"Meat. That's what you're forgetting. More meat."
Katara sighed at her brother's immaturity. "We bought plenty, Sokka. More than we need really."
"You can never have enough meat. Come on Katara, we were eating water-and-leftover soup the entire time at the Western Air Temple. I've staved off meat for pretty long, I think I should have a little reward. Right Suki?"
The warrior in question rolled her eyes. "You know we were there with you too, right? And we aren't complaining. And don't say our real names. We're in the middle of a Fire Nation city here."
"Yeah, yeah, it just slipped out, ok? Besides this place seems pretty laid back."
"You still have to be on the lookout."
"Speaking of looking…" Sokka veered away from their path back to the beach house, steering towards a plain wooden board on the edge of town. "What do we have here?"
The girls followed behind him. Katara studied the papers nailed on the board. "Wanted posters? What's this about Wang Fire?"
He pointed proudly at one of the more fresh looking papers. "Look at this handsome fellow right here."
"What are you so happy about? You're officially a wanted criminal." Katara crossed her arms. She had better things to do than this.
"Yeah, I mean it raises your chances of getting caught by a whole lot." Suki said, voice lowered.
Sokka was not dissuaded. "It's my first wanted poster! I mean the most I got before was a little mention in Aang's poster, and Katara had one since she's a waterbender and 'an apparent threat to Fire Nation establishments'. They've finally realized that I am a danger to the Fire Nation!"
Suki looked at him quizzically. "Umm… congratulations?"
"Names remember, Wang," Katara told him.
"Hey look you've got one too! And dad! These are from the prison break!"
Suki looked at her little portrait, in profile, with Hakoda and Chit Sang's close by. "Great."
He scanned the board a little longer. "Hey, look we've all got one. Toph's got the Runaway poster and look! There's Appa! Too bad there's no Momo."
Katara glanced at the board, annoyed this was taking so long, when something caught her eye. She pointed at a slightly worn poster, glad to have a little leverage. "You finally got a poster and I've had two for a while now."
Sokka looked at the paper. "Unfair." He announced glumly.
"You were the Painted Lady? How did that happen?"
"I'll tell you about it later, once we can finally go home."
"Hey, you might have more than me but Aang is the real heavyweight here. He's got like three, at least." Sokka shuffled through the pictures. "Yeah, three. One of his face, the one with Appa and I think he's meant to be in the Avatar state in this one."
"He's the Avatar, of course he'd have the most." Katara retorted.
Suki leafed at another section, finding papers underneath newer ones. "Actually, I think Zuko might win this time."
"Huh, I thought I only saw one." Sokka inched closer to her.
She lifted the newest picture up, a profile view of him, probably put up after the prison break. "Look underneath, there's…three… no, four. Wow."
Sokka, considered the papers, the oldest one worn and creased, barely legible, probably spared only because the second poster had covered it.
"One for the prison break, yeesh, wanted dead or alive. Another, I think this announces his traitorhood or something. This one was back when he had that ponytail, and his uncle's in it too. Traitors, enemy of the nation, yada yada yada. And this."
Sokka took the last poster off the board with barely a tug. He held it close to his face, trying to decipher the writing.
"Wow, four posters. Wonder why though." Suki pondered. His dad must have hated him more than she thought.
"Actually, maybe five," Katara laid a hand on another picture, a depiction of a crudely grinning mask, "Aang told me Zuko wore a blue mask when he rescued him from Pohuai Stronghold."
Suki looked at the poster. "The Blue Spirit, guess that's another story for later."
Katara nodded.
"Ok, ok, guys listen to this. Crown Prince Zuko, firstborn of Firelord Ozai, - this part's pretty smudged - sentenced to exile…terms to return…capture - this part's all gone - if seen on Fire Nation territory, report to authorities…lethal action permitted. And look, 97 A.G., three years ago. I guess this was when he got banished."
Katara looked at the paper, studying it further. "He doesn't have his scar in that picture. Do you think that had anything to do with it?"
Sokka shrugged. "Maybe. But it could still be a training accident, it could have happened during his exile. What I'm wondering is what he did that was so bad the Fire Nation wanted him gone. I mean he's like 13 in this, what could a 13 year old do that could get him exiled?"
"I mean Aang's 12 and he's done some pretty big things." Katara countered.
Sokka carefully folded the paper away. "Maybe. But I'm gonna ask him about it later."
"It might be a touchy subject."
"Hey, he asked me about mom, I get to ask him this."
Katara sighed. "Whatever, can we please just go home?"
"So, Zuko," Sokka scooted over closer to his seat on the porch, "Care to enlighten me on this?"
He held the wanted poster, close to his face, waiting for an answer. Zuko squinted at the paper, annoyed that Sokka was on his case during his break from training. He sighed.
"Upside-down, Sokka."
"Oh, uh," he turned the parchment right side up, but a little too quick, "Care to enlighten me?" The paper fell apart. Zuko groaned.
"What do you want?" Sokka blinked at the rags on the floor and tried to salvage his little interrogation. He cleared his voice and tried for his best in-control voice.
"So, as you know Suki, Katara and I were at the market this morning. But what you might not realize is that we tread upon some interesting information today."
"Get to the point."
"Yes, so, we came across a little poster concerning you. And your banishment."
"What do you want from me?" Zuko wasn't liking where this was going.
"And well, the punishment seemed pretty harsh, so I wondered what a 13 year old prince could have done to deserve that."
Don't make me go into this. Zuko scowled deeper. "Well, you can keep wondering."
Sokka was prepared for his reluctance. "Oh, okay. Mind if I bounce some ideas off you?"
"Yes, I do-"
"Okay, so a prince, who could banish a prince? Aha, clue number one; the only one I can think of is the Firelord. And I know the Loserlord hated you or something, but he couldn't just throw you out without a reason right?"
"I hope you're not expecting an answer."
"Maybe you embarrassed him? At some fancy party? Did something so stupid you got thrown out of the kingdom?"
"You better not be serious." Zuko wanted nothing more than to drop the subject, but Sokka refused to let up.
"No? Okay, maybe you tried to be the good guy and tried to assassinate someone? Or maybe you were being the bad guy and tried to assassinate someone? You didn't kill anyone right?"
"No." He hissed.
"Huh, I thought you weren't gonna answer me?"
"I don't need you guys thinking I'm a murderer!"
"Okay, okay, what else. Okay, maybe you lost a battle or something. Wait you were 13, no, probably not. Ugh… maybe back to that embarrassment thing. Maybe went out after curfew. Maybe you got in a fist fight or something or messed up some princely etiquette. Maybe you knocked some innocent girl up and lost your honor or something."
Zuko was taken aback. "I was 13!"
He shrugged. "Still could happen. " He stretched out his back and made it look like he was about to get up. "Anyway, I'm gonna go throw around these ideas with the others."
"What! Sokka!"
"Well, you know, two minds are better than one."
"Sokka! No!" Zuko buried his head in his hands, in embarrassment and defeat. Sokka could be pretty insensitive sometimes but Zuko couldn't blame him; Sokka would probably back off if Zuko showed any signs of distress, and his temper covered up his racing heartbeat.
"I'm walking away, Zuko. I thought you wanted to be left alone?"
If anything, Sokka was a strategist. He knew he'd trapped Zuko, closing his escape with the likelihood of embarrassment and further questioning. It would be much easier to spill the beans; or so he thought.
Zuko was cornered. If his emotions weren't intruding he'd probably choose for Sokka to leave, even if he discussed his ideas with the others but he was emotionally strained, with the memories at the forefront of his mind. And if he didn't say something now the conversation might repeat again later.
"Get back here, Sokka."
Sokka sat back down in triumph. "Well, I thought you'd never give in."
"Well, I don't need the others thinking I'm a murderer or a rapist!" Zuko scrawled through his mind, trying to find a way he could express his banishment without having an emotional collapse.
Zuko turned to look at the ground and said through gritted teeth.
"I spoke out when I shouldn't have and wouldn't fight when I was told." With that the dam broke. He knew, he'd said it. But what Zuko had labeled as a great leap away from his comfort zone, Sokka saw differently.
Sokka waited. "That's it? Come on there's gotta be more!"
"That's all you need to know."
This time Sokka heard the tremble in his voice. "Oh, yeah." He saw Zuko explicitly turn his head away from him. His breaths seemed deeper than usual. "Spirits, Zuko. I shouldn't have asked, I'm- I'm sorry."
Zuko's voice came muffled. "It wasn't your fault."
Sokka decided that was a cue to leave. He had horrible misjudged where the line had been drawn.
He slowly ascended the stairs to the house. Katara cast a glance at Sokka's glum face, then at Zuko's hunched form.
She met Sokka's eyes with a question. He glanced upwards but wouldn't meet her eyes.
"It was a touchy subject."
AN:
Fin. That was set somewhere before Ember Island Players, but you probably figured that out, you smart reader, you. I feel like the end's a bit too abrupt, but this was just a quick one-shot, not rated for perfection. I should probably be doing other things, but if I write one thing for to long, I've got to take little creative breaks; like this. Anyway, thanks for reading, hats off to you, kind sir or madam. Or enlightened canine