ARC 3: A Mountain Divides Them Apart
DAY 21: Disaster
Zuko's life is a serious disaster and it's about to get a whole lot worse.
Aikka wails in his arms, cranky and poopy. The stench is enough to knock a man down and her mother has mysteriously disappeared.
"Are we gonna train now?" Aang bounces around the main courtyard.
The place is a mess. Lunch is half-cooked, dirt and dirty clothing strewn about. Aikka cries, Aang chatters endlessly, Toph and The Duke are arguing about something, and Katara is nowhere to be found.
"ENOUGH!" he shouts.
Everybody, even Aikka, falls silent. Zuko extinguishes the weak cooking fire, yanks Aang to a stop by his shirt collar.
"This is what we're going to do," he says, "Toph and The Duke will clean up campsite; garbage goes there and clothing here. Teo; get me Sokka and an extra nappy for Aikka. Aang, we're gonna finish lunch and you're going to practice holding a steady intensity of flame. Any objections?"
"What about me?" Haru says.
"Find me Katara," he says briskly, "Don't bother her, just make sure she's alive."
They all stand around for a long moment and then Zuko barks at them. Children scurry away. Aang sulks and Aikka makes a slobbery noise.
Zuko sighs.
In the end, Aang changes the baby (Sokka is just as lousy with babies as Zuko is). They manage a somewhat decent, mostly meaty lunch (though roasted meat is just fine when it comes to a hungry horde of boys and Toph).
Haru eventually reports back. Katara has fallen asleep in the middle of laundry duty. Zuko hands the baby off to Aang (the fact that the airbender is the only who can be trusted to a hold a baby is disturbing) and makes his way to the upper courtyard.
He finds her slumped over a fountain, a shirt under her chin and one hand trailing in the water. She's wearing Fire Nation closing, her back and calves mostly bare. He stops short. Zuko would seriously enjoy scooping her, carrying her down to his bedroom, and waking her with lingering kisses, gentle touches. But they aren't lovers anymore and so he taps her shoulder.
Katara jerks away, the shirt beneath her chin falling into the fountain. She blinks and then relaxes, half-asleep.
Zuko gathers the laundry, then leads his waterbender to her room. He deposits her on the bed, pulling her boots off. He tucks her in, then pauses to stroke her hair reverently. Katara smiles in her sleep and he jerks back, as if he's been stung by a bumblebee-fly. She'll never smile at him like that again, at least not intentionally.
He watches for a long moment, memorizing the image, and then creeps away to find an airheaded Avatar to train (and a baby to distract him with).
Sokka's been sharpening his knife for an hour. They've been sitting in this balloon for nearly two and yet they've hardly spoken three words.
"So." Zuko says.
Sokka whistles innocently. They putter awkwardly for twenty more minutes. "Nice clouds." Sokka says.
"Yes," Zuko agrees, "Very fluffy."
Sokka sheathes his knife, Zuko relaxes visibly. "I, ugh, wanted to talk to you about something," the prince says, "about your sister."
"Katara?"
Zuko nods.
Sokka stares at the clouds for a while longer. "I've been meaning to talk to you, too." He says.
They look at each other, then lapse into awkward silence.
"So, you slept with my sister."
It's not until days later, just miles away from home that Sokka finds a moment to speak with Zuko. They've commandeered Azula's aircraft and that accomplishment, in and of itself, is both terrifying and intensely gratifying (Sokka hopes she got her underwear in a real twist for that one). He finds the prince, staring out a window. He's not looking forward, toward their temporary home, but back at the one he left behind.
"Hey," Sokka says, "You wanna talk?"
Breaking in and out of a prison is enough to iron out more than a few issues between two men. He figures Zuko is alright for a Fire Nation guy and maybe alright for his sister too. But he needs to understand, first, what happened in Ba Sing Se (his sister has told him a lot, but there has not been a single word about those hours in the crystal caverns, not a single whisper). But first things first, of course.
"Zuko?"
The prince jerks away from the window, as if he has just realized Sokka spoke at all.
"Huh? Oh, hey…Hi, Sokka."
"Are you thinking about gloomy knife girl?" he asks.
Zuko looks away, at the sun. "Yeah," he says, "Knowing my sister, she's probably dead."
They don't speak for a moment. Sokka never liked Mai, but death at Azula's hands can't be pretty.
"She knew what she was doing." He tells the prince.
"But I should have protected her," he says, "I didn't like her much, but Mai would have jumped in a river for me…and I guess she did. I should have—
Sokka grabs his arm.
"Don't trivialize her sacrifice. She knew what the consequences were."
Zuko shrugs uncomfortably. "Yeah." He says.
That's a good cue for awkward silence, but Sokka steps up to the plate. Now is as good a time as any (or bad, if you had to look at it that way).
"We need to talk about my sister." He says.
Zuko sighs. "There's a lot to say."
Sokka shrugs. "I've got time."
Katara can't believe her eyes.
"Sokka," she gasps, "What's this? What do you mean—?
Her father appears in the hanger door. She cries Dad! and rushes to him. Hakoda embraces his children, then his granddaughter. Zuko watches awkwardly at the fringes of their group; Toph bemoans the lack of actual meat (Haru makes eyes at Suki and his mustache replaces a certain prince on Sokka's kill list). The prince can't seem to take his eyes away from the little Water Tribe family.
"Zuko?" Katara says softly.
He's spaced out so long that the rest of the group has migrated to the fire, Aikka giggling in her grandfather's arms. They are the only two at the edge of the courtyard.
"I'm sorry." He says automatically.
Katara fiddles with her fingers. There is a spit stain on the shoulder of her dress, dark moons underneath her eyes. She's so far from the warrior, staring at her feet like a little girl. Zuko can't help feel that her exhaustion is his fault (and in a way it really is).
"No, I should be the sorry one," she admits, "I was wrong to act the way I did…I should have given you a chance to star with. I wanted you to know that I will now."
She still won't look at him. Words fail him, so he takes her hands. Katara really looks at him then. She's still scared to trust him.
"We'll…we'll be okay," he tells her, "Okay?"
She nods. "Okay."
In retrospect, stealing Azula's airship was a disastrous idea.
It doesn't really occur to anyone, however, until she's practically knocking the temple down around their ears. Within minutes they go from sleeping peacefully to dodging rubble and screaming (or Aikka does anyway). Zuko practically manhandles the two of them onto Appa and then rushes to battle his sister.
He buys them enough time to hug Hakoda goodbye, promise to meet again soon, and then they're hurtling into the chaos. Just in time see Zuko slip off the side of an airship and plummet into nothingness.
Katara screams.