A Familiar Song

"I told you not to drink that!" Zuko grumbled for the umpteenth time as they waited to be seen by the nearest village healer.

"I could not pass up the chance to have such a rare blend of tea," Uncle Iroh said though, it was muffled by his swollen mouth.

At that moment a young woman with a sweet face wearing a hanbok came out, and said, "We're ready to see you now."

Ty Lee, who had been wringing her hands in concern for Uncle Iroh, jumped up with a bright, "Great! Thank you so mu-"

Zuko watched in growing familiarity as both froze and recognition flashed across their faces.

"Wen Qing," Ty Lee said like it was a punch to her gut.

The reincarnation of Wen Qing's sweet expression melted off her face to a much more severe look. "Wei! Wu! XIAN!" she snapped as she snatched something up off a nearby table and sent it flying with a flick of her wrist.

Ty Lee immediately collapsed with a needle in her forehead.

Zuko pulled his uncle back and out of her way for their own safety.

"What has that idiot done now?" Wen Qing huffed, immediately going to check Ty Lee over, no doubt because she knew Wei Wuxian had a terrible habit of getting horribly injured and then never telling anyone.

Once she was satisfied Ty Lee wasn't about to die from her own stupidity (a sentiment Zuko felt deep within his very being), she took the needle back out of her head, allowing Ty Lee to wake up. "Bring your uncle inside for treatment. Then we are going to talk!" she said the last bit like it was a threat.

Ty Lee gulped and said, "Yes, Wen Qing."

Wen Qing huffed, and said, "Call me Song."

After getting Uncle treated, explaining things to Song was easy. Explaining things to Song's mother was more difficult, but in the end, she believed it more than her daughter dropping her sweet bedside manner act and suddenly going crazy or playing a joke with three people she'd just met.

"What about A-Ning?" asked Song when their explanations were finished.

"A-Ning?" asked Song's mother.

"Wen Ning, courtesy name Qionglin, he was Song's little brother," Ty Lee explained with a fond smile. "He was just the sweetest."

Zuko looked like he disagreed, but knew better than to say so. He and Wen Ning had never gotten along, and probably never will. "If he's in this life we haven't found him yet," he explained gruffly.

Song looked very conflicted hearing that. "I want to find him," she admitted. "I want it so much, bad things happen when we're separated. But my work here is so important. More people are getting hurt in this war every day. There's every chance he may be somehow involved in it. What if I leave to find him, only for him to come in as a patient and I'm not here?"

"You can stay here, and we'll go looking for him," Ty Lee offered immediately. "We'll search this whole world if we have to."

Song frowned. "But what about the Avatar?"

Zuko frowned like he was about to do something he didn't want to do, but heaved a sigh and did it anyway. "The Avatar travels all over. It wouldn't be much trouble to look on the way." He turned to look her in the eyes and added, "Besides, I… still owe you and him a life debt that I never repaid."

"Wei Wuxian paid it," Song said, not liking debts.

"Wei Wuxian paid his debt to you, I didn't," Zuko argued back. "And as much as I hate to admit it, I also owe Wen Ning another debt for taking a blow for Jin Ling and I during the confrontation at the Guanyin Temple. Doing so paid back Wen Ning's debt to my nephew for the death of his father, but I owe him my life a second time over. I intend to see it paid."

Song's brow pinched, but she nodded. She and Zuko were probably never going to see eye to eye, but they could at least understand each other in their desire to honor their debts.

"So you'll look for Wen Ning in your patients, and we'll look for him on the road," Ty Lee said cheerfully to dispel the tension. "He'll be found in no time."

Song cracked a smile at her optimism.

After all, Wei Wuxian had found her brother once, she had no doubt he'd somehow do it again.

That didn't mean she wouldn't help where she could, and so the next day Song offered to let them borrow her ostrich-horse.

"He's a good steed, he'll serve you well. You can return him when you return with A-Ning," she said, before leaning in so Iroh wouldn't hear to add, "And your Uncle is getting up in the years. It would be better for him to ride than walk."

Ty Lee beamed and threw her arms around Song in a hug.

Zuko, for all his issues with Song, couldn't help but be grateful for any help for his Uncle's sake. "He have a name?"

Song's mother giggled from their home's doorway, and Song avoided their gaze.

"If I remember right, Wen Qing was about as good at naming things as you were, Zuko," said Ty Lee, not even phased as both of them glared at her.

"Can't remember to buy radishes, not potatoes, and somehow she remembers that?" Song huffed under her breath. "Name it whatever you like," she said out loud.

"Little Apple 2!" Ty Lee said immediately.

"Now who's bad at naming things," Zuko scoffed. "No, the Avatar's bison is named Appa. We don't need an Apple and an Appa."

Ty Lee huffed but accepted that. Looking over the ostrich-horse, a devious grin spread across her face. "Then how about… Peacock the Second?"

Zuko let out an undignified snort, and Song looked amused.

Iroh and Song's mother didn't know why they named it after half a peacock-panther but decided it was better not to ask.

The name stuck.

A/N No Ostrich-Horses were stolen in the making of this fic.

Song and Wen Qing are probably the most different personality-wise from each other, but I couldn't resist having them be reincarnations. Leave it to Wen Qing to be a doctor two lifetimes in a row. So, in this fic, Song's sweet personality is her putting up an act for bedside manner. In private she's more Wen Qing. Maybe I could have had Wen Ning be Song, which would have fit in personality, but I have bigger plans for Wen Ning later on. Besides, if Wen Ning was Song, who could be Wen Qing?