Just as a heads up, scenes may jump a bit in some places, we are following from a limited first-person perspective there.


Chapter 16 Black and Blue

Yesterday evening, after the Prince had claimed to go to bed, Bato, as Hakoda's Second-In-Command, and a group of other, similarly important, men held back and discussed how to organise Prince Zuko's stay within the rules Chief Hakoda had laid out.

With those laid out, they'd collated their own ideas on how to keep Prince Zuko busy, out of the way. And of course, being fed up with menial tasks, they were looking forward to rolling the unfavourable jobs over to him. Women's work: why not let the ex-prince of the enemy do it!? He apparently had been the one to suggest doing chores anyway, they reasoned to themselves

Meanwhile, taking the chance he could, and trusting Bato to express his wishes, Hakoda finally had the opportunity to spend time with his children. He tried to stay for the meeting, but Bato assured him should not have to worry about any more of the business with the Prince anymore, for at least a day. On that, all the men agreed. He enjoyed his time, but Sokka dropped a rockalache of information when he revealed the Day of Black Sun, once Katara had retired. Many discussions would have to be had on this info, but tomorrow, he assured his son, as he saw the day's events getting to him.

The rest of the evening had gone quietly, more or less. The boy may have been restless, twisting and turning, but he hadn't so much as sat up, much less stepped over the curb that the earthbender girl had created around him to keep anyone from stumbling over the Prince, who was sleeping out in the open in the midst of the camp. By the time the change of the guard came, he had settled down a bit.

Kinignik, the night guard, was looking forward to giving the boy his first task, and he spent the wait imagining the Prince's reaction to it. It was a sure-fire promise for some early morning fun to lift his spirits.

The Prince woke up at the breaking of dawn, just as expected of any firebender. He sorted out all his limbs to sit up, tangled as they were, threw a quick glance around and then turned towards the sun rays. He rearranged himself to sit cross-legged, and called forth a small flame in his hand. Bato had reminded them that the Prince was allowed to meditate, as long as he kept to himself and bothered no one. For the next half an hour, he just sat there, cradling the tiny flame like it was a precious little thing.

Kinignik kept an eye on him, busying himself by sharpening an axe. When the Prince snuffed his flame, he paused. He then turned towards Kinignik and got up, sand clinging to his clothes and feet, but he didn't brush them off. He stopped a respectable distance away. Kinignik grabbed his stone sling in return.

"What?"

"I need to go to the loo. Could you take me there?"

Kinignik sighed, a tension relieved; it was a fair request. He didn't feel like sharing their latrine with him, though, so Kinignik took him to the beach. In his mind, he also justified that he did so to make an escape less attractive with the wide open space surrounding them. The boy made no attempt to do so however, he didn't even seem bothered by the location. Soon they were walking back, Kinignik told him to go back to the centre as he grabbed the sewing kit and ripped clothing he'd collected from his peers to have a task at the ready.

"Do you know how to use a needle and thread?"

To his shock, the Prince said yes, taking the sewing kit and the bundle of clothes. He went to his sleeping space and sat back down. He looked through the pile of clothes first and started sorting, he didn't even flinch at the bloodstains surrounding some of the tears as his wife had done in the past, he just sorted them with: "I need to wash some of these first." Then he went to sewing as if it was a normal thing for him to do. Most irritating of all was that the stitches looked better than those of two thirds of their fleet, and despite this being woman's work, Kinignik took that a tiny bit personally.

00000

Hakoda had woken up when Katara had scrambled out of her sleeping bag and, when she didn't return in a reasonable amount of time, he decided to get up as well. They went to bed late the night before, and he'd expected all of them to sleep in now that they were protected, but it appeared that Katara had inherited Kya's sense of responsibility.

The weather was as nice as the day before, though a slight breeze imparted a certain chill that would hopefully pass as the sun rose higher. He looked around to catch a glimpse of his daughter and found her down by the beach, water glistening in the surrounding air.

It looked like a dance. A dance that he'd never quite seen, that filled him with pride and yearning. Katara, his daughter, had followed her dreams and learned waterbending in The North. The clumsy, little girl that he'd left behind had grown up to be graceful as only a waterbender could be, movements as fluid as the liquid they were bending.

Water suddenly turned into mist, hiding her entirely, and back to water a moment later. It was fascinating to witness. He stepped closer, careful not to disturb the performance. Eventually, she grew to a halt, looking out into the ocean.

"Katara"

She whipped around, then smiled. "Hi Dad."

Hakoda took the remaining few steps to hug his daughter. "I can see that you're a master now."

"This was just a warm-up, I'll train with Aang later on if you want to watch actual combative waterbending."

"I'll keep that in mind, but I'm still the Chief, so I can't promise anything."

"Don't worry, dad, I know. And Sokka might also be up by then, so there's that. Anyway, I need to get some water to Zuko." She gathered an arm full, as it looked, and started her way back to camp.

"Why does he need seawater?"

"He's gonna soak out some of the blood stains on the clothing your men gave him to fix." her tone dismissive.

Hakoda felt himself relaxing a little from the tension he'd not even been aware of, but her tone kept him alert. Zuko's intentions may be unproblematic for the time being, but Hakoda didn't like how integrated he was within the group. He did seem to know his place, but at the same time, he did not exactly act like it, and the group seemed to tolerate that. At least Sokka seemed to be a bit warier.

"So, you travelled to the North Pole, and now through the Earth Kingdom as well. Wanna tell me a bit more about it?"

"Sure, what do you want to know? Hold on, do you know where I can get a bucket for this water?" she continued in her offhand tone.

Once they found a bucket for the water, Katara called in another stop to dig through the saddlebags of the Bisons saddle, shaking out quite a bit of bright yellow sand in the process, probably from the Si Wong Desert. Hakoda still couldn't believe that they'd actually gone there. It was great that Sokka had found the intel he did, but it seemed mighty risky to enter a desert, even with waterbenders on board. Especially considering that many people believed Wan Shi Tong's Library being a myth only.

"How did you end up in the desert?" Hakoda directed.

"Clouds kept us from seeing the landscape below, and Sokka miscalculated the distance and time. We didn't check where we were often enough. Zuko also said that it might be because cartography can be faulty. In addition to that, he pointed out thar our map is outdated and landscapes change, so that may also have been a factor." her tone took on a note of being caught in the story as she told it.

"So you got lost, you didn't try to end up there?" Hakoda's tone grew slightly alarmed.

"Well, not really. We just wanted to escape the rainy season and find some place with better weather conditions to train in, and had heard about the plains surrounding the desert being a good option." she shrugged, clearly not that bothered.

"I guess I'll have to talk to Sokka about the responsibility of the navigator." Hakoda sighed.

"No, Zuko already did, and believe me, Sokka was quite ashamed, though he tried shoving off all the blame to Zuko. I think they both learned from it." Katara smiled.

"What do you mean?" Hakoda frowned.

"Zuko asked about Sokka's navigation tools, but when Sokka told him to shut up, he decided to wait and see what happened. Next time a similar situation occurs, I'm pretty sure Zuko will speak up sooner. And I know Sokka will take what Zuko said about navigation to heart and be more careful." Katara explained.

"Hmm. Interesting." He mused.

00000

Kinignik kept a wary eye on the Prince, busying himself to keep awake by observing his reactions as the encampment slowly woke up. It wasn't terribly interesting, to say the least. The Prince made steady progress, while keeping an eye on the slow increase of movement around him as people started exiting their tents, but he was generally ignored by passers-by. That was until he saw the Chief's daughter coming towards him.

To the question of: "What are you doing?" the Prince held out what he was working on.

"Oh, I didn't show you that stitch pattern."

Zuko's lips twitched into a sheepish grin. "I told you I've mended my clothes before."

"Well, yeah, but you actually know what you're doing…" She said, with something akin to admiration. Kinignik felt estranged.

Zuko just shrugged, "I was taught by ..." and then he switched the subject "… Uhm, Katara, could you get me a bucket of water or something? That pile there has blood stains on them, so I want to soak them."

"Sure."

"And Katara, I'm also running out of thread pretty soon." He held out the spool and truly enough, there wasn't a lot left on there.

"I'll get ours."

"Thanks." And at that, the Chief's daughter left to do the Prince's bidding.

"She's not your servant, you know!" Kinignik spat, affronted.

The Prince turned to him. "No, she's not."

"Then why are you ordering her around?"

"I asked, I didn't order her. I know of my status here. I can't very well just go looking for the stuff I need, even If I know where it is. I'm not allowed near Appa's saddle, nor am I allowed to go to the ocean on my own."

"She's the Chief's daughter."

"She's a waterbender. She can get me water with the least effort, and I know she would have gone to the ocean anyway."

"You could have asked me."

"You gave me two nearly empty spools, I assumed you didn't have any more available right now. And seeing your reaction here, I doubt you would have taken kindly to organising a bucket and then accompanying me to get the water. As said, I'm well aware of my status in this camp."

Kinignik sneered and turned away. "Whatever." He got up. He was tired of this farce, and there were enough people around now to watch over the Firebender Prince, he still let Bato, who was co-ordinating the Prince's supervision, know that he was going. Nightshifts sucked, he was going to bed.

00000

Once Kinignik had left, Bato had put Tulimak in charge of supervising the Prince. He himself was planning on a little information gathering of his own.

Katara had just brought Zuko a bucket of water, and he proceeded to dump some of the clothes he'd been given to fix in there, then he just left them to soak, thanking Katara for something she'd handed him after and going back to sewing. He seemed focused on the task. Bato went to get himself some breakfast, then settled down to observe.

Katara and Hakoda had gone over to eat too, and then Katara had returned to the beach again with Aang who'd been meditating next to the main tent before breakfast. Hakoda eventually had to leave to continue his duties as Chief and keep the camp in order. After an hour or two of waterbending practice with an ever-changing audience, the pair came back, rejoining with the rest of the group.

Bato just watched them interact. It hadn't been as obvious on the day they got back, but slowly, little details were accumulating. Something between the siblings was different. They seemed to be hiding it in front of Hakoda, but Bato had seen them recently enough to compare, and there were brief moments when the ease between Katara and Sokka was gone.

Sokka in particular behaved differently, he seemed more careful, less at ease, and he seemed to tense up whenever Zuko came up in conversation in one way or another. Toph in particular seemed to try to cover up her worry about the Prince, and apparently she did so by talking about him. Sokka seemed very uncomfortable about it, but he didn't comment much. Like the others, he occasionally searched out Zuko with his eyes, but when he did, he almost looked guilty.

Of course, Bato was missing large portions of Sokka's teenage years, but last time he'd seen him only a few moons ago, he'd got the distinct impression that he'd inherited Hakoda's confidence, though he sometimes also used it to cover up his insecurities: this behaviour stood in contrast to that.

Bato recalled how he'd talked about Zuko at the meeting. There had been something off about that as well. Sokka had been choosing his words very carefully. At first, Bato had thought it may be as not to damn Zuko during his stay here, but now he wasn't so sure.

He could also see a difference in the way the others interacted with him. Bato knew that Katara could hold a grudge, but this seemed different, even Aang was more reluctant. Toph on the other hand was outright nearly hostile towards Sokka, and not in the affectionate way she seemed to be with the rest of the group. Although he knew he hadn't encountered Toph before, he could see her reactions clearly enough.

Something had happened.

Something had happened that made the group more protective of Zuko. They had mentioned him being recognised before, but that couldn't be it. Another thing that stood out to Bato was that though Sokka was critical, it was a muted, carefully voiced matter, so as to not oppose any group member too much.

In addition to that, every group member except for Sokka searched out Zuko to keep him company every once in a while.

While observing this matter, he'd of course also kept a careful eye on Zuko himself, he'd seen the hypervigilance the boy displayed, he'd seen the flinches when someone got too close, even if they didn't startle him and he'd seen or heard them coming near. It was something that clashed with the brash and bold personality that he had been told the Prince had.

The flinches seemed less common when the kids approached, especially Toph and Katara, which Bato contributed to the fact that they were probably the most familiar to him.

But Bato knew how dangerous that hypervigilance could be if startled. For now, all that the Prince had done was flinch. Bato knew how easily that could turn violent, especially with a trained fighter. There was no doubt that Zuko was one, and he'd even told them that he would act if he felt threatened. Bato needed to know more to assess the Prince. How high were the chances that such a startle would turn into more than just a flinch… He decided to do a little more words-on investigation by himself by seeking out Sokka.

00000

Zuko was hungry, thirsty too, he hadn't eaten breakfast and noon was fast approaching with no one paying him much mind. He'd seen the guards change, but the new guard just kind of kept an eye on him while going about gutting some fish that someone had brought in. He didn't interact with him. Other people also kept an eye on him too. Zuko could see them, could feel their stares on his back. He'd been staying in the spot that had been assigned to him, right in the middle of the open space. There was no source of shade, so the sun was burning down on him. The whole situation rang a little too close to the market square, even if there were no physical restraints keeping him in place, the ground below him was hardpacked sand instead of stone, and he had clothes on his back.

He remembered the instructions Hakoda had given him, to approach his guard if he needed something. It wasn't that Zuko expected to be served what he needed on a silver platter, but it put him in an uncomfortable spot, and he'd been putting it off. He'd hoped that someone of the Gaang would notice and do something, but, though some of them had come over to him for a few words, his throat had closed up, as he remembered the word of the other guard this morning, and then Hakoda's comment about him not going anywhere with any Gaang member. He didn't want to trouble them.

00000

Hakoda, after his breakfast and some small tasks, decided that now was a good time to show Sokka around the camp properly. He'd finished up some due Earth Kingdom correspondence as was his duty as Chief, had seen to some other small but pressing matters around camp; one tribesman had stumbled over a tent line of another's tent, causing it to collapse and they were having a verbal spat, another came by to inform Hakoda that the seal jerky supply was dwindling more rapidly than it should be, whispering that it must have been the Firebender in their midst. Hakoda quickly put a stop to that assumption, loudly pointing out that he had a suspicion on who might be behind this and telling a story about how he and Kya had had to hide their seal jerky stores at home. Sokka, who had stood nearby, flinched and quickly shuffled behind the next tent. With that sorted, he had to track down his son. Not giving any indication that Hakoda had known Sokka was listening in, he offered him to accompany him on his normal routine around camp.

Sokka had been delighted to get the camp tour, his prior awkwardness about the jerky situation quickly forgotten. Hakoda showed him around the tents, the fishing nets, the cooking area, and then the armoury. It wasn't big, but the men of the tribe always kept their weapons close. Inside, there were a couple of practice swords, and some salvaged weapons in need of repairs. What Hakoda really wanted to show him was the experimental space.

Because the nature of their enemies usually involved an unhealthy amount of fire, which didn't go well with their boats being wooden, they tried to keep them out of danger whenever possible. It had led to inventing several underhanded battle strategies as well as devices to execute them. He was explaining one of these to Sokka now, and he could see the admiration in Sokka's eyes.

"You see the bamboo frame here, that's the shell of a tangle mine. We fill it with skunk fish and seaweed, and then we cover them with animal hide. They look harmless when they swim in water, but when a ship hits them, they break apart and the sea weed gets tangled in the propellers the Fire Nation vessels are equipped with. They won't be able to move, and the skunk fish will smell, and the longer they stay there and try to fix the problem, the more they irk the fish, the smell will become unbearable. I call it the Stink 'n Sink".

"Good one dad."

"You can't just take any seaweed though, you need to take the strong, long, fibred ones. The good thing about the tangle mines is that they're generally safe for Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe ships, because we and our allies don't use propellers. Even if we hit one, we can sail out of the water and leave the skunk fish behind. Now, do you want to see our skunk fish breeding ground?"

"Sure!" Sokka said enthusiastically, and they briefly waded into the shallow waters, taking care not to upset the smelly fish.

After that, Hakoda finally took him on a trip with the canoe to the big ship. Sokka felt strangely reminded of when he was little as he sat and helped his Dad to paddle towards their ship, but it was only when he was standing on the deck of the main vessel, that he realised how much he had grown up. His memories had left him imagining the ship as huge, and it wasn't small at all by any means, but now he realised that for the amount of people it held, it wasn't that big at all. He stood at the bow and looked over the railing, imagining how it hit the waves. Hakoda stepped up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

Sokka numbly nodded, it was a bit overwhelming. He still remembered how much 'higher' the railing had been the last time he'd been on here.

"Come on, I'll show you around below the deck". Hakoda said as he led the way to the ladder below decks.

The ladder was quickly climbed down, Sokka, who remembered a high ceiling, now could barely stand up straight in the middle of the boat. Hakoda quickly lit a whale oil lamp and led him through the ship. They passed hammocks hanging from the upper decks floorboards. Past them, Hakoda showed him where what was stored, the food, the crew's personal items, the captain's space, which contained a table to write on. He also showed him the storage rooms for the second set of sail tarps, more rope, caulk and similar, some of those items were stored below the floorboards, others were in the cargo hold. The ship was rather empty as of now, all the tents and everyday items being on the beach. Still, the boat gave off a cramped feeling and Sokka at once realised how much he'd gotten used to travelling on Appa. The interior was dark without the oil lamp and any space that wasn't used for walking or sleeping, was potential cargo space.

Meanwhile, Hakoda was rummaging around trying to find some more jerky. He finally found some, and turned to Sokka. "Son, I know you like seal jerky, and it reminds you of home, but the men were concerned earlier about how quickly the supplies were going down. Zuko was blamed at first, but I know you Sokka, you were always after the next piece of jerky whenever your mother made some. Just remember, the men will need it too, and it reminds them of home also. Just take more care, and place this in the stores when we get back to shore." He said, handing Sokka the container of jerky

Sokka stared at the stored bamboo parts that he now knew were the Sink 'n Stink's skeletons, as well as a couple of other war related items that were here, caught in the memory of his mothers cooking, before he shook himself, accepting the container, and asked Hakoda what they both knew was needing to be asked.

"So, I told you about the eclipse, what's the plan now?" Sokka asked into the quiet. They were alone in the cargo hold, and Hakoda had been expecting the question to come as soon as they'd walked off alone; he was surprised that Sokka had taken so long to ask.

"I've been thinking of convening a war meeting and seeing what kind of ideas will come from there. I see a couple of options, but if we invade the Fire Nation outright, we will need allies, and co-ordinating that will be on a whole other scale than what I'm used to. We will also need to talk about how to counter the overly enthusiastic and leadership hungry generals. Usually we're called in to help out, but this time I want us to be pulling the strings. We'll also have to think about if we will try to get the Northern Tribe to help out. So yeah, we'll need to assess what forces will be available for us, and go from there."

"I think we should be there at the meeting." Sokka said.

"Yes, I think Avatar Aang and you both should be there." Hakoda agreed.

00000

Bato knew that he would have to wait with asking Sokka when he'd seen him tagging along with Hakoda, so he decided to start his questioning with another Gaang member first. Aang and Toph seemed to be absent, and from afar, one could hear the crashing of boulders, Katara was nowhere in sight, so he went towards the noise. He soon came up to an open area that showed signs of disruption, and a lot of dust in the air. It was probably safer to call out than risk a boulder to the face.

"Avatar Aang, Toph?"

There was another crash, then two dusty children emerged.

"I brought snacks." Talking always felt easier when everyone was placated by food, and he felt that the earthbender girl may be a bit sensitive to his questions… in an aggressive way.

Everyone sat down, and he handed Toph some seal jerky, as she had definitely liked it the day before, and Aang a variety of roasted nuts and dried berries.

Once they'd taken the first few bites, Toph asked: "What did ya want from us?" She said, spitting out a few stray crumbs as she did so.

"How's learning going, Avatar Aang?" Bato enquired.

"Pretty good. Katara's still teaching me the finesses of waterbending, but I'm already pretty good, and thanks to Toph, I'm also slowly getting the hang of earthbending." He smiled through the food.

"How's teaching going?" Bato said, moving round to Toph.

"Well, I'm working on grounding His Flightiness, but that's not really what you came to ask. Come on, spit it out!" sniped Toph.

The girl was perceptive, he had to give her that, he hoped that that would help him get an idea of what was going on. He'd have to be careful about the questioning, too.

"Alright, look," he said, straightening up, "I've noticed some tension in your group. Did something happen between you and Sokka?"

"Damn right, it did. We're all mad at him about how he's been treating Zuko for absolutely no reason." Toph replied, eyes raised but unfocused on him, so she really was blind.

"He was probably just trying to make sure all of you were safe." Bato prodded.

"Keeping us safe, my ass. He was mostly concerned about saving his own backside and idea of the world." Toph huffed. "Look, I know you're his kin and therefore on his side, but what he did was not acceptable, even Sweetness agrees on this. I'm not letting this blow over just because he's with his tribe now. He needs to sit down, rethink his actions and what they say about him, as well as their consequences. That's all I'm going to say, Sokka needs to figure this out by himself."

"Avatar Aang, what do you think?"

"What he did really wasn't okay. But I don't know if it's our place to tell. I really think he should talk about it, but he doesn't. I think he doesn't trust us enough to come to us anymore."

"Damn right of him. I don't want to hear more excuses and empty promises, I want to see action."

"So, this is about how he treated Zuko?"

"It's more than that." Toph huffed.

"Does Zuko's behaviour have anything to do with it?" Bato asked.

"Zuko's only goal has been to stay alive," said Toph determinedly, and Aang nodded, too, at that.

They sat in silence for a minute, Bato knew that any more prodding about Sokka wouldn't go over well. He wasn't sure if talking about Zuko was going to go any better, but it was important to make sure that everyone was safe. Zuko may not be intending to harm anyone, but he was a trained fighter, and his flinching was an indicator that, when startled, he could very well lash out accidentally.

"There was something else I wanted to ask, Toph, please hear me out."

At that, Toph already tensed mistrustingly, her feet shifting to a ready stance.

"I couldn't help but notice some of Zuko's behaviour, I wanted to see if it lines up with what you've observed and if there have been any changes since he came to you."

Aang wanted to set out to answer already when Toph cut him off with a sharp: "Why?"

Bato patiently set out to answer: "Because I've seen this kind of behaviour before, I think he is dealing with mental wounds and there are triggers that set him off. I can see that this situation has been highly stressful for him, and we don't want him to be triggered so badly that he may lose touch of reality."

"Are you willing to help him?" Toph asked bluntly. "Cause if you're not, then I'm not seeing the point in talking about this." She said, arms crossed.

"I'm not sure if I'm the right person to help him, as that requires a base of trust."

"But you know a way to help him?"

"It's different for everyone, I've helped a few young men in the tribe with battle memories and similar. He seems to trust Katara, I may be able to give her some pointers if she's willing to try. She may need someone to talk to about too, though, we don't know what Zuko went through."

"You haven't answered my question, are you willing to help him, or are you just asking, so you can read him better? He's not a puppet to be used in the war, he has had enough of being someone else's plaything. "

"I'm sure there are people who will try to use him like that, probably have already, but if he doesn't deal with those mental wounds, they may become easy targets to be used to manipulate him further. You, trying to protect him, may not help him in the long run."

"Fine." Toph huffed. "I don't know much, though. I know he was tortured, but I don't know how. I know they starved him. As for his reactions, yeah, Sokka has managed to trigger him a lot, so we got a pretty good idea of what sets him off. In general though, he's easily startled, and his reactions are the strongest with Sokka, but that may just be because he's the one that's been antagonising him the most."

Aang took the next word. "Sometimes his breathing gets all weird and his eyes get glassy, sometimes he doesn't react when we call him when he gets like that, sometimes he just freezes up, and you have no choice but to wait till it is over." He quietly said.

"Can you pinpoint any triggers to those panic attacks?"

"Sometimes fast movements, but most of the time, Sokka managed to trigger those reactions in some form or another, a couple of times one of us did so too, accidentally." Toph said, not sounding accusatory at Sokka this time, just recalling facts. "He gets nervous when people have verbal fights, but Zuko is able to keep himself in check most of the time. He also has really bad nightmares. We don't know what they're about."

"Did they occur less or more often as he got used to you?"

"I think they've occurred less often lately, but he's been under constant stress ever since we arrived here, you did trigger a pretty bad one yesterday."

"I'm sorry." Bato said, and he found himself being honest. "Thanks for answering."

"Katara healed him, she may know more about what might have happened." Aang offered up.

"Thank you, see you back in camp. Good luck with your earthbending lesson!" Bato said, standing up, his thoughts heavy on how best to handle a traumatised, teenage, firebending, sword master...

00000

Sokka was pretty hungry by the time they got back from the ship. He saw that Zuko was no longer in the centre of the camp, but had moved to be working next to the firewood. He'd taken off his hooded over-robe, swinging an axe to split some thick branches, and looked like he was fighting off exhaustion. Hakoda had left Sokka behind to help some tribesmen, and Sokka had wanted to go look for some food. On his quest, he stumbled across Bato.

"Hey Sokka, how are things? Hungry?"

"Yeah. Starving."

"Hmm, how about we bring some food to the Prince and eat with him? I don't think he's eaten anything yet today."

Sokka looked up at Bato, had he really heard right? Why would Bato say that?

"Uhm, sure?" Sokka replied, slightly unsettled.

Bato fell into step next to him as they walked to the storage tent, and handed him two bowls, picking up another one for himself before proceeding with filling his with cold leftovers from the morning's jook, grabbing a handful of jerky and other things. Sokka reluctantly did the same, filling both bowls. Zuko never really asked for seconds, but except for in the first week, he always finished his bowl, Sokka wasn't sure if he thought it was polite to eat all he was given, or if he just kind of took what they were 'willing' to give him. He decided to just fill their bowls equally in the end, still wondering why Bato had suggested this in the first place.

They soon went over to where Zuko was still splitting wood, and Sokka could see Zuko's hands slightly shaking. When they got close, Sokka called out, waiting for Zuko to finish splitting the current piece of wood, to prevent injuries, as his father had once taught him. He believed Zuko had seen them coming but had been ignoring them. Zuko, who'd been picking up the newly split branches, startled anyway, looking up at them with wide eyes, looking for all intents like a wild scene would be almost funny in any other circumstance.

Sokka awkwardly held out the second bowl. "We brought food, thought you might be hungry."

Zuko looked even more surprised at that, but placed the wood on the growing pile next to him and put on his hooded over-robe before taking the bowl.

"Sorry it's cold. It's just the leftovers from the morning."

Bato quickly led them to some logs, so they could sit down comfortably.

"What do you want?" Zuko asked as soon as he'd sat down. His voice was carefully even, but his eyes betrayed the try to veil his mistrust.

Bato, to Sokka's surprise, pulled out a water skin, holding that out to Zuko, too.

Zuko stared at it, then put the bowl down and immediately jugged down some water.

Bato didn't seem surprised. "You know, you can ask for breaks, and you can ask for food and water, too," he said with a calculating gaze.

"I know."

"So why didn't you?"

Zuko chose not to reply, instead, he offered to warm the food. Sokka wasn't about to pass that up, and Bato curiously watched before holding out his bowl as well.

"Thanks for the food." Zuko said, while heating up his own food as well. He ate slowly, carefully, delicately. Sokka was done eating before him, so he waited until the other was finished to ask if Zuko wanted a second helping . Zuko just shook his head. He'd emptied the bowl and was now awkwardly looking at it.

"Uhm, where can I wash this, and do you want me to wait, so I can wash yours too or should I go back to work after this?"

"You can leave it here, we'll take care of it."

With a quick nod and a polite 'thank you', Zuko turned away to make eye contact with a tribesman, before standing up and walking back to his assigned work. He picked up a long branch, propped it up on the trunk he'd used as a workspace, and grabbed a handsaw.

Bato harrumphed, drawing the attention back to him.

"Sokka, I wanted to ask you a couple of things about Zuko."

Sokka quickly looked away, uncomfortable. "Okay?"

"What did you notice about Zuko's behaviour after Toph saved him?"

"His behaviour? Uhm, he flinches a lot. He doesn't defend himself physically. He has moments when he just shuts down and breathes weirdly. He even offered to be bound to make us more comfortable. And he didn't fight any restrictions we demanded. Is that what you want to know?"

"Yes, that's what I want to know about. On which occasions does he flinch, and do you see any common factors that lead to those moments?" Bato prodded.

"He flinches at my loud voice. Sometimes at the others' voices too, but I think mostly mine. He also flinches when he doesn't see something coming or sudden movements in close proximity to him in general. I think his vision on the side of the scar is a bit impaired. As for those moments. I think it's the same things that trigger it. I think his reactions are stronger, especially when I'm loud because I'm angry and so on."

"Hmm. Did you try to trigger him at any point?"

"Uhm, I suppose." Sokka didn't look up. "I tried to figure out if he had his firebending in check. It kinda backfired, uhm, not fired. Uh… I mean, he has hardly ever firebent. Actually, he was more prone to freeze up than to firebend, I just couldn't believe that for a long time. He flat out refused to firebend at all at times, especially in the beginning. I think he's been getting better, though. He's regained some of his fighting spirit in the desert."

"What do you mean by that, regaining his fighting spirit?"

"He was like an empty shell when he first came to us. He slept a lot, but even as he got better, he still behaved the same. He pulled himself together when Appa was threatened by sandbenders though, and the day after, he spoke to me. Told me that he would not let himself be restrained anymore and that he'd pick up training again, so he could protect himself."

"Mmm."

They fell quiet again. Finally, Bato got up, picking up their bowls and wooden spoons. "Let's get these cleaned up."

00000

After Bato had parted ways with Sokka, he went to look for the last well of information that wasn't the Prince himself. As he walked, on the lookout for Katara, he mulled over his latest findings. Of course, the suggestion to get some food to the Prince had not been out of the goodness of his heart. It had paid off to get some information on both of their behaviours without asking any questions. He'd seen the confusion in Sokka's eyes, and the plain shock in Zuko's when being offered food by none other than Sokka. Zuko, for his part, hadn't looked a gift seal-horse in the mouth, though.

Katara was washing some of the Gaang's clothes at the spot where the inland stream that could be found on the other side of the beach met the ocean, so it had taken quite a bit of searching to find her. He greeted her cordially.

"Oh hey Bato, what brings you here?"

"You, actually. I just have a couple of questions you may have answers for."

Bato had been thinking how to best approach this talk with Katara, he wasn't sure where she stood with Zuko, she did seem to care for his well-being, but he just hoped that she didn't have this blind trust the Avatar had, nor the overprotectiveness of his earthbending teacher.

"Alright, shoot," she said with a smile, pulling the water from a freshly washed rusty brown piece of clothing, before folding it up onto the growing pile.

"Aang said you healed Zuko…"

"Yeah, I did, why?" she said, confused about the direction of the conversation.

"I couldn't help but notice some of Zuko's behaviour, and I'm trying to figure out what may have happened to him to make him behave the way he does. I've seen his wrists and ankles, so I'm assuming he was being restrained for longer periods of time, but I don't think that's all there is to it." he delved.

"Uhm, no. When he came to us, he was literally black and blue." she shuddered, not comfortable with the memory.

"Would you mind giving me a better picture?" Bato prodded.

"Uhm." Katara reluctantly set out to answer, keeping to the basics. "Yes, he was restrained, made to stand in the sun all day. He was also red from sunburns, with blisters and all of that. It was awful. Besides that, he was bruised all over."

"Could you maybe be a bit more specific?"

"No, I'm not sure how much is okay to tell you. Zuko's been very defensive about being examined, I don't think he likes people knowing, it makes him feel vulnerable."

Bato was glad that she didn't seem to be overprotective, just seemed to try to respect Zuko's boundaries but also be open about things with Bato. That was a good trait in a healer.

"Are there scars?"

"Yes."

"He won't be able to hide those forever. I've already seen that this situation is triggering to him, and I have some suspicions. I just want to get an idea of why he behaves the way he does, and your assessment would help me to figure that out." Bato tried to reason to get her to open up. It seemed to work, as Katara set out to answer after a moment, choosing each word carefully.

"Okay, well, I'm assuming the bruises were from being hit repeatedly. There was a rod near where he was bound. He had lots of scrapes, most notably, his knees. Two of his ribs were bruised as well and there were open wounds on his back, like, maybe a week or so, old. I think those came from a whip."

"Hmm, that would explain his reactions to sudden movements."

Katara didn't reply, she seemed caught up in an internal struggle. Bato just waited until she was ready to talk. Her voice was quiet, unsure.

"There are older scars too, they're quite faint, but they don't look like battle wounds. And well, there's the scar on his face; I just can't understand why a Prince would have those." said Katara, sitting down. "He's got nightmares too, sometimes he screams, it sounds horrible. I wish I could do something."

Bato could see her nervous worry in the twitching of her fingers.

"The behaviour he's displaying reminds me of men that have been to battle and are haunted by their memories. It happens to a lot of us. Not everyone gets to the point of getting full-blown panic attacks as he has, but a lot struggle with hypervigilance and similar situations. Prince Zuko has dealt with captivity; in lots of ways, that's worse than being in battle. He couldn't fight back."

Bato recalled Sokka telling him that he hadn't fought back in the beginning. He hadn't made the connection up till now, but it was very likely that Zuko was mentally thrown back into those situations where fighting back wasn't helping.

"I think he was choked, too." Katara said, voice quiet, thoughtful. "His neck was all bruised up, and he also had some scratches that looked like they came from fingernails on various parts of his body."

"Did he let you heal his throat?"

"He didn't want to initially, so I talked him into it. He also had a mild panic attack while I was healing that, so I had to calm him down again before we could finish. That was also the only time he ever verbally or physically threatened me in the time he's been with us. I think he lashed out to try and hide his fear, so I let it pass."

"It sounds like it." Bato simply said. He couldn't blame the Prince for acting out under these circumstances, either. If Prince Zuko'd been choked, and Katara had tried to treat his bruises, then he'd have had to let her close, that couldn't have been easy.

They were quiet for a while. Bato could still see Katara fidget, something was definitely weighing on her mind, he hoped she'd confide in him.

"Uhm, there's another thing." Katara said carefully. "There was one time when he pushed me away. That was the only time he fought against me, or any of us, as far as I know. This was the same day as when I was trying to heal his throat. I moved to heal his back, and he suddenly pushed me away. He seemed just as shocked as me at the action, though, and he apologised immediately, something the old Zuko would never have done."

Bato didn't like hearing about that, but he kept his voice even as he spoke.

"Do you have any idea what triggered it?"

"I'm not sure. I had just healed his back, as I said, and was feeling for more injuries. I was moving down, healing with my hands as I went, but I was already feeling farther down through the water, reaching, searching for anything more. I could feel something wrong and couldn't make sense of it. He pushed me away when my hands reached his waist."

That… was worrying. Bato looked over to Katara, eyes sharp, scanning her. For one, healing, how she described it, sounded like more than tending to wounds, and feeling for water inside. It sounded kind of scary, though the idea of healing with water was weirdly fascinating. It also meant that she probably got a better picture of his wounds than he'd expected, and the way she was describing this, led him to imagine even worse.

"Can you describe what or where exactly you felt what you felt?"

"Uhm, it's uh, hard to describe. Uhm. I did try to ask him about those injuries, but… he… he just didn't answer. I was worried there was something wrong with his digestion, but that doesn't make any sense."

Bato hated to be right.

Bato had changed his mind, Katara and Toph may hold Zuko's trust, but they weren't the right people to deal with this. At least not without an adult explaining things to them first, and he did not want them to have to know such things, they were too young. Bato felt over his head.

"Bato? Do you know something?"

"Yes, I have an inkling, I need to talk to the Chief about this first though," he said grimly. This… this was worse. It was already horrible to hear about someone's torture, and Zuko was young. But this, it was appalling to think that someone had gone ahead and done that.

"Zuko didn't mean to, he didn't mean to push me, I think it was a reflex. Please don't get him in trouble for it. I probably shouldn't have told you about all of this, it's no doubt very personal to him, but I just don't know what to do. He… he needs help. He deserves some help."

"I hear you, and no, I won't get him in trouble. Thank you for telling me."

00000

Bato had returned to the main tent with the intention of speaking with Hakoda, but when he got there, Sokka and Hakoda were leaning over some notes. Hakoda looked up.

"Oh, good that you're here, Bato. We have to conviene a war meeting. Please get the small council together, and find the Avatar."

Bato sighed. It seemed that Bato's information would have to wait. And he'd have to appoint a replacement guard for Tulimak, who was currently guarding the Prince while they were busy, as he was a member of the council. By La's left fin, so much to do, he thought as walked away with his Chief.


14.08.2022 A/N:

Ystävä: First of all, thank you Mr. Haziq and brianadbz901 for reviewing and giving us insight into the reading experience. You both made our day. Now onwards to author comments on the chapter:

So, the scene splits and order. I'm aware that I'm bending time a little, placing Hakoda's perspective before Zuko's with his water request and all. I felt that though it may be a little confusing, it let me stay true to Hakoda's limited morning perspective, without already providing the reader with background knowledge.

Bato's perspective was a lot of fun to write too. Somehow he turned into an investigator, and both Zuko and Sokka are under his scrutiny, and not for the reason's he'd expected.
It was really fun exploring how he'd approach the different gaang members based on his impression of them.

My rendition of the Water Tribe ships is quite a bit smaller sized than what I've been reading in various other fanfics. I tried researching 'cutters' and so on, as I have no clue about ships. The Water Tribe ships are apparently classified as cutters, but I did not find any much useful information to sizes and especially their usual draught (the maximum depth of any part of the vessel). In my personal opinion, the design of the Water Tribe ship, excluding the sail design, look a bit similar to viking long boats, only that they do seem to have room below deck, whereas a snekkja (type of long boat) only has a draught of 0.5m, and the bottom of the ship is the deck… so I decided to kind of be inspired by both to create my own ship atmosphere and all. It turned out pretty cramped.

For those interested in music recs, I've written this and the coming chapters while listening to the band SKÀLD on repeat, especially their songs Gleipnir, Hross, and Þat Mælti Mín Móðir. which boil down to nordic music with viking vibes. I've also listened to quite a bit of Eivør and some songs by Kalandra.

That's it from my side, please let us know what you think, what you liked, disliked, theories… whatever you're willing to share.

ML8991: Woo another chapter. As Ystävä has said, thank you all for your continued love and support for the story, it really makes our day ;).

This was an interesting chapter to go through as ystv has said. There was a lot of small developments that begin to take place, from the repercussions of Sokka's actions from a non Gaang perspective, to Zuko's condition, to the start of our next arc with the setting up of what is going to happen on the day of black sun.

Allowing an adult perspective on the group was definitely a difficult one, as it was a matter of managing that Hakoda and Bato are paternal figures to Sokka and Katara, but equally they are here leading the men of the tribe, and thus the delicate balance between father and Chief, or his right hand man, was definitely one we hope that we have managed to achieve well enough.

Seeing Zuko integrate himself into WT culture was also quite a challenge, but in a fun way. I think he knows deep down that what he is doing is not typical male work, but he probably feels that he'll annoy the tribesmen less if he just sits down and does what is asked of him.

Looking forward to what you guys think of the chapters to come, it is new chapters from here on out for you guys on FF, not just revisions, so woop woop, so looking forward to seeing you guys there in the not too distant future, thanks once again your amazing peeps, ML :).