Katara wakes up and drags herself out of bed the next morning with every intention of apologizing, but as early as it is, Zuko's already up and quite possibly trying to avoid her.
She thinks that because he's not in any of his usual haunts. He's not meditating out in the courtyard, and he's not in his usual practice spot either. Nor is he lurking around the edges of any of the places he tends to sulk when he's not training.
She looks a little longer, but eventually has to give up in favor of starting breakfast. Aang and Sokka are up by the time it's ready, as usual. Toph is still asleep, but that's nothing new.
What's weird is that Zuko still hasn't appeared. He hasn't missed a meal since he joined them, no matter how much venom Katara's spewed at him or how unwelcome she's made him feel. Zuko just doesn't miss meals.
Aang notices too. "Where's Zuko?" he asks, and Katara doesn't have an answer.
Sokka carefully does not look in his sister's direction, and it hurts.
"Zuko says meals are important, especially with as much as we've been training," Aang says, his brow furrowed as he considers the matter. "Firebending takes a lot of energy."
After breakfast Katara and Sokka take care of cleanup in silence. They leave a dish for Toph, who should be stirring soon, and for Zuko, who has yet to show up.
They're just deciding that maybe they should go looking for the firebender when they hear Toph call out, an uncharacteristic note of not-quite-panic in her voice, "Uh, guys?"
Katara gets there first, and all she can do is stare.
What the-
"Huh," Sokka stops right behind her.
"Is that a baby?" Aang wants to know.
There is, in fact, a baby curled up next to Toph.
"Did you steal somebody's baby last night?" Sokka wants to know, and the way he asks seems more curious than accusatory.
Toph is horrified. "No! Why would I steal a baby?"
Sokka's next question is not much better. "Did Zuko? Isn't that where he usually sleeps?"
Katara shakes her head as Aang points out that Zuko probably wouldn't steal a baby either, at least not now that he's on their side.
This sparks an absolutely ridiculous debate between Aang and Sokka about whether or not Zuko would have stolen a baby before switching sides, one that serves no purpose and gets them no closer to figuring out who left a sleeping baby in the middle of their camp last night.
The child-Katara figures he's actually closer to toddler age, probably around two or three-sleeps on, unaware of the discussion that's quickly threatening to become an argument, unaware of the blind earthbender trying not to freak out beside him, unaware of the waterbender staring down at him and wondering what now and whether Zuko did, in fact, have anything to do with this.
Toph sits next to the sleeping child, trying not to panic.
She's going to kill them when they get back.
For deciding to go look for Sparky without her, sure, but mostly for leaving her here to look after the baby in spite of her insistence that she doesn't like kids (But you're a kid, Sokka had said, and she wanted to punch him for it), and in spite of the reminder that she's blind.
"He's sleeping," Katara had said. "You'll be fine."
That was shortly after breakfast. They should have been eating lunch by now, and the rest of the group is still not back. Sparky hasn't returned either.
She's pretty sure that somehow, this is his fault. She's just not sure how or why.
Beside her, the baby moves.
"Don't do that," she says, sharply. "Be quiet and go back to sleep."
The baby actually listens, and Toph goes back to imagining the best ways to pummel her so-called friends for leaving her like this.
It takes her far too long to realize the baby is shivering, because he's being very, very quiet, and she's daydreaming about pushing Sokka off various ledges and mountains, only some of which are anywhere near them.
She freezes, then swears, then reluctantly and very carefully lays down next to the baby. It cuddles up against her almost immediately, wrapped in the blanket that she usually throws over top of her and Sparky every night only to find tangled and tossed aside whenever she wakes up, and now she can feel the tremors running through that tiny body even more clearly. She eases an arm over the child oh-so-gently and pulls it just a little bit closer even though she hates children, because suddenly it reminds her of the way a certain banished Fire Nation prince reluctantly rolled over and threw an arm over her one night last week when she'd fallen into the courtyard fountain after dinner and just hadn't been able to get warm again.
It had surprised her, really. Not that he was willing to share his body heat-for all that she still made him uncomfortable to the point of near-panic every time she lay down next to him-but that he had chosen to cross the unspoken boundary that she had always been so very careful not to, because she knew that to do so could very easily shatter him.
Still. He had rolled over, thrown an unsteady arm across her shoulders, and pulled her up against his chest, his body nearly rigid with tension and his breathing hitching and his heartbeat spluttering and stuttering and racing.
Neither of them had uttered a word that night, and they had never discussed it after, but Toph knows that, while she eventually warmed up enough to doze off into a comfortable sleep, he had most likely spent the night trying to get his breathing under control. She knows he didn't sleep. He often doesn't, instead spending a lot of time focusing on the same breathing patterns he uses when meditating.
It's not long before the shivering stops, and Toph is pretty sure based on the way the baby's breathing that it's asleep again.
She figures it's going to be hungry soon, if it's not already, because she's getting hungry, and curses the others for leaving her in this position, even if she figures none of them expected Sparky to be gone this long even after what happened last night. She tries to remember what kinds of food they bought at the market, though whether or not any of it can be fed to a baby, she has no idea.
It's late by the time they return to the Western Airbending Temple, and Katara is torn between annoyance and anger, because they haven't found Zuko, they've left Toph alone with a tiny helpless human (not a great idea, but by the time she realized that it was too late), and Sokka and Aang are currently arguing over whether Zuko stole a baby and then ran away from their group without it, or whether Zuko somehow magically got turned into a baby and that's why they can't find him.
Katara can't decide which is worse.
Personally she thinks, maybe even hopes, that he felt bad and went looking for the statue. She figures it's totally in character for him to refuse to come back until he's found it, and she figures if he does, she'll have to forgive him for that much, at least.
They've searched everywhere, though, even the area where they think the statue should have landed, and haven't found a trace of either Zuko or the figurine.
Toph is sitting terribly still when they return, and her head moves slowly up to acknowledge their arrival, and Katara thinks that something is very, very wrong.
"When's dinner?" she asks, and her voice is pleasant, refined, and screams nobility. Katara's suspicion is confirmed.
"What's wrong?" Aang notices it too, then. The wrongness.
Toph smiles.
"You left a blind girl alone with a baby all day," she says, her voice still entirely too pleasant. "All day."
"But he's still asleep?" Sokka ventures innocently, not fully aware of the danger. The child is laying with his head in Toph's lap, his face buried in her abdomen. A soft whimper escapes the child, and Katara realizes abruptly that the toddler pressed against Toph is definitely not asleep.
"So when's dinner?" Toph asks again, and Katara feels like an idiot.
Also a really bad, awful, terrible person, because she now realizes she's starving, and that while she hasn't eaten since morning, Toph's breakfast still sits untouched next to Zuko's. And as far as the baby in her lap-
"I am so sorry," Katara feels like she's been punched in the stomach. "I'll get something ready."
She ignores the looks of horror Sokka and Aang exchange, but she appreciates the way they immediately start working on a fire.
It's not long before dinner's ready. Toph hasn't moved, so Katara brings food for her and the kid, figuring that since Zuko's still missing he won't notice if they use the bowl that's usually reserved for him.
She sits down, hands a bowl to Toph, and sets the other down on the ground to cool. Toph rarely cares how hot her food is, but Katara doesn't want this kid who can't be more than three years old to burn himself.
"Hi," she says, as he emerges slowly from Toph's lap. "Are you hungry? I brought some food." She tries to keep her voice light and friendly, and is rewarded for her efforts when the boy sits up and turns to look at her.
Katara gulps, her heart skipping a beat as she stares at the child.
Yellow-gold eyes stare back at her.
Katara tries to explain to Toph exactly why her heart is suddenly pounding violently in her chest, but Toph only stares at her blankly while the child between them edges cautiously closer to the bowl of steaming rice just out of his reach, careful not to dislodge the thin blanket that seems to be his only covering.
Toph plucks it from the ground right before he can grab it. "It's too hot," she says, "Let it cool. Now what about his eyes?"
"They're yellow."
"So?"
"Yellow and gold. A combination of the two."
"And?"
Katara bites back something not very nice as Toph lifts her head to bring the full force of her sightless gaze on the waterbender. Katara feels the fight go out of her in an instant.
"Right. You can't see."
"Yep. Eye color means absolutely nothing to me. Actually, color in general means nothing to me."
"Fire Nation are the only people with gold eyes," Katara explains, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Actually, it's not a Fire Nation thing so much as a firebender thing," Aang says, joining them. "You rarely see a non-firebender with gold eyes."
"So the kid's a firebender."
"Eh. Probably not yet. He's too young." Aang studies the boy for a moment before his eyes go wide. He turns to stare at Katara.
"What if-do you think it's Zuko's baby? Maybe he left it for us to raise!"
Katara really can't deal with any more of this today, but Aang is already fully invested in the idea.
"Maybe he found out he had a son, but he can't keep it because a life on the run is too dangerous, so he slipped away in the night, trusting us to raise his child as our own."
Toph looks like she wants to punch him.
"Why would he leave it with us? We're on the run."
"You're right." Aang looks thoughtful, but not overly disappointed. "I guess it would make more sense for him to take the baby with him."
The child in question is reaching for food again, and Katara is surprised to watch him carefully press the back of his hand against the side of the bowl before picking it up, as if checking to make sure it won't burn him.
She's also surprised when he's clumsy with the chopsticks, but still manages an awkward hold that will, in fact, convey a small portion of rice from his bowl to his mouth.
Toph picks up her own bowl and starts eating again, and it's obvious she thinks Aang is being an idiot, even if she hasn't said it yet.
"Sokka thinks Zuko is the baby," Katara tells her, rolling her eyes. "That it's some sort of magic spell or something."
Toph snorts. And Katara scoffs, but they don't have any better explanations for the kid's sudden appearance, and Zuko is still missing.
It's starting to worry her, just a little, though she'd never admit it out loud.
It's getting late, and Zuko is still nowhere to be found, and the kid with yellow eyes stares up at Sokka solemnly while Aang points out that his eyes are the same color as Zuko's as if it's a point in his favor, and that having the same eye color clearly means Zuko is the child's father.
Sokka rolls his eyes and counters. "They're the same color because it's him."
"There's no scar." Aang points out reasonably, and Sokka thinks the airbender might have him there, although it does make him wonder how exactly a firebending former-prince ends up with a burn bad enough to leave a scar.
Katara is making one of Sokka's older shirts into something the kid can wear other than the thin, worn blanket Toph likes to torment Zuko with. Sokka's pretty sure the firebender doesn't need a blanket, and he's woken up in the middle of the night more than once to the sound of Zuko growling as he tosses it aside.
Aang's tied the blanket so that the blanket stays mostly in place, but the days have been cool lately and the blanket doesn't offer much in the way of warmth.
The boy shifts from one foot to the other, and shivers. The sun's starting to set, and the temperature is slowly dropping.
Sokka picks the kid up and settles him on his hip. He can barely remember his mom doing the same for Katara. The kid leans in, pressing up against his side and looks up, turning loose on Sokka a wide, beautiful smile that the teenager is completely unprepared for.
It's like the sun suddenly shining through dark clouds, and Sokka feels warm all over. He smiles back, though in the back of his mind he notes that his baby Zuko theory has to be wrong after all, because Zuko rarely smiles, and never like that.
And when he does, Zuko's smile is rare, a razor-sharp edge on a blade, not sunshine beaming down through the clouds after a storm.
Sokka makes his way back to their campfire, where Toph is still mad that they left her with the kid all day, and Katara is angrily jabbing a needle through cloth. Aang follows, still fine-tuning his own theory about Zuko leaving his baby with them.
It's stupid, and Sokka knows it. So is their Zuko-stole-a-baby theory. But there's no rational explanation for this kid's presence in their camp, so crazy theories are about all they've got right now.
He doesn't notice the boy reaching for the fire until Toph swats his hand away. "That's hot," she says. "Watch him-kid doesn't know how to keep his hands to himself."
He falls asleep while they're still gathered around the fire. Unable to come up with a better option, Sokka settles the kid down with him in his bedroll that night. They'll figure out something better tomorrow, he tells himself.
Disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender does not belong to me.