Water

The Intruder

Zuko was getting close to the North Pole. Really close. So close that he would have to ditch the lifeboat and any supplies that he couldn't carry with him in just a few more miles. From there, he would have to make the rest of the journey on foot to keep himself out of sight.

He was almost looking forward to that part. He was good at sneaking around, and much better at doing it without a boat.

Unfortunately, he was already beginning to feel a little like he'd lost his mind. It wasn't that he was doubting his journey to the North Pole—no, that was the one thing that still made sense. Zhao was still awful, and Katara was still in danger. If word of his survival got out, Zuko would be too. It was still best if they could stop Zhao before things got worse.

But Zuko had been alone on a tiny lifeboat for days—he'd lost track of how many—and as much as he'd hated the incessant noise on Zhao's ship, this degree of solitude was almost crushing.

Which was probably why he still hadn't done anything about the vaguely creepy cross-eyed owl-like bird that had taken Zuko's slight hint of generosity as an invitation to live in his boat. Its uneven stare did still send chills up Zuko's spine, but at least it gave him something to talk to.

Maybe Uncle had a point. Maybe Zuko did need to find some real friends someday.

"I don't get why you're still here," Zuko said in an undertone. "Don't you have some creepy bird friends to go back to?"

Both eyes blinked separately.

"I'm not taking you with me into the city, Frog Face. I need to be stealthy, and you have a habit of making dying ottercat noises." He paused. "I don't even know why I keep feeding you. You jumped into my boat." Or, more accurately, Frog Face had tried to jump into Zuko's boat. The stupid little bird had miscalculated its jump so badly that it had sailed clear over the far side of the boat and into the freezing black water on the other side. Zuko, of course, had rescued the idiot creature and tried to return it to the ice shelf once it was dry, but Frog Face just kept making more terribly-judged leaps at the lifeboat until Zuko plopped it down atop a folded blanket. And now, days later, Frog Face was still with him.

It was probably just pity on Zuko's part. Frog Face was clumsy and cross-eyed and weirdly insistent on hurling itself at the water despite the fact that it was clearly not a water bird. Even to Zuko, the bird looked rather misshapen and off-putting. He couldn't imagine what a flock of normal creepy owl-things would think of Frog Face—how they would treat the little weirdo if it couldn't bring back enough food for the flock.

It was ridiculous, but Zuko felt a bit responsible for the stupid little thing. For now, while Zuko could help, he couldn't see any reason not to.

As for Frog Face, it appeared that the bird was either too dense to realize how far the lifeboat had taken it from home, or it was smarter than it looked and enough of an opportunist to take full advantage of Zuko. Probably the latter. Frog Face was smart enough to stay put once it was settled down inside the boat.

Zuko was probably being scammed by a fluffy, cross-eyed lump of a bird that couldn't be bothered to find its own food.

He didn't mind that as much as he probably should. Zuko had plenty of supplies, and after today, he would have to leave more than half of them behind. There was no harm in giving away supplies that were just going to go to waste anyway. And being a little annoyed by a sneaky, manipulative little bird was better than watching it hurl itself into the icy water again.

"Actually," he added, even quieter than before, "I'll probably have to leave you behind as soon as I find a good place to hide the lifeboat. There's going to be guards all around the city, and you'll definitely get me caught if I take you anywhere near the walls."

As if in reply—Zuko couldn't tell whether it was an argument or an assent—Frog Face fluffed up, then stretched its neck out and gave a screech.

Ugh. Chills ran up his spine, and Zuko grabbed the map from his pile of supplies. "Okay, that's it, you little creep. I'm finding a place to drop you off. No arguments. You're getting too weird for even me."

"Sokka." She poked him with her toe. "Hey, Sokka. What are you moping about?"

He groaned, long and low. Ever since he'd come back from his little visit with Yue—Katara refused to think of it as anything more than a visit—he'd been lying face-down on the floor right in the middle of the room and refusing to move.

"I'm not moping."

"You've been lying there and groaning ever since you got home."

Sokka turned his head a bit to the side. "That's not moping. Aang, tell her I'm not moping."

Aang frowned. "It looks like moping to me."

Ha. Katara crossed her arms triumphantly. "See? Told you."

Sokka groaned again. "Nobody's on my side."

"Maybe I'd be on your side if you weren't taking up half the room." Katara poked him again.

Sokka made a great show of rolling onto his back. "Thanks a lot. I didn't complain this morning when you were moping about having to take a day off from practice. Who even does that? Days off are good."

Pursing her lips, Katara nudged him in the ribs before stepping over him to get to the shelf on the opposite side of the room. She complained about having a day off, that was who. And she was entirely justified in her complaints. She'd struggled to win her way into lessons for ages, and it wasn't fair that she had to stop now, right when she'd finally begun to make a little progress. What if she lost her edge just because the others needed a break? What if she lost her momentum and had a hard time learning anything new when she got back to waterbending lessons again? She'd done her best to avert those risks by dragging Aang off to practice at Isux Lake around midday, but that didn't mean that she was happy about missing a day of formal training. She was still trying to prove that she was a good waterbender. That she was the best waterbender, if possible, and the only way she could get there was to practice as much as possible.

"Well, I'm not moping anymore," she said. "And you know exactly why I was upset earlier. So either spill it or move out of the way, Mister Grump."

"Ugh." He dragged it out far too long and tossed an arm over his face. "It's Yue. Well—not Yue. More Hahn. A Hahn problem with Yue."

Katara gave up on trying to reach the shelf above him and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Yue finally told you, huh?"

At that, Sokka sat upright so fast that his wolftail whipped all the way forward and smacked his forehead before falling back into place. "What? You knew?"

"Knew what?" Aang asked.

There was yet another groan from Sokka, and he flopped onto his back again.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Yue is engaged. She told me about it a few days ago, but she wasn't ready to tell anyone else at the time. She wanted to talk to Sokka in person."

"Oh." Aang joined them on the floor. "That actually makes a lot of sense."

Sokka threw his arms out to the sides, whacking Katara in the process. "How does it make sense that my dream girl told my sister about her engagement before me?"

She shoved his arm away. "Wow, Sokka, I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm her friend too?"

"No, that's not what I meant," Aang said. "I meant that it makes sense that Princess Yue is engaged. Lots of royalty gets engaged really young. You know, my friend Bumi was engaged even before I got frozen. He was only eleven back then."

Sokka's brow furrowed. "Remind me again why you didn't realize King Bumi was your old friend when we got to Omashu." He sighed and flopped onto his back again. "It's bad enough that she's engaged and I didn't know it. But why does it have to be Hahn? He's the worst."

Katara patted his shoulder. "For what it's worth, I don't think she's very happy about it either."

Another groan. "That doesn't make me feel better."

"Well then I don't know what to tell you. Yue is just trying to make the best of this whole mess."

"But it sucks."

"Yeah, it does. But if Yue wants to go through with it, then there's not much we can do."

Sokka frowned. "I can still beat Hahn in training."

"Yeah, that's probably fair," Katara said.

Aang nodded too. "You'll do great, Sokka! I'm sure you're doing really well in your lessons."

Katara didn't miss the grimace that flashed across Sokka's face, but before she could say anything, a knock came at the door.

Aang jumped up. "I've got it!"

Katara let him go and narrowed her eyes at Sokka. "Are you having problems in training?"

He scowled. "Are you always going to be this nosy?"

"Hey! I'm not nosy."

"Right. That's why you—"

From the door, a new voice interrupted them. "Good afternoon, Avatar Aang."

"Good afternoon, Master Yugoda," Aang answered cheerfully. "Are you here to see Katara?"

Katara stood and brushed herself off.

"As a matter of fact, I am," Yugoda said. She smiled around Aang's shoulder.

"Do you want to come in?" Katara offered.

With a nod, Yugoda stepped inside only to stop short when she almost bumped into Sokka's legs. Placing her hands on her hips, she looked down at him. "Is there something wrong, young man?"

"Sit up, Sokka," Katara hissed, jabbing him with a toe again.

He groaned long and low, but finally obeyed. "Hey, you're a healer, right? Can you do anything for a broken heart?"

"Oh, spirits, Sokka."

Yugoda, for some reason, humored him. She pinched her chin and folded her other arm around her middle. "Hmm. I have heard a few tricks in my day."

"Yeah? Like what?" asked Sokka.

"Have you considered gorging yourself with your favorite foods?"

His eyes widened, and his jaw hung slack for a second. "Whoa. That's genius."

A smile. "You don't get to my age without learning a few tricks." She grew serious again and turned to Katara. "I realize that you must be enjoying your day off, but Imiq has a few patients that you may find interesting. If you'll join me—"

Katara nodded. It wasn't like she had much else to do for the rest of the day. And as much as she still preferred combative waterbending to healing, she was much more inclined to spend free time helping Yugoda and Imiq than Pakku. "Of course. I'll be ready in just a minute."

"Wonderful." Yugoda paused, looking back and forth between the boys. "Since I am splitting you up on one of your free days, I think it's only fair that I do a little something in return. Would the three of you like to join me for dinner later tonight?"

Katara didn't have a chance to answer. Instead, Sokka shot to his feet. "We'll be there!"

Trudging through snow—even when it was relatively shallow snow on a solid shelf of ice—was harder than Zuko expected. Though he'd been to plenty of cold, snowy places around the world, he'd never really had to walk in the snow before, and certainly not for this long. In the past, he'd always been able to direct his ship wherever he needed to go. Except for a few times when the ship itself had been caught up in a storm, and the snow turned the deck so slick that it felt like walking on oil, Zuko had been able to avoid the stuff almost completely.

This was entirely different. Though he only sunk to a bit above his ankles, and the snow was almost impossibly soft, his legs felt a fraction heavier with each step. There was just enough uncertainty in the terrain—the layer of fluff on top of the ice made it impossible to see whether there were any unexpected rises or dips to avoid, or whether there were any weak spots in the ice—that walking was more difficult than it should be.

It didn't help that he was carrying a few weeks' worth of food, clothes, and blankets all in a bundle on his back. The supplies were heavier than he'd expected, and for some unfathomable reason, he was still carrying Frog Face along with him as well.

The bird perched on his shoulder, making strange creaking noises with every few steps. Zuko clenched his jaw. He was going to leave Frog Face behind. He didn't have a choice in the matter. But when he'd left the lifeboat behind—after dragging it well away from the channel and stashing it in a hollow between two ridges of ice—Frog Face had begun wobbling back toward the water again, and Zuko had had no choice but to grab the idiot bird. Now, he just had to find a place far, far away from the water to leave the bird so that it would neither topple into the sea and freeze to death nor alert a guard to Zuko's presence.

He wasn't going to get caught. He refused to. Zuko was good at things like this, and he knew better than to risk his own safety over some dumb bird.

Still, he did have to wonder what the Water Tribe would do to him if he was caught. Obviously nothing good. He'd probably be locked up, then interrogated, then executed. Possibly tortured somewhere in the middle if the Northern Tribe was anything like the other nations.

He wondered if Katara would find out about it. He wondered if it would matter to her.

Probably not. Katara had no real reason to care what happened to him, and still had plenty of reasons to hate him. All he could hope was that that would change a little when he had a chance to explain himself.

Zuko approached the edge of the rolling hills that he'd been passing through, and the land grew more windswept, less blanketed in soft, fluffy snow. Less sheltered and more stark and exposed.

Exhaling a few sparks, Zuko veered toward one of the last icy knolls before everything turned to barren ice before the city walls. He crouched down in the snow and slung his supplies off of his back.

"End of the line, Frog Face." He scooped up the bird and plopped it into the snow. "I hope it was worth spending all that time with me just to get stuck in the snow again."

Frog Face puffed up to practically twice its usual size and shrunk its neck down so far that its eyes almost disappeared into the feathers. Then, as though turning itself into a featureless ball of feathers the size of Zuko's head wasn't bad enough, Frog Face snapped all its feathers back down so that the surrounding snow went up in a puff. That, along with the horrible creaking sound it produced, was enough to put Zuko's teeth on edge.

He pushed himself back to his feet and snatched his supplies up. "Okay, that's enough creepy bird stuff. Try not to throw yourself headfirst into the ocean anymore. You're clearly not a water bird." He turned, but a raucous squawk stopped him in his tracks. "Fine," he grumbled, digging through his pack. He produced a small piece of jerky and tossed it in Frog Face's direction. "That's all you're getting from me."

Zuko turned away for real this time. The city was close. All he really had to do now was get there and find his way in.

Slowly, he made his way across the frozen, windswept stretch, sticking close to sharp rises and ridges to conceal his movement as much as he could. It was impossible to know whether anyone was keeping watch over this stretch of ice, or whether they would notice him if they were. Zuko's outfit did blend in fairly well with his surroundings. He, on the other hand, did not. He looked nothing like a Water Tribe kid, and once he got to the city, his clothes would stand out badly as well. Even from a distance, people would realize that Zuko wasn't meant to be here.

At least he knew that. At least he wasn't stupid enough to venture out into the open if he didn't have to.

He kept his eyes trained on the upper rim of the wall as he skirted along a jagged ridge of ice. No activity, no movement as far as he could see. That was good. But he couldn't see any obvious openings or weak points in the wall, nowhere he could scale the sheer incline without plunging back down and probably killing himself.

He kept creeping closer anyway. Sooner or later, he had to find a way inside. He'd found his way into Pouhai. He could do the same thing here, he was sure of it.

And sure enough, when he was almost at the base of the wall, Zuko came to the edge of a small, deep pool of water. A group of turtle seals barked at him as he drew nearer, and Zuko stopped at the edge, staring into the midnight blue depths.

This was a stupid idea. He was aware of that. But it looked like the pool might actually be a tunnel leading under the wall. It looked like it might be a way into the city.

A few of the turtle seals barked and then dove down into the water, disappearing through an opening that seemed too small for them to turn back around.

Zuko drew in a deep breath. This was definitely a stupid idea, but that had never stopped him before.

"You know, I totally get it now."

Katara shot a sideways glance at Sokka. It was late—much later than she'd expected it to be after their dinner with Yugoda—but she could still see his expression perfectly well in the dark. He looked smug in a 'just ate half his own weight' kind of way.

"What do you get?"

Sokka let out a belch. "I get why you're still going to healing lessons in your free time. Yugoda is a really good cook. Maybe even better than Gran-Gran." A pause. "But don't ever tell Gran-Gran that I said that."

Katara shook her head. "I'm pretty sure you'd say that for anyone who let you eat that much."

"Hey! That's—like maybe half true. If even. Besides, I didn't eat that much." He nudged Aang. "Just what Aang didn't want."

Aang frowned. "I really thought there would be more than just the seaweed soup. Why does everything up here have meat in it?"

Sokka raised his eyebrows, gesturing broadly around them. "Do you see a lot of plants around here?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Then there's your answer. Can't grow plants, must eat meat."

Aang's shoulders slumped, and Katara reached around to pat his back. "I think there's still quite a bit of rice and lentils left. Sokka and I can let you have all the rest if you don't like seaweed soup."

"Well, I do like it. Kind of. I just don't like having the same thing every day."

"There's always sea prunes," Sokka singsonged right by his ear.

Aang shuddered. "No! Seaweed is good. Seaweed is great. I love seaweed."

Sokka cackled, and when Katara turned to roll her eyes at him, she thought she caught a flicker of movement beyond his shoulder.

There was nothing strange about that. Not really. Things were usually fairly quiet in the city after dark, but it wasn't like the streets were ever truly deserted.

But she did a slight double take, and when she looked again, there was no one there. That wasn't normal. Katara knew that street well, and there was nowhere anyone could have disappeared in such a short time. Not unless they were sneaking. Not unless they were trying not to be seen. And no one should have been sneaking around there.

Unease settled into her stomach, and Katara's fists clenched. Something was wrong. She hadn't imagined the movement. There was someone else there.

"Are seaweed and sea prunes really the only kinds of food they have up here that aren't meat?" Aang asked.

"There's fish."

"That's still meat, Sokka."

"Hmm. Then I don't know. At the South Pole, we have some nuts and berries and stuff. Otherwise it's mostly meat. And maybe some kinds of moss."

"Ew. Moss sounds gross."

Sokka shrugged. "You're the one who won't eat meat, buddy. Sometimes that might mean that you have to eat a little moss."

Katara looked back down the street, and this time, there was just the briefest flicker of pale gray along the front of one of the buildings. Ha. She knew that she wasn't just imagining things.

She looked forward again. They weren't far from the house now. She could probably make it back to the house with the boys, then turn back around and investigate. But that might look suspicious. The boys might try to follow her, and something told her that that was a bad idea. Sneaking wasn't exactly their specialty, especially when they were together.

Which meant that she would have to ditch them as quickly as possible.

Carefully, she slipped one of her hands free from its mitten, and when neither of the boys were looking, dropped it into a snowbank and buried it with her bending.

"Oh no," she said, cutting them off mid-conversation. "Guys, I think I lost one of my mittens."

Sokka spun on her. "You did what?"

Katara waggled her bare fingers in front of his eyes. "Mitten. Lost it. See?"

He swatted her hand away. "Yeah, I see. But how did you lose one mitten?"

"If I knew that, it wouldn't be lost, would it?"

"We can help you look for it," Aang offered, tugging Sokka's arm. "If we split up, then—"

Katara shook her head. That was the last thing she wanted. "No, that's okay. I probably just dropped it somewhere between here and Yugoda's. You two might as well go home. I'll just retrace my steps and see if I can find it."

"Not so fast." Sokka caught her by the elbow. "You must be crazy if you think I'm going to let you wander around on your own after dark. What do you think is going to happen?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't know, Sokka. What do you think is going to happen?" She extracted her arm from his grip. "We're at the North Pole. It'll be fine. Besides, I know you're not going to want to walk around with me after you ate that much."

It took a bit more cajoling before Sokka finally gave in and plodded back toward the house with Aang. Katara, for her part, barely managed to wait for them to round the corner before she crouched down to unearth her mitten. Then, after checking only once to be sure that no one was watching, she took off at a run. Whoever was snooping around was quick, which meant that Katara had no time to waste if she wanted to catch up.

Luckily, she only had to go a few blocks before she saw the figure again, clearer this time. Relatively long and lanky, with a head full of dark hair, and dressed all in pale gray. And, most importantly, very much not Water Tribe. Or, at the very least, not dressed in Water Tribe clothing.

Suspicions confirmed, Katara moved as fast as she could after the figure. Whoever that was didn't belong in the city. It was a stranger, an intruder, and for all she knew, one with only the worst of intentions.

Of course, the only way to know for certain was to get near enough to find out who the stranger was and ask about their intentions. Katara opted for speed over stealth, sprinting down the street, footsteps as close to silent as she could manage while the stranger continued ducking from one shadow to the next. She still couldn't make out much more than the unfamiliar clothing and the dark hair, but she thoughtthat the stranger was a young man. Bigger than her, but not so big that she couldn't hold her own if it came to a fight.

Unfortunately, he seemed to notice Katara's approach just as she drew near enough to confront him. She was less than a dozen paces away when he emerged from yet another shadow and broke into a sprint where the street opened up alongside a canal.

Katara clenched her jaw. He wasn't getting away that easily. With a surge of energy, she swung her arms over her head from the side, drawing a bulge of water from the canal and dropping it over the stranger so that he fell flat on his back. Then, before he could move, Katara formed the water back into a column with the stranger at its top, and froze him there, leaving him looking a bit like an upended turtle seal.

"Don't try anything," Katara warned, a little out of breath. "I don't know who you are, but I can tell you aren't supposed to be here."

At the sound of her voice, the stranger stopped squirming, and Katara froze too. Her heart skipped a beat, then roared back faster than ever. That was weird. That was beyond weird.

Slowly, she edged closer until she could see his face in profile, and for an instant, she forgot how to breathe.

"Zuko? What on earth are you doing here?"

He met her eyes for just a fraction of a second before he started squirming in his icy restraints again. "Do you really think that I planned that far ahead?"

Author's Note:

I had the last line of this chapter figured out for so long that I was actually a little worried about whether it would work when I got around to writing the chapter, but it turned out just right, and I'm SO excited that I finally got to post it!

Seems like this would be a good time for my updates to come out a little quicker, doesn't it? Y'know, with Katara and Zuko finally being reunited and all.

Well, luckily I have been working ahead and (mostly by coincidence, if I'm honest - I would've had a hard time finding a better place to pick up speed, though), I've finally built up enough of an editing buffer to do weekly updates for a while! For the month of November, I'll be posting a new chapter every single Sunday. I'm doing NaNo again this year, so I won't get much editing done during that, and I'll have to go back to updating every two weeks in December, but enjoy the weekly updates while they last!

Reviews are always appreciated, and thanks for reading!