The house was simple. It was a single-floor cottage made completely of stone, with stone counters, stone beds, and a bit of stone furniture. Nothing was embellished or decorated lavishly, nothing was intricately designed. Everything was practical and plain.

Typical earthbenders, Mai thought with a touch of scorn as she entered the cottage. They actually like this sort of thing.

"It's not much," Haru said, clasping his hands behind his back and leading them all in, "but it's been our home for the past three years."

"We love it," Teo added. As he said it, he looked directly at Mai. She looked away, infinitely glad that she wasn't the sort to blush easily. It was almost as if he could read her like an open book—were her thoughts that plain on her face?

"Did you make it all yourself?" Zuko asked when he walked in. Aku, his arms around his uncle's neck, looked around with interest. Haru nodded.

"Me and Toph spent a day building the place, with the inner dividing walls and all that, then we just built the furniture as we needed it. It was much easier for us than it would be for a non-bender."

"How do you earthbend?" Aku asked Teo. Teo glanced down at his wrapped legs, resting at the point of his triangular wheelchair, and smiled quietly.

"I don't," he said simply. "Haru and Toph are the earthbenders."

"So you're the only one who doesn't earthbend?"

"It doesn't matter," Toph said shortly, finally making her entrance and shutting the door behind her. She immediately moved to Teo and placed her hands on the back of his wheelchair. She gave Zuko the impression of a mother bear protecting her cub. "He's a part of our family."

"You're all a family?" Aku asked, his eyes widening slightly.

"Yes…"

"Oh. Your family is like ours." His gaze turned to his uncle's collar, and he toyed with it distractedly. "Not completely real."

Zuko frowned, turning to his nephew—but Mai plucked the child out of his arms and turned to Toph. "Miss Toph," she said respectfully. "Where should we put our things?"

"You can sleep in the guest room," Haru replied. "It's in the back. Not very spacious…but it'll have to do."

"It'll be fine."

-x-x-

"Only here for a few hours, and they've already taken over my kitchen," Toph grumbled, leaning back in a stone armchair and folding her arms. From there she could see into the other room, where Mai was kneading flour and Zuko was chopping vegetables. Aku sat on the floor behind them, playing with little wooden figurines that Teo had found in some storage closet.

Haru glanced over at her. "They offered to cook. It was very generous of them. And I think you're being a little close-minded on this matter."

She sighed, looking weary. "I can't trust him, Haru," she said quietly. "I just can't. Not after what he did. We gave him our trust before, remember? When he came to us begging for forgiveness. Then he betrayed us. And now it's the same story all over again."

"You don't know that." Their conversation had suddenly gotten much quieter.

"Neither do you." She turned to face him. It seemed like no matter how long he'd known her, her clouded gaze had never ceased to disturb him when she looked him right in the eye. "We didn't know, back at the Western Air Temple. We didn't know whether or not he was going to betray us. And he did. Now, we still don't know. And he might betray us yet again."

Haru looked down at his hands. "He gave us our fathers."

"You don't know that, either," Toph said exasperatedly, throwing her hands up in the air.

"They said it was the Blue Spirit who freed those war prisoners."

"Rumors."

"Aang told us Zuko had rescued him as the Blue Spirit."

"Only so he could capture him again!"

"That's not the point."

"Then I don't understand the point."

Haru slammed the ground with his foot—his stone chair slid noisily across the floor to arrive right in front of hers. "Toph," he said firmly, staring at her. "We need to give him this chance. For the child's sake if not for his. And you can sense if he's lying, can't you? Ask him questions. Go see for yourself."

With a kick of his foot and a twist of his ankle, his chair slid back across the room. He stood up abruptly, and walked out the front door to join Teo.

Toph sighed, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. It was all so complicated…

Suddenly, Aku was peering into the living room, watching her. She could feel it.

"Your name is Toph."

She opened her eyes. "Yes it is."

The boy stood unsteadily, and made his way towards her. (That horrible limp: no wonder Zuko was carrying him everywhere.) He stopped several feet away, and leaned close to her face.

He simply stared.

"What?" she asked, frowning.

"Your eyes."

"What about them?"

"I've never seen that color before."

"No, probably not."

"They're the color of clouds."

Toph blinked. "…Clouds?"

Aku nodded. "I like them. They're pretty."

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Thank you," she said, after a few breaths. Aku simply nodded, a small smile tugging at his mouth, and tottered away.

Toph watched him go.

"Azula did that to him."

She leapt to her feet and whirled, shocked to find Zuko sitting on the windowsill behind her chair. "How did you get there?" she demanded.

"I walked around from the kitchen," he replied simply. Although her house was rectangular, the doors from room to room all led in a circle. He had simply gone the other way around.

"Well, don't surprise me like that," Toph commanded after she had recovered herself. It irritated her that she hadn't been able to sense his approach. What had gotten her so distracted?

Oh. That's right. The child's limp, Azula…

"How did it happen?" she asked softly, although her tone still held a little bit of a dangerous quality.

"He messed up on a training exercise," Zuko responded sadly. "Then he defied her. She used her lightning—and told him it had been an accident."

Toph felt her heart beating in her chest all-too-loudly. "She told him it was an accident?" she repeated incredulously. He nodded. She searched out Aku's steps in the kitchen, feeling for them again—he could barely use that left leg, and it often dragged along the ground behind him when he didn't lift it.

"So you took him away."

"So I took him away."

-x-x-

"This is really good, Mai," Haru said politely. Teo and Toph had too much food in their mouths to say anything.

Mai bowed her head. "Thank you, Haku," she said.

Teo choked with what Zuko supposed was contained laughter.

A smile came over Haru's face. "Haru," he corrected kindly. Mai smiled—just a little bit.

"Haru. I apologize."

"Apology accepted."

They ate in contented silence for a while, enjoying the first bit of peace they had encountered since Zuko's arrival. (And the food is good, the three Earth Kingdom citizens thought.)

"Where did you learn to cook?" Teo asked Mai after a while.

"My aunt," she replied. "She thought I should know how to fend for myself when I 'no longer had a servant for every purpose and every task'."

"Do you have all those servants?" Aku asked eagerly. Mai smiled affectionately.

"No, Aku, I do not."

There was more silence.

"It surprises me that you haven't asked about the rest of our gang," Toph said suddenly without looking at Zuko; still, it was blatantly clear to whom she was speaking.

Zuko didn't look up either, instead choosing to pick at the contents of his plate with his fork. "I knew where most of them were," he said.

Toph's spoon clattered to the table.

"How?" she challenged. Zuko glanced up, then looked down again.

"Well," he began, clearly uncomfortable. "Katara's in the Fire Nation."

Mai raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

"Because the Painted Lady has cost Azula thousands in destroyed factories and war supplies."

"What about Sokka?" Toph asked, and Zuko sensed a certain amount of desperation in her voice. "Where is he?"

"At the North Pole," he replied without thinking.

This silence was nowhere near as comfortable as the last.

Toph stood up slowly, as Haru and Teo stared incredulously at Zuko. Mai felt her breath catch in her throat, and she looked down at her hands in her lap. Stupid, Zuko, stupid…

"It was you," Toph breathed. "You conquered the North Pole."

"Toph—" Haru began.

"Did you kill him?" she demanded dangerously, slamming her hands down on the table. "Did you kill him?"

"No!" Zuko protested. "No, I would never—!" But he broke off. Mai closed her eyes, taking Aku's hand and clasping it in her own. The poor boy was glancing back and forth between Zuko and Toph, clearly uncomprehending.

"You would never what?" she asked; she sounded close to tears now. "You would never kill him? You would never kill a friend? Is that what you were about to say?"

Zuko was shaking his head, burying his face in his hands. Haru started to stand, but Toph pushed him back down without even a glance.

"Did you kill him?" she asked for the third time.

"No," Zuko whispered into his hands.

"Where is he?"

"He's being held at the North Pole until they can build another waterbender prison."

"Where is Suki?"

"I don't know."

His chair suddenly leapt from the ground, throwing him to the floor. He landed hard, and his breath escaped him in an instant. Coughing, he struggled to get to his feet.

"You have to know, dammit!" Toph shouted. "She was there! They were married at the Oasis! They would have stayed together!"

"Not if he wanted her to leave!" he shot back.

"And why would she leave?" she yelled. "She always refused to leave a fight!"

Zuko looked down. "Then she must have had a reason for leaving. Something Sokka could use to persuade her."

No more words were spoken, but everyone—save Aku—understood instantly. Toph fell back into her seat.

"She was pregnant," she whispered.

"Toph, I'm sorry," Zuko began. "I know you—"

But she was gone; fled from the room with her chair overturned.

"She always did like him, didn't she?" Teo said sadly. Haru patted his shoulder.

"That's ridiculous," Mai said softly. "Shouldn't she have realized, after they were married, that he was no longer a choice for her?"

"Maybe she still hoped," Zuko said, getting up from the floor and righting his chair. "Maybe she thought he would eventually come to her."

"Or maybe she just wanted to dream," Aku piped up quietly. "Even if it isn't possible really, it's possible in a dream."

"Not if he had a child with Suki," Haru whispered.

Zuko sat down, burying his face in his arms. "She's never going to forgive me, is she?"

Mai cast sidelong glances at Teo and Haru—both of them looked genuinely sympathetic.

"She'll come around," Teo said. "She always does."

"It's just been hard, since Aang died," Haru said. "She's been struggling."

"How did you guys end up together?" Zuko asked, raising his head. Teo shrugged.

"Simple. We were the ones left over. Aang died, Katara just got up and left, Sokka and Suki went off together, Chit Sang and The Duke stayed with some refugees in a town off the eastern coast, and you got an exclusive ride to the Fire Nation. We all decided that we, as the leftovers, should stick together. Then we heard of the project Lingsi (since it was only an 'idea' then) and we chose to go and help. Toph and Haru have been part of the earthbending army since the beginning."

Zuko looked over at Haru. "Army any good?" Haru raised an eyebrow, making Zuko chuckle. "I almost forgot how foreign I am here. Forgive me, I didn't mean to pry." Haru smiled.

"Perfectly fine. We actually have nothing to hide—our army is exceptional. We go for training every week. With all the earthbenders we have, defending our city is easy. We just haven't come across any Fire Nation yet."

"But we know it's inevitable," Teo added somberly. "So we're waiting for that day. My father's been working in the city for almost the entire time he's been here, and he's invented some pretty exceptional stuff."

"My father's been made a commander," Haru said with a touch of pride.

"And you're a general," Teo put in, grinning. "Must run in the family."

"So you do have families," Aku said. "Why did Toph say that this was your family?"

Teo tilted his head. "Because it is," he replied. "My father will always be precious to me, as I'm sure Haru's father is to him. But Haru, Toph and me—we're really close. We live with each other, we care for each other, we help each other." A slow smile came over his face. "And that's what a real family is, right?"

Aku looked at him for a moment, then looked at Zuko and Mai. "So we are a real family," he told his uncle. "I thought it wasn't real, 'cause you aren't my daddy and you—" he turned to Mai "—aren't my mommy."

"It's real, Aku, don't you worry," Haru said brightly, taking Teo's plate and finishing it off over the younger man's protest. His next words were said around a mouthful of pasta and vegetables: "It's real."