Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He doesn’t speak to Uncle when he turns to follow Azula down the tunnels. Can’t. 

Not with his sister’s words whirling in his mind like some sickening hurricane. 

Not with the delicate touch of the waterbender still on his face. 

The whole experience of being trapped with her had felt… soft.

He liked soft.

Azula was never soft.

Father didn’t like soft.

He shouldn’t be soft.

He burned the thoughts away with his sleeves. He could feel the adrenaline begin to buzz more and more insistently in his blood. There is a fight coming, no matter what he chose. 

Good, he thought, it’s been too long since I’ve been in proper battle .

But a small part of him despaired at it. He was so tired of fighting. So tired of being afraid.

You are always afraid in Ba Sing Se , his mind told him. Afraid of being found out. Of being hated. Of fucking up the one good thing to happen to Uncle. Afraid of a life of peace. Afraid of losing that peace.  

If he goes home he can stop being afraid. He can stop worrying about being found out. He can be home .

Yes, he thinks, that’s what he wants. He wants to go home after three years away. He wants Father to be proud of him. To stop running. 

He just had to fulfil his destiny and capture the Avatar. 

The memory of cool fingers brushed against his skin like a breeze. 

I’m free to determine my own destiny .

He scrubbed the feeling off as the sounds of fighting got closer. 

They stood at an impasse, the four of them. Zuko, the fulcrum upon which the rest of the battle hinged. 

Zuko could not stop looking at the hope and fear that mixed on the waterbender’s face. He could not stop looking at the cold glint of victory in his sister's eyes. 

He knows that look. From the few times they trained together. From the corner of his eye every time he fell for one of her lies. From the night his mother disappeared. 

He doesn’t know that look. He’s only seen the waterbender in battle. From the first pure joy when she’d clumsily frozen his men to the deck of his ship, to the confident, determined, capable glint in her eye at the North Pole.

But that’s not true, is it?

He’d seen his eyes reflected in hers. He’d seen the scars they shared on their hearts. He’d seen the quiet but fierce protectiveness in her eyes every time she looked at her companions. Seen flickers of it when she looked at him. 

She’d offered him healing.

And how his battered heart ached for healing.

But that was once in all the time he’d known her. Known of her, really. 

He’d known Azula his whole life.

Unfortunately for him, his blast of fire was too close to Azula. Or too far from the Avatar and the Waterbender. Or too weak to be convincing. Or too something . 

But enough to be a threat if the Dai Li were to be believed.

He doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late. He grunted as a stone hand crashed around his wrist, and threatened to topple him. He barely managed to dodge another as he grappled to blast it off. 

“What-?” he tried to shout over the building sounds of water, fire, air, and earth colliding. 

But the Dai Li are not ones to negotiate with someone already deemed dangerous.

He dodged and wove and spun in the air to avoid each hand that came for him.

“Stop!” he shouted, throwing flames to block yet more stone.

The Dai Li did not.

This firebender, brother of their leader or not, was resisting arrest. The Dai Li understand how little blood ties mean when it comes to power.

Zuko defended himself as best he could, for as long as he could, but it wasn't enough. He’s already off-balance as it is after seeing Azula. Add to that his strange imprisonment, Uncle’s capture, and the deadly battle taking place right alongside him, and it’s enough. 

Enough that he doesn’t notice the rock fist that comes fast on his bad side. 

Something hits him in the head, hard . 

Hard enough that he seems to be knocked half out of his body. That must be why everything’s suddenly tilted. Why sound suddenly became muted and the colors too bright. 

The ground was coming up fast on his right side.

Everything went black before he ever met the dirt. 

~

Out of the corner of her eye, Azula frowned at the fallen figure of her brother. Sure he may have been a traitor, but it wasn’t necessary to kill him. Perhaps she should have been more clear about that to the Dai Li.

It didn’t matter much anyway. 

She’d tried to kill him plenty of times. So had Father.

Really, she was only annoyed that she hadn’t been the one to strike the final blow. What she could’ve said to Father. So dedicated to preserving the honor of the Fire Nation was she that, she had killed her own traitorous brother.

Again, no matter. She was about to kill the Avatar anyway. 

That was an honor that far surpassed getting rid of her stupid brother.

~

The world came back to him almost like a dream. Like his brain wasn’t quite catching what was happening around him. 

His head throbbed, and there was something warm and sticky leaking all over his face and getting in his eyes. 

With a groan he pushed himself up on aching muscles. Why did it feel like he’d fallen down a rocky ravine?

Wind buffeted his hair and made him blink even harder to see. He was in a cavern that was… too dark. Wait, weren’t caverns supposed to be dark? No this one had been lighter a second ago, what-?

Focusing on the scene around him, he felt his stomach drop. 

The waterbender looked terrible. She was scraped and bruised and her hair spilled in messy waves around her face. 

There was a small figure floating, glowing in the air. The Avatar , his mind supplied. 

He looked angry. 

Everyone else was frozen in awe. 

Except for one.

Azula was moving, slinking behind everyone, behind the Avatar. She looked determined, sure of herself. 

Struggling to his feet he followed as carefully as he could.

He had to- had to help her. 

Right?

She was his sister.

He was almost close enough to shout to her when he saw her sink into a bending stance. 

His eyes went wide.

He knew that stace.

Her arms moved in deliberate circles.

Azula was going to kill the avatar. 

A child, he realized.

His feet were moving before he could think. He didn’t want- he couldn’t- the avatar was a child .

Azula didn’t stop moving, drawing her arms tight to her chest. 

“Lala no!” He cried. 

Azula turned at the sound of her childhood nickname. Her brother, beaten to shit, face covered in blood. 

Two thoughts occurred to her.

Either that was a ghost. Or he wasn’t dead and was still a traitor.

Azula did not take risks.

He saw Azula twist towards him. Saw the lightning crackling at her fingertips as she thrust her arm out towards him. 

And then everything burned blindingly, blindingly bright.

~

Katara missed the initial hit. 

She saw only Aang as he hovered menacingly above the cavern. 

Until there was a deafening crash, and across the cavern Zuko slammed against the crystals, flashing with tendrils of lightning. 

Azula stood with smoking fingertips and a look sharper than steel in her face. 

And then everything fell into chaos. 

The Dai Li moved as one, effectively snapped out of their stupor, and the Avatar responded in kind. 

The ground heaved like a living thing, and the elements swirled through the air like vipers.

Katara, no longer occupied by the Dai Li, ran.

The smell of burnt flesh hit her before she even got a good look, making her stomach churn dangerously. Black snow and tawny eyes pulled at her, threatening to suffocate her as she stood. 

Falling to her knees she pushed the thoughts away. She had a patient to tend to. 

Zuko lay bloodied and twitching beneath her, muscles jumping and ticking under the skin as if plucked by some sadistic puppetmaster. 

Katara swallowed, and pulled water to her hands. 

It wasn’t good. 

Broken ribs, large blooming bruises, a cut on his bad temple, still bleeding sluggishly, and that wasn’t yet including the lightning. 

She could feel the wreckage of his chi paths as she ran her hand over his body. His heart sputtered weakly under her palm, and even under the eerie light of the crystals she could tell he was too pale. 

The idiot was dying.

Shit , she thought numbly, starting to heal the worst of the damage, shit shit shit . It wasn’t safe here, but… was it safe to move him? She wasn’t even sure he’d survive the next few minutes on the ground, much less survive the strain of… whatever it took for them to escape. Another explosion rocked the cave.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit . 

She almost laughed, if her friends knew how much she swore inside her head they’d probably never let her live it down.

The Avatar’s lights flickered, the vessel was still a child. A child exhausted from running, and fighting, and worrying. A child could not sustain the Avatar state for long. 

Aang fell, eyes drooping even as the air whistled past his head. 

Fuck .

Katara shot to her feet and sent a long tendril of water to snatch her friend out of the air. 

The move left her vulnerable.

She saw the bolt of blue flame headed towards her, and her muscles locked in indecision. Drop her friend? Or defend herself? 

She didn’t get any further than that before a wall of orange flame cut her off from Azula. 

General Iroh, Dragon of the West, spared hardly a glance behind him towards the waterbender and the Avatar. 

“Go!” He shouted, “I’ll hold them off!”

One last glance at the determination that settled over the waterbender’s face gave him all the reassurance he needed. 

The last Dragon fought. And the last Dragon bowed. But he was not, by any means, defeated.

The roar of water might’ve been the roar of blood in her ears for how fast Katara’s heart beat. Aang was slung across her shoulders, and Zuko was half cradled in her arms, head lolling limply into the water that kept him from slipping from her grasp entirely. 

She broke the surface and nearly cried at the sight of Appa already at the front steps. Instead, her knees gave out, and the weight of the two bodies she carried seemed impossible to take even a single step further.

“Sokka!” She called desperately across the stones.

Her brother was on the ground running towards her in an instant, Toph hot on his heels. 

“Aang,” she said shrugging the monk off her shoulders as Sokka reached them. 

“Katara, what-? Is he-“

“He’s fine,” she said, handing him off, “Avatar state took it out of him.”

“Well that’s great, but in case you haven’t noticed, Sugar Queen, we’re kinda in a hurry,” Toph snapped, “drop the laundry and let’s fucking go .”

“I’m not-“

Sokka’s eyes widened as he finally recognized the figure in her lap.

“Is that ZUKO?” 

Katara watched the blood drain from both their faces. 

“Aw shit,” Toph muttered.

Katara gaped, trying to find the words and the breath to explain. 

“We can’t take him.” Sokka said without intonation. 

She felt herself flush in rage

“Sokka, I’m not leaving him, he saved-“

“He’s dead.” Toph interrupted. 

“What?” Her voice came out thready and weak, “no, he, he-“

“He’s literally deadweight, we can’t take him.” 

Her eyes hardened,

“If you think for one fucking second that I’m leaving him-“

There was an explosion as the Dai Li too reached the surface. 

Katara clutched Zuko tighter to her as she struggled to rise. 

“Fuck it,” Toph grunted as she bent the stone beneath them, lifting all four speedily across the courtyard. 

When they got to Appa she reached blindly, snatching Aang out of Sokka’s arms,

“Drive,” she commanded, launching him to land on Appa’s neck with an undignified yelp. Next she turned to Katara with a strange look on her face,

“Got him?” She asked in a voice too quiet and too gentle for Katara’s comfort. But instead of dwelling on it she turned her attention to gathering the still figure completely into her lap as best she could,

“Okay,” she croaked, “got him.”

Her landing was smoother than Sokka’s, but not by much. She winced at what the jostling would do to Zuko’s already delicate injuries. 

Toph landed with a thump behind her, and with a quick “yip yip” they were in the air. 

Katara slid unsteadily next to Sokka, trying to use him as an anchor as she dragged herself and the battered prince somewhere a little more stable. Obligingly, her brother held out his arm and helped her move until Zuko lay somewhat secure between them. 

“He saved Aang,” she said quietly, pulling water to glove her hands. “Azula shot him full of lightning.”

Sokka said nothing as he pressed his fingers to the Zuko’s neck. He felt the barest flutter of a pulse for a split second before pulling away. 

“Katara, you can’t…” he started gently.

“I-I can ,” she insisted through the glow, “you didn’t see what they did to him, she just threw him away like-like he wasn’t…” important . 

Katara practically ripped the vial of spirit water from her neck. The water glowed a vibrant whitish silver like moonlight as it whipped into a glowing disk in her palm. 

“Please work.” She muttered, pressing it to the starburst in Zuko’s chest.

Chapter Text

Zuko blinked awake slowly. The sky was hazy orange, and the grass tickled at his bare arms. It was a nice afternoon, and all he really wanted to do was close his eyes again and take a nap. So he did just that.

Or, he would’ve if someone hadn’t chosen that exact moment to trip on him.

“Fuck!” they yelled, stumbling for balance.

Zuko grumbled and rubbed at what should’ve been a sore spot in his side. Strange that it didn’t hurt. 

A shadow hovered over him,

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” he said, offering a hand.

Blearily, Zuko blinked up into the face of…

“Lu Ten?”

His cousin’s face wrinkled in slight bewilderment, 

“Uh, yeah, that’s me. Hey, have we met before?” he asked, dropping his hand when Zuko didn’t take it.

Zuko blinked some more. His cousin looked almost exactly as he remembered him. His armor was a little more worn and his face had a slight scruff, like he hadn’t shaved in a day or two. 

“Uncle misses you.” he blurted.

Lu Ten’s eyes went wide.

“Zuko?”

“Yep,” he said, “It’s me… Zuko here,” suddenly self conscious, he rubbed at the back of his neck. His hand came back sticky with drying blood. Huh, that probably wasn’t good. 

“Agni above…” Lu Ten whispered, before grabbing Zuko’s shoulders, “What did they do to you?” he demanded, checking him over and frowning at every cut, bruise, and scar he found. 

“Uh,”

“How long has it been? Is dad okay? How old are you now? What happened ?”

 “It’s been… eight years,” he said, answering the easiest question. “I’m-I’m nineteen now.”

Lu Ten’s brow drew,

“You’re not in the war, are you” he said, plucking at Zuko’s Earth Kingdom browns.

“Er, no… not, not really anymore.”

Lu Ten looked up from his charred clothes expectantly. 

“Um, well I’ve- I’ve uh, actually been living in the upper ring with Uncle these past few months, and-“

“He did it?” Lu Ten interrupted excitedly, “Dad conquered Ba Sing Se and the war’s over?” He sat back on his haunches staring dreamily into the distance, “I wish I could be there to see it, but wait, what happened to you?”

Zuko swallowed nervously, looking away and rubbing at the blood on his neck.

“The war’s not over,” he started quietly, “after… after you died Uncle gave up the siege, and I think he was going to come home, but then Grandfather died and Father was on the throne and… and, um, mom was gone.” 

“So you’re crown prince?”

Zuko winced,

“I-I was but… I don’t know now. There was a meeting, and-and I wasn’t supposed to talk but a general was going to use troops as bait and I couldn’t- I-I spoke out of turn. There was an Agni Kai,” he waved at his scar, “I didn’t realize… and then-then I was banished to chase the Avatar to restore my honor,”

Zuko flinched at Lu Ten’s sharp gasp.

“But-but he’s real! I-I found him and I chased him, but… there was a battle at the North Pole, and-and Zhao-“

Lu Ten spat on the ground,

“Yeah we heard of that sick bastard.”

Zuko blinked.

“Oh,”

“He caused quite a stir around here, you weren’t under his command were you?”

Zuko shook his head.

“Not really, he tried to have me blown up and then Uncle helped hide me as a soldier on his ship, but I left as soon as we got to the North Pole.”

“You fought him?” Lu Ten asks 

“A little?” Zuko said sheepishly, “he started it.”

Lu Ten slapped his shoulder with a grin.

“You did good.”

Zuko smiled shyly at the praise. Really, it felt like he was a little kid again, basking in his cool older cousin’s approval. 

“So then what?” He prompted, “How’d you get to Ba Sing Se?”

“Oh,” Zuko muttered faintly, “well, father blamed me and Uncle for the loss, and he sent Azula to bring us back.”

“Little Lala?” he sputtered.

“Yeah, she can bend lightning now,” he paused for a moment to let his cousin gape, “but anyway, so Uncle and I went on the run in the Earth Kingdom and got into Ba Sing Se as refugees. We worked in the Lower Ring for a while at a tea shop, before Uncle managed to get his own shop, which was wildly successful, and then we got good enough to open in the Upper Ring and…” his hand bunched in the fabric over his lightning burn, “Azula found us again.”

The shock and pain in his cousin’s face almost made him regret saying anything at all.

“And dad?” he whispered.

Zuko shook his head, feeling a fresh wave of guilt and regret.

“Captured.” 

“Oh.”

“Yeah,”

The two sat back in silence over the news.

“At least he’s not dead,” Lu Ten said, “I’d probably have tripped over him instead of you if…”

“He’s gotten fatter since you last saw him,” Zuko said flatly, “tripping over him would be like tripping over a hill.”

Lu Ten barked a laugh, and Zuko grinned at his lap. He missed being happy with family. Lu Ten’s laughter faded into a slightly melancholy sigh, and they sat in peaceable silence for a long moment.

“I’m sorry,” Lu Ten said after a while.

“For what?”

“That our family’s fucked up.”

Zuko stared at him in shock, he’d never much considered that his family was anything out of the ordinary.

“Oh, uh, thanks,” 

Lu Ten nodded slowly,

“Who did it?”

“What?” 

“Who killed you, Zuko?”

His fingers twisted again in the fabric of his tunic.

“Azula.” He admitted eventually.

Lu Ten reached out and squeezed his shoulder. It was better than any words could have been.

Silence resumed. 

Zuko nearly fell backwards when a small ball of light popped up out of the grass. Lu Ten laughed at him before regarding the ball carefully.

“I wonder what the moon wants…” he muttered, reaching to pluck the ball from the air.

Zuko watched as it shimmered, flashed, and flit off into the distance.

Lu Ten shot to his feet, grabbing at Zuko to follow. 

“Lu Ten, what-?” He tried to ask as his cousin manhandled him along.

“You have to leave,” he said, ignoring any and all of Zuko’s protests. 

On the horizon he could start to make out a forest and a gate. 

Wrenching himself from his cousin’s grasp and planting his feet,

“Lu Ten, what the fuck is going on?”

“You don’t belong here, Zuko, you have to get out.” His cousin insisted, reaching for him.

“What? No! I-I’m dead I don’t- what do you mean I don’t belong here?” 

“You’re not dead!” Lu Ten roared, lunging for him.

Zuko tried to dodge, but his cousin still managed to snag an arm around him. 

“ What? ” Zuko squeaked as Lu Ten hoisted him over a shoulder.

“There was a mistake, you need to get out.” 

Zuko struggled against his cousin, but Lu Ten held fast, never slowing his pace for a second. Eventually Zuko gave up and went limp, letting his fingertips dangle in the long grass.

“But, but, I’m so tired , Lu,” he whispered, throat tight with unshed tears.

“I know, Zuko, I know.”

“No you don’t! ” He cried, “it was so easy for you! Your father loved you, everyone loved you and you were always so perfect! Uncle never declared you traitor, never ordered your death or your sister to kill you. You never had to be on the run! You never starved like I did! You never had to question this stupid war, or hunt a child! You never had to give up anything , and I’m tired of it! ” He shouted. “I just… I just wanted to go home ,” he said miserably. 

With a heavy sigh, Lu Ten set him down, put a hand on his shoulder and waited for Zuko to look him in the eye. 

“You’re right,” he said, the coppery gold of his eyes shone sadly, “it’s unfair and what’s happened to you was never right. But you have to go back.”

Zuko squeezed his eyes shut, tears finally streaming down his face. Lu Ten caught him by the shoulder and held him in a tight embrace. It only made him want to stay more. 

“Why?” he finally croaked, “why do I have to go? Why do I always have to go?”

He felt his cousin sigh,

“Because you haven’t yet made it to where you’re meant to be.”

Zuko gave a wet laugh,

“I don’t think such a place exists.”

“It will,” Lu Ten reassured him, “you’ve just got to get there.”

Zuko swallowed, holding his lost cousin tighter.

“Hey, remember what it said on that knife dad sent you?”

“Never give up without a fight.”

“You’re not done fighting, Zuko, and you won’t be alone. Not this time, I promise you that.”

Zuko nodded, and Lu Ten started to pick them up again. This time Zuko stumbled to his own feet and let Lu Ten lead him to the gate before the forest. 

On the other side of a gate waited a water spirit. She took the shape of a young woman, wreathed in shimmering ribbons of water that arced around her in a half moon. The spirit herself was glowing a gentle blue, translucent like her water. Two streams looped back from her temples, framing her face and disappearing into the undulating waves of her hair. Her hand was held out, the look on her face pleading. It was as if she were begging him to come with her, as if he would break her heart if he refused. 

Lu Ten squeezed his shoulder,

“If… if you see dad,” he said, voice strained, “tell him… tell him I miss him, and that-that he’s forgiven, okay?”

Zuko nodded mutely as his cousin pulled him into one last hug.

“You’re going to be great, cuz, I just know it.” he said, releasing him with a nudge towards the spirit.

With a last steadying breath, Zuko took her hand.

Chapter Text

The silence stretched long. Zuko’s heart remained stubbornly still under her palm, but she couldn’t give up, not yet. 

Logically, she knew he was dead, but her hand refused to move. The center of her palm felt almost attached to his heart, like a gossamer thread, straining but still unbroken. She tugged at it gently, as if it might coax his heart to beat again. 

It tugged back.

Suddenly she was drawn into a hazy vision. Her surroundings swam as if she was looking from underwater, but everything was dry. In front of her appeared an archway similar to the one at the Spirit Oasis. Beyond it swayed golden grass that stretched on into the horizon. 

Her arm extended, palm up towards the field, and she could feel the slight tension of the thread pinching at her skin. She tried moving forward, but some invisible force stopped her just short of the gate. 

Before she could start to struggle in earnest a bright ball of light rocketed towards her, coming to an abrupt stop just before her face. 

“He’ll come in his own time,” said a warm voice as it shimmered and dissipated into the misty image of-

“Yue,” she breathed.

Yue smiled, pale blue eyes sparkling fondly. 

“It’s good to see you, Katara,” she said, “though I wish it were under better circumstances.”

Katara nodded, unsure how to respond when so many different questions and exclamations crowded her tongue.

“I understand you have been through much, but I have a few favors to ask of you.” Yue said, looking apologetic.

“Of course,” she said immediately, before remembering her manners, “it is an honor to serve the moon.”

“Don’t tell Sokka you saw me.”

“What?” She reared back in surprise. That was certainly not what she’d expected the moon goddess to start with.

“He cannot know you saw me here, nor can anyone for that matter. I need you to treat this with utmost discretion.”

“But surely I can tell Sokka, right? He misses you so much, Yue. I can’t just lie and not tell him I saw you.”

Yue looked sad. 

“There are a number of reasons I cannot allow that, Katara, chief among them is the fact that the other spirits don’t know that I’m doing this. They’ve lost interest in the human world and don’t see any reason to stop the war. After Zhao a few have come around, but I am still largely overruled. And I don’t… I don’t want to cause Sokka any more pain.” She added quietly.

“ Yue ,” Katara said almost chidingly, “Sokka was devastated to lose you, how could knowing you’re alright be a bad thing?” 

“Because if he spends his life looking at the moon he’ll never see what’s in front of him,” she said with a sad smile, “he still has a life to live, a life that I am no longer a part of, and it’s better that way. He’s letting me go, but if you tell him all the progress he’s made might come undone.” 

“Yue,” Katara’s vision swum for an entirely different reason now.

“Promise me you’ll keep a secret?” 

“Yeah,” Katara swallowed, “yeah I promise.”

“Thank you, Katara,” Yue smiled with something like relief, “the second thing I need you to do is fight for yourself.”

“What?”

Yue’s gaze softened sympathetically,

“Katara, one of your greatest strengths is how fiercely you fight for those you love, but it is also your greatest weakness.”

Her brows furrowed,

“How is that a weakness?” she demanded, “Yue, you’re the one who died to save your people and became the moon!”

Yue frowned, and if Katara didn’t know better, she could have sworn she saw anger flicker in her eyes for a split-second. 

“I still died, Katara.”

She swallowed, suddenly feeling very guilty.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

Yue waved it off,

“I have watched you take care of everyone but yourself. While I admire your strength, you are still mortal. You cannot wear yourself down till the point of collapse. What I need is for you to fight for yourself, Katara, fight for the things you want.”

“I want the end of the war.” she replied automatically.

“No, I meant the things you want. Fight for the things that are just for you, Katara. Take it from me,” she said with another sad smile, “it’s worthwhile to be a little selfish while you’ve still got the chance.”

Katara nudged at a blade of grass from where she hovered above the ground,

“If you say so,” she replied quietly.

A cool hand rested on her elbow,

“You are a key player in all this, and that is because of you . Because of who you are , Katara. Not because of who people tell you to be. Do you understand?”

Katara’s eyebrow quirked,

“You mean like when I kicked Pakku’s ass?”

Yue giggled, seeming once more like a teenaged girl and less like an ancient celestial spirit. 

“Yes, exactly like that,” she said, with a grin, “you were incredible back then.”

“Thank you,” Katara said, trying not to seem too pleased with herself. 

Yue smiled,

“I suppose what I’m trying to say is, you are most powerful when you listen to your heart, and when you don’t let other people hold you back. Remember that.”

Katara nodded solemnly. 

Yue beamed, just as the tension in her palm gave a sharp tug. Katara winced.

Yue’s eyes sparkled mischievously, as she glanced behind her.

“Here comes your prince,” she murmured, before turning back to Katara, “a last piece of wisdom before I go. The moon may wax and wane, but even when it is dark, it is still the moon.” And with that she winked out of existence, leaving Katara stunned and more than a little confused.

A sharp pinching in her hand brought her back to present. 

On the horizon she could see two figures approaching. One looked like a Fire Nation soldier, high ranking by the looks of his armor and ridiculous mutton chop sideburns. Even so, he had a kind face and a gentle demeanor as he supported a decidedly more bedraggled figure in scorched and tattered Earth Kingdom browns. With a slight ache she recognized Zuko, stumbling along. 

Even from so far away she could see the exhaustion that saturated his every move, as if it was a physical weight dragging him down.

Once they were close enough, Zuko looked up, eyes locking with hers. 

Beneath the weariness she could see that familiar determination in his eyes, flickering and mixing with a cautious hope.

Her heart soared. In the cave she’d seen him as a person for the first time. Someone just as lost and hurt as any of them in this war. Then she’d watched the haughty prince turned kindred spirit struck down by his own sister. 

Seeing him so remorselessly shot had lit a fire in her. A fire fueled by her fury at the Fire Nation. Fury at what they had taken, at what they had done. Fury that they had twisted someone so human into a monster with a permanent scowl, that spat hatred as easily as fire as he chased after them. Fury that he’d not had the chance to be the good man she’d glimpsed under Ba Sing Se. 

She would give him that chance, if only she could save him first. 

She twisted her hand, trying to pull him closer with the string, but the thread remained steadfast. 

“Zuko!” She yelled, “Zuko take my hand, I can help!”

But he didn’t seem to hear her.

She tried calling again and again as he got closer, but neither he nor the man beside him seemed to hear her. 

Finally they reached the gate, and Zuko let go of the man, scrutinizing her with a weary sort of awe, gaze coming to rest on her outstretched hand.

Take it, she begged silently, let me help you .

The man next to him gripped his shoulder, saying something she didn’t catch. The sound warbled as if coming from underwater. Zuko nodded, letting the man pull him into a tight hug, muttering one last thing before releasing him with a nudge towards her. 

Zuko looked up into her face, and it struck her how lost he looked. So young, and uncertain, and afraid . 

She wanted desperately to reassure him, to protect the fragile hope in his eyes. 

He breathed, and took her hand.

~

Zuko’s heart roared back to life under her palm.

His body gave a shudder, and a small gasp, and she watched through watery eyes as the tint of color returned to his skin. 

“The Earth Kingdom has fallen.” She heard Kuei saying behind her. 

Darkness pulled at the edges of her vision. Sokka’s arm reached out to steady her where she didn’t realize she’d been swaying.

“We need to find somewhere safe.” She said quietly.

“We’ll find dad,” Sokka said after a moment, “he’ll know what to do.”

~

Hakoda decidedly did not know what the fuck was going on. 

His son had just flown out of the sky on the back of the Avatar’s bison, and landed on his boat. 

To Hakoda, that was a relief.

What was not a relief were his passengers: an unconscious Avatar, a tiny but terrifying earthbending girl, the Earth King, the Earth King’s bear ( just bear, which was… well, it certainly wasn’t anything he’d ever heard of before) and on top of that, his daughter collapsed from exhaustion after healing the half-dead Prince of the spirits-damned Fire Nation . 

Hakoda glanced at Bato to make sure he hadn’t completely lost his mind. Bato shrugged helplessly and stared at the same part of the deck he was staring at. Definitely not imagining things then. 

He sighed, and Bato gave him a comforting slap on the shoulder. 

Time for one hell of a family reunion.

Chapter Text

Hakoda was immediately swept up as Sokka pushed the prince into his arms and picked up his sister, making a beeline to the hold. 

“Bato-,” he called

“Getting the healers!” He yelled over his shoulder, already running.

Hefting the prince in his arms, Hakoda hastened to catch up with his son. 

“I’m going to assume that there’s a very good explanation to all this,” he said. 

“You and me both,” Sokka muttered, shouldering his way past the crew’s hammocks.

Hakoda stopped and nodded towards a far hammock,

“We set up a new one for you before you went out, Katara can use it for now.”

Sokka spun on his heel and gently settled his sister among the furs, pausing to pull a blanket over her before turning back to Hakoda. 

Hakoda cocked his eyebrow,

“Uh,” Sokka asked, scratching the back of his head, “where’s the medbay again?”

“Come on,” he huffed good naturedly.

“Look, it’s not my fault I haven’t been on the ships in five years,” Sokka said defensively behind him.

“I never said it was.”

“Right, well… good.”

Hakoda filed that away for a later conversation. 

~

They arrived to a silent and empty medbay. Bato must still be rounding up the healer. With a slight grunt, Hakoda lowered the prince into the nearest cot. Not roughly, but none too gently either.  

If it weren’t for the dead silence of the hold, Hakoda would’ve missed the tiny gasp of pain that caught in the boy’s throat.

Frowning, Hakoda began pulling off the charred remains of his tunic. 

“So this is the Fire Prince, huh?”

He heard Sokka shift behind him.

“Yeah…”

“Care to explain…” he gestured vaguely at the wreckage before him. A starburst of angry burnt flesh glistened over the prince’s heart, his skin a tapestry of bruises, scrapes and scars, “this,” he finished flatly.

“Well,” Sokka started, shifting his weight from foot to foot, “As near as I can figure he’s been most immediately fucked up by his sister Azula, the princess. She kinda took Ba Sing Se and shot him with lightning.”

Hakoda nearly choked on air at his son’s casual mention of the fall of the Earth Kingdom and a type of bending he hadn’t even thought possible .

“Is this,” he started, trying not to sound too strained as he faced his son, “normal for you guys?”

Sokka scratched his chin pensively. 

“Well the Earth Kingdom stuff is new-ish. I mean, accidentally inciting political upheaval isn’t that far off brand for us. La, Katara started a rebellion on a prison rig in the first village we came across.”

Hakoda could feel himself getting closer to a heart attack. 

“And, I mean Zuko’s usually pretty fucked up, but he hasn’t been on our side before so we never really cared.”

“And he’s on our side now?” Hakoda asked carefully. 

“I mean, I think so?”

Hakoda sent a prayer to Kya for strength, and wished fervently that she were there to help him deal with world-saving children. 

“Katara did tell us he apparently saved Aang in the catacombs, so I’m guessing we can probably, maybe, sorta say he’s not as bad as we thought. Plus Katara refused to let go of him once she and Aang escaped, so,” Sokka shrugged, “we probably shouldn’t let him die a second time.”

Hakoda was saved from having to respond as Bato and their healer came bustling in, shooing them away from their patient. 

As much as he wanted answers, Hakoda really just wanted to sit down and know that his children were safe. And maybe hug them long enough to make up for all the time he’d missed. If they’d let him.

~

Once back in the sleeping quarters, Hakoda listened as his son reccounted his adventures with the Avatar. 

Just as he remembered, Sokka’s storytelling was animated, and at times more than a little confusing.

~

“So the king of Omashu is actually a hundred and twelve,”

“One hundred and fifteen now,”

“Okay, the king of Omashu is actually a hundred and fifteen and conveniently the Avatar’s childhood friend, who, trapped you and your sister in some sort of crystals?”

“ Candy crystals, dad.”

~

“Sokka, I don’t think you can get warts on the back of your throat flap.”

“Hey! It’s my throat flappy, I know what I’m talking about!”

“Okay, son,”

~

“Is stopping a volcano eruption slang for something these days? Do I want to know?”

“No, dad, Aang really did stop an eruption with airbending.”

“Tui and La.”

~

“I have some choice words for the Northerners if they ever come out from behind that wall of theirs,” he said lowly.

“Good luck getting to them before Katara does,” Sokka laughed, “She nearly took Pakku’s head off the first time she fought him!”

“Wait, Pakku? As in the man your Gran-gran ran halfway across the world to escape from?”

“Uh, yeah, actually,”

~

“So that’s what happened to the moon,” he breathed, taking in the somber expression on his son’s face. 

“Her name was Yue.” 

~

“The bugs in the swamp tasted surprisingly like meat.”

“That’s great Sokka, but how are we going to find these people?”

“It’s more of a ‘the Swamp terrorizes you until they find you’ kinda deal.”

~

“Those girls sound… formidable.”

“Yeah, and then the pink one wouldn’t stop giggling until she tried to hit my head and broke her hand!”

“We always said you were hard-headed as a kid.”

“You joke, but it’s come in very handy, thank you very much,” Sokka sniffed.

~

“For what it’s worth, I think a new knot definitely counts as good knowledge.”

“ Thank you! See, dad, you get it!”

~

“This Suki sounds like some girl.”

“Yeah,” Sokka said, grinning in a dopey expression he suspected Bato knew well from his days wooing Kya, “She really is.”

~

He rubbed his son’s shoulder.

“You did good, son.”

“I know,” Sokka said, rubbing his face, “Jet was a real dick, but he shouldn’t have had to die that way.”

~

“And then the next thing we know, Katara’s busting out of the ground with Aang slung over her shoulders and her and Zuko looking like shit and refusing to let go of his corpse!”

“Corpse?”

“Oh yeah,” Sokka laughed half hysterically, “Toph couldn’t feel his heartbeat so she thought he was laundry at first.  And then we’re escaping and Katara’s using her magic water and suddenly he’s not dead and then she passed out and… here we are.”

Hakoda nodded slowly, staring at his daughter’s sleeping form. 

He felt he hardly recognized her now. They hadn’t even spoken yet, but gone was the little girl with coltish limbs at the start of adolescence. In her place was a burgeoning young woman, battle-worn and heartened. The way Sokka spoke about her, he wondered if she might be even more of a warrior than his son was. 

Sokka himself had done a lot of growing too, nearly as tall as Hakoda himself. He was more filled out, shoulders broadening, and muscles taking more definite shape under his skin. But even with the physical change, Sokka was still very much the young man he’d left behind. Wiser, and a little more serious, sure, but still full of his goofy personality and unusual ideas. 

He reached to place a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“You’ve done more than I could have ever dreamed, Sokka. You and your sister, and I am so, so proud of you,” he said, meeting Sokka’s eyes, so much like his mothers, “I hope you know that.”

Sokka all but tackled him in a hug.

Tears fell down Hakoda’s cheeks as he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed a kiss to his son’s hair.

“I’m so sorry I left,” he murmured, “I missed so much, and you had to deal with it all on your own…”

“It’s okay, dad,” Sokka said patting his back, “I get why you had to leave, I really do, and- and we’re okay, dad, we did okay without you.”

“You shouldn’t have had to.” he said roughly.

Sokka pulled away, meeting him with a look that made him seem much older than his nineteen years.

“You had to go where you were needed,” he said simply with a shrug, “You did your best.”

Hakoda nodded, swallowing against more tears,

“I suppose I did,” he said, though he had the distinct sense that he hadn’t. 

~

Even without the earth beneath her feet, Toph could feel the Earth King fluttering nervously behind her. 

“Spit it out,” she snapped.

“Is the Avatar going to be alright?” he asked, sounding like he’d never seen anyone passed out before. Then again, he probably hadn’t. 

Toph huffed,

“Twinkletoes’ll be fine, your earthyness. Going into the Avatar state takes a lot, and I’d imagine that fighting the Dai Li and Sparky II Electric Boogaloo didn’t help much either.”

“Who-?”

“The Fire Princess.”

“Oh,” he said, still sounding worried, “is there anything we can do?”

Toph slumped at the foot of Aang’s bed, and started picking at her toe.

“Eh, I think he just needs to sleep it off. Sugar Queen’s the one who’s seen more of this before, plus she’s our healer. We’ll have to wait until she’s back in action to ask.”

“I see.”

“I don’t.”

She grinned as she felt him start across the small cabin.

“My apologies, Miss Bei Fong, I meant no offense to your or your condition.” he said hurriedly. Bosco grumbled in agreement. 

Toph snorted.

“Yeah yeah, just don’t pussyfoot around me and you’re fine.”

“Of course, Miss Bei Fong,” a pause, “So what do we do for now?”

She shrugged,

“Wait for someone to wake up.”

~

Hakoda looked up,

“What is it, Ikiaq?”

“Fire Nation ships, Chief, lots of them, according to the scout. A scout ship should be here by tomorrow morning.” the younger man said as he passed the missive.

Hakoda frowned at the numbers on the page. 

“Gather the rest of the men, we’ll have to come up with a plan tonight.”

“Yes, Chief,” he said, hurrying off.

Hakoda scrubbed a callused hand over his face. It was going to be a long night. 

~

Katara woke to a gentle rocking and the smell of home. For a moment she thought she was back in the South Pole, and was sorely tempted to curl deeper into her furs. The illusion shattered when she heard the firm pad of feet across wood. 

“Snoozles? You in here? Is everything alright?” Called Toph’s voice uncertainly.

For whatever reason, Katara kept still, too tired to announce herself, but awake enough to listen.

“Yeah, over here,” her brother called back quietly.

She heard the rustle of clothes as he moved across the cabin to guide her. 

“Can’t see shit anymore, man,” Toph grumbled, sounding closer, “She still asleep?”

“Yup, Aang?” 

“Out cold still. I left him with his royal earthyness and Bosco.”

She heard a small rustling that she could only assume meant her brother was nodding. 

“No. Stop. The praise is too much.” Toph said dryly. 

“Sorry,” Sokka said sheepishly, “great job, Toph.”

“Well don’t stop now, I brought you something.”

“Seal jerky!”

Katara nearly gave herself away by snorting. Of course Sokka paid attention when there was food.

The cabin sank into amicable silence as Sokka tore into his snack with a happy sigh. 

“So… where is everybody? It seems awfully quiet around here.”

Sokka replied with a series of muffled words and loud chewing.

Toph sighed,

“At the risk of sounding like Sugar Queen, swallow before you talk.”

A loud gulp.

“Zuko’s in the medbay with the healer, and dad’s with the rest of the warriors, planning.”

“Shouldn’t you be in there with them?”

A rustle.

“Katara’s my little sister, Toph, I wanted to keep an eye on her.”

Toph snorted,

“Why? I’m pretty sure she can manage to sleep on her own.”

“I know, but… I don’t know, I’m the one who’s supposed to look out for her, and I left to be with dad. She had to deal with all of Ba Sing Se alone and she nearly didn’t make it out, and now I’m worried that something bad’s gonna happen if I leave her alone again,” a beat, “Please don’t tell her I said that or she’ll water-whip me into next week.”

“You have my word.” Toph replied sardonically.

Sokka sighed,

“Maybe I’m trying to make up for last time by skipping the war meeting by staying here with her. I guess I’m just still worried, is all. ”

Toph let out a put-upon sigh.

“That’s disgustingly mushy of you. Now get out.”

Sokka squawked indignantly.

“No I mean it,” Toph insisted, “I know how much it means to you to be there. I’ll watch Katara until you get back.”

“Really?” Sokka asked, sounding stupidly hopeful.

“Yeah,” Toph said, and Katara could practically hear the roll of her eyes, “what? I care about her too, okay? She’s a pain but she’s been good to me.” 

“Thanks!” Sokka exclaimed, scrambling to get up.

She heard him pause at the door,

“If anything bad happens, I’ll never forgive you, Toph.” he said, only half-joking.

“Yeah, yeah, you can keep being gross when you get back,” Toph said, “Now get lost and let someone else have a chance to look out for her.”

The cabin settled back into silence, and Katara pulled the furs over her head to muffle the sound of her tears.

~

In the war meeting, they had reached an impasse. 

“Hakoda, we can’t fight them. If we do, we’ll be wiped out. Our ships cannot handle another confrontation with the Fire Nation!” Bato said forcefully. 

Hakoda frowned. He knew he was right, but time was short, and they had no better ideas. 

“We don’t need to fight ‘em to join ‘em.” Sokka mused by his side. 

“You can’t possibly be suggesting we switch sides.” Bato said incredulously.

“Oh, we don’t have to switch sides,” Sokka said gleefully, rubbing his hands together, “ just switch boats! ”

~

When Sokka got back to the crew’s quarters, he found Toph asleep and Katara missing.

“Toph!” he roared.

The earthbender yelped, and promptly toppled to the side.

“Hey!” she yelled indignantly, “what the fuck was that for?”

“Where’s Katara?” He demanded, “You said -,”

“She’s fine! ” she yelled over him. 

“She woke up and went to check on Aang and Zuko.”

“Oh,” Sokka deflated a little, feeling his heart start to slow to a normal pace, “well, we have a plan now, but we’ll need Katara to get it done.”

“Great, why are you telling me?” Toph asked with a yawn.

“I… thought you’d like to know?”

“What I’d like is some damned peace and quiet.” she grumbled, stretching back out along the wall.

“Do you want, like, a real bed or something?”

She shrugged,

“Nah, there’s at least a little bit of dirt on the floors. I’m good where I am.”

“O-kay,” Sokka spun on his heel and took his exit. 

Katara was hunched over Zuko when he found her. 

“Hey,” she started a little when he put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Hi, Sokka,” she said tiredly without looking up.

He peered over her shoulder.

If he was honest, he couldn’t tell if the guy looked any better than the last time he’d seen him. His skin, already pale by Water Tribe standards, looked ghostly under Katara’s healing glow. His torso was wrapped in bandages and salve that gave little away as Katara’s hands moved over them. His face, at least, wasn’t entirely lax. His single brow knitted ever so slightly in pain. 

“He looks less dead now,” he commented.

“That’s because he is less dead, Sokka.” she snapped.

Sokka huffed a little,

“Hey, I was just trying to complement your healing skills, no need to yell.”

“I’m not yelling! I’m just-,” she sighed, “There’s just a lot of damage, and I don’t know if…” Her fists clenched, and she sent the water careening into a nearby bucket with a frustrated grunt. Sokka chose not to comment on the amount of ice he heard clunking around in there. 

“I don’t know if I’ll be good enough to…” her voice broke and he could see tears already starting to make their way down well-worn tracks.

Sokka slung an arm around her as she pushed angry fists into her eyes.

“Najaak,” he said gently, “you literally brought him back from the dead, and I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty fucking incredible. If anyone can heal him, it’s you, Katara.”

She nodded stiffly, sniffing a little as she scrubbed at her face. 

“Come on, dad and I came up with a plan for tomorrow and you’re going to need your strength.”

Katara swallowed, and pulled away for a moment to pull the blankets back up to Zuko’s chin. With a nod, she let Sokka lead her back to the crew’s quarters. 

He pushed Katara back towards what was supposed to be his hammock and went over to Toph in the corner. He nudged her with a foot until she grunted at him. 

“Time for sleepytime in a real bed, kiddo.”

“Fuck you.” she grunted.

“Nope, in the Water Tribes it’s rude to let someone sleep on the bare floor.” 

It wasn’t an official rule, but when you lived in a place as cold as the South Pole, leaving someone without enough furs during the night was close to outright murder. He figured that not wanting Toph to get trampled by exhausted warriors was a good enough reason to bother her.

Toph rolled over, grumbling.

“Fine, but I’m sleeping with Twinkletoes since his snores don’t give my earthbending a run for its money.”

“Hey!”

“Night, Snoozles,” she waved absently, shuffling down the hall. 

Sokka wasted a few more seconds glaring after her before shuffling to his own bed. 

“Budge over,” he said, shoving Katara aside to make room for himself.

“I hate you.”

“Say that again the next time you need someone to read a map.” he retorted.

She elbowed him in the ribs in response, and then rolled over so she could poke at the spot until he wheezed,

“Okay, fine, fine! I give, I’m sorry!”

She gave a satisfied grunt and rolled back over. 

~

“We’re going to flood, sink, and destroy the fleet. We’ll make it look like we’ve already been defeated by the time the Fire Nation gets here. With their guards lowered we should be able to sneak aboard at night and take the ship easily. The ship then becomes our disguise and we’ll be able to move much more freely after that.”

Katara could feel her knuckles whitening around the mouth of her waterskin. Sokka had already told her the plan, but hearing her father deliver it to the rest of the warriors was something else entirely. 

The crowd rang out with protests and lamentations, and whispers hummed through the air around her. These ships had been their homes for the past five years, through thick and thin. Many of the men had even built these ships themselves. It would not be an easy sacrifice.

It was, however, disturbingly easy to break her tribe’s own ships with her waterbending when the time came. Both she and Toph flooded and smashed the ships until the wreckage stuck out of the waves in jagged pieces.

Silently, she mourned another piece of her people destroyed by the war. Destroyed for the sake of the war.

Once at camp she busied herself healing Zuko again, starting the slow process of mending his broken ribs. 

“Katara, it’s cold, come sit by the fire,” Her father called later that night. 

“I’m fine.” it came out with more heat than she’d intended, but she made no move to fix it as she stared at the stars glittering over the bay. The image would’ve been pleasant had it not been interrupted by the jagged black holes that the wreckage made in the water. 

“What’s this?” Toph asked, taking the mask Katara had handed her. 

“We’re using stink bombs, this is so you don’t gag and die when we use them,” she said, taking the mask from Toph’s hands to fix it tightly to her face. 

“Neat.”

The battle was slow to start, but quick to end. The crew was unprepared for any sort of attack, much less one by a master waterbender, a metalbender, and stink bombs so pungent that a few of the crew even fainted. 

Katara watched the ship’s crew, trussed and left in their underclothes on the beach as the men of her tribe loaded their supplies onto their new ship.

“It’d be more merciful to kill them.” she said.

Her father sighed beside her,

“Just because we haven’t received word back from General Yi doesn’t mean we’re leaving them out to die a slow death. We’re short on time, and this is the best we can do for now.”

Katara said nothing, and walked away. 

“Panik,” he called after her. 

She walked faster. 

She very quickly ran into a dusty Sokka, freshly covered in bee stings. 

“I thought you learned not to poke those nests after the first time.” she snorted, pulling water to her hands and wiping away the welts on his skin. 

“Yeah, I learned, but Bosco never did! I was doing him a favor.” Sokka sniffed.

She laughed.

“I take it your expert bear lessons ended well?”

Sokka rolled his eyes,

“No, actually, neither he or Kuei learned jack shit.”

“Shocker.”

“And you know the worst part? In the end Kuei ripped off his clothes, and declared himself a wanderer so he could ‘learn about the real world,’” he said, miming quotation marks, “and then jumped on Bosco and rode off into the sunset!”

“You didn’t stop him?”

“Do you wanna babysit a grown man?”

She grimaced,

“No. Does dad know?”

“Yeah, I already told him.”

She pulled her hands away and returned the water to her pouch.

“What the fuck do you mean my clothes are the wrong color?” Toph’s angry voice demanded across the deck, where Ikiaq was patiently trying to get her to put on a red cloak. 

“We should probably go fix that,” she sighed.

Sokka grunted his agreement. 

“Looks like it’s gonna be a real adjustment for all of us.”

Chapter Text

Katara waited nervously on the deck. 

Gazing up at the intimidating gate in front of them, she couldn’t help but feel that she should’ve been belowdecks, hiding. Then again, she wanted to be there in case their disguise didn’t work. 

“Where are you headed, soldier?” called a guard. 

Her father looked up evenly, the very picture of a self-assured Fire Nation capitan.

“The Water Tribe Navy has been completely destroyed. Our orders are to head west to rendezvous with the fleet out there. So if you wouldn’t mind letting us pass…” 

He let the statement hang with expectation.

For a tense moment the guard scowled down at them, before lighting up and calling a cheerful,

“Good sailing, soldier!” as the gates creaked open.

Katara could nearly feel the collective sigh of relief as they passed to the other side. 

“By the time you join the rest of the fleet they’ll probably send you straight home!” the guard laughed, waving them off. 

“What makes you say that?” Sokka called.

“Didn’t you hear? The war’s almost over,” the man shouted, “Princess Azula killed the Avatar and her traitor brother at Ba Sing Se!” 

“Ow, ow, owowowowOW!” Toph hissed, yanking her hand out of Katara’s, “Fuck, Sugar Queen, I’d say get a grip but do it away from my hands!”

“Sorry.” she bit out, forcing her fingers to uncurl.

Meanwhile, Sokka was stroking his imaginary beard, a smug look on his face,

“So the Avatar and Fire Prince are dead, huh?” 

“What’re you so happy about?” Katara snapped, “They think they’ve won! ”

“Duh,” he said, rolling his eyes at her like she was stupid, “and that’s just the break we need!” 

“Explain to me how people thinking they’ve lost the world’s only hope for peace is a good thing.” Katara demanded.

“Well, for one, we know that the Fire Nation is no longer looking for Aang because they think he’s dead.”

Katara crossed her arms. He had a point. 

“And for two, they no longer think that the Water Tribes are any threat, so we’re completely free to sneak around until the Day of Black Sun!” he said triumphantly. 

“I don’t like it.” she said, stalking back belowdecks.

~

Aang sat up groggily, smacking his lips at the stale taste in his mouth, and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“Before you freak out,” Toph started.

Aang opened his eyes to metal walls and Fire Nation red. He shouted, punching out blindly and knocking Toph against the far wall.

She slammed a fist into the wall so hard that it rang and shook the whole cabin, which effectively got Aang’s attention.

“I said ,” she wheezed, “ before you freak out , we’re safe.”

“Sorry,” Aang said sheepishly, leaping to help her up.

She batted his hands away, opting instead to cross her legs and sit where she was. Aang sank into a lotus position across from her.

“We’re just hiding on some Fire Nation ships we helped Snoozles’ dad capture after the shitshow that was Ba Sing Se. That’s what I was going to say before you went all windy.”

“Sorry, Toph, I was just surprised is all.”

“I know,” she muttered irritably.

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Sokka’s off plotting with his dad, and Sugar Queen’s probably still healing Zuko, and-”

“ZUKO?”

“Ow,” Toph scowled, rubbing a hand over her ears, “what is it with you people? Is it some rule to shout the guy’s name whenever he’s mentioned?”

“But, but Zuko !” Aang spluttered, “He’s- I thought- is Katara okay?”

“She’s fine, Twinkletoes, just exhausted after dragging you and he-who-shall-not-be-named-for-the-sake-of-my-ears’ asses out from underground and then literally bringing the guy back from the dead.”

Aang reeled, trying to take this all in.

Toph cocked her head,

“So what happened down there anyway? Sugar Queen hasn’t told us hardly anything, and you and Sparky were… out of commission.”

Aang frowned, scratching at his head trying to remember exactly what had happened.

“Well, um, Iroh and I found Zuko and Katara, but Zuko wasn’t being very friendly so we left them to talk while Katara and I went to fight Azula. Then we were fighting, and then Zuko showed up. But before he could do much the Dai Li were attacking him and Azula was attacking us . And then Azula and the Dai Li were attacking us, and then…” he trailed off trying to remember through the haze of the Avatar state, “I don’t really remember after that.”

“Avatar stuff?”

“Mm hm, I tried meditating to finally master the Avatar state. I think it worked, but it’s really tiring.”

Toph nodded.

“So… why is Zuko here? Is he like, our prisoner or something?”

Toph scratched at a dirt smudge on her cheek,

“You know, it’s really unclear. Sugar Queen said he saved you by taking Azula’s lightning, and then she refused to let go of him after that. He’s still healing and hasn’t woken up yet, and I don’t think anyone really knows what to do with him, and honestly? I’ve dealt with enough royals in the past few days.”

“Oh right! Did you guys get Kuei?”

“Yup, stupid bear and all.”

“Hey, Bosco’s not stupid! He’s sweet!”

Toph huffed, blowing hair ineffectually out of her eyes.

“Bosco wouldn’t know danger if it bit him in the ass.”

“Maybe he just knew everything would work out,” Aang suggested hopefully.

“Whatever you say, Twinkletoes.”

~

Zuko woke slowly. 

His body ached, his head throbbed, and his chest felt like it’d been trampled by a herd of komodo rhinos. 

He groaned and tried to rub at his aching temple, only the movement sent a sharp jolt of pain through his chest. He groaned, face twisting in pain. Or, trying to. 

There was something on his face. 

You won’t be alone. Not this time.

Pushing himself up he pried open his eyes. Except, his bad eye wouldn’t open. 

His breath caught and he took in his surroundings. Simple bed with red sheets, dark metal walls, and the gentle hum of a ship’s engines. 

No . 

He raised a trembling hand to his face. His fingers met with the soft cotton of bandages. 

No. No, no, no, nonono. 

Lu Ten’s words echoed in his head. This time .

Agni, please no. 

He was right back where he began after the Agni Kai. The last five years were gone in smoke. 

You won’t be alone .

But he was, he was, he was.

Panic spilled like acid into his blood, spurring his heart to race painfully against his aching ribs. It pressed in on him from all sides and wrapping taut around his chest and vice-like around his neck.

He couldn’t do it again. He couldn’t .

It pushed from the center of his being, forcing its way up his throat and out. 

~

Hakoda was on his way to drop off a tray of food in Katara’s room when a horrible sound ripped through the halls. 

For a second he thought perhaps a vengeful spirit had come back to haunt them. But the noise stopped, just for a second as if to take a breath, and began again. It echoed harshly, bouncing off of the metal walls and clattering around his skull until recognition dawned on him.

Hakoda’s blood ran cold.

A human was making that noise. 

He was halfway down the hall long before the tray and its contents hit the floor.

~ 

Zuko was lost, emptying himself into a single horrid note. 

Maybe when it ended he would finally be empty. Finally be free of everything that plagued him.

But then there were hands and stern male voices pushing him down, wrapping around his wrists like manacles to trap him in his body.

The scream gasped, and stuttered into pleas.

No, I can’t, Father. I can’t, not again, not again, I’ll be loyal please.

~

If Bato and a few of his men hadn’t come running after him, Hakoda might’ve stayed rooted to where he stood in the Fire Prince’s doorway. 

The boy was half sat up, still in tattered clothes, clawed hands clutching at the bandages around his head and chest. 

And then someone was grabbing him, pulling his hands away from the bandages, pushing him down and calling for help. Soon all of them were there, holding the struggling boy and trying to keep him from hurting himself more. 

Hakoda felt his heart break when he started to beg his father for mercy. 

Finally someone got some sedatives into the prince, and slowly, the struggling and sobbing subsided. With trembling hands, Hakoda let go.

“Get Katara.” he said.

Hakoda and his men had heard their fair share of rumors throughout the years, bouncing from port to port. At first, he’d been quick to believe anything bad he heard about the Fire Nation, but as time went on he began to sort most of the stories into categories: Fire Nation propaganda, Earth Kingdom propaganda, and stories that had been told and retold too many times to be of any actual use. The ones he’d heard  about a scarred and banished prince had been sorted into all three, and Hakoda had never put much stock in the whispers about the way the Fire Lord supposedly treated his son. 

Now, though, he had the sinking suspicion that some of those stories were true. 

~

“What was that? ” Aang whispered fearfully, pressed into the wall next to Toph.

Her hands were still clamped around her ears, and her milky eyes stared wide off into the distance.

She shook her head looking sick. 

“Toph,” he whispered, putting a hand on her arm, “Toph what was that? Was that from us?”

“I think,” she said without lowering her hands, “I think that was Zuko.”

~

Aang bolted through the halls, running in the vague direction he’d heard the sound from. By pure chance he happened upon a room full of Fire Nations soldiers hunched over a bed. He could just make out a shaggy head of black hair and part of Zuko’s face, pale and slack.

“What are you doing to him?” Aang demanded.  

A tall man with flashing blue eyes turned with his hands up.

“Uh,” well that man certainly didn’t look Fire Nation. 

“Aang,” he said with a weary smile, “it’s good to see you awake.”

Aang blinked at the politeness, and lowered out of his fighting stance a little, drawing closer to the bed. The other soldiers, Tribesmen in disguise he realised, parted to let him through to see Zuko’s still form. 

“I don’t think we’ve met yet, I’m Sokka and Katara’s dad Hakoda.” he said, watching Aang move without complaint.

“What happened? Are you hurting him?” he asked again, this time with a little less heat.

Hakoda sighed,

“No, of course not. We heard him screaming and came running. We had to- he was hurting himself so we had to put him back to sleep, someone’s getting Katara now.”

Aang frowned, fingers ghosting over the bandages. Wouldn’t Katara’s healing have already fixed this? 

“He kept scratching at it in his sleep, ‘bout half a day ago,” one of the older men said, answering Aang’s unspoken question, “the bandages are there to keep him from opening the scabs again.”

“Oh,” Aang said quietly.

“I’m sorry I was out on deck and-,” 

Aang spun at the sound of Katara’s voice, his face splitting into a wide grin as she appeared through the doorway in a red cloak.

“Katara!”

She stumbled back a half step, looking surprised.

“Aang! You’re awake,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah! I just woke up and accidentally blasted Toph into a wall and-,”

“That’s great, Aang,” she interrupted, pushing past him to the prince, “Amaukjuaq told me he woke up screaming,” she said to the older man.

“Fighting too,” the old man responded.

“Well, Toph told me-,” he started, only to be interrupted by a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t think now is the time,” Hakoda said gently, leading him towards the door, “Sokka should be on the bridge and he can help get you up to speed.”

“Oh,” Aang said, unable to hide his disappointment, “okay, but we should probably get Toph too.”

~

Katara frowned at her patient, listening with half an ear to the old healer Ujurak. Absently, she brushed a thumb across his wet cheek.

“Katara.” she looked up with a start. The room had emptied, and she realized that Ujurak had asked her a question. 

“Sorry, what was that?”

Ujurak regarded her curiously with storm-grey eyes. 

“Why him?”

She shrugged, busying her hands unwinding bandages. 

“He was hurt.” not the whole truth, but not entirely a lie.

“He’s an enemy.”

Her brow furrowed,

“He’s… he was injured trying to help us, and he swore he wasn’t hunting Aang anymore.”

The old man’s brow rose.

“And you believe this?”

She shrugged again, pulling water to her hands.

“I think he deserves a chance.”

Ujurak grunted. 

“We of all peoples should remember that his kind are capable of.”

“Blood and ash,” she said, remembering Ujurak’s lost sons.

“Blood and ash.” he nodded, looking at her mother’s necklace. 

He stayed for a moment more, watching as she moved glowing hands over old cuts and new scratches.

“Remember what they took from you,” he said, standing to leave, “remember what you are the last of.”

Katara said nothing as he walked away. 

She finished healing the cut on Zuko’s temple and discarded the water into a spare bucket, leaving her fingers to trace lightly over the leathery skin. 

That’s something we have in common.

Again she wondered what else had been taken from him. 

“Katara?”

Toph stood hesitantly in the doorway.

Her brow furrowed,

“Hi, Toph, what is it?”

Toph shuffled in with a frown,

“Aang blasted me into a wall and now my back hurts.” she said irritably.

“Come here,” Katara held out a hand and gently positioned Toph in front of her, running a gloved hand over her back, fixing simple bruises and bumps, and surreptitiously washing away some of the dirt and sweat that clung to her skin.

Toph fidgeted in front of her, and then moved as if to speak, but decided against it and shut her mouth. 

Katara’s frown deepened, it wasn’t like Toph to keep quiet about something. 

“What is it, Toph?”

The earthbender sighed, 

“Nothing.”

Katara pursed her lips, but let it go for moment, wiping away the last of the forming bruises. Sending the water back to the empty bucket, she noticed that one of Toph’s hands had found Zuko’s wrist, two fingers resting delicately on his pulse point. 

“I met his uncle once, you know,” she said quietly, “when Azula first started chasing us.”

Katara stilled, listening. 

“I thought he was just some kooky old man who liked tea, but he was nice to me, and he cared a lot about his nephew. He’s the one who warned us, you know? Back in Ba Sing Se. He said Zuko had been captured and begged us to help. And… is he-,” Toph hesitated, small hand tightening around Zuko’s wrist, “is he gonna be alright?”

“I’m doing everything I can.” Katara said finally, falling back on her training from Yugoda. Never make promises you can’t keep. Reassure them of your efforts. 

Toph nodded, releasing her grip and pulling her cloak back up around her shoulders. 

“Thanks, Katara.”

“Of course,” she said, pulling water to her hands once more, and scooting herself closer to the bed. 

On her way out the door, Toph paused, brow knit. 

“Hey, Katara?”

“Hm?”

“Why were you out on deck? Hakoda was complaining about dropped food on his way to your room.”

A slight frown tugged at Katara’s lips, and she shrugged,

“I don’t like being alone in a Fire Nation ship,” she said. 

“Oh.”

Without another word Toph turned around and settled herself against the stool Katara sat on, the back of her head resting against her hip. 

Startled, Katara resisted the urge to pat Toph’s head, reminded of all the times in the South Pole when one of the clingier children would fall asleep on some part of her while she sewed or worked. 

“Thanks, Toph.” she said earnestly.

Toph grunted. 

“Don’t mention it.”

Katara smiled,

“I promise I won’t.”

Chapter Text

Zuko dreamed of Ba Sing Se.

He dreamed of fighting the waterbender in the crystal caverns, and of his sister killing the Avatar. He dreamed of celebrating their victory and feeling hollow and angry inside. He dreamed of taking Mai to see the nightlife in the Upper Ring, and of her insistent kiss that he let himself fall into. He dreamed of Azula carting Uncle onto a ship and examining her nails as she told him Uncle might not even survive the trip home. He dreamed of sleepless nights on a metal ship and never once feeling warm. 

He dreamed of going home, but feeling like he was going the wrong direction. 

~

“Aang,” Sokka pleaded. 

Aang grunted. He’d been sulking in his room ever since Sokka had caught him up on the past few days' events.

“ Aang ,” Sokka said exasperatedly, “It’s not even that bad! Come on!”

Aang threw the clothes back at Sokka with a pout,

“I told you already! I’m not wearing a disguise!”

“Why not?!” Sokka demanded, frantically trying to juggle the clothes back at Aang, “I mean, how is this any different from our first visit to Omashu? You don’t even have to wear an itchy beard this time!”

“It’s not the same!” Aang huffed, “if I can’t wear my arrows proudly then I’m not going out at all!”

“Fine! Then we’ll just go to dinner without you!”

“Fine!”

Sokka made a face at him and slammed the door shut. 

He grumbled darkly under his breath the whole way up to the deck. 

“No dice!” He called to Toph and Katara where they waited near the gangplank.

“What?” Katara said brows drawing immediately in concern.

“I said ,” Sokka repeated with more volume, “NO DICE!”

Toph scowled and rubbed the ear closest to him,

“No, no,” she grumbled, “say it louder, I wanna lose all my hearing before I’m twenty anyway.”

Sokka grimaced,

“Sorry, Toph,”

She punched him, and judging by the eye-watering force of the blow, he figured they were even.

“Why isn’t Aang coming?” Katara asked, taking the disguise from his hands.

“He was being ridiculous and said if he couldn’t wear his arrows there wasn’t any point or something.”

She frowned,

“I’ll try talking to him.”

“Good luck!” He called sarcastically as she disappeared into the ship. 

Toph punched him.

“Ow!” He yelped, “the fuck was that for?”

Toph scowled at him,

“Stop yelling and being stupid.”

Sokka squawked indignantly. 

“I wasn’t- ow!”

~

Aang was sitting with his knees hugged to his chest when she entered, like a little ball of unhappiness. 

She sighed, and went to sit next to him, letting the silence linger for a moment before speaking,

“I think I understand why being a secret bothers you so much.” she said quietly, “You don’t want people to think you’ve failed.”

Aang turned his head away from her, gripping his arms with a white-knuckled intensity,

“You’re right, I don’t.” he said hotly, “But the problem is, I did fail.”

“Aang that’s not true.” she tried gently.

“It is true!” he snapped, “I was in Ba Sing Se and I lost, and now the Earth Kingdom has fallen for good.”

“It’s not for good,” she said placatingly, leaning forward to try and catch his eye, “Remember we still have the invasion plan.”

“And I hate the invasion plan too!” Aang practically exploded, springing to his feet on the bed, “I don’t want you or anyone else risking their lives to fix my mistakes! I’ve always known that I would have to face the Firelord but now I know I need to do it alone.”

She felt her expression harden and tried to keep a tight rein on her ire,

“Aang that’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?”

He stared at her with stormy grey eyes, and she stared right back. Reassurances would get her nowhere right now, so she tried a different tactic. 

She leaned back, and started brushing invisible dirt from the clothes,

“Of course not,” she said easily, “who’s going to help you prepare, huh? You think me and Toph are done teaching you already?”

He frowned, and flopped back on the bed, legs crossed,

“No,” he grumbled, picking at his sheets.

“And who’s going to help you figure out where the Firelord even is? You know how hurt Sokka would be if you didn’t let him help plan.”

“I guess,” he muttered.

“And what about all our allies, hm? They’ve spent their whole lives fighting back, and they deserve to help take down the man and nation who’s hurt them for so long.”

Aang’s brows drew slightly,

“Revenge is wrong.”

She placed a hand on his shoulder and grey eyes met blue. 

“Look, Aang, what I’m saying is that, yes, you give people hope for an end to the war, but they’ve managed to fight for such a long time without you because they learned to be patient. The world knows how to watch and wait for the best time to fight back and the best time to stay hidden. Right now is our time to stay hidden. The world won’t stop turning just because they think the Avatar is dead.”

He sighed and the anger seemed to melt off of him as he slumped. 

“I guess you’re right.”

She smiled at him, and moved his disguise off her lap onto the bed.

“Come on, you’ll feel better once you get something to eat,” she pat the clothes and stood, “we’re leaving in ten minutes if you wanna join us.” she said, shutting the door gently behind her. 

~

“Aang,” Sokka singsonged, “I found something that’ll cheer you up!”

“What.” He grumbled, scratching at his wig. 

He’d been moping ever since they’d left the boat.

“Dinner!” Sokka said triumphantly, holding out grilled fish on a skewer. 

Aang scowled,

“Thanks, Sokka, but I can’t eat that.” 

“What? Why not?”

“Because I don’t eat meat!” He snapped, storming off.

Sokka straightened up with a frown,

“Since when is fish meat?” He wondered aloud, taking a bite out of the top fish. Man, Aang had no idea what he was missing.

“Since the last time you tried to give him fish and he nearly fainted.” Toph said next to him.

“Gah! Where did you come from? And what last time?” He demanded.

She sighed, 

“Sometime a little before the library Katara made fish stew and you handed him my bowl instead of his, and when he asked what those little white chunks were and you said fish he nearly hurled.”

Sokka frowned,

“Really?”

“Yes, it was my dinner .”

“Huh, well I’m going to blame sleep deprivation and or cactus juice for forgetting that.” He shrugged, taking another bite out of his fish.

Katara emerged suddenly from the shop she’d been in and snatched Sokka’s fish skewer from his hand.

“What? What’s happening, I heard Sokka say cactus juice and we’re not doing that again.” She said, frantically grabbing her brother’s face and staring into his eyes.

“Ow! Hey- wait, stop!” Sokka squirmed as Toph cackled beside him.

“I’m fine and I didn’t find any cactus juice anyway.” He snapped, batting her hands away.

“Oh good,” she sighed, “‘cause I really didn’t want to be the one who had to explain why you were high to dad.”

He gaped,

“You wouldn’t dare!” He hissed.

Her eyes glittered maliciously as she took a bite of his fish,

“Wouldn’t I?”

Sokka pursed his lips,

“I don’t like you.” He said finally.

“I’m heartbroken,” she drawled, taking another bite out of the fish.

Sokka huffed and rummaged in his coin purse to see if he still had enough to buy another skewer.

“Hey wait, where’s Aang?” She asked, searching the market for the airbender’s lanky figure and new mop of hair.

“Snoozles tried to give him fish and he ran away.” Toph said bluntly.

“Sokka!”

“I was trying to cheer him up!” He said defensively, “how was I supposed to know fish was meat?”

Katara scowled, 

“Since the last time- oh, never mind, which way did he go?” She sighed.

Toph pointed towards the far end of the market.

With a last, mournful glance, Katara tore off one last chunk of grilled fish and shoved the skewer back into Sokka’s surprised hands. 

“I’ll be back in a bit.” She said grimly, disappearing in Aang’s direction.

~

Aang breathed deeply as he walked, and made a list of all the things bothering him.

His head itched because of his stupid wig, which he was wearing because he had to hide his arrows, which was because everyone thought he was dead and that he’d failed as the Avatar again. Oh, and he was starving, and no one in this market seemed to have anything without meat!

Aang kicked a pebble, and it clanged into a garbage bin. The bin was mostly full of rotted old vegetables and looking up, he noticed it sat near a produce stand. Quickly, he pat his pockets for coin, and came up with nothing but his marbles. 

He smacked himself in the head. Of course he didn’t have any coin, he’d left it all with Katara in that shop! 

Well, maybe he could use his marbles and do a couple tricks on the street for some spare change. Yeah, that might work. 

He scratched at his wig, 

Wait, his wig . Which he was wearing for a reason .

Monkeyfreathers!

Street tricks were out, what else could he do?

He surveyed his surroundings again as he thought, and noticed two strange figures huddled around the produce stand. 

As he watched, the smaller one, a little kid probably no older than ten and wearing a beat up Fire Nation guard helmet, snatched several fruits right out of the stand. His companion, enormous by comparison, grabbed some of the fruits as well and gave a sharp nod. Then the two of them were scurrying away and getting lost in the crowd.

Aang frowned. 

Well, if he couldn't be the Avatar maybe he could still help in little ways. 

“Hey!” he yelled, chasing after the thieves.

He saw them glance at each other and quicken their pace.

“Come back! I saw what you did!” 

The two broke into a run and Aang sprinted to keep up, doing his best to keep his bending hidden as he wove through the crowd. 

“Sorry!” he shouted as he whizzed by shoppers and stalls alike, “Sorry, ‘scuse me!” he winced as the sound of something crashed behind him.

Finally he skidded to a halt as a cart of cabbages rolled to a stop in the middle of the road, effectively cornering the three of them.

“Aha!” he said triumphantly, “Gotcha, now if you guys would please just-”

Aang never got to finish his sentence as the larger of the two tossed the smaller one on his shoulders, turned around and bowled straight through the cart. 

“ My cabbages! ” wailed the merchant, as Aang trampled through the rubble after the thieves. 

As the three neared the end of the market the crowd thinned and puddles of lamplight scattered fewer and further between. But Aang was close, and with a final roar he leaped to tackle the two thieves. The three of them tumbled in an unruly tangle into the treeline and someone’s hand tangled in his wig. 

“Hey wait-!” he yelped, wiggling unsuccessfully to free his arms.

“Aang?”

He looked up, and squinted at the little boy who was holding his wig. 

“The Duke?” he gasped. 

The Duke smiled toothily, and Aang was almost surprised to see he had nearly all his teeth in. 

“Sure is!” the boy said, adjusting the helmet that wasn’t quite so large on his head anymore. 

The bigger man rolled off of Aang, and stared at him in wonder,

“It’s really the Avatar?” he said.

“Pipsqueak!” Aang exclaimed, beaming even as he was scooped into a bone-crushing hug. 

“Ow,” he muttered, and Pipsqueak quickly set him down.

“Oh man, Aang, how’ve you been? It’s been so long and we heard you were dead!” The Duke chattered excitedly.

Aang scratched the back of his head with a nervous laugh,

“Yeah I guess it has been a while.”

“We should hang out and catch up!” The Duke said, pulling a slightly bruised apple out of his shirt and offering it to Aang.

Aang’s stomach grumbled.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt.”

~

Katara felt she should’ve been more surprised at the trail of destruction through the marketplace. Was it too much to ask that they visited someplace without completely wrecking it? 

With a sigh she worked her way through the wreckage slowly, relieved when no one seemed to think it was anything more than a couple of rowdy kids. Well, except for that one man, knelt in a bunch of crushed cabbages weeping and shaking his fist in the direction of the trees. 

“Monsters,” he sobbed, “monsters, all of them!” 

Katara edged around the remnants of his cart and slipped into the dark forest. 

She didn’t have to wander long before the sounds of conversation and laughter drew her to a clearing. The clearing was empty, and she hesitated for a moment before she heard a young voice exclaim from above,

“Wow that’s so cool!”

Followed by Aang’s voice,

“I know, right? I can’t believe I didn’t show this to you guys.”

“Aang?” she called, and immediately there was silence. 

“I know you’re in the trees, Aang.”

She crossed her arms and waited as the branches shook above her, and deposited two figures in front of her.

“Look who I found!” he said with a grin.

She squinted at the, she squinted, two figures next to him.

“Hi Ms. Katara!” the little boy wearing a Fire Guard helmet called cheerfully.

Her eyes widened,

“Is that-?”

“The Duke and Pipsqueak!” Aang said triumphantly, “I thought they were stealing, which reminds me that we need to go pay that vendor back, but anyway-”

She kept a polite smile on her face as Aang explained that he’d run into the former Freedom Fighters accidentally, shared dinner with them and invited them to stay on the ship. 

The prospect of two more mouths to feed whirred in the back of her mind as they made their way back through the market. Sure they had enough supplies for now, but what if that changed? And what were The Duke and Pipsqueak going to do on the ship anyways? She wasn’t sure how much of her time she’d be able to spare looking after them between chores, healing, bending practice, and sneaking all the way to the Fire Nation undetected. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by a cheerful shout as they came upon Sokka and Toph who’d settled at a table covered in what looked like food from nearly every stall in the market.

The five of them dug in happily at Sokka’s invitation and she couldn’t help but smile as The Duke chattered excitedly through mouthfuls of food about all that had happened since they’d last seen each other.  

“Here,” Sokka said, shoving a plate of steamed dumplings at her that she knew cost more money than either he or Toph had been left with, “ it’s only gonna get cold if you don’t eat it.

She arched an eyebrow. 

“Sokka, how on earth did you afford all this?”

Her brother started guiltily and shoved a whole dumpling into his mouth.

“Sokka…” she said warningly.

He held up a finger, chewing slowly.

She glared at him and he gulped.

“Okay fine, so maaaaaybe Toph and I scammed some snooty merchants with some dice tricks.”

“Dice tricks?” she hissed, “Sokka!”

“Hey,” he crossed his arms haughtily, “you wandered off with all the money and some of these dishes were too good not to get!”

She smacked a palm to her forehead,

“Wasn’t it your idea to lay low?” she said, “and now you’re risking getting caught because you were hungry? ”

Sokka frowned,

“Well when you put it that way…”

She groaned,

“I’m too tired to deal with this right now, but don’t do it again, okay?”

Sokka nodded vigorously,

“I said okay? ” 

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Toph grumbled from her other side.

Mollified, she sat back as Sokka pat her back cautiously, and offered her one of the expensive dumplings. 

“Sorry?” he said, waving it tantalizingly in front of her nose.

Begrudgingly she grabbed it and bit into the soft dough. It was almost good enough to make her forget she was angry, but she spotted Sokka’s sneaky smirk as he began grabbing all the tastiest looking things and piled them in front of her.

She glared at him even as she accepted the peace offering.

~

They ended up bringing the leftovers onboard, much to the everyone’s delight. The food also had the benefit of softening the blow of two new crewmates. The mess hall had practically become a party that night as everyone traded stories late into the night.

Katara snorted as the echoing voices faded behind her. As much as learning the drinking songs of her tribe might sound appealing, she’d had a long day and was aching for her bed. She’d almost made it there too when she heard soft voices up ahead. She slowed, straining to listen. 

“Bato… I don’t know,” her father was saying.

She peeked, and he and Bato were standing right outside her door. Her fists clenched and she ducked back out of sight, praying that they’d leave so she could get some sleep. 

“Koda, you’re going to have to talk to her at some point.” Bato said gently.

Her father sighed,

“I know, I know, but I don’t think she wants to. She’s been avoiding me and I’ve tried to give her her space but…”

Katara didn’t hear anything more than that as she snuck back through the halls as quietly as she could. 

He father was right, she really didn’t want to talk to him. Especially not right now after the day she’d had. She also didn’t particularly feel like going back to the mess hall with all its noise. Above deck wasn’t an option either, it would be too easy to find her. She fidgeted with the hem of her cloak. There was only one place she could hide next. 

Zuko’s room was quiet as she ran her glowing hands over his chest, clearing away scar tissue and nudging broken chi pathways back together.

She was so engrossed in her work she didn't even notice when her patient stirred. 

~

Groggily, Zuko returned to consciousness. His whole body felt sore and sluggish, and there was something wet and cold on his chest. 

He groaned and squirmed away, but the cold persisted, and he cracked open his eyes to see what on earth it was.

Blue.

It surrounded him, emanating in a soft glow from his chest and illuminating the spirit hovering over him. He squinted, willing his eyes to focus. 

Slowly, his vision sharpened, and he found himself staring, not at a spirit, but the waterbender. She sat hunched over him, eyes tired, clothes still torn and dusty beneath a red cloak. 

He glanced around to find himself in the same room he remembered vaguely from earlier. A haze of panic and vice grips pushing him back into the bed. He shuddered as his mind tried desperately to figure out where he was and what was going on.

He squeezed his eyes shut and sorted through his most recent memories. Before waking up here he’d had a strange dream about Lu Ten in a field and a water spirit. And before that…

Azula’s cold eyes piercing into him as lightning raced towards his chest. 

Fuck .

They must have been captured, and now Azula must be forcing the waterbender to heal him just so she could see the humiliation on his face when she brought him home. 

Agni , he was so stupid. Azula had played him again with the exact same lies as before and he’d fallen for it . Now, thanks to him, Uncle had been captured and so had the waterbender. 

Guilt churned in his gut. 

Uncle had been there for him through thick and thin, had looked out for him no matter how horribly he’d treated the old man and he’d just turned his back on him. 

And the waterbender. She must hate him now. They were enemies and she’d offered to heal his scar. A chance at a new beginning. And what had he done? He’d thrown it right back in her face and likely gotten her captured too. And to add insult to injury, she had to heal him, the very man whose fault this was. 

He hoped that at the very least her friends and the Avatar had gotten away. Then maybe…

His thoughts were cut off by a tired sigh. The cold disappeared from his chest, and he froze. If she realized that he was awake, a confrontation was inevitable, and he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to confront her right now. Or ever, really.

He heard a splash like water in a bucket, and then nothing. 

The silence lasted long, agonizing seconds.

Finally, he dared a peek, opening his good eye just enough to peer through his lashes.

The waterbender sat with her head in her hands, and his heart twisted painfully. 

He wanted to reach out for her, to comfort her just as she had for him, but… he’d done this. 

So instead he closed his eyes and tried his best to answer the pull of sleep that called to his aching body. He evened his breath, and relaxed his muscles. He kept his mind carefully empty, even as gentle hands re-dressed his wounds.

Soft footsteps, the click of a door, and he was alone again.

Like so many times before, he let the hum of the engines and the sway of the waves lull him into an uneasy sleep.

~

Click . 

Zuko’s heart sped in his chest, adrenaline dropping into his bloodstream before he could stop it as someone entered his room. 

The steps were soft, and close together. Someone small then. 

His mind raced to puzzle out who or what it might be until small fingers collided with his face. 

Without thinking, he flinched. 

The someone gasped, and poked again. Small fingers prodded lower this time, landing on his shoulder. The hand grabbed him with a surprisingly strong grip, and shook. 

He hissed as small jolts of pain shot through his chest, and he grabbed out blindly, fully ready to fend off whoever was messing with him. 

Instead of… whatever he’d expected, he was face to face with a petite girl in a red cloak and Earth Kingdom greens. 

“Uh,” he said, releasing his grip on her wrist.

Her face erupted in a smile,

“You’re alive!” she crowed gleefully, pumping her fist in the air.

Zuko stared at her, searching for some appropriate response like, who are you? Where am I? What’s happening, please I’m so confused.

Instead what came out was a small,

“Oh.”

She cackled,

“That old fart Ujurak owes me twenty yuan now!”

“ Who? ”

Ujurak was most definitely not a Fire Nation name, and it didn’t sound like an Earth Kingdom name either. What in Agni’s name was going on?

She waved a hand at him dismissively,

“A shit gambler, that’s who,”

Gambler? This kid couldn’t have been older than thirteen!

“Anyway,” she barrelled on, “he was soooo sure you weren’t gonna wake up, but Sugar Queen’s better than any of these dunderheads have ever seen.” 

“ Who? ” 

The girl’s face fell a little.

“Katara.”

“Uh,” the name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

“Katara…” the little girl said, frowning at a point just to the left of his head, “the master waterbender who saved your life?”

He nearly smacked himself. Katara , of course that was the waterbender’s name. He’d heard it before so many times but he’d just… refused to let it stick. Now he felt so stupid . She’d offered to heal his scar, and now saved his sorry ass, and he hadn’t even known her name . 

“Right,” he muttered, “of course, Katara.”

The little girl cocked her eyebrow at him, tilting her head so her eyes were just a little more centered on his face. 

“Did you not know her name?”

He felt his cheeks flush,

“Yes!” he answered too quickly, “I mean no, I mean- of course I knew her name!”

She blew her bangs out of her eyes, and crossed her arms, unamused. 

“Spirits, didn’t you chase her for like two years already and you never knew her name?”

“Uh,” he swallowed, pushing himself up with a wince, “technically I was chasing the Avatar- but I’m not anymore, chasing him, the Avatar, whatever.”

The girl kicked a stool over to sit in front of him. 

“Guess your uncle was right then.”

His heart lurched in his chest,

“What? Where is he?”

She scowled, looking away from him, and dread pooled in his gut.

Click .

“Zuko?”

Chapter Text

“Zuko?”

Katara stood in the doorway, staring in shock. She was still wearing the red cloak and ragged clothes, with a tray of fresh bandages balanced on her hip. Her blue eyes swept over him quickly, lingering for the barest seconds on the arm he had wrapped around his middle.

He barely had time to open his mouth before she hurried across the cabin and all but shoved the tray into the little girl’s lap.

Cool, callused hands pressed gently at his shoulders, and with a flush he remembered he wasn’t wearing a shirt. 

“You shouldn’t sit like that, it’s bad for your wounds,” she said with a small frown.

He opened his mouth to protest, but suddenly her hands were cupping his face. Her blue eyes stared intently into his and he found himself incapable of coherent thought. 

~

Katara studied the prince as best she could while trying desperately not to get distracted by the soft look in his eye, or the way his warm breath tickled her thumb, or how soft his lip felt…

Focus .

She was a healer, not some smitten teenage girl. For Spirits’ sake, they’d been enemies less than two weeks ago. Now they were… no, he was her patient. She would be professional about this, La damn it!

His skin seemed a little warm under her palms, but it was likely just a result of him being a firebender. The dazed look on his face probably wasn’t a good sign either, and his pupils seemed unevenly dilated too. Though, she realized that his left eye had probably been damaged to some extent when he got his scar, so that wasn’t a reliable sign either and-

She was pulled from her thoughts by a disgusting noise that came from the back of Toph’s throat. 

Her head whipped around, 

“Toph!”

“What?” she asked, crossing her arms, “these sooty clothes make me congested!”

Katara scowled.

“Besides, it’s not like I’m interrupting any important medical procedures,” she said flippantly, “You’re just staring at him.”

Katara felt her face heat as she quickly let go of Zuko’s face.

“I am not just staring at him!” she said indignantly, “I’m checking to see if he has a concussion, and if you’re not going to be helpful then you can leave.” she snapped.

Toph scowled,

“I was being helpful! I was catching him up on everything he missed!”

“Someone owes her twenty yuan now.” Zuko added unhelpfully from behind her. 

“Snitch.”

Katara bit back a growl,

“Toph,” she said, keeping a tight leash on her annoyance, “could you go be helpful somewhere else.”

Toph huffed, 

“Like what? There’s nothing to do on this ship!”

“Like,” she said, fighting to keep her tone even, “getting some jook from the kitchens for us.”

Grumbling, Toph shoved the tray of supplies in her direction and stood,

“Fine.” She said, shutting the door with more force than necessary. 

They hung in awkward silence for a long moment as Katara stared stubbornly at the door, and Zuko shuffled behind her. She hadn’t been ogling the prince, she’d been trying to examine him like any good healer would! 

Speaking of… 

She turned back around to look at Zuko. He started guiltily, halfway propped on his elbows. Her brow arched, and the flush bloomed darker on his good cheek. 

“If you’re going to sit up,” she said, standing to retrieve extra pillows from the far corner of the room, “at least do it properly.” 

~

Zuko uttered a quiet thank you as Katara helped him upright, and adjusted pillows behind him until he was comfortable. 

He fiddled uncertainly with his hands folded in his lap until she reached for her waterskin, and his muscles tensed without his permission. 

Her blue eyes flashed and her hands stilled at the stopper. 

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she promised, “I need the water to check for internal damage. You took a nasty blow to the head and I was only able to stop the bleeding before I-” she faltered, her eyes flicking to his chest, “Before I had to prioritize your other injuries.”

He hardly had a moment to put together that the cold blue glow she’d seemed to wield earlier was, in fact, her healing him and not a residual near-death hallucination before she’d popped open the stopper and pulled water to glove her hands. 

“May I?” she asked, a tentative hand at either of his temples.

He nodded his assent, and let his eyes slip shut.

The shock of cold water, even through the numbed nerves of his scar, caused his grip to tighten on the blankets. But the sensation quickly faded to a soothing cool, almost like the soft lap of waves through the tunnels of his brain. 

“I tried to check for concussion earlier,” her voice tells him through the darkness, “but it’s a bit hard to tell with you. Do you feel any dizziness? Nausea?”

His voice comes more easily to him without the distraction of the metal room and the strangeness of his situation. 

“I- no, I definitely have a concussion. I’m- I’ve had them before and,” he winced, “this is definitely one of them. 

The- Katara hummed, and the waves shifted, as if probing into the more delicate nooks and crannies in his head. 

“Can you tell me your symptoms?”

His brow furrowed,

“It feels like someone stuffed my head with cotton, and then smacked it around like a dusty rug.”

A snort.

“Sorry,” she said, a little sheepishly. It made a smile tug at the corner of his mouth before she cleared her throat, “anything else?”

“Headache,”

Crash!

The sound brought him sharply back to reality. The water withdrew as both he and Katara whipped towards the door.

The little girl’s grubby foot smacked the floor with a jarring impact that should not have been possible for such a small thing, and the door swung precariously on its hinges. 

“Motherfuckers better thank me, I got you jook and tea!” she said with a grin, brandishing a new tray.

Katara streamed the water back into her waterskin and corked it with a soft squeak. 

“Thank you, Toph,” she said, taking the tray from her hands, and pushing a bowl of jook into his hands, “Eat,” she instructed. 

“Thanks,” he mumbled, pulling the bowl to his face and inhaling the familiar scent.

The little girl- Toph cleared her throat loudly.

He started, remembering himself,

“Um, thank you for the food and tea.” he said sheepishly.

“Yes, thank you, Toph.” Katara said pointedly. “You’ve been very helpful.” 

Toph frowned at her for a moment before cupping a hand to her ear and saying woodenly, 

“Oh no, I think I hear the Duke calling me for shenanigans, I’d better go.”

Katara sighed in relief once the little girl had marched out the door, and pulled it roughly back into place, looking only a little worse for wear. At least the thing still closed. 

He picked up the spoon from his bowl and began to eat. He could feel his stomach coming alive with every bite, and more and more it was screaming at him that he hadn’t eaten in days. 

“Slowly,” Katara chided softly.

He nodded, and forced himself to a less ravenous pace.

After a moment, Katara cleared her throat nervously, fingers picking absently at a torn hem in her lap.

“You didn’t finish telling me all your symptoms earlier. Any memory loss?”

He swallowed.

“Um, not… not really.” he said, lowering his now-empty bowl to his lap, “I remember the catacombs, Azula.” he shook his head, “but nothing after that.”

She hummed, and held out her hands for his bowl.

“Anything else?” she asked as he handed it to her.

“I don’t think so,” he said, shaking his head again, “I just… how long has it been?”

She set the bowl down, avoiding his eyes as she arranged the tray and set it aside.

“It’s been a little over a week.”

He nodded, swallowing to clear his throat.

“What happened?”

~

Haltingly, Katara recounted the fall of Ba Sing Se.

Zuko was so unnaturally still and silent that Katara wondered if he was even the same angry prince who’d chased the Avatar around the world. It was only by the whitening of his knuckles as he gripped the sheets, and the occasional soft sniffle that she was sure he hadn’t turned into a statue. 

“I’m… I’m sorry about your uncle. I didn’t want to leave him behind.” she said, fighting the urge to take one of his hands in hers. 

“It’s fine,” he said gruffly, ducking his head to swipe a palm under his good eye. 

Her heart ached for him.

“Zuko…”

“No,” he said, almost harshly as he flinched away from her.

She flinched back, withdrawing the hand she’d unconsciously raised.

This was more like the Zuko she’d known. 

“I… no,” he said more gently, swallowing hard, “I understand.”

Katara fidgeted uncertainly, keeping her gaze firmly on her hands as he struggled to even his breathing. 

“What,” he asked after some time, his voice thick and rasping with suppressed emotion, “what happened after?”

~

Zuko’s mind buzzed with all Katara had told him. 

From their escape from Ba Sing Se, to the Southern Fleet’s destruction, to the news of his and the Avatar’s death, he’d managed to keep himself together. But he’d felt his headache growing worse as she continued, and used it as an excuse to be left alone. 

“Of course, you should rest.” she’d said, giving him a soft look that made his gut churn, and bustled quietly out the door with his empty dishes and unused bandages.

After that, he lay for a long time, staring at his ceiling. 

Despite how exhausted he felt, Agni’s pull on his inner flame grew stronger as midday approached. So, he was left alone with his thoughts. 

In truth, he wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about… everything. 

On one hand, he respected the Southern Fleet’s tactics and the Avatar’s plan to hide and regroup. On the other hand, his nation was under the false impression of victory, and he had the power to change that. Because that’s what he should be doing, right? He was loyal to his nation, he should be planning his escape. 

But then again, he’d probably be killed on sight even if he did escape. Maybe they’d believe him if he offered himself up as a prisoner, if he showed he was loyal even if it cost him.

But on the other hand, the- Katara , he reminded himself, her name is Katara . Katara had saved his life, and healed him. She’d offered even before he’d “proven” himself an ally. 

He cringed. 

Pieces of his memory he hadn’t even realized were gone were returning to him. He’d never really helped anyone in the catacombs. He’d just been an idiot trying to go home, and then he’d been a concussed idiot trying to help his sister and not witness the murder fo a child. 

Katara’s face flashed in his mind. That same, soft, kind, trusting expression. He didn’t deserve it. 

He should tell her.

Confess that he was under her protection under false pretenses. That would be the honorable thing to do. 

But then he’d have to admit that he wasn’t on her side, which… didn’t entirely feel right either. But he was loyal to his nation, his father . 

But she’d saved his life, wasn’t that worth loyalty too?

Zuko groaned and pulled his pillow over his face. 

With a pang, he wished Uncle were here. Even if the old man only spouted proverbs that made him more confused than he was in the first place, at least his presence would be comforting.

Chapter Text

“It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt.”

Katara stared at Aang’s mangled wrist and forearm, and thanked Tui and La for her iron stomach. 

“Aang you’re in shock, the pain hasn’t set in yet.” she said clinically, turning to face him, “So tell me again how this happened?”

Eagerly, Aang jumped into the story of how he had been trying to teach the Duke Air Nomad tricks that involved jumping and flipping off of walls and other high objects. Only, the Duke was a nonbender, so Aang had tried to do the tricks without bending in order to modify them. Of course, Aang wasn’t used to moving without his bending, and promptly crash landed on his right arm. 

As Aang talked, Katara silently urged Ujurak to hurry his old bones and bring her the poppy’s tears. The sooner she could give it to Aang, the sooner he’d be asleep, out of pain, and out of trouble. 

Her best hope now was that she could keep Aang distracted enough that he wouldn’t notice he was in terrible pain. It had worked with little Siku from her village the day he fell off of one of Sokka’s “lookout” towers and broke leg. 

Finally Ujurak came into the hold, and handed Katara a small vial.

“Already diluted, but be careful.” he said, passing it to her.

She nodded,

“Three drops enough?”

“Should be good for a few hours.” he said, eying Aang with a look that said is he really our best hope for peace?

She ignored him, turning back to Aang.

“Here, drink this,” she said, dropping the dose onto his tongue, “so I heard Toph was trying to teach you metalbending earlier?”

Aang made a face as he swallowed the medicine, but brightened at the mention of Toph’s lessons.

“Yeah! She was trying to bend different types of metals, and tried to get me to bend the easiest ones, and…”

Katara watched as the drug took effect and Aang’s chatter slowed, slurred, and trailed off, his head lolling tiredly into the box he was sat up against. As soon as she was sure he was unconscious she wrapped his arm in water and inspected the damage. 

She winced at all the various shards of bone that had splintered off. It would take a long time for her to weave them all back in place. For now she settled on putting everything roughly in its proper place, and making it as painless as possible. 

~

Katara gently lowered Aang into his own bed, careful not to jostle his injured arm. 

There was no way she’d be able to heal it all in a day, or even a week. She needed to find a way to brace his arm more securely than just sandwiching it between a splint and hoping for the best, Aang was just too hyper to risk it. 

She sighed, and set about healing as much as she could. Binding his arm was a problem for later. 

~

Zuko had nearly lulled himself back into a restless sleep when once again his door opened. He launched upward into a sitting motion, immediately aggravating all of his injuries.

“ Shit! ” he hissed, gripping at his spinning head and stinging chest. 

“See?” demanded the little girl’s voice from earlier, “he’s joined the world of the living, now pay up.” she demanded holding out an imperious hand to an older man wearing Fire Nation armor that hadn’t quite been put on right, and delicate bone beads in his hair. 

He grunted, staring Zuko down with storm-grey eyes. 

Without breaking eye contact, he rummaged in a pocket and slapped a pair of coins in the girl’s hand. 

She grinned smugly at him,

“Pleasure doing business with you,” she said, pocketing the money and spinning to walk away.

She paused when the man did not follow,

“Hey, you’re not gonna kill him, right?”

Zuko’s mouth felt terribly dry as the man scrutinized him, as if he were giving serious thought on whether or not to kill him. 

Finally, after a small eternity, he grunted and crossed his arms. 

“No.”

The little girl’s eyebrow quirked, but she shrugged and sauntered away.

Slowly, the man entered Zuko’s room, each step ringing weightily in the silence. 

Hastily, Zuko withdrew his hands from his chest and head, folding them neatly in his lap. This man seemed of some importance, and it had been drilled into Zuko that he should give respect to his superiors. Belatedly he wished he’d asked for a bath, or something to wash a week of sweat and grime from his already unruly hair. 

“So you are Prince Zuko.” The man said, coming to a stop a few paces from his bed.

“Just Zuko,” he replied quietly, averting his eyes, “I was stripped of my title some time ago.”

“I am Ujurak, the healer of the Southern Fleet.” he said, his tone clipped with displeasure.

Zuko bowed as much as his position on the bed allowed him, biting back a wince as he further agitated his injury. 

“Thank you, I-”

Ujurak scoffed.

“Do not thank me,” he said acidly, “if it were up to me I would take Ozai’s son from him as he took mine from me.”

A chill ran down Zuko’s spine, and he chided himself for being stupid. Of course this man would hate him. His people had devastated their tribe for the better part of a century, he had no reason to be kind to the son of his enemy.

“But,” the man continued, “the Chief’s daughter seems convinced you’re on our side.”

Zuko swallowed nervously, trying to keep from gripping his sheets too tightly.

“I was just trying to do what was right.” He said quietly. 

“Yes,” the man uttered lowly, stepping closer, “what you thought was right, Prince Zuko .”

He clenched his jaw hard at the mocking title. 

A rough hand grabbed his chin, and forced him to look directly into storm-grey eyes. 

“I have lived long enough, and travelled far enough that I know your kind, Prince Zuko .” he spat, “Banished and shamed, yet you remained loyal to the beast of a man called your father, and the beast of a nation you called home .”

Zuko’s skin had gone curiously numb, but he could feel the man tighten his grip on his jaw enough to bruise. 

“Until what, ah? Until by some miracle you are in Ba Sing Se the night it falls to the Fire Nation?” he asked, eyes burning, “The blood of my people is on your family’s hands. Katara is the last of her kind because of your forefathers,” he hissed, releasing his chin with a shove and straightening.

“I have never known an ashmaker to change,” he said coldly, “I doubt you will be any different.”

Zuko hardly registered it as the man left the room with the deliberate snap of the door.

It felt like a small eternity until he let out a shaking breath. He was trembling as he raked his hands through his hair. His entire body buzzed, as if a swarm of bees were alive under his skin, searching for a way out.

Stupid , he chided himself. He was so stupid. Why was he shaking? He’d expected not to be welcome here, and he should’ve expected to be threatened. 

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

~

By the time dinner came around, Katara was thoroughly exhausted.

She had spent all day healing Aang, whilst seemingly everyone on the ship tried to distract her. Pipsqueak and the Duke came in because they felt bad for encouraging Aang to be reckless, and kept trying to talk to her while she tried to focus on piecing the puzzle of Aang’s arm back together. 

After that Toph had come in and complained at both her and the still unconscious Aang about his broken arm. Though, at the very least she had helped Katara make a cast for his arm with earth. 

Then Sokka had come in and begun going over potential plans for the invasion without preamble, asking her for feedback despite the fact that she was obviously busy. Finally her arguing with Sokka had woken Aang up, and she’d made the mistake of sending Sokka off to get pain medicine. He disappeared for half an hour and returned with a salve for rashes. 

So of course she’d gone to retrieve it, and by the time she’d returned Sokka had managed to bring trays of dinner up for both himself and Aang and was busy trying to help Aang eat left-handed. 

It was going about as well as she’d expected. 

“This is just like the time Bumi and I tried to use our left hands for a whole day,” Aang was saying, balancing a single noodle precariously on his crooked chopsticks, “Except it was really easy for Bumi because he was ambidextrous, and-”

“Wait, what does liking girls and guys have to do with eating left-handed?” Sokka asked, also trying to eat left-handed with slightly more success than Aang. 

Aang’s noodle fell back into the soup with a plop.

“What?”

“Huh?”

Katara resisted the urge to smack herself in the forehead. But only barely.

“Nothing,” she said, plucking up Aang’s empty teacup and pouring the right amount of medicine into it, “it has nothing to do with using your left hand. Ambidextrous means someone can use both of their hands equally well.”

“Really?” Sokka asked skeptically.

“Yes.” 

“I’m pretty sure you’re wrong but okay.” he shrugged, attempting only half-successfully to eat more noodles left-handed. 

Aang made a gagging noise, sticking out his tongue in disgust as he swallowed the pain medicine.

“No, I’m pretty sure Katara’s right, Sokka.” he said. 

Sokka rolled his eyes. 

“Of course you agree with her.” he mumbled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Katara demanded at the same time Aang spluttered,

“She’s usually right!”

Sokka snorted.

“Whatever.”

“ Any way,” Katara huffed, “I’m going to go eat dinner, have fun trying to eat left handed.”

~

Admittedly, Katara was a little annoyed Sokka hadn’t thought to bring her any dinner, but she pushed it aside in order to focus on navigating the mess hall. She dodged her father’s crew and tried to arrange her tray as quickly as possible. After the day she’d had she just wanted to sit somewhere quiet and eat her dinner in peace. 

“Hey, Sweetness.”

“Gah!” Katara jumped, nearly spilling her dinner in the process, “Toph!”

The earthbender rolled her eyes, and took a bite of the bao in her hand. 

“It’s not my fault you people are unobservant.” she said, muffled through the food in her mouth.

“I’m not unobservant,” Katara complained, reaching to scoop some rice into her bowl, “I just have a lot on my mind, and swallow before you talk, that’s disgusting, Toph.”

Toph grunted, but swallowed her food anyway.

“So where’ve you been all day?” 

“Take a wild guess,” Katara muttered darkly under her breath.

“Yeesh, I was just being polite.”

Katara grunted in apology, stacking slices of cha siu sheeppork on top of her rice.

“Anyway,” Toph continued, taking another bite of her bao, “your dad said he wanted to talk to you after dinner if you weren’t too busy.”

Katara froze for a split second while gathering up the last of her tray,

“I have to go check on Zuko for another healing session after this, and by the time I’m done it’ll be pretty late. I don’t think tonight’s a good time, Toph.” it wasn’t a total lie, but Toph gave her a strange look all the same.

“Okayyyy,” she said, but let it drop, much to Katara’s relief, “Well, it’s probably a good thing you’re going to check on him, I’m pretty sure no one’s seen Sparky since the old fart and I gave him a visit after lunch.”

“Toph, please use people’s actual names.”

“Fine, I’m pretty sure no one’s seen Zuko since Ujurak and I gave him a visit after lunch,” the earthbender harrumphed, “and I made twenty yuan.”

Katara frowned,

“He was awake?”

“Duh, Ujurak even stayed after to chat with him.”

Katara hummed worriedly, Ujurak wasn’t exactly what she’d call the gentle or understanding type when it came to the Fire Nation. Not that she’d been any different, but the idea of him spending any amount of time near Zuko, much less alone unnerved her. 

She grabbed a few extra bao and hurried off without another word.

“‘Thanks Toph, that was really valuable information.’ ‘No problem, Katara, it was my pleasure,’” Toph muttered to herself, ambling back to where she’d been sitting. “No one appreciates me.” 

~

Creeeaaakkk . 

Katara winced, she’d tried to open the door quietly in case Zuko was sleeping, though looking up it seemed she need not have worried. 

Zuko stood wide eyed and shirtless ( not that that mattered , Katara told herself) in the middle of the room, hands up and ready to fight. For a moment they just stood, staring in silent shock. 

Katara’s brain whirred frantically for something to say.

“Dinner?” she blurted, almost out of habit. 

Zuko blinked, shifting his gaze to the tray of food in her hands.

His mouth opened and closed a couple of times as he dropped his defensive stance, and ran a hand through his hair nervously.

“Yes, please.” he said finally in a soft voice. 

Once again Katara was struck by how different this Zuko was from the one who had chased them around the world. 

“U-um,” Katara stuttered, attempting to balance the tray and plan her next course of action, “you should probably sit down firs-” the rest of her sentence fizzled into nothing as  the tray steadied and she found herself face to face with the prince of the Fire Nation. 

He was a few inches taller than her, and his hair fell messily into his face, but his eyes seemed perfectly luminous to her as they peered out from under his dark locks.  

Color rose in his cheeks.

“Sorry,” he muttered, not letting go but stepping back a bit, “I used to be a waiter.”

“I know.” 

Surprise flashed across his face, and Katara cursed herself for being so loose-lipped around him. 

“Ba Sing Se,” she supplied weakly, trying to maneuver them to sit on the bed while still holding the tray, “I, um, I saw you and your uncle there, actually.”

He followed her to sit on the edge of the bed easily enough, and she felt her face heat in embarrassment.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, um, a-actually it’s probably my fault you and your uncle got captured.” she hated admitting it, but this new Zuko confused and flustered her and made her want to tell him the truth, “I was in the Upper Ring and I saw you and your uncle in a tea shop, and I-I ran to tell the Earth King because I thought the Fire Nation had infiltrated Ba Sing Se.” she laughed half bitterly, “I guess I was right though, I ran right into Azula and her friends and got chi blocked. That’s… that’s probably how she found you.” she admitted quietly, hazarding a glance at him.

His brow was drawn as he stared at his lap.

“I’m sorry,” she offered a bit uselessly. 

The corner of his lips twitched in what might’ve been a frown as he sat digesting her words.

“I understand, you had your reasons,” he replied in that quiet rasp of his, “we’d been your enemy for a long time, but… we’d come to Ba Sing Se as refugees, my- the Fire Nation had a warrant out for our deaths. It was the only place we could live peacefully.”

They sat silently for a moment, Katara absorbing the new information until he added.

“I had my reasons for chasing you too.”

“You had to restore your honor.” 

He turned, his eyebrow tilting up in surprise at the familiar words. 

“You remembered?”

She fiddled absently with the pendant of her necklace.

“It’s not every day I get kidnapped by pirates and tied to a tree.”

“Right,” he said in a strained voice, looking away and flushing all the way down to his neck, “if it helps,” he added, “I didn’t know the necklace was your mother’s back then, and I didn’t want you to get hurt. It was just a way for me to get back home.”

Katara pulled her legs up to sit in the lotus position as she tried to decide on a response, and ended up jostling the tea and soup on the tray.

Without thinking she used her bending to steady it, at the same time Zuko lunged to do the same.

“Sorry,”

“No, it’s-,”

“ Shit! ”

~

Zuko wasn’t sure he’d ever heard her swear before, not really. Usually he just heard family-friendly insults shouted in his direction, but never real profanity. 

His gaze followed hers to the newly frosty bowl of soup and noodles in his hands. 

“Sorry,” she repeated, flushing in deep embarrassment and reaching for the bowl, “I meant to keep it from spilling and I’ll just- you don’t have to eat-,”

She stopped when steam began curling up languidly from the bowl.

“It’s fine,” he said with a shrug, “firebender.”

“Right,” she muttered, still staring at his hands, “firebender.”

She shook herself and began arranging the food on the tray so that it was evenly divided amongst the two of them, and folded her hands neatly in her lap. 

After another moment of neither of them moving she glanced up at him, gesturing for him to start eating. 

“That’s,” she waved at the bowl he was holding, “for you, since you haven’t eaten in over a week and it’s easier on your stomach.”

~

They ate in a silence that was only slightly strained. Katara felt herself relaxing regardless. With Zuko she didn’t have to be… needed. No one needed her to pay attention to them, or to be a sounding board for their ideas. No one asked her to help with chores, or to remind them yet again how their families had been doing when she’d last been in the South Pole. Most importantly, no one needed her to face her father in here. 

These thoughts turned over in her head as she ate mechanically, staring off into space. 

“Um,”

Zuko’s voice pulled her from her stupor, and she found him leaned half back against the wall, nibbling delicately at one of the bao.

“When will I be allowed to bathe?” he asked carefully, “I mean-,” he glanced at her nervously, “I just, I haven’t washed in over a week and I don’t want to… offend anyone.” 

Katara snorted. She couldn’t help it.

“ Offend anyone?” she laughed, “These men have been at sea for five years! Plus, they’ve all smelled Sokka’s dirty socks, I guarantee you they’ve smelled worse.”

Zuko’s face was flushed slightly pink as he turned his face away from her, fingers raking nervously through his hair. Then again, she could’ve just been imagining the flush in the industrial lighting. 

“Well, I know, but-,” he pressed his lips together, scratching at his head, “one of… The healer of the Southern Fleet,” he said the title slowly, as if afraid someone would scold him for pronouncing it wrong, “he came to, uh, greet me earlier and it… I’d just rather not be covered in grime.”

Katara’s eyes were wide in understanding, she cursed quietly,

“Sorry, that makes complete sense, I’m sorry I didn’t think of it earlier.” she said, running her fingers through her hair, which now that she thought of it, was probably also overdue for a wash. Spirits, she’d just been so busy . 

At the very least it gave her an idea. 

“Um, I think it’s a bit too late for me to bring you up a bath, but I could help wash your hair? If you want.” she floundered, patting for her waterskin until she managed to grab it and lift it up a little, “With bending, I mean.”

By now Zuko was staring at her with wide eyes, this time a distinct flush starting to spill down his neck. 

If she was honest, Katara knew next to nothing about the Fire Nation and hair. At most, she knew that important people in the military seemed to have stupid facial hair, and they all usually had a topknot of some sort. Zuko had had the most haircuts out of anyone she’d ever known, and she’d assumed (more recently than she’d like to admit, since before she’d just thought he’d looked stupid) that his ponytail and partial baldness had some significance. Which meant that when he’d shown up in the Earth Kingdom with a full head of cropped hair, something important must’ve happened. Something warranting a change in over a year of diligently shaving his head. 

Oh, sweet spirits, what if I’ve offended him , she thought in mortification.

But before she could worry about it any further Zuko replied,

“Okay.”

He seemed just as confused about his answer as she was.

“Really?”

He nodded.

Then there was a brief fumbling while they stacked the dishes, and somehow managed to get into position so that Zuko was perched on the edge of the bed while Katara stood in front of him with her hands at the ready. 

~

Zuko thanked Agni for the small mercy that he didn’t have to look Katara in the face right now. His cheeks were probably bright red, no one had washed his hair since… with a small pang he realized his mother had probably been the last person to wash his hair for him. 

Back home, no one washed your hair unless they were extremely close, like family, or couple- nope. Katara probably had no idea what it meant, that was why she was offering. It didn’t have to mean anything. She was just being nice. That was all. 

He still had to bite back a gasp as the cool water sank into his hair. He suppressed a shiver when she began working some soap she’d found into his hair, her nails scraping gently along his scalp. 

Spirits, it felt good. 

“Is this okay?” she asked quietly, 

It took him a moment to process that she’d asked him a question, and when he did he could only nod in response, afraid that if he opened his mouth no appropriate noises would come out. 

She hummed and continued her ministrations without another word. 

Without meaning to, Zuko relaxed into the sure movements of her hands. By the end of it he was practically asleep sitting up. 

Without him entirely noticing, Katara managed to get him to lay down, and leave with a quiet creak of the door.

That was why he didn’t entirely realize what had happened until the middle of the night. His eyes snapped open,

“ Shit .”

Chapter Text

“ Shit. ”

For hours now, Katara had been trying to go to sleep, only to be distracted by thoughts of the prince at every turn. 

Stupid Zuko, keeping her from sleeping with his stupid soft hair, and handsome face, and being all shy and polite, and making that, that humming noise and leaning into her touch! 

With a groan she rolled over to mush her face into the pillow.

She shouldn’t have dawdled just so she could keep threading her fingers through his hair, and watching his face. She was his healer , for La’s sake! It would be un ethical and un professional for her to act like anything else around him. 

Tomorrow, she decided, she would have Sokka bring him a bath and some clothes so she could focus on her other chores. 

~

At this rate, Zuko was going to pace a hole right through the floor. He’d tried meditation, he’d tried doing modified exercises, Agni’s flames, he’d even tried counting sheepigs and he still hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. 

So, he’d taken to pacing his small room for most of the morning. 

He wanted to be mad at Katara, but she hadn’t actually done anything wrong. All she’d done so far was save his life, heal him, and be nice to him. Exactly why she was being nice completely escaped him, so he stopped thinking about it and tried thinking about his current situation. 

If you had told him a year ago that he’d be back on a Fire Nation steamer, run by his enemies, because somehow he’d managed to endear himself to the Avatar’s friends, he would have laughed. Worse, he wasn’t actually sure where he stood. Was he a prisoner? A guest? 

The little girl, Tough? Toffee? Gave no indication whether or not he was friend or foe. Just because she liked his uncle didn’t mean she liked him.

The Healer of the Southern Fleet had made it clear that he would rather Zuko were dead, which made him think he was a prisoner at best. But then again Katara kept treating him… like a person. 

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

SSSCCCRRRAAAPPPEE.

What in Agni’s light…?

SSSCCCCRRRRRAAAAAPPPPPEEEE.

“‘Wow, your sister’s a waterbender!’” came a muffled voice from outside his door.

sssssSSSSSCCCCRRRAAAPPPPPEEEE

“‘That must be so nice!’” the voice grunted with false cheer.

SCRAPE.

“Sure,” the voice huffed, “it’s great, especially when she makes you do stuff that her magic water could do a lot more quickly, grunt ,”

SSCRAPE.

“And efficiently!” the voice wheezed, stopping right outside his door. 

Slowly, Zuko opened his door a crack to peer out at whatever the fuck was happening. 

He was greeted with the sight of the sweaty boomerang guy from the Avatar’s little group, slumped against the side of a large empty tub. What was his name again? Sokky? No… Sukkeh? No…

“Ah,” the boomerang guy waved limply, catching sight of him, “Just the man I was looking for.”

What? Why did boomerang guy want him? Was he supposed to help with that thing as a way to earn his keep? Would everyone be able to boss him around like that?

“Do you… want… something?” he asked haltingly.

“Oh, not much,” the boomerang guy sighed, “world peace, seal jerky, for the Fire Nation to stop being evil. The usual stuff.”

Zuko snapped the door shut. It was too early in the morning for this kind of headache. 

“Noooo!” the guy whined on the other side of his entirely too-thin door, “Come back! I come bearing gifts!”

He grit his teeth, Uncle would scold him for being rude, and he really didn’t want to give his maybe-captors a reason to dislike him. He opened the door a little wider this time,

“What?” 

The bastard grinned, rapping his knuckles on the tub behind him.

“I come bearing the gift of good hygiene, and also clothes.” he said amiably. 

“Uh, thanks, I guess.” 

Boomerang guy’s eyebrow quirked,

“Don’t mention it.”

~

After some struggle, Sokka managed to get the tub into the jerkbender’s room, though it might’ve been a quicker process if the Jerk Prince of All Jerks hadn’t tried to help him and nearly reopened one of his wounds. 

“I’m fine! ” he’d hissed, pale, sweating, and clearly not fine.  

“Sure you are, but Katara’ll kill me if I let you ruin all her hard work.”

He’d grunted but had mostly stopped trying to help.

Now he sat watching moodily from his bed. 

“Ta da!” Sokka sing songed once he’d finally managed to get the damn thing far enough inside that the door would close.

The jerkbender, unsurprisingly, looked unimpressed.

Sokka dropped his hand from where he’d been gesticulating. This guy really was such a pain. 

“Now, I’m sure it’s not up to your imperial standards, but we also managed to scrounge up a few hand-me-downs for you,” he said, holding up some of the crew’s old clothes.

In all honesty they were some from Sokka’s own stache. Some of the men hadn’t fully stopped growing when they left the South Pole five years ago, and had given all of their slightly better-fitting clothes to Sokka when he’d shown up.

Conveniently, the pair of trousers he was holding up unfolded to show a rip clean through the crotch.

“Thanks,” Zuko said, frowning as he took them.

So, maybe Sokka hadn’t checked which clothes he was grabbing super thoroughly, but at least he’d gotten the size mostly right. 

“Do you have any needle and thread?”

“What?” 

The question took Sokka completely off-guard.

“I don’t need much, just enough to mend these,” the Jerk Prince continued, oblivious to Sokka’s shock as he carefully examined each piece of clothing, “I’ll even give the needle back when I’m done.”

“Wait, wait, wait, back up,” Sokka said, “since when do you know how to sew? Don’t you have like, servants for that kind of thing.”

The scowly jerk scowled at him.

“It’s a useful skill.”

“What, is the Fire Nation planning to stab us to death with needles?” Sokka rolled his eyes.

“No.” he said, glaring.

Sokka glared back. Tui, this guy was a pain. 

Finally, with a huff, the angry jerk lowered his gaze and began to fold the clothes once more,

“Fine, no needle,” he grumbled, “but I don’t want clothes you can see through.” he said, holding up the pants.

Sokka’s brows shot way up,

“Whoa, hey, you can have needles, it’s just-,” he made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat, “ weird that you’re here. Like, really, deeply weird.”

The jerk frowned at him.

“Like, you chased us around the world for a year and threw fire at us that one time we tried to help you, and now you’re… on our side, and asking to mend your own pants.” Sokka elaborated.

“Hn,” jerkbender grunted in acknowledgment. Or possibly agreement. It was hard to tell under the scowl and new hair. 

“ Any way,” Sokka said, swinging his arms uncomfortably and backing out of the room, “I’ll, uh, just go grab that stuff for you while you bathe then.”

Rather than the expected grunt of acceptance, Prince Jerky just blinked at him like he was waiting for the punchline of a joke. 

Weird, but he’d just about managed to edge successfully out the door when His Royal Scowlyness said, 

“There's no water.”

Sokka stopped in his tracks. 

He glanced at the tub. 

The empty tub.

Shit .

“Ah,” he said weakly, “so it is.”

They both stared at the empty tub. 

“Whaddup NERDS!”

Sokka definitely did not scream like a little girl when Toph appeared behind him. Nope. Not at all. 

“Toph!” he practically screeched, “Stop! Doing! That!”

The earthbender huffed,

“I’m not doing anything! You coulda heard me a mile away!”

“No I couldn’t! I swear to Tui and La I’m gonna bell you like a koalasheep if this keeps up.”

The little menace retorted by sticking her tongue out. 

Before he could respond in kind, Sokka was distracted by a tired sigh behind him. Jerkbender. 

Bathing.

Right. 

With a huff of his own, Sokka composed himself, 

“Excuse us a moment,” he said to Zuko, ushering Toph towards the hallway, “great, I hope you’re not busy, because I need to figure out how to get a tub full of water up here.” he whispered. 

Toph blinked at him.

“Why do you need a tub full of water,”

“Not so loud!” he hissed, “I need it because Katara asked me to help Prince Jerkwad over there to bathe!”

Toph frowned,

“Can’t he just use the showers?”

Sokka opened his mouth to tell her exactly why he couldn’t do that, realized he totally could do that, and closed his mouth. 

He huffed.

“Look,” Toph rolled her eyes, “I know he’s injured and all, but he’s been pacing in circles around his tiny little room all day. I’m sure he can handle it.”

~

For the umpteenth time since he’d woken up, Zuko’s door was slammed unceremoniously open.

“Do you know how to shower?” Shouted boomerang guy.

Zuko grit his teeth. 

“Yes.”

“Excellent,” boomerang guy said, snatching up the soap, washcloths, and towel from the tub, “we leave immediately.”

“What?” he half demanded, half asked as he stood. 

“Ough, you really do need a shower,” the little girl said, grabbing his arm and dragging him with surprising strength. 

“Hey-, wait-!”

Despite his protest, he soon found himself at the door to the showers. 

Boomerang guy took his hand off his shoulder, leaving the little green girl still clutching his arm. He wondered distantly if this were a trap. 

Unfortunately, or maybe not, it wasn’t long before boomerang guy emerged from the showers.

“All clear!” he announced, dropping the towels and soap into Zuko’s arms and tugging him along while the little girl pushed him from behind.

“Remember, we’ll be right outside, so don’t take too long, and no funny business!” the little girl warned him with a final unceremonious shove into the shower room.

“Yeah!” boomerang guy said, squinting at him and holding up two fingers to his eyes and flicking them at him, “I’ve got my eye on you.”

“Gross,” the little girl’s voice echoed from the changing room.

Boomerang guy squawked, 

“Not like that!” before he too disappeared into the changing room. 

With a long sigh, Zuko set about washing himself.

~

As the water poured over him, he contemplated his next move. Boomerang guy had basically confirmed it, he was a prisoner here. Which made sense, really. He was the enemy, accidental savior of the Avatar or no. 

Katara was just being nice to him because… because she’d seen what he’d done with her own two eyes. It was repaying a debt of gratitude, that was all. 

More importantly though, he didn’t want to keep being a prisoner. He still had a chance at going home . All he had to do was earn it. 

Sure he’d been marked a traitor, but he was still closer to the Avatar than he’d ever been, and while Katara had been careful not to reveal too many details to him, the Southern Fleet was clearly planning something. More likely than not, the Earth Kingdom, or whatever was left of its forces would be in on it too. If he could just ingratiate himself to these people enough, he could probably gather enough critical information to buy him forgiveness once he escaped to the Fire Nation. 

It had to work.