Water bending my single person raft into the new Southern Water Tribe harbour that had been built, I jumped off and pulled the boat onto the ice, tying it down before I walked into the village which was rapidly growing. A new wall had been built along the outskirts, and it was both different and the same to how I'd last seen it. Going to the house that my parents lived in, I opened the door and stepped inside, making them both look up from where they were eating dinner and froze in surprise. "Mom, dad!" Dropping my bag, suddenly we were all smiles as they rushed over to embrace me, calling my name and laughing with joy.
"Why didn't you send word you were coming home? We would have prepared your favourite foods for you."
"I wanted to surprise you." I told my mom as she started fussing over me, noticing how withdrawn my cheeks were and that I was clearly malnourished and unwell.
"In that case, come and eat something. Whatever's been going on back in the Fire Nation, it's completely worn you away." She looked closer, studying my eyes and reading me all too well. "What happened Kayo? You look so…you look like you're grieving." I sniffed, getting choked up so I hid my face against her with another hug, hiding away as my dad put his arms around the both of us.
"Is that boy giving you grief again? I swear if I ever see him again, I'll make him regret ever making my daughter cry."
"I'm fine, dad. I just missed home. That's all." Rubbing my face against them, I looked up at their loving faces and couldn't feel more at home. "I'm back now, and I probably won't leave for a while. In fact, I'll probably only make trips to Ba Sing Se to visit Uncle Iroh then I'll come back. You mentioned Chief Hakoda had plans for further expansions and that there's been problems getting enough provisions for the increasing size of the village, well I'm here to help."
"That's my girl." Rubbing my hair, my parents brought me to our table in order to sit together and eat a meal, mom putting more on my plate than my stomach could probably eat in a week, but I ate as much as I could just to reassure her I was okay. So began my self-isolation, cutting myself off from the rest of the world in the icy tundra of my father's home, and I stayed there for as long as it took to heal and recover from the broken heart that I carried around in my chest and the anger at Zuko I bore him. I wanted to never forgive him, wanted to blame him for being weak and almost giving up entirely, but I knew deep down that these feelings derived from the deep attachment I felt towards him. In my disappointment, I couldn't save him, and I blamed myself for it, which only made me want to hate him more.
With me helping Chief Hakoda to develop better trade with the nearest ports and even pushing it further, one of our greatest exports was, would you believe it, ice. Yep. With water benders and plenty of resources around for ice, we were able to maintain huge ice blocks which we were able to sell as chippings whereas before, ice had been somewhat of a luxury. Water benders could make it easily and maintain it as we shipped it out, which made it a cheap expense with a huge overturn of profit. Not only that, but it proved that there was actually more resources in the south than we realised, allowing us to develop factories to mine for something called oil, which was highly sought after and again, brought income into the tribe.
Katara and Sokka came back intermittently with Aang, and sometimes Toph, where we'd all get together and celebrate our reunion until before I knew it, I'd turned twenty years old and two years had passed since the end of the war. I'd grown to be taller than my mother and my slight figure more feminine since it had lost the childish edge, and I couldn't help but feel rather pleased with how I turned out. I was still not great beauty like my mother, but I was pretty, and that was enough to satisfy any girl since all of us wanted to be attractive in some way.
Over the two years I visited Iroh at least once or twice a month, going to see him in Ba Sing Se then would make a round trip. I'd visit my old troupe, then go see Toph and her flourishing metal bending school where her first students were now helping to teach the youngsters, giving Toph more free time. I'd then circle around to visit Suki and Ty Lee on Kyoshi Island, and anywhere else I wanted to see before returning home. It was a good life, a happy life, but something always felt missing. I wore Water Tribe clothes now, seeing as Fire Nation outfits didn't guard so well against the cold. I planned to continue this life pretty much forever, but when a message came from Katara that a great meeting was being held between the nations, she asked if I would join her father in the trip to the Earth Kingdom in order to take part in the discussions as it had been suggested that my experience as an advisor would be greatly appreciated.
"What does she mean by that?" I frowned as I scrutinised the letter, sitting in the central building where Chief Hakoda held his tribe meetings and I'd been especially invited because of the letter. "Experience as an advisor? Am I supposed to be advising you?"
"I think what Katara means that you know a lot of the world's leaders and you have earned a great deal of respect from them. Along with the Avatar, you are probably the next person the world will listen to if you have an idea about something." I quirked an eyebrow with a pout.
"That's a lot of pressure, chief, way to make me feel better." He laughed, Bato and my father also smiling as I sat within the circle of heads of the tribe. "So do you want me to go? Whatever it is, it sounds big and important. If Katara wants me there then I'll go. It's been a while since I've seen everyone, so it would be nice to catch up."
"Thank you, then we shall leave in three days and head for the Earth Kingdom. I believe we are to meet in Yu Dao. You have been there?" I flinched slightly, not exactly having the best memories of that place.
"Yes, I've been there. I hear it's doing well with the immersion movement. My guess is we're going to discuss how to move on from the trial run to the real deal. Yu Dao is one city, but the former colonies that still remain cause friction between outsiders who are not accustomed to sharing land with other nations." I mused, thinking deeply as the chief and warriors all listened to my spit balling. "We'll have to hear what the others have to say first, but we have to make sure that no matter what, we protect our own interests, but also make sure that we continue to push for the new world that's building itself up around us."
"I believe you're right. Well then Kayo, I'll leave the politics to you. We'll travel light and fast, Bato you stay and watch over the tribe whilst I'm gone. Koda, I'd be honoured if you'd be one of the warriors to accompany me." My father accepted instantly though I noticed he seemed rather tense, and I didn't find out why until the meeting ended and we left together.
"Kayo, I don't think you should go." He said to me gravely, making me look up at him curiously.
"Hm? Why not?"
"Because he will be there, and I don't want you going anywhere near him again." Ah, him. Ever since I came back two years ago and told my parents everything that had happened, my father almost took off in his boat with all my uncles hell bent on making Zuko pay. It took me, my mother and the chief to calm them down, and since then my dad swore never to mention his name again. He was really pissed, and I could understand why.
"We don't have to talk to each other, dad, I can just avoid him but I feel like this is something I should be a part of. Besides, it's been two years since then. I'm not hurting over that anymore."
"Exactly. It's been two years since you ran away and closed yourself off as far away from him as you could get, and isolated yourself for months before you even considered travelling outside the South Pole, and even then you've avoided your own home nation and never gone back. Not even when a royal summons came. You've ignored all messages, cut yourself off entirely, and you think I'm supposed to accept that you're fine? Kayo…you're running away from your own feelings."
"Maybe, but it's worked out so far. I don't feel anything towards Zuko, and that's fine by me. I don't love him, and I don't hate him. It's for the best." Muttering under his breath, dad threatened to punch Zuko in the face if he came anywhere near me, so I laughed and wrapped my arms around his big bear arm, snuggling in close. "My hero. Come on, let's tell mom what's going on. Maybe she should come with us, I think she'd enjoy a trip to the Earth Kingdom." Agreeing with me, dad leaned his head against mine for a moment against mine as we walked, probably inwardly plotting several hundred ways how he could get away with murdering Zuko.
