A/N: This comes immediately after The Teachings of Tea (Chapter Six), Highly Modifiable Strategies of Sister-Rescuing (Chapter Eight), and Ling (Chapter Nine).
A Man of the Sea
Hakoda was at sea for two and a half years.
He knew what he had to do. The Southern Water Tribe had to be avenged. No full frontal assault could be attempted, of course, but shipping lanes could be sabotaged, coastal strongholds could be damaged. The men were unanimous in their decision to go.
The women pleaded from them to stay, but being a man is knowing where you are needed.
Every Waterbender in the Tribe had been taken, save one. The Fire Nation would not return for his daughter. Hakoda would see to that.
He did not realize how much he would miss while he was gone.
Sokka sits cross-legged in the grass and pores over the maps again and again and again, the high noon sun beating down on him. He hasn't moved for hours.
"He should rest," Hakoda says, watching his son. He is torn somewhere between worry and gratification, which seems to be his constant state of being with regards to Sokka since they've been reunited. "He's not going to learn anything new."
Toph snorts in a very unladylike fashion. "Never step between Snoozles and his maps," she says through a mouthful of rice, "unless you want a boomerang up your butt."
Hakoda frowns, but reluctantly acquiesces to the strange little girl who knows his boy better than he does.
The Day of Black Sun is tomorrow. The sky bison Appa had delivered the General, the Avatar, the tiny Earthbender, the Kyoshi Warrior, Hakoda, and his son to the Black Cliffs three days earlier. The ships for the invasion are due to arrive any time now; Iroh had expressed some concern on the subject, but Hakoda has understood the tides and the winds since he was old enough to paddle a canoe. The men will arrive on schedule.
If anyone had told him three months ago that he would be planning an invasion of the Fire Nation with the Dragon of the West, Hakoda would have laughed himself sick.
Suki sits near Sokka, occasionally speaking and pointing at some particular part of a map. Sokka doesn't seem to mind interruptions from her.
"How did that happen, exactly?" Hakoda asks, looking at the two of them.
Toph snorts again, and the expression on her face turns a bit sour. "I wasn't there for most of it. You'll have to ask Twinkletoes. Not that he'll answer."
Hakoda glances at the Avatar, who is a hundred feet away, practicing firebending with Iroh - to what looks like only a mediocre degree of success. Aang hasn't been answering much of anything since he was told what happened at the Boiling Rock.
No one has said very much at all since that day.
Hakoda fights down a cold rage. He gave up two and a half years of his life for nothing. The Fire Nation took his daughter after all.
She will be avenged.
"So, Blackbeard," says Toph. There's rice stuck to her chin and she doesn't seem to care. "Give it to me straight. Are we all gonna die tomorrow, or what?"
Hakoda blinks. "You're an extremely morbid little girl."
"Nah, just realistic. We're buying Aang time to take down Ozai, but after eight minutes all the Firebenders are gonna have their flaming fists back. And we'll be stuck in the middle of the Capital when that happens."
"It's not a suicide mission," Hakoda assures her. "As soon as the eclipse is over, we'll retreat. Don't worry. You're going to get out of there alive."
The children will, anyway.
"Whatever you say, Blackbeard." Toph takes another bite of rice. "But I know the truth, and so does everyone else. Won't do you any good to act like we don't."
Hakoda shakes his head. Children shouldn't be thinking about things like this.
By the time evening arrives, even Hakoda is getting nervous. If the ships have fallen prey to some misfortune...
"It's okay," Sokka says. He's finally put away the maps, at least, but he still looks exhausted; the way he rubs his eyes reminds Hakoda of how he would practice with his boomerang until he fell asleep in the snow. "If something happened to the invasion force, we'll just go with the original plan."
"Original plan?" Iroh says, sipping at whatever tea Iroh sips at.
"We forget about the eclipse, get out of here, and Aang masters all four elements before Sozin's Comet arrives." Sokka shrugs. "It doesn't have the same advantages 'cause the Fire Lord will be at full strength, but it'll have to do."
"Or we could attack tomorrow no matter what," Aang mutters. He pokes at the embers. "I don't want to use firebending anyway."
Sokka frowns. Toph smacks her forehead. Iroh sighs.
Suki is the one who says briskly, "Let's not look for a tsunami before there's an earthquake. As long as everyone's here by the morning, the invasion can go forward." Then she nudges Sokka and stands. "C'mon. I'm gonna knock your Space Sword into next week."
Hakoda watches as Sokka's face lights into one of the few genuine smiles he's seen recently. "You're on, Warrior Girl."
Toph stands as well and kicks the Avatar in the side. "Earthbending practice," she says. "Just because you don't have to firebend tomorrow doesn't mean you get out of boulder-chucking."
Aang doesn't smile, but he follows obediently nonetheless.
The children disperse and Iroh turns to Hakoda. "Tea?"
Hakoda shakes his head. He watches as his son spars with the Kyoshi girl, wielding his sword with a skill and strange sort of grace that Hakoda had never imagined. Pride fills up his chest. "He's a fine warrior," he says to Iroh. "Somehow he became a man while I wasn't looking."
"Sons do that," says Iroh. "But be careful before telling him that being a warrior is what makes him a man. You might come to regret it."
Hakoda glances at the General, puzzled, but Iroh only takes another sip of tea.
The night is rent by another screaming nightmare from the Avatar, and Hakoda is once again impressed by the severity of the situation. The fate of the entire world rests on a small boy who is suffering from hallucinations of his sky bison and his winged lemur having duels of honor.
Hakoda wishes they had another week, another month, another year to prepare for this day.
Still, if wishes were turtle seals, everyone would swim.
A fog begins to roll in from the horizon at dawn, and Hakoda releases a breath it feels as though he's held for a lifetime. "They're here," he calls.
"Oh, good," Sokka says as he climbs out his sleeping bag. "Today would've been kinda difficult otherwise."
Iroh wakes and stretches. "Beautiful sunrise, isn't it?" he says lightly, as though this is any other morning, rather than the day he'll invade his own homeland. Hakoda has spent quite a bit of time with the Dragon of the West at this point and still doesn't understand what is going on in the old man's head. For that matter, he isn't sure he wants to.
"Yo! Twinkletoes! Up and at 'em!" Toph flicks a small stone at the Avatar's head; he rolls off of Appa's tail with a groan. Hakoda is alarmed to see the dark circles under the boy's eyes. But it is too late now to back out.
The climb down to the beach would be a perilous one if Toph hadn't merely carved a stone staircase into the cliffside with a stomp of her foot. "Toph," says Sokka, "you're awesome."
"I know," says Toph, and Hakoda doesn't miss her small smile. This is not the time for personal concerns, but Hakoda likes both the little Earthbender and the no-nonsense Kyoshi Warrior, and hopes no trouble comes of that.
It takes no more than fifteen minutes for purple sails to appear out of the fog. Earthbending raises docks from beneath the water, and as the ships pull in Hakoda feels an ease he hasn't experienced in quite awhile. His place is not soaring on a sky bison. His place is on these ships, making war against the enemies of the Water Tribe.
And he will do that today.
Bato is the first one onto the dock; indeed, he all but leaps from deck. "Chief! Chief, you are not going to believe this-"
"Were you able to locate everyone I wanted you to find?" Sokka jumps in. Hakoda gives him a sharp look for interrupting his elder, but Sokka doesn't seem to notice. He is focused.
"Even better than you wanted," Bato says. "Invasion's gonna have to be cancelled, though."
"Wait, what?"
"Are you kidding?"
"Why?"
Bato wears a grin wider than any Hakoda has ever seen. "Better ask my hitchhiker." And Bato points up on deck. Hakoda looks...
...and his heart stops.
It's Kya.
It's Kya.
It's Kya standing on the ship, Kya waving frantically, Kya returned from the grave-
"KATARA!"
She doesn't even get a chance to get off the ship. The Avatar zooms from where he stands as Sokka and Toph bolt up the ramp and then there is a shouting, crying mess of arms and legs clinging to each other on the bow while Hakoda stares in shock, beyond words, beyond emotions.
"Well," says Iroh. And he doesn't say anything else.
Bato claps Hakoda on the back.
It takes several minutes before anyone leaves the ship. Finally the figure in purple descends the ramp - apparently only able to disentangle herself because the people clinging to her have started hugging whoever else they can reach - and comes to stand in front of him. A young woman, short but straight-backed, with loose hair to her waist and red-rimmed blue eyes.
It's not Kya, but it can't be the little girl Hakoda left in the ice. He hasn't been gone that long. It isn't possible.
"Hi, Dad," the young woman says. "Bad news: the Fire Nation knows you're coming."
And she hugs him.
The children are like steamed rice buns, all melded together by the fire. His son has pushed the others aside for the nearest spot to Katara, and Hakoda is happy to see how close his children are, even as they bicker with each other. The Avatar is stuck to Katara's other side, and Toph has all but climbed into his daughter's lap.
Katara's joyful expression is Kya's, too.
Hakoda may not have seen his daughter in a long time, but he still remembers how talented she is at redirecting conversations when she does not want to give up information. When she was little, whenever she was in trouble, somehow she was always able to get him talking about how to build seamless paddles. Hakoda sees her employing the same technique now, and Sokka and Toph and Aang have all shared their stories of the last few months before Katara says a word about her missing time.
As Sokka draws a breath in between his long explanation of how he made his space sword, Iroh is the one who cuts through. "My nephew and niece?" he asks, his tone deceptively mild.
Everyone freezes, and Hakoda watches Katara's expression turn blank in that 'I've just stolen the last piece of seal jerky' way. "They're in the Capital," she says coolly, "with the Fire Lord."
Iroh's shoulders slump.
"But how did you get away?" Sokka asks.
"Eh," Toph says, knocking Katara on the knee, "no one can keep Sugar Queen here down for long. I knew she'd turn up sooner or later."
Aang's eyes are slits. "What happened to Zuko?"
If anything, Katara's face turns more guarded. "Listen," she says, directing her words at the Avatar, looking at Iroh. "It's okay, all right? Zuko... he, uh, helped me escape."
The children all make exclamations of surprise and protest. Hakoda furrows his brow and wonders why his daughter is lying.
General Iroh brings his cup to his lips and takes a long sip before saying, "Is that so," as though he is remarking on the weather.
Katara nods. "It's true," she lies again. "Azula was going to kill me, but Zuko stopped her. I was being kept in the prison hold on the ship, and he got me out. Then he helped me - well, let me - escape when we got to the Fire Nation. That's what happened."
Aang shakes his head in disbelief. Sokka just looks stunned. Toph's forehead crinkles as she pats Katara's knee again.
Even Iroh seems flabbergasted. "This is my nephew?" Hakoda does not miss the note of hope in his voice.
Neither does Katara, obviously. "Yes," she tells Iroh. "He missed you a lot. I could tell." Then a tiny blush crosses her cheeks, and she says, "He even learned to brew tea."
Iroh drops his cup.
"Okay," says Sokka, "there's been some kind of mix-up. I think we're talking about another angry jerk here."
"Hey, she's home, all right?" Toph says. "Quit complaining."
Aang keeps shaking his head. "But, wait, Katara-"
"Can we just have lunch?" Katara gives Hakoda a look, and he sees the slight desperation in it. "I haven't had anything without spice in it for ages. I took a bite of these fire crisps on Ember Island, you wouldn't believe how much..." And she's redirecting again, off on another story. Hakoda is appalled when he hears it involves alcohol.
Iroh stares at Katara, and doesn't speak for the rest of the conversation.
There is no way for the invasion to proceed, that much is clear. Hakoda discusses the plan of action, but it is his son who stands up and tells them what will happen next. It is Sokka who declares that the children will go into hiding and help the Avatar master the elements, preparing him to fight the Fire Lord. It is Sokka who orders the warriors to return to sea and continue to disrupt supply lines until rendezvousing a week before the arrival of Sozin's Comet. It is Sokka, drawing maps in the dirt with his sword, who explains how the ships will create a diversion while Aang attacks with what Sokka describes as "flying watery-flamey Boulders of Doom".
Hakoda's son is the one everyone listens to, including Hakoda himself. He thinks he would be proud if he could find his footing. Sokka is a leader and Katara is a woman and it can't be that Hakoda was gone for only two and a half years.
There are modifications to Sokka's plan; the inventor asks that the other children go into hiding as well, and no one objects. The location of the rendezvous point is debated until everyone is satisfied. But there is one point that is flatly unexpected.
"What do you mean, you're not coming?" Sokka says, gaping at General Iroh. "Someone has to teach Aang the rest of firebending!"
"I've taught Aang everything I can," Iroh says. He is writing carefully on a tiny scroll. "And I have other, very boring Old Person matters to attend to."
"But how else is he supposed to make the Boulders of Doom?"
"Masters have a way of finding you when you need them." Iroh rolls up the scroll and puts it into a small tube before smiling at Sokka. "I wouldn't worry too much about it."
Sokka throws his hands up in the air and stalks off. The group disperses, and Hakoda makes a point of following Iroh down to the beach. "You had better not be leaving my children high and dry," he says. Hakoda is also not fond of their only competent Firebender disappearing.
"I am doing no such thing," says Iroh. He is feeling along the cliff wall. "My nephew learned to make tea."
Hakoda blinks. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"More than you know." Finally Iroh appears to find a spot that satisfies him, and he wedges the tiny scroll into a crack in the rocks. Then, to Hakoda's confusion, he bangs his fist against the wall several times.
"Ow!" says Toph overhead.
"It isn't polite to eavesdrop!" Iroh calls up good-naturedly.
Hakoda wishes less of their war were in the hands of Firebenders.
The hours pass in the blink of an eye, and by the evening the sky bison is loaded and Hakoda is hugging his children goodbye. Their heads come up to the middle of his chest.
He makes them promise to be good and behave themselves.
They both roll their eyes.
A/N: NaNoWriMo is over. Back to work.