Chapter Text
Part 1: The Healer of Ember Island
Crown Prince Zuko first heard about the mysterious healer woman on Ember Island when he went to visit his family’s beach home. His uncle, Fire Lord Iroh, had been insisting on repairing the seaside mansion and had sent Zuko to make notes on what work needed to be done. He made it as far as the porch before the rotted wood gave way and he received a nasty gash on his leg. The contractor, a local woman, who had been hired by Iroh, told him that there was a woman from the Northern Water Tribe with the ability to heal just about anything.
“She healed my own son’s broken arm,” the contractor said. “She was able to do in two sessions what would have taken months on its own.” Zuko knew that the cut was at risk of infection, so he allowed his attendants to take him to the healer.
The healer worked out of a rundown looking shack which looked like it wouldn’t survive the weakest storms of the typhoon season. Zuko was expecting the healer who matched her hut- old, run-down, and held together by sheer stubbornness, but the woman who greeted him and his attendants was young, beautiful, and moved like the element she controlled. She was a small woman, just coming up to Zuko's shoulders, but she held herself as if she were seven feet tall. She studied Zuko down her nose with kind, but clinical eyes. Even in the imperfect light of the lamp she had burning overhead, Zuko could tell those eyes were the same crystalline blue of the tropical waters around Ember Island. Her hair was pulled back in a long, dark braid down her back, with two locks of hair framing her dark, sculpted face. She was beautiful. That was a problem.
Zuko had always had trouble speaking around women he found attractive. He had hoped that he would outgrow it when puberty ended, but his self-consciousness had stuck around long after his voice had deepened, and he had reached his full height. He felt most of the blame lay with the disfiguring scar on his face, but the reason for his shyness hardly mattered at the moment. Even now he could feel his shoulders inching up towards his ears. She was staring at him expectantly, and Zuko realized she had said something.
"Um…" Zuko mumbled intelligently. "Hi. Zuko here." The healer blinked in bewilderment, and let out a surprised laugh. She had a smile that lit up her whole face and made Zuko want to escape quickly before he said something truly embarrassing.
"Hi, Zuko," she said, still sounding like she was laughing. "I'm Katara. How can I help you?" Zuko's face went stoic in his panic.
“My lord, the Crown Prince, has hurt his leg,” one of the attendants told Katara coldly, disapproving of her familiarity. Blushing slightly, Zuko showed her the blood-soaked bandage covering his wound. True to her reputation, Katara was able to heal it in minutes. Zuko watched in awe as his flesh was knitted back together under the blue glowing water surrounding her hands. When she told him the charge for her service, Zuko balked and tried to pay her twice what she asked.
“There’s no need,” Katara insisted. “I charge what I need to get by.” Zuko wisely chose to keep his thoughts about her current set up to himself.
“May I take you to dinner?” he asked impulsively. As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt the blood rush to his face in what was certainly a spectacular blush. Katara smiled at him, her smart blue eyes sparkling with amusement.
“Well, this is an honor,” she said. “It’s not every day a woman is asked to dine with royalty. But I’m going to have to say no thank you.”
“Right, of course,” Zuko mumbled. “I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll just…” Zuko stumbled out of the hut, followed closely by his attendants, vowing to never do that again.
That evening, after the contractor had finished her work for the day, Zuko decided to take a walk on the beach. He dismissed his guards for an hour or two. He was unlikely to be ambushed from the sea, and even if that were to happen, he was a master firebender and could hold his own for at least a few minutes.
As he walked along the beach, he came across an odd trail. It looked as if something had dragged itself out of the ocean and onto the sand. Zuko followed the trail, wondering what sort of animal had made it when the dragging marks suddenly became footprints. Zuko tracked them with his eyes, following them up to an outcropping of rocks. At the top stood a woman with her back to him, with her gaze out over the ocean. Her long dark hair blew in the breeze off the water. Zuko scrambled up the rocks quickly.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded. The woman spun around with a water whip already forming at her hand. Zuko stumbled back in surprise. “Katara?”
“Oh!” Katara gasped, seeming as startled to see him. She released the water in her grip with an apologetic smile. “I didn’t hear you coming.” Zuko’s quick eyes took in her swimsuit, and the strange-looking robe piled at her feet.
“What are you doing here?” he asked again, but in a kinder tone.
“I live nearby,” Katara explained. She reached down and gathered the robe in her arms, holding it to her chest protectively. “I was taking a walk.”
“A walk?” Zuko’s good brow drew down in confusion. “This beach is private. The guards should have stopped you.” Katara’s eyes went wide as saucers, and Zuko could actually see her thinking up a cover story.
“I..I don’t think anyone saw me,’ she said. “I was swimming a bit away, and I must have accidentally come up past the checkpoint. I’m so sorry. I’ll go now.” And she did go. She rushed past Zuko down the rocks and nearly ran up the beach and into the woods that surrounded the summer house.
“Wait!” Zuko called after her. “That’s the wrong way!” But Katara was already gone. The guards, hearing the prince’s shouts, had come immediately. When he told them about Katara, they went searching for her. The grounds were extensive, but they were surrounded by unscalable walls, and the guards moved quickly. Still, she was nowhere to be found. The only trace of her they could find was her footprints in the dirt trail leading back down to the beach near the far wall. They disappeared when the sand gave way to pebbles, but no one thought she could have continued that way. That part of the beach had been claimed by a herd of camel seals. One of them lifted it’s head and stared at the prince and his guards intently for a moment, and then ducked its head back towards the ground. Katara had disappeared.
“Is she dangerous?” a guard asked Zuko. The prince shook his head uncertainly.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “She could have attacked me on the rocks just now, but she didn’t. I don’t think she was expecting me. She sure is strange though.” The seal that had been watching them earlier lifted its head once more and let out an irritated bark.
“We should go,” Zuko told his men. “We’re disturbing the seals.”
.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
Katara was almost expecting Zuko’s visit to her healing hut the next day. If anything, he arrived later in the day than she thought he would. He had his guards stand outside while he went in to talk to her.
“I hope you haven’t hurt yourself again,” she greeted him.
“No, I’m alright,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Katara stared at him blithely, not giving away any hint of surprise or guilt.
“I’m fine, as you can see.” But Zuko wasn’t fooled. He could tell she was hiding something.
“I just wanted to check for myself. After all, you did disappear from my beach. I was worried the seals may have eaten you.”
“Seals don’t eat people,” Katara said, ignoring the first part. She turned away from Zuko and pretended to be busy straightening up her work area. ‘And I would hope that after growing up in the Southern Water Tribe, I know how to behave around them.”
“Where did you go?” Zuko asked. “How did you get out without my guards seeing you?”
“I went home,” Katara explained with a shrug. “And how should I know how your guards missed me? Maybe I’m just too fast.” Katara shot him a sidelong, sheepish glance and added in a more contrite tone, “I honestly didn’t mean to trespass. I’ve been going to that beach since I arrived in town. I didn’t know it was off-limits.”
“It’s...alright.” Zuko wasn’t sure what else to say. “Um...you can keep going to the beach there. If you want to. I don't mind. Just let the guards know when you arrive.” Katara nodded hesitantly.
“I can do that,” she said. A patient arrived then, and Zuko excused himself. He left with his guards, and when he was gone, Katara let out a sigh of relief. She had agreed to Zuko’s terms for use of his beach, but things would become more complicated for her.
Katara had recognized Crown Prince Zuko almost immediately when he was half-carried into her makeshift clinic the day before. Her father had described him to Katara in detail, from his appearance to his demeanor after he had gone to the signing of the peace treaty when his uncle became Fire Lord. She wasn't surprised that he hadn't recognized her, though. The chief of the Southern Water Tribe was only slightly higher in rank than the chief of the Foggy Swamp Tribe. The names of Hakoda's children were probably not even mentioned. And there was only one source likely to spread the word of her running away, but he was unlikely to spread the story himself.
For her part, Katara was trying to keep a low profile. She had been traveling around the world for two years, and in that time she had mastered the water bending styles of the Northern Tribe and the Foggy Swamp, both fighting and healing. Since the war had ended, there wasn’t much fighting to be done, but she had found that traveling around as a healer had granted her the freedom she had dreamt of during the war. As long as she could leave a place before her reputation got too big, she was fine. It usually took at least a couple of months. Now that Prince Zuko had noticed her, though, she might have to think about disappearing again. After all, if he mentioned to his uncle the healing waterbender on Ember Island, it wouldn’t take much for her name to make it places it shouldn’t be. Something similar had happened when she was in the Northern Tribe.
But, Katara thought as she worked on her patient, that might be borrowing trouble before time. After all, no one knew how she had managed to make her quick escapes. And Ember Island was lovely during the summer. She had wanted to stay until the end of the seals’ calving season and then move on with them. There was no reason to assume that Prince Zuko cared enough about meeting her to mention it to anyone who would care to tell anyone else. To him, she was probably some poor Water Tribe expatriate who came to Ember Island to make some quick money. Allowing her access to his private overgrown beach was a kindness it probably wouldn’t cross his mind to mention to anyone beyond his staff. Katara was comforted enough by her reasoning to put off her departure plans for the moment.
She went to Zuko’s beach after her last patient for the day. As he promised, she was given access with no trouble. The small rucksack she carried with her hadn’t even been searched. That was a bit uncautious, Katara thought, but it did spare her the trouble of explaining the seal skin robe she carried with her everywhere. She made her way towards the beach along a winding path that cut past the summer house. Zuko was standing at the edge of the path studying the landscape and scribbling on the pad.
“What are you writing?” Katara asked. Zuko did a double-take when he saw her.
“Oh!” he said. “You’re here!” Katara arched her brow at him.
“You did say I could come to the beach,” she said. “Or is this a bad time?” Zuko flushed lightly, and Katara found herself smiling at his flusterment.
“No!” Zuko said quickly.”I mean, it’s not a bad time. It’s just...I guess I wasn’t expecting you so soon.”
“Please don’t feel you have to entertain me.” Katara did her best to hide her smile. She didn’t want Zuko to think she was laughing at him. “I can see you’re busy, and I don’t want to interrupt.”
“It’s not important.” Zuko scowled at the paper in his hands. “I was trying to come up with some ideas for the garden, but I don’t have my uncle’s eye for this kind of thing.”
"A garden?" Katara looked around the yard trying to imagine the overgrown area clear of the tangled green foliage and wood, and blooming with flowers.
"Here," Zuko passed her the paper he had been scribbling on, and Katara realized he hadn't been scribbling at all, but sketching.
"I think you're a talented artist," she said after a moment, running her fingers lightly over the brush strokes. "But I'm afraid I can't help you with planning. I've seen exactly one garden in my life that wasn't sculpted from ice. And it was only Ba Sing Se's middle tier. I'm sure you're looking for something a bit more elegant."
"Yes," Zuko agreed. "I also don't think the flowers that grow in the Earth Kingdom would survive here." Katara handed him back the sketch and shrugged.
"Sorry I can't help you."
"It's alright." Zuko sighed and put the painting in a folio. He glanced at Katara nervously from the corner of his eye. "I can't look at plants anymore. Do you… would you mind some company by the water?"
"The more the merrier," Katara grinned at him. "It would be impolite to bar the guy who owns the place from his own beach." Zuko's face heated up, and he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.
"I don't want to impose," he said quickly. "I don't have to go with you." Katara laughed and caught the hem of his shirt.
"I was only kidding," she promised. "Come on, before the sun sets."
Katara showed up every day after she was done healing. Sometimes she would swim alone, and sometimes Zuko would join her. She liked these times best, even though Zuko kept asking questions Katara couldn't answer. She hadn’t realized how lonely she had been in her travels until then, and she found herself closing up earlier and earlier so she could get to that private stretch of beach.
Zuko had a lot fewer guards up than Katara. She soon learned all about him. He told her about growing up with Ozai, and his mother’s death. She found out that he had a younger sister who, in his estimate, was much smarter and more powerful than he was, but who had broken under their father’s strict insistence on perfectionism. She was currently receiving mental health treatments in a remote country estate, but Zuko was hopeful that one day she would be well and free from her father’s influence.
He told Katara how he felt unprepared to take the throne of the Fire Nation, though Katara thought his fears were unfounded. As she spent time around the beach house, Katara paid attention to the servants and guards and hired workers on the property. They were devoted to their prince, she soon found out. And he in return was an attentive, kind, and respectful leader. He was firm when he needed to be, but mostly he was gentle, and even paternal despite being younger than most by some years. After hearing about the horrors of his father, and of being privy to the worries Hakoda had of him eventually ascending the Fire Nation throne, Katara was glad to find Zuko a different sort of man altogether. He would be a good ruler, Katara could tell, and she wished she could let her father know what she had learned.
At night, she left through the gate, usually after having dinner with Zuko. He always offered to walk her home or to send a guard with her, but Katara refused, saying she wasn’t going far. Zuko assumed she slept at the healing hut, but he stopped by early one morning on his way to meet with the contractor and found the door hanging slightly open and the hut empty.
“I’m not open for another hour.” Zuko yelped and spun around to find Katara behind him. She was wearing the strange seal skin robe he had seen the first time he found her on his beach.
“I’m sorry,” Zuko said. “I wasn’t looking to break in, but the door was open, and I...were you on a walk?”
Katara shook her head. “I was just coming to get this place ready for the day.”
Zuko’s brow drew down. “You don’t sleep here?” he asked.
“Did you need me for something?” Katara asked. Her eyes swept over him in a clinical manner that meant she was looking for an injury. Not finding anything immediately wrong, she met Zuko’s eyes questioningly.
“Nothing important,” Zuko said. ‘I was on my way to a meeting, but I’m a bit early. I wanted to see if you wanted to have breakfast with me.” Katara smiled at the offer but shook her head.
“I already ate,” she told him. “But I’ll be stopping by the beach later.
“I have another meeting later,” Zuko shook his head, unable to keep the frustration from his voice. “My uncle wants me to meet with the governor. And then I have to leave for a few weeks. My uncle is sending me to meet with the king of Omashu.”
“Oh! You didn’t mention you were leaving.” Zuko wanted to believe that he wasn’t imagining the disappointment in Katara’s face.
“I just got word from him last night,” Zuko explained. “The renovations at the beach house are a side project, but I am still my uncle’s heir.”
“You’ll be back in a few weeks?” Katara had walked around Zuko and into the healing hut. She fumbled around for her spark rocks for a moment before Zuko lit the lamp himself.
“That’s the plan,” Zuko said hesitantly. “But it might be longer if my uncle decides he needs me somewhere else.”
“I see.” Katara glanced away, and Zuko knew this time he wasn’t imagining the way her mouth turned down quickly. His heart sped up and he decided to take his chance.
“Would you maybe want to come with us?”
“ What ?” Katara gaped at Zuko in astonishment.
“We could use a healer,” Zuko hurriedly explained. “It’s a job offer. And I can pay you whatever you’d like. Room and board are included, and you’d have your own room.”
“Well, I’ve never been to Omashu,” Katara said thoughtfully. Zuko beamed at her.
“It’s great!” he told her. “The city is amazing, and there’s tons of stuff to do once you’re there. Well, King Bumi’s a bit weird, but he’s not a bad guy. And my uncle says the Avatar is going to be there around the same time-”
“The Avatar?” Katara’s spine went stiff, and she did her best to keep her face neutral. “The Avatar is going to be there?”
“Yes, more than likely,” Zuko frowned slightly. “Is that a prob-”
“I can’t go,” Katara cut in. Her voice was almost sharp. “I’m sorry. Thank you for the offer, but I won’t be able to join you.”
“But, why-” Katara had taken Zuko’s arm and was leading him out of the hut.
“If I don’t see you before you leave, have a safe trip.” Katara gazed up at Zuko, clinging to the door frame. She seemed to be on the edge of saying something else, but then she just shook her head with a rueful smile. “Take care of yourself.” And then she shut the door.
Zuko was baffled for the rest of the day. He barely heard what anyone said in his meeting with the contractor or with the governor. Fortunately, he was able to get away with smiling and nodding for the most part. Although dinner with the governor and his family was a bit more difficult. The governor’s wife kept trying to draw Zuko into conversation with her and her daughter, but the only thing Zuko wanted to talk about- why Katara had shut down so abruptly- wouldn’t have done him any favors. When he was finally able to leave, Zuko stopped by Katara’s hut and peered inside the darkened window. She wasn’t there, and from what Zuko could make out in the dim light of the flame in his hand, there wasn’t anyplace set up for sleeping. He shook his head in confusion and moved on.
The guards at the gate greeted Zuko with formal bows and told him that he had just missed Katara by a few minutes. She was gone for the night, and Zuko felt irritated at himself for not just coming straight home. He might have had a chance to talk to Katara. To ask questions. To say good-bye. Something! With a sigh, Zuko decided that he wasn’t ready to be inside yet. He headed down towards the beach instead.
The winding path was in the process of being cleared, but there were still thick tangles of underbrush here and there that obstructed the view of the beach at certain turns. Zuko emerged from one of these turns to see two figures standing on the beach. One of them Zuko recognized immediately as Katara in her odd seal skin robe, and the other was a woman clad in a flowing white gown that seemed to glow in the moonlight. She had an arm around Katara’s shoulders, and they seemed to be in deep conversation. Zuko gasped and took off running down the path. How had Katara returned without being spotted again? Why was she here? Who was that woman she was talking to? Had Katara been crying? All of these questions raced through his mind as he rounded another blind turn before stumbling on to the beach.
There was no one there. No Katara. No strange woman. Zuko spun around searching the rocky outcrop and the water and the path, in case they had somehow managed to get past him. Nothing. Zuko knew that Katara was a waterbender, but he didn’t see how she could have disappeared into the water so quickly. He narrowed his eyes and looked over the water. The only being he could see was one of the seals from the herd staying nearby.
.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
Katara had gone to Zuko’s beach as usual after her day was done. Even though he had told her that he would be busy that evening, she had hoped they might cross paths. She wanted to apologize for her abruptness earlier, even though she wouldn’t be able to explain it. And she wanted to say good-bye properly, just in case…
The sun had long since set by the time Katara decided that Zuko wouldn’t be showing up after all. She left clinging to the hope that he had just been held up, and he wasn’t just avoiding her. When she wasn’t in sight of the guards anymore, Katara took her seal skin robe from her rucksack and threw it on over her shoulders. Then she doubled back, taking the rough secret path back down to the beach.
There was a company waiting for her by the water’s edge.
“It’s been a while,” Katara said, coming up beside the woman in the beautiful white gown. The Moon Spirit smiled at Katara serenely. She drew her robe a bit tighter around her shoulders to stave off the sudden chilly breeze off the ocean, and also to hide her much shabbier clothes.
“Has it?” the spirit asked curiously. Katara nodded.
“Two years.”
“Well,” Yue said with a shrug, “time works a bit differently for us spirits. I thought I’d check on you. How have you been doing?”
“Great!” Katara said with a smile. “I’ve been all over the world. I’ve mastered two forms of waterbending and healing. And I’ve met so many interesting people. I truly am grateful for everything you did for me, Yue.” The Moon spirit smiled kindly and leaned towards Katara expectantly.
“But…” she prompted. Katara’s smile wavered, and then finally disappeared with a sigh.
“I miss my family,” she said. “I haven’t seen them in so long. And I can’t really write to them. I can’t stay in one place too long, because I think someone will say something that will get back to…” Katara took a deep shuddering breath. Even after all this time, she couldn’t say his name comfortably. “He is looking for me. I had hoped that he would have given up on me by now, but he’s still trying to find me. I...I’m worried I won’t be able to keep hiding from him forever. And I'm worried about what will happen when he finally catches up with me.”
Yue turned and stared out over the ocean with a fond smile. The moon had turned the surface a silvery-white color, and every now and then, a ripple would disturb the surface, sending rings of light in the direction of the two women- one mortal, one divine- standing on the sandy shore.
“He is still looking,” Yue said at last. It wasn’t a warning. There was nothing ominous in Yue’s tone. It was just a matter of fact. “And he will find you eventually. The world isn’t so large, and he is very determined.” Katara winced at that.
“He kept saying that we’re destiny,” she murmured. “Am I destined to marry him after all? Did I just do all of this to end up right back where I started?” Yue regarded Katara with her unsettling gaze for a moment.
“No,” she said. “You won’t end up where you started. You’ve become far more powerful than you were. Far wiser. I think you’re beginning to understand the truth of destiny.” Katara’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“What truth is that?” she asked. Yue smiled kindly and pulled Katara into a comforting embrace.
“That destiny is what you choose to make of it.” Katara sighed and shook her head.
“I wish I knew what that meant,” she said. Yue chuckled knowingly.
“You’ll figure it out. I have every faith in you.” Yue released Katara and glanced back up the beach. “I think we should both get going now. Or you’ll have some interesting questions to answer.” Katara waded into the surf, letting the water wash over the hem of her robe. When she poked her head out of the water, Yue was gone, and Zuko was running towards the water, looking around in confusion. Katara shuddered at the thought of how close she had come to discovery and dove deep under the waves.