Katara had never liked watching Zuko firebend, partly because of her feelings about firebending and the Fire Nation in general, partly because there was something ungainly about it. She would have called it violent, if that weren't a stupid criticism to make of a fighting style; but he was fighting himself more than his hypothetical opponents. He yelled with every attack, which he said was important for generating power, but it just sounded like him screaming for no reason.
Ever since Yon Rha, though, he'd stuck to non-bending martial arts, and she appreciated that much more. This definitely wasn't because he liked to do it shirtless and showed off a slab of rippling muscle with every movement. There was a sort of grace to it, like a cat treading atop a fence, even though she knew well how much power there was behind his movements. It could only go so far in a fight compared to skilled bending, but there was still something primal watching him shadow box.
He finished his routine and padded over to her, giving a little nod. She wicked his sweat away, misted him with clean water, and dried him, before he shrugged back into his shirt and they headed inside. Everyone else was already at breakfast, with Meng sitting next to Aang, now healed of her brainwashing and blood nose, but still disoriented. Sokka had a recently-stolen book open on his lap and bags under his eyes.
"Good morning, Meng," Katara said. "Are you feeling okay yet?"
"Yeah," she said unconvincingly. "It's just so … weird, though."
"I know," Suki said. "I had the same thing. I got here, then memory blanks, until I woke up in a swamp in the Spirit World. Uh, it makes sense in context. Sokka explained it."
"How did you get here?" Katara asked Meng. "Do you remember leaving Makapu Village?"
"Yeah. I remember making it in here, and I got a job divining with some people in the Lower Ring, and then … last night."
"Why did you leave the village?" Katara asked. "Did something happen to it?"
"I don't know," Meng said. "It was … I don't know, three weeks, a month? after you guys left. The Fire Nation came. Aunt Woo gave me a bag with some supplies and told me to get out and head east. She said she'd handle them. I don't know if they burned the village, or she got rid of them somehow, or what."
"She predicted soldiers would come?" Katara asked, impressed. "I wish we'd asked her to come with us, she would've been so helpful."
"If she'd predicted it," Sokka said, exasperated, "she would have evacuated herself and the entire village. She just spotted them coming over a hill before anyone else did."
"Anyone in the entire village when she lived in the middle of it? Why's it so hard for you to believe?"
Sokka rolled his eyes and turned to Meng. "These soldiers," he said. "Was there a girl who shot blue fire?"
She blinked. "I didn't see anyone like that. Do you know her?"
Zuko gave Sokka a shrewd look; Sokka casually said, "We've met a couple times," and Zuko's gaze snapped over to Katara. She gave him a pleading look; his jaw worked, but he sat back.
"Okay," Meng said. "Well, I didn't see much. Aunt Woo told me to go as fast as I could and not look back."
"We're going to fix it," Aang said. "We'll fix everything. Just a few more months while I finish my training."
Meng nodded and smiled. "I know you can do it."
"Until then," Sokka said, "we're kind of getting mixed up in dangerous stuff. You probably shouldn't stay with us for too long …"
"Why don't you stay at the Clubhouse?" Aang asked. "I'm sure they'd be happy to take care of you, and they'd love to hear what you could tell them about fortune-telling. I know I would."
"What actually happened to me?" Meng asked. "I remember something about Joo Dees, but no-one ever told me any details."
Sokka straightened his book. "Whoever wrote this assumes you already know what he's talking about," he said, "so I've had to piece this together, but I think she used to be a human bodyguard to the Earth King who was so dedicated she kept working even after she died. Now she's a guardian spirit. I was right, she possesses girls, but … 'possess' sounds like an evil spirit, and the way this is written, it's supposed to be a good thing. 'Daiyu of the Red Well Clan was granted the honour to serve as Joo Dee's vessel for seven years, leading to jealousy from the Canary Ox Tribe'."
"Okay," said Aang. "Except that's nothing like what she is now. They're all bureaucrats with nothing to do with the king, and it's like they have brain damage. Why are there thousands of them?"
"Tens of thousands by now, maybe hundreds," said Sokka. "I thought spirits usually mind their own business unless someone does something to them or the thing they're protecting, and nobody's hurt the Earth King. Other than that, I thought only the Avatar could do spirity stuff."
"You've been to the Spirit World," Aang said. "Twice."
"Eh, details," Sokka said dismissively.
"Zuko," Katara said, "do you remember that woman in the Fire Nation who thought spirits were attacking her village, and she wanted a Fire Sage? Does that mean Fire Sages know how to work with spirits? And you said the Fire Lord did something similar."
"Of course," Zuko said. "The Avatar can only be in one place at a time, and there's a gap of twenty years between one dying and the next one reincarnating and resuming his duties. The Fire Lord and Fire Sages are supposed to bridge that and keep the people safe. I'm trained to handle spirits, in theory. But I only know details about ones from the Fire Nation, I'd never heard of Joo Dee before Suki, and there aren't any Earth Sages you could ask."
"There are gurus," Toph said. "They're not, like, an institution, though, they're just random guys who go off and meditate. Kind of like me," she added thoughtfully.
"Could there be an earth guru who talked to Joo Dee," said Katara, "and did … something, to her? It?"
"Don't ask me," Toph said, "I haven't understood pronouns since I met The Boulder."
"Isn't he just, you know, a he?"
"The Boulder's pronouns," Toph said with a milky eye roll, "are The Boulder, The Boulder, The Boulder's, and The Boulderself."
"Boulderself?" Suki repeated dubiously.
The Boulderself," Toph said.
"Let's circle back to The Boulder's pronouns later," Sokka said. "Piecing these books together with other clues we've picked up, I think there's a connection between Joo Dee and Lake Laogai. I'd already been thinking of paying it a visit, but I'd been holding back in case you showed up, because, you know, lake, we'd have a tactical advantage with a waterbender."
"You already had Aang," Katara pointed out.
"His job is to stay home and make us look respectable. And bail us out if we get in real trouble. I want to put you and Toph on it. But it'll have to wait a few nights, while she rests and you get used to the city, and we should hold off until Aang visits that Eastern Air Temple guru. Besides, tonight, we have our most secret and important mission yet."
Aang, Suki, and Toph suddenly looked very serious.
"What is it?" Katara asked.
Sokka gave her a look. "I just said it was secret. I can't brief you until it starts. Just … make sure you're well-rested for tonight. It could get ugly."
She raised her eyebrows, but no matter how she needled him, he stayed tight-lipped. Even Aang didn't break when she made puppy-doe eyes at him, although she could tell he desperately wanted to.
They finished breakfast and headed out for the day's training, but a Joo Dee popped up and bowed.
"Good morning," she said. "I have been instructed to take Lady Katara and her valet Sir Guo for fittings for dress robes."
"Don't call me that," Zuko said.
"Don't embarrass me in front of Joo Dee, Valet," Katara said, not missing a beat.
Oh you witch, he glowered at her.
What was it you called it? she smiled back. Dominance games?
"Miss Joo Dee," he said, "how much freedom do we have to design our clothes? Lady Katara is unforgettable in red."
"That is permitted," Joo Dee smiled.
This wiped the smirk off Katara's face.
"You know," Sokka asked, "I never asked, what did you wear when –?"
"Nothing," she said quickly.
"Not how I'd try to avoid attention, but you do you," said Toph.
Katara gave her a filthy look, then to Joo Dee, firmly, "I want my dress dyed blue, please."
"You should discuss this with your tailor," Joo Dee said.
"Probably no-one around here knows how to make a proper prayook dress anyway," Zuko said.
"A prayook –?" said Aang, who'd seen them before the war. He turned to Katara and pictured one on her: they both turned pink.
"We should go," Katara said, stepping around past Joo Dee, prompting her to turn and lead the way. Zuko tagged along; a second Joo Dee popped out from behind a lamp post and led the others to the training grounds.
Joo Dee took them to a tailor's shop just outside the Upper Ring. A middle-aged man bowed and led Zuko into one room, while his daughter took Katara into another.
"To start, you'll have to tell me what kind of outfit you want me to make," said the tailors. "I'll show you some designs, you'll pick your favourite and ask for any modifications, I'll take measurements, and get to work. Depending how complex you want it, I may need to take more measurements, and it should be done within two weeks at the longest. It'll be worth it, I promise you."
"It has to be formal," said Zuko, who'd had bespoke tailoring before, "but I want something practical. I'm a bodyguard, I want to be able to fight if there's trouble. I want durable fabric, pockets, it should be cut so I can wear my swords."
"Lots of young men think that way," the man nodded. "A bit of advice, dressy is practical, if it means people let you do things they otherwise wouldn't. If a doorman keeps you out of a party and your lady gets in trouble because you're not around, that's as much of a failure as if you lose a fight. But a good tailor can combine dressy and mobile."
"I hope so," Zuko said. "Katara will want the same."
"How pretty can you make it?" Katara asked the daughter, a woman of thirty with a kind, maternal smile.
"You want to catch a certain ~someone's eye?" she asked.
"Something like that," Katara said, smiling bashfully.
We've caught him checking us out at least five times by now, that's not really the issue.
How many is Aang at?
I don't know, I stopped counting that a while ago.
"Bodyguards usually wear their patron's colours on their shoulder," said the man, taking out demonstration paintings of a man in a changshan. "Lady Katara is Water Tribe, isn't she? Blue. Blue and green tend to blend together, we'll have to think about having black or white shoulders –"
"No green," said Zuko, picking a painting with mobility slits. "Black or dark grey or brown. All over."
The man looked him over. "Green is in, but brown better matches your skin tone and eye colour." Zuko didn't react, knowing golden eyes were almost nonexistent in the Earth Kingdom. "And a bodyguard shouldn't outshine his patron anyway. Dark colours, then, and a bright blue insignia on your right shoulder."
"The most eye-catching colour is red," said the daughter, "but it's very loud. It's not suitable for a lady of class."
"No red," Katara agreed. "Blue, please."
"Hmm, tricky. Blue blends in, especially with darker skin. We could go for a really brilliant shade of indigo, or a lighter tone to draw the eye, or white highlights. Ah, will you be wearing any jewellery? Gold and jade are popular …"
"I only own this necklace," Katara said, suddenly self-conscious.
Her tailor peered at it.
"I was thinking a cheongsam would look beautiful on you," she said, "but it has a high neck, it'd cover that up. We could leave the neck bare, but that might look a bit vulgar –"
"I've had worse," Katara said, thinking of the prayook dress.
"– so let's run through your options. With a nice changyi dress, we could leave an opening to show off the medallion part only, or there are options with xiuhefu styles …"
Zuko was done within twenty minutes. When he peeked into Katara's room to let her know, he received a glimpse of her unwrapping her sarashi and a water whip to the face, which he took as his cue to go for a walk.
Joo Dee followed alongside. "You should stay by Lady Katara," she said.
"I respect and welcome your opinion," he said.
Long Feng was waiting two blocks away, arms folded behind his back. He fell into step and Joo Dee moved back a pace. He had Presence: passersby made sure to give them all a wide berth.
"Long Feng," Zuko said.
"Guo," he said, irritated. "It seems perhaps I was unclear when last we spoke. When I suggested I would welcome the Avatar's companions if they were more like you, I assumed we had a shared understanding that you'd wait at least twenty-four hours before committing any major felonies in my city."
"Who, me?"
"You were seen with Lady Beifong last night on a train from which a public servant went missing."
"Coincidence," Zuko said. "And kidnapping isn't a felony, that's a misdemeanour at best."
Long Feng gave him a look. "I'd hoped our relationship would be less difficult than the one I have with the Avatar."
"I'm not looking for a fight. But I have this medical condition. Whenever I see someone messing with a kid, I pass out, and when I wake up, my knuckles are torn and I'm usually covered in blood."
Long Feng exhaled through his nose. "Joo Dee is a complex phenomenon," he said, "that neither you nor your associates understand. You would do well to restrain yourself."
"I don't think you understand them either," Zuko said. He snapped his fingers in front of Joo Dee's face; she smiled indulgently at him. "These dolls are broken, aren't they? And you either broke them, or you know who did, and why."
"I'll say it once more: Joo Dee is not your concern." He fished a slip of paper out of his robe, and offered it to Zuko. It had a name and an address. "A well-connected smuggler has been storing contraband in this warehouse. It would be a political non-starter for my men to arrest him, but the Avatar is above such concerns."
Zuko put the paper away. "The Avatar isn't the type to care about import regulations."
"I don't ask you to convince him, only to pass the information along."
"Fine. Then my favour will be a walk back without a babysitter. Your broken dolls get on my nerves."
"Understandable," Long Feng said. "Although if you're going to use this as an opportunity to flout the law again, you might be more deniable about it. There are factions whose interests don't coalign with those of the Avatar and who will take advantage of openings you present to them, and you personally have reason to avoid attention." He bowed off, Joo Dee in tow.
Zuko made his way back to the tailor's shop, where Katara was still happily chatting with her tailor. She waved the tailor off as he approached.
"That was fun," she said. "What did you ask for?"
"This, translated into Earth Kingdom formal," he said, indicating his yoroi.
She gave him a look of Boys. "I'm going to visit the hospital and help out," she said. "Want to come along?"
He moved into step with her. "How's his waterbending?"
So focused. He hasn't taken his mind off that since we got here.
"Better than his earthbending," she said. "He was a natural at it, you know. I only overtook him by working my butt off at it. He needs the time with Toph more."
If he's worse than her at waterbending, and there's no question Father would demolish her one on one …
We've had the stuffing beaten out of us about three times from underestimating the Avatar. Maybe we shouldn't do that so much. He's slippery, he even held Azula off.
They came to a hospital, a four-storey building with workers in white gowns scurrying back and forth. Inside was a waiting room packed with sick people: Zuko surreptitiously pulled his yoroi up over his mouth to avoid breathing their air.
"Hello," Katara told the receptionist, a skinny frazzled-looking woman, "I'm a water-healer; is there anyone here who needs help?"
"Wait here," said the receptionist. She ducked out back, and a minute later, returned with a young man.
"Haru!" Katara exclaimed in delight, stepping forward to hug him. Zuko sized him up.
Do we know him?
Not a chance. There's no way we could forget a moustache like that. In better times, Uncle would've burned down his village as an example.
"Wow, you've grown," she went on. "You must be four inches taller."
He chuckled. "I don't think it's that much …" She let him go, and they walked and talked into the hospital. "I'm Haru," he added to Zuko.
"Guo."
"He doesn't talk much," Katara explained, "thankfully. What are you doing here? I thought you were … Oh."
"Yeah," he said. "After you left, we rallied every earthbender we could and dug in. There were people from all over held at that rig, so we had a small army and made the village into a fortress. We held off two attacks, people were talking about moving out and liberating more villages, even a city. But then …"
"What's going on?" Haru asked his father, who was resting with some other men with bowls of rice.
"The scouts saw a ship coming. Just one ship, and not even a big one, that sort only holds sixty or eighty men. They probably want to parley."
Haru bent himself a platform to look out over the village's new walls. He could see the ship in the distance, its landing boats ferrying men onto the shore and assembling. He cancelled his platform.
"They must be up to something. Maybe we should –"
There came a distant horn: four notes, falling rising falling. The older men went white. There came murmurs, from them and the other men around the walls, of "It's him".
"Who –"
His father grabbed his arm. "You need to evacuate the village," he said. "Get the women and children out."
"What – I can help –"
His father threw him. "Now! There's no time! Go!"
"Him, or her?" Katara asked.
Haru blinked. "One of the older women told me, that tune was the Dragon of the West's boss music. I didn't get a good look at him, I was too far away by the time they breached the walls …"
"Did you see blue fire?" she guessed.
"Yes! I thought I was crazy. But if anyone could do that, it'd be the Dragon of the West."
"It's not him," she said, carefully avoiding looking at Zuko, "it's his niece, Princess Azula. He's retired, sort of, and she's inherited the family business."
Haru frowned. "Then I'd give anything for a chance to teach her a lesson."
Katara shook her head. "Stay away from her. We've fought her, she's a monster. Even in a group –"
"Hold on," Zuko said abruptly. "'That rig'. You were from the earthbender labour platform, that's where you met Katara."
"I actually met her the day before," said Haru, "but then I was captured by the Fire Nation, so she –"
"I have to go," Zuko said, almost incomprehensibly because he turned and power-walked away halfway through the sentence, then broke into a sprint.
Haru watched him leave and scratched his goatee. "Guo. Where did you say you met him?"
"On the way to Ba Sing Se," she said. "I got separated from the others, and he helped me get here … I know I said I wanted to help out, but do you mind if I go after him?"
"Should I come?" Haru asked. "It's busy here, but I can –"
Katara gave him a warm smile. "No, stay and help the patients. I can handle Guo on my own."
That expression …
He doesn't like crowds, he's going to find some space. A garden? A pond? A rooftop?
Are there even any gardens here in the Lower Ring?
She found a staircase and made her way to the roof. Zuko was two buildings over, clenching his fists.
"Zuko!"
His gaze snapped over to her, and she was reminded of him as he was when they confronted Yon Rha, when he was sardonically quipping while planning to execute a man. He scrunched his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, he was mostly back to normal. He leapt over both gaps to return to her.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.
"No."
"That wasn't a real question."
He heaved a sigh. "The labour platform," he said. "I saw a distress call, came and fished the guards out of the water. They told me the prisoners rioted and dropped them in, after the warden begged for mercy and said he couldn't swim, in armour. I never found him."
She winced. "I'm sorry. We just wanted to help the earthbenders escape," she said, knowing how lame it sounded.
"You couldn't have stopped them, even if you'd wanted to," Zuko said. "They don't let women in battles, they'd never take orders from you. Although they might've from the Avatar. Haru … You should make sure I don't see him again." And he walked off the edge of the hospital.
"Zuk–!" she began, rushing over to the edge and look down, where she saw him combat roll and walk off the four-storey drop.
That went well. First Aang and the battle at Agna Qel'a, now this.
It's a war! What are we supposed to do?
Not throw people overboard after they surrender?
I didn't –
No, you didn't. But you saw it done, and you just greeted one of the guys who did it as a friend. He's not out of line to be upset.
Should we go after him?
If he wanted to talk, he'd've talked. Let him cool off, then do something nice for him later. I'm sure he won't get into too much trouble, we're only leaving him for a few hours.
A few blocks away, Zuko was staring down a pair of Dai Li agents. They stared back at him. Passersby started to edge away and then take detours around the entire road.
"Fine," he said. "I'll come quietly." They nodded and flanked him, guiding him down the road and into a back alleyway with a little privacy. "Are, you, insane?"
"So I'm told," Azula said, tipping back her hat, as did Ty Lee.
"Well," he said, momentarily lost for words. "Go be insane somewhere you won't get us all caught! What are you doing here?"
"You know why I'm here."
"Hunting the Avatar. In Ba Sing Se? Do you really think you can fight the entire city just with your team?"
"Actually it's just the two of us," Ty Lee said brightly. "We couldn't figure out how to get gliders to reach the city unless we used Azula's fire jets and my buoyancy. Mai doesn't go anywhere without like forty pounds of knives, she sank like a stone, and Kori got airsick."
"The Dai Li won't be a problem," Azula said. "The only issue is the Healer. There's no use taking him out when she can just bring him back. I need her out of the picture. Temporarily, of course. That's where you come in, Zuko."
Zuko frowned and took a breath, thinking how to word it.
"It's Guo these days," he stalled.
Azula raised an eyebrow. "Todoroki was right there."
He rolled his eyes at her. "So was Cthuko." Ty Lee snerked.
Azula gave him a Look, then leaned forward and peered into his eyes. "You won't help," she said. Ty Lee started. "May I ask why not?"
I really wish she couldn't read us like that.
"Do you know about the amendment to Directive 42?"
Azula thought for a moment. "That quarter is not to be offered to waterbenders. Ah." Ty Lee mouthed Ooh I get it. "If you wanted an exemption carved out, I can get that."
"It's not about that. It's about doing what's right. We're supposed to be the good guys, fighting to share our enlightenment with the world. We shouldn't murder people who've surrendered."
"If your conscience is getting the better of you, it'll be a moot point soon. Once the Avatar is out of the way, the war is as good as over, and we can focus on rebuilding our new empire."
Zuko shook his head. "No.I'm not doing that. Not any more."
"–" Ty Lee began, but Azula quieted her with a touch.
"I understand," she said, then, casually, "It's a shame about your bending, though."
He started.
"You think I didn't realise you can barely make a spark any more?" she asked. "I told you, this world is burn or be burned. Before you understood that truth, you were a technically proficient bender. Then you learned it and embraced it, and so you reached a higher level. But then you rejected it: you chose not to burn, to be burned. Why wouldn't you become weaker than ever after making a conscious choice like that, Lost Prince?"
"… Lost Prince?" he echoed. "The Healer? Where did you hear those titles?"
Azula smiled. "The same place you did."
"I heard them from the shade of Avatar Kyoshi. Try again."
"Just because I embrace destruction doesn't make me any less spiritual than the Avatar with his quote-unquote pacifism, Brother. The opposite, really: I'm the paragon of fire. I have excellent rapport with the spirits. Not the Avatar spirit, but there are plenty of others."
listen to her you need me
I told you to get out of my head!
i am you
No! You're not!
you cant deny yourself forever zuzu
He took a deep breath, let it out. "I don't need to be a master," he said. "I need to do what's right."
"You don't have to explain," Azula said. "Do what you have to." She made to leave.
"You know, Beifong's really good at spotting lies," Zuko said. "If she asks whether I've seen you, I won't be able to deny it, even if I wanted to."
"Oh, so the girl is Toph Beifong after all?" Azula asked. "When we asked at Earth Rumble, half the, ah, 'fighters' said Beifong was a man built like a platypus bear. I thought they were lying, but we still nicknamed her Pettanko-chan in case Beifong was someone else."
Your pettiness knows no bounds.
"It's fine," she went on. "Really. You're right, it would be silly to fight the Avatar here. Boiling Rock would be much more suitable. I'll wait for him there."
"Why on earth would he go to Boiling Rock?"
She smiled. "Because you'll tell him to. Why else would I be so unbothered about you staying with him?"
"Why would I tell him that? Why would he agree?"
"He'll realise I'm too dangerous to be let alone and decide to take me down," she said. "He'll fail, of course. I WILL NOT BE STOPPED. But it'll amuse me to watch him try. I'll see you later, Brother." She motioned to Ty Lee, who waved goodbye, and the two of them put their disguises back on and filtered out into the city.
Well, that's reassuring. I was worried it was going to be boring here.
That evening, Katara found Zuko at the training grounds, sitting on the ground in a room a ways off from a few earthbenders sparring with each other, bare-chested, touching his toes with his wrists. She approached, then wrinkled her nose.
"No-one asked you," he grunted. "I've been working out all day. You need a maternity hospital, I need exercise."
She pulled out a blob of water; he gave a little nod, and she swept it over him, washing off the sweat. Rather than try to filter out the salt, she just dumped it all in a corner.
"There's more to a hospital than just the maternity ward," she said with dignity.
"Ooh what a pretty baby!" she cooed, tickling the newborn's chin. "Aren't you just the cutest thing! Yes you are! Yes you are!"
"Uh, help?" the mother said faintly. "I'm losing a lot of blood here."
"Fine, I paid the maternity ward a visit," she admitted. "Where is everyone?"
"According to Joo Dee," he said, tetchy, "'The Avatar lives at number eighty-eight Golden Road'. As far as I can tell, they never even left. Those idiots have been goofing off all day." He harrumphed and kipped up, and they set off for home.
"Didn't you check on them?"
"If they don't care whether he bothers training for a battle for the fate of the world, neither do I," he said.
"You don't mean that."
"You know he has to work harder. I'm not out of line here. He needs discipline."
"I do know," she said, "but I also know repeatedly bashing your head into a brick wall doesn't work as well as you think it does. He needs rest time, play time, a gentle touch …"
"He doesn't need someone to be his mother. He needs someone to be his teacher."
"Toph does a good job of that," Katara said fairly. "And you can too."
"No, I can't," he said. "I'm an outsider. I don't have a vote."
"Guo, come on. You have a vote." As they passed a canal, she bent a stream of water to refill her waterskin.
"Fine. I don't have a veto. If you said We can't leave these people, without us they have no hope, they'd do what you said, every time, no matter what. If I said the same …"
"Funny, that's exactly what you said at Hama's town."
He frowned. "If I say he has to train harder and you say it's okay if he takes the rest of the day off, he gets the rest of the day off. I can't do anything if you do that."
Do we enable him?
Kind of? But just working harder isn't an answer either. Zuko might be happy to train all day every day, but normal people can't put up with that. Aang already has the fate of the world on his shoulders at age twelve: if we add to his load instead of lightening it, we might break him. Besides, he's a natural. He doesn't have to work half as hard as Zuko to pick things up.
Are we rationalising? Being a natural doesn't mean you don't still have to work hard, that's how we overtook him at waterbending. And if he's not where he needs to be before the Comet comes …
"He can still take breaks during the day," she ruled, "but he has to show up and train at least until mid-afternoon every day. And we'll scale it to late afternoon and then evening in a month or two. Come on, any more than that and he'll just run off anyway."
Zuko made to keep arguing, but, seeing she was already compromising, only grunted.
They'd reached their home. It was past sundown, and every other home had candles or torches lit, but not theirs.
"Did they already go to dinner?" Katara asked.
"Probably went off chasing a butterdragonfly," Zuko said.
She shoulder-checked him. "Oh, knock it –"
He swept out an arm backward, blocking her and shoving her behind him. He stared at the house, tense.
"What is it?" she asked, dropping her voice.
"Someone hiding at the window. Three … four men, paired off, one on either side of the door. One of them's good at hiding. It's an ambush."
"Do we call the guard?"
"It's two against four if we go in now, two against six if we call for guards," he murmured. "Unless this isn't the government, in which case, whoever it is will run if we leave. I'm not letting them get away." He motioned her to move forward again, still on full alert. He motioned forward, left, then switched hands for centre-right-centre-left.
They crept forward. Zuko, being more durable, took the lead, quietly twisted the doorknob, drew his swords, then shouldered the door open and dashed left.
"SURPRISE!"
He skidded to a stop. Sokka blew a party horn; Aang airbent into another; Suki had a party hat tied on; Toph threw confetti at them.
"Happy birthday!" Sokka and Aang exclaimed, bustling forward to pull Katara into a group hug. Zuko stepped out of the way: you shouldn't hug people while holding live steel. Suki and Toph joined in the hug, just a moment behind the boys.
"What," Katara said. "But – my birthday isn't –"
"It's in autumn," said Sokka, "in the southern hemisphere. It was a week ago. And you spent it with Zuko, so you need a do-over."
He's right. We didn't even realise.
"Zuko said you said you felt like you didn't belong any more," Aang said, "so we all chipped in for a party for you to let you know you're still one of the Gaang. Everyone helped out and got you presents."
"Even Zuko," Sokka grinned.
"I did?" Zuko said, still half expecting an ambush. He awkwardly put his swords together and sheathed them. "Uh – I mean, of course I did."
Sokka pointed to a side table, which had an envelope reading 'From Zuko' in Sokka's handwriting. Inside were five slips of paper:
Coupon redeemable for one (1) "You were right"
Signed, His Royal Fieriness, Prince Zuko
Zuko's eyes narrowed.
Note to self: kill Sokka.
Katara grinned and threw her arms around him. "Oh, Zuko, you shouldn't have! I've wanted one of these for months, but to get me five!" And she kissed him on the cheek.
Note to self: grant Sokka temporary stay of execution.
"For mine," said Sokka, "when we robbed the library, I found some waterbending scrolls too. I transcribed them today."
"Oh thanks so much!" Katara said, hugging him. "Um –"
"I proofread it," Aang said. "It's legible."
"Speaking of which," said Zuko, of the coupons, "Can I redo the calligraphy? It looks like Momo wrote these. Or Beifong."
"My handwriting's not that bad," said Sokka.
There was a pause. Everyone avoided meeting anyone else's gaze.
"Hey Toph," said Aang, "show her what you made."
"Right. Here." She pulled a brilliant blue hairpiece from her dress.
Katara oohed. "I wanted jewellery! Did you buy this?"
"Nah, I made it. I can tell different minerals apart. I don't know what they look like, but Snoozles said this one was pretty. It's called lavendulan. I loot– found it on an Operation Wall raid a couple weeks ago. The back is corundum and I put a thin layer over the top, so it won't get scratched easily."
Katara fiddled with it and put it in her hair. To Zuko's annoyance, with no effort, she looked fabulous.
"I couldn't think of any presents I could make," Suki said, "so I just cooked dinner. We're eating in tonight, no feasts or missions or anything." She indicated the dining table, laid out with a small feast of their own, which Momo was already snacking on.
"That looks delicious," said Katara. "Don't you think, Zuko?"
"Oh, so she's good for something after all."
"Wow, we finally have someone who understands the difference between actual cooking and scarfing down raw organ meat like popcorn."
"Mm," he said.
"That's Zukoese for thank you," Katara explained.
"Tell him I said you're welcome," said Suki.
"Doitashimashite," Katara told Zuko.
"I couldn't think of anything either," Aang said. "Monks don't do birthdays, or really worldly possessions at all. But I remembered you liked those steamhouses from Agna Qel'a, so I made one with earthbending. It's in the basement."
"I went over it with him," Sokka said. "It's exactly like the one back home."
Katara's eyes lit up.
"So you were actually working hard at your earthbending all day," she said with a bland smile.
Zuko gave her a look of Building a steamhouse is not the same thing as training for combat!, but she was looking at Suki and missed it.
"Could we do that before we eat?" she asked. "I got, um, slimy today, I want to clean up properly. You're supposed to do it in a group. It's a lot of fun."
Zuko hadn't enjoyed the communal washing at Agna Qel'a, possibly because he'd hated pretty much everyone in the city, so he'd taken to scrubbing himself with snow and bending himself warm after; but Sokka liked steam too, and Aang apparently liked everything, so they both nodded agreement, and so Suki and Toph agreed.
"Re-gifting you scrolls we stole together is kind of lame," Sokka said, "so I also went shopping and found a traditional steamhouse stove at a pawn shop." He pointed where he'd left it under the table with 'Zuko's' letter.
"Good thinking," said Katara. "Where's the oil?"
There was a beat.
"Uh," said Sokka. "Right, the oil. That."
"You didn't buy any, did you."
"Does it matter?" Suki asked. "We have coal."
"It's an oil stove," Katara said. "But you're right, it doesn't matter, we can heat it without oil."
Zuko took a moment to realise she was looking at him pointedly.
"No," he said flatly. "This city's full of refugees from the war; you want me to out myself as a firebender if anyone's watching, when I'm not just any firebender but the scion of the family that ordered that war, just so you can have a glorified hot bath?"
She gave him puppy doe eyes.
"I'm not stupid enough to do it just because you give me sad eyes. It's not going to happen."
"That should be hot enough," he said, crawling back out of the cramped cellar-steamhouse.
"Thanks Zuko!" chirped Katara, who along with the other two girls had stripped to her underclothes while he worked.
"Wow," said Toph. "He's a valet and an oven, what can't he do?"
"," he said. "Shut up, Beifong." She smirked, chalking a dash onto her side of her mental Toph-v-Zuko scoreboard. To Katara, "Do you need anything else?"
"Yes, privacy while we finish undressing," she said firmly, and she shut the door in his face.
He let out a breath and went back upstairs. Aang was playing with Momo: Sokka had shooed him away from the dinner table and was surreptitiously munching on a pastry.
"Hey," Zuko said, making it an order. He beckoned the other two over. "Earlier today, I ran into Azula."
Their faces fell. Momo wriggled out of Aang's hand and went back to dinner.
"She tried to recruit me," Zuko continued. "I said no, and she said fine, she can't do anything in the city without me, so she'll leave town and wait at Boiling Rock, she still wants to ambush you there. I'm just letting you know, so I'm not keeping secrets or anything."
"I appreciate it," Aang said, still clearly unhappy with the news.
"Did you tell the town guard?" Sokka asked.
"Uh," said Zuko, who hadn't even considered this. " 's leaving anyway, so –"
"I'm telling them," Sokka said, making for the door.
"Wait," Zuko said, darting past to block the door. "She's leaving, we don't have to –"
"Why not?" Sokka asked reasonably. "Even assuming she was telling the truth, she'll either lurk around the Fire Lord and make it that much harder when we go fight him, burn some villages, or attack us again. Probably all three. If the Dai Li catch her, they'll lock her up and save us having to deal with her."
"If the Dai Li catch her, they'll turn her into one of their mindless broken puppets. I'm not doing that to my own sister!"
"It's not that big a deal," Aang said. "I can turn her back once we're done."
"No, you can't, because no-one will ever see her again. You really think they'll give up the Fire Princess just because you ask nicely?"
"Honestly," said Sokka, "it'd save us all a lot of trouble if they didn't."
"!"
"What was your plan?" Sokka asked. "Unless you have a maximum security prison hidden up your sleeve, we don't have any better ideas of what to do with her. If she broke into Ba Sing Se, she's going to keep hunting us no matter where we go. We can't keep dodging her forever."
"…"
"Sorry, Zuko," Aang said, taking his glider and making for a window: Zuko couldn't block both that and the door.
"… Ty Lee's with her," Zuko said. Aang hesitated. "If they arrest Azula, they'll take her too. You know what the Earth Kingdom does to Air Nomads; why you haven't seen a single one in the entire continent, even though there had to be tens of thousands around when the Air Temples fell. If she gets arrested, you'll never see her again either. And if a well-connected aristocrat Air Nomad gets disappeared because of you, I can promise you not a single other Air Nomad will ever talk to you after the war either."
"That's a cheap shot," Sokka said.
"Didn't you once tell me you'd do anything to protect your little sister?"
"My little sister isn't an unstoppable killing machine."
Touche.
"You can still tell the guard," Zuko said. "Just wait until the morning, give her twenty-four hours' grace. That's long enough for her to get out if she's getting out, and if she isn't … well, that's her decision, and I'll tell the Air Nomads it was my idea to have her arrested."
That'd be unpopular back home.
Okay, we'll say it was Suki's idea. Everyone wins.
"After you defeat my father and I take the throne, I'll arrest her myself. The Fire Nation has secure prisons."
Do we, though? Would even Boiling Rock hold her?
Sokka considered this. "It's your call, Aang. If it were just me, I'd tell the guard now, but I know how much the last Air Nomads means to you."
Aang scowled. "They mean everything," he said, then to Zuko, "so I really don't like you holding them hostage to bail your sister out. I'm going to visit Appa." He hopped onto the window sill and snapped out his glider wings.
"Wait, Aang," Sokka said, "don't –" Aang took off. "– split the party in a city where Azula might still be waiting to ambush you. Well, I guess if she attacks him, she'll have about a thousand Dai Li on her in a minute."
Zuko leaned through the window to look out after Aang, but he was already gone, and it'd take far too long to reach Appa's stable on foot. Hopefully it'd be fine, and they could tell him off later. He shut his eyes and felt the breeze on his face.
you trusted them told them and they would have betrayed you
Shut up. I'd've done the same. Azula's a menace.
"You know it's a bad look that you're still trying to protect your sister," Sokka said. "But for what it's worth, you were right about one thing. I'm the same. I don't like it, but I get it."
Zuko took a deep breath. "Right," he said.
"Did you already tell Katara?"
"I wasn't in the mood to tell her about it," he said, thinking of Haru. "And I wouldn't trust Suki not to use it against me. I would've told Beifong."
"Right," Sokka said sceptically. "Okay, first, Suki's not that bad."
"The first two times I met her, she sucker-punched me."
"The first four times I met you, you attacked me."
"I attacked the Avatar. You just got in my way."
"Oh well that's okay then. And second, you love to talk about how professional the Fire Nation military is, and you expect me to believe you didn't pass on life-or-death information because you weren't in the mood. I don't buy it. Either you're lying, or the reason you weren't in the mood is important."
Zuko scowled.
"See," Sokka said, pressing the advantage, "your problem is, you talked to Azula, then spent the entire day … I know you well enough to know you were probably just sulking, but everyone else will assume you were thinking about whether to betray us, so even if you're telling the truth about this, you're on the fence and you could change your mind at any moment. When Aang thinks of that, he'll want to throw you out again. Unless I covered for you …"
"Fine," Zuko snapped. "Do you remember Haru? Earthbender from that labour platform, stupid moustache, likes tossing people who can't swim into the ocean?"
Sokka blinked, then facepalmed. "If it makes you feel better, it was actually his father who did that," he said.
"It does," said Zuko. "He said his father stayed behind to hold Azula off."
Sokka winced.
"Are you going to tell her, then?" Zuko asked.
"I might as well. Tomorrow. It's her birthday, right? Okay, here's the story: Azula didn't find you in the morning, she found you just before you came home. You didn't tell Katara because … actually why not go with the truth, you were mad about Haru. You told me and Aang, that's good enough to prove you're on our side."
Presently, Katara, Suki, and Toph filed out of the cellar, all looking clean and refreshed, Katara in particular glowing. They looked around.
"Where's Aang?" Katara asked.
"With Appa," Sokka said. "Zuko Zukoed at him."
Katara gave Zuko a look.
"I'm not a verb," he said with dignity.
"Yeah, you're more of a participle," said Toph. "'This is so Zukoed up'."
Katara rolled her eyes. "It's my fault, really. I left the two of you together for over thirty seconds, I should've seen it coming. Is he okay?" she asked, directing this toward Sokka.
"He'll be Aanging again by tomorrow at the latest," Sokka said. "If he's not back by the time we finish, we'll go find him. Come on." They sat about the table and set about filling their plates and bellies. You could tell Sokka had already sneaked some food because he didn't feel the need to talk and eat at the same time. "The other thing we've been working on is pair names. We've been sending out pairs of people for Operation Wall, right; we have names for each pair. Aang and I are Team Boomeraang, Toph and I are the Sarcasmbenders, and so on. So we need names for both of you. I figure, you and I are brother and sister, so –"
"Wonder Twins," Toph said.
"We're not twins?" Katara said with rising inflection, Did you actually not know this?
"Wonder Twins," Toph repeated, and that was that. "Snoozles and Sparky are Team Ponytail."
"It's not a ponytail," Sokka said with a tone of For the hundredth time. "It's a warrior's wolf tail."
"Mine was a kon chuk, not a ponytail –" began Zuko.
"This is a lot of words for 'ponytail'," said Toph. Katara and Suki snerked.
"– and I don't even have it any more," he continued, his hand smoothing the half-inch of hair too short to style at all.
"Too late to change it now," said Toph. "Sokka, what were mine?"
"I was going to call you and Zuko Team Blueblood and you and Katara the Tutors, but I want a do-over, I didn't know we were roasting each other. Suki, what did you have?"
"Um," said Suki. "I couldn't think of anything. I've barely talked to Katara, and I can't think of a name for me and Zuko either. Other than Team Imminent Backstab."
"How about Team Imminent Impotent Flailing?" he replied.
"Too long," Toph grinned, "but Team Impotent works."
"NO!" Zuko shouted. "This is outrageous! It's unfair!"
"Team Chef?" Katara asked. "Since we're the only two who know how to cook."
"I know how to cook," Zuko said.
"Me too," said Toph.
"Who did you think made my jerky?" Sokka asked.
"Then why did I always get stuck with cooking for everyone?!"
"Because we knew you'd do it," Sokka said. "Team Chef fits. Next –"
"I don't want it any more," she said.
"Sure you do."
At that moment, the door opened: Aang was back, calmed down.
"Aang!" said Katara. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he smiled. "Starving, though." He came over, joined them, and piled up a plate.
"We were just talking about team names," she said. "What were yours?"
"I wanted First Friends and Redeemers, but someone" he looked at Toph "said those were lame."
"That was me," Toph explained. "Because they're lame."
"It feels like there's a lot of possibilities with Zuko," said Sokka, "because you're so similar –"
"Excuse me?" Zuko said, Choose your next words carefully.
"You're both heirs," Sokka said, counting on his fingers, "to the Fire Nation and the Avatar legacy; you both think you're big heroes and everything's all about you –"
"Everything is about me," Aang pointed out. "I'm the Avatar. That's why this group exists."
"Thanks for proving my point," he said. "– you both rush in everywhere without a real plan; you're both Blah blah blah, I have to redeem my honour –"
"I do not –" Zuko and Aang said together.
Katara laughed so loud they had to wait for her to stop. She pulled a coupon from her dress and waved it at Zuko. He gave Sokka a look of sheer fury, snatched the coupon, tore it to confetti, and threw it at him.
"You have to ~say it," she lilted.
"… You're right," he growled.
"I know I am," she smiled, butting her head at him like a cat.
lub-dub
Toph smirked.
"Anyway," Sokka said, brushing bits of coupon off his shirt, "we probably won't put the two of you together … ever … but we're going with Team Bargain. We were thinking Team Scion, but names should only fit the people in the team, and Toph's an heiress and I'm a prince."
Everyone rolled their eyes.
"No-one could think of a good name for Aang and you either," he went on to Katara. "Our best idea was Cloudbender, but I don't like it. It's lazy to keep mixing elements like that."
"Team Oedipus?" Zuko suggested.
Toph grinned. "Now we're talking," she said.
"I don't get it," said Sokka. Aang and Suki nodded. "What's an Oedipus?"
"Something you'd only hear about with a classical education."
"Is this an insult?" Katara asked warily.
"He was an old king," Toph said. "Don't worry about it, Jocasta."
"I think that's everyone," Sokka said. "No, wait, the two of you. We shortlisted Sugar And Spice, either the Steambenders or Team Steam, and Team Bickersnipe."
Katara held out another coupon. "Can we be Team Katara Is Always Right?"
"There aren't enough coupons in the world," Zuko said. "Sugar And Spice."
She thought about it. "Sugar And Spice."
