Zuko is already awake the next day when Katara comes to get him, his morning sunrise meditation over, and he's well underway with his daily kata. He's practiced various forms of martial arts since he was a child, and going through his kata every morning after his meditation is one of the only things he has been able to keep the same now as it was in his old life. It's also one of the only things he actually wants to keep from his old life, and he uses it to help him forget almost everything else from his days back in Ember.

"Oh." Katara hasn't stepped fully into the barn when she spots him in the middle of his forty-second move. "I didn't mean to interrupt you."

"That's alright." This particular set only has fifty moves, and he is close enough to finishing that he doesn't mind ending a little early. "I was almost done anyway."

"What were you doing?" she asks, and shuts the barn door behind her, blocking out the chill of the early morning.

"I was practicing my forms." He pulls his overshirt back on. "I go through my kata every morning after I meditate, it helps me stay focused throughout the day."

"That sounds interesting." To her credit, she does sound genuinely interested. "What's a kata?"

"It's just a group of movements or forms practiced in sequence." He shrugs and follows her out of the barn into the soft light of the newly risen sun.

"Neat." They walk back into Katara's small home, Speckle meowing and running to the door to meet them. The hearth still has embers in it from last night's fire, and he stokes the flames with a small movement of his hand.

"I was just about to make breakfast, and then I'll show you around the farm and tell you what you need to know." She bends down to scoop up the cat, cradling him to her chest like she would a baby.

"Can I help at all?" He can't stand just hanging around and doing nothing while others work, a far cry from how he grew up as a child, always being waited on hand and foot. The past few years out on his own have made him self sufficient, and the feeling of being taken care of is foriegn and strange.

"Well, you already got the fire in the hearth going. If you want to start the cookfire on the stove that would be nice." He walks over and blows embers onto the kindling on the stove, watching the flames bloom as he stands back up. "And here—" Katara shoves the cat into his arms, and Zuko takes the armful of fluff with nothing but a look of surprise. "He's always trying to get into the eggs. So just, hold him while I cook. He's a glutton for attention, so he won't bite or anything."

Zuko holds the cat to his chest like he had seen Katara do just moments before, Speckle's lemongrass eyes squinting up at him as he purrs.

"I've never seen a cat with this coloring before. It's beautiful." He scritches under Speckle's chin, marvelling at the straight line split down the center of the cat's face, the left side entirely black, and the right a bright mottled orange.

"It's a rare pattern, and almost none of the cats with that coat are ever male." The eggs sizzle in the heavy pan as Katara speaks. "He was a stray that came to my door one day after I had just moved in here by myself. Poor thing was all matted, and he seemed so scared. I figured we were both lonely, so I might as well keep him. He's been my little buddy ever since."

"Seems like you take in a lot of strays." Speckle paws at Zuko's face, pulling it down so he can rub his soft little cheek on Zuko's chin. "We're two of a kind, you and me," he mumbles to the cat, the words not meant for Katara's ears. He can't help but notice the parallels between Speckle and himself; a split face, a lost stray, stumbling blindly into Katara's home. What does it say about me that I have more in common with a cat than any human I know?

Katara serves up breakfast, putting a small dish with a tiny scoop of eggs on the floor for Speckle, who squirms in Zuko's arms and runs over to the eggs as soon as he's let onto the ground.

"I have to give him some, otherwise he'll try to eat off of our plates." Katara rolls her eyes, and he chuckles at the mental image of the cat fighting him for his breakfast— he has a feeling that Speckle would give him a run for his money.

They eat in companionable silence, somehow maneuvering around any awkward moments without too much hassle. Katara asks him a fair amount about his home life, but he keeps his answers vague. He's not about to talk about his fucked up family with a girl he met twelve hours ago just because she let him sleep in her barn. They're just about done when a solid knock sounds at the door.

"Oh, wonderful little sister of mine!" A man opens the door without waiting for Katara to even get up, and based on his loving introduction, it must be Katara's brother. Even if he hadn't announced himself, the resemblance between the two is obvious. His blue eyes match Katara's, although the signature glow of the Othered is missing, and his bone structure is very similar to his sister's, the angles just a bit sharper, the shape just a bit broader. The man's eyes narrow as he spots Zuko, who rises from his seat immediately. "Who's this?" His tone is icy, a flipped switch from the sing-song tune of his entry.

"Sokka, this is Zuko." Katara introduces him, and Sokka's eyes fall onto Zuko's, his gaze heavy.

"You're Othered too." Zuko nods, a lump in his throat that he can't budge preventing him from speaking.

"He came into town yesterday. I ran into him while I was out buying wheat," she chides. Her brother's face turns sheepish, Katara's hands braced on her hips in a very motherly gesture. "Which I wouldn't have had to do if someone had kept their promise and brought some to me in the morning."

"I got caught up hunting with dad!" Sokka holds up a gutted rabbit corpse tied by its ankles. "I brought you some meat?"

"Uhg." Katara snatches the rabbit out of his hands and tosses it unceremoniously onto the counter.

"So why is this guy in your house?" Sokka moves to sit down opposite him, his eyes still trained upon Zuko as he sits down as well.

"Well, where else was he going to stay?"

"He stayed here?!" Sokka's eyes bulge as he whips around to look at Katara. "Like, overnight?!"

"Okay, first of all," Katara holds her finger up in front of her face, "I'm twenty four years old, I can have anyone I want stay the night in my own home." Zuko swallows past the frog in his throat, the implication of Katara's words making him nervous like he hasn't been in a very long time. "And second of all, he stayed in the barn. He's going to be helping me out on the farm for a little while."

"Who's going to be helping on the farm?" A kind voice drifts over to the trio from the doorway, succeeded by a friendly looking old woman. Zuko stands up from his seat again, the manners drilled into his brain due to a life of privilege.

"Gran Gran, this is Zuko," Katara sighs, repeating the introduction with a little less enthusiasm. "I met him while he was travelling through the village yesterday."

The old woman approaches him, a shrewd look in her eye as she takes in his appearance, her gaze barely pausing at the glowing gold of his eyes. "Zuko. That's an interesting name."

"Yes ma'am." What am I supposed to say to that? He sees Sokka roll his eyes, but says nothing.

"Zuko needs to make some extra money before he leaves the village, and with him taking care of the farm I can focus on making some blankets and stuff to sell for some extra money of my own."

"I think that's a wonderful idea!" There's something in the old woman's eyes that he can't quite put his finger on. "You can call me Kanna. And sit down, dear." She waves her hand at him, and he sits down obediently. "How long will you stay?"

"Uh..." he hasn't actually thought about how long he'll stay for. "I'm not sure."

"I think three weeks should get you enough money to sustain yourself out on the road." He wonders how the old woman— Kanna, he reminds himself— knows how much money he'll need for an almost impossible quest, but he knows no better than she does, so he doesn't question it.

"Three weeks?!" Sokka shrieks, and is on his feet in a blink, holding out the chair he had previously been occupying for Kanna to sit in. "You're going to let a stranger sleep in your barn for three weeks?!"

"Sokka, can you relax? Besides, at the end of three weeks, he won't exactly be a stranger anymore." Katara smiles at him, and he can feel his insides turn mushy with its warmth.

"What were you even doing, wandering through the village? There's nothing you could possibly want to see here." Sokka's arms are crossed defensively over his chest.

"I was just passing through." He chooses his words carefully, noticing Sokka's eyebrow raising. "I saw Katara from the market and I just…" Couldn't look away? Couldn't believe there was someone else like me? Had never seen anyone more beautiful? "I've never known anyone like me before. I just wanted to talk to her."

"And that's perfectly fine, and this conversation is over." Katara crosses her arms almost at the same time that Sokka uncrosses his. "I invited Zuko here and I'm allowing him to stay. The rest is none of your business."

"Fine." Sokka's hands raise into the air in a placating gesture. "I'm just trying to look out for you, that's all."

"I know." Katara's voice turns soft as she lays her hand on Sokka's shoulder. "You're just a little over protective."

"What are big brothers for?" Zuko has to blink back tears thinking about his little sister. I left her there. I left her there to be abused and beaten and—

"Well." Kanna's voice breaks him out of his cyclical thoughts, a knowing glint in her eye as she looks at Zuko. "I think we should get going, Sokka. Katara needs to show her friend here around the farm." She stands slowly from her chair and smiles at Zuko.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Kanna." He rises from his seat again. "You too, Sokka."

"Yeah, sure." The other man looks at him skeptically as he leads Kanna towards the door. Katara must mouth something at him, because he waves his hand at her in a dismissive motion before smirking and heading out.

Silence befalls the little house, the energetic air that had blown in with Katara's brother and Gran Gran seeping back out through the crack under the door, leaving the two of them standing awkwardly next to each other.

"Sorry about that," Katara apologizes as she turns to Zuko. The top of her head comes up to just below his chin. "Sokka can be really overprotective sometimes."

"It's alright." Sokka's words float around in his head, unforgiving and leaving bruises in his mind. What are big brothers for?

"Anyway, I'll show you around outside."

Xx

A little less than a week into his stay, he's starting to feel more comfortable around Katara. He's become familiar with the animals, and they seem to be warming up to him nicely. She showed him how to milk her cow, Luna, without making the creature irritable or uncomfortable, and how much to feed the two chickens, Coco and Peach. The sheep, Kiro, isn't quite ready to be sheared yet, but the animal is surprisingly affectionate, and needs to be socialized for a certain amount of time each day to prevent it from becoming frustrated and destructive, which he thinks is funny behavior for a sheep. Reminds me of myself. The first day Katara had shown him around the farm, her goat, Meng, had gotten a kick out of running away from him every time he tried to get close, and headbutting him if he somehow managed to even get within her range. Katara had laughed at his expense more than he'd like to admit, but his embarrassment was lessened by the beauty of her laughter.

He knows that she's gorgeous, there's simply no denying it. He's been with people before; there were always those who found the strange glow of his eyes exotic, apparently enough to warrant sleeping with him, but he'd never actually been with anyone. Nobody wanted to come near him because of his eyes, even before the scar. And now that a quarter of his face is scarred to fuck, people want him even less. He tells himself he isn't lonely, but he knows it's a lie. The only people who ever really gave a shit about him are his mother and his sister, and both of them are gone. Well, his sister is still in Ember, but he can't go back there. He finds himself thinking about Azula more frequently now that he's met Sokka, and his concern for her grows with each passing moment. Their father no doubt has taken out his disappointment with Zuko on his sister, and the guilt he feels because of it is immeasurable. He had always been her protector when they were young, and now he's gone. He feels like he's left her alone in the lion's den with a trail of his own blood in a circle around her, painting her as a target in his absence. I hope she's okay.

A week into his stay, storm clouds gather all throughout the day, turning the bright sky dark long before night falls. The rain comes down heavy after dinner, the innards of the barn already damp by the time he goes to sleep. Thunder rumbles in the dark sky, long and low, lightning flashing brightly outside the barn and lighting up the night in sharp bursts. Water drips in through cracks and holes in the roof, the simple wooden walls not quite sheltering him from the icy wind. He's found that his manipulation of fire allows him to keep himself warm to a degree, but with the wind and the perpetual dampness of the misting rain, he's finding it hard not to shiver. He pulls one of Katara's blankets tighter around him, curling up on his make-shift bed to try to warm himself up. The thunder and lightning continue, the early spring storm raging around him, the rain just this side of warm enough not to freeze into snow. Thunder cracks, loud and sharp in the sky, and the door to the barn bangs open. Zuko jumps to his feet immediately, only to see Katara standing in the doorway, her hand held above her head creating a shield from the rain.

"Holy shit, Katara!" His heart is slamming against his ribs as his body relaxes at the sight of his host.

"Sorry!" She steps into the barn, closing the door behind her.

"What's up?"

"I just..." she trails off, looking at the ground and moving around a piece of hay with the toe of her shoe. "You should come inside."

"I…" His brain stutters to a stop inside his head.

"It's cold and rainy and you're getting all wet." She gestures towards his admittedly damp clothes. "Just come inside and stay in the house tonight. I don't want you getting sick."

"Okay." He picks up the blankets, leaving Katara's hands free so that she can hold them above her head, water forming into a dome-like shape to shield them from the rain while they run back to the house.

They get inside, and Zuko heats himself up a little to dry off, the water rising from his clothes as steam as the warmth from the hearth caresses his skin.

"Hold one of the blankets up." Katara pulls the water from each of the blankets with swirling motions of her hands as Zuko holds them up, thunder continuing to rumble outside as they work.

Once the blankets are dry, they fold each of them and drape them over the various pieces of furniture scattered throughout the cozy living space. Zuko looks around the small room, sizing up the worn loveseat and the padded armchair, deciding which one he'll be most comfortable sleeping on.

"Do you want to use the bed?" His eyes are wide as he turns around to look at Katara, who immediately puts her hands up. "Not, like, with me. I'd sleep out here." A warm blush spreads on her cheeks, soft and sweet.

"What? No, that's your bed. I can sleep out here."

"Zuko, your feet are going to hang off the edge of the couch by at least a foot." He looks at the loveseat again, knowing that she's right.

"It's fine. I can always sleep on the floor."

"Don't be ridiculous, Zuko." She puts one hand on her hip and stretches the other arm out towards the single bedroom. "Just sleep on the bed, I'll sleep on the couch."

"No, I'm not going to make you sleep on the couch in your own home. Please," he begs and sees her face soften. "I'll be fine, I promise. I've slept on nothing but a pile of dirt for weeks on end, having my feet hang off of the couch isn't a big deal."

"Alright," she acquiesces, shrugging her shoulders at his stubbornness. "Just don't expect a sore back to get you out of working tomorrow." Her smile is playful, and sends a jolt through his body all the way down to his toes.

"I won't." They stand awkwardly for a few minutes before Katara turns in.

"Goodnight Zuko."

"Goodnight, Katara."

She closes the door behind her, and he lets out a slow breath. The couch is relatively comfortable, and Speckle finds his way up into the only empty space left around him, proceeding to curl up against Zuko and purr in a soft, constant rumble. He feels strangely content, but although his body is tired, his mind doesn't find sleep for hours to come.

Xx

The rest of the week passes in a calm manner, Zuko moving back out into the barn after the rainstorm at his insistence, despite Katara's assurance that he can sleep inside. He gets used to the routine of caring for the animals after his morning meditation and daily kata, and he even begins to suspect that the animals are warming up to him. At the very least, Meng has stopped trying to headbutt him at every opportunity. On the ninth day he's introduced to Katara's father, Hakoda, a muscular man with a steely gaze and a friendly smile, and Zuko does his best to hide his tremors when they speak.

"Zuko, is it?" Hakoda shakes his hand, the older man's weathered palm broad and calloused fingers wide; working hands, his uncle would call them.

"Yes, sir." He does his best to conceal his nervousness, reminding himself that Hakoda is not his father.

"Hm." He rubs his beard, and Zuko can't help but feel small under his gaze. "I hear you've been helping Katara out on the farm."

"Yes, sir."

"And that you fixed the holes in the barn's roof for her."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, thank you for that." Hakoda smiles at him, and Zuko feels his chest loosen just a fraction. "I'm glad she has someone to help her out so she can relax for a while. She works very hard."

"She does, sir." Zuko has noticed that Katara works incessantly, always making time to cook and clean and say hello to her animals every morning. He admires her unwavering diligence, and wonders how tired she must be underneath it all. He can recognize when someone is burying their hurt (he's far too familiar with it himself), and Katara shows all the signs.

Katara's Gran Gran comes and visits every day, the kind old woman never forgetting to make sure to come dote on her granddaughter. Kanna is always giving him strange looks, and something in her gaze makes Zuko feel like she knows more than she's letting on. But, there's no way she could know about who he really is; this little village is so far removed from any of the activity in the city of Ember, and he feels confident that his secrets are safe.

He actually ends up becoming more friendly with Sokka, to his surprise. After that first day, Katara's brother comes to the house to check up on her (Zuko gets the feeling Sokka's really just making sure that he doesn't hurt his sister) every day.

"Is that yours?" They're eating dinner one night when Sokka points out Zuko's swords, sheathed in their scabbard and leaning against the door.

"Yeah." Zuko dips his bread into the steaming stew and takes a bite.

"What kind of blade?"

"Its dual blades, actually." He sees Sokka's brows raise and goes to fetch his weapon. "It's a dao sword—" he slides the swords from their sheath, currently disguised as a single blade— "two halves of one whole." He grips the sword with both hands, pulling it apart into two separate weapons with a twist, getting a small delight out of Sokka's bright eyes and unabashed awe.

"Wow." Sokka stands up and comes over to look at one of the blades. "These are beautiful. May I?" Zuko nods and hands it to Sokka, watching the other man test its weight and give it a few casual swings.

"I didn't know you were trained in swordsmanship."

Sokka shrugs and hands the blade back to Zuko. "I'm not formally trained. I have a longsword that I practice with, and I taught Katara how to use a short sword, but I'm not very good."

"If you want, I can show you some things tomorrow. I was lucky enough to have a master teach me for years, so I can give you some pointers," he offers, a tentative olive branch. Sokka's face lights up at Zuko's words, his own smile forming in turn.

"That would be awesome! I'll bring it tomorrow and we can spar!"

"Don't bother coming by until after lunch," Katara cuts in, her smirk playful and bright. "Zuko has to finish his work on the farm before he can slack off." Zuko lets a small smile slip onto his face.

"Yes, mom." Sokka rolls his eyes, and Katara elbows him in the ribs, eliciting a high pitched yelp from her older brother.

True to his word, Sokka comes by the next day and shows Zuko what he knows. His form is good, but he definitely needs more practice, and the other man has been asking Zuko to spar every day since. Zuko is happy to give Sokka advice, and it feels incredible to actually be able to talk and laugh and practice with someone real. Zuko doesn't do much socializing, but he likes Katara's brother, and he likes to think that Sokka likes him too.

"Relax your wrist." It's a surprisingly nice day, the sun shining high in the sky and beating down on Zuko and Sokka as they spar. "If you hold the sword too tight, you won't have a good range of movement." Sokka charges at him, his movements powerful but unsure. Zuko disarms him quickly, and Sokka falls to the ground.

"Damn it!" He reaches his hand out, and Sokka takes it to let Zuko help him back onto his feet.

"You're a quick thinker, but you've got to be a little more flexible. Try to use your environment to your advantage." They start again, and this time Sokka gets the best of him by dragging his foot on the ground and kicking dirt up at Zuko's face.

"Does that count as using my environment?" Zuko can hear the smugness in Sokka's voice, even if he can't see it due to all the dirt in his eyes.

"I think it does, yeah." When he looks back at Sokka, the other man is smiling, and they take up their positions to start again.

The days continue in a comfortable normalcy, the consistent routine doing wonders for Zuko's mood. He hasn't been this content for years, and the ease in which he's slipped into his role here scares him. It's just a matter of time before he has to move on and return to the dull emptiness of travelling alone, and the idea feels like a splinter stuck under his skin, a sharp pain making itself known with every movement. And the more he tries to ignore it, the more it hurts.