Water
The First Summit
This was the second time that Sokka had met Yue early in the morning. The second time he'd been struck by just how absurdly pretty she was, even first thing in the morning when Sokka was barely awake and probably still wearing a whole night's worth of drool on his face.
It wasn't fair. Mostly because this time, Katara and Aang were around too. If Sokka was going to make moon eyes at Yue when he was still a sleep-clouded mess, then he ought to have at least a few minutes to do it in private. He knew very well that Katara would make fun of him if she caught him mooning over Yue, and at this time of day, he couldn't really stop himself if he wanted to. Yue was just way too pretty.
"Good morning, Katara, Avatar Aang!" Yue said brightly. Then, softer, "Good morning, Sokka."
His face went hot, and he tried to think of a coherent response. Judging by the look he got from both Katara and Aang, he'd probably failed in that.
Shaking her head, Katara turned toward Yue. "Thanks for meeting us here rather than the palace. It probably would have been a lot harder to keep this quiet if we'd all showed up right after sunrise."
"Of course," Yue said. Though she was smiling, she wrung her hands a bit. "My father was quite happy to hear that I was planning to visit with friends today."
Aang frowned. "But you're nervous, aren't you?"
"Perhaps a little. I just hope that I'm prepared for this. Meeting your friend may be the most important thing I've ever done." Yue smoothed the front of her parka. "Do I look all right?"
"You look beautiful," Sokka blurted.
Again, Katara shot an exasperated look at him. Hey. That wasn't fair. He was still tired. His brain to mouth filter hadn't started up yet, but that didn't mean that he was wrong.
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Katara said. "Zu—I mean, Red has never cared that much about appearances as far as I can tell."
"Are you sure?"
A shrug. "Not completely. But you'll be able to judge that for yourself once you've seen his haircut."
"Yeah," Sokka joined in. "He used to look a little like an arctic rooster. Now—his hair is kind of rodent-y instead."
"It keeps his head warm. That's probably more important than the fact that it looks a little bit silly."
Sokka snorted. The fact that that was the most charitable description that Aang could come up with said a lot.
Even Yue cracked a slight smile. Spirits, it was almost unnatural the way that her eyes sparkled when she smiled. "I certainly can't hold that against him, then. I'll prepare myself to see an unusual haircut."
"He's got a scar too," Sokka added.
Katara whipped toward him. "Sokka!"
"What? He does. It's not like she won't notice it. I thought we were trying to make sure that there wouldn't be any surprises." When Katara crossed her arms, Sokka gave a broad shrug. "This is technically a diplomatic meeting. I don't really care that much about whether Red likes us or not, but it's probably better if everyone knows what to expect."
Thankfully, Yue agreed with him. Sokka got a little bit smug. Ha. He did know what he was talking about, even at stupid-early in the morning.
"I wouldn't wish to offend anyone by making a poor first impression," she said. "Is there anything else that I should know? I'd like to get things right from the very start if I can."
Aang pulled a thoughtful face, then shook his head. "I don't think so. As long as nobody yells at him, Red is actually pretty nice most of the time."
"Hey," Sokka squawked. "I don't yell at him."
Aang cocked his head to the side. "I didn't say that you did."
"But you could have," Katara interjected. "I know that's why he was in a bad mood last night. I heard about all the squabbling."
For a few beats, Sokka just stared. How had she heard about that? Had Aang been blabbing again? Or— "Wait. That's why you were so late getting home last night? You're being all buddy-buddy with Red?"
Katara pursed her lips and turned back toward Yue again. "He's part of the royal family, but he's the same age as you, and—"
Wait, that didn't sound right. Sokka was almost the same age as Yue. He basically already was. "No way. Red must be—" Older than that? Well, he was definitely a bit taller than Sokka, and he'd had command over a warship at one point, but when he really thought about it, Zuko didn't act that much older. And he certainly wasn't younger than Sokka either. "He can't be that close to our age," Sokka resumed. "That just doesn't sound right."
"He's sixteen, Sokka. His uncle told me." She turned to Yue again. "And he's also been out at sea for the past few years. He's definitely seen a lot of the world, but he's no diplomat. If anything, he's probably less sure about this than you are."
"Okay." After a deep breath, Yue squared her shoulders. Somehow, by that slight change in posture alone, she seemed to transform into someone more assured, more regal than Sokka had ever seen before. "Then I think that I'm ready."
It was still early when they reached the lake—the sun was barely beginning to creep up over the horizon, and the pit looked colder and darker than usual.
From the corner of her eye, Katara watched as Yue took a half step toward Sokka. "This is the place?"
"Yeah. The famous ice pit." Sokka paused. "Why? Something wrong?"
"No. It's just—I don't think that I realized quite how literal that description was going to be. How do we get down there?"
Katara motioned Aang over toward the edge of the pit. Even though she'd gotten much better at waterbending since the first time they'd all visited in a group, she wasn't sure that she could move a large enough ice column to take all four of them in and out of the pit on her own. Not unless she wanted to drop them unceremoniously to the bottom, at least. With Aang's help, though, it sounded manageable.
It took some coaching, but Aang did eventually work out how to help her move the column of ice, and after a few stops and starts, they all reached the bottom of the pit. It was quiet and cold—almost unpleasantly so—but Katara couldn't bring herself to mind very much. It was only this cold because it was so early, and they'd had to come out here early to avoid attracting too much notice. A slightly colder than usual morning was a small price to pay for keeping Zuko safely hidden.
The quiet, though, was a bit more of a problem. Though they hadn't made too much noise since their arrival, it still should have been more than enough to carry through the walls of the tent. If Zuko had heard them coming, he should have at least poked his head out to greet them.
Instead, the pit was silent save for the sounds of their breathing, and the tent flaps didn't so much as wiggle.
Katara glanced briefly back at the others—Yue had clasped her hands tightly together in what looked like a nervous gesture, and the boys both looked a little confused—before edging a little closer to the tent.
"He is expecting us this morning, isn't he?" Yue asked behind her.
"He should be," Sokka replied. "I mean, Aang and I did come out here to talk to him yesterday, and—"
"Zuko?" Katara called as she watched the tent flaps, eyes narrowed. He was here. She knew that for a fact. And while she could hardly blame him for staying in the warmth of the tent for as long as he could, this was getting a little absurd. Her hand hovered toward the flaps, and when there was no response, she let out a huff, tossed them open, and stuck her head inside.
Unruly snatches of black hair stuck out from the ruff of fur around the upper edge of the sleeping bag, and even in the relative dark of the tent, Katara could make out the faint rise and fall of his back.
She made a face at the back of his head—which was really the only part of him that she could see. That explained a lot. Of course he wouldn't have heard them if he was still sleeping with his head half-buried under layers of furs.
"Zuko, wake up. It's morning."
He gave a small grunt and shoved his face deeper into the furs.
"Zuko," Katara repeated a little louder. Producing a long, icy finger of water, she poked the back of his head. "Come on. I thought you firebenders were supposed to be early risers."
Another grunt, and this time, he turned his head just far enough to peer out at her through his unscarred eye. "I thought you had lessons or something in the mornings." His voice was muffled both by sleep and the fact that his nose and mouth were still buried in the sleeping bag.
If she wasn't a bit annoyed with him for sleeping right into his meeting with Yue, she might have found it endearing.
Katara poked him again. "Not today. Come on, get up. You can sleep in any other time you feel like it."
"Mmph. Why should I? I was up half the night, and—"
Another poke. "Maybe because Princess Yue is here to meet you."
It seemed to take a moment for that to sink in, but once it did, Zuko's eyes snapped open, and he began fumbling his way out of the sleeping bag. Katara scarcely had time to back out of the way before he hurled himself through the tent flaps, nearly tripped over his own supplies, and barely recovered his balance before crashing headfirst into the others.
Sokka gave a slow, sarcastic clap. "Great entrance. Very graceful and princely."
"Shut up, Sokka. How was I supposed to know that someone was coming here this early?"
"We've told you that we were bringing Princess Yue out here so many times."
"Nobody said that it was going to be today!"
"Oh, we did too, you big—"
"Sokka!" Aang nudged him hard in the side. "I think we did forget to say that part. I was planning to, but then you guys started arguing about manners, and—you know."
"See?" Zuko gestured wildly in Aang's direction. "Nobody told me anything."
"Yeah, but—" Sokka spluttered for a bit. Then, "Well, then Katara should have said something."
"What?" she demanded. "You guys told me that you were going to tell him. How am I supposed to know that you didn't do what you promised? I was busy all day yesterday, and I'm not a mind reader."
"Well excuse me for assuming that it would come up. I know you come out here after your healing lessons. If you're not talking about stuff like this, then what on earth—"
Katara began to protest in near unison with Zuko, who was already turning several different shades of red, but neither of them made if very far before Yue cleared her throat.
Katara's face went hot, and she looked pointedly away from Zuko. This wasn't going the way she'd hoped. There was nothing wrong with the fact that they'd been sparring for the past two evenings, but now was not an ideal time to discuss it with Sokka. Especially not when she knew very well that he'd go out of his way to make it seem weirder than it really was.
Yue, at least, seemed to find it all amusing, and took a moment to suppress her smile before she stepped forward, hand extended toward Zuko. "I am pleased to meet you, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. I've heard—quite a lot about you."
Zuko's mouth clamped shut, and he stared at Yue's hand like it was some sort of terrifying creature. "Um—that's—who's been telling you about me? Because if it was Sokka, that's probably not a good thing."
"Hey!" Sokka elbowed him in the ribs. Then, in an exaggerated whisper, he added, "You're supposed to introduce yourself, genius, not throw me to the polar leopards. And shake her hand. You know, Water Tribe style."
"No, I don't know Water Tribe style," Zuko snapped. But he grabbed Yue's hand and shook it rather roughly, then released it as quickly as he could. Nothing about the gesture was Water Tribe—or Fire Nation either, as far as Katara could tell—but he seemed relieved when it was over. He shoved his hand back into his pocket. "Even my uncle barely knows anyone from the Water Tribes, and he's the closest thing my family has to a diplomat."
Sokka scoffed. "No, really? I thought that was you."
Scowling, Katara whacked his arm. "Enough. It's not like you've been a master of diplomacy either, Sokka."
"Ow! Neither have you, Katara."
She jutted out her chin. "I never said that I was. I froze Zuko's feet to the ground last night, and I'd do it again if I had to."
Zuko made a face at her before he turned to Yue again. "So—am I supposed to ask you to sit down or something?"
Yue didn't quite smile, but she did nod, looking a little amused. "I think that would be lovely."
Grudgingly, Zuko ducked back inside the tent to retrieve a blanket, and when he returned, Katara crouched to help straighten the far end of it. She ended up seated next to Zuko, while Sokka took the spot to Zuko's right, and Yue and Aang filled in the opposite end of the blanket.
"I understand," Yue began after a moment of quiet, "that you've come to the North Pole with some important information about a potential attack."
Zuko shook his head slightly. "Unless Zhao choked on his own tongue and died since I left, there's nothing 'potential' about it. He's coming."
Yue's eyes widened—whether it was because Zuko had mentioned the possibility of Zhao dying or because of his certainty over the impending attack, it was hard to tell—but she spoke as evenly as possible. "Then if there's any more that you can tell us about these plans, please do. We do need your help, Prince Zuko."
From the corner of her eye, Katara watched as Zuko rubbed the back of his neck, then mussed his own hair as he searched for words.
"I—ugh." He ground at his eyes with the heels of his hands. "It's such a long story. I don't even know where to start."
"The explosion?" Katara suggested.
Zuko peered at her, his eye just a faint glint of gold shining through the slit that his scar left open. He shook his head slightly. "No. Zhao's been after me for a lot longer than that."
"Crescent Island?" Aang offered. "I heard that you and Sokka argued with Zhao a lot back there."
A sigh, and Zuko shook his head again. "That didn't help, but it's not when it started. He figured out that I'd found the Avatar just after I left the South Pole when he interrogated my crew." He paused, rubbing his palms over his knees like he was trying to wipe away sweat before he glanced at Katara again. "The only good thing I can say is that he never found out about Katara."
Yue frowned. "This man followed you all across the world and yet he somehow never saw Katara?"
"What? No, he saw her plenty of times. He just never found out that she was the Avatar."
Yue's eyes widened, and Katara felt her face grow hot. Oops. Maybe she should have mentioned that sooner. Or at least told Zuko that Yue hadn't heard about the whole two-Avatars thing yet. But it had never occurred to her that it would come up when they were trying to figure out how to fight Zhao. Her status as the Avatar seemed completely irrelevant.
"I—I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken, Prince Zuko." Apparently, Yue was too stunned to notice the fact that Sokka had dropped his face into his hands, or that Aang was sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "Aang is the Avatar."
"And the first time I saw Katara, she airbent me into a wall, then blew my ship so far off course that it crashed into an iceberg. I'm pretty sure that's not normal for a waterbender." He turned a glare on Katara. "I thought you were supposed to be good at talking to people. Why doesn't your friend know all of this already?"
"I was—getting around to it. Eventually." When Zuko wouldn't stop glaring at her, she jabbed his shoulder. "Hey. Don't make that face at me. It's not like I can whip out another element to prove myself yet. People are going to think I'm crazy if I go around telling them that I'm the other avatar."
"Well then figure something else out," Zuko snapped in response. "Somehow I think that it might be a bad idea to hide that information when we're planning for battle."
Katara made a face at him. Jerk. He really wasn't one to talk. He'd taken his sweet time explaining why he'd come to the North Pole in the first place, and he'd balked at the idea of meeting Yue lots of times. If he was going to deride her communication skills, then he'd have to get some communication skills of his own first.
Yue looked back and forth between all four of them, blinked a few times, then shook her head. "So—if Katara is the Avatar, that must mean that Aang isn't—but we've all seen him airbend before. And I know he's learning to waterbend as well, so—"
"Yeah." Aang gave a crooked, sheepish grin. "I'm the Avatar too. But I'm the one who came before Katara. I sort of—died in an iceberg for a while."
Yue stared at him.
"But I got better! Really. I can't even tell that I was dead anymore."
Sokka groaned. "Aang, buddy—"
Katara caught Zuko rolling his eyes, and she poked his arm again. "See why we haven't been announcing it to everyone we meet? Besides, it's a lot safer if the world doesn't realize that there's two of us. I don't want to think about how many firebenders would have been after us if we'd told everyone."
Zuko scowled and pushed her hand away. "Why are you looking at me? I didn't tell anybody. The only reason Uncle knew about you was because he saw you wreck my ship. Everyone else thought I was insane for going after you."
Katara opened her mouth to respond, but Yue was just a little quicker this time.
"I suppose all of this does answer several of the questions I still had about your previous acquaintance." She looked a little pointedly at Zuko.
He stared back. "You mean how Katara wound up on my ship?"
She pursed her lips. "I understand that it was a kidnapping. I simply didn't understand the motives before."
Zuko's eyes flicked off toward the side, and he shifted the tiniest bit.
"I can't pretend that I am in any position to determine whether you have made sufficient amends for it," Yue resumed. "But I will do all I can to keep my friends safe. I hope that you are on the same side now."
If Zuko was ruffled by that, he didn't show it. At least not very much. "Why do you think I'm here? I found out that someone a lot worse than me wanted to destroy this place, and I came here to stop him. If I wanted to hurt anyone, I would've done it already."
Katara thought she felt him glance her way for just the briefest instant. She thought about their nighttime sparring sessions—about how easy it would have been for him to flee or to injure her when he'd knocked her down—how instead, he'd stepped back, counting off her time until she either rose or their match ended. As far as she was concerned, he'd proven himself. If he had any sinister intentions, Zuko never would have lasted this long without giving them away. He didn't have either the patience or the acting ability for that.
"For what it's worth, I believe him," Katara said.
This time, Zuko did look her way, and his eyes widened just a fraction in apparent surprise. Yue, for her part, merely nodded.
"Very well. Then perhaps you can start at the beginning again."
"Right. Um—" Zuko was still redder than usual, and he fumbled a bit before he managed to resume. "As soon as Zhao figured out that I'd found the Avatar, he started tracking me and—and these three. He captured Aang at one point while Katara was on my ship, and it was—not good. I broke in there at night to get him out. And I meant to take him back to my ship too, but I couldn't go through with it."
Katara frowned. Even now, she could still hear the echoes of the night when Zuko had come to see her after freeing Aang. He'd been distraught that night. At the time, Katara hadn't paid much attention to it beyond noticing that he was acting weird, but in hindsight, the guilt, the regret in his voice when he'd demanded to know how old Aang was seemed obvious. It wasn't just that he'd been worried about Zhao discovering his identity that night. Zuko must have also realized how young, how innocent his quarry was. He must have begun to question whether any of it was worthwhile.
As painful, as uncomfortable as it had probably been for him, Katara was grateful that it had happened. If it hadn't, then they probably wouldn't have made it this far.
"Zhao had no way of knowing that it was me," Zuko continued, "but he must have suspected it. He followed my ship until I stopped to refuel, cornered us, searched my ship, and demanded to meet Katara. And when he still couldn't prove that I had anything to do with it, he took my entire crew away—under my father's orders—and then blew up my ship while Katara and I were still on board."
Yue looked toward Katara for confirmation.
She nodded. "We didn't have much time, but Zuko got me out just before the explosion."
"Which would have been a lot easier if you hadn't broken the stupid door before I got there."
"If you're still surprised that I was trying to break out, that is not my problem."
Zuko scowled at her, and she stuck out her tongue in response.
"After all of that," he said, ignoring the face that she'd made, "my uncle smuggled me onto Zhao's ship. I'd already heard a bit about how they were heading toward the North Pole, and when I finally started sneaking around the ship, I overheard Zhao talking to my uncle. He said that Katara had killed me, and that the Fire Nation had to take revenge on the Water Tribes, and I just—I had to get here as soon as I could."
"But—why would anyone want revenge on the North Pole?" Yue asked. "You are still alive. And even if you weren't, Katara is from the South Pole, not the North."
Zuko's brows furrowed, and he gave an exaggerated shrug. "What was I supposed to do? March up to the man who tried to kill me so that I could clear the name of the other person he wanted to kill? I'm not that stupid." He paused, and his voice dropped a bit. "It doesn't make sense for him to make that excuse, but he is. Which means that there's something else he's after."
Yue frowned. "Was all of this discussed openly? Did you happen to hear anything that would give you a clue as to what he wants?"
"No. I heard all of this from the air vent over Zhao's cabin, and he wasn't exactly being clear about—"
A barely-suppressed snort from Sokka cut in midsentence, and Katara glared at him.
Even Yue ignored Sokka. "Then did you learn anything more about this attack? Do you know when it's coming, or—"
Zuko shook his head. "I don't know. Zhao's ship was anchored at Kokkyo Island when I left, waiting for reinforcements. They won't be sailing toward the Water Tribe until the fleet is assembled, so we could still have a few days or weeks, or—they could be on the way here already."
"Goodness." Yue was still for a few moments, then she drew a slow breath. "I must tell my father as soon as possible."
"Yeah, but—how?" Aang asked. "What do we tell him? I'm sure Chief Arnook is going to want to know how we learned all of this. And the reason we wanted to talk to you first was so that we could keep Zuko out of trouble."
Sokka's mouth pulled to the side. "That was the idea, but considering how soon the fleet could get here—"
"No," Katara snapped. "We're not turning him over like that. We made a promise."
"I'm not saying that we try to turn him in. But this whole thing sounds a lot worse than I thought it was going to be. If the fleet's going to get here in a few days, then we need to get moving now."
"We don't know that it's coming quite yet, and—"
"It sounds like we're not going to know. I'd rather gamble on Chief Arnook finding Zuko than on Zhao's fleet getting here before we're ready." Sokka glanced at Zuko. "I mean, he's a reasonable guy. We wouldn't tell him anything on purpose, but even if he figures it out, I don't think he'd do anything too drastic. And unless someone else has a better idea—"
Yue spoke up, voice soft. "Appa."
Aang turned toward her, surprised. "What about him?"
"Well—if it was possible for us to fly near enough to see the fleet, perhaps we could avoid putting Prince Zuko in unnecessary danger. If we could see it for ourselves, we could very likely bring back more information than what we have now, and between what we've seen and what the three of you know about the Fire Nation from your travels, my father would have no reason to question how we learned any of it."
Katara's eyes widened. "That's—"
"Brilliant!" Sokka crowed. He tossed his arms around Yue. "Have I told you that you're a genius before? Because if I haven't, then I am seriously slacking."
Yue smiled. "Late or not, I do appreciate the sentiment, Sokka."
Despite the fact that he'd slept in absurdly late for the last two days, Zuko still considered himself a morning person. But although he was absolutely awake now, he was not awake enough for this. It was beginning to turn into a pattern. He was never going to be awake enough to deal with these people.
"You have to stand closer than that," Katara said, tugging hard on his sleeve. "Otherwise Aang and I are going to drop you, and it'll be your fault."
Zuko tried to pull his sleeve out of her grasp. "How is it my fault if you drop me?"
"Would you just—" she yanked harder, and Zuko stumbled straight into her shoulder. "Stand there. Five people are already stupidly heavy to lift. We're not going to move a ton of extra ice too."
He wanted to protest, but before he had a chance, an uneven column of ice began to rise under them, leaving very little space for him to back up, even to stop leaning on Katara. It was weird. He really wasn't used to being so close to people, and the moment that they reached the surface of the lake, he took a few steps away.
"I'm still not clear on why you're dragging me along on this," Zuko said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. It wasn't like he was a fun travelling companion, and aside from Katara, none of them really trusted him. Well, Aang seemed to. But that was probably more a result of naivety than anything else.
"Believe me." Sokka stepped closer and clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm not any happier about this than you are."
Zuko stiffened, then smacked his hand away. "How many times to I have to tell you to stop doing that?"
"What makes you think that I'm ever going to listen?"
Zuko scowled. "Listen, you little—"
"Knock it off, you two," Katara said. "And Zuko, you are coming with us because you know more about the Fire Nation navy than anyone else here. If anyone is going to figure out anything important by looking at the fleet, it's probably you."
Zuko doubted that. What could he possibly do, count the ships? Couldn't they do that themselves?
"Besides," Aang joined in brightly. "You were in that hole for a long time. Going for a sky bison ride on your first time out is going to be so much fun!"
Not thinking, Zuko looked away and muttered, "Maybe if it was the first time."
"Wait, what?" Sokka stared at Zuko, then turned accusingly toward Katara. "When was this? Why would you let him out?"
"I—" She seemed to darken a shade, and she spun on the spot and began marching across the ice. "Let's just go. The sooner we leave, the better our chances of seeing everything in the daylight."
Though all of them did begin walking, only Sokka jogged ahead to catch up with Katara. He spun around once he'd passed her, jogging backward so that he could face her. "Seriously, Katara, what were you thinking? I mean—it's bad enough now when we've got him outnumbered. When you're on your own, though—why would you let him go?"
Unpleasant knots began to gather in the pit of Zuko's stomach. Katara trusted him—at least he thought she did, a little bit—and he didn't particularly care what the others thought of him. Katara was the one who knew him the best, and she was the only one who seemed willing to wholeheartedly forgive if he kept trying. She was the one who made him want to be better. The idea that Sokka might push back against that bothered Zuko far more than he expected.
Katara bent a small amount of snow up from the ground and flicked it at Sokka's face. "'Letting him go' is a very strong way of wording it."
"Oh, yeah? So what did you do?"
"I just—I wanted someone to spar with, okay? Aang hasn't gotten that far in waterbending lessons yet, so I can't ask him. And there's really no one else I can ask outside of lessons."
"What?" Sokka's voice came out almost comically high.
"Sokka. It's fine. You would have known if it wasn't." Katara looked back over her shoulder, then stopped walking when she saw the rest of them lagging behind. Sokka jogged around her again, but she pointedly ignored him and marched over to Zuko instead.
Zuko stopped in his tracks, and he felt his eyes widen when she reached up by his shoulders and grabbed the ruff of fur on eithers side of his face. His heart leapt up into his throat, and he tried to pull back a little. What on earth did she think she was doing?
She gave a quick twist of her wrists, and the hood of his parka swung upward and flopped onto his head, dropping down so low that it almost covered his eyes. "And you need to put your hood up. You'll attract less attention this way."
Scowling, Zuko pushed her hands away and adjusted the hood so that he could actually see again. He didn't need both of his eyes covered. If anything, the left side of his face should be covered, and the right entirely unobscured. "I thought we weren't going into the city."
"We're not, but your hair is practically a beacon." She still stood close to him—close enough to touch if either of them were to reach out—but she had at least turned to begin walking again. "I don't want to take the chance that someone is going to notice you from the city."
"I thought you were done making fun of my hair."
"Nope. It's better than it used to be, but it's still not good. You have a handle on top of your head."
The princess covered her mouth to suppress a giggle, and Zuko shot a suspicious look her way. He still didn't know what to make of her. She did seem decent enough, but Zuko couldn't tell how genuine her behaviors were.
"It isn't so bad," Yue said. "Maybe a bit unusual for this part of the world, but not bad."
"So—are we just ignoring the whole sparring situation, then?" Sokka interjected.
"Yes. We are," Katara answered brightly. "Besides, we have more important things to worry about right now. Right?"
Both Aang and Yue expressed their agreement, and Sokka grumbled a good deal before he finally gave up on glaring at Zuko and fell into step with Yue at the front. Zuko, luckily, was able to keep his place beside Katara, and Aang filled in on his other side for some reason.
Zuko stuffed his hands even deeper into his pockets. He was used to being relatively close to Katara now, but Aang—the proximity brought back memories of Pohuai and the night that had felt so much like Zuko's long-awaited salvation until all at once, it hadn't. Until Zuko had begun to think of the consequences and to realize that the mission was impossible in more ways than one. Until Zuko had realized, subconsciously, at least, that he could never hand either of the Avatars over to his father.
A month or two ago, Zuko could hardly have dreamed of getting this close to either of them. And now, strangely enough, it felt as though they were protecting him.
Zuko definitely wasn't awake enough for this. If he slept a year straight, he wouldn't be awake enough for this.
Author's Note:
Can I just say how hard it was to resist having Katara gush over how cute sleepy Zuko was in the middle of this? Because I 100% wrote the first meeting scene this way, with Zuko sleeping in and then tripping over his own feet when he hears that Yue is actually there, solely for the cute factor. I am a simple woman, and sometimes all I want is scenes that make me want to smoosh characters' adorable little faces.
Also, I suppose that it helps Yue realize that Zuko really is just an awkward dork with good intentions much faster than she could have otherwise. And since none of these kids have the foggiest idea of how diplomacy is supposed to work, they need all the reminders that they're all equally out of their depth that they can get. Firebenders are MUCH less scary when they've got bedhead and are only half awake :)
We've got a field trip for the kiddos coming up next time! I'm so excited for this whole reconnaissance mission that I really wish I could just post the next chapter next week, but my editing pace has been... slower than I would like, so for now, we're sticking with updates every two weeks. I'll see you back here then, and in the meantime, feel free to visit me on Tumblr, or to check out the podfic version of Ice & Smoke that I've been posting on AO3 for the past few weeks! And as always, reviews are very much appreciated!
