Ten Months Previously
Aang is devastated for days after leaving the Southern Air Temple. Naturally so, even when he tries to play it off, pretend he's tired instead of drowning in memories and regret. Katara knows the all-consuming depths of failure better than anyone, so she knows to leave him alone, leave him an extra Momo peach because they're his favourite, and wait for him to come out of the dark cloud Gyatso's murder cast over him.
So, she throws herself into any work she can find. She helps groom Appa because she's sick of picking white hairs out of her stew after it somehow gets all over the cooking utensils. She plays with Momo because if he gets frustrated, he'll distract Aang with chatter or annoy Sokka. And she washes and fixes their clothes. In retrospect, her intolerance of leaving a job to be done by someone else or sit unattended only enables Sokka's opposite tendencies. If anything, he should be offering his help more. He has no boys to train, no village to protect. Her and Aang are more than capable of taking care of themselves, despite her limited experience with her own abilities.
Katara doesn't hate the work. In fact, she finds some of it soothing. Cooking and sewing were two of the last things her mother taught her. When she cooks it's as if she's talking to her again, imagining what wacky concoctions her beautiful, creative mother could be cooking up for the spirits. Yet, impossibly, Sokka gets even worse as his lack of duties builds up, and even the harmonic pass of needle through cloth can't stitch the fraying edges of Katara's temper back together.
Aang steers Appa. Sokka reclines in the saddle, watching the clouds pass them by as Katara works. Thankfully, he's being quiet. She's allowed to claim the responsibility of fixing his pants. He is not allowed to tell her to do it.
"Katara, watch this new airbending trick."
She hums, tongue clinched between teeth as she manoeuvres the needle through the crease where Sokka caught his leg on Appa's horn. She told him to slide off the side, not try and vault over. 'Warriors leap into battle, Katara, they don't slide'. If the battle in question is trying to outpace a cheetahlope across flat terrain, Katara would prefer he lose with one less hole in his clothes.
"That's great, Aang," she affects engagement as she decides to double-stitch.
"You're not looking."
She pinches the needle and glances quickly over before resuming. "That's great."
"I'm not doing it anymore," she barely hears him moan.
"Stop bugging her, airhead." Sokka waves Aang away dismissively in the periphery of Katara's vision. "Girls need space to concentrate on their sewing. If you thought her waterbending needed work, wait till you pop the seam of your pants doing one of your little flippy-flips."
Aang's disapproving frown is a pale shadow to the sharp spike of Katara's outrage. She's used to Sokka taking digs at her waterbending. Before Aang, her understanding was limited but it was a part of her, and while Sokka's digs were unnecessary, they were never cruel.
Fighting his backwards opinions of bending is a losing battle. "What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?" She asks, cold civility masking her irritation.
Sokka either doesn't notice or feels the coming fight and readies his apathetic callouses. "Simple. Girls are better at fixing pants than guys and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that. It's just the natural order of things."
"Look at that, I'm all done with your pants!" She throws them over his stupefied face.
He tugs them off, ripping the unfinished stitches, though Katara pretends not to notice. "Oh, come on, Katara. I can't wear these, and it's not like you have anything else to do."
"She could practice her bending," Aang offers, cautiously observing the volcano about to erupt that is Katara.
"With what, the clouds?" Sokka scoffs, despite the very valid suggestion – If Katara was a better bender.
"What a good idea, Sokka. I'll use the clouds to practice my waterbending, Aang can use the air, and you can keep bagging on us to practice your jerkbending!"
Red darkens Sokka's cherrywood hue. "You benders think you're so-"
"Relax, Sokka," Aang cuts through the building animosity with effortless cheer. "Where we're going, you won't need pants." He doesn't see how the siblings glare at each other behind him.
Sokka gets three more shots in about her, Aang, and a fish doing all the work, before the Kyoshi warriors put him in his place and Katara out of her misery. From there it's a whirlwind of getting settled. The second the natives of Kyoshi learn of who Aang's related too, if reincarnation counts as related, they go from public enemy to celebrity in a matter of hours.
Aang soaks up the attention of all the girls fawning over him, the warriors asking him about Kyoshi. Dessert for breakfast is his favourite. Sokka sulks, and Katara would be lying if she didn't feel a smug sense of victory over his declining civility. If you asked her, Suki and the other Kyoshi warriors kicking his butt served him right. Now if only he'd stop embarrassing her with his caveman attitude and engage with the natives, Katara would consider Kyoshi island a refuge from the new pressures of life.
"I don't know what his problem is, Katara," Aang says around a mouthful of cake when she brings it up. "It's great here, they're giving us the royal treatment!"
But he's noticed. She knows because his eyes follow Sokka's back until he's out of sight and his muttering has left the lodgings they've been given. "Hey, don't get too comfortable. It's risky for us to stay in one place for very long."
Except, she's not very good at following her own advice. She doesn't even have to clean Appa anymore. In honour of Kyoshi, the people of her island see it as their civic duty to maintain the Avatar's companion, giving Katara time to explore the beautiful mountain scenery while Aang's busy being doted on.
But a day becomes four. Four days becomes a week. Katara loves the snow-capped peaks, loves ruffling through the white, crisp flakes and remembering home. She likes Suki and getting to talk to girls her age a lot. But they're going to overstay their welcome if she lets Aang indulge too long. Sokka couldn't be more excited to leave if she were to give him a direct line of fire into the Fire Nation capital and a bomb.
Only Aang is reluctant to leave. "Don't you see how happy I'm making this town? They've even cleaned up the statue in my honour!"
She should be responsible, put her foot down. "Well, it's nice to see you excited about being the Avatar. I just hope it doesn't all go to your head."
It does. She's less surprised, more disappointed. She can't blame Aang for basking in the attention, he's fourteen and deserves to act like it for a little while at least. Once they truly set off for the North Pole, she knows he'll put his heart and soul into his training. But the kind, thoughtful, perceptive boy with the big bald head she's known the last few months isn't acting like himself.
A finger jabs her shoulder as she picks her way through the fruit stands dried offerings. She's decided, they're leaving on the morning. Supplies at the house will get her point across. "Oh, good! Can you help me carry this back to the house?" She makes a show of pushing the pot over to him. "It's a little heavy."
But it seems dragging Aang away from his fan club won't be as easy as she'd hoped. "Actually, I can't right now. I promised the girls I'd give them a ride on Appa. Why don't you come with us? It'll be fun!"
She gives him her shoulder as she goes back to filling the pot. Watching you show off for a bunch of girls does not sound like fun."
"Well, neither does carrying your basket."
"It's not my basket." She fills it to the brim, making her intentions for a long journey clear. "These supplies are for our trip. I told you, we have to leave Kyoshi soon. We've already been here too long."
Aang rolls his massive, grey eyes. "Come off it, Katara. You've loved it here just as much as I have. If it were Sokka making the call, maybe I'd get it. But who says you get to say when we go?"
"Because one of us has to be responsible." It stings more than it should that he'd respect Sokka's opinion over hers. Then again, Sokka's been spending all his free time with Suki, leaving Aang's girls for Aang, and Katara to apparently become the unreasonable one. "You're the Avatar, yet somehow I'm the only one who seems to remember your destiny of ending this all-consuming-war. I thought you said this Avatar stuff wouldn't go to your head?"
Indignant, he puffs up, cheeks going red. "It didn't. You know what I think? You just don't want to come because you're jealous."
"Jealous?" Now it's her turn to scoff incredulously. "Of what?"
"Of all the fun I'm having without you."
"That's ridiculous." She squishes a liliberry in her haste to end this.
"It is a little ridiculous, but I understand."
And like a child, she storms off. Her storm continues to rage back at the house, and she's only thankful Sokka's still training with Suki so she can rage in peace. Until the rage burns away, leaving only an empty, thrumming in her blood. She needs motion, kinetic fury, so she decides to practice her bending. Maybe the soothing motions of the water will bring her back to herself. And it does, until Aang finds her again.
"Katara, remember how the Unagi almost got me yesterday?
She focuses on a spot on the wall, breathes, goes back to her bending. "Yeah."
"Well, I'm gonna go ride it now. It's gonna be real dangerous."
"Good for you."
His cheer falters. "You're not going to stop me?"
All she wants is for him to leave. "Nope. Have fun."
It devolves quickly from there, both of them trying to outdo the other. ("I will." "Great." "I know it's great." "I'm glad you know." "I'm glad you're glad." "Good!")
The water sloshes her folded legs and, in a fit of rage she's glad Aang isn't around to witness, Katara whips the bowl away to smash against the wall. "Spirits on high," she mutters. But as she cleans, she finds herself feeling better. Seven days she's been without her usual distractions. Now, losing herself to the ministrations the same way she loses herself in her bending, her mind wanders.
"You have a fire in you, Katara." Gran Gran's voice sighs in memory. Katara misses her braiding her hair, tugging to let Katara know when she was being petulant. "You do not hate the sun because it burns."
And she should not hate herself, even when she's no better than a prideful firebending brute. Her stubbornness will not only burn her, but Aang and Sokka. Look how much she's fractured their team already. She should be there for Aang, not push him away. He wants her attention, she isn't blind. She needs to use it to keep him grounded, not deprive him the satisfaction of a job well done, even if it means watching him ride a stupidly large Koi fish.
But first, she needs to eat some vulturecrow.
It's easy to find Sokka. Luckily the Kyoshi dojo is on the way to the beach. She skirts its edges, looking for the open door, hearing the exerted grunts and steps of two people inside.
"Sokka, slow it down. Moving through the movements faster doesn't mean you'll master them faster." Suki sighs loud enough for Katara to hear from outside. "You don't have to master it in a week, you know."
"I need to master it sooner rather than later. Katara's getting antsy. We'll be moving on soon."
"You've picked up a lot."
"Not enough!"
Katara pulls up short right as she's about to turn onto the open wall. Eavesdropping is a deplorable habit; one she'd never engage in usually. But Suki is the first person Sokka's own age who he's had to talk to in years. He's opening up in ways he never would with Katara. It's an underhanded, downright violation of his privacy. But if she interrupts now, he'll never get whatever's on his chest out there.
"Sokka?" Suki prompts.
"It's not going to be enough until I can be useful." Katara's never heard her brother sound so disparaged before. "Aang is the freaking Avatar. Katara masters anything she puts her mind to, and she's a waterbender. I lied before, Suki. I wasn't the best warrior in my village, I was the only warrior… Katara saw right through me, so what happens if her and Aang need me and I can't be there?"
She should have given him the apology he deserved weeks ago on the ice after she humiliated him in front of his boys. Now, a gaping pit opens in her stomach as she realises how badly she hurt her brother. So busy with Aang, trying to keep him out of his dark pit of grief, she never noticed how much Sokka's own despair had been swallowing him up.
"If Katara sees you, then she sees how much you love her." Suki's words ring half-true. Katara's never doubted Sokka's devotion to her. It's why he never followed their father into battle when he could have left years ago. But she's done a piss-poor job of appreciating said devotion. "And she's definitely seeing how much time you've spent practicing with me. I think she's starting to miss you."
"You think?" Sokka asks, perking up by his voice. "Sounds to me like you're not a fan of sharing, Suki."
That's the Sokka Katara knows, and she practically hears Suki's eyeroll before Sokka yelps, and the shuffling, thwacks and grunts of training start back up again. She knows she needs to apologise, but revealing she heard him be vulnerable is not the way to gain Sokka's affection, and Katara's tired of being the full stop on his good times.
So, she leaves him to Suki, heading down to the beach.
"Katara..." Aang's voice is hoarse around his waterlogged throat. "Do not ride the Unagi. Not fun."
She should chastise, but his smile is earnest, and he's breathing. The puddle she'd pulled from his lungs is already drying, a stain on the flat, costal rocks. When he hugs her, it's tight, with just enough desperation she knows he was afraid, if only for a moment.
It triples as the shore quakes beneath them, their eyes meeting before flying to the looming black shape dominating the shoreline. The sideways shark mouth of the Fire Nation vessel opens, slicing into the sand. From the bulwark descend not three armoured figures - Katara thought her and Aang could have stood a chance against that - but a herd of snorting, scaled, horned beasts. They shepherd their masters across the sand, bellies dragging, scoring up towards the village.
At the head, a scarred master snaps to his soldiers. "I want the Avatar alive!"
"Zuko." Katara's heard his name by now. The infamous banished prince of the Fire Nation.
Perfect. Blind hate is stupid and easily redirected. An enemy with purpose is much more dangerous.
"We have to warn the villagers," Aang whispers. They duck together as the procession lumbers past their hiding spot.
Katara nods, realises Aang isn't watching her. He looks worriedly towards the peaceful inch of golden Kyoshi crown peeking up above the trees. "Go. I can buy you some time."
He whips to face her. "Katara, no! Zuko-"
"Won't waste the time or manpower taking me back to his ship if he thinks you're close." She scoots closer, taking his hands. "Find Sokka, he's with Suki. You guys can get the villagers to safety. Sokka knows defensive strategy better than anyone." She's spent years watching him continuously update their villages precautions and defences. "Find him, tell him I'll come to him. He can do it."
Aang doesn't like it, even though she just rescued his reckless butt from the Unagi. Looking over his shoulder as he glides away, she waves reassuringly until he's out of sight. Comfortable he has a good enough head-start, Katara moves up the rocks bracketing Zuko's path towards the village, picking up loose bits of shale and pebbles as she goes.
Her first shot goes wide, swishing harmlessly into the bushes, but it brings one of the soldiers up short. "Did you hear that?"
Halting his mount gives Katara a better window. She doesn't like doing it, but she strikes the lizardrhino on the rear. The creature squeals and bucks. The rider goes flying from the surprise and, free, the beast disappears back down the path.
"Spread out!" Zuko barks.
The procession stops. Zuko is the only one to stay mounted, the others sliding down and spreading out across the rocks. Katara watches the scarred prince as long as she dares, heart thumping in her throat, trying to count how long they spend looking for her. When she isn't sure what more she can accomplish she begins to back away.
"Where do you think you're going?" Thick, hot fingers wrap around her wrists, bringing them above her head before she can think to whip them across her body, fend the attacker off. He grunts, laughs as she struggles, and hauls her onto the rocks. "Prince, Zuko! It's the girl from the watertribe!"
Zuko brings his mount around, his good eye going wide. Lips move, she sees what she thinks is the word water before he slams his mouth shut. "Bring her to me!"
Katara doesn't make it easy, but she's the one sweating and out of breath by the time she's pushed into the side of the lizardrhino. Zuko regards her coolly, then nods his head.
"Get her up. We've wasted enough time." Well played, his golden eyes seem to say as Katara's gripped under the arms and hauled up.
Revulsion fills her as Zuko's legs bracket hers, his arms slipping under her own to get a better grip on the reins. She has to physically stop herself from squirming away when the motion of the beast rocks him into her back. But just as she's about to say screw it to her plan and whip the ocean into a frenzy behind them, a voice in her ear rasps,
"I'm only here for the Avatar, but if you waterbend, you'll be in just as much danger."
She can't see his face. Only the pale skin of his hands, tense around the reins, show her an ounce of his sincerity. "What do you mean?"
"Stay out of my way and you won't have to find out." His breath hits her ear, harsh and restrained. "It's for your own good."
The day a Fire Nation scourge, let alone Prince scourge himself, has her good at heart is the day she bows before the sun instead of singing with her spirits.
Echoes of the joyful morning are stamped out beneath the long-clawed thumps of the lizardrhino's charge. Katara grips the pommel of the saddle in front of her, fingers aching, as Zuko leads a desperate charge. She would not tell him where Aang went, what the village was like. So, he chose a full-frontal attack, and halts now in the centre, beneath the statue of Kyoshi. He regards it disdainfully, or that's just his face, before declaring his intent to the static village.
"Come out, Avatar! You can't hide from me forever!"
"Aang doesn't hide, but innocent villagers can't match firebenders," Katara hisses up at him.
He growls low behind her before barking to his men, "Find him!"
Komodorhino's fan out into the village. Two disappear from sight while another three post up behind Zuko. Suffocating in the cage of Zuko's body, Katara can't turn, can't see if Aang got everyone out. She's lurched violently to the side when a yelp fills the empty village, but by the time Zuko gets his mount around, the three men are alone on the ground. Dazed, helmeted faces stare up at the sky. Komodorhino's stamp and snort, throwing up flurries.
A flash of green brightens Katara's peripheries. Zuko's mount lurches again. This time Katara watches a Kyoshi warrior land before a Komodorhino. The animal rears as her fan snaps open. Abandoning control of the animal, the rider stabs at the warrior, but she moves right, under the jab and with a flick of her fan disarms the soldier. A swift, spinning kick knocks man from mount.
Suki appears around the back of the mount. Blocking Katara in, Zuko's arms raise. Fists punch the air, fire rips past Katara's head. Suki rolls under the first, leaps the second. She's in the air, fan aimed for Zuko's head, when he whips the mount around. A meaty thud slaps Suki from the air.
"You missed," Zuko sneers behind a simmering fist.
Pushing herself off the ground, Suki smirks beneath her askew headdress. "Wasn't you we were aiming for."
"We?"
A heavy thwack, then Katara's ripped from the saddle as Zuko cries out. But another voice permeates the chaotic fray. "Get your filthy firebending hands off my sister!"
A hand, gentler than before, pulls her to her feet. A painted face sweeps over her, but her brother's deep, dark eyes shine through. "I'm okay," she gasps, grinning, caught between throwing her arms around him and laughing. "Nice tackle. I knew you'd show up."
Sokka grins. Behind him, Zuko's mount dashes away, snorting and frothing at the mouth, and the prince in question is being surrounded. A flash of gold inside the helmet and, in a move Katara blinked and missed, Zuko spins on his hands. Flames shoot from his feet, driving the approaching warriors back. Suki's scream drags Sokka away. He charges with a furious bellow, but Zuko spins again, sweeping his feet out from underneath him before he gets within arms-reach.
Katara's on him before she can think. She knows her element and his are evenly matched, but they're prowess at it is not. Still, she barges into him while he's still focused on Sokka, sets her feet and lifts her hands.
Golden eyes bug. Zuko doesn't bother igniting his hands. He closes the distance and grabs her wrists, pulling them down. "I said don't bend!" It's supposed to be her looking furtively around for the firebending enemies.
"So, you can win?" Katara wrenches away but he holds tight. "Let me go!"
"Let her go!" Aang holds his glider out in challenge, glaring at Zuko. "Over here!"
But Zuko hesitates. A fraction of a second, enough for him to meet Aang's eye, then turn back to Katara. "Do what you want, peasant. But for the sake of your tribe, listen to me."
Zuko charges towards Aang. Katara sees him pull a Kyoshi fan towards him as he rushes to meet Zuko before a cry pushes Zuko's warning from her mind.
