"What does this mean?" hisses Zuko, brandishing the paper under Toph's nose. She frowns dispassionately at him and knocks his hand away.
"Maybe it's your conscience manifesting in concrete ways, Hotshot," she replies sardonically. "Or maybe Joo Dee has bugs hidden in this place and now you're being called to the afterlife's version of the principal's office."
"I don't want to go to the Bad Place!" exclaims Zuko, running a hand through his hair in his panic. "And it's not like I killed anyone when I was on Earth! I wasn't an arsonist, or a thief— I mean, okay, I did steal a couple of things 'cause Uncle and I really needed the money, but it wasn't a lot! I may not be some philanthropist or human rights lawyer, but I wasn't all bad!"
"Maybe there's some sorta Medium Place for guys like ya," Toph says with a shrug, before suddenly holding her hand out and speaking to the ceiling, "Hey, Joo Dee?"
Joo Dee appears beside them, smiling widely.
"Need any more help with the party?" she asks, but Toph tilts her head innocently and smiles politely.
"Oh, you've already helped us so much, dear," she says. "My soulmate and I were just discussing something. Is there such a thing as the Medium Place?"
"I'm afraid I don't have any information on Medium Places," replies Joo Dee.
"Okay, then," says Toph, nodding. "Thank you so much!"
"Anytime," replies Joo Dee, flashing her signature smile, before vanishing.
"Huh, guess it doesn't exist, then," she says nonchalantly. Zuko groans in frustration and folds the piece of paper agitatedly until it could fit into his shirt pocket.
"Toph, no one can know about this," he tells her, placing a hand on each of her shoulders. Toph huffs and shrugs out of his grasp.
"Sheesh, I already told ya, I ain't gonna snitch!" She stomps her foot on the ground and points at him. "Lesson one in not getting caught: You gotta chill, Sparky."
"'Sparky'?" repeats Zuko weakly, his astonishment winning over his anger and panic.
"'Cause you're acting like such a combustible firebender, shirt-for-brains!" retorts Toph with a roll of her eyes. "Lesson number two: You gotta be fine lying your ash off. Alright? None of that stupid shirt earlier where you just nod and say 'I guess' whenever someone asks you a question about your life!"
"But I suck at lying! I can't just— I dunno, invent some story about being a lawyer when I don't know what it's like to be one!" counters Zuko. "And besides, won't I lose points if I lied or something?"
"First of all, your very existence here is already a lie," points out Toph, much to his chagrin. "So you're just adding to the original lie with more lies in order to save your soul from an eternity spent in unimaginable torture. Which, unless you wanna give yourself up, is your only choice."
"Right," sighs Zuko, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly. "Fine. I'll— I'll try. But this is not making me feel any better."
"And that's lesson three: Fake it 'til ya make it, Hotshot," says Toph. "You don't wanna get caught? You gotta act like you belong. See how I've got Sweet Cheeks wrapped around my finger earlier? That's how you do it."
"Who's 'Sweet Cheeks'?" asks Zuko.
"Ugh, you know who I'm talkin' about!" groans Toph. "Monk Goody-Goody's soulmate!"
"Her name's Katara," he reminds her, but she just waves him off dismissively.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," she says, already walking away. "I'm gonna go claim a bedroom and get ready for the party! See ya!"
Zuko scowls at her retreating back before taking the note out of his pocket and reading it again.
You don't belong here.
He swallows thickly, before tucking it away resolutely.
Doing something bad while in the literal Good Place doesn't sit well with him, but if that's what it takes for him to stay, then he'll do it.
"Hey, you clean up nice!" exclaims Aang, approaching Zuko in the corner that he'd chosen for himself in the huge entrance hall of his own house. Aang has donned traditional bright red and orange robes for the occasion, and as usual, he comes hand in hand with Katara, who is wearing a sparkling navy blue gown that matches the streamers, her long, cascading hair pulled up in an artfully messy bun.
"Where's Toph?" asks Katara, disentangling her fingers away from Aang's to reach for a few pieces of the shrimp cocktail that is laid out on the table beside Zuko.
"She's talking to a colleague of hers from the disabled people's rights movement," Zuko points across the bustling room, where Toph is conversing with a shaggy-haired guy with thick glasses. "Teo, apparently, used to be paralyzed from the waist down after a flood destroyed their village when he was a baby."
"Oh, that's so sad," Katara says, furrowing her brows. "But it's nice they found each other in the afterlife, huh?"
"Did they-" Aang begins, looking around before continuing in a low voice, "Did they… you know… die together?"
"Aang!" admonishes Katara, obviously horrified. "That's such a rude thing to ask!"
"What?" shrugs Aang innocently. "It's only natural to think of death when we're in the afterlife. We already know Zuko's story."
"That's because he died heroically!" Katara counters, throwing a hand in Zuko's direction as though he couldn't hear them arguing. "There might be some people here who don't remember how they died, and that question might offend them!"
"Okay, okay!" Aang replies, holding his hands up appeasingly. "I'm sorry, Katara. I guess I didn't think of it that way."
"It's alright," Katara says, averting her eyes before smiling brightly at both Aang and Zuko. "I'm sorry, too. I guess I'm still adjusting to this whole thing."
"Same here," says Zuko, sipping his champagne and gazing over the crowd, most of whom are talking animatedly with one another as though they've known everyone here their whole lives.
He'd never felt so alone.
"Hey, we've got an eternity to adjust to it, right?" quips Aang, chuckling uncomfortably. "I mean, this isn't exactly what the monks taught us about the afterlife, either. But here we are! Might as well roll with it, huh?"
Zuko drinks more of his champagne to avoid answering- he doesn't want to dive into the details of Aang's philosophy when he's already desperately trying to 'roll' with the situation he was given. Beside him, Katara smiles blandly.
"That's very optimistic, Aang," she comments, before her eyes suddenly light up and she waves someone over. "Hey, Song!"
"Katara!" A hazel-eyed, kind-faced girl walks over to them, holding up the long hem of her pastel-colored hanbok so she wouldn't trod on it. She offers them all a small yet genuine smile. "This is a wonderful party- everyone is so welcoming!"
"Well, now you can thank the host properly," Katara says, motioning at Zuko. Song's smile grows as she looks at him and holds out her hand, and Zuko shakes it after a moment, forgetting that he was the host, considering how he'd been holed up in his corner the entire night.
"Song lives in the hut across from us," Katara explains. "I found out earlier that she also worked as a healer."
"I wasn't a waterbender, though," adds Song shyly. "I specialized in traditional medicine back on Earth."
"It's two sides of the same coin," says Katara graciously. "We wouldn't have advanced modern healing without the foundation of traditional medicine."
"That's really fascinating," comments Aang eagerly. "The only healers I knew were waterbenders; who would've thought I'd meet a traditional healer in the Good Place!"
"Is your soulmate a healer, too?" asks Katara. Song smiles and shakes her head.
"Oh, no, he was a geology professor at Ba Sing Se University," she says, and Zuko almost stops breathing.
Their tea shop was a popular haunt for students and professors from BSSU- whoever Song's soulmate is, he would definitely recognize him.
"I'm going to go- uh, check on Toph," he tells the other three, hurrying away before his anxiety shows up on his face. He spots Toph leaning against a pillar by the entrance, looking bored out of her wits.
"Toph," he says, pulling her behind the pillar as soon as he reaches her, not giving her time to complain, "Someone here might recognize me- I just heard from this girl that her soulmate used to work in Ba Sing Se-"
"Ugh, Sparky, what was lesson one again?" hisses Toph, wrenching her arm from his grasp and standing squarely in front of him, arms crossed over her chest.
Zuko gapes at her, stupefied.
"Uh-"
"You gotta chill!" exclaims Toph with a roll of her eyes. "Sheesh, so what if someone could recognize you? Just pretend it ain't you! If you stick to your story hard enough it'll seem like the truth, anyway."
"Does that really work?" asks Zuko exasperatedly.
"Oh, I dunno, care to ask the other three hundred and twenty people here who think I'm actually blind?" retorts Toph, passing her hand over her eyes back and forth exaggeratedly.
"Fair point," he agrees begrudgingly. He pinches the bridge of his nose with a tired sigh. "Wanna grab a drink?"
"Sure, why the heck not," agrees Toph shrugging carelessly, and Zuko lets her cling to his arm as they make their way to the nearest refreshments table. Zuko pauses in front of the drinks.
"Um, which do you want?"
"Gimme some shots, Hotshot," she tells him, before her face suddenly shifts and a demure, placid smile settles on her lips. "Zuko, sweetheart, I'd love some white wine, please."
Zuko glances around and sees Katara approaching them, empty champagne flute in hand.
"Hey, guys," she greets with a smile, setting down her glass and reaching for a bottle, "Toph, are you enjoying the party so far?"
"It's been positively divine, thank you," replies Toph easily. "So kind of you to ask. You could be the host yourself."
Katara laughs uncomfortably while refilling her glass.
"Oh, no, no, I can't. I don't have the same experience as you do, Toph," she says. "The only blacktie event I ever attended was my class' graduation party in BSSU."
Zuko chokes on his whiskey and coughs violently. Katara looks over at him in concern.
"Something wrong, Zuko?"
"Uh, no, no, just- uh, remembered something, that's all," he lies, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
Toph grins wickedly at him from under her fringe.
"Care to share with us?" she asks sweetly, and Zuko barely manages to not glare at her.
"It's, uh…" he casts around for a suitable lie but all he could come up with is a half-truth. "Just that… I, um, lived near BSSU for a while."
"Oh! Are you an alum?" asks Katara curiously. Zuko exchanges a glance with Toph but she just raises her eyebrows expectantly.
"No," Zuko shakes his head and downs the rest of his whiskey. "I was just there with my uncle."
Still a half-truth. He could live with telling half-truths, he decides.
They don't need to know that he didn't go to college- couldn't afford to. The only education he had came from the free public school system in the Lower Ring where they lived until Uncle was able to purchase a modest commercial space near BSSU in the Middle Ring with his earnings as a tea maker.
Oh, how he misses the old man.
He refills his glass as Toph and Katara make small talk. He learns that Toph had also worked in Ba Sing Se for a while, protesting the unjust discrimination against people with disabilities in the workplace. He also learns that Katara earned her medicine degree at BSSU, and he thanks his lucky stars that she hasn't recognized him yet.
Soon enough, the party is dying down, and just as the guests are pouring out of his mansion, Katara pulls him aside.
"Zuko, I need to speak with you for a bit," she says lowly, looking around and wincing as she sees Aang waiting by the front doors. "Is there any place we can talk in private?"
"Uh, there's more than a couple of rooms here-"
"Great."
Katara pulls him by the shirtsleeves towards the one nearest to the staircase, which appears to be a second living room, or maybe a den, by the way it is decorated. She quietly closes the door behind her and looks at him with an unreadable expression. Zuko coughs awkwardly.
"Um, so, what did you want to talk about?"
"I know who you are," she says bluntly.
Zuko reels back as though she'd punched him in the gut.
"W-what?"
"I know who you are," repeats Katara firmly. "I first suspected it when you served us tea. Then I saw your 'memories' in your little theater… I know the charities and humanitarian lawyers who work with the South Pole, everyone there knows everybody, and you weren't one of them. Then you mentioned your uncle and Ba Sing Se, and that just solidified things. You may not have your scar-"
"What?!"
Forgetting everything else, Zuko turns around and looks for any reflective surface he could find. He finds a decorative platter by a side table and hurriedly swipes away the plastic fruit-
His scar is gone.
He holds shaking fingers to his left cheek, and for the first time since he was thirteen, it feels smooth and unmarred.
"How-"
"You don't belong here," declares Katara, not quite noticing how pivotal of a moment it is for him. "Admit it, Zuko. You don't belong here."
"The note," he says in a daze, still unable to tear his eyes away from his reflection. "You sent me the note."
"Yes, I did."
Zuko pries his eyes away from the platter and meets Katara's resolute eyes. He gulps and nods mechanically.
"It's true," he croaks out, his throat dry. "I don't belong here. But, please- I am trying not to be as big of a jerk as I could've been, Katara. I don't want to go to the Bad Place. If I have to earn my way here, I'll do it. I just don't know how, but I'll find a way."
Katara heaves a huge sigh, her posture drooping.
"Good," she says, before looking up at him imploringly. "'Cause I don't belong here, either, Zuko. I need your help."