As the parade float made its way down the Royal Plaza, Katara was grateful that Zuko became increasingly distracted by the crowd. He stood at the edge of the boat with his mother pointing and waving, and while she enjoyed watching his face light up as he recognized people, she kept her distance. It was as if she could feel Satoru's eyes boring into her, and in her mind, the end of the parade and their Ember Island getaway couldn't come fast enough.
"Are you okay, Katara?" Aang asked as he crossed over to her from the bow. He, too, had been enjoying all the attention as the famed Avatar. His expression of concern switched to excitement when he looked just past her. "Oh, hey, there's Haru… and Teo!"
Katara turned and joined Aang in waving to their friends. She then figured there was nothing wrong with enjoying herself from this side of the boat. Zuko seemed plenty occupied since he was the day's celebrity and all. She could "keep proper appearances" for just a little longer, and then they could do whatever they wanted when they got to the beach house. She allowed herself to relax.
"Katara! Katara!" Voices from the crowd rang out. It was Rena and Rei, the colonials they had met on Ember Island last summer. Katara waved back.
"Hey, Katara!" She followed the booming sound to its owner, Chit Sang, the prisoner from Boiling Rock who had stayed with them briefly at the Western Air Temple.
A few minutes later, a group of three women tried to get her attention. "Hi, Katara, hey Katara!" She waved, but had no clue who these people were. She startled when Toph leaned in and said, "They're from Hama's villiage. I recognize their voices as some of the villagers we rescued from under the mountain."
"Oh." Katara started to wonder if literally everyone had showed up for the festival today.
"Hey, hey, hey, there's the Painted Lady!" an old man called out.
"Is that Dock? Or is it Xu?" Sokka asked while brandishing a goofy grin and waving dramatically back at the man.
Katara thought the people in the crowd were turning into one giant blur of red. They're all Fire Nation, she realized. And they're all waving to me.
A small voice broke her daze, and she reached out to accept the rose that a young girl was holding out for her. "Thank you, Katara, for healing me."
"Zanna! Get back here!" a woman yelled. "You'll get trampled by a dragon moose!"
Katara recognized Zanna as her first patient from the royal hospital. She didn't remember the mother, but she took a moment to notice the girls' hands. Her burn scars had paled significantly, and she appeared to have full use of her fingers. I could do better now. I could heal them completely, I bet.
Katara saw two more patients who waved emphatically to her before she felt a warm hand slip into hers. She was so caught up in the moment, that she had completely forgotten about Satoru. She hadn't even really given Zuko much thought, either.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say this party was being thrown in your honor." Zuko's breath tickled her ear as he spoke.
"Hmm?" She turned to find his eyes alight with pure joy. It was such a rare expression for the young Fire Lord, and she was so happy that he would feel this way on his birthday. She wasn't entirely aware of the reason, though.
"Katara, you're… my people love you," he said before averting her eyes and looking intently at their intertwined hands, pale skin against bronze.
"Oh?" She had noticed her own popularity at the parade, but wouldn't go as far as to say she was loved.
Another "Katara!" echoed from the crowd, but before she could turn to see who it was, Zuko had pulled her into an embrace and then… a kiss. A deep, long passionate kiss. She momentarily forgot where she was and who was watching. When they finally pulled away from each other, he said, "And I love you, too."
The crowd went wild. There was cheering and whistling and ooohs and ahhhhs. Katara saw her own blush reflected in Zuko's face, but he just shrugged. So, they'd just made their first public appearance as a couple.
Public appearance. The bottom of Katara's stomach dropped out, and she turned just in time to make eye contact with a seething Satoru behind them in the procession. The enraged Fire Sage gripped the railing of his parade float, and Katara wondered if the wooden barrier was the only thing from keeping the man from launching himself at her. The next series of events passed in such a flash, that Katara could do nothing but act on pure instinct.
An angry firebender holding on to a wooden rail made for a bad combination. It didn't take much for Satoru's fists to light his parade float afire, and the other firebenders on deck scrambing to help only made things worse. Katara called out to no one in particular, "The fireworks!" and then cursed yet again that she didn't have her waterskin. Aang leapt into action and was able to put out the fire with a large gust of air much to everyone's momentary relief. It turned out, however, that while a dragon moose is completely unphased by fire, the wave of wind spooked the animal enough for it to rear up and overturn the parade float in one terrifying moment that seemed suspended in time.
Everything became even more frantic and blurry after that, at least for Katara. "Is anyone hurt?" she heard someone yell, and she knew that was her cue. She jumped down from their boat and circled the other float until she saw there was one man down—Satoru. He had taken a dragon moose hoof to the chest, and appeared to be gasping for air.
"Does anyone have any water?" she screamed. No one answered. It was like everyone was frozen in shock or fear or something, she didn't know what, but they were running out of time. Okay, fine. She was so incredibly frustrated by not having access to water all day. They were close enough to the harbor now that she could feel it in the air. She stood still, took a deep breath, and lifted her hands.
There was a collective gasp from the crowd as water droplets materialized out of thin air. Then Katara gathered the water to her hands and rushed to Satoru's side. "He has a fractured rib and a punctured lung," she announced. "It's collapsed, and…" She closed her eyes, applied the healing water, and went to work. The repairs were easy enough to make, she'd healed tons of soft tissue before and was getting a lot better at bones lately, especially smaller ones, but it was taking a while to ease the man's breathing patterns.
She opened her eyes and met his. He's still angry. "Sir, you need to relax," she coaxed through gritted teeth.
To her relief, Dr. Yang arrived with a small team of medical staff to tend to Satoru. Katara gave her assessment of the patient to her mentor who nodded in acknowledgment and then instructed for him to be taken back to the hospital for observation. "He'll be fine, Katara," Dr. Yang said. "Good work."
Then for the second time that day, Katara discovered she was the recipient of much applause and appreciation as the sea of red-clad onlookers came into focus. She released the water as a fine mist into the air and collapsed into the strong arms that she knew were waiting there for her. Zuko led her back to their float, and together they sat down on the deck. He allowed her to lean into him while whispering in her ear, "You never cease to amaze me."
Iroh leaned over to hand her a cup of water. "A drink, Master Katara?"
"Oh, now you suddenly have water?" She smirked at him before downing the water in one gulp. Never go without one's element at hand again. Never.
"Well, I got it for you as quickly as I could. But then you didn't need it after all." Iroh beamed at her. "I think you gave everyone here quite a show!"
"Yeah, I doubt many people from the Fire Nation have seen a healer in action before," Zuko added.
"Well, it wouldn't have been necessary if… oh, nevermind." She leaned into him more to nuzzle into the crook of his neck, thankful that the boat's deck railing and floral decorations concealed them. After cheers from the crowd and leers from a certain disapproving Fire Sage, Katara decided she'd had enough attention for one day.
"Aw man, I kinda wanted to stay for the festival." Zuko squinted back toward the harbor, its sprinkling of lights shining in the distance.
"Seriously? Do you know how hard it is to kidnap a Fire Lord during his own birthday party?" Katara fussed at him. Her exhaustion over the parade events had taken a toll on her mood.
"I'm just sayin.' You didn't have to." Zuko shrugged. "Some of the booths looked like fun. Like Mai's second cousin was showing how they made fireflakes!"
"Well, I'm pretty sure Sokka brought fireflakes, so you're covered. Right Sokka?"
"Ah, nope. Fed them to the dragon moose," Sokka replied nonchalantly.
"And then there was the Two Rivers tayberry tarts. I really wanted to try those," Zuko continued.
"What's a tayberry?" Katara asked.
"This exotic fruit I got to try once. It was sweet and tangy." Zuko licked his lips.
"Well, I'm exotic, and later you can have a little nibble—"
"Ugli!" Sokka interjected.
"Sokka! That's not a nice thing to say to your sister!" Katara scolded.
"No, I mean ugli is the fruit from Two Rivers that is in season right now," her brother explained.
"That shows what you know," Suki chimed in. "Lian made tayberry preserves, so that's what she uses to make the tarts. Besides it's pronounced ooo-gli, not uhh-gli."
Zuko sighed. "Well, at least I got to see the fireworks."
Katara smirked. "And maybe there will be other explosions tonight…"
"STOP IT!" Toph removed her hands from her ears and pointed at Sokka and Suki. "YOU TWO fight like old geezer goats who are already married." Then she turned on Zuko and Katara. "And YOU TWO talk like horny toad-rabbits. It's enough to make me want to jump overboard. And that's saying something because I CAN'T SWIM!"
"Hey guys?" Aang called from the starboard side of the boat.
"Maybe I'll go talk to Aang. He's the only sane one around here," Toph grumbled.
"Do you see those explosions over there?" He pointed off in the distance.
"Ugh, not you, too!" Toph smacked a hand against her forehead.
"No, he's right. Something is going on over there." Zuko crossed the deck to join Aang.
"It looks like Crescent Island, although nobody has been there for two years now, not since Roku's temple was destroyed." Iroh leaned against the railing to observe the occasional bursts of light against the otherwise dark sky.
"Do you think we should check it out?" Aang asked.
"Well, we're actually at the mercy of the rising tide in order to embark on Ember Island. We shouldn't delay our trip there or else be stuck at sea until morning," Iroh replied.
Toph groaned. She hated water travel.
"We have a raft which could be propelled quite expeditiously with waterbending," Iroh mused. "It only seats two, though."
"Great," Aang said. "Katara, you wanna go?"
"Uhhhh…" Katara had been half-ignoring their conversation, thinking about a comfortable bed awaiting her at the Ember Island beach house.
"If it's Crescent Island, what if it has something to do with Avatar Roku?" Aang surmised. "I did talk to him on the Winter Solstice that one time. What if I could talk to him again?"
"Why do you need to talk to Roku?" Katara snapped. "The war is won. You don't need any Avatar advice right now."
"I…" Aang looked abashed. Katara felt guilty. "I dunno, maybe he can help me find lost airbenders… or something?"
"OK, fine." Katara let out a noise of frustration. "I'm going below deck to change out of this dress, then."
"Wait, wait, wait," Zuko said. "Why does Katara have to go? It might be unsafe. It could be a firebender making those explosions. I'll go."
"No, your uncle is right. It'll be faster if Aang and I waterbend the raft. Plus, it's your birthday. You go to the beach house and relax," Katara said.
"You know I won't be able to relax until you get back!" Zuko retorted
"Sparky, no more innuendos! My head is going to explode. It's bad enough that I'll have to listen to you two…" Toph stomped her foot on the wooden deck for emphasis.
"I wasn't…it's not that. I'll just worry, OK?" Zuko crossed his arms across his chest and pouted.
"I'll be fine." Katara put a hand on his arm for reassurance. "I can take care of myself."
Before long, Aang had filled the raft with air, and they were ready to go. Katara grabbed her bag just in case and made sure she had her waterskin with her this time. As they pushed the raft out into the open waters, she watched the moonlight flicker across the ripples of their wake. The moon wasn't full that night, but she remembered that the last time she went to Crescent Island, it had been.
A full moon on a Winter Solstice held significance as she was about to find out.
A/N: Some attributions to Emletish and the Stalking series: I forgot to mention that Fire Sage Alla from the last chapter is hers. I'm not sure how much of a role I'll give her in this fic, but I did notice when I re-watched The Winter Solstice Part 2 that all the Fire Sages there were men, so I'm going to say that the oldest guy there (with the white beard) died of old age, and that one of Zuko's first assignments as Fire Lord was to appoint a new Fire Sage. Emletish mentions that Alla's uncle was also a Fire Sage (who spoke out against Ozai and was murdered for it) so I'd venture to say that Fire Sages work similarly to Fire Lords... they come from familial lines. Also, Zanna, Katara's first patient is from Em's fic. This little girl accidentally burns her hands during Sozin's Comet, and Katara spends "too much time" reading to her and bonding with her after which Dr. Yang teaches the lesson that you can't do that with your patients. You must remain detached, etc. I plan for this lesson to come back and bite Dr. Yang in the ass, by the way.
The tayberry and ugli are both hybrid fruits in real life, but I have them as "native" fruits from Two Rivers as a reflection of the hybrid culture that exists there. Zuko tries both fruits when he visits the city back in Darkness Before Dawn: Chapter 8. He really likes the fruits, but also the concept.
Lastly, while revisiting The Winter Solstice Part 2, I saw that the moon is big and bright and FULL. (The final scene is Appa flying off into the moonlit sky. So picturesque.) And I thought, hmmm, wonder what I could do with that? The ideas started flowing and will be presented in the next chapter!
As another tidbit from that episode: at one point, Iroh scolds Zuko and says, "Of all the foolish things you've done in your sixteen years, Prince Zuko, this is the most foolish!" In my head canon, this is an offhand reference to it being Zuko's birthday. It was a pretty eventful and stressful day for the banished prince, and I don't think they were accustomed to celebrating his birthday anyway. Zuko had truly come to think of his birthday and the Winter Solstice as a very unlucky day, and this is probably confirmed when the Avatar slips through his fingers yet again.