So this (most of) was actually written a few months ago but I kept going back and forth on whether or not I liked this chapter. I still may delete it and rewrite?

TW: death of young character

Katara blanched, while Gua had seemed like a fairly open person from their first interaction; this took things to a whole new level.

They sat there in silence, Gua didn't say anything more. He stared at Katara intently, waiting for her to react.

She didn't know how to react. A few months ago, she might've reacted in horror and instantly jumped to conclusions. But now she just wanted to know more. He obviously wanted to share or he wouldn't have brought it up.

Gua was baiting her, sharing just enough to pique her interest but not enough for her to even begin to understand the situation. There was no way of knowing who the heroes and villains were in this tale that ended up with his little sister dead without asking for more.

Lately she had quite the taste for risks.

She returned his intent gaze, not backing down. "I'll bite. What happened to your sister?"

Gua nodded as if to confirm she had passed some hidden test.

"You may have noticed this village hangs on to its very existence by a thread, especially with the war. Generations ago, Chen Bao was the hidden northern gem of the earth kingdom, more than ten times the people it has today."

For a moment, Katara's mind flashed to the Zuko and all the empty huts they had seen at the edge of town. While some, like the one Katara and Zuko squatted in, showed some recent signs of habitation most had been overgrown with nature, some even beginning to crumble under the weight of time and disuse.

For some reason it was easy to picture Chen Bao as a bustling town, the houses filled with neighbors and children running barefoot down the paths towards the sea.

"My family was once what they called 'old money' in town. Years ago, maybe even hundreds, my great-great-great-not sure how many 'greats' to be honest made his home in the middle of this town and the family never left. The first few years my ancestors were here, there wasn't much- similar to how it is now. But then ore was discovered in a nearby mine and suddenly Chen Bao was some place to put on the map.

We were the biggest trading port between here and Omashu."

Katara kind of doubted that but let him continue, she couldn't help but wonder where this was all going. Gua had mentioned watching his sister die, and unless he was some kind of spirit and she hadn't noticed, he looked to be about her age. It couldn't have happened that long ago.

Sensing Katara's wonder, Gua laughed and acknowledged the context. "You're probably thinking, 'when did I ask this kid to tell me his whole frikkin life story?' All in good time, but I'll move things along."

Katara only nodded in reply.

"My family's initial prosperity made it all the more difficult when the war happened, closing off much of our trade. The smart families fled the village realizing it was worth less than dirt with its port closed. According to my mother, three of my great great whatever uncles even l left the village to fight on the war front thinking they could help return things to normal sooner. They never came back and our family sank back into the mud."

Gua shook his head in disgust. Katara felt for him, "The war has torn apart countless families." It seemed almost too simple of a response but it was the truest that she knew.

For a moment anger flashed across his face, and Katara thought she might've offended him.

"It's not that, trust me I know what the war has done. I don't think me and my family have been singled out for anything special. It's their delusion that a few of them could just traipse off to the front lines and turn the tides of the great war. How stupid." he spat, over the side of the lookout and stared off into the distance for a moment.

"But as the saying goes" he continued after his short reflection, "misery loves company, and it wasn't like we were alone. The others that stayed suffered the same fate, the only thing that gave our family an edge was our bending, so we could always find work." Without further preamble he started into what Katara guessed was the real part of the story.

"Even though my sister was born 2 years before me, I always felt like the older brother." This struck a cord deep within Katara, countless memories of her making sure her brother's clothes were patched or getting him medicine when he hurt himself with one of his stupid ideas, flashed before her eyes. Gua gave her a small smile, "I see you understand what I mean. I wasn't there and no one really likes to talk about it, but something was wrong with Mei Mei when she was born. The village midwives said she was the tiniest baby they had ever seen, with thin and fragile looking arms and legs. While most babies come into the world screaming, Mei Mei was silent. At first they thought she was dead.

Of course, my mother had just been through a great deal giving birth but it only took her a few moments to realize that the world was too quiet. Then she started screaming, with blood strewn across herself and the bed she grasped for her baby. The midwives held her down out of fear she may hurt herself after all the exertion, another took little Mei Mei and alternated between gently patting and rubbing her back until little coughs could be heard and Mei Mei started to breathe." Katara felt her own muscles begin to relax, without realizing it she had been physically reacting to Gua's story.

"Mei Mei's rough first start didn't stop there, she grew much slower than the other children. Even after I was born a year later she couldn't feed herself simple foods or crawl across the floor. In fact, I was bending small boulders before she took her first steps. While she eventually learned to walk, she had a significant limp. And although she was more tuned into the vibrations of the earth, she struggled to bend earth bigger than the size of her fists.

Bending of any form requires a strong stance, but earth in particular requires the user to be tapped into their root and sacral chakras, to combine their chi with the ground below them. In the warmer months this meant it was hard for Mei Mei to get around and was mostly confined to our house.

But luckily for her, this far north, we don't have a lot of warm months. Snow falls many months out of the year here, and as soon as there was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground, I would bundle Mei Mei onto our only sled and take her out to see the world."

Katara couldn't help but smile, Gua had acted so confident and carefree since they had met, it was nice to see a different side of him.

"While my mother was glad that Mei Mei had the chance to get out and see the world, I think it made her nervous. She was always fussing over Mei Mei's health, telling her to wear more layers or eat more vegetables.

One sunny but cold winter day Mei Mei and I bundled up in all the layers we had and snuck some of our meager supplies from home into the sled. We left before my mother was even awake, leaving her a note that we'd be out adventuring all day and be back after night fell. We knew how she'd lecture us over a trip like this, so we decided to skip the lecture and go straight for fun.

That day we started out toward the port." He stopped and sighed as he relived the memory. "It was a glorious sight, imagine all of this but as a snowy wonderland. It had gotten so cold the port had frozen over, reflecting the sun in all directions. It was so bright at first that Mei Mei had cried out in fear, thinking that she had somehow become blinded.

I had been out and about enough that I understood what was going on. I took one of my seal-skin gloves off and gently placed one of my hands over her eyes. I rubbed her back with my other to soothe her. I explained what was going on and after a few minutes gradually increased the light coming through my fingers to her eyes until she had acclimated and had calmed down.

By the time she felt better I thought my fingers might freeze off, but I tried not to move too much. This may sound silly but I used every ounce of strength in me to keep my hand still, I didn't want Mei Mei to feel me shiver and worry.

When she was ready we set off for the port. By the time we got there, there were a few other kids running around on the had heard stories of the waterbenders in the northern tribe doing dances on the ice! Imagine that! We couldn't take but a few steps without falling." Katara's heart sank, having a feeling where this story went.

"Mei Mei had always wanted to ice skate so badly. I tested the thickness of the ice, by setting her on some blankets off to the side and pushing myself around on the ice on the sled. I made sure to be a little more rough than she would be, and not even a crack! So I grabbed her and I pulled her in circles for hours. Longer than all the other kids except two brothers who seemed to be having some sort of competition throughout the afternoon but had kept mostly to themselves.

We hadn't even realized how late it was getting until the sun began to fall over the horizon casting long shadows and depriving us of the little warmth it provided. We were getting ready to leave when Mei Mei pointed out a small ship in the distance. At the sight of it the brothers had taken off, but nothing had shown it was hostile yet. Mei Mei and I were just 10 feet from shore and they were several hundreds of yards away. We just watched them for a bit, we hadn't seen many ships before. Mei Mei pointed out the colors of the flag and how it might be fun to try to weave a patterned cover like that someday."

Katara's mind flashed to the shades of gold, oranges, and reds that represented not just the flag but the fire nation as a whole. The rich colors reminded her of nights bundled up with Sokka and her parents as a storm raged on outside. It was odd to her how something so beautiful could bring about so much destruction.

Gua continued, pulling Katara from her thoughts. "They had stopped moving so I thought it was okay to stay for a moment and watch, we would leave soon. Then for some reason that only the spirits will ever know, they attacked. The sounds of their benders leaping into action made the sky and the empty world around us explode with sound and shards of ice.

I had been pulling Mei Mei around in that little sled for years, it had become like a second limb to me. This may sound weird, but it felt like a second form of bending- an extension of myself. I had to become aware from a young age that any missteps I made could hurt Mei Mei.

So I had already started running, we were so close." Gua's voice caught in his throat and he stopped for a moment. Not knowing what else to do Katara reached out to put a comforting hand on his shoulder. But before she could touch him, quick as a whip he pulled back just out of reach.

He must've seen the hurt in her eyes because he quickly apologized. "I'm sorry, this part is hard and I just need to get through it." He took a deep breath then continued. "My feet were already on solid ground, I felt like the greatest of all time. But I celebrated too soon, as I went to take another step there was a jerk that almost sent me flying back into the icy waters.

The sled hadn't made it. Mei Mei was screaming as she had started to slip into the water. The only thing stopping her was my grip on the rope...but we were on a snow bank at the edge of the water. There was nothing to hold onto, nothing to tied the sled lead to so I could get her out."

Gua shivered as the memory washed over him. "I've always been the calm brother, the one who is able to help her and solve her problems. But something inside me snapped and I screamed at Mei Mei to use every last bit of strength she had to free herself and crawl towards me. I screamed that she was going to die if she didn't listen."

His voice hitched.

"She- she was so confused she wasn't used to me talking that way. She froze, she couldn't follow a single direction just sit there whimpering. I could see it, see on her face how scared she was. But I was too stupid to do what I always did and calm her down. And because of that any time she had to free herself slipped away, along with my grip on the rope.

I'll never forget the look on her face as she plunged into the water, like she knew and accepted that this was always going to be her fate.

Don't worry, I know my general disposition may seem a bit cavalier but I cared for nothing more in this world than Mei Mei. Our whole family did, we spent most of our lives caring for her.

I jumped in after her but with the weight of the sled she sank like a rock to the bottom of the port floor. I couldn't even tell you what happened after that. The brothers who had run off earlier had come back with some townspeople including my parents who had pulled me out of the water.

I guess I almost died too- I wish I had. I woke up to the sounds of my mother screaming my sister's name."

Katara resisted the wave of dizziness that came over her, was there any end to the suffering the Fire Nation was willing to cause?

;" /p