Dealing with the tribe's elders is - to put it bluntly - beyond exhausting. Katara has been back for hardly a month when she notices their attention on her take a decidedly patronising turn.
At first, they're enthusiastic. She and Sokka are treated with almost as much respect as the returned war prisoners. There is a celebration every other day, as families slowly piece back together. They are in awe of the boy and the girl who have travelled the whole world from their tiny village to aid the Avatar. There are presents and letters from children and adult tribesmen alike, invitations to feasts, both from the Southern Water Tribe and beyond. The elders treat her with an almost hypnotic sense of awe which they're clearly unused to reserving for a fifteen-year-old girl.
Very clearly - because over time this awe turns from genuine to befuddled to irate, in a matter of weeks, when they notice how much input Katara really wants in her tribe's larger matters.
Sokka, she can't help but notice, does not get the same treatment.
It becomes an uphill battle, one that she is only more willing to fight with every flippant dismissal she receives.
A meeting over how to reintegrate relations with the Northern Tribe, gain advice and provisions particularly with regards to bending, takes a turn when Sokka falls ill and requests he must be replaced by his sister. She's the only waterbender in their tribe, how fitting. And how appropriate that the weekly reports establishing the new Imperial Reparations Operation go through Hakoda's home for advice. Perhaps someone lives there who has first-hand experience with Fire Nation ongoings?
Aang, between marathon penguin sledding sessions, is equal parts annoyed and thoughtful over the matter. He's treated the best out of any of them - though he doesn't seem to notice. Aang's current stage of post-Ozai vacationing, after lounging in the Fire Palace and Iroh's Ba Sing Se tea shop for a few weeks each, seems to solely involve entertaining the Tribe's children.
Of course, the Avatar is never really off duty. But Katara is more than pleased by the light load for him, would do anything in her power to keep it that way even as she herself wants to get involved in bigger matters.
"Zuko," Aang says one evening, leaning his back against an icy wall while tending to the white-hot fire in front of him. "You should write to Zuko. He complains about pretty much the same stuff you do."
"What do you mean?"
"He said the palace staff is like that, and some of the generals, the ones not in jail. Obviously not as snobby as-" He lowers his voice, " -the elders, 'cause they don't wanna get tried for treason." Sokka on his other side barks a laugh, legs kicked up over a cushion. "But he says he can tell they don't think he's equipped for the job. That he's too soft."
"Well what else do you expect from Fire Lord Ozai's mooks," Sokka grumbles.
Katara considers this. To tell the truth, she has thought about talking to Zuko. But there hasn't been a proper opening. They're friends but they're not - not like Aang is with him. Zuko is twelve kinds of awkward and it spreads to her; he's also the person who has witnessed the most she has ever revealed about her mother and the raid. It makes their small talk really weird.
Still, later that night, she takes a pen and parchment over Gran-Gran's desk. She writes five different first sentences, hands sweaty, before she finds one that she's happy with.
Surely trying to gripe about condescending adults shouldn't be this hard?
When Katara arrives in Daoshu the scene is hectic. Her party is separated off almost immediately after a brief couple of hours meeting with the Mayor and the physicians in the capital of Daoshu City. They catch the tail end of the crucial period of rescue, just over a day or so after the event.
Out of the towns affected, it's not the capital but Bakai, a populous town eastward, that has by far taken the brunt of the damage. It's ramshackle, much poorer than its neighbour thanks to Daoshu City's silver mines. Extensive tracts of it have practically collapsed, according to the guide briefing them. Katara asks to be posted there.
The change is painfully evident flying across the boundary. The destruction caused to Daoshu's sturdy stone landscapes, and even its coastal clay villages was already well on its way to being cleared. From Appa's back, she could see the search and rescue teams, all earthbenders, like pinpricks rearranging rubble and tirelessly lifting scraps into heaps. When they cross over to Bakai it's a different story. Half of it is dense rainforest, and accordingly, the inhabitants, loggers and farmers and occasional factory workers, have built their residences out of wood and bamboo. Ones which currently sit shattered and splintered. Katara wants to look away, but she knows she can't.
The accompanying storm surge wreaked havoc, drowning hundreds. No waterbenders nearby means they had suffered worse.
With how thick the clouds have become, it's about an hour until they reach the coastal port town with the most injuries. Katara lies between the two other healers with her on Appa's saddle, trying to get a scrap of rest before the work starts.
When they land, the place is crowded and chaotic. There was no question that she would drop her honeymoon for this, not even for a moment, and here, there isn't a moment to breathe. Patient after patient is brought to her in the main hospital, and the surrounding temporary tents. It's well past midnight when she gets a break. The scant few waterbending healers, along with non-bender physicians, are taking long shifts to tend to the worst affected victims, waiting for more help to arrive from the North. Katara steels herself mentally for the days of intense work ahead.
Days and nights fly by with only healing on Katara's mind. A few days later, after Aang and Zuko must have landed, she gets word from the council house that Aang is coming to Bakai by afternoon, stopping only briefly in Daoshu's port to drop Zuko off and give some blanket reassurances about his plan to the Mayor. Katara has a vague idea of what that must mean. Bakai is above the epicentre of the earthquake. Aang must be thinking of going straight to see what's going on in the Spirit World.
An aftershock this morning, though not as terrible as the ones her fellow hospital workers said they experienced on the first night, had managed to destabilise the survivors' camps even further. Now the council in Daoshu is posting earthbenders - members of the police guard, firefighters, even volunteers - throughout the city, to manage what they can on the spot. Bakai, with its wooden structures, is not managing as well. Katara hopes against hope that Aang can find a way to stop the aftershocks, or at least figure out what's going on.
The usual cause for disasters like this are simply chalked down to nature, yet ones this big have people whispering. In the scrolls and tales Katara had read as a child there was always a bigger culprit for a catastrophe - a spiritual disturbance from an angry creature, god or ghost. A moody Spirit can be handled, unlike a freak natural disturbance.
Aang arrives late in the evening when Katara is finishing up her second round of healing in the tents. She's figured out that broken bones and deep lacerations - the things that can't be mended in one session - still benefit from healing twice a day. It's sped up the turnover considerably; the more people they can get out of the hospitals, the more they can bring in from the tents. The site manager Akash, a harried council worker, is particularly awestruck by the way she rearranges their schedules according to this principle.
She sees Aang just as she leaves the main tent, finally shrugging her medical robe off and stretching.
"Aang! Over here!" she waves, jumping up - he's far off, with Akash excitedly talking to him and pointing Aang in her direction.
"Katara!" He runs the moment his eyes lock on her, and they catch each other in a long hug. It feels good. She presses her tired hands against his neck.
"Katara! I was just asking around for you." He kisses her, almost spins her around in the air.
Katara breathlessly stops him - this isn't the diligent healer her fellow workers are used to. But it doesn't matter - Aang is here, and it feels like a very earned break just to see his face. She leans back, "How was the journey? Did you leave- "
Akash trails them. He clears his throat. "Master Katara," he says. "We've moved you to larger quarters for the time being, if you wish to stay with Avatar Aang," he bows deeply in a way that makes her feel faintly embarrassed at the adolescent show she and Aang just put on.
"Thank you," she says earnestly, while Aang putters around behind her. She takes his hand a little more discreetly. "Aang, come on. I know a place where we can eat."
She leads him to a little cafe up a hill, higher than the campsite. It's relatively unscathed compared to the scene below. One of her healers, Ina, had told her about it the day before - somewhere to get hot tea without milk, which it was strangely hard to do in this part of the Earth Kingdom. Ina had gotten the weirdest look from their patient while she was recounting her meal to Katara.
"Normally, I would just go to the food tents," Katara says, swishing the door open. "But since you're here, and we didn't really get to be together after the wedding, so think of it like-"
"Honeymooning," Aang says with a dopey smile.
Katara nods and sits, and lets the waiter take their order.
She smiles at Aang but it doesn't quite hold - she's covering a yawn with her hand before she knows it. The flurry of the last few days feels like it's catching up to her - suddenly being married after weeks of planning is one thing, and then this.
"It's such a tragedy," she says quietly to the table.
"Yeah." Aang sighs loudly, making the petals of the flowers in the middle of the table billow around. They're drooping, probably days old.
"It would be nice to get a couple of days alone," Katara says, for the sake of having said it.
Aang blinks heavily up at her, eyes glossy with tiredness. The sight is rare but easy to pinpoint - a look he only gets when scouring around the Spirit World for something. That place always has a way of amplifying whatever Aang seems to be feeling.
"Well, duty calls," he says, with a smile.
"Perks of having the Avatar as your boyfriend, I guess," Katara says with a long-suffering sigh, teasingly crossing her arms.
"Husband," Aang says dumbly, startled - she gasps and covers her mouth before giggling. "I was talking about you, anyway."
"Huh?"
"You wouldn't be you if you didn't always come to help people in need," Aang says easily. His voice is gentle, reverent; like a kid.
Katara blinks. She's heard this spiel about her many times from many people, spun both like a good thing and a bad one. But Aang always manages to catch her off guard, stating it like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh," she says, suddenly warm in the cheeks. "Right."
She brings her single, long braid over her shoulder and begins to pick it apart. "Did you make any progress today? I mean, I heard on the radio you met with the Mayor of Daoshu City."
Aang sits up and nods. "Yeah," he says. "I think I've figured out what's going on. Have you heard of the namazu?"
Katara narrows her eyes in thought before shaking her head.
"Well, I knew it had to be something that lives around the land boundary since that's where the earthquake happened. And once I got into the Spirit World I was asking around. It's a spirit that apparently lives - just off the shore, relative to where we are. Underground."
"That's how it can shake the earth? It must be massive."
Aang nods. "And probably angry."
"What are you gonna do? I mean, the earthquake's over."
Aang shrugs. "Talk to it, I guess. It's possible that we can still stop any more aftershocks. And at least people will know."
Katara nods, combing her freed hair with her fingers. She watches a morose expression cross Aang's face. "What?"
Aang's voice is quiet. "I don't know if it's worse to know, though - that people you love can die from something so pointless? It doesn't change anything."
Katara steels herself. "Of course it does. I mean, Akash was telling me that the records show they have been long overdue for a big earthquake. Even if we can't control the whims of giant Spirits, the more we know the better we can equip ourselves, always."
"You're right," Aang says. He looks tired.
To change the subject, Katara says, "So, is Zuko coming?"
He perks up at this. "Yup. Tomorrow. Are you excited to see him?"
"I didn't even get to catch up with him properly at the wedding!" Katara says. "It's been so long."
Aang looks pensive again, but not sad. He tilts his head in his hand. "You know, I miss him."
"Me too," she says, trying to make her voice unreadable. "We haven't been to stay at the palace in forever."
Aang raises his eyebrows. "Do you wanna? After all this is over?"
Katara laughs. "Honeymoon at Zuko's?" Aang's face turns red for a delightful second before Katara says, "Sure."
"I-I mean, as long as we're not interfering with anything. It's a little crazy over there, from what he said. He's stressed out." Aang frowns.
"Well, the presence of the Avatar could always lend a helping hand to crazy," Katara says.
"Not if the Avatar just wants to lie on the beach."
"I'd like to see the Fire Lord lie on the beach."
"What?" Aang says.
"T-to take a day off, I mean. Because of what you said. Take time off to lie on the beach."
"Oh."
Why is Aang the one blushing? Katara takes a deep breath but it spills out with more laughter.
She's clearly tired. Wondering idly about her stupid teenage crush on her broody friend, while trying to have a proper conversation with her boyfriend (husband) is maybe not the best idea.
Aang laughs too, but it's fumbly and strange.
Thank every Spirit that their food happens to arrive then, two shallow bowls of steaming rice and sauteed vegetables. All conversation is forgotten and they eat quietly, quickly. Katara can't help but order the fresh fish on top of that - because let's face it, Republic City's imports do not taste the same as the net-caught stuff in the village. Two rounds of tea - the normal, and the local milky one - finish their night off.
Afterwards, Katara takes him to her new quarters - a whole tent. Though smaller and significantly damper than the room she shared in one of the council buildings with the other healers, it feels big, bigger than her world has been in days. She makes a mental note to thank Akash again as she gets ready for bed.
She curls one arm over Aang's chest and is asleep within a matter of minutes.
The next day is much the same as the previous two. By now, more healers have arrived from the Northern Water Tribe as well as supplies from Ba Sing Se. Things are rolling. The physicians' faces look lighter. Katara finds time to make a few rounds of the apothecaries. Most of her training is suitably in bending, but she's always been eager to understand what the whole package of care is like for her patients. Especially as she gets to know them.
Aang hangs around for most of the day because his access to the Spirit World is delayed by heavy monsoon rain that clatters on every surface and then some. It makes it hard for Katara to concentrate on healing, let alone the concentration required for meditating into a parallel world. Katara smiles to herself when she walks past a hallway to catch him doing all manner of silly airbending tricks, to the children's delight.
That night, they're invited to dinner with the Mayor of Bakai and the newly arrived Fire Lord. The Mayor takes them to a swanky hotel cafe in a small but luxurious area of town, high up in the hills. The Mayor, though admirably well-spoken about their current situation, seems a little too eager to please. He keeps showering them with praise, expressing his gratitude for their help with every other sentence.
By the time dessert comes around, he seems to have forgotten the earthquake completely. He keeps talking about "building bridges between our nations" and "the honour of such a special visit" and his plans for an interrail to the Earth Kingdom capital, then to Republic City (isn't technology evolving so fast?), and could they possibly spare a moment to take a picture with him in front of his office?
Aang's pleasant smile becomes more forced with every minute and Katara gives his palm a pointed pinch under the table; Zuko across from her looks outright uncomfortable. When the Mayor excuses himself to go pay, making a show of it, Katara finally exhales.
"Wow," she says. "He's going to be pitching an idea to build a new country with you in the next hour or so."
"Another hour?" Aang says, making a fainting motion. "Eh, he's just excited. They probably don't get many big names in a province like this."
Zuko fidgets. "I don't think he should be thinking about a new rail system when there are still people half dead."
Katara winces at the wording and receives a grimace of apology. She's the one tending to them.
Zuko continues, "And yeah, what's this unity nonsense? What does he think we've been trying to do for the past ten years? Aang?"
"I agree," Aang says. "And relax, Your Highness, you're the only man I'd build a nation with," he adds sunnily.
"That's not-" Zuko starts, but Katara and Aang are already dissolving into laughter. Zuko coughs stubbornly and raises his chin. It makes Katara want to smooth the fabric on his shoulders.
She looks at Aang who is grinning, blushing red; it reminds her of the night before. What is going on with him? He straightens out and reddens even more when he catches her looking at him.
Oh, whatever. She can't really follow that train of thought without incriminating herself.
She clears her throat, "I get where he's coming from, though it's a little much." A waiter clears her plate away, and she uses the space to put her elbows on the table. "Between Ba Sing Se and Republic City, I can see why people here are starting to feel a little… small town. Before, you were either nobility or you weren't, but now… well you guys know what the ministers in the United Republic are like."
Aang appears thoughtful at this, but Zuko looks right at her. "How do you think the Water Tribes fit here?"
"I don't know, the village at home is kind of the same as ever. But we're old fashioned in a way, and secluded." She gestures vaguely towards him. "Same with the Fire Nation, I'm sure. But here - on the Earth continent - I don't know, things seem to be changing."
"I hope it's for the better," Zuko says, and Katara feels herself and Aang nod, absently.
The Mayor returns for another round of platitudes for them. "If you don't mind," he says, as they finally get up, "I would be most humbled to show the Avatar some of my scroll collections - just next door, in the town hall."
"Just the Avatar?" Zuko enquires, with a much too hopeful smirk towards Aang.
"Oh you're welcome to join us but I assume you must be tired after your travel," he says.
"I am, thank you," Zuko says, at the same time that Katara bows quickly and mutters, "I have to be getting to the hospital, night shift."
The Mayor bows deeply to Katara while Aang glares murder behind him. "Your service is of utmost importance in our time of need."
And just like that, Katara is alone with Zuko for the first time in a long time.
Zuko smiles. "Do you... uh, want to walk?"
"Sure," Katara says, "I'll show you the route down to the guesthouses. How to avoid the wet parts."
It feels strange to be side by side with him after so long. He looks different than last time; his hair longer in a ponytail than the regal knotted style he had worn at the wedding. Katara feels like she's stealing glances at his face, his posture, his air.
"How's everything?" Zuko says, holding the door open.
She steps through it and simply enjoys the fact of what they're about to do. Katara has always enjoyed conversation. The freeing feeling in her chest rises to the surface even before they start talking - the release that comes with discussing the tempestuous mix of thoughts and feelings about family and war and every big topic under the sun that seems to get unearthed whenever she is with Zuko.
Katara takes his hand. It's been too long since they had a heart to heart.