Author's Note: So I'm thinking pretty hard about getting someone to read these chapters before I post them. There's always something I miss and that Grammarly doesn't catch. If anyone is interested in helping me out with this please pm me.
Zuko slept through the night and into the next day with Iroh keeping watch over him with calm, protective patience. Once Zuko's body temperature had reached a more normal level Iroh allowed himself to sleep but didn't move from his position next to his boy. When he woke Zuko was still sleeping peacefully, but the two other children were no longer in the room. Master Pakku had taken up using the emptied furs and was resting as well. Iroh was quite content to stay where he was, watching Zuko sleep until the boy woke, but after a time Yugoda came in and found him awake. It took some work, but she convinced him to sit up and eat something while he waited. In the end, Iroh was hungry and he knew that food would help rebuild his reserves after he burned through so much of them the night before. He simply didn't want to accidentally wake Zuko by getting up. So he moved very carefully as he disentangled himself from his nephew and tucked the boy back in to keep him warm. Once he was sure that the young man wasn't going to wake up he settled into a more comfortable sitting position to wait for Yugoda to return. To his surprise, Yugoda wasn't the one to bring the food in, instead The Avatar and his two friends came in. Sokka seemed the most hesitant, but even he didn't put up much of a fuss as they sat down not far from the old general and offered him a bowl of some kind of soup.
"Is he going to be alright?" The Avatar asked, eyes flickering over to the sleeping firebender, and Iroh can only smile at the strangely kind and forgiving boy.
"He will be," Iroh reassures him simply, keeping his voice quiet "Yugoda healed the injuries that were of concern and his body has reached a more natural temperature. Now he just needs rest." The Avatar seemed to relax some at that and nodded, causing Iroh to smile warmly at him "Thank you for your concern Avatar, it warms an old man's heart to hear someone else care for him, even just a little." The boy's face flushed at the praise and he ducked his head slightly.
"Aang," The Avatar spoke up after a moment "My name is Aang."
"Aang then," Iroh agreed warmly "Thank you Aang." Aang ducked his head again and returned his focus to eating. Iroh did notice that the boy seemed to be eating a different broth than the rest of them. One without any meat in it. Interesting. Iroh casually stored that information away for later.
"So..." the Water Tribe boy spoke up slowly "General Iroh-"
"Just Iroh, please," Iroh cut in smoothly "I retired a long time ago." The boy nodded and continued.
"Iroh. Any chance you're willing to explain the sudden change of heart? I mean just a short while ago you two were chasing us around the world and now well," he gestured around them vaguely, clearly frowning. He seemed like one who didn't appreciate not knowing things. "And for another thing," he added quickly "How do you know Master Pakku? I mean, you're Fire Nation and he's Water Tribe." Iroh can't help but grin, eyes lighting up with a mischievous light.
"Now don't you know? All old people know each other." Before any of them could reply to that clearly non-answer there was a groan from the mat beside them. Not a groan of pain, but one of age-old frustration.
"Uncle please," Zuko spoke up, opening his eyes with an exasperated glare before looking at the other teenagers and huffing "He just doesn't like talking about his little group of pai sho loving, flower nonsense spouting, information sharing old people." He sat up with a quiet groan and looked over at Iroh, clearly about to say more, but stopped when he noticed the blatantly shocked expression on Iroh's face. "What? Is there something on my face?"
Iroh can't help but stare at his nephew in shock "What? But? How did you? I never?" He kept cutting himself off before he could properly finish a sentence, clearly flabbergasted. He'd always been careful to keep things casual so how? How had Zuko noticed? Once Zuko seemed to work out what Iroh was asking his expression twisted from one of confusion to one that clearly indicated that he felt insulted, and a little hurt, and Iroh winced slightly. That was never a good sign.
"Come on Uncle," Zuko said, somewhat shortly "You regularly would seek out specific people at ports, sometimes insisting that we went into certain shops or pubs for whatever reason you could come up with at the time. Then you'd sit down and play pai sho and say stupidly cryptic things that are obviously some sort of code or password since they say similarly stupid and cryptic things back. It's always about flowers or tea or something else planty." He glared at Iroh then "And then you come up with some reason to go off on your own or with the other pai sho player or to have me leave. And I can't count how many times you came back with supplies or information that helped us out of a tough situation. You'd always have some excuse for how you found the information or supplies, but it was too convenient considering how often it happened. Or you'd be able to get us somewhere we needed to go, access to a healer, or some other sort of thing that you shouldn't have been able to do since we weren't anywhere near fire nation owned lands." Iroh just stared in shock until loud laughter echoed through the room, originating from off to the side. Looking over Iroh found Master Pakku doubling over with deep bellied laughter. Iroh didn't even remember the other man waking up.
"He got you there Iroh," He laughed "You always said he was a smart boy. Guess you were right."
Zuko flushed and looked between the two older men, one laughing as if he'd just heard the funniest joke ever and the other shifting from shock to a strange mix of embarrassment and pride. His uncle had told them he was smart? He suddenly felt a little guilty about his half-truthful answer so he cleared his throat.
"Well...to be fair...there was the one time I followed you," he told his uncle, causing the eyes in the room to shift back to him and he just knew he was flushing even brighter so he averted his gaze to look over at a nearby wall "It was fairly early on. We were in pretty dangerous territory and you kept insisting that you wanted to go on a walk by yourself. You wouldn't let any of us go with you. I was already kind of suspicious about the strange things you had going on, but that didn't' mean you were safe to be wandering around alone so..." he shrugged self consciously "I followed you on your walk and watched you meet up with a couple of other older folk and talk about all sorts of things. Some more important than others. It seemed...rather secretive and important." He shrugged again, not meeting his uncle's gaze "I stopped fighting it when you tried to slip off after that." There were several beats of silence and he dared to risk glancing over at his uncle. He honestly looked even more flabbergasted than before.
"But that." Iroh blinked in shock. He clearly knew which instance Zuko was speaking of. Zuko's change in behavior after that night had been rather obvious "You overheard that meeting?" At Zuko's nod, Iroh raised his hands slightly, looking baffled and a little lost. "But. You never said anything? That was. You would have heard a lot during that meeting. And you never...told anyone?" Zuko visibly stiffened and turned to look at his uncle more fully, hurt, and offended.
"I would never!" Zuko's voice was sharp, angry and some sparks danced around his hands as he jerked them in a furious motion "I know what the Fire Nation does to traitors! I'd never let them do that to you! You're-" He cut off, breathing heavily as he suddenly remembered there were other people in the room, staring at them in various levels of shock. So Zuko took a slow, deep breath and closed his eyes, fighting down a firey mix of anger and hurt that his uncle even had to ask that. He was so focused on calming himself down that he didn't notice anyone moving until familiar arms pulled him into a swift hug. He couldn't help but stiffen for a moment before he let out a slow breath and relaxed into the hold, resting his head against the warm shoulder and raising a hand to pat his uncle on the back. He let his hand rest there afterward, not quite returning the hug with so many people watching, but not pushing the older man away. Uncle Iroh had been a lot more into hugs the last several days than before, but perhaps that had more to do with Zuko accepting them than Iroh wanting to give them.
After a while, Zuko cleared his throat awkwardly and his uncle pulled back, beaming at him, causing Zuko to flush once more and look away. He suddenly couldn't really feel offended anymore. Not with that bright smile aimed at him. So instead he quickly glanced around, looking for some way to change the subject. What he found was three young teens staring at him with some amount of shock and fascination. His embarrassment rushed back, but he tried to hide it by stiffening his shoulders slightly.
"What?" He snapped at them, but instead of causing them to pull back, he got reactions that seemed close to amusement.
"Nothing," the water tribe boy, Sokka, replied with a clearly amused smile "It's just weird seeing you act like a human being."
"Of course I'm a human being!" Zuko said, scowling "What else would I be?" Sokka shrugged with a wide, amused grin.
"Don't know. An angry boar-q-pine I guess?" Zuko stared at him in confusion, but by the groan and eye roll that came from his sister Zuko could only guess that was some kind of attempt at humor. If a poor one.
"Right..." Zuko drew out, somewhat flabbergasted.
"Don't mind him," Katara spoke up with an amused huff "Sokka just doesn't know how to keep from putting his foot in his mouth." She ignored the indignant response that got her and pressed on with a smile "It's good to see you up and about. You gave General Iroh quite a scare there for a bit." Zuko shifted uncomfortably and gave a one-sided shrug in response.
"I was fine," he insisted uncomfortably "It wasn't that bad."
"Bad enough to pass out," Katara pointed out, raising a single eyebrow and he grimaced at that.
"It was cold," he pointed out, clearly embarrassed "I hadn't raised my body temperature enough to compensate." He wasn't fond of the idea of explaining anything beyond that. But thankfully The Avatar spoke up, changing the subject.
"Anyways. I'm glad you're awake. I wanted to say thank you. For helping us here. And for saving me before. I never did get to say thank you back then." Zuko flushed again as The Avatar's two companions looked at him in confusion.
"What do you mean before?" Katara asked, frowning at The Avatar. It was only then that it seemed to occur to the younger boy that maybe he'd messed up.
"Well..." The Avatar started, flushing slightly "You remember when you both got sick? And I had to go get you frogs?" The disgusted look that flashed across the two Water Tribe siblings had Zuko wondering what the story behind that part was, but they nodded so The Avatar continued "Well...while I was out I...might have been captured...by Admiral Zhao..." The horror that flashed across the faces of the siblings was obvious and Katara moved to put a hand on The Avatar's shoulder.
"What?! Are you ok? You didn't seem hurt! What happened?!" The Avatar actually seemed to lean somewhat away from the attention, bright red.
"I'm fine! I was fine! I didn't get hurt. Promise. Zuko saved me." This had the two siblings, and his uncle, looking at Zuko in shock. "I didn't know it was him at first. He had a mask on and he didn't use his firebending at all. Just a pair of swords." Understanding flickered across Iroh's face at that, but he didn't say anything as The Avatar continued "He snuck in and broke me out, and then we had to fight our way out and almost got caught. But I didn't get hurt. So it's fine." Zuko huffed when the eyes turned back to him a moment later.
"Look," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away "You don't need to thank me. It wasn't like I was trying to free you or anything. I just didn't want Zhao to catch you before I could. And besides. Even if I had planned to let you go you already paid me back when you didn't leave me behind after I got knocked unconscious." He grimaced and visibly shuddered slightly "You could have left me behind for Zhao when I was knocked out. It would have saved you a lot of trouble later, but you didn't. So. Don't worry about it."
"I wasn't going to just leave you there!" The Avatar protested "Not with him! That man is crazy!" Zuko huffed a laugh at that and glanced over at The Avatar, meeting his eyes hesitantly.
"Was," he corrected "Zhao was crazy. It's not like he's around anymore." The Avatar frowned slightly at that and was silent for several moments before he spoke again.
"What..." he paused, not looking like he was sure he wanted to know the answer "What happened to him? Everything after the moon died is kind of fuzzy for me..." Zuko glanced around at the others, but they seemed to be waiting for him to reply so he huffed a sigh and shifted to sit more comfortably, crossing his legs in front of him.
"La wanted him. He killed Tui so he wanted to have him for...whatever spirit revenge I imagine he panned to intact. I don't pretend to fully understand what a spirit like La plans to do. He told me to bring Zhao back and put him in the oasis, so I did. Zhao vanished after that, I assume he was pulled into the spirit realm where La could deal with him however he wants." The Avatar looked uncomfortable at that for some reason but nodded. After a moment of hesitation, he spoke up.
"What about the others? The soldiers I mean." The Avatar asked, glancing around "I noticed that there weren't any in the city anymore." Zuko nodded evenly, though a slight shudder went through him as his mind flashed through the image of the large water being staring down at him.
"La said he put the soldiers on their ships and sent them far enough away they won't cause trouble for a while. I imagine several ships might have been slightly damaged in the process so they won't be coming back for a long time. If they come back at all. This attack was a complete failure and the Admiral that led it is dead. I doubt they'll deem it worth attacking here again for a very long time." The Avatar looked visibly relieved at that, but Katar spoke up before anyone else could.
"That's right!" she looked at Zuko with bright, interested eyes "I was meaning to ask you! Did you make some sort of deal with La or something? Because that was all pretty strange when you got back." And all the eyes in the room were fixed on him again.
"Yes. Well." Zuko shifted uncomfortably before crossing his arms again and scowling "Yes. I made a deal with La."
"What deal?" Sokka asked, visibly curious "What do you have to offer the ocean that made him accept."
Zuko shrugged slightly "Honestly I have no idea," he admitted somewhat sharply "I had to try though. He had me bring him, Zhao, that's all he asked from me. Maybe he felt lenient because Uncle and I were trying to stop Zhao before it happened. It's not like I understand the mind of spirits." Sokka nodded slowly, frowning in thought.
"What were you bargaining for?" The Avatar asked curiously and Zuko blinked at him in confusion.
"What do you think?" he asked before shaking his head and answering the question anyways "The lives of my people. If not the ones here then the ones back on the mainland. And the other ships at sea." He stiffened his shoulders some and looked away, not wanting to see their reactions "I know the Fire Nation is your enemy, but they're still my people and I had to try and protect them. Who knows what La would have done to them. Nothing good. I hoped that even if he didn't spare the soldiers here he might spare those back home. The last thing my people need is an angry ocean spirit lashing out at them with storms and waves. We're mostly a bunch of islands. That could do unfixable damage." There was a long pause before anyone spoke.
"I guess I can understand that." It was Sokka that finally broke the silence "The common people don't necessarily need to be punished because Zhao was a maniac." Zuko glanced over at that, somewhat surprised. Sokka didn't necessarily look like he agreed with what he was saying, but he looked like he understood at least. Katara looked thoughtful. His uncle was beaming at him with obvious pride and he felt a flush crawling up his neck at that. The waterbending master just looked thoughtful. The Avatar caught him by surprise though, he was grinning at Zuko, eyes bright and happy. Zuko didn't know how to deal with that so he just looked away awkwardly.
"Anyways," he cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly "Any chance I could have some of that?" He gestured at the pot vaguely. He had no idea what it was, but he was hungry enough not to really care. His uncle grinned and immediately began serving him some while the others went back to eating. Zuko couldn't help but notice that even as they ate the three kids kept glancing at him from time to time, but he did his best to ignore it.
"So..." Sokka spoke up after several minutes of quiet eating "You're done chasing Aang then? You said something about that yesterday, but didn't mention it in your deal today." Zuko stiffened, he couldn't help it. That was going to be a painful subject for a while. But he forced himself to meet the young warrior's steady gaze with his own.
"That's because it wasn't a part of the bargain," he said simply "It couldn't be." He paused for a moment but pressed on before anyone could ask any further questions "Uncle and I had already decided that we were finished chasing The Avatar before we came here. We were just here to try and get my crew. Zhao had ordered them to come with him on this attack. They couldn't refuse, but we hoped that they could use the beginning of the invasion to break away and commandeer a ship to escape." He paused and grimace before adding "I hope they all managed to get on a ship before things fell apart. And that it wasn't damaged by the wave La caused to push the ships away. We told them to wait for us a good distance back, but I imagine they were pushed away with the rest of the fleet." Sokka blinked at him. He clearly hadn't expected that much of an answer.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" Sokka asked after a moment and Zuko grit his teeth. It didn't look like the Water Tribe boy was going to be giving up on his questioning.
"Because catching The Avatar will no longer do me any good," he replied shortly before grimacing and looking away "If it ever would have in the first place."
"What's that even supposed to mean?" Sokka asked, exasperated "What good would catching Aang do you."
"Perhaps we should let Yugoda know that everyone is awake," Iroh cut in quickly, obviously trying to change subjects, and Zuko felt a rush of gratitude for his uncle at that, but shook his head.
"It's fine Uncle," he reassured the older man, who gave him an uncertain and concerned look that warmed him more than firebending ever had "All things considered they're probably the only people who deserve to know." He had put them through a lot after all. And they were just kids. He could acknowledge that now as he looked across at the three of them. The Avatar only looked between twelve and fourteen. Barely a teenager if he even was. Sokka was the oldest and he might be Zuko's age at most. So Zuko bit back a sigh and rolled his shoulders to loosen them and buy himself some time.
"My father," he paused and grimaced before changing his words around some "The Fire Lord banished me around three years ago. I was told I could only return if I captured the Avatar and brought him back with me." There was visible shock on the faces of the three younger people in the room. The Waterbending Master in the back looked unsurprised. So he already knew. Somehow that didn't surprise Zuko.
"But," The Avatar started, looking and sounding more horrified than Zuko had ever seen him before "That was long before I woke up. I'd been missing for almost a hundred years. You-he- There was no way to know I'd show up." Zuko grimaced and looked away.
"I wasn't supposed to succeed," he admitted, voice slightly raw. It was still a painful thought "It took much longer than it should have for me to realize that. But I was meant to fail. He didn't want me to come home. He made that very clear after you did show up. Once it was known that you were back he assigned the job of capturing you to Zhao." He couldn't bring himself to look at them as he looked back down at his food. He didn't need their pity.
"That's-that's awful!" It's Katara's voice that time and she sounded honestly angry, surprising him enough to look at her. Her eyes almost seemed to be sparking in her visible fury. Next to her, the other two looked similar enough, though The Avatar looked more sad than angry "He's your father! Why would he? How could he?!" Zuko couldn't help the startled laugh that escaped him as he stared at them in shock.
"What?" He asked, baffled before mind caught up with his words and he shook his head "I mean. He just-" He shrugged, cutting himself off and looking away again. He knew he was turning bright red, but didn't know to respond to their anger. Their anger for him. "I wasn't a very good son. At least, not the one he wanted. He wanted Azula to take the throne." He paused and looked at them "My sister. She is a much better firebender than me. Ruthless too. She takes after him. I'm too much like our mother."
"For which I am very grateful," his uncle cut in, causing Zuko to flush again and look away. This was far too personal a conversation for him. He hadn't meant for it to go this far. He just wanted to explain why he'd been chasing them as he had, not dive into his life story.
"Anyways," Zuko said firmly, looking back at them with a firm expression "That's why I was chasing you. But I won't be anymore, so don't worry about it." He wanted to move on so he turned his attention to his uncle and faltered at the warm smile he found there. He coughed awkwardly and pressed on, trying to ignore the warmth that caused again "So. When are we leaving? And how are we going to make our way? I doubt our ship is waiting nearby after everything that happened yesterday." Thankfully his uncle allowed the subject change and no one else tried to stop it.
"We'll be setting out once Yugoda is comfortable with you traveling. Later today I imagine." Iroh explained easily.
"We'll be providing transportation," the waterbending master spoke up evenly "It won't be as fancy as the boats you're used to, but it should get you by long enough." Zuko couldn't help but relax some at that and turned to give the man a bow in reply, though it was slightly awkward from his sitting position.
"You have my thanks," he said formally, but the man just waved it away.
"You helped us so we'll help you. Simple as that. Besides," he smirked "Us pai sho and flower folk can't risk losing your uncle. And he'd be a mess if something happened to you. So it's in our best interest to see you two safely back to solid land." Zuko couldn't help but snort quietly in amusement at that.
"I see," Zuko said easily "Thank you all the same." The man simply nodded in reply before getting to his feet.
"I'll go get Yugoda," he informed them before making his way out. There were several more minutes of silence as they all finished eating before The Avatar spoke up.
"So...what are you going to do now?"
Zuko looked up at them and hesitated for a moment before replying "We haven't fully discussed it yet. Try and catch up with our crew first I imagine. Then find somewhere to settle down." He glanced at his uncle uncertainly before looking back at them "We haven't made any solid plans." The Avatar nodded slowly.
"I guess that makes sense," he replied after several moments and silence fell again. It wasn't a completely comfortable silence, but it wasn't hostile at all either, which was somewhat weird in Zuko's mind.
"Have you kids ever heard the story of the fire ferret and the gopher bear?" Iroh suddenly spoke up, startling Zuko from his thoughts and making the others all to look at him in surprise. After several moments the three younger teens shook their head and Iroh grinned, shifting to get in a more comfortable position. "Well then. It goes like this..." Zuko couldn't quite hide his smile as he settled back to listen to his uncle do what he did best, settle tension with crazy stories. If they had tea it would have been a perfect image, but as it was he was just happy to see his uncle smiling and enjoying himself like this. Closing his eyes he settled in to listen.
So...I'm having a lot of trouble accessing my reviews right now. I haven't been able to read any of them past onavelkosvskaa5842's review on the 8th. And since I no longer have access to the email that I had this account set to (I've fixed that today) I have no idea what the reviews past that one say. This makes the ability to keep track of people's thoughts on the pairing and other things very hard ^^' No idea when FFN is going to get this fixed, but I'm going to hold off making a decision until that get's fixed. Just an FYI. If it's fixed by tomorrow, which was the original deadline, then I'll decide then. If it's not then we'll be waiting a bit longer. I'll let you guys know once I have a decision made.