Zuko scrubs at a stubborn remnant of food along the edge of a bowl as he kneels in the snow outside, letting the mindless task calm and consume his brain.

"You're up awfully early."

The prince just barely refrains from startling at the sound of Kya's voice behind him. He can still vividly picture the softly apologetic look she'd given when her unexpected presence had pulled a flinch out of him on the day before, and it's not an expression that he particularly wants to see directed at himself again.

Zuko turns to face her with a greeting nod, glancing towards the sun beginning to rise out of the horizon. The hazy morning light illuminates the white expanse of snow and the calmly stirring village around them.

"Firebender habit."

His voice comes out with a slight croak from disuse. Zuko clears his throat self-conciously as Kya nods in understanding and moves to kneel beside him gently in the snow.

She watches him with a shimmer of concern in her eyes, pointing to the soapy bowl in his hands.

"You.. don't have to do that, you know?"

Zuko shakes his head slightly, still scrubbing as he replies.

"I know. I just want to make sure that I'm pulling my weight here."

Kya's searching gaze doesn't leave him.

"... just as long as you know that you don'thaveto."

Zuko's hands finally still their motions in the soapy water. He knows exactly how true Kya's words are.

He doesn't have to earn his place with them. For the first time in his life, Zuko is with people who truly expect nothing else from him in return for their help. They just.. want Zuko to be himself.

That knowledge lifts an impossibly heavy weight from his chest, a weight that he's carried for as long as he can remember.

Zuko turns to face her with a soft smile.

"I know."

Kya returns a pleased smile of her own, finally seeming satisfied with that answer. She slides her hand over his uneven hair affectionately, pointing to the small pile of dirty dishes that's sat in the snow beside him.

"Hand me one of those. I am pretty skilled at this by now, after all."

The prince nods and extends a plate towards her, carefully nudging a bowl of dishwater closer to them.

Kya dips a rag into the water, but pulls her fingers back almost immediately with a quiet exclamation.

Zuko's eyebrows shoot up in worry.

"The water isn't too hot, is it? I'm sorry, I'm used to getting it-"

Kya reassures him with a quick shake of her head, letting her hand slip back under the surface of warm water.

"No, not at all.. It actually feels quite nice."

She lifts the wet rag out of the water and squeezes it over the plate, a gentle chuckle slipping past her lips.

"If anyone else in the village finds out just how useful your firebending is, the whole tribe is going to start wanting turns with you at their home."

The prince's lip pulls up into an entertained smirk, but his amusement fades as he catches sight of the man watching them from a slight distance.

The older water-tribe man's wrinkled features are twisted into something bitter as his gaze locks onto Zuko, staring for another short moment before he pushes back into his own hut brusquely.

Zuko dips his head, an uncomfortable pit forming in his chest. He attempts to keep the sudden and sharp weariness that's crept into his heart out of his voice.

"Perhaps they will."

Kya slows her movements, sensing the shift in the air between them. She brushes her thumb against the back of Zuko's hand as she speaks.

"Once they get a chance to know you like we have, they'll see the same thing that my family has seen."

The prince turns to look at her after a moment, a question softly showing in his eyes.

Kya smiles.

"A fine young man.. one that's worth knowing."

Zuko exhales faintly, a shaky but grateful smile growing slowly on his face.

Kya gives his smaller hand a tender squeeze, comfortable silence settling between them as they begin washing once again.

Zuko sorts the last cleaned plate off into a small cabinet just before Katara and Sokka burst into the room, a flurry of chatter between them.

"Dad, comeon!We're losing daylight here.."

Hakoda shuffles into the room moments after Sokka's whine, rubbing at his bleary eyes.

The chief's son sighs dramatically at his father's sluggish pace.

"I don't understand why you still have to come with us. We're not even going out that far!"

Hakoda tries to infuse parental authority into his voice, but a man who was recently woken from sleep by a pair of sharp knees to the abdomen is only capable of so much.

"If I let you go alone and you end up in the digestive tract of a polar bear-dog, you know I'll never hear the end of it from your mother. I simply can't risk that."

Kya rolls her eyes as discreetly as possible from the other side of the room. Sokka evidently feels no need for such subtlety as he lets out a slow (and loud) groan.

"Be serious, dad. We're not babies anymore, and we'll be fine as long as it's the three of us together."

Hakoda pauses suddenly at that, sharing a surprised glance with Kya before he turns his curious gaze back onto Sokka.

"The three of you? So.. Zuko is coming along to play as well?"

"Yeah. You're coming too, aren't you, Zuko?"

Zuko blinks confusedly as four pairs of blue eyes lock onto him curiously.

"Uhhh-"

Sokka whirls back around to face his father with a definitive nod.

"See? He's coming."

Hakoda surveys Zuko's wide-eyed expression for another short moment before he inclines his head agreeably.

"Alright, run along. But be back home before it gets late."

Sokka looses a victorious exclamation and sprints outside after the words have barely left his father's mouth, Katara sending an excited grin towards Zuko before she follows her sibling speedily.

Zuko's amber eyes flit between the chief and the spot where his children had bolted outside, confusion and a touch of hesitance filling his gaze.

"I.. I'll watch them closely, sir. I promise I won't let anything happen to them, you can count on m-"

Hakoda gently interrupts what seems to be turning into a very passionate speech, his lips quirking upwards fondly.

"I don't doubt for a second that they'll be absolutely safe in your care, Zuko."

Any remaining hesitance vanishes from the prince's eyes with those words, warm gratitude taking its place.

After a moment, Hakoda gestures outside towards the two shrinking shapes in the distance.

"They.. will be long gone any time now, though..."

Zuko's eyes widen, his head twisting around before he catches sight of a pair of gloves that are quickly snatched into his hands.

"Oh! Of course, you're very right, sir, I'll be-hey! Slow down and wait for me!"

Hakoda fails to resist a grin as Zuko rushes outside and takes off into a vaguely panicked run after the children. Kya's grin matches his own, though it looks to be perhaps even wider and prouder.

Kya comes to stand beside her husband, the total and rare silence of their home seemingly setting a wheel to turning inside her head.

"... do you have anything pressing to do at the moment?"

The chief shakes his head thoughtfully, a knowing gleam shining in his eyes.

"I'm free. Why.. did you have something in mind?"

Kya's faux-considerate hum tells him all that he needs to know.

Zuko lays motionless in the snow, waiting patiently. After a few moments, he hears the distinct crunch of snow underneath boots.

The prince springs up out of the snow indentation he's hidden himself in, lobbing a snowball as gently as he can while still sending it flying.

It strikes Sokka's unsuspecting back with a soft thud. The water-tribe boy whips around with gobsmacked disbelief on his face, an expression which only intensifies once he sees his attacker.

"Aw, no way!Yougot the drop on me?? But..how-you're like, the most twitchy person I've ever met, and your hair is like an expertly crafted fishing lure-"

Zuko brushes off the remaining snow on his clothes with humble indifference.

Sokka drops his own tightly clutched snowball with petulant disappointment.

"Just beginner's luck, that's all.. and we seriously need to work on your snowball-tossing skills. You throw like a girl."

His sentence is barely finished when a rapid volley of snowballs are driven into his back forcefully.

The chief's son turns around unhurriedly, his mouth dropped open in an offended gape.

Katara snickers through her proud grin as she's noticed, stood atop a small hill of snow.

"I think my throwing skills arejuuustfine, Sokka."

Sokka shudders, wiggling his arms and yanking at his coat in an attempt to remove some of the tundra remaining on his clothes.

"Ooh...that was cold in more ways than one, baby sister."

Katara is sent into another fit of giggles as she slowly descends the small hill of snow, her cheeks flushed from a combination of giddy amusement and brisk winter air.

Sokka's eye is drawn to his sister's bare right hand as she ambles closer.

"What happened to your glove?"

Katara's laughter trails off gently as she turns her attention onto the missing glove, taking a quick glance back up to the mountain of snow behind her.

"Oh.. I must've lost it when I was digging in the snow."

She flexes her hand, fingers clenching numbly. A slight wince is forced out of her, the fading adrenaline leaving her nerves more aware of the penetrating cold.

Sokka rolls his eyes without any real annoyance, already beginning to pull his fingers loose from one of his own gloves.

"Here, put on one of mine before frostbite gets your fingers more blackened than dad's cooking."

Zuko hesitates for a moment, gathering his courage as he nods to Katara's hand.

"Wait. I.. can help with that. But, only if it's okay with you, of course."

Katara doesn't hesitate in the slightest, curiosity filling her voice at his offer.

"Sure! I'd really appreciate that, Zuko."

Sokka's eyes narrow slightly, tinged with cautious suspicion. For once, Zuko actually doesn't mind it. In truth, Sokka's fiercely protective nature towards all of his loved ones has always been one of his most respectable traits in the prince's eyes.

Zuko shuffles closer to Katara, bringing his hand up in between them slowly. Every tendon across his fingers and palm tenses as he attempts to firebend more carefully than he ever has before.

Concentration etches onto Zuko's face, a spark being pulled out of thin air just before a small flame flickers to life above his hand.

Katara's eyes widen, lifting her numb hand to hover near the fire.

"That is...amazing."

Zuko carefully keeps his breathing even and calm as a warm, pleased feeling settles in his chest after he hears the gentle wonder in Katara's voice.

Before, when the prince had joined Aang and the rest of his friends, they.. always watched his fire with something dark in their eyes, a deeply distrustful suspicion that never truly faded, even after they'd begun to trust the boy himself.

And Zuko would never blame them for that. The only person he could fault for his friends feeling that way resided in the mirror, a truth that he was intimately aware of.

But that didn't make it hurt any less. Didn't make the fear and resentment that he began to harbor towards his own inner fire feel any less unnatural and unsettling.

The way that Katara watches his flames now, though.. the eagerly interested awe on her face warms some deep and integral part of his being, and Zuko knows for certain that he'll do whatever it takes to make sure that his friends never have to look at this part of him with that dark suspicion ever again.

He hears the soft crunch of snow as Sokka steps closer, the other boy raising his gloved hand to hang near the flickering heat. The chief's son aims a slowly growing grin at Zuko.

"Yeah... I suppose amazing sounds about right."

Kya raises her leg to drape it across Hakoda's waist, settling her bare skin against his as the faint sheen of sweat cools rapidly on their bodies. She lays her head in the cradle of his neck and shoulder, bumping her nose against his jaw softly.

"Do you think we should go ahead and get dressed? The kids could be back soon.."

Hakoda's quiet chuckle flows past her ear.

"Are you and I thinking of the same children? The ones that we typically have to drag back inside before the sun goes down?"

Kya grins against her husband's collarbone.

"True. Well, we haven't had the time for a moment like this in too long.. I wasn't terribly keen on rushing it anyways."

She flattens her hand on his chest, the thrum of his heartbeat steady underneath her fingers.

"You'll have to leave again soon, won't you?"

Hakoda's sigh is distinctly tired.

"Yes. The information that Zuko gave us was.. unnerving, to say the least. As soon as we have a solid plan in place, I want to go with the men personally to handle it."

Kya nods in forlorn understanding, her eyes closing as she nestles in closer to her husband. She decides to move the topic onto a potentially happier subject.

"Do... you think that Zuko is going to be leaving soon? Or rather staying indefinitely, maybe?"

Hakoda hums thoughtfully, trailing his fingers over Kya's shoulder.

"I'm not sure.. I suppose we'd have to ask him."

Kya chews her lip softly in contemplation.

".. I hope he stays. I think we'd miss him if he was gone... don't you?"

Hakoda gives an affectionately bemused shake of his head.

"Somehow I don't think we'll get the chance to find out if we'd miss him or not, darling."

Zuko sucks in a deep, steadying breath as he gazes out over the seemingly endless expanse of snow and ice ahead of him.

He's starting to get the sinking feeling that finding Aang won't be as easy as he'd hoped.

A voice cutting through the air pulls him from his worried thoughts.

"Zuko!All of that snowy combat made us hungry, let's head home, c'mon!"

The young prince takes one last long and pleading look at the icy tundra that swallows up everything around him before he turns away and begins treading through the snow.

Katara and Sokka wait patiently (and impatiently), taking up pace beside the prince as he meets them.

Zuko feels his mind drifting as they trudge through the snow, the sounds of whipping wind and squabbling sibling conversation washing over him.

For a moment there, when he'd been covered in snow and fighting back laughter with his friends, Zuko had almost been able to forget every single one of his worries and troubles, setting them aside while the task of simply making Sokka and Katara smile briefly became his most important priority in the world.

He'd felt... like a child. Zuko tries to remember the last time he'd experienced that feeling, but his memory fails him.

Zuko had never been allowed to feel or act like a child, even when he actually was one.

Hecannotlet himself lose focus of his responsibility, hewill notrisk forgetting his mission and the friends that he still has to save, but... in the end, this is what he's fighting for. He's fighting for family dinners with loving endearments and jovial conversation, for childish moments of joy in the snow.

If meeting his friends and the family that they form together has taught him anything.. It is that those moments are absolutely worth fighting for.

A pair of gloved fingers tapping gently on his shoulder catches the prince's attention.

"Zuko? Are you feeling alright?"

His eyebrows furrow together as he turns his head to look at Katara.

"... why do you ask?"

She raises an eyebrow of her own.

"You've gone pretty quiet for the last few minutes."

Understanding rises to his features, Zuko's expression closing off slightly as he responds.

"Oh. Um, yes, I'm perfectly fine. I just.. have a few things on my mind, that's all."

Katara shifts her gaze onto Sokka, some indecipherable thought being shared between the siblings with a glance.

Sokka smooths a hand over his hair out of nervous habit, speaking up hesitantly.

".. hey, uh... you can talk to us about.. y'know, anything that's bothering you, if you want. We know that grown-ups can be hard to talk to sometimes, so."

Katara chimes in once it becomes clear that Sokka has said all that he intends to, the young waterbender keeping her tone as light and soft as possible.

"You can trust us, is.. what he's trying to say."

Zuko's expression turns undeniably fond, his response being delivered without a moment of hesitation.

"I do trust you. Both of you."

Katara's smile is warm and pleased, though Sokka is noticeably silent (a decidedly rare event)

"... but why?"

A quietly defeated groan slips out of Katara at her brother's words, the older sibling shrugging defensively as he continues.

"I mean really! You've only known us for.. barely half of a week."

Zuko's sigh is equal parts exasperation and amusement.

"It feels like it's been much longer than that for some reason..."

Sokka's face scrunches up in consternation, but his face evens out with something approaching respect in his eyes.

"Well... I can't say it's not weird, but. You won't regret putting your trust in us. That's a promise."

Zuko nods solemnly. He knows for a fact that Sokka's confidence in those words is far from empty.

As their conversation tapers off, they reach the edge of the tribe.

Zuko's bubble of momentary ease is punctured by the first glare he receives. As the three of them venture further into the village, he's greeted with more.

Not all of them are obvious about it, but subtlety doesn't make the hateful stares sting any less.

Zuko can sense Sokka's displeasure and Katara's steadily growing frustration beside him. He doesn't have to guess when her breaking point arrives, because Katara shoves out her tongue almost violently at the next person who sneers at Zuko.

Sokka is momentarily torn between shock and pride, taking his baby sister's lead after a short moment as he sticks out his tongue and adds in a particularly rude gesture he'd learned from Bato for good measure.

Zuko's smile is small, but as warm as the flames that fall from his fingertips.