Lessons
-0-
Sokka wanted Yue to be his girlfriend so badly.
He had never seen a girl more beautiful. He knew he was being a moon-eyed idiot, but he could not stop talking about her. He'd been so struck by her in the council meeting when she'd gotten up and spoken for Zuko and had been all clever and political and shit. Then he'd got to sit next to her at the feast and she'd been all sweet and laughed at his jokes and smiled at him.
She always laughed at his jokes.
He wanted to marry her for this alone.
They should probably go on a few dates first, though.
Aang had been very encouraging and hadn't laughed at Sokka for his moon eyes. He had tried to give Sokka advice. He suggested Sokka should play it cool.
"Be aloof," Aang had said.
Aloof?
Was Aang crazy?
Who could be cool when Princess Yue was so hot?
Who could be aloof around the perfection that was Princess Yue?
Who had given Aang such stupid advice?
Katara laughed a great deal when he voiced these thoughts and gently teased him about his huge crush. He was glad he could make his sister laugh. He was making everyone laugh lately. She'd been very grouchy recently, but had come back from the healing house in a much better mood yesterday. She told them she'd seen Zuko. This had cheered her up immensely.
These kind of flagrant displays of feelings used to worry Sokka so much. Now he had someone to make moon eyes at, he totally got it. Frozen hell, he realised now: Zuko was like Katara's version of Yue!
When Katara was in a good mood, she was less likely to do something crazy. Sokka had felt like she'd been teetering on the verge of dangerous-Katara mode the whole time they had been in the Northern Water Tribe, and he had been urging her not to do anything ridiculous. Sokka knew all the proverbs. Having the moon-eyes for someone was meant to make you crazy. But seeing Zuko had actually made Katara less crazy, and that was a blessing.
He wondered if Zuko would have any love advice for him.
No, probably not. Zuko obviously had no idea what was going on in that area at all. Sokka may have even been his first kiss.
Sokka could ask him today. Pakku had said he could visit him this afternoon. Sokka knew he got the first visit, because he was the oldest and a boy, and boys always got to go first in the Northern Water Tribe. He knew this was unfair. He knew this would incense Katara. But he didn't care.
Yue was coming with him.
They were going to have a date.
Granted, Zuko would also be there for this date.
Whatever. He and Yue were doing an activity together.
That activity was going to be interrogating his friend, but that was still an activity. It was still progress on Operation: I Want Yue to Be My Girlfriend.
Yue had overheard Pakku and had rushed over. She wanted to meet Zuko properly and talk royalty to royalty. She had been reading the reports and rumours and she wanted to clarify some things about the Fire Nation. Who better to ask than the prince of the Fire Nation? She had admitted she was a little nervous to talk to firebender and wanted Sokka there. She had then said some more really intelligent sounding things, and Sokka was trying to listen. He was trying to multi-task, but just staring at her beautiful, beautiful face while she spoke took up all his attention.
He met her after training and they wandered around the city for a while, taking the long way to the council building. He made her laugh a few more times. He was so distracted by her laughing that he nearly fell in a canal again but managed to save himself just in time. They descended the many flights down to Zuko's room. Sokka had to ask a guard to open it up for them.
Zuko was sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall and reading of all things? He looked up at the sound of the ice wall moving. He looked different. Had he changed his hair? Whatever. They nodded at each other in greeting. They didn't do soppy hugs. They were both manly men, after all.
"You're reading?" Sokka asked, stepping through the door. The place looked cosier than last time. Someone had brought Zuko heaps of blankets. Was that a scented candle? What the hell?
"Yes," Zuko replied, still not getting up.
"I wouldn't have thought you'd enjoy reading. Your track record with instructions is not so great."
It was a cheap shot, Sokka knew, but he couldn't resist. He hadn't seen Zuko for three days, so he had three days of material stored up.
"Screw you, Sokka! I can read!" Zuko put the scroll to the side and made a grumpy face at him.
"What are you reading?"
"History of the North. Yugoda gave it to me so I wouldn't get bored."
There was a delicate little cough from outside the door. Yue! She had said it was customary for a woman to wait to be introduced before she came into the room. Shit. Sokka had left her waiting just so he could take some cheap shots at Zuko.
"Zuko, I have to introduce you to Princess Yue!" Sokka said suddenly.
"What? Now?" Zuko replied, looking startled, but Sokka had already gone to the door and taken Yue by her beautiful, delicate hand and escorted her into the room.
"Zuko, this is Princess Yue. Princess Yue, this is Zuko," Sokka said, hoping that was how a royal introduction was meant to go. He wasn't sure of the etiquette. He was sure Yue would correct him if he made a mistake. She was so smart.
Zuko stood up and bowed to her Fire Nation style. Yue bowed deeply, as was customary for women of the North. Should Sokka bow too? He did just to be on the safe side.
"Yue had a couple of questions about the Fire Nation she wanted to ask you," Sokka said, then gave Zuko a look. This look said don't screw this up for me!
"Sure. Er … did you want to take a seat, Princess Yue?" Zuko asked, but the only place to sit was the bed.
Yue took him up on his offer and perched primly on the edge of the bed. This left Zuko standing awkwardly next to Sokka, facing her.
"We have received news from one of our scouts who spotted a Fire Nation armada made up of very large ships just outside of our territorial waters," Yue began. "He estimates there were well over seventy ships. Who do you think would command such a force?"
"Probably Admiral Zhao. He's the admiral of the Western Fleet, and that's the largest."
Hey! Sokka had known the answer to that one.
"Were the ships heading this way?" Zuko asked.
"No, the report says they were holding position and waiting," Yue replied.
Zuko inhaled sharply through his nose. That was bad. He only did that when Sokka threw water all over him. Sokka asked him what it meant if the ships were just waiting.
"It's not good. It means they're waiting for reinforcements. They must be relying on ships from the Southern Fleet to bolster numbers."
"Why would they need to bolster numbers?" Yue asked, alarmed.
"It almost sounds like they're preparing an invasion fleet if there's that many imperial cruisers. But that doesn't make sense," Zuko said, sounding conflicted. "To get that many ships here in winter is weird. It would have to take at least two months for those ships to get to these waters, but if the fleet are waiting now, it means they expect them. Orders would have gone out at least two months ago. This must have been planned when Aang first popped back up again. Everyone knows he has to come north to learn waterbending ..."
Zuko looked like he was working out a tricky puzzle. "At the abbey, Bato thought they would use me to justify war with the North, but that doesn't fit the timeframe. This isn't about me, Sokka. It can't be. This was planned long before I ever saved you."
"He saved you?" Yue said, turning to Sokka curiously.
Zuko got the most wicked, cheeky look on his face that Sokka had ever seen. "Yeah, we kissed too," that complete jerkface said in a totally deadpan tone of voice. Then he smirked at Sokka like he was feeling exceptionally amused with himself.
That asshole!
Sokka was going to kill him for real!
Yue looked scandalised. Her cheeks went pink. "You've kissed a boy?" she spluttered at Sokka.
"It was not a kiss! It was just a life-saving technique that they use in the Fire Nation after people have drowned!" he corrected her, trying to make it sound as normal and non-perverted as possible. Then he lunged at Zuko. "You bastard, why are you telling everyone that we kissed!"
His rage must have given him extra fighting abilities because he briefly got Zuko in a headlock for once. Inelegant struggling ensued.
"Because you did it to me all the fucking time just to annoy me! Do you know how long I have been waiting to get my own back about that, you jerk!" Zuko shouted, extricating himself from the headlock.
Yue made a shocked little noise, but whether this was in response to the swearing, the wrestling or the kissing was anyone's guess.
Zuko immediately dropped his fighting stance and apologised for swearing in front of Yue. Sokka glared total daggers at the other boy, but dropped his stance too. Yue was still making an aghast face at them, so she obviously hadn't been shocked by the swearing.
"Princess Yue, let me explain," Zuko said. "Sokka had drowned in this crazy storm. I pulled him out of the water. In the Fire Nation we breathe the air back into people who have drowned. Sometimes they come back to life. It's a technique that is just called the kiss of life. It's not an actual kiss. Anyway, Sokka had drowned and I tried that on him and it worked. It wasn't anything … sexual. I wouldn't kiss Sokka. Gross." Zuko gave a slight shudder as he glanced at Sokka, as if the idea of making out with Sokka was disgusting.
Oi, Sokka was very kissable!
Yue stood up and took two paces across the room to come and stand next to Sokka. She looked into his eyes. She had such pretty eyes. She was looking concerned now. "Oh, Sokka! You nearly died. You must have been so frightened. You are so brave."
"Yeah, I am," Sokka said, trying to sound manly and nonchalant about near death experiences.
"I am so glad you didn't drown," Yue said, and took his hand.
Frozen hell, now she was just looking at him.
They were holding hands and she was looking at him.
Were they about to kiss?
Sokka hoped so.
Frozen hell. It was happening!
He started to lean in.
A loud and awkward cough echoed through the room, spoiling the moment.
"If you guys didn't have any other questions for me, you could go do that somewhere else," Zuko suggested very awkwardly, pointing between them.
Yue's hand left Sokka's and she turned back to Zuko. She still had another question. Boo.
"Do you think the Fire Nation would break the armistice and invade just to get the Avatar?" She asked directly.
"I can't say for sure. Zhao wants Aang, but he wouldn't go against my father's orders," Zuko started to say.
"'Cause he's so far up your dad's bunghole?" Sokka interrupted. He knew how much that phrase annoyed Zuko.
"Why did you have to say it like that?" Zuko snapped at him. "Why?"
Yue asked him to continue with what he was saying, but the bunghole comment had made Zuko lose his trail of thought and it took him a while to find it again.
"Anyway, as I was saying, my father's never really expressed an interest in conquering the Northern Water Tribe. He's much more interested in conquering more of the Earth Kingdom. It would be totally crazy to invade the Northern Water tribe in the middle of winter when the sun is at its weakest and the days are the shortest. Our casualties would be significant.
"It's possible that all the ships could just be a display of strength to scare you into giving Aang up and preventing him from mastering waterbending. Or they may be waiting for Aang to leave. He'll have to leave eventually. But I wouldn't rule out invasion either. Zhao is glory hungry and vicious. He won't worry about extra Fire Nation casualties as long as he gets a nice accolade out of it," Zuko concluded.
Huh? That was a surprisingly well-thought-out and thorough answer. Zuko could think strategically? Who knew? Shame he hadn't used this skill before he decided to stowaway up to the Northern Water Tribe with them and cause all this drama.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Prince Zuko." Yue bowed towards him. "Sokka will you walk me out?" she asked sweetly when she stood back up.
As if she needed to ask.
She knocked on the door and they were let out. After they had walked past the guard and had started climbing the stairs, she reached down and held his hand. "Sokka, you have been so brave. It sounds like you have had an amazing adventure to get here."
Sokka agreed that they had some crazy times on the road. He could tell her some stories. Yue expressed an actual, genuine interest in hearing about his travels. Sokka said he'd love to tell Yue about the rest of it properly. Maybe they could do that as an activity together tomorrow night? Yue agreed that it sounded like fun. She'd never spoken to someone who had seen so much of the world.
Nobody else was on the stairs and Yue took the moment to give him a sweet little kiss on his cheek. She lingered close to him for a moment. "Thank you for coming with me," she said softly, before turning to go. "I can find my own way from here."
Sokka stared at her beautiful, retreating backside in a daze, unable to think coherently.
Frozen hell! She'd kissed him!
She'd agreed to go on another date with him.
This was the best day of Sokka's life.
He had to go and gloat.
He got some snow, made a snowball, then went back down the stairs and got the grumpy looking guard to open the door again. He entered, saying "sneak attack" and threw the snowball at Zuko. Zuko was pissed off at being hit in the face with a surprise snowball.
"How many times, Sokka?" he grumbled. "It is not a sneak attack if you yell out Sneak Attack like that first!"
"I'm still cross at you for bringing up the kiss thing, just so you know," Sokka said, eager to get his gloat on.
"Can you blame me? I saw a chance and I took it. You would have done the same to me," Zuko replied.
True. Sokka couldn't deny that.
"Yeah, well, it backfired. She just gave me an I'm-so-glad-you-didn't-drown-at-sea kiss on the cheek! We're going to have a real date tomorrow and I'm never washing this cheek again."
Zuko lifted his good eyebrow. "I think you should wash your face before your date," he said dryly.
Sokka gaped at him, trying to think of a response quickly.
"See, this is exactly why I make comments about your hygiene," Zuko got in before Sokka could think of a witty comeback.
Frozen hell, it was like Yue's kiss had kissed all the sarcasm out of him. There was nothing else for it but to try and get Zuko in a headlock again. If the cheeky bastard wasn't going to feel the sting of Sokka's wit, he was going to feel the amazing strength of Sokka's newfound fighting skills.
These fighting skills turned out to be short-lived. Sokka was very distracted and ended up flat on his arse extremely quickly.
Zuko leaned over him, shaking his head. "Why are you so much worse at this than usual? You're fighting like a drunken mooselion."
"I'm just a little distracted," Sokka answered truthfully.
"Is it because Yue kissed you?" Zuko asked, helping Sokka up.
"She kissed me," Sokka echoed happily.
"Aww, Sokka's in love," Zuko said in a teasing tone.
"Yeah."
Sokka didn't mind being teased about loving his future wife. He started daydreaming about Yue.
Zuko punched him in the arm lightly. "Snap out of it, asshole. We need you to be the plan guy and figure out how we all get out of here."
"Do you think Yue would want to come with us?" Sokka asked, feeling a little dazed. She could come on Appa and have adventures with them. He could show her the world. She seemed so interested in hearing about it.
"Fucking hell," Zuko muttered in response, sounding amused and aghast at the same time. He shook his head again. "You know, now you've got a girlfriend of your own, you might need to stop going on about Katara's boyfriends."
Sokka looked at him curiously. Not take the piss out of Katara's boyfriends? But then he couldn't take the piss out of Zuko. Why would he give up one of his favourite hobbies?
"You went on about Jet so much I thought you were obsessed with him and had like this antagonist crush on him," Zuko continued cheekily.
Why did he have to bring up Jet when he knew Sokka was busy feeling happy about Yue and his sarcasm engine was broken by her kiss?
That bastard!
"Why would you think I had a crush on Jet?" Sokka asked, a little perplexed. He hated Jet. Jet was one of the worst people he had ever met.
"Well, you know. I just assumed you were a bit bisexual and had some kind of weird sexual tension with him," Zuko confessed with a shrug.
Bisexual? What was a bisexual? Had Zuko just really insulted him?
Zuko actually looked surprised when asked what a bisexual was. "You know, a person who likes boys and girls ... likes likes ... in the romantic way," he said slowly, looking at him like he thought Sokka was the weird one.
"You can't like boys if you are a boy!" Sokka spluttered. He knew it happened. He had always been taught it wasn't right.
What on earth went on in the Fire Nation? They just let two boys be together? Like boyfriend and girlfriend? And Zuko was acting like he thought this was normal? Did they let two girls be girlfriends? If there were two girls, then who would do the boy bit when they were together? His natural curiosity rose to the surface and he asked Zuko.
"I don't know, buddy. You really need to ask a lesbian," Zuko said, sounding like he thought Sokka was an idiot. "I just figure they sort out some arrangement between themselves."
Sokka wasn't an idiot. He just didn't know anything about what Zuko was talking about. He hated not knowing things. If Zuko was going to act like he was stupid, then he would just find a lesbian to teach him.
"Fine! I will. What's a lesbian and where would I find one?"
"Fucking hell," Zuko said by way of answering, rubbing his hands through his hair. He sighed and looked at the ceiling and asked "why me?" under his breath before he turned back to Sokka with a determined look. "Okay, sit down, Sokka. Let's do this."
"This" meant a long, supremely awkward conversation between a flabbergasted and scandalised Sokka and an increasingly frustrated and awkward Zuko. Sokka was aware that he was just making indignant noises and staring at Zuko, but this conversation was wrinkling his brain! Sokka had a lot of questions. Zuko answered lots, but some questions made him say, "Sokka, you can't ask people that!" and occasionally, "How the fuck would I know that?"
Zuko was very adamant that there wasn't anything wrong with being gay and had got a bit cross with Sokka's attitude at the start of the disaster conversation. Apparently, Zuko's favourite teacher, the guy who taught him swordsmanship, was gay. It didn't make Piandao any less manly or less of a warrior just because he loved another man. Sokka asked an inappropriate question about this Piandao.
"No. I never asked him that because it was none of my fucking business!" Zuko shouted in response. Then he changed his tone and spoke seriously. He said he was just happy Piandao had someone. He didn't see anything wrong with a little more love in the world.
Sokka couldn't argue with that. Love was great. He loved Yue. She had made his days so much better. He knew the Water Tribes would think it was wrong, but Sokka couldn't help but wonder why. Zuko was right. What was wrong about a little more love in the world? Nothing as far as Sokka could tell. He could get his head around it.
Only one thing really pissed him off about this whole conversation. They had established early on that they were both heterosexual (a word Sokka had only just learned!) even though Zuko had been under the impression that Sokka wasn't for most of their travels. This was because he had assumed something absolutely terrible, horrible and disgusting about Sokka.
"I can't believe you really thought I was attracted to Jet! I'd have way better taste in guys than to like that asshole!" he grumbled and lightly punched Zuko in the arm. If Sokka was going to be attracted to a guy, he hoped he would be too smart to be sucked in by that psychotic bastard. Jet was the worst. Even Zuko would make a better boyfriend than Jet.
"Er, yes. You just always talked about how attractive he was. You mentioned it constantly, every day we were in the forest. You would start conversations with me by saying how Jet was one of the most good-looking guys in the entire Earth Kingdom. I just assumed you were really into him."
"Well, I'm not! I'm only into Yue!" Sokka yelled.
"Okay, if you say so," Zuko said with a smirk.
Sokka knew what the jerk was implying but he couldn't think up a witty response for the life of him. He ended up making a series of frustrated noises and gestures in Zuko's direction.
"I'm going to go and think of something really terrible to say and then come back and say it to your face," Sokka declared angrily after a few moments.
"Okay. See you later!" Zuko replied.
"You will see me soon!" Sokka shot back.
-0-
The warriors were ... sloppy.
They clearly hadn't been preparing to be attacked. They probably thought the ice walls would keep them safe forever.
Zuko knew that safety would vanish pretty quickly if Fire Nation ships appeared on the horizon. Pakku needed these men ready before that happened. The benders were divided into groups named after arctic animals. Zuko assumed there was some kind of hierarchy or structure, but didn't really bother trying to figure it out. He just wanted to fight everyone and everything.
At first it had been easy. It was all one-on-one bouts. Firebending was aggressive—all offensive tactics and trying to overwhelm your opponent quickly. This worked great in the mornings, but it was exhausting to fight that way for an entire day. He always felt himself flagging in the afternoons.
The next day Pakku had been (very begrudgingly) impressed with Zuko. Zuko finally understood what Pakku wanted him to do to be useful. Pakku wanted him to put the fear of the Fire Nation into his troops. Zuko was good at fighting. He could do that.
Pakku told Zuko that he could have visitors. Zuko had been excited to see all his friends, especially Katara. Pakku crushed that excitement quickly. He informed Zuko that Katara would not be permitted to see him, because she was an un-engaged girl near marrying age. It would not be appropriate.
What the fuck?
Was Pakku implying what Zuko thought he was implying?
What a hedgehog fucker!
Sure, it was great to see Sokka when Sokka had brought Princess Yue down. But then it got weird and awkward when Zuko thought they were going to start kissing in front of him. He didn't want to see that. Then it had got really weird and he'd had to have the most uncomfortable conversation of his entire life with Sokka. If Pakku was worried about inappropriate things happening in his cell, he'd been worried about the wrong person.
Sokka was inappropriateness on legs!
Zuko had been half-worried he was going to beset the nearest lesbian with horribly inappropriate questions and get slapped in the face.
The next day, he'd gone with Orca Group to the ice field near the front walls with the master who wore the bone earring. When they got back, they had heard that there had been a huge bending fight between Pakku and Katara in the central courtyard and Pakku had agreed to teach her waterbending. Zuko hadn't known it was possible to feel this happy about something good happening to another person. He thought maybe they'd get to see each other in training since she wasn't allowed to visit.
This was a faint hope. Katara was put in Seal Class with Aang. Seal Class was a lower level class, and Pakku only had Zuko fight the highly-trained benders. She wouldn't be in the healing house anymore, so Zuko wouldn't even get to see her there if he got injured.
It was stupid to feel this depressed about something like this. His situation was ridiculously shitty and precarious. He was an actual prisoner of war now. Missing Katara should not have been the worst thing about it. It shouldn't have even been in the top ten of worst things about it. But it was up there, right at number one.
Which was why it was such an astonishing thing when she broke into his room the next night.
-0-
Katara wasn't going to take this sexist nonsense lying down.
The Northern Water Tribe rules were stupid. They were practically made to be broken. They said she couldn't speak in the council hall, and she had. They said she couldn't learn waterbending, and now she was. So when Pakku said she wouldn't be able to see Zuko or train with him, she had feigned respectful agreement, but had secretly been thinking, We'll see about that.
She'd heard Pakku talk to the other master, the one with the bone earring, about how much Orca Group were rapidly improving from fighting against Zuko. It gave her an idea. In the afternoon, when Aang had gone to see him and Sokka had been out with Princess Yue, Katara had gone to the sheer ice walls and practised how to melt and reform the glacial ice. She'd need to be able to do this quickly.
Katara had learned from trying to sneak around with Aang. She had to be even sneakier. Sokka was always going on about what a ninja Zuko was, so she hoped he could bring the sneakiness to the table, so to speak, once she busted him out.
She waited till late at night when both Sokka and Aang were asleep. Katara was feeling quite alert. She crept out and down to the council hall. Most of the town was quiet, but there were some watchmen wandering around. There was a guard at the front of the council hall, but no one at the back. This would actually be easy. Katara simply snuck around the back and found her way to Zuko's room. She melted a hole in the wall, only to be greeted by the sight of him in full on defensive position, fists blazing.
"Hi," she said brightly as she climbed in.
"Katara, what the hell?" Zuko said, sounding both really surprised and really relieved as he dropped his stance.
"I came to bust you out."
"Bust me out? Isn't that against the most scared rules and traditions of this tribe?" Zuko put on a voice to imitate Pakku's gruff speaking style.
"Some rules were made to be broken," she said, and he nodded in agreement. She knew he'd be on the same page about this. That made it much easier to say, "I need to ask you a favour. Can you train with me?"
"What? Now? It's the middle of the night."
"Yes, now. We'll have to be sneaky, but Sokka said you've got really mad, sneaky ninja skills," Katara said encouragingly.
"You can just say ninja skills, you know. All ninjas are sneaky. That's what being a ninja is," Zuko corrected her.
"Fine, you've got ninja skills."
"Why do you want to train with me in the middle of the night?" Zuko asked directly.
"Well, I heard Pakku saying that training with you is helping Orca Group improve rapidly. I want to improve rapidly too. I want to be the best waterbender they have ever seen and beat up all those gross men who say I can't do it because I'm a girl. You can help me."
"Okay. Let's do this."
It was great he agreed so easily, but Katara wished he'd held out a little longer. She had mentally prepared a really long speech about why he should help her and now she wouldn't get to use it.
They snuck out the back and through the town. Zuko was really good at avoiding the waterbending watchmen. Zuko whispered at her that they couldn't train on the ice fields or the training grounds because they were too visible.
"Aang and I got caught when we tried training in secret in the side streets," Katara whispered back.
Zuko looked thoughtful and scanned his eyes around the town. "What's up the back there, near that waterfall?"
"I don't know."
"It looks like there is a bit of open space before the cliff." Zuko said. "Let's check it out."
They had to be careful passing the palace. There were many more watchmen around there. A short distance behind the palace was some kind of garden. Katara could make out the top of a tree. There were high, thick walls all around it and a moon gate entrance in front of them. The ice became slicker underfoot the closer they got.
At one point, Zuko slipped awkwardly and nearly fell, but she caught his arm before he did. It took him a long moment to right himself. He couldn't straighten up his long legs without one of his feet skidding off in another direction. She stifled a giggle.
"That wasn't very ninja of you," she whispered, amused. She was still holding on to him.
"Give me a break. I'm still getting used to all this ice," he grumbled back.
"Maybe you need better snow boots."
"I don't know about that. Look."
Zuko pointed at the grass beyond the moon gate. It was a large, temperate garden. As soon as they passed the walls, the air felt much warmer. The grass was soft and thick underfoot. The tree had leaves and even a few blossoms clinging to its branches. There was an expanse of grass, then a small lake with an island in the centre.
"Must be some kind of hot spring that's keeping this place warm," Zuko said as they crossed a bridge to a little island. There was a pond right in the very middle.
"Look, there's fish in there," Katara said, pointing at the two koi fish swimming around each other in circles. They had matching spots. Neat.
"What do you think this place is?" Zuko asked.
"It's behind the palace. Maybe some kind of decorative garden for Yue and Arnook?" Katara suggested. "Do you think we could spar here? Yue and Arnook are probably sound asleep. I don't want to disturb them."
"No. I think they wouldn't be able to hear us if the palace walls are as thick as the garden walls."
They looked around for a few moments.
"This place is perfect," Zuko decided. "It's got space. We won't be spotted. It's nice and warm." He stifled a yawn.
Katara realised that it was actually quite late. They'd been looking for a place to spar for most of the night. "How about we come back tomorrow night? I'll come bust you out again."
"Sure. I'll pay more attention to what moves the masters are doing during training. See if I can figure them out. Then I can show you."
"Tomorrow then," Katara said with a huge smile.
This was the start of a beautiful training routine. Every day she learned from Master Nukka, but every night she would sneak out with Zuko and they'd come up to the garden together.
Zuko started trying to adapt the waterbending moves to his firebending. He could copy some of the things the warriors were doing. He'd show her with firebending. Then she'd try and replicate it and translate it back into waterbending. It was a bit of a process and it was hard to get the forms exactly the same, but it worked. It was a bit astonishing, actually. Their elements were so different yet they could both do some similar moves.
Pakku had commented on how aggressive her style was when he came to check her progress, but was otherwise very pleased with her. Only once he asked her where she had learnt a move from. She'd blithely replied that she was studying waterbending in her spare time. Pakku assumed she meant waterbending scrolls. It wasn't a lie, lie. It was just a little white lie.
Seeing Zuko quickly became her favourite part of the day. It made up for how aggravating training in Seal Class could be. The boys in her class were horrible to her. Master Nukka tried to intervene, but it didn't change anything. The boys resented her being allowed in. She tried to ignore them. She pretended what they said didn't hurt her feelings. She reminded herself that she was achieving her dream of becoming a waterbender. It shouldn't matter what all the boys in this tribe thought about that.
She wasn't learning waterbending for them.
Aang tried his best to support her. He thought it would be a good idea to talk it over with boys in their class so they could see that their thinking was wrong. He tried to reason with them. Katara preferred showing them. She would beat them up with her bending and make her point that way.
Sometimes, Yugoda called her up to the healing house to learn a technique. Pakku had agreed that Yugoda could teach Katara one healing technique a day. He had been very reluctant to do this. He said he didn't want his best student to miss out on too much combative waterbending now that she was making such great progress.
He respected how hard Katara was working on her bending. Sometimes, for the tiniest moment, he would smile at her when she mastered a form. He was always civil and polite to her now. Occasionally, they'd talk after lessons and it seemed like he was really listening to her. For Pakku that was huge.
After lessons, Sokka and Aang normally went to see Zuko. Sokka was extremely determined to have the last word each visit, but was frequently disappointed. He said Yue had broken his sarcasm engine. He didn't seem to mind this. He was all moon-eyed lovesick over her. They all had to hear Sokka go on about Operation: Yue Is So Beautiful and how beautiful, smart and lovely she was.
The only night she was late for Zuko was the night when Yue told Sokka they couldn't see each other anymore, as Arnook had informed Yue that she would be engaged to Hahn, the jerk from the council meeting. Sokka had been devastated.
It seemed horrible that Yue didn't get to have any say in who her husband would be and, even worse, her dad had chosen someone like Hahn for her. Hahn was awful. The news that he was going to be the next chief, as his engagement to Yue officially made him Arnook's successor, had gone straight to his head. He threw his weight around all over the tribe.
He started coming to "check up" on Seal Class, even though he wasn't a bender. He wanted Aang to "report directly to him" as the new chief-in-waiting. Katara loved Aang, but she had felt irritated with his people-pleasing nature here. Rather than telling Hahn to shove it where the sun didn't shine, he had amicably agreed to talk to Hahn by choice. Katara never spoke to Hahn if she could avoid it.
Katara thought Hahn just got off on bossing Aang around, and she was very protective of Aang. She stood up for Aang a lot against him. The other boys started teasing her about being Aang's mummy. So she hit all of those boys with the water whip covered in sharp icicle spikes that she'd been working on with Zuko.
Take that, jerks.
It was a pretty brutal move. One of the masters, Sharktooth Necklace (Zuko couldn't remember anyone's name and just called them all by their identifying jewellery), had busted it out a couple of days ago. It was a new technique that he had invented just for fighting firebenders. Zuko had three huge gashes on his side, but he hadn't seemed to mind. He respected Sharktooth Necklace and his new, crazy moves.
This attitude irritated Yugoda. She encouraged him to yield at the first blow in the future. Zuko refused, saying he'd be dragged out of the icefield unconscious before he yielded to Sharktooth. This was true. Orca Group had started a five-second-rule for Zuko because of this stubbornness. If he stayed down for five seconds, the fight was over. Today, Zuko had obstinately insisted that the huge gashes were "just scratches" until Pakku got fed up with him. Yugoda had scolded Zuko for his foolishness, told him there would be no arctic trout for him tonight, and left Katara to heal the remaining two gashes after a quick demonstration.
As soon as Yugoda left, Zuko smiled widely at her. "I figured out how he does it," he said in a low, conspiratorial voice. "I can show you tonight."
He was trying so hard to learn different forms just so he could show her. She hated that he had gotten so injured again, but her heart was so light thinking about how much he would do for her. She adored him for it. She could've kissed him for it.
She understood Sokka's mooning over Yue now. Spirits, Yue was like Sokka's version of Zuko. If they were actually going out, would she be as big an idiot as Sokka, making carvings and writing poems for him? Would Zuko like that?
She shook herself mentally for being silly. They'd have to be going out for her to write poems for him, and she knew that was impossible. If Yue wasn't engaged to Hahn, it would be simple and easy for her to be with Sokka. Sokka and Yue were both Water Tribe.
It wasn't so simple with Zuko.
Katara had fun with him and conversation flowed easily most of the time. But every now and then, one of them would say something and the other would react. It was then that she was reminded of the differences between them. Zuko had never seen snow until he left the Fire Nation. He had no idea how to fish or build a canoe. Katara had never felt monsoon rain. She'd never swum in a coral reef or made a sandcastle. Everything about them was so different. They bent different elements. They had such different upbringings. They came from such different places.
She was Water Tribe and proud.
Zuko was Fire Nation to the bone.
-0-
"Who will I write poems for now?" Sokka moaned, lying on the floor.
"Sokka, get up. That floor is ice. You'll get sick, then Katara will be pissed at me," Zuko said and he went over to haul the other boy up.
"Leave me here, so cold.
because Yue doesn't love
me anymore, so sad."
Sokka said mournfully while counting the syllables. Fucking hell, he was even being sad about Yue in haikus now.
Zuko physically picked him up then, one arm under his legs and the other under his back. He was strong enough to lift Sokka. This annoyed Sokka to no end. It was only the indignity of being picked up bodily by Zuko that caused Sokka to right himself and abandon lying spreadeagled on the floor.
"Maybe Yue's not the haiku type?" Aang suggested mildly from where he sat cross legged on the bed.
Sokka slumped over to sit next to Aang. Zuko really needed to get more chairs in here if the two of them were going to keep coming over every afternoon.
Since Yue had told Sokka she couldn't see him anymore, he had taken to coming to see Zuko to complain for hours. The first day Zuko hadn't know what to say except "that's rough, buddy" to all of Sokka's tragic exclamations about Yue marrying an arsehole. It seemed to help, because Sokka kept coming back. Or maybe it was just that Sokka had much more free time now that it had gone pear-shaped with Yue.
"Yue is the everything type. You don't understand, Aang, you've never been in love," Sokka complained loudly.
"Hey, I know about being in love. The monks said it was important to make love to everyone in the whole world."
"Not everyone, I hope. I mean, no offence, Aang, but I don't think that's practical or hygienic. That would get tiring and more than a little bit sticky," Zuko said flatly.
Sokka came to complain about his love life. Aang came to dispense always well-meaning, often useless, and occasionally really weird advice. Make love to everyone? How was that a solution? What the hell kind of perverted orgies happened in Air Temples a hundred years ago?
"Eww, Zuko. Eww," Sokka said, momentarily snapped out of his tragic funk to make a disgusted face.
"I'm not the one who brought up orgies!" Zuko said defensively.
"What's an orgy?" Aang asked, sounding curious. And young. And so, so innocent.
Sokka threw his head back and laughed. It was the first time he'd done that in three days, and Zuko was glad for the sound. He would have been even gladder if Sokka had not been laughing at him.
"That, my friend, is a great question for Zuko," Sokka said as he clapped Aang on the back.
"Screw you, Sokka!" Zuko snapped.
Aang kept looking at him expectantly.
"Look, Aang, an orgy is when …" Zuko trailed off and looked at the kid's wide-eyed face. He felt his cheeks start blazing red.
Did Aang know about sex? Was this conversation going to be the first time someone told him about sex? Why did it have to be Zuko's job to tell Aang about sex? How was this his life? Damnit, he'd already had to explain bisexuality to Sokka! He shouldn't have to do another awkward sex talk, surely?
This conversation would start with orgies and end with awkward questions. If he was burdened with the horrible task, shouldn't he get diagrams so "the talk" could be more serious and factual? Zuko was sure it was irresponsible to tell a kid about orgies before they even knew what sex was. He just couldn't.
"I'll tell you when you've mastered waterbending, okay?" he said. It was a little better than just saying "I'll tell you when you're older," but only just.
Katara arrived incandescently cross at him that night. She broke in and stomped right up to him, saying, "What the on earth is wrong with you? Aang told me you were going to talk to him about orgies when he masters waterbending!"
Zuko tried to explain how the conversation had gotten so lost that afternoon. Katara, like her brother, seemed amused by this.
"I'm sure Aang knows about sex," she said when he finished.
"Are you? Because he still thinks all flying lemurs are boys and all bouncing fruitbats are girls! One of us is going to have to have this conversation with him," Zuko replied, pointing between the two of them and hoping Katara would volunteer.
"I guess it's a good thing you're going to explain it all to him after he masters waterbending, then," she said after a beat with a cheeky look.
Damnit!
He wasn't grumpy with her for long. Seeing Katara every night made his days so much better, even if he was more tired. He enjoyed training now. The waterbending warriors were learning from him, but he was learning from them too. He watched them closely, puzzled out which moves he could adapt to firebending and how to form them, then he would show Katara.
His style was evolving too. He could actually do much more with his firebending than he'd ever experimented with. Previously, he'd always focussed on the classic forms, but firebending was quite versatile. He couldn't copy everything the waterbending warriors did, but there was more of an overlap than he ever imagined. Firebending with waterbending forms and using his opponents own strength against them was working out much better for Zuko than offensive attacks all day. Fighting Sozin style had been exhausting. He'd even tried a few of Aang's favourite moves to see if he could make the fire move like air.
On the way to the garden every night, he'd show her some ninja tricks. She was getting really good. She could walk almost completely silently now. She showed him how to make the best snowballs and how to do a long slide on the ice without falling on his arse. Admittedly, he'd fallen a lot in attempting to master this. They trained together and, afterwards, they sat on the grass together, watching the fish and talking. He loved just talking with her. She could make him laugh.
Last night, they'd been sitting by the pond and looking at the fish and just talking, neither of them quite keen to go back to sleep. She'd asked him who he thought would win in a fight between Master Pakku and Master Jeong Jeong.
"See, Master Jeong Jeong would take one look at Pakku and say, 'Widen your stance—wider! Wider! You must breathe deeper before I will deign to fight you,'" Zuko replied, mimicking Master Jeong Jeong's voice.
"Then Pakku would say, 'Your outfit does not fit in the rules of this fight. We have rules in the North, you know!'" Katara said with a really good try at Pakku's gruff and grumpy tone.
"I actually think it would depend on the time of day," Zuko said after a few moments.
"Why do you say that?" Katara asked him curiously.
"Firebending is much stronger when the sun is out. Midday, when the sun is at its peak, is when it is the strongest. If they fought during the day, Jeong Jeong would win," Zuko explained.
"I always notice my waterbending is stronger at night," Katara told him quietly, like it was a secret.
"Well, our elements are opposites. You're stronger with the moon, but I'm stronger with the sun."
She gave him a strange look. "Perhaps they could try in the really early morning when the sun and the moon are both up." Her expression was pensive, like she was trying to solve a difficult problem. "They'd have to meet in the middle," she concluded.
-0-
Yugoda had worried for Katara, the granddaughter of her dear friend. She was a little spitfire, just like Kanna, who also never backed down from saying what she thought. She had certainly made a big impression on Pakku. Yugoda had caught the old grump actually smiling proudly at the poor girl one day! It was unsettling.
One afternoon, just after Princess Yue's engagement, he talked to Katara about it for a long time, then came to ask Yugoda what she thought! He wanted to know if she thought arranged marriages were fair. Will wonders never cease!
Pakku had changed his tune completely. From total refusal to let Katara learn waterbending, he was now very stubborn about parting with her for even half an hour. He gushed about her constantly. Yugoda had to hear about how Katara was the best, most hardworking and most determined student he had ever taught.
This was a problem for Yugoda because Katara also needed to learn healing. Katara was an exceptionally gifted waterbender and had a natural talent for healing, but that would only take her so far. Healing was complicated because the human body was complicated. Healers needed years of training to be proficient. Pakku expected Yugoda to fit years of training into brief moments of demonstration when she pulled the girl, unwilling, from her combat lesson.
Katara was a good girl, but she was not very interested in learning healing at this moment. It would be a problem as she would be responsible for the health and well-being of her friends once they left. Yugoda had gathered that Katara spent a great deal of her time looking after those foolish boys when they had been on the road. Yugoda wanted to teach her as much about healing as humanly possible, but Katara's reluctance was becoming an issue. Yugoda could only show her one procedure a day, and she wanted to make them count.
At first she had tried appealing to Katara's strong sense of duty. She called Katara in to heal the boys from Seal Class, the ones that Katara herself had injured. Yugoda wanted to teach the girl how to fix her own messes. She hoped a sense of obligation to the boys she had hurt would encourage Katara to focus on healing.
This backfired spectacularly. Katara didn't seem overly invested in making these boys feel better and her healing with them was extremely perfunctory and far below her usual standard. Yugoda talked to her son, Nukka, the master of Seal Group. He said it was probably because the boys were very cruel to Katara. He tried to prevent it as much as possible during lesson times, but they were persistently unkind to her. Nukka thought she felt proud of being able to beat them up. It was a blessing for everyone when the girl got moved up a bending class.
Next, Yugoda thought she would play to Katara's obvious respect for the waterbending warriors. Her healing was much better when she was trying to heal the older masters. She tried harder and her technique improved. However, she had a tendency to heal the surface and not push deeper with her awareness to find the root of the pain. Yugoda asked her why after correcting her for the eighth time.
"It feels intrusive to reach inside someone I don't know very well," Katara had answered, and looked oddly shy.
It seemed unusual at first, because the girl was so supremely confident in all other areas. However, she was right. There was a certain intimacy and trust involved in healing. For someone just beginning their training without the detached professionalism of a well-practised healer, it would be confronting. Yugoda encouraged her to persist anyway and told her the ability to sense the deeper cause of pain would come to her in time. Katara, to her credit, did try her hardest. However, her results varied wildly depending on how relaxed she felt with her patient, and also her boyfriend's proximity.
Yugoda had quickly become quite fond of Iroh's nephew, grumpy and stubborn as he was, but his presence in the healing house had an extremely negative effect on Katara's ability to concentrate. She was constantly trying to abandon her patients to go and see her boyfriend if he ever came in at the same time that she was learning.
Yugoda knew Pakku was determined to keep them separated. He was being a little authoritarian about this, in Yugoda's opinion. He said he hadn't liked the way he'd seen Katara hug Zuko that first day.
"You know what teenage boys are like, Yugoda. I don't want the firebender getting any ideas about my granddaughter!" Pakku had barked at her, completely unaware that those two had moved well past ideas and were definitely doing the nookie together, in Yugoda's opinion.
Yugoda reminded Pakku that Katara was not his blood relation.
"She's close enough!" Pakku had grumbled at her, then stormed off supremely offended.
The healing house was the only time Zuko and Katara got to briefly see each other and it was natural that they would want to be together, but Yugoda did not have time for that. Not anymore. She only got Katara for half an hour a day. She would not be wasting that learning time on their hormonal canoodling.
Yugoda thought it wouldn't be a good idea to let Katara practice her healing on her boyfriend if she could barely focus when he was nearby. Yugoda had let Katara treat him the first time he came in, but she thought this had been a mistake. The two had spent the entire time cuddling. Not even the fact they'd jumped apart when she'd entered and Katara, for some odd reason, had started referring to Zuko as 'patient' could convince her otherwise.
Yugoda hadn't been born yesterday. She knew what had been going on, no matter how much they denied it!
Zuko was an exceptionally difficult and frustrating patient as well. He either had an extraordinarily high pain threshold or was extremely headstrong about trying to hide how much he was hurt. He always insisted things didn't pain him that much, which made it difficult to get to the root of the problem. He refused to yield before the damage became concentrated, and that made his injuries more time-consuming and complicated to heal.
One day, that boy was going to find someone he was willing to yield to. Oh, how Yugoda would laugh at him then! Yugoda started lecturing him on the whole healing process, so he would know just how much extra work he was giving her with this foolishness about never giving up. Honestly, some days he drove her crazier than her four sons combined.
However, it turned out that letting Katara treat Zuko had been the answer all along.
She had realised this when Kuruk had invented a new, rather brutal move a while ago. He had been getting much more creative in his bending and attentive in his training lately. The new move had left three very large gashes in Zuko's side (which only needed to be one, had that foolish boy yielded). Yugoda had known it was an ideal injury to show Katara. Three procedures were needed to heal it completely, and Katara had needed to learn two of them. Reluctantly, and against her better judgement Yugoda had sent for the girl.
Katara had arrived exceptionally quickly. After scolding Zuko and giving Katara a thorough demonstration on the first gash, Yugoda had been forced to leave her to it. Kuruk had injured himself with his own water whip and needed urgent attention. When she had returned, she had heard them talking through the door. Some instinct had held her there, telling her not to interrupt them at this moment.
"There. All better." Katara's voice had been cheerful.
"I think you need to push deeper ... into me," Zuko had said, sounding extremely awkward.
There had been a moment of silence, then Katara had giggled nervously. Zuko had made a loud, extremely exaggerated sigh.
"I didn't mean that in a weird or sexual way," he had complained dramatically.
"What did you mean?"
"I'm just saying when Yugoda did it, she used a profound web method to get to the bottom of it, then bridging technique to bring the sides together, then compression healing at the top. You forgot the profound web," Zuko had explained.
Goodness, Yugoda had thought, he had been really listening while she had constantly lectured him on complicated healing processes.
Well, at least one of them had been listening!
"I'm not very good at that one," Katara had confessed quietly. "I don't like doing it."
"Why not?"
"Reaching into people with my bending, it feels weird. I'm worried I'll hurt you."
"I trust you. You won't hurt me." He had sounded so certain.
There had been another moment of silence.
"Or you can just not try, but don't blame me when Yugoda comes in and makes the face at you," Zuko had huffed, sounding a little disappointed in his girlfriend.
"She always makes the face at me," Katara had answered, then after a moment added, "Okay, don't get grumpy with me. I'll do it. But you need to let me know if it hurts."
Yugoda had given them a few more moments before she had opened the door. They had been very close together, but they jumped apart as soon as they heard her enter.
"Well, this is healing nicely, patient," Katara had said in that strange, formal voice.
Yugoda had made a face at her. That wasn't fooling anyone.
She had wondered briefly if her disgruntled, no-nonsense expression was what they were both referring to as "the face." Yugoda had been making this face at foolish youngsters too long to change now. Still, Yugoda had been pleasantly surprised as she had checked Katara's work. The girl had done an excellent and thorough job.
Yugoda had started allowing Katara to treat her boyfriend as frequently as possible after that day. It wasn't possible every day. Yugoda could never predict when Zuko would come in. Some days he didn't get sent in at all and some days he came very late in the day, but Yugoda would have already used up her Katara lesson. Still, Katara's healing improved dramatically. They obviously had enough trust between them to make attempting deep healing possible.
It was an added bonus that at least one of them always seemed to be listening to Yugoda's demonstration. Sometimes, she caught Katara just looking at her boyfriend with a rather soppy expression. When Katara was looking at him like this, Yugoda knew she was not paying attention to a word said. This was something that normally peeved the older woman greatly. Zuko, who had been treated to a wide variety of Yugoda's lectures and was often swayed by promises of arctic trout, would end up repeating the instructions to his girlfriend a few minutes later.
Zuko, to his credit, seemed genuinely interested in how healing worked. The warriors had a respect for him for his fighting skills, but most of the tribe considered him some kind of terrible, dangerous troublemaker. However, Yugoda knew there was a surprising gentleness to the lad. Sorak had laughed at her for this, saying, "Mum, you've been smelling too many healing potions. That kid is as gentle as a hurricane."
One afternoon, when Zuko had been her last patient, Yugoda had even shown him the family healing book. It was something she hadn't shown many people. It had been passed down by the women in her family, all master healers. It contained all their knowledge and wisdom accumulated over many years. Zuko flicked through the pages carefully, then paused on a page about earth benders.
"Have you treated earth benders here?" he asked her curiously. "I thought no foreigners ever came north."
"No, that's not my writing. My grandmother wrote those pages. She travelled the world with her husband before the ice walls went up, sharing her knowledge about healing with the other nations. She wanted to record the things she had learned on her journey."
"She went to the Fire Nation?"
"Yes. And the air temples too. It was her dream to one day create a guide that brought all the healing knowledge in the world together and to discover if other benders had healing abilities as well. These were her first notes."
"She thought other benders could heal?"
"It was her theory. She was never able to prove it, but look here—" Yugoda pointed at the diagram her grandmother had drawn "—I think she was on to something. Waterbending healing has always been excellent purely because our bodies are mostly fluid. But my grandmother thought earthbenders could potentially heal bones far more effectively than waterbenders.
"Bones are the most rigid part of the body and they share some common traits with earth. Waterbending is more effective in healing any system that has a flow or a movement to it. It is the stiff and inflexible nature of the bones that make them such a challenge for our healers. There is very little push and pull to manipulate," she explained.
"What about firebenders?" Zuko asked. "Did she think fire could heal anything?"
"Oh, yes. She wrote a great deal about the Fire Nation healer she stayed with." Yugoda flicked through the pages about firebenders. Her grandmother's final note said:
Fire can be used for improving circulation, muscular issues and the energy systems of the body. Esp. help arthritis. Based on assumption that fire=life, I hypothesise more benders also possess the life-prolonging spark. Further investigation with K. needed.
Yugoda asked Zuko if he'd ever seen firebending used in that way.
"Lieutenant Jee, on my ship, used to use his bending to help his arthritis. When Katara was very cold, I used my bending to warm her back up and improve her circulation, but I don't know what your grandmother means about the life-prolonging spark," Zuko offered, trying to be helpful.
"My grandmother said proficient firebenders had the ability to give some of their chi to others in certain situations. She described it as a little spark of energy that could help people hold on to life longer. She saw it several times after an earthquake. Master firebenders were keeping their loved ones clinging to life. It made a crucial difference in several cases."
Zuko looked shocked. "I've never heard of anything like that. I've never been taught anything like that," he spluttered.
"My grandmother didn't think it was a skill that was taught. It only ever occurred in the cases of catastrophic injury and the bender had to sincerely care about the injured person. That would make it a hard skill to practise and refine. She could never figure out how it worked."
Zuko listened and looked thoughtful.
"So, you've never experienced or seen anything like that?" Yugoda had to ask. "Not even when you saved Sokka?"
She might never get another chance to have such a cordial conversation about healing with a firebender who had cause to save someone. She might finally be able to add to her grandmother's notes. Her contributions to the book had been limited.
"No. Sorry. Sokka was not my loved one when I pulled him out of the storm and I didn't even know it was something you could do with firebending until five minutes ago."
"I would have liked to find out," Yugoda said a little sadly, closing the book. "I guess we'll never know. It's not like I can pass this on."
"Why not? Don't you have four sons?"
"Men are not allowed to learn healing in our tribe. It is considered women's work. I only have sons, and my sons have only given me grandsons. My youngest, Nukka, wanted to learn and I asked for special permission to teach him, but it was refused."
"He's the Master instructor of Seal Group," Zuko said. "Katara liked him. She said he was a good teacher. "
"He would have been an even better healer," Yugoda said simply. It was an old disappointment and she had learned to live with it. "I am afraid we have become too set in our ways. I think boys should be able to try healing if they wish, just as your girlfriend is proving that women are more than capable of waterbending." She got up to put the book away.
"Yugoda, not this again. How many times have I told you, she's not my girlfriend!" Zuko huffed at her, as he always did.
It always amused her greatly to tease him about his girlfriend and watch his face go bright red. Zuko wasn't subtle about how much he adored Katara, and that made these stringent denials more entertaining.
"Mmm hhhmmmm." Yugoda made her disbelieving, that's-not-fooling-anyone noise.
"Yugoda, did you ever want to learn to fight?" Zuko asked after a moment, sounding genuinely interested.
Yugoda was a little taken aback. No one had ever asked her that. "I come from an older time when fighting was not necessary."
She had been born after the walls had gone up. They had never been attacked in Yugoda's lifetime. She had never really considered it until Katara had come.
"You can remember the peace like Aang?" Zuko sounded astonished.
"I am not more than a hundred years old, Zuko!" Yugoda scolded him.
"Sorry. How old are you?"
Ah, youth. Male youth.
"Zuko, you cannot ask any woman that! It is a rude question," Yugoda instructed. It would be much better for his health in the long run if he never posed this question to another woman ever again.
"Sorry, Yugoda," he said, sounding chastised.
"I have accepted my lot. I have always thought that healing people was better than fighting them," she explained gently after a moment, in answer to his previous question.
"Even in the middle of a war?" He looked up then, eyes curious.
"Especially in the middle of a war. That is when people are the most in pain. I prefer to heal rather than hurt. We can all do small things to make the world a better place, and healing is mine."
Yugoda was not like Katara, raging against the world. She had felt called to healing and enjoyed it. Even if she had been given other options, she would have chosen it anyway.
-0-
notes:
Lovely wonderful readers. Enormous thank you to everyone who gives feedback. It makes my day to know you are enjoying the story and reviews help keep me motivated.
Enormous, giant chocolate sundae full of thanks to Boogum for the beta! She's the best!
Today I'll ramble about:
Sokka
homophobia in ATLA
Zutara are mirrors and character foils for each other
The spirit oasis
Healing
Yugoda and Katara's character path
So, despite his advice to Aang, Sokka did not 'play it cool' when he was into a girl. He is, in fact, a massive dork when he has a crush on someone. His developing relationship with Yue is going to take up a lot more of his attention, so he will not be as focussed on Katara's love life, now that he has one of his own. I wanted to give Yue a little more agency, and a role beyond being an idealised princess. Yue tries to involve herself in the Tribe's politics and strategy in my fic.
In my first draft, there was a huge bit about Sokka's reaction to "the armistice" between the Northern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation. The FN haven't attacked the NWT in 85 years, and it's implied there is an agreement of some sort. The Northern Water Tribe effectively threw the Southern Water Tribe to the wolves and never lifted a finger to help them in canon. If you compare the two places, it is obvious that the Northern Water Tribe prosperity came at the cost of the Southern Water Tribe decimation – which makes Hahn attitude towards Sokka eight hundred times more frustrating. Sokka had a lot of feelings about the Southern Water Tribe being abandoned by their sister tribe, but if I followed that thread it lead to a mega depressing place where Sokka felt at odds with Yue and Zuko. I much prefer my boys roasting each other and budding romance because Sokka is a dork in love. So I cut it.
Instead they have a super awkward conversation about sexuality. Poor Zuko lands himself in two of these situations, but he brings it up. Romantic love and sexual thoughts have been much more on his mind lately.
Now, Araeph wrote a wonderful meta about the homophobia in the ATLA universe. Rigid gender roles and homophobia often go hand in hand. The Water Tribe do have very strict gender roles, and it would make sense that they would have been more homophobic. However I think any gender subversion would have just been labelled as "wrong" and swept under the rug. Sokka's knee jerk reaction is because Sokka has also been brought up with this view. Homosexuality and bisexuality is something he's vaguely aware of, but has never thought about deeply.
However, Sokka is not naturally a judgemental person. I think he would have a live and let live attitude about it, especially because Zuko doesn't have an issue with it, or see it as any kind of threat to his masculinity. Sokka would never tell him in a million years, but he does admire Zuko's "manliness". He learned to get over his sexism very quickly, and I think he would same about homosexuality. I think he would be more inappropriately curious, to be honest, and he'd probably still see relationships through traditional gender roles for a while– eg asking who does "the boy bit" between two girls. It would be your Pakku types who would be more rigid in their reaction I think.
This chapter was shamelessly fluffy and soppy for Zuko and Katara. The spirit oasis makes an appearance! However Zuko and Katara are blithely unaware of the significance of the decorative garden they've chose to spar in. Zuko and Katara will still fight each-other here, mostly because I love the visuals, and the symbolism and everything in the spirit oasis In my fic, however, are coming up for friendly training, and will discover more about each other. Their elements are opposites, but there is a lot they can learn from each other.
They say that leaning fighting styles is like learning languages, if you already know a couple, it is easier to learn more. Zuko is a very versatile fighter. He's a ninja, sword-master and fire-bender, and in the show he actually uses fire-bending to copy Katara and Aang's moves a few times. He uses their moves when they would be more effective.
I wondered how he would go if he deliberately put his mind to trying to copy water-bending style moves, and I think he's actual be very good at adapting them. I also think his own style would need to adapt given his situation. Fire-bending is very dynamic and energetic, but relies on shock-and-awe style offensive tactics and quickly overwhelming an opponent. It's not good for long draw out fights, or days of repeated fighting. Even someone with Zuko's stamina would get tired after hours of it. I think the tricky part would come in trying to teach Katara through fire-bending, because fire-bending is more aggressive. However Katara's style is more aggressive generally.
Katara is driven. She is passionate about learning bending and she obviously worked her butt off to master it so quickly. I think in the show, she must have been teaching herself from scrolls and practising in her spare time, to make as much progress as she did so rapidly. She'd probably make even better progress practising against someone who'd do their best to help her learn though.
One of the things I really like about Zuko and Katara together is how they are opposites and mirrors at the same time. They actually both embody the underpinning philosophy of each other's elements. Water is the element of change, and no other character goes through as much change as Zuko. His life circumstances change very rapidly in the show, and he adapts himself to each new challenge, learning and growing all the while. Fire is the element of willpower, and Katara is one of the most determined characters in the series. Through sheer force of will, personality and hard-work, she masters water-bending, saves villages, and brings her little family out of the desert alive. Katara's got a fire in her belly. They are learning to meet in the middle, even if the differences between them sometimes seem very large.
The whole thing about Zuko and Katara being mirrors comes into play in their attitudes towards healing. Katara has come from a culture where it is expected that she will fulfil a nurturing and healing role. She rejects this role, and even when she does learn healing it is because she can see how necessary it is, rather than because she is genuine interested. Katara would much prefer to kick butt.
Zuko, on the other hand, has come from a very militant and competitive culture that demands he become a violent and aggressive fighter. But Zuko was/is a sweet, soft boy, even despite being horribly punished for not living up to the vicious ideals of his father. He knew enough about medicine to heal his Uncle when Iroh was struck by Azula's lightning. That to me indicates that he would have been genuinely interested in healing enough to teach himself more than rudimentary basics in his spare time.
He would be fascinated by Yugoda's powers to almost magically make people feel better. In more wistful moments, he would wonder if Yugoda would have been able to do anything for his scar had she been there when it happened, but he's not ready to ask her directly yet. Also what Yugoda told him about the spark of life will be important, when I get around to writing book 2.
So Yugoda got a longer bit here, because I think she's great and I also wanted to put some ideas about healing out there. I think there would be forms and techniques that Katara needed to learn to be a more effective healer, and Yugoda would do her best to teach her.
The gorgeous Boogum has a great fic called the Undying Fire in which Zuko has healing abilities, which I recommend to anyone. I also had a chat with paperman0 about healing in the ATLA universe. I wanted to explore healing and this is my take on it.
I think our bodies are at least eighty percent fluid, and it makes sense that waterbending is the most effective. However, Earthbenders would be much better at bones and firebending could be used for a variety of purposes that we use heat for today, such as muscular-skeletal issues. Also "Fire is life" is repeated through out the show, and so I interpreted that a bit literally, by having firebenders able to give their chi or life-energy to others, for a brief window in certain circumstances.
The Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation have never really investigated healing with bending, as their bending healing scope is much more limited. There maybe some healers/benders in the other nations who have experimented with using their bending in more complex healing, but it isn't widely practised, or documented. Collecting all that healing knowledge and finding out best practice would be an emerging field that would be interesting to explore post-war.
I wanted Yugoda to be an example of an older, female character, who is badass in her own way and has the power of agency. Yugoda chose healing and feels called to it. And choice is super important. In Bryke's canon, Katara is just labelled as healer almost by default. It does not seem like Katara actively chose it or is passionate about it. So many wonderful metas have been written about what a tragic thing this is for Katara, to be so robbed of her inner fire by crappy writing.
If it must be Kataang, why couldn't Bryke have done something like have Katara interested in a goal of her own, like writing an international healing book, and have Aang devote time to taking Katara where she needed to go? If she pursues healing post-war, I would much prefer to see her actually passionate about it. I would prefer she grew up into a sassy, wise older lady who enjoyed her job, like Yugoda. The old, sad, regretful Katara we see in LOK is not my Katara.
Next chapter there will be drama and shenanigans. Zuko will get protective, Hahn will get punched in the face and someone will finally agree with Aang that violence isn't the answer.
Til then.