The news wove through the packed city. Steely-eyed attendants whispered to delivery men who stole away to inform their families; children clambered onto red-tiled roofs hopeful to catch a glimpse of the palanquin carrying a just ruler and the woman who captured his heart; market-sellers told the nosey tots to get down from there and gasped when they chanted in an off-beat polyphony about the Fire Lord's lady; and when Fire Lord Zuko emerged at the port near the airship landing pads, a modest crowd had already disgorged from the surrounding districts to catch a glimpse of this lady.
Was she to be as elegant as Lady Mai? Fearsome as Princess Azula? Beautiful as Princess Ursa was rumored to be?
A dark hand grasped Zuko's pale one. Then stepped out a woman in a bending uniform familiar to most of the city, having hosted the Avatar and his friends multiple times.
To those who knew the truth, the rumors were an exaggeration. She had not captured his heart quite yet, but reality was often a hair's width from fantasy.
The Fire Nation hovered on the precipice of a new era.
An Unspecified Time Ago Because Ty Lee Was No Good at Estimating Days, Only Auras
A red aura meant evil lurking on the horizon. An orange aura signified an unease. An orange-red one denoted betrayal or lies.
The governor was saying things, with far too much spittle leaving her mouth, that were really rude, yet the color of her aura meant it was…not true?
"If you know what is good for you, you will stop your incessant chattering."
"No, really," Ty Lee insisted, at least sixty percent less energetic than usual due to the lack of wholesome meals and a proper bedtime hair routine in the last twenty-four hours. "I sent a letter. Lord Zuko's going to come get us and then you'll be in huge trouble."
Someone couldn't just kidnap her and her team and put her in prison. Azula had been there, done that, and Ty Lee was frankly over the experience. The Fire Nation was civilized now: they had things like fair procedures, and no more princesses setting fire to circus to slacklines while cute acrobats walked across it just to coerce them into joining the chase for the Avatar.
The governor lifted her chin. She was a lithe, beautiful woman, her nose protruding in a shape that reminded Ty Lee of a sparrowkeet's upturned beak; plump lips that were covered in a respectable tinted lipgloss; atop her chocolate-colored hair rested a violet cap; and a frosty jewel hung from her left ear.
Annoyingly stylish. They could have been friends if the woman wasn't so libertine with what came out of her mouth, both verbally and physically.
"I highly doubt Lord Zuko would bother himself with such trivialities," said the governor. A dollop of her spit landed on Ty Lee's hair.
"You don't understand. Someone is after his mother, that woman you have locked up right there." Ty Lee pointed a weak finger at the cell across from her.
It was her first time meeting Princess Ursa. Many a tale had been woven about the woman, who's disappearance and unclear death caused her name to rise to mythic-level heights. Princess Ursa's plight became even more enticing after it was shared in their good-guys circle that Zuko, Aang, and Katara had found her here in Hira'a. Yet it was seeing Princess Ursa like this, sitting cross-legged in a cell as though it was just a bedroom, her hair frizzed but in an elegant half up-do, picking up prison-issued stumpy-ended chopsticks to eat a small portion of rice one grain at a time, patting her daughter's hair and smiling softly at her husband, that Ty Lee realized that the stuff of royalty was in leagues beyond her on circus-wrangling flips and tricks.
Ty Lee considered herself cute on bad days, graceful on good ones. Princess Ursa typified the truly dignified.
Anyway, this was how their current situation came to be: Ty Lee, Ty Woo, and three Kyoshi warriors had arrived in Hira'a in a rush. Mere minutes after their arrival at the port, a mob of angry men in civilian clothes, though she doubted they were civilians from the way they fought, accosted them. She fought valiantly but her chi-blocking was not enough for the train of people setting fire to the beach.
When some started earthbending, and then metalbending, she knew they were done for. Her hands and eyes had been encased in layers of suffocating metal. The red blisters around her wrists lingered even now, despite the prison healer having applied salve to keep them from getting infected.
Ty Lee would not cry. She had managed to send an urgent message with the Kyoshi Warrior's hawk prior to capture, but a day—or two?—had passed and nothing came for them. She had also been floating in and out of consciousness for most of it. Honestly, it was impressive she was as lucid as she was.
At the very least, she incidentally found Zuko's family here and they were alive. They were where she could see them, unlike the other warriors who were being kept elsewhere in the prison. She just had to escape and keep believing in Zuko.
"Please," Ty Lee begged. "If he finds out you locked up his family too you'll be done for. But if you let us go he might reward you. What do you want with us? Who were those people fighting us? Why did you lock us up?"
Her only cellmate, Ty Woo, shot her a warning look. It was a familiar one. Not a single Ty family meeting happened without at least three mentions of her verbose personality.
She preferred to call it friendly.
The governor leaned closer and the stern expression faded like it was a mask, strained concern.
"They're watching us," the governor murmured out of the corner of her mouth.
Ty Lee straightened. "Who? Who's watching us?"
The governor made a zipping-lips motion. "You are all safer in here than out there."
The woman left before Ty Lee could waylay her with a dozen more questions.
"Let me do the talking next time," Ty Woo grouched.
Of all her sisters, Ty Lee liked Ty Woo the most. Ty Woo had been the first to follow her to Kyoshi Island. Trying to copy her should have been a reason to hate her. Except having a sister who wanted to be on the good side too instead of wasting their lives away to one-up each other was a major source of sisterly bonding. By the time Ty Lum joined, Ty Lee no longer felt like being part of a matched set was terrible when the set was the Kyoshi Warriors. To be part of the Kyoshi Warriors meant to blend in as part of a team that simultaneously stood out for the sake of good.
Now, if only this team could figure out how to escape and make Captain Suki proud. Ty Lee shuddered at the prospect of being relegated to training again. That was one aspect of Kyoshi Island she did not feel nostalgic for at all.
Ty Lee scrunched her nose. "Did you notice her aura was coral?"
"What kind of color is coral?"
A part of Ty Lee suffered immediate death to realize that her sister was very much aura-illiterate. "It's like the color of my civilian clothes! Except more orange. Like the sunset."
Ty Woo gingerly touched her own set of blisters. "Your aura detection is just weird rhino bull."
"Your aura's green. That means sad and ignorant, by the way."
"Can't believe you used a three-syllable word."
"Sad is one syllable."
Ty Woo's head lolled against the cement wall. "Agni help me."
A pretty laugh fell in the gap between them. The sisters shifted to watch Princess Ursa set aside her bowl and scoot close to her cell's bars. The woman's daughter, who couldn't have been older than five or six, slumbered loudly, and the father scooped the girl up in his arms and returned to his corner of the cell.
Princess Ursa folded her hands in her lap. "Zuko is very lucky to have you both helping him. You remind me of Azula and Zuko bickering when they were young."
Ty Lee felt embarrassment, admiration, and reverence fill her chest. She had grown up with stories of the reclusive Princess Ursa, known to be endlessly beautiful but unfortunately too frail to leave the palace. It dawned on her that it must have been a lie peddled by former Fire Lord Ozai, perhaps another one of his tactics to keep his family isolated and under his control.
"Oh, flying fire ferrets. I am so sorry, Princess Ursa. We were supposed to ensure you were safe, and this entire time you were here, and I hope my letter made it back in time but I'm worried something happened because someone should have come here by now, and I couldn't defeat those people. And there were earthbenders and metalbenders too, which I should have known since Hira'a accepted colony refugees, but—"
"We are honored to serve this country," interjected Ty Woo. She placed a fist in an open hand and bowed. Ty Lee quickly slid forward and did the same.
Princess Ursa laughed again. It carried the femininity of Azula's laugh and the softer edges of Zuko's mirth. "At ease, please. We were only recently detained."
Ty Lee's brows furrowed. "Why?"
A long pause ensued, presumably at her choice of a single-worded question. A small smile lifted to Princess Ursa's mouth.
"Ever since residents of Laoshen and Ketu Harbor moved here, Hira'a natives have been angry. Even though many of the migrants were relegated to poor districts and suffer, some of the natives think the refugees are a burden and have worsened our way of life. Noren," she gestured to the brunette man rocking the little girl back and forth, "and I kept an open-door policy and offered food from our gardens for free. I suppose the leadership did not like that."
"That's awful," said Ty Lee. Laoshen and Ketu Harbor were former Fire Nation colonies in west Earth Kingdom near the coast.
Ty Woo's response was more discerning. "That seems like a pretext for arrest. Does anyone here know your true identity?"
"We have kept silent and Zuko has made every effort to not visit to keep us from attracting attention, but it is possible."
Also awful. Ty Lee could not imagine having thought a mother dead for over a decade and a half, finally finding her alive only to be unable to see her often. "Does Hira'a not support disbandment?"
"Officially, they do." Princess Ursa dabbed at her lip and it was the most elegant lip-rubbing Ty Lee had ever seen. "But they were slower to accept migrants than other towns. The colonials also continuously express a continuous desire to return to the colonies. There were plans for official petitions to be sent to Zuko, but before our arrest protests suddenly started to break out in the marketplace."
Ty Lee's jaw fell open. "Why?!"
"As you hinted at before, many of them come from mixed families. Some are earthbenders. They are discriminated against here for it…I know what it is like to be in a place that refuses to accept you. You want to feel a place is home but you become tired of begging for it. But it's complicated, because I have also heard stories of these same families looking down at native earthbenders when they were in the colonies." Princess Ursa tilted her head to the ceiling, as though she was watching a memory unfold above. "It is not strange how power corrupts humanity, but I am shocked all the same."
A canon blast sent the cell glowing like hot coals. The dark walls turned yellow, orange, red, then yellow again. As the smoke began to clear, the figure of a man emerged from the pandemonium.
Ty Lee had never been happier to see a surly firebender, famed deserter, snow-bearded rugged master.
"Master Jeong Jeong!" cried Ty Lee, promptly dodging the fallout of another firestorm tunneling down the hall.
"Let's go, kids. At my age planning a jailbreak alone is pushing it."
Now
A blush stained Katara's face as a tremor of chatter convulsed through swarming crowd. Breaking from the group of soldiers and warriors that followed them, Ty Lum corralled the bustle to keep them at bay while Zuko and Katara headed for the walkway on the breakwater diving one dock from the next.
"Ignore them." Zuko kept his sight trained at the Earth Kingdom ship poised to take King Kuei home. Aang disembarked from Appa to speak with the man and give Bosco a pat on the head.
"Easier said than done." Katara felt rather like the last piece of komodo chicken at a buffet. Three red-nosed elderly men shared loud whispers clearly intended for her to hear about her very curious hair and that ragged sack at her waist whilst Ty Lum swatted away a small girl giggling about ooo they're touching in public.
She looked down. Their hands were still joined.
She released him. Zuko absently reached for her hand and placed it on his arm like she had seen him do with Mai countless times.
"Ah, Lady Katara!" Abandoning his retinue and pet bear, King Kuei gravitated towards her. His green and gold robes billowed behind him. The Earth Kingdom emblem gleamed near his navel. "Master Piandao confirmed the news with me earlier today." At this Katara bristled, irritated to know Piandao had known she and Zuko would agree prior to even speaking with them. "I suppose we've had years to become used to the title, no?"
Her flush deepened.
"That's not why—" she started at the same time Zuko uttered, "That was for a separate reason."
"Of course, of course." King Kuei didn't seem convinced while Aang skidded to join the three, pointedly looking away from their formal pose of escort. "I look forward to hosting you both in Ba Sing Se. I apologize deeply for the trouble my citizens have caused. I have not met Mayor Morishita in person but my ambassador tells me he is an agreeable fellow. I pray for a peaceful resolution to this crisis."
Agreeable was not the word Katara would have chosen even if it was the last one left in the dictionary. "His daughter tried to kill Zuko."
To his credit, King Kuei's shoulders hunched in apology. "I wouldn't expect a victim's loved ones to forgive"—Katara glowered at that— "but I trust Fire Lord Zuko's vision in a new era of peace. His choice of bride is unprecedented. It should be a source of pride for us all!"
Aang gave a small cough.
Katara felt Zuko's arm tense but before she could prepare a response her attention landed on a conspicuous Lady Fa meandering in the background. The woman was looking for all the world lost, pinching her wide sleeves together and shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Her eyes narrowed when Lady Fa met her gaze.
The two engaged in a short-lived ocular rivalry.
Lady Fa had been the one to attempt to sway King Kuei on the colony issue. It made no logical sense to Katara: why would anyone in the Earth Kingdom want Fire Nation colonies to remain on their land? Especially someone, as far as Katara knew, who was not from a family of colonials nor had any investment in the Fire Nation beyond a stable job and, if she was being charitable, some modicum of concern for world peace? The woman, for all her faults, had always been pro-disbandment at restoration movement meetings. What game was the Earth Kingdom Ambassador playing at?
Lady Fa hiked up her skirts and rewarded Katara's stare with a lopsided smirk. The smirk dissolved upon noticing Katara's hand curled around Zuko's forearm. Green eyes frosted over under ocean blue ones.
It was not real—Zuko was not hers, he was just a friend she discovered she liked staring at—but Katara did nothing to fight the feeling of triumph. Let Zuko's mean-spirited fangirls worldwide fall to their knees.
King Kuei was bowing in farewell. She felt a tug at her right as Zuko bowed to another sovereign, and was mid-bow herself when she heard a creaking sound. One that was not natural nor from the ships.
A black stained shadow leapt from the crowd.
" Duck! " cried Katara.
Everyone dispersed.
Aang's glider snapped into position; behind them the ground rumbled with the telltale signs of Toph's caustic bending. Bosco howled and King Kuei's guard hauled the ruler over the port's landing. A sudden burst of fire came from her right.
Silvery liquid floated above their heads to elongate into a sharp arrow. Zuko shouted something indiscernible and his fire went out as he dodged, the arrow lodging itself into the palanquin's door.
Katara's waterjet soared into the air. It met another arrow and snapped it in two. Toph catapulted over Appa, her hands outstretched, and bits of metal from stragglers, their hairpins, drinking tins, and even a soldier's rings became fodder for her attack on the assailant. The young giggling girl from before pitched forward into them in the midst of the crowd's chaotic scrambling, and Zuko immediately swept her into his arms and spun behind the palanquin. Katara followed. Screaming and exploding metal clanging against metal pierced Katara's eardrums.
"Get onto the ship!" Piandao's voice pierced the air from somewhere in the distance.
She whipped her head around, desperate to locate the swordsman, but the palanquin scattered into hundreds of splinters as a thick metamorphosing cylinder broke through. Searing torrents of fire from unsuspecting firebenders were met in explosive molten rain. A few civilians hit by burning metal screamed.
Annoyance flashed across Zuko's face. Firebending at the metal directly would cause further disaster. Katara motioned for him to run and he growled, leaping above the palanquin-turned-pile of wood and sending a wall of fire outwards, presumably in an effort to box in the assailant.
"Go! Now !" Piandao's face flashed in the crowd.
Zuko landed on his feet. Aang was already on Appa and flying deeper into the city.
"But—" Zuko started to object, the girl in his arms wailing. A soldier plucked her away and rushed her into a nearby alleyway for cover.
Katara obeyed Piandao and seized Zuko by the shoulder. She slammed him onto the gangway and through the bulwark of the airship.
"Is the girl okay?" he breathed, vaulting over the steps three at a time.
"I think so."
Katara's legs were not as long as his. She swiped her hands in a swimming motion to turn the floor into to ice and slid them smoothly over the landing in unison.
The airship's engines rumbled as a dozen warriors and soldiers followed dogging their heels. Below, Aang and Toph disappeared between the thicket of buildings to follow the assailant. The green Earth Kingdom convoy was also gone, secured in a ship slicing eastward through the waters below. Ty Lum rolled the door shut before she could take note of anything else.
Despite the frenetic energy, Katara's breathing slowed to a dull thud.
Zuko's hand curled into a fist. He banged it against the wall.
"Damn it all!"
"Are you injured, Lord Zuko?" asked a soldier.
"That doesn't matter. This idiot dared to attack me in public. Innocents injured because of m—" he stopped. A thin trail of blood curled over his lip. He pivoted to look out a small window, and Katara locked eyes with a tense Ty Lum who was inching in front of the door's lock in case Zuko decided to pitch himself off the airship hundreds of meters in the air.
She pulled the last of her water around her fingers and approached him cautiously.
"Let me see your lip. Aang and Toph will find him. Or her," Katara added, well aware that women were capable of wanting Zuko dead, Azula being a prime example.
That said, she wanted him to stay in Caldera City. She was about to say so in earnest; that they return and help Aang and Toph, cast aside this plan to appease the troublemakers in Hira'a and Yu Dao, but then Zuko unfurled his hand and spoke in slow, tight tones scarcely constraining the weight of his burden.
"How am I going to build peace using the same role that oppressed the world for a hundred years?" In the flecks of his eyes swirled awe, hurt. Regret. Hope.
Spirits above. She believed in him so much it hurt.
Buoyed by that fact, and mortified at her recent realization that her affections toward him were on an exponential rise that would not be stymied if she didn't stop herself—but how could she, when he cared for innocents before himself, when he humbled himself when he had every right to be self-assured?—Katara treaded to him until her hands reached his face.
The jagged split on his lip told her that a stray shard of metal, or even wood had hit him in the midst of the attack. Within seconds her healing zipped the cut shut. She started to unravel a portion of her arm wraps to use in dabbing away the dried blood around his lips and on his chin when screeching metal rang in the airship's belly.
Aang's bitter tone followed soon after.
"We lost him."
"Or her. Couldn't catch their face." Toph sealed the temporary hole they had made shut after Appa clambered through. Ty Lum huffed at the forced entry when there was a door clearly available.
"Someone is definitely desperate to scare Zuko into staying in Caldera City," continued Toph.
Katara took a step back at Toph's ardent expression and Ty Lum's feigned disinterest. She was hyperaware of the space she needed to keep from Zuko. The warning Toph had given her nestled Iroh-levels of mysteriousness, but she would have to follow-up later when there was a substantial lack of people wanting to assassinate Zuko and fewer nemeses to keep tabs on.
"Did Piandao come with you?" asked Zuko.
Aang snapped his glider shut. "No. He decided to stay back and help secure the city. He'll send a message if he finds the metalbender and in the meantime see if he can identify who forged that letter from Ty Lee to you."
Toph stretched her arms out and yawned. "I would like to emphasize that most of these hooligans are not my students. Except Sneers, who I will sneer at as long as I live. I don't know whether to be more offended at what he did or the fact he did such a sucky job at teaching metalbending to others. The only thing this one was good at was running away."
Katara ensured Toph and Aang were unharmed prior to letting irritation at the situation seep into her tone. "Didn't you ask Sneers and Kori if more came with them? I thought there were only three." Kori, Sneers, and a third to kill Zuko, Ukano, and Princess Ursa.
"Obviously I did. But whoever is behind this operation was mildly smarter. Mildly. They clearly didn't tell Kori and Sneers the whole story, or the two don't know how to count. I doubt they could lie to me while I slowly rose earth up to their necks."
Next to the engine room, around a square table they perched on wooden stools and once more conducted a meeting. Most of Zuko's job seemed to be leading different permutations of leadership to rehash the same thing.
General Shen, having unfortunately boarded the ship before the sudden takeoff, was present and went ballistic. Lieutenant Jee and Lieutenant Lee placed their hands on the two- chin haired general's back to restrain him.
"In light of the recent attack, we should postpone this mission," demanded General Shen.
"Agreed," said Katara and Aang.
"No, we gotta get these losers at the source." Toph pounded a fist into an open palm.
"May I also vote in favor of return. So many terrorisers in our securest city doesn't sit well with me," said Lieutenant Jee. "A smaller group can proceed to Hira'a. We can send a regiment ahead to Yu Dao if you still wish to visit Mayor Morishita."
Katara inclined her head in agreement.
"That's because someone is helping them." Zuko arched a brow. "Rest assured, I will find him or her."
She opened her mouth to protest, though with what exactly she wasn't sure yet, but something brushed her foot. When she turned to find the perpetrator, she spotted Zuko with his hands folded carefully over the table.
The toe of his pointed military boot stilled on the bony protrusion of her left ankle.
Given her sudden promotion, she was to always sit at his left. And be the target of poor nonverbal methods of communication, evidently.
Irked, she bent ice around the man's sole while clearing her throat. Other than dilating pupils like they did in battle, his face stayed surprisingly impassive.
"Innocents were hurt at the port. We could split up. Zuko and I return and help Piandao. Toph and Aang go on Appa and help Jeong Jeong quell Hira'a." She looked askance at Zuko at the same time she felt steam rise up her shin.
He tapped his fingers. They landed in a patterned succession over the lacquer. "Or, Toph and I go to Hira'a, and the Avatar and Katara to Piandao."
Katara slipped her foot from underneath Zuko's and stepped on him as hard as she could.
"Katara, Toph, and I to Hira'a," Aang proposed.
Shooting Katara a pointed look, Zuko continued their game of aggressive footsies and knocked his shin into hers.
"Yes," she gasped.
Toph's expression was a question mark personified.
As she winced—it didn't hurt, he just happened to hit a sensitive nerve—he teetered in her direction, mouth parting in concern.
She slammed her heel into his tibia. He jerked away. Any aspirations he had of winning this conversation had to die if he valued his legs.
Oblivious to the anarchy unfolding under the table, Aang groaned. "Or we keep going as planned? Piandao said he had it covered."
General Shen grumbled. "Is Master Piandao our General Iroh now? He's a swords artist who can't firebend."
It might have been due to restraining his firebending earlier but Zuko turned her foot and then the floor borderline hot before General Shen finished his sentence. Everyone else went terribly quiet.
"I suggest you think over what you said before I order this airship around to put you on leave." Like he had with Councilor Jin, Zuko's imperious tone and the shadow falling over his face impressed Katara.
And sent a delicious thrill up her spine.
"My Lord," General Shen's words were pleading but his tone remained a steadfast challenge. She didn't think the man was capable of begging if his life depended on it. "This is for your own sake. General Iroh tasked me with your protection—"
"He also has no need for a nephew who's a coward! This issue has dragged on for too long and I have been wrong before enough that I," Zuko's darkening golden orbs flickered to her, "value doing what's right. I have to see for myself what my people's grievances are. If I end up being wrong, then I'm glad I have a capable group of allies to redirect me."
General Shen appeared appeased.
From her left Toph muttered under her breath, "He's not talking about you."
But Katara was stricken enough to recognize her own words coming from Zuko's mouth. That his sudden decisive action was a consequence of her needling. Unfortunately it was an action she disagreed with—his life was not worth engaging some rebel group hell-bent on not fair negotiation but his death. Still, she harkened back to her time in the Southern Water Tribe before she met Aang. Her brother would fret over her safety constantly. Then, during their journey, there were times both Aang and Sokka had refused to let her wander too far out on her own.
It was a thought that had occurred to her before but she felt a sudden rush of empathy for Zuko. From his perspective, despite being the eldest member of Team Avatar, was now essentially being told to sit in a pretty cage while the rest of them fought for him on his behalf. She could see that for him it was about the rebels, yes, and also a matter of honor and self-respect.
Mai made an error: Zuko was not paranoid about dying. He was paranoid about doing something dishonorable.
She could put aside her criticisms. More pressingly: her instinct was to ply General Shen for being a bigot. That's what Ambassador Katara would do.
Right now she was no ambassador. Piandao asked them to put on a united front, and Zuko had promised to take her input into account.
Always.
She ran her tongue over her lips.
"Then we all go like Aang said. We were attacked multiple times during the war but it didn't stop us from fighting Ozai." Strangely, she thought of Lady Fa's cat-like cunning, Toph's sarcasm, and combined them with her own ferocity in her next quip. "It's interestin when I think about how lucky we were that most of the Fire Nation isn't competent at swordsmanship. It made the Day of the Black Sun invasion much easier."
General Shen blanched. Although Toph and Aang each openly beamed, Zuko's mouth twitched like he was trying not to smile in spite of the throbbing bruise she hoped was blossoming around his foot.
Curiously, Katara expected a biting retort from General Shen or any of the military personnel, just as there always were. None came.
Oh, right.
They thought there was a high chance she was to be their future Fire Lady.
It should have made her gleeful similar to her petty point over Lady Fa. Instead, it was unsettling.
Next, the discussion turned to reviewing their coordinated entry into Hira'a. Zuko had sent multiple letters to Hira'a's governor with no response. Either the mail was still compromised, the governor too was rebelling, or something had happened to the governor herself. None of the options seemed to bode well. Others spoke redundantly about guaranteeing Zuko's safety, squawked over the nefarious plot against their nation, and cursed the very plight of metalbending. Aang attempted to keep balance and Katara made a laudable effort of snapping (and less shrewdly this time) only after Toph threatened to send rocks flying.
After a tedious hour they unanimously agreed to break for extremely late dinner.
Aang desired, for some reason that the airbender insisted was related to Avatar duties, to speak with Zuko alone. That left Toph and Katara to fume with the Kyoshi Warriors and the pleasant Lieutenant Lee in the airship's crowded cafeteria. Alcohol flowed freely, as it usually did among ranks prior to a potential skirmish.
"That was not metalbending. It was a parody of it. Am I responsible for every killer earthbender on the loose? No." Toph gulped down the spiced stew in two loud sips. "I swear General Shen has something up his ass."
"Language," said Katara.
"He's up to no good," Toph revised. "He is a very bad person who belongs in the pits."
Lieutenant Lee flashed Toph a boundless smile. "General Shen can be a difficult man but he is loyal to the Fire Nation above all."
"Alright, loyal fire puppy. I almost mistook his shaking vibrations for an earthquake."
"My name is Kanto Lee."
"Thank you for answering a question I didn't ask." Toph burped.
Clearly unaware that charms of a visual kind were impervious to a blind earthbender, Lieutenant Lee stared pitifully at his own dinner. Katara pondered how many minutes would pass before he noticed Toph's seacrest eyes were sightless.
Another burp.
"Are you—" Katara's eyes flitted over the girl. "Stop drinking! You're fifteen!"
"I'm melon lord." Toph's second burp sent the table pinching their nostrils.
Katara tried to commiserate with Ty Lum. She would have happily given the warrior the mantle of Toph's best friend were it not for the issue of being a supremely kind person (usually) and not wanting anyone else to bear the burden. Troublingly, Ty Lum looked ecstatic to bear witness to this tomfoolery. The other warriors were too busy comparing fan sizes to care. Afterall, Toph's arrival had restored the use of their metal fans.
She picked at the plain rice, shoving the grains around to the edges of the bowl. It was the only item in the buffet she had found to be suitable for her palette.
"I'm worried about Zuko's family," she said, partially to make conversation. Lieutenant Lee's ears perked at her interruption of whatever insult Toph was about to fling at him next. "He hasn't slept at all from worry."
Had the man even slept for more than a handful of hours after their escapade with Appa? These past two days had felt like a week in experiences. They were stretching on forever and she feared the shadows under his eyes would become permanent. She herself felt her body was sapped of energy.
At the lack of follow-up from anyone at the round table, Katara raised her head.
"What?"
" Zuko , she says," said Mingxia. The Kyoshi warriors giggled.
"We all call him that," was Katara's objectively attorney-worthy defense.
"She would know his sleeping habits," said another warrior.
She frowned. "We were all guarding him. It's obvious he hasn't rested; just look at him."
"He lets her touch his face," shared Ty Lum.
She leveled the warrior with a nonverbal traitor. "I'm a healer."
"They spent six hours in his office together two days ago just talking," another warrior, presumably the one who had been standing guard at the time, supplied. "And…napping."
Someone, or three, squealed. Toph erupted in hacking noises and Katara initiated a vehement counter-argument in the form of, "We're just frie…" and carefully trailed off, because obviously no one thought so and they were supposed to not think so.
She stabbed her chopsticks into her rice.
"Am I allowed input?" They all swiveled to face Lieutenant Lee like turtle-ducks in a row. "I was most impressed to find Lady Katara had been the first to reach the assassin last week. When we caught up to the Fire Lord's room, he had already been healed…I admit, a part of me did briefly wonder because there was a touch of intimacy I felt I was intruding on."
Was everyone in the Fire Nation an abhorrent gossip, or did they think her insufficiently intimidating that they could speak so loosely? Or was it the alcohol? It made her sad. If only they knew her actual love life was pitiful.
"Can I ask—did any of you know?" Ty Lum slurped in short, efficient sips. "I was unsure at first, but then after the attack today…Agni. I can't believe I didn't see it before."
There was nothing before, Katara resigned herself to at least, out of propriety and principle, maintain such objections in her head. Though there was an appropriate one she could use.
"It's a recent…development." Less than half a day one. "He was with Mai before."
Everyone's eyes grew rotund. That had been the wrong thing to say, apparently, and why was made clear when Toph cleared her throat.
"Mai and Zuko loved each other. He was devoted to her. But a part of him yearned for this lovely lady right here, but they were enemies who had just become friends, who saved him after he almost sacrificed his life for her. Plus, she was with the Avatar. How could he ever measure up?" Toph scrambled her hands around for another drink. Katara swatted her wrists. " "Alas, his time came when Katara left and then came flying back to him."
Toph was a maudlin drinker. Who knew.
"But that was just last week!" cried Mingxia, nursing her drink.
"A week is nothing to the three years they have had to learn to love each other." Lieutenant Lee nodded in deep understanding.
The ladies swooned.
Katara dragged a hand over her face, forcing a deep breath.
Then she pried the last of Toph's drink from the girl's grubby, cold hands.
A soldier covered in a thick sheen of sweat appeared before them. In his trembling hands he held a clay pot large enough to feed three people with leftovers for Appa.
"My apologies, Lady Katara. We didn't know you would be joining us and the airship took off before the final provisions were boarded." The young soldier said this in one continuous rush as though Katara was about to ice him for the crime of a delayed meal.
From the way he sweated, she concluded violence was not an abnormal reaction among some of the more entitled feudal lords. A few meals at the palace had been disrupted by cries at an unsavory dinner, no less a tardy one. There was also Azula firing Ika for forgetting to pit a cherry.
Katara smiled gently at the young man. Emboldened, the soldier opened the lid and set the giant crockery down. A delicious tangy smell reached her nose. She examined the sauce. It was red but it could be tomato.
"Lord Zuko's instructions arrived twenty minutes ago. No spicy flavorings. The coloring is from saffron." The eagerly perspiring man dabbed at his forehead.
She smiled again, hoping he would leave before she was forced to bend his sweat out of an airlock. "Thank you."
"Please call on me should you need anything else."
"A container for leftovers."
"At your service." The soldier sped away.
The brief lull that followed was ended by Toph's final declaration, "the only thing sweeter than sweetness here is sparky's fireworks for her."
The table cheered.
Katara gritted her teeth. "Toph, can I talk to you after? Privately."
Toph shrugged, giving her a single nod. The warriors' jubilant faces fell.
Ty Kum straightened, hiccuping. "Lady Katara. My apologies. I forgot myself. We meant no harm."
No, no. She didn't want that. They were her friends, not her subjects.
"Don't worry about it," Katara insisted.
The rest of dinner proceeded in the fashion of coworkers getting together after-hours. Friendly, but restrained.
The sweaty soldier had brought tea to the cargo bay, but she was growing irritable the longer she stared at the brown murky liquid.
It was hard to put into words exactly why the drunken antics had bothered her. Was it the way everyone assumed their little cover story made so much sense, when it couldn't have been further from the truth?
To be honest, in the aftermath of Azula's defeat Katara had overhead speculation here and there from random sources, usually cheap tabloids, about the "true" nature of her and Zuko's relationship. To some, the concept of pure sacrifice for a friend was a foreign one under Ozai's tyrannical reign.
It was not as though Katara and Zuko were good friends at the time. Not best friends, never best friends. But she wouldn't term their friendship strong until a year into his reign. Part of their connection was a matter of circumstance; had it been Toph, or Suki, laying crumpled on the ground, she would have cried the same.
And Zuko would have taken the lightening too. He told her as much before his coronation, during his release from Healer Joru's care.
( "Thank you, Zuko. You saved my life." Katara did a last check of Zuko's bandages. She trusted the FIre Nation healers but there was something comforting in doing it herself.
Zuko shook his head. "I would do it again. You saved me too."
"You already thanked me for healing you. I'm sorry I couldn't get rid of the scar..."
"I mean in catching me when I fell at the Western Air Temple after fighting Azula. And in Ba Sing Se. You were the first to offer me redemption after my uncle. You guys are the greatest thing to happen to me. I will never squander it."
She grinned. "Friends?"
"Friends."
She hugged him only to loosen her grip at his painful wheezes.)
"What's got your panties in a bunch?"
Toph's arrival put a halt to her tread through old memories. Thankfully, the burps were gone.
Tea in hand, Katara leaned against the wall. The cargo bay was mostly full of weapons on one side and fresh grocery on the other. A circular window opened into the darkened sky outside. Airships flew higher than Appa's preferred altitude, meaning she couldn't see the lights of Caldera City fading away through the thicket of fog and clouds.
"What was that?" she started.
"What was what?"
"That. All that nonsense about yearning and him while Aang and I…"
Toph's eyebrows rose to her headband. "That's what you wanted to talk to me about? I thought you were gonna share juicy news about the secret conversation Aang and Zuko had."
"Come on, Toph. Are you still drunk?"
"Never was." The earthbender swayed. "I gotta be alert to head this investigation team. Don't worry. I'll haul those metalbenders back to the Earth Kingdom by my pinky toe." Toph bent over to pick at a scab on her foot. "Getting a little tipsy does help put up with the stuffy Fire Nation folks. You're fitting right in, by the way."
"Toph."
Toph stopped picking as her shoulders tensed. Over the years Katara and Toph had improved in their respective communication styles and knowing when something was toeing the line of too far.
"Just thought—we should be selling it. You heard Ty Lum. She almost didn't believe it and you guys have to convince two entire cities."
"If it's like the palace, it'll be a breeze," she grumbled.
"The palace is full of bored uppity nobles and workers who are excited for any juicy gossip. The cities are gonna be ruthless."
Katara lifted the cup to hide her smile. "You sound worried about me."
Toph flicked a stray rock into the wall. "I'm not."
"I'm touched."
"Stop right there. All I'm saying is you have to sell it and get your story straight, not look like you're going to bolt every time Zuko is around or you're teased."
"My vibrations tell you that?"
"I can feel your skittish heart rate. I thought you guys made up—you still mad at him?"
"No."
"Then?"
"What about that ominous warning you gave me at the palace?"
"Geez, it was just a general statement to be careful."
"You're sounding awfully like you care." Suddenly, Katara lurched. Her cup threatened to topple to the ground. "...Are you—are you implying that he—likes me?"
It sounded hysterical just to voice it out loud. She wanted to curl up and laugh. Possibly both.
Toph did a blank eye roll. "Obviously he likes you. He doesn't have the hots for you, if that's your question."
Her heartbeat slowed but she still felt like her worldview was threatening to upend itself for the second time in a day. For La's sake. She had only had, what, six or seven hours to sit with this crafty plan Piandao laid out for them?
"But your guys' heartbeats have been extra speedy today," Toph was saying. At least once, the earthbender had described true love's heartbeat to be irregular, though it was with a tone of disdain and in the context of analyzing Sokka and Suki's relationship.
Irregularity, Katara had thought amusedly at the time, could also be attributed to heart problems. But she was a romantic, and the thought of deep love causing the heart to flutter like it couldn't contain itself was an experience she waited patiently. Except Toph had never mentioned an irregular heartbeat when she dated Aang, now that it occurred to her.
She was able to stop a bubble of panic after she repeated Toph's words in her head. Speedy was not irregular.
Toph grinned mischievously. " Is there something I missed? I won't tell anyone."
"I don't like him. Like that."
"But something's changed."
Forget her previous misgivings. Ty Lum could take her place as Toph's best friend. Meddling, irksome, pubescent earthbenders—
"I just…didn't realize how attractive he is," Katara confessed. Her cheeks felt warmer than the stew. She touched her index and middle finger to her palm to turn the tea cold so it could serve as an ice pack.
She cringed, waiting for Toph to make fun of her, or worse, threaten to announce the revelation to the entire ship, or—
"That's it?"
She bit the inside of her cheek. "It's a big deal."
"Oh no, someone is pretty." Toph dug her heel into the floor. "A terrible crime. You're looking at a lifetime sentence."
"Not just pretty."
"You'll have to describe it for me."
Katara stared upward, thinking. "When the sun sets, his eyes turn a dark amber color. And he has a tattoo and no, you are not allowed to get one until you're sixteen," —she ignored Toph's harrumph— "I don't know. He's the same person he's always been, yet constantly changing and trying to better himself. I haven't spent this much time with himalone since Azula. Everything that's been happening makes me want to care even more," —she also ignored Toph's no surprise there look— "but then he cares and makes me feel I can be cared for sometimes without feeling guilty."
"So you want to 'nap' with him."
Her cheeks were inventing new shades of red. "No."
"Kiss him."
"No."
Toph cackled. "We have a liar in the room."
"Are you sure your lying abilities are foolproof?"
"Other than that blue fire homicidal princess, no one's been able to fool me. Definitely not someone like you." Toph slumped to the floor. Airships were difficult for the earthbender to travel on, and this was the second one she had been on within two days. Katara sent cold water her way to help the girl cool down. "
"What does that mean?"
"You'd be so easy to read even if I wasn't a truthseer. You're really hard not to like."
Katara dragged Toph into a tight hug.
"Get off! I have boundaries—"
"Our cute Toph likes people. It's okay, we call that character growth." Katara rubbed her cheek against Toph's round-set hair. "Have you ever heard someone's voice and gone wow, please keep talking?"
Toph scoffed. "I don't do relationships."
Katara continued her tousling as revenge for dinner table antics. Since it was finally a calm moment, maybe one they would not get for another few days, Toph took the opportunity to update her on her metalbending school, her tentatively repairing relationship with her parents, and upcoming Earth Rumble tournaments. Apparently, Toph had been banned from participating after using metalbending, so the girl was planning her own tournament to take place at her school early next spring.
It was not until Katara was falling asleep to catch a meager couple hours of sleep that she frowned at Toph's usage of the plural.
Your guys' heartbeats.
Regardless, it was another problem for later alongside a steadily growing list of letters to write and unaddressed threads of issues like Zuko's sneaking off on Appa and that curious picture she found at Mai's place with Azula and Aang's strange behavior. I need a notebook.
In the early morning, so early the first light of dawn scarcely began to thread across the horizon, the airship landed in Hira'a.
But the port was deserted. Ocean-front marketplace structures were dilapidated, like fire had met metal and resulting shards had exploded everything in their path.