Ah, I've been finally able to get back into this story! I've been working on other stories in other fandoms, so I'm missing the AtLA world right now but I got the opportunity to update...and I hope I deliver!

Again, I really appreciate hearing your thoughts, both old and new readers! Thank you so much for your support and encouragement!

Enjoy!

Chapter Five:

a reunion of sorts, nonetheless a tense gathering

Barely three hours after the Fire Lord had gotten off the ship from Yu Dao, he was informed that he was expected back there again—tomorrow, to meet with the Earth King himself. And while Suki held her breath again, getting ready for yet another tumultuous ocean voyage—one that almost had her vomiting overboard two times—she was especially relieved that Zuko didn't have to stay in his own palace very long.

After all, Mai was living not too far away, and the remainder of the Kyoshi Warriors were growing more and more disenchanted with Zuko after seeing his table manners from earlier in the week.

No one was particularly pleased with his behavior, and this included even the ones that were at his side.

The two of them quickly got back onto the ship again—ready to go. Neither of them had unpacked from the last trip, and they were ready to go, so there was no reason for them to stay even another minute longer.

"Why didn't we just stay in Yu Dao?" Suki asked. "We could have saved a whole trip."

"I don't have a place to stay there," he replied, without hesitation.

He answered her question as if she had asked him why they hadn't stayed in his own Fire Nation any longer.

at Yu Dao

When they arrived to the colony, no one welcomed them back.

The streets were empty, but Suki could feel the eyes of the entire town on the Fire Lord, herself, and their troop as they walked down the streets. They were watching them through small cracks in their window blinds, through peepholes in their doors—wary and untrusting of how their supposed ruler was going to treat them.

After Zuko's behavior to the town rebels—many of who were young and barely emerging out of puberty—there was probably little chance for him to regain the townspeople's trust.

Suki kept her head down to the ground, watching unsettled clouds of gravel dust billow at the Fire Lord's robes. She followed behind his steps all the way to the royal visitation buildings, where the surrounding Earth Kingdom royal guards took one look at them and let them pass through to the entrance.

Just beyond the doors, in a private conference room, they confronted the Earth King, who was sitting at a large conference table.

He didn't look particularly pleased.

Suki couldn't help but stare at the 52nd ruler of the Earth Kingdom. Despite her being the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, an honored order of warriors that was independently recognized within the Earth Kingdom militia, she herself never had many occasions to see King Kuei. Even if he was only a figurehead for the Earth Kingdom—which was for the most part ruled by the Grand Secretariat—King Kuei was still a life and a half more valuable than her.

He essentially embodied everything that Zuko embodied—the spirit of their Kingdoms—but even Suki could tell that in the room that Kuei was much more comfortable in his royal robes than the recently declared Fire Lord.

It was as if Zuko had already lost the argument, right from the start of the conversation, before any words were said.

If Zuko was hesitant, he didn't show it, and he sat down in the chair directly in front of the Earth King, fully intending to be confrontational. Suki took a seat at the door, quickly reminding herself that she technically didn't—and probably shouldn't—be listening into the conversation.

She was just a personal guard, and whatever happened to Zuko and the Fire Nation didn't really have anything to do with her, she told herself.

However, Suki knew that she had already broken her role's boundaries many times before. She couldn't fully explain to herself why she wanted to get herself involved so closely with Zuko's troubles yet, but she knew that Zuko's well-being was important to her.

The Fire Lord snapped first. "You brought your entire army with you, too, huh?"

Kuei opened his mouth to protest against Zuko's rudeness, but the doors to the conference room swung wide open, interrupting them.

Suki stood up, blunt weapon raised and ready to assault whatever threat was at the doorway.

She almost dropped the weapon when she realized who it was.

"A-Aang! Katara!" she exclaimed.

"Oh hi, Suki," Katara quickly greeted, giving her a small wave. But the Avatar came in without a smile, walking right into the conference room.

"I hope you haven't started your discussion without my and Katara's moderation," Aang said, swiftly helping himself to a seat to join the conflicting nation rulers. Katara sat herself next to her husband, carrying just as stern a face.

Suki sat down again, looking at Aang and Katara, who had changed a lot since she had first met the two of them. After the defeat of Ozai, Aang had only started his worldly Avatar role just a while ago, but he was already starting to show signs of age on his ever-young face. His usual smiley self was no longer there—replaced by a clear irritation at the whole mess of his first initiative as an Avatar, the Harmony Restorative Movement.

"I was just asking Kuei here why he decided to come down to Yu Dao—and bring his entire army with him as well," Zuko said, in a low growl, leaning back into his chair.

"My entire army?" the Earth King asked.

"Yeah," the firebender said, leaning over the table. "Practically your entire fucking army."

"Zuko, there's no need to—" Aang interrupted.

"And why the hell are you here anyway?" the Fire Lord re-interrupted. "We can handle this on our own—like rulers of our kingdoms."

"I called him here," Kuei said, taking control of the conversation again. "Otherwise this conversation would have just gone downhill because of your incompetence."

"Hey, fuck you!" Zuko said.

"Fire Lord Zuko!" Aang yelled. "You're not going get anywhere if you keep interacting like this!"

Suki, who was sitting quietly on the other side of the room, could only agree. Zuko was acting much rasher than she had ever seen him. Maybe rightfully so, because even for her, King Kuei's arrogant and stubborn vibes was getting to her and even making Suki—who was much more removed than every other person in the room—a tiny bit more irritated than she normally would be in this kind of situation.

Still, she had to agree with the Avatar.

The Fire Lord took a moment to calm down, realizing that his friend was right. The Earth King cleared his throat.

"The better question—Fire Lord Zuko—is how you knew that I had commanded some of my army men to come down to Yu Dao," Kuei said. "None of my men are even here yet."

Zuko turned silent.

"You don't mean to tell me…" and Kuei leaned over the table, threateningly, "…that you had spies find out this information for you?"

"I didn't send any spies," Zuko said. "Stop trying to blame me for your kingdom's inadequacies."

"I captured them, you know," Kuei continued. "Both of them."

The Fire Lord scoffed, leaning back into his chair.

"You sent spies to infiltrate the Earth Kingdom?" Katara asked, her cerulean eyes widening. "I thought that the two of you were on neutral terms."

Aang was not happy to hear this fact either. "Anything that we agree to that comes out of this meeting relies on the fact that you can trust each other. If this is not the case, then any peace amendments that we make—no matter what kind they end up to be—will be for naught."

The earth and firebenders didn't say a word for a whole minute.

"I couldn't trust him from the start," the Fire Lord finally said. "I didn't do this to spite anyone."

Suki heard the deep breath that the Avatar took, even from all the way across the room.

It was going to be a long discussion, Suki thought.

later

"Fine," King Kuei said, after a long five-minute pause. "I'll send my troops back and leave Yu Dao untouched, but you must promise the Fire Nation will be cleared from there in a month."

"No less," he added, after a moment.

Aang and Katara looked at him, waiting for the Fire Lord's answer.

Suki could tell by the weight of his silence that Zuko realized that the entire world's peace was waiting on him to call for it.

"This place…it's unique," the firebender began. He looked around the table for any open and receptive eyes to his case.

There were none, so he just continued without the support.

"Yu Dao has grown self-sufficient, and it's something all on its own. It's a true hybrid. They don't see themselves as subjects of either nation. They just exist as people living together. They celebrate their diversity and they use each other's skills to better their community. You see earthbenders and firebenders living in the same house. Generations of multi-bending families that have all worked around their cultural differences to make do here."

"What's your point?" Kuei said, not standing to hear the fluff coming out of Zuko's mouth.

"It's not as simple as just giving this place back to the Earth Kingdom—they've built their own completely unique culture here—"

"Are you saying that you're going back on the agreement to give Yu Dao up?"

"No," Zuko corrected, with a snarl. "What I'm saying is—is doesn't matter whether the colony is yours or not, they've already determined their own identity."

The two rulers looked each other straight in the eye, and this time, the earthbender was the one that faltered first.

A long tense silence stormed between them before the Earth King broke it.

"Well then," Kuei contended. "We'll just let the colony be—under our jurisdiction and ruler ship."

This was something that Zuko decided to accept, with pained content.

After ten minutes of silence, Aang determined that this was the end of their meeting, and after the Avatar recapped the entire meeting and had both the Earth and Fire King accept their own terms again, the four of them stood up from the table and parted, without another word.

Zuko immediately headed for the outside, and Suki gathered herself up to go follow after him, but Katara caught her just before they left.

"It was good seeing you, Suki," Katara said, giving her a strong hug. "I hope we get to spend actual time with each other."

Suki smiled and embraced Katara back. "Is Sokka around?" she asked.

"He misses you a lot, too," the waterbender smiled. "He's been a bit busy so I haven't even been able to see him in a while. I'm sure you two will be able to connect soon, though!"

"Yeah…" Suki said, before giving her boyfriend's sister a final wave and following after the Fire Lord back to the street.

As much as Suki was disappointed that she hadn't seen Sokka in a long while—very much missed his cuddling and their hidden kisses—she was also relieved that her boyfriend wasn't going to see her like this. If he had seen her at all, tailing the Fire Lord like a loyal servant, he definitely would have been very upset and asked her if she knew what she was doing.

And she wouldn't have an answer for him. She honestly didn't know what she was doing here.

Everything that she was getting involved in was much bigger than her own life—from King Kuei to the Harmony Restorative Movement. Why didn't she just call off the Kyoshi Warrior's mission in the Fire Nation? The task that they were originally assigned with—protecting Zuko—was Mai's idea, and Mai probably wasn't invested in her ex-boyfriend the same way before she had broken up with him. It was well past time for the Kyoshi Warriors to go home.

On top of that, they left their entire Kyoshi Island unprotected. Indeed, it was in Kira's hands, and Kira was one of their strongest Warriors, but after seeing the chaos that was evident just between a simple conversation between the Earth King and the Fire Lord, there wasn't any way to guarantee that Kyoshi Island would be safe.

So then what, she asked herself, was she doing here? Why did she keep herself here?

Did she still feel like Zuko needed protection? Or perhaps she felt that Zuko actually truly needed Suki to be there, and not just anyone else?

She shook the thoughts out of her head. She would think about this when she got back.

At least Sokka wasn't here—she wouldn't have to think hard about these difficult questions just yet.

"Where we going?" Suki asked, quickly catching up to Zuko's fast pace.

"I have to tell them," he simply said.

at the mayor's home

It felt like it was just yesterday that Suki was standing in the mayor's private meeting room.

In fact, it was just yesterday that she was sitting here, trying to mediate the conversation between the Fire Lord and one of his most powerful subjects—Mayor Morishita—mayor of the Fire Nation's most successful colony.

The mayor was—of course—not happy to hear the news.

"You can still keep your status," the Fire Lord reminded him. "It would exactly how it would be, except that government support—like militia, funding, and general politics—would be through the Earth Kingdom."

Mayor Morishita leaned back into his chair, still carrying a wary frown. "I can't guarantee that the Earth Nation would keep me in the place that I am now. They have a completely different governance system—I can't just trust the Earth Kingdom to allow me to retain my power…especially because I'm a firebender."

"If you would like, you can choose to move to the Fire Nation," Zuko offered. "I'll give you a position of equal status on the mainland."

"Pfft," the mayor scoffed. "What good is there in the Fire Nation?"

Even from the other side of the room, Suki could feel Zuko's blood boil upon hearing the mayor's insult toward the Fire Nation.

"The age and the prestige of the Fire Nation are long gone," Morishita continued. "The places of true progress are at the colonies—the ones were people of different nations come together."

Zuko opened his mouth to stay something, but he refrained from saying it.

Suki knew that if she was in the Fire Lord's place, she would have probably slapped the man and told him to be grateful for how much Zuko had worked in order to even keep the selfish mayor in place in the colony. People were treating Zuko like shit, and after a whole day of hearing the tense discussions with the Earth King and now with Mayor Morishita, Suki was surprised that Zuko hadn't imploded yet.

Morishita sighed and whimsically said, "Perhaps I should wish that my daughter had actually been successful in killing you."

This was where Suki snapped.

"Excuse me, sir!" Suki snarled, suddenly getting up from her chair and grabbing the man by his collar. Her strong arms hoisted him up about an inch into the air. "Was that a threat against the Fire Lord?"

The mayor spit in her face. She knocked him down to the ground and stepped forward to grab him again, but Zuko quickly stood up to hold her back.

"Suki!" Zuko warned. "It's okay! He's just—"

"Fiend!" Morishita said, picking himself up to his feet. "Who the hell are you to attack me? Get her out of my house—now!"

Suki's scowl didn't disappear, even as the mayor's personal guards stormed into the room and whisked her out of the mayor's house.

later

"You okay?" the Fire Lord asked her, when he finally came out of the mayor's home and joined her on the streets, on the way to walking back to the ship back to the Fire Nation, after a long and very frustrating day.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, though she didn't feel the least bit that way.

He gave her a crooked smile. "Thanks for being on my side."

"It's my job," she simply explained. "He was being terribly rude and intolerable."

Zuko laughed softly, and even Suki couldn't keep a straight face, thinking back at how immature her actions were.

"It was a little brash, but I appreciate the support," he said, before his face turned solemn. "There's not many people on my side right now."

Suki took a sharp breath in and out before asking her question. "Are you happy with the decisions that were made today?"

It took him a while to answer.

"No," he finally said, visibly frustrated. "I can't let this happen to my people. The mayor is right—we can't trust the Earth Kingdom to give the colony the independence that the Fire Nation has provided them—even if the Earth King promises." He paused before adding, "The Earth Nation has a history of strict rule and governance from its central bureaucracy—Morishita had all the reason to be wary."

Suki processed the thought for a moment. "So what are you going to do?"

Zuko didn't answer her for a long time, but when he finally did, his voice was dark. He narrowed his eyes and looked at her through dark amber eyes.

"You," he said, thickly. "You should talk to Aang and Katara. Make them change their mind."

Suki's eyes widened at his suggestion. "But…I don't know anything. I—"

"Just bring it up casually in a conversation. You've been hearing everything that we've been talking about, right?"

The Kyoshi Warrior's heart stirred uncomfortably.

After all those times that she had been questioning her exact role in the Fire Nation, she had finally concluded that she didn't have responsibility in the actions that the Fire Lord took, and that she wasn't going to try to get herself anymore involved in the matter. She was already starting to become Zuko's confidant—and she worried that she might end up becoming more than just that.

"Just talk to them. They're your friends, aren't they?" he reminded her. "It shouldn't be that hard for you."

Suki found her voice caught in her throat. She felt the Fire Lord's eyes on her, waiting expectantly for her answer.

He wasn't regarding her as a friend right now, she realized. She was his pawn right now. A pawn that happened to be close friends with the king and queen.

But despite knowing this, she knew she was going to do this for him anyway.

"Okay," she finally agreed.

And she let her hesitation settle, pretending it was never there in the first place.

afterwards

She went to go see Aang and Katara just before the Fire Lord's ship was to set sail back to the Fire Nation mainland, just before it got too late.

They welcomed her into their temporary room in Yu Dao warmly, sitting her down and placing a cup of tea in front of her.

"Sorry that I didn't greet you properly," Aang said, with a cheeky smile. "I didn't realize that you were going to be at the meeting between Kuei and Zuko."

Suki nodded, with a small smile on her lips. "The Kyoshi Warriors were asked to be personal guards for Zuko earlier. And I happened to be Zuko's personal guard."

"Ah yeah," Katara said. "Is he okay? We heard about…the attempts."

"He's fine," Suki said, and she wasn't sure if it was a lie or not. "As long as we're around, I don't think anyone would dare to lay a hand on him!"

Katara smiled. "I'm sorry Sokka hasn't come around to see you. I swear, I'll drag the idiot along the next time—it must be super difficult to keep a long distance relationship with the guy."

Suki smiled. "Honestly, it's okay! We've been long distance most of our time together—it makes the moments we actually have to each other very sweet."

She didn't mention that she was a little relieved that she didn't have to see him on top of taking care of—or at least being aware of—all of Zuko's issues.

Silence started befall the three of them, and Suki quickly realized that this was because she didn't actually have much small talk planned to have with them. She had an ulterior motive to this conversation, but she wasn't sure how she was going to bring it up.

"The conversation between Zuko and the Earth King was pretty tense today," she said, finally, hoping that the subject matter would catch.

"Tell me about it," Aang said, rolling his eyes. "But don't tell Zuko I said that."

"It's understandable," Katara added. "Those two nations have been at each other's throats for a long time—even before Kuei and Zuko were rulers of the nations. They just adopted the hatred."

"King Kuei was very insistent on having the land back," Suki said. "I don't really know too much about the issue, but honestly I don't see the issue—the Fire Nation seems to treat Yu Dao like a self-governing entity."

"Well, it's less about what the colony is now, than what the colony represented when the Fire Nation first claimed it in the past," Aang said. "When the Fire Nation expanded into Earth Kingdom territory, they did it out of permission and even subjugated the Earth Kingdom citizens that were living there."

"But I'm worried about what's going to happen to Yu Dao once it's in the Earth Kingdom's hands," Suki argued. "I worry that the Earth King is just going to disrespect the people that are there."

"What do you mean?"

Suki thought for a moment before answer. "I mean, I don't think the Earth Kingdom is going to allow it to continue being an independently running sort of nation-state, like the way the Fire Nation has been treating it. I feel like the Earth King is going to make the people restructure the way they've been living their life—a lot of families are just going to lose everything they've built up because of this!"

"Suki…" Katara said, suddenly. "Did Zuko put you up to this?"

The Kyoshi Warrior paused for a moment, shifting her weight in her seat. "No," she said, as confidently as she could. "I…I've just been worried."

"It's not your responsibility to take care of the Fire Lord, Suki," Aang reminded her. "You're just guarding him."

"He didn't tell me to do this," she affirmed to them.

"It's wrong for him to bring you into this. You don't really even have any reason to be in the Fire Kingdom in the first place," the waterbender continued.

"He's not telling me to do anything!" Suki said, her voice raised. "I'm talking to you about this because I've heard some of the stories from the colonists and I think that a lot of them are really worried."

They let the silence between the three of them marinate for a little bit, before Aang finally spoke.

"Okay, Suki, I'll talk to the Earth King about this," he said. "But we're doing this for you, okay?"

The Kyoshi Warrior nodded.

And I'm doing this for Zuko, she thought.

So...whatcha think? Lots of complicated relationships building up...

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