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iii.
On the dock, his mother cradles his face between her hands. “You are your father’s son and this is your birthright,” she tells him. Her graying hair, long and free, tangles in the ocean air, “But you’re my son too. Don’t let anyone forget that.”
Anyone, the Fire Lord. One in the same.
“He’s not coming, is he?”
He already knows the answer before his mother smiles sadly. “He can't bear it, not again. But he loves you more than anything.”
He knows this too and even in his disappointment he can't blame his father.
“And you?”
“I love you too, and I’ll bear it for the both of us.”
He presses his hand over hers where they rest on his cheek and touches their foreheads together. His mother smells like the ocean and spice; it smells like home.
“Daylight’s burning!” his sister shouts, hanging off the rigging of the fishing boat. The sun glints off the dual blades strapped to her back. He swallows heavily, pulling away to clasp his brother’s arm. He’s promptly knocked off balance and pulled into a bone crushing hug. He responds in kind, a firm thump on his back.
“We’ll always have the South, brother,” his brother chokes out with a wry smile.
A promise, an affirmation, a plea.
We'll carry on. No matter our squabbles, you're my brother. Come back.
One day they'll rebuild a lost culture from its meager remains. But that will be his sibling's path, not his. Not when he can conjure electricity at will. Not since their sordid family history was wrung from their parents' memories year over year. His journey was clear and it cut through the heart of his family's ghosts.
ii.
They met where they always did, between the gentle oasis pool and the scraggly trees at its shore. Kya beat them there, seated upon her customary throne of ice. She was the sun incarnate, with their father's honey eyes and their mother's dark skin glowing in the late afternoon light.
"Dramatic as always, Kya."
The voice broke over the clear waters before he caught a glimpse of its owner, covered in soot and marks from the forge.
"Nice of you to finally join us, Isi."
"Some of us actually have jobs, right Tatsu?"
He shook his head at the squabbling, leaning back into the acacia tree, where its bark was smooth and worn from many afternoons hiding from the sun and their parents. Isi continued his argument with Kya while he washed off, dousing himself in water and bending the dirt and grime to shore with a flick of his wrist. Like Tatsu, his looks didn't favor either parent, an inconspicuous blend of fire and water. Dressed in his green tunic, he could pass easily for your average Earth colonies citizen.
"I do have job!"
"As a pirate!"
"As a sea-faring merchant!"
"Mom made ocean kumquats," he cut in. Kya's chair dissolved back into the oasis pond as she made her way to shore with a final eye roll at Isi.
"So she's accepted you're going, huh?" She plucked a pickled kumquat from his hand, settling down into the tree's shade. Isi promptly sent a tendril of water to flick it toward him and Kya shot him a death glare.
"Accepted is likely too strong a word."
"So she's aggressively cooking for you instead then?" Isi asked with a mouthful of kumquat.
"Blowing their life savings on your funeral feast, apparently."
"Kya!" Isi yelped. Tatsu smiled at the macabre joke. He knew Kya put up a tough front but her penchant for worrying could rival their mom's.
"Going out with a bang," he agreed, munching on another pickle. Isi tossed his hands up.
"Both of you are dark bastards, you know that?"
Tatsu tut, waving a stern finger at his brother. "Language, Isi."
He flopped back on the dusty ground ignoring his siblings laughter. "I should've stayed at work, metal doesn't talk back."
"And miss our last get together?" he asked wryly. Kya rested a hand on his knee, his self-deprecation a touch too far.
"For now," she amended. Tatsu looked from her to Isi sprawled in the dirt and out across the oasis. Over the berms toward where he knew the farm to be. A stark cry from bustling cities and palatial living.
"For now."
___
The years old fight resurfaced every so often, a mimicry of the initial outburst that had neatly ruined the first family dinner they'd had in some time.
It had been a role reversal of every other argument any of them had had with their parents in his twenty one years. Dad raged and shouted and Mom was the one to go stonily silent, walking out the door with barely a glance in his direction. Dad hurried after her, leveling a final glare at his kids.
The silence was deafening when his parents left. Isi clutched his chopsticks with a white knuckle grip, eyes trained on the spilled jook splattered across the table. Kya had wisely stayed silent and remained so, arms crossed while she paced across small kitchen, still dressed in her travelling clothes.
Tatsu saw her dusty boots pause beside him from where he sat with his head buried in his hands and heard a short breath, as if she meant to speak. Instead, her footsteps retreated in the same direction his parents and he groaned. His sister was never one to back away from confrontation and though he thought she was in his corner on this one, he wasn't sure that's who he wanted as an advocate.
"Is this not enough?"
Tatsu raised his head in surprise at Isi's tight voice, watching him through glassy eyes. At seventeen, he'd already outgrown Tatsu in height and breadth and could swing a hammer with enough force to mold steel but he had always been the baby of the family, the comic relief, the peacemaker.
Tatsu couldn't help the annoyance in his bitter response. "You knew what I was going to say, Isi."
"After you and Kya planned it without me."
"You were too young."
"That's ostrich-horse shit and you know it," he said, as if cursing would counteract his brother's accusation. "Both of you act like you can fix the world's problems through sheer force of will."
"Why can't it? Mom and Dad were younger than us--"
"And they failed, Tati! That's why we're here, that's why we do back breaking labor instead of living whatever royal fantasy you have in your head!"
"It's not a fant-"
"They've been happy and now you want to throw it back in their face."
Tatsu slammed his fist on the table. "How is this any different than Kya wanting to rebuild an entire culture out of ash?"
"Because we don't have to entirely dismantle another one to do it!" Isi frowned. "And it's your culture too," he said, hurt. Tatsu pinched the bridge of his nose, leaning back in his chair.
"I know. But so is the Fire Nation, no matter how much everyone wishes otherwise." Isi looked marginally chagrined. "If I succeed it's not just a personal gain, it's better for the everyone."
"Or you die and destroy our parents in the process."
"Have a little faith," Tatsu snapped viciously. He paled as he looked up and saw his father walking back in next to Kya. His lips were pursed, wrinkling the scar more than usual. Tatsu thought he was imagining new gray hairs at his temples but regardless, their dad usually didn't look so... old.
He gestured to Kya to take a seat and she did so without comment. Tatsu shot her a bewildered look as their dad padded around the kitchen, eventually sitting down with a pot of tea and four cups. He steepled his fingers, watching his kids expectantly as they sipped the (unsurprisingly bitter) tea.
He looked to Tatsu, who fought to keep his face neutral, and then to the others. Isi still hadn't given up the vice grip on the poor chopsticks.
"We should have told you more," Dad started.
"You told us plenty!" Isi interrupted.
"No, we did not. And that was not fair to any of you, least of all you Tatsu. Grandad Iroh, Agni save him, taught me how we choose our own destiny. It's not immutable and I should've followed in his footsteps. Even if I think your choice is foolhardy, let me give you all the information I can before you make your final decision."
Tatsu nodded, afraid to speak, and forced back another sip of tea.
Dad sighed and pinched the bridge of his knows before dropping his hand lightly to the table.
"Where would you like me to start?"
"The beginning," Kya chimed in. "The very beginning."
i.
"Why do we have to train so much?" Tatsu complained, wiping the sweat from his brow. Summer in the southern colonies was brutal and Papa insisted his firebending training must be done at midday. Papa was seemingly unaffected by the heat, maybe because he'd grown up in the Fire Nation and Kya said that it was even hotter there than here.
He envied his sister right now, sitting on the shaded porch watching them. No one had even come to yell at her for ignoring her chores. Kya complained constantly that she couldn't bend yet even though she was six and Tatsu was only five. In defiance of that fact, she spent an inordinate amount of time watching him train as if she could absorb firebending through sheer will.
Tatsu thought she was crazy; ever since he accidentally burnt dinner one night, Papa had him out in the sun learning to 'connect and control.'
Papa looked at him sideways from his bad eye. “We have to train because there are bad people out there who might want to hurt you. ”
Tatsu huffed. It made sense, after all. He'd seen the army in town and how Papa always had to hide away on the farm when they marched through, while Mama took him and baby Isi on trips into town. Or how Kya had pushed the oldest Fan girl into the dung pile because she had called her a 'filthy little half-breed'. Kya hadn't even gotten in trouble for that, Papa just smiled and warned her to watch her temper because there are always going to be people who are mean.
"Tati," Papa said exasperated. "You're supposed to be dimming the flame."
Tatsu looked to his candle, which had nearly burned to a nub while he was daydreaming. "Sorry, Papa."
Papa sighed, re-tying his long hair into a bun at the nape of his neck. "Go help Mama prepare for dinner, we can finish tomorrow."
Later, when the sun was setting and Mama had him shredding enough cabbage to make his arms fall off, he watched Kya out in the same field he'd been whining in earlier, jerkily copying Papa's movements with two long wooden sticks.
Papa held real swords, glinting in the evening light. He moved more gracefully with steel than fire and it reminded Tatsu of Mama's waterbending, all long fluid movements. After a while, Kya began to get the hang of it, showing some small success in her control as she swished the sticks across her body.
They walked back to the house when the sun finally fell below the horizon.
"Uncle Sokka would have been very proud of you," Papa said to Kya as they reached the porch. His sister beamed at the praise, happily sitting next to him and cracking open a bowl full of nuts without complaint.
___
"When can I fight with Tatsu?" Kya bounced from foot to foot on the porch, ignoring Mama's attempts to shush her. She'd developed bending a year after Tatsu and took to it like a fish to water, quickly outpacing him, much to both of their annoyances.
"You guys can spar when you won't hurt each other," Mama said, adjusting Isi on her hip to prevent him from toddling into their training. Kya huffed. "And that will come quicker if you pay attention to how they firebend, right?"
"Yes, Mama," Kya grumbled. Papa shot their mother a wry smile and adjusted Tatsu's stance before taking his place next to him.
"Don't take it to heart," Papa said, leading them through a new kata of kicks and punches. "Your mother is one of the most powerful benders, of any element, that I've ever met. Your sister got lucky with a good teacher," he assured him. Papa had known the Avatar during the war so Mama must be pretty powerful for him to say that.
Still, Tatsu didn't think it was right for him to sell himself short.
"But you're an amazing firebender, Papa!" he insisted. And he meant it. He'd seen how others in the village were scared of the soldiers who passed through but no one was scared of Papa because he always kept his flame under control. That's what made the best firebenders after all: control.
Papa laughed gently. "See, Katara?" He winked over his shoulder at Mama who rolled her eyes, sticking out her tongue. Kya retched dramatically at their parent's affection.
Papa squeezed his shoulder, "Thanks, Tati. But I know one day you'll far outpace me."
___
The sharp knocks at the door-- two long and one short, the safety code-- didn't stir him from his sleep; he was already wide awake. But it drew his sister out of bed and he followed hot on her heels. They sneaked out of their room to hide in the darkness of the kitchen as his parents made their way to the door, exchanging wary expressions as they eased it open.
Tatsu could just make out the figure of a woman his parent's age, dressed in red, with great gnarled burns licking up her neck to her jaw. She grinned at the sight of his parents but only the unmarred side of her face lifted in a smile, her left cheek stagnated by the scar.
"Looks like we match now, Zuko."
Mama collapsed to her knees and Papa paled, clutching Mama's shoulder for balance. Silence stretched for a long moment before he reached out and engulfed the stranger in a tight hug.
"I have so many questions," he said in disbelief, helping Mama to her feet. Mama reached out gently to cup the woman's face, looking at her as though she'd seen a ghost.
His parents ushered the woman in and Kya scrambled back, covering his mouth with her hand when she stomped on his toe.
“Shh!” she insisted, shielding them in the shadows of the overflowing grain sacks ready for the harvest market. He bit down his complaint, if only because Kya was stealthier than him and had secured a better view of the hearth where Mama and Papa were conversing eagerly with the stranger.
He focused on the small living space, awash in the warm light from the fire. Mama's face had gone from shock to wonder and she kept reaching out to touch the stranger's knee, almost unconsciously, as if checking she was real. Without her travelling cloak Tatsu could see the woman better; her hair was short and her clothes were a strange mismatch of Fire Nation and Earth colonies fashion. The burn that curled up her neck also dipped well below the collar of her tunic.
"--I got word there were Water Tribe refugees in the South," she was explaining. "I didn't actually expect to find--"
Something on the mantle caught her attention and she reached above the fire fearlessly, not cowed despite having clear reason to be. Maybe she was a firebender too. Papa had plenty of burns-- not the big ones on his face and chest, but small ones dotting his hands and arms that he got before he met Mama. Tatsu didn't have any scars, the smallest cuts always vanished under Mama's hands before he ever had a chance to be upset.
Maybe the stranger was just brave, to lean into the element that had harmed her.
"Holy shit," she swore. She turned toward her parents, eyes wide, clutching the painting Uncle Bato had made last winter when it for once had gotten cold enough to wear the Water Tribe parkas Mama had painstakingly sown. The blue coats were layered with beading and tassels and trimmed in the softest fur. Tatsu thinks it's a shame they usually sat hidden away. He’d wear it all the time if it weren’t so hot in the Earth Colonies.
"They’re yours?" she asked, tone somewhere between gleeful and shocked as she looked back and forth between their parents. "Three?" Mama gave her a sheepish look and Papa rubbed the back of his neck. The stranger laughed in disbelief, eyes glued to the painting.
"The oldest is eight now," Mama whispered. The other woman paused, doing the math in her head.
"That's eight years after... most of the world, the survivors, they thought you were de--"
"Good," Papa interrupted. The stranger raised an eyebrow but backed off whatever line of questioning she'd been pursuing.
"It's a long story," Mama said by way of explanation. "For when we have plenty of time and a large bottle of wine. But the kids will be so excited to meet you."
"They know about me?" the stranger asked. She sounded wistful. Tatsu couldn't tell if it was a trick of the light or there were truly tears in the woman's eyes.
"Of course," Mama said, smiling more fully. "We've told them plenty of stories about how their Aunt Suki beat some sense into their uncle. It's Kya's favorite."
Beside him, Kya flailed her hands wildly. That story was her favorite. Tatsu for his part loved any story about Uncle Sokka's antics, which tended to have some overlap.
"That's Aunt Suki?!"
"Shh!" he warned.
"How much else do they know?" Suki asked, still studying the painting.
“We haven’t told them much about the war yet," Papa said carefully. Mama sighed.
Tatsu tapped Kya on the shoulder who just shrugged. They both privately thought there was more to their parents stories about the Avatar than they let on. They never voiced it other than to each other but there was certainly a story behind Papa's eye, or how someone from the Fire Nation even met someone from the Water Tribe, much less ended up in the driest part of the Earth Kingdom outside the Si Wong Desert. Uncle Bato always said it was because the Southern Water Tribe had gotten too small and they needed to move. But they never talked much about the Northern Tribe and Papa was the only the person from the Fire Nation Tatsu knew outside the occasional soldiers and the regional governor, but it wasn't like he ever came to their village.
The raised voices brought his attention back to the living room.
"You'll have to tell them eventually,” the woman— no, Aunt Suki— ventured.
"Do we?" Papa countered, lips tight. Mama looked exhausted by the conversation, the happiness from earlier fading fast.
"Zuko," Suki said exasperated. "Even without the war, their existence would be a threat."
Papa laughed harshly. Papa was never harsh. Serious, but never mean. "Without the war they'd be living in the palace in the lap of luxury."
"Or they wouldn't exist," Mama whispered softly. Papa squeezed her hand and the visitor's face softened, crinkling the shiny burns on her jaw.
"Some things are fate, Katara."
___
Papa woke them early the next morning and Tatsu thought he and Kya did a pretty convincing job of acting surprised when he introduced the woman helping Mama cook in the kitchen. Isi ducked behind Mama’s legs, peering suspiciously at the new adult.
The stranger--Aunt Suki, he reminded himself-- gave her crooked smile again and brushed her short hair off her face with a wrist. Tatsu repressed a yell; in the morning light he could see how the burn engulfed her arm, fusing the fingers on her left hand together in a web of ruddy, scorched skin. He studiously focused on her face instead; it wasn’t polite to stare at injuries.
Mama shuffled Isi out from behind her legs. "This is your Aunt Suki."
Suki crouched down to Isi's height with small wave. Isi still clung to Mama's pant leg warily. But he watched Mama touch the newcomer casually, like she touched Papa, so she must be trustworthy. He waved back before retreating again. Mama sighed.
"He'll warm up to you. Isi is the most cautious of the group," she said leveling a look at Kya and Tatsu that could only be interpreted as Be polite.
"So you must be Tatsu and Kya." Suki stood back up to address them; Tatsu liked that. He'd rather be treated like an adult, not a baby like Isi. "The daredevils."
Tatsu gave a short, formal bow he knew Papa would approve of. Kya gave a less graceful half-bow, before blurting out, "Well, I'm really the daredevil. Tatsu gets scared easily."
Suki laughed, looking between Mama and Papa and then laughed even harder. Tatsu crossed his arms. He was careful, especially with his bending, not scared.
"If you take after your parents, I bet you are."
"Suki," Papa warned in the same tone he used when Tatsu's getting in trouble. But he desperately wanted to ask Aunt Suki what she meant. His parents were great benders and strong besides but they hated whenever Kya roped him into anything risky. Kya glanced at him, as curious about the stories this long lost family member must know as he was. But there was a time and a place for all that.
"Is it true you beat Uncle Sokka in a dress?" she asked instead. The furrow smoothed from Papa's forehead with a roll of his eyes and he nodded at Suki.
"Well, it started because Avatar Aang decided to come to Kyoshi to ride our Unagi..."
___
Kya wouldn't stop grumbling about how she didn't want to watch a bunch of old people bend and even though he kind of agreed she wouldn't. shut. up. about. it.
"They're not old," he finally snapped from their perch on the porch. "Not like Uncle Bato old." After all, Uncle Bato's hair had been gray as long as Tatsu could remember. It contrasted the dark navy beads he always wore. Mama's hair was still brown like Tatsu's and braided heavily with light blue and white plus three special silver beads that give a satisfying clink when she sparred.
"Tatsu," Kya said seriously. "Papa is thirty five years old! That's..." she paused to calculate on her fingers. Papa had been teaching them multiplication and Kya was much better at it than him. He prefered the geography lessons, even though Papa always used the banned names for the Earth colonies cities.
"More than three times older than I am!" Kya exclaimed, finally reaching an answer. Tatsu shrugged.
"You guys only get credit if you're paying attention!" Mama called from the dirt arena they'd drawn in front of the house. Kya shot upright, an exaggerated pantomime of attention. Mama and Papa had promised them they wouldn't have to finish their chores after bending practice if they paid attention during sparring today. And maybe maybe if they took good enough notes on how Mama and Papa fought each other they would finally let him and Kya spar.
Kya had been waiting for that opportunity for years.
Aunt Suki joined them for the second half of the session, the duel turned three way standoff. Despite being down both a functional hand and any element she didn't seem concerned in the least.
"They must have been able to fight all the time," Kya said awed. Papa had said they hadn't seen Aunt Suki for a very long time but Tatsu thought you wouldn't know with how seamlessly they all sparred together. Or how she'd slotted into their lives for that matter.
"They had to fight," he pointed out to his sister. That was what Mama always told her when she complained about practicing her healing. "There was a war then. We're lucky we don't have to."
Kya tilted her head at him, like she wanted to rebut him. "I guess," she finally admitted. "But I'm still gonna ask Aunt Suki how to do that!" she said pointing to where Papa narrowly miss getting nicked by Suki's fan after a gravity defying leap by their aunt. Mama launched a rope of water at her ankles, eyes bright and laughing as Suki nimbly dodged it.
"Then you'll never catch me," Kya teased. "because you're too scared to ask Aunt Suki to show you."
Kya was lying, he wasn't scared of Aunt Suki. It was just that her scars kind of frightened him, even though he knew it was rude to say so. He was frightened of the power in his hands, that he could cause that kind of damage by losing control. Fire must be constantly tamed and even though Papa claimed he'll never properly control his flame if ruled by fear he can't let it go.
Because Mama and Papa have scars too, including matching bands shaped like hands on their upper arms. It would be years before he realized those were different, those weren’t what Papa's warnings were about. They weren't from any loss of control, they were purposefully meant to inflict pain. They were burns of proximity-- intimate, personal, just like the brand on Papa's eye.
(He didn't bend for a week when he realized that.)
___
Bato married a Earth colonies woman and Isi was thrilled-- Lian was his favorite person in the village. Tatsu suspected it was because the round faced woman always had treats waiting for him with every new waterbending move he mastered. His brother was slow and shaky compared to Kya at the same age but Lian had infinite patience watching him stumble through.
"Was your wedding that much fun?"
Isi had his arms hooked over Aunt Suki's shoulders as they made their way to their camp for the night, trekking down from the lush green plateau where the party had been. It was nearly a half day's journey from the village but also a ways away from prying eyes of any soldiers, a safe space for ceremonies of any kind. Births, marriages, even funerals were all held there, often in a mish-mash of cultures from across the world.
At Isi's question, Dad's face pinched like he'd drank sour milk and Mom snorted in laughter.
"We didn't exactly... have a wedding," Dad said, starting a small fire outside their tents. Suki dropped Isi onto his bedroll but he was full of delirious over-exhausted energy.
"What? But you have three of us! That’s how babies are made and that’s why we’re gonna have new cousin because Lian can have babies now.”
Aunt Suki grinned like all her birthdays had come at once. "Yeah Zuko," she said sarcastically. "That's how babies are made!"
Dad scowled at her. Tatsu was torn between amusement-- which he tried not to show because he wasn't really supposed to get the joke but Hu Jian has five older brothers and he'd heard stories-- and second hand embarrassment because he wanted to die thinking of Mom and Dad behaving like Hu Jian's brothers. Dad looked as though he wanted to pass away on the spot and Mom was thrilled at Dad's expense, cheeks flush with what he expected was wine. Kya’s expression was inscrutable and she definitely knew what he knew but he was suspicious of how. Did girls talk like Hu Jian too?
“Sometimes there isn’t time to get married."
“Because it gets dark?”
Suki was all out howling and Mom had tears of joy streaming freely down her face.
“Because... because. Well, because you’re traveling! Mama and I were traveling when Kya came to us.”
“More wine, Zuko?” Suki managed though wheezes, passing the opaque bottle to him.
Dad downed it in one gulp.
____
Sometime after Kya started bending she’d undergone a slow rolling transformation from a proud mix of fire and water to all, and only, Water Tribe. But when it reached it's height, it was as though a switch flipped. She braided her hair and fastened it with the loopies Bato carved her for her fifth birthday, refusing to pull it back in a top knot that even Mom preferred out in the fields. She dressed solely in blues, greens if she absolutely must, but shunned the short tunics and wide red trousers she used to favor for Dao practice. She listened attentively when Mom explained the connections between waterbending and the pole she'd grown up on but her eyes glazed over when Papa tried to explain the old Fire Nation monarchy, before Sozin's line ruled, and their cultural forefathers, the ancient Sun Warriors. She ate sea prunes like they were going out of style but picked around anything with Fire Nation spice, much to Isi's delight as he snatched up her leftovers.
It came to head a year after Bato's wedding on Victory Day, when a column of Fire Nation troops in shiny red armor marched through their village at the behest of the regional governor, a show of force fitting for the twentieth anniversary of the defeat of the Avatar.
It was also the day, for the first time, that Tatsu beat his sister three times in a row during their spar. Flames had skittered past her feet on his last strike when she turned and burst out that he was evil.
He was so dumbfounded he didn't even raise a wall to deflect to the stream of water she launched at him, knocking him on his butt.
Aside from Kya's heavy breathing, it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Dad stood in the referee's box of the makeshift sparing ring, hands hanging lamely by his side. His shocked expression was quickly replaced by sadness, but he didn't refute her.
Mom however, was furious. She leapt from her chair in the shade, her stitching ignored as she stormed over. Dad raised a hand as she approached.
"Katara, it's okay."
"No it's not!" she snapped back, glaring at her oldest child who brazenly returned it. "The element you bend doesn't make you good or bad and the Fire Nation has taken just as much from you as any of us!"
Tatsu had scrambled to his feet but stood frozen on dirt pitch.
"You don't know the whole world, Kya! Apologize to your brother!"
Kya narrowed her eyes and no matter how hurt he was at her words he couldn't help the brief moment of worry that came over him. This was level four pissed off Mom, you didn't talk back, but Kya continued at her own peril anyway.
"I know enough!" she shouted back, frozen spikes stabbing out of the barrel when she raised her hands in frustration. "I know your burns and Aunt Suki's and Papa's were all done by evil men. I know the Jiro's cart and Yu Min's farm were burned by evil soldiers, the same one's who burned Silla's legs all the way up to her--"
Kya stopped herself, sucking air through her teeth. She glanced at him, rage and conflict fighting on her face. "All firebenders are the same!" was what she settled on, punctuating the statement with a stomp of her food that sent the water in the barrel flying up into a frozen spout.
Dad kept a hand on Tatsu's shoulder, a touch tighter than comfortable that belied the sadness on his face.
"Go to your room, Kya," Dad said flatly. Kya's shoulders sunk slightly, refusing to meet his eyes.
"It's not fair for me to be punished for telling the truth," she said petulantly, determined to have the last word even though the anger she had a moment before had drained from her voice. She couldn't muster the same meanness talking to Dad as she had toward Mom.
"You're not being punished for what you said, you're being punished for yelling at your mother."
"No, Zuko..."
"Go, Kya," Dad commanded, soft but firm. Kya spared a look at Mom, who crossed her arms but said nothing. With a final stomp that sent the barrel of water tumbling, Kya disappeared inside.
Mom came over and hugged him tightly. "You're perfect just the way you are Tati," she said, running a hand over his curls. "Why don't you go help get Isi ready for bed and we'll talk later?"
He trudged back to the house, his parents lingering behind on the porch when he slipped inside. He could just make them out through the window as he corralled his brother to his room.
Mom's hand rested flat against Dad's tunic, just above his stomach. "I thought we'd raised her better," she said bitterly.
"Can you blame her though? You felt the same way at her age and I've had plenty of self-loathing over the years."
"Those were different circumstances."
"Maybe Suki was right, we need to tell them."
___
They fetched him well past his bedtime and sat him down under the moonlight.
"So you know how Dad and I traveled with Avatar Aang during the war right? To teach him all the elements?"
Tatsu nodded, "With Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki and Aunt Toph."
"Right, well, at first your Dad wasn't exactly on our side." Tatsu eyes widened and Dad tensed beside him.
"He and Granddad Iroh were looking for the Avatar because the Fire Lord told them too."
Tatsu laughed, "Why would the Fire Lord ask some random kid?"
Dad sighed. "Because Fire Lord Ozai was my father. I disappointed him when I was Kya's age and he told me to capture the Avatar to prove myself."
"But!" Mom butted in before Tatsu could ask any of his mounting questions, "He realized that the Fire Lord was wrong and joined Aang to try and defeat him!"
Tatsu's head spun. His first thought, something Kya would have voiced no doubt, was well, you guys didn't defeat him. But then his brain circled back to what his Dad said.
"If your dad was a Fire Lord then you were--are?-- a prince? Does that mean Granddad Iroh was a prince too?
"Yes."
"Does that mean I'm a prince?" he asked, failing to keep the obvious wonder out of his voice. Mom and Dad exchanged wary glances.
"Kind of. Technically," Dad said. Tatsu ignored the obvious tension, thinking of all the possibilities. Then another thought occurred to him.
"So Kya would also be a princess." The idea frustrated him if only because she had just called him evil for being a firebender and it stood to reason the Fire Lord should at least respect the people they ruled over. Dad rubbed the back of his neck and Mom shrugged, as if to say it's your problem now.
"By birth, yes. And Isi too."
Tatsu racked his brain for the lessons on the structure of the Fire Nation monarchy and what little he knew of the old Earth Kingdom kings and queens they weren't supposed to talk about.
"But Kya would become Fire Lord next? Because she's the oldest?"
He could begrudgingly admit she'd probably be good at it but the possibility still stung.
Mom cut back into the conversation. "Well, Fire Lord Ozai disowned Dad for joining the Avatar against him. So his sister became the crown princess and then Fire Lord instead," she said, voice tightening. "Her heir would become Fire Lord next."
Dad's sister. The Fire Lord. Tatsu's aunt. It would be his cousins in charge of the Fire Nation next. Except...
"But the Fire Lord doesn't have kids."
It was soldiers favorite gossip, especially during celebrations, or at least that's what Hu Jian told him. Mom never let them go, too many chores they'd slacked on she claimed. But judging by the indecipherable expression on Dad's face, Hu Jian was right.
Mom pursed her lips. "Well, there's still time."
She sounded bitter about the possibility and he wasn't entirely convinced that was true. But if it was it opened the door for another, more horrifying possibility than any long lost family.
"Wait, you guys aren't having anymore kids are you?!"
Mom laughed at his pained expression and a smirk cracked Dad's serious face. He seized on the change of topic. "I promise you, you three are more than enough hassle."
___
Kya showed him her secret oasis as a peace offering, along with a bag full of jennamite candy she'd stashed away. Mom refused to allow it in the house, even though the rest of them loved it, so he accepted the apology and even shared some with her under the stippled shade of the acacia trees.
"Have you taken Isi here yet? Looks like the perfect place for waterbending," he asked. Kya ducked her head at the gentle dig.
"No, he's still a kid I don't think Mom would want him wandering off alone. It can just be our secret for now?" Another apology. He held out a hand to shake on it.
"Deal."
Speaking of secrets...
"So Mom and Dad told you too right? About the Fire Lord. And uh, former Fire Lord I guess?"
Kya frowned flicking at the shimmering pond, causing the surface to ripple as though she had tossed a rock. "Auntie and Gramps?" she asked wryly. "I don't know how I feel about it."
"I don't think Mom and Dad know how to feel about it either."
"Remember the night Aunt Suki first came? What she said?"
"That she thought Mom and Dad were dead?"
"No, although that's a good point," she said without elaborating, one of her most frustrating habits. Tatsu was unsure exactly what point she was referring to but the way she said it made him feel like he'd be stupid to ask.. "She said even without the war we'd be a 'threat'. Do you think this is what she meant? Being related to royalty."
Tatsu shrugged. "Maybe, but it doesn't matter anyway. We live in the colonies not the Fire Nation. Maybe being royalty and bring related to royalty are two very different things. The second one is just a fun fact."
Kya sent another ripple across the water. "Maybe."
___
Just because Kya had apologized to him didn't mean she was out of hot water with their parents. Her and Dad left on a Mom-assigned educational field trip at the end of harvest season, when the first and only chilly weather of the year finally arrived.
Tatsu was relieved he didn't have to tag along-- the short winter was his favorite and he didn't want to waste it sweating away at some old Fire Nation ruins.
The bandits came a week later.
He didn't hear them approach the house until the door creaked on it's hinges while he played snapdragon with Isi by the fire.
"Did you hear that?" he asked his brother. Mom was out at the barn, storing the last grain barrels. She wasn't supposed to be back yet.
"No, was I supposed to?" Isi asked anxiously, feeding off the fear in Tatsu's voice.
He heard it again, the heavy creak.
Tatsu pulled and contracted his arm to his chest, pushing it out again in an arc around his body the way Dad had showed him. Candles across the room flickered to light. His relief didn't last long.
Three unfamiliar men haunted the threshold, blinking at the sudden brightness in the room before focusing their attention to the two kids sitting on the floor. Isi was the quickest the react, scrambling back into the corner and screaming at the top of his lungs: "Mama!"
"Shut him up!" the short burly leader shouted, pointing at them with his spiked club.
Tatsu's heart beat out of his chest as he backed up toward Isi and shot a thin tendril of flame at the advancing intruder. The shot narrowly missed, fizzling out before it hit the wall.
"Fucking fire spawn then huh?"
Tatsu was more scared of setting the house on fire with them in it than any derision from the would be robbers and desperately looked around the room for anything else to fight back with. Isi's yelling got louder and more frantic as he settled on the ornamental dual blades Dad hung above the fire. He shot out another feeble burst of fire and ran for the swords while the trio fanned out across the room.
The swords were heavier than Kya's or the training ones he'd used before and he could only properly lift one but that'd have to do. Right now he was the man of the house and all that mattered is protecting his brother.
He swung clumsily toward the tallest intruder, the steal reverberating loudly. But the older man was stronger and faster and knocked him down with a blow Tatsu barely managed to block. The force of the collision knocked Dad's sword out of his hands. He raised his hands, ready to funnel whatever flame he could toward his attacker with a prayer to Agni he didn't roast him and his brother alongside them.
Tatsu glimpsed the sword raised above the attackers head and tried to steel his nerve when the weapon clattered to the ground harmlessly. Its former master stood there, unmoving.
“Tatsu, take Isi and run to Bato’s, okay?”
He'd never seen Mom so angry. She stood in the doorway, face hard and arms raised. The man in front of him couldn't so much as twitch his fingers and the other two were frozen to the kitchen wall. He grabbed Isi's hand and pulled him out of the corner, out of reach of the robber.
“Mom?”
“Go find Uncle Bato sweetie, I'll handle this.”
He hesitated by the door. Mom mustered a soft smile.
"It's going to be okay, Tati."
He gathered the courage he couldn't manage moments before to drag Isi out into the night and as soon as their feet cleared the porch, they ran. Isi cried the whole way while Tatsu tugged him along with one hand, trying to keep a steady light in the other.
Tears of fright and shame tracked down his cheeks. He should have been able to defend himself and Isi, he should be helping Mom. He was supposed to be the man of the house while Dad was gone, he'd promised Dad he would be. The guilt of his failure was turning his stomach into knots.
Uncle Bato met them by the gate with Aunt Suki, Tatsu's bending alerting them to their presence before they got there. Lian rushed out after them wearing a dirtied apron.
"What happened?" Suki asked frantically.
"Bandits!" Isi cried, "They tried to hurt us but Tati fought them off."
"Where's your Mom?"
"She did something to them, they froze like a statue. She told us to leave," Tatsu managed through a shaky breath. Uncle Bato scooped up Isi in a hug even though they're both getting a little too old for that, nodding to Suki who took off back toward their farm without another word. Lian wrapped an arm around Tatsu and led them into the house, promising him that everything will be okay after a cup of tea and a warm meal.
Isi couldn't stop crying, sniffling into the tea Lian made. She tucked him into a well loved blanket decorated in Water Tribe patterns while Uncle Bato told them about the time he took Mom ice dodging with Avatar Aang and Uncle Sokka in an attempt to distract them.
"Your Mom got the Mark of the Brave for her fearlessness then and she never once stopped being brave since then. She'll be fine, I promise."
Tatsu waited until Isi fell asleep and Uncle Bato and Lian went bed for the night. He felt bad, betraying their trust but Isi was safe and he had to know Mom is too. He sneaked out of the farmhouse, sprinting back across the the fields as fast as he could with a small flame cupped in his hand. He killed the fire soon as the house was in sight, approaching it warily.
He could hear voices through the open door and their familiarity eased the fear wrapped around his heart as he crept to look inside.
"Shh, Katara, you're okay."
Mom was sitting on the ground in tears and Aunt Suki was rocking her back and forth.
The bandit was clearly dead on the floor.
It was jarring to see him on the floor, covered by on old blanket. Tatsu had only seen a dead body at funerals before.
"It was so easy, Suki," Mom rasped. "You remember Ember Island, after Yon Rha, I swore I'd never do it again..." She laughed harshly, hiccuping at the end. "And it just takes the right motivation and then it's so easy. Here, that damned Agni Kai. Easy."
"It's not healthy to make promises we can't guarantee, Katara," Aunt Suki said. "It's a kinder death than I would have given them, if they threatened the kids. Or any of you. Show yourself some mercy."
___
Dad and Kya returned three days later and Kya-- who felt everything strongly and completely-- demanded to know what happened. Isi, aided by gentle corrections from Mom, put himself in charge of telling her, greatly exaggerating his own bravery in the process. Tatsu could see the moment guilt washed over her and settled in her bones and no amount of reassurance of how awesome he or Mom were was going to reassure her.
Mom took her for a walk into town with Suki and Tatsu overheard the word 'blood' as they left and gave them a wide berth. He'd been unfortunate enough to catch the tail end of that girl conversation the year before. He didn't know what that had to do with the bandits but he didn't plan on finding out. When Kya came home later stricken and pale and staring at her hands incomprehensibly he didn't dare ask.
Instead he asked her to come to the oasis and train with him out of sight of their parents, full force, so he could practice firebending in the real way (filled with the anger and fear still nestled in his chest) the way that will actually prepare him, the next time -- and she could let off some steam.
She ranted as she launched balls of water at him, angry that her hurtful words had spiraled into nearly getting her family killed, and frustrated because she always assumed water was good and fire was bad but apparently there are baby dragons in the world and nothing was what she thought.
They sparred to exhaustion and laid in the sand with their feet in the water.
"Were you scared, Tati?"
"Terrified."
"Would you have burnt them bad if Mom hadn't come back?"
He thought of Isi shaking behind him and his raised hands in the face of a raised sword.
"I... I wanted to be able to."
Kya nodded sharply at the sky. "Good."
___
"You're old enough now, it's time we talk about lightning."
Tatsu blinked. They'd started training at dawn rather than midday now that he knew the basics and no longer needed the aid of high noon. Dad was always done meditating by the time Tatsu dragged himself out of bed, barely awake.
"Lightning?" he repeated, convinced his tired brain must have misheard.
"Yes. It's a derivative of firebending, like how Aunt Toph was able to metalbend."
Tatsu rubbed his eyes, not pointing out the obvious that no one else seemed to know how to metalbend. He sunk into a cross-legged position. "Do water and airbending have derivatives too?"
"Probably," Dad said after a moment. While Kya always trailed off her thoughts when she was avoiding something, Dad never even tried to hide his avoidance instead hedging his inner thoughts with meaningful pauses. Tatsu liked to think he took after Mom when it came to being sneaky.
Before Tatsu could push him on it he moved on. "Every element can be pushed to new limits if we're open to how they work in harmony."
Dad reached out, drawing the the symbols for each of the elements in a grid. "Rigidity stops our progress," he said erasing the lines one by one. "Lightning redirection comes from movements native to waterbenders, for example."
"Redirection? I thought we were going to actually bend lightning! Is that even possible?"
"Tatsu. Will you please let me teach my lesson?"
"But..."
Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, it is possible. But first we're going to talk about redirecting it, okay?" He phrased it as a question but Tatsu understood that under no circumstances was it one.
"Yes, redirecting got it. Waterbenders-- did Mom teach you?"
"Granddad Iroh actually. He studied how waterbenders moved their chi."
Tatsu glanced at the drawing in the dirt. "Did he teach you this way too?"
Dad smirked. "Yes, and I thought he was crazy. He had a lot of odd advice and wisdom. Turns out he was right, mostly."
Tatsu blanched at 'mostly'.
"Is redirection safe?"
"No," Dad said simply, doing nothing to ease his frazzled nerves. "Neither is bending it. Lightning is unpredictable and powerful. But this gives you a chance."
"How many people know how to bend it? I mean what's the point of learning to redirect it it's not like I'm going to to expect a thunderstorm."
Dad glared and Tatsu backtracked. "Redirection first, yes, got it."
He spent the morning waterbending, or at least working through the same kata he'd seen his siblings do repeatedly. Up his arm, down through his stomach, back out the other arm.
"Again," Dad said each time he thought they were done.
"Again."
It was relentless, until the sun had risen fully for the day and finally they took a break.
"Have you ever bent lightning?"
"No."
"But you've redirected it."
"Twice. Once properly."
"And the other time?" he asked, not entirely wanting to hear the answer. His fist rested by habit above the center starburst scar that spanned across his torso and Tatsu shivered. He'd always assumed it was some an old firebending injury but looking at the branches reaching up to his collarbone lightning made terrible sense.
Dad fixed him with a look. "It was excruciating. Think about the worst burn you've ever got from bending and multiply it by a thousand."
He would rather not.
"But if you've never made lightning so how..."
"You've heard of an Agni Kai right?"
"Yeah, a firebending duel."
"It's not always.... well yeah, a firebending duel. I once fought against someone who knew how to shoot lightning and I wasn't prepared for it."
Tatsu couldn't imagine his father dueling anyone. And he hated the idea of hoping you had the chance to redirect it.
"Show me how to create lightning."
"I already told you I don't know how."
Dad was being purposefully evasive. "But you do in theory, you've tried. That's why you're saying that."
"You granddad could create it, he tried to teach me. Like I said I wasn't very good at it and it blew up in my face, literally."
Tatsu raised an expectant eyebrow.
"Supposedly, to generate lightning you must first be able to separate your positive and negative chi. When those energies return to one another, with the right guidance from the bender, they form lightning."
"And if the bender can't control it?"
Dad shook his head, "It's not about control. If you try to control it you're going to end up on your butt. It's not meant to be easy, you have to be balanced."
Balance. Positives and negatives, opposites.
Tatsu closed his eyes, trying to imagine the separation. He could feel tension in his body starting to pull.
Opposites, like fire and water. Like him. He drew his hands apart, spreading his arms and pushing them slightly back toward one another, like a pulse.
He felt the energy snap and away from the barn shot forward a barely there arc of static blue.
Dad stood there gently slack jawed, expression incredibly proud but impossibly sad. His injured hand rested just below his chest.
"That's... that's very good, Tati."
___
The older her got the more he appreciated Aunt Suki. She was always straight with him. His childhood fear of her had disappeared when he mastered his fear of himself; her scars faded from his consciousness until they were just part of her, the same way his parents' were just a part of them. Crucially, like their first meeting in the kitchen, she never talked down to him. Mom still imagined him as her baby boy and dad kept giving him sad looks whenever he thought Tatsu wasn't looking but Aunt Suki always spoke to him like the adult he wanted to be.
"You remind him of himself," she said when he asked complained about it one day.
"I'm his son, of course I'm like him."
"It's the lightning. He's so proud of you but lightning is a ... fraught subject."
"He was the one who brought it up in the first place! If he'd so worried about the danger why bother?"
"It has nothing to do with the bending itself. But the last time he faced someone wielding lightning everything fell apart."
Aunt Suki wasn't one for self-pity but she sounded guilty. "I've told him he shouldn't beat himself up about it-- the rest of us were the ones who failed, your parents actually won their battle despite Azula cheating."
Tatsu fumbled the buckle of the ostrich-horse harness. "Wait, his sister gave him that scar?!"
"He didn't tell you?!"
Tatsu shook his head and Aunt Suki smacked her face. "Ugh, I'm sorry, Tati. I thought he would've told you."
Tatsu tried to keep the annoyance from bubbling up. Dad should have told him. Preferably sometime between dropping the news they were royalty and teaching him to channel electricity through his body. All the piecemeal family history was getting far too complicated.
Aunt Suki sighed and heaved the saddle off the ostrich-horse, letting it land on the barn floor with a thump.
"The day of Sozin's comet your dad chose your mom to fight help take down Azula. Aang would take the Fire Lord. Sokka, Toph and I were going after the air fleet and your Granddad and the rest of the White Lotus were supposed to recapture Ba Sing Se. From my understanding, your dad dueled his sister and would've won outright except she cheated and attacked your mom instead."
"With lightning," Tatsu filled in. "And Dad tried to redirect it but he didn't do it right."
Excruciating. That's what his dad had called it. His sister had put him in excruciating pain. Even at her angriest Tatsu could never imagine Kya trying to hurt him. And Dad had known how to redirect it... Mom wouldn't have stood a chance. The thought made him shiver.
"You would know the technicalities better than me. But your Mom is a great healer, she saved his life."
"How could Azula become Fire Lord if she cheated at the Agni Kai?"
After all, if he knew anything about the Fire Nation's history it was how much they cared about honor. Even the biggest war-mongers among them would've balked at an ill-gotten title. Aunt Suki grimaced.
"Sometimes life just isn't fair."
___
Mom cried big fat tears when Kya turned sixteen, joy and grief etched on her face as she and Suki and Bato's wife tamed Kya's unruly curls with gentle brushstrokes and passed it strand over strand until it lay flat to the middle of her back.
"Your grandmother and great-grandmother would have been so proud," she whispered over Kya's shoulder, fastening the end with a tie of deep indigo that matched the rest of her outfit, a long white trimmed tunic with fur tassels at the shoulders and tightly beaded designs along neckline of white and silver and pale blues that shimmer like evening light. Two beads of pearl, a gift from Uncle Bato, held her hair loopies.
Dad smiled brightly for Kya as she delighted guests, spinning weaves of water for the trusted family and friends gathered at the plateau but when he slunk into the shadows with Tatsu it didn't quite meet his eyes.
"Are you okay?"
"Your Mom once told me how important this was..." Dad trailed off, watching Mom join Kya and entice Isi away from great roast porcupig he'd been salivating over all evening. Mom directed him to join their circle and Isi acquiesced, matching them in steps to a dance nearly forgotten.
There was an implication in Dad's sharing, that Mom didn't get to have her own celebration. Because of the war, if Tatsu had to guess, but Sozin's comet would have come and gone by the time Mom was sixteen...
"You should go join them," Dad said interrupting his thoughts.
"But I'm not a waterbender," Tatsu protested. The same nagging discomfort that had drawn him away from the party in the first place. Dad reached out to gently tug on his ponytail. Bato had helped him carefully shave the sides, bordering the pulled back hair with braids laced with tiny purple beads. 'Red and blue' he'd explained, smirking.
"You're Water Tribe though. Go," Dad urged, tone gentle but the command clear. When he reached the dancers, Mom grabbed him by the hand, smiling broadly and spinning him around. The bead around his free-hanging lock of hair smacked gently against his face as he danced.
Uncle Bato passed him a flask of bracing Water Tribe liquor. "Do the thing!" Isi begged. Tatsu smirked, gave himself a wide berth and took a swig. Flames poured from his mouth and Isi cheered.
Later when the elderly had departed and Isi napped with remnants of squid ink sauce on his face under the food table, Tatsu spotted Mom with Dad in the corner he'd left earlier. Dad brushed her hair gently with the same bone comb Kya had used earlier, carefully pulling it into a single loose braid, and under the light of the full moon he could see tears in her eyes.
___
His parents were exceptional benders and would-be war heroes but first and foremost in his life they were farmers.
Average farmers at best but competent enough to make a living and they never hinted at wanting much more. Beans and wheat and hay filled their fields. There was the lone citrus tree Mom seemed to keep alive through sheer force of will, but the times it did bear fruit were glorious and they would eat tangy custard tarts for weeks.
At eight, he remembered scattering feed for the chickens each morning after morning meditation. When he turned ten, he pulled the hay for their pair of ostrich-horses and when he turned twelve he'd spend his time swinging the child sized scythe through the fields after his dad gathering any stalks that had been missed.
He'd always found the harvest seasons better for meditation than any morning spent in front of swaying candle light and when he was old enough to find work elsewhere, he voluntarily stayed to help. The manual labor more relaxing than any job he would've found in town.
But the farm wasn't big enough for Kya who haunted the village until she was old enough to haunt the Chaja port until she was old enough to take her first trip with Aunt Suki to Kyoshi Island.
"Kyoshi is occupied, Suki," Mom said when Kya first begged to go.
"So is the rest of the world, Katara."
Mom seemed unconvinced. "Can I go too?" Isi piped up, returning from the kitchen with a mouthful of lemon tart.
"No."
"But--"
"When you're Kya's age you can go if you still want to," Dad told him.
Kya bounced back and forth on the balls of feet like she was younger than Isi and not nearly a grown woman. "Does that mean I can go?"
Dad looked to Suki who turned her good hand, palm upward. She was always willing to vouch for her niece and nephews against their parents-- for later bedtimes, for festival days, for sharper swords and intensive sparring and any plethora of activity Mom and Dad were loathe to allow. But now she offered only neutrality.
"I haven't changed my stance in nine years, this is up to you."
Dad sighed. "It's a short trip?"
"The shortest."
"Fine, this once."
___
At seventeen Kya coaxed him to come with her. She'd returned from her longest journey yet bright-eyed and eager to hit the sea again. That one time trip to Kyoshi had quickly snowballed into a job on a trading ship out of Chaja ("She befriended every sailor and merchant we crossed," Aunt Suki explained with a shrug) travelling to far flung locations he only recognized from his parent's stories.
(That included the Fire Nation, though she never shared that with anyone beside him and Isi. Tatsu couldn't imagine the tenor of Mom's prayers or the flaring flames of Dad's meditation if they knew.)
They worked the way up the coast and by the third day Tatsu finally got a handle on his sea sickness. He'd come a long way from when Uncle Bato took him ice dodging and he'd puked over the side of the boat the entire time. He couldn't even blame it on being a firebender-- Dad had found his sea legs just fine and informed him with a wry grin that the Fire Nation was, unfortunately, known for its navy.
On the return trip they left colonial waters and sailed west, to the furthest reaches of the archipelago, explicitly where Kya had promised her parents she never went. But she reasoned what they didn't know couldn't hurt them and if she had a knack for delivering less than properly taxed Southern Colonies hooch in exchange for herbal remedies and medicinal plants only found on the Eastern Islands then who was he to judge?
Kya's runs up the island chain became yearly outing for the two of them, much to Isi's chagrin ("Next year," Mama promised, undeterred by their brother's scowling.) Each time he was struck by how different it was than he'd imagined, more like home than stories of the opulence of the Caldera. How could one country be so deeply divided?
Many villages were impoverished, even compared to the colonies, but proud. Pride and folklore ran deeper than fear of the future or the Fire Lord. The people there talked of the before times, of the Avatar and his friends with the conviction that they would come again -- the kind of tales that would get you killed in the wrong company.
It tied his stomach in knots knowing he was the legacy to the dashed hope they spoke of so fervently. Would the world be the utopia the village elders believed if Azula hadn't cheated and his father had won the throne? Would it have mattered without the balance the Avatar kept, when they were lost again to history?
"Would you want to be Fire Lord?" he asked from his hammock in the ship's underbelly.
Kya paused sharpening her dao blades. The swords were never far from hand. They were the first thing Isi had forged on his own and slightly misshapen at first glance. But if the balance was off, Kya had never said, adapting to her weapon rather than having the weapon adapted to her.
"Aside from the whole waterbending thing?" she asked sarcastically. "No, never. Nothing ever good has come from that throne."
He wanted to argue they did but she had a point-- after all their existence was owed to how Dad specifically did not have the throne. But still...
"But what if you could?"
"I'd rather rebuild the Southern Tribe."
"You hate the cold," he joked.
She waved it off. "It's the principle of the matter, Tati."
"So why don't you?" He already knew the answer to that. The Southern seas were under a decades long blockade, even though the surviving Water Tribesmen had long since fled. No one, refugee or Northerner had stepped foot on the South Pole in a quarter century.
But a light sparked in his sister's eye as she regarded him in the oil lamp's flickering shadows and looking back, that was the moment that set everything in motion.
"Only if we had a favorable ruler on Agni's throne" she joked.
But it wasn't a joke.
___
He asked about the blue bands like some Earth Colonies rube. Which he was, technically, but the tavern bartender still raised a partially singed eyebrow at him in a way that screamed Can you believe this guy?
In his defense, even among the varied wardrobes of the Eastern Islands the fabric was unmistakable. It wrapped around wrists and fluttered from lapels of workers shuffling through crowds on the Jang Hui docks almost flagrantly.
Kya apologized on his behalf with her best winning smile and coins on the bar but when the fisherman next to them chimed in she didn't dissuade the story he spun.
Tatsu almost wished she had.
"Everyone knows about The Lovers' token," the fisherman said, swiveling to face him. He wore long sleeves but the tuft of blue was visible on the inside of his wrist. The bartender tilted her head in agreement.
"Not in the colonies, I guess," Tatsu said with a shrug.
"Well you lot have your own problems I guess," he said. Yeah, from your government, Tatsu thought but let the slight go with a strained smile.
"The Lovers?" he prompted.
"The Avatar's teachers-- the Traitor Prince and the Waterbender."
Tatsu choked on his drink and Kya slapped him violently on the back. The fisherman continued, undeterred, spinning the story eagerly.
The myth of their villainry. The mystery shrouding their imprisonment in the capital's bowels, rather than execution on the streets, either too insignificant or too important to meet the Avatar's fate. Rumors of a first Agni Kai, the day of the comet. Legend held you could see the glow of flames clear across the bay.
More real than you could imagine, Tatsu thought, glass held tight, hanging on the weathered man's every word. He knew there had been an Agni Kai the day of Sozin's comet and he'd known his father had been shot full of lightning and never once thought to ask what happened next.
A story it turned out, everyone east of the Mo Ce Sea seemed to know.
They knew how the prince had wrapped the blue fabric around her arm like a ceremonial cuff and how the waterbender had kissed him in front of the court and Agni himself. They knew how the Water Tribe girl had conjured water from the air and stopped the blood in the Phoenix King's heart. The prince had either sold his soul or been bewitched because when the Fire Lord broke free of the water witch's curse, he broke his chains to defend her.
Kya didn't seemed perturbed by the story, leaning casually against the bar. But Tatsu stared in shock at the older man. When he blinked could see the bandit dead on the floor. He thought of his parents' matching burns and of the braided gold cuff buried deep in the chest with their Water Tribe parkas. Of all the gaps in his parents stories, of their caution. Suddenly it clicked in a space of a single tragic tale.
"The Fire Lord says they're dead," the fisherman said, glancing around the sparsely populated tavern and dropping his voice an octave. "But that's not true. The waterbender has the Painted Lady's grace. She was here in this very port twice, once in aid and once in need. She will come again."
___
He narrowed his eyes at Kya. "You knew," he accused. He was so angry he barely could barely compose himself. A righteous fury stronger than any emotion in recent memory. It felt personal because it was.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"I promised Dad I wouldn't. And then... I don't know, we grew up and I wanted to protect you."
"I'm only year younger than you Kya! And Dad-- wait how long have you known?"
Kya had the decency to look away, "Since we went to the Sun Warriors ruins."
"Eight years?!"
Kya shrugged.
"So that's why Dad let you go wandering around the globe? Because you already knew all the deep dark secrets?"
"Dad didn't let me do anything, I would've left anyway. I have bigger ambitions than farming."
"Like smuggling?" he snarked. Kya smacked him with a water whip.
Tatsu paced across the deck. Kya waited for him to finish with an infuriating calm he wouldn't normally associate with her. It was the same neutrality she'd had at the tavern.
"I was angry too," she offered. Tatsu glared.
"I was aware."
She ignored the jab. "I was angry at the Fire Nation and Dad told me despite that. Or because of that. To know my anger wasn't misplaced even if my actions were. You're allowed to be just as angry now."
"I'm not angry at the Fire Nation... not more than normal anyway. I'm angry at our parents. Maybe myself. How could I not know?"
"Well, you've never been the questioning type," she said. Tatsu glared. "Am I wrong?"
"No," he grumbled.
"And can you blame them for not wanting to talk about it? What would the alternative been? Steeping us in their pain or making us tools of revenge?"
Tatsu barked out laughter. The lifelong lie of omission stung and he wasn't quite ready to rationalize his parents decision making. "You, of all people, don't want revenge? Our aunt tortured our parents! For some unknown personal satisfaction on top of the usual Fire Nation warmongering?"
"Lower your voice," she hissed. "I'm not the same person I was as a teenager. And it doesn't matter what I want, I can't exact it. Not alone. What am I gonna do, walk in with a waterskin and a pair of blades and demand an audience with Auntie dearest?"
Tatsu sighed and sunk to the deck. "Does Isi know?"
"I doubt it."
"Were they ever gonna tell us?"
"It took thirteen years to mention the royalty part, maybe they figured they had another six. Or until you wanted to leave the village anyway, which no offense was looking like never."
Tatsu snorted.
"I just always thought it was fluke, a funny story for the grandkids. Your great-great-great-great something of ever was the Fire Lord. But this is worse."
"Yeah."
"So much worse."
"Yeah."
"Like people might have a vested interest in us or Isi not being around."
"Yeah."
He whistled low through his teeth, the earlier adrenaline leaving him.
"So, how do we tell Isi?" he asked. Kya grimaced.
"We don't?"
___
At some point, Isi had grown up. It caught Tatsu by surprise; Isi still lived in his head as 'baby brother' as far as he was concerned. But he'd already grown taller than his siblings and could swing a hammer with surprising strength despite his noodle limbs. He was flourishing in his apprenticeship and he'd been caught holding hands with the youngest sister of Kya's childhood nemesis.
That is to say, life was good. So when Kya and Tatsu tried to propose they may have an existential crisis on their hands all he could say was "So?"
Tatsu didn't think he entirely meant to be dismissive. He was just sixteen.
"Sure it's horrible but we can't change our past much less theirs. There's probably a reason they haven't told us those things," he pointed out, shoving a handful of seaweed flakes in his mouth.
All things considered it was probably the wise-- maybe even correct-- take on the matter. But Tatsu, feeling like a fire had finally been set under him, and Kya, relieved of the burden of the secret, had already committed to attempting the impossible. With or without his buy in.
"We could change the future."
"Isn't that already your life plan?" he asked Kya. Smuggling left long hours for planning, during which her desire to connect to Mom's and Bato's lost culture had solidified. It had become constructive in the years since she'd accused Tatsu of being evil and each time their family questioned her trips, she explicitly framed them as a way to gather the pieces back together, despite Bato's warnings how thinly spread the Southern Tribe had become.
"Yes," Kya said impatiently. "But that's more of a long term goal. Refugees aren't eager to identify themselves as Southern Tribesmen and besides there's no way to break the blockade right now. Plus doesn't help that the North Pole is aggressively isolationist."
"Yeah, and no one seems to like them much anyway," Isi said wryly through a full mouth.
"Can you blame them? They abandoned their sister tribe and locked themselves in their ice palace."
"Mom says they're prissy sexists too."
"Guys!" Kya said sharply, intervening in the derailing conversation. "Isi, wouldn't reconnecting everyone be easier with someone more reasonable on the Fire Nation throne who wasn't actively suppressing us?"
"I guess," Isi said dully. "But Fire Lord Azula is what, Mom's age? It's not like she's going to die anytime soon."
"But what if she did?"
Isi lowered the bag of seaweed flakes, looking warily between his brother and sister.
"What exactly are you suggesting?"
ii.
Dad trained him with such intensity he wondered how Avatar Aang could have ever lost.
Tatsu didn't miss how his father flinched when he loosed a bolt of lightning high and wide, even though he gave a gruff “Good” and a sharp nod. He came to sit under the shade of the barn, accepting the tea Dad offered and subtly pouring it out when he wasn't looking.
“Why is she the way she is?”
It was the only question that had still been eating at him. Most effectively guided by Isi's guileless questions, he knew the how-- their parent's childhoods, particularly Dad's, had tumbled out quickly in the years since their confrontation. But he had never dared to ask why.
Why does a girl seek to murder her brother? He couldn't wrap his mind around it anymore now than when Aunt Suki had let slip exactly how Dad received the spindly scar on his chest.
“You know how people question nature vs nurture?" Tatsu nodded. "Well, it’s not one or the other. It’s both. She should’ve been a prodigy, she had the drive, but she also had my father's machinations sunk deep into her psyche. I never was good enough, I knew I could never step on people to get to the top.”
Dad sighed deeply. Tatsu hadn't imagined the grey hairs streaking his temples.
“You must be decisive if you're going to do this, Tatsu. I wasn't and it nearly killed everyone I love.”
The statement wasn't judgmental. Just realistic. He turned his head toward his son and smiled slightly, "But you have your mother's resolve."
It was a compliment, he knew, but he still looked uncomfortably at his hands. He hadn't voiced his doubts to anyone, not even Kya. The potential fallout from his failure had begun to press insistently on his conscious.
Dad let out a long uneven breath. "The truth is I'm so angry at you and so proud of you all at once. But I am proud of you, Tatsu. I hope I've told you enough."
Tatsu reached out to grab his Dad's hand. "I'm going to make it right. A year from now, in the palace gardens."
"You won't come home to visit your parents?" he asked instead with a sad smile. Tatsu realized no matter the ending, his father had no intention of ever stepping foot in the Fire Nation capital again. He blinked away the pricking tears that welled up.
"Of course I will."
iii.
The great metal hulls of the Fire Nation Navy dwarf their small ship. It unsettles him but Kya doesn't so much flinch as she maneuvers them through the harbor with an easy familiarity. He wonders how much she hasn't shared about her network of 'trade routes'.
Kya tries to hand him the twin blades when they dock but he refuses. She was a far more skilled swordsman and he was just as liable to cut himself as any opponent.
“Keep it, just in case you need to kick some Northern ass in two types of combat.”
“I’m kind of hoping ‘Kya, daughter of Katara’ will be enough to strike of the fear of Tui and La in their hearts.”
He laughs but his nervousness invades even that. Kya's face sobers.
"If there's anyone who can do this it's you."
"Are you sure you don't want to be my second?"
"You won't need a second and you don't need me distracting from your own legitimacy. Not yet, anyway."
He nods rapidly, shaking out his arms.
"Right."
"You know there are plenty of people just waiting for a sign, it doesn't get clearer than this."
Tatsu draws the simple red cloak around his shoulders. His mother had called it his birthright. Maybe, in another timeline it'd be that simple. But now wasn't the time for what ifs, it was time for what could be. Dissatisfaction was bubbling in the homeland as sure as it had in the colonies for years. He'd heard it himself. All that was left was one measly fight.
"Worst case scenario, we'll always have the South right?"
"We will have the South. And you'll be the first monarch to visit in centuries," Kya promises, clasping his arm the way Isi had back in Chaja.
"May Tui and La bless you."
"And may you go by Agni's grace," he whispers back.
He walks out of the cabin and down the gangplank onto the crowded dock. He draws his hood and resists the urge the wave as Kya's boat disappears from the harbor. Above the heads of the crowd he can see the laterns glowing and colorful flags waving in the ocean breeze. He takes a last deep breath of the salty air and steels his resolve.
It's time to put the ghosts to rest.