Fic: Airbender's Child: Earth 5/12
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story, in fact a lot of the dialogue will probably be cadged straight from the show itself, which means I own even less.
Author's Notes: I present to you . . . something that doesn't connect with any episodes in the original series at all. I hope you enjoy, because I had no template to work off of for this, and . . . well . . . I know a lot of you have been waiting for this chapter.
They had flown for part of the day just to get some distance between them and Gaoling. Their original plan, to head straight for Ba Sing Se in search of an earthbending master for Aang, was no longer necessary. So they simply flew a while, Zuko letting Aang lead wherever he wanted. There was no reason to go anywhere in particular, though they were trying to find a good, remote valley where Toph could begin teaching Aang earthbending in safety.
However, Toph, unused to the flying, and doubly upset by it as the means of travel rendered her truly blind, without even her earth-sight to compensate, meant Zuko gestured them all down to a landing far sooner than otherwise.
"Is something wrong?" Katara asked the moment they touched down.
Zuko showed Toph how to use Shuga's tail as a ramp, replying, "Toph was getting a little airsick. I suspect earthbenders aren't so much intended for flight as the rest of us. I'm sure she'll get a little better at it with time. But I thought it was better to get her used to flying slowly rather than messing with her. Now that we have an earthbending teacher for Aang, we can afford to relax a little."
"Okay," Katara said. "There's a village just on the other side of the hill, there. We'll go and get some supplies."
She went to tell Sokka and Aang what Zuko had said. He immediately turned to Toph. "Sorry. It was the only thing I could think of that would let us land early."
"It's okay," Toph told him. "Ah, sweet, sweet land! I missed you." Then she flopped onto her back and seemed to sink an inch into the ground. A moment later Zuko realised it was because she really had sunk an inch into the ground.
"That is really disturbing," he told her.
She wasn't listening. She'd stopped and put her ear to the ground, both her hands splayed out, and said, "There's someone down there."
"What?" Zuko asked. "Down there how? Passages, or buried?" He looked up to wave the others over, but they'd already left on Appa for the village.
Toph frowned. "Passages." She looked up at Zuko. "You told me about those airbender enclave things. Do you think this could be one?"
Zuko blinked. "Could be. Ours were in volcanic tunnels in Cheng Dhu."
"Neat," Toph told him. She frowned. "Let me just . . ." she spread her arms and twisted her legs, starting to create an opening below her.
"Wait!" Zuko said. "Not that I don't want to look right away, but if they're an enclave, they'd be really unhappy if you just opened a hole straight inside."
Toph gave him an irritated look. "Then what do you want to do?" she demanded.
"Maybe you could tell if there's an entrance nearby?" he asked. "There should be a bigger area, since they would need somewhere for the bisons, too."
The little earthbender nodded. "Okay. Let's see what there is," she said, and closed her eyes in concentration. It was the work of a few moments for her to say, "There's a tunnel not far over that way." She pointed west and started walking. Zuko followed her, looking for entrance markers. Shuga followed after them both. They reached something that looked like a solid cliff, and Toph stopped, pointing at a boulder that appeared to have broken off the top some time ago and lodged against it. "Right there."
Zuko frowned. "Not that I'm doubting you, but can you give me a minute to see-" Clearly out of patience with him, she gestured sharply again, and he watched as the boulder receded into the cliff face, revealing a cleanly cut tunnel in the stone. "You'd better not have damaged the mechanism," he told her.
"Relax, Sparky," she told him. "It's working fine."
"It better, or I'm siccing them all on you," he said. "Brat."
"Wimp."
"Mule-ox."
"And proud of it," she said, marching forward.
He turned to Shuga. "We'll be back soon." She rumbled an acknowledgement and settled down in a comfortable sprawl. Then he followed Toph down. The little earthbender unerringly led him through the tunnels, with none of the false starts and hard work he'd had to do at the North Pole. As they went, he noted the small signs, scratched into the walls here and there. This was definitely an airbender enclave.
They reached the last turn, then Toph held out a hand and opened the hidden entrance, leading them both into the final tunnel that opened into a large open space. As in his enclave and in the one at the North Pole, there were playing children, airbenders and bisons everywhere. It was completely enclosed on all four sides. However, the sides went straight up for an incredible distance. It was as though someone had bored an enormous hole straight down from a mountaintop until it reached the same level as the floor of the valley next to it. At the very top, he could see the sky. Toph nodded, impressed. "It used to be a volcano, I can feel the different kind of rocks."
"Different kinds of rocks," said a voice behind him. "I should have expected you to do something like this."
Zuko turned around, feeling his heart pound. "Mother," he said. "I-"
She cut him off. "That's it?" she demanded.
He suppressed the desire to reach for her. She was his mother and he loved her, but he couldn't. Instead, he sank into the deep bow formal occasions required of a prince to the Fire Lady. "My Lady," he said. "I must present to you, Toph Bei Fong. The earthbending teacher to the Avatar."
Lady Ursa sneered. "Really? I am expected to believe this? I raised you better than to fall for the bragging of some guttersnipe earthbender about the insane rumours circulating about the return of the Avatar. But what else can I expect from a firebender." He flinched. As he was meant to. As he always did.
Toph reacted, where he froze. With a skillful slide of one foot, Zuko saw his mother buried up to her neck in gravel and dirt. "You don't get to talk to him that way," she informed the woman. "Here I thought I was the only one with parents who didn't care about me because of something I couldn't help."
"Toph," Zuko tried to reason with her. "Look. I know it sounds bad, but she just-"
"She just told you that you're worthless because you're a firebender. Just like my dad kept saying I was useless because I'm blind," Toph snapped.
They had talked while they were on Shuga, and he'd told her the things the others knew, or had assumed about him. She'd told him about growing up blind and teaching herself how to bend by copying badger moles. Zuko knew he'd already carved out a place for her in his slowly growing family of friends, just as he had with Aang, Sokka and Katara. It was gratifying to know she'd done the same.
Toph wasn't finished though. "I know you understood. That's why I said what I said about being okay with my dad's proposal that you marry me for the alliance."
A sudden blast of air behind them showered them both with the dirt and gravel that had been holding his mother captive. They turned and Lady Ursa gave a snort of laughter. "Someone wanted to marry you off to him?" She shook her head. "Will wonders never cease."
Another voice came out of the dark then, startling both Zuko and Ursa, though Toph was clearly unsurprised. "Ursa. Who is this?"
His mother turned to the woman approaching from another tunnel. "Oh. This is . . . Lee," she said. "My son." Then she said, "And an earthbender he brought in here for reasons that entirely escape me."
Eyes narrowed in anger, Toph said, "He didn't bring me, I brought him. I sensed there were tunnels and I wanted to see what was there. He tried to stop me."
"Of course he did," Ursa said, condescendingly. "My son was never that competent, was he? Unable to stop a little girl."
Every word made his heart hurt more. She used to take some care not to go to far in front of others, but he supposed she felt it wasn't worth it any more. He closed his eyes, searching for enough inner calm to keep from embarrassing himself. He was startled then, when the other woman said, "Ursa! That is enough."
"I beg your pardon, Ling?"
"The boy is your son whom you haven't seen since you were driven from your enclave and all you can do is treat him like dirt?" the other woman demanded. "You're treating him the same was you treat our earthbenders."
Ursa pulled herself upright. "I gave up everything to marry the monster I did, and produce two," she sneered yet again, "Firebending children for him just so that I could protect my people." As she took a deep breath to continue, Zuko braced himself for a lecture he'd heard often. The airbenders in Cheng Dhu had been under the impression Ursa had four children. Aiko, Zuko's older sister, Lee, Fire Prince Zuko and Fire Princess Azula. She had often made this speech, and it usually won her whatever concessions she wanted made. It didn't work this time.
"Well, I can't wonder that the two firebending ones turned out badly if you treated them the way you treat the earthbenders in our enclave," Ling interrupted tartly. "As you seem to be treating this poor boy. He looks about ready to cry."
"Sparky's not gonna cry," Toph assured her. "He's too manly for that. Now that Sokka boy . . ." she trailed off meaningfully.
Ling turned fully to Toph and said, "Sokka? That's the name of one of the Avatar's companions."
"That's because we're travelling with him," Zuko told Ling. "Toph just joined us. She's to teach him earthbending while Water Master Katara teaches him waterbending."
Ling nodded sharply. "That settles it. I was going to take the news of the Avatar to the council of elders, to see if we should invite him into the enclave." She smiled at Zuko. "The son of one our members travels with the last airbending master. We must make the Avatar and his party welcome."
Faintly Zuko smiled back.
Toph broke in. "Well, if there are earthbenders in here, then maybe I can chat with a few of 'em. Get some ideas about how to start training The Fancy Dancer."
Reaching for a sense of equilibrium, Zuko said, "Really? Don't you think using your heckling from the Earth Rumble is a little silly in the real world . . . Blind Bandit?"
"Good point," Toph said. "I'll have to think of something really good," she declared. "You coming?"
"If it's okay with you, Ling," Zuko said, "I'd like to head back out, and then my bison and I can lead the Avatar, his friends and bison in. I assume you use the opening above as your entrance?" he asked.
Ling nodded, ignoring the sound of disgust made by Ursa as she did. As he left, heading back the way he and Toph had come, Zuko heard Ling saying, "That rigmarole about giving up your life for the good of the enclave may have worked for you in the Fire Nation, but here you're just another airbender, Ursa. If you don't stop putting on airs, someone's going to do something, skilled bender or no. Your teaching is prejudiced and I will not have a quarter of our enclave being alienated just because you don't like earthbenders."
At that point he moved out of earshot, feeling quite shaken. He'd never heard anyone speak to his mother that way, save his father. But Fire Lord Ozai was a cruel despot, and Ursa had always made him well aware of the respect she was due for her sacrifices and her rank.
He made it back outside, and found Shuga waiting. He immediately wrapped his arms around her neck. "Mother's inside, Shuga," he said to his bison. He heard her make her comforting rumbly noise and clung a little tighter. After a few moments, he relaxed and said, "We have to go back to where we landed and wait for the others. We've been invited to bring Aang into the enclave."
By the time they'd walked back, Appa had returned with the others. "Hey, Lee!" Aang waved as he hopped down. "Where were you? And where's Toph?"
"Inside the enclave," Zuko said.
The other three perked up. "There's another enclave here?" Sokka asked.
"Yeah," Zuko said. "Toph just felt the people in the tunnels, then bulled her way in. I can lead you to the bisons' entrance."
Aang smiled. "That would be great, Lee." As he, Katara and Sokka collected the things they'd unpacked for the night, the airbender added, "When Katara and Sokka said there weren't any airbenders left I felt alone, you know. Even if they're not the way they were, the fact that they're still here, in some form is just great. I never would have known if I hadn't met you, Lee."
It was balm on the wounds his mother had just opened, this open thanks and appreciation. Zuko took it. Sokka joined him on Shuga and they took off. Once they were in the air, Sokka said, "Okay, now that they can't hear us, what's wrong?"
"What do you mean?" Zuko asked.
Sokka just raised an eyebrow at him. "I know you, Lee. Something's upset you. You have that, 'I think I'm a bad person for no reason,' look."
"I don't-" Zuko protested.
Sokka spoke over his protest. "Yes, you do. What's set it off this time."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'll get it out of you eventually," Sokka told him.
They flew the rest of the way in silence, Zuko leading them to the peak with the opening, spiralling down to land in the open bowl at the bottom. Once they were off, and the saddles off the bisons, Shuga snuggled into Appa's side, glaring at any other female bison that came their way. Zuko gave her two parting words. "No calves."
"I see you still talk to that runt like she's your only friend," his mother said from behind him.
Katara, Sokka and Aang whipped around to look at the woman. Appa snarled. "And who are you?" Sokka demanded.
"This is my mother, Lady Ursa," Zuko said. "Mother, this is Master Waterbender Katara, her brother, a warrior of the Southern Water Tribes, Sokka, and the Avatar, Aang."
Katara, ever friendly, stepped forward holding out a hand in greeting, "It's nice to meet you," she said with a smile. "I'm glad to finally meet Lee's mother."
"A pleasure," his mother said with the false smiled that stated she was displeased with the meeting. Katara faltered.
Before things could become ugly, Ling arrived, Toph in tow, to bring them to meet the enclave's elders. They followed the airbender, leaving Ursa behind. "Pleasant woman, your mother," Sokka said dryly.
"She's had a hard life," Zuko protested weakly.
"Yeah," said Toph. "So hard she started off by telling you you're an incompetent moron right off."
He had to explain. They weren't understanding the situation. It was his fault. He was the one who'd never been good enough. "She didn't mean it like that. She was just . . . concerned. I mean, she's always had to protect the Cheng Dhu enclave, so it's right that she's protective. She was just scolding me. I mean, there were only rumours about the Avatar, right?"
The others exchanged looks, but he couldn't interpret them. Was it pity?
"Lee . . ." Sokka put a hand on his shoulder, as if to comfort him.
"I'm fine," he said, pulling away. He was fine. She had every right to criticise. Azula was crazy, she always had been, and he just hadn't been . . . good enough. It was just coincidence that his oldest sister was named something that meant 'beloved', while he just had . . . a name. After all, Azula had been named by his father, so her being special enough to be named after their grandfather was just his father's perspective. So the fact that no one cared enough to name him something . . . more was just . . . coincidence.
Silence settled over the small group for a moment. Then Ling, in the lead, said, "I know she's your mother, Lee, but you shouldn't take everything she says to heart. She's not as important as she thinks she is."
He refused to answer and brooded quietly through the meeting with the elders. Aang agreed to teach a few master classes to the airbenders there, while Katara was given the opportunity to refill their supplies from the enclave ones free of charge. Sokka and Zuko took the opportunity to requisition items to repair the bison saddles, and get Shuga and Appa looked over by the enclave's animal healer. They would stay for a few days before continuing their trip. When Aang asked eagerly for the locations of other enclaves, he was told, regretfully, that they only knew the general locations of the other enclaves, and that a person had to find his or her way in on their own. It was a failsafe in case someone was caught by the Fire Nation and tortured, the most they could reveal was, "There's an enclave somewhere around Ba Sing Se."
They got settled in as guests of various air and earthbenders in the area, and Zuko found himself staying with his mother. They ate dinner in an oppressive silence. He couldn't stand it any more, when he finally asked, "Where's Aiko, mother?"
She shot him an angry look. "So you finally bothered to ask? As if you care about your sister," she sneered. "All I know is that she wound up at the Ba Sing Se enclave."
"So she's alright, then," Zuko said in relief. "I'm glad to hear it."
"No thanks to you," she snapped. "I still cannot believe you protected the monsters who destroyed our people."
"I-"
Ursa was glaring at him. "I don't want to hear any excuses from you," she interrupted. "Because you had to protect firebenders-"
"It was a nonbending unit!" Zuko pleaded. "They were new recruits. Under eighteen, all of them."
She ignored him. "Thanks to your need to protect the enemy, our enclave and Cheng Dhu were victim to a burnout."
Zuko trembled. If he hadn't failed, if he had just kept his mouth shut, he could have redirected the orders. There wouldn't have been a burnout. There was a knock at the door, and Zuko went to his bedroll in the kitchen. If he could just have a minute of peace he wouldn't shame himself in front of her.
Sokka's voice rang through the house. "Where's Lee? I wanted him to stick with me," he said. Zuko heard his mother protesting, and Sokka ignoring her and marching into the house in search of him. "Are you okay? You look as white as a sheet."
"He's fine," snapped Ursa.
"Come on," Sokka said, pulling Zuko up. "Let's take you to see Katara."
"I . . . We shouldn't bother her," Zuko said.
"Yes," Sokka told him in no uncertain terms. "We should."
Zuko was pulled down the street, and found himself being pulled into Ling's home, where Katara and Aang were staying. Toph was there as well, and all three exclaimed on seeing him about how ill he looked. Katara sat him down, and was soon using her water to check him over, while Toph declared that something was clearly wrong with him, his heart was beating so fast.
When someone started pounding on the door, Ling opened it to reveal Ursa. The former Fire Lady marched in and said, "I expect my son to return at once."
"As soon as I'm done checking him over," Katara said absently. "He's clammy and he's cooler to the touch than he ought to be, he's pale and Toph says his heartbeat is too fast. When I'm sure he'll be okay he can go back."
"Now," demanded Ursa. "He can fake illness as well in my home as he can here."
"Fake?" Katara asked, dangerously, her head coming up to glare at the woman.
Ursa smiled. "Yes, fake. I don't expect you realise this, but he is something of an inveterate liar," she told them. "Why, he sent me a letter declaring his father had scarred his face terribly. I could certainly believe it, given that firebenders are savages, but there isn't a mark on him."
Eyes snapping with a blue fire as dangerous as Azula's, Katara said, "He had a scar. It covered the whole side of his face, disfigured his ear and affected his vision and his hearing. After Admiral Zhao burned your son's face off, I was granted the power by the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole to heal his face completely."
Ursa blinked. "Oh," she said. "The scar was real?"
"Yes, it was real," Sokka ground out.
"What was he doing that got him into a fight with Zhao?" his mother asked.
Aang stood proudly and said, "Defending me while I was in the Spirit World trying to find a way to keep the Northern Water Tribe from being invaded."
"Really," Ursa said contemplatively. She turned to Zuko. "It's good to know that you're trying to overcome the bad blood from your father."
Sokka snapped. "Just because his father's a firebender and high up in the Fire Nation doesn't mean Lee's a bad person. It just means he has bad luck in a parent."
Zuko pleaded, "Sokka, don't."
"High up?" his mother said. "You have no idea, do you?" she continued. "You have no idea who he really is."
"Mother," Zuko pleaded.
Her eyes narrowed at him. "You've been taking advantage of these poor, foolish, naive children." She turned to his friends. "'Lee' is not who you think he is. 'Lee' is actually the Crown Prince, Zuko. The son of the Fire Lord, Ozai."
Silence met the statement. Zuko wanted to look up. Wanted to plead with his friends to understand. They'd understood before, but this was different. It wasn't just bending, it was . . . he was the enemy. He was the son of the Fire Lord. The one who was supposed to be a spitting image of his father.
"She's telling the truth," Toph said. "I can feel her heartbeat and she's not lying." Then her voice changed. "Not that I care, lady," she said to Ursa. "Sparky's a nice guy and I like him."
Zuko looked up and saw his friends, staring in disgust. Not at him, but at his mother. "I can't believe you," Aang said. "He's your son. How can you hate him so much?"
Katara was moving and had wrapped herself around him as Sokka spoke. She murmured in his ear, "It's okay. I understand. I would have hidden it too. It doesn't mean you're a bad person." Zuko couldn't speak. He just leaned into her.
Sokka wasn't nearly as restrained. "You evil woman," he said. "I can't believe this. I knew he hated himself, but I never thought he'd gotten those ideas in his head because you'd just out and out told him he was evil. Sure I knew you had to be horrible to him but this . . ." he shook his head in disbelief. "He's your family."
"He's not family," Ursa replied, honestly baffled. "He's a firebender."
She'd never said it before. Not like that.
"Get out of my house," Ling told her. "You're going to get out, and tomorrow I'm going to make sure you're never allowed to teach the children again. That boy is your son!" A blast of wind from her sent Ursa tumbling through the door and into the street. Ling turned to them. "If you'll pardon me," she said. "I'll leave you all to help Lee."
She left after Ursa and Zuko said, hesitantly, unbelieving. "You're still here."
"Where else would we be?" Katara asked him. "You're our friend. I can see why you hid who you are, it's big, but . . ." she smiled at him. "You've proved you're our friend. We won't turn our backs on you."
"Yeah," Toph said. She climbed up onto Zuko's other side and joined Katara in hugging him, wiping her dirty feet all over his pants. "Dad's gonna be really miffed he didn't suck up to a prince more than he did."
"Stop getting your dirty feet on my clothes," he told Toph. He had to speak carefully to keep his wildly rocketing emotions from getting the better of him, but just saying it, like everything was normal made him feel better.
Sokka stepped in and knelt in front of Zuko. "So this is the last secret, huh?"
"Yeah," Zuko said. "It is. I just . . . How do you tell people your father wants to take over the world?"
"Just a sec . . ." Sokka said. "That general. The one who helped us. That's the uncle you're worried about."
Not at all sure what Sokka was going to say, whether an accusation about Zuko turning on his own family or a condemnation of his relative, Zuko just nodded.
Katara said, sounding confused, "You practically tried to get him executed."
Were they going to reject him now? "You don't understand," he said. "He once swore he would never go to war again. Not after Lu Ten died at Ba Sing Se. And then he was there, on Zhao's ship. I . . . I didn't know what to do and I had to protect the enclave from a burnout. I just . . . I didn't know what to do!" He was looking pleadingly at them. "He got out, I know that because he found me right before we left." He looked at the floor in front of him. "I don't know why, but he said he was proud of me," he said softly.
Ling had come in the door unnoticed. "Perhaps it's because you are a fine young man who deserved none of the guilt laid on you?" she suggested.
"But-"
"No." She held up a finger to silence him. "Your mother may have been allowed to do many things due to her rank in the Fire Nation. That rank means nothing here, and I will make certain she is not allowed to speak ill of you behind your back." Then she turned to the others. "Wounds such as the ones given to him by his parents will not heal quickly or easily."
"M'not wounded," Zuko muttered rebelliously. "She never laid a finger on me." When the others looked at him, incredulous, he said defensively. "Okay, that one time when she wanted to prove I wasn't any good as an airbender-"
With a cry of frustration, Sokka went storming off cursing. The sound of someone repeatedly hitting something wood with something metal came from behind the house. Toph bonked him on the head, none too gently. "For someone who's not an airbender, I think you're pretty good at it," she told him.
"You've never even seen me fake airbend," he told her. "So to speak," he added.
Aang rolled his eyes. "The fact that you had me fooled into thinking you were an airbender shows that you're really good at it," said Aang. "You made yourself from a firebender into an airbender by force of will, L . . ." he suddenly stopped. "That's not your real name, is it?"
"You are Crown Prince Zuko," Ling spoke up. "Correct?"
"Yes," he said.
Katara shook her head. "Wow. It's just hard to believe I'm travelling with the Avatar and a prince."
"I'm not-"
The waterbender poked him in the ribs. "If you say anything bad about yourself right now, I'm revoking tiger-seal privileges. You got that?" She hadn't stopped holding him the whole time, and with Toph snuggled against him on one side and Katara wrapped around him from the other, he felt cared for in ways he couldn't have imagined before meeting them.
"Where's your friend gone off to?" Ling asked suddenly, straightening.
That was when they realised Sokka was no longer out back. He didn't return for several hours, and when he did, he looked inordinately pleased with himself. They found out the next day that he had spoken to Appa and Shuga, who had clearly communicated with the other bisons, to harass Ursa however they could.
Shuga was more blatant than that, following her best human friend's mother around and growling at her. The first time he tried to stop her, Sokka arranged to run interference so that Zuko couldn't have any contact with his mother.
When they left, three days later, Zuko had never felt so free. His friends knew everything about him and they still cared about him. They'd met his mother and taken his side against her. He was leaning against Shuga, just telling her about everything when he heard the scrape of boots on the ground behind him. "Zuko?"
He hadn't heard his own name in so long, it sounded odd to him now. "Yeah, Sokka?"
"Y'know, it fits you better."
He frowned. "What does?"
His friend joined him in leaning against his bison. "The name, 'Zuko'. Now that I know, it really fits you better. Lee's too . . . common."
Zuko flinched.
"Not in a bad way," Sokka said, pretending not to have seen it. "Just . . . you're not the same as other people and you shouldn't have the same name as a million other guys." He shot an irritated look at him. "And don't sit there thinking I mean it in a bad way. You know perfectly well I don't."
"Okay," Zuko said. "Thanks, Sokka."
"No problem. Now stop making me have to be girly about this stuff," groused his friend. "I wanna go back to being able to threaten to pummel you without Katara looking at me like I was beating a sack of baby rabbaroos against a stone wall."
Amused, Zuko said, "Yeah, 'cause threatening's all you can do, Water Tribe. You and I both know you couldn't pummel me if your boomerang depended on it."
"What? So we're just ignoring the last three matches-"
"It doesn't count because you stuck an apple down my shirt to get Momo to attack me."
"That was one time!"
"It's still cheating."
"I'll show you cheating!"
Katara made disgusted noises at both of them when they showed up for lunch sweaty, dirty and bruised and dragged them both outside, forcibly washing them from the rainwater barrel with her waterbending. Zuko had similar conversations to the one with Sokka with all his friends, but Katara's stuck out the most.
"L- Zuko?"
"Still getting used to that?" He asked her, smiling.
She smiled ruefully. "Yeah. I just wanted to let you know. I'm really sorry I didn't believe you when you said your mom hated you. I just . . . couldn't believe it."
"I'm just not what she wanted," Zuko said sadly.
"Then she's dumb," Katara declared. "You're nice and sweet and a great fighter and an incredible bender and she doesn't deserve you." Before he could reply, she hugged him tightly. Zuko decided not to fight the moment and relaxed against her, holding her just as tightly. When they finally pulled away, Katara tried to press a kiss to his cheek, missed her aim and hit the corner of his mouth. Some instinct made him turn a little, making it into a proper kiss. When it ended, they were both blushing.
"Sorry," they both blurted at each other, then started laughing as the moment that could have been was broken.
When they left the enclave behind, his mother didn't come out to see him off. Somehow, it didn't hurt like it should have, and Zuko was able to let everything go back to normal. That is, arguing with Sokka about who'd managed to flirt with more pretty girls over the course of their trip.
Obviously it was him.
Prologue Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12
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