AN: Thank you so much, reviewers! And you long-reviewers? You should never apologize about going on! I LOVE IT when people go on. LOVE IT.
Somebody said a question-type thing about succession in the Northern Water Tribe. So, I don't actually know how it works in any one particular culture, but in the context of this story, Arnook was imprisoned by the Fire Nation and his power passed to Hahn as his son-in-law, who had actually in this AU had time to marry Yue before she became the moon. Palluk is Arnook's sister's son, and is the only man of that family who remains free. The idea is that he is the only one with a legitimate right to challenge Hahn for the chief's seat. And this is based on Shameless Liar's Awesome Rules of Dramatic Succession, which is a nebulous system prone to inciting civil disputes.
And HEY FANBOY, what's wrong with my title? B(
Seriously, though, titles are hard and they're the quickest way to turn off a potential reader! It doesn't help that I make all my fanfic titles up on chapter 1, often with little idea of what's going to happen by the end of the story... so this would be a good question to redirect at the world! If you were going to rename this story, what would you call it? (I've been brainstorming titles for the still-potentially-separate second book of this story and it might actually help to gauge how people perceive the tone of the first book.)
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Zuko wasn't on the ship for two seconds before the Water Tribe men crowded in around him. He wasn't sure how a ship of arrested men had retained their weapons, but clearly they had, because for every face glaring at him, there was a sword or a war-club waiting in hand.
Zuko glared right back, and internally he bridled at the injustice, but he knew better than to lash out. In fact, he had the distinct feeling that the tribesmen were waiting for him to do just that.
They all had a hardened look, like they'd been standing in the sun and the wind for a long time and all they had ever had of excess had been stripped away. It was different from the Northerners. Most of the Water Tribe men Zuko had encountered had a look, something in their bearing that made him think of refugees. Like they were fighting to keep some measure of the dignity they had lost. These Southern tribesmen had been fighting so much longer, under such different circumstances. Looking at their faces now, Zuko understood that they weren't a people fueled by stung pride. They were renegades, fighting tooth and nail for survival.
The stone wall slammed shut behind them and the ship was lit only by a hanging lantern someone had thought to string up from a nearby line. The tribesmen, cast in slanted shadow, just kept on waiting. They looked like they could wait forever.
Zuko scowled a little harder. He didn't care who they were or what they were capable of; he could wait longer.
"What's your name, firebender?" asked the man in front at last. It sounded like an accusation.
They knew what he was. There was no point in lying, now. But maybe also no point in telling them too much. "Zuko," he decided.
"Well, Zuko," said the man, passing the sword from his right hand to his left. "I'm Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe."
He held out his hand and Zuko unthinkingly took him by the forearm in the proper way - the way Sokka had taught him weeks ago. "Katara and Sokka's father. I've heard of you."
Chief Hakoda's hand clenched minutely harder at his daughter's name. He withdrew without a hint of disquiet, though. Zuko went on meeting his eyes, daring this man to challenge him. This man, he suddenly remembered, who Katara had seemed to dread seeing again. And no wonder. If her master had disowned her, after so clearly priding himself on her progress, then what sort of reception could she hope to receive from this hard man? This savage man.
Hakoda seemed on the brink of saying something else when Sokka came squeezing through the crowd. "Oh hey, Dad! I see you've met Prince Zuko."
"Prince Zuko." Hakoda emphasized the title just faintly. His eyes bulged, then narrowed.
"Yeah, you know, the son of the Fire Lord. Buddy," Sokka said, slinging his arm around Zuko's tense shoulders and dragging him down from where he'd been sitting on the gunwale. He held out an arm to indicate all the threatening, half-lit faces. "Meet my tribe. Or you know, part of it. My dad, Chief Hakoda, you already know, but the others are Tukna, Bato, Miku, Kottik…"
He went on, listing names and pointing at men and Zuko quickly lost track of who was who. He tried to tug out from under Sokka's arm but the guy just would not let go, so he stood as straight and rigid as he could under that undignified burden.
It seemed a little bit like Sokka had been waiting for this moment for a long while now, and that on its own was unnerving, considering all that Sokka knew… and all that he might decide to disclose to these already-suspicious men. And while Sokka's threats had done nothing to deter Zuko from pursuing Katara before, those threats had taken on a whole new meaning the second Zuko had boarded this ship. He still wouldn't be deterred, because he was a prince and he wasn't afraid of a gang of ruffians. But Sokka suddenly had the power to make Zuko's live exponentially more difficult.
Sokka's delight was obvious. He gave Zuko's shoulders a squeeze. "Guys, Zuko here has been living incognito with the resistance for weeks now. He helped Katara free me and Suki from some Fire Nation soldiers, and he faced down Admiral Zhao personally." There were a few raised eyebrows, a few speculative looks. Zuko started to almost feel a little better about Sokka being so uncomfortably close. But of course he kept talking. "He's also trying to capture the Avatar because when he was thirteen he was banished-"
"Knock it off, Sokka! They don't need my whole life story!"
Sokka jerked away from him and wiggled a finger in his ear. "He's also got a really great yelling voice."
Zuko stood straighter and turned back to face Hakoda, who was still watching him thoughtfully. "Where is my uncle?"
"Your uncle," Hakoda said, nonplussed. "The elderly tea-server is your uncle?" At Zuko's stiff nod, he indicated a hatch that led below. "I offered him a seat out of the way of any arrows…"
The look on his face suggested to Zuko that he would not have let the old man out of sight if he had known he was Fire Nation, but Hakoda had the grace not to say so aloud. Still, Zuko narrowed his eyes slightly. "I'd like to speak with him. Unless you mean to clap me in irons now."
Hakoda considered him a little drily, then sheathed his sword. "That'd be a pretty poor welcome to give a… friend of my children. Besides, we don't have irons on this ship, Prince Zuko. Only rope and wood and other flammable things." He braced his hands on his belt and stood straight and rigid, and though he was about Zuko's height, he seemed bigger. "Best be careful that you don't throw any sparks." He indicated a taller, leaner man to his right. "Bato will show you the way. Sokka? A word?"
The men parted and Zuko passed through, feeling Hakoda's eyes on his back all the while as he followed Bato toward the hatch. He paused before he reached it though, and forgot the other men in an instant, when the ship eased out of the tunnel and into the bright light of day. The line of sunlight crawled up from the prow and lit Katara like some bloody vision in the moment when she stopped bending and lowered her arms to her sides.
Her wolf-tail was a little askew and her shoulders were stiff and rose and fell heavily from the work. For a long moment, she just stood there. Then she slowly turned around, and Zuko saw at once that she still hadn't done anything about the injury she'd sustained to her chest. There hadn't been time. Blood had gathered in the tunic where her sash cinched tight around her waist, and it was bright and horribly red by the light of day - but there was not as much of it as Zuko had feared.
Perhaps that was why her breasts became obvious to him at that moment when they had not been before. It did not occur to him to wonder what exactly had changed, or how that change had come about. Instead, for several heartbeats, Zuko was numbly preoccupied with the plush weight apparent under her tunic, and with the memory of how she had put his hand on her breast just hours ago, and with the certainty that it would feel different now than it had then.
Sunlight had crept over him at some point, but the heat flushing through his body (and radiating suddenly out of his face) had come from an entirely different source.
Katara seemed to notice him belatedly and, before she could catch him ogling her, Zuko clenched his teeth and hurried below.
He dropped through the hatch, down a steep structure halfway between a staircase and a ladder, and found Bato waiting at the mouth of a dark, narrow passageway. His expression was hard to read in the dim light, and even though he turned at once to go on, Zuko was certain he was being assessed. All his anger returned in a flash, and it was a relief.
Bato led the way to a cramped galley lit by another hanging lantern. Then he stepped aside and Zuko finally caught sight of Iroh, who was sitting at a small round table, sipping tea from a very familiar pot and set of two cups.
"Uncle," Zuko said, face scrunching in disbelief, "you brought your tea set?"
Iroh beamed. "I could hardly abandon such a sentimental treasure, my nephew - it's been with us all this time! Not to mention," he said, pouring a graceful arc into the second cup, "it would be a shame to waste a perfectly good pot of tea. Bato, can I tempt you? It's jasmine…"
"My thanks, Elder," said the tribesman, uncertainty and wry amusement battling in his voice. He was also eyeing the curl of steam rising off the cups. "Perhaps another time. We'll have a heading soon, and I'll be needed topside."
"You won't be staying to guard us?" The words came out more bitterly than Zuko had intended, but he didn't back down from glaring.
Bato met his hard look, expression unreadable. "Sokka vouched for you, Prince Zuko. And we all saw what you did for… Katto. Consider yourself on probation - until Hakoda says otherwise."
Zuko bristled, but Iroh spoke before he could. "Oh, that is happy news! It's so good to see you making friends, my nephew."
"Friends don't place each other under probation, Uncle!"
"I admit it's a little unconventional," Iroh said with a wide-eyed shrug, "but every friendship is like a singular pearl. From the variety of the oyster to the sea in which it lives, many forces combine to make each pearl unique in many subtle ways." He smiled. "And even more a treasure for its peculiarities!"
Bato's eyebrows tipped just a little farther back, but Zuko did not notice this because he was pinching the bridge of his nose and drawing long, calming breaths.
.
Only when the ship had pulled into sunlight did Katara drop her arms to her sides and straighten, staring ahead at the open ocean as she strained to catch her breath. She was sweating from exertion and the spring sun was hot on her face, but the breeze brought a chill that quickly penetrated her damp, wrecked shirt.
Katara was very aware now that the great slash down her chest had split open repeatedly during the fight. She had not felt the pain at the time, but she felt it now, as she felt a lot of things more clearly amidst the strange swollen quiet of the ocean.
For instance, she was aware that when she turned around she was going to have to face Hakoda, and the judgement of Bato and all the rest. They would know by now who she was. The mask she'd worn all these weeks had fallen away. Katto's time was over, and without him, Katara felt kind of naked. As if the identity she had assumed was a suit of armor that had been capable of amazing things and, now that it was lost, she was vulnerable in a way she hadn't been before. And the things that Pakku had said made it all that much worse. She felt naked and sullied and stiff with shame and she wanted to fold her arms over her aching chest and hide belowdecks in the dark hold with the cured fish and the seaweed slosh.
But Katara knew by now how to take a beating, and how to then get up for another.
She turned to find the ship hard at work. Men ran around, tightening lines and making adjustments. Sokka and Hakoda stood near the helm with a map, and Suki was farther back, facing the rock wall through which they had just passed.
Her eye settled on Zuko, though, because he was the only one looking at her. For an instant his expression was intense before he went wide-eyed, blushed furiously, and fled below. Katara wasn't sure what to make of that, and with more important matters at hand, she put it from her mind entirely as she crossed the deck toward the helm.
Sokka was smiling his most cunning smile as he pointed out spots on the map. "…with this huge crane that lifted troops and supplies onto the cliff. It was pretty smart, really, relying on our assumptions about the terrain to blind-side us…"
Hakoda stood facing away from Katara as she approached, so she had time to take in his threadbare blues and the hard line of his shoulders under his shirt. He nodded along with Sokka's description of the Fire Nation base and asked questions in a thoughtful but businesslike way. Just the sound of his voice reminded her of that night at the South Pole, and Katara wondered how he could hide all that sharpness when he spoke to his son. For a moment, she wanted desperately to step around them and talk to Suki instead.
But she had come so far from the South Pole. She had done so much. Shouldn't that be worth something to him? Katara drew a great breath and stood straight, as tall as she could. "Dad."
Hakoda turned at once, fixing her with an assessing sort of expression. He looked on the brink of saying something, and Katara dreaded the moment when he found the words to say it. She forced herself to continue breathing evenly, though, and met his eye, waiting.
"Am I supposed to call you Katto, now?"
Katara blinked. "I… What?"
Hakoda peered down at her, an uncertain furrow in his brow. "I can't say that I like it, but if you've decided to… make changes, the Tribe and I will respect your choice."
Katara just stared up at her father, dumb-struck.
Sokka, on the other hand, burst into loud, rib-clutching laughter. He wiped away tears as the other two fixed confused frowns on him. "You think Katara's decided to actually be a guy? I mean, come on, Dad! This is Miss Oh-look-at-that-pretty-flower you're talking about!"
Katara sputtered indignantly, looking between the two of them, and then forcibly crossed her arms and glared at her brother. "Don't you have something manly to go do? Like socks to stink up or something?"
Sokka, still chuckling, held up his hands and backed off, then turned to talk to Suki. Katara faced Hakoda and frowned. Could he really so easily accept that she would want to live as a man? Just like that? It actually made her kind of angry, though she didn't really understand why. Kind of furious, actually. She clenched her fingers around her arms as if holding herself back. "Katara is fine," she bit out.
Hakoda nodded, then tipped his head back toward the cliff. He was watching her very carefully. "That was some impressive waterbending, Katara. Hahn mentioned that you were talented, but I guess I didn't realize what that meant." He smiled, and his familiar blue eyes crinkled with the truth of his feelings. "I'm proud of you."
If he had disowned her instead, he could not have shocked her more. Katara very nearly burst into tears. She nearly threw her arms around him. Instead, she stared up at Hakoda and opened and shut her mouth twice before managing to speak. "You really mean that?"
"Of course." He peered at her in his old, wry way. "Though I can't say I approve of my daughter fighting in an Earth Kingdom bareknuckle pit…"
"That wasn't my idea. Either time." She shook her head to drop the subject and stared hard at Hakoda, straining to understand. "But… you-! You didn't even want me to come here! How can you say you're proud of me when you wouldn't even give me a chance to start with?"
Hakoda drew back a step at her sharp tone. "I was only trying to keep you safe, Katara. Now that you've seen what it's like in that training camp, I would think you'd agree with me."
"Dad, I know it's dangerous, but I'm not helpless! You brought Sokka here and left him!"
"Sokka is a grown man. He can take care of himself. You're-"
Katara threw up her arms. "You think I can't? What have I been doing for the last four years if I haven't been taking care of myself and Sokka?"
She would have gone on but cut off because Hakoda, staring at something behind her, reached up to put his hand on her shoulder and, reflexively, she knocked it away.
For an instant, their eyes met again. Hakoda quickly overcame his surprise and went back to frowning at whatever was behind her. Then Katara whirled and found Iroh waiting politely to be noticed and, at his side, Zuko. The old man quickly smiled to conceal a shocked expression, but Zuko only carried on frowning at Hakoda.
"I hope we are not interrupting," Iroh said. Katara folded her arms over her chest again and tried not to feel embarrassed when his eyes flicked momentarily to her. She felt like she'd been caught in the middle of a tantrum. Inside her, old and justified anger was at war with fresh shame.
"Not at all, Elder…" Hakoda trailed off, waiting for a name.
"Ah! Just Iroh, I think, will do."
Hakoda went stiff. His eyes flicked to Zuko minutely. "General Iroh, isn't it?" His tone sent a chill racing up Katara's spine. Zuko had mentioned his uncle had been a great general once, but no more. She hadn't really given it much thought, except to be surprised.
Iroh held up both hands before him. "At one time, yes. But I have been retired for many years now."
"Early retirement does seem fitting for a man who's accomplished as much in his career as you have." It did not sound like a compliment. Katara opened her mouth to intervene.
Zuko spoke first. "What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.
"Prince Zuko." Iroh raised an eyebrow, shooting his nephew a significant look. "Show Chief Hakoda your respect. We are guests aboard his vessel. I am sure he meant no insult. And, if he did, it was probably well-deserved."
Zuko held his stiff posture a moment longer. Then he glanced to Katara and she saw the way he drew a breath and let it out. When he looked back at Hakoda, Zuko stood a bit - but only just a bit - more relaxed. "Apologies," he said, and very nearly sounded like he meant it. "We came to discuss the heading."
As if the mention of navigation had summoned him, Sokka appeared, standing at Katara's side. "Suki needs you," he murmured, not quite meeting her eye and hurrying on to address the others. "Did somebody figure out where we're going?"
Katara withdrew as Iroh was pulling a folded piece of paper from his sleeve and smilingly launching into "a very funny story, actually." She found Suki bent over the stern gunwale, shouting back at the rock wall, some fifty feet away.
"…would've saved us a day and a lot of sore fingers."
Katara realized as she drew up beside her that Suki was addressing Toph, who still stood on a little ledge back on the cliff. Katara felt a pang, seeing her so far off. Had she decided to stay behind?
But at that moment, Suki turned and smiled. "Hey Katto. Think you could give me a ride? Toph's going to take me back to the top of the cliffs."
Katara jerked back as if Suki had just lunged at her. "Sure, but…" There was an awful sinking feeling in her chest, behind the superficial sting and beneath the steady pounding ache. Her friends were abandoning her. "You're not coming with us?"
Suki paused, took in the look on her face, and laid a hand on Katara's shoulder. "I wish I could. But I have a responsibility to my warriors. They're still out there harrying the invasion force on my orders." Her fingers squeezed and withdrew. "Besides, you've got all your people to back you up, now."
"Right," Katara said, stealing a glance back at where Hakoda and Sokka were bowing together again over the map. Only now, Iroh was scratching his head and indicating some general region while Zuko stood just behind him, arms folded and a surly expression on his face. He looked a little like the one boy left out of the game. It was almost enough to tease a tired smile out of her.
His eyes flashed up at her and widened as he realized he was being watched. His frown softened but the furrow in his brow remained. He was fretting again. Katara felt it like a warm, heavy weight in her chest and it had a way of exposing all her other hurts. She wanted to go to him, she wanted the comfort she knew he could give. That he wanted to give.
But there were still things to be done. Katara turned back to find Suki watching her with a dry smirk on her face and, without a word, she led the warrior overboard.
Katara was tired after the fight and the turmoil of the base, but she didn't falter as she surfed the two of them back to Toph's ledge. The earthbender made a crack about 'those pebble-heads inside trying to get out' and then took them rocketing to the top of the cliff on a slab. Through a cloud of dust and debris, Katara watched the ship shrink horrifyingly away. She clutched her stomach, sickened and a little dizzy, and wished they were underground again.
At the top, they got off the block and said their goodbyes. Suki's hug was fierce. "Thanks for saving my life, Katto."
"It's Katara. Katto isn't real." She sniffed and suddenly she was trying not to cry, but it was coming anyway, molten against Suki's shoulder. She wasn't sure whether it was because her friend - the woman nearest her age who understood so well what she was going through - was leaving, or because of the loss of Katto's protection, or all the other hard things about today. It didn't matter what it was, though. Her tears were just as desperate.
Suki just stroked her back for a long while. "Whatever name you go by," she finally said, "you're still the bravest, toughest person I know. You fought so hard for your people down there. If they can't see that, they don't deserve you." She pulled back and smiled a sly, bright-eyed smile. "Besides, whatever they decide to think, it's your choice that matters. When I first met you, you refused to stop getting up, no matter how hard I knocked you down. You always made the tough choice to keep going. No matter what your people say, and no matter what name you go by, you always have it in you to make the hard choice and persist. It's part of who you are."
Katara wiped her face on her sleeves, drawing several deep breaths and pressing her cool hands to her hot brow and cheeks. A lot of thoughts flashed through her head. Furious ones, despairing ones, hopeful ones that burned. Finally, she slid her hands down her face and straightened, holding her head high and meeting Suki's waiting stare.
Suki cocked her head and smiled again. "That kind of thing only comes from within, you know. You're a warrior to your bones. Avatar Kyoshi taught us that nothing can truly stop a warrior until she decides to stop herself."
Nearer the edge of the cliff, Toph made a delighted little noise, but Suki was going on. "…which actually reminds me… Wait here for a bit." With that, she went darting off into the trees and was shortly out of sight.
"That's earthbender stuff!" Toph said at last. "That thing about a warrior being unstoppable. It's actually a way of thinking that's essential to earthbending."
Katara huffed a tiny, miserable laugh. "Pakku used to criticize me for thinking like an earthbender. I guess he had a point."
"Yeah, and he turned out to be a real great mentor, didn't he? Are you still bleeding or did he advise you to scab up already?" In the tense silence that followed, Toph kicked at a clump of dirt. Though she couldn't have seen Katara's scowl, she seemed to sense it. "…okay, maybe that was out of line. I just wish you'd beaten him without Fanboy helping. That's all."
"He's a master," Katara enunciated. "I've had a month of training. Training that I'll never finish now, by the way. Because who is there to teach me? No one! The only waterbending master I know of, maybe the only one in the world, despises me."
Toph pointed at her sharply. "You know what? Maybe instead of crying about it and feeling sorry for yourself like some disappointed little girl, you need to face this problem like an earthbender."
"And what does that mean?" Katara scathed. "Bang my head against it until it goes away?"
"Just shut up and listen!" Toph stomped her feet and there was a disproportionately loud booming sound somewhere. "The best earthbenders know how to wait and pay attention to the signs around them - and that's a skill that transfers to any way of fighting. So your old master turned out to be a wash. So what?" She jabbed a thumb into her chest. "I never had a master. I learned to bend by watching badgermoles, the original earthbenders. And the only way I did that was by being open to the world around me. I waited and I listened and when I was ready for the lesson, the teacher was right there in front of me."
Katara closed the gap between them and glared down at Toph's unseeing but glowering face. "I spent my entire life in the South Pole, waiting and listening. I watched the moon and the tides, just like the legends say the first waterbenders did. You know what I learned?" She threw up her arms. "Nothing! I used every trick I knew when I fought you the first time and you would have pulverized me."
"You weren't listening then, Princess." Toph pointed a finger right in Katara's face. "You were either doing your family's dirty work or staring at the moon and fantasizing about weddings that weren't gonna happen, because you were a little girl and that's what little girls do." That finger came down hard in the middle of Katara's chest, right on top of the slash. She gritted her teeth against the pain and knocked Toph's hand away, but the girl kept going. "But now you're a warrior. Now you know what to listen for and if you'll just pay attention, I guarantee you'll learn a lot more than some pruney old geezer could teach you."
Katara would have snarled some retort back at her, but just then Suki emerged from the trees, peering uncertainly between them. "Everything alright?"
"It's fine," Katara bit out, still glaring at Toph as the girl folded her arms and stepped away toward the cliff.
"Good," Suki said, and stuck a wad of bark into Katara's hand. At her perplexed look, Suki shrugged. "It's an old Kyoshi Warrior tonic. Make a tea and drink it in the days before your next cycle." Her expression grew a little harder and her voice went quiet. "Your body, you decide what it keeps and what it releases. That's the warrior's way."
Katara opened her mouth to ask, but then she realized what she was holding. The bark was black and flaky, but it was a long strip that coiled into a loose, broken spiral in her palm. It was medicine to end a pregnancy.
And suddenly Katara realized that pregnancy was a fear that she hadn't made time at all to acknowledge - because what could she do about it? What could she possibly have done? There was already a chance she was on her way to bearing the very child Pakku had commanded her to get - the royal bastard that was all he wanted from her. The evidence of her unwitting obedience. A few months' swell in her belly and it wouldn't matter that she'd never let the truth slip to Sokka; everyone would know the instant they looked at her.
But in her hand, she held a way to avoid all of that.
Katara closed her fingers around the bark and looked up at Suki with wide eyes. "Thank you. For everything, Suki. I can't even tell you…"
"You don't have to," Suki said, and looked away. Her eyes were a little sad, a little furious. "I know."
They hugged one more time and then Suki shared a few parting words with Toph while Katara peered down at the ship setting out far below. Then, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors vanished into the trees for the last time.
Toph was taking them down - thankfully at a more reasonable pace than she'd used before - when she finally spoke again. "I'm gonna say one more thing, and then I'll shut up."
Katara crossed her arms and braced herself. "Can't wait…"
"I don't know if you've talked to your dad yet, but when you do, you need to keep in mind that you just about gave him a heart-attack with that suicide dive today."
Katara glared out at the horizon, then shut her eyes.
"He almost jumped after you. Gramps had to grab him."
They were silent for a long while, until they reached the base of the cliff and Katara began propelling them after the ship on an ice floe. She no longer had the strength to raise a big wave, so their progress was relatively slow, but it was fast enough to make the cool breeze bite.
"I know my dad loves me," Katara sighed at last. "And he's been surprisingly accepting about everything. So far. But that doesn't change the fact that he left me behind at the South Pole and he never expected me to do so well, because I'm a daughter and not a son."
Toph, sitting back with her hands on the ice and wagging her feet in front of her, shrugged. "Parents can be jerks like that. Mine could watch me do amazing stuff all day and still convince themselves that I'm a helpless little girl. At least your dad is making an effort to accept you. It's fine if you want to stay mad at him, but at least give him a chance to get used to the new you." She was grinning now. "He'll probably like you. For such a crybaby, you're actually pretty cool."
Katara, still shifting through the stances to move the ice onward, cast the blind girl a faint smile. "Thanks, Toph. For a nosy, opinionated cave-dweller, you're not too bad, yourself."
.
Despite Chief Hakoda's repeated polite invitations to return below and relax, Zuko stood behind the helm, alternately watching the workings of the ship and turning back to watch the cliffs for signs of Katara. He'd never been aboard a sailing craft before, and he found the way men kept adjusting the sails and the system of ropes and knots both fascinating and infuriating. Steamers were very simple. One chose a direction, chose a speed, and went. Sailing vessels had to work with the wind. Presently the men were tacking, which meant moving back and forth to arrive at a point upwind from their original position. It was taking forever.
On the one hand, Zuko was annoyed at the delay. His sister would not be facing any such difficulties and Iroh's reported sighting of the Avatar was already days old. If they weren't quick, the boy would move on or, worse, Azula would move in.
On the other hand, Zuko was pleased that Katara would be able to take a straight path in catching up to the ship. He peered back toward the cliff and saw the puff of dust that meant Toph had brought Katara back down to sea level. Soon, they would be back. Then he could make sure that she did something about that wound.
"Hey buddy. Whatcha looking at?"
Zuko turned fully to face Sokka and hoped the wind would be enough of an excuse for the heat in his cheeks. From Sokka's knowing (and fairly unhappy) smirk, he didn't need blushes to guess the answer. "This ship," Zuko managed. "It's too slow. How has your father managed to evade Fire Nation steamers in a vessel that has to follow the wind?"
"Well, lots of ways," Sokka said, smiling genuinely now. He leaned against the gunwale beside Zuko and waved about with one hand. "As you might have noticed, our maps indicate major seasonal currents and winds. Evasion often depends a lot on planning ahead, and knowing the region well. Timing is important. And stealth."
He paused and Zuko realized for the first time that the ship made almost no noise. There was a creak of rigging, a slosh of waves, and a low chatter of men's voices. No engines rumbling, no smell of coal burning. It was almost… nice.
"Also," Sokka said, knocking the toe of his boot against a peculiarly familiar-looking buoy. "It helps to have some insurance."
Zuko looked more closely at the buoy. It was made of hide and seemed to contain a heavy liquid inside. Actually, there were several of them, neatly lined up and stowed against the gunwale. They were secured to the ship by a line round their middles, but there was another system of ropes neatly looped and stacked on top. Ropes with big iron hooks.
Zuko's eyes bulged and he leapt back as if the buoys might bite. "Those! It took hours to clear the rotating shaft of whatever filth you use to fill these-"
He trailed off because Sokka was chuckling. "Yeah, I'll bet."
Suddenly, it became horribly clear why this vessel looked so familiar.
"This is the same ship I chased north from the Pole," Zuko uttered, horrified and furious. He whirled around, glaring at the men on the tiller and the helm, and the men stowing ropes in compartments nearby, and Chief Hakoda, all of whom were watching him very closely again. The men with the ropes were smirking and exchanging an amused glance. Zuko, fists quivering at his sides, glared at the lot of them. "And you…"
"How was the view from back there, buddy?" Sokka folded his arms, still leaning against the gunwale. "I remember Tantec put on a real show for you."
Zuko gritted his teeth, took one threatening step, and then wrestled back the urge to shove him overboard.
"Sokka, that's enough."
Zuko turned to find that Hakoda had stepped nearer and was frowning at his son. He shifted that frown to Zuko next.
"I don't generally allow that kind of cavalier attitude toward the war aboard my ship. Tantec had an unfortunate influence on my crew while he was with us." He glanced around the other men and, under his stern eye, they were all busily focused on their tasks again. Hakoda's focus returned to Zuko. "You commanded that old-model steamer?" His tone was neutral and, though there was suspicion in his eyes, he stood in the easy way of a man making conversation.
Zuko tipped his chin up and met the other man's eye. "I still do."
"A humble vessel for a prince."
Zuko glowered. "The Fire Navy is focused on ending the war and can't spare ships for individual use," he said, but the words sounded rehearsed even to him. "And my ship is in excellent condition."
Hakoda nodded shortly and paused. He seemed to be mulling this over, and that combined with the cunning gleam of his eyes - so like Sokka's - did not bode well for Zuko. "I suppose it was your search for the Avatar that brought you so far south."
"Yes."
Hakoda nodded again. "Did you stop at my village?"
Zuko was too angry to note the phrasing of this question or feel its peculiar weight, and he was certainly too defensive to remember that he was talking to a man whose wife had died in a Fire Nation raid. Sokka, unnoticed, had stiffened. "Of course I did," Zuko snapped. "That's where I first spotted this ship."
Hakoda, whose scowl gave nothing away of his fear, opened his mouth to speak again.
"Tell him about how Katara told you to go away," Sokka suggested, suddenly grinning again.
"How did you know about that?" Zuko demanded, feeling his face heat.
"She told me about it. And about your ponytail. Super creepy, I believe, were her exact words."
"That was a phoenix plume and it was not creepy!" Zuko quickly calmed himself and turned back to find Hakoda watching him still.
"Did you?"
"What?"
"Did you leave," Hakoda clarified. "When my daughter told you to."
Zuko hesitated. He didn't remember his visit to the village all that clearly, partly because it had been so long ago now, and partly because he didn't like thinking of Katara as she had been then; frightened and helpless and staring at his scar. "I... Well, no. Not right away. I needed a heading and no one wanted to say where the ship had gone."
"Hm," Hakoda said, studying him anew. It gave Zuko a weird feeling, like he had made himself look bad somehow, weak.
"And regardless, princes don't jump to obey the orders of scared Water Tribe girls."
"No," Hakoda said as his gaze grew harder. "I don't imagine they do."
"They sure do learn to sew when waterbenders tell them to, though," Sokka chortled. "Oh, Dad, you should have seen-
Zuko whirled on him, fists raised at his sides. "Why don't you just tell the whole story since you're such an expert?"
"Maybe I will," Sokka said. His smile was so bright and hard, it was obviously a threat.
"Actually," Hakoda put in, his tone unamused, "I'd rather hear it from you, Prince Zuko. But later."
There was a splash and a call from the water below and, shortly after someone unrolled the rope ladder, Toph's scowling face appeared. "…One day, they're gonna wise up and make a ship out of rocks. Nice and sturdy. It'll be great. Everybody will be able to see and- Hey! Somebody give me a hand here!"
Only then did Zuko realize how close he'd gotten. Her fingers scrabbled across his bare arm where Katara had removed the sleeve.
"Well hello, Muscles," she said, grinning.
"Quit touching me!" He snatched her hand off his person and guided her down from the gunwale, trying so hard not to blush that he hardly heard what she was saying.
"Fanboy? I didn't know you were that built!" She wouldn't let go of his hand. "Splatto, this is your oversight. I'm penalizing you a Bandit point."
"What," Sokka said as he waited for Katara to come over the rail, "are you gonna un-punch her?"
Toph whipped up a hand to point at a spot off to Sokka's left. "You better hope you never have to find out, Snoozles."
"Great," Katara said as she climbed over and, with a weary glance, let Sokka help her. "I need more stuff to worry about. Really."
"You don't have to worry about Bandit points - until you do," Toph smirked. Her grip on Zuko's fingers was like a vice. He tried to tug away subtly but she just wouldn't give. He tried shaking her off but that didn't work either.
Katara was hugging Sokka for reasons Zuko couldn't decipher. She said something quietly against his shoulder and the look on his face turned a little sad. "Aw come on, little sister. You're the one who's supposed to be comforting and reassuring me. What about my fragile self-esteem? I just got dumped! …sort of."
Katara pulled away and seemed to be on the brink of saying something else when she spotted her father just behind Sokka.
Zuko didn't know what was going on between Katara and her father, but he didn't really need to. He knew there was a lot of tension there and that she had dreaded this, and he knew that she had been practically yelling at him earlier - which had actually shocked Zuko, because it was so disrespectful and the thought of shouting at his own father was simultaneously reprehensible, terrifying, and attractive. He had readily accepted her anger, though, figuring her father must deserve it.
But something strange was happening now. Katara spotted her father and Hakoda had a peculiarly strained look on his face. "We've charted a course for the Eastern Air Temple," he said, almost hopefully. "We have to swing south to rejoin what's left of the fleet and sail wide to avoid Fire Nation patrols, but good weather will see us there in two weeks."
"Katara, you didn't hear because you were water-magicing, but Dad's wasn't the only ship to escape Zhao! There are two others, and he left them at a rendezvous point when he went back to face Hahn."
"Well," Hakoda said, "we went back more to get Sokka, originally. Imagine my surprise when we got in only to be arrested and told that my son and nephew had deserted during a training exercise…" He leveled his gaze on Katara, smiling faintly. "I didn't know how it was possible, but I knew it was you right away, Katara. You've always been so brave."
There was a moment in which Zuko could see how Katara stiffened, her slim shoulders hitching slightly out of their hard square. Then she threw herself at Hakoda roughly and Zuko thought at first that she was attacking him, until the chieftain's arms came up around her and his lined face was contorting in something like pain. A couple of tears sparked on this hard man's cheeks and vanished into the hair tied back on top of her head.
Zuko could only stare. Toph was tugging at his fingers. "What's going on?" she whispered.
He blinked, and finally tore his eyes away. It felt like he was intruding on a personal moment. "Let go of me. I'm going below."
"That's cool. I'll come with you."
Zuko heaved a disgusted sigh but didn't argue, opting for a hasty escape. Toph tromped after him, stumbling down the steps so that she nearly knocked him sprawling in the corridor below. His balance held, though, and he ignored her complaints about his guiding abilities as he pulled her through the galley. Iroh was there again, smiling over his tea. Apparently someone had seen fit to loan him some game tiles because he had four rows laid out on the table before him. Zuko did not really notice this, though. He just sat a quarter turn from his uncle, not really listening to his pleased greetings.
"Oh! The Blind Bandit! I take it Katara has returned as well?"
"Yeah," Toph said as she felt around and settled on another of the worn mats around the table. "She's making up with her dad upstairs. The vibes got way too 'loving family' for us, so we checked out."
Zuko wanted to tell her to shut up but didn't bother. His uncle was peering at him with that old sympathetic look, and he didn't like it. Iroh, seeming to sense this, began chatting amiably about the game he was playing.
Zuko sat back against the wall and folded his arms. He wasn't even thinking about his own father now, not exactly. If anything, it was reassuring that a fearsome man like Chief Hakoda could react to his own child that way.
But it certainly put Zuko in a challenging position. Because if Katara loved her father - and there was little doubt now that she did - she would probably want him to approve of a future husband. And that meant that Zuko would need to find some way of winning the regard of Chief Hakoda.
So far, he was not off to a good start.
Yet, if he managed to do it, Katara would probably be even more tempted to accept his proposal, help him capture the Avatar, and stay by his side. It was everything he wanted, and if all it took to get it was convincing a life-long enemy of the Fire Nation that that nation's crown prince was worthy to marry his daughter, then Zuko would make that happen. He didn't care how impossible it seemed, he would find a way.