Sokka watched the little boy run up the gangplank, saw one of the figures on the deck stand and embrace the child. It was a nice moment, too bad Zuko hadn't brought the child back himself, gotten to see the moment close up, not hiding in the shadows as he was. It might have done the angry jerk some good to see a touching scene of family love...
The water tribesman found the thought hard to maintain. Zuko hadn't been too angry helping the child, and if he was still a bit of a jerk, well, he'd gotten the job done. And stayed to make sure the job was finished, even though, like Sokka and his companions, he'd be leaving this area soon. And he'd let Aang go, walked away from a perfect oppertunity because a child he thought of as a 'random colonial brat' needed help.
Sokka wasn't used to thinking of the fire prince with anything other than hate or maybe fear, but on the long walk down to the docks, listening to Chang burble on about how strong and powerful and brave Zuko had been, he had to admit that a small glimmer of respect had reared it's ugly head. Ugly, because he didn't see much use in respecting a guy trying to destroy the world's last hope. Zuko was a bad guy, the prince of bad guys in a very literal sense, but in Sokka's world bad guys didn't put aside their goals to save little kids, and the contridiction was spinning round in his head.
If there was one thing Sokka didn't like, besides firebenders and being hungry of course, it was not understanding something. Which somewhat explained why instead of heading southwest of the village, on the most direct path to where they had begun camping before all the interuptions, he retraced his steps back towards the cave. Maybe he'd run into the prince on his way back. Maybe their informal truce would still be in effect. Maybe he'd come up with a better way of assauging his curiousity than "so, whats up with you not being a complete monster?" Never hurt to try.
When he realized he was almost back to the cave, the water tribesman figured he'd missed his chance. Either Zuko had somehow slipped past him when their paths crossed, or he had taken different way back to his boat. Or he had somehow tracked Aang and Katara in the dark and was menacing them even now... what if he hadn't really even gone back into the cave any longer than it took to get Sokka to head off? What if while Sokka was taking the long way home his family had been captured? What if...
Then he saw a flicker of light as he took the last turn out of the trees. A fire had been kindled among the ruins, and a figure sat facing it on one of the crumbled benches, back straight, one leg folded the other stretched out awkwardly. As he got closer, Sokka realised that the fire prince had his eyes closed and was taking deep deliberate breaths, like Aang did when he meditated. Then he stopped in shock, because the fire also seemed to be taking deep breaths, rising and falling in time with Zuko's chest. It was an almost hypnotic sight and for a moment, Sokka just wanted to sit and watch, maybe even try to time his breaths the same.
"I take it you didn't get captured by the town guard?"
"Yeep! Um, I mean, no, no problems, Chang got on the ship fine, lots of hugging and crying from what I could see..."
"Oh. Glad I missed it." The prince sounded too tired to be properly contemptuous, though. Sokka tore his eyes away from fire to get a closer look and gasped. What he had assumed was just a shadow from the moonlight was an ugly, almost bleeding bruise stretching from the right side of Zuko's neck to his cheekbone. A similar mark adorned his left arm from bicep to shoulder.
"What happened to you?"
"Finishing the job turned out to be... harder than I anticipated." The fire prince kept his voice steady, but Sokka noticed the fire flaring up for a moment before Zuko began the deliberate breaths again.
"You should get back to your ship, get some ice and stuff on those, how did that even happen?"
"It..." the fire flared again and the prince's face twisted for a moment with something not quite identifiable. "I'm going back soon, I just need to... to center myself before I figure out what to do with this ankle."
Ankle? Sokka remembered that the other teen had been keeping one leg out rather than a full meditative pose. He moved forward instictively. "Here, let me take a look."
"No!" Another brightening of the fire. "No, I can't accept your help."
"Can't accept?" That was interesting. Not don't need or even don't want. "You accepted my help earlier. What's the difference?"
"You weren't helping me, you were helping Chang at the same time I was. He owes you for that."
Ah. Sokka couldn't say whether he really wanted to help a firebender that badly, but the idea that Zuko would feel indebted was an interesting piece of the earlier puzzle. "So is this just a national pride that you wouldn't want to owe the Water Tribe one, or...?"
A soft snort. "Capturing the Avatar is the only thing that matters. I'm not going to be obligated to one of his protecters."
"Seems like the random colonial brat mattered too."
"That's different."
"Why?"
"Why do you ask so many questions?" The surge in the fire matched the yell.
"I have a natural curiousity." After a moment, Sokka moved forward again and started removing the prince's boot.
"I said-"
"Yeah I heard what you said, but I came back this way anyway because I was wondering about something. Like I said, natural curiousity." Even unlaced, the boot didn't seem to be coming off well, so he used the edge on his boomerang to cut at a seam. "So I figure it this way. I'll get this wrapped up for you, and even help you back to your ship, and you answer my questions for the time that takes. I get something out of it right away, and you don't owe me anything." He glanced up, closer than he'd ever really observed the firebender and was struck for a moment by his eyes. Were they really that golden or was it just the firelight reflecting? He shook it off. "Deal?"
Zuko considered for a moment. "I'm not answering any question I consider treasonous, or insanely personal."
"Fair enough." Sokka paused a moment while he finally got a good look at the ankle. Looked like a really bad sprain, but not broken. He started unwrapping his arm bands and considered questions. Might as well start with something of use to the group before he tried to figure the prince out personally. "Hrm, I won't ask you what your plans are, but what do you and Zhao know or suspect about our group's strategy and long term destinations?"
Even though Zuko hadn't been focusing on the fire it still jumped a little. "First of all, there is no 'me and Zhao'. In case you didn't notice him trying to arrest me at the fire temple." Sokka suspected he was being glared at, but had gotten a wrap loose and was trying to remember the best way to start an ankle bandage, so he didn't look. "But he's an asshole, not an idiot, so I'm sure he knows the basics of Avatar lore, or at least has someone on his staff smart enough to tell him."
The prince's voice took on an amost sing-song quality, the tone of a student reciting an incredibly boring lesson that he had nonetheless been forced to accept into his memory by blunt repetition. "After being identified, the Avatar traditionaly traveled to each of the other three nations, living by their traditions while learning to bend their native elements. The nations were visited in the order that avatars are born, thus Roku went first to the Air Temples, then the Water Tribe and finally the Earth Kingdom before he could fully realize his power. Which is dumb if you ask me," he continued in a more normal voice, "but still, the Avatar is an airbender, so he needs water next, and he's not going to master it learning from a self taught girl and a stolen scroll. So you need to get to the Northern Water Tribe, where there are still waterbending masters. Though it seems that either none of you can read a map, the Avatar has the attention span of a sugared up chipmunk frog or airbenders are philosophically opposed to traveling efficiently."
"Hey, I read maps really well!" Sokka blushed slightly, "But Aang's in charge of it... I think it's a combination of the second two options... And what's dumb about the order avatars learn in?"
Zuko shrugged. "It just seems to me that since the avatar is in touch with all of his past lives, and I've gotten the impression that the most recent one is in many ways the closest... Well, shouldn't that avatar's element be the easiest one to master, aside from the one he was born into? Why save the element and culture he should be closest to for last? It just seems strange."
"Huh, never thought of that. Still, I'm glad they do it the way they do, at least we know where to find waterbending teachers." Sokka sat back and observed the results of using both arm wraps on the injured ankle. "Ok, let's see if you can put any weight on it."
"I can put weight on it regardless, it's a matter of whether it's a good idea in the long term."
The water tribesman snickered. "I don't know if you're being macho or nitpicky, but cut them both out and see how much support it gives."
Zuko stood experimentaly. "Not bad, wouldn't want to play kiau ball on it, but I won't have to hop."
"Good, you gonna let me help you back and ask more questions?" A pondering look crossed the prince's face, and then he nodded shortly. "Okay then, next question. What in the name of Moon and Ocean happened when you went to finish off the plant monster? You look like death warmed over!"
Sokka wondered if the arm that went around his shoulders as they started moving was tense due to the question, or just from touching a dirty peasant. Zuko paused and took a deep breath, glancing back towards the fire and making a geusture with his free hand, snuffing the blaze out completely. After a moment almost long enough to get the question repeated, he spoke very quietly. "It wasn't a plant monster, exactly."
"Really? Seemed pretty plant based to me."
"It was... there was a person there. In a deeper crevice where the vines all had their roots. A water bender of some sort, though I'd never heard of a waterbender controlling plants."
The water tribesman gaped, but some analytical part of his brain took control of his mouth and offered, "Well plants, especially the green parts of plants like leaves and vines have a lot of water in them... just like I guess animals do too, so" whatever he had been about to say was cut off by the distinct shudder that went through the other teen.
"Yeah, that..." Zuko swallowed hard. "I got overconfident plowing through the vines, I was still thinking of it as a living thing, that would be getting weaker as I burned more of it off. So I wasn't prepared to defend when I started getting hit with full strength waterbending. I ended up wrapped pretty tight in wet vines, and there was this... guy there. He was old and he looked like he'd been living underground for quite a while and he was... ranting, I guess. He was pretty far gone."
"Ranting about what?"
"What he'd lost, things the Fire Nation had taken away from what I could make out. He said that he'd take our children and fix them before they could become monsters. Some crazy idea of removing the fire heritage from their blood. And then he reached for me and-" he broke off and Sokka thought he was going to retch for a second. "He somehow used his bending t-to pull the blood out of my skin."
"Oh Spirits." The water tribesman looked again at those livid bruises and wondered if he would need to sit down. "Okay, that's... that's um, yeah okay I'm gonna start planning my next week's worth of nightmares now."
"Trust me, they won't do it justice." A long pause and when Zuko spoke again it was very quiet, almost as if he was talking to himself. "I had to kill him. I couldn't get free to fight and he was going to... take all my blood out. Bleeding to death without a single cut, that's just a strange thought..."
Sokka wasn't going to blame him for the death, waterbending enemy or not, but he was surprised by the regret shown over having to kill. There was a more urgent sense of curiousity at the moment though. "But, I mean, how could you kill him if you couldn't move?"
This time he was pretty sure Zuko did start to retch, a convusion swallowed back hard. "I... He was right in front of me... I burned his face. So badly he couldn't breath. He smoothered to death."
Great, there was gonna be a waiting list for nightmares tonight. But still... "But if you were all wrapped up, you said you couldn't get free to fight?"
"Oh." The prince seemed to grasp the central question. "Guess you've never seen me do that... Maybe I shouldn't tell you." He gave the water tribesman a sidelong glance.
"Hey, it's not treasonous or personal, and now I'm gonna go crazy if I don't know!"
A very slight chuckle. "As terrible as that would be..." Sokka growled slightly, but it just made Zuko laugh a little more. The prince actually had a fairly nice laugh, though he seemed to try to cover it by instinct. "Fine, fine..." He took a deep breath and tilted his head back slightly with a look that reminded the water tribesman of someone about to blow a smoke ring. But instead-
"Black Snow, you can breath fire? What- how can- that's just... Do that again!" But the firebender was too busy shaking with surpressed laughter to give another demonstration. Letting go of Sokka's shoulder, he settled down to sit a few minutes on a fallen tree until he could speak again.
"My uncle taught it to me, it's not really a combat technique, the range and intensity I can get is far less than normal fireblasts. It's actually almost a side effect of learning to heat the chi within my body and warm myself from the inside." He took the water tribesman's hand and placed it on his forearm. When he breathed out fire again Sokka felt the skin instantly warm. "He taught me when we were first traveling near the South Pole. Uncle was convinced I was going to fall off of the ship while training and didn't want me to get hypothermia."
"Why would you fall of the-"
"I wouldn't fall off the ship, and I didn't! It was just some idea he got stuck in his head. Though, to be fair," his tone indicated he didn't particularly enjoy being fair on the subject, "my eye was still bandaged at the time, and he didn't like me practicing active forms with no depth perception."
"Your eye? Oh!" Sokka felt like an idiot for his momentary confusion. While the prince's scar wasn't something that could be forgotten, he realized that he had never really thought of the injury that had caused it. Of course the eye would have been covered for weeks, if not months. "So then, you can see out of it now?"
"Yeah." Zuko got back to his feet, ignoring the water tribesman's offered hand but leaning back on his shoulder as they began walking again. "I had this cream I needed to put on it all the time, to keep the scarring from blinding me, but it also made it take forever to fully heal. My vision out of that eye isn't as detailed, but I have peripheral vision and depth perception, so it's not any sort of handicap in a fight. I've just gotten in the habit of closing it when I'm reading or something like that."
"So how di-"
"Don't." It was a warning, and this clearly was going to fall under the 'insanely personal' exclusion, but it wasn't that angry. Zuko sounded more like Sokka was about to do something stupid, like stick his hand in a fire or eat some poisonous berries.
"Right, sorry." The next question came out without much consideration. "What would it take for you to stop trying to capture Aang?"
"You mean besides suceeding or dying?" Sokka almost laughed. "There's nothing. I mean, there are things that are more urgent than catching the Avatar, like getting Chang to safety or when Uncle got himself captured by earthbenders. But there's nothing more important." The water tribesman was about to say something angry when Zuko spoke again, almost wistfully. "I suppose technically if my father decided to let me come home without the Avatar I wouldn't stick around and keep chasing him for fun... but that doesn't seem likely at this point."
"Let you come home? I... I don't understand."
Zuko looked a little surprised, as if there was some obvious point the other teen had missed. "Well, I suppose Fire Nation gossip wouldn't have made it to the South Pole. It's... look, when I was thirteen, I... made a mistake. I should have- no, I did know better, but I did it anyway, and then I compounded my error with weakness when facing the consequences. As a result, I lost my claim to the throne, my honor and my home." The prince's voice was tight, controlled. "I'm banished from the Fire Nation, and the only condition under which I'm allowed to return is if I bring the Avatar with me. So that's what I'm going to do."
"But," Sokka tried to sort of one of the dozens of questions that were clamoring for his attention. "But if you were thirteen, that was years ago!"
"Almost three years."
"But, but... Aang was still in his block of ice then, no one had seen him in a hundred years, no one would have even thought it was posible!"
"My uncle spent a lot of time telling me it was impossible and trying to get me to give up... And yet, for something impossible, I was close enough to see it when he emerged." The prince glanced over. "To be honest, possible and impossible never really factored into it for me. When you only have one option, that's what you do, whether it's possible to suceed or not. I was given one chance to go home, and I wasn't going to let it go just because it was impossible."
Sokka shook his head. "Man, there's determined and then there's just crazy, I wouldn't have even started looking."
"Really? I'm not sure someone who tried to stand up to a battleship with a club has a lot of room to talk about knowing when to give up." Zuko was smiling slightly when the water tribesman looked over in surprise.
"Okay, well, maybe I fall to the just crazy side of the scale sometimes myself, but that's not the point. Though it does bring up another question." Sokka paused uncomfortably, not sure exactly how he wanted to ask this. "After that, when Aang went with you and then escaped... What did you do?"
Zuko looked puzzled at first. "I got my crew unfrozen, dug the ship out of the ice and went to the nearest friendly port for repairs." The puzzled look faded into realization. "You didn't go back to your village after you got him away, did you, just started on your journey?"
"No. It actually took me a day or two to really think about it, and I'm pretty sure Aang and Katara never did... they're both pretty naive in their own ways. It wasn't until we were at the old air temple, and saw what had happened there, it really struck me." Sokka looked down at the path they followed, thinking of the fears he had tried to push aside, knowing there was nothing that could be accomplished by going back to check on Gran Gran or his little warriors. "Aang offered to go with you if you left the village alone... and then he tried to escape before you were even an hour's travel away. I mean, he... he broke his end of the bargain."
The prince scowled lightly. "Yes, yes he did, didn't he? I can't say it left me impressed with his sense of honor, though he's so flighty, I suppose he might have just forgotten the bargain already rather than deliberately breaking it."
"Hey! Aang's not... Well, okay, maybe he's a little flighty..."
"But no, I didn't go back to your village, there didn't seem to be any chance you'd returned there, and my ship needed repairs." Zuko glanced over at the water tribesman and admitted, "I didn't really even think about it myself until after I'd had to deal with Zhao and found myself wondering how he would have handled the whole situation."
Sokka paled and stumbled at the suggestion. "Oh man, if Zhao had been the one who showed up there? Spirits, I'm gonna have nightmares about that now!"
"Well, everyone needs a few good nightmares about Zhao, I suppose. Probably builds character or something."
The trees were starting to thin out and Sokka could see the lights of the village. "So... if it weren't for the conditions of your banishment you wouldn't care about Aang?"
The prince considered for a moment. "Well, he is probably ultimately planning to destroy my nation, so I'm not saying I'd be out hunting frozen frogs with him or whatever insane thing he was doing..."
"What, hey, Aang doesn't want to destroy anything, he's not the destroying type! He just wants to defeat the Fire Lord and end the war!"
"Hmph. Yes of course..."
"What's that supposed to mean, that's what he wants to do!"
"In denial, or just stupid... you would know which better than I would..." At Sokka's outraged gasp, Zuko sighed. "I'd think you would want to look at this realisticly. The Fire Lord is the most powerful fire bender in the world. He's also a very determined man who values power and ambition. If you think 'defeating' my father can mean anything other than killing him, you're being a child."
"And even if the Avatar does kill him, why would that end the war? This war was started by my great grandfather, it has been waged by three fire lords already, and with me banished, my father's death will leave you with Fire Lord Azula." He gave a very distinct shudder.
"Who...?"
"My sister. Not the type to end the war, more likely to burn a few cities the the ground in revenge for Father's death then lead an assault on Ba Sing Se herself just for bragging rights." The prince glanced up, thinking. "I suppose if he killed Father and Azula, that would effectively stop the war at least for a while, since the Fire Nation would be plunged into civil war instead. You'd have the high generals, Sozin's second cousins, and possibly the Fire Sages fighting it out-"
"Ah, stop it! Aang isn't going to kill two fire lords, he's... he's a twelve year old vegitarian!" Sokka glared at the older boy still leaning on his shoulder. "You're just trying to freak me out anyway, if this is your younger sister, she's isn't much older than Katara. She can't be that ruthless yet."
Zuko laughed again, though it wasn't a pleasant one this time. "When Uncle was off at war, Azula commented that if he was killed in battle, our father would be next in line for fire lord, and what a nice thing that would be. She was seven at the time."
The water tribesman was doing a remarkable impression of a fish. "She... her uncle... seven... Wait, but your uncle is still alive and your dad is fire lord, so how...?"
"That's a long story that I don't have all the details on myself. And we seem to be out of time." And indeed, they had reached the docks, almost to where they could be seen by the guards on duty. Zuko stepped away, then unexpectedly extended his hand. "Thank you again for your help with Chang. I'm, er, sorry I said you were bothering me."
"But not that you said I was an idiot?" Sokka grinned and took the prince's wrist, a warrior's handshake. "Thanks for, you know, getting us loose. You should, um, get something on those bruises. And ice the ankle." He watched the tall, confident figure aproach the ship, waving off a sailor's attempt to help and barely allowing himself a limp. Watched a plump older man hug him and insistently pull him to a table talking about food and tea. Heard an annoyed but affectionate sigh and excuses that he would really rather explain everything in the morning and yes he was fine, Uncle, no he didn't need to send for the village healer, Uncle, could he please go to sleep, Uncle?
And Sokka walked away from the docks for the second time that night, bone weary but with much to think about.
