Title: Silk
Author: Traxits
Chapter Rating: Mature.
Chapter Content Notes: Author chose not to use warnings.
Chapter Word Count: 4135 words.
Author's Notes: I played a little fast and loose with canon timeline here. Mostly in the sense that at a few points, it was very strangely paced, so I applied some logic about Arctic days/nights and just... went for it.

(Chapter 21, Retrieval)

Zuko and Katara both stayed silent until Princess Yue had left, running as quickly as she could in those skirts, and Zuko spared the briefest thought for the simple fact that Sokka's Southern Water Tribe princess looked nothing at all like Yue's Northern. Then Katara's weight shifted, and her hands shook loose, fingers arching and wrists—

"You found a master," he said, tilting his head as he watched her. He stayed where he was, but instinctively, he twisted his feet slightly, digging into the ground so that he could catch himself, could move if she attacked him. She had shifted back half a step, taking her that little bit further from where Aang sat, eyes closed, tattoos glowing a brilliant blue that Zuko had never seen anywhere else. His eyes narrowed. "You've learned more."

Her lips quirked into a small smile, self-confident in ways she hadn't been the last time he'd seen her. "You have no idea. Sokka. Sokka's safe?"

There was a tension in her that told Zuko what the correct answer was, and his arms hung beside him, loose and easy, he studied her. "No," he said, and he leapt to the side to avoid the whip of the water she snapped at him. He didn't have to look at the moon to know that fighting her here, now, like this, was a stupid plan. But then again, it had never been in the plan.

"What are you doing here then? You should be with— with Sokka, not here, not—"

"We have to get Sokka off the ship. I couldn't do it alone." Purposely, Zuko made himself drop out of the forward stance he'd fallen into the minute she attacked. There was too much at stake for him to bait her, no matter how much part of him wanted to do exactly that, wanted to test her and fight her just to get rid of some of the skin-crawling tension in him.

"So you what, ran off?"

"Sokka said—"

"Sokka's an idiot!"

The water slammed into him again, and this time, Zuko wasn't prepared for her to lift him clear off his feet with it, freeze everything around him and pin him against the wall. He bared his teeth in a snarl, and his hands tightened into fists before he caught himself. He couldn't outbend her. Not yet.

"Sokka is the idiot who thought—" Her voice cracked, and Zuko stopped fighting the ice just long enough to really look at her. Her lips pressed together, and he could see that tremor in her fingers, no matter how lax she looked, ready keep fighting. "You promised," she finally said, and her eyes lifted to meet his. "You promised you'd keep Sokka safe."

Zuko jerked against the ice. It didn't help. He didn't go anywhere, and the ice didn't even groan against him. But under the force of that expression, under the betrayal he could see in her face… "Zhao tried to kill me," he said. His voice was lower than it had been, finally saying the words aloud. He'd been avoiding it thus far, avoiding it with the same insistence that he'd avoided the idea that it had been his father that he'd faced in that duel. The words scraped something hollow inside of him, and the edges of them pressed against a wound he hadn't realized was still there. But at the same time, Zhao having tried to kill him meant that he was more of a threat than he'd ever considered himself. "The safest thing for Sokka was for Zhao to think he succeeded."

"Zhao did? But… you're both—"

"Prince Zuko!" The new voice broke into Katara's thought, and Zuko twisted as much as he could to see Suki running up, one of her hands on Yue's elbow to tug her along. Yue huffed for breath as Suki finally slowed down, and the princess pressed one palm against her side. Suki met his eyes. She still wore that green uniform, and she stared at him for a moment before she spun on Katara. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure he stays put," Katara countered. Zuko's lips twitched, but he didn't let himself smile. He'd been wrong, when he'd thought she was as stubborn as an Earth Kingdom native. There was no earth behind those words. Only ice. Ice that he knew a good deal more intimately after his foray into the city.

"I thought…" Yue dragged in a breath as she made herself straighten up. "I thought he was an ally. If he's dangerous—"

Suki laughed faintly, and she offered Yue a wide grin. "Oh, he's dangerous, Princess Yue. That's not the question."

Yue waved a hand, dismissing the smile that Suki wore. "Okay, fine, what is then? He's betrothed to Princess of the Southern Water Tribe. If that's not an ally—"

"I am an ally," Zuko said, interrupting her. Yue turned to look up at him, and she didn't see the way Katara had tensed for the mention of Sokka. Of their betrothal, and the danger it had put Sokka in.

Suki tilted her head, raised an eyebrow, and she crossed her arms over her chest as she looked up at him. "You did burn down my village and kidnap— ah… The Princess."

"I also freed the Avatar," a jerk of his head indicated the bald, glowing monk across the oasis, "from Zhao. That's treason in my country, and where were you and—"

"Enough." Yue's voice was firmer than he'd expected, and that, more than her actual word, was what silenced him. Judging from the way Suki unfolded her arms, she felt the same way. Yue sighed as she reached up to rub her forehead. "You are all so complicated. The legends are never this complicated."

"We're not legends, Princess Yue," Zuko bared his teeth at the thought, and enough heat rolled off him that it melted just a little of the ice Katara had trapped him in. "We're people." He glanced past her once more, looking at the Avatar. So still. Quiet. Like none of this mattered, like he was in a completely different world.

Then again. He was, wasn't he? And he'd come back changed, the same way Uncle Iroh—

"Kids. Some of us are just kids," he breathed.

There was a crack of ice, and Katara shifted, her hands rising again, her fingers flexing as she looked at him. "Not all of us. Where's my—" Her lips pressed together, cutting off the word, and then she drew a breath to ask, "Where's Sokka, Zuko?"

A shudder ran through him, and he coughed before he shook his head. "Zhao's ship. The one with the black banner over the Fire Nation flag. Sokka's being kept in one of the guest rooms, just down the hall from the commanding officer's quarters."

"Your quarters?" Suki sighed when Zuko nodded, and she reached up to rub her fingers against her temples. The motion smudged the pristine white face-paint there, but Zuko didn't think she cared. "I'll get him," she murmured. "I'm going on this suicide mission of Hahn's anyway." With that she dropped her hand, and she reached to take one of Yue's hands in both of hers. "Princess Yue, please stay with Katara this time. She's supposed to be—"

"—Guarding me, I know." Yue tilted her head, smiled, and she pulled her hand back from Suki's after just a heartbeat. "Be safe, Suki."

"As much as I can be." Suki turned to leave, stopped, and after a moment, she called, "Katara. What are you going to … do?" She looked back over her shoulder and met Zuko's eyes. "With him?"

"I'll figure it out. Go. Get Sokka back."

They all watched Suki go, and Zuko could feel the sun, straining at the edges of the darkness still cloaking the sky. He twisted his hands just enough to test, and there was a small burst of smoke this time. Enough heat for him to feel it. It wouldn't be long. Soon enough, the world would shift, and Katara would grow weaker as he grew stronger.

That was when Zhao would attack again. They all knew it. The sun that promised him power would be the death of these people, the destruction of this city. Only Ba Sing Se had withstood the full force of the Fire Nation military.

"Let him down, Katara," Yue's voice was quiet. She stepped in closer to the ice, looking up at Zuko, and Zuko would have drawn back from the intensity of her expression if he could have. There was something eerie under it, something that made him think of Iroh. Of the Avatar.

"Princess Yue, he is not—"

"He's shivering," Yue said, and before Zuko could figure out if she was right or not, the ice melted, gushing down and leaving him in the water that flowed on either side of the island. He coughed sharply, then shook his head and swam back to land. When he hauled himself up onto the grass, Yue's hand brushed against his elbow. He jerked back from her, and there, he could feel it. The shudders, the same spasming that he'd endured under the ice.

He coughed again, and he turned away from Yue and Katara both to focus, to channel his energy and get his stupid clothes dry again.

"Convenient," Katara said, watching him, and he blew just a couple of breaths of fire to heat the air around him a little more.

"I manage," he replied.

"Yeah. You always do. Come on. Sit down. Warm up. We're going to have a long day ahead of us."

Sokka did not sleep that night. He paced. He slid the sword from its sheath, put it back, and then drew it again, all in preparation for what he was going to do the moment he had the opportunity. He pressed his ear against the door and listened, heard when Zhao and Iroh both walked by, voices low as they discussed tactics. He paced more, and then, when he could stand it no longer, he started breaking things.

It wasn't exactly the behavior of a princess, and certainly wasn't the sort of behavior he'd so carefully cultivated for Zhao to expect of him, but so help him, knocking things down and ripping down the tapestries from the wall made him feel better. And anything was better than the scream he could feel bubbling up in the back of his throat. He was trapped, a token for Zhao to remember eventually, a piece in a game that he barely understood, but so help him, he'd show them what it meant to be a warrior of the Southern Water tribe.

By the time he was done, he heaved for air, every muscle in his body tense and locked, and the only thing that remained intact was the shrine that he kept candles lit on. Zuko's shrine. Zuko's—

He dropped down to kneel before it, and he lit the incense, then stared at the flame on the candle for a moment. A fire wouldn't be advisable, not with his guard no longer on the door, not with no one there to 'rescue' him. But it was something to keep in mind for later. Burning alive wasn't the most appealing of his options, but he'd do anything if it meant that Zhao couldn't use him against the Water Tribe. Against Aang. Against Katara.

When the dawn finally broke the horizon, he made himself stand. He found his mirror, and he straightened up his makeup. He didn't bother to change his clothes. He took down his hair for a heartbeat, just to look at himself, just to try to see—

He could barely remember the days before this. Before his being a warrior meant silk and gold and jingling hairpins that cascaded down his back. It wasn't even that long ago though, was it? He bit his lip, and then he reached up and pulled the top part of his hair back into a loose tail. Wolf's tail. But he wasn't a wolf these days. His eyes closed as he drew a breath. Two.

These days, he'd been fashioned into something different. Something more than just a wolf to bark and growl and snarl.

Another breath.

He let his hair go, then he picked up the comb he'd broken in half earlier, used it to straighten his hair back out, and dropped it on the floor before he set to work. The rolls and twists and pins of the Fire Nation were more familiar to him than anything he'd ever seen Katara wear, and some part of him chafed at that. His hair simply wasn't long enough to wear Katara's styles though. He pinned everything carefully, and he set to work with his hair pieces.

Silk for the brave blood that flows through the warrior's veins. Gold for honor.

He smiled, soft and slow, at his own reflection, and his hand slid down from his hair to wrap his palm over the crook of his shoulder. A stranger stared back at him, a princess that he didn't know. A princess with the power to reshape the world. He studied her there for another moment, and then he reached out and touched a finger against her cheek in the mirror.

"I guess that makes me your guard," he breathed. "I've never… really guarded anyone before."

But that wasn't true. He'd spent his whole life guarding his village because there was no one left. He'd spent every waking moment preparing defenses or stockpiling food or trying to remember what little he could about fighting to teach the other kids there, no matter that they were even younger than he'd been. He'd thought he'd been teaching them to fight the Fire Nation. But sitting here, in the middle of this attack force, knowing what he knew about Zhao and the Fire Nation, he realized that he'd been wrong.

He'd been teaching them to die.

His finger slipped down and off the glass, and he watched as the smile faded off the princess's face. She looked sad. Resigned.

"I'm sorry," he said, but before he could say anything else, before he could figure out just why he was apologizing to his own reflection, he jerked back and glanced over his shoulder. He could hear something, some kind of muffled movement. His eyes narrowed, and he pushed himself up, his hand wrapping around one end of the boomerang. Then he thought better of it, tucked it into the sash around his waist, and grabbed the hilt of his sword instead. He crept over to the door, his ear not quite flat against it as he listened.

There was silence long enough that he almost thought he'd imagined it, and then someone grabbed the handle of his door and jiggled it. His breath caught, and he pulled the sword out an inch. When the door finally opened, he lunged, sword drawn and the edge pressing against the throat of a man he didn't recognize.

"Sokka!"

He blinked, hesitating for only a heartbeat before he looked over to see Suki. She stood there in her green uniform, white face-paint and gold headdress both glinting in the light of the torches. He focused on the man he'd pushed back against the wall— the boy. He wasn't much older, if any, than Sokka was. Sokka drew back slowly, tilting his head as he studied them.

"You… weren't who I was expecting," he finally managed, and then he shook his head. "No, it doesn't matter. We have to go. We can't stop the fleet from here—"

"We're not here for you. We're here to kill Commander Choi," the boy said, and Sokka rolled his eyes before he sighed and sheathed the sword. He looked over at Suki, mouthed 'Choi?' and watched her shrug.

"Then you're an idiot," he said. "It can't be done from here. Admiral Zhao would kill you before you ever got close enough, and even if you managed it, there's a chain of command in place. Other commanders would step up to take his spot."

"Other commanders will know that it's suicide, attacking the Water Tribe here—"

Sokka shook his head as he turned to face Suki. Ignoring the idiot she'd brought with her was his best option here. "It won't be enough to kill Zhao. They will breach the city today. It's what they're pressing forward for." He hesitated a second, and then he sighed. "They'll use the front ends of the ships to pierce the wall. It's what they did back home, back when we still had some kind of defenses—"

"We aren't some bunch of Southern rubes!"

Sokka spun on his heel and his fist connected with the boy's chin. That surprised him more than the actual violence did. He glanced down at his hand, wondered why it had never been so easy to catch Zuko off guard, and then he met the boy's eyes. "No," he said sharply, raising his chin as he flexed his fist. "You're apparently a bunch of idiots."

Suki snorted behind him, and she caught him by the wrist. "Princess," she said, her voice easy, "we have to go. Hahn has his own mission here. I only came for you."

Sokka let Suki pull him back half a step, and then he finally nodded. "Fine. Say hello to Zhao for me." A too-sharp smile curved Sokka's mouth at the thought of Zhao's expression when he heard that his princess was missing, vanished right off the ship. It would serve him right. Everyone knew that trying to hold the Water Tribe while at sea was a foolish effort. "Tell him thank you for the hospitality," he added, rolling the word in his mouth, and then he turned on his heel to leave with Suki. Hahn was still sprawled in the hallway, one hand on his face as he watched them go.

They were both quiet as Suki led him through the ship, sneaking in between the passes of soldiers, and Sokka's hand stayed so tight on the hilt of that sword that his knuckles ached. Screamed. He was too tense to actually pull the damn thing if he needed to use it, but he couldn't stop it. There was too much riding on this, riding on everything. He'd never felt that pressure like he did now, and how had Zuko lived with this every day since his father had become Fire Lord?

Eventually, they made it to the small boat Suki and Hahn must have brought with them, and Suki signaled to the man waiting there as they dropped down into it. A bender, Sokka realized, because there were no paddles handy, but the boat moved all the same, and not with the water. He swallowed as Suki gave him a hand to help him down, clearly recognizing that the dress he wore was not like hers, had never been intended for this kind of thing. She sank down beside him, and as they pulled away from the ship, he murmured, "I lost the uniform you gave me."

She frowned as she looked over at him, and he didn't try to look back. He kept his eyes ahead, on the wall, on the Northern Water Tribe he was going to see. He had never expected that his first time meeting anyone from the North would be while pretending to be some fictional princess. She nodded though— he could see the movement out of the corner of his eye— and she sighed.

"I figured."

"… I had it until the ship exploded."

She drew a breath, and Sokka shook his head.

"We're fine. Iroh and I weren't on the ship." And if she'd come to get Sokka, then she'd probably already seen Zuko. Sokka wasn't about to mention him by name in front of someone else though, and he finally pulled his gaze away from the wall to look at her. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he frowned, cutting his eyes to the side to indicate the bender in the boat with them. Her lips tightened, then she gave him a single, sharp movement that could barely be called a nod. "I'll make it up to you somehow," he said.

"It was a spare. Don't worry about it. Besides." She smiled, wide and easier than Sokka had expected to see on anyone's face. "I like your new uniform."

Sokka flushed, and he stared at her, watching her grin, before he jerked his attention back to the wall. They said nothing else until they arrived, and she grabbed him by the hand and took him through the city without giving him so much as a moment to even look at it. The Fire Nation ships were close behind them though, and there was simply no time. They both ran, one of Sokka's hands full of his skirts as he tried not to trip on them. She avoided every bender that he spotted, and he wondered for half a second why before he realized: if a bender stopped them, he'd probably be dragged before the Chief, and there wasn't time for that. He needed to be with Aang, needed to help the Avatar with anything Aang needed.

There was a small wooden door that she pushed him through, and he didn't have time to marvel over the fact that it was wood— real wood, and not just battered driftwood— before the heat blasted him in the face.

His lips parted, instinctive as the gasp that inevitably escaped when diving into frozen water—

"Sokka!"

"Katara!"

He pulled free of Suki and ran full force to catch Katara when she lunged for him. He couldn't stop the burst of laughter that her weight knocked from him, and he wrapped his arms around her hard, pressing his face into her hair for a heartbeat. She was warm, safe, and there was something about the whole thing… his chest was so tight that he thought his heart might be trying to burst from the pressure.

"Katara," he breathed, and he squeezed her before he pulled back to really look at her again. "You look… Are you okay? You and Aang?" He reached up to brush his fingers against her hair-loopies, a helpless smile on his face. She laughed, nodded, and she reached out to brush down the front of his dress, smoothing him back out.

"Yeah," she whispered, and she leaned forward to press her forehead against his. Then she turned, stepped to the side, and his breath caught.

Zuko sat on the grass (grass, there was grass at the North Pole, and who'd have guessed?), and he looked worse than he had yesterday. Tired. Worn down, so much like the princess in the mirror that Sokka couldn't help but go to him. He dropped down to kneel beside Zuko, and he smiled faintly.

"Thank you."

Zuko's eyes widened, and he looked past Sokka to Katara before he shook his head. "We have an agreement," he said, and the words were so very Zuko that Sokka laughed.

"Yeah. Yeah, we have an agreement. … What's Aang doing?"

Katara reached down, her hand on Sokka's shoulder as she pointed toward Aang. "He's meditating. Contacting the Spirits to get some back-up. We can't take out the army by ourselves, Sokka, not unless you have some kind of idea."

Sokka tilted his head, studying Aang for a second. Then another girl cleared her throat, and Sokka frowned, realizing for the first time that they weren't alone.

"But with the Southern Water Tribe Princess and the Fire Nation Prince here," the girl said, "surely the two of you have some ideas. Between you and the Avatar… There's a plan. Right?"

Sokka hesitated, and then he nodded faintly. "Maybe. I know where the engine rooms are on the ships, and we can…"

"No," Zuko replied. He reached up to rub the heel of his palm against his forehead. "We can't just blindly cause the deaths of all those men—"

"They're going to blindly cause the deaths of my people," the girl countered. "If it comes down to us or them…"

"We need to take out Zhao. There's a possibility that without Zhao, I can rally the men, maybe…"

"Some of them will follow you," Sokka finally said, thinking about Liang, Delun, and Enlai. Thinking about Lieutenant Jee. There were men within the Fire Nation military who still trusted their prince. "But not all of them. They're caught up in this."

"I will not endorse the slaughter of my people," Zuko said, his teeth gritting.

"Neither will I," the girl said.

Katara sighed. "Then we'd better hope Aang comes back with a solution."