Water
The Meeting
Life at the bottom of an inescapable ice pit sucked. There was nothing to do, nothing to see, and barely even any exposure to the sunlight.
But then, in Zuko's experience, a lot of things sucked. And once Katara had brought the sleeping bag to him, it sucked just a tiny bit less. There was still nothing to do, but at least he could keep himself warm without taxing his bending any farther. He'd even gotten a bit of sleep once the shadows had filled the bottom of the pit again. This was better than crawling through Zhao's ventilation shafts or crouching inside a crate of discarded feed bags. Which, by Zuko's standards, meant that the pit was now only slightly less pleasant than average.
But this exact moment was bad enough to plunge the whole experience right back down to the worst of the worst.
"Holy frozen balls, Katara," the Water Tribe idiot said, his voice higher and screechier than it had any right to be. "That's Zuko in that hole. As in—Zuko!" He made a broad, exaggerated—and probably rude—gesture.
"Hey." Katara grabbed her brother by the ear. "The rule was that you weren't allowed to freak out. What do you call this?"
He squawked and wriggled free from her grasp, then clapped his hands over his own ears. "I call it justified."
"My sleeping bag over your head, I swear. If you don't calm—"
The monk skidded in from the side, nearly crashing into the other two. "Hi, Zuko! It's been a really long time since I saw you. It's okay. Katara told us everything."
"She did? What—" Zuko began.
"Clearly not!" the idiot shouted. "How—When—"
The monk interrupted next. "Why are you in a hole, Zuko?"
"Would you all please shut up for a second?" Katara shouted over all of them. The others didn't seem inclined to listen, but she didn't wait long enough to give them a chance to speak again. "Step back, Zuko. We're coming down there."
"Wait," he started. "You're wha—"
He didn't get any farther than that. Apparently, Katara was ignoring him as well.
She made a quick, swooping motion with her arms, and much like last night, the ice dropped away beneath her and the two boys. While the monk practically floated to the bottom of the pit, and Katara landed solidly on her feet, her idiot brother wound up flat on his back, staring at the sky and groaning.
"Owww. A little warning would have been nice, Katara," he whined.
"I did warn you, Sokka." She crossed her arms tight across her chest and fixed Zuko with a glare.
He stared right back at her. What? What had he done to deserve that glare?
"I don't want to be stuck in a hole with Zuko," the idiot said as he pushed himself up to a seated position.
"Do you think I want you down here?" Zuko snapped. Katara was one thing. He knew where he stood with her. They would argue and butt heads, but there were boundaries that neither of them would cross, and in the end, they would usually listen to one another. Usually. Often enough that he didn't have to keep his guard all the way up, at least.
What was he supposed to do with three of them? It felt like they were ganging up on him.
"Well, then maybe you should have thought of that before you started shouting loud enough for the whole city to hear." Katara bumped her brother's shoulder with the side of her knee. "This is where I went last night. I saw someone snooping around on our way back from Yugoda's, and when I figured out that it was Zuko, I brought him out here so nobody would get into trouble. And I was just about to find out why he's here when you invited yourself to come along with me. Happy now?"
The Water Tribe idiot pulled a face. "Why would I be?" With a great deal of exaggerated groaning, he pushed himself to his feet. "What about the middle of the day? Don't tell me that you were hanging around out here again."
She glared. "I haven't been hanging around anywhere. I brought a sleeping bag out here so that I wouldn't have to try and interrogate a frozen firebender later on." There was a pause. Then, "Are you done now?"
"Nope." The idiot took a small step toward Zuko, squinting in the growing dark. "What the hell happened to his hair?"
Zuko clapped his hands over his head. "What's wrong with you two? Why are you so obsessed with my hair?"
The idiot scoffed. "When have I ever been obsessed with your hair?"
"Crescent Island," Zuko snapped.
"That—that was one time. It doesn't count."
Zuko turned his glare on Katara. "I said both of you."
She threw her arms out. "What? Was I supposed to not say anything when you looked like a fuzzy gray egg with a tail?"
"I'm not an egg!" Zuko bellowed.
For an instant, they all went silent. Then the Water Tribe idiot smirked. Then snorted. Then broke into cackles so loud, so forceful that he had to lean on the monk's shoulder to keep from toppling.
"I think your hair looks good like this, Zuko," the monk said in what he probably thought was a helpful tone. "It's a little different, but I bet it's warm. That must be nice."
Zuko blinked. He hadn't gotten enough sleep for this. He wasn't sure that there could be enough sleep to make this feel like anything more than some bizarre hallucination.
Shaking his head, he turned toward Katara. "Is there a reason why you brought these two clowns with you? Or are you just trying to see how irritated I can possibly get?"
She looked almost equally cross. "I tried to come on my own. Sokka insisted on following me." She reached around and flicked her brother's ear. "Knock it off, would you?"
"Hey!" Sokka clapped a hand over his ear. "Why don't you knock it off?"But he did straighten and clear his throat. Adopting a more solemn expression, he turned toward Zuko. "I've decided that I don't have to kill you."
"Sokka," Katara groaned, dropping her head into her hands.
"Why would you have to kill me? When did you decide—"
"Sokka made a lot of stupid assumptions—"
"Perfectly reasonable assumptions," Sokka interrupted.
"—about what happened on your ship," Katara finished, completely ignoring the interjection. "And he decided that he had to kill someone. Even though he was wrong about what happened, and I told him that. Many times."
"Yeah, well I didn't have any reason not to think that I was right. So there."
"We worked it out in the end," the monk said. "It's okay, Zuko. Nobody was ever going to hurt you for real."
"Speak for yourself, Aang. I meant everything I said."
"What was I supposed to have done?" Zuko asked. He felt as though his head was going to spin off of his shoulders. What could be bad enough to warrant killing him? It couldn't have just been the fact that he'd taken Katara prisoner. He'd done that, and they all knew it. Apparently even Sokka didn't think that it was enough to justify murder.
"Oh, you know. My sister. Being held prisoner on a ship full of slimy Fire Nation guys. Connect the dots."
Zuko just stared blankly for a beat. And another. And another.
Was this supposed to be obvious, or—all at once, realization struck, and Zuko's eyes bulged.
"No!" he exclaimed, face flaming. "I—no, never. I wouldn't—I was trying to regain my honor by bringing her back to the Fire Nation. That's—that's the least honorable thing I can think of. Why would I ever—" He gestured aimlessly at the open air. "No one was even allowed to open her door, much less—"
The moon was beginning to rise, which made it much easier to see when Sokka raised a single eyebrow at him. "I can't tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing that it took you that long to figure out what I meant."
Zuko started to respond. Of course it was a good thing. He'd have to be a monster to even think of taking advantage of Katara—of anyone.
But before he managed to form a single word, the monk spoke up. "I'm still not sure what you guys are talking about."
Sokka patted his shoulder. "You know what, Aang? That's probably fine."
For a few seconds, all Zuko could do was stare at the three of them. Katara, at least, looked a bit exasperated, rubbing her forehead with her eyes cast down. Sokka and Aang, on the other hand, didn't seem the least bit ruffled anymore. It was like this was normal to them.
With a sigh, Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're all insane."
"Hey!" Katara stepped forward and jabbed a finger into his chest. "We're insane? Because the last time I checked, we're not the ones who decided that it was a good idea to break into an enemy city by swimming through freezing water in clothes that definitely aren't warm enough for the poles."
"Yeah, what are you even wearing?" Sokka wrinkled his nose. "It looks like that stuff would barely even hold up against a rainstorm."
"It would hold up against a rainstorm," Zuko snapped. "That's what it's meant for. Rain gear was the best I could find in Zhao's storage rooms. It's not like we deal with a lot of snow in the Fire Nation." They didn't need to know that he was wearing three other layers of clothing beneath that. He certainly wasn't going to announce that his bending was the only reason he'd been able to keep himself warm on the journey here even with his multiple layers of clothing.
"Well excuse me, Mister Fancy Pants. Sorry for doubting your wimpy little raincoat."
Katara shot a look back over her shoulder before turning to Zuko again. "That's why I keep asking what you're doing here." She was still close—nearly as close as she'd ever been to him, and closer than he could ever remember her coming without actually grabbing onto him and dragging him off somewhere—and she stared piercingly into his eyes. "If I didn't know better, I'd think that it was just a death wish, coming here so unprepared. But I don't think you're that stupid. Especially since you've had days and days to think about what you're doing since you left Zhao's ship."
Zuko's heart skipped. This was weird. Being close to her was weird, and the way she stared right through him was weird, and weirdest of all was the way that he couldn't seem to break out of her gaze. She'd done this before, back when his ship was actually a ship, not just a mound of mangled steel at the bottom of a harbor, but it hadn't been quite this—powerful.
Possibly because he used to be able to run away when her questions, her gaze grew too intense.
His mouth felt dry, but the words poured out of him anyway. "Zhao is telling people that you killed me. He's trying to stir everyone up to seek revenge. And he's on his way here."
Katara's fingertips were numb. If she didn't know any better, she might have almost thought that it was the cold. Zuko did still have her mittens, after all. She should probably take them back. It wasn't like he could really wear her mittens for any length of time. It wasn't like he needed them now that he could use Sokka's sleeping bag to keep warm.
But it wasn't that cold. Certainly not cold enough to make her fingertips go numb just because Zuko had her mittens. It had to be shock instead.
Which was a little silly, now that she thought about it. If she'd made any effort at all to prepare herself for what Zuko was going to say, maybe she could have been prepared for that. Maybe it wouldn't have surprised her to discover that she was being blamed for the explosion.
Or maybe she was just kidding herself. It was insane to think that anyone would have blamed her for that.
"Where the hell would this Zhao guy have gotten the idea that Katara killed you?" Sokka demanded.
"He didn't get it anywhere," Zuko said. His tone was still a bit abrupt, but he looked less irritated than Katara was used to. "Zhao made it up. He lied."
"How do you know that?"
"Oh, I don't know. The fact that Zhao blew up my ship seemed like a pretty clear giveaway to me."
"There's no need to be a smartass, you ponytailed jerk."
"There is when you start asking stupid questions," Zuko snapped back at Sokka. But then he turned toward Katara and he—well, softened wasn't quite the right word for it. His expression grew a little less harsh, though, and his brow furrowed. "Um—Katara?"
It was still weird to hear him say her name. Not bad, just weird. Katara shook herself. "Yeah, I'm listening. I just—why would he try to pin that on me? He knows that I was on the ship with you when it blew up."
"I'm not sure," Zuko said. He wouldn't look at her, and he seemed to be searching for words. It was like he'd planned what he was going to say and then forgotten it midway through. "All I really know is what I heard him tell my uncle."
"Zhao told the general that I killed you?"
"Well—he was definitely hinting at it. Zhao said that since you were the only other person on the ship at the time, you might have done something to cause the explosion. I think—I'm pretty sure he was just fishing to see how far he could push Uncle, but there are a lot crazier things he could have tried to get away with."
"And your uncle believed that?"
Zuko narrowed his eyes, the shell of awkwardness dropping away to make way for sarcasm. "Yes, absolutely. My uncle, who had been keeping me hidden for several weeks, was completely convinced that I'd been dead the whole time."
Katara scowled right back at him. "Does it take practice to be that much of a pain?"
"Well, how stupid do you think we are?"
She huffed. When had he become this wry, this direct? She was used to him being oddly stiff and fumbling, not having an actual personality. Or not showing his personality, at least. This was weird. How was she supposed to deal with Zuko when he acted like a real person?
"That's not what I meant," she said. "I was asking if your uncle believed that I had something to do with the explosion."
Zuko shook his head. "Uncle said that you were the one who pointed out where I was afterward. I think he'd give up tea before he listened to anything like that." He paused, and his single eyebrow lowered. "Not that that's going to stop Zhao. He doesn't need to convince Uncle as long as Uncle doesn't contradict him. And nobody could blame Zhao for the explosion without being killed."
Even the general. Katara sighed, rubbing her forehead with the heel of her hand. "So—what? What am I supposed to do? If Zhao really thinks that you're dead, then he can't possibly know that I survived. What could he gain by accusing a dead girl?" She paused, frowning. "Unless he just wants to cover up what he did—"
Zuko scoffed. "Like anyone actually cares if I'm dead."
She felt her eyes widen, but he went on like nothing had happened.
"Zhao has orders to conquer the North Pole. I think it has something to do with that. There's really no reason for the Fire Nation to bother with the Northern Tribe, but if he can make people believe that someone from the Water Tribes killed me, then they might think it's justified. I mean—if they think that you killed me, then imagine what the Water Tribe could do with an army and weapons."
"That's absolutely insane," Sokka said.
"You don't think I'm telling the truth?" Zuko retorted.
"No, I didn't say that. I believe it, but it's still insane." Sokka stepped forward far enough that Katara could see him from the corner of her eye as he crossed his arms. "We're not even Northern Tribe. Well—except for the bit we got from Gran-Gran. But still. It's insane to attack the North Pole over something Katara supposedly did."
"Of course it's insane! It's Admiral Zhao!"
"Well, couldn't you have just told people that you weren't dead? That would have solved a lot of problems."
Zuko threw his arms out to the sides. "And what? Sit around and drink tea while I waited for Zhao to try killing me again? Somehow, I don't think that the man who blew up my ship and tried to kill Katara along with me was going to be happy to find out that I'd survived."
"Ugh. Fine. Maybe you have a point."
"So what do we do?" Katara asked. "If Zhao is already on his way here, then we don't have a lot of time."
"Well—it's just the one ship, right?" Sokka said. "That could be manageable. I mean—Zhao's ship is probably huge, but Katara's wrecked a ship before. What's a slightly bigger boat when we've got two Avatars to take it on?"
Zuko shook his head. "He's waiting at Kokkyo Island until reinforcements come through. Or he was. For all I know, the fleet could already be there."
Sokka scowled. "You're just full of helpful tidbits, aren't you?"
"What do you want me to say? Should I be lying instead?"
"Well, no, but—" Sokka leaned a bit to the side, peering around Zuko. "Hold up. Is that my sleeping bag? Katara, why does Prince Fire Fists have my sleeping bag?"
Her face grew hot. "Because you weren't using it, and my sleeping bag was too small."
"That's not a very good excuse for taking my stuff without asking."
"I didn't exactly have a lot of time, Sokka."
"Take the stupid thing back if it's that big a problem," Zuko snapped. "I'll be fine without it."
Sokka scoffed. "No, you won't. You're not gonna last out here for more than a few days in that Fire Nation raincoat. I would just appreciate it if someone said 'please' for once." He crossed his arms and stared expectantly at Katara.
She scowled back at him.
"Shouldn't we tell someone about Admiral Zhao?" Aang asked before they could devolve into bickering. "We aren't going to be able to stop a whole fleet without help."
"Exactly," Katara said, latching onto the change of subject. "The problem is that I don't know who we can really trust with this. And what do we say when we figure out who to approach first?"
"Hahn," Sokka said loudly.
She whipped back around and poked him hard in the shoulder. "We are not telling Hahn anything. Not now, not ever."
"What?" Sokka looked confused. "I didn't say we should."
"Yes, you did."
"No." He swatted her poking finger away. "I didn't. What were you guys even talking about? I wasn't listening."
"Why are you talking about Hahn?"
"Because." Sokka waved a hand at Zuko. "Hahn is the same size as Zuko."
"I—" Katara gave Zuko a quick look up and down, and he stared back at her, brow furrowed. "I guess he's probably close. So what?"
Sokka spoke in a slow, exaggeratedly even voice. "So, Hahn has a whole bunch of extra parkas, that's what. He was bragging about it earlier today. If I made one of them disappear, it would piss him off and keep Mister Ponytail here from freezing."
Oh. She looked at Zuko again. "That actually might not be a bad idea. Just—if you're going to steal from Hahn, try not to get caught."
"Obviously," Sokka said.
Zuko was looking more bewildered—and more tired—by the moment. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do I even want to know what you're all talking about?"
Sokka clapped him hard on the shoulder, and Zuko stiffened visibly. "I seriously doubt it." He turned back toward Aang. "What if we go straight to Chief Arnook? He's a reasonable guy. If he finds out that Zhao is going to attack, he'll definitely get things moving."
Katara's insides clenched inexplicably. "But if we tell the chief, won't he wonder how we figured this out all of a sudden? And if anyone else finds out, then—" She broke off. It didn't really make sense, but she didn't think that she wanted anyone to find Zuko. He'd saved her life once before, and now that he'd come all this way to warn her, it didn't seem fair to hand him over to the Northern Tribe.
She didn't want to see him get hurt again. Not if she could help it.
Even if he was an irritating, sarcastic jerk sometimes.
Sokka rubbed at his chin. "But if Zuko wants to talk to the chief in person—"
"Are you insane?" Zuko's voice came out a little higher, a little more strained than usual. "Of course I don't. I'm not interested in getting myself killed."
"Fine, then. But I don't see you coming up with any brilliant ideas, Ponytail Man."
"What about Princess Yue?" Aang offered. "I don't know her as well as you guys do, but I know she's really nice. Maybe she could help us figure out how to tell the chief."
Katara went still, and she stared long and hard at Zuko. On the one hand, she couldn't think of anyone who could possibly be a better choice than Yue—she was sweet, and she'd been willing to help Katara with getting into waterbending lessons, and she'd confided secrets of her own to Katara. If there was anyone who might be willing to give Zuko a chance, who might not turn him over to the council immediately, it was probably Yue.
But on the other hand, Zuko was—prickly, to put it lightly. He wasn't cruel, but Katara wouldn't put it past him to get all worked up and start shouting at Yue. He would argue with anything that moved, and it seemed entirely possible that Yue wouldn't want to meet with him, or to help him once she had.
Still, Zuko was objectively less terrible than Hahn. If Yue could handle Hahn—and it seemed that she could—then maybe she would be okay with Zuko. Maybe it wouldn't be a complete disaster.
"She is the one who showed me the lake the first time," Katara said. "I guess we could probably convince her to come out here for a meeting with Zuko."
She caught a strange look from Sokka. "When did you two ever—" He paused and gave a sigh. "Oh, that's right. Secret girl time."
Zuko looked back and forth between all three of them. "Royalty? That's your first option?"
"Who else should we go to?" Aang asked.
"I—I don't know. An advisor. Someone on a council somewhere. Somebody trustworthy." His jaw clenched visibly, and he stared hard at Katara.
"Princess Yue is trustworthy," she said. "More than anyone else I can think of. I might trust my healing teachers, but—"
"But what? That sounds better than getting royalty involved to me."
"But neither of them have that kind of influence," she finished, fixing him with a glare. "Princess Yue is our friend, and she probably knows how to bring up things like this with her father."
"Yeah, but—"
"Dude, you do realize that you're royalty, right?" Sokka interrupted. "Meeting Yue should be like—exactly your thing. You know, diplomacy and shit."
A scowl. "That's not exactly my strong point. And wouldn't the princess be the first person to turn me in?"
"Is that a bad thing?"
Not breaking her gaze away from Zuko, Katara smacked Sokka in the arm. "I'll talk to her before she meets you. Nobody is going to turn anyone in."
"Ow." Sokka rubbed his arm and shot her a glare. "I was joking. Why would I turn him in when he's giving me an excuse to annoy Hahn?"
"We really need to get your priorities checked."
"I don't know what you're talking about. My priorities are great."
Katara shook her head. Zuko was risking his safety—his life—to help them. It seemed cruel to joke about turning him in.
Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose again. "When am I supposed to meet up with this princess?"
"Probably as soon as possible," Aang said. "Maybe in a day or two?"
Zuko's hand dropped from his face. Though his scowl remained as strong as ever, he looked nervous. Katara watched his hands clench into fists, then watched his jaw muscles working. She supposed that she couldn't blame him for being worried. All things considered, this was probably not a great day for him.
"Not until we can get her out here without rousing any suspicions," she said instinctively. "And we'll be here too." Maybe that would help. If nothing else, Zuko seemed a little more comfortable talking to her than the others. It might be difficult to find the time between her lessons, but if being around to at least mediate the conversation made things go better, then it would probably be worth the effort.
Zuko watched her for a moment, eyes boring deep into hers before he finally nodded. "Okay. I guess—I'll tell the princess what's going on."
"Great." Sokka stepped forward and slapped him on the back. "We weren't gonna give you a choice in the matter, but it's a nice thought. Now." He put his hands on his hips and turned on the spot, staring up at the moonlit rim of the icy pit. "How the hell do we get out of here?"
"To begin with, you watch your language if you want my help." Katara glanced at Aang. "Can you get out on your own?"
He nodded enthusiastically. "Of course I can."
Good. Between waterbending lessons, healing lessons, and hoisting herself in and out of the pit several times over, Katara was a bit too tired to lift all of them. She could probably still move Sokka, though. Probably.
Taking a deep breath, she surged forward, catching Sokka around the middle with a rope of water and launching him up toward the rim. He lost momentum just short of the edge and yelled as the water slowed and stopped.
"Grab the edge," Katara shouted up at him. "Climb out. I can't hold you up there very long."
She came dangerously close to dropping him before he obeyed and swung forward to grab the icy rim. Aang launched himself out with his airbending and turned back to help Sokka claw his way up to the lake's surface. And Katara remained at the bottom of the pit for a moment, winded and only an arm's length away from Zuko.
"Hey!" Sokka flopped over onto his belly and let his head dangle over the edge. "Are you staying down there?"
"No," she called back. "Of course not. Would you just give me a second?"
"Why?" Sokka glanced suspiciously at Zuko. "Are you two—"
"Sokka. You're really heavy. Let me get the feeling back in my arms before I do any more waterbending."
"Oh, come on. I'm not that—"
"Just go. Both of you. I'll be right behind you." She stretched her arms across her chest one at a time, then rubbed her own shoulders. Ow. If she was going to keep moving people around like that, she'd have to find a more efficient way of doing it. Otherwise she was going to get stranded down here with Zuko someday.
Aang bent down to tug on Sokka's hood. "Let's go, Sokka. We didn't have supper yet, and I can hear your stomach rumbling."
Sokka grumbled a bit, but after a minute or two, the appeal to his stomach got the better of him. He clambered to his feet and shot one last look into the pit. "If she's not back to the house in a few minutes, I'm gonna come back out here and clobber you with my boomerang, understand? I'm giving you a chance, but don't get things twisted. I still don't trust you." Then he finally turned and marched away after Aang.
When they were finally gone and the air went quiet again, Katara released a long, slow breath. She didn't have to turn to know that Zuko was still close by her side, standing still and staring up at the sky. She could feel his presence.
After a pause, he sighed too. "Well, that was—a lot."
She snuck a sideways look at him. "You know, if you'd bothered to plan ahead, you probably would have realized that this was coming sooner or later."
He scowled, keeping his eyes fixed on the edge of the pit.
"Sorry I couldn't give you any warning," she said quietly, half hoping that he wouldn't hear her.
Another sigh, but this time, she felt his gaze land on her for just a second. "I think I was expecting worse. You know—for the two seconds between when I first heard them and when your brother lost his mind." He paused. "Was he really planning to kill me?"
Katara shrugged. "Probably at one point. He seemed pretty serious about it for a while." She caught a sharp glare from Zuko. "Before we got to the North Pole," she added. "He gave up on that idea weeks ago."
He went quiet, and the silence lingered just long enough that she started to think that he wasn't going to continue. That the conversation was going to die off right there, and that there would be nothing more until the next time she saw him. But then, "I guess I'll just have to hope that it stays that way."
"Mmmm." She almost wanted to reassure him—to tell him that she wouldn't let that happen—but she couldn't quite bring herself to make that promise. It didn't seem right. At least not yet. "I guess we'll all be hoping for things like that," she said instead. "I hope that things will be easier now that we know what we're up against."
She caught another glimpse of him from the corner of her eye, and an inexplicable wave of irritation struck her. Why was she still out here with him? She had no reason to stay. She didn't owe him anything. She knew why he was here. It wasn't as though she liked spending time with him. Of course she didn't.
It was just—easier, comparatively. Easier than launching herself out of the pit, and easier than dealing with both Zuko and the boys.
Well, she wasn't going to succumb to that sort of laziness. Though her arms were still tired, Katara took a step to the side and summoned a swell of water to lift herself out of the pit. She fell a tiny bit short of the edge and had to make a frantic grab for the ice at the top and scramble clumsily onto the flat surface of the lake. Breathing hard, she flopped onto her back.
"Are you okay?" Zuko asked doubtfully.
"Fine," she answered, staring up at the starry sky. A little grumpy and tired if she were honest, but fine. After a deep breath, she sat, peering down into the dark of the pit. "I'll see you tomorrow, Zuko."
Author's Note:
Not sure what it says about me that I'm having to reread my own chapters before posting so that I can remember what the heck is going on in the chapter. Probably that I've been writing an insane amount and I just can't associate chapter numbers with plot points anymore.
I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I know a few people were thinking/hoping that Imiq was going to be their first contact after Zuko arrived in the North Pole, but I think that (aside from what Katara says about Yue being a more direct line to the chief) there's just something more intimidating about bringing an Actual Adult into the situation for everyone involved. Plus, this gives me a great excuse to write EVEN MORE friendshio content for Katara and Yue!
See you next week for Chapter 53 (which I should probably name sooner or later)! In the meantime, feel free to visit me on Tumblr, and reviews are much appreciated!
