Reversal of Fortunes

Avatar: The Last Airbender fic by yanocchi

Standard disclaimer applies

SUMMARY: Having nowhere else to go, Zuko and Iroh end up joining Aang and his friends. General mayhem ensues. Zutara for spice.

CHAPTER ONE: In which the scene is set and Prince Zuko learns the price of being picky.

After living so many months and years on a ship, the banished Prince Zuko had come to a certain understanding with water. In fact, he almost liked it. It was changeable and wild, like the fire that was a part of him, but at the same time it was calm and steady. Somewhere inside he admired that tranquility.

Earth, however, was a different story. He hated walking. Princes weren't meant to walk. They were meant to ride in palanquins and carriages, or sit mounted on noble steeds. Plodding along, one foot in front of the other in front of the other in front of the other... And who was to blame for this misfortune?

"Uncle," Zuko said caustically, "you need to learn that you can't keep living as though we still had the wealth of the fire nation at our disposal."

His jolly uncle looked up from his examination of the sealed scroll he had bought. "What's the trouble, Prince Zuko?" Iroh asked innocently.

"The trouble?" Zuko flared. "The trouble is you sold our only means of transportation without consulting me, and then use the money to buy some stupid scroll! We could have bought passage in a caravan, or food—"

Iroh clasped the scroll rapturously and turned his eyes skyward. "Ah, food!" he sighed. "Roast duck, with that sweet glaze, garnished with—" He broke off as Zuko snatched the scroll from his hands.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind some roast duck myself! Instead we have a scroll!" Zuko whirled on his heel and threw the scroll into the bushes.

Iroh sighed and shook his head. "And now we don't even have a scroll..." he lamented.

Zuko's anger flared painfully but he bit back his words. He threw his hands in the air and began stalking down the trail again. Iroh stared serenely after his nephew for a moment, then waded into the bushes after the scroll.

The teen ignored his uncle. His feet hurt from walking all day, and his nostrils were filled with the unique scent of road dust. As frustrating as his uncle was, Zuko knew his anger was mostly at himself. It was the same unnamed frustration and rage that had driven him to his limits searching for the Avatar, and the same burning passion that had kept him alive at the edge. But now, with his only hope of redemption dashed cruelly from his fingers, that fury was dissipating in odd ways. His outbursts at his uncle, the way everything seemed ugly and obnoxious to him, the way he found himself staring into space, faces floating before his eyes... they all pointed to a complete collapse.

'I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep this up,' Zuko admitted to himself, pausing while his uncle Iroh trotted towards him with the rolling gait of the chronically fat. Too secretly ashamed of his anger to even admit it to himself, Zuko pretended to examine the road ahead. The rolling hills that stretched to the horizon did not improve his mood.

"I QUIT."

Aang and Katara looked up from their work loading Appa with the packed camp. Sokka, standing thigh-deep in the cold mountain rivulet, threw down his makeshift spear in childish frustration.

"What's wrong now?" Katara asked expressively.

Sokka folded his arms and turned his nose up. "The fish cannot be caught. It's impossible! I give up."

Silently, Momo launched himself from his perch on Appa's left horn and swooped over the stream. With a dart his nimble paws shot into the water and snatched up a glistening trout. All innocence, he glided over to the opposite bank to examine his catch. Sokka stared at him, mouth hanging open. Finding the slippery creature to be of only mild interest, Momo let it flop its way back into the water.

"NO! Breakfast!" Sokka wailed. He threw himself at the fish in vain. It calmly wriggled through his fingers and on its merry way. Sprawled in the chilling stream, Sokka felt his lower lip tremble in frustration. Momo chittered at the boy in alarm as a wave of displaced water covered the bat-eared lemur.

Aang chuckled and slid down Appa's nose. Katara calmly stretched out an arm and bent a fish out of the water and into a pot by the fire.

"Cheaters," Sokka grumbled. Momo chittered at him some more and then shook himself dry. The young water tribe warrior glared at the lemur, then stood with as much dripping dignity as he could muster. "I don't need your ill-got food!" he declared. His stomach rumbled in contradiction. Aang bit back a laugh and bent a few more fish out of the stream. Sokka flailed his spear at the undulating bubbles with their scaled treasures sourly.

"Don't be so picky, Sokka," Katara said calmly. "There's enough fish here for both of us, we don't need any more."

"I still have my pride!" Sokka insisted in a weakening voice.

"Mmm, smells goooood," Aang teased, clasping his hands under his chin in exaggerated rapture.

Throwing his arms in the air, Sokka stomped over to the fire and hunkered over his knees. His companions grinned and bantered good-naturedly back and forth. Sokka's glower lightened to a rueful grin and he dug in with a will.

After his second helping of the stone soup that was breakfast, he noticed Aang hadn't touched his own portion.

"Whatsa matter?" he asked around a mouthful of food.

Aang looked up as though he had only just now remembered Sokka was there. "Oh, I was just realizing that we're getting a little low on supplies again. I hope we find a friendly town soon."

Katara smiled fondly at the young Avatar. "It'll be fine."

Aang smiled back blissfully. "Yeah."

Sokka glanced back and forth between the two of them with a slightly nauseated expression. "I think I've lost my appetite," he grumbled.

A several days later Zuko was nothing but appetite. Since the day his uncle had bought the scroll, he had eaten next to nothing. Zuko had underestimated his crafty uncle. Iroh had traded the scroll to a merchant a few miles down the road for a meal, a bed and another obscure trinket. The process was repeated every few days, but that still meant that for a great many days in a row Zuko went without a meal.

Iroh, on the other hand, seemed to be gaining weight.

"Really, Zuko," Iroh said around a mouthful of berries. "You must try these. They're truly delicious."

Zuko looked suspiciously at the handful of yellow berries his uncle held out to him. "They don't look ripe," he pointed out.

"No, they're perfect," Iroh insisted. "If they're left on the bush much longer they turn sour and poisonous."

Zuko snatched his hand back, aghast. "Enough with your experimenting with local foods!" he snarled. "You'll be covered in boils again, and we have no idea how long until the next village."

Iroh shrugged and popped a few more berries into his mouth. "All the more reason to enjoy these now," he pointed out.

"I'm not desperate enough to start grazing like a cow," Zuko replied with a huff.

Iroh lay a hand across his paunch. "Nephew, you wound me," he said in a pained voice. Zuko gave him a chilly glare.

In truth, Zuko was starving, almost literally. Despite the arguments his stomach put up (and they were very persuasive arguments indeed) his palette and pride simply would not allow him to let the low quality food his uncle managed to rustle up for them to pass his lips. He hadn't had a proper meal in weeks, and if he didn't focus the young prince could feel the world tilting beneath his feet.

"Zuko?" Iroh called to his nephew. "I think I found some mushrooms. Do you want some?"

Zuko eyed his uncle with mixed trepidation and awe. "Mushrooms?" Iroh waggled his eyebrows and rubbed his hands together eagerly. Zuko shuddered at the thought of poisonous mushrooms. "I'll pass."

"Zuko, you need to eat something," Iroh chided the boy.

"I'll eat something that comes out of a pot and is served on a dish," Zuko retorted. Iroh gave his kinsman a worried glance, but kept silent. He tramped off into the bushes after the rich earthy smell of mushrooms.

As soon as Iroh was out of sight, Zuko let his head drop between his knees. His temples were pounding and his vision swam. He couldn't bear to let anybody see him this weak. 'What will I do? I can't keep going like this,' Zuko thought dizzily. 'I can barely walk. Forget getting to the next village, will I even make it to my next sunrise?'

There was a rustle in the bushes nearby. Zuko pushed himself to his feet hurriedly. Too hurriedly, since he began to sway. Black spots swam in his vision and hastily put a hand against the nearest tree to steady himself. Zuko managed to focus his eyes just enough to see a pale creature launch itself from the bushes into his camp.

"Momo, slow down!" For a moment Zuko and the bat-eared creature stared at each other across a few yards of open ground. In his delirious state he thought that clear amused voice had come from the lemur.

'No,' he realized a moment later. 'That's the Avatar's pet lemur!'

As he lurched forward to grab the lemur, thoughts of bait cluttering his incoherent mind, Momo leapt away. Using Zuko's stubbled head as leverage, the lemur gleefully followed Iroh's path into the bushes. Zuko stumbled a little but regained his balance just before toppling into the bushes.

"Uncle!" Zuko shouted urgently.

Something soft and pleasantly fresh-smelling collided with him, sending Zuko staggering backwards.

"Oww," that clear voice said. Zuko focused his eyes on the girl in front of him. Katara stood before him, her wide blue eyes looking confusedly into his golden ones. The two of them stared at each other, baffled.

Zuko recovered first. Moving swiftly, he lunged forward and wrapped his powerfully muscled arms around Katara tightly, clamping one hand over her mouth. "Caught you," Zuko breathed triumphantly in her ear. Katara squirmed in his grip, but to no avail. "Uncle!" Zuko called again. "Over here!"

"Zuko, you won't believe what I've found. It's even better than mushrooms!" Iroh's reedy voice approached through the thicket.

"I can guarantee you, what I found is ten times better than that," Zuko replied. Pulling Katara close against him he looked her over. The girl's pale eyes were snapping with fury at him, her cheeks flushed in anger. Zuko noted that she appeared to be traveling light. "Where is he?" he asked in a powerful voice. Zuko noticed the way the girl's eyes fixed not on his own face but on a point a few feet ahead of them.

As Iroh broke through the bushes into the clearing, Aang and Sokka simultaneously burst through, staff and boomerang at the ready. Zuko snapped his eyes to Aang's and slowly and purposely began to back towards his uncle.

"Katara!" Sokka cried in dismay. "Give her back!" He raised his boomerang threateningly.

"More importantly, let go of Momo!" Aang added.

Sokka stared at Aang as though his friend had just sprouted horns. "'More importantly!' How is MOMO more important than my SISTER?" he choked out.

Aang looked at him as though the answer were obvious. "Katara can take care of herself. Momo's totally helpless!"

Zuko, against his better judgment, spared a glance over his shoulder. Perched contentedly on his uncle's shoulder was the lemur, cheerfully stuffing his face with mushrooms. Zuko had to agree with the young water tribe warrior on this one; Iroh seemed to be more distressed than Momo.

"You can have your little monkey back," Zuko began. "But I'll be keeping a little souvenir of this meeting." He smirked and backed up a few more steps, bodily dragging Katara with him. He hoped he could make it to his uncle's side before his exertions caught up with him; he could already feel his tenuous grasp on consciousness beginning to fade.

Thinking fast, Katara slammed her head to the left, directly into Zuko's temple. There was a moment when all the people in the clearing seemed to be holding their breathes, then Zuko seemed to melt. His knees buckled and he dropped to the ground, arms still wrapped tight around Katara. With a dismayed yelp Katara was dragged down with him.

"Gosh, I didn't think I hit him that hard," she mused aloud. Concerned despite herself, Katara pushed herself up, shrugging Zuko's arms off, and tipped his face to one side to examine his right temple.

Iroh dropped to his knees next to the girl with a sigh. "Although I don't doubt your abilities, it wouldn't have been that hard to knock him out in this state."

"This state?" Aang repeated curiously.

Iroh regarded the boy for a long, calculating moment before breaking into a jolly and slightly sheepish grin.

"I believe there is much to talk about, young Avatar. I don't suppose you'd mind talking over supper?"

NOTES: Wow, shortest chapter I've ever written... Double, maybe triple update today, so just keep on clickin'. R'n'R makes me work faster.