A/N: Thanks for sticking with me, guys! And even more reviews! I'm about to fall over in my chair. You don't know how happy they make me, seriously.
For those of you waiting for Zutara, sorry to tease you with only glimpses here and there. I just truly believe it's about the little things, when you realize you're comfortable enough to touch the person's shoulder, then their hand, or maybe their face, or give them a hug or share something no one else knows about you... Those are what make a truly compelling romance, in my humble opinion. So this chapter (with its little glimpses) is just the building block of what's to come, I promise! Thanks for reading again, and I hope you enjoy!
Summer Air
Chapter Four
"We've received a few reports of people in the Earth Kingdom falling ill, but nothing truly alarming—"
"Why wasn't I told of this sooner?"
Katara found herself seeing Zuko in a whole new light. As the Fire Lord he was forceful, aggressive, slightly domineering—but it all proved how much he cared about his people, and the people in other nations as well. He was pacing across the room now, footsteps veritably storming through the hall, but his advisors didn't cower and shrink as she'd expected they would. Five years had been long enough for them to learn this young man was nothing like the one who ruled before him, no matter their blood relation.
"Sire, we had no reason to believe it was anything more than a simple sickness spreading through one small group of people—"
"I should have been given the chance to judge that for myself. I want our ships used to transport the best healers from around the world to the sickest villages immediately. And those ships had better be fully stocked with medicine and other staple supplies as well."
She was glad to be safely ensconced in one corner, Iroh seated beside her. The reports of the Earth Kingdom healers sat in her lap, though a quick shuffle through them had merely confirmed her fears. They'd found no cure for the ailment, though it struck only benders and wasn't contagious. It was only a minor blessing.
"My Lord, if I may…"
An older gentleman stepped forward and the others bowed as they moved out of the way. Whoever he was, he seemed to be of some importance. Katara realized even she was waiting in tense anticipation for what he might have to say.
"The Avatar currently graces our fine nation with his presence. Perhaps he can shed some light on what portent this may have for the rest of us. A thousand lifetimes surely must be more than enough to tell us whether such a thing has occurred before."
"Yes, of course. Thank you, Sage Weizhe. You are all dismissed."
She watched the men shuffle out somberly in a single-file line of red and gold. It was strange that after only a few days in the Fire Nation, she'd grown so used to seeing the various shades of scarlet and crimson at every turn. To a certain extent it concerned her that she could so easily acclimate to a complete absence of her favorite shades of blue.
But there wasn't time to think about silly things like that. Zuko had already taken the seat at her left, leaning over her shoulder as he motioned toward the papers still loosely bound where they rested on her knees. "Anything of worth in there?"
She shook her head as she flipped through the pages. "There are a few pieces of good news, I suppose. This sickness isn't contagious, and it only affects benders, but they haven't been able to determine a cure." With a sigh she handed the parchment back to Zuko so he could look for himself. "In my own work with Toph I haven't been able to find what's causing the coughing to begin with, I just stemmed the blood to buy her some time. But from these reports she could still live to be a hundred or she could die in two weeks. I'd rather not wait to find out."
"You know the Avatar better than most of us, Lady Katara," Iroh cut in, with a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "What has he said about this sudden epidemic?"
"Just that this is all his fault. I don't know what he means. Maybe he sensed Toph was ill and didn't say anything sooner? Either way he won't leave her side."
Zuko's fist clenched around the paper before he stood, giving the parcel a careless toss onto the desk nearby. "As the Avatar he'll have to do more than just blame himself or worry over the sick if we're going to have any chance of finding a cure. We need to speak to him." But by 'we' she knew he meant her, as his golden gaze was settled on her with a silent plea that she make Aang see reason.
"I can talk to him…" she finally obliged, though she desperately wanted to add that there were no guarantees she'd get through to him after five years of their friendship dwindling. However, she wouldn't allow herself the possibility of failure; inaction could cost them the life of one of their friends.
They found Aang right where she had left him, clutching one of Toph's pale hands in his and hunched over the side of the bed while the earthbender slept. It was a peaceful sleep thanks to Katara's intervention, but she knew it was only a matter of time before another coughing fit began.
"Aang, we—"
"I know why you came, Katara." When he looked up, she could tell he'd been crying. Something in her heart lurched a little at the sight. "You hope I can fix this, right? Make it all go away, cure the whole Earth Kingdom before it spreads everywhere else. Well I can't. I don't know how. I've never been able to heal like you." That arrow disappeared from sight when he buried his face again.
She didn't know what to say. Experiencing firsthand what it was like to have her healing powers achieve little to nothing, she could only imagine how it must have felt to be powerless altogether. Thankfully Zuko stepped in, even if he was a bit firmer than she would have liked.
"Aang, no one's going to get any better if you're sitting here feeling sorry for yourself. We don't need you to heal everyone. We need you to figure out if something like this has ever struck before. As the Avatar you've lived enough lives that one of them must know if it's happened, and thus how to cure it."
"I don't want to leave Toph. In order to ask the other spirits, I'd have to go—"
Now he was just being stubborn, and it was Katara's turn to be forceful. "Aang, we can make sure nothing happens to her. In fact, I'm sure Zuko wouldn't mind sending right now for Yugoda, and she's the best healer I know! Better than I am."
"But what if they don't know anything?" His voice was getting even smaller, but she wasn't about to relent.
"I'll go with you. That way, if it's never happened before, we can go find a cure ourselves."
"I'll go, too." Even Aang looked up in shock when Zuko volunteered. "At least as far as the Avatar's shrine. That way if a search is needed, you'll have everything at the Fire Nation's disposal to aid you on your journey."
"We'll do this together, Aang," she echoed, moving over to place an arm around his shoulders in half of a comforting hug.
It still took several moments before the airbender spoke, his voice quavering. "Then we have to go to Kyoshi Island. She might know if something like this happened." The sadness was still in his expression when he turned back to Toph, sleeping peacefully throughout. "We'll save you, Sifu. I promise."
A week later they finally stepped foot on Kyoshi Island. Preparations for their departure alone had taken five days, with ships sailing in and out of the capital city at rates unseen since the end of the war. Yugoda had been installed as Toph's personal caretaker. Aang had been hesitant at first, but after overhearing the older woman deal with the earthbender's cantankerous nature without batting an eye, he was willing to hand over the reins and climb aboard Appa with the rest of them. Sokka, Suki, and even the mischievous Satoru were also in tow, Sokka proclaiming that he would help if a hunt was needed while his wife convalesced with her family for the duration. Katara could see the pregnant warrior wasn't entirely too pleased about having to stay behind but had accepted it with the quiet dignity that she'd always admired about her sister-in-law.
Iroh would act as the Fire Lord in Zuko's absence, and he was the one who saw them all off. He pulled his nephew aside for a few private words that left both of them looking pained, but Katara brushed away the niggling concern she felt when the young firebender took a seat beside her in the saddle. They were all pained about the situation, and she knew Aang wasn't the only one with reservations over leaving Toph—albeit in more than capable hands.
Aang immediately set off for Kyoshi's temple as soon as they arrived, refusing to eat or sleep until he'd fulfilled his mission for visiting the island in the first place. Despite the generous hospitality of Suki's family, none of them felt much like dining or resting. They'd had a hard ride with little rest as it was, but slumber was the furthest thing from their minds. Their consolation was that the island was untouched by the plague as of yet, still a tranquil corner of the world virtually left alone by the rest of it.
Hours later he returned, looking haggard and much older than his seventeen years. Katara could only imagine that having the wisdom of countless generations pressed upon his slender shoulders all at once must have had a draining effect on him. Still, he refused food or a soft bed until he shared what he'd learned.
Gathered around a campfire near the center of the village, he told them how the Avatar wasn't the first being to walk the earth. When its spirit was still residing in the planet itself there were eight who lived, died, and ascended, Immortal caretakers of the world—the very ones who decided which child would be the next Avatar when each cycle began. It was their task to keep watch over the balance of the living, just as it was the Avatar's to keep the harmony between the elements.
"So how do we talk to these Immortals? Do you do your glow thing and tap into their spirit like you do with the past Avatars?" Sokka might have needed some help in the technical aspects but it was a question they all wanted to ask.
"No," Aang said, the anguish in his voice as he buried his face in his hands. "This is all my fault. Because I was in that iceberg, that's why the balance crumbled. Kyoshi said—they all said that I can't be the one to ask the Immortals for guidance."
"Surely there must have been some good news, Aang…" Katara was trying to hope for the best, despite that she could almost feel everyone's hopes falling around the circle.
"I can help the sick in the meantime. I took away Ozai's firebending. I can do the same for the afflicted earthbenders enough to slow the disease so it won't be fatal." He seemed even more solemn at the prospect. "And there are ways to reach the Immortals here in this world. They told me their homes remain, some turned into temples, shrines, and each leads to the next until a portal to the spirit world can link anyone worthy directly to them." There was emphasis on the word 'worthy' that sent a slight chill down Katara's spine. Somehow she doubted that would be judged without some sort of test.
"That's easy, then. We just go to these temple places, follow whatever map they give us, and bam, talk to them in the spirit world. Shouldn't take very long at all," Sokka chimed in, with his typical nonchalance.
"It's not that easy," Aang countered, ire erupting only for the younger man to slump again in his telling exhaustion. "It's not that easy at all."
"Alright, what is that easy is everyone getting some rest for the first time in days," Katara immediately jumped in, even reaching down to help Aang to his feet, offering him her shoulder to lean on. "I think we can decide what we need to do in the morning. We'll all be able to judge things more clearly after a good night's sleep."
Even Aang begrudgingly agreed, allowing her to tuck him into bed in one of the guest rooms provided for them. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, probably the case for most of them when tempted by the comfort of warm blankets and a soft mattress. But she wasn't so lucky.
She knew she was meant to find the cure. It was something she could virtually feel was right, more than anything else she'd done in the five years since the comet appeared. Even the noble pursuit of teaching and improving her craft had never given her such a sense of fulfillment as the impending journey did. Yet it scared her. Just as she knew she would go, she knew Aang had left much unsaid about the nature of the search. It's not that easy kept ringing in her ears.
Still unable to sleep an hour later, she finally slipped outside to the remnants of the campfire. It had been reduced to nothing more than a few glowing cinders, but the light of the moon was more than enough to illuminate the clearing.
"Yue, if only I had your courage," she remarked with a wistful smile. "You did what was right without any hesitation."
"I don't remember you talking to yourself five years ago," came quietly behind her.
She jumped. "Zuko. How do you always find me? Nevermind. I wasn't talking to myself, actually. I was talking to the moon."
"Oh, right. Sokka's former girlfriend. He sort of told me about that once."
Leave it to mention of Sokka to lighten her mood. Unfortunately, it only helped a little. "So why are you out here?"
"I'm pretty sure it's for the same reasons you are. Couldn't sleep?" She nodded. "Thinking about what might happen on the journey, but knowing you have to go anyway?" This time her nod was a bit more hesitant. "Like I said, same reasons."
"You're going back to the Fire Nation." But the way he looked at her made her second-guess that assumption. "Aren't you?"
He continued to look at her for a long moment before finally shaking his head and turning his gaze skyward as hers was when he first found her. "I need to do this. I need to prove to the world that I'm serious about restoring peace and prosperity for more than just the Fire Nation."
"Zuko, they know you're serious. I watched how well you handled everything, how your advisors respect you and don't fear you, and it shows how much you actually care about everyone. You're a good Fire Lord without doing this."
"It's not about being a good Fire Lord, Katara. It's about being a good person. Doing what's right for the whole world. Proving that I don't need a crown for that." His jaw clenched and she almost winced at how harsh it made his scar seem, even in the pale light.
"You are a good person."
"Compared to my sister or my father, sure. But what good have I done that hasn't been tied up in politics since they were overthrown?"
"You brought Yugoda to tend to Toph," she quickly pointed out, sure she'd won a point.
He didn't see it that way. "That was your idea. I merely facilitated it."
"Well, then, you… You hunted for fire lilies with me so I wouldn't get lost or worse all alone on the outskirts of the crater." It was a bit of a stretch, but she hoped she sounded convincing.
"That was hardly good." And with the way he purposefully looked away, she was sure the subject wasn't open for debate.
"Your uncle knows you're a good person. Just ask—"
"Katara, my uncle is the one who suggested I accompany Aang, or you, or whoever decides to go on this mission in the first place. He knows I need to do this. For my own sake." And before she could offer more protest he was catching her hand in his own. "Please don't try to talk me out of this. I thought you would understand. Maybe I take it for granted that you will too often. You seem so understanding when it comes to everyone else."
She could have laughed, were it not for the earnest look on his face. In that moment she realized how much she admired his tenacity, his sense of honor, his knowledge of duty, his dedication to doing what was right no matter what anyone thought. "I do understand. I… I need to do this, too. For my own sake."
"At least you've done plenty in five years. Teaching, training, and you've been with your family…"
Now she felt like he was patronizing her, and she finally shook her head. "I've avoided doing anything. I've avoided making choices about my future. I've avoided having a life of my own. I've been a coward."
"Then you do understand." And it was as his voice softened that she realized they were still holding hands.
He must have realized it too for no sooner did she glance down than he released her fingers. Briefly, she lamented over how cold hers felt when his warm ones weren't around them. Firebenders were lucky, she told herself to shrug it off.
"Sokka—" she began, but no sooner had she said her brother's name than she knew what Zuko would say.
"Can't come with us. He has a family to think about. The journey could be dangerous."
"And Aang already said the other Avatars warned him against it."
"I think it was more than a warning," he remarked with his mouth in a grim line.
"So it's just us."
He said nothing, though that line did lilt at one corner to form some semblance of a half-smile.
"Just like old times," she added, with an attempt at her own small smile. But it was a lie, just like her words were. It wouldn't be like old times at all.
Thankfully he didn't call her on it. Instead, before she could ask when he was offering a smooth, "Three hours, just before dawn. We'll meet here. And while I don't think I need to tell you not to tell anyone, leave Sokka a note or something so he doesn't kill me, would you?"
Finally, for the first time in what seemed like a long time, she laughed out of nothing more than pure amusement.