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Zuko never put much faith in fortune tellers. After all, one had told his mother when he was in the womb that she would birth a strong son, and that turned out to be a lie, so what truth could the rest of it hold?
But after chasing the avatar around the Earth Kingdom, dragging himself and his flickering hope through the mud. Pockets filled with plucked rose hips, Zuko stomped into Makapu village in the middle of a celebration during golden hour and, for the very first time, considered that the fortune teller from years ago may have had a point. If he had been a weak son, Zuko would have erupted from anger at the sight of the villagers cheering "Praise the Avatar! Praise Aunt Wu!"
Instead, Zuko breathed out through his nose and prayed to Agni for patience.
The village itself lay at the base of an inactive volcano. He could feel the humidity in the air as he walked through the market street, and the smell of hot noodles caught on the breeze, followed by rhythmic cheers fluttering through the centre like the red ribbons tied to the food stalls. If it weren't for the strange amount of clouds on the villagers' earthly clothing, Zuko could have mistaken Makapu for the outskirts of Capital City.
"Hey, there!" a stall holder shouted. "Young man! Would you like to try some dumplings?"
The man's stall was apart from any other, at the very end of the market street, and the dumplings did smell very appealing. But he was low on funds and on time.
"No." Zuko replied, then continued with the most polite tone he could manage, "Thank you. Did I hear people talking about the Avatar?"
The stall holder, an aging man with a long silver beard and hair tied back, nodded and beamed at him far too energetically considering it was nearing sunset.
"Yes! The Avatar left just yesterday, in fact. They helped defend the town against the erupting volcano, just as Aunt Wu predicted. Have you travelled far? We get visitors from all over the kingdom, you know; people come from everywhere for Aunt Wu. She's the best fortune teller in the whole Earth Kingdom!"
"I've come from the colonies. Do you mean to say Aunt Wu met the Avatar?" Zuko asked.
"Well, young man, you ought to have a cup of tea. You must be tired! Here, I've just brewed a pot—"
Zuko shook his head. "No. Thank you. I should… I should see if Aunt Wu is still, uh, accepting visitors or if she's closed for the day."
"Have a cup of jasmine before you go," the old man said. "Whatever you've come so far to ask about, I'm sure Aunt Wu has an answer for you. "
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Zuko grumbled, but he accepted the tea even though the sun was close to setting, and savoured the taste of home.
Aunt Wu turned out to be an old woman with a golden rising-sun headpiece, her head in the clouds. Zuko sat on a red cushion, his hands on display beneath torchlight, and counted to ten before he asked (for the fifth time) what the woman could tell him about the Avatar.
"Hm. Your lifeline is littered with obstacles you must overcome…" the old woman muttered, turning his right hand over in her grip. "And your nails tell me you've been under quite a bit of stress as of late."
Considering his nails were bitten down, and he had travelled far to see her (as he had told her assistant, who had likely told her in turn), none of the information she granted was anything particularly revealing.
"Thank you for your wisdom," he said. Though his delivery was as flat as his mood, he hoped she appreciated his attempts at politeness, when all he wanted to do was demand actual helpful answers. But he didn't exactly want to shout at a harmless old lady if he didn't have to. "The villagers were celebrating when I arrived, you see, about the events that happened yesterday. I'm sorry I didn't see it."
"You are honest," she observed.
"Well, yes, I don't see why anyone would lie about that—"
Aunt Wu interrupted, "No, I mean, it's in your palms. You are an honest and sincere person. It is that sincerity that will lead you to success, where others in the same situation would surely fail."
He supposed he was truly sincere about his search for the Avatar, whereas Princes before him had assumed the Avatar was dead and didn't take the search as seriously.
Of course, she was probably just telling him generic things he could align to his own situation.
It didn't matter, anyway. What mattered was the Avatar—
"However," she said, and he couldn't help but listen, "your love line tells me you have a habit of lying to yourself in your heart. I advise you to seek out connections with those who match you in sincerity and in passion, otherwise I fear you will spend far too much time pouring water into a cup with a hole in its base."
Zuko scoffed. "You'd get along well with my uncle. He likes speaking in riddles too."
Unsurprisingly, Aunt Wu didn't explain anything and ignored what he said.
"When you come to be as old as me—and you will, you will live far longer— you will struggle with your heart health. I am not sure why; I don't often see such a clear issue without an obvious medical cause, so it could be stress or simply the effects of old age. Regardless, I'd recommend drinking jasmine tea and doing breathing exercises to help keep your heart at its best strength."
He shrugged off the vague and generic advice and tried to refocus her palm reading on what mattered.
"Can you tell me if I'll be successful in my current goal?" Zuko asked.
"Let me see…" she said, thoughtfully. She took out a magnifying glass and observed what he assumed was his lifeline closely on both palms, frowned, then inspected his fingerprints. "Yes. I think you will achieve your goal—it seems very connected to your life line, your fate, your career, and your personal relationships too, yes whatever this goal is of yours, it is clearly significant—and your sincerity will be key, though I don't think the resolution will be what you are expecting. Clarity is not easy… I would advise you to listen to those closest to you as well as to those whose words hurt you."
"Why would I listen to those who want to hurt me?" he said. "I doubt they want to help. Speaking of which, I hear the Avatar can be very helpful—"
"Because words that are hard to hear are like water on dried ground. We need them to grow, even if the rainfall feels harsh at first. Growth is necessary, young man, for you to achieve what you desire."
"Fine," he accepted, as beyond the ridiculous veil of palm reading it was decent advice from an elder, "But the Avatar—"
"Also has much growing to do. And it is difficult for him too. But neither of you have ever had an easy life in any of your incarnations, though your soul is much newer, that much I can tell you."
Zuko huffed.
"The Avatar has lived many lives," he said flatly. "Thank you for the reading. I think I should be on my way."
"Travelling through the mountains during nightfall is not a path anyone would recommend. I don't need to be a fortune teller to tell you how that would end. You should stay here and rest for the night before you continue on your journey. Although…"
"Although what?" he asked with a long-suffering sigh.
"There is one last thing. For romance—"
Zuko recoiled, face burned red, and pulled his hands away before steam could erupt.
"For romance," she continued insistently, "you should know that you circle a love lost only to time. There is a small window where the path to the other half of your soul is open; then it will be swiftly closed. When you know to whom your heart belongs, you must pursue her with all the sincerity and passion you have displayed thus far, or you will lose her forever."
It sounded like something out of the theatre, but his life was not a play. Tense as a pulled bowstring, Zuko bowed and thanked her again with as much sincerity as he could muster (not very much), then her assistant led him to a guest room. Not entirely trusting of the fortune teller's generosity, Zuko brewed his own mediocre tea with his foraged rose hips, then slept on a bed for the first time in weeks.
He dreamt he was back in the palace, walking through the corridors and looking in every room, while his heart beat heavily in his chest and every limb ached. What was he even searching for? Finally, he came to the courtyard where the turtleducks swam happily in a pond, and the grass's morning dew glistened under the sunrise. Above him, close to the rooftop of the palace, was a familiar sight—the Avatar's bison flying, escaping his grasp again, though he could see only the the Avatar himself and Water tribe girl on its back beside him as they flew into the horizon, and his heart ached so badly Zuko opened his eyes wish his hand over his rapidly beating heart; he didn't calm until he was well onto the path out of the strange village, and Aunt Wu's stranger words dissipated into a far corner of his mind.
On a morning days after the eclipse, he started blearily up at the familiar ceiling of his rooms, but a strange sinking feeling in his stomach made him sit up despite the pain he felt everywhere else. The curtains swayed with the morning breeze and let in the dim light of the sleepy rising sun. Zuko stood on shaking legs and stepped forward, opening his door to find a servant with a tea tray, which they promptly dropped on the floor when they saw him standing.
"Oh, no! I'm so sorry, Fire Lord, for my mistake—" Zuko knelt on the ground and began picking up the pieces of the teapot, though that only made them gasp—the servant looked to be near tears—and they hastily told him they would sweep it up: "Please don't push yourself, my Lord. Master Katara said you must rest for a full recovery—"
At that, he stopped trying to gather the broken pieces, and asked, "Where is she?"
"I think she and the Avatar mentioned going to the market today, I'm not sure where she is right now, my Lord, but I'm sure she'll be back this evening for your treatment as she has been everyday," they said—no, Pia, yes, that was her name he remembered, "Would you like me to get another pot of tea for you?"
"No, thank you," he said. "I need to… Go. For a walk…"
Zuko walked past her before she could comment on his awkward escape, and turned the corner where he looked into the two closest rooms for Katara. He didn't find her, though he did see many of the newly returned Palace staff enjoying breakfast.
When he grasped the next door and pulled it open, Zuko smelled jasmine tea, and wondered if Katara ever drank it at breakfast or if she preferred another blend (when they travelled, they simply drank whatever tea was cheapest and available). He was sure the quality of the Palace tea would far surpass what they had drunk on the run, though one of the best cups he had ever had was in Makapu village—
Zuko stopped in the middle of the corridor and looked out of the window. The sun was slowly rising.
Pushing past pain, exhaustion, and a growing sense of anxiety, Zuko ran until his heart was thundering so loudly he couldn't hear the worried shouts of the guards trailing behind him.
Just as he was approaching the door to the courtyard, Katara walked in from the opposite side, eyes down as she searched through her bag for something and yawned under her breath.
"Good morning," Zuko said, breathing through his nose to try and disguise how out of breath he was.
Katara, obviously, knew him too well as she charged forward, slapped her hand against his forehead, and declared he was a fool who had increased his fever for no good reason.
"I… I had a reason," he defended weakly. "I wanted… I want to ask, um, I wanted to ask you something."
She put a hand on her hip and said, "Okay, Zuko, but you really shouldn't be walking around like this, let alone running! Your coronation is next week, and you need to be in your best shape for it. You should be using this time to rest—"
"I will rest, I promise. I just… You're going to the market with Aang?"
"Yes," she said, crossing her arms. "He thought it'd be nice to see how the city is recovering, and I thought it'd be good to get out for a while."
"You're both right. It'd be nice to see."
He couldn't ask her not to go, although a part of him wanted to, so he asked instead, "Can you do something for me?"
"Only if you promise to go and rest immediately after we're done here and not get out of bed for the rest of the day."
"Promise, okay? So can you go to the market and buy whatever tea you'd like to try?" he said, rubbing his hand over his heart to ease its ache. "If you wouldn't mind."
"You want me to buy you tea?" Katara asked, eyebrows raised.
"No." Zuko ran his fingers nervously through his hair. "Buy whatever tea you want to try—here, take these to pay for it. No, you may as well spend the money for all you've done to help me, Katara, really—and bring it back so we can try them together.
"Oh."
Zuko shifted uneasily at his feet as the silence between them was filled by a coughing guard, which made him break and stumble into an aimless ramble, "If you wouldn't mind, I mean, if you're not interested, I mean, if you don't want to after going out today and everything else that's happened, you might be tired and—"
"I'd love that," Katara said quietly. "It sounds like a nice way to spend an evening. But… You know…"
"If it's about Aang, or how you feel, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"No, well, it's sort of… Zuko, what you did—I won't ever forget it. But I… I don't know what I feel. Is that strange?"
Zuko blinked and said, "You became a master bender in under a year when it takes most people a lifetime, kept all of us alive, helped to save my country and my people—Katara, you're not strange, you're exceptional, and to be honest I don't think you've had time to think with everything going on let alone figure out how you feel about it all. I mean, we've been at war. It's hardly the time for romance. You've had your hands full surviving."
Her wide blue eyes snapped to his, and visible relief spread across her face, followed by a smile that finally stilled his aching chest.
"Exactly!" Katara said, waving her hands. "But now it's all over, and it feels like I don't have time to figure it out, and everyone wants me to just know!"
He strongly suspected everyone was just one particular monk, but he wasn't about to touch that with a barge pole.
"I don't need you to know." Zuko shrugged. "I just want to spend time with you drinking tea. Is that okay?"
Eyes bright and cheeks blushing pink, Katara said it was okay.
"Cool. Um, have fun at the market," Zuko said, awkwardly waving goodbye as she rushed to catch up with Aang.
Katara arrived in his rooms in the evening armed with a selection box of teas—rose hip, jasmine, peppermint, green, fennel, and more—which she held tightly against her chest as she stepped onto the balcony with him, where they could watch the sunset.
He carefully brewed the rose hip tea and sweetened it with honey.
"It's not bad," she said.
"Good for joints," Zuko told her. "I drank it a lot when I was separated from Uncle, though it had way less flavour when I made it then. I drank it in Makapu Village once, actually; that was a weird day."
"Makapu? Were you chasing us then? Did you meet Aunt Wu?" she asked.
"Yes," he said, taking another sip. "She told me I'd succeed if I was sincere. I didn't really get it."
"Did she tell you who you'd marry?"
"I didn't ask."
"Oh," she said, turning away from him and curling her legs up on the chair.
"Wait there a sec," he said, and grabbed a blanket from a basket beside his bed, which he laid over her legs. "There."
She looked so cosy with her steaming cup of tea and red, rosy cheeks that he had to return to his seat and take another sip of tea to distract himself before he did something dumb.
"Thanks, Zuko. What else did she tell you, then?"
"Well…" he said, a bit embarrassed. "I didn't ask who I'd marry, but she told me that if I didn't pursue who I wanted, then I'd lose them. Basically, I think, I don't know; it was all so vague."
"Wow. I bet you hated every minute of her reading you."
"It sucked," he admitted.
She laughed, and even if it was at his expense, he laughed along with her as the moon rose.
"What should we try next?" she asked. "How about the jasmine tea?"
"Sure," he said, and lit the fire beneath the kettle.
"You know, Aunt Wu said I'd marry a strong bender."
He snorted, and she clucked her tongue at him like a disapproving mother hen.
"What?" he said, shrugging. "You're strong enough on your own. What do you need to marry a strong bender for? Besides, plenty of nonbenders are strong too. Just look at Master Piandao."
"Zuko, are you saying I should marry Master Piandao?" Katara giggled.
"Hey, I've read the guy's poetry. He's a catch, trust me, you can do worse."
"Really? Whose the worst?"
"Suki, for sure, she'd make you get up early to train every day, and she'd be so competent at everything it'd feel uncanny," he joked, and poured her a cup of jasmine. "Anyway, you should marry whoever you want, whenever you want, and don't worry about what some crazy cloud lady says. You can take your time."
"Take my time," she muttered thoughtfully. "You know, Zuko, you're actually pretty wise."
Zuko sat upright and stroked an imaginary beard, imitating his uncle. He said, "The cloud that passes slowly through the sky sees more of the world than the one that speeds above it in a blur."
Katara laughed so hard she spilt tea onto his blanket and wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh my god, Zuko, imagine—just picture it—I think Uncle should marry Aunt Wu."
"I hate that I can imagine a world where that happens."
"Their marriage would unite the Earth and Fire Kingdoms," she said sagely.
"…Are we sure peace is worth it?"
Katara smacked his arm and hid a smile behind her hand. When she lowered her hand to take a sip of tea, he watched a drop of jasmine linger on her lip like morning dew, and wondered if it would taste sweeter if he licked it away and left her lips as red as ripe rose hips.
"Thanks for this," she whispered, putting down her cup. "I needed this, I think."
"I needed this too. We should do this again sometime," he told her.
"We should. We could make it a weekly thing. Weekly tea nights. We could even invite your Uncle."
"We could. If you wanted," he agreed. "Or it could be our thing for now."
"Our thing," Katara repeated, tucking her hair behind her ear. "That sounds nice. I'd like that."
A few months later, when the moon was half full and the kettle was nearly empty, Zuko's voice shook as he asked, "I'd like to spend more time with you if that's okay."
Katara put down her cup of tea and said, "Took you long enough for you to ask me to be your girlfriend. Yes, I'd love to."
Zuko promised himself never to tell her he was simply asking for more dates rather than pushing her to make it official, as it was one rare example in his life where his awkward phrasing and dumb behaviour actually worked out in his favour.