This War of Ours
A/N: YAY! THE FINAL CHAPTER! Funny thing that I just realized recently, I uploaded Chapter 13 on the exact day that I published Chapter 1 a year ago. Whew, how time flies. I swear I'll do better on the updates, you guys!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or Harry Potter.
CHAPTER 14
fire days
"No peeking."
Katara giggled, her hands over her eyes, acutely aware of Jet's hand on the small of her back as he led her through the heavy double doors of the Great Hall.
He'd told her that he and his Freedom Fighters had helped put together the decorations for the Fire Days Ball— Katara had smiled proudly at that, especially after seeing him help the kitchen staff haul crates of food up. The one time she served detention in the kitchens really made her appreciate all the effort the staff went through. That was why she still couldn't understand Sokka's dislike towards Jet— after she'd gushed about how thoughtful he was, Sokka just scoffed and said his "people instincts" were never wrong. Katara supposed it was less a "people instincts" thing and more of a "stupid ego" thing.
"Ready?" Jet's voice was husky in her ear, and she shivered. She nodded in anticipation. "Okay, take a look."
Katara removed her hands from her eyes and gasped. The Great Hall was decked in lavish paper streamers fashioned into dragons and phoenix wings; red lanterns hung from the ceiling, the characters for luck and fortune painted on them in black and gold; the four long tables, creaking with the weight of tantalizing festival food, were shoved to the sides, leaving a large, empty space in the middle for dancing. The courtyards on either side of the Hall were scattered with small round tables, each lit with a handful of candles on lotus-shaped candelabras. Strains of music flowed from the High Table, where some of the staff and sifus who frequented music nights grouped themselves with their instruments.
Students and sifus alike were already mingling, small saucers of food in their hands as they idly walked around, an ever-moving sea of red, gold, and black.
"D'you like it? It's a little too Fire Nation for my taste, but..." Jet glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, his lips twitching into a lopsided smirk, which Katara returned with one of her own.
"It's so red," she admitted. "But it is pretty. I can't believe you did all of this."
The piece of straw in the corner of Jet's mouth bobbed as he shrugged.
"We just helped the servants. Koh knows they did all of the work."
Katara laughed and tucked her hand conspiratorially in the crook of his arm. "Well, they did amazing."
"You haven't seen anything yet," he told her, leading her to the buffet. "The end of the ball is going to be explosive."
Katara grinned. "I can't wait."
It wasn't so bad, Haru thought, surveying the Hall. It was a few hours into the celebrations and a lot of people had come onto the dance floor; Jia and Chinua were dancing nearby— he could see Jia wincing frequently as Chinua trod on her feet— and Headmaster Iroh was waltzing with the waterbending healer, Yugoda, who was blushing and giggling like a teenager. Fong was doing an ungainly two-step with Aunt Wu, who was nervously avoiding his militaristic stomps.
Haru made his way to the Western Courtyard and over to the table where Sokka was devouring what looked like a whole komodo chicken.
"How's it going?" Haru asked the Water Tribe boy, setting down his plate of braised turtleduck.
"No' mush," Sokka replied with his mouth full. "Who needsh damshing, am'righ'?"
Haru just stared at him.
"Sorry?"
Sokka swallowed mightily and belched. "I said, who needs dancing, am I right?"
"Not me," Haru said unconvincingly, glancing at the direction of the Great Hall. From what he'd observed, Katara hadn't left Jet's side since the ball started.
"Me neither," agreed Sokka just as bitterly, taking another huge bite of komodo chicken.
The two boys stood in sullen silence until Suki wandered over to their spot with a huge mischievous grin on her face.
"Hey there, big sulkers," she said, a little too loudly. Haru jumped when she slammed her cup down on the table. "It's supposed to be a dance, y'know, not a funeral."
"We don't feel like dancing," Sokka replied haughtily, sticking his nose in the air in a way that was reminiscent of his sister. Suki laughed.
"Why, too afraid to ask your princess to dance, Water Tribe?"
"No! And she's not my princess! We're just friends now!" Sokka sputtered, face obviously flushed even in the candlelight. Both Suki and Haru looked unconvinced, and he bristled. "She just doesn't want to dance, okay! Not even as friends!"
"Aww, you poor little ladies' man," Suki teased, her tone a tad meaner than usual. She turned to Haru with an eyebrow raised, and the earthbender involuntarily took a step back. "What's your excuse, Haru?"
"Uh—"
"Something's up with you," Sokka interjected, sniffing the air around Suki. "Why are you acting weird?"
Suki smiled lazily and lifted her cup.
"Ling's date smuggled something from the kitchens," she confided loudly. "Perks of having a Freedom Fighter boyfriend. Want some?"
"What is it?" Haru asked, curiosity getting the best of him.
"Something called firewhiskey—"
"Wait, hold up," Sokka interrupted again, waving his greasy hands between his Earth Kingdom friends. "What do you mean, Freedom Fighter boyfriend? Katara has a Freedom Fighter boyfriend! The most Freedom Fighter of all Freedom Fighters! Is he gonna get my sister drunk, too?!"
Suki shrugged and took a sip of her drink. "Dunno."
"I want to try it," Haru said, reaching for the cup. Sokka almost knocked it out of Suki's hand with his flailing.
"Wait a sec! We can't let that slimy snake weasel get my sister drunk! Who knows what he'll do!"
"Uh, probably something Katara wants him to do?" Suki snickered and Sokka glared at her, face scrunched up and fists clenched.
"You're not helping, Suki," Haru said before his friend could explode, and the Kyoshi warrior raised a hand appeasingly, even though she was still fighting back a grin.
"Okay, okay, sorry," she carefully placed her cup down as though it was a handful of blasting jelly. "Sheesh. There's no need to go all big brother-y and defend Katara's honor, Sokka. Jet just went off with Qiao and Shui to do some rite of passage thing right now, and Katara's been dancing with Gumi and that less snotty twin."
Sokka visibly relaxed.
"Good, good. Whew," he sighed, tugging on his wolf tail, unmindfully transferring grease to his hair. He eyed Suki's cup interestedly.
"You got enough in there for all three of us?"
Suki smirked knowingly.
"What in Agni's name is my sister doing?"
Mai looked up disinterestedly and saw Azula approach Chan with an awkward smile on her face.
"She's holding up her end of a deal," she told Zuko, who was watching his sister with a horrified expression.
"What kind of deal?" He asked suspiciously, as though any deal Azula made involved roasting people alive. Mai rolled her eyes.
"A Ty Lee kind of deal," she explained exasperatedly.
Zuko scoffed and relaxed somewhat. The two lapsed into silence for a moment, watching as Azula tossed her hair over her shoulder in a poor attempt to imitate what Ty Lee had taught her.
"This is boring," Mai commented finally. Zuko turned to her with questioningly.
"Um, okay." He cast a look around the crowded Hall. "Do you want to… dance?"
Mai crossed her arms over her chest and leveled an unimpressed stare at him.
"No," she replied firmly. "We don't dance at parties, remember?"
Zuko looked away with a barely concealed huff.
"What do you want to do, then?"
Mai pursed her lips and shrugged. Zuko rolled his eyes to the ceiling and groaned dramatically before flinging himself from his seat.
"I'm gonna get us drinks."
"Whatever."
"And I thought we were okay," he muttered as he strode away, shoving and elbowing through the crowd. "How stupid of me."
There was a line for the drinks, and Zuko resisted the urge to stomp his foot and demand to be served first. Every second away from his girlfriend and her mood was invaluable.
He finally reached the table laden with cups of maiden heart juice. He grabbed a cup and was just about to take the last one when the person next in line snatched it before he could.
"Hey!" He snarled, whirling on the juice thief. "That's for my cranky girlfriend!"
He stumbled backwards as he came face to face with Katara's icy glare. She raised an eyebrow at him and pointedly took a sip from her— his!— cup.
"Is your girlfriend always cranky or is it because she's with you?"
Zuko merely narrowed his eyes at her. He did not need this right now. He did not need moody girls with their moodiness directed at him as if he did everything wrong.
He whirled on the servant who stood idly beside the table.
"You!" he spat out harshly. "There's no more juice left!"
"Aw, right," the man gazed at him blearily before realizing who Zuko was. He bowed and ambled unsteadily to a spot nearby where food preparations seemed to be made, nearly tripping over a crate of maiden heart fruits.
Zuko wrinkled his nose in disgust; he recognized the man now— he was one of those ever-drunk servants in the kitchens.
"You better not mess up those drinks," he threatened, trying to ignore the way Katara tensed beside him.
The servant— Nekhi, he recalled— shrugged merrily and deftly sliced open a fruit.
"Ah, no need t' worry, Yer Highness, sir. I could make these in me sleep." He chuckled to himself. "Me daughters— all eight o' 'em— they love maiden heart juice, see."
"I asked for juice, not your whole life sto—" Zuko began, but Katara cut him off.
"It's great you do that for your kids, Nekhi," she said earnestly. "They're lucky to have a dad who does that for them."
Nekhi grinned toothily as he squeezed the blood red juice into a bowl.
"Aye, miss, I gots to. I don' see 'em as much— only during t' summers, so I gotta make 'em 's much as I can afore I leave 'em again, but maiden hearts're real expensive in the colonies, ya know?" He wiped his hands on his apron, leaving scarlet handprints on the white fabric. He bent over and struggled to heft a small keg of water onto the table. "Gotta git— tons 'a odd jobs over t' summer— if I wanna keep my girls happy."
"That's very sweet of you," said Katara. "Here, let me help."
She bent water from the barrel and deposited it into the bowl. Nekhi beamed at her before sloppily ladling juice into a cup and handing it to Zuko.
Zuko scowled at the two of them and stomped his way back to Mai. She did not look happy when he handed her the freshly made juice.
"There's no ice," she commented sourly.
Zuko snapped.
"Go get a waterbender to ice it for you, then!"
He threw his own cup down on the floor, unmindful of its blood-like contents splattering his robes, unmindful of the heads that turned in his direction, unmindful of Mai's narrowed eyes and the fact that he just lashed out at her.
Agni take them all.
He marched back to the Fire Nation common room without a backward glance.
Katara wandered back to the Western Courtyard, a little dazed after her encounter with the Fire Prince. She hadn't planned to get all snarky on him, but seeing him riled up felt vindicating. Plus, with the way he treated Nekhi, Katara felt she should've been a little meaner. Maybe Jet had a point about firebenders.
Speaking of Jet, she hadn't seen him yet after he went off with his recruits. Duty calls, he'd told her with a wink, but now Katara was a bit lonely despite the people crowding around her.
"Hey, have you seen my brother?" Katara asked Jia, who was hunched over a plate of dumplings at a nearby table.
The Kyoshi warrior sighed tiredly. "I think I heard Sokka shouting earlier that he was gonna throw up. I dunno where he and Suki and Haru went, though."
Katara's brows furrowed in concern. Sokka never threw up, not even when he ate an entire tiger seal by himself— he just complained about stomach aches and slept for almost a day, like a hibernating polar bear dog.
"I better go find him," she told Jia, who just nodded glumly and popped a dumpling into her mouth.
Katara made her way around the tables, scanning the shadowed areas for her brother and friends. Her search would have been so much easier if the dress code wasn't red or black— belatedly, she wondered if their father doled out what little they had so Sokka could get Fire Nation clothes back in his first year in the Academy. He hadn't exactly told her what happened in the Fire Days Ball the year before.
She was just about to give up her search when she heard a familiar voice call her name. She whirled around and her eyes alighted on Jet and his Freedom Fighters, who were standing around wooden crates instead of a table. She smiled at the group as she approached, and tried to hide her blush when Jet threw an arm casually around her shoulders.
"Having a good time, gorgeous?" he asked, grinning down at her. She grinned back.
"I would be, if I hadn't heard that my brother was throwing up somewhere," she replied. One of Jet's new recruits studied her intently.
"Hey, you're Suki's friend, right?"
She nodded.
The boy poorly disguised a snort. "Oh, don't worry about your brother, he just had a little too much to drink."
"Drink?" Katara blinked, confused. "Is there something wrong with drinking too much maiden heart juice?"
The Freedom Fighter laughed and Jet punched him lightly on the shoulder.
"Qiao, don't be mean," Jet said disapprovingly before turning back to Katara. "Some kids just snuck into the servants' alcohol stash. Don't worry about your brother, Katara. He'll sleep it off."
"Oh."
Realization struck and Katara scowled. She knew the men of her tribe drank moonshine during hunts to ward off the cold of the tundra, but she also remembered how loud and rowdy they became during the Glacier Spirits Festival. No wonder Jia said Sokka was shouting that he had to throw up.
"Would Sokka get in trouble for drinking?" she asked Jet, but it was another Freedom Fighter who answered.
"Firewhiskey's nothing compared to cactus juice," the boy said with a shrug. "And everyone knows the Headmaster sneaks that stuff into his tea on music nights."
"Shui's right," said Qiao with a light laugh. "Besides, we only got Nekhi's stash. Zhou Qi has the stronger batch."
"They only drink all the time because they don't want to be stuck here in the Academy working for the Fire Nation," spat out Jet, his grip around Katara's shoulders tightening. His dark eyes gleamed and he set his mouth in a firm line. "But we're going to fix that."
"How?" Katara asked, intrigued. Nekhi seemed genuinely upset that he couldn't be with his daughters most of the year, and if Jet could somehow give the staff more time off to be with their families…
He smirked at her and motioned to the crates at their feet. Katara moved forward and examined the closest one— they looked like they were filled with globules of candy, but the smell was off.
"What are these?"
"Blasting jelly," Shui explained with a smug look. "They don't sell that to just anyone, y'know."
Blasting jelly? How will that help the kitchen staff? A spike of fear embedded itself in Katara's gut.
"What—" she turned to Jet, heart in her throat and dread in her veins, "What are they for?"
"The servants are in charge of setting up the fireworks for the end of the Fire Days Ball," Jet disclosed with a devious smile. "Year after year, they're forced to celebrate the traditions of the people that colonized them, because it's not enough for the Fire Nation to just take their lands and steal their crops. They're stuck here working for the Academy and the Fire Nation and they can't do anything about it— but if something goes wrong when they light the fireworks…"
Katara's eyes widened as the implication of his plan sunk in.
"What? How could that possibly help the staff?" She planted her hands on her hips and looked at the other Freedom Fighters, all of whom seemed as proud of the plan as Jet was. "What's wrong with you? People could get hurt! And the staff would lose their jobs!"
Jet's sharp eyes narrowed at her, but she stood straight and met his angry gaze.
"You don't understand, Katara," he said with a frustrated sigh that infuriated Katara further, "We're liberating them. They're slaves to the Fire Nation—"
"They're not slaves," corrected Katara, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why would Nekhi be allowed to see his family during the summers if he was a slave?"
"Prisoners with work, then," said Jet bitterly, brows downturned and jaw jutted out. "They're slaves in all but name, Katara. We're doing them a favor. If they lost their job here in the Academy, they would be free to build a life for themselves outside of the influence of the Fire Nation—"
"No, they'll have to work themselves to death or beg off the streets just so they could feed their families!"
Distantly, Katara was aware of frost forming at her feet and drinks exploding in the other Freedom Fighters' hands, but she was beyond caring. She stomped her feet and ice spikes burst forth, and she took savage pleasure in the fear in the other Freedom Fighters' eyes.
Not in Jet's eyes, though. Jet met her glare with one of his own.
"It's a small price to pay for their freedom from the Fire Nation's thumb," he growled.
"How can you say that! They won't be free from the Fire Nation! If anything, this puts them even more under the Fire Nation's watch, because they'll be blamed for some stupid stunt that wasn't even their fault to begin with! You'll make them seem like traitors! What did you think the Fire Lord did to traitors? Give them tea?"
"Better to die a traitor than to die in chains."
"And condemn their families to death, too?"
"Their families should be grateful—"
"Well, they won't be!" She clenched her fists at her sides. "You'll be doing to them the same thing the Fire Nation did to your family, Jet!"
Jet's expression went blank, and when he spoke, it was barely above a whisper.
"It's not the same thing."
"It might as well be," Katara spat out. She stepped back and uncorked her water skin. "I won't let you do this."
Jet drew himself up to his full height. "I won't let you stop me."
Katara bit her lip, hands hovering above her water skin, eyes flicking between Jet and the crate of blasting jelly. She didn't know if water would ruin the explosives, and she was also aware of the other Freedom Fighters closing in on her. She didn't really have much experience fighting non-benders aside from Suki and Sokka, could she take them—?
"SNEAK ATTACK!"
Katara barely registered the dark blur that tackled Jet to the ground before she turned and froze the crate of blasting jelly into a whole block of ice.
"Keep your dirty tentacles off my sister, you slimy snake weasel!" Sokka yelled, clumsily grappling with Jet on the ground. Katara blasted the Freedom Fighters trying to pull Sokka away, pinning them to trees with swathes of ice. She dimly heard Suki's loud whoops and cheers— why isn't she helping out?— before Jet managed to buck Sokka off and unsheath his twin hooks.
"Sokka!"
He unsteadily jumped away, narrowly avoiding the weapons. Katara moved to summon water from her skins, only to come up empty handed.
"Suki!" She yelled, not taking her eyes off Jet and her brother, "A little help!"
"Right!"
Her metal fan flew into Katara's line of vision, only to clip Sokka at the back of the head.
"Ow!"
"Oops," Suki muttered, and Katara finally faced her, aghast. The Kyoshi Warrior didn't seem too fazed, just mildly puzzled. Her fan clattered uselessly to the ground and she frowned at it. "My aim's way off. Could you get 'em to stop moving so much?"
"Never mind!" Katara stomped the ground in frustration and scanned the surrounding tables for water. Her eyes alighted on a half-drunk cup of maiden heart juice and immediately splashed its contents in Jet's face.
"Agh!"
He let go of his swords to claw at his eyes, and Katara quickly swiped the weapons and pointed them haphazardly at his chest.
There was a resounding boom and crackle, and golden light bathed the courtyard. Katara paused long enough to look at the sky— it was as if a hundred more stars hung suspended in the darkness before twinkling out a split second later, and if she weren't so distraught she would've appreciated the beauty of it— then she focused on Jet.
"Looks like you're too late, Jet."
He looked at her through narrowed, red-rimmed eyes.
"Someday you'll understand why we tried to do this," he told her.
She held his gaze a little longer before she threw his hooks at his feet.
"I hope I never do."
She grabbed her brother's arm as she stalked away. Suki stumbled after them, but not before picking up her fan and pointing it threateningly at Jet and the other Freedom Fighters.
Katara thanked the spirits that she wouldn't have to see Jet again for two months.
When Haru woke up, he felt like someone had buried him under a pile of boulders. Even the cushions he laid on felt like they were filled with sand instead of down.
Something hard and metal rapped him on the side of the head.
"Hey, get up," a feminine voice said, and Haru vaguely wondered why there would be a girl in the boys' dormitory. He chose to ignore it, because it simply didn't make sense.
"Haru," the voice said firmly. Hands shoved at him and he groaned, the surface below him rocking at a pace that made him nauseous. "Get off the common room floor, c'mon. Sokka and Katara are leaving."
"Already?" He sat up in surprise and immediately regretted it. Bile rose in his throat and his eyes watered with the effort of not vomiting all over the common room floor.
Bits and pieces of the night came back to him— the three of them drinking about half of Ling's firewhiskey, bringing Sokka to the river to puke, getting incredibly sleepy while Sokka got more and more energetic, and finally crawling back to the Earth Kingdom common room when Sokka challenged Suki to another arm-wrestling match he was sure to lose.
He accepted the glass of water that Suki proffered and stood up cautiously.
"Where are they now?" he asked her, a little bit surprised that she looked more put-together than he was. She definitely drank more than him and Sokka did combined.
"They're still packing up, I think. That tall, prissy Water Tribe girl said over breakfast that she saw Southern sails on the horizon." She eyed him critically as he guzzled the water. "You still have time to fix yourself up."
He nodded and trudged to the boys' dormitory with half a mind to go back to sleep. He shook himself and made his way to the communal bathrooms instead. He heard voices grumbling in hushed tones before he opened the door.
"...could've taken her, if her dumb brother didn't distract us," said someone who sounded a lot like Qiao, except he lacked his usual teasing tone.
"They're really just backward savages," said someone else darkly— Haru recognized him as one of the older Freedom Fighters that Jet managed to recruit. "Jet didn't know any better, or he wouldn't have dated her."
Haru's blood ran cold. Were they talking about Katara? What happened last night?
"She probably did some waterbending brainwashing on him so she could stop our plan," Shui said, his smirk unmistakable in his tone. "You know what they say about waterbenders…"
The smattering of snickers and snorts of agreement that followed faded to uncomfortable coughs, until one of the guys— Haru guessed it was the older Freedom Fighter again— said, "Jet's pretty out of it now…"
"I'm sure he's already planning our next attack," said Shui firmly. "Trust me, he won't let that water hussy back him into a wall."
Footsteps approached the door, and Haru barely had time to scuttle backwards before it was thrown open. He contemplated glaring at the group, but glaring had never been his forte, so instead he ducked his head and shouldered past the Freedom Fighters.
"Exam results are out!" Yuka announced as she poked her head in the girls' dormitory. Gumi groaned into the pile of clothes she and Katara were folding and packing up.
"I forgot we actually had final exams," Katara muttered as the twins and Baya rushed out of the room. Gumi wrinkled her nose and stuffed her parka into her bag with a little more force than necessary.
"I wouldn't call our last battle with Pakku as a 'final exam,'" she said. "He went so easy on us, I don't know whether I should be insulted or relieved."
Katara shrugged and carefully added the dress her friends gave her on top of her other clothes.
"At least we know we passed that. I'm more worried about History." She paused in her packing and bit her lip. "Do people actually fail in the Academy?"
Gumi giggled.
"Yeah, but they just hold you back a year until you get it right," she grinned and nudged her friend with her elbow. "Scared?"
"You wish!" Katara scoffed, then shook her head. When did she start sounding like Sokka? She laughed lightly and placed the last of her clothes in her knapsack. "C'mon, let's go see if Pakku failed any boys."
"I'm really gonna miss having you guys around to practice waterbending with," Gumi mused as she tied her bag shut. "It's going to be such a boring summer at the healing huts."
"You and Yue can practice without me," said Katara as they headed to the common room. "I'm going to be stuck fishing with Sokka again for the whole summer."
Gumi made a face as they waited for their turn to see the exam results.
"Oh, I don't think Chief Arnook will let Princess Yue practice combative waterbending," she said. "It's already caused enough scandal here with the other girls; I can't imagine how the rest of the tribe will react if they found out. They might not even let her marry Hahn."
"Well, from what I've heard of him, she's better off not marrying anyone," muttered Katara, earning her a playful shove from her friend.
"Hahn's really not so bad!" protested Gumi. "He can be really charming! Plus, he's years older than Princess Yue, so she's sure to have a good life, 'cause he can provide for her—"
"I'm not sure that's what Yue wants in a guy…" said Katara distractedly, craning her neck over her classmates' to read her and Gumi's marks. She gasped excitedly. "We passed all our subjects!"
"Alright!" Gumi jumped up and hugged her. "At least I have some good news to tell my mom when she gets upset that I challenged Sifu Pakku!"
"Sokka?"
The Water Tribe warrior looked up from the piles of clothes that he was futilely stuffing into his knapsack. Princess Yue stood at the half-open door of the boys' dormitory, looking solemn.
"Oh, hey, Yue!" Sokka tried to greet her cheerfully, but his voice sounded flat to his own ears. He cleared his throat. "Uh, Baya said she saw Southern sails on the horizon, so I'm trying to pack, but it's like my stuff grew bigger or something, or maybe it's 'cause Katara and Gran-Gran aren't around to help me stuff it all in…"
He was babbling. He knew he was babbling, but he just didn't know how to deal with her sad eyes. Sad eyes reminded him of Things He Would Rather Not Talk About.
"Anyway, I'm real excited about the summer— uh, I guess it'd be pretty boring back home, but it's just two months, and Dad said the tribe was flourishing now, so there's gotta be some new stuff to see— what're your plans for the summer—?"
He stumbled backwards as Yue threw herself at him, arms tight around his neck.
"Sokka," she breathed, and Sokka's heart nearly fell to his knees. He knew that tone. It was the same tone she used when she told him she was engaged.
"Sokka… I won't be coming back next year."
"What?"
He must've heard wrong. Yes, intellectually, he knew they couldn't be anything more than friends, but to never see her again? This can't be happening. The Academy wouldn't allow it, right? There must be some kind of mistake.
"I'll be married in the summer," she whispered against his shoulder. "Father already wrote Headmaster Iroh. I won't be coming back."
Sokka closed his eyes against the tears that smarted the corners of his eyes. Warriors didn't cry. Warriors fought. Warriors painted their faces and donned their armor and looked at the enemy in the eyes.
"Maybe there's some way I could—"
"No, Sokka." Her voice was tight with tears. "It has to be done."
Warriors didn't cry.
But warriors also knew when to pull back from a losing battle.
Tears escaped from his closed eyes and he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and buried his face in her hair.
"I hope he makes you happy, Yue."
"I don't think anyone else but you could make me happy, Sokka."
Frost take him. If anybody asked why he looked like he'd sobbed his eyes out, he'll just knock them out with his club. Warriors did that, too, right?
"Whoa, who died?"
Suki's quip fell flat as Sokka trudged on ahead and tossed his knapsack angrily in the front hall. The Kyoshi warrior raised her eyebrows at Katara, who had followed her brother out of the heavy double doors of the Great Hall. The younger girl just shrugged and mouthed, "Yue," with a sad look of concern. Suki nodded and fell back beside Haru, who still looked a little worse for wear but otherwise awake.
"That's Bato's ship on the docks," announced Sokka flatly, staring out into the open seas visible from the large arched windows of the front hall. Katara rushed to his side.
"I don't see them disembarking," she mused, exchanging a glance with her brother. "You think they're meeting with Headmaster Iroh?"
"Why would they meet with the headmaster?" asked Suki, standing behind them to get a glimpse of the Southern Water Tribe's ship.
"Beats me," said Sokka, some of his old vigor back in his eyes. "I'm betting a bowl of sea prunes that it has something to do with the Fire Nation and the tribe."
"Oh, please. I still think it's nothing serious, Sokka," Katara said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Just you wait—"
"Right, 'cause your instincts are never wrong—"
"There you are!"
The four of them turned at the newcomer's voice; Sokka and Katara simultaneously gasped in delight.
"Dad!"
Suki and Haru stood back as the Water Tribe siblings ran towards the weathered-looking warrior. Another tribesman, thinner and slightly taller than Sokka and Katara's father, laughed warmly and clapped the children's backs and ruffled their hair.
Amidst exclamations of "You've grown taller! Did they stretch you in combat training?" and "You're so skinny; your grandmother will have a fit when she sees you!" Hakoda disentangled himself from his children, the coral beads around his neck and arms clicking into place. He smiled at the two other children hovering in the background of their reunion.
"I assume you two are the friends that Sokka and Katara wrote about," he said, eyes crinkling as he smiled. He offered his arm in greeting and nodded to his comrade. "I'm Hakoda. This here's Bato, my first mate."
Suki was the first one to step forward and grip the chief's arm.
"Suki," she said in a surprisingly sharp tone, "From Kyoshi Island."
"A Kyoshi warrior, huh?" Bato's brows climbed up to his hairline as he spared Sokka and Katara a sideways glance. "That's… interesting."
The Water Tribe siblings looked in confusion between Suki and their father, but before anyone could explain the tension, Haru bowed to the older men.
"And I'm Haru, Chief Hakoda, Mr. Bato," he said. "From a colony in the western Earth Kingdom."
"Well, it has been nice meeting you two," said Hakoda, all but prying his hands from Suki's grip. "But we must be going if we're to catch the tides. Sokka? Katara? Where are your things?"
The two rushed to where they'd left their knapsacks, and Katara pulled Suki to the side in question.
"What was that about, Suki?"
"Sorry," the Kyoshi warrior shrugged abashedly. "There's still some fresh wounds between Kyoshi Island and the South Pole. I forgot myself for a minute."
"What kind of wounds?" asked Sokka suspiciously from her other side.
"The Southern Revolt," Suki said simply, falling into step beside Haru, who furrowed his brows.
"I thought the Southern Revolt ended sixty years ago?" he asked. Sokka and Katara exchanged a look, before Katara shrugged uncomfortably.
"Well, what ended sixty years ago was the Siege of the South," she explained. "Our grandmother said the Fire Nation forcibly took all the waterbenders away in a series of raids, because our grandfather, the chief back then, wouldn't allow any Southerner to attend the Academy." If only I'd connected the dots sooner— why else would Mom make me hide my bending? "The Southern Revolt, meanwhile…"
She shot her brother a pleading look, suddenly too emotionally tired to tell the tale. Sokka coughed and gestured nervously.
"The Southern Revolt started about six years ago, when, uh, the Fire Nation attacked us 'cause—" another uncomfortable cough— "Well, they thought we were hiding a waterbender who was of age to go to the Academy. Dad and the others fought back, the kids studying here at that time were sent home, then everyone who could still fight went away for years…" He fiddled with the strap of his bag. "I don't see what this has to do with Kyoshi Island, Suki. The revolt ended, like, three years ago."
Suki narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"And yet, in that time, your men boarded, attacked, and sunk every ship that passed by the Southern Seas, whether or not they were Fire Nation steamers or Earth Kingdom galleons," she explained bitterly. "We would've been okay with it if they had just kept sabotaging the Fire Nation outpost on Whaletail Island, but no, your men had to bleed us dry, too."
She sighed and shook her head.
"I'm sorry, you guys— it's just, I was there when the Southern warriors stormed our shores, you know? I was just a kid back then, and it was terrifying. It was why I joined the Kyoshi warriors; I wanted to protect my home. I know now that it wasn't personal, and that they weren't aiming for us, only the Fire Nation soldiers, but when I saw your dad's clothes, it just…"
Sokka tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder, and Katara awkwardly hugged her from the side while Haru patted her back.
"Sorry, Suki," muttered Katara.
"We didn't know," said Sokka, glancing down at their father and Bato, both of whom were walking down the dirt path down to the docks, marveling at how much changed since they last set foot in the Academy. He frowned at them— did they really include innocent people when they fought in the war? Is that what warriors are supposed to do?
Suki chuckled and waved them off.
"Look, you guys, it's okay! I don't hold any grudges against you two." She grinned mischievously. "Unless you forget to write me over the summer."
"It might be hard to get a civilian messenger hawk into our village, with all the soldiers around," said Haru with an apologetic smile, "But I'll try to write you guys, too."
Katara beamed and threw her arms around the two of them, and Sokka launched himself into the group hug with a laugh.
"I'll miss you guys so much!" said Katara.
"Yeah, it'll be a real boring summer without you two," said Sokka. "I'll get sick of watching Katara show off her waterbending to the village."
"It's an ancient art! People will be curious about what I learned here!" exclaimed Katara angrily.
"Oh, sure, I bet they're really curious about how much fish you can trap in ice now—"
"Please, they all know that it's used for more than just fishing, Sokka—"
The two continued squabbling until they climbed aboard their tribe's ship, its sails raised and ready to go.
"Hold tight!" their father called out as he steered the ship from the docks.
The siblings held onto the railings and waved at their friends, who were both enthusiastically waving back at them until they disappeared from view.
"Ready to go back home, sis?" Sokka asked, leaning back on the railings as their ship traced the curved shores of the Academy.
Katara caught a glimpse of the outcropping that was the waterbending training grounds and the towering mass of black stone that was the Great Hall, and she smiled to herself.
"Yeah," she said, watching the Academy shrink in the horizon. "I missed home."
A/N: And that's the end of Year One! Thank you to everyone who stuck with me on this story. I wanted to add so much more to this chapter (like Azula's awkward flirting), but it was long enough as it is. A lot of stuff happened in this chapter, and exciting things are about to kick in as I'm already hard at work writing up Year Two. Maybe we'll see more of Azula's awkward flirting then lol. Tell me what you think! Your thoughts and comments keep me going!