Hey everyone! Long time no see. A lot has been going on the past year, that's been keeping me extremely busy. Then, when it finally started to calm down, I fell into a writing rut. But while on livejournal, I came across a ficlet by suzukiblu, and suddenly got a story idea for Avatar: The Last Airbender. So with her permission, I jumped on it and came out with this. My first fic in a while, so hopefully it isn't too bad!

Loose Ends

By: StillThereForMe

To say that the Ember Island Player's production of The Boy in the Iceberg had dampened everyone's mood, would be an incredible understatement. Aside from a few quips about how bad the show had been, no one said much at all that night. Toph, who'd been incredibly joyful throughout the show and was usually a chatterbox, didn't make a single joke and not even Sokka could lighten the mood or change the subject that hung heavy in the air. The entire group went to bed in a daze, and tried to forget all the worries and bad memories the show had brought up for all of them.

The next morning, Aang (with help from Sokka) made the announcement to everyone that they were not going to let the dumb play keep them down. The stress over what might happen if they lose would not help them win. The play was inaccurate on plenty of other things, so there was no reason to think ending especially was going to be true either.

"In fact, it could just give us the advantage!" Sokka argued passionately. "If this is what the Fire Nation is taking as the truth and believable, it just goes to show how little they actually know about us! I mean, after all this, they still don't even know what Toph looks like! They barely have any of our personalities really down, which just goes to show that the enemy, even when they go around the world trying to gather facts, doesn't really know us that well at all. And that means they all, including the Firelord, could very well be underestimating us and what we can do."

Zuko, who had barely been listening to begin with, took this moment to walk away from Sokka and Aang's 'let's not let the play keep us down!' speech and walked towards the beach, only catching occasional lines like 'they don't even know when we'll attack them…' and 'they forgot so many other people who'll be helping us…' but didn't really give the words a second thought.

Zuko had a different problem. The ending wasn't the main issue stuck in his mind after that ridiculous excuse for entertainment. Even the horrible parody of his personality (especially insulting given that he'd been a fairly prominent fixture in the Fire Nation for most of his life, and in just three years his image has been so warped) wasn't annoying him anymore. It was all the things that had really happened. All the truths that were shown—however exaggerated—on that stage. And the truths that weren't.

Zuko had spent all of the night before beating himself up for all those memories and decisions that had hurt his uncle and went against what his mother wanted. But his talk with Toph yesterday had actually helped. He didn't feel quite as horrible about all of it realizing his uncle would probably be proud of him for finally coming around—and he had a feeling his mom would be too. And this morning, he had woken able to forgive himself for most of his bad choices to a point, justifying them by the fact that they had helped him eventually take the right path. He still felt terrible when he thought about his past mistakes, though no longer in in a crippling way. However, those memories weren't what was now clouding his mind.

He obviously couldn't have known everything that had happened to Aang and all of them before he joined up with their group. Zuko could've guessed they'd been through a lot—he had been too—so most of both of their pasts didn't matter so much. Most of what they had gone through wasn't going to affect their future together, so the majority of what he had learned thanks to the show didn't matter that much at all. He didn't want to know most of it either. After all, most of those situations he could tell just from the gang's reactions weren't accurately portrayed. Of course, there were some truths in there, things he could piece together on his own reading between the lines and bad dialogue. Things he didn't know how the playwright could've found out about, but made him slightly sick when he tied up some of those loose ends.

Zuko stood by the water as his mind seemed to go in circles. He picked up a rock and threw it at the water.

"I didn't even know they knew Jet…"

"Hey, where's Zuko?" Aang suddenly asked in the middle of his lunch, looking around the courtyard-like area.

"I think he headed towards the beach in the middle of your 'let's all be happy and not worry about how we might get burned to a crisp and die' thing this morning…" Toph commented, with a smirk.

"He what!" Sokka shouted annoyed. "Who just walks out during an inspirational speech? I mean, it's not like he was already Mr. Cheerypants and didn't need any lightening up! That is so rude!"

"Not that rude if you didn't even notice him leave." Katara pointed out.

"I just hope he doesn't think this means he has to train harder like I did." Aang mentioned worriedly, recalling his difficult time before the eclipse. "The last thing I need is a firebending teacher who's too stressed to help me train."

"Yeah, a stressed-out Zuko isn't going to help anybody, including him." Sokka agreed seriously, bringing his hand to his chin in thought. "But how to we convince Zuko that he's not going to get killed in a huge fireblast by his evil psycho sister when there's a very good chance that exactly that will end up happening…?"

Suki lightly slapped the back of Sokka's head, as Toph added in "I'm not sure the end of the play is what's really bothering him. I mean, he was pretty upset at the intermission too. And not about how bad his actor was making him look like the rest of you guys, but more about how it was basically bringing back really bad memories. You know, about his uncle and stuff. I tried to cheer him up about it, and let him know that his uncle would be proud of him now for coming around, but maybe he's still down about it."

"Yeah, you might be right Toph. I hadn't thought about that." Aang agreed. "Seeing all the mistakes you made would put anyone in a bad mood."

"But I thought feeling guilty and bad about all the mistakes he made in the past was why he joined up with us in the first place. Why would seeing a stupid actor do the same things make him really depressed again?" Sokka argued.

"Not everyone has as easy a time forgiving themselves as you Sokka." Katara countered.

"Hey, I'm just saying—if he's going to feel terrible every time he thinks about a bad choice he made, we're going to have a real serious problem. We're in the middle of a war, and just feeling bad about the past isn't going to help us win. We've got to think about the future and what we can do now, which Zuko would've understood if he had stayed and heard my whole speech!!"

"Oh get over it already." Toph groaned. "It's not like everyone who was there was totally listening anyway."

"Excuse me! I'll have you know I worked pretty hard this morning on that speech! The least you all could've done was pay attention throughout the whole thing!"

"I can't help it if you were boring me and my ears started blocking out your voice after a while! It's habit." Toph shrugged.

"You know, maybe it's not just seeing all his mistakes that's bothering him…" Suki suggested, holding an angry Sokka away from Toph.

"What do you mean?" Aang asked.

"Yeah, then what else is upsetting crankypants?" Sokka snapped, giving up on getting to Toph.

"I mean, yeah the play showed all the mistakes he made in the past, which probably wasn't that great to sit through, but that's not the only thing it showed." Suki tried to explain, searching for the right words.

"You mean, the parts about us?" Aang suggested, confused.

"Why would that upset him? Anything he didn't cause wouldn't make him feel guilty." Katara argued.

"Yeah, usually if it wasn't him hurting us, it was his sister and I doubt he's upset over her," Sokka pointed out.

"No, you guys don't get it because you were the main focus of most of the play," Suki clarified. "I mean, while I was watching parts with you guys getting hurt or in trouble, I was feeling guilty because I wasn't there to help. While obviously some parts were exaggerated and all, I'm assuming most of it was based on fact, and knowing that I wasn't even around or thinking about how close you guys came to getting really injured or hurt in those situations…"

"But it wasn't your fault. You had to defend Kyoshi Island, and then you were out there helping, just not with us. And then you were in jail, so there wasn't much you could do," Sokka assured her.

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that I wasn't there to help." Suki continued. "I could've left with you all, or tried harder to find you, or even stayed with you after running into you again at the Serpent's Pass."

"You had other people who needed your help," Sokka argued.

"What does any of this have to do with Zuko?" Katara asked, annoyed and still not understanding where Suki was going with all of this.

"I think that is the point Katara." Toph jumped in. "Maybe he was feeling bad that he wasn't there to help you guys either. I mean, obviously I couldn't have done anything during most of that because I was stuck at home with my crazy parents who barely let me walk on my own, but Zuko was out with his uncle who was basically a good guy, and he knew what you all were doing. Maybe he's feeling bad that he didn't help back then."

"But he was still trying to capture Aang up until he joined us! Or teaming up with his sister. He wouldn't have helped had he known where we were all those times before." Katara snapped with a bit of leftover anger. She had forgiven Zuko after he'd helped her with the Southern Raiders, but that didn't mean she was completely over everything he'd done before he joined up with him now. She considered him good now, but she was still a little bitter when it came to issues before his change. "He wasn't on our side before, even when he was confused. Why would he feel guilty about not helping us at random times like against his father or whatever?"

"Because he's good now and wishes he was then?" Toph snapped back.

"Not just that," Suki argued, with a heavy sigh. "I mean, well maybe he does feel guilty about not turning sooner. But also, maybe he didn't realize all the other hard things you guys and other people also had to go through because of the side you were on. Like Sokka and Yue turning into the moon spirit, or those sick villagers Katara had helped out as the Painted Lady, or your friend dying. I mean things like that."

"Now that you mention it, he did seem kinda shocked when Jet died in the play…" Sokka recalled.

"He did?" Katara's head snapped up in surprise towards her brother.

"Yeah, didn't you hear? You were sitting right next to him. Although maybe Zuko was just confused, I mean, the show was pretty vague on what happened to Jet too…" Sokka trailed off.

"Well, someone should go talk to him. Zuko probably doesn't want to talk to anyone, but he could probably use it." Aang decided as he looked around the group, trying to decide who would be best to do it. "Otherwise he might just keep feeling guilty."

"And there's probably less of a chance he'll walk out if it's just one-on-one." Sokka added, half ready to go himself.

"I'll do it," Katara announced as she stood up before anyone else could move, brushing some of the dirt off her outfit.

"Really?" Sokka exclaimed in surprise.

"You sure you're the right one to talk to him?" Toph asked doubtfully and crossed her arms.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Katara demanded.

"Well, I know you two made up and all after your little trip, but just a few days ago you were kinda ready to kill him. So I'm not sure you're the best one to go cheering him up." Toph reasoned, still sitting on the ground.

"A short while ago, nobody trusted him!" The waterbender argued annoyed.

"I did."

"I mean, except you. And that's because you didn't know him before."

"I knew his uncle, and his uncle's view of him. And anyway, after we agreed to let him on the team, Aang and him started training and getting along, Zuko and Sokka went off to rescue people and they came back all buddy-buddy, and just the other day you snapped at Zuko for rescuing you from falling rocks, and got all upset when everyone else was congratulating him for helping us get away. See the difference?" The blind girl explained as she sat still calm and confident.

"That's because I had issues I needed to deal with. Which I did, thanks to him and I forgave him after that. We're fine now." Katara insisted, holding back some of her temper.

"Hey, maybe you guys are fine now," Sokka interjected suddenly. "But I think I'm with Toph here. Not to say you're still holding a grudge or anything Katara, but given the shaky history you two have, maybe you're not the best one to go cheer him up."

"Or maybe she is." Suki popped in.

"What?" Aang fought off the memories of the show that had Zuko and Katara as in some weird relationship. It was just a messed up play after all. "Why Katara?"

"Yeah, maybe you've been in the sun too long Suki." Sokka suggested, pulling his extra vest over her to shade her in as she rolled her eyes.

"Maybe because Zuko and Katara have a less than great relationship will make him more convinced she's not just being nice and trying to cheer him up. Maybe he'll take the advice more seriously if it comes from her." The Kyoshi warrior reasoned calmly. "And maybe it'll help you guys get along better in the long run."

"Thank you, Suki," Katara smiled at the other girl on her side.

"And if not, you can always waterbend some of the ocean waves into a shield if he shoots a fireball at you." Toph taunted, to which Katara answered by bending some of the water from her pouch to drench the earthbender.

"Well, I'm all for the team getting along better. So I guess you win Katara." Aang decided, and smiled at the Water Tribe girl. "I hope you can cheer him up and let him know the important thing is, he's part of the group now."

"Thanks Aang…" Katara forced a smile and walked off towards the beach.

And as she walked she pushed the guilt she was feeling down. Just because she had her own reasons for wanting to talk to Zuko didn't mean she couldn't cheer him up too.

But they never had found out why Jet was arrested by the Dai Li in the first place at Ba Sing Se.