Zuko and Azula squared off, him grimly determined, her casually confident. On anyone else, it would have been cockiness.
"Firebending comes from emotion. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you."
Zuko dutifully did exactly as he was told, launching into a furious assault, all whirling fire and explosions. Azula blocked some of his attacks, darted around others, and swept his leg. He crashed to the mat.
She skipped back out of range – 'Never assume a downed opponent isn't dangerous!' – and leaned back, smirking. "Humiliation must not count as rage, huh," she said, just quietly enough that Father could pretend not to hear.
Zuko waved the memory aside. He rolled over to look out across the Earth Kingdom below, sliding in and out of sight as Appa flew along. There was a town ahead, but it was barely midday, they really had to keep going.
Father always said firebending came from rage. Uncle says it comes from breath. But Azula is never angry, she's always in control, and her breath work is perfect. Is Uncle right?
She can control her emotions, and she can control her bending.
So it's about the ability to control your rage? You start by generating raw power, like how a martial artist needs strength training or a singer learns to belt it out, before learning to control that strength?
Makes sense to me. But there's another thing …
Azula blasted blue fire across the Spirit Oasis, punching straight through the elite firebenders' defences.
… even Father doesn't use all-blue fire. Is she better than him? How am I supposed to compete with that?! How do I even know if I'm on the right track? I can't ask Uncle, he can't do it either.
"Hey!" Aang shouted in excitement. "Sokka, take over!" And he jumped overboard, his glider snapping out. Appa snuffed, unimpressed, and kept going straight.
Sokka and Katara hurried over to see what had him so excited. They'd reached the outskirts of town, which already had visitors: a circus had set up around the town square. Aang was almost there.
Oh. This town. Fuzhen.
Yep.
"I think I'll stay here," he said.
Sokka raised an eyebrow. "What was it you said? 'That kid's a disaster magnet, and he's an idiot. I'm scared to make water because I know there'll be four hundred soldiers surrounding him when I get back.'"
"I never said that."
"Oh, was it actually five hundred soldiers?"
"This is an Earth Kingdom town. He'll be fine."
Sokka and Katara stared at him.
"… You've been here before, haven't you," Katara realised. "Hunting the Avatar. And they attacked you, and you can't see why they'd be so unreasonable, you only marched in with a squad of armed soldiers, probably with those stupid rhinos, setting their houses on fire …"
"It wasn't like that," Zuko said. "I wasn't here for the Avatar then."
"And anyway, they should have been honoured to have their town burned down by His Royal Highness Prince Zuko," Sokka said, affecting his idea of an upper-class accent.
"I sound nothing like that."
"So then what were you doing here?" Katara asked.
Can you imagine the lecture she'd give us if we answered that honestly?
"Will you promise to drop it and leave it alone if I agree to play babysitter today?"
"No," she said.
"It would be nice to have backup," Sokka told her. "These things never go smooth."
"What am I, chopped liver?" she asked, indignant.
"No, you're a proficient waterbender," Sokka said.
Katara spluttered.
Zuko smirked. "Just for that, I'm in," he said, pulling a balaclava out of his yoroi.
"You know," Katara counterattacked, "you wouldn't have to wear those ridiculous disguises everywhere if you just stopped shaving your head and wore a topknot like everyone else from the Earth Kingdom –"
"I don't have to take lectures on blending in from someone who wore a parka to the tropics –"
"I'll see you guys tonight," Sokka said, setting off for the circus.
Zuko in fact didn't attract any attention: as they approached the circus, there were crowds everywhere, including plenty of performers and circus-goers wearing masks, and he could pass as a stage hand. They pressed to where the crowds were thickest, which of course turned out to be around Aang, who was juggling three small children on balls of air. All four of them were shrieking with laughter.
Seeing Sokka's disapproving expression, Aang gave the kids back to their parents and hurried over, waving the crowd away. They found a quieter spot between a red and a green tent to talk.
"You'll never believe what I saw," he said, beaming.
"Was it a circus?" Sokka asked.
Aang gave him a look. "You'll never believe who I saw at the circus."
"Was it King Bumi? You know, the guy we're actually looking for –"
"It was an Air Nomad. The hair and outfit were wrong, but she had an Air Nomad face. I'm positive. I took my eyes off her for a second and I lost her, but she's still here, I know it."
Katara and Sokka stared at him.
"Aang," Katara said in her gentlest tone, "I know you want there to be another, but –"
"I know! But couldn't someone have survived somehow? Sozin couldn't have got all of us. He didn't get me."
Katara and Sokka exchanged glances.
"I mean …" Sokka began.
"Do you not know this?" Zuko asked incredulously.
They looked at him.
"We know what the Fire Nation did to the Air Nomads, a hundred years ago," Katara said severely.
Zuko stared a moment, then facepalmed.
"You think we wiped them out?" he asked. "Who told you that, Fong? Why would we want to exterminate an entire population?"
The other three all spoke at the same time.
"You didn't?" Aang asked.
"Why didn't you say anything earlier?!" Katara asked.
"It's just something you do," Sokka said.
Zuko took a moment to disentangle their responses, then decided Katara's was the most sensible. "I thought it was obvious. You know we take prisoners, we've captured you at least twice – no, three times, if you get up to seven you win a prize –"
"But we found skeletons at the Southern Air Temple," said Sokka.
"I'm not saying there wasn't a battle. The point was to neutralise the Avatar and the airbender army, so –"
"The Air Nomads didn't have an army," Aang interrupted. "We were peaceful. We only trained at martial arts for self-defence."
"Okay. Fire Lord Sozin didn't want to neutralise the army, he wanted to neutralise the corps of military-grade benders who would take self-defensive partisan action against him." Not giving Aang time to formulate a response, "He knew that the Avatar was a boy, but not which one, so he demanded the surrender of all master airbenders and all boys."
Aang made a face. "Everyone was a master airbender, spirituality was a big part of our culture. And imprisoning an airbender – freedom is the most important thing to us. That's a fate worse than death."
"Well, what were we supposed to do?"
"Did you consider not invading?"
"I don't know, did Avatar Roku consider not trying to assassinate Fire Lord Sozin?"
"Avatars don't assassinate people, there must be more to it."
"Do you want me to tell you what happened or not?"
"Are you telling me real history, or are you just slandering my people?" Aang shot back.
They hadn't resolved their arguments at Fong's fortress, which probably wasn't healthy, but nobody had shown any inclination to apologise or back down, so by tacit agreement, they'd mostly dropped it. Still, Aang had been tetchy since then, at least by his usual standards.
Zuko held up a hand for silence, counted backward from five, and continued. "We offered terms. The boys refused and fought to the last man, but a lot of girls surrendered. Maybe because we knew the Avatar wasn't a girl, so there was no question of them being locked up for life. Maybe because girls just can't get enough of being taken prisoner," this directed at Katara, who poked her tongue out at him. "They were taken back to the Fire Nation, held for a while, then integrated and naturalised. Some even married into the aristocracy. One of my best friends was an ethnic Air Nomad."
"Oh," Aang said, processing this emotional bombshell. "… Well, that's great! I'll meet them after the war. But what about the one I just saw here?"
Probably a spy. Now that I think about it, doesn't our side sponsor a circus to travel the Earth Kingdom and send reports?
Professional courtesy is to cover for her.
"There were plenty of other Air Nomads outside the temples on the day of the battle," he said. "There must be hidden enclaves all over the Earth Kingdom. One of their descendants got bored and joined a circus. So what?"
"You wouldn't say so what if you'd spent the last two months thinking you were the last surviving Fire National. Come on, guys, help me look for her."
"This is a bad idea," Zuko said, hurrying after as Aang took Katara's hand and pulled her along. "This is a large town, there are bound to be Fire Nation informants here."
"Then they've already noticed us," Katara said, walking backward, "and we might as well enjoy ourselves."
"That's –!"
"Just roll with it," Sokka said, following in Zuko's slipstream as they re-entered the crowd. "When they get like this, you can't stop them."
"This place is packed. How are we supposed to find one person?"
"You always found us. How hard can it be?"
"You're right. Let's ask whether anyone's seen a flying bison passing by lately. Or a girl with hair loopies."
Katara rolled her eyes.
"Actually, you are kind of an expert on finding people," Sokka said. "What would you do?"
"Give up, because this is a waste of daylight. There's a Fire Nation fort not too far from here; they'll be on us by tomorrow."
"So we'll leave by this evening," Aang said. "We can't travel nonstop, Appa has to graze sometime. Poor boy lost weight up north. Seriously, where would you look first?"
I can't believe we're getting roped into this.
You can't? I saw this coming, like, fifteen minutes ago.
"Find out who's in charge and ask him. He'll have a staff roster."
"… That's it?" Sokka asked, disappointed. "You just ask to check some records? You don't, like, drip blood into a ritual bowl and conjure the dark fire spirits or something?"
Zuko gave him a look.
"What makes you so sure she's not from the town, anyway?" Sokka pressed.
Because about fifty years ago, the Earth Kingdom realised that we were using former Air Nomads as spies, and drove most of them out of their towns. They probably killed more than we did.
"A hunch."
They turned to the stalls. There were any number of attractions – animal shows, sweets, dancers – but Zuko found himself at a goldfish scooping booth, which he hadn't done since he was a kid and which he was certain wasn't an Earth Kingdom game. On autopilot, he reached for his purse.
"What's this about?"
Katara was at his elbow, Aang and Sokka in tow.
He pulled his hand out, empty. "Just an old game. They play it back home, too. Probably different rules here. We're looking for the ringmaster," he added to the booth owner, a man whose robe was pink on the left and bright green on the right.
The man's eyes flicked over to Aang's head arrow, the universal passport. "You want Shuzumu. White moustache and beard, probably in the medium red tent that way."
"So," Sokka said, as they set off again, "what were you doing the last time you were here? I thought you'd been looking for the Avatar nonstop since you left the Fire Nation."
Zuko gave him a look, then, realising his expression couldn't convey disdain with a mask in the way, "I have a life outside of you, you know."
Sokka, Katara, and Aang all laughed.
"Let me guess," Sokka said. "The circus was here then, too, and you wanted to join. As a … juggler."
"That's stupid," Zuko said. "You're stupid."
"There was a dance-off," Aang said. "You took second place, and swore vengeance on the guy who took first."
"No, it was a girl," Sokka joined in, "and she has sworn to marry no-one except the man who can out-dance her, and she won't go down without a fight."
"But that's the only way Zuko can ever return to the Fire Nation," Aang said, then, in a deep, gravelly voice, "You may only return if you become the greatest dancer in the world."
"You're awfully talkative for someone flammable," Zuko said.
Aang wasn't listening: he'd turned to chase his lemur, who'd picked that moment to raid a nearby cotton candy booth. "No! Bad Momo!"
Sokka dashed around to the left, grinning. "Go right! I'll cut him off! Katara, cover us!" He bumped into the booth as he ran past, threatening to tip it over.
He and Aang tore through the crowd, laughing manically while Momo led them a chase, the cotton candy vendor shaking his fist at them. Katara watched them go, a mother cat ensuring her kittens didn't get into too much trouble.
Your daily reminder: we lost to these guys.
"… Now what?" Zuko asked.
"You don't really get circuses, do you," Katara said, coming up beside him. To hear each other over the general hubbub, they practically had to walk shoulder to shoulder.
"Right. Like you even had circuses in the South Pole."
"No, but we had times to go out and have fun. Is there a Fire Nation word for that, tanoshi-kun or something –"
"We had fun in the Fire Nation. But there's a time for that, and a time for taking things seriously!"
"So we'll do that," she said, "and find the administrator, while they unwind. And if there's time we'll go shopping, and you can help me carry the groceries." He gave her a look; she met it steadily. "You eat my cooking, it's the least you can do."
"I eat your cooking because you don't let me touch your pots to do it myself."
"I don't let you touch my pots because when I did, you left wasabi residue and nearly killed us all."
"You know, for someone who talks so much about appreciating other cultures –"
A group of scream-laughing children ran past them. One smacked into Zuko at a full sprint and bounced off; Zuko caught him before he could fall over.
"Be careful," he said, righting him.
"Sorry, mister," said the boy, and ran off.
"… What?" Zuko said to Katara, who was eyeing him strangely.
She shrugged. "Nothing. It's just odd seeing you with kids."
And not threatening to set them on fire.
Why are we thinking in her voice?! Turn it off! Turn it off!
He coughed loudly, which somehow turned into an actual coughing fit. She gave him a bemused look while he cleared his throat properly. There was a pause.
"Zuko … why did you come here before?"
"Taking on supplies."
"Nice try. You would've said so right away if it were that easy. And you wouldn't have wanted to stay with Appa."
"Taking captives for the nextlahualli. The New Fire ceremony is this year. You should watch yourself, a waterbender would be the perfect offering."
"Now that one I can believe."
He gently shoulder-checked her. "We haven't done that in millennia."
She shoulder-checked him back. "You're still capturing waterbenders."
"Hey, I only did that once. I think. And you should thank me for that. If I hadn't been there, those pirates would have taken the scroll back. And probably sold you on a slave market and called it interest owed."
"Thanks, Princeling Charmbender, for gallantly rescuing me from the pirates that you led to me."
He made to say something caustic, but he glanced at her, and she was smiling, looking at a stall with stuffed animals. He'd expected an Azula smile, mocking and vindictive, but it was a Ty Lee smile, simply and honestly happy. His heart skipped a beat.
This is a circus, after all.
Oh, whatever.
He allowed himself a small smile of his own, and they pushed into the tent.
Ringmaster Shuzumu was an old but sharp man dressed in Earth Kingdom green. He was bent over a travelling desk, going over a ledger. He looked up as they approached.
"Excuse me," Katara said, "but we're looking for an Air Nomad girl."
"Uh-huh," said Shuzumu, looking her up and down. "Who are you and why should I care? I'm a busy man."
"My name's Katara," she said, not yet annoyed enough to stop being polite. "I'm travelling with the Avatar."
Gears visibly turned in Shuzumu's head.
"He says he saw one," she continued, "but he lost track of her. Um, we can bring Aang here, if you don't believe me."
"That won't be necessary, Miss," he said, his tone much more conciliatory than a moment before. "I make a point of not asking about my performers' pasts, you understand, a lot of people join the circus to get away from things they'd rather not talk about, and it's really none of my business. But, I think I know who you mean. Air Nomads have quite a distinctive head shape."
He tapped his fingers thoughtfully.
"Yes, but she might be difficult to find," he went on. "She's pulled some muscles lately, so she's not rostered to perform, and she sometimes goes walkabout. I'll have my people look for her and tell her to find you. In the meantime, why don't you enjoy the circus? As honoured guests, of course." He pulled a couple of VIP lanyards from his robe.
"Oh. Thank you very much."
"No trouble at all, Miss Katara. Enjoy your time here!"
He smiled them out of the tent.
"Let's keep looking around, then?" Katara said. "Or do you have any other ideas?"
"Uh," Zuko said.
He was lying, right?
Definitely. He's going to string us along while he sends for the garrison, then collect the Avatar bounty. Even money says he doesn't even have any Air Nomad girls, and this is all a snipe goose hunt.
Ugh. How do we convince … what do we call them, again?
The Gaang?
No. Not that. Never that. How do we convince the others that we have to leave, without it blowing up into a fight?
Katara was snapping her fingers in front of his face. He waved her off.
"Did you hear anything at all that I said?" she asked.
"Funny way to start a conversation."
"Oh, ha ha. Come on." She took his arm and pulled him along.
"Aren't you supposed to still be mad at me for yelling at the Avatar, back at Fong's fortress?"
"Because that's the perfect thing to talk about at a circus."
Sifu Charmbender strikes again.
Never let Azula hear that nickname.
Katara gave Zuko a wide window to talk about anything else, but he kept quiet.
"Aang's a pacifist," she said at length. "I love that about him, that he can be so optimistic and believe in something so wonderful. But, it's too idealistic. There is a war; and how can he hope to end it if he doesn't believe in fighting it?"
Aang will do what he has to. Just like me.
"So maybe you have a point," she went on. "Maybe he's naive, and he should wise up. But then again, just because I don't understand pacifism doesn't mean there isn't an answer. If it really is as crazy as it seems, I can't imagine how the Air Nomads could have lasted for as long as they did. And even if you're right, it doesn't mean you aren't a jerk. But then, even if you're a jerk doesn't mean you don't have a point."
I can't tell whether that was supposed to be a compliment or insult.
Let's assume insult, just on general principles.
"And whether or not you're a jerk or you have a point, you did … help me, then."
She's deliberately not saying outright that she was buried.
Neither did we, for months after when it happened to us. Bloody earthbending. It's worse than getting burned.
"And it was partly your fault that I needed help, because I'm sure Aang would have got me out if you hadn't torn into him like that. But, still. Worrying about all that is exhausting," she concluded. "So for today, can we just enjoy the circus?"
"… Where are we going, again?"
"Right here."
She'd stopped by the fish scooping stall.
"You wanted to play, didn't you?" she asked.
"It's been years."
"Then maybe I'll beat you. How do you play?"
He showed her how to use the delicate little nets to scoop fish into bags. She tore her first net in seconds, as beginners always do, but then she watched him, and her next attempt was much better. He suspected she was using waterbending to subtly cheat, but maybe she just had excellent intuition about how viscous water was and how fast she could get away with moving the net. Either way, she improved quickly, scooping fish one after another into her bag. He went faster, showing off a little, and she sped up to match him, a competitive gleam in her eyes.
Out of nowhere, Momo hopped onto his arm and stole a fish. Zuko snatched him, but the same motion knocked his bag back into the pool, releasing all his fish at once. Momo chirped and tried to wriggle free, but Zuko held him firmly.
Aang and Sokka ran up, both out of breath and looking like they'd had the time of their lives. They caught Zuko's expression and took little steps back.
"Uh," Sokka said.
"Here," Zuko said. He tossed Momo overarm at Aang, maybe a little harder than he had to. Momo screeched.
"Thanks," was all Aang said about it, after checking Momo wasn't hurt. "Did we miss anything?"
"The circus man said the Air Nomad girl was one of his performers," said Katara, "and he'd send people to find her."
"Which we shouldn't stick around for," Zuko said, "because for all we know, she might be visiting friends at the town, and she won't turn up for days."
Katara gave him a sharp look but said nothing.
Aang considered this. "Then we should keep searching ourselves."
"Where would you look next?" Sokka asked Zuko.
"I might keep asking the carnies: maybe one of them is her friend. But Shuzumu is already doing that. His people know her better than we do: either they can find her or they can't."
"I love how much more proactive you are when the things you're trying to do benefit you rather than anyone else," said Katara.
"I love how much more important the things I choose to do are," he replied.
Aang's ears perked up at the sound of music. "We don't have to find her," he said. "Air Nomads love music and dancing. We'll wait for her to come to us!"
"There's no way this works," Zuko said, following along.
"Bet you five coppers it does," Sokka said.
"… No bet."
Aang led them into a big yellow tent where a five-man band on a stage was striking up a song. Some carnies were dancing, and people were filtering in.
"Let's dance," Aang said.
"Um," Katara said. "I don't really know how …"
"No," Sokka said.
"If you try to make me dance," said Zuko, "I will start killing and I will not stop."
"Come on!" Aang said to Katara. He stood on tiptoes to whisper something into her ear.
"Aang, I can't hear you, it's too noisy in here."
"Right. Uh, I just said, open-hand circling, open break, pass, high kick and under, reverse open break, contra high kick under, roundoff –"
"Aang, what are you talking about? I don't know dancing terminology."
"Oh right. It's like this," he said, and did a cartwheel into handspring.
Katara stared in open-mouthed horror, possibly imagining breaking her neck trying the advanced high-strength gymnastics, but the nearest circus-goers applauded.
A pretty Earth Kingdom girl made her way over. "Wow, that's so cool," she said. Her voice had a drawl to it that stretched every syllable just a little bit too long. "You're the Avatar, aren't you? I'm Fang. I'm such a big fan."
"Uh," Aang said, seeing his plan begin to backfire.
"Really?" Sokka said, grinning, and subtly moving to interpose himself between her and Aang. "So I guess you're also an airbender?"
"Huh?" she said. "No, I'm actually an earthbender, but I'm not very good."
"No, I mean, like, fan? Because they blow air?"
There was a longish pause.
"Oh, I get it," said Fang. "That's funny."
"Uh," said Aang. To Katara, "I was about to say, how about waterbending forms, without the water?"
"… Does that count as dancing?" Katara asked anxiously.
"Why not? Dancing is just self-expression. Lots of people express themselves through bending forms. Just try it."
"Okay …"
He led her into the centre of the dance floor, and they began doing their thing, pushing and pulling at imaginary water, swaying around in complementary motions.
Zuko awkwardly stood at the sidelines, scowling and wondering why he felt like he'd been outmanoeuvred.
They look ridiculous.
That's a lie and you know it. They look fabulous.
Well, I look ridiculous for being here.
He turned and marched off.
It should have been a nice carnival, full of music, performers, beautiful tents, and stalls selling sweets, but he was suddenly in the sort of foul mood where seeing other people be happy only makes it worse. He stomped around until he found a dark tent, full of caged animals but no humans.
Animals are okay. I think we can do animals.
He flumped down.
Nggh. Stupid, stupid …
I'm not the one who's wrong here. I'm risking my neck being with them, the least they can do is hurry up and get to Omashu, but no, we're stopping to sit around so they can have a dance party.
Appa has to eat –
You can shut up.
Sorry.
Not that I'm happy to have to ride that flying carpet rather than a ship. We could be doing so many more useful things. We could be training, we could … actually. 'Use your aggressive feelings, boy.'
He knelt in meditation, shut his eyes, and counted a hundred breaths.
Build the rage, combine with the fourteenth breath form, maintain awareness of body, channel the chi, no mistakes, nothing but perfection, cultivate, expand, refine, DESTROY –
He bent a fistful of flame, then slowly opened his eyes. Flickering orange light entered them.
"Damn it!"
He shot a fireball at nothing, and the animals around him burst out into hooting, squawking, howling. He winced and tried to shush them, but the tent flap peeled back and someone came in.
"Uh," he said, panicking. "They – there was a mousequito."
"Zuko?"
It was Sokka.
"Oh. You." He blinked. "Didn't you have a thing with whatshername the water princess?"
"Princess Yue, what about her?"
Zuko pointed to Sokka's elbow, which Fang was hanging off of. Sokka jumped, startled, and shooed her off and out of the tent.
"You can't be firebending in an Earth Kingdom town," he said when she was gone. He approached one of the cages suspiciously, but the animals had mostly quieted down. "Not one where you picked a fight before."
"I didn't pick any fights last time," Zuko said curtly. "And it's fine. This circus is full of firebenders."
"Huh? How do you know?"
"I can tell a firebender when I see one. They just haven't been bending because we're here. Our side will have warned them that the last time the Avatar ran into firebenders, there were no survivors."
"… Ah."
"Yeah. 'Ah'. Everything's fine," he said again. "So why are you still here?"
"Well, first, do I need to know why you riled these critters up in the first place?"
Ugh. Do we have to answer?
No, but explaining why will be faster than explaining why we don't want to explain, so …
He harrumphed and sat back down. "Blue fire," he said. "It's one of the firebending forms, any master can do it."
"Right," Sokka said, sitting opposite him, "I was going to ask about that after Azula. Isn't fire, you know, orange?"
"Wood fires are. Perfect firebending is blue. It burns hotter. It hits harder, it's almost impossible to block …"
"Okay. So, why don't you do it that way? Why doesn't everyone?"
"Because you have to be perfect. Total combustion. Meditate for an hour, and a master can bend a blue spark. It was one of Uncle's party tricks. But to bend blue fireballs for an entire battle?" He shook his head. "She's … I have no idea how she did that. And I can't do it at all."
Sokka processed that.
"That doesn't actually answer the question but okay," he said. "The second thing I was going to ask is: do you have a thing for my sister?"
There was a beat.
"You mean Katara?"
"No, my other sister, Najak." He indicated the empty space next to himself. "Najak, say hi to Zuko. Sorry, she's normally not this shy –"
"Okay! I asked because I thought it was pretty obvious we hate each other. We fight all the time –"
"So? Suki and I fought too, that doesn't mean anything."
Who's Suki?
Who cares?
"My hatred for your sister is purely platonic."
"Sure. So if I were mortally wounded in a battle, I could count on you to carry me out under fire too, right?"
"Try and see."
"And it's interesting how you never seriously hurt anyone no matter how many fights you get into, but someone threatens Katara and all of a sudden you try to chop his leg off."
"That was tactical," Zuko snapped. "He was a master earthbender and commanding officer, I had to put him down hard."
"A bender and officer. Like Zhao, you mean?"
"That was completely different."
"And at the battle at Agna Qel'a, you rescued her after Aang left, right? That means you had the choice of which of them to watch when they split up, and you chose her."
"The Avatar was retreating, I knew he'd be fine."
"Right. It's not like Zhao could have broken through anywhere other than the exact place where you happened to be, gone around, and grabbed Aang without you even noticing."
"So I didn't think everything through," Zuko said, frustrated. "None of this proves anything. I don't like her, and she doesn't like me. You don't have to do the entire protective big brother spiel."
"Huh? Oh, that's not really a Water Tribe thing. I'd be over the moon if she got a boyfriend. She might relax a bit, you know?"
"Then it's lucky the Avatar fancies her so much. You can look forward to having dozens of foambender nephews and nieces."
Sokka wrinkled his nose. "No child of my sister is going to be raised by a vegetarian father," he declared. Zuko rolled his eyes. "I'm serious! Half a man's job is to feed his wife, and don't try to tell me vegetables count. If he's not even going to try, what's the point?"
Zuko gave him a sceptical look, but he was deadly serious.
"What?" Sokka asked.
"I thought you liked him."
"Yeah, but he can't marry my sister, not if he won't feed their kids. Come on, you're the joyless serious one, you don't need me to tell you about responsibility."
Zuko would have objected to this if it weren't so true. "You can just buy meat," he said. "It's not that expensive."
"No, you can buy meat, Mr Moneybags Prince who can afford a ship with another ship inside it and like ten guys and a bunch of rhinos. We can buy rice," Sokka said, pulling out a stick of jerky to gnaw on, which he'd made by hand. "Fruit of the misery plant. Are Avatars supposed to work a day job while they aren't busy saving the world?"
Zuko frowned. As Crown Prince he had been one of the richest people in the world, and now he could barely afford a single tiny ship. And even that meagre stipend might have been cancelled by now, he'd been missing long enough.
"A lot of the previous Avatars were independently wealthy, and Jinzi's Treaty says that the four nations each have to pay stipends," he said. "It, uh, hasn't been applied for a hundred years. I don't think anyone remembers it except the Sages. And Princes who had to spend years researching everything they could about Avatars."
He'd once pored through financial records from all over the world to see if anyone might be skimming money to send to a secret bending school somewhere: one of dozens of dead end ideas.
Sokka hmmed, unimpressed. "I'll believe it when I see it. If a guy wants to marry my sister and he can't hunt, he'd better actually have money, not just some old treaty that says he should have money. Like you do," he added casually.
"… Are you trying to set us up?"
"She'd freeze me to Appa's butt again if I tried that," Sokka said with a thousand-yard stare.
"Again?"
Sokka chose not to elaborate. "Come on, neither of you would let me set them up with anyone. I'm just asking if you like her."
"Then consider it answered. Are we done?"
"Well … one last thing. When you joined us, your ship would have gone to the Fire Nation fleet, right?"
"If they even wanted it. It was fifty years out of date and barely seaworthy."
"But they needed every polar-capable ship they could get. They'd take it. And the crew." Zuko said nothing, which said everything. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I only realised yesterday. That's why you were so angry at Aang. They must have meant a lot to you."
Zuko stared balefully into the darkness.
"No, I loathed them," he said. "I was banished in disgrace. That was the worst ship in the harbour, destined for the scrapyard. I hated it. And the crew? All the screw-ups and failures that nobody else wanted. The best thing any of them ever did for the army was getting thrown out of it. Every day we didn't run aground was a gift from the gods. The lieutenant kept trying to mutiny, they deserted whenever we took port, the engine broke down constantly, and you don't even want to know what the cook liked to do with donkey dogs."
"… But?" Sokka prompted.
"… But a disgraced prince is still a Prince. They were my responsibility. And no, that's why I was angry at myself. I was angry at the Avatar because I can't stand the way he gives himself airs about Oh we can't let any people get hurt, not after what he did."
"There was a battle," Sokka said fairly.
"And if he'd said, 'We must win at all costs', I'd accept it. That's war. You're a warrior, you get it. But when someone who says even the tiniest spider-fly is sacred thinks nothing of doing that, what does that say about how much those people mattered?"
'What better to use as bait than fresh meat?'
"You know he doesn't actually think that, right?" said Sokka. "He panicked, lashed out on instinct, and rationalised it after, because he thinks he's disgracing his people's memory if he isn't a perfect paragon pacifist all the time. Sooner or later, he's going to have to admit he's wrong, because pacifism is crazy when there's a war on."
Come on, don't make him pitiable like that! Let me keep being angry!
"You know, I still don't really believe in Aang?" Sokka went on. "I mean, he's strong, anyone can see that, and I like him and all, but spirits, destiny? I don't do any of that. I believe in what I can see. Your own muscles and brains, that's how you survive."
"Why are you risking your life to follow him, then?"
"I'm not. I mean, he's practically family by now, and family has to stick together, but he wasn't family when we left the South Pole, he was just some guy. I'm risking my life to protect my sister."
Some families are just different.
"When Dad left, I promised him I'd look after her, no matter what. So when I thought she was going to die because I'd let her run off and fight a battle … maybe that was a little bit of how you feel."
A memory tickled Zuko's brain, but before he could catch it, Aang and Katara lifted the tent flap. They were giggling over something, and Aang had a half-eaten stick of something sugary in one hand and was using the other to keep Momo off it.
"Do you mind?" Zuko snapped. "We were talking."
"Yeah?" said Katara. "Having one of your man-talks, that we aren't invited to?"
Aang did not take offence at this.
"Yes, actually. Aren't the two of you supposed to be busy saving the world with interpretive dance?"
"There's twenty people outside saying they heard an explosion," said Aang, "and they want to check but are too scared. What happened?"
Zuko harrumphed. "I was doing a kata and it got out of hand. It's fine now."
"Oh that's good," said Katara, "I'll rest easy knowing mass destruction is kept in check by Prince Zuko's iron self-control."
"Whoa, wait," Aang said, walking into the dark tent. "Are these cages all full of animals?!"
"Yeah," said Zuko. "So?"
"This is cruel," Aang said. "See this lion vulture? Its cage is barely bigger than it is! And it's a bird, they need to be able to fly. All these animals need to be let out!"
"Wait, Aang," Sokka said, "those are –"
Aang brought his glider-staff down with a powerful air blast that snapped the locks off every cage at once. Most of the animals froze, but some of them ran out through the now-open doors.
"– large, territorial predators," said Sokka, his face falling, "that are probably really really hungry." He swept an arm back, pushing Katara behind himself, to her annoyance, and pulled his boomerang with his other hand.
"It's okay," Aang said, "we just have to get them out into the open, and they'll calm down."
A catigator snapped at a bull tiger, who spooked and ran the other way, tearing straight through the canvas tent. The crowd outside scattered. With the noise, light, and promise of freedom, more animals burst from their cages and stampeded toward the exit, or scratched each other, freaked out, and either rammed more cages or tore more holes in the tent.
"Nobody panic! Everything's under control!" Aang called out, snapping his glider out and taking off after them, bending massive air currents to push people out of their way.
Katara dashed after him, swirling water from a nearby trough to bend ice fences and separate the most dangerous-looking animals from circus-goers. Sokka threw his boomerang and managed to knock out the catigator. Zuko sprinted after the bull tiger, leapt onto its back, grabbed it by the horns, and tried to pull it back. It bucked hard, back and forth, and punted him into a stall. This took just long enough for the crowd ahead to scatter; the bull tiger ran out of the circus and to freedom.
Aang ran ahead, using air blasts and the odd bit of waterbending, making sure people were safe while the animals dispersed. Katara ran after him for a while, but she couldn't really keep up, so she doubled back and found Zuko, lying in a pile of splintered wood. She put her hands on her hips and gave him a Look.
"What?" he said. "If I'd blasted them, they just would have panicked more. Animals fear fire."
"Yes," she said, "so instead, you went and gave yourself another concussion. You win a prize for getting seven of those, too, you know."
"I don't have a concussion, I just got thrown."
"Let me see."
"It's fine."
"Let me see."
Grumbling, he sat up and pulled off his balaclava so she could run a column of healing water over his scalp.
Aang and Sokka wandered over at about the same time she pronounced him no more brain damaged than usual.
"I made enclosures for the animals," Aang said, pleased. "They'll be much happier this way."
"I paid for the damages," Sokka said, and Zuko would have laid odds that this was a lie, "but we really want to get going before they ask for more money. The Northern Water Tribe didn't give us that much."
"…" said Aang. "Can't we work something out? The Air Nomad girl is still –"
"Speaking as someone with experience in driving masses of people screaming in terror," said Zuko, "if she didn't run for her life from all this, it's only because she already ran for it when Shuzumu's people told her that a city-destroying kaiju was coming for her. She's gone, Avatar."
"I'm not a city-destroying kaiju," Aang said sulkily.
"Clearly," Zuko said, indicating the general destruction the stampede had left.
"…" said Aang.
He didn't apologise or agree or back down, but he had a thoughtful expression.
"Come on," Katara said. "We should go."
Slipping out of Fuzhen chased by an angry mob demanding money from us. How nostalgic.
When he'd had the idea that he should search the poles for the Avatar, his lieutenant had pointed out that their ship wasn't designed for polar water. Retrofitting would cost more than his stipend would cover. So, he'd raided the town's coffers.
It barely counted as stealing: the local rulers had been amassing wealth at the peasants' expense, over-taxing them without giving anything in return. The villagers had scattered when Zuko's men had come through, no loyalty there. When they realised he was making off with a pile of gold, they'd tried to chase him down, but he'd forced them back with a few flashy fire blasts.
Back then, he'd retreated to his ancient, constantly breaking ship, where Uncle Iroh had given him a look but said nothing. This time, they returned to Appa with his warm animal smell, who'd been happily munching on a convenient pile of cabbages. Aang and Sokka exchanged dumb jokes, Katara smiled indulgently at them, and the smile remained for a moment when her gaze turned to Zuko.
…
AN
I wanted to like the dance from The Headband, it was well-choreographed and served a good point of relationship development, but it was, well, choreographed, with moves Katara had never done before.
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