Chapter Twenty: Day 4, Avoiding Music Night

Hanako had been laughing at Katara all day. So when the woman simply stood back and grinned as they prepared for their post-sparring bath in the room-she'd-learned-to-knock-on-before-entering, Katara narrowed her eyes with all due suspicion.

"Hey, waterbender," the woman said. And pointed. "Spin that knob."

Katara narrowed her eyes even more. And did not touch the shiny metal circle. Teruko rolled her eyes, and did it for her.

The room rained. Katara yelped, and jumped back towards the lockers.

"It's called a shower," the engineer smirked. "Fire Nation technology at its finest. I swear, if we just went around setting these puppy-cats up in every town, the world would welcome us with open arms. Great, isn't it?"

...Katara eased a hand under the pattering water. "It's a little cold."

Teruko snerked, and reached for the soap. Hanako looked like she'd been personally insulted. "It's—you—! That water comes straight off the boiler! You're from the South Pole!"

"Steam baths are warmer." Katara shrugged, leaving the woman sputtering as she washed her hair. "What, can't firebenders take the heat?"

It was her first victory over the woman all day. It wasn't in combat, but she'd take it.

Afterwards, when Katara was doing her best to prove that waterbending got hair dry faster than firebender steaming and Teruko was shaking her head at both of them, Katara declined the engineer's offer to go to dinner.

"Maybe when it's less crowded," Katara said

"Yeah. That's… not going to happen, tonight."

"Why?"

"Oh, you'll see. Or hear. Beat you up again tomorrow, waterbender." The woman waved over her shoulder as she left.

Teruko took up her usual post outside the door. Katara unlocked it, stepped inside—

And stared at the boy frozen halfway through the room's porthole.

"...I thought you'd be at dinner," Zuko said. "Umm. I can explain?"

Katara did not shove him into the sea. This was an action that showed her maturity, she thought, as she grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dragged him inside.

Explanation attempt one:

"I need a map."

"There aren't any maps in here," the waterbender pointed out.

"I mean, I need clothes. To get a map?"

"Why is that a question," she asked, "and how does that make sense?"

Zuko ran both hands through his hair (it was just long enough that this action changed it from 'unkempt' to 'licked by an aardvark-sloth'). "Umm. Can't you just… pretend I'm not here for five minutes? And then I'll—"

"Climb out the porthole?" The waterbender crossed her arms.

"Well what was I supposed to do, you locked the door!"

"Because I didn't want you coming in!"

"It's my room!"

The waterbender crossed her arms, and tapped her foot, and generally made waiting for an explanation look like pausing before throttling him. Zuko took in a few deep breaths.

Explanation attempt two:

Zuko opened his mouth, and shut it again. And roughed his hair from licked by an aardvark-sloth to hedgehog-hawk in a windstorm. He'd never had to explain his Blue Spirit excursions to anyone before, because the whole point was not getting caught. When he tried to put it into words, it sounded… a little silly. 'Hey, Prince Zuko here. I put on a theater mask and dash around the palace sometimes. None of my guards notice, and Azula still doesn't know how her favorite toys ended up in the rafters of the Fire Temple right before Father's speech that one time.'

Zuko crossed his arms. "I'm a prince. I don't have to explain."

The waterbender walked to the porthole. Closed it. Latched it. The main door was still locked, with the key presumably in her pocket. She tapped her foot some more.

Explanation attempt three:

"...You put on a theatre mask," the peasant said really slowly, like she was trying to wringe the stupidity out of each syllable.

Zuko had already flushed. Now he was approaching Maximum Redness. "Yes."

"And… go on secret missions."

"I train my stealth. It's a mission-critical skill. When you're trying to be secretive," Zuko said. The waterbender rubbed at her temples. "If you have a headache, pinching the bridge of your nose—"

"I wouldn't have a headache if you—ugh!" She flopped back on his futon, her hands over her face.

Zuko took this as implicit permission to rummage through his clothes chest. Move those to the side, feel along the edge, press there and there at the same time—and the secret bottom for his secret clothes clicked open (actually, it was just a board he's found that fit into the bottom really well, but one of these days he would definitely have a chest with a proper secret bottom. Everyone knew you had to visualize the future you wanted or one day you'd wake up and your little sister would have your throne). Zuko pulled out the mask and his dark clothes, and started edging towards the porthole.

...He edged back, grabbed another normal shirt to wear tomorrow. Then made for the porthole again.

"Wait. Where are you getting this map from?"

"The communications outpost," Zuko said. She sat up, giving him a the-what-now? look. "It's about three miles from where we anchored."

"And the ones on your ship aren't good, because…?"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Because they're naval charts. They don't have the latest troop movements. I need to know what's officially Fire Nation territory now, and where the front is, and what towns Sokka might think were safe to camp by. We already have his general location from the hawk pings—"

"The what?"

"Hawk pings. If you send a hawk and someone sends it back as soon as they can think up fifty-three different titles, and you measure the time it takes, you can figure out distance. Like counting the time between lightning and thunder. It doesn't usually work against enemies because they typically shoot hawks, not send them back, but—"

"Wait. You're hunting Aang! Again!" And now she was back on her feet and shouting.

Zuko made little frantic please be quiet gestures. "I'm not hunting the Avatar! Or I guess I am, he'll be there, but I was hunting your stupid brother!"

"...I want in."

But I only have one mask, was not a valid point. Zuko went for the more eloquent option: "What?"

"I want in," Katara repeated, her eyes narrowed. "Sokka is being an idiot. And he's my brother."

Zuko might have argued, but he picked up a sound in the hall. Something ominous. Something coming closer at a steady, inexorable gait. "Okay. But we need to go now."

"Why?"

Someone cheerfully knocked on the door. "Miss Katara, would you care to join us? It's music night! Also, have you seen my nephew?"

Zuko shuddered.

Iroh had not found his nephew, and the Lady Waterbender did not care to join them for music night. Why, she had not even opened her door. He hoped that these facts were related—how nice it would be for the two of them to get along! Especially if getting along meant staying out of the way all night.

Iroh clapped his hands, and smiled at the assembled crewmen. "Welcome to our second monthly music night! Having heard your enthusiasm and unique interpretations last month, I have decided to audition crewmen for our remaining instruments! Genji, please come with me. Everyone else… please, don't forget to tune before you begin!"

"Sir, I don't play any—" the Hawker protested, as Iroh hooked an arm through his and dragged him away.

The room they went to did indeed contain multiple musical instruments, including his nephew's very own tsungi horn, which the boy kept tragically misplacing while they had packed. Fortunately, Zuko had not thought to look inside of his dear Uncle's tea crates, and so the instrument had made it aboard.

The room also had a chair. One. Iroh offered it to the Hawker, quite jovially.

So many of the crew were taller than him. It was only when they were sitting that he could properly loom.

"Sir…?" Genji asked, suddenly nervous.

"Commander Zhao knew many interesting things about our passenger list, Master Hawker," Iroh began. And smiled.

Genji very much wished he could return to music night.

The boat scraped up against the sand. Two figures jumped out into the surf, and dragged it up the shore and into the tree line. The one in the Blue Spirit mask worked to cover it in leaves and branches; the one with a dark cloth wrapped over forehead and nose and mouth wiped a branch over their back trail, obscuring the drag mark and their prints. A blue pendant glinted at the figure's throat.

"Which direction?" the Blue Spirit asked.

"That way," Zuko answered, still scowling behind his stupid headscarf. Which he'd been doing since she stole his mask.

It happened like this:

"Why do you even have a mask?" the waterbender asked. "You can turn around now." She'd pulled on his second-darkest set of clothes, pulling the shirt inside-out so the gold trim didn't show so much.

"My mother gave it to me. She really likes the theatre. Liked." Sometimes he said it both ways, to see if one of them felt more true. "She—"

The waterbender snatched the mask. Right out of his hands. There was a startled look on her face, like she hadn't planned this so much as heard 'mother' and stole it on reflex. He jumped for it, but she held it above his head and stood on her tiptoes and elbowed him when he tried to knock her over.

"Give it back!" he wheezed.

"Give my mom's necklace back."

Princes did not bend to ransom demands. "Keep it," he growled. And later, as she waited in the little boat he and Iroh had taken to Kyoshi, he'd said I forgot something and climbed back up to Uncle's porthole.

And unwrapped the necklace. And put it on. And climbed down to the boat and sat down and crossed his arms and waited for her to notice.

Her silent rage cut down their rowing time significantly.

Hawker Genji returned to music night paler than he'd departed, and tapped another crewman on the shoulder. "He wants you next."

"That bad, huh?" the crewman laughed.

The crewman stopped laughing as he took a seat in the room, and looked up at Iroh's smile.

"I hear that you spoke with one of Zhao's men," the retired general said.

"Look before you step!" the prince hissed.

"I am looking! It's dark!" Katara hissed back. And it wasn't like Zuko wasn't just as loud, too. What would a prince raised in a palace know about moving through forests? Less than a girl raised on the tundra.

Then they hit the little town, and Zuko vanished.

"Keep up," a shadow said.

"...How did you do that?"

The shadow elaborately sighed. So began Katara's sneaking lesson. Alleys and overhangs, window ledges and gutters and roofs, and how to soothe startled owl-cats with a quick pinch of pygmy-puma-nip that he apparently kept in his pockets. For the dog-lizards, he had seal jerky, and knew a spot right behind their ears that did the trick. It was the same spot that polar dogs liked.

And suddenly they were there: the communications building rose above them, lit up with torches and patrolled by men (or women) that were indistinguishable from Zuko's crew. But a lot scarier, somehow.

"Do they have a spot behind their ears?" Katara whispered, skeptically.

"Even better," he said, and led the way.

But something still bugged her.

"Why are you humming?" Katara asked.

"I'm not!"

"—It wasn't like we were talking talking. I mean, they were talking to me, but I was just…"

"I see," the General said. Perfectly neutral.

The crewman gulped. "Look, Zhao's guys kept sitting with us. But… but Kazuto and Kyo, they sat with Zhao's guy. If you know what I mean."

"Thank you," the General said, in exactly the same tone.

Fire Nation technology included 'sewer systems'. These were tunnels that went under every 'settled and civilized' town. Katara had never heard of them, but knew better than to mention this to Zuko. He still noticed her surprise and scoffed appropriately anyway.

"Our ground is frozen," she defended. "And why would you want to build tunnels for poop anyway, instead of using a chamberpot like a normal person?"

"Come on, savage," Zuko said. "...And don't bend the water."

"I wasn't going to—!"

He shushed her. It took all of her willpower not to bend at him, and that was only because she didn't want any of this touching the room where she had to shower, too.

"—She's really scary, sir." Helmsman Kyo had started, and he couldn't seem to stop. "I know we've been sticking close to shore anyway for the hawk pings, but she's one tantrum away from us needing the lifeboats. And if Kazuto's right about her dad, we're one message away from having the Water Tribe fleet slitting our throats while we sleep—"

The General let out a slow breath. "Helmsman Kyo, you will request a transfer at the next port."

It took him a moment to process that. "But… there aren't any other ships lower than this. I mean—even if there were, I like serving under the prince! He's… I know he's always going on about regaining his honor, but he's probably lost more honor than most people ever had, sir."

"Yet you do not trust his judgement."

"He's twelve. Sir."

"You will request a transfer at the next port," the General repeated, and continued to look down on him with a quiet disappointment that hurt more than any shouting his old commanders had ever done.

"But it's… it's just the infantry after this, sir. I, I can't— …Yes, sir."

In the third room they checked, Zuko found his maps.

"Just shove it in your shirt," the waterbender insisted, having much recent experience in the scroll-stealing department.

"Then they'll know someone was here." Zuko held the map flat, and scanned it for the details he needed. The fighting front had moved—there. It followed the course of the Yalong River until there, and then it bordered the Han Forest down to the Foggy Swamp. So that town had flipped, and that town, and he could figure out the rest once he was in front of the maps back on the Wani. Now that he knew where the line was, he could figure out a range Sokka would be in. Piandao had taught him this, once: how to look at something, and break it into the important details at a glance. Of course, Piandao had taught him with landscape painting; Zuko had maybe muttered a lot about how useless it was until he'd seen his first war maps.

"Zuko," the waterbender hissed, her ear pressed against the door.

He let the map roll shut, slid the ribbon back on, and left it exactly where he'd found it. There were footsteps in the hallway; he could hear them now. And while there was always a chance that the person was going to a different room… that would be lucky. Zuko knew his luck.

And besides, he'd been teaching the waterbender all night. Time for her practical exam.

"Zuko!" she protested, as he disappeared out the window.

The window that was two floors up, which might have been jumpable but there was a patrol going past below them right at that instant. Because of course there was. And this sliver of roof didn't connect to much, he would have to climb up a level to the main roof to get anywhere. But there were eyes shining down at him from there. Pygmy pumas. A whole pack, because of course there was.

He knew his luck. He just… sometimes forgot.

Katara dropped down next to him. Zuko caught her arm before she could slide too far, and braced his own feet so he didn't slide with her. Back inside the room, the door opened. They both instinctively hunkered a little lower. One of the pygmy puma hissed above them, irritated at these interlopers in its night. Another growled. And then there was a row of eyes glaring down at them, and the patrol was one angry yowl away from looking up—

...Huh.

The Blue Spirit turned to him, and even with the mask he could feel her don't do it look. Not like she even knew what he was planning.

Zuko slid the pygmy-puma-nip out of his pocket. Opened it. And threw the contents down on the patrol below.

This proved to be a sufficient distraction for them to reach the main roof.

"You will request a transfer at the next port, Pikeman Kazuto."

Kazuto took a slow breath in, and let it out. "Yes, sir." It would be a relief to get away from the sea, anyway. Probably. "Look after the prince for me, sir?"

It earned him the first real smile the General had ever turned his way.

Zuko didn't know why she was complaining, they'd made it out fine.

"We could have been killed!"

"A lot of things in my life are like that," Zuko said, which apparently did not help. At least she was keeping her voice down to whisper-shouts.

"You're a prince! Couldn't you have just requisitioned that map, or something?"

"Could have." If they didn't have orders not to help me, from Zhao or my— from Zhao. And if anyone suspected a break in after I'd asked, they'd know it was me. "But then I wouldn't get to practice stealth."

She didn't kill him at all, not even when they got back to the boat and slipped it back into the waves. She just threatened to a lot, but didn't mean it at all. Something in Zuko's shoulders relaxed as the litany of murder methods rolled over him.

Sokka's sister was not Azula.

Teruko traded off Waterbender Watch with the night guard, and headed over to music night. She didn't even have a chance to sit down before Helmsman Kyo was nervously shooting glances her way. And, wonder of wonders, he actually approached.

"Hey. Would you like to dance?"

"Thought you'd never ask," she said.

Neither of them knew how to dance, it turned out. It was a fact which didn't make much difference.

"You and me," Teruko said, as they barely avoided crashing into Genji and Dekku, and where had a Hawker and an Assistant Cook learned to move like that? "Dinner at the next port?"

"Yeah," Kyo smiled, sort of wanly. "I'd love to."

Which wasn't a yes, but she didn't realize that then.

They tumbled back through the porthole to the sound of knocking. There were a lot of whispers and elbows and you get it, no you's as Katara hid a mask behind her back and Zuko pulled off his headscarf and shrugged a regular not-secret-mission shirt over his black one. She shoved him towards the door when his arms were half trapped by the new robe, because she was a traitorous barbarian, but the joke was on her because the door was still locked.

They were both standing in the doorway when she finally opened it. The knocking had persisted, at polite intervals, the entire time.

"Good evening, Miss Katara," Uncle beamed. "Ah, nephew! So wonderful to see you making friends. I have been knocking on your door so long, I was almost starting to believe you had both snuck out to do ill-advised activities in Fire Nation territory. You'll tell your dear uncle if you're having a dragon pox relapse, won't you?"

Zuko tried to hide from that genial smile behind Katara, but she was already hiding behind him. Because, to repeat, she was a traitorous barbarian. "...We were just avoiding music night."

"But you must come! It is imperative for crew morale."

Katara was still standing behind him when he tried taking a step back. And she was apparently still a little angry that some of the puma-nip had gotten on her, which was not his fault it was the wind's, did he look like an airbender? And so when he stepped back—

She shoved him forwards. "Well, Zuko. If it's for crew morale."

"And of course," Iroh continued, "we must properly introduce them to our Lady Waterbender! Would you believe that some of the crew are scared of you, Miss Katara?"

Zuko latched onto her arm and refused to let her retreat. "Scared of you," he said. "How horrible. It's like they know you."

"Don't you mean they don't know me?" Katara narrowed her eyes.

Zuko had meant what he said, and did not offer a correction. This led to additional shoving. Uncle indulgently shepherded them down the halls, ignoring any and all squabbles. He had two empty seats and a tsungi horn waiting for them. Zuko's tsungi horn, hadn't he hidden that in one of the palace's secret passages? Uncle handed it to… Katara.

"I don't know how to play this," she said.

"That's fine," Uncle continued to beam, "we're having auditions! Just blow really hard."

"That's not how that works," Zuko tried to say, but was drowned out by Katara's playing. 'Playing' here meaning 'torturing a musical instrument.' Across the deck, the iguana-parrot shrieked and flew off Lieutenant Jee's shoulder. The shriek had a more recognizable melody than whatever Katara was—

—what Katara was—

—she wouldn't.

Katara didn't know how to play whatever this loopy metal thing was. But that didn't stop her from trying to puff out the song the prince had been humming during their little mission.

"Give me that!" he shouted, and wrestled the thing away from her. She didn't put up much of a fight. Just enough that he wouldn't get suspicious until it was too late.

"Ah, Zuko!" his Uncle said. "I did not know you missed the tsungi horn so badly!"

Which is how Zuko ended up treating the entire crew to The Blue Spirit's Theme, an Arrangement for the Tsungi Horn.

It did not help when Lieutenant Jee joined in on the pipa. Or when people clapped at the end.

"I'm going to bed," he stated-not-shouted, and fled. The smirking evil savage barbarian traitor waterbending sister followed his stomping out.

They ended up back in Katara's room, because both of them needed to not be wearing their Secret Mission clothes the next time Iroh looked. Zuko scowled and muttered something suspiciously like this-is-my-room when she yelled at him to turn around, and ended up sulking on the futon. By the time she was done, it was more of a finally-my-own-bed flop combined with an adrenaline crash. He didn't look much like the enemy when he was yawning. Just when he caught her catching him yawning, and brought back out that scowl.

"Why are you even trying to catch Aang?" Katara asked.

He scowled harder, and burrowed into the pillow just a little bit. "I have to. My father believes I can do this."

"You're twelve."

"So is the Avatar."

For the first time Katara realized that, except in reverse. Aang was twelve and a goofball and a kid. And… Zuko went on dangerous self-appointed missions while humming his own theme song. That was… pretty kid-like behavior. She eased down onto the bed next to him, and tactically ignored it when he stole the pillow completely.

"My dad left Sokka and I behind when he went to war. He trusted us to watch over our village. I was twelve, too."

Zuko eyed her. One eye, the good one, staring over the fluff of being face-first in a pillow. "But you left. Without his permission."

"We had to, but I think our dad would understand that this is more important. Even if he doesn't… I know I'm doing what's right." She leaned back against the wall. "What will your dad do with Aang, if you catch him?"

"I will catch him."

"Okay then. When you catch him, what then?"

"...I don't know."

She tucked her legs up on the bed. "Dads expect a lot, and it's hard to let them down. But sometimes that's what's right. Can you promise me you'll think about it?"

The pillow twitched with his nod.

The Blue Spirit mask was on the floor by her hand, and mom's necklace with still around his neck. They'd talked about fathers, but neither of them talked about mothers, because both of them had talked about them in the past tense.

"Sokka's stupid," he mumbled. "You're not an awful sister."

Which was probably why she didn't kick the prince back out to the mercy of music night. And if anyone asked, she didn't tuck him in. No one could prove anything anyway, since he immediately kicked the blanket half-way off. She could see why: she didn't need any extra blankets, either. It was a warm bed.

...Sokka was still waiting for that hawk. Yep. Just sitting here, in the dark, patiently waiting. Patient was he, and he was panic. Patient! He'd meant patient. If there was one thing he was not doing, it was definitely not panicking. Nope.

"Aang I'm borrowing Appa stay here don't get caught avoid swimming with large marine animals don't ride anything without a saddle bye!"

"What—? Sokka, wait!"

AN: It is a fundamental law of the Avatar!verse that a Zuko and a Katara in close proximity will A) encounter pirates, and B) go on a ninja mission. Check and check.

Replies to guesties:

spring, chapter 19: *Kazuto and Kyo very awkwardly do-not-meet-your-eyes. They take a sip of this tea the General left out... and taste karmic revenge* *Sokka, meanwhile, invites you to his victory party, full of humble brag-stories!*