All night, Sokka had been bothered by how things had gone with Katara. It was not made easier by the cold shoulder she was giving him. They hardly spoke at dinner and all the boy could do was hope that his father did not notice. Even if he did not, Sokka hated this. His little sister could annoy him sometimes with her talk of how tough girls were, but it meant a lot to him that they got along well. He was not used to her actually being angry at him for more than a few minutes. Those minutes were required. They were all part of being an older sibling.
"The pants look good," Sokka complimented, looking at Katara who was sewing another pair.
She just silently kept on working. Her brother's smile fell and he trained more with his machete. After a little bit, he looked back over at her.
"Gran Gran's food was extra good last night. I think it's those new sea prunes she's been growing. What do you think?"
Again, he was met with silence. Sokka had seen adult siblings in the tribe and it was the same. The older ones would purposefully irritate the younger ones from time to time, the younger ones would get upset, and then they would continue on like it had never happened. That was what he was used to with Katara. For the night to come and go without her even giving him a somewhat amused shake of her head hurt more than he cared to admit. So, the next day after Hakoda went into the village to make sure everyone was all right, Sokka went over to Katara. She did not glance up from the snow she was starting to freeze. The air near her felt colder than the ice.
"I want you to go with me today," he said.
This got a reaction out of her. Shock, then anger flashed in her eyes.
"You can't really think I'd go talk with someone from the Fire Nation."
"I don't think you would normally, but I want you to meet him."
"I'm not going."
"Yes, you are."
"You can't make me."
Just to prove her wrong, Sokka started dragging the smaller child out of the home. Katara planted her feet, then melted some snow where he was walking. As he fell into the new hole in the ground, the waterbender happily took back her arm.
"I told you that you couldn't."
Sokka struggled to get back up, realizing he was just making the hole deeper. Finally, he stopped flailing and sighed.
"It's weird that you've been ignoring me all day," he said sadly. "If you meet him, you'll see why I don't think he's like the others here. I'm not expecting you to be best friends or anything, but I just want you to meet so that you won't be mad at me anymore."
After a moment, Katara sighed and reached down to give him a hand. Sokka's face lit up as she helped him back to the higher snow.
"I'm not that mad at you," she divulged. "I just don't get why you'd do this."
"That's why I want you to meet him. If I thought he was as evil as the other ones we've met, I wouldn't spend time with him. Just talk with him this once and I promise I'll never ask again if you hate him. Please," he said, giving her penguin seal puppy eyes.
Katara sighed. "Fine."
"Yes!"
Excitedly, Sokka began leading Katara out to the old shipwreck. Noticing where they were going, the girl stopped.
"You meet out here?" she inquired, frowning.
"It's so out of the way that no one comes out this far."
"Because it's creepy."
"Eh, it could be worse. I won't tease you about the ghosts this time."
"You better not."
The two walked a little further until they reached the ship. Their wait was not long because the Fire Nation prince soon arrived. When he did, he saw the girl with Sokka and his eyes widened slightly.
"Zuko," the Water Tribe boy said, "this is my sister, Katara. Katara, this is Zuko–my friend."
Smiling at the given title, Zuko greeted the sister. "It's nice to meet you."
Katara skeptically eyed him. "Why have you been talking to my brother?"
"It started off as me wanting to learn more about the Southern Water Tribe, but now we're friends."
"Why?" she pressed.
"He's fun to be around."
"Don't you have anyone to hang out with in the Fire Nation?"
Zuko got quiet for a moment before shaking his head. "Not really."
"So, Sokka's just your friend because you're bored?"
"No, that's not it." Zuko could feel himself getting flustered.
"What is then?"
"Katara," Sokka chimed in, "it's not as easy to explain as that."
"If you're going to risk your life for it, it should be," she insisted, turning to the boy briefly before redirecting her attention back to the firebender. "Why do you like being around my brother?"
Sokka could see that she was not going to back down from this, so he sent an apologetic look to Zuko. The older boy did not look upset, but his expression became a bit embarrassed.
"Because he's one of a handful of people who doesn't treat me like a failure."
The answer surprised Katara a little and her hard expression softened. She tried to not let it soften too much and crossed her arms.
"If you do anything to hurt him, you'll have to deal with me."
Zuko nodded. "I can believe that."
Gradually, the frown on the girl's face faded. "Now that that's out the way, what do you guys normally do?"
"He helps me train to deflect blasts from firebenders. We can show you!"
Sokka got into position and when his instructor shot a fireball at him, he was able to deflect it with the weapon. Katara's eyes opened wider, impressed by what she saw. They demonstrated several more attacks they were working on before moving to showing the offensive techniques they had created. Katara's expression was of total shock.
"You really taught Sokka how to defend himself," she said quietly.
"See?" her brother chimed in happily. "I wasn't doing all this before."
"No, you definitely weren't. You weren't able to do anything even close to fighting."
"You don't have to say it like that."
"It's true, though."
Sokka rolled his eyes. "Anyway, do you still think this was a bad idea?"
She hesitated with her answer. The other bender had been gentle with his attacks. She could see that just by watching. He did not go easy on the nonbender, but he also was not fighting with aggression. To Katara, if he had really hated Sokka, then he would have taken the opportunity to burn him and that was to assume he would not have just killed him in the first place instead of going this roundabout way. Still, she did not want to just immediately say that she was in support of this.
"I haven't decided yet," she said, glancing back at the village. "I have to go back home in case Gran Gran needs help with dinner. Good luck with the rest of your training." Before the girl could leave, she saw the worried look on her brother's face and sighed. "I won't tell Dad, but if Gran Gran and I found out, he will too. It's better coming from you."
"I'll tell him…eventually," Sokka promised. "I just need a bit of time to figure out how to do that properly."
"Well, good luck with that too."
Katara started heading back home and as she did, the boys continued their training. They trained while the soldiers near Ba Sing Se were continuing to try to penetrate the wall. Lu Ten could not focus as they did. He felt like something was wrong and could not help but notice the smirks he saw pass between several of the soldiers.
"Am I being paranoid?" he wondered.
To him, everything was beginning to look malicious. He did not want to accuse anyone without proof and as of then, he was not even sure if anything had happened. Every time he walked past someone, it was like they were whispering some secret plans. The young man was unsure if they actually were or if it was all part of his imagination. Soon, it became too much to bear and he left to go into one of the towns again. If he saw that nothing was wrong, then he would be able to breathe. He would be of no use to his father like this.
The prince traveled into the town he had visited before and noticed nothing different. Despite that, he still did not feel less anxious. He went to a town he had not gone into previously. As soon as he did, it was like he entered an alternate world. It felt so wrong, but he could not place his finger on how. The only thing Lu Ten could do was continue walking around until he found something odd. It was not as difficult to find as he expected. The further he walked into the town, he began hearing sounds from the people. Specifically, he heard groups of people walking to a building. They were sullen in demeanor. The prince followed them at a distance. This is when he saw where they were going. A funeral was being held. There were two images at the front of the room and a tearful crowd was in the audience. Some tears were for the lost ones and some were for themselves. Tears of grief and tears of fear. Before the last person entered the building, Lu Ten stopped her. Immediately, the Earth Kingdom citizen froze and lowered her head.
"Please don't attack me, Sir," she requested fearfully. "I'm just here to mourn my cousin."
The prince's heart went out to her more and he stepped back. "I'm not going to." He paused, looking at how terrified everyone appeared now that his presence had been noticed. "How did the two pass away?"
When he received no answer, more fire went through his blood than he could bend. He walked away from the town and began returning to the base. He loved his people. He had been brought up to and had to if he were going to lead them one day, but he hated what they were becoming. They were a nation of nobles, scholars, and soldiers. They were not cold-blooded murderers and yet, they were transforming into just that. Lu Ten did not know how he would dissuade them from these actions. He was not even sure if his previous chastisement had led to this retaliation. All he knew was that he had to find a way to stop what was happening in front of him.
Lu Ten returned to the base around the same time as Sokka and Zuko were going to return home. The training continued being productive and as the Water Tribe boy attacked with his machete, Zuko almost found himself unable to dodge. Sokka noticed and looked worried before getting his legs swept from under him.
"Hey! That's not fire," he protested, being given a hand up for the second time that day.
"You almost had me, but they'll know more techniques than I will, so you'll have to be agile. Some people can even do sweep kicks while using fire. I'm still learning that one."
"I hope you learn it soon. That would be fun."
"Thanks. Um, what made you bring your sister by?"
"It wasn't my original plan, but she found out."
Zuko smiled. "She's protective of you."
"I guess. She's so little that it's not like she can do much, though."
"Maybe not, but the thought is nice."
Sokka found himself smiling as well. "Yeah, it is. That's why I wanted her to meet you. We normally get along. I didn't want to do anything to mess that up."
"It seemed like she wasn't upset by the time she left," he said hopefully.
"I think you won her over for the most part. She didn't hate you. If she did, you'd definitely know. So, I'd say there's hope of her not pelting you with a thousand snowballs. She'll probably stop at one hundred."
He chuckled and the older boy did as well. "It was fun getting to see you two interact. If she wants to watch us train again, I'm fine with that."
"I'll let her know. If she doesn't turn her nose up, then we really know that you won her over."
Another thought occurred to the firebender. "What do you think you'll say to your dad?"
"I have no clue. I don't think he'd be really angry with me, but…this is going to be hard for him to get behind. One day, though, I'd want you to meet him."
"I'd like that too."
The two said their goodbyes and began returning to their respective homes. When Sokka got back home, Hakoda was already there. He was holding a tusk and sharpening it to use for a weapon soon. He was quiet while he worked.
"Hey, Dad," the boy greeted.
"Hello, Sokka."
His voice was calm, but there was something in it that Sokka could not decipher.
"Maybe he had to stop a fight today," he wondered.
If he had known the truth, he would have turned paler than the snow. Hakoda had prevented no quarrels. There had not been any negative encounters with the soldiers, but he had been disturbed by someone from the Fire Nation.
"My son," he thought bitterly, "is being trained by a citizen of the Fire Nation."
