(A/N)- *kicks down door* ARE YOU READY FOR THIS GUYS?
Man oh man, this has been one of the chapters I've been itching to write since the beginning. I knew when I started that "The Waterbending Master" was going to be a meaty one, and the AU changes would be super fun and interesting to figure out.
I'll not keep you from it, on with the adventures!
Disclaimer: *grumbles discontentedly about the Netflix live action*
For Her Honor
Angka wrung the lingering water out of her hair, twisting until she physically couldn't anymore. A couple more freezing drops fell to the ice floor, beading on the surface.
Hearing footsteps coming, she frantically tried to put her her hair aright, blowing out with her arms so a burst of very frigid—but dry—wind ruffled up through her clothes and the damp locks.
She quickly wound her hairband back around the ends of her hair, patting herself down and managing to straighten up and look nonchalant as Katar entered their guest quarters.
"Hey Katar!" she greeted, a bit over-friendly. "How was the healing lesson?"
"Great," he said, absently. Angka noticed his hand was extended at his side; he was looking down at his mother's necklace with a distracted look. "Have you seen Sokki anywhere?"
Angka thumbed over her shoulder. "Oh, she's in the other room."
"No she isn't," Sokki said, coming out from the opposite door. She crossed the room straight to the vanity mirror on the wall. "She is going out, and will not be back in until late tonight, if all goes well."
Angka and Katar both squinted at her, puzzled.
"Where are you going out?" asked Katar.
"Are you wearing make-up?"
Sokki gawped. "No!" she said, a little too defensively. "And nowhere in... particular."
Katar crossed his arms, sly looking coming over his face. "Waaaaait, you're not going out to meet Prince Yuan are you? To 'do an activity'?"
Sokki turned around, mortified and pointing an accusatory finger. "That's none of your business."
"Awwww," cooed Angka. "That's so sweet, Sokki. I hope it goes well."
Katar grinned, then remembered what he'd been intending to ask after. "Hey, did Gran Gran ever talk about the North Pole?"
"Not that I remember," grumped Sokki, sneaking one last furtive glance at herself in the mirror and futzing with her hair. "Why?"
"Apparently she's from here," Katar told her. "She ran away from her engagement."
Eyes widening, Sokki was paying full attention now. "Really?" she exclaimed.
Katar nodded, confirming. "Yagoda told me this was her betrothal necklace."
"That... explains a lot of the weird looks I saw people giving you on our way in," Sokki said.
"Yeah," Katar agreed, grimacing. He wrapped the necklace bands around his wrist, tucking the item under his sleeve. "I wonder why she never said anything."
His sister shrugged. "Who knows? Gran Gran never liked to dwell on the past. Said it made her ankles sore."
"Hmm," Katar considered. He put that mystery to the side for a moment. "Oh, Angka! I almost forgot to ask, how was Pakku's lesson?"
Halfway through the archway to the other room, Angka flinched, cursing that she'd been caught before she could slip out. She swung around.
"It was great!" she squeaked. "Really great! Learned so much, no time to even talk about it! I'm—" Her words fumbled, as she gestured vaguely over her shoulder. "—gonna go dry my hair. See you tomorrow!" she chirped, fleeing through the door before Katar could ask about her soaked clothes and wet hair and her shivering.
Flushing with shame, she pressed hands over her cheeks, biting her lip and blinking back the heat in her eyes.
This was going to be worth it. She and Katar mastering waterbending was going to be worth it.
-ATLA-
Katar frowned after Angka's retreat. That was her familiar over-cheerful, plastic fake smile. The one she put on when she was pretending everything was fine.
He turned to Sokki.
"Did she seem okay to you?"
Sokki straightened the fur collar of her coat. "Don't know, don't talk to me, I gotta go," she said dismissively, as she sauntered out the other door.
Katar was left alone, frustrated, and with a million-and-one questions.
"I don't understand girls..." he sighed, kicking open his bedroll to unfurl it.
-ATLA-
He didn't see either of the girls again until the next morning.
He walked out of the washroom, nearly tripping over his sister, who was lying face-down across her bedroll, arms wrapped around her head miserably.
"How'd your 'activity' with the prince go?" he asked.
She buried her face even deeper into the fur pillow. "I don't... wanna... talk about it..." she muttered through grit teeth.
Katar felt a twinge of sympathy but also a deep chuckle ticking the bottom of his stomach, remembering Aunt Wu's prediction about Sokki having chronic foot-in-mouth problems with her relationships.
He stepped over her and made his way to Angka, curled up tight in her sleeping bag, knees drawn up by her chest. Kneeling down he gently shook her shoulder.
"C'mon Angka," he urged. "You're gonna be late for your training with Pakku."
The Air Nomad groaned, but reluctantly unpeeled herself from her warm confines. "You aren't coming?" she asked anxiously, face tight.
"I thought I would go to Yagoda's healing lesson again today," he told her. A slight trace of worry twinged through him as he studied her expression. Angka looked greenish around the gills, like she was queasy or anxious.
"Can I go with you?" she asked hopefully.
He smiled faintly but shook his head. "You need to focus on mastering basic waterbending," he reminded her. "You can worry about more specialized abilities once you've done that."
Her face fell slightly. "Yeah, you're right," she sighed.
She pulled herself up to her feet and brushed off her pants.
"Well, I better not keep Master Pakku waiting. He hates that," she said, giving a shudder.
Katar's grin widened and he patted her shoulder, before they set off, leaving Sokki to her wallowing.
-ATLA-
The next couple days were much the same. He and Angka would wake up early. He would go to Yagoda's healing lesson, she would go train with Master Pakku. Sokki was in and out and they didn't see much of her. Katar liked to think she had patched up whatever misunderstanding she'd had with Yuan; she seemed happy at least whenever they did manage to run into her. Maybe a bit fussier and more anxious about how she looked—he did have to reassure her once that her hair was fine—but happy. So he wasn't too worried about her.
Angka, on the other hand...
She was getting twitchier and more nervous. Evasive. It almost seemed like she was avoiding him.
His concern grew enough that he ducked out early from one of Yagoda's lessons and sought her out.
He found her sitting on the steps below the plaza, nursing one of her arms.
"Hey."
She startled, jumping up with wide eyes, quickly hiding her arm behind her and giving her fake "Nothing is wrong" smile.
"Katar!" she strained. "What... uh... are you doing here?" she asked nervously.
He raised an eyebrow, but didn't answer the question and turned his attention instead to her arm. "Lemme see," he said.
Reluctantly, she pulled her arm in front of her. Her sleeve was rolled up, an impressive red welt across her forearm.
Katar hissed in sympathy. Pulling some water from his canteen he wrapped it around his hand, just like Yagoda had showed him, and let the cool healing energy flow into it.
"What happened?"
Angka rubbed her other hand behind her head in a sheepish motion. "Smacked myself with a water whip. Pretty dumb huh?"
Katar pressed his palm to her welt, the glowing water immediately soothing. "Done it plenty of times myself, trust me," he chuckled. "You'll get the hang of it," he assured her.
"You think so?" she asked hopefully.
He smiled. "I know you will."
Her arm healed, he stepped away. Angka marveled at his work, looking over clean fresh skin.
Serious now, Katar tugged once at her sleeve. "Hey," he said, "I don't want you to think I'm abandoning you or anything." He glanced down at his hand, the glow from the healing water fading. "It's just... learning I can do this has been everything to me. It comes so naturally. I don't have to struggle or fight with it or anything."
"It's okay," she told him, looking down at the ice and shrugging. "I understand."
"That's not what I—" Somehow he felt like he'd said the wrong thing. Katar shook his head, trying for a smile. "Anyway, I've been neglecting my own waterbending lessons so I'll be here with you tomorrow, okay?" he said, voice warm.
To his surprise she looked panicked at that.
"You don't have to do that!" she blurted, holding up her hands palms out.
Confused, Katar's head tilted to the side. "Um, yes I do? That was the whole point of us coming here? So that we could both master waterbending?" he reminded her.
"I—I mean—!" Angka stammered. "You said you were having such a good time getting better at healing, don't you want to finish that first?" she asked.
"Yagoda says I've pretty much got things down," he shrugged. "There's not much else she can teach me." Pinning her with concern Katar asked, "Angka, is something wrong?"
And there was her hollow smile again, empty, the cheerfulness false and like a thin facade.
"No, of course not!" she insisted, even though the smile didn't touch her eyes. "I just don't think—I mean it's not a good—You wouldn't really—"
She stopped herself, lowering her hands and seeming to wilt.
"Okay..." she said softly.
She looked so dejected he couldn't help but put hands on her shoulders.
"C'mon, I'm sure you'll be great!" he gushed.
Her laugh was strained, nervous. "Y-yeah."
"A-hem!" came a stern cough from above.
Both kids looked up to see Pakku standing at the top of the staircase with folded arms, glowering down sternly.
"While we're young, Avatar, if you please," he snipped.
Angka grimaced. "I gotta go," she said, stepping away from Katar and hurrying up the stairs.
Katar stared after her until she disappeared over the edge, frowning.
-ATLA-
They showed up to the lesson in the bright, crisp morning.
"Look who decided to join us," Pakku commented, though under his snarky tone there was a bit of pleased happiness. The man raised eyebrows at him, corner of his mouth wry. "Get tired of playing around with the little girls did you?" came the tease.
"I'm a quick study," Katar said evenly. He kept his face neutral, for now, his eyes briefly sweeping the plaza and once again noting the lack of girls in Pakku's class. "And Yagoda's a great teacher."
Pakku didn't acknowledge Katar's defense of the healer, merely barking to call everyone to attention.
He did sidle a look from the corner of his eye at the boy.
"Ready to get back to real bending?" he asked.
This time Katar was the one who didn't reply, silently calling up some water from the trough like the others.
-ATLA-
As the lesson continued, Katar's unease grew. Angka was sitting to the side of the plaza, not participating in the lesson, head turned aside, chin slumped on her hand, elbow resting on the low wall of an ice partition.
Watching the rest of them glumly.
Is she waiting her turn? Katar wondered, stealing glances at her as he trained. He tried to catch her eye, get her to look at him.
"Don't get distracted!" Pakku snapped at him.
Katar startled, focusing back on task at once.
"On the battlefield, distraction is lethal," the waterbending master warned sternly.
Katar gulped and tried to concentrate, but Angka's exclusion and glum mood was an ever-present itch and question at the back of his mind.
It wasn't until the lesson was winding down that Pakku finally addressed her.
"I haven't forgotten about you, Avatar," he said, and Katar's senses tweaked at something in the man's tone, something snide and patronizing. The waterbending master swiveled to face towards her, with a faint smile that seemed too sharp, too unfriendly. "Ready to prove you've been paying attention?" he challenged.
Angka gave a heavy, clearly reluctant sigh and grimaced again, uncurling, getting to her feet. The entire lesson seemed to pause as they watched her step over to the plaza with the rest of them, feet soft in the ice and snow, the only sound in the open space, and Katar's concern and apprehension continued to grow.
The Air Nomad girl took up a spot silently, lifting her hands and bringing water up from the troughs with a liquid slosh, beginning to move and shape the water exactly as he and the other students had been practicing.
It looked effortless to Katar, her motions smooth and elegant, fluidly changing into each other, and his heart warmed with pride. She was so naturally talented at it; all she needed was a little concentration and focus and—
"Oh, now you start actually trying," Pakku's voice bit dryly next to him, "now that there's a boy you can potentially impress."
Katar looked askance at Pakku, prickles of some uncertain alarm tracing across his spine.
Angka, for her part, ignored Pakku's comment, determinedly tightening her brow and concentrating harder on what she was doing.
The water molded into more complex shapes, partially freezing and then melting again. Angka's face screwed in effort, pinching as she watched the water and carefully melded it from shape to shape.
So focused was she that she didn't see how Pakku stepped up behind her, the quiet crunch of his shoes in the snow an ominous sound.
Katar watched with apprehension, some kind of foreboding in his heart, as Pakku scrutinized Angka's form.
It turned to alarm as the older man lashed out unexpectedly with a water whip, the end smacking across Angka's rear.
She eep-ed as she startled and dropped her water formation... right over her head.
The water drenched her, soaking her from head to toe and plastering her clothes to her small, slight frame. Angka stood blinking in shock, and Katar's heart gave an almost audible lurch as he beheld her.
"Lost our focus a bit there, did we?" came Pakku's withering comment, tone dripping with mockery.
A couple derisive snickers rose up from the other boys, and Katar whipped his head in horror at the waterbending master, at how he didn't silence the laughter, seemed to revel and be bolstered by it.
"Maybe next time think less about looking good and more about actually doing the job," the man bit.
But she was! Katar wanted to argue. She had been doing fine, there was literally no reason to—
For a moment he thought Angka would turn around and snap at her master, but she just exhaled, her shoulders shuddering, and quietly started gathering loose water back up.
She had barely even formed a ball the size of a melon before Pakku's water whip struck again, slapping her hand, in almost the exact spot Katar had healed her welt yesterday.
Angka yelped. Her water dissolved again.
"Oops," Pakku commented in a sing-song. "I did say something important about distraction costing you, didn't I?" he mused aloud, fingers to his chin and eyes skyward. "It seems you need another reminder."
His arms were drawing back, raising a huge tendril like a wave from the troughs.
He was aiming it towards her.
From the way her head shrank into her shoulders, she knew it was coming.
Katar's mind flashed with clarity—she always seemed to be damp when she came back from Pakku's class—and he was moving before he realized it, a hot ember sparking his limbs into action.
He took hold of the water tendril and yanked back, breaking its cohesion, scattering it into droplets.
"Hey!" he shouted indignantly.
Pakku whipped around with a look of shock, and several of the boys gasped. One of them covered his mouth.
They all stared at him, aghast at his audacity.
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
It was so quiet he could hear snowflakes hitting the ice.
Pakku recovered after a moment, his brows narrowing harshly, his frown severe.
"Conducting a lesson, if you don't mind," he said, tone sharp, a stern warning.
"Embarrassing her isn't helping her learn waterbending!" Katar shot back, ignoring the implied warning. He gestured towards the still petering water droplets, throwing an arm out. "This isn't teaching, this is bullying!" he complained.
The man had taken up his favorite infuriating hands-behind-him pose, pulled to full height and formal like he was flaunting his prestige. "In our tribe it is forbidden for women to learn waterbending," he explained tersely. "She's lucky I'm even making an exception."
Several more things clicked in his head. The microaggressive comments about "real" bending. The healing class full of little girls. Angka's offhand mentions of Pakku's churlish temperament.
He burned with anger, hands clenching into fists.
"That doesn't mean you can treat her like that!" he shouted.
"Like what? A little girl?" Pakku shot back.
Katar's teeth ground. "Angka is stronger and more capable than you give her credit for!" he defended.
He looked towards her, and she was mortified, her face crinkling, waving her hands at him to stop.
"Katar, please, you don't have to—" she was begging.
Pakku interrupted her, stalking to stand in front of Katar, some kind of macho intimidation tactic, making Katar look up at his scowling face.
"I'm not going to be lectured about my teaching methods by a boy who'd rather play healer with the women," he said, sneering.
Katar stood his ground, meeting the master glare for glare.
"And I'm not going to stand for you treating my friend like this!" he declared.
Pakku snorted.
"What are you going to do? Tattle on me to the chief?" he challenged.
"That's exactly what I'm going to do!"
Horrified whispers went up from the other boys. Angka balked and squeaked, "He didn't mean that, Master Pakku! I'm sure he's just—"
"No, Angka," he said, cutting her off. "He's being a jerk and he's going to answer for it."
Pakku's anger was a stormy chill, the temperature around him seeming to have dropped several degrees.
"...You're playing a dangerous game, boy. I'm not someone you want as your enemy," he warned, burning cold eyes on Katar.
"I don't care. I'm not letting you hurt her," he growled back, brows narrowed like a knife.
The thick tension paused for a terminally long time.
"Have it your way," Pakku sniffed, turning and stalking off the plaza.
-ATLA-
Katar expected to cause a ruckus with their little expedition to the grand council chamber, him stiffly following behind Pakku, Angka creeping after them, several of the boys from the class trailing after, wanting to see the end of the drama.
He did not expect to interrupt a session where the Chief and his councilors would be in the middle of lecturing his sister about brawling with a councilor's daughter.
"Sokki, what are you doing getting into fistfights with other girls?" he groaned.
Sokki clenched her crossed arms tighter, looking away with a scowl. "Bimbo had it coming," she defended, muttering. "You should've heard how she was talking about Yuan. Like he was some meal ticket for her, some kind of status symbol."
A slice of pity went through Katar. Given what he'd learned about the social structure of the Northern Water Tribe, he almost couldn't fault the girl for trying to grab onto whatever kind of prestige or power or status and value she could.
Almost. He had heard how some of the girls in the palace talked about Yuan and yeah, it was disgusting. The words 'gold-digger' came to mind.
Chief Arnook looked exasperated as he addressed the two Water Tribe siblings. "I invite you in as honored guests and this is how you repay me? Fighting my councilors' daughters in the streets and upsetting my most prestigious waterbending master?" he bemoaned.
Angka brushed past them to take responsibility, folding her hands and head in a bow. "I am so sorry about my friends, Chief Arnook!" she said, full-face cringing.
"I dunno," piped Prince Yuan up from where he knelt by his father's side. A faint smile was on his handsome face, directed softly towards Sokki. "Seeing Hahni fly ankles over heels like that was a little funny."
The chief paid his son a brief look of parental warning. Sokki, meanwhile, flushed bashfully.
Pakku was less amused.
"And what of the disrespect shown to me?" he demanded. "To my teachings? To our entire culture?"
"Just because you don't normally teach girls doesn't mean you have to be an ass about teaching her!" Katar shot, his voice echoing loudly in the spacious hall.
"What Katar means," Angka hastened to say, face apologetic, making small gestures with tight shoulders, "is that he thinks Master Pakku's teaching methods are not very... constructive. For me."
"He dumps water on her head instead of teaching her and humiliates her in front of the class," Katar corrected with a growl.
Chief Arnook absorbed that with a grave expression. He turned to Pakku.
"Is this true?" he asked quietly.
"She is a lost cause, Arnook!" Pakku defended. "You know it, I know it. Look at her! This girl can never hope to defeat the Firelord!"
"So you won't even let her try?!"
Pakku's narrowed eyes landed on Katar. "She can no more fight him than you can fight me."
"Wanna bet?" Katar said through his teeth, clenching fists.
A quiet jolt of shock tingled through the room.
"Excuse me?" said Pakku, deadly serious.
"You heard me. Why don't you prove you're not just a bully and a sour old man?" he challenged. "I'll be outside if you're man enough to face me."
With that bold declaration, Katar turned on his heel, stomping out and generating furtive frantic whispers behind him.
-ATLA-
Angka turned to face the council of elders with a mortified horror.
"I'm sure he didn't mean that," she strained, voice small.
Sokki was looking after her brother's wake with something akin to admiration. "Actually..."she said, marveling slightly, "...I think he did."
-ATLA-
The blood pounded loud and hot in his ears as he stalked down the steps, moving with purpose, more sure of himself than he'd ever been.
He barely even noticed it when his sister and Angka caught up with him.
"You know you can't win this fight, right?" Sokki told him.
Katar bunched up the hem of his parka, yanking it up and over his head, tossing it haphazardly behind him into Sokki's arms.
"I don't care," he growled, the fire hot in his veins, throbbing in his head. "I'm fighting him anyway."
"Katar, you don't have to do this for me," Angka was begging. "I can handle Master Pakku's methods."
His head screamed in outrage at her timid words, remembering the way she shrunk under Pakku's criticism, accepted it with numb posture and blank face.
She shouldn't have to accept that! She was the Avatar! She was all of their hopes for a brighter tomorrow, their only chance at defeating the Firelord and ending the hundred years of war!
"He can't treat you like you're nothing!" he snapped. "Like you're worthless. Someone has to slap some sense into that guy! I'm going to make him see how important you are."
To me, he finished inside his head. To everyone. To the whole world.
He stopped at the base of the stairs and waited.
After a tense moment or two Pakku appeared at the top of the stairs.
Katar gripped his fists. "So you decide to show up?" he threw at the man, watching him descend the staircase.
Pakku came down the last few steps... and then walked straight past Katar.
Infuriated, the boy shouted at the man's back. "Aren't you going to fight?!" he cried.
The man didn't even turn around.
"Go back to the healing huts with the women, since you enjoy that so much," he said, witheringly.
Katar burned with anger and outrage as he watched Pakku's receding back. Almost instinctively, almost without even thinking about it, he conjured a water tendril from the icy floor and sent it flying towards Pakku.
It smacked him across the neck, harshly.
Pakku flinched briefly, then recovered.
"Fine," he snapped, turning around with a haughty glare. "You want to fight so bad?" A manic light was in his eyes. "Study closely!"
With that, it was on.
Pakku immediately called up water from the two open pools in the courtyard, winding them around himself like a protective shield.
Katar charged in, streaking straight for the waterbending master. But quick as a flash the water was a solid tendril that smacked him in the face, upending him off his feet.
He managed to recover in time to land on his haunches, one palm on the ice, looking up.
The same water tendril had expanded and was now swirling around both him and Pakku, encircling them in a barrier. Katar glanced nervously at its swift-moving current, then struck out with a motion from his arm.
The water was smacked away, flying off into the crowd of onlookers.
(Sokki had the misfortune of catching it and went sailing away with an indignant, "Ow!")
Katar charged again, a small tendril of water clutched at his right side like a whip.
Pakku blocked him by raising up a water wall and freezing it.
It was just the right curvature for him to run up its surface though. His feet slid, and as he flew off the top he was able to angle himself to land on the top of one of the pillars at the base of the great stairs.
A little bit shocked at the skillful move, Katar turned around in his crouch, whipping his head back towards his opponent.
Pakku melted the whole water wall and sent it gushing towards him, crashing like an ocean wave.
Katar stood, turned, dug his feet into the snow of the pillar and anchored them by freezing them in place. As the wave crashed around him, he redirected it and let it fade into nothing, petering out into mist and droplets.
He straightened up, glaring across the distance at Pakku.
"Apologize to her!" he shouted.
The waterbending master was a stone statue, expression cold. "No," he said.
Katar detached one foot from the ice in order to stomp it stubbornly. "Apologize!" he demanded again.
"All this over a girl, Katar?" sneered Pakku, bringing up another ice shield. "Surely you're better than that."
"Angka will defeat the Firelord!" he declared, jumping down from the pillar, fists clenched tightly. "She's going to save the world!"
He could hear cheers from the crowd behind him, and when he glanced back he though Angka might be blushing.
"I won't hold my breath," Pakku said, witheringly, drawing Katar's attention and wrath again.
Katar ran forward, one quick chopping motion melting Pakku's shield. He got into very close range, throwing punches now, forgetting waterbending entirely.
That was a mistake, for Pakku nonchalantly blocked or side-stepped his wild blows and raised him up off the ground in a bubble of water that he promptly dunked into one of the pools.
Katar sputtered as he came up, coughing. The freezing water made his clothes cling to him, made him shiver, but the encouraging shouts from the crowd bolstered him, Angka had her hands cupped around her mouth and was shouting, "Go Katar!"
Invigorated, he froze the water in front of him, forming a pillar as a defensive barrier, and began skimming ice discs off the top of it, thin and sharp.
Pakku dodged all of them, but Katar was meanly satisfied at how worried he looked, when one of the discs shaved just a hair too closely.
Out of the pool now, adrenaline chasing away the cold, Katar attacked again, swirling a glut of water in a tight circle and sending it towards Pakku.
He caught it with very little effort, taking control of it from him. The water spun around Pakku, raising up behind him in a tall tornado.
Heedless, Katar charged, getting swept away for his efforts. He was turned head over heels and deposited flat, raising up quickly to his hands and knees.
The cold was soaking into him now, almost painful and burning. He could feel his hair starting to come loose from its ties, bangs fraying in front of his face.
His anger wasn't working. He needed to focus.
Katar took in a frigid breath of air... and breathed it out slowly in a white misty puff.
Composed, he leapt to his feet, raising his hands.
The ice pillars on either side of Pakku broke apart and started crumbling onto him.
With a thrust of his hands, Pakku dissolved the chunks into mist.
Things paused for a moment. Katar breathed heavily with exertion, his damp clothes itching and uncomfortable against his front and back, hands clenched loosely by his sides.
Pakku let the mist clear, looking... begrudgingly impressed.
"You are an excellent waterbender," he admitted. "You could have been my best student. It's a shame you lack the motivation," he tutted.
"I have plenty of motivation!" Katar argued back hotly. "You're just a lousy teacher!" Katar smirked as he thought of something that would really piss the man off. "Yagoda taught me better than you ever could," he taunted.
"Good for her," Pakku snapped, dry and withering. "But she can't teach you everything." He dropped into a stance, poised and ready. "Well? Do you want to fight like a man or heal like a woman, Katar?"
Katar's fists gripped a little tighter.
"If you ever had to watch someone you love die because you couldn't do either..." he said, voice unnaturally quiet and chilling, "...you'd understand why I want to learn to do both!"
The last word was punctuated with a rolling carpet of snow streaking across the plaza floor towards Pakku, stopped by the pillar of ice he rode up to avoid it. The waterbending master melted the pillar and surfed atop its crest, heading for Katar.
Katar sent a wave, but his own water was frozen in place; Pakku closed the distance and knocked him over with a harsh blow.
Dazed, Katar pushed himself off the ice.
While he was still rising, he found himself stuck in a forest of sharp icicles, the points digging in all around him, a last haughty attack from Pakku. Momentarily pinned, Katar strained against the ice's hold.
It wouldn't budge.
Frustrated, Katar yelled at Pakku, who was nonchalantly walking away now, apparently satisfied with his victory.
"Come back here!" he shouted. "I'm not finished yet!"
"Yes. You are," Pakku told him.
Katar grit his teeth and prepared to break out of the icicles forcibly, but then Pakku stopped in his tracks, attention captured by something.
The man bent down, picking something up off the ice and Katar's throat hitched.
His mother's necklace. He hadn't even noticed it had been knocked off.
Pakku holding it scalded him with outrage for a moment before the man said something completely unexpected.
"This is my necklace..."
Shocked, Katar went still. "No it's not," he argued, but his words had no bite to them anymore, a slow-dawning realization coming over him. "It's mine. Give it back."
"Iiiiiiit's our mother's," Sokki hastened to interject, running over to quickly add the clarification. "She got it from our grandmother. Who..." Sokki rubbed the back of her head. "...might have been from here? We think?"
Pakku was holding the tiny shell pendant like it was a precious jewel, staring at it with sadness.
"Was her name Kanna?" he asked, tone broken, like that of a beaten man.
The ice dissolved from around him. Katar wasn't sure if he'd done it or if Pakku had released him.
His hands dropped to his sides, in either case.
"She was supposed to marry you, wasn't she?" he guessed.
Pakku nodded, solemn. "I carved this necklace for your grandmother when we got engaged. I thought we would have a long, happy life together." His head bowed, his words soft. "I loved her."
This side of the waterbending master threw Katar. Gone was the proud, snarky, harsh old man. The man who'd replaced him was sad, and hurting, worn down by the years.
Lonely.
Katar found, in that moment, that he pitied him.
"But she didn't love you," he guessed. "It was an arranged marriage."
From the slump in Pakku's shoulders, Katar knew he'd hit upon the truth.
"That's why she left," Katar realized. "She didn't want her life to be defined by your tribe's rules and customs. She wanted more."
Pakku sighed fondly, holding the necklace close to his chest. "Such a spitfire, my Kanna," he said wistfully. "You remind me of her. You have the same spirit."
He turned around, holding the pendant out reverently.
Katar stepped forward and took it, gently, looking up at Pakku and seeing a strange fondness in his eyes.
"I'm glad she found some happiness, in the end," the master admitted, stepping back.
"Even if it wasn't with you?" Katar asked, and underneath the question were a thousand more, heavy with unspoken thoughts.
Do you forgive her? Do you still love her? Are you willing to let go of that bitterness and resentment? Are you willing to think better of the fairer sex now? Will you still teach me? Will you still teach her?
They all crowded at the forefront of his thoughts, but he didn't voice them.
Pakku's mouth twitched at the corners. "Well, as you say, I can be a bit of an ass," he quipped.
The tension in the air seemed to dissipate. There were murmurs from the gathered crowd, curious whispers. Onlookers glanced towards each other, bewildered.
Pakku composed himself, speaking louder.
"Avatar!" he called.
Angka stiffened at his summons, quickly pushing forward through the crowd and coming down the stairs within range.
"Y-yes Master Pakku?" she stammered, nervous.
Clasping his hands behind him, Pakku bent slightly at the waist, lowering his chin. "I... apologize. I have been unfair to you, and harsher on you than I should have been. I would like to continue teaching you, if you will have me. But I understand if you don't want to."
Angka darted a glance towards Katar, as if checking if it was okay.
Katar nodded, softly.
Angka looked back, taking a deep breath.
"I need the best teacher I can get if I'm going to defeat the Firelord," she said. Her toe scuffed into the ice and she looked down, soberly. "I know I'm not really strong, or powerful, or brave..." she said, tracing circles with her shoe. "Not like the warriors you're used to training." Visibly swallowing, she looked up again, earnestly. "But I promise to do my absolute best!" she declared. "It's my destiny to restore balance, so..."
She dropped her head again, blushing.
"...that's what I'm going to do."
A pregnant moment passed, and then Pakku smiled softly and put a patronizingly affectionate hand on her bowed head.
"Well... let's get to work then," he said.
Katar breathed out, something inside him loosening and unwinding, a light feeling like he was weightless filling his stomach.
-ATLA-
"Again!" Pakku barked.
Angka furrowed her brows in concentration and tightened her water ball, compressing it. She held it for a moment before swirling it into a neat stream, away from her, shooting off to the side.
Pakku nodded. "Not bad. You've almost as much raw talent as Katar," he complimented, nodding towards the boy as he was running up the stairs, late from attending Yagoda's healing lesson. "Who would be much further along in his own training if he could bother to prioritize," he called sharply, as the boy made it up the stairs and heaved.
Katar breathed heavily, hands on his knees, for a moment before straitening.
"Sorry I'm late, master," he apologized respectfully.
Pakku's eyes were light with mirth.
"Just don't let it happen again," he quipped. "You want to protect her don't you?" he teased.
Katar laughed awkwardly and blushed, dropping into a stance and preparing for his lesson.
(A/N)- Pakku continues to be a sexist dick and Katar calls him out on it, Katar throws down for his beloved (and does a decent job of it actually), Angka is bravely Enduring Through It like a shoujo heroine (and kind of flattered/touched by Katar's devotion and willingness to slap a bitch for her?) and meanwhile Sokki is falling allllll over herself around Yuan and saying the wrong things but eventually working things out. (And also slapping bitches for him.)
*wipes brow* When I tell you this chapter has been a concept in my head since I first had this idea... I knew it was going to change from a generic (though cool!) Girl Power type episode and conflict into being about Katar proving both his worth and Angka's, because while he would get all the snide mockery about not fitting into the Norther Water Tribe's traditional gender roles, Angka would bear the brunt of Pakku's attitude and abuse and Katar would get a chance to finally make a real stand protecting her, which has been all he's wanted to do from the beginning. Progress!
Sokki and Yuan I mostly kept to the background and offscreen, at least for this chapter, since they're not what I wanted to put most of the focus on, and as you can see I've switched events up from their arc, timing-wise, but they'll get a bit more sceentime next chapter because (surprise surprise) Sokki's relationship with him and reaction to his tragic death is going to wind up being a pivotal point in her character development (and her beginning to forgive Katar for their mother's death). For now though, we will enjoy her being a disaster about him.
What else did I want to talk about? Oh yes! The expansion of the scene after the big waterbending fight was mostly to smooth the transition from Pakku Having A Sad about Kanna to being okay with training Katara/Katar. I like to think realizing Kanna had grandchildren helped him put things in perspective like, "Oh. There was a man whom she was capable of falling in love with. Huh. Maybe the problem was me all along." I do love a good internal realization.
Bit of spoilers ahead about the posting schedule, I'm going to finish the chapters that cover Season One and then take about a month-long hiatus, to focus on other projects and WIPs. I've got some interesting things ahead though, on this story, so bear with me as patiently as you have been and we'll continue taking this adventure together.
Until next chapter!