Tomboy101: I want to thank everyone whose encouraging reviews have given me heart, they include but are not limited to: Light1172, Nessa671, ShadowJ95, trumpetgurl92 (you specifically encouraged me to get off my lazy butt and write and post the last chapter), misscary12, Robertgirl17 (I hadn't thought about the Anastasia similarities but you're right), Lady Elisabeth, ImXDragon (I tried to keep my language clean…er, no promises though), and Aviandra. Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. It really is comforting and heartening to know that people actually like my work. It makes me want to write more, faster.
On another note, just as a reminder, I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender, or any characters mentioned therein. I do, however, own Kai, Roku, Kya, the orphanage (mainly the name) and all of the orphanage's occupants. Now that that is said, God Bless and have a Great Day!
Zuko paced up and down the blue painted hallway outside the lounge room. His lunch, an interesting blend of both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom foods, churned in his stomach. The quiet pressed in on his ears and his mind raced. So many thoughts were going through his head.
Katara might be alive.
Roku and Kya might be his children.
Katara might be alive.
He could have a family.
Katara might be alive.
After Kai had been called away to deal with an upset in the kitchen Zuko had felt like he couldn't breathe. That was why he was out here, not in the room with his friends. They were all talking nonstop about Kai's plan. They wouldn't shut up. Zuko couldn't deal with the noise, so he got up and left. No one noticed. If Katara had been there she would have noticed. She would have seen that something was wrong. But no, it was her they were discussing. Her and how best to help her.
Zuko wanted to shout with joy, throw up at the shock, run to Katara, sit completely still and think. He couldn't do any of those things so he paced, and thought. But he couldn't understand what he was thinking. There were too many things going through his head, he didn't know what to do. Zuko leaned back against the stone wall across from the lounge room door and slid to the floor with his face in his hands.
He had to sort through what was going on inside his head. Now. If he was going to help Katara he had to have complete control. He would be completely useless if he was panicking.
There was a soft creaking sound and the click of a door latching back into place. Zuko didn't pick his head up from his hands. He didn't care what whoever it was did. Quiet footsteps made their way over to him and he felt someone sit down on the floor beside him.
"It's all so surreal," a quiet, feminine voice said.
Zuko looked up at Toph. The younger Earthbending girl had her legs pulled up to her chest with her chin resting on her knees. Her sightless, glazed green eyes, barely visible through her dark brown almost black bangs, stared blankly ahead of her. "Bokahn being Katara, I mean," she added in that same, soft voice.
Zuko blinked in surprise at the sound. The last time they had talked like this Toph's voice had sounded so different, childish and innocent. Now it was the voice of a young woman. Zuko found himself thinking, If Aang doesn't hurry up and ask her out I'll have to beat him over the head with Sokka's boomerang, and almost smiled. That was such a Katara-like thought. She would be so happy to see Aang and Toph dating. She had told him once that she thought they would make a great couple, somewhere down the road.
"Yeah," he muttered, pulling his own legs up to his chest and resting his chin on his crossed arms over his knees. "Surreal."
"To think, Katara might be alive. It's just…so weird. And amazing. After Sozin's Comet and I found out that Katara had disappeared—it really, really hurt. I didn't think I'd miss Sugar Queen that much. She was like the mom I always wanted my own mother to be. She cared for everyone, you know? She even cared about me from the very beginning, even though I was acting like a spoiled brat. Up until then I had never met anyone like her."
Zuko nodded absently. He wasn't really listening to what Toph was saying but hearing her for once soft, calm voice was helping to settle his own thoughts into some semblance of order.
Katara was alive. The idea made his heart soar.
Katara had children. He went cold at the thought. Kya and Roku couldn't be younger than five years old. Katara had disappeared five years ago. The night before Katara disappeared they had slept together. Katara had told him he was her first. Uncle had said the boy, Roku, looked like Zuko had at that age. The girl, Kya, had copper eyes. Eyes were like a tell. Blue eyes were Water Tribe eyes, gray meant Air Nomad, green were Earth Kingdom, and copper eyes belonged to the Fire Nation.
Zuko almost didn't want to believe what his mind was telling him.
Katara had children. Katara's children looked like him. The only way Katara's children could look like him was if he was the father.
There was a roaring in Zuko's ears. His head spun.
Toph felt Zuko's heart speed up to a dangerous rate. She heard his breathing become irregular, like he was hyperventilating. "Zuko? Zuko, you alright?" Zuko went limp beside her. "Zuko, did you just faint?" Silence was Toph's only answer. She sighed and put her head back against the stone wall. "Seriously?" Zuko fell over onto her, his dead weight almost knocking her over. "Hey! Get off me, you great oaf!" Toph pushed against him until he toppled over in the other direction but he still didn't wake up.
Toph shook her head. "I don't believe it. The Almighty Fire Lord fainted."
When Kai left to go deal with something in the kitchen there was silence amongst her friends. Then, everyone started talking at once.
"Do you think Kai is right?" Suki asked.
"I dunno. It seems too easy," said the ever suspicious Sokka.
"I really want to believe she's right," Aang whispered.
"Besides, what if she's wrong? We'd be getting our hopes up for no reason."
"But there's just no way. She has to be right. There's no other explanation."
"I just….I dunno. I really, really want her to be right. It's just….I don't know if I can handle it if she's wrong. When Katara disappeared, it was really hard to come to grips with the idea that I would never see her again. She was my sister and it took me a long time to not feel like I'd turn a corner and there she'd be, asking me what the heck I was doing thinking she was dead. I don't think I could survive if Kai is wrong and I got my hopes up for nothing."
Suki wrapped her arms around her husband and pulled him to her chest.
Aang shook his head. "I know what you mean. Katara…I loved her just as you did. She was my big sister and the mother we needed when we had none. She took care of us when no one else would. She loved us all. Katara kept us together when it was all falling apart. She inspired us to do our best and beat the odds even when the whole world was against us. When she disappeared it was like a piece of me disappeared with her. It hurt more than anything I've ever experienced."
Suki gave Aang an understanding look. Katara's disappearance had hit them all very hard. Suki remembered when she had first met her sister-by-law. The memory made her want to smile. Sokka had been his usual idiot self and Katara had begged Suki and her Kyoshi Warriors to ignore him. She had said that he just couldn't help it, that stupidity really wasn't curable and to forgive his impudence. Sokka had eventually redeemed himself of course, she wouldn't have married him otherwise, but that first meeting had stuck with her and within five minutes Suki had come to the conclusion that Katara had to be a very good person to tolerate and love her brother as much as she did.
Iroh watched the young people but didn't speak. He knew Kai better than anyone besides Zuko. She wouldn't have brought up the possibility of Bokahn being Katara unless she was almost entirely certain. The redhead was cautious by nature; she didn't like to take risks. If Kai thought Bokahn was Katara then he was willing to believe her.
Iroh sipped his ginseng tea. Ginseng tea really was his favorite and Kai really knew how to brew it. Of course, she had had a pretty good teacher in the art of tea making, if he did say so himself.
Kai stared at the ring. She knew that ring. She should, she had worn it for the better part of her life. It was identical to the one Zuko had given to her mere months before she was banished from the Fire Nation. After they had been reunited Kai had given it back to him to give to Katara as a promise ring, a placeholder until after the war was over and he could carve her a proper betrothal necklace. Katara had been wearing it when she disappeared.
Kai's heart leaped to her throat. That cinched it in her mind. Bokahn was Katara. Kai had no doubts about it. She wanted to leap for joy, yell it from the rooftops. She wanted to run down the hallways screaming at the top of her lungs the good news. Only Bokahn's hopeless face kept her where she stood.
Kai's rational mind caught up with her emotions and brought them to heel. If she told Bokahn right now, it might scare her, Kai's rational mind reasoned. She might reject what Kai said. Better to let her regain her memories gradually and for herself than to have someone else's ideas confusing her even more.
Bokahn looked at the ring she was holding out to Kai. It was so pretty. Tears spilled from her eyes and she quickly wiped them away.
Kai hesitated for only a moment before stumbling forward, the water sloshing around her calves, and wrapped her arms around Bokahn's shoulders. "Of course someone loves you. I love you, dear one. Kya and Roku love you. You're very loveable."
Bokahn smiled weakly, her limps trembling slightly. "Thank you, Kai. You're the best friend a girl could have."
Kai smiled. "Well, I don't know about that." Seeing that Bokahn still looked like she was about to cry Kai stretched out her arms. "Come here, sweetheart."
Bokahn let Kai wrap her arms around her gratefully. Sometimes, it just felt good to get lost in the hug of a friend.
The two women in the pond didn't notice that they were being watched by three pairs of eyes, one blue, one brown and one amber. The owner of the brown eyes was standing on the opposite side of the courtyard from the other two observers. He watched the two women in silence, concern filling the pit of his once large but now drastically trimmed down stomach. This vacation wasn't exactly turning out the way the old general expected. He was a little disturbed that young Kai had not at least confided in him about her plan. If she had, maybe he could have helped. However, the fact that she had been able to marshal all of her friends into cooperating with her scheme did showcase her natural talent to coerce people, or at the very least bully them. She was, of course, not anywhere near as bad as Azula, Iroh reflected with a small smile.
A quick glance across the courtyard past the two women in the pond showed Iroh the two young people also watching the pair. Little Roku and Kya watched their mother and aunt but knew better than to interrupt. Sometimes their mom needed some big girl time with her friend. They didn't really understand what was going on right at that moment but they knew everything would be okay…hopefully.
Kya looked at her little brother—by only thirteen minutes, he was sure to constantly remind her whenever she brought it up—and tugged lightly on his shirt sleeve. "Why is Mommy upset?" she asked quietly.
Roku met her amber eyes with his blue ones. Although he was younger sometimes he felt like he was the older one. He was constantly looking out for his much quieter, shyer twin. He also usually had all the right answers, too, but not today. "I don't know," he said.
Kya hmphed. "That's not a good answer."
"So?"
Kya rolled her eyes. "I wanna go inside. Let's go find Tika and Jin."
Roku nodded. "Kay." Together the twins turned and went in search of their friends, leaving their mother and aunt alone to deal with whatever problems that didn't involve them and hence where not their concern.
Bokahn pulled away from Kai and wiped her eyes. Her nose was red and stuffy and there were tear tracks on her cheeks, still, she smiled shakily at Kai's concerned expression. "I'll be alright," she whispered. "I guess today's just been a rough day what with that Zu Tai thing and then finding out I'm a Waterbender, and I dreamed last night."
Kai nodded in understanding. Bokahn dreamed sometimes, and from what she had told Kai she never could really remember what the dreams were about when she woke up but she always woke up disoriented and with an urgent feeling in the pit of her stomach. "We're going to need you to find a Master, you know. Someone who can teach you to Waterbend."
Bokahn nodded. She understood that an untrained Bender was a bad thing. The orphanage had Master Earthbenders and Firebenders to teach its wards as well as anyone who couldn't afford any of the fancy private schools because Kai knew from her younger days all the trouble an untrained Bender could get up to and how much damage they could cause. Kai didn't feel like having to rebuild her orphanage every other day because some young Bender got mad.
"In the mean time, the library has Waterbending scrolls that I want you to look over and work on in your spare time, you know, when you're not feeding everyone in this place and parenting The Midgets." Kai smiled wryly.
Bokahn chuckled wetly. The twins didn't need all that much parenting. They were in school half the day and for the other half Kya was with her Firebending instructor and Roku was with his Martial Arts teachers. By the end of the day both were so completely exhausted they barely had enough energy to eat their dinners let alone get into any mischief. "Ok," she said.
"Why don't you go change into some dry clothes and go on and take a nap. I'm giving you the rest of the day off. You'll need it. Tomorrow is a school day and I'll need you up bright and early to feed all the rascals before they go off to their classes."
Bokahn nodded and together both women sloshed their way out of the turtle-duck pond. As Bokahn left the small courtyard, heading towards the Red Wing—the largest of the wings where the orphans and their caretakers slept—Kai turned left and made her way to the Blue Wing. She had left her guests alone for far too long and it was time to get back to them.