Chapter Text
Umara gulped as she approached the enormous gate at the center of the palace walls. This was, unequivocally the most stupid thing she had ever done. Shortly after Zuko had made her promise to keep coming to school, he himself had "disappeared". At first, Umara had assumed that it had something to do with the passing of his grandfather, Fire Lord Azulon, but it had been over a week since then, and something just didn't feel right. She took a deep breath and continued hesitantly up the path leading toward the gate. She largely didn't trust the Fire Lord or the military. Umara paused when she finally reached the end of the path, her heart pounding in her ears. Act natural!
"State your buisness!" An angry, pointily clad man shouted as he brandished his spear in her direction.
She closed her eyes and took a breath, "I'm here-" her voice cracked. "I'm here to express my condolences to Prince Zuko over the passing of Fire Lord Azulon." She called, trying her best to keep her voice from shaking as much as she was.
The guard chuckled at her expense, "I'll be sure to pass the message along." He sneered. She thought for a moment.
"I'm also supposed to catch him up on what we learned in school this week." She blurted. The long, dark shadows cast by the torches surrounding the gate made everything far more intimidating than it needed to be, drawing quite a bit of regret that she had decided to make this trip at night.
"Go home, little girl," the guard demanded, thrusting his spear at Umara. "I doubt the Prince has time for your games."
She hung her head hoping a retort clever enough to convince them to let her in would come to her, but she had no such luck.
"I do not think Fire Lord Ozai would be very pleased to hear that you were harassing his son's tutor." A calm but stern voice called from behind her. Umara whirled around, her eyes falling on a face she knew very well from pictures. It was the Dragon of the West himself, General Iroh. Her schooling in Hira'a had mentioned him, and he'd been a subject of her nightmares ever since. She watched, frozen as he had a brief argument with the guard, until the gates finally opened. The General smiled at her kindly and inclined his head, "after you."
. . .
"So," Iroh smiled warmly, trying his best to reassure the terrified little girl. "I assume you are a friend of my nephew's."
She seemed surprised when he said that, though she only blinked at him in response.
"I was surprised to see a Natoyi so close to the palace, but you don't look much like an assassin to me." He joked lightheartedly, realizing too late that he had put his foot in his mouth. The girl's eyes widened, she attempted to say something, but only managed a small squeak.
He pointed to the band holding his own hair up, "The emblem on your hair ornament."
She gasped and grabbed the base of her long ponytail in a shocked attempt to hide the symbol. Iroh felt a twinge of guilt in his abdomen, "Do you know what the dragons stand for?" He asked, trying his best to assuage her discomfort. There was a mysterious intensity to the child's aura. As terrified as she must have been at Iroh's recognition of the ancient symbol, her gaze hadn't wavered once. She stared at him with an unusual potentcy that seemed almost instinctual.
"It's our story," The girl abruptly found her voice and snapped at him, "I know what the symbol stands for." She seemed to flicker out of focus when she spoke, though Iroh couldn't be sure that it wasn't just a trick of the light.
He paused as they reached the center of the Palace's expansive courtyard. "Why don't you wait here, I will go find Zuko for you." He gently motioned to a stone bench under the tree next to them. "Though I should warn you, he hasn't left his room much since his mother's disappearance." He said, raising an eyebrow in an attempt to illicit a reaction from the girl. Her eyes flashed with some surprise, however the brunt of her intense focus remained on Iroh.
Eyes like a dragon.
. . .
Iroh was unsurprised to find his nephew in the exact same spot on his bed where he had left him earlier that day. He rapped on the door gently before easing his way into the room. Zuko sat up when he spotted him. "Did you find my mom?" He asked expectantly, popping up on his bed.
"No, I'm afraid not." Iroh frowned as he watched Zuko's face fall in disappointment once again. He knew very well that Ursa wasn't going to be found, but he couldn't bring himself to crush his nephew's hope.
"I understand that the past week has been very hard for you," he began, placing a hand on Zuko's shoulder only for it to be sharply shaken off. "But it is important to remember that sometimes things happen, seemingly with no rhyme or reason, and it can make it feel as if you are drowning. When the current of life begins to pull you in an unexpected direction, it is best that you don't fight it: you'll only exhaust yourself trying to out swim the inevitable," Iroh smiled gently knowingly. "Besides, you never know where the current might take you."
Zuko whimpered solemnly, letting himself collapse back onto his bed. Iroh thought for a moment,
"While we are on the topic of the unexpected," he began nonchalantly, "there is a very pretty girl that came here looking for you. She seemed quite worried about you."
Zuko's eyes lit up a bit, "What? Mari was here? Why didn't you tell me?!" He demanded.
Iroh smirked, "She's here now, in the garden. Since you've been spending so much time in your room lately, I told her you may not want to see her." He teased, his eyes pointedly scanning his nephews charred bedroom.
"Why would you say that, Uncle?" Zuko sounded horrified as he leaped off his bed.
"I suppose I was mistaken." Iroh shrugged innocently, chuckling as he watched his nephew clumsily speed out of the room.
. . .
Umara's eyes shifted nervously around the courtyard.
I'm so glad I decided to come to the Palace, after dark, alone, and unannounced. What could possibly go wrong?
Her eyes finally settled on a pond near the center of the courtyard. After another suspicious scan of her surroundings, she crept over to the edge of the pond, settling into the most inconspicuous position possible. Umara sighed at her reflection in the water, prodding defeatedly at the emblem on her hair ribbon. It was disturbing to her that someone Fire Nation military was able to identify the symbol as Natoyi. As far as the history books in the Capital said, the Natoyi people had died out hundreds of years ago when Fire Lord Zoryu had attacked and disbanded the last of the independant clans. A small group had managed to live on in Hira'a, though she wasn't sure that was even true anymore.
Nearly a year ago to the day, the army had come to Hira'a, shouting something about an assassination attempt. All of the Natoyi people in the village were ordered out into the street: that was when she was ripped away from her family by one of the soldiers, who, she recalled, had bore a strange resemblance to a badger frog. He had the same dead eyes, at least. The man told her she was very lucky, and then before she knew it, she had arrived in the Capital City and was given to a couple in the Lower District. They weren't particularly friendly or kind, but they let her go to school, so there was that, at least.
Umara hadn't realized who Zuko was when she befriended him, and by the time she did, she was already too invested in the friendship to hate him. If General Iroh had been telling the truth, and Zuko's mother really had disappeared, that could mean she herself was in a precarious situation. She knew that Ursa had grown up in Hira'a, and always had a suspicion she may have been part of the reason that they spared her that day.
Umara was startled out of her reverie by a familiar voice.
"Mari!" Zuko cried.
Something sounded very off about his voice, frantic even. She barely had time to stand up before he roughly threw his arms around her, effectively pinning her arms at her sides. Something was definitely off.
"Yeah," She shifted uncomfortably, "I was worried about- What's wrong?!" She gasped out as she realized her usually inhibited friend was sobbing, albeit quietly.
"I'm so glad your here." He whimpered into her shoulder.
Umara shifted her body again to see if she could free her arms. She couldn't.
"Zuko, what happened?" She asked again, beginning to panic.
He tried to answer her, but couldn't manage it. "Okay." She mumbled, twisting her body a bit more deliberately this time.
"Sorry..." Zuko sniffed as he gingerly returned his arms to his sides.
It was jarring to see him this way. She'd seen him angry, or frustrated many times, but she'd never seen him this sad and upset before. To make it worse, she was too flustered to even react properly.
Umara took a breath to collect herself. "Zuko," She started gently, reaching out to wipe a tear from his cheek. "Tell me what happened, please. I'm worried about you."
She moved to return to her previous sitting position, gently tugging on Zuko's arm so he'd follow suit. He gingerly lowered himself into the ground and put his head in his hands.
"My mother's gone." He croaked, causing Umara to unintentionally take in a sharp breath. "She just disappeared and I think it's my fault." He continued, pressing his palm into his forehead.
"Shh, no," She said softly as she reached over uncertainly and took his hand, gently lacing her fingers with his. "It's not your fault."
"How do you know?" Zuko snapped, attempting to yank his hand away. Umara loosened her hand, but he didn't try to pull away again.
Angry is good, that means we're getting somewhere.
She scooted around so that she was sitting in front of him, letting her hand move with her so that she was grasping his fingers.
"Because you're eleven, Zuko," She urged, craning her neck down so she could look into his eyes. "Whatever happened, it's not your fault."
He sniveled again, wiping a tear with his free hand. "I'm almost twelve..." He protested weakly.
Umara didn't respond, she just raised her eyebrows disapprovingly as she continued to look into his eyes.
Zuko averted his eyes, smiling a bit in spite of himself. "I hate it when you do that." He mumbled half-heartedly. She thought about prodding him about what that meant, but decided to let it go.
He reached behind her and gently swatted at the hair dangling between her shoulder blades, "you put your hair up." He remarked flatly, his eyes still angled toward the ground.
Umara shrugged, a bit flustered. "Yeah, I was trying to look official. It didn't work though."
"It looks pretty," Zuko mumbled."You're a lot better at that than I am," He motioned to his own, poorly constructed hair bun. "My mom usually did my hair for me..." He trailed off.
She bit the inside of her lip as a pang of sadness hit her in the chest. "It looks good!" She lied.
"You don't have to say that." Zuko frowned. "I know it looks stupid."
Umara thought for a moment, abruptly standing and resituating herself so she was kneeling behind him. She gathered his hair in one hand and began to unwrap the band holding it together.
He shifted uncomfortably." what are you doing?" he complained."
"Hold this." she reached around and pointedly dangled the band In front of his face, ignoring his protests.
"Mari stop, this is embarrassing!" He whined insincerely, relaxing a bit.
"Why is it embarrassing--Give." Umara replied flatly, reaching around for him to hand her the band. She grunted as she struggled to flip his hair into the traditional looking bun. "There we go, I couldn't get it into the bun thing, but go look." She chirped triumphantly, motioning to the pond.
She watched curiously as Zuko regarded his reflection for a moment longer than normal.
"Is everything-" Umara was promptly cut off by another of his unexpected hugs, which this time effectively became a tackle.
"Ouch!" She giggled as she abruptly hit the ground, Zuko following and landing on top of her.
"Sorry..." He said staring at her dreamily for a moment, until his eyes nearly popped out of his head. "UHH, sorry!" He just about screamed as he rolled on to his back, covering his face. "Thanks for fixing my hair..." He mumbled through his hands.
Umara thought for a moment and smirked to herself, promptly turning her head to look at her friend,
"So why does your face get all red whenever you look at me?" She teased, hoping to fluster him into forgetting his sadness for a while.
"Wha- No it doesn't!" Zuko pouted and turned onto his side to look away from her.
She grabbed to his shoulder and rolled him back to his previous position. His eyes shifted in her direction before promptly fixing on the sky above him.
"It does not." he mumbled quietly.
She reached over and jostled his shoulder playfully, "I didnt say it was a bad thing." she said carefully, her eyes repeating the same movement that Zuko's had a moment ago.
They lay there In silence, each occasionally stealing a glance at the other. Zuko scooted himself closer to her, gingerly grasping her hand and turning his attention from the sky back to Umara.
"I'm really happy you're here." he smiled sheepishly.
She tilted her head to the side so that it was resting against his own. "I'm really sorry about your mom" she said softly and squeezed his hand.
"Me too," he replied sadly. "I'm sorry I knocked you over. I was just excited that I looked normal again."
Umara shrugged, "Yeah... I wish I could have gotten it to flip the right way though."
"No, I like it. We match now," Zuko smiled, prodding at her own ponytail. He paused for a moment as his face fell. "Can you promise me something?" He asked, eyes sullen.
Umara hesitated for a moment as a wave of uncertainty rushed over her. "I can try," She replied reluctantly. She was not particularly confident in promises anymore.
"Just...don't disappear, okay?" He requested meekly.
Umara cringed, "I won't, but on one condition, can you please come back to school soon?"
Zuko thought for a moment, "What if neither of us went to school? I can see if my Uncle will take us to Ember Island for a couple days, I don't think he's busy right now. We can practice your...'shifty thing' in the woods out there. There's less people around so we won't have to worry about someone seeing you."
Umara bit her lip to suppress a sigh. There was a lot she didn't like about that idea, but Zuko was sad. How does he always get me to act so stupid? She exhaled slowly, pressing her head against his with a bit more force. "Deal..." She reluctantly agreed.