Okay I'll be honest I didn't proof read this at all, so sorry about that (I'm really not sorry)
Real chapter 11! So I'm not dead, shocking I know. Not sure when the next update will be but here this is!
He stayed home from school the next day. Iroh made an emergency appointment with his therapist, which he was unable to skip. It sucked about as much as every other time. In the very least, Aang and his friends bought the idea that he was just sick, or at least said nothing about it.
After three days, he decided that medication was terrible. It made him feel sick for the first hour after taking it, and remember was a nightmare in itself. At least he could take it in the evenings, it was easier to remember if it was just before bed. He also had terrible morning anxiety. It seemed that he woke up anxious everyday, which was not a great start. Everybody assured him that it would get better once his body adjusted to it, but after two weeks, he was getting impatient. At least he hadn't fought with Iroh again. To be honest, he spent most of his time in his room listening to music.
After one particularly bad morning, Zuko was not in a good mood. Even Aang noticed, which was a miracle in itself.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked in study hall.
Zuko looked up from the desk, where he had been resting his head. The night before had been full of nightmares and restless hours, and he found himself wondering if his dreams would ever be normal again. "Yeah," he answered, "just tired."
Aang didn't look convinced, but seemed it accept it nonetheless. "Well, uh," he started, "I was wondering if you wanted to come over for my homework party?"
He blinked at him. "Homework party?" he didn't know what it was, but it sounded like something Aang would do.
The boy in question brightened a little. "Yeah! Whenever we all have a lot of homework, we get together and worked on it, it's usually at my house, because it's biggest. Everybody usually stays for dinner too!"
"A homework party," Zuko repeated, unsure.
Aang nodded. "Yeah! You can meet my guardian too! My foster siblings are scattered around the house but they leave us alone. None of them are super friendly so it works out well. It's on Sunday, which means everybody is coming over for dinner too!" he was beaming, "I know you've met Asami, but just wait until you meet her wife Korra, or Suki's mom, Kyoshi!"
He couldn't help the slight cringe that the mention of Korra's name. He dreaded the day he'd have to pretend to meet her, as if he didn't have her contact information saved in his phone. Not to mention the last time he saw either her, or Mrs. Sato (he still couldn't decided whether to call her by her first name or not) out of school, he was in the middle of an embarrassing breakdown.
"At least think about it?" Aang asked him, "it would be a lot of fun if you came along."
"Yeah, I'll think about it," he replied.
"I think you should go," Iroh told him that evening over a plate of chicken and salad. It was a generic dinner, but he wasn't about to complain, he wouldn't eat a lot of it anyways.
"Why?" he asked, not actually caring about the answer. Of course Iroh would want him to go, he was always pushing him to go socialize.
"Because I'm sure you would be greatly missed if you didn't," his uncle spoke so nonchalantly about the situation - it was agitating.
He put down his fork, "but I'd have to pretend I haven't met Korra, and I hate people."
"Just give it a try."
This is a terrible idea. Zuko thought as he walked up the front steps of Aang's home. He lived on a large plot of land a few minutes out of town. The house was large, and Zuko could only imagine how many rooms were inside it.
As Iroh park the car on their gravel driveway, Zuko took in the surroundings. It was raining gently, but that didn't seem the stop the giant dog running around outside. He was white with an odd colouring of brown strips, and was happily playing with Toph's dog, Badger.
It made Zuko smile to see the two animals so happy. Dogs were great animals, and he honestly loved them, but he father would never allow one. The last pet he has was a turtle his mother had given him years before. It disappeared a week after his mother did.
He shook his head, chasing away the thought. He didn't want to think about that just then, not when he was already on the verge of an anxiety attack. He really hated socializing.
Iroh opened the door, which Zuko used as a clue to follow. He grabbed his backpack and stepped out into the rain as the two dogs started barking loudly. After a moment, the front door opened and Aang emerged.
"Zuko!" he called with a huge smile, before turning to the dog. "Appa, come."
Zuko and Iroh wanted for the large animal to thunder thunder through the door before approaching. Toph's Badger approached much more calmly.
"I don't recall him being so excitable," Iroh said as he stepped into the house. He had told Zuko that he wanted a word with Aang's guardian.
"It's just because Badger is here." Aang answered, drying off the dog's paws. He looked over to Zuko. "Did I tell you I had Appa? I can't remember."
He shrugged in response, "honestly, neither can I." He took a step closer to the dog, "can I?"
"Of course!" Aang replied, "just remember he's wet and a bit muddy right now." He finished drying off Appa when a creature jumped on his back, and climbed to his shoulders. Aang let out a noise as he tried to adjusted to the new weight. "Momo!" he scolded as he lifted the creature from behind his next. It was a small cat. "This is Momo," he showed the friendly creature to Zuko. "He's fully grown, I promise, even though he looks like a kitten." It was true, the cat didn't look fully grown at all.
Zuko gave both the animals pets, before being interpreted by a familiar voice.
"Are we going to start studying soon?" Katara asked from the only doorway in the room.
Upon hearing her voice, Zuko looked up and finally took in the room around him.
The walls were a pale yellow - almost cream tone, with dark wood panelling on the lower half. The floor was the same wood, and was covered in multiple rugs. Shoes were scattered around the room, along with coats thrown on what looked like wooden benches. Katara stood in an archway, allowing Zuko to see a large living space behind her with a set of stairs in the back.
"Sorry," Aang blushed as he walked into the room Katara had come from. Zuko followed, realizing that Iroh had already snuck away.
The next room held three couches, a TV, a gaming system, and a lot of books. There were several doors on the far wall, same as the stairs, that must have lead to other places. There was also several windows to his left, allowing natural light into the room along with the overhead lights.
"This is the livingroom," Aang said. He pointed to the doors, "most of those are storage, but Gyasto's room in the middle one. The one closest to the stairs is the bathroom. There's just bedrooms upstairs." He pointed out a door to the right that Zuko hadn't seen. "That leads to the kitchen and dining room. Iroh is in there with Gyasto and Kyoshi right now."
Zuko nodded as Aang took a seat on the floor that was surrounded by several open books.
The group was all there. Some studying - Katara and Suki, others goofying off - Sokka and Toph. They all smiled at him when he sat down on one of the couches.
"Good to see you," Suki said with a smile.
"Good to hear you," Toph replied, laughing at her own blind joke and Badger finally sat next to her again.
Everybody else greeted him as they all slipped into their work, which for Sokka and Toph included throwing pencils. It was almost funny to watch Sokka miss repeatedly, while Toph hit him every time.
"How do you do that?" Zuko asked her eventually.
"Are you talking to me?" Toph asks as she threw another pencil at Sokka.
"Yeah," he answered as the pencil was thrown back. It missed.
"I can hear him," she replied, turning to throw a new pencil at Zuko. It hit his arm. "And you," she smiled as Zuko tossed it back to her. It hit her leg.
"Finally somebody with aim!" she laughed, causing Sokka to frown.
"I do have good aim!" he replied in defense. "I just don't want to hit a blind girl with a pencil. We have to give you a sense of achievement you know."
Suki snorted. "Yeah as if. The only thing you're good at throwing is that boomerang."
Katara laughed, "but you have to admit, he's pretty good with it."
"Boomerang?" Zuko asked. He knew what one was of course, but he couldn't be sure he'd ever seen one.
"Yeah!" Sokka answered, "my dad got it for me when he went to Australia. He says it's important for Katara and I to know about other Native Cultures, other than our own."
"Your own?" he asked, a bit confused.
"Oh, we're Native American," Katara said. "We lived on a reserve until my mom got sick..." she trailed off. Zuko looked confused between her and Sokka.
"She died," Sokka explained. "Something about the water made her and a bunch of other people sick. The government wouldn't even give us funding to fix it." He shrugged, as everybody else was quiet. "We left. Katara, Gran Gran, and I. Dad couldn't. He's the chief. I should have stayed too, but he wouldn't let me."
"I'm sorry," Zuko said, meaning it.
"I hate them," Katara spoke with surprising anger. "The politicians who sit in their big fancy homes, built on the bones of our ancestors, refusing to help us make ends me. They let us live in poverty, drinking contaminated water, without proper access to medical care or resources." She laughed bitterly. "I remember that Senator, what's his name Sokka?"
"Ozai," he answered, looking away from the group. Zuko froze. He knew what she was about to say. His father was against what he called 'special treatment' of Native Americans. And of course, that special treatment is what everybody deserves. Like education and safe drinking water.
"Yeah, that's it. He openly campaigns against Native American rights. Tells us it's our own fault our water is dirty, they're taking our land, that our education systems are failing, that healthcare is borderline inaccessible! That polling stations are pretty much unreachable-!"
"Katara," Sokka said, calling her attention back. "This isn't the time, you're just getting upset."
"And why shouldn't I be upset?!" she shouted. "Our mother is dead Sokka. Because those politicians paint us as criminals who are only angry about sports teams!"
"Katara," he said more harshly.
"Don't you hate them? Yue is dead because of them-"
"Enough!" Sokka shouted, standing up and letting the papers and books around him fall to the floor. "Of course I'm angry. I'll always be angry, and yeah, I hate them and everybody that has anything to do with them, but now isn't that fucking time!" He stormed out of the house into the rain that was slowly picking up.
It was silent for a moment, before Katara excused herself and went after her brother.
Only after the door closed did anybody speak. "I didn't think-" Zuko began before being cut off by Suki.
"You didn't do anything wrong," she told him.
Aang nodded. "It's a sore spot for them, which makes I remembered my parents, I'm sure I would be angry about their deaths too."
Toph nodded. "Yeah, and they get a lot of shit too. Most people don't say anything to them, but people like my parents talk about them behind their back all the time."
"And of course, as Katara said," Suki began, "it doesn't help that politicians don't care about their rights."
Zuko nodded, thinking about what Katara and Sokka had said, it sounded similar enough to Jet's story. It wasn't for the same reasons. But their parents are dead because of politics. Politics his father took the winning side of, that could arguably be the reason behind it. If they ever found out about who he was, if Jet already knew-
He was getting caught up in his own head, he could feel his breathing speeding up. His heart was pounding, did it suddenly get a lot hotter in their? He couldn't decide if he wanted to faint or vomit. Maybe both?
"Zuko," Toph said, pulling his attention to her. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, why wouldn't I be?" he tried to stop his voice from shaking.
"Because I can hear your breathing from here," she replied frankly.
"I'm fine," he tried to say with more conviction, but he must not have succeeded. Even Aang looked at him with concern.
Before anybody else could say anything the front door opened, allowing Korra, Asami, Sokka, and Katara into the warm house.
"I hate rain,' Asami said, taking off her maroon raincoat.
Korra shrugged, "I love it."
"You always did," came an unfamiliar male voice. Zuko turned to see an old man exiting the kitchen, followed by a woman in her early thirties.
"Gyasto, Kyoshi!" Korra said happily as she walked towards her family. Asami smiled and followed, nodding to the students.
Katara and Sokka joined them once again, "sorry," Sokka muttered, taking his seat.
"Korra!" Aang said happily. "This is Zuko!"
Korra approached and held out her hand nonchalantly. "Nice to finally meet you, I'm Aang's sister."
There wasn't even a hint that she was lying. Damn she's good.
"Zuko," if there was one thing he knew, it was the best lies were short and sweet. Hard to fuck up just saying your name.
"Dinner is almost ready," Iroh said, entering the room with a smile. "Korra, Asami, lovely to see you, would you like some tea?"
"Of course!" Korra replied, following him back into the kitchen.
A half hour later, fifteen people sat around a large dining table, piling with food. Zuko had never seen anything like it. At home, he was lucky if the three of them ate together, let alone more.
Apparently Aang had four foster siblings currently living with him, all younger. Tenzin was the youngest at seven, Bumi was thirteen, brothers Noatak and Tarrlok were fourteen and sixteen respectively, and apparently homeschooled. It was hectic to have so many people in one place.
Once the meal was done, the six of them disappeared back to the living room and put on a movie. Adults came and went, checking in and visiting, before going back to join the others. Before long, Iroh and Zuko were leaving.
The drive home was quick, but Iroh still used it as time to ask questions. "How do you feel that went?"
"Fine," he replied, letting his head rest against the seat. It was exhausting to socialize that much, but he thought he may have had fun.
"Would you do it again?"
He shrugged. "Maybe."
It was getting late when they finally got back. More from routine than memory, Zuko took his medication and went to bed. Part of him registering that it had been a pretty good day, the first one in a long time.
