The mysterious Katara arrives mysteriously in the middle of the night and takes up residence in the mysterious mansion at the top of the mysterious hill.
"You should check it out," Toph suggests, shrugging her shoulders.
Zuko finishes locking his gun away before asking, "Check what out?"
"That new girl that moved into the Mourns. Zhao swung by earlier to complain about some very creepy noises coming from the house, and Long Feng swears that he saw pink rabbits jumping around on the lawn."
Zuko sighs and adjusts the belt on his dark uniform pants. "Zhao was in here yesterday complaining about Jeong Jeong's underwear hanging out to dry on his own clothesline, in his own yard. And Long Feng hits the sauce so hard that I'm surprised he doesn't see pink elephants."
"Still," Toph says, injecting a bit of a whine into her tone. "You're driving past there on your way home. You could stop in."
"And say what? 'Hi, this is your friendly neighborhood sheriff! Do you mind if I scope your garden for creepy noises and colorful bunnies?'"
"You could make it work," Toph insists. Zuko arches an eyebrow at her and she correctly reads his silence. "Oh, Sheriff, come on, I'm the one on desk-duty this week. I really don't want to deal with Zhao when he's back again tomorrow complaining about police inefficiency and incompetence. And," she adds, a little sly, "Do you really want him making yet another citizen's arrest?"
Zuko groans, defeated. Zhao has more arrests under his belt than any actual officer in the history of Eerie Falls.
::
The mansion's not exactly on his route home from the station. Zuko has to swing left before he gets to the Gables, and navigate three miles of treacherous road before he comes upon the Mourns, impressive and steadfast in the September darkness. The pure isolation of it makes him shiver, nothing but gates and trees to shroud it.
He climbs wearily from the cruiser and half-heartedly waves his flashlight around. No rabbits, pink or otherwise, little to see but leaves and blackness. A light flickers on in one of the upstairs rooms just as he's getting back into the car, but although the blinds move a little, the room's occupant stays out of sight.
Great, just what this town needs—another curtain twitcher.
Zuko turns the engine over and pushes the car into gear. He's tired, bone tired, and he has two very good reasons to be somewhere else right now.
The mysterious Katara will have to stay mysterious for at least one more night.
::
Aang's already got his big puffy coat on when Zuko comes into the house. "You don't pay me enough for this shit," he announces, walking past Zuko with all the poise of a broken man. There's something yellow smeared across his cheek and he has glitter in his hair.
The door all but rattles off its frame behind him, and Zuko takes a deep breath. "Hellions," he shouts. "Mariko! Ayaka!"
Aya's head appears first from behind the sofa, almost instantly followed by Mari's at the other end, and finally Appa's paws creep up over the back. It's impressive that a dog the size of a small horse somehow manages to defy the laws of physics by squishing himself into hidey-holes designed for tiny girls.
Zuko slides his hands to his hips and looks pointedly at the chaos around the room. It's a disaster area of clothes, shoes, books, toys, felt tip markers, and food—only some of it plastic. He's rolled yellow crime scene tape around less disturbing scenes.
"Hi Dad," Mari says quietly.
"Hi Dad," Aya echoes, even quieter.
Zuko lets his hands drop, and rolls his shoulders. "Bath. Now."
They don't argue, trotting up the stairs after him, and tugging at him as he fills the tub. Mari curls her tiny hand around his shoulder, while her sister pushes her face into Zuko's back. He falls into the quiet of it, their physical closeness, and the steam that clears his head a little.
"Okay," he says when the girls are lifted into the water. "I'm going downstairs to make a start on the bombsite. You know the drill, sing until I come back up here."
He makes his way through the clutter while the girls warble through the soundtrack of Frozen, their voices extra shrill with the added bathroom acoustics.
"I can't hear you," he calls when it quietens a little.
"DON'T KNOW IF I'M ELATED OR GASSY, BUT I'M SOMEWHERE IN THAT ZONE…"
Zuko feeds the dog, fills the washing machine, and microwaves some pasta that Aang must have made earlier. It's only penne and a jar of sauce, but his stomach rumbles anyway. Stripped down to just his undershirt and pants, he makes it back upstairs just in time to join in the chorus, his bare feet slapping in the puddles on the floor.
"...let it go, let it go, and I'll rise like the break of daw-aw-awn."
The twins squeal and dance in the wilting suds, belting out the rest of the song, and squealing some more when Zuko takes breaks from rinsing hair to squirt water in both of their faces.
Appa howls enthusiastically from the bottom stair.
::
When every toe has been dried and both heads have been blitzed with anti-tangle spray, the girls follow Zuko to his pasta, spoons at the ready. They've already eaten, but snacking from his plate is in their top five favorite things to do—in between getting henna tattoos and riding in the cruiser.
"Yours always tastes nicer, Dad."
Zuko gave up arguing with that logic years ago, both with himself and his daughters. Some days it's the only time they get to eat together.
"So," he says. "What's the latest from around the watercooler today?"
"Well," Mari begins, leaning in, which means something juicy has gone down. "You know the store across the street? The one that used to sell the smelly carpets?"
Zuko nods, smiling at her chinhands.
"It's gonna be a new store," Aya chimes in. "With awesome stuff like candy that brushes your teeth and princess outfits and answers to all the homework."
"And superpowers," Mari says.
"And jewels."
"And glitter balls."
Zuko watches like a spectator at a tennis match, swinging his head back and forth as the twins try to one-up each other on all the unlikely things that this store will bring into their lives.
"And tigers," Mari says, sneaking a little pasta to Appa under the table.
"You're not buying any tigers," Zuko says firmly, pointing his fork at her. "They eat even more than you guys do."
"Awwww," the girls chorus, heads dropping a little. They go back to their chewing, dueling with their spoons for the last scraps.
"What are you going to buy at the magic store, Dad?" Aya asks when the plate is bare.
Zuko thumbs away the sauce she's smeared on her forehead. "Oh, I dunno. I might buy two girls that tidy up a little and don't terrorize their babysitters. And maybe some socks."
Two pairs of blue eyes widen in horror. "You wouldn't, Dad," they screech in unison.
Zuko takes a long sip of his milk. "You're right," he says. "I don't need any more socks."
::
It's Aya's turn to tell the story tonight, and she's drawing it out as much as she can. Zuko is wedged between her and her sister in the double bed that the girls share.
"...and then Prince Zuko said 'please rescue me from the terrible tower where I've been a prisoner for a hundred years and it's cold and stinky and I'm all by myself.' And do you know what happened then, Dad?" She blinks up at him, her hair brushing softly across his arm. Mari's almost asleep, smacking her lips every now and then.
Zuko can guess. "The two beautiful, brave, strong, ninja princesses rescued the prince from the tower?"
"No," Aya says, entirely serious. "The tiger rescued him, because tigers are awesome, and they're super strong, and they can even swim—"
"No. Tigers."
Aya huffs. "Fine. The two beautiful, brave, strong, ninja princesses rescued the prince and made him do all the tidying up forever and ever and ever infinity."
That sounds about right.
"So," Zuko says, almost carefully, when he's sure that the story is over. "Everything okay at school today?"
Aya burrows her head into his shoulder, shielding her face. "Yes." Her breath leaves a damp mist on his bicep.
"Good," he says, and lets it go. "And hey, I love you."
When she doesn't respond, Zuko finds that ticklish spot just under her ribs and pokes at it. "Daaaaad," she shrieks, jolting. He has to move quickly to grab her foot before Mari gets a very rude awakening.
"I said," Zuko chides, shaking her ankle gently. "I love you."
"I heard you," she giggles, because she's not his child for nothing.
"Oh, it's like that, is it." He drums his fingers against her ribs again until she grabs his hand, squeezing tight.
"No more tickles, Dad," she wheezes. "I love you, too."
Zuko smiles down at her flushed face and crinkled eyes. "Thought so," he laughs, and she grins right back before settling down, her head on his shoulder.
He means to get up and make a head start on tomorrow, but he's warm and cocooned by two fidgety hot-water bottles. He closes his eyes, just for a minute. When he opens them again, Mari's foot is jammed under his chin and Aya's head is squashing his ear.
He's too comfortable to move.
::
Zuko lives in the second of five terraced houses that all open onto the street. The large backyards make up for the absence of any front lawns, and Zuko's never really missed that buffer between his home and the outside world. He likes the immediacy and efficiency of stepping out the door and onto the sidewalk. Mostly, he enjoys how quickly he gets back inside, no unruly grass or weeds to delay or distract him.
Their street is usually so quiet that this might be the first morning he remembers external noise dragging him from sleep before the alarm. He pads down the stairs with the drone of drills in his ears, and pulls the door open.
There's life in the old carpet store for the first time in two years—painters, glaziers and delivery guys all moving seamlessly around each other.
"Huh," he mutters. So there is a new store. He doesn't give it much chance of success, tigers or no. For a start, the main street is a ten minute walk from here, so it's well out of the way of passing shoppers. But mostly, if this was a new venture by a local, then Zuko would have heard about it, and two strangers moving to Eerie Falls would be a big coincidence.
Which means that the mysterious Katara has moved into both the Mourns and the shop across the street. Temporarily, anyway. Eerie Falls isn't exactly stranger friendly. Many arrive with big plans and leave with slumped shoulders and broken spirits.
The girls are up when he goes back inside, Aya drowning her cereal in milk, Mari eating hers almost dry. Zuko ruffles both heads and gets to ironing and packing up their school bags. It's just any other Tuesday, and between the usual bickering about teeth brushing and making beds, the twins remind him that they have violin after school.
Zuko makes a mental note to update Aang, and pulls out a chair, patting the hairbrush invitingly. "I'm taking requests today, ladies."
"French braid, please," Mari says, climbing up.
"You've come to the right place, mademoiselle," he says with a mock bow. "I am an expert in French braids."
Mari giggles and leans her head back.
"So," Zuko says, running the bristles gently through her dark, thick hair. "What are you excited for today?" And as Mari leaps into an animated re-enactment of fossils getting trapped in sediment deposits, all thoughts of the new stranger on the block are swept away, for now.