A/N: From one of the earlier versions of my We Meet Again. The first bit might sound a little familiar to anyone who has read that story, but I assure you, it is vastly different after that. Set between when Aang defeated the Ozai and Zuko's coronation.
Homecoming
Katara awoke to the warmth of the sun on her face. Mild surprise rose up in her heart when she found herself snuggled into Zuko's shoulder, her arm tucked between her body and the stone they laid against. It took a moment for her mind to register where she was. A salty breeze toyed with her hair, and she blinked, opening her mouth in a wide yawn, her cheek still against the Fire Lord's arm.
"Nice to see you're awake," the firebender commented, a flash of amusement in his eyes. He was sitting with his back flat against the stone, his legs crossed in a lotus position and his arms tucked into his sleeves.
Katara sat up immediately, staring at him with brief confusion before remembering the reason that she had woken up next to him on the top of a mountain. Rubbing her eye, she yawned again, her gaze drifting instinctively toward the sea. Shielding her eyes with a hand on her brow, she stared out over the sparkling waters, her gaze sweeping over it in search of any figure that remotely resembled a ship or boat. While seeing nothing of the sort, her eyes detected a shadow…no, two shadows, disturbing the brilliance of the water. Too small to be boats, they were still a good distance away, and Katara couldn't make them out. She squinted, to no avail. The sun was too bright against the rippling waves.
"You see those?" Zuko spoke suddenly, and the closeness of his voice startled the waterbender out of her concentration. She turned to look at the firebender, who had leaned forward slightly and lifted his eyes toward the sea. He narrowed his eyes until they were mere slits of amber, glinting in the sunlight. "I've been watching them since sunrise. They move quickly in the water. Almost like…"
"Eel-hounds?" Katara guessed, her eyes brightening hopefully.
"Yeah," Zuko affirmed without taking his eyes off the distant objects. "I've only seen them a couple of times in my life…they're native to the marshy regions of the eastern Earth Kingdom. They're much faster than the Fire Nation's basilisks, but I hear they're harder to tame."
"Ah," Katara blinked, nodding but not really comprehending as anguished thoughts ran rampant through her mind. "Do you think it could be…them?"
Zuko glanced sideways at her. "Could be…most likely is."
"But," Katara began, hesitantly, "Why wouldn't they come in an airship…or a balloon? Or something more comfortable?"
Zuko snorted. "Comfortable, Katara? I don't think anyone's worried about comfortable at the moment." But his amber eyes glittered with worry. He knew what her real question was. Why, if Aang had defeated the Fire Lord and the others had successfully disabled the fleet, wouldn't they be coming to the capital in a captured airship, landing in a dramatic fashion, and greeting Zuko and Katara with joyous shouts and hugs and high-fives? Zuko could only imagine two possible explanations: either they obliterated all the airships to pieces in the battle, or their mission had failed and they were fleeing, in hopes that they could rejoin with Katara and Zuko at the capital before being forced into hiding.
In Katara's blue eyes, Zuko found his own worried thoughts mirrored, and felt the sudden urge to somehow comfort the waterbender who had always been so strong in the face of the enemy. They sat in silence for the longest time, their two pairs of eyes trained on the small bobbing figures plowing steadily toward the shore.
Something seemed to occur to Katara suddenly, and she stood. Zuko looked up at her in surprise. "What are you—"
"I'm going to get Appa," the waterbender said quickly, perhaps more tersely than she meant. Unshed tears brimmed in her eyes, sparkling like the sun on the waves. "Aang will want him to be there when he gets back."
Doubt thickened her voice into a husky, quivering note that shocked and almost scared Zuko. Was she really this unsure?
Then she was gone, sending up soft puffs of dust in her wake as she took off, running headlong for the royal stables, where the ten-ton bison was likely enjoying a nice nap. Bewildered, it took Zuko several seconds to allow his mind to catch up with what was going on. When it finally did, he glanced over his shoulder at the two approaching eel-hounds, estimating their arrival time as around an hour from that moment. Then he stood and followed Katara.
"We'll have to skirt the gates," Sokka said, gesturing to the approaching landmass on the horizon. "If Zuko doesn't have control of the city, we'll have to watch out."
"Hopefully it doesn't come to that," Suki responded, gazing in the same direction.
"I don't think these things would be able to go much farther, anyway," Toph commented, working one of her hands loose from Suki's tunic to pat the giant eel-hound's slippery flank. "This one's shaking."
"Ours too," Aang nodded, feeling the beast lurch underneath him, its muscles quivering with exhaustion.
Sokka snapped the reins, urging the eel-hound onward. It responded by lowering its head, giving a high-pitched click from deep in its throat, and striking out farther and deeper with its webbed claws. Suki did the same with hers, and the two beasts sped up, swimming neck-and-neck. "At this rate," the water tribesman said, "We'll arrive on shore before midday."
A murmur of approval rippled through the air between the members of the group, as they realized how short a time this was. Lapsing into silence, their thoughts drifted worriedly toward what kind of situation would meet them upon their arrival.
Aang found himself staring off into space, half-immersed in his own thoughts. A blur of white flashed in his vision, and his eyes focused sharply in recognition as images flashed through his mind. Katara and Zuko waving as they sped away through the sky, sitting in the wooden saddle of the last of the flying bison. But this time, they were getting closer.
"Appa!"
Aang's shout was so loud, it made his three other companions jump with surprise. Their attention, however, was soon drawn to the source of the airbender's excitement as Appa let out an earsplitting roar, the animal's joy rippling through the air as if carried by the wind. The two eel-hounds shuddered. Aang was on his feet in an instant, waving and shouting as the bison reached them, circling overhead. Still, the eel-hounds plowed onward. When Appa roared again, just above them, the eel-hounds spooked, lurching forward and ducking beneath the waves, diving downward so abruptly that the motion tossed Aang into the air. Toph's terrified yell was choked off when their mounts submerged.
Above, Katara and Zuko had witnessed the ordeal with shock. The instant the eel-hounds disappeared, Katara threw Appa forward into a steep dive.
"Hold on!" she shouted to Zuko, who sat in the saddle clutching the side, petrified.
Appa plowed into the water at full speed, and Katara pulled the water into tight bubble around the bison's head, grabbed Zuko's wrist, and pulled him from the saddle to her side, all in one quick motion.
"Do you see them?" her voice was high pitched and strange, as if the water around them was contorting it somehow.
Gathering his wits, Zuko peered into the murky depths, swirling in clouds of bubbles, suddenly catching sight of something tan and waterlogged. "Over there!" he pointed. The dark figures of Toph and Suki drifted in the water a little ways to their left.
Katara urged Appa toward them, and the bison panted, already breathless and sore from hitting the water. Guiding the bison underneath Suki and Toph, Zuko reached out of the bubble, grabbing both girls by their ankles and yanking them in.
They collapsed on Appa's head, saturated. Suki coughed and sputtered…Toph did not.
"She's unconscious!" the Kyoshi Warrior choked out, laying the earthbender down. Fear clawed at Katara's stomach. Just then, to everyone's relief, Toph sat up, a spasm racking her body until it came out her mouth in the form of gushing seawater. Breathing spasmodically, she coughed up more and more water. Suki supported her and patted her back gently as she rid her lungs of the vile suffocating liquid.
Finally, the earthbender lifted a dripping arm to wipe her mouth, and her breathing settled into an easier rhythm.
"Are you okay?" Zuko asked. Not trusting her voice enough to answer aloud, Toph only nodded.
"Where's Sokka?" Katara cried, caught up in an adrenaline rush of sick panic.
"I don't know!" Suki gasped, "But his legs were strapped to the saddle!"
"You tied his legs to the saddle?!" Zuko gaped in disbelief.
"Appa doesn't have enough air in here with all of us," Katara said, her voice frighteningly high. "But we have to get to Sokka! Won't the eel-hound come up for air?"
"Eel-hounds can hold their breath for more than an hour," Zuko said, reasonably but not helping in the slightest.
"Then we have to find him soon!" Suki swallowed.
All Sokka remembered hearing was Toph's scream.
Then suddenly the world was a thrashing wall of sizzling white bubbles…an airless nightmare. Within a minute his lungs were burning, desperate for air, and he flailed his arms through the murky water, searching for anything to grip. Something was pulling him downward at a frightening speed, and through the green water he could see nothing but haze.
Suddenly, he remembered the saddle, and strained to bring his arms to his knees as the water surged upward past his ears. Panic welled up in his throat. He was trapped on the fleeing eel-hound as long as his legs were secure. Tugging blindly at the leather straps, the warrior tried to get himself free, but to no avail. The world was going black around him as his sight failed, and his fingers were numb and limp. He tried to move them but found he couldn't…deprived of air, he felt sweet unconsciousness lapping at the edges of his mind, overwhelming him like a rising tide.
Faintly, he felt something wrap itself under his arms and around his chest, then he felt the cold, bitter seawater flooding his mouth, and he lost consciousness.
Aang broke the surface of the water, gasping. He treaded water in a panic, with only his legs and one arm. His other arm clutched a waterlogged Sokka around the waist. Aang's muscles burned, prickling like a thousand biting insects, and the water weight in his and Sokka's clothes threatened to drag him down. Freezing a platform of water was out of the question, it was a two-handed job, and Aang wasn't going to let his friend go, even if it meant him drowning as well.
He sank lower and lower in the water, struggling, when suddenly, something brushed the airbender's thrashing feet, heaving up under him with such energy that it knocked the air out of him.
"Aang!"
Groaning, the airbender struggled to pull himself to a sitting position on something solid, realizing he still had a firm hold on the unconscious Sokka, who'd suddenly become a lot heavier out of the water. Before he could even gather his wits enough to observe that he was sprawled in Appa's water-filled saddle, a strong hand descended on his shoulder and pulled him upright.
Blinking the salt water out of his stinging eyes, Aang looked up to see Zuko beside him, concern etched into his usually hard features. A flash of crimson and gold appeared in the airbender's peripheral vision, and then Katara was there. Tight-lipped and pale, the waterbender appeared at her brother's side, gathering him in her arms. Her hands shook as she placed a hand on his chest, moving the water in his lungs at will.
Seeing her like this, her blue sparkling eyes wide and scared, and her bottom lip trembling, made her companions feel uneasy. Seconds stretched out into silence as Appa spread his six legs and floated on the rippling waves, groaning quietly. Suki and Toph sat quiet and still dripping wet on the bison's head, peering over the saddle lip, anxiety shimmering in the depths of their eyes.
Hours seemed to pass in a few seconds as Katara drew the water from Sokka's lungs and threw it out of the saddle with a contemptuous flick of her wrist, as if the water she manipulated effortlessly was something vile and disgusting.
When the warrior finally sputtered, coughing up the last of it, Appa shuddered with a sigh of relief, mutually shared by everyone aboard. Aang and Zuko exchanged glances, their eyes smiling. Suki was so overwhelmed, she wrapped an arm around Toph and squeezed her shoulders. The earthbender snorted, but didn't pull away. The corners of Toph's lips twitched upward, and the tension in her face was gone.
Katara buried her face in her brother's rough, sea-salted tunic, hugging him tightly.
"Wha—?" he coughed, pushing himself up with his arms. Blinking up at his sister's relieved face with mild shock, he glanced down at his own dripping form. Sokka's injured leg was twisted awkwardly, but he righted it with only a slight wince. Glancing around at his friends faces, his piercing blue eyes focused sharply. Then he spoke, his voice slightly husky from swallowing so much water, an indescribable mix of irritation and sarcasm in his tone.
"Whose bright idea was it to ride those stupid things?"
Sokka shrugged off his sister's assistance, insisting he could sit fine on his own. Through his protest, though, relief and contentment shone in his blue eyes. Katara, not knowing what to do with herself and still greatly bewildered, shuffled backwards into Zuko.
"Oh," she sniffed, prepared to apologize. The firebender caught her arm, shaking his head, and wordlessly slipped out of the way.
That's when she found herself sitting shoulder to shoulder with the boy she had been so deathly worried about.
"Hey…Aang."
"Hey Katara," he replied, flashing a half-smile as his gaze regarded her strange clothing perplexity. "Why the—?"
Katara shook her head. "Don't ask."
Aang shrugged. "Um…okay?"
There was a moment of quiet, when the only sound was the soft slosh of water against Appa's furry side, and then:
"Some great reunion we had," Toph grumbled, finding her voice at last.
"Stupid eel-hounds," Suki agreed, her green eyes betraying the unease she felt. Sokka glanced up at his girlfriend with raised eyebrows, and she stared steadily back at him with wide, quiet eyes.
Katara's gaze swept over Aang with concern. Noting his dripping clothes and damp skin, she frowned. "You're wet," she said, for lack of something better to say.
Sokka rolled his eyes, running a hand over his dripping wolf-tail. "We're all wet, thank you, Miss Points-Out-The-Obvious-A-Lot."
"I can fix it," Aang offered, rising shakily as if to stand.
Katara took hold of his arm, pulling him gently back down. "You don't have to," she said, "Not now. We'll survive for the moment."
"Can we please get out of the ocean now?" Toph pleaded, her voice small.
"You said it," Suki muttered, shifting in her wet clothing with a grimace. "I'm sick of the water."
"No kidding," Zuko agreed, sliding over the saddle lip and onto Appa's head between the two girls. He took up the bison's rein. "Let's get the heck out of here."