Disclaimer: I own nothing you might recognise from the series.
Notes: So, Shadow Elf Warrior and one other person whose name I either didn't take down or wasn't available asked for this one. It's Hakoda and Katara's perspectives on the aftermath of Zuko finally being done with Ursa. I really struggled with this one because I couldn't really think of anything that wasn't just one sentence. Anyhow, I hope this is a little of what was wanted, and thanks everyone who drops in on this collection.
Katara smiled as her father approached her. They were packing to leave on Appa to face Zuko's sister, so she was happy to see her father before going. "Dad! I'm so glad to see you."
"I had to see you off," he told her. "But I wanted to talk to you about something."
She frowned. "What about?"
He seemed to brace himself, then said, "Prince Zuko." She opened her mouth, intending to defend her boyfriend, but he held up a hand. "I'm not telling you to break it off with him, but I am . . . concerned about this."
"What about, exactly?" Katara asked. After the debacle on the Fire Navy ship, she'd promised herself that she would let her father talk, wouldn't leap to conclusions about him and would wait to hear from him before getting angry. She'd been so irrational about how much she missed him and she'd taken it out on him unfairly.
"I have two concerns about the situation. One is about your prince, and the other is for him. I only want you to have a care for these things," he said. Katara really looked at her father. Looked at him in a way she should have months ago when they first met up in the Earth Kingdom, more recently during the Day of the Black Sun. He looked tired and so much older than she remembered him being before. It was a sort of old that Sokka looked when he thought of Suki, that Aang looked when he was made to think about being the Avatar. It wasn't the lines that weren't there before or the circles under his eyes from tiredness, it was a sense of worry that went beyond the moment.
Katara stopped fully and faced him on the ground. She was taller than she'd been before, it was easier to look him in the eye than it had been when he'd first taken the warriors and set sail to defend against the Fire Nation. "What are they?" she asked seriously.
"The first is that your prince may yet not be as kind as you think. I do think he is well-intentioned, but with the examples of both his father, the Fire Lord, and his mother-" he stopped at the face she made when he mentioned Ursa. "I know," he replied, smiling ever-so-slightly. He sobered then, continuing. "With those as his examples he may not understand how to . . ." his mouth quirked in an odd and wry little smile. "How to love properly, I guess."
Frowning, Katara asked, "What do you mean?" Her father may have been like Sokka in a lot of ways, but he was also wise sometimes.
"He's only seen his mother fawn over his one sister for being what she wanted and his father do it with the other sister. He may not be able to understand that love is strongest when you love someone as much for her flaws as for her strengths." Her father looked at her seriously. "No one can ever be perfect, even to the ones you love, and you have to understand that. He may not be able to understand how to love you the way you deserve, Katara."
Katara thought about Sokka. Her stupid brother who didn't understand how to keep to a budget, made terrible jokes, had a weird obsession with weapons and still thought she should live in a nunnery on top of a mountain mending his pants. But she loved him for those things as much as she loved him for the way he understood Zuko in ways she never did, the way he protected her and Aang and Toph and Suki, even protecting Zuko when he could. She loved him for the way he could think tactically and keep them on target even when they all just wanted to play with koala otters and stayed grounded in ways her and Aang's faith in the goodness and righteousness of their cause didn't allow.
She knew Sokka loved her back just as well and with just as many things both good and bad that he saw in her.
And then she thought of Zuko, who agreed with Sokka all the time that she was crazy, who got annoyed with her asking him if he really thought she was pretty and who lied and hid things because he was so scared of rejection and the way he still loved her even after everything she'd said and done to him, the way she still loved him after the lies and the complaining and accusations of being annoying and weird.
"I don't think that'll be a problem, Dad," she said, "I mean, I guess I can't promise anything, but I think he'll be okay. He had Iroh after all, and Shuga."
Her father took a deep breath and said, "I hope you're right. The other thing I worry about is what this final Rite of Exclusion will do to him. It is one thing to say the words, but when it is your own family it can tear at you."
"I know," Katara said, "But trust me, you didn't see how he was the first time we ran into her, and he's better off without her. I'll do my best for him, but I swear, Dad, this is something he should have done a long time ago." She looked at him, hoping he'd trust her even if he didn't understand. And she knew he probably wouldn't.
"It'll be okay. Your mom and sister are fine."
"She hates me," Zuko mumbled into Katara's shoulder.
"I'm sure she doesn't," she objected.
Zuko shook his head. "As far as my mother's concerned, all firebenders are the same. Evil. I'm a firebender," he explained.
She hadn't understood when he'd cuddled into her in the Earth Kingdom all those months ago as they travelled to the Northern Water Tribe, because then she hadn't been able to imagine someone's family being like that. It had taken seeing Zuko pale and shaking and ill for her to understand, and she wished sometimes that she still didn't get it. Her father clearly didn't see either and he wouldn't, Katara hoped, because it was a terrible thing to see family acting like that with each other. Family was the bedrock on which everything else rested, and Ursa's horribleness had left Zuko with nothing but quicksand under his feet.
"I hope you're right, but I just want you to take care. Both for yourself, and for him, Katara," her father said.
Zuko joined them then, and they said their farewells to everyone and left.
Hakoda watched as his daughter left with the prince of the Fire Nation and just hoped his words had gotten through to her. He knew she thought he had no notion of Ursa's impact on the boy, but he'd seen such things, even in their close-knit tribe. Family was the ground upon which they all stood, but it could break you like nothing else.
His beloved daughter might know some of this, but he worried for her. She was in love with a boy who had never known the strengths of family, only the harms it could bring. He was impressed with young Zuko's strength to step away from that harm, but the boy would carry those scars his whole life, and whether those scars prevented him from creating a new family and trusting one that he made, well, that was yet to be seen.
As the flying bison vanished into the sky, Hakoda closed his eyes a moment and resolutely turned away. There were preparations for this final battle to be made, and they had to move into position to retake what they could.
He would worry about Katara's future and heart when it was over.
