Water
Nighttime Conferences
Just as she had promised, Yugoda came knocking just before sunset, and Katara excused herself before the boys could delay her with—she hadn't been entirely sure what they were doing. A seaweed eating contest? Making balls of Appa's loose fur to throw at one another? She might have known if she'd been paying any attention, but there were other things to think about. None of which had anything at all to do with their silly games.
Yugoda's house was relatively large, but cozy and quiet. She informed Katara that her son and his family occupied the southern end of the place, her two older daughters and their families filled the upstairs rooms, and her youngest daughter lived with Yugoda in the main part of the lower floor. All of them, however, were out for the night, leaving the two of them free to their dinner.
It was nice. The house was surprisingly homey, considering its size, lined with furs and ornate embroidery on almost every surface. The food was ready by the time Katara arrived, all rich and familiar, and for as long as it took to finish eating, Yugoda kept to easy topics of conversation—how she liked the North Pole after her journey, whether she'd met any interesting people since leaving home, and what some of her favorite sights had been along the way.
It was almost like talking to Gran-Gran. Almost. Yugoda was a bit less stern, a bit more playful than Gran-Gran, but Katara actually felt like a kid for a little while. And for a little while, she almost forgot the reason she was here.
"It's been so long since I've had squidtopus stew." Katara finished off her last bite and folded her hands in her lap. "It tastes like home."
"You've eaten squidtopus stew before?" Yugoda asked, eyes bright and curious. "That's unusual. Half the ingredients won't grow outside the frozen lakes on the eastern side of the city. And come to think of it, my great-great grandmother's recipe collection from the South Pole never mentions a word about it."
Katara shrugged. "Well, it was never quite like this. Gran-Gran always makes it with southern blue-ridged seaweed, since that's always easy to find, but it's—" She broke off midsentence. She'd wanted to say that everyone in the Southern Tribe ate squidtopus stew, but now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember anyone ever making it. Just Gran-Gran. And Mom too, when Katara was really little, but Mom and Gran-Gran had cooked together most of the time. There would have been plenty of opportunities for Gran-Gran to explain the recipe.
Her brow furrowed, and she stared at her now-empty bowl. She'd guessed that Gran-Gran had been here at some point. Maybe even lived here for a while. That was the only way that it made any sense at all for Yugoda to know her name. But it was weird. It felt like her entire childhood had been turned upside down. Had Katara been learning to cook Northern Tribe dishes all her life?
More importantly, how much other Northern Tribe knowledge had Gran-Gran secretly passed down to Katara?
"It's one of Gran-Gran's favorites. She taught me how to make it," Katara resumed. "I thought everyone else knew the recipe, but now—ugh, I can't believe I never realized."
Yugoda reached across and patted her arm. "It was part of your life. You would have had no way of knowing it was unusual if Kanna never pointed it out."
A slow nod. It was still jarring to hear Gran-Gran's name mentioned so casually, even though Katara was expecting it. The South Pole felt like it belonged to a completely different lifetime now.
"How do you know her, anyway?" Katara asked. "I didn't think she'd ever gone farther than the beetleberry fields in her life."
With a small smile, Yugoda shifted on her mat of furs and poured herself another cup of arctic sage tea. "I wouldn't say that I know her. After so many decades, that hardly seems fair." A pause. "But I knew her. When we were young, our families lived right next to each other just on the other side of the city. Kanna and I grew up together. She was my nearest friend."
Katara couldn't quite picture it. Gran-Gran being friends with Yugoda—that part was perfectly reasonable. If they reunited now, they'd probably get along just as well as they had as girls. But the idea of Gran-Gran living here, amongst the icy arches and spires and domes was different. It wasn't so much that Gran-Gran wouldn't appreciate the splendor of it—she would, and probably had as a child—but she'd always been wary of waterbending too. How would she have liked living in a place surrounded by so many waterbenders? Living just next door to one of them?
But, Katara supposed, waterbending itself wasn't really the problem. The problem was that Katara was an anomaly at the South Pole, that her abilities could easily have drawn unwanted attention. Here at the North Pole, that wasn't a problem. If Gran-Gran hadn't left, then Katara could have been learning waterbending all along.
Of course, this was still the North Pole, and Pakku was still in charge of the waterbending lessons. So growing up in the Northern Tribe wouldn't have made much difference to her anyway. Katara would have learned healing early, but there still wouldn't have been anyone to teach her to fight.
"Do you know what happened? Why did she leave the North Pole?"
Yugoda shook her head. "I'm afraid I don't know. I've been asking that very question for nearly sixty years now."
Sixty years. Katara couldn't even imagine how different things might have been that far back. "But what happened?" she pressed. "Before she left—"
A slight shrug. "We were young. Kanna was recently betrothed, and one day she went missing along with her cousins' fishing boat. We found the boat washed up on the far southern shore a few months later, but there was still no sign of Kanna." Yugoda went quiet for a moment. "I suppose that's why I didn't see the resemblance at the start. You look remarkably like your grandmother, but we had to give her up as lost a very long time ago."
"She was engaged?"
"She was. Betrothed with the very necklace you're wearing now."
Katara brushed the pendant with her fingertips. "So—maybe her old fiancé would have known something about why she left." Why wouldn't he? Whoever he was, Gran-Gran must have liked him well enough. She'd agreed to marry him, after all. Wouldn't Gran-Gran have at least told him why she was leaving?
At that, Yugoda laughed. "Plenty of people have thought the same. But he was always fonder of Kanna than she was of him. As far as I know, she never disliked him, but they certainly weren't close confidantes."
That wasn't exactly high praise for the man, whoever he was. "So maybe that'sthe reason she left. If she didn't like him that much, then I don't see why she would stick around to marry him." Of course, leaving forever was a drastic step to take, but Katara might do it, if pressed. And if Gran-Gran had exhausted all her other options, then maybe it had been the only idea she had left.
"Perhaps it was. You would probably know better than I." Yugoda paused. "Has she found a good life for herself since she left?"
"I think so. I can't remember very much about my grandfather, but I know she loved him. My dad drove her insane sometimes, but Gran-Gran has always been proud of him. And my mom—" Her hand tightened into a fist around the pendant. "My mom was always there. Even before she was part of the family." She cleared her throat. "The South Pole is definitely different. I don't know exactly how happy she is that she left, but I think I would have done the same thing she did."
Yugoda smiled. "You do take after your grandmother."
"Mmm. Although if I'd grown up here, I probably would have been worried about the stupid waterbending rules way before I had to worry about getting married." Katara leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand, and stared at the dishes left between them. "Doesn't it ever bother you?"
For a moment, Yugoda looked off to the side, mouth drawn into a thoughtful line. "Not for myself. I truly never cared for the idea of fighting. Being able to mend things that are broken has always mattered more to me, and if any of the girls feel otherwise, I haven't heard it."
"Well—that's fine for anyone who wants to stick with healing. But shouldn't we all have a choice? I know I didn't come all this way just to learn to fix a few bruises." She caught Yugoda staring, and her face heated. "Not that I don't appreciate your lessons, but—"
"They aren't what you had in mind."
Sheepish, Katara nodded. It was probably a good thing that Yugoda had understood, otherwise she might have kept talking until there was no way out without shoving her entire foot into her mouth.
Yugoda looked thoughtful again. "I don't doubt that you are capable. You certainly have the will for fighting if you've traveled this far for a chance to learn."
There was a note of hesitance behind the words, and Katara prodded, "But?"
"But that isn't a battle I've chosen to fight."
Katara's shoulders slumped a little.
"I won't say that it shouldn't be fought," Yugoda amended. "But any cause worth defending needs a suitable champion. I could never have been the right one."
"And you're saying that I am?"
"You may be. That's for you to decide."
Katara wasn't sure how she felt about that. She did intend to fight for her right to learn waterbending, but beyond that—fighting for all the other girls sounded so much bigger. So much more complicated. It wasn't that she didn't want other girls to fight, but she had to learn for herself, and she had to do it quickly. She had no idea whether she'd be able to make a real difference, a lasting difference for anyone else.
She played with the spoon in front of her. "I think I need to get into lessons myself before I worry about helping anyone else." She peered at Yugoda from the corner of her eye. "Would it bother you if a bunch of your students left to learn to fight instead of healing?"
A cheerful scoff. "If I have any say in the matter, I won't lose a single student. In fact, I would take on twice as many."
"You would stop them from learning to fight?"
Yugoda shook her head. "Certainly not. I would have them learn both." When Katara raised an eyebrow, Yugoda smiled. "How often does a healer need to fight, dear?"
"I don't know. Probably not often."
"And how often do warriors need healing?" Her voice went a little lower. "If I had my choice, every waterbender would learn to heal, and no one would fight unless they chose. I've lost track of the number of boys we've lost because healing was too far away."
Katara's hand found its way back up to her necklace again. Maybe Yugoda was right about that. Maybe some things would have been different if the South Pole had had healers of its own. Bato might not have been separated from the other warriors, and some of their friends might have come away from the raids without scars, and Mom—she couldn't bear to think about that. It hurt too much to even considerthe idea of what might have been if there had been a healer around—if Katara had known her own abilities back then.
"You've come here to find a way to end the war," Yugoda resumed. "But fighting alone will only take us so far. When all the battles are over, there will still be damage to mend. There will always be a place for healing. Do you think that you can say the same for fighting?"
Slowly, Katara shook her head. "No. It's just—fighting is what we need now. It doesn't do a lot of good to fix the things that are broken if so many people are still doing their best to break more. I have to fight."
And she wanted to. She'd been a bystander for too much of her life—she wanted to play a part in things for once. She had a destiny—probably, though Aunt Wu hadn't been able to see it—and she wanted to live up to it.
"Would Pakku ever—if things were different, do you think he would change his mind? I mean, he turned me away, but what about the Avatar? If the Avatar was a girl, then—"
"I don't know," Yugoda admitted. "It's been a very long time since there was a female Avatar to worry about."
Katara kept her eyes fixed resolutely downward. Something inside her still revolted against the idea of using her identity as leverage, but she had to know. Even if she had to find a way to prove herself—and it made her feel dirty knowing that her status might be the only thing that made her worthy of Pakku's lessons—she had to have every possible advantage at her disposal. Even if it was just a last resort. Even if she never meant to use it.
"What about when there were female Avatars? Do you know what happened then?"
"I believe they may have trained at the South Pole. I don't believe I've seen records of Avatar Yangchen or Kyoshi visiting our city," Yugoda said. Even without looking up, Katara could see her eyes narrow. "Why? That seems like an odd question."
Katara felt her face flush. Not yet. She wasn't ready to tell the truth, even to Yugoda, yet. "It's—I was just curious. I am traveling with the Avatar, at least. Whether Pakku likes it or not, I'm going to be fighting the Fire Nation after we leave the North Pole." She chanced a glimpse in Yugoda's direction. "No matter what he thinks I should do with my bending, that isn't going to change."
A frown. "For all your sakes, I hope that that eventuality holds off for a very long while."
"Too late."
"What do you mean by that?"
Katara clamped her hands together, looking down. "We've had firebenders chasing us ever since we left the South Pole. I was captured and held prisoner of one of their ships for a few weeks." She caught Yugoda's look of dismay, and added, "I was fine in the end. No one really hurt me. It's just—I've seen enough of the others to know what they're capable of. The boy who took me prisoner won't be the last firebender I have to deal with." She paused. "And most people probably won't believe me, but I know for a fact that he isn't the worst of them."
Yugoda studied her long and hard before asking, "Do you mind if I tell you a story?"
"Aang. Aang, look. How's this?"
For a while, Aang studied him while Sokka held perfectly still. Then, "Okay, I give up. What am I supposed to be looking at?"
"My face, obviously. Did I get all the blood off?"
Aang blanched. "I mean—I think so?"
"Are you scared of blood?"
"I—no, not exactly. I don't love it, though."
Sokka rolled his eyes. "Come on. I just need to know if I look good. I know that Katara said my nose was fine, but I don't know if I trust her. She had a real attitude about healing me."
"Your nose looks fine."
He scrunched and unscrunched his face. It felt fine, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. His nose could be entirely crooked, and it would still feel fine.
"But like—does it look good?"
Aang's forehead erupted in wrinkles that carried all the way up to his arrow. "I don't know. It's your nose. It's still there if that's what you're worried about."
"Ugh. You're no help at all." Sokka ran his fingers up and down both sides of his nose. It didn't seem to be crooked or unusually lumpy. He couldn't tell whether there were any discolored spots or anything, but nothing hurt.
Aang leaned back against his cushion on the floor. "Why does it matter anyway? And why are you all dressed to go out?" He narrowed his eyes and frowned. "Are you going to have dinner with your teacher too?"
"What? No." Sokka scoffed and pulled a face. "That would mean having dinner with Hahn."
Just thinking about it made his skin crawl. Hahn's dad was a good enough teacher, but Hahn himself was a disgusting little worm. And decent teacher or not, Hahn's dad didn't exactly seem the type to make friends with his students. Especially the kid from the South Pole who'd hit himself in the face with a club on his very first day of training. It wasn't Sokka's fault, not in the least, but he could see how it might have made him look bad.
It was probably going to take a while before people forgot about that.
He snagged his parka off of the floor and pulled it over his head.
"So what are you doing? It's not that cold in here."
Of course Aang would say that. The little weirdo never even put on a light coat, much less a proper parka. It was like his crazy, bouncy energy kept him at a comfortable, toasty temperature at all times.
They probably should get him a real parka regardless. Gran-Gran had always insisted—with good reason—that Sokka and Katara dress warm enough for the weather, even if they felt perfectly warm. That was the only real way to ensure that they wouldn't freeze. Sokka should be the grown up and impose the same rules on Aang. It was for his own good.
And besides, Aang's clothes were all shades of oranges and yellows, and he didn't blend in anywhere. It couldn't hurt to at least try to disguise the kid.
He shook his head. It didn't pay to think about that now. Finding an Aang-sized parka was a problem for a different day.
"I want to see if I can meet up with someone before it gets too dark. It's not like there's gonna be much else to do with Katara out having dinner with that old lady."
Aang sat bolt upright. "Who are you meeting? Can I come too?"
"Uhh—" Sokka scratched the back of his neck. "I don't think that's a very good idea."
"How come?"
So many reasons. Yue's pretty face. Her big, sparkly eyes. Her impossibly white hair and her soft looking lips. Mostly her lips. Sokka really wanted to kiss those lips, and the last thing he wanted was an audience.
"No reason," he answered as casually as he could. "You'd probably just be really bored."
"Oh. So you're meeting someone boring?"
"What? No, of course not." Yue wasn't boring. She was sweet and bright and warm and interesting and pretty. Really pretty. Sokka wasn't shallow or anything, but Yue was so pretty that he would probably like her even if she wasn't such a great person. And she was. She was amazing. What was he supposed to do? Sokka wasn't made of stone. He had to like Yue.
"Who are you meeting, then?"
Sokka's face heated. "Just—someone."
Aang's brow furrowed in thought. "So—probably Princess Yue, then."
He spluttered. "I—what—what gives you that idea?"
A shrug. "You're all worried about how you look, and I know you like the princess a lot. It just makes sense."
Sokka scowled for a second, then he let his shoulders slump. "Fine, you got me. I want to meet up with Yue."
"Oh." Aang leaned back again. "So—what am I supposed to do while you're gone?"
A shrug. "I don't know. Play with Momo or something, I guess. I won't be gone that long." No more than a couple of hours, if he had to guess. He had no idea whether he'd actually be able to find Yue after dark, but he knew where the palace was. It couldn't hurt to go loiter around outside the walls for a while.
"Yeah, but—"
Sokka was already halfway out the door. "See you later, Aang! Don't cause too much trouble."
He didn't wait for a response. If Katara could just take off and spend her entire evening with some old lady, then there was no reason why Sokka couldn't go out too. It wasn't his fault if Katara's big outing was a hundred times more boring than his. They were in the Northern Water Tribe now. He was allowed to do some things purely for fun now that he didn't have to worry so much about safety.
The gravity in Yugoda's tone took her by surprise, but Katara slowly shook her head. She couldn't refuse, could she?
"Of course I don't mind a story."
Yugoda nodded. "Good."
But she wouldn't start right away. Instead, she insisted on clearing away what was left from their dinner, settling them both in with a fresh cup of arctic sage tea, checking that the fur cushions were enough, that Katara didn't need anything to keep herself any warmer, and just generally fussing for several long minutes before finally settling back in.
Of course, by then, Katara was torn between anticipation and dread. What kind of a story could possibly warrant this?
At long last, Yugoda began, "It was springtime just a few years ago. All the men were out fishing and setting traps when one of the boats ventured out too far beyond the ice fields. It happens sometimes when they're young and unaccustomed to the currents. Usually, the waterbenders go out to fetch them back if they haven't returned by sunset, and they never make the same mistake again. This time, though, the waterbenders never found the lost men. Instead, while they were out searching, the two lost brothers turned up at the healing hut where I and my daughters were working. They were perfectly unharmed, but they weren't alone."
Yugoda paused for a few seconds. "They claimed that the stranger they'd come back with had helped them find their way back, but the stranger was draped in an old blanket, and he refused to speak or show his face until I agreed to meet him in private. I tried to refuse. If a stranger had any business being here, then he ought to be willing to show his face. But neither he nor the boys he'd brought back would budge, and I finally sent my daughters away.
"The man was a firebender. I knew it as soon as he removed the blanket from his head, and he demanded that one of our healers accompany him back to his ship. He said that there was a little boy who needed help, and he would make it worth our trouble if one of us would save the child. I didn't believe him. He was a soldier, and I could see no reason why there would be a child travelling on a warship so far from home."
Katara's stomach turned fluttery and uncertain. She could think of a reason why a Fire Nation boy would have been on a warship just a few years ago. Not a little boy, but a boy. She didn't know if Zuko had ever been sick—especially that sick, bad enough to need a healer from the North Pole—but the rest sounded familiar. Too familiar.
She set down her cup and clenched her hands into fists. She couldn't make any assumptions. None at all.
"I told the firebender to leave us in peace and do it quickly, or I would set all of our warriors after him and his little boy. It had been decades since we last encountered the Fire Nation, and I wasn't going to risk starting things over again." Yugoda sighed, shaking her head. "I thought that was the end of it, but my youngest daughter, Imiq, never came home that night. It seems she had eavesdropped on my conversation with the firebender and took it upon herself to spare the tribe from any vengeance that he might take on us. Imiq intercepted him just beyond the city walls, and for a whole day and night, there was nothing. No one heard anything, no one could find anything, and Master Pakku began to tell me that my daughter was most likely gone, just like your grandmother.
"But then," Yugoda continued, looking straight into Katara's eyes, "on the second morning, I found Imiq asleep in her bed just like always. She'd found her way back after midnight and slipped past the patrols so that no one would see where she'd come from. It seems that the firebender had been telling the truth. There was a little boy aboard the warship, half dead of an infected wound. No one would tell her what had happened to the child, but they left her to her work, and when the boy began to revive, another of the firebenders escorted her safely back within sight of the city walls and left her with a great sack of coins and several jeweled trinkets like nothing we'd ever seen before."
Katara found herself leaning slightly forward, eyes wide and unblinking. She wanted to ask more. She wanted to pry for more details—for every single thing that Yugoda could tell her about the man who'd come to the city in the first place, about the ship, about the boy, and the wound that had put him in danger. It sounded like Zuko, and the general, and—and she didn't know when Zuko had gotten his scar, but that must have been a horrible wound. And Zuko said that he'd left home three years ago, and he'd been travelling all around the world since then. Why couldn't it be him?
And yet it probably wasn't. There were lots of Fire Navy ships out there, lots of soldiers who could have found their way into the city, and possibly lots of kids travelling with older relatives. Kids who helped with keeping the supplies in order and cooking and cleaning and stuff. Right? That was possible, wasn't it? It could have been someone else.
And it probably wouldn't do much good to ask Yugoda anyway, since she wasn't the one who'd left the city to do the healing. She'd never actually met Zu—not Zuko, just the boy. Yugoda had never met him in the first place.
She let out a steadying breath. "Why are you telling me all of this?"
"Because I was wrong about the firebender who came to us looking for help. He returned my daughter to me, just as he promised he would." She paused. "I believe you when you say that you weren't harmed by that firebender. I learned the hard way that there is honor to be found on all sides of the war."
A surprising amount of weight seemed to lift from her shoulders. After—well, after Sokka, it was a relief to have someone believe her. Katara gave a small, grateful smile.
"I know you want to fight, my dear, and I hope you find a way to do it sooner or later," Yugoda continued. "And so long as you're careful about who you trust, you may be in a better position than most to make a real difference. We're all human, with all the good and bad that comes with it, regardless of nation. I truly believe that understanding that may be the key to ending the needless death."
The streets were quieter now, but still far from empty. Sokka stuffed his hands into his pockets and watched the puffs of his breath hanging in the air. He liked this place a lot better than most of the towns they'd seen along their journey north. It was a little like home—or at least like what home could be with enough work and ingenuity. The South Pole didn't exactly need a network of canals for transportation, and they only had one bender who could maybe someday build things like this with ice, but it was still enough to give him ideas. Like the way the streets were arranged and some of the smaller house designs. Those were great. And with enough tools and enough pairs of hands, they could probably build something similar at the South Pole, even without bending.
Someday. Someday, he was going to go back home, and he'd start building up new stuff like this. Well, like this, but better. Suited to the South Pole, and built so that benders and nonbenders could maintain them.
By the time he was done, the Southern Tribe was going to be the better tribe by far. Well, better except for Yue. The South Pole didn't have anyone who could even remotely compare with Yue. Unless Sokka could work some magic and charm her enough that she wanted to become part of the Southern Tribe.
No, he was getting ahead of himself there. He liked Yue a lot, and the last thing he wanted to do was screw things up by moving too fast. Realistically, they'd be here for a few months at least. Sokka had plenty of time to really get to know her and to win her heart if he could.
For now, he just wanted to spend some time with her, and maybe, if he was really lucky, he'd get a chance to kiss her soon.
He wandered around near the front of the palace for a few minutes before turning up a street on the southern side of the palace. The path narrowed a bit and passed through a short, dark tunnel before opening again to a bridge over one of the canals. And there, at the top of the bridge, Yue stood, looking serenely out over the water.
Sokka stopped and let out a slow breath. Wow. She was just—wow. The moonlight caught her hair, turning it a luminous silver, and the contours of her face were almost impossibly soft and smooth. Sokka had seen pretty girls before—he'd liked pretty girls before—but Yue was somehow entirely different.
For a second, he didn't move. Spirits, she was pretty. He almost didn't want to approach and risk disturbing her. He could almost be content to just stand here and watch her.
But then Yue turned her head just a bit, and her eyes landed on Sokka. A soft smile spread across her face. "Good evening, Sokka. I wasn't expecting to see you here."
"So—is that a good thing?"
She smiled a little wider and looked away. "Of course it is."
"Really?" Sokka swaggered a bit as he approached from the bottom of the bridge. "You know, I have been told that I'm—" He stopped, trying to lean casually against the railing, but his elbow slipped, and he nearly lost his balance.
"Goodness! Are you okay?"
His face flamed, and he looked away. "I, uh—I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said that people told me I was smooth, would you?"
Yue giggled. "Maybe not smooth, but certainly charming."
Oh. His heart sped up. That was exactly what he'd been planning to say, but he certainly didn't expect Yue to agree with that.
"What brings you out here tonight?" she asked.
"Oh, just—walking. You know. Taking a walk for exercise and—stuff."
Brilliant. He sounded like he'd been dropped on his head.
"It's a lovely night for it," Yue said, turning back toward the moonlit canal.
"Yeah." Sokka found himself staring at her again. "Yeah, it really is."
She glanced his way, and Sokka jerked back so that she wouldn't catch him staring.
"Actually, I was kind of hoping that I'd run into you," he said in a bit of a rush. "Appa—that's our sky bison—is probably going to be ready to fly again tomorrow. I was thinking that we could maybe go for a little ride around outside the city. Since—you know. Since you've never been outside the walls before."
"Oh! That sounds—"
"You don't have to entertain the rabble, Princess. The party's over. They've already gotten all the welcome they deserve."
At the sound of the voice, Sokka's spine stiffened. Hahn. Of course he would come along and try to ruin the moment. That was probably all he was good at, the big moment-ruiner.
It did make him feel a little better, in a way, to see Yue's smile turn from warm and open to strained and brittle. It was nice to know that she wasn't fond of Hahn either. But at the same time, it also bothered him to see Yue so obviously uncomfortable.
"I'm afraid your concern is unnecessary, Hahn. I enjoy our visitors very much. Besides, I believe that it is in our best interests to establish a new connection with our sister tribe." Her tone was polite, but unmistakably frosty.
"What, and you think that some kid from a slush pile on the other end of the world is going to help with that?" Hahn scoffed, looking Sokka up and down. "Please. We may as well try negotiating with a turtle seal."
What? "My dad is the chief of the Southern Tribe," Sokka retorted. "Who's yours? Oh, that's right. He's a teacher. I'm exactly the person who should be representing the Southern Tribe, and you're—"
"At least I'm not a clumsy idiot." Hahn gave a crooked smirk, and stood straighter, making the most of his slight height advantage. "Your nose looks—well, not better, but not bleeding. What happened? Did you run off crying to the healing huts after you embarrassed yourself?"
Don't punch him in front of Yue. Don't punch him in front of Yue.
Sokka clenched his jaw tight.
"May I ask why you chose to visit tonight, Hahn?" Yue asked, her tone a little sharp. "I'm certain you wouldn't have come all this way merely to argue with one of our guests."
Ha. Sokka tried not to smirk when Hahn darkened a shade. Maybe restraint did pay off. Yue seemed to be on Sokka's side.
"I came to see you, obviously. I wanted to make sure you were ready for tomorrow." He leaned uncomfortably close to Yue. "I know I am."
Yue nodded stiffly. "I am perfectly well prepared. Now, if you'll excuse me—" She started to turn away, but she didn't get very far before Hahn grabbed her by the elbow.
"They're going to choose me. You know that, don't you?"
Yue extracted her arm from Hahn's grasp before Sokka could lunge. "Perhaps they will," she replied. "But nothing is certain until tomorrow. Until then, please don't pretend that anything is final."
Sokka looked back and forth between the two of them. He was definitely missing something here. Something big, and judging by Yue's expression, something extremely unpleasant. Well, maybe that part went without saying. After all, anything involving Hahn had to be unpleasant by default.
This time, when Yue turned to go, Hahn let her. Sokka shot a positively venomous look back over his shoulder, then jogged after Yue.
He caught up with her just on the far side of the frozen tunnel. "Hey! Uh—Princess Yue!"
She slowed and looked back at him, her eyes just a bit shinier around the rims than usual.
Shit. Was she crying? Sokka was so bad at dealing with crying people. Even insanely pretty ones like Yue.
"I just—I'm sorry about whatever that was." He gestured vaguely back toward Hahn. "I really didn't mean to get into a stupid argument right in front of you."
Yue smiled, but the flickers of melancholy in her eyes remained. "No, it's fine."
He raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't seem fine."
A sheepish smile. "I'm afraid I may not be entirely prepared to be involved in the city's politics if I'm that easy to read." She paused and gave a slow sigh. "I'm not ready to go home yet, that's all. It's too lovely a night to waste it all indoors, and yet—"
"Well, there has to be a nice balcony around here somewhere," Sokka offered. "We could go—I mean, you could probably find someplace where you wouldn't be interrupted. Unless you want to be interrupted."
Her smile warmed. "I can think of an interruption that I wouldn't mind. If you'd like to join me, that is."
"Yeah! Yeah, of course!" He broke into a slight swagger again. He couldn't help it. He had to be pretty great if Yue wanted to spend time with him.
"So a ride on a sky bison?" Yue asked as she led him around the corner and toward the side of the palace. "Were you serious about that?"
"Absolutely. I'm great at flying Appa, and he's a giant softie. I'm sure he'd love you."
He should. Everyone should love Yue.
"I think I'd like that. You're right, it does sound like a perfect way to see the outside world without putting anyone in danger."
"Yeah?" Sokka stuffed his hands into his pockets. "So—how early should I stop by for you tomorrow morning?" They could probably squeeze in a quick ride around the ice fields before Sokka had to go to training. He'd have to get up early—really early—but it would be worth it if he could see Yue right away.
Wow. He must be in love for real. He'd never known anyone who he liked enough to voluntarily get up early. Either that, or he'd be significantly less enthusiastic about waking up when morning came around. Or maybe both. He could be in love and change his mind about the value of early mornings, couldn't he?
"No, I'm afraid tomorrow won't be ideal," Yue answered. "But another day, perhaps. Maybe the next day you have free from training?"
Sokka's shoulders deflated a fraction. "Tomorrow—you'll be hanging out with Hahn then, won't you?"
She glanced back at him as she started up a short flight of icy stairs to a half-hidden balcony. "I wouldn't describe it quite that way."
"How would you describe it, then?" He caught another quick glance from Yue and winced. "I mean—you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
She smiled. "There's a ceremony tomorrow. Part of my coming of age, and Hahn will be in attendance. I sincerely doubt that any decisions will be made there, but he is convinced that my father will—" she broke off and stared over the side of the balcony. "Never mind. It feels like bad luck to talk about what may happen."
"Oh. Okay." Sokka leaned up against the railing and followed her gaze down into a snowy courtyard. Much as he wanted to pry, he liked to think that he'd learned a lesson with Katara. Pushiness was basically a death sentence when it came to girls. "So—I don't suppose you know when the next day without training would be? I haven't looked at the schedule yet, and if I have a few days before I take you out for your first flight, then I want to make sure it's the best one ever."
Yue couldn't seem to stop smiling. "I'm not certain, but I'm sure I could find out."
Author's Note:
I, uh... I cut it a little close on editing this one. It didn't actually take me that long to clean it up (thank goodness for Sokka's scenes coming together decently well on the first draft), but I set aside two and a half weeks to get the chapter ready to post after finishing my Big Bang fic without realizing that I was going to be working on podfic editing for 4 of those days, then on vacation (visiting family 800 miles from home) for a week, and just... not in a good position to actually work on editing. But I got there in the end!
Anyway. Yugoda's story is definitely a headcanon of mine that I may or may not have been working on a separate fic for at one point. What can I say? People have made some thought-provoking posts about how Zuko likely would have lost his sight and/or hearing in his first Agni Kai, and my brain immediately invented a story about why that didn't happen. And I like the idea of having more reason for Yugoda to talk to/mentor Katara, so sparking some additional curiosity about Zuko is okay with me!
I've been writing like crazy since my last update, so I have 10-ish chapters drafted now, and updates are set to come out every two weeks until I build up an editing buffer! You can always visit me on Tumblr (soopersara), and reviews are always appreciated!
