It's closer to sunrise than it is to sunset when the fire finally starts to die down.
Sokka is yawning, Toph is yawning-pretty much everyone is yawning by now-and as much as Katara doesn't want this night to end, she also knows that she's not going to be able to stay awake much longer.
They say their good-nights, and Katara realizes that her father and the others her brother rescued from the Boiling Rock Prison don't have anywhere to sleep.
(Yes, Zuko helped. Katara doesn't want to think about that. She still doesn't trust him.)
Toph stretches and announces that Suki can have her blanket-it's not like she really needs it, not with her own personal furnace.
"Zuko," Sokka explains for those new to the group. When the Kyoshi Warrior shoots him a questioning glance, he shrugs. Nobody's really figured out why Toph decided to bed down next to the firebender in the first place. Katara doesn't care-she knows Toph can handle herself, and Zuko always keeps his back to her anyway. Aang and Sokka don't want to know badly enough to ask her and risk getting punched.
He's already settled down for the night. He was terse all through dinner, though if anything Katara was nicer than usual to him, even if it was mainly because she was busy talking to her dad. She also didn't make him help with cleanup, even though it was his turn, when he excused himself and said he was going to bed as soon as he finished eating.
Chit Sang looks amused. "I don't actually need a blanket either," he admits. "We tend not to need them, unless it gets cold."
It hasn't been cold. Maybe a bit cool, at night, but not cold.
"Sokka and I can share a blanket tonight." Katara decides. "Dad, you can use his."
Her brother opens his mouth as if he wants to argue, then closes it. "All right," he says, and she thinks he's too tired to argue. Or care.
Aang looks slightly put out that he doesn't get to share with anyone, but he's too tired to be upset for long.
They all say goodnight again and settle down.
Toph knows before her feet ever reach Zuko that something's wrong. His breathing is not quite right-it's ever so slightly shallower than usual, and there's an almost inaudible strain to it. His heart is terrifyingly slow, slower than she's ever heard it, and she wonders how she didn't notice before, even with three new sets of heartbeats and lungs and moving bodies to adjust to. He's shaking-not badly, but he rarely shakes like that anymore unless he thinks Katara's going to actually follow through on her threat to end him.
He's not radiating heat the way he usually does either. She can't feel his heat at all, when usually she can tell when he enters or leaves the room just by the change in temperature.
"Sparky?" she asks, her voice low. She sits beside him, hesitates for a moment, and reaches out to touch him.
She startles when the skin against her hand is cold and clammy, and the way he doesn't really pull away from her worries her all the more. It hits her, suddenly.
He's not shaking, he's shivering.
Her own personal furnace is cold.
Her hand moves to his shoulder, then to the back of his neck.
Cold.
"Hey," she says, her voice a little louder now, and feels him shift.
"Hmm." There's no energy in his response. It's slow and unfocused and lazy.
She pokes him. "Sparky."
Another shift. "Hmm?"
Toph resists the urge to panic and grabs him by his shirt, dragging him upright. She gets a half-hearted grunt for her trouble, and his heart doesn't speed up nearly enough.
"What's going on?" she demands, and feels the way his head practically lists to one side, as if he's too tired to hold it up.
She hears a slow, soft sigh. It's the most she's gotten out of him so far.
"I'm tired," he says, but it is not the whole truth.
"And cold," she adds. He does not deny it. There's no point in trying, and he knows this. "Why?"
He's never been cold, not once in the time since he's joined them. And now he's so cold he's shivering.
"Uh," he hesitates, and Toph wants to shake him. "I got thrown in one of the coolers back at the prison."
She wants to tell herself that it's just her imagination that his words are slurring ever-so-slightly together, but she knows better.
"Coolers?" she asks, though she has some idea already, just from the name.
"Isolation chambers kept at freezing temperatures. Firebending is pretty much impossible in them."
"Okay." She knows there's more to it.
"Most firebenders can't bend for a week after spending a day inside."
"But you could."
She feels him move and thinks he might be shrugging, but can't be sure. It's just another reason to worry, because out of everyone in their little group, Zuko never seems to forget that she's blind.
"Yes," he finally says.
"Go on," she prompts, and gets another one of those soft sighs for her trouble.
"Azula showed up." What might be another shrug, followed by another pause. "I overdid it. I was already tired." She hears exhausted in his voice when he says tired, and though he doesn't say empty or drained, she hears both as well.
She's far too small to wrap him in a hug to keep him warm herself, and she already gave her blanket away. She suspects that it would take more than a blanket and a twelve-year-old earthbender to keep him warm anyway.
"Come on," she says, standing. When he doesn't immediately get up, she carefully reaches down, finds his arm, and tugs. "Time for a slumber party."
His heart protests sluggishly even as he climbs clumsily to his feet. Once up, however, he hesitates.
"Toph-" he doesn't finish. Maybe he doesn't know how to.
"I'm not going to make a public announcement." She's only guessing that that's what's on his mind. He doesn't like being vulnerable. Doesn't like people to know he's hurt. "Katara will, if she finds out you spent the night freezing. Even if she doesn't trust you, she'll still tell you off in front of anybody and everybody for not getting help."
She hears a small huff of air that might be a laugh and takes that as a sign to continue. She leads him through the room, mindful of the bodies spread out around it, and careful of the fact that he's not entirely steady on his feet.
Katara wakes up to Toph hissing at her to move and someone pulling the blanket she's sharing with Sokka away in one swift motion. She assumes that's also Toph.
"Go away," Sokka grumbles. She can hear him feeling around for the stolen blanket.
"I said, move over." Toph is nudging Katara away from Sokka, and she wonders why the other girl isn't curling up with Zuko like she always does.
A body practically drops between her and Sokka, and it's not Toph. This person is far too big.
Which means it's also too big to be Aang.
Toph throws herself down beside Katara with a sigh and shoves the waterbender back toward the mystery person. "If you scare him away, I will bury you alive. So deep they never find you. Ever." She's whispering, but Katara can hear every word plainly.
"Cold," Sokka mutters over in the darkness, and Katara realizes he's right. Whoever Toph just shoved between them is cold even against her clothes. They're also shivering. She hears her brother moving around, and then- "Zuko?"
Her first instinct is to get as far away from him as possible, but Toph has her boxed in. One sharp intake of breath later her sleep-addled brain catches up with her.
Zuko is never cold.
"What happened?" she asks, worried even if she doesn't like him, even if she doesn't trust him.
"Can't get warm," he slurs, and that makes it worse. She rolls over and presses a hand against his arm.
She doesn't like what she finds.
Toph offers a brief, whispered explanation while they work on getting the blanket over all four of them. When she's done, Katara has questions of her own.
"What do you need?" she asks, and feels him pull away from her ever so slightly. "How can we help? Do you need a fire? Should we get Chit Sang?"
He doesn't answer right away. Katara is about to get up and get the other firebender when he finally breaks the silence.
"I just can't get warm. That's all."
She hears Sokka roll over. She can barely see his arm draping across Zuko's arm and chest in the darkness, but the way the firebender's breath catches tells her that her brother has pulled him closer in an attempt to share some of his own body heat.
Katara resists the urge to sigh and scoots closer, even though she doesn't really want to, because she can't just let him suffer.
"Is that all?" she asks.
"I'm okay. Just tired."
"Is it safe for you to sleep when you're this cold?" she asks. "Can you even get hypothermia?"
He sighs, but it's lacking its usual conviction.
"I'm just cold. That's all. It won't kill me."
That's not what Katara is asking. She wants to be annoyed, but she's too busy worrying about the stupid former prince of the stupid Fire Nation that's still shivering beside her in the darkness.
"Zuko. Is there anything else we need to do?" Her voice comes out strained, and once again he's quiet for a minute before answering.
"No."
"Then shut up and go to sleep," Toph grumbles from Katara's other side.
Author's Note: Set after the Boiling Rock episode.
Also, Avatar: The Last Airbender does not belong to me.