AN: Fair warning, I'll be out of town the next two-ish weeks. I might sneak up another update before then, but probably not. Regular super-fast updates to resume immediately upon return, 'cause we are so close to the end of Book One and I want to see your faces. For… no particular reason. *cough*

Minor edit to chapter seventeen: took out Teruko intentionally perving on Kyo in the shower (Katara still totally busts through that door, though). Kind of in poor taste on my part. Healthy relationships don't start with sexual harassment, kids.

Speaking of healthy relationships, here's Jet! Also, the Book-One-Title-Drop chapter!

Chapter 22: Spirit Blessings (Some Restrictions Apply)

Jet was working his magic. And this girl, she wanted to be worked.

What'd she think a bunch of kids were doing in the middle of a forest when there was a town right there? They were outcasts, unwanted. But her sparkle-vision just saw kids, not the dirt and the half-healed bruises-on-bruises and the patched clothes no one had ever taught them how to sew. She didn't want to see. So he kept their story simple and inspiring: this was a place for people who'd lost their homes to the war, a place he kept them all safe.

What happened to their families? Did she really need to ask? Ah, there she went—touching that necklace again, wearing her tragedy around her throat.

So he told her about his mother, and his father (and everytime he told it, he wondered if he was remembering them or remembering the last way he'd told this story). Told her about flames. Didn't tell her about what he saw in those flames, or the scars he'd gotten trying to go back. Definitely didn't tell her about the scars he'd gotten running away. Kept it clean and pretty, just for her. She just about spirits-damned swooned. They were sitting side-by-side in front of his treehouse, their legs dangling over the edge of the walkway, just about brushing. He waited until she turned to him; then he turned to her—

Her brother cleared his throat. "Ahem," he said. "Ahem."

Katara jerked away. Jet turned a smile on the boy behind them, and raised an eyebrow. "Got something in your throat? You could go get a drink. River's that way."

"Yes. Let us go to the river, Katara," Sokka said. "You and Aang can… practice your magic water."

"Actually," Katara said, "I was hoping to practice with you."

"Katara. I love you, but everytime I hold that scroll for you I end up soaked. That is not teaching me to do my laundry, Katara."

"Actually, I was thinking we could spar." She slid her dagger half-way out of its sheath. Gaudy enough to re-blind a badgermole, but decent steel.

"Katara. To repeat: I love you, but I'm not going to stand still and let you stab at me until you figure out where the pointy end goes."

Ooo, that got a reaction. Rage looked good on her. "Excuse me?"

Her brother twirled a finger in his ear. "Oh, sorry. Did you have something to tell me about what happened on Zuko's ship?"

"I have something to show you," she growled.

Which was about enough conversation time that didn't revolve around Jet. "Zuko," he said. "Sounds like a Fire Nation name."

Sokka snorted. "Try Prince-of-the-Fire-Nation name. Katara here went for a luxury cruise last week, and apparently came back knowing how to poison parrots and stab things."

"And you went into the spirit world, and came back best friends! Is Appa Mark III for his birthday, or just because you care?"

And there they went, shouting like he wasn't even here. Again. Jet smoothly slid between them. "The Prince of the Fire Nation, huh. Didn't think he'd want to buddy up with two Water Tribesmen."

"If by 'buddy up' you mean constantly insult—" Sokka started. And then they were both complaining, at length, about this Zuko of theirs. And somewhere in there they did start sparing. Sokka wasn't bad with that sword; amatuer, but good instincts, and Jet did not see that fan coming—why did the guy keep it in the back of his pants? Katara was a mess with her dagger, but her sheer desire to stab something definitely brought a unique energy to the table. Jet worked with one of them, then the other, then wove between them as the siblings fought two-on-one against hook swords and a smile that hadn't faltered since they'd said Zuko.

Zuko, not Prince Zuko. Zuko, synonymous with little buddy in Sokka's tales. Zuko, who Katara definitely wanted to strangle but not kill.

By the end of the spar, Jet had given them both enough nicks and bruises that he wasn't going to kill anything, either. Yet.

"I wasn't going to mention this," he said, slipping his swords away, so his hands couldn't twitch around them. "You were traveling with the Avatar, and… well, he's the last of the Air Nomads, right? I thought he'd have it in for the Fire Nation."

The Avatar wasn't like that, they both hurried to assure him. Not their precious Aang. He wanted to end the war, sure, but he didn't want revenge. Smile, Jet told himself, and he did.

"See, we've been having a drought. And that town downriver, they're Fire. I was worried you wouldn't want to help. There's this reservoir…"

She wanted this. Wanted to believe him. All the signs were there for her to see, and her brother did, but she wouldn't even look.

Later, frozen to a tree with a dagger held at his throat by a pretty little hand that still thought humans died different than hog-cows, he didn't even waste his smuggest grin on her. He just gave a lazy smile. "Take a good look, Katara. You're going to let that Zuko of yours in, and he's going to betray you. It'll feel a lot like this."

No one told him the prince was twelve. Wouldn't have really changed things, except how he'd pictured that week she'd spent on his ship.

Rage really did look good on her. Jet might have stomached kissing the girl, if he hadn't thought the Fire Nation got there first.

At the next port, the Wani learned that the Avatar and his waterbender helped blow up a dam and destroy a Fire Nation settlement.

The Prince got that scowl on his face, the one the crew hadn't realized he'd stopped making until suddenly it was back. And so was his Commander Voice. He cancelled shore leave; the Wani departed north with all due speed.

"Without Sokka, the townspeople would not have evacuated in time," the General reminded his nephew.

"It's not Sokka my father wants."

"Do not regret helping the Lady Waterbender, nephew. Even if the lion-rabbit bites, it was still noble to free it from the snare."

The prince scowled so hard that even Lieutenant Jee walked quietly around him.

(The waterbender had left a pile of scrolls in his room. Among them, a first edition script for Love Amongst the Dragons with original playwright comments inked in the margins. So. Saving waterbenders from pirates wasn't a total waste: it had proven invaluable to the Fire Nation's cultural heritage, even if detrimental to its colonists.)

"And you couldn't have kept a single scroll? Or monkey's ruby eye?" Sokka asked.

"They were probably worthless anyway," Katara replied.

"And we can't just sell the dagger?"

"Good idea! And when we run out of money next time, we can sell boomerang."

This was one line crossed too many. Sokka stomped off, and hired himself out to the first fishing boat desperate enough to take on a teenager muttering about sisters and daggers.

"A storm is coming, Prince Zuko," Uncle said.

"...Proverbial or literal?"

Uncle thought about this for a moment. "Primarily literal."

Zuko scowled up at the blue sky, and scowled at his uncle, and crossed his arms and scowled some more as he remembered the war map he'd seen while on a stupid field trip with a town-destroying only-pretended-she-was-nice waterbender. "The nearest ports are all controlled by the Earth Kingdom. The troops looked like they were concentrated more towards the southern mining towns to secure them after that rig breakout—" also the waterbender's fault, how had he ever forgotten that "—but if there's a patrol going through, or even just people being patriotic, we could be trapped in the harbor with an angry mob."

Uncle very pointedly did not ask where his nephew had acquired information on recent military movements. "A storm cannot choose mercy, Prince Zuko."

Uncle kept his hands tucked up his sleeves, and Zuko did not look at them. He opted for more scowling. "At least the storm won't actively try to kill us."

Sokka was ninety, ninety-five percent sure that this storm was actively trying to kill them. Possibly him in specific, judging by the number of waves going out of their way to slap him in the face, particularly in the mad moments he was scrabbling between lines, trying to help the old guy keep this tub under control as the waves arched over it, twice as high as they were—

three times as high—

four—

Wait, was that Zuko's ship?

Even better, was that Appa?

The lightning strike shuddered throughout the ship. Helmsman Kyo, having been slightly closer, felt it in his bones. And in the sliding of the lookout deck downwards, and the creaking of the mangled rail as it decided it didn't like his weight, and the water streaming over his hands, and the listing of ship, so as far as holding on went, he mostly…

Didn't.

He'd been watching the deck below with morbid fascination, so he wasn't prepared for the sudden jolt to his shoulder as someone caught him. The Prince. How in Agni's name was a twelve-year-old hanging on to a rain-slick ladder with one hand, carrying the weight of a full-grown man in armor, when Kyo hadn't even been able to hold himself up—

Oh. He wasn't.

The Prince's grip was slipping. Kyo had never been the bravest guy, but he'd had a few long seconds to stare down at that deck and it was only, what? Forty feet? Fifty?

He'd really wanted to figure out what was up with Teruko and whether it was going to go somewhere, but he was transfering so it was kind of a moot point anyway, and—and it was sixty feet, tops. It was just the infantry for him after this anyway, and non-benders in the army had about as good of survival odds as this to hear his cousin Kuzon tell it. So.

Huh. It was… really hard to make his fingers let go of the Prince. Sort of didn't want to. Which was weird, because they'd gotten scrapped up on that mangled rail so bad that his free hand couldn't grip the ladder, but here his other hand was refusing to let go. Had to concentrate on each finger to get them loose, and it felt like this was taking a really long time and no time at all.

The Prince was holding him so hard his nails were digging into Kyo's wrist, but the rain was slick on both their hands and heavy on his armor. Kyo had let go of the Prince, but the Prince wasn't letting go of him. The kid had that ladder rung by his fingertips. Lieutenant Jee was right below them shouting something. Kyo looked down, and met his eyes.

The Prince's grip finally slipped. Jee made the right choice on who to catch.

Forty-fifty-sixty feet go by real quick, same for cowards as for the brave.

Lieutenant Jee climbed back down the ladder with a screaming child under one arm. A screaming, kicking child. A child who happened to be his commanding officer, and Jee thought of all the past commanders he'd gladly have taken this excuse to drop.

He set Zuko on the deck. Then thought better of it: wrapped both arms around his waist, and lifted his feet off the ground.

"Let me go!" the Prince shouted, as another wave washed over the deck, and someone else—Teruko?—ran to catch Kyo's still form as he was washed towards the rail. Jee watched as she tugged off a glove with her teeth. Checked his wrist, his neck. The Lieutenant kept his body turned so the Prince didn't have to watch, but the kid was struggling and craning his neck, and saw all the same.

Then the Avatar's bison flew up out of the water, because what else could go wrong.

The prince growled like something rabid and bit him. Jee let the little bastard go.

Lightning flashed. The prince rooted himself on the deck, one hand extended.

There were a lot of screams aboard the Appa Express. Kind of went hand-in-hand with the near-drowning and the terrifying water cliffs they were surrounded by, and the flying bison really didn't seem to be doing well with staying out of them, and was all-around not quite as designed for flotation as the metal ship they'd just flown over.

"Aang!" Sokka shouted. "Great time for tea, don't you think?"

If Aang said something anywhere near as witty back, the wind stole it. But Sokka saw him flick the reigns and Appa's sides shook with a bellow as he dove—

Which was about when Zuko did some kind of thing with his hands and that lightning that was going towards the ship was suddenly going right over Aang's head. So. Maybe not with the teatime, then.

"Since when can Zuko shoot lightning?" Aang yelped, loud enough Sokka could hear all the way in the back.

"Why is he shooting it at us?" Katara shouted, sounding none too surprised but pretty thoroughly outraged. She'd brought up her hands in kind of exactly the same pose that Zuko had just struck, and once they were out of this Sokka was going to sit her down and get that what-happens-on-Zuko's-ship story out of her with all its apparently lightning related details.

"I don't know," Sokka snapped, "maybe he heard about a little town called Gaipan?"

Jet really was the gift that just kept on giving. Or the terrorist who just kept on… terrorizing? In retrospect, they probably should have turned him over to the local militia, Fire Nation or no. But hey, it was a big world. What were the odds the guy would come back to haunt them?

That sunny sky in the eye of the storm was giving Sokka a headache. No other reason.

"How is he?" the Lieutenant asked their doctor. It could have referred to either of them.

Zuko sat in the doctor's chair, not on a bed, go away Uncle, as the doctor guided his arm into a sling. Which was stupid, it didn't even hurt.

"It will," the doctor promised. "You're lucky you didn't dislocate it, catching him like that."

"Oh, sorry. Next time I'll let him fall."

Crewman Teruko spared him a look, from where she sat next to Kyo's bed. And Kyo… Kyo smiled. Shakily.

"It's okay, Lieutenant. It doesn't hurt at all."

Which was exactly the problem.

Fire needed air. Zuko brushed past the doctor and Uncle and Jee, and went back on deck. He leaned against the rail and ignored the crew's bows, why were they being extra respectful when he'd messed up. Messed up even harder than they'd realized. He'd been… taking things for granted. The spirits had been blessing his quest; anyone could see that.

The spirits were blessing his quest.

Not his Uncle, and now look at Uncle's hands. Not his crew, and now the Helmsman might never walk again. Not his Nation, and the Avatar had just destroyed one of their towns. A town that would still be there if Zuko hadn't let the waterbender go so she could teach the Avatar bending and the both of them could fill that stupid reservoir and try to drown everyone.

He'd failed his people, his crew, his family. The spirits kept giving him all these opportunities, and he was wasting them. He couldn't just… redirect fate. He had to control it.

Promise me you'll think it over, the waterbender had said.

Zuko had. And he knew what he had to do. He stepped back from the railing, and rooted himself. Slipped his arm from the sling. Let out a breath, and moved his arms in the familiar circle he'd seen so many times from his father, his uncle, his sister who was two years younger and had never seen dragons dance. Energy sparked and crackled, the same energy he'd felt flowing through him earlier. He pointed—

—And glowered at Uncle's fretting, later. Which was much harder to do with both his eyebrows burned off.

...Oww.

AN: Replies to guesties:

spring, chapter 21: Zuko was hungry when he picked out his hawks, OKAY? [I actually have a headcanon on royal hawk naming conventions that is never going to be plot relevant, but for some reason I thought it through don't-judge-me. Miso and Fire Flake were hatched the same year (food theme) but had different parents (first character of name is different). And now you know this thing you never needed to know, you're welcome!] Lala is the superior Azula nickname, and I shall stand with Boogum to defend it. *takes up a sword in little Lala's defense*

Unnamed guest, chapter 20: The Zuko-Katara Sass Feedback Loop is currently under study by leading researchers as a possible source of renewable energy. ;)