"This is so much heavier than it looks," Sokka whined, lifting Aang's glider experimentally up above his head. The effort made his legs wobble worryingly.

Aang began to laugh, but when Sokka started teetering forwards, he rushed to steady him. "I guess I'm just used to it."

"Says the kid with the movable joints, sure," Sokka muttered. "You're used to it, that's all." He jerked his shoulders back to straighten out again, and before Aang could yell at him to stop, the glider tilted to one side, breaking Sokka's balance and pulling him to the ground.

Aang made a short-lived attempt not to laugh, but then did it anyway; Sokka's aggravated attempts at getting back up only egged him on. Hanging out with a certain prince for the past few days meant Aang was parched for a little laughter. Zuko was currently watching them with his arms crossed and an unimpressed glare.

"Katara can carry it just fine," Aang said with a mischievous raise of his eyebrow, "And besides, I don't know how you can lift that boomerang and then complain about–"

"It's my turn."

Both Aang and Sokka swivelled their heads around at the interruption. The third member of their glider-flying session looked startled for a brief moment at the sudden attention, before he settled into a familiar scowl.

"Uh. I– I mean, take your time?" Zuko said, wincing at his own words. Aang really did wonder if his mouth was painted that way– he'd never seen Zuko when there were humans around, so he didn't actually know what his resting expression looked like.

"No, you're right." Aang smirked, addressing Sokka, "it is his turn."

Sokka grumbled something about Prince Grouchy Pants but he heaved the glider into Zuko's outstretched hands all the same. Aang helped him put it on. Unlike Sokka's simple polyester tunic, Zuko had layers expensive fabric over his shoulders, so he took extra care with the straps. He thought about Katara, and how she ripped her tunic on the glider the first time she tried it and didn't even stop to check.

They couldn't be more different, the two of them.

It wasn't the first time the thought crept into his mind: why did Katara hate him so much? It had been a couple of weeks since Aang first approached Zuko on the windowsill. He had tried to bring Zuko along to hang out with the other toys, after that. Zuko was incredibly awkward, sure– Aang used to worry about himself, about saying the wrong thing to the other toys when he'd been alone for so long, but any ineptitude he had in that regard paled compared to Zuko. Aang knew that wouldn't bother Jia's toys, though. Despite some minor hesitancy, most of the toys– even Sokka–had come around, even if it was a morbid curiosity rather than kindness that motivated them at first.

Everyone except Katara. She had never joined in once. When Aang had asked her if she would, she only glared and mentioned his royal heritage in a tight mumble before stomping off. Aang didn't push it: he thought he would have better luck getting Zuko's side of the story first, but he still hadn't plucked up the courage to try. Something about doing that felt like he'd be betraying his first, best friend.

He couldn't help but feel like something was gravely wrong about all this. Katara was normally so compassionate. At the same time, he couldn't imagine Zuko, the way he is now, doing something so awful that even Katara wouldn't extend a hand to him.

"There," Aang said, shaking Zuko by the shoulders a little to ensure the glider was secure. His own back had latches that clicked it into place, and Sokka and Katara were flexible enough to hook their arms through the structure, but it was a little trickier with Zuko.

"What was that?" Zuko said, sharp and sudden.

Aang almost jumped. "What was what?"

"Your eyes," Zuko said, narrowing his own. "They just lit up."

"Really, I–"

"There, again!" He whipped his head towards Sokka. "You saw that, right?"

Aang inhaled sharply in remembrance. Something like this had happened before, when he first met Katara. She said she had seen his eyes light up, but he didn't notice a thing. Could it be a clue about his origins?

Sokka nodded, advancing until they were both peering closely at Aang, as if in anticipation for it to happen again. "What did you see? Do you know what it means?"

Zuko lifted the glider off his shoulders and set it on the ground, his eyes fixed on Aang. His voice was quiet with awe when he spoke. "It means you're an Avatar."

"A what?" Those words didn't mean anything to Aang. In front of him, Sokka's eyes bulged.

"This line of collectors' toys," Zuko said. "They're really special, once a lifetime kind of special. I know because there were a bunch of them in the store that I came from."

Aang felt his heart catch. Both of them were looking at him in wonder, eyes wandering all over Aang's clothes and features. Instinctively, Aang did the same, from his bare feet all the way up to his orange robes and tattooed arms. It was strange to hear, but he felt no different.

Zuko pressed on, his words fast and excited. "Each toy releases only once a generation, and they're based on one of the old Four Nations, the ones that existed before the world was split into countries - water, earth, fire, air." Zuko began walking a circle around Aang, scrutinising him. He returned to face him, breathless. "I think you're an air nomad."

Aang had had no idea whatsoever that he was an Avatar. But once he found out, it was like he was taking it completely in stride. That little fact niggled at Zuko for the rest of the day. It made the wound of Zuko's own feelings about his heritage newly raw. Was it really possible, to find out you were part of one of the most coveted collections ever made, and then brush it off and continue playing? What did it say about the anxieties that plagued Zuko, about his place amongst the toys, even now? What did it say about Azula?

It was following this train of thought that he decided to visit her, almost desperately. To ground himself, in a way, so the absurdity of Aang's perspective didn't overwhelm him.

"You should bring him around, the new one," Azula said, inspecting her nails, once Zuko had recounted his day – with as little detail as possible. She was oddly calm these days. Resigned. Maybe she wanted to make a show how disappointed she was about the fact that her brother had become a permanent member of Jia's ragtag toys. "Is he new? A new product, I mean."

Zuko shrugged irritably. He didn't know why Azula expected him to know such things. "I don't know. He looks clean."

"Do you know what he is?"

Zuko was careful with his next words. He wasn't going to tell Azula that Aang was an Avatar. That was out of the question. It was too important a fact (even if Aang didn't seem to think so) and knowing her, she had to have some scheme up her sleeve. He didn't want to expose Aang to that.

Aang had approached him despite his reputation. Even when he looked like this, and acted like… well, a jerk. No, he had to protect Aang from whatever Azula wanted with him, even if it was the frivolous curiosity of someone way too obsessed with the prestige of a toy. He settled on half the truth. She would easily see through a true lie. "He's got some kind of light up contraption on his forehead, but I've never seen it switched on."

"Does he?" Azula's eyes flitted from her nails to Zuko and back again. Zuko's stomach lurched with worry. Had he said too much?

Before he could stop himself, he was speaking. "I don't know what you're planning, Azula, but I'm not having any part in it."

Azula's eyes glittered. "Aw, Zuzu. I told you before, I only want to see what friends you've made of your own stature. Besides, don't you think there's something in it for you?"

"What do you mean?" Zuko didn't like the direction this was going in, but now she had his interest.

"If Jia brought such a... valuable toy, he might cheer up a little. And if he's happy, and she's happy, and she's allowed back in here, then you might actually get played with like you so desire, eugh." She did nothing to hide her disgust at the notion.

Zuko narrowed his eyes. It wasn't like Azula to even hint that she ever saw things from his perspective. Not to mention, he'd never told her that what he wanted was for Jia to play with him again. Embarrassment filled him at the realisation that Azula could read this off him so easily. Could Aang, too? Is that why he approached Zuko, because he'd taken pity on him? Is that why Sokka and Suki and the rest were being nice to him?

Katara had pretty much admitted that was why she approached him, during his shameful encounter with her. And getting worked up about that had done him no good. "I'm not bringing Aang and the others here just so you can make fun of them. Besides, if what you're saying is true, Aang would end up on some shelf in here."

"So what? He's got that glider, doesn't he? He could go wherever he wanted, just like you do. Ugh, whatever, Zuzu. If you want to be a reject, I can't change your mind."

Zuko returned to Jia's room. It was dark, and she was in her bed asleep. The toys were in their box. He hoisted himself up to the windowsill: he needed to think.

Azula was wrong: even if Jia didn't play with him, he wasn't an outcast anymore. Still, he couldn't help think of the times that he had seen Aang, or Katara, any other toy, clasped to Jia's chest before she took them away to play. And Zuko would have to drop what he was doing and simply watch it happen, playing dead, the only way Jia ever saw him anymore. It would be nice to go out on adventures with Jia. It would be nice, even, if she played with him in here. If she picked him up and decided he was an explorer, or a king, or a dragon hunter again, just for a moment.

Azula was not to be trusted. But maybe she was right about impressing Li. It wasn't the most straightforward idea, no matter what way he looked at it, but it was the only one he had. And the toys might like seeing the study, too. Sokka had said he used to go there, back before Jia stopped being allowed there and Azula started acting up so much, though Zuko had an inkling that that was to do with the pretty toys in the room more than anything. The others would like Mai and Ty Lee, too, at the very least. Would it be such a bad idea?

"You gonna sulk all day, Sugar Queen?"

Katara, leaning against her bucket, paused her current occupation – angrily picking off sections of a stalk of grass. Toph didn't need to see her glare to be able to feel its raw annoyance. "I'm not sulking."

"Sure, whatever," Toph said. "I have to say, it's normally Zuko that comes down here alone to mope about you guys not playing with him, so I guess this is a nice change? Do you wanna go ant-watching with me?"

"Ant-watching?"

"Yep. I check in with the ants, and they watch the perimeter of our yard and tell me who's doing what."

Katara sighed. "Uh, no thanks. And I told you, I'm not sulking. I'm just choosing not to engage. You sound like Aang. Why should I play with someone who thinks I'm worth less than his shoe? And doesn't care if I know it?"

Well, there was nothing Toph could say to that. It wasn't like those feelings weren't warranted – Zuko had been insufferable, and Katara apparently got the worst of it. She tried a different angle. "He might be totally different from when you last talked to him. Look, you said even Sokka's playing with him now. You really think Sokka would hang out with someone who was snobby about playing toys? For that matter, would Aang?"

Katara harrumphed. "Aang's new. And he's way too forgiving, anyway. And Sokka's just curious. I'll bet you this is not going to last. He'll show his true colours soon enough." But even she sounded unsure about her last words – it had been almost two long weeks, and Zuko had yet to do something to offend them.

Toph resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Now she was being deliberately obtuse. "Or," she said, drawing out the word, "They might actually be friends? I mean, did you give him a chance to apologise to you? He might regret saying those things–"

Katara made a small noise like a grunt of frustration. "It doesn't matter. He still said them, didn't he? Of all people, he should know how much it hurts to be thrown out, and he still-"

Toph sighed a long sigh, before striding over to sit next to Katara. They were just going in circles now. She didn't have to make nice with him if she didn't want to, but was isolating herself from her friends really the better approach? "Yeah, yeah. He's a stupid kid, Katara. There's no denying that," Toph said, and she couldn't help the affection that seeped into her voice. Zuko was her friend, and more than that, they were united somehow, in their solitude. Hopefully, Katara didn't notice her change in tone. She had a reputation to maintain, after all. "But that's just 'cause he's been in that cult dollhouse his whole life. You really think someone that snooty would bother talking to me?"

It seemed Katara had nothing to say. After a few minutes, she stood up resolutely, throwing up a pile of torn grass in her hand. Some pieces fluttered onto Toph's feet when it cascaded to the ground. "Fine," she barked. "Let's go ant-watching."

Toph wasn't going to complain. But boy, this girl had some processing to do.

Katara thought a lot about what Toph had said, when she was in the classroom at school the next day, watching Jia scribble into her exercise book during a test. She had started a habit of bringing Katara to those, for luck.

And that made her realise, as she did often these days, how lucky she was.

Maybe Aang and Sokka and the rest were right. And Toph, especially. Toph wasn't the kind of toy who even cared to give her input on any situation like this normally, let alone try to convince her so sincerely. That had to be worth something.

She decided she would tag along, next time they hung out with Zuko. Not to play with him or forgive him, just to see. It had upset her, if she was being honest, how quickly they warmed up to him, even Sokka, who knew the kind of things he had said to her if not the exact words.

But maybe it was time to let it go.

She pulled Aang aside and told him as much that evening, as they were all preparing to attend a show put on for the toys by Jia's paper spirits. Aang smiled so wide that it actually made her look forward to the idea.

Aang had recounted to her what happened in his gliding session the day before, that he was an Avatar toy. The fact that it was Zuko who told him as much certainly didn't warm her to him–she couldn't help the anxiety that rose in her chest, the confirmation that she and Aang were worlds apart, as far as toys could be.

Still, if Zuko was having this kind of influence on him, and Aang was letting him, it was all the more reason to make nice. Keep your enemies closer, even if what she wanted, and hoped for, was a friend.

Katara quietly slipped into the empty spot next to Zuko when everyone else had more or less taken their seats, lined up in two neat rows across the rug. The paper puppets were a gift from Jia's grandma, and they usually lived packed away in the living room and kept to themselves. But some reorganising on Jia's mother's part meant that they had appeared in Jia's room this morning. Katara had met them once or twice before– her opinion was that they preened a little bit too much for any toy, but even she couldn't help but gasp in awe of them as the show began, their translucent shapes gliding across the stage almost like they were floating.

Presently, the great, hulking shape of an owl with a thousand tufts of papery fur was chasing the wispy tail of an eel round and round the cardboard box, draped in tissue paper, that served as their stage. She glanced at Zuko, who was so mesmerised that he hadn't even noticed her sit beside him. Katara was surprised about that, though she wasn't sure why.

By the time the intermission rolled around, however, he had realised. He visibly stiffened as she tilted her head to address him.

"Zuko," she began. Toys were still cheering and clapping as the spirits left the stage.

His eyes widened like he couldn't believe she was speaking to him. "Katara– what are doing here–" he sat up straight and cleared his throat, clearly trying to smooth any surprise out of his face. His tone softened and his brows furrowed with effort, and that confused Katara's stance already. "I -um, I need to speak to you."

Now Katara was face to face with him she tried not to be reminded of their last and only conversation until now. The expression didn't sit right on his mangled face, and Katara wished he would just scowl instead like he usually did. "I know," she said, looking around for somewhere quieter. "Let's go behind the door."

Zuko followed her. Once they were away from the commotion, he spoke up immediately. "Katara I— I'm really sorry for what I said to you back then."

She crossed her arms, and stuck her chin up, waiting for him to elaborate.

"I was– I was angry. At myself, at Li, even at Jia."

"Go on," she says, her temper lessening with each word. He sounded completely sincere, and though Katara could still hear his words from that day ringing in her head, she had always sympathised with his situation. That's what led to all this in the first place.

"-And I took it out on you. Maybe if you– if we all hang out together, I can prove it to you that I'm not the toy you talked to that day, not anymore."

She swallowed. "I was only trying to be nice to you. I know what it's like to be thrown out by someone you love–"

He physically flinched back at the words, surprising Katara so much that she lost track of what she was saying. The memory of their previous meeting played endlessly in Katara's mind; he had taken it as an accusation back then, too. That's what it was. "Zuko?" She says more gently. "You know you don't have to be ashamed, there's–"

Faint footsteps pattered down the hallway, followed by Jia's voice echoing into the room. "Wait, mom, let me get Katara!"

"Oh–everyone drop," Sokka yelled from the middle of the room. Katara spared an apologetic glance at Zuko. They'd have to pick this up later. In a matter of moments, Jia arrived. She searched the room briefly before picking Katara up, pressing her against her chest in a hug.

The last thing Katara caught before Jia slammed the bedroom door shut was the expression of dismay on Zuko's face. And then they were off, out of the house and into the car, on the way to a new adventure.