In the morning there was nothing to eat for breakfast, but Aang assured them that they would be able to fill up at the tea party in the Iron House. "You'll love it! They have the best cookies. Some are shaped like animals or flowers, and sometimes they have ingredients that you wouldn't expect to taste good in cookies, like lavender or asparagus or spicy peppers, but they actually are delicious! And May and Jim and Bum-Ju are so welcoming." He went on about the friends he had made at the endless tea party. Sokka and Toph listened closely, amused, and glad that Aang's usual humor had returned to him.
Katara fell into step beside Zuko, who was hanging back a little, slowed down by his big bag full of heavy books. He had refused to let the others help him carry the heavy volumes. It was his burden, his penance, he insisted.
"I wanted to thank you." The waterbender began.
"For what?"
"You really helped me a lot the past few weeks. We couldn't have found Aang without you. And you just…..supported me. I appreciate it."
"Don't mention it."
"Still, I know it hasn't been easy for you. And that you're worried about where you stand with your girlfriend after this absence. You know, Mai and I talked about you a couple of times. She told me you're ….." She blushed, her brain stuck on the phrase good in bed, which she could not say. "Generous with her. That you make her really happy." She finished euphemistically. There was something else Katara felt she needed to tell him, in case he was in the habit of seeking solace in the arms of girls he wasn't dating. Though it was awkward, she felt she should warn him against the very real danger that lay that way for him. "She also, um, told me what she'd do if you ever, you know, strayed."
Zuko understood immediately. "Would she use a sharp blade, or a dull one?"
"She didn't tell me that; she just said where she would cut you."
"Ah." He made a face. "Well, she doesn't have to worry about that."
"Good." Katara took a deep breath and stiffened her shoulders, resolute. "There was a moment, the other night…"
"I know." He cut her off, face burning with shame. "I'm sorry. I crossed a line. With you, and Mai, and Aang."
"You didn't cross it. We both kind of walked right up to it and looked over." She knew it wasn't fair to let him take sole responsibility.
He swallowed. "And what did you see there?" He wondered if it was the same thing he had. For Aang's sake, he hoped it was.
"That we're better off as friends. As siblings, even." She answered easily.
"Yes. We are. And you know that's important to me."
"To me, too." Katara assured him, then looked away. "I'm glad you didn't….."
"So glad!" He exclaimed his agreement in a rush, then stumbled, afraid he'd accidentally insulted her. "I mean -"
"I know what you mean." She gave him an understanding half-grin, and he relaxed. Now that they had cleared the air, things felt normal and easy between them again, which wouldn't have been true if there were any lingering attraction. "I would hate to come between you and Mai." She went on. "You'd both be really dumb to throw away three years-"
"And you?" Zuko pushed back. She started. "I know, it's not the same," He allowed. "Or at least, I hope it's not. You said your feelings had changed. Hers might have too."
"I don't know for sure if mine have changed." She answered tentatively, reflectively. "Or if they have, I might want to try…..or at least, I think I'm open to the possibility that they could change back."
"Maybe there is no going back. Just forward." He suggested. "If you can love Aang again, it might be in a new, deeper way, not anything like the way it was before."
She smiled at him. She liked that idea. "How did you get so smart?"
"I really don't know."
"I never would have guessed that the ponytailed maniac hounding us was actually so…..loveable." Her words made Zuko grin and duck his head. "And thank you for getting those books. It really means a lot to Aang. And, um, someday, it'll mean a lot to his children." Zuko raised his eyebrows at the way she blushed at that word. "Are you sure you don't want some help carrying that bag?"
"No, but thank you."
The group approached the Iron House, surrounded by its field full of crawling bugs.
Aang explained his futile efforts to corral the key-insects or break in, and the way he had eventually just used random chance to pick the right one.
"You didn't mark the ones you tried?" Sokka asked.
"Or freeze them?" Katara put in.
Aang's face fell at his own failure to think of those simple solutions. "Uh, no…."
"And I guess it didn't occur to you to just crush them either." Sokka pretended to stomp one and grind it under his toe. "They're bugs!"
"No!" The airbender scowled, as he usually did when Sokka mocked his vegetarian sensibilities.
"It's ok, Twinkletoes," Toph patted his back smugly. "You've never been the brains of the team."
"Nope. That's my job." Sokka pointed proudly to his own chest.
"I had already been starved and isolated for two weeks, walking on a broken foot, boggling my mind trying to figure out crazy solutions to entertaining a troll, going through a maze, and breaking into this impenetrable fortress….." Aang explained himself, caught between humiliation and indignation.
"You're the spirit of the group," Zuko reminded Aang, his hand on his friend's shoulder. "You give us purpose. Something kept you going, and you didn't give up."
Aang looked up at Katara, his gaze intense.
Her breath caught, and she bit her lip uncertainly. Her ex-boyfriend thought he read her as pained and conflicted, before they both looked away.
The Avatar took a deep breath and thanked Zuko, then turned to Toph, eager to see how she would solve the problem that had stumped him for so long. "So, do you think you can find the key? Or pick the lock?"
Toph walked over to the door, dug her fingers into it as if it were butter, and lifted it off its hinges, tossing it to the side. "Keys are for pansies who can't bend metal." She scoffed.
The spirits inside the Iron House greeted Aang like an old friend, and he introduced his companions. They waved awkwardly at the talking vegetables and sentient animals, unsure how to interact with such creatures.
"Newcomers have to serve the tea," the spirit with the hanging yellow flower stated the rule again.
"I think I can help with this one," Aang turned to find Zuko tying on an apron he seemed to have pulled out of nowhere. The firebender bustled around the kitchen, filling pots, sniffing tea, and lighting the stove with a quick fire shot from his fingers. "Take a seat," he invited his friends with a smile.
They sat down in the empty chairs between the spirit guests, integrating themselves into the party.
"Never would have thought Prince Pyro the Ponytailed would serve us tea," Sokka remarked, nudging his sister.
"He hasn't been that person for a long time now," Katara admonished her brother.
"You know, our friend's girlfriend is also named Mai," Sokka elbowed the two-headed frog's left side.
"Surely she is not as radiant as my May," said the other head, Jim.
"Well, she's not so green. I'm Katara, by the way." She offered the frog her hand.
"So this is the waterbender," May said slyly to Jim. Over Katara's shoulder, Aang frantically sliced at his neck, gesturing for his spirit friends to keep quiet, afraid that if they told his ex girlfriend what he had discussed with them, it would spoil the cautious armistice they had achieved.
"Would you like to see some pictures of our tadpoles?" Jim offered the girl. He pulled out his wallet, unfolding a long series of portraits of amphibians in various stages of development. Katara listened patiently to stories about their offspring.
Soon Zuko was carrying over a tray, setting teacups in front of each member of the party, and pouring the tea, creating aromatic steam. The guests sipped gratefully, satisfied.
"It took me five tries to serve a passable jasmine, but this is actually delicious." Aang declared.
"How do you do it, Zuko?" Katara asked playfully.
The former teahouse waiter tasted his cup, a small smile of satisfaction at his own work stealing over his lips before he began. "The first trick to working in a tea shop is that you can be thinking and feeling anything underneath an empty customer service smile. You can say 'Of course I can get you a clean spoon, ma'am,' while inside you're really thinking, 'Fuck you to hell and back, you insufferable bitch, our silver is already clean.' It's kind of freeing when you stop expecting yourself to mean the pleasantries you have to parrot, and give yourself permission to paste a fake smile on and curse everyone on the inside. That's how you get through the bad days, the endless afternoons when all you really want to do is pull a sword off the wall and impale the next customer who complains." His rant over, the Fire Lord turned reflective. "But when you have a good day, when you can actually accept that this is your place in the world now, that's when service can be…..zen." This revelation still surprised him, years later. He continued his explanation of what he'd learned in the Jasmine Dragon. "If you empty yourself and put your own needs aside to focus on fulfilling others, the time goes faster, and it's a lot more pleasant for everybody. If you assume the best of everyone, including yourself, if you focus on looking for something good, or at least interesting, in each person, then usually you can find that people aren't really that bad, and you can get through the day without suffering so much, and you can even become better. Not just more skilled with the tea, but….better in a way that's deeper than that. That's what Uncle does, anyway." Realizing he'd just given a small lecture, he brought his cup back up to drink, ending modestly.
"Sounds like a good attitude for a monarch," Aang remarked, proud of his friend. "You're serving a whole nation now. And sometimes you'll have to grin and bear it when people are terrible, but if your goal is just to make people happy….. or at least comfortable…. then I think you're bound to succeed."
"This must be why you're a decent Fire Lord, but the last three were total shit. They never had to take orders a day in their lives, only give them." Sokka pointed out.
"Yeah. I guess so." Zuko felt endlessly gratified at his friends' compliments for his leadership. He looked down into his teacup, blushing. "It's Uncle's influence." He drained his cup, and the others followed suit.
The spirits were finishing their tea. Zuko and Aang worked together to clear the table, and the guests stood. When they left their chairs, the table moved aside, revealing the door underneath.
Author's Note: Anyone who has worked in a restaurant can relate to Zuko's experience, I think.
Next chapter: Mother Maggot returns.