained, but his imagined depiction of the Jin Lu disappeared. 

"What? Where did it go?" He spun on his heel, seeing more of the odd landscape, but no spirits. "Hey! Come to me! You're supposed to guide us both, aren't you?! So why won't you come to me?!" 

His voice echoed unnaturally, as though the air was repeating it back to him, rather than taking it away into the distance. He paused, the eerie stillness of the place shaking him to the core. 

"Answer me!" He continued to shout. "Jin Lu!" 

His voice echoed and faded, as before. 

Frustrated, he punched the air before him, reaching for fire he was sure would not heed him.

Surprisingly, he felt his inner fire react, travelling down to the tips of his fingers, before he was abruptly jostled.

"Prince Zuko, you must not attempt to firebend. You are not properly in the spirit world right now, just seeing an image of it. You will still bend in this state, and I do not wish to see my room set ablaze."

Zuko blinked, the landscape fading away, back into the dark walls and red tapestries of Uncle's chamber. Smoke drifted from his clenched fist.

"I take it you were unsuccessful?" Uncle asked, unnecessarily. 

"Yes. We will have to think of something else."

Suddenly, unexpectedly, the entire ship jolted, sending the lit candles scattering. Together, the two firebenders worked to snuff them all quickly, before anything caught. 

"What the hell was that?!" Zuko snarled.

---

After a cozy dinner, wherein Sokka and Katara recounted fond memories with Bato over stewed sea prunes, finally feeling at home again after weeks of non-stop travel, Sokka took Bato aside, shooting a glance to where Aang and Katara had rolled out their bedrolls. 

"Bato, can I talk somewhere… private with you?"

The older warrior seemed surprised, but led Sokka outside without question. The door slid shut, and he paced off, leading the way to the stables. 

"There shouldn't be anyone wandering around here at this hour. We should be safe from listening ears. What did you want to talk about?" 

"It's about Dad… why did he really leave me behind?" Sokka watched Bato's eyes carefully, seeing the shock that passed through them momentarily at the question. 

"Sokka… you were too young at the time, you know that. It was too risky. We were headed to an active war zone."

"Was that really the only reason?" 

"Sokka, I don't understand-"

"Just answer me. Honestly." Sokka snapped, before feeling guilty and shrinking in on himself. "Please."

"Is that not reason enough? What's all this about?" 

Sokka couldn't meet his gaze. "Was it risky because of my age, or was it risky because… you didn't think you could trust me?" He forced himself to meet Bato's searching eyes now, looking for any tells. "Did Dad tell you?"

"Did he tell me about what?" 

Sokka held steady, boring into Bato's eyes until the man relented. 

"...Yes. He did. He told all of us." 

Sokka's heart dropped into his stomach. Of course. He'd always suspected, but thought he'd just been paranoid… no, everyone in the village did know. 

"Katara made such a fuss, you remember how she was… and there are no secrets in the village. He told us shortly after it happened." 

Bato placed a firm hand on Sokka's shoulder, grounding him. 

"Listen, Sokka, the Fire Nation boy had nothing to do with his decision. You're Water Tribe, through and through. None of us doubted that your loyalty was to the tribe, and to the tribe only. Do you understand?" 

Sokka took a deep breath, wanting desperately to trust his words, but Bato's voice saying 'there are no secrets in the village' echoed in his mind. 

Bato sighed. "You know, when I was your age, I went through something similar." 

Sokka, shocked, scrambled to grasp his meaning. "You-"

"When I went through the guidance ritual, the spirit that came to me led me across the world. From the way your mother told it, it sounds to me like it may have been the same spirit you saw. The Jin Lu, the golden deer." 

Sokka nodded. What was he getting at? 

"The journey took me clear across the globe, to the Northern Water Tribe. The boy I met there, in the dreams, he could light up a room with his smile. He had a bright sense of humor, a quick wit… your father's always reminded me of him."

Sokka frowned. "That's not the same thing at all! They're our sister tribe, not the enemy!" 

"No, you're right, it's not entirely the same. However, you understand how important the spirit bonds are to our people. To go against the spirits' wishes and choose another path is almost tantamount to sacrilege." 

Sokka rolled his eyes. 

"I know you never put much stock in their power, yourself, but as a community, it's important to us. Our sister tribe abandoned us long ago, sequestering themselves away at the other end of the world. They've left us to our misfortune. Many of the tribe consider them to be as much an enemy as anyone else, for refusing to aid us when we needed them most. I had to choose between abandoning my people to travel across the world to uphold my duties to the spirits, or to stay behind and uphold my duties to the tribe. I know, for me, it was never a choice at all." The hand on Sokka's shoulder squeezed, rubbing at the tension there. "I know, without a doubt, it was the same for you."

Those words… without even trying, Bato had found the words to cut Sokka the deepest, because he was wrong.

Choosing to uphold his duties to the tribe would have meant telling everyone when he found out Zuko was the prince, informing his father and the elders about what he'd learned of the Fire Nation from the other boy, telling them the day it happened that the new Fire Lord had been crowned. He should have been the perfect spy, a font of reliable information direct from the source, but instead…

Instead he'd chosen the Fire Prince over his own people, time and again. It had felt like more of a betrayal to abuse the boy's trust than to withhold information, than to give so much information about the tribe himself. 

"Thanks, Bato, but… I'm not so sure you can trust me." 

Even now, knowing the other boy wouldn't hesitate to betray him , had betrayed him several times over, still he hesitated. He'd had full access to Zuko's ship, the vessel he was still using to chase down the world's last hope, and hadn't so much as lifted a finger to sabotage it, hadn't even considered… 

"Sokka… I don't know what's eating at you, but you're being too hard on yourself. Come, let's get some rest."

"No, Bato, you don't get it. I'm- There's something you should know." 

"Tell me, Sokka. I'm all ears." 

He took a deep breath. It was a chance to redeem himself, to correct his past mistakes. 

"I know who he is. My soulmate. He's been chasing us down, and I'm sure he'll follow us here soon enough. That's why we're in such a hurry to leave. He could catch up to us any minute. Last time we ran into him, we reached a truce, but I don't know how long it'll last." Still, Sokka held back a flood of important details. He feared even this would be enough to turn Bato against him, that any more and he would be revealed as an enemy, himself, and couldn't say more. 

"That's troubling. Are your sister and the Avatar aware?" 

Sokka nodded. "Yes, I've told them everything." A lie, always lying. Even to his own flesh and blood. 

"Let's get back to the room. A good night's sleep won't hurt." 

Sokka made to argue, but allowed Bato to lead him back to the cozy room, lined with familiar pelts. 

Just one night. It couldn't hurt.

---

The awful beast had torn apart the hull like it was nothing, and Zuko demanded compensation. 

The girl wasn't hard to track down, her mount being as recognizable as it was, especially with Uncle unusually eager to participate in the hunt. 

Zuko shuddered. Seeing the old man mooning over a woman was horrifying. 

The bar they found her in was full of people as rowdy and prone to property damage as she was, and Zuko didn't want to spend a minute more here than absolutely necessary. 

"I need to talk to you." He demanded, slamming a hand on the table, where her palm locked with a brawny man in a contest of strength. 

"Well, if it isn't my new friends. Angry Boy and Uncle Lazy." She purred. 

Uncle chuckled in a way that would haunt Zuko's nightmares. 

The girl easily slammed her opponent's hand to the table, raking in coin from those who underestimated her. 

"You trashed my ship. You have to pay me back." Zuko demanded. 

Her painted lips curled into a wicked smile, pulling the piling coin in front of her. "Oh, I wish I could help out, but I'm a little short on money." She turned to the gathered patrons, raising a fist. "Drinks on me!" 

The entire bar erupted into cheers. She lifted her cup to sip smugly. 

Zuko snatched her by the wrist. " Money isn't what I had in mind."

She grimaced, pocketing a handful of coins before allowing herself to be tugged along. The barmaids swooped over to scoop up the rest, distributing drinks to the rowdy patrons. 

"What did you have in mind, then?" She snarled. 

"There's someone I need you to track down for me. Find them, and I'll consider your debt paid." 

She scoffed. "Not interested." 

"Plus, we'll pay your weight in gold!" Uncle interrupted. 

She looked him over. "Double it, and you've got a deal."

Uncle laughed that creepy laugh again. "You got it!" 

Satisfied, she leaned back on her beast. "So, who's the target? My shirshu needs their scent to find them. Any object they've held or worn for a long time will do." 

Zuko frowned. He didn't have anything of the Avatar's, despite their frequent encounters. Worse, he'd just given Katara's necklace back, so he didn't have her scent either. 

There was only one option left. 

"Come with us back to the ship. I'll find something you can use." 

The girl acquiesced, allowing them both to mount her beast alongside her. Seeing Uncle's eager anticipation, Zuko firmly planted himself in the center of the lineup. 

"Woah, there, Grumpy. Hands off." She warned. 

Zuko glanced back at Uncle, then at the girl again. "I'm not the one you should be worried about."

Uncle smiled pleasantly, as though he hadn't just been insulted. "What's your name, miss?"

"Don't even start. I don't have time to humor you." She snapped. 

"It is important to know who we will be working with, don't you agree?" He pressed. 

She glared. "You can call me Jun. I don't want to know either of your names. Client confidentiality and all that." 

"Fair enough, Jun."

Even the way Uncle said her name was too much. Was he this bad around Sokka? He hoped not, he'd never get over the shame if so. 

Jun just rolled her eyes, cracking her whip. The shirshu raced off, returning at break-neck speed to their vessel. 

It bounded across the boards of the dock with unbelievable agility for a creature without eyes, and leapt nimbly onto the deck of the ship, snuffing its long snout into the hole it had torn open earlier. 

Zuko slid down, marching off to his quarters, while Uncle stayed behind to chitchat. 

The crew seemed confused to see him back so soon, and with the beast that had destroyed the deck, but gave him the usual wide berth. 

He slammed open the hatch to his quarters, making a beeline for the armoire. 

There, lying at the bottom, haphazardly tossed in rather than hung with the rest of his wardrobe, was a certain set of layered robes. He hesitated, memories racing through his mind. 

He shoved them away. 

Anything for the mission. 

Jun laughed aloud, derisively, when he approached with the pyjamas. "What, am I tracking down a one-night-stand? Couldn't get the girl's name before she ran off on you? Ha, I don't blame her." 

"No." Zuko snapped. "Client confidentiality, right? You don't need to know, as long as you get paid." 

She shrugged. "Fair enough. You got me there. Hand them over, he needs to get a good sniff in." 

He reluctantly handed the garments over to the girl, and she held them for her shirshu to investigate. It snuffled and huffed, then turned its nose skyward. A few sniffs here and there, and then it shoved its long snout directly into Zuko's chest. 

"What's it doing?!" He demanded. 

"Relax. Seems like your scent is on these, too. He's gotta familiarize himself with both, so he tracks the right one." She chuckled to herself. "Seems like I hit the nail on the head with that one…" She murmured. 

Zuko glared. 

Finished, the shirshu bobbed its head around the ship, investigating the relatively fresh scent trails from Sokka wandering the halls, looking for the most recent one. It tensed, finding its direction, and pointed its snout towards the docks. 

"Good to go. Come on, let's ride."

---

The next day, Bato had the three help him load his supplies into the boat. 

"As long as I have the extra hands," He'd chuckled, "I might as well get a head start!"

Loaded down with pelts and cooking supplies, the group made the short trek down to the beach, helping one another pass everything onto the deck. 

"This boat is sentimental to me, you know. It was built by my father." Bato explained. 

"Oh, is this the boat he took you ice-dodging in?" Sokka asked.

"Yep." Bato grinned proudly, running his hand along a deep groove in the hull. "And it's got the scar to prove it! How about you, Sokka? You must have some exciting stories from your first time ice-dodging."

It was a transparent yet ill-planned attempt. Despite his intentions, to remind Sokka of his place as a man of the tribe, it just reminded him of how much he'd missed out on. 

"Sokka never got to go." Katara reminded Bato in his stead. "Dad left before he was old enough." 

"Oh, I… I forgot. You were too young. I'm sorry." 

"What's ice-dodging?" Aang piped up from behind him. 

"It's a rite of passage. When you turn fourteen, your Dad takes you… you know what? Why don't I show you?" 

He directed them to pass the supplies up to the deck, helping them to stow everything in the hold. 

"Now, Sokka, you'll be in charge. Take the rudder and call the shots." 

Sokka obeyed, sitting by the mechanism, as Bato gave the others their positions. Aang seemed nervous, to the point of being defensive, but it was expected. The kid had likely never been on a Water Tribe vessel before, after all, let alone helped maneuver one.

Sokka took a deep breath, steadying himself. It was a big task, and he'd rarely handled anything bigger than a fishing canoe, the pirate ship having been a notable exception. 

Bato took a seat at the bow of the ship. "For this to be done right, I cannot help you. You pass or fail on your own."

The calmness with which Bato handed over control of this vessel, one dear to him, for Sokka to steer through dangerous rapids and around unforgiving rocks, spoke to the unshakeable confidence he had in the young warrior. 

Sokka took his faith to heart, feeling his own confidence bolstered. He could do this. 

Allowing himself to feel the rhythm of the vessel, flowing with the rhythm of the rushing water below, Sokka sent orders to the others, narrowly avoiding the obstacles in their path. He directed them through twists and turns, the boat rocking and swaying, and came out the other side unscathed. 

"Excellent work, Sokka! Let's turn back!" Bato cheered, seeing the rocks before them forming an impassable wall. 

"No, we can do this!" He argued.

"You've already proven yourself!" 

Sokka ignored his words, giving further orders. "Aang, fill that sail with as much wind as you can! Katara, bend all the water between us and the rocks that you can!" 

The two, working in tandem, summoned terrifying power, the boat practically taking to the air with their combined power, easily sailing over the rocky wall. 

All four cheered in together as the boat descended safely on the other side, the wave of water returning to its natural level. 

"That was incredible, Sokka! Bring us around, you've certainly all earned your marks today."

No matter what else he carried with him, weighing him down, today he'd led his friends through treacherous waters, quite literally, and earned the Mark of the Wise, earning his place in the tribe at the same time. 

---

The shirshu finally caught up with its quarry near an abbey, but there was no sign of the Avatar with them.

"That's the girl? Yeesh, hun, you've got some bad taste." Jun clicked her tongue judgementally. 

" What?!" Katara shrieked. "What the hell did you tell her?!" 

"I told you, there is no girl!" Zuko snapped, sliding off of the beast's back. "Where is the Avatar?" He demanded. 

"Aw, are we back on that again? And here I thought you might be here to see me!" Sokka held a hand to his chest in mock-offense, masking his very real frustration. 

Jun barked out a laugh. "Oh, now I see my mistake!" 

"You've missed him, Zuko. We split up. He's long gone by now." Sokka spat. 

"And why should I believe you?" Zuko snapped back, stepping forward into Sokka's space, looking down on the shorter boy.

Sokka rolled his eyes, not backing down at the shallow intimidation. "What, can't tell when I'm lying by now? I'm almost hurt." 

"Sokka…" Katara attempted to tug his sleeve discreetly, but discretion was never her strong suit. Zuko's eyes flicked to her before returning to Sokka's. 

"Just come quietly and you won't get hurt. All I want is the Avatar." 

"Wow, shocking. We've never heard that one before. Our answer's the same as always, Zuko. You're not getting him unless you go through us." 

Zuko sighed, taking a step back, and Sokka took the chance. He shoved Katara in the side, getting her moving before chasing after her himself. 

The memory of the stowaway, attempting to escape and collapsing to the deck, was brought sharply to the forefront of his mind. "Wait, no! The shirshu, it'll-" 

Too late to heed his warning, Sokka raced off, the long tongue of the beast easily reaching him. It stung Katara first, the girl sliding to the ground in a heap, and Zuko jumped in the way of the next strike. 

The poison jolted through him, seizing his muscles, and he fell heavily on top of Sokka, trapping him. 

"I tried to warn you…" He ground out, jaw frozen with the paralyzing poison. 

"Get off me!" Sokka snapped, struggling to push Zuko's dead weight away, laden with the heavy armor as he was. 

"Don't-" 

As expected, as soon as he was free, the shirshu's tongue lashed out, striking Sokka directly in the chest. 

"Ugh, did you really have to make more work for me, Grumpy? Hey, Lazy, drag him up here and let's get moving."

Uncle slid off of the beast, lifting Zuko bodily to the saddle. 

"We still need to find the Avatar! Can't your pet pick up his scent?" 

Jun rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine." She cracked her whip, getting her beast's attention. "Nyla! New scent!" She ordered. 

The beast began snuffling around, digging his nose into the siblings' packs. "Hey, quit it!" Sokka warned, without any bite, unable to do anything to stop the snout sniffing its way into his pack and knocking loose a scroll within. 

"Hm, seems like someone else held this for a long time. We'll follow it, maybe turn up something good, hmm?" Jun patted the saddle behind her, urging Uncle to join her. "Let's ride."

"Wait!" Zuko shouted, struggling to move, despite the poison still lurking in his veins. "You can't just leave them here!"

"Screw you!" Sokka growled, straining and prone. 

"Sokka!" Katara hissed. "Why would you argue against him bringing us back to where Aang is?!" 

"I'm tired of this! He can't keep attacking us and then pretending he feels all bad about it! You chased us down with a monster trained to take people out, and you didn't expect this to happen?! Like hell I'm gonna believe that!" 

Jun rolled her eyes. "Sounds like your boyfriend doesn't want anything to do with you." 

"Come now." Uncle coaxed, lifting Katara gently onto the saddle. "No matter how you may feel about my nephew, you must agree you need to return to your friend, yes?" 

Sokka kept his mouth shut, fuming. Uncle apologized to him under his breath, lining him up on the saddle as well. 

"Sit at the back, make sure no one falls off." 

She cracked the whip again, not waiting to see if her passengers were all secure, urging the beast to take off once more. 

---

The trail led to the abbey, of course, and to Aang. The woman and her creature faced off against the airbender and Appa both, Uncle Iroh dragging the paralyzed passengers off to relative safety, out of the way of most of the fighting. He, himself, stayed out of it, keeping an eye on his nephew but not lending a hand to the bounty hunter. 

Zuko was quiet, stewing over the barbed words, and Sokka was of a mind to let him simmer. He'd been right, every word, and Zuko deserved to hear it. 

Katara, on his other side, seemed very focussed on her fingers, trying to wiggle them past the poison in their systems. 

"...You probably think I'm being a stubborn ass again." Zuko muttered, quiet enough that Sokka could pretend not to have heard him.

"You are." Sokka responded. 

"You know this isn't my decision." Zuko pressed. 

Sokka felt the familiar sting of frustration. "What I know is for a decision that's 'not yours', you sure seem happy to do anything and everything necessary to go through with it." 

"I have to be." Zuko insisted. "If I fail now, Zhao will get him. Would you rather that asshole get to torture him until he's barely alive, or for me to be the one to capture him?" 

"And what happens to him after? You turn him in to your father and then what? You think that guy's gonna let you be all soft on him?"

"I can try. I can do my best to-"

"What I would rather is that no one captures him. The world needs him, Zuko." 

"So what would you have me do, Sokka?" Zuko huffs. "Just give up?" 

"And why not?" Sokka asked. "Let us go. Do what we need to. Start a new life somewhere. You don't owe your dad anything. Not your loyalty, not the Avatar. Not after everything."

Zuko takes a deep breath. "Maybe, maybe not. But I do owe it to my people. I'm their Prince. I can't abandon them." 

Sokka couldn't understand, not really, the concept of leadership by birth. Leaders were chosen, lifted up by their merits, by the will of the people. Zuko had told him once, about the belief that the royal family was directly descended from the spirit of the sun, Agni, and that it was this that gave them the right to rule. 

When they were younger, and Sokka could see the good heart beating in Zuko's chest, he couldn't argue that the boy would be a good replacement for his father one day. Now, seeing it was the very sense of duty to his role that was corrupting him, Sokka wasn't so sure. 

"I guess not." He said, letting the conversation die once more. 

Beside him, Katara had remained studiously silent, letting him work through his issues with Zuko, and for that he appreciated her. He could see in her face that this would be another sibling heart-to-heart later, though, so he counted his blessings while he could. 

She had regained sufficient movement in her fingers to bend a small amount of water now. 

"Sokka… I have an idea." 

---

As it turned out, she had a brilliant idea. She was able to move just enough of the perfumes to wobble the entire jar, knocking it to the ground. The sisters had gotten the idea immediately, helping push over several more, the scents mixing horribly. 

Aang bent the mixed perfumes around to thoroughly splash the bounty hunter's beast with conflicting scents, successfully confusing it to the point of panic. 

The sisters rushed by, holding smelling salts to their noses, counteracting the venom. After that, it was a quick getaway, their belongings already gathered into their packs, and they were in the sky once more. 

As the abbey grew ever smaller, Sokka watching over the side of the saddle for everything to erupt into flame (even tho he knew it wouldn't, he would never), Katara placed a hand on his elbow, squeezing it. "Sokka… I'm sorry." 

"What do you have to be sorry for?" 

"Nothing, just… it's rough, isn't it?" She asked gently. 

Sokka scoffed. "You can say that again…" 

"Do you want to talk about it?" She continued. 

Sokka shrugged. "Maybe later. Not now, okay?" 

"Okay. Just… let me know when you're ready. We're here for you, okay? Both me and Aang." 

"I'm really sorry." Aang added. "I want to make it up to you guys, for what I did. If you guys still want to see your dad, I can wait a little longer to get to the North Pole." 

"That's sweet of you, Aang, but…" Katara trailed off, glancing to Sokka uncertainly.

"We already decided we're sticking with you." Sokka finished. "We want to see Dad, but you need us more right now. We're going to the North Pole." 

Aang's bright smile was all the reassurance he needed that they'd made the right choice. 

It was tough, but the right thing was rarely without sacrifice. 

Chapter Text

The light in Aang's eyes when he saw the festival poster was dangerous. 

"There are wanted posters of you plastered everywhere! People are going to recognize you!" Sokka argued. 

"I need to learn firebending at some point!" Aang reminded them. "At a firebending festival, I can watch some masters up close, maybe even find someone to teach me!" 

"Finally given up on Zuko miraculously changing his mind and teaching you?" Katara joked lightly, nudging him with her elbow. 

Aang waved her off. "Nope! But I do need a backup plan, since he's not coming around so easy." 

"You know, Aang, I could teach you a few things." Sokka offered, trying to sound casual. 

Katara scoffed. "You? Since when are you a firebender?" 

"Since never, that's not my point!" Sokka retorted, pointing a finger at his sister's face. She rolled her eyes. "When we were younger, I had Zuko show me some of his moves. He couldn't actually bend the fire, being the spirit world and all, but he still showed me a couple kata. I could do the same for you." 

"That's pretty cool!" Aang chirped. 

"But not all that helpful." Katara crossed her arms. "Bending isn't just about moving your body the right way, it's about feeling the element. The kata are just to help you guide the energy." 

Sokka huffed. "Yeah, yeah, gripe at the normal guy for not getting all the hocus pocus junk. I was just trying to help." 

"No, I think it's kinda cool! Maybe some other time?" Aang pat his shoulder, and it didn't seem as patronizing as it should have. "For now, I still think we should at least give the festival a shot!" 

"Aang makes a good point." Katara sighed. "We can't really afford to pass up the chance."

"Oh, no. You can't seriously be considering this."

"It'll be fine. We'll wear disguises, and at the first sign of trouble, we'll leave!" 

Sokka slapped a hand to his forehead. Katara always seemed to find her optimism when it would make Aang happy, didn't she. "Right, because we always manage to leave before we get into trouble…"

---

"I hear there is a Fire Days festival in a village near here, Prince Zuko." Uncle said, pointedly, over dinner. "Perhaps you could use this chance to unwind. I am certain the food and performances there will be good reminders of home." 

Zuko stabbed his chopsticks into the fish with more force than intended, tearing it into small pieces. "I really don't want any reminders of what I've lost right now, Uncle. With every day that Zhao closes in on the Avatar, the chance that I'll ever see home again slips further away."

"That chance is not entirely gone, Prince Zuko." Uncle reminded him. "You have been so depressed the last few days, not giving the men any orders, and I thought perhaps a reminder of home would do you some good." 

"I… I thank you for your consideration, Uncle, but I'm fine." 

Zuko had very much not been fine, and it didn't take someone as observant as Uncle to notice. Surely, most of the crew had noticed his moping by now. 

No, not moping. Introspection. He was not moping. 

Uncle had sent the ship North, docking near some busy colony towns there, so Zuko could pick up the Avatar's trail should he change his mind. He appreciated the gesture, he really did, but his constant failure weighed heavily on him. 

Even when he used every resource at his disposal, betraying the trust of his oldest friend in the process, he still couldn't succeed. Instead, he consistently proved correct his father's opinions about his physical abilities and mental faculties, or lack thereof, and he was tired of seeing his own shortcomings doom him. 

Zhao would succeed where he could not, would curry his father's favor and rise through the ranks, and his short-sightedness, his impulsivity, would doom hundreds, if not thousands, of Zuko's own people to meaningless deaths. The man was incompetent and unrestrained, and yet still he had succeeded where Zuko could not. 

The whole situation turned his stomach sour, and even the first taste of fresh fish in weeks couldn't revive his appetite. 

"Well, if you change your mind, the men and I will be going ashore. I hope to see you at the festival, Prince Zuko, but I will understand if you do not feel up to attending." 

---

Their disguises were as flimsy as usual, Aang having very little consideration for subtlety, and it was a huge relief when they discovered the festival was a masquerade.

No better way to blend in than to wear an outlandish costume among a sea of similarly-costumed citizens, after all. Sokka almost felt safe. 

Well, as safe as traveling with the Avatar himself, the world's last hope for peace, with Fire Nation soldiers breathing down their necks, could possibly feel. 

Katara chose their masks for them, putting Sokka in a red mask with an exaggerated frown, and led the way deeper into the festival. 

Aang was excited by absolutely everything they saw. A puppet show, a row of dancers in one large dragon costume, the fireworks constantly blasting overhead- Aang spun around, trying to get a good look at it all. 

"I'm gonna go hunt down some food, you have fun wrangling Aang." Sokka walked off with a wave. Katara folded her arms, and Sokka was sure she was making a face at him under the mask. 

It didn't take long to find a booth selling something edible, several such booths lining the town's streets. 

"Ooh, what d'you have here?" Sokka wiggled his fingers in anticipation, getting a closer look at the sizzling bags of… something. 

"Flaming fire flakes." The merchant claimed proudly. "Best in town!" 

Zuko had mentioned these as a common festival food, the time he'd told Sokka about some festival he couldn't attend because of his station. Sokka had told him about their own festivals, in turn, but a village as small as his didn't have anything that compared to this, it turned out. 

"I'll take 'em!" Sokka said eagerly, passing off a few coin, hoping Fire Nation colonies accepted Earth Kingdom currency. 

"Here you go! Enjoy!" 

Sokka lifted his mask, eagerly stuffing a handful of the treat into his mouth. He immediately realized he'd spoken too soon, thinking of these as 'edible'. 

Like most Fire Nation food, it was spicy. Incredibly spicy. Far too spicy for Sokka's untrained tongue, and he quickly attempted to cool the burning sensation searing his entire tongue, waving a hand desperately in front of his mouth. 

"Ack! Hot, hot!"

A voice broke into guffaws nearby, nearly snorting with laughter. "Still can't handle a little heat, huh?" The man said, lifting the edge of his mask. 

Sokka stared in shock. "You're Zuko's cook!" 

The gap-toothed grin the man shot back confirmed his accusation.

"And you've got a cat's tongue, hah! Come on, kid, let's get you something more your speed." 

Sokka was too surprised to fight as the short man grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him off, stealing the rest of the fire flakes from him. 

"What are you doing here?" He asked as the cook brought him to another stand selling treats. "Is Zuko here, too?"

The cook purchased a pair of meat skewers, handing them off. "You like meat, right? General Iroh said you were happy about the Earth Kingdom jerky." 

Sokka frowned, biting a piece of meat off one skewer. "Oh, wow, that's really good." 

"The General sent us ashore for a bit of leave. Wanted us to take a load off. As far as I'm aware, Prince Zuko declined to join in." The cook explained. 

"Are you gonna, uh…" Sokka glanced around, looking for his sister and Aang. The familiar orange and yellow Air Nomad garb blended in with the fire-themed decorations, but he saw the blue of Katara's dress among the crowd near a busy stage. 

"Why, are you implying that you're not here alone? See, I didn't see the Avatar around anywhere, so I certainly wouldn't assume you were here with him." The short man said with a wink. 

"You know what?" Sokka responded, playing along. "I did come here alone, actually. Couldn't tell you where the Avatar is." 

The cook belted out a loud laugh, slapping Sokka firmly on the back. "That's the spirit! Come on, let me show you around the place! There's plenty to see at a good ol' Fire Nation-style festival!" 

---

Zuko leaned over the railing of the ship, watching the fireworks shimmer over the brightly-lit village below. 

Part of him desperately wanted to take his uncle's advice, to take the chance to wind down. 

The tiny voice in the back of his mind, the one that said you might be able to find information on the Avatar's whereabouts, kept him bound to the deck. 

He wasn't willing to give up his duty, no, but he was just as unwilling to continue giving up everything else to pursue it. If he went to the festival for information, he'd be throwing away Uncle's olive branch. On the other hand, if he went to the festival simply to enjoy himself, he'd be wasting time better spent pursuing his goal. 

Either way, he was avoiding his duty by staying here, wasn't he? His indecision was still a decision, in the end. He was choosing not to pursue, regardless, so why not accept his Uncle's kindness? 

He let out a heavy sigh, pushing back from the railing. His boots rang a rhythm across the empty deck, metal on metal, as he made for his rooms. 

He would simply take things as they went, pursue his investigation only if the opportunity presented itself, and otherwise try to enjoy himself. It was the least he could do, in repayment for Uncle's patience. 

He got a sense of déjà vu, recalling a similar decision he'd made when infiltrating Pohuai Fortress, and his gut churned.

Then, he'd abandoned his original goal, risking Sokka's health to pursue the Avatar instead. Regardless of how it had worked out, that had been the choice he'd made. Would he make it again, should he be presented with a similar conundrum?

He shook his head, dislodging those thoughts, retrieving something more comfortable than his armor from the armoire. The chance that this little festival would even produce such a promising lead was laughably small. He was working himself up over nothing, surely. 

---

Uncle Iroh was overjoyed to see Sokka at the festival, eagerly inviting him to join the pai sho table he was stationed at, asking him about what he thought of the various booths and performances. The old man had his mask pulled off to the side, freeing his mouth for sips of some dark-colored tea he was enjoying. Sokka, himself, had yet to finish his second skewer, leaving his own mask perched on top of his head. 

"It's been really exciting, actually." Sokka admitted. "I've never seen anything like it." 

"I'm glad to hear it! You know, I'm disappointed my nephew couldn't make it. He hasn't had much chance to enjoy festivals like this, himself." 

"I remember him telling me. Something about needing to appear 'above the common folk' or something like that?" Sokka emphasized his disdain with a silly voice, mocking the Fire Lord's words. 

Uncle Iroh laughed. "That does sound like my brother, hah! He always did care more for appearances than for substance. Oh, but don't let anyone hear you talking like that, hm? At least, as long as you are here." 

"I'll keep that in mind, Uncle Iroh." 

Lieutenant Jee elbowed him in the side. " General Iroh." 

"Oh, no, no!" Uncle Iroh laughed. "The boy can call me whatever he likes! He is dear to my nephew, after all." 

Sokka flushed, sliding his mask to cover his face before any of them noticed. 

"Hmph." Lieutenant Jee let the topic go, unwilling to argue with the old general. 

"Are you up for a game? I would hate to take you away from the festival if you're still enjoying it." 

Sokka shook his head. "I should really be getting back to the others before they miss me." 

"Ah, that is a pity. Another time, then?" 

Sokka nodded, and Uncle Iroh smiled. "Excellent, I'll look forward to it. Enjoy the rest of the festival!" 

Sokka waved, leaving behind the group of soldiers, the medic taking his place across the pai sho board from Uncle Iroh. He looked around for some sign of the others, and, seeing none, wandered off in the direction of the stage he'd seen Katara at before.

The single performer who'd been up on stage before had been joined by two more, the three of them directing their flames to dance in unison. It was mesmerizing, the easy way with which they controlled the fires, forming the shapes of dragons in midair. Their fine control was absolutely insane. 

No Katara yet, though, and he kept searching. They wouldn't have gone far without him, would they? Then again, he had been off 'getting food' for half an hour and hadn't seen them. 

Unexpectedly, a hand grabbed him by the wrist, tugging him down an unlit street. 

Sokka yelped, struggling against the hand. "Let me go! What are you doing?!" 

His captor's other hand slipped under his mask to clap over his mouth. "Shut up! Don't make a scene!" Hissed a familiar voice.

Zuko?! What was he doing here? Didn't the others say he stayed behind?

He was led away from the booths and clamor, ducking with Zuko around a wall. 

Sokka looked to the hand squeezing his forearm, then up to the mask Zuko wore. The white face, facial features drawn in sweeping red strokes to mimic a deep grimace, revealed nothing about the expression hidden beneath.

"What's your plan?" Sokka asked suspiciously. "Gonna interrogate me? Force me to reveal where Aang is? Get a bounty hunter to track him by my scent?" 

Zuko flinched. "I deserve that." 

"Yeah. You do." 

"I just want to talk. Please."

Sokka wrestled with indecision for a moment, glancing around them. He still saw no sign of his sister or the Avatar. "Okay. But you say one thing I don't like, and I'm leaving."

Sokka lifted his mask, leveling a glare at the taller boy. Hesitantly, Zuko followed suit, grimacing mask uncovering a lost expression beneath. Sokka softened. 

"What is it?" He asked. 

"You need to get to your friends and get out of here. As soon as possible."

---

He had noticed almost as soon as he'd set foot on the wharf. The entire dockside was full of loitering Fire Nation soldiers. He attempted to feign nonchalance, making his way to the city gates, and overheard a familiar voice barking orders on a deck high above. 

"Keep your eyes peeled! I won't stand for anyone slacking on the job tonight! The Avatar's bison was spotted flying this way, and I won't have him slipping out of my hands again!" 

Zuko's heart quickened in his chest, a thrill of anticipation warring with an anxious churning. 

Of course he couldn't afford to take a night's rest. The slightest attempt to relax and here Zhao was, swooping in. 

Zuko marched to town, uncertain as to his goal here, but knowing he couldn't allow Zhao to win. 

He'd grabbed a mask as he passed the gates, covering his inconveniently distinctive face, and pushed through the crowds within. Perhaps he'd spot the Avatar quickly, far before Zhao or his cronies… and then what? 

Uncle was loitering at a table, surrounded by several of the men, enjoying games and refreshments in the festive atmosphere. Zuko studiously avoided the area.

It wasn't until he grew near the crowded main stage, a firebending performance in full swing, that he spotted one of them. 

The characteristic shaved sides of the wolf-tail were starkly visible under the ribbons tying the mask in place, and the blue pants peeking out from beneath the long cloak stood in stark contrast to the crowd's reds.

Zuko acted fast, drawing Sokka away from the crowd, despite his struggling, and delivered the news. 

"Zhao is here." He said by way of explanation. "His men have this place surrounded."

Sokka ran a hand along his hair, the motion restrained by the mask seated there. "Oh, man, I shouldn't have left them alone…" 

"What do you mean? Where are the others?" 

"Wha- I'm not gonna tell you!" Sokka squawked indignantly. "I don't even know, anyway- Shit, does Zhao have them already?!" 

Zuko shook his head, holding Sokka still by the shoulders. "No, I heard him ordering his men around on the way here. They don't know you're at this festival, they just know you're in the area." 

"Oh, that's- that's good, then… wait, but you do!" Sokka pointed an accusing finger at him. "You said last time you weren't gonna give up on capturing Aang!"

"I also said that Zhao getting him is the worst-case scenario!" Zuko whisper-shouted, aware of how loud the echo in the darkened streets could be. "Just trust me, okay?" 

"After everything?!" Sokka was less conscious of his volume, shouting openly in frustration. "You really think I would?!"

Zuko flinched. "Maybe not. But I did hope." 

Sokka considered, brows furrowed, looking out to the busy street just around the corner. "I can't go find the others, knowing you're here, and I can't let you wander around, not knowing where they are." He justified. 

"So? What's your plan?" Zuko wasn't following. 

"So, the two of us stick around here and keep an eye on the situation. When Zhao's soldiers start acting up, we'll know trouble's started." 

"And in the meantime?" 

---

The festival had plenty of attractions to keep them occupied, and the central location allowed Sokka to keep a close eye on the movements of the guards and soldiers milling about. 

He had successfully caught three goldfish in the time it took Zuko to get frustrated, smoke billowing from under his festival mask and paper net tossed at the nearest wall. 

"Maybe we should try something else?" Sokka suggested, gently taking one pale hand in his own and tugging the taller boy away from the game. Zuko allowed himself to be dragged, begrudgingly, and Sokka returned the bagged goldfish to the vendor, nodding to the younger kids who were struggling, yet another paper net tearing in their grip. 

"Where to next?" Sokka asked, falling in beside Zuko, squeezing the hand still clasped in his. Zuko suddenly tugged the hand away as though burned.

"Uh, we could try…" He swiveled around, checking out the nearby booths. "There's a dart game over there. How about that?"

"Yeah! Sounds great!" 

The two made their way over to the booth, pushed along by the throng of festival attendees. 

A soldier in full Fire Navy uniform was interrogating a young woman, who was holding her young son behind her, and denying any sighting of the Avatar. 

"Thank you for your cooperation, miss. Have you seen anything else strange, then? Perhaps some shady figures, or anything unexpected?"

"No, nothing like that… oh! There was a cloaked man skulking through the alleys earlier, though! I lost track of him, but maybe that's who you're looking for…?" 

A cloaked man? Didn't ring any bells. 

Anyway, it seemed Zhao still wasn't on their trail yet. Sokka let out a tentative sigh of relief. 

"What is it?" Zuko muttered, leaning over to follow his line of sight.

Sokka shook his head, looking studiously toward their destination. "The soldiers are asking around. Doesn't seem like they've found Aang, yet."

"Oh, nephew! I'm so glad you decided to join us!" Uncle Iroh's jovial voice rang through the crowd. Zuko flinched.

"Hi, Uncle." He greeted sheepishly. 

"Ah, and I see you've found your friend, as well! Excellent, excellent. I hope you're having a good time? He hasn't tricked you into trying any more spicy snacks, has he?" Uncle Iroh guffawed, clearly amused by his own joke. 

"Well, he certainly didn't warn me that the fire gummies would be so hot!" Sokka replied, grinning up at Zuko, nearly forgetting he couldn't see his face through the mask.

"They're not even hot! They're sweets, they're for little kids!" Zuko defended. 

"He's supposed to be making it up to me by winning me prizes, but so far I'm kicking his butt at all the games." 

"We've only tried two!"

"Yeah, and I kicked your butt at both of them!"

Uncle Iroh chuckled, knowing twinkle in his eye, mask still pulled off to the side. "Well, I should let you two get back to your date. Thank you, again, for taking me up on my offer, nephew. Have fun!" 

Sokka's indignant squawk was matched by Zuko's identical one. 

"This isn't a date!" Sokka screeched, at the same time as Zuko whined, "Uncle!"

The old General simply waved, his laughter continuing as he left them alone together. 

"Ugh, meddlesome old man…" Zuko grumbled. 

"Do you still want to try the darts?" Sokka tried, pretending nothing had changed and that there was no suffocating tension. 

"Not if Uncle or my crew is around, spying on us… it's way too weird." 

"Hmm, maybe we could find someplace more private, then?" Sokka suggested, then immediately regretted his choice of words. If the steam suddenly rising from Zuko's shoulders was any indication, he'd gotten the same idea. 

Instead of a reply, Zuko gave a strained squeak, then cleared his throat and tried again. "Uh, actually, we could try to get a better view of the fireworks? It's getting pretty late, they're probably gonna do a big finale soon." 

Sokka gasped. "That sounds awesome! What makes the finale different from the regular fireworks?"

Zuko took Sokka by the wrist, leading him off the main street again, telling him about fireworks shows he'd seen as a child. In the capital city, fireworks were always set off in tandem with firebending dancers, and the big finale involved the entire troupe coming out at once and bending the fireworks themselves. 

"I don't know what they've got planned here, though." Zuko grunted, boosting Sokka up onto a low section of roof, then lithely swinging himself up as well. "The view's always prettiest when it's darker, though, so we should get away from all the lights."

"That makes sense." Sokka struggled to get his footing, scraping the soles of his boots against the second-story wall in an attempt to get purchase. Zuko crouched, taking him by the forearms and tugging him up. "How are you so good at this?" He complained, gesturing to him springing up to the tallest level with ease. 

"Lots of practice." Zuko shrugged. He laid down on the roof, reaching down an arm for Sokka to grab. "Mostly on the ship. I can get to the bridge from the deck without going inside, now." 

"What, were you that desperate to avoid your uncle?" Sokka joked, pulling himself up using the offered arm. Zuko tugged him hard as he cleared the edge, overshooting just enough to have Sokka fall into his chest. Zuko used his free hand to steady him by the shoulder, putting a bit of distance between them again. 

"It was another kind of training. It takes a lot of strength and endurance to climb, and that helps my firebending."

"Uh-huh." 

Zuko scratched the back of his neck. "Also, it's pretty boring out at sea for long stretches of time." 

"Ah-hah!" Sokka pointed at him, dancing around a bit. "I knew it!" 

"Knew what?" Zuko snapped.

"Knew you were still fun deep down in there, somewhere. Under all of the angst." 

Zuko huffed, hopping easily to another rooftop and leaving Sokka in his dust.

"Hey! Wait! It was a joke! You're not fun at all, really!" 

Zuko picked up speed, putting several roofs between them, and Sokka groaned. 

"First, he drags me all the way up here, then he strands me… real nice." 

He nervously sidled to the edge of the roof, looking down at the far drop below. The gap between the buildings was pretty small, but the risk was pretty scary. Still, he'd be admitting defeat if he just stayed here, so he threw himself across to the next roof. 

He overshot by a good margin, ending up several feet deep onto the adjacent roof, and his confidence immediately boosted. 

It was with only a few awkward slips and stumbles that he made his way after the other boy, reaching the wall surrounding the town fairly quickly. Zuko pointed down an alleyway as he arrived, drawing his attention to the pile of explosives arranged there. 

"Looks like that's one of the spots they're using for the finale fireworks. We might be a little too close here, what do you think?" 

Sokka barely registered the question, looking out over the forest beyond. The small hill the town was built upon afforded them a sprawling view of the lush landscape, only the tallest trees reaching their level up here on the wall. He sat, dangling his legs over the edge. 

"It's beautiful." He murmured. 

Zuko stiffened, turned to share the view, and seated himself gingerly beside him. "Yeah." 

Sokka stared, watching the tiny shapes of creatures flitting to and fro, the species native to the region still so foreign to him. How quickly they'd grown used to the change in landscape after their lives turned upside down. They hadn't had much time to adjust, having to take so many things in stride. 

Even now, he was seated between two worlds so different from home. The lush forest, the kind of foliage that was desperately rare in the frigid south, where only the most stubborn plant life resolutely hung on. The fire festival, spicy food and firebenders and strange games. 

It was surreal. And yet, the most surreal of all…

He glanced to Zuko beside him, the pale boy having pushed his mask to the side once more, staring out at the forest as well. 

"I missed this." He admitted. 

Zuko's forehead drew in confusion. "I thought you didn't have festivals like this back home?" 

Sokka shook his head. "No, not the festival. I meant, sitting next to you like this. Just… hanging out. No war, no Avatar. I missed it." 

Zuko looked guilty. "I'm sorry. If I hadn't screwed everything up, lost my honor…" 

Sokka grimaced. "I think it would've ended up like this one way or another. Eventually. Even if you hadn't been sent on your big quest, even if I hadn't been the one to find the Avatar, we still would have been on opposite sides. We always were." 

The two looked out to the trees instead of one another, letting the heavy tension settle between them, like a stone wall pushing them apart. As familiar as this felt, sitting together like this, things would never go back to that time. 

It was while staring off, looking at anything but Zuko's guilty expression, that movement caught Sokka's eye. "Wait. What's that, in the river?" 

"The river?" Zuko followed his pointing finger. His good eye widened in terror. "Shit, those are Fire Navy boats! They must be Zhao's, he must have found something!" 

Zuko made to hop down, but Sokka grabbed him by the elbow. "Wait! If Zhao found them, we need to get Appa." 

"Appa? Who-?"

Sokka stared at him in disbelief. "The sky bison? Big, fluffy, arrow on its head? The one we're always riding around on?" 

Zuko groaned. "I'm familiar with the bison, I just didn't know its name!" 

"Really? Every time Aang gets away on him, he shouts 'Appa, yip yip'! That didn't register?" 

"How was I supposed to know any of that was the thing's name?!" 

Zuko had a point. The catchphrase was already nonsense, after all. Sokka dropped it, letting Zuko lead the way to ground level, then taking the lead out of town. 

"I hope Appa's still where we left him…" 

---

The bison was so poorly-hidden, Zuko had to berate himself for not finding it sooner, even if the awful hiding place was a few hours' walk outside the village gates. The beast was crouched behind some low-growing bushes, hiding its face in two of its many feet. 

"Appa!" Sokka called as they drew near, and the bison surged forward, greeting the boy with a long swipe of its drooly tongue. 

The beast was less excited about seeing Zuko, though, and lowed angrily at him, taking some form of defensive stance. From the bushes, the lemur appeared, chattering loudly.

"Guys, guys! He's not here to hurt anyone, calm down!" Sokka called, palms flat out to the creatures in a placating gesture. 

The bison remained wary, showing its side to the boys, but the lemur became curious, circling Zuko and sniffing at his boots. 

"Sokka… you should go on without me. Get to your friends before Zhao does." 

"What? You're not coming with me?" Sokka seemed genuinely surprised, as though he assumed Zuko would be on board with a full rescue mission. 

He wondered if the Avatar had given them the full details of the events at Pohuai. 

"No. It's getting pretty late, anyway, and Uncle will be wondering where I went. I should be getting back." He paused, suddenly remembering their reason for touring the festival together. "Oh, you don't have to worry about me following after you or anything, I wasn't intending-" 

"Zuko…" Sokka held his gaze for a long moment, like he was warring with himself over saying something more. "Thank you. For… I should be going, too."

The lemur curled around the boy's shoulders as he climbed the bison's side. He hesitated for a moment, catching Zuko's gaze, before snapping the reigns.

Zuko watched the bison grow smaller, zipping in the direction of the river at top speed. He sighed, trudging back to the docks. He'd be lucky to make it before dawn broke, at this point, and nothing would save him from Uncle's questioning.

Maybe Sokka had a point, regarding alternate uses of his climbing abilities.

---

"So, let me get this straight." Sokka began, addressing the other passengers aboard Appa's saddle. "You two were smuggled out of the festival by a Fire Nation deserter, who snuck you into a secret camp to see another Fire Nation deserter, who agreed to teach you firebending, you immediately burn my sister, she figures out how to heal with magic, and then Zhao shows up and burns down all his own boats? Did I get all that?"

"Yep! Pretty eventful night, huh?" Aang grinned. 

"Eventful isn't half of it! Why'd you leave me behind?!"

"Well…" Katara looked guilty. Good. "You were talking to Zuko's uncle when we were on the way out of town. It seemed too risky to try to get your attention." 

"Oh." Sokka deflated. That was a pretty good reason, actually. 

"So, what were you doing while we were with Jeong Jeong? I mean, before you came to rescue us." 

Sokka shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Just wandering the festival, looking for you guys. Played some games, ate some meat. Did you know they even make their gummy candy spicy? It's a trap, I tell you!" 

Aang and Katara laughed at his expense. 

"Sounds like you got a pretty relaxing night off, then." Katara observed.

"You didn't get any sleep, though, did you? You must be pretty tired." Aang added. 

"I am, I really am." Sokka yawned loudly, proving his point. "Next time, I won't insist we leave Appa so far away from town. I think it's worth the risk not to have to walk so far. I'm bushed!" 

He layed back, snuggling into the tightly-secured bedrolls, letting his tired eyes drift shut. Katara laughed, but didn't stop him. 

"Well, get some rest. I'd say you earned it."

Chapter Text

It had been two days since they'd left the Northern Air Temple, with the kooky Earth Kingdom denizens that had taken it over, heading vaguely northward in an attempt to track down their sister tribe. 

It had been nearly a week since they'd encountered Zuko. 

His tiny ship hadn't so much as appeared on the horizon. After the festival, he'd just… disappeared. Like he'd given up the chase. 

As much as Sokka wanted to feel relief at the concept, knowing what else would have had to have been sacrificed alongside made him worry for him. Zuko always took things so seriously, always passionate about everything, and his disappearance didn't sit well with him. 

It seemed to sit perfectly well with Katara, though. 

"It's such a relief not to see him dogging our steps, you know? I feel like we can finally just take our time and concentrate on the goal!" 

"If we don't find the Northern Water Tribe soon, though, Appa's gonna be swimming the rest of the way." Sokka pointed out. "Can't he fly any higher?"

"Hey, you'd be tired, too! We can take turns sleeping in the saddle, but Appa's had to stay up for two days straight!" Aang snapped. 

The airbender hadn't been taking much time to sleep, remaining awake in solidarity with his bison. It made him crabby, snapping at the slightest grumble, and it put Sokka on edge. Half his personality was complaining! If Aang was going to gripe about it, what did he have left?!

Before he could snap back, they were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a sharp iceberg that hadn't been there just moments before. Appa swerved too slow to miss it, lowing as his side grazed the ice heavily, and the bison splashed down into the freezing waters. Another spike of ice encroached, climbing up one of his legs, slowing him down enough for their assailants to catch up. 

"Waterbenders!" Katara cheered. "We must be near the Northern Water Tribe!" 

The other tribesmen didn't seem nearly so excited to see them, surrounding them in a shelf of ice and pointing spears their way. 

"Who are you? Where do you hail from?" One of them shouted, standing at the edge of his raft. 

"I'm Katara, and this is my brother, Sokka! We're from the Southern Tribe!" Katara explained. The spears lowered. "We're traveling with the Avatar!" 

Hushed murmurs spread across the rafts while Aang waved brightly at them. 

"We apologize for our hasty actions, Sokka and Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. We welcome you, and the Avatar, to our city." The spokesperson called. 

Sokka nudged Katara in the side. "City?" Just how different was the Northern Tribe?

She shrugged. 

---

The city was absolutely resplendent. Waterbenders lined the walls, using their talents to operate a sophisticated lock system, raising Appa from the low-tide sea level up to meet the canals within the walls. Every structure in the city had been meticulously crafted by master artisans, each unique and shimmering in the weak light of the winter sun. Canoes drifted this way and that, guided by yet more benders, shuttling citizens to and fro around the sprawling city. 

If they'd been impressed by the elaborate earthen architecture of Omashu, that paled in comparison to the marvel that was the Northern Water Tribe. 

Katara subtly mimicked the stances of the benders that passed, her eyes sharp as she memorized the movements. Aang nearly fell off of Appa's wide head, twisting and turning to see more of the city. Passersby waved with excitement as they passed, trying to get the attention of the Avatar and his companions. 

Sokka noticed none of this, eyes glued to the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. 

She was almost ethereal, gliding past in a canoe larger and more ostentatious than most, posture impeccable, in heavy layers of intricately embroidered fabrics and the purest white furs. Her thick hair, arranged artfully and clasped with gemstone-studded accessories, gleamed white as the icy buildings surrounding them. 

She turned her gaze over to him as they passed, full lips parted slightly in surprise, and he swore her sapphire-blue eyes glowed in the weak sunlight. 

"This place is beautiful, isn't it?" Katara's voice cut in, and time resumed. 

"Yeah... she is." Sokka agreed, a dopey smile splitting his face. 

---

They were guided to a large hall, already prepared for an extravagant banquet, and Sokka had to wonder how they prepared everything so quickly. A retainer, different from the one that had guided them here, attempted to quickly catch them up to speed on the customs and expectations of the event. She ran through a list of important names, pointing out the nobles in the room who they should remember, and Sokka quickly gave up remembering most of them. So many uptight folks in fancy clothes gossipped to one another over long tables, delicately nibbling at the many dishes provided there, far too many for any of them to really be all that important. He wondered if it was possible to be any further out of his element. Even the food was disorienting, familiar, yet strange, using the same ingredients they used back home, but in the wrong combinations. 

Still, he was a growing boy, and couldn't turn down any sort of food presented to him, regardless of context. He was hastily shoving some of everything into his mouth, curious about the new flavors, when Chief Arnook called for the guests' attention.

"Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of our brother and sister from the Southern Tribe." He announced, indicating the siblings with a sweeping gesture. "They have brought with them someone very special, someone who many of us believed had disappeared from this world until now." He turned to Aang, sweeping his other arm out toward the suddenly-sheepish boy. "The Avatar!" 

The guests cheered the announcement, overjoyed to be joined by such a special guest. Chief Arnook raised his hands, calling for silence once more. 

"We also celebrate my daughter's sixteenth birthday." The beautiful girl from before was escorted into the hall, where she took her place beside the Chief. "Tomorrow, Princess Yue will visit the Spirit Oasis and ask for the spirits to reveal the soul bonded to hers." 

Sokka's jaw dropped in shock. Princess? How did this keep happening to him?!

"Thank you, father." The Princess replied graciously, her voice gentle and as lovely as Sokka expected it to be. "I pray that the guidance the spirits provide to me may bolster our hope and joy in these troubled times." 

The Princess curtsied, then took her designated place gracefully at the end of the long table, directly next to Sokka himself. 

"Now!" Chief Arnook drew attention once more for one last announcement. "Master Pakku and his students will perform!"

An old man, one of the nobles pointed out to them before the banquet that he'd failed to remember, took to the stage, flanked by two younger men. The three began to weave large amounts of water between them, in a display of skill and power, to the applause of the guests. None were more enthusiastic than Aang and Katara, and none less so than Sokka. 

He glanced over at Princess Yue, seated politely beside him, the waterbending display dancing lights across her doe-like eyes. 

"Hi, uh… I'm Sokka. Southern Water Tribe?"

She bowed shallowly, eyes squinting in a less-reserved smile than expected. "It's very nice to meet you." 

She sounded entirely sincere. Sokka swore his heart was beating twice as fast as normal. 

"So, uh, you're a princess, huh?" Sokka almost flinched. He was too loud, his gestures too big… but she just smiled, nodded, and turned to face him more fully. "You know," he tried, "back in my tribe, I'm kind of like a prince myself." 

It wasn't necessarily a lie. Their father was Chief, just like Arnook was here. 

Behind him, Katara scoffed. "Prince of what?" She muttered.

"It's true!" Aang piped up, kneeling so he was visible over Katara's head. "His soulmate's a prince, so that makes him royalty, too!" 

"That's not how it works, Aang!" Sokka snapped, trying to sear the airbender with his glare. 

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Princess Yue looked embarrassed, leaning back to sit on her feet, posture perfectly poised once more. "Oh, you already know who you're bonded to? That's very exciting. I'm very happy for you." 

She sounded very professional, perfectly polite, all trace of her sincerity vanished. Sokka deflated. 

"Yeah, uh… I'm surprised you guys know about soulmate stuff here. Most places we've been haven't been so familiar." 

The Princess nodded. "Oh, yes! They're very important to us, here. It's very much expected that one should marry their soulmate. Although…" She looked off, uncertainly, as though she wanted to say more but wasn't sure if she should. 

"Yeah, they're the same for us, back home. We do a ritual when you turn sixteen… guess that's the same here?" 

"Do you have a spirit oasis in the South, as well?" The Princess asked.

Katara shook her head. "No, it's a little more complicated than that for us. It's so incredible that you have such a strong spiritual place nearby! Where is it?" 

"Oh, it's just north of the city, directly on the North Pole proper. There's a little cove there, warm year-round, with koi fish living in the pond. I could show you sometime, if you're planning to stay for a time?" She looked hopeful, glancing over at Sokka. 

"Yeah! We need to find a waterbending teacher so I can learn all the elements!" Aang informed her. 

"I will speak with Master Pakku for you, young Avatar." Chief Arnook placed a hand on Aang's shoulder, gesturing for him to follow. The waterbending master had just completed his performance, to the applause of the assembly, and was waiting near the stage as guests came to congratulate him and his students personally. 

The Princess fidgeted, looking pointedly away from Sokka again. "I'd love to talk more, but I should also be going. It's expected that I greet every guest individually before the night ends."

"Oh, okay. I guess we'll see each other around, then?" Sokka asked hopefully. 

Princess Yue smiled, barely touching the corners of her mouth, but narrowing her eyes. "I look forward to it." She said softly, rising smoothly and giving them another shallow bow. 

"I can't believe you!" Katara hissed as the Princess left earshot. 

"What did I do?!" Sokka squawked. 

"Flirting with the princess? Who do you think you are?" 

"She was flirting with me, too!" Sokka hissed in his defense. "Well, until Aang spilled the royal beans." Thanks, Aang.  

"I'm just saying. Don't get in over your head. She's way out of your league." 

---

Music night must have been more subdued than usual, because Zuko didn't hear any off-key singing reaching his quarters tonight. It was just as well, as he was not in the mood to be bothered by it, still warring with himself as he replayed his decision a week ago not to follow when the Avatar was, unexpectedly, so close. 

Was it the right thing? Or was his judgement clouded by his sudden, desperate desire to win back Sokka's trust after seeing him ready himself for yet another betrayal? 

Worst of all, he couldn't imagine having made any other decision.

A knock came at the hatch, startling him from his thoughts, and he groaned. Uncle always pestered him to join in on music night, making pointed comments about the many instruments he was trained with by the royal tutors, and tonight had begun with a lament about their lack of a tsungi horn player, since Uncle was the only other one who could play it and he was taking vocals for the evening. 

"For the last time, Uncle, I am not playing the tsungi horn!" He snapped as the hatch opened, regardless of his lack of response to the knocking. 

"That is not why I am here." Uncle sounded nervous, unusual for him, and was glancing behind his shoulder. "There's a bit of a problem regarding our plans..." 

It was then that Zuko realized Uncle had not come alone. Stepping into the doorway behind him, smug look firmly plastered across his slimy face, was the biggest asshole in the Fire Navy. 

"I'm taking your crew." Zhao informed him, casual, as though it were some minor order. 

"What?!" Zuko cried in disbelief. 

"I need them for an expedition to the North Pole." He continued. 

"Uncle? Is that true?" Zuko pleaded for a negative. 

"I'm afraid so." Uncle responded, gravely serious. "He's taking everyone, even the cook!" Now he was playing up the doddering old fool act, pretending to weep into his sleeve. As expected, he refused to take anything seriously for very long. 

"It's a pity you won't be there to see me at my triumph, but I can't risk you getting in my way again." 

Without his crew, he was as good as stranded. He couldn't operate the ship on his own, and he couldn't hire replacement crew at the harbor, either. That would be considered 'hiring mercenaries', and he didn't have the funds or authority to do so. He knew full well, though, that Zhao certainly did, and didn't need to commandeer his paltry crew to bolster his numbers. 

It was a power play, plain and simple, just like every other time he'd swept in and taken what he pleased. 

Uncle was only barely fast enough to stop Zuko as he lunged for the Admiral. 

Zhao strode further into the room, smirking, cocky, but his face fell the moment his gaze fell upon the dual dao, on full display. 

"I wasn't aware you were skilled with broadswords, Prince Zuko." He commented, pointedly. 

"I'm not." Zuko lied. "They're antiques, just for decoration."

Zhao pulled a sword from the wall, examining it closely. They were well-cared-for, recently oiled and sharpened, with fine grooves from wear. Not for the first time, Zuko wished he made a better liar. 

"Have you heard of the Blue Spirit, General Iroh?" Zhao asked, letting Zuko know the game was up. 

"Just rumors." Uncle responded smoothly. "I don't think he is real."

"Oh, he's real, all right." Zhao snarled. "He's a criminal, and an enemy of the Fire Nation." He passed the sword, pommel first, to Uncle. "But I have a feeling justice will catch up to him soon." 

His gaze held Zuko's for a long moment, barely-repressed anger lighting his dull, amber eyes, before he swept out of the room, his business concluded. 

The hatch slammed closed emphatically, and Zuko slid down the wall onto his bed. 

"What are we gonna do?" 

---

Sokka woke before the others the next day, after the moon had set and before the sun had risen. It was hard to tell, since this early into spring there would be only a few hours of sunlight altogether, but he assumed it was early morning. Just another disorienting thing about the North Pole; They'd left home midsummer, but had crossed the equator at some point and now late winter had crossed into early spring. 

He woke Aang and Katara, letting them know it was almost time to get to their waterbending lesson, getting himself ready as they stumbled around sleepily. 

"What are you going to do while we're training?" Katara yawned.

"Oh, I was thinking I'd find out where the warriors up here do their stuff. Get a good workout in, you know. No need to wait up for me."

"Okay." Katara replied dreamily, fingers attempting to wind her braid twice and failing before Sokka took over, and nodded off while he finished up. 

"Hey, no falling back asleep!" He warned. "I know the party ended late last night, but the old guy said you needed to be there bright and early."

"Man, I was really hoping to get some time off." Aang whined. 

Still, they dutifully departed, headed for the large arena where they were told to meet Master Pakku, and Sokka retrieved his weapons from his satchel. Digging for the seldom-used club, settled at the bottom beneath his extra clothes, Sokka knocked loose a tightly-bound stack of parchment, sending it sliding into the furs lining the floor. He hesitated, holding it for a long moment, then untied the leather cording holding the pages together. 

Tucked in the very center, kept flat by the pressure, petals fully dried now, was the panda lily he'd picked and pressed in a moment of sentimentality. He gently grazed a finger along one flattened petal, then folded it back into its hiding place once more, securing it by the cord. 

It was stupid, he knew, to hang on to it, when the one it reminded him of was so dead-set on betraying him at every turn, but…

He hadn't followed. He'd let Sokka take Appa right to Aang, and he hadn't followed. A tiny blossom of hope had bloomed in Sokka's chest, as sentimental and fragile as the pressed panda lily, and he was just as reluctant to throw it away. 

Tucking the parchment back into his pack and slinging the club across his shoulders next to the boomerang, Sokka headed out onto the street. 

---

The training area was more difficult to find than he'd expected, and the warriors there more reluctant to train with an unproven teenager, but he'd eventually gotten a decent workout in, joining in with target practice next to other boomerang wielders. He'd been sent away before the warriors began sparring, just as the sun finally rose, with the excuse that he was just too young and scrawny to be a decent challenge. 

He decidedly ignored the snickering voices referring to him as a 'fragile princess' or joking that 'his prince would defend him'. 

It seemed that rumors spread quickly among the sheltered community here. Damn Aang and damn his big mouth. 

In a sour mood, he stomped off down the now-busy streets, citizens greeting the fleeting sunlight by strolling along the canals. His stomach rumbled at the smell of some sort of food drifting by, reminding him that lunchtime was approaching. He'd have to figure out where to find something to eat. 

A familiar canoe drifted past, beneath the bridge he was crossing, and his train of thought was derailed. 

"Princess Yue! Princess Yue!" He called, racing down to canal-level. "Good morning!" 

She giggled, that small smile that squinted her eyes returning. "It's nearly midday, you know. Did you just wake up?"

"No, well, it's just- the sun just rose, so- I've been up for a while, you know, training, getting buff… What are you up to?!" 

Princess Yue's laughter was like the most incredible music, even if it was at his expense. "I'm sure you don't care to hear about my duties." She dismissed, shrugging slightly. 

"Well, maybe when you get a break from whatever duties those are, we could meet up? Talk about… whatever it is?" 

She smiled. "I'd like that." Her face suddenly fell, like she was distraught. "Oh, but I'm all booked up today. When the sun sets, I need to go to the Spirit Oasis… how about tonight, after I speak with the spirits? We could meet up on that bridge!" 

She pointed out the bridge in question, one fairly near where the three of them were staying. Sokka nodded eagerly. 

"Yes! That sounds great! I'll see you-" He was suddenly fully submerged in icy water, having walked directly into the canal. Princess Yue's tinkling laughter rang out as he resurfaced, and he couldn't even find it in himself to be upset. 

Yeah… maybe today would be a good day, after all.

---

Instead of going back to warrior training (the rumors about him had fully spread already, and the snickering started the moment he showed his face), he retreated to the room he shared with Aang and Katara and started whittling.

He'd seen Smellerbee do it, back at the treehouse, patiently shaping the wood into trinkets while she kept watch, and was reminded of the practical whittling he'd learned as a child. Surely, if he could shape bone into a fishhook, he could shape wood into a fish? 

---

He could not. Princess Yue couldn't even figure out what it was supposed to be. 

"It's a… bear?" She guessed.

"Actually, it's supposed to be a fish." He explained, turning it the right way. "See, it has a fin." 

"Oh." 

"I thought, since you were going to the spirits thing today, and you said there were koi fish at the oasis, it would be, like… a cool little memento?"

"That's very sweet of you." Her voice was subdued, depressed almost. 

"So… how did it go? Did you get to meet… whoever it is?" Sokka pressed on, trying to figure out what was eating her. 

She shook her head, biting her lip, tears escaping from her eyes, despite how furiously she squeezed them shut in defense. 

"Oh, I'm- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No." She interrupted. "No, it's… it's fine." 

Despite her assurances, her tears were flowing freely now, staining the smooth skin of her round cheeks. 

"Oh. Okay." He didn't know what to say, fiddling with the poorly-made carved fish. It was such a disappointment, as much of a disappointment as she found him, surely. It was a stupid thing to ask. 

"Sokka…" She took a deep breath, shaky with emotion. "Tell me about him? Your Prince." 

Sokka froze. What could he tell her? The truth would get him labeled a threat at best, and a traitor at worst. It felt wrong, though, to lie to her right now. He didn't know what the spirits had told her, but she was looking for some kind of comfort. 

So, he told her half-truths. He gave her the highlights, the very best parts of his personality, the kinds of things he'd be embarrassed to death if Katara heard him say. 

"He's… passionate. And determined. He's kind, and caring, even if he keeps- even if he makes some stupid mistakes. A lot. He always puts his duty to his people over everything else, and I guess that's admirable, but it can be really frustrating, too." Sokka scratched the back of his head, seeing her trying to cover her face to hide her sobs, but forged on. "He's handsome, too, in a way. He's got some awful hair right now, but… since the first time we met, when I was eight, I thought he had the prettiest eyes of anyone in the world." He laughed to himself. "Not that I'd actually seen many people at that point. Not in our tiny little village. But I've travelled around a lot now and… I dunno, they're still up there." 

Despite his awkward stuttering as he danced around details, and although she was still hiccupping through sobs, Princess Yue began to smile again. 

"He sounds wonderful, Sokka. You're very lucky. I hope you two are able to be happy together. I think… I think you really deserve to be happy." 

It sounded like she was trying to say something else, but Sokka couldn't guess what, and decided not to push it. She'd tell him when she was ready, he was sure. 

"This was… this was what I needed, I think. I have to go, now, but…" She took both of his hands in her own, slender in their perfectly-tailored gloves, warm even through the fabric. "Thank you so much, Sokka. For everything." 

"Oh, uh… I'm not sure what I did, but… I guess you're welcome?" He took one hand back from her grasp to scratch at his jaw uncertainly. 

She squeezed his remaining hand in both of her own. "Goodbye, Sokka." 

And then she was gone. 

---

When Zuko regained his consciousness, he almost wished he had died in the blast. Everything hurt, he was absolutely certain he had several broken bones, and he couldn't tell if he was hot with fever or if his burns were that severe. 

Uncle was beside him, gently cleaning his surface-level wounds, and even that light pressure made him wince, hissing his discomfort.

"I am sorry, but you will not heal properly if I do not clean your wounds." 

"Where are we?" He looked around, seeing only rough rock surrounding them. 

"I've brought you to a cave near the cove. I couldn't risk bringing you back to town, it was too far. Do you know what happened, Nephew?"

He struggled to remember, the pulsing pain making it difficult to even think. "There was an explosion. It destroyed the whole ship. I remember…" The reptile-bird. That familiar, squawking monstrosity. "It was pirates. They must have snuck on board with blasting jelly or something." He cursed. "Zhao must have sent them!" 

"Are you certain?" Uncle asked. "That's quite the accusation."

"Of course it was him! You heard him- he'd do anything to get me out of the way!" He attempted to sit upright, but almost immediately collapsed again with pain. 

"Please, Zuko, try not to move until I am able to assess the extent of your injuries. You are lucky to have survived at all." Uncle fussed over him some more, poking along his ribcage for tender spots. When he hissed at the pressure, Uncle just dug in, checking the bones for breaks. 

"Well, good news, Nephew! It seems like you did not fracture any ribs, only dislocated them. I am going to try to get them back in place now, and it may hurt quite a bit, but I promise you'll feel better when I am done."

Zuko nodded, bracing himself against the pain. Uncle warmed his hands up, applying heat to the area before he began. He then took hold of Zuko's upper arm, using it to twist his torso around, coaxing the bones back into place. 

Zuko hissed and shouted in turns, pain spiking up his spine with the movement. Uncle muttered apologies throughout the process, wincing alongside his nephew. 

A triplet of popping sensations later, the pain in his chest suddenly abated, leaving behind only a dull ache. He breathed through it, trying to keep his movements shallow, and stared up at the stumpy stalactites clinging to the cave ceiling. 

"Better?" Uncle asked, tentatively. 

Zuko nodded. 

"Excellent. Does anything else need attention?"

With the distracting pain in his chest subsided, Zuko took stock of what still hurt. All of his muscles were sore from the impact, followed by the icy water. His skin was tender from scratches and burns. All of that would simply need time to heal. As far as anything else major… his shin felt more than bruised, and he wondered if he would be safe to put pressure on it. 

"No, Uncle. I feel much better, thank you." He lied. 

Uncle smiled warmly. 

"Where's Zhao's ship? I need to get on board before he departs."

Uncle's smile fell in an instant.

---

When Sokka returned to the room, Aang and Katara were already back. Aang was in his subdued, comforting mode, so Katara must have been in a bad mood. 

"How's warrior training going?" She asked, very obviously taking the chance at a distraction. 

The question threw him off, still mired in thoughts of Princess Yue and her tears. "Oh, that? Not great. They're all treating me like a girl because word got out my soulmate's a guy. Thanks for that, by the way." Aang looked appropriately guilty. "Even Princess Yue! I thought we were on a date but then all she wants to know about is him!" He threw his hands up, slumping to the floor. "What about you guys? How's waterbending training?" 

Katara groaned. 

"Master Poophead won't teach her because she's a girl." It was the most devastating insult he'd ever heard coming out of the peace-loving airbender's mouth. The guy must have really been a huge asshole. 

"What is with these people! I know we had our gendered traditions back home, but this is just ridiculous!" Katara huffed. "I've spent all day learning to heal! Which is great, I mean, I'm sure it'll be a very useful skill, but it's not what I came all this way for!" 

Sokka looked between the two of them, not understanding how they could have missed the easy solution to this roadblock. "Why don't you just teach her, Aang?"

"Why didn't I think of that!" Katara cheered. "At night, you can teach me whatever forms you learned from Master Pakku! He can't be mad about it if an outsider teaches me, right?" 

"Yeah! That's a great idea! Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Aang's perky attitude slipped right back into place, and he propelled himself into a standing position and out the door with a swift gust of wind. 

"Thanks for the idea, Sokka!" Katara called as she followed.

Sokka waved, returning to staring at the ceiling. 

At least they had a workaround. 

---

As it turned out, 'Master Poophead' was a stubborn old coot, and didn't appreciate Aang stepping on his toes. He'd claimed it was an insult to his very culture, apparently, and dismissed Aang as his student. 

Katara dragged both boys out of bed the next morning, insisting she help Aang get back into Pakku's good graces. 

It took some wandering to find him, unfortunately, as he was not at the training grounds. His regular students stood around uncomfortably, as though terrified the moment they let their guards down he would appear, and had no answers as to where he might be. 

It was only after waving down a servant Aang remembered from the banquet that they finally got directions. 

The waterbending master was in conference with the Chief, several familiar faces from the banquet, and Princess Yue. Chief Arnook was making an announcement of some sort to the gathered nobles, and Sokka motioned for the others to hang back until he was finished.

"I thank you for gathering this morning. I know you all have important duties to attend to but, as you all are aware, Princess Yue sat vigil with the spirits yesterday, and they revealed to her her bonded spirit. It is with great pleasure that I cement her long-standing betrothal to Hahn." 

A smug-looking teenager stood from behind another noble, bowing shallowly to the Chief before taking his seat again. He winked widely at Princess Yue, who smiled back politely, without it reaching her eyes. 

Sokka's jaw dropped in shock. She'd told him she hadn't met anyone when she went to the spirit oasis! Had she lied to him? 

"The spirits have confirmed their bond and blessed their union. We will discuss marriage preparations henceforth. For now, I hope you all look forward to the announcement banquet next week." 

Chief Arnook nodded to the assembly, and many of them began to shuffle around. Katara took this as her cue to step forward, the determined tapping of her boots against the smooth ice drawing the attention of the room. 

"Please, Chief Arnook, I have a request!" She called. Murmurs spread around the nobles, tittering at her impudence. The Chief took a seat at the forefront of the gathering and gestured to her to continue. 

"Last night, Master Pakku dismissed Aang as his student for breaking with tradition and attempting to teach me waterbending. I would like to take the blame for his actions. Aang is an outsider, and he's not familiar with the Water Tribe's traditions or culture. I was the one to ask him to break tradition for me, and Aang should not be punished for that." 

"What do you want me to do?" Chief Arnook asked her, a deep frown settling into his features. " Force Master Pakku to take Aang back as his student?"

"Yes." Katara pleaded. "Please."

"Well, then, I suspect he might change his mind if you were to swallow your pride and apologize properly." 

Pakku looked smug. Of course the Chief would take his side. 

Katara looked to Aang, then back to the gathered nobles. Swallowing her pride? When she wasn't even in the wrong? Unlikely. 

Her shoulders slumped, and Sokka almost believed she was actually about to cave, when Pakku ruined any chance of that ever happening with one smug sentence. 

"I'm waiting, little girl." He practically purred, gloating under the Chief's favor. 

"No!" She shouted. "No way am I apologizing to a sour old man like you!" 

The loud cracking noise was a familiar accompaniment to her outrage by now, the ice responding to her fury. Several decorative fixtures shattered under her power, sending shards of ice and pools of water swirling around the hall. 

"Katara…" Aang attempted to placate her, grimacing anxiously at the damage to the room. 

"I'll be outside if you're man enough to fight me!" 

---

It was easy enough to slip aboard the ship and into the armory for a disguise, even with the sharp pain shooting up his leg when he put too much weight on it. Zuko was beginning to seriously doubt the integrity of the Fire Nation's patrol regulations. 

Worse, once he was in full armor, no one batted an eye at his movements. There were hundreds of soldiers on board this single vessel alone, and another recruit wasn't worth so much as a glance. He stored supplies into an emergency kayak, even stealing a full set of winter gear from the armory, all without so much as a "What are your orders, private?". 

It was a disgrace. 

He knew Uncle was on board somewhere, chatting with the Admiral and cementing his own place here. Uncle was always so patient with him, endlessly supportive. Even now. 

He knew already he would have nowhere to go if he actually somehow succeeded. A one-person kayak was no place to store a prisoner, and certainly wouldn't make it all the way back to the mainland. 

Success wasn't the goal anymore. The goal was only Zhao's defeat. 

---

Master Pakku followed her outside, but still refused to take her seriously. Katara's blood boiled. He only left the hall at all in order to mock her. 

He had no idea what she was capable of. 

Goading him into the fight was the hard part. The fight itself was invigorating, and freeing, and she felt like she could move entire glaciers, her rage fueling her power. His smug look fell quickly, witnessing the raw strength she possessed, even lacking any formal training. 

She remembered the feeling rushing through her when she'd saved Aang from that platypus bear, the chi singing through her veins, and envisioned Master Pakku with the same snarling beak. She'd overwhelm him one way or another, forcing him to witness her.

Despite the fury the two benders raged at one another, drawing both to their limits in both strength and agility, the battle was decided with a single dirty trick. 

With her limbs restrained by the icy spikes, her ability to direct the water was cut off almost entirely, and Master Pakku stole the victory. 

He smugly strode off, leaving her trapped, and was only stopped short by the sight of her mother's necklace, the betrothal necklace passed down from Gran-Gran. 

"This is my necklace…" The awful old man declared. 

Katara struggled to get free, pushing at the ice with both her body and her bending. He'd already stolen her dreams of learning under a master bender, he couldn't steal this from her, too! "No, it's not! It's mine! Give it back!"

"I made this sixty years ago for the love of my life, for Kanna." His voice was soft, thoughts far away, in the past, and the ice he'd been upholding around Katara melted in an instant. 

"My Gran-Gran was supposed to marry you?" She wondered. 

Master Pakku nodded, looking sadly at the necklace. "I carved this for your grandmother when we got engaged. I thought we would have a long, happy life together. I loved her." 

The pieces slotted together. Yagoda had told her some of the story, but… "But she didn't love you, did she? It was an arranged marriage."

Master Pakku's face contorted, long-buried grief rising to the surface. "Our betrothal was decided when we were young. We always knew we would be wed one day. I was elated. She was beautiful, and strong-willed, and I felt lucky to have her. When I came of age and went to the spirit oasis for guidance, I did not even try to meditate. I was terrified the spirits would tell me Kanna was not the one. I did what was expected of me and announced to everyone that the spirits had shown me to her. When it came time for her to do the same, she threw away her duty, telling everyone that her true soulmate was of the Southern Water Tribe, and that she would break the arrangement to go to him." 

Katara didn't understand the customs, but she did know her grandmother well. "She refused to live a lie for you. That was courageous of her."

Behind them, Princess Yue broke into loud sobs, fleeing the area, Sokka close behind her. 

---

Princess Yue had fled to the same bridge they'd spoken on the previous night. Sokka approached her cautiously, seeing her shoulders shake with quiet sobs.

"Hey." He called, voice carefully soft. 

"Sokka…" She sniffled, trying to force herself calm. "What is it?" 

"You didn't really see that Hahn guy at the oasis, did you?" It wasn't a question. The conflict between the Chief's words and Princess Yue's made sense now. 

"I had to tell them what they wanted to hear." She confirmed. "The betrothal between us was decided years ago. I had hoped…" She touched something on her neck, hidden beneath her thick furs. Sokka could imagine what it was- a betrothal necklace from Hahn. "I had hoped the spirits would show me a different path." 

"You know…" Sokka leaned near her, bumping his shoulder into hers. She leaned against him heavily. "You can make your own path. If what the spirits decide brings you nothing but trouble, you don't have to go through with it. With any of it." 

She shook her head. "I do, though. I… I can't tell you just yet, but I really don't have a choice. This is bigger than me, bigger than what I want. This is my duty, Sokka." 

He almost laughed at the familiarity. "Where have I heard that one before…" 

"Sokka, I like you. A lot. But this is… this is something I can't drag you into. You deserve to be happy, with your Prince, and you don't need to be dragged down by my duty. I don't want anyone else to be hurt by… what has to happen." 

"Princess… there's something I have to tell you. But you have to promise to keep it a secret. Really, not a soul. Not your dad, not your fiancé, not a peep." 

Princess Yue seemed confused, not expecting what seemed like an abrupt change in topic, but she nodded. "I promise." 

"I didn't want to tell you everything, because you seemed really upset, but… my whole soulmate thing isn't what you think it is." 

Her lips parted in surprise, dewey blue eyes wide, but she didn't stop him, so he continued. 

"My soulmate… he's the Prince of the Fire Nation. The Crown Prince. First in line to be Fire Lord someday. So if you're worried about your duty dragging me down… honestly, I'd rather it be yours." 

She took a long moment to consider his words, staring off into the canal below, to the thin slice of moon reflected in the gently stirring surface. 

"I had no idea… You spoke so highly of him last night." She said, finally. 

Sokka shrugged. "Like I said, you were upset. And… I dunno, maybe he is a good guy. But his duty fucking stinks." 

She gasped, then barked out a laugh, surprised at his harsh statement. 

"Seriously. The spirits aren't all-knowing or all-powerful. We shape our own destinies. If all they have planned for you is suffering, well… wouldn't it be just a kick in the face if you could find happiness, anyway?" 

Princess Yue was laughing, despite the tears starting back up. "Thank you, Sokka."

"Anytime, Princess." 

Chapter Text

One week turned into two, and Katara's waterbending was getting scary good. Pakku had finally agreed to train her, realizing he'd been clinging to the wrong traditions for the wrong reasons, and she'd quickly outpaced even the prodigy Avatar in both control and power. 

Sokka, meanwhile, had been spending time with the Princess. A lot of time. 

"So you don't have palaces in the Southern Tribe?" She asked, watching him balance along the railing of a bridge. He'd begun giving into his silly, childlike impulses quickly, realizing she'd had little time to be a child, herself. 

"Are you kidding? I grew up in a block of ice! It's not exactly a cultural hub." 

She laughed at that, for some reason. She laughed at a lot of things he said, for reasons he couldn't always predict. 

It was nice, giving her a taste of life free from the bonds of duty, but it often had the unfortunate side effect of reminding him sharply of similar conversations he'd had with a younger, less-angry Zuko. 

"Really? You've never seen a palace before?" The other boy had asked, wonder sparkling in his golden eyes. 

"Nope! Your room is bigger than my whole house!" 

"Wow… how do you fit all of your stuff, then?" 

"We don't have this much stuff, you know! You don't need all this bed, for starters. My whole family could fit in this bed!" 

"That makes sense… it gets kind of lonely here. There's too much empty space. I wish I could see your home." 

Sokka shook the memories out of his head, now tainted by the memory of the time he did, actually, see Sokka's home. 

"Sokka… we shouldn't be doing this." Princess Yue's sad voice broke the mood, reminding him of the here and now. 

"What? We're just taking a walk." He argued. 

"I'm engaged, and you have your soulmate. It just feels…" She bit her lip, turning away. For a moment, Sokka felt guilty for inspiring her conflict, but then he got an idea.

"I know what you need. You need to meet my good friend, Appa!" The sky bison was cute, and furry, and best of all, slobbery. 

The Princess let him drag her all the way to the stables, her concerns immediately falling to the wayside, her curiosity taking over. 

As expected, the moment Appa saw a friend, he began to lick his broad tongue across Sokka's entire body, getting him all gross with bison slobber and making Princess Yue laugh hard enough to snort, a noise unbecoming of her standing but feeling like an absolute victory for Sokka. 

"Looks like you haven't been giving Appa enough attention!" She joked. 

"Come on, down boy! Let me go!" Sokka struggled, but Appa decided when his tongue bath was over. He was thoroughly drenched by slobber by the time Appa finally backed off, and he could get a stable hand to help with the saddle. 

"After everything I do for him!" Sokka huffed dramatically. "He just doesn't appreciate it! I clean his fur, scrub his toes, scratch his belly, and for what!" 

"Seems like he was just returning the favor!" She laughed. "Maybe he thought you needed a bath, as well!"

"Well, if I didn't before, I do now! Man, I wish Aang was here, he could blow me dry in seconds flat." 

Princess Yue stood by as he and the hand lifted the heavy saddle onto the bison's back, struggling with the weight. He waved the hand off, securing it himself, not trusting untrained hands to get the straps quite right. 

"Well, you ready to go?" 

"Mmhmm!" She intoned with excitement. Appa allowed them to climb up his tail, Sokka carefully leading the Princess, with her train trailing, into the saddle, guiding her to sit near the bison's head. 

"Hang on tight, okay? Don't let the wind push you off." Sokka instructed. 

She nodded. "Okay. Tight. Got it." Her well-tailored gloves gripped the saddle. 

Sokka settled into place on Appa's head, gripping the reins. "Yip yip!" 

Princess Yue squealed with delight as the bison took to the skies, zipping out over the water. Sokka clambered back into the saddle next to the Princess, allowing Appa to decide their path. 

"I can't believe it! He can really fly! Oh, this is incredible!" 

"Yep, we practically live up here." Sokka acknowledged proudly. He may have grown tired long ago of the bison's abilities, especially after spending too many nights resting in the saddle instead of in a bed, but Princess Yue had stars in her eyes, staring down at the waters far below. 

"It's so cold! Is it always like this?" She said, pointedly, leaning into his side. 

Sokka laughed. "You live in a palace made of ice! You can't tell me this is cold for you!" 

"Well, maybe it is! There's not wind in the palace, you know!" She leaned into him more heavily. 

He tucked his arms around her shoulders, squeezing her close. "Okay, okay. If you're going to be a big baby about it. Geez, are all royals this delicate?" 

She stiffened, leaning back again, sharply reminded of the reasons they shouldn't be doing this. He cursed internally.

"Sorry, it was a dumb joke, I know." He muttered. 

"No, no, you're fine, it's just…" 

"Yeah. I know." 

They turned their attention from one another back to the sea before them. Appa had circled around so they didn't get too far out, lazily drifting above the city wall, but the vantage point still revealed something troubling. 

"What is this?" Princess Yue asked, catching the dark snowflakes in her glove. 

"Soot. It has to be Fire Nation ships. They run on burning coal… this is way more than normal, though." He climbed forward, gripping Appa's reins. "Let's go, buddy. We need to see what we're up against." 

He urged the bison forward, out to sea and toward the source of the sooty snow. A dark cloud of ash billowed out, nearly obscuring the ships within it, but based on the number of scouting ships alone, Sokka felt nauseous. 

"We have to get back. Now. We have to warn your father."

---

Chief Arnook immediately gathered the citizens towards the city center, most of them sheltering in what buildings could fit them, but the warriors and waterbenders were all called to the great hall, where he could address all the city's forces at once. 

"The day we have feared for so long has arrived. The Fire Nation is on our doorstep. It is with great sadness I call you here before me, knowing well that some of these faces may well vanish from our tribe. However, they will never vanish from our hearts." 

The solemnity of the room was palpable, the threat of death settling heavily on everyone's hearts. 

"Now, as we approach the battle for our existence, I call upon the great spirits. Spirit of the ocean! Spirit of the moon! Be with us!"

He lifted his hands to the ceiling above, allowing a moment of silence before moving on.

"I am going to need volunteers for a dangerous mission." 

Sokka stood abruptly, determination settling in. "Count me in." 

Whatever he could do to preserve his people, he would do it. He had failed last time, standing alone, abandoning them to their fate after the ship destroyed the outer wall. He would prove himself this time. 

"Sokka?" Katara called, concerned. Of course she, as a powerful bender who had always successfully protected what she needed to, wouldn't understand. 

"Be warned. Many of you will not return." The many men who stood were not dissuaded, Sokka included. "Come forward to receive my mark if you accept the task." 

--- 

While the fighters who did not agree to the suicide mission went to defend the walls, Sokka and the other marked warriors followed Chief Arnook to an armory deeper in the palace. 

"Men, you'll be infiltrating the Fire Nation navy." The Chief explained. "That means you'll all need one of these uniforms."

A familiar face stepped into the room, in a horribly outdated uniform. Hahn stood proudly beside the Chief, ridiculous shoulder spikes reaching almost as high as the top of his head. 

Sokka couldn't hold back his laughter.

"What's your problem?" The boy pouted. 

"Fire Navy uniforms don't look like that." Sokka informed him. 

"Of course they do! These are real uniforms captured from actual Fire Navy soldiers." The boy insisted. 

"When? Like, a hundred years ago?" Sokka smirked, seeing the Chief's brows furrow.

"Eighty-five." Chief Arnook corrected. It still wasn't good.

"The Fire Nation doesn't wear shoulder spikes anymore." Sokka explained, walking up to Hahn to demonstrate. "The newer uniforms are more streamlined." He flicked one of the spikes, showing how flimsy and impractical they were. 

Hahn slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me!" He snapped. "How do you know we can trust him?" 

"Sokka is from our sister tribe, Hahn. He is a capable warrior, and I value his input." The Chief insisted. Sokka glowed under the praise.

Murmurs swept through the other warriors.

"Chief, you don't understand. This guy isn't just some backwater peasant with a boomerang. We can't trust him." 

Chief Arnook took a long look at his daughter's betrothed, considering his words. "What are you saying?"

"This guy is the Fire Prince's little boy toy. He'll betray us to the Fire Nation if he gets half a chance." He claimed, projecting his voice so there was no way anyone in the room could miss it. 

Sokka clenched his fists. "What the hell do you know?!" 

"Hahn, that's quite an accusation. What evidence do you have?" The Chief asked, calmly. 

"None! He has nothing!" Sokka shouted. Had the Princess sold him out? Was she closer to this guy than he'd thought? 

No, if she distrusted him, she wouldn't have spent so much time with him.

Then how…?

"What, you haven't heard? The Avatar practically shouted it at the banquet." Hahn reminded the Chief. "Next time, don't be so eager to tell everyone your soulmate is a Prince. As it turns out, there's only one of those between the three nation's royal families."

Shit. He hadn't thought of that. He didn't know much about the Earth Kingdom, other than that it seemed to be run as city-states rather than a cohesive whole, and King Bumi certainly hadn't had any teenage sons. 

"That's troubling news. Sokka, is this true?" The Chief looked to him, suspicion in his gaze. 

Sokka couldn't meet his eyes. "Who would you believe, anyway? Your daughter's fiancé or some Southern peasant?" 

"As I said, I value your input, Sokka. Your loyalty to the Avatar speaks to your trustworthiness enough, but your friendship has meant quite a lot to my daughter these past weeks. However, your silence on the matter gives me doubt." 

The fatherly disappointment and suspicion was almost too much. Sokka took a deep breath, steeling himself. "I can't deny that Hahn guessed right about who my soulmate is." He admitted. The murmurs around the room grew hostile. "But please believe me when I say that doesn't mean I'm not totally loyal to the Water Tribes. Prince Zuko has been chasing us, chasing the Avatar, since we left our home, and there's nothing between us." 

Except history, and memories, and that one not-date they had less than a month ago…

"I would never do anything that would endanger my own people. Please. Trust me." 

Chief Arnook placed a hand on his shoulder. "I do. Thank you for your honesty, Sokka. Now, let's go over the goals for the infiltration. First, we need to identify their commanding officer." 

"Oh. His name is Zhao." Sokka offered quickly. "Middle-aged? Big sideburns, bigger temper?"

"That's… good to know. Well, then, next is determining the layout of their ships, so our forces can more efficiently destroy them."

"Do you want me to draw you schematics? Or just, like, describe it to you? I'm a pretty terrible artist." 

"Oh, come on!" Hahn groaned. "How is that not suspicious!"

"What?" Sokka crossed his arms defensively. "I was taken captive." 

"Hahn, show Sokka your respect. We cannot waste a valuable source of information. Men, the purpose of this mission has changed. You will now use what Sokka can tell us to sabotage as many of their ships as possible. We will head out at sunset. They will not advance under the moon's gaze if they know what's good for them."

---

Weapons sharpened, canoes readied, the warriors set out for the Fire Nation ships, stilled on the horizon. They approached quietly and swiftly, each canoe approaching a different vessel, the cover of darkness and the lingering ash cloud protecting them from attack.

Sokka had been assigned to stay with Hahn, in order to shut the prince-to-be up about Sokka's supposed traitorous intentions. They were both decked out in the antique Fire Navy uniforms, hastily altered to be more in-line with the modern stock, and Sokka's faith in the plan waned as time went on. 

They wouldn't be bought as new recruits and would certainly be killed upon discovery. If he could get the two of them to the ship's armory and get changed… but Hahn was supposed to call the shots, and he insisted on heading directly to the bridge. 

They left their boat in the shadow of the navy vessel, climbing through a maintenance port into a narrow hallway. 

"Careful. They'll have patrols near here. We should be able to hear them coming, but..." 

Hahn rolled his eyes, strolling forward confidently. "If we can hear them coming, then there's no need to worry, right?" 

Except that some of the guards had realized the sound their boots made on the metal flooring, and had adjusted their gait accordingly. Zuko had never bothered to make an effort on his own ship, but Sokka was fully familiar with how catlike the boy's steps could be, even in metal armor, and he was sure other soldiers had learned the same subtlety.

Sokka said none of this aloud, following the cocky boy further into the ship. 

"Hey, you! What are you doing?" A voice called out, a soldier appearing from the perpendicular hallway. 

"We're new recruits." Hahn claimed without hesitation. 

"Yeah, right. Get better disguises next- Sokka?" 

The soldier slid the faceplate off of his helmet, eyes wide. 

"Lieutenant Jee?! What are you doing here?!" Surely, Zuko hadn't been given a fancy new ship, right? They'd been pretty sure by the flags that this was the commanding ship, so it should have been Zhao's.

"We were all reassigned- what are you doing here? This is the Admiral's vessel! It's dangerous!"

Hahn brandished his antique Fire Nation spear at the officer. "Ha, I knew it! You're working with them!" 

Sokka groaned. "Oh, shut up, will you?" He knocked the tip of the spear aside, ignoring Hahn's accusations. "Really? All of you? Is he that low on men?" 

Lieutenant Jee barked out a humorless laugh. "Not likely. It was just to get Prince Zuko out of the way." He looked like he wanted to say more, but held himself back. "Listen, I'll help you get off the ship safely, just… go back to the Water Tribe."

"Oh, no!" Hahn argued. "I'm not letting that happen! No friend of the Fire Nation is getting back into my city!" 

The Lieutenant sent several decisive punches his way, with short bursts of flame licking out of each one. Hahn clutched his spear in fear, dodging the fire blasts in a panic. "Just get out of here, kid. You're in over your head." 

"No! I'm going after Admiral Choy!" 

"Choy?" Lieutenant Jee muttered to Sokka. He shrugged. "He's up in the command post. Have at him, I won't stop you." 

Hahn seemed uncertain, but took the chance to charge past them and up to the bridge. 

"That kid's not gonna make it, is he?"

Sokka winced. "Not likely." 

"Come on, I'll escort you. I should be the only patrol down here for a while. I can get you out the way you came in." The Lieutenant offered. 

"Wait, one more thing- What happened to Zuko? When you say Zhao wanted him out of the way…?" 

Lieutenant Jee tensed, his expression strained. "I'm sorry, Sokka. Zhao ordered us all to leave the ship, and once it was empty, it was destroyed. General Iroh confirmed it before we set sail- Prince Zuko didn't make it." 

It would have hurt less to have been punched in the gut. "What- dead? There's no way… there's gotta be some mistake! Maybe his uncle's covering for him, or just didn't find his body, or-" 

"I'm sorry." Jee repeated. He placed a hand on the hastily-welded shoulder of Sokka's antique uniform, the weight steadying him. "Come on, where's your ship?"

"It's fine, I'll get back on my own. I… I could use a minute to myself, actually." 

Lieutenant Jee nodded. "Sure. Get going quickly, okay? Don't let them catch you. You'll have no friends here." 

"I will." Sokka assured him. Then, before he returned to his rounds, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." 

Sokka made his way to the maintenance entrance again quickly, sliding down into the canoe. He debated with himself for a long minute whether to take off with it, abandoning Hahn to his fate, but decided he should wait it out. If the boy was as big a coward as he'd seemed to be, he might turn tail at the first real soldier he came across. 

This, unfortunately, left Sokka alone with his thoughts. The Lieutenant had dropped quite a load onto him. Fair enough, he'd asked, but...

Dead? It couldn't be. Sokka wasn't sure, but he always thought he'd just know somehow. Through their connection. 

Then again, it wasn't a connection he'd taken much time to nurture, and their whole thing was so weird… but he hadn't even known. 

Before they set sail… he'd been gone for weeks. How long had it taken the fleet to arrive? And what had he been doing when they departed?

No, it wouldn't do to think about this right now. There was too much to do, too much at stake. His people needed him. Even if Hahn was an idiot, he could still make his way alone to the engine room, stalling it somehow. 

Instead of clicking into gear, forming a quick plan where all the pieces suddenly slotted together, Sokka's brain just hovered in a dense fog. He dropped his face into his hands, trying to force himself to focus, and only then realized his cheeks were wet with tears. 

The last, thin hold he had on his emotions severed, the dam broke, and the flood rushed forth. He curled in on himself, breaths catching on heavy sobs, and he mourned.

Long minutes passed, huddled alone in a canoe in the shadow of an enemy vessel, trying and failing to keep his grief silent. The creaking of rope from above him shook him back to reality. He snapped his gaze up. Shit. 

A kayak descended from overhead. In his distraction, he hadn't heard the movement above. Stupid! This is not the place to feel sorry for yourself!

A familiar voice called out softly, and Uncle Iroh's face leaned over the edge of the ship. 

"Remember your breath of fire! It could save your life out there!" 

"I will," came the reply, in a voice that nearly stopped Sokka's heart. 

"And put your hood up! Keep your ears warm!" Uncle Iroh continued, raising his voice to be heard as the kayak descended. 

"I'll be fine!" 

Zuko was balanced on the little vessel, lowering it carefully into the water, clad in thick, white clothing for warmth, and he was alive.  

The little kayak touched down and Zuko busied himself with releasing it, not realizing just a short way along the hull rested another boat, its occupant staring in hesitant wonder.

Finally, he looked up, preparing his course, and caught Sokka's eye. "What-?" 

Sokka paddled the canoe over hastily, the small boat rocking with the surge of motion. "Zuko!" He barely managed to keep his voice down, emotion swelling in his chest. "Oh, spirits, Zuko! You're here!" 

The boats bumped together, and Sokka scrambled onto the kayak, years spent on similar vessels keeping his footing secure. 

"Sokka? What are you doing- have you been crying?" Zuko was completely shocked still, arms suddenly full of Water Tribe warrior, still processing his presence. 

"Jee told me you died! He said your ship was destroyed! With you on it!" Sokka pressed his face into the warm, soft fabric wrapped around Zuko's sturdy chest. 

"Oh. I'm sorry. I'm fine, though." Zuko placed his hands on Sokka's arms, coaxing him to allow some space. Reluctant, Sokka stepped back.

"You don't look fine! Look at your face!" Sokka held his jaw gently, running his thumbs along the visible injuries with a feather-light touch.

"Really, you don't have to worry about me. I don't need you and Uncle both playing mother hen." 

"Then stop doing dangerous things that make us worry!" Sokka huffed. 

"I know." 

The immediate rush of relief subsiding, Sokka remembered their situation. "Wait, what are you doing here? If you don't have a ship- You can't still be planning to capture Aang, can you?"

Zuko tensed, finally dropping his grip on Sokka's arms. "No, I- maybe, but- I don't really have a plan. I just can't let Zhao get to him." 

He seemed hesitant, uncertain. The fire that had been driving him, desperate to complete his task, it was gone. Like he'd fully given up all hope of success. "That's it?" 

Zuko nodded. "I don't know what will come after, but… the crew's been talking, the last few days. I think Zhao's going crazy. He's been rambling about spirits and libraries and he said something about 'removing the moon as a factor', whatever that means. I think Aang's in real danger." 

Sokka nodded, that little bloom of hope in his chest growing stronger. "Then we're on the same side, for now. What's the plan?" 

---

The Water Tribe soldiers at the gate leveled spears at them as they approached. Zuko had his hood up, crouching to fake an injury. Sokka waved at them, showing his face fully. In his ancient uniform, on one of their boats, he didn't garner much suspicion. 

"Hey! Hahn was injured in the raid! I need to get him to Healer Yagoda!" He called. Zuko groaned in pain for dramatic effect.

The guards murmured to one another. 

"That's Hahn? Why is he dressed like that?" One shouted, suspiciously. 

Sokka glanced over at Zuko, crouched in the white winter clothes, and back at the guards. "Uh, we stole them from the ship! He fell in the water and we needed to get him warmed up?" Sokka grinned through his anxiety. He was never a great liar. 

"Alright, we'll let you in. Make sure you report to the Chief!" 

"Can do! Thanks, bud!" 

The waterbenders opened the gate, filling the locks and sending the little canoe on its way. 

Sokka sighed in relief, guiding their boat down the canal. 

"I can't believe that actually worked." Zuko muttered, keeping his voice low. 

"Me either. Come on, Aang's probably at the Spirit Oasis. He's gotta be doing some Avatar junk by now." 

The canoe moved quickly along the canals, the surrounding soldiers barely sparing them a glance before returning to their vigil. They continued on, deep into the heart of the city. 

"Princess Yue showed me this place last week." He explained, simply to break the silence. Zuko was tense, keeping his face as hidden as possible, the tension bleeding out and thickening the air between them. "It's supposed to be a hotspot for spirit mumbo jumbo. Aang always wants to talk to them whenever anything goes wrong." 

He guided the canoe over to a boarding area near the palace, helping Zuko off of the bobbing deck, the Prince's boots sliding for purchase on the slick ice near the canal. 

"We're not supposed to be here, but…" He took Zuko's hand, leading him up the wide steps to the tall, elaborate structure of the palace. "Hopefully, the guards are busy with the whole, you know, invasion thing." 

Sure enough, they weren't stopped, even as he led the Prince around the back of the building, along the wall separating the palace from the common folk. Only one guard stood, right at the gate, and he just nodded as Sokka passed, recognizing the Princess's new confidant immediately. As he remembered, a small, round door of wood sat in the very back of the wall, short enough to force anyone entering to crouch through.

"The oasis is through there." Sokka gestured to it, turning back to the entrance. "I'm going to go find Princess Yue. Keep Aang safe." 

"I will." Zuko called after him.

---

Sokka's faith in him was disorienting, to say the least. He'd been so sure they'd end up opposed here, again, that he wouldn't even hear him out, but… here he was, in the heart of the Water Tribe City, as Sokka sent him directly to the Avatar. 

Zuko almost expected an ambush when he entered, but the little cove was calm, almost silent. A long channel connected the entrance to a small patch of grass, narrow lips along the edges of the water the only way across. There, at the edge of the pond, sat the Avatar, tattoos glowing, while Katara and another Water Tribe girl stood by, watching the boy nervously. 

Knowing he'd be seen and stopped before he could get near, Zuko made the impulsive decision to slip into the freezing water below. He could hold his breath for several minutes, after all, and should have plenty of time to swim below the surface over to the oasis. 

The water warmed as he made his way across, growing almost balmy near the grassy area, especially in comparison to the frigid water near the palace. Above him, short, wooden bridges swam into view, reaching over to the pond. Zuko surfaced, pulling himself up onto dry land, huffing out a quick puff of flame to warm his core once more. 

"You! Damn it, I should have known!" Katara, voice irate, moved easily into a defensive stance. 

"Wait!" Zuko shouted, dragging himself to his feet, clothing still heavy with water. "Let me explain!" 

"Oh, no! I won't have you twisting things around like you always do! I've had enough!" From the surrounding water, tendrils surged up, pushing into him with heavy force. He was knocked off balance, unable to defend, and she froze the water around him, trapping him inside. 

Just great. Things were going exactly as planned. Why had he expected Katara to react as well as her brother had? As far as she was concerned, she was defending the Avatar and Sokka both right now. 

Zuko huffed in frustration, tongues of flame reducing the ice to steam around him. "I don't want to fight you, Katara!"

"Go." The waterbender instructed the other girl, who dashed off toward the palace quickly, sparing only a glance at him as she passed. "You really think I'm going to give Aang up without a fight? You must really think we're stupid!"

"That's not- ugh!" Zuko groaned, seeing her draw up tall, shivering waves, standing between him and the Avatar. "I'm not here to capture him, either!" 

"There's no way I'm buying that!" One after another, Katara sent the waves hurtling toward him, coming in an unpredictable pattern with unmatched ferocity. He quickly realized using his flames to defend was useless, not compared to the speed and power of her blows. He settled for dodging, rolling beneath and around the surging waves, closing the distance between them rapidly. If he could just get near the Avatar…

Katara spun rapidly, sending enough water to lower the level in the channel over into his torso, pushing him away from the boy. He was pushed off of the grass entirely, across the channel, and up the wall, before she froze the entire column solid, with him inside. 

He coughed, the impact and pressure aggravating his barely-healed wounds. 

"And stay there!" She shouted, hands still poised to react should he disobey. 

He could feel the dawn in his gut before the sun ever peeked over the high glacier wall. Their time was up, and Zhao would begin his assault again any moment. 

"We don't have time for this, Katara!" He snarled. As the ground tremored, the Fire Navy's catapults resuming their onslaught, he summoned his flames to the surface, quickly melting the ice beneath them. He slid to the ground, boots landing softly in the dense grass, and sent a blast of flame towards Katara, knowing full well the setting of the moon would have weakened her. "Zhao will be here any minute! We need to get Aang out of here!" 

She staggered, his sudden attack having thrown her off balance. He took the chance, scooping the Avatar into his arms, and dashed off. 

He heard her take a deep breath, trying to call the water to herself despite the rising sunlight, but was caught utterly off-guard by the gust of wind that buffeted him, instead. 

The Avatar remained unmoving in his hands, which meant… 

"Did I do that?" She stared at her hands in wonder. 

He glanced at the waterfall behind them, then back at her, getting an idea. "You'll have to do better than that to catch me! I have the Avatar! What are you going to do?" 

As predicted, he easily goaded her into a rage, unpracticed blasts of air funneling toward him. He supported Aang's unresponsive body with one arm, across his shoulder, and used the other to swiftly melt handholds into the icy wall, as she continued to buffet him ever higher. 

"Ugh!" She screamed. "Aang!" 

Finally, the water answered her call again, but the surge of water gave him the last push he needed to fully clear the glacier and land on the open tundra above. 

From here, he had no plan, but Zhao would never think to look for the Avatar here. All he needed was to find some shelter. 

"Hang in there. I promised your friend I'd keep you safe." 

He would. Even if it killed him, he'd keep his word this time. 

Chapter Text

Katara was staring at her hands, looking lost, when Appa landed in the oasis next to her. 

Instead of Sokka finding Princess Yue, she'd found him, dragging him back to the oasis with her. 

"A firebender is trying to attack the Avatar!" She'd told him. "Your sister is fighting him off!" 

Unfortunately, Zuko was long gone, taking Aang with him. 

"I tried everything." Katara muttered. "I even airbended, somehow. But he just… he took him right out from under me." 

"Katara, listen." Sokka started. "He warned me Zhao was going to try something-" 

"You talked to him?!" Katara snapped back into focus, fury hardening her icy blue eyes. "You knew he was here and you did nothing? I can't believe this." 

"No, you're not listening- he's trying to keep Aang safe! I asked him to!" 

"You what ?!" Katara shrieked with fury. "He fed you the same garbage story and you fell for it ?! Well, that's just great! Because he took Aang and ran off with him further inland! And with a storm coming later tonight! Aang could freeze to death out there, and it'll be all your fault!" 

"Katara, seriously! Can't you just calm down for a second?!" Sokka groaned. 

"No, I can't just calm down, Sokka! We lost Aang, don't you get it?" She seethed, pulling herself up into Appa's saddle. "Come on. We need to find him as quickly as possible. We can still fix this." 

Sokka nodded, sliding down Appa's tail and jogging toward the still pond. 

"What- Sokka?! Get your butt back up here!" Katara ordered. 

Sokka ignored her, sitting down before the archway, cross-legged. "Yue, you said this is where you go for soulmate journey stuff, right?" 

"Um, yes?" Princess Yue glanced at Katara, uncertainly. "Why?" 

"If Zuko has him, I can find him. Just give me a minute." 

He took a deep breath, trying to meditate, as he'd seen Aang do so many times before. He'd never summoned a spirit on purpose before, and certainly not while awake, but if anyone could tell him where that jerk firebender was, it was Jin Lu.

His breath steadied, the girls watching with varied degrees of interest as he focussed, watching the koi swirl in the pond. Around and around they went, in an endless dance. It was mesmerising, definitely sending him into the empty-headed state he thought he was aiming for, and he allowed himself to be lost in the pattern. 

Slowly, the fish faded away, transforming into two scaled, finned women, twisting and turning in the pond joyfully. 

"Uh… hello, ladies." He greeted.

Though startled, they did not pause their dance. 

"Oh? Who are you?" The white-scaled woman asked. 

"You're not meant to be here." The black-scaled woman snapped. "Why do you intrude our sacred place?" 

"Oh, uh, sorry. I didn't mean to?" Sokka scratched his head, mussing his wolftail. "I'm trying to get in touch with Jin Lu, actually. Uh, ten feet tall, gold fur?"

"We're familiar." The black-scaled woman replied coldly. 

"Oh, stop it, La." The white-scaled woman chastised. "You must forgive her. She's under some unusual stress today." 

"You should be, too! I can't believe how lightly you're taking this!" La complained. "You distance yourself too much, Tui!" 

"And you allow your emotions to ebb and flow like the very tides!" 

"And who's doing is that?" 

"Excuse me?" Sokka felt the lovers' quarrel could go on for some time, and cut it short. "Can you help me find Jin Lu or not?" 

"Oh, he's already waiting for you!" Tui laughed. 

Sokka confused, looked up from the pond, where she waved her fish-like tail fin. There, tall and proud as always, was the very spirit he'd been looking for. 

"Oh." 

The golden deer walked past him, toward the waterfall feeding into the channel behind him. It barely paused to glance back, expecting him to follow. 

"Hey, buddy! Not even gonna say 'hi' first?" Sokka pouted, hands on his hips. The spirit snorted, tilting his head as though rolling his eyes. Sokka grinned, jogging after it. "You know what, you're right. We don't have time for that." 

---

Zuko hefted the shockingly light body high on his back, wincing at the extra pressure on his barely-healed leg. It was near impossible to trudge through the snow and wind, his Fire Navy-issue winter gear nowhere near as suited for the conditions as some proper Water Tribe wear would have been. 

At least the sun was still out. 

Flames licked from his lips with every breath, Uncle's patient teachings ringing in his ear. 

"Remember," he had said, "this technique requires complete control. If you forget yourself for a moment, the fire will burn you from the inside. Unlike your fire punches or the like, the flames manifest inside your body, and you must guide them out." 

Aang was warm in his grasp, for some reason, though the airbender had always seemed perfectly comfortable, regardless of the weather. Perhaps his people had a similar technique, and he was using it even now. 

The wind picked up again, bringing with it heavy snowfall. The beginnings of a blizzard. They would need to find shelter soon, or even their careful bending wouldn't keep both of them safe. Sokka had mentioned, once, building an emergency shelter in the snow, using its natural insulating properties to retain what heat you could, and he cursed that he hadn't asked for details. He'd have to find a natural shelter of some kind, and soon. 

---

"Is this… normal? For him?" Princess Yue asked, leaning over the side of Appa's saddle with concern. 

Sokka's body had slumped over, lying perfectly still beside the pond. Unlike when Aang did the same, he didn't have any glowing tattoos to prove he was still alive. Only the shallow rise and fall of his chest indicated his continued survival, though he was otherwise perfectly still.

Katara shrugged. "I've never seen him contact the spirits before. From what he's told us, he's usually asleep when it happens."

"He certainly looks asleep now." The Princess remarked, watching thoughtfully. 

"He better not be." Katara crossed her arms, glaring at his immobile form. "Or, if he is, I hope it's a productive nap." 

---

The loud cracking beneath his boots was the first warning Zuko got of the ice thinning beneath them. He stilled, panicked. A fall into icy water would spell the end for him and the Avatar both. 

"I got in big trouble today," Sokka had started, changing the topic abruptly when Zuko had gone quiet. "I didn't check the ice good enough when we were going ice fishing, and the whole thing started breaking! We had to crawl back to shore, like this." 

He'd laid down, demonstrating the flat crawl. 

"You have to make sure your weight is distributed as much as possible, Dad said. He said the pressure is what makes it break more." 

Sokka had looked up at him, swinging his feet. "So no one even fell in the water or anything, but we couldn't catch any fish, so I still got in trouble! I have to do all the dishes for a whole week!"

Zuko knelt slowly, sliding Aang down to the ice beside him. It would be risky, making it much harder to rescue the boy if something went wrong, but it was necessary.

He laid down fully, spreading his limbs out, and dragged Aang's limp body beside him. The cracking quieted, but followed them for several feet. Through the thickly-falling snow, it was almost impossible to see where the frozen lake ended. Zuko kept an eye out, scanning the horizon for anything resembling a shelter, and pressed on.

Long after the ice beneath them quieted, he remained flattened, not willing to risk the change in pressure. It wasn't until he finally, at long last, spotted a dark spot in the snow, some kind of rocky outcropping, did he risk standing again. 

The ice held, luckily, and Zuko pulled Aang into his grasp once more. The airbender's clothing was full of snow, and his fingers cold to the touch. Not a moment too soon. 

He brushed the snow off of them both as best he could, increasing the heat of his breath of fire, and carried the boy to what turned out to be a decently deep cave. 

Exhausted and freezing, he didn't bother checking further in for any creatures lying in wait. He'd deal with that if it came to it. 

For now, he unwound the rope he'd brought with him, spooling it on the floor of the cave. He had nothing else with which to make a fire, so he had to make do. 

The rope sparked easily, burning slowly along its length. Carefully, with controlled breaths, he kept the sparks from leaping across and catching more rope alight, preserving their fire for as long as possible. 

Aang's extremities warmed back up, his breaths coming out in foggy puffs. Good, that was one thing taken care of. 

"Zhao won't look for us this far out, I'm sure of it." Zuko assured the unresponsive Avatar, uncertain if he could even hear him in this state. "Don't worry, I won't let him get to you. I gave Sokka my word, and now I'm giving it to you, as well."

Unbeknownst to him, the recipient of his promise stood nearby, hidden in the spirit realm, guided as always by the golden deer, and heard every word. 

---

Sokka was on his feet the moment his eyes shot open, rushing clumsily into Appa's saddle. "I know where they are. Let's go." 

"What? Sokka, wait! Aren't you going to tell us what happened?" Katara asked. 

"I'll explain on the way." He assured her, snapping the bison's reins. "Yip yip!" 

Appa took off into the sky, Sokka guiding him past the waterfall and along the path Jin Lu had shown him. Luckily, because Appa could fly, the terrain was no obstacle. 

"I was able to get the deer spirit to show me where Zuko is. He's in a cave a little ways out. He and Aang are both fine." He informed the other passengers. 

"Should we really be out in this blizzard?" Princess Yue worried, squinting beyond the saddle. 

"Appa flies using airbending, so we'll be safe from the worst of it." Katara explained. "Aang definitely shouldn't be, though. We need to get him back as fast as possible." 

"Already on it." Sokka assured her. "They didn't make it far." 

Already, the low-hanging sun was beginning to set again, beginning another long night. Zhao's men would be crippled for a while, and Aang had been successfully kept out of reach for the day. 

"Is that it?" Princess Yue asked, pointing out a dark shape ahead of them. 

Sokka squinted, bringing Appa down low, and checked the shape of it. "Looks like it. Let's go." 

Katara was off the bison first, sprinting ahead into the cave. 

"Katara, wait!" Sokka slid down after her, Appa giving him a little push forward with his broad nose. 

By the time he caught up, she was already toe-to-toe with Zuko, his face flushed with the cold, body shaking. He wasn't meant for this weather. 

"How dare you take him! Give him back!" She demanded, snow rising beneath her fingers. 

Zuko's jaw set with grim determination. "I can't let you bring him back to danger! He'll be safer out here!" 

"Safe?! With you ?! Don't make me laugh!" She sent out a stream of water, aiming directly for Zuko's face, and he only narrowly summoned a large enough flame to dissipate it. 

"Katara, don't!" Sokka tried again, but she ignored him, sending a pillar of water up beneath Zuko's feet, freezing it in an instant. "Katara, I said stop!" 

Sokka flung an arm out to stop her, and, with the sweeping gesture, tongues of flame burst forth. Katara's eyes widened, the pillar of ice encasing Zuko crumbling to snow as her focus shifted. In a panic, Sokka lunged for him, memories of hypothermia and frostbite victims flashing behind his eyes, and another ball of fire leapt to his call, turning the snow to steam in an instant. 

Katara had scrambled away, her breath coming in panicked gasps, clutching her arm. The fabric had been burned away, leaving angry red burns on the brown skin beneath, harsh proof that she hadn't imagined the sudden and unexpected burst of power from her brother. 

"Zuko!" Sokka shouted, closing the distance to the dangerously pale boy. He tugged him from the remaining snow and into his arms, feeling his face and neck. "Shit, he's too cold…" 

He held Zuko's hands up to his lips, puffing hot breaths across the knuckles to warm them, that too-hot burning still in his gut, and glowing embers spilled forth. Taking a firm hold on that small fire, Sokka focussed on the foreign heat inside of him, nurturing it with deep breaths until a proper flame spilled from between his lips. 

"Come on, come on, warm up…" He muttered, feeling his core grow hot and willing the warmth to seep into Zuko's. "I already cried for you once, don't make me do it again."

Behind them, Aang's eyes flew open, the airbender jolting upright in a panic. "We have to get back to the oasis! The spirits are in trouble- is Sokka breathing fire?" 

The absurdity of it caught up to him, and terrified laughter shook through him. "Yeah, I guess I am!" He croaked out. His throat felt raw, hot, but he didn't dare let up on the flames, fearing they would go out. 

"Ohh-kay, then! Guess I missed a lot while I was in the spirit world… Come on, you can keep doing… whatever it is you're doing on Appa! We need to go!" 

Sokka lifted Zuko in his arms, letting out a groan at the weight. "Geez, he's dense..." Aang hovered nearby, steadying him as he climbed up Appa's tail clumsily.

"We're taking him with us?! " Katara hissed. "Aang, I know you can't hold a grudge, but please think about this!" 

"He'll freeze to death if we leave him!" Sokka snapped. Katara flinched at the hot flames chasing the words, clutching her injured arm. Guilty, Sokka shut his mouth tightly, shrinking in on himself. Small jets of flame still escaped from his nose as he breathed, illuminating Zuko's bruised features, and he turned his face away more fully. 

The saddle grew quiet, Katara too shaken to continue to argue, and Aang guided Appa back into the sky. 

Princess Yue, having remained silent for most of the exchange, moved carefully across the saddle to sit near Sokka. She glanced over at Katara, who was finally taking a moment to heal her arm, and kept her voice low. 

"Is this him?" She asked, watching Sokka's grim expression. 

He snorted, streams of fire flowing with it. "You have to ask?" 

"No, it's pretty obvious." She laughed, her poorly restrained smile squinting her eyes. "You know, you never mentioned…" Her slender fingers reached out for the wrinkled, pink tissue of the scar. Sokka snatched her hand away.

"Don't." He warned. "He- he wouldn't want you to." 

"Oh… oh, no. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-" She drew away, putting both hands primly in her lap. "I'm sorry." 

"It's alright." He assured her, feeling guilty again. "I… I never mentioned it because… I dunno, it's not important. It's not who he is. His dad tried to mark him as a disgrace, a traitor, but that's not him. All the other stuff I told you? That's what's important." 

"Sokka…?" Katara's voice was quiet, but, in the heavy mood, it may as well have been a shout. Sokka was sharply reminded of her presence, having nearly forgotten entirely where he was, his world reduced down to Zuko's pale face, eyes still unopened, and Yue's gentle voice. Katara had still been there the whole time, though, and his sister had borne witness to the entire embarrassing confession. Sokka always ended up regretting his moments of vulnerability. 

"Yeah, I said what I said. So what?" He grumbled, defensively. The low tone scratched at the raw feeling in his throat, and he coughed against it. He would definitely need to get Katara to look at it later. 

"Guys, I don't think this is really the time to be fighting…" Aang's worried tone drew everyone's attention. "The moon's turning red." 

"That can't be good…" Katara murmured. What an understatement. 

Princess Yue gasped, clutching her head and slumping. "I feel faint." 

"I feel something, too. I think the moon spirit is in trouble." Aang's mouth set in a straight line, and he urged Appa to move faster. 

"I have something to tell you all." Yue announced. "I owe the moon spirit my life." 

"What do you mean?" Sokka prompted. 

"When I was born, I was very sick and very weak. Our healers did everything they could, but it wasn't enough. They told my mother and father I was going to die. That night, beneath the full moon, my father brought me to the spirit oasis and placed me in the pond. My hair turned white, I opened my eyes, and I began to cry. That's when they knew I would live.

"Two weeks ago, when you all arrived, I went to the spirits to receive their guidance. I told you, Sokka, that they didn't show me my soulmate, but that doesn't mean they showed me nothing.

"When I sat vigil at the pond, the spirits of the moon and ocean gave me a vision of the future, and a grim duty. They knew they were mortal, vulnerable, and that their time was coming to an end. They'd seen it in the tides themselves- the life the moon spirit gave to me sixteen years ago would have to be returned." 

She took a deep breath, but it was shaky, and her too-familiar tears returned. 

"If we cannot protect the moon spirit, I will have to die in order to restore it." 

Three expressions of shock and grief greeted the end of her speech. 

"No…" Sokka whispered. 

"Oh, Yue…" Katara covered her mouth with her hands, sobs of her own bubbling forth. 

"We won't let that happen!" Aang insisted. "We're almost to the oasis! No one's gonna lay a hand on that spirit!" 

---

They'd underestimated Zhao's impulsive stupidity by a long shot. The white koi, the moon spirit's mortal form, floated, dead, in the pond, the perpetrator long fled. 

La, using Aang's power, had given chase, and the glow of the furious spirit shone from the direction of the harbor. 

Sokka realized he'd underestimated the gravity of Princess Yue's duty, too. 

"Yue, you don't have to do this." He pleaded, holding her back. 

"Yes, I do. This is my duty, Sokka." 

"Well, your duty fucking stinks!" He croaked, raising his voice too high for his ruined throat to take. "Remember what I said about shaping your own destiny?" 

"I told you, this is bigger than what I want. The fate of the whole world rests on this." She placed her hands on the floating corpse, both of their bodies glowing at the contact. "My life was always a borrowed one, anyway."

"No!" Sokka tried to pull her back once more, but she slumped in his arms, the life already bled from her body. "Damnit!"

He clutched her body tightly, tears soaking into her beautifully-embroidered coat, consumed by grief. Despite all their promises, he hadn't been able to fight the will of the spirits, after all.

The sensation of her body in his arms faded, and he clutched ever more tightly, until he was only holding his own chest, her physical form gone from the world, too. He wouldn't even be allowed to grieve? Were the spirits so cruel?

A glow spread across the pond, emanating from the white koi, swimming freely once more, and Sokka's gaze was drawn upwards. 

In the light of the water, made of a thin, drifting fog, floated the shape of Princess Yue.

"Goodbye, Sokka." She called, in a distant voice, echoing through the fog. "Thank you for all you've done for me. I always knew this day would come, but you helped make my last days the happiest in my life. I will always be with you, and you, with me." 

Her spectral hands cupped his jaw, a chilly pressure lingering there like a humid winter day, and she pressed her forehead to his, noses brushing. 

"One day, you'll find your happiness, too. The spirits' gifts are not always curses."

The barely-there sensation of her touch faded, along with the light, and the moon returned to the sky. 

Sokka sank to his knees. His chest felt tight, and it was nearly impossible to breathe. He gasped out sobs in between coughing fits, his burned throat stinging, and eventually he collapsed to the grass, unconscious. 

---

"He's not breathing!" Katara realized with a start, rushing to her brother's side. "What happened?!" 

Zuko's uncle leaned in close, inspecting Sokka's face. "It looks as though his mouth has been burned. Was he injured in a fight before you all arrived?" 

"No, um…" Katara felt like her thoughts were scattered, panic making it difficult to hold onto any one train of thought. "No, he was breathing fire earlier. I think that's where the burns are from." 

"He was-!" The old man looked as shocked as she had felt. "That's very dangerous bending. It requires quite a bit of control to do it right. I fear your brother injured himself trying. He needs a healer immediately." 

"Oh, um, I'm a healer, I could…" She drew water from the pond, directing it to coat Sokka's neck. As it glowed, the burns on the surface faded, and he began to gasp shallow breaths. "Oh no, oh no… I don't know if I can heal him from the inside without getting water in his lungs…" 

"Is there someone else you can take him to? Someone more experienced?" 

Zuko's uncle's voice grounded her, directed her racing thoughts. "Yes. Yagoda would be able to… she should be at the healing hut. She must be healing the other warriors already." 

"Then take him to her. I must find my nephew, so I cannot help, but I wish you the best of luck." 

Katara nodded, lifting Sokka into her arms and over her shoulders. He'd gotten much bigger than her over the years, but it was far from the first time she'd had to carry him around. "Thank you for your help."

---

Sokka awoke, disoriented, in a building he didn't recognize, with the ashen face of a worried old woman leaning over him. He cleared his throat, startled to find it was only just sore, and she visibly relaxed. 

"Oh, she got you here just in time. You're very lucky to be alive right now, young man." 

He struggled to sit up, his body feeling heavy, and she helped support him. "Katara brought me here?" The old woman nodded. "Where is she?"

"I'm here!" Katara called, sounding winded, yet relieved. "I've been helping Yagoda heal everyone while she was busy with you. How do you feel?" 

"Ugh, awful." Sokka admitted honestly. "What about you?" 

Katara shook her head. "I'm fine. Aang is, too, by the way." 

"What about Zuko?" 

She tensed. "I don't know. He disappeared during the battle. His uncle went to go find him, but I haven't seen either of them." 

Sokka nodded, pushing himself unsteadily to his feet. Katara stopped him, shoving him back into a sit. "Katara, I have to go after them. I need to make sure he's okay." 

"You've been unconscious for hours. They're long gone by now. I'm sorry, Sokka, but you need to rest." 

Hours? "What about the battle? What happened to the Fire Navy? Did we win?" 

"Yes, we won. Aang… whatever the ocean spirit did, it took out all of those ships. Every one of them. We're safe now." 

"All of them…?" A sinking feeling settled in his gut. 

"I'm sure Zuko and his uncle found some other way out. They're stubborn like that." Katara assured him. 

"No, that's not- Zuko's crew. They were reassigned, spread out on those ships. They didn't… did we take any prisoners?" 

Yagoda shook her head, confirming his suspicions. "As far as I know, there were no survivors." 

No survivors… of course, he knew they were on opposite sides of a war, and war always came with casualties, but… their skirmishes with Zuko had always been bloodless. 

Those men rescued him from nearly drowning, nursed him back to health when he'd been sick, turned a blind eye when they ran into him at the festival. He'd just run into Lieutenant Jee so recently, not knowing it would be the soldier's last days. 

"Sokka, are you okay?" 

He'd been so worried about losing Zuko, and then Yue slipped away, and now this… how many more people had to die?

"Sokka?" 

"I'm gonna go take a walk. Can I do that?" 

Katara looked to Yagoda, looking for the healer's permission. 

"You're healthy enough to go, but…" Yagoda trailed off. 

"They said you have to have a guard." Katara explained, looking guilty. 

"What?! Why?" 

Katara flinched at his shout, as though she almost expected him to spit fire at her again. He shrank back, sitting back on the sickbed. 

"Why do I need a guard?" He asked, voice carefully subdued. 

"I tried to explain to them that it was a fluke, but-" 

"The Chief insisted. We cannot allow an unaccompanied firebender to wander a city made of ice." Yagoda completed Katara's train of thought. 

"Firebender? I'm not an anything bender!" He argued. 

"Your sister told us how you received your injuries." 

"Sorry." Katara looked guilty. "She needed to know what happened so she could heal you." 

"No, it's- I don't blame you." Sokka ran a hand through his hair, surprised to find it untied. 

"When you wish to return to your rooms, I'll call you an escort. For now, I have other patients to see to." Yagoda paced off, checking on other injuries, leaving the siblings alone together. 

Sokka groaned, flopping back onto the mattress. 

"I'm sorry, Sokka." Katara murmured. 

---

Two weeks passed while the ship to the mainland was prepared for them. In that time, Sokka hadn't been allowed to so much as stand outside the doorway without an escort. Every time Aang and Katara left for waterbending practice, he was forcibly reminded of his enforced house arrest, at least one warrior standing guard at all hours. If he tried to leave to grab something to eat, or even just to take a walk, the armed guard followed. 

When he was lucky, he got someone who was silent.

When he wasn't, he suffered pointed, barbed comments about his supposed loyalties, implications regarding his supposed relationship with the Fire Prince, or accusations about his supposed bending abilities. 

"You know they're just being careful." Katara reminded him one night, when he complained about his guard for the day keeping him from entering a restaurant with an open flame in the kitchen. Sokka had rolled his eyes, reminded the guard firebenders didn't need to use external flame, and the guard had taken it as a threat. 

"There's being careful, and then there's taking the excuse to be jerks." 

"You know you would have done the same thing if we were still home, if it had been someone else." 

He couldn't deny that. He'd tried to do the same thing when Aang had shown up. 

"Since when did you agree with what I would have done?" He grumbled.

"I'm not saying I agree with it. I know perfectly well there's no reason to doubt you. All I'm saying is… I understand where they're coming from." 

Sokka took a long look at Katara, in her brand new parka, holding her upper arm where her old one had been destroyed, and relented. 

"Yeah. I know. It's just frustrating." 

Katara rubbed his back, between his shoulders, in a familiar gesture of comfort. "I know. I get it. It won't be much longer, okay? We're just waiting for the Northern waterbenders to be ready for the journey South." She tilted her head so he could see her smile. "They're going to help rebuild our home." 

"Really?" Sokka brightened. "That's awesome! Are we gonna get a palace?" 

Katara rolled her eyes. "You are so predictable." 

"What? I'm a man of fine tastes! I want to live in luxury!" 

She pushed him, laughing. "You're awful! It's a chance to build up our home again, and all you can think about is how big your room will be!" 

"Hey, I'm just being practical!" He glanced at the door, knowing there was a guard waiting outside, and sobered. "If I'm gonna be locked away, I'd rather be trapped in a big room than a small one."

"Sokka… this isn't a forever thing. You'll be free to go wherever you want, as soon as we leave." 

"Isn't it? Our home is made of ice, too. If they're 'just being careful', what's to say it'll be any different?" 

"Because Dad trusts you, Sokka. You don't have anything to worry about." 

"Don't I?" Sokka frowned at the furs lining the floor, raking his nails through them. "Chief Arnook told me he trusts me right before the siege, and he still ordered this. Why wouldn't it be the same?" 

"Because he's our Dad, Sokka! You really think he'd do that to you?" 

"He left me behind, didn't he?" Sokka muttered. He hadn't meant to drudge up the old resentment, especially after Bato had tried to assuage his fears, but two weeks of isolation had dug open the old wound. 

"Sokka, you know that's not-" 

"I know, I know, it's just… this sucks. I can't wait to get out of here." He never thought he'd be so desperate to get away from his own people. The whole time they'd been working to reach the North Pole, he'd been looking forward to it as much as the others. Reality had been harsh. 

"Well, I've got good news for you. Master Pakku said we'll be ready to set sail in two days. So, chin up!" 

Two days. 

It wasn't soon enough. 

---

Azula measured her steps carefully, entering the throne room with her head held high, eyes averted. She strode forward until she was the proper distance from the throne, not one step too far, and knelt precisely in the correct position, the memory of her brother missing the mark and being harshly corrected a sharp reminder of the consequences. 

"Fire Lord." She greeted. "You requested my presence."

"Iroh is a traitor, and your brother, Zuko, is a failure. I have a task for you." 

"Yes, Fire Lord. I am ever your humble servant." 

"I want you to find them and bring them to justice. You will be allowed to take whatever measures you find necessary. You will also be spearheading the effort to capture the Avatar. With Zhao's defeat, I see now that we have underestimated the threat the Avatar presents. I trust you will make no such mistakes." 

"Thank you, Fire Lord. Your faith in me will be rewarded." 

"It had better be. I have had enough of disappointment. Dismissed." 

Azula stood, measuring her steps again as she left. Not too fast, not too slow. Show the Fire Lord you respect his time, but do not rush away like a frightened weasel-mouse. The perfect pace. 

She had a great task ahead of her, and mistakes would not be tolerated. 

END OF BOOK 1

Chapter Text

It was before sunrise when Sokka emerged from below deck, empty save for the night watch. He waved at them, broadcasting his presence. The crew was, thankfully, far less nervous about him wandering freely than the city guards had been, but he preferred not to take any chances. The logical part of his brain said it was probably because most people on the ship were waterbenders, headed south for the restoration, and that they let him walk freely because they knew they could overpower him. 

The hopeful part of him wanted to believe he'd earned their trust back. 

He started to stretch, preparing for a proper Kyoshi warrior-style sun salutation when the sun began to rise. It'd been too long since he'd gotten a proper workout in. 

They couldn't get away from that damn city fast enough.

---

Despite washing up on shore on the pitiful remains of a raft, half-starved, just a few days before, Zuko had far fewer aches and pains than when he'd arrived in the Northern Water Tribe. Uncle had said the masseurs here were world-renowned and it was easy to believe. 

Still, he couldn't quite let go of all his tension. The days had ticked by and, before he'd even realized it, they'd reached the dark anniversary of his banishment. 

So soon after the weighty failure at the North Pole, the miserable occasion sat heavier than ever on his shoulders. 

Had he held on to his drive, his fervor, would he have succeeded? Had he been thinking things through, calculating his next move, like Uncle always warned him to do, would he have discovered some path to victory?

Or, following his latest betrayal, would he have been left to freeze to death in the frigid north, in the midst of a blizzard he had foolishly braved? 

He didn't react to acknowledge Uncle's approach, the old general settling comfortably near where he crouched. 

"It's the anniversary, isn't it." Uncle said, without a question in his tone, already knowing the answer. 

"I was stupid." Zuko grimaced. "I was shortsighted and impulsive, as you always warn me not to be."

"I disagree. I believe you tried to do the right thing, and that is laudable." 

Zuko buried his face in his knees, pulling them tightly to himself. "I don't even know what the right thing is, anymore. If I hadn't tried to keep the Avatar from Zhao, would he still have killed the moon spirit? Was it my fault all of those soldiers died? Did I sentence them all to death by giving up on my mission?" 

"Oh, Zuko…" Uncle slid a warm hand behind his shoulders, drawing him into a tight embrace. "It's difficult, confronting tragedy like this. I understand how you feel, believing just one decision could have saved everyone. It's how I felt after… after Ba Sing Se." 

Zuko scrambled for the right words, hearing the crack in Uncle's voice, but the old man continued. 

"What you must understand, Zuko, is that your actions played little part in how everything turned out. Terrible tragedies are fated to occur, and there is precious little we can do." 

Zuko huffed, hot tears spilling from his good eye. "That's not much of a comfort, Uncle." 

"I know. But it's the truth. Do you want to know what happened, at the spring? You left so soon after the spirit's demise." 

"What does that have to do with-" 

"Please. I believe it is important." Uncle drew back, holding him by the shoulders, gaze intense. Zuko nodded. 

"Tell me."

"The girl, the tribe's princess, she took the spirit's place." 

"You told me." 

"Before she did so, she said it was her duty. She knew, before she ever gave herself to the spirit, that it would be a sacrifice she would have to make. She knew the spirit would die." Uncle took a deep breath before continuing. "I know with such certainty you are not at fault, because I know the spirits had already foretold the moon's fate. You cannot blame yourself for their will." 

Uncle may have been trying to convey additional meaning with his words, but Zuko was caught by only one in particular. 

"She was willing to sacrifice anything for her duty…" He murmured. He gently pulled his uncle's hands from his shoulders, standing fully upright. "Thank you, Uncle." 

---

Katara was yawning when she joined Sokka on deck, even though the sun was already high in the sky. He finished his cooldown stretches before making his way over to greet her. 

"Morning, Sokka. What are you doing up so early?" She squinted at him suspiciously, rubbing at her eyes. 

"This is early?" He laughed. "I've been up for hours already." 

She frowned, sleepiness disappearing, leaving her gaze sharp. Whoops. 

"That's really early, even for you. What's going on?" 

"Nothing, really! I just wanted to get a workout in, now that I don't have armed guards breathing down my neck!" Sokka explained frantically.

Katara didn't buy it. Her eyes softened into something more empathetic. "You haven't been sleeping well, either, have you?" 

It wasn't a question.

Sokka scratched the back of his head, absentmindedly noting he was due for a shave. "Not really."

"Nightmares?" She guessed, correctly. He nodded. "Aang's been having them, too." 

He sighed, leaning onto the ship's railing. She joined him, bumping their shoulders together. 

"Talk to me?" She prompted. 

He hummed, picking at his nails. "What's Aang dreaming about?" 

She frowned at him, looking ready to force him into talking, but relented. She gazed out over the sea, forlorn. "He seems really worried about the Avatar State. He's guilty about all the people he hurt back there. I wish there was something I could do, but…"

"Yeah. Avatar stuff's kinda out of our league, isn't it?" Sokka finished. 

She nodded. "What about you?" She pressed. 

He sighed. No dodging it, not when she was worried about him. "It was about… when I burned you." He admitted. "I keep having nightmares where the fire's stronger, bigger, hotter… where you can't heal yourself." 

He'd finally given up on sleeping entirely after an especially bad one, where he saw himself as the Fire Nation soldier who'd killed their mother, but Katara had taken her place. He'd woken in a cold sweat, echoes of her screams still ringing in his ears, half-expecting the cramped cabin to be ablaze.

"It's like… I know it's probably some soulmate thing, but… firebenders are monsters. I guess some part of me can't shake that away." 

Katara heaved a heavy sigh at that, clearly not expecting that kind of weight this soon after waking up. "I'm so sorry, Sokka. That seems really tough." 

They took a moment together in silence, mulling over Sokka's confession, before Katara suddenly pushed up her sleeve, revealing her upper arm. "Look. I'm okay, right? There's nothing there, no scar, not even a little redness. Touch it." 

Sokka rolled his eyes. He already knew she was healed, that wasn't the point. She grabbed his hand and forced it to her skin. 

"See? You didn't hurt me. You wouldn't. Not ever." 

The skin was smooth, unblemished. He stroked a thumb absentmindedly over the patch where the burn had been so vivid. 

"I know. I know it was fine and you're a talented healer and all that, but…" He dropped his hand, guilt still gnawing at him. "We were in the worst possible conditions for a firebender. It was the dead of night, freezing cold, and I'd never done it before. What if, next time, it's warm and sunny and I don't know how to control it? Aang hurt you, too, and he wasn't even freaking out at the time!" 

Katara rubbed her palms at the memory. "I'm still not worried. I know you, both of you, would never hurt me on purpose. I trust you. I'll always trust you. You're still my dumb big brother, after all." 

He grumbled at that. She just laughed, shoving him gently. 

"And, besides. I'm a pretty incredible waterbender already. I think I could take you on, firebending or not!" Her mischievous grin was the only warning he got before her water whip smacked him in the shoulder, drenching his tunic in the process. 

"Hey! No fair!" He whined, shoving her in retaliation. 

"What? Can't handle a little water, fire boy?" She taunted. 

"Oh, you're on! You know I won't go easy on you just because you're my little sister!" He wiggled his fingers, readying an obvious tackle stance. Water snaked from over the deck, coming to Katara's call. 

Across the deck, someone cleared their throat.

"If the two of you could put aside your rough housing for a moment, we're getting near the shore. I have some gifts to give you all before we part ways."

The suspended water splashed to the deck, spilling back into the sea. Katara bowed. "Yes, Master Pakku." 

---

Azula's appearance was less than fortuitous. From the moment she arrived, Zuko was on edge, but he'd foolishly allowed himself to trust her words. 

Azula always lies. 

How often had he repeated that mantra to himself? Yet, with a few sweet words and the barest mention of father's so-called 'regrets', he found himself blindly following her piper's song. 

Now, across the hull of her ship, brilliant blue flames licking from her fingertips, Zuko was reminded of the harsh lessons of his childhood. 

Azula always lies.

"Why would Father want you home, except to lock you up where you can no longer embarrass him!" She snarled. "A deviant like you, poisoning our pristine bloodline? Ha!" 

She closed the gap, kicking out sharply, precisely, as always. He stumbled, flames hovering in his hands like daggers. 

"I can only assume your betrayal at the North Pole had something to do with your Water Tribe boy, yes?" She clicked her tongue, mocking. 

"What do you know?!" He growled back, panicked. What had she heard? Who had told her?

She barked out a laugh. "What I know could fill volumes, Brother, you'll have to be more specific." 

"Don't play dumb!"

She tossed her hair in-between swipes of fire and sharply-filed nails. "I assume you're asking how I found out about your disgusting relationship with that ice savage? It was child's play." An easy parry and a short laugh. "Quite literally. I've known since we were children. You were mooning over him like a fool. Asking Mother questions about people who lived on the ice, and 'oh won't you tell me more tales about soulmates, Mother!'"

Blinded by rage, he struck out wildly and was knocked aside with ease. She grabbed him by the wrist, holding him in place with a surprisingly strong grip. 

"You're lucky I thought to use Mai's little crush on you to all of our benefit. You should be thanking me, for helping to hide your deviancy from Father." 

She knocked him back before he could respond, putting space between them and dazing him all in one move. He was far too slow to react by the time he even realized what she was preparing to do. 

Uncle put himself between them with shocking agility, redirecting the lightning blast and sending her into the waters below. "We have to move, now!" He ordered.

Zuko followed wordlessly.

---

For all his worrying about the Avatar State's awesome power, Aang agreed fairly readily to General Fong's proposal to use it against the Fire Lord. 

Test after test failed, though, and Aang's resolve dimmed, replaced by those worries once more. 

"I don't think I should be trying to bring on the Avatar State." He had mumbled, still half-asleep. Sokka and Katara had agreed, and now they were sat before the General once more, Aang pleading his case. 

"I can only reach the Avatar State when I'm in genuine danger." He explained. "I don't think we'll ever be able to trigger it on purpose." 

It wasn't what he wanted to say. The unmitigated destructive power was terrifying, and awful, and trying to use it as a quick way out of the war was irresponsible at best. 

But it was an explanation General Fong would actually hear out, so it was the approach they tried. 

"I see… I was afraid you'd say that." The General murmured. Aang began to offer up apologies, trying to reopen other options, when the General suddenly stood, sliding his foot along the stone floor and settling into an earthbending stance.

His heavy desk zipped across the floor, taking the airbender along with it. 

If it weren't for Aang's natural skills, he would not have survived the impact. As it was, he neatly danced away, regaining his footing lightly in the courtyard far below. 

"Aang!" Katara and Sokka shouted in unison, chasing down the zig-zagging staircase toward the startled boy. 

"Men! Attack the Avatar!" 

An entire troop's worth of earthbenders advanced, pulling stones from the earthen courtyard and sending them rocketing at the airbender. He dodged easily, flexible and agile as always, but he was horribly outnumbered. Katara, with only her small water skin to pull from, was as limited in her defense as Sokka and his club, but they rushed into the fray regardless, thinking only of rescuing their friend. 

The troop of earthbenders turned their attention to the siblings, dividing their attacks. While Sokka dodged around the edge of the courtyard, snaring an ostrich-horse, Katara dove right into the center of the fray. Almost immediately, General Fong rendered her powerless, leeching the water from her attacks into the stone at their feet. 

"What now, Avatar? Your friends are in danger! Aren't you going to help them?" General Fong called, goading Aang back into the fight. The stone beneath Katara's feet shifted, and she danced away, feeling lighter on her feet than normal. 

Aang rushed to her side, shouting. "Katara! Get out of here! They'll hurt you!" 

"No!" She argued. "They'll hurt you! I need to protect you!" 

The earthbenders renewed their onslaught, another wave of stone disks rolling towards them both. In unison, Aang and Katara shifted, mirroring one anothers' stances, and a cyclone spun out, knocking the disks off-course. 

"What?!" The General shouted. "She can airbend, too?! How is that possible?!" 

The troop hesitated, uncertain how to proceed, but General Fong barked an order to continue. "We're not done here! I don't see any glowing!" 

Sokka had been leading his mount around, avoiding the chaos and knocking soldiers out as he went. It was too slow, and not enough, as there were still plenty of earthbenders trying to take out the others. He'd have to get an opening on the General to make any real difference. The man's attention was entirely on Katara for now, and the warrior got into position for an attack. 

The rock shifted beneath Katara again, softening into quicksand, but she danced away once more, aided by a more purposeful blast of wind this time. 

Unfortunately, in focussing on the ground beneath her, she missed the disk flying at her head. Although Aang managed to knock it off-course, it was too late to spare her from damage, and the heavy projectile clipped her head. She crumpled to the ground, stunned, blood oozing from the abrasion. 

Aang screamed. 

"Ready to try it now, Avatar? Your friend won't make it if you don't save her!" 

At last, the man got what he wanted, the tattoos spanning Aang's body lighting that familiar, brilliant blue. He rose from the earth, propelled by a furious cyclone, the power of the Avatar unleashed at last. 

"Avatar Aang! Can you hear me?! It worked!" General Fong cheered. 

"How dare you hurt her!" The many voices of the Avatar rang out, overlapping in discordant rage. "You will pay for this!" 

He dropped to the ground, the cyclone spinning out, sending the earthbenders flying away. Their bodies were tossed to the wind, slamming into the courtyard's scattered buildings. 

After the first smattering of startled screams, the courtyard fell silent. 

Aang turned his glowing eyes to General Fong, barely having managed to escape the buffeting winds, but relented a moment later. His tattoos dimmed, the horrible power leaving him, and he fell to his knees beside Katara's still form. 

"That was almost perfect! Now that we know how to trigger it, we just have to find a way to control you! The plan can still work!" General Fong cheered. 

"No. You're out of your mind if you think I'd ever let you do something like that again." Aang snarled, teeth grinding. Katara was breathing, but unconscious, and he held her face gently between his hands. 

"Come, now! We can figure it out on the way to the Fire Nation. We have a war to win!"

Sokka finally took his chance, laying the General low with a single blow of his club. "Let's get out of here. Before these guys can do any more damage." 

---

With nothing but the clothes on their backs, Uncle and Zuko escaped Azula's soldiers. They ducked into the thick woodland, obscuring themselves behind the blossoming trees, and ran until their lungs were burning and their steps faltered. 

"I think we're safe here." Uncle huffed, falling to his knees near a riverbed. "Those soldiers will be weighed down by their armor, and will have to regroup before they can chase us down. We can take a moment to rest before moving on." 

Zuko swallowed hard, looking out at the flowing water. Everything he'd done in the name of his country, and he'd been tossed aside for a single mistake. Again. 

"There's something else we need to do." He murmured, sliding his old knife from its sheath. 

Never give up without a fight. 

He had, and now the consequences haunted them. How fitting, that the blade should function as a reminder of its own dogma. 

He brought it to the base of his tied hair, and sliced clean through, severing the last of his hair all in one go. A dishonored traitor could not wear their hair long. 

Uncle borrowed the blade after, slicing through his own topknot, allowing the hair to fall into the stream before them as Zuko did the same. 

Silence fell between them for a long moment before Uncle turned to him, gesturing for his attention. 

"Come, Nephew. Let's clean that up. We can at least let it grow back in evenly." 

Zuko obediently turned his back, allowing Uncle to scrape the knife gently along his scalp. The smooth, careful motions, the warm hand holding his head still, it was all familiar. Comforting. Zuko could almost forget the circumstances, and imagine they were still aboard their ship, Uncle carefully removing what little hair had grown back in. 

Almost, if it weren't for the croaking of frogs, the tittering of birds, and the despair settling into his heart. 

---

The flight to Omashu should have taken two days, at most, but Aang and Katara insisted on taking frequent breaks for waterbending practice. That would have been all well and good, Sokka could hunt or fish or forage while they played around with magic water, except they were ambushed on the most recent pit stop by a group of incredibly stupid nomads.

Sure, the guys had thousands of songs detailing myths, legends, and historical events perfectly memorized, but they seemed to have no room in their empty heads for basic common sense. 

Aang, the romantic that he was, was suckered into their tales, eyes sparkling below his crown of pink blossoms as they sang about some secret tunnel built by soulmates divided by war in order to meet. 

Katara had given Sokka pointed glances through the whole thing, gauging his reactions, but was disappointed to find him stony-faced. 

"No offense, but I think we'll fly." He'd insisted, dragging Aang up into Appa's saddle. The Avatar readily agreed, citing his animal companion's hatred of small, enclosed spaces, especially underground, and the three left behind the idiotic traveling band. 

Sokka had not taken into account the increased presence of troops they'd be facing, now that the Fire Nation was more aware of their existence, sending out a proper force for their capture rather than one teenager and his pilot ship. 

Now, they had no choice but to take the damned secret tunnel. Appa complained, but still entered, the air cooling swiftly around them as they advanced. 

Despite his expectations, the Fire Nation troops did not follow them into the tunnel (the labyrinth, Chong had corrected), but instead opted to close them inside by collapsing the entrance. 

The tunnel- the labyrinth, rather- was dark, dank, and damp. None of that seemed particularly romantic to Sokka, despite the nomads' insistence that 'believing in love' was the key to coming out the other side without issue. 

"Do we have any torches? I can't see a thing." Sokka complained. 

"Torches? Yeah, we got torches!" Chong responded. 

A long moment passed. 

"Could you… light the torches?" Sokka prompted. 

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Uh… got any fire?"

He dug blindly in his bag for his flint. "Bring the torches closer to me. I'll light them."

"Oh, hey, cool! Are you a firebender?" Chong seemed impressed, for some reason. 

"No, I'm not." Sokka grumbled. 

"Well, technically…" Aang began. 

"I'm just going to use flint." He explained. "I need the torches to be closer to me to do that, though." 

Again, a long pause. 

"Bring me the torches, Chong." Sokka ordered.

"Oh, right! Uh, where are you? I can't see a thing!" 

Sokka smacked his forehead with his free hand, feeling a headache already growing behind his eyes. "Just follow the sound of my voice- you know what? Just keep talking, I'll find you." 

"Wohoah, hey! Can you see in the dark, too? That's pretty neat, brother!" 

The inane babbling was at least useful this time, and Sokka groped for the torch in the nomad's hands. Scraping the flint across the bladed edge of his boomerang, he coaxed tiny embers from the small stone. Most burned out before catching, but a few of the glowing lights stayed resolute. He blew gently across them, giving them life, and the torch finally lit. 

"Wow, there you go! You didn't tell us you were a firebender!" Chong's stupidly grinning face emerged from the darkness, now lit by the torch. 

Sokka pointedly ignored the idiot. "How long do these torches last? And how many do we have?" 

Lily spoke up this time, Chong still fascinated by the flickering of the flames. "Two hours each. And we have five torches, so… ten hours!" She dipped them towards the lit torch, trying to catch them alight, but Sokka kept the flames away from her reach. 

"Not if you light them all at the same time! 

…Look, I'm going to grab something to draw with, and I'll make us a map. We'll walk around and draw it as we go. We'll find the exit eventually. Just stay close and don't wander off, okay? We can't afford to get split up."

---

As two royals in a foreign land, Zuko and Uncle were hardly suited to living off of the land, and nothing quite exemplified that like Uncle poisoning himself with a plant he'd successfully identified as potentially deadly. 

Having to seek aid in a nearby village would set them back, giving Azula time to catch up to them. Without knowing her plans, her methods, or her current location, they couldn't afford to feel safe anywhere. 

Worse, they hadn't had time to come up with a cover story together before seeking out a healer, and Zuko sounded like a damn fool trying to invent lies on the spot. 

Despite how suspicious he was certain 'Mushi' and 'Junior' were, the sweet girl working as the healer's apprentice still offered them a meal and a place to sleep. Her eyes had darted over the scar marring his face more than once, and she seemed to be assuming several things about his past he'd rather she hadn't. 

Still, it earned them a decent meal where they had not been expecting one, while Uncle recovered from his poisoning, so he controlled his temper. Even if Song asked too many questions over the promised roast duck. 

He found it was uncomfortably easy to tell selective truths that painted them in the expected light. Despite their origins, they were actually on the wrong side of the Fire Nation quite frequently, had lost their homes to the war, and their family had been torn apart, just like the women offering them hospitality. The women were empathetic, offering kindness and gentleness. It stung, knowing the breadth of the divide between how they were being treated now, and how they'd be treated if the truth got out. 

It wasn't like they didn't deserve it, though. The terror the Fire Lord and his predecessors had spread across the known world had touched the lives of every citizen of every nation. He'd seen it first when he was ten years old, in the tears of his closest friend, sobbing into his pillow following a senseless raid on an already decimated people. 

He ate his noodles in as much silence as he was allowed, and excused himself as soon as he was finished. 

---

"Bad news everyone." Sokka announced, glancing between his map and the wall in front of them. 

"What, another dead end? That's not really news, Sokka."

They were on their second torch now, and it was already well on its way to burning out. Three hours of wandering and drawing, evidently for nothing. 

"According to my map, we were able to pass through here before. The tunnels are changing." 

The group gasped and groaned in shock and dismay. Sokka was sure the nomads didn't actually understand what they were gasping about, but he appreciated the enthusiastic response. 

"How can we find our way out if the paths are changing?" Katara asked, doing an admirable job of keeping the panic from her voice. 

"We just gotta believe in the power of love, remember? That's what the curse says!" Chong insisted. 

"But what does that mean?" Aang questioned. "Do you think it has something to do with the ones who made it being soulmates?"

"So, what, you're saying soulmates built it, so only soulmates can make it through?" Sokka grumbled. "Hogwash."

"It's not that far-fetched." Katara insisted. "You know better than anyone that soulmates are real." 

"No, not that. I mean the curse. A shifting labyrinth maze that only lets spirit-approved couples through? I mean, how would that even work?" 

"Well, maybe it's spirit magic." Katara guessed. "What else could make the tunnels move like this?"

"Earthbenders?" Sokka reminded her. 

"You think there's earthbenders in these tunnels just screwing with people? That's the whole curse?" She had her arms crossed, hips cocked, like he was the unreasonable one. 

"It could happen! You've heard some of the pranks Dad pulled with Bato!" 

"There's a difference between that and a well-known legend thousands of years old!"

"That part could be made up! Aang hadn't heard of it a hundred years ago, and he was friends with Bumi then, too!"

"This does seem like the kind of prank Bumi would pull." Aang piped up. 

"There! You see!" Sokka waved his free hand in Aang's direction.

"Shush!" Katara hushed him, squinting past the glow of the torch. 

"Don't shush me just because I'm right!" Sokka huffed. 

"No, I mean, I hear something." 

Momo panicked, evidently hearing it too, and flew off to the safety of Appa's saddle just before the source of the noise became apparent. 

Several things happened very quickly; the appearance of the wolf-bat, the dropped torch, Appa's panic, the collapse of the tunnel ceiling, the separation of the group. 

By the time he'd even processed what had happened to them, Aang and Katara were out of reach, on the opposite side of a huge mound of rubble. 

---

Song had pursued Zuko to the porch soon after he'd excused himself, leaving him precious little time to get his roiling thoughts in order. She sat nearby, expression pitying as she gazed at him, at his scar. 

"I know what you've been through." She claimed. "We've all been through it." 

He doubted that. He looked resolutely ahead,  not acknowledging her words. 

She reached a hand out towards his face. "The Fire Nation has hurt you." 

He stopped her before she could touch the ruined skin, gripping her fingers. She pulled away without fuss. 

"They've hurt me, too." She lifted the leg of her pants, revealing a webbing of scars reaching up above her knee. The pattern… she'd stood somewhere that was burning, the flames licking up her legs. He'd seen similar injuries. "This happened when our village was attacked. I couldn't walk when we arrived here, it hurt too much. That's how I started apprenticing with the healer, you know? She took care of me until I could walk again." 

He looked away, guilt gnawing at him. His father had likely ordered the attack, or at least given the orders that led to it. Zuko had known for years what kinds of things the men did in the field, the kinds of resentments his people had bred. He'd never spoken out, never spoken against it, and so he may as well have supported it. 

Then again, the one time he'd had opportunity to speak out, and on behalf of his own people, he'd payed a hefty price. 

"How about you?" Song pressed at his silence. 

"I don't like to talk about it." He evaded honestly.

"Can you see out of it?" 

He took a deep breath, reminding himself she was just curious, she didn't have any ulterior motive. 

"Yes." It wasn't entirely a lie, but it wasn't entirely truthful, either. "The medic was very skilled. He was able to preserve my eye." 

"That's good! I hope to get that good some day. It feels so nice to help people get back on their feet, no matter what they've lost." 

She smiled, and he knew she wasn't just talking about healing. 

"We appreciate the hospitality. It was… sorely needed. Thank you." 

"Of course. What's ours is yours. We understand what you're going through, so it's no burden." 

---

Katara watched the torch burn low and felt the pressure of their impending time limit loom. Less than an hour to find an exit or to find the others. Sokka's half of the group had the surplus torches, not to mention the flint to light them. 

"Let's try the same thing Sokka was doing, with the map." Aang suggested, seeing her gaze linger nervously on the torch. "We should at least make sure we're not going in circles." 

"Good idea." She passed the torch off, Aang taking it from her without a word, and climbed into the saddle. "I'm sure Sokka has more paper in his pack somewhere." 

She was disappointed to find it a complete disorganized mess in the bag. For all his lists and planning, her brother couldn't avoid mess to save his life. It took some digging to find anything meant for writing on, but she breathed a sigh of relief finding a tightly-bound stack of parchment inside. 

"I've got some paper!" She cheered, beginning to untie the bindings. 

As the cord fell away, something slipped between the pages, and her stomach sank. 

A panda lily, pressed flat and dried. This wasn't just some spare paper. 

She pulled apart the pages, carefully returning the pressed flower back to its intended spot, and froze. The page it was pressed into was covered in scrawled notes in her brother's messy hand. She got the distinct impression she had stumbled across something she never should have seen. 

She returned the bloom to where its impression had been left between the pages, framed by the scribbled notes and their references to a certain someone, and tied the pages back together, returning the bundle back to his bag. 

"Katara? You said you found some paper?" Aang called.

"Oh, uh… no, nevermind! It wasn't what I thought it was!" She tied Sokka's pack back closed and slid to the ground. "Um, it looks like all his spare paper was in the bag he had on him. Guess we'll have to just keep going and hope for the best!" 

"Oh, okay. That's too bad." Aang was watching her curiously, gears clicking together behind his wide, perceptive eyes, but he didn't press. 

"Come on, I'm sure we're getting close." Katara assured him. 

Rounding the next bend, she immediately believed she was proven correct. 

"Look! We found the exit!" 

Because what else could the ornate hall leading to a circular door be? 

Appa, easily the most eager to get out of the oppressive labyrinth, charged forward, knocking the door aside with his sturdy skull. Katara assumed the door was meant to be opened with earthbending, but an angry bison was as much a force to be feared. 

Strangely, no light filtered through the newly-opened entryway, and their hope vanished. 

"If this isn't the exit, what is it?" Katara murmured. She stepped forward, allowing the dwindling torchlight to illuminate the chamber. 

Along the walls of the massive, circular room were carved recesses, each with statues inside, depicting two figures in various states. They surrounded the dias in the center of the chamber, raised and supporting two twin sarcophogi, the faces on the lids matching the statues around the room. 

"It's a tomb…" Aang confirmed, voice low with solemnity. 

Leaving Appa up on the precipice, the two walked carefully down the staircase, doubling back on itself several times before reaching the tomb far below. They drew near the dias, inspecting it closely. Along the edges, carvings unworn over time depicted images and explanations for them, forming a tale. 

"It must be for the soulmates, the ones from the legend. That's who's buried here." Aang guessed. 

"And these carvings must tell the story… which one is the first?"

Aang brought the torchlight around, investigating. "Here, this one." 

"'They met on top of the mountain that divided their two villages.'" Katara read. "'Their villages were enemies, so they could not be together.'"

She continued to read, Aang following with the torchlight as she circled the platform, following the tale. The carvings told a story of love, of tragedy, and of hope. It spoke of the origin of earthbending itself, and of the origins of Omashu. At the end of the tale, the images had wrapped around the whole dias, leading to the enormous relief at the other end of the chamber. 

"'Love is brightest in the dark.'" Katara read. She gazed up at the recessed carving, the two lovers leaned over, lips together in an eternal kiss. 

Aang sighed. "None of that told us how to get out of these tunnels, though." 

Katara chewed her lip, thinking. This felt like some kind of hint. But what did it mean?

The star-crossed lovers were soulmates. That means the spirits intended their union, guided them together, potentially even gave them the nudge towards bending as a solution. Was it a spirit, then, that guided the lovers through the winding labyrinth? Sokka had always been asleep during his journeys, though, and the guidance ritual their people did required an induced sleep. 

Maybe it was something else, then. Maybe, just like the relief before them, they needed to prove their love for one another. 

"I have a crazy idea." 

"What?" Aang prompted, and she lost her nerve. 

"Nevermind, it's too crazy." 

"Katara, what is it?" Aang pressed. 

She turned away, unable to look him in the eye as she explained. "The curse says we'll be trapped in here forever unless we trust in love." 

"Right."

"And here it says 'love is brightest in the dark' and has a picture of them kissing." 

"Where are you going with this?"

"Well… what if we kissed?" They were soulmates, after all, and she had been very guilty of not trusting in love… until very recently. 

She'd been convinced, since Sokka had explained about himself and Zuko, that her bond with Aang was platonic, like her brother's with his own soulmate. Sokka hadn't mentioned any romantic inclinations, after all, had referred to Zuko consistently as a 'very close friend', in fact! 

But certain recent events had thrown that assumption into question. 

He'd discovered latent bending abilities, or something like that, when Zuko was in danger, had nearly killed himself trying to keep Zuko alive, had spoken to Yue about Zuko with that soft tone and that look in his eyes, one that betrayed his true feelings about the other boy. 

And then, she'd found the flower, carefully pressed and cared for, and what were unmistakably musings about Zuko and their relationship. 

She remembered her conversation with Aunt Wu, about soulmate bonds coming in many forms, the look on the fortune-teller's face when she'd insisted her brother's bond was platonic, the words she'd been offered about deciding for herself the nature of the bond, and found herself doubting the decision she'd made. 

Maybe, here and now, she needed to give in to the will of the spirits to move forward, in terms of their relationship and in the more literal sense. Maybe she needed to 'trust in love'. 

"Us, kissing?!" Aang tensed, a startled expression widening his bright eyes. 

Her resolve faltered again. Not that she'd been particularly certain on her own side of things, but she'd thought she knew where Aang stood. "See? It was a crazy idea…" She muttered. 

"Us, kissing…" Aang sounded far away, like the thoughts were churning in his head. 

Katara forced herself to laugh, like it'd been a joke all along. "Us, kissing! What was I thinking?! Can you imagine that?" 

"Yeah!" Aang's laughter sounded forced, as well. Damn, she'd made him uncomfortable… of course, who wouldn't be?! An older girl, making a proposal like that so suddenly to a young guy like him. He probably wasn't ready for romantic stuff in the first place! He probably still believed in 'girl cooties', like Sokka had at his age! "I definitely wouldn't want to kiss you!" 

She froze, the tone feeling more personal than she'd expected. "Oh. Well, I didn't realize it was such a horrible option." She took some pride in her appearance, after all, and thought that, if he'd wanted to kiss a girl at all, she'd have been a decent choice. "Sorry for suggesting it." She snapped. 

"No, no!" Aang began, defensively. "I mean, if it was a choice between kissing you and dying…"

Katara let out an offended noise. What an awful thing to say! What, she was a last resort?! 

"What? I'm saying I would rather kiss you than die! That's a compliment!" Aang frantically explained. 

Was it?! Was it, really?! "Well, I'm not sure which I would rather do!" 

She stormed off, returning to Appa. For her own soulmate to be so repulsed by the idea of kissing her… maybe the spirits had less of a plan and more of an awful sense of humor. As much as she hated ever admitting it, maybe Sokka was right all along. 

---

The idiotic nomads had an endless supply of songs, and now they were making up new ones. Momo's incessant chittering and scrambling was less annoying, even proving to be a welcome reprieve from the strumming and tone-deaf vocals. 

At another dead end, Moku voiced his complaints. Apparently even these dumbasses had their limits. 

"At least I'm thinking of ideas and trying to get us out of here, Moku !" Sokka snapped. His map was completely useless, he was running out of ink trying to fix it, and their new torch was nearly halfway burned out. Aang and Katara would be running out of light any minute. 

"Woah, woah, wait. We're thinking of ideas?" Chong sounded genuinely surprised at the concept. "'Cause I've had an idea for, like, an hour now." 

"Yes! We're all thinking of ideas!" Sokka wanted so badly to scream. Or to strangle him. Whichever came first. 

"Well, then, listen to this! If love is the key out of here, then all we have to do is sing a love song!" 

Chong sounded so incredibly proud of his incredibly inane excuse for an 'idea'. 

Sokka slapped a hand to his forehead again, that headache growing stronger. 

"No, somehow, I don't think that's the right answer." He grumbled.

The nomads began playing a new song, anyway. 

Love, love, love! Stupid soulmate labyrinth and everyone's obsession with legends! There had to be some kind of physical, tangible answer! Even locks and passages that needed bending to open had actual mechanisms behind them! 'Love' couldn't push tubes around, or heat inner workings into expanding, or physically move big, rocky structures, so it couldn't be the answer here! 

Sokka huffed, rubbing his forehead. The skin was beginning to grow raw, with the number of times he'd slapped it, but it still didn't detract from the pain pounding behind. 

"Fine. If we're using 'love' to get out of here, I think I've got an idea." He grumbled, sitting down in front of the pile of rubble stopping their advance. 

Chong and the others stopped playing, watching him curiously. 

"What'cha gonna do, brother?" Chong asked. 

He sighed, crossing his legs and taking a deep, calming breath. "I have a really strong connection with the spirits for some reason. If 'love' is the key out of here, maybe there's a spirit in charge of guiding soulmates that lingers around here. I'm thinking, if I can talk to them, we can get them to guide us out of here, soulmates or no soulmates." 

"Woah… why didn't you say something before?!"

"Because 'love' is a stupid key! Now, just shut up and let me concentrate!" 

For a long moment, the nomads allowed him his silence, and he evened out his breathing, trying to meditate despite his headache and the lemur sitting on his head. 

Then, before he could get into a proper state of zen, the music started back up. 

" Even if you're lost you can't lose the love because it's in your heart~ Oh, woah, woah-oh~" Chong's tone-deaf voice cut through his focus like a sharp blade. 

"What are you doing?!" He hissed, irate. 

"Giving you some mood music! So you can find your lover!" Chong seemed way too pleased with himself considering how badly Sokka wanted him dead at the moment.

"I'm not- ugh! That's not helping, anyway, so just knock it off! I need quiet , okay?!"

"Ohhhh, okay. Quiet, got it!"

For a moment, Sokka almost believed he understood. Then, quietly, more quietly than he believed the instrument capable of, the dramyin began to twang once more. Of fucking course the idiot couldn't understand the concept of 'quiet'! 

"Not! Helping!" Sokka snapped. "Quiet means quiet! Total silence! I don't want to hear your stupid stringy thingy, I don't want to hear her pipe thingy , and I super don't want to hear anybody, and I mean anybody singing!" 

"Oh, sorry, Sokka. We'll be quiet, promise." Chong spoke for the group, as usual, and led them all a little ways away, where they stood around awkwardly, shuffling. 

It was the best he was going to get. He took a deep breath, centering himself again, and began meditating. 

It was never an easy thing for him to do, his thoughts always flinging themselves all over the place, and now was no different. He felt every rock boring into his butt with sharp clarity, every rustle of cloth as the nomads shuffled around amplified tenfold, the coldness of his fingers compared to the rest of his skin weirdly salient… getting all the buzzing thoughts out of his head was impossible, but damn if he wasn't going to try. Getting a break from Chong and crew was helping his headache, at the very least. 

The torch burned down, three-quarters of the way gone, and Sokka finally felt something shift. 

For only a moment, he thought maybe it was a spirit, finally contacting him, but it was quickly obvious it was an actual, physical shifting. The changing of the tunnels, that they had previously only noticed after the fact, was happening around them. 

Sokka was right about the earthbenders, but not in the way he'd thought. 

Two hulking badgermoles burst through the tunnel walls, bending the earth around them to instantly build new tunnels and close off old ones. With a sliding shift of their huge, clawed paws, each bigger than Sokka's whole body, they sent ripples through the stone, shaping it according to their whims. A trench formed around the startled teenager, separating him from the fleeing nomads. This was not what he'd been trying to summon! How the hell was 'love' supposed to help them out here?!

The badgermole advanced on him, pushing him back towards the fresh crevasse in the rocky floor as he scrambled away, unable to return to his feet. His hand landed on something loud, that damned dramyin, sending out an echoing twang in the cavern.

The beast halted its advance, tilting its head. Thinking quickly, Sokka grabbed the foreign instrument and began strumming, mimicking the movements Chong had been making nearly nonstop since they'd met him. The creatures responded positively, sitting back and listening to the music. 

"I think you guys might have been right about the love songs!" Sokka yelped. "Can we get one going again?" 

---

The torch finally burned out, but Aang and Katara were no nearer the exit than they'd begun. The labyrinth was dark as pitch without the torchlight, and Appa lowed loudly, panicked. 

"I know, buddy, I know." Aang soothed, groping for his friend's muzzle in the darkness. 

"Now what can we do?" Katara despaired. "That was our only torch." 

"I guess… we could try your idea?" Aang suggested, voice strained. 

"Oh, really? It doesn't sound too disturbing for you? Finally desperate enough to stoop to that level?" Katara didn't mean to sound so accusatory, but she was still sore about it. 

"Katara… I'm sorry. All of that came out wrong, earlier. I was just… surprised! That you suggested it, you know? I didn't think you wanted to kiss me, you know?" 

"I hadn't really thought about it much." She admitted.

"Even though you knew we were soulmates and everything?" Aang sounded… disappointed, somehow? 

"Yeah. Even so." She found her way over to Appa, as well, stroking his muzzle. His lowing quieted, comforted by the confirmation that both of them were safe. She could tell Aang was nearby only because of the warmth that surrounded him, his airbending always keeping the air near him comfortable. 

"Soulmates can be all sorts of things to each other, you know? They don't have to be a romantic match or anything. I thought, maybe, we were like that. Now that I am thinking about it, though… maybe I'd like to try. Kissing you, that is." 

"So we can get out of here?" Aang was trying not to get his hopes up. Katara felt a bit guilty about that, about the timing and pressure of the situation. It was less than ideal, certainly. 

"I think, maybe, I'd like to try kissing you even if we weren't trapped in some kind of cursed labyrinth. If that would be okay with you?"

She was glad for the darkness. It made it very easy to avoid his eyes, to hide her blush.

"I would! I wanna kiss you a lot! All the time!" Aang blurted out, far too enthusiastically. "I mean, uh… sure?" 

Katara failed to hold back her giggles. She felt stupid for having doubted Aang's feelings. He wasn't exactly subtle about them, she knew. She touched the bauble woven from fishing line still tied to her braid. 

"Can we still kiss now, then?" Aang asked, uncertainly, his voice cracking. 

Katara nodded, before remembering the complete darkness surrounding them. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that." 

It took them some stuttered, awkward attempts to find one another without the aid of their vision, but, finally, their lips met properly. The kiss didn't feel much like fireworks, but it did feel warm and comfortable, more right than she'd expected, and maybe that was enough. 

The glowing feeling in her chest seemed to spread around them, and by the time she opened her eyes again, the chamber was fully illuminated. 

They gasped in unison. 

"Woah!" Aang shouted. "It really worked!" 

Gemstones embedded in the rock around them glowed with the same blue light that Aang always gave off in the Avatar State. Spiritual energy rushed forth, lighting a path forward. 

"That must be the way out!" Katara cheered. 

Appa charged forward, leaving the two of them to catch up. He was desperate to return to the open air. Aang laughed gleefully at his friend's enthusiasm, and Katara couldn't help but join in. 

---

The badgermoles somehow knew where they were going, despite digging new tunnels the whole way, and they emerged on the other side of the mountain within minutes. Somehow, Aang and Katara had beaten them to it, Appa already rolling around and enjoying the fresh air. 

"Hey, you guys made it! How did you get out?" He called, sliding from the badgermole's shoulders. 

"It's just like the legend said! We let love lead the way!" Aang's face split in a dreamy smile, gazing over at Katara with dewy eyes. 

"It turns out the answer did have to do with soulmates, smart guy! So I was right!" 

"And I was right about earthbenders changing up the tunnels." Sokka pointed out. The badgermoles, now free of their passengers, returned to the mountain, bending the new exits shut behind them. "So neither of us has to admit they were maybe not entirely right about everything." 

"You know what? I'll take it." Katara giggled, giddy for some reason. 

"I'm not gonna ask any questions, but promise me you two aren't going to be all oogie all of a sudden." 

"What? No!" Katara scoffed, unconvincingly. 

"We super promise!" Aang put a hand to his heart, giving an exaggerated serious expression. 

"Great." Sokka rolled his eyes, walking off toward the rise where they would come into view of the city beyond. "Come on, let's get moving!" 

"Wait, Sokka? Why's your forehead all red?" Katara called. 

He stopped, turned to look at her, and nodded over at the retreating nomads. 

"Hey, do you think those kids noticed we're, like, super baked right now?" Chong was whispering to Lily, loud enough to be heard from their distance. 

"No way! We were being totally cool about it the whole time!" Lily whispered back, just as loud. 

Sokka's hand reacquainted with his forehead. "I think you can guess."

---

Uncle took his time with dinner, savoring the flavors and the company. Zuko couldn't help but wonder if the old man was purposely giving him extra time with a girl his own age, trying to nudge him towards a more 'normal' relationship. He hated to assume the worst in his uncle, though, and chalked the extra time up to the old man's love of food. 

They left when he was done, despite the very late hour, and Uncle profusely thanked the women for their kindness. 

Maybe it was petty of him, a way of getting back at the girl for prying about his scar, or self-destructive, needing to somehow prove to her that he shouldn't be trusted, but he convinced himself they needed the ostrich-horse, that they could only stay out of Azula's reach if they took it, and Uncle did not argue. 

Their hosts would hate them less for this than if they'd known who they really were, anyway. 

Chapter Text

The Fire Nation had taken Omashu. They had bested Bumi and transformed his city into yet another Fire Nation colony, governed by some noble or another. With Katara's quick thinking, they managed to trick the guards into thinking there'd been an outbreak of some fictional, deadly disease, one that somehow only affected the Earth Kingdom citizens and none of the Fire Nation soldiers, and had gotten every citizen of Omashu out of the gates without incident. 

It wasn't a victory, but at least it wasn't a defeat.  

Here, miles from the city, where they'd managed to evacuate the citizens to a makeshift campsite, they thought they finally had a moment to regroup, to make sense of the wild day they'd had, but no dice; somehow, Momo had stolen a baby. 

A Fire Nation baby. 

It certainly didn't belong to any of the soldiers, which meant this baby could only belong to one person: the new Governor of Omashu.

"What do we do? His parents will be so upset he's missing!" Katara worried, gently guiding the baby away from the fire pit. 

"There's nothing we can do without giving away our position here." The resistance leader, Yalo, groused. "I won't risk all these people for one ash-eater baby." 

"He's more like a toddler." Aang noted. Sokka didn't really get the difference. 

"It doesn't matter. It's one of them. We focus on keeping our own people safe." 

Yalo seemed to think the conversation was over, stomping off to go speak with his impromptu quartermaster about their supplies. 

"That really didn't decide much of anything except that we're not going back to Omashu to give it back." Sokka pointed out. The baby had finally left poor Momo alone, and had wandered into his leg. It was now reaching its arms up, begging to be picked up. 

"Aww, how cute!" Katara cooed. "Don't worry, I'll hold you!" 

She scooped it into her arms, poking at its chubby cheeks. Its face scrunched up and it broke into sobs, making grabby hands for Sokka. 

"Uh… what's it doing that for?" Sokka tentatively reached a finger out to it, half expecting it to get bitten off. Not that the baby had very many teeth. Instead, it grabbed onto his finger with a surprisingly strong grip, giggling despite the tears and snot still caking its face. 

"Looks like he wants you to hold him, for some reason." Katara explained, holding the baby out for him to grab. 

Sokka hesitated, but took it, holding it at arm's length. It squealed and babbled gleefully, wiggling its chubby little arms around. 

"Not like that, Sokka! You're going to drop him! Here, like this." Katara adjusted his arms, giving the baby a firm base to rest on, and a better vantage point to grab at Sokka's hair. 

"Hey! Quit it!" He grumbled, feeling his wolf-tail loosen. 

"Aww, he likes you!" Aang laughed, making absolutely no move to help. 

---

Playing the beggar was frustrating, at best. Uncle acted like he had years of practice, like he had no pride at all, submitting to whatever debasement the cruel peasants asked of him. 

Zuko was finding it much more difficult to adapt. 

They didn't even have a goal in mind for him to focus on, now. Just days of travel and begging and scrounging for scraps. What shelter they could find was pitiful, but so infrequent that even a hay bale was as welcome as a proper bed would be. 

This time, they were passing through another farming village, and Zuko's last nerve was finally snapped. The asshole had the gall to threaten Uncle, swiping blades at his feet, and Zuko's blood boiled, singing for revenge. 

The jerk didn't even know how to use the dual blades properly, the weight uneven in his hands. 

Zuko would have to demonstrate the proper technique.

---

The encampment sat for a late-night dinner, finally in a secure position to relax by the fires. Try as he might, Sokka couldn't shake the determined baby, who seemed to gravitate back to him no matter how far away they sent him. He'd almost thought they'd succeeded in passing the little terror off on a young mother on the other end of the camp, but the next thing they knew, a tiny body clothed in reds was tripping face-first over Sokka's club. 

That was the worst part! The baby seemed to think 'the sharper the better' in terms of the best toys to play with. Sokka had hidden his boomerang and machete after a couple of very close calls, keeping only the unbladed club on hand for protection, and still the tiny gremlin insisted on playing with that! 

(Aang, for his part, was just glad the baby had stopped terrorizing his lemur, and was outright encouraging the dangerous toy choices.)

The whole time, Yalo glared at the baby like it had personally slaughtered his family. 

He had some harsh words to say about Katara's cooing, the girl absolutely enamored by the squishy, clumsy human stumbling around the camp, and Sokka braced for an argument that never came, their conversation interrupted by the arrival of a carrier hawk. 

Its message confirmed Sokka's suspicions, identifying the baby as 'Tom-tom', the governor's son, and requested an urgent rendezvous for a trade of prisoners: King Bumi in exchange for the baby's safe return. 

Sokka shrugged. "That's as good an opportunity as we're gonna get." 

Aang, always self-sacrificing, stood tall. "I'll go. The rest of you don't need to worry about being found out. I can move faster on my own." 

"Oh, no, you don't." Sokka's usual stern tone was definitely ruined by the baby tugging at his cheeks. He gently guided the tiny hands away. 

"The three of us will go together, like always. You'll need backup in case they don't hold up their end of the bargain." Katara reasoned. 

"The rendezvous is in the morning, anyway. Let's get some sleep." 

Aang agreed, retiring to the tents with the others. Sokka kept a close eye on him until he was sure the airbender was asleep, his makeshift turban fluttering around with his snores. 

---

The baby was bad at sleeping. Sokka didn't really know how good babies were supposed to be at sleeping, but this one woke up every few hours to whine and cry. Katara helped as she could, but the little demon was consistently happiest when Sokka was the one singing or cooing or rocking him back to sleep. 

Dawn was nearing, and Sokka had finally given up on going back to sleep at all. Aang had remained asleep all night, or at least studiously feigned it, the traitor. At least Katara was on his side, only nodding off again once the crying had quieted. 

This last time, the crying finally stopped with Sokka wiggling his stubby little legs around and babbling nonsense. Katara murmured that the baby was probably getting hungry, as little ones ate more often, but he didn't know what babies of this size ate. Was he little enough for milk, still? Surely, he didn't have enough teeth for solid foods, yet? 

Regardless, he was distracted, for now. Katara was smiling in that faraway way she had, when her mind was elsewhere. 

"What're you thinking about?" He prompted, barely looking up from the squealing baby in his hands. The little creature was entranced by his loose hair, swiping for handfuls of it with those deceptively strong hands. 

"You ever think about kids?" She asked. 

He stilled, looking over at her. "Uh, no, not really." The baby made a grumpy noise, and he obediently resumed the wiggling.

"Really?" She seemed surprised, for some reason. "You've always been good with them, though." 

"Being forced to babysit isn't the same as being good with kids." He argued. "I dunno, I never really thought about it. Seems like not a big deal in the overall scheme of things, what with the never-ending war going on and all." 

"Well, what if there wasn't a war? Would you want to settle down and have kids then?" She was weirdly adamant about this. He eyed her suspiciously.

"Like I said, I don't know. What's with the questions?"

She shrugged, the motion overexaggerated. She was covering for something. "I dunno, just seeing you so happy, with a Fire Nation baby…" 

"Wait." Sokka's hands stilled, raising his head out of the baby's reach. "Is this about Zuko?" 

"What?! No! Psh, why would this be about Zuko?" Now that was really suspicious. 

"I- you know I'll literally never have babies with him, right? Like, you know that's not possible, right?" Had she somehow missed the 'where babies come from' talk? There was no way, right, not when she'd helped Gran-Gran to midwife?

"Well, you could! There are options!" This was such a weird line of conversation. "You could adopt, or someone could act as a surrogate mother!" 

"Katara, seriously, this is really, really weird. What are you talking about? Where did this come from?"

"It's just a question!" 

"Yeah, right." 

"I'm just curious! I mean, I've always wanted kids, but I like boys. I mean, I'm only interested in boys. And it's okay, you know, if you're not, you know, only interested in boys- I mean, girls, in your case, of course, but-" 

"Katara." 

She shrank into her shoulders, refusing to meet his eye. "I found the flower. And the- the page it was on." 

Sokka tensed. "You went through my stuff?!"

"It wasn't on purpose!" She claimed. "It was back in the labyrinth! I was looking for paper so I could do the thing you were doing, draw a map to track our progress or whatever…"

"Katara, I had the only inkwell, and neither you nor Aang can even read a map."

"So maybe it wasn't a good plan, okay! The point is, I accidentally found your flower poetry, and I didn't know you felt like that about him, and I don't want you to think that I'd be upset with you or anything if I knew, so-"

"It's not poetry." Sokka mumbled. 

His response seemed to throw her off. "Wh- what?" 

"On the page with the flower. It's not poetry, I was just… I dunno, getting my thoughts out onto paper." 

"Oh." 

Tom-tom was getting fussy without attention. Sokka didn't quite feel up to playing with him, so he gave the baby back the club. Suitably distracted, the baby burbled happily. 

"You know, it's not like I'm planning to settle down and start a family with him or anything." He said, finally breaking the awkward silence. 

"Why not? If you like him, like, like him like him, haven't you considered it?" 

"What, do you think I'd just be totally fine being, I dunno, a royal consort or whatever, laying in a big comfy bed eating grapes while his dad burns the world down outside?" 

"That's not what I mean and you know it!" She huffed. "I mean, don't you ever think about, like, what if things were different? What if there was no war to worry about, if nobody had to pick sides, if we didn't have to worry all the time if we're gonna live or die?" 

Sokka didn't answer. The truth was that he tried not to think about those kinds of things. Who would they even be, without the war to shape and define them? 

"Do you think about those things?" He asked, instead. 

She looked over to where Aang still snored, back turned to them now. "I really hate that our first kiss was so forced like that. I don't know when, or even if I would have kissed him without that kind of pressure. If the war had never happened, if we'd met under different circumstances… would we even like each other?" 

He looked between them, taking in Katara's forlorn expression, remembering how the airbender had looked at her from the very moment they met, and he had little doubt. "You know what? Somehow, I think you guys would always find each other, no matter what." 

---

Sokka yawned widely, clumsy on the wooden ladder up to the scaffolding. Katara seemed similarly worn-out, and Aang was barely succeeding at his chipper attitude. He really had been faking sleep after all, the little jerk…

The rickety scaffolding would have been bad enough, so far over the city square, but the Fire Lord's giant, unfinished face sneered blankly over at them from up here. Even knowing how much it would hurt his knuckles, Sokka felt an urge to run over and punch that asshole, right in the oversized kisser.

Tom-tom tugged at his ear, forcing his attention back on the baby strapped to his chest. "Hey, little man, what's up?" 

The baby burbled and cooed, grasping at Sokka's face with wonder. 

"What, haven't gotten enough of my mug already?" He teased, letting the little hands grasp at his fingers, instead. 

"Come on, come on… I don't see Bumi anywhere!" Aang grumbled impatiently. Katara placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

A trio of teenagers stepped onto the scaffolding with them, all girls, their boots clicking in perfect time with one another. With measured steps, they closed the distance, remaining in perfect formation. It was eerily reminiscent of a pack of arctic wolves, and Sokka had little doubt they were just as dangerous. 

They stopped a short distance away, close enough to see eye-to-eye. The girl at the point of the formation stepped forward. "You have my brother." Her tone was even, sharp eyes flicking over to Sokka and his makeshift carrier. 

"Just like you asked. Where's King Bumi?" Aang demanded. 

Sokka barely heard them. The girl on the far right was so familiar... what was it? Something about her eyes... maybe her cheekbones?

"Just a moment, if I may?" The girl laid a hand on the sister's arm, halting her from giving a signal. Her sharp, amber eyes locked on the baby, calculating. "We're trading a two-year-old for a king. A powerful, earthbending king? That just doesn't seem quite fair , does it?" 

The haughty, calculating tone wasn't familiar, so he was sure they hadn't met before, but there was still something... 

.

As always, Sokka found himself seated on Zuko's oversized bed. He kicked his feet over the edge, hard enough to bounce the rest of him along to his own internal rhythm. "Your hair's so long. Does it take a long time to brush it? It always takes me forever to get all of the tangles out of Katara's hair. She's always bored and doesn't want to sit still long enough for me to braid it again after." 

Zuko shrugged. "I don't get it all that tangled, so it doesn't take very long for the servants to fix it." 

"Ugh! You and your servants!" Sokka groaned, throwing himself backwards onto the soft comforter. 

"You do your sister's hair?" Zuko asked, ponytail swishing as he tilted his head curiously.