#an emotional reunion where Sokka comes back from a close-call battle

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

Reunions (or goodbyes) :,)

[dhwty-writes]

Zutara Week Day 4 - Celestial

Great, I fell behind... I’m sorry for the late contribution, but at least that means two stories today. Again, I advice you to check out the previous parts before reading, otherwise this won’t make a lot of sense. Have fun!

Read on AO3

"This has gotten out of hand," the Avatar chided and all Katara could do was try to stand tall and proud. "Katara, what in the names of all spirits?"

"I was just here to help," she defended herself. "Not once did I initiate the violence."

Aang sighed and leapt off Appa's saddle. "Where's the governor?"

"Technically that would be me." She hoped that she hadn't jumped too much upon hearing Zuko's voice next to her, his hand softly on her back to steady her. "But if you mean the man responsible for all of this, you better hurry to save him from Toph. She's having a field day."

"I will," Aang announced and brushed past them to get to Yozin.

"That was odd." Katara looked up to see Zuko frowning.

"What was odd?"

"Oh, I-" He glanced down and Katara could have sworn to see him blush. "Don't take me wrong, I just thought there would be a warmer reunion between you two." He looked away. "Not that it's any of my business."

She frowned. What on earth did he- oh. "Aang and I aren't a thing anymore," she stated matter-of-factly. "I haven't really seen him since."

He winced and took a hurried step back. "Oh. Um. Sorry. I didn't know."

She smiled and pat his cheek affectionately. "Go listen to the palace gossip a bit more. It's been public knowledge for a year now." She yawned and her shoulders slumped. "I guess I really should get some sleep."

"You can stay here!" he blurted.

Katara quirked an eyebrow.

The blush on his cheeks rose higher. "I mean, since the hospital got destroyed and all. I'm sure there's a room to be found where you can rest."

She smiled. "Thanks, Zuko. I'd appreciate that."

He smiled too and wandered off in search of one of his guards to show her to a room. Shortly after she collapsed on a rough futon and slept.

Katara slept for hours and when she woke, she found a plate of rice and a teapot beside her bed as well as a bowl of water. After the meagre meal and a quick waterbending bath she decided that she should better go and look at the havoc they had wreaked in the previous night, check on her rebels, treat the injured-

She was wandering through the abandoned corridors of the ship when she heard the yelling. 'Oh no,' she thought, sprinting in the direction of the noise. She wasn't feeling nearly well-rested enough to go through another battle and she doubted that Zuko was either.

She burst through the door onto the deck and dashed to the railing. But instead of attacking firebenders she only saw a pavilion where the old Team Avatar had sought shelter from the sweltering humid heat and Zuko and Aang seemed to be engaged in a ferocious argument. And while Sokka and Suki at least tried to calm them down, Toph stood idly by, apparently observing the clouds passing by.

Katara sighed. She wasn't sure if she hadn't preferred firebenders.

Calmly she walked over to them. "Hi everyone," she greeted them with a smile. "What did I miss?"

Aang scowled and crossed his arms, looking more like the twelve-year-old she had once broken out of an iceberg than a twenty-two-year-old avatar. Zuko huffed angrily and also looked to the side. He looked terrible, she noted and privately asked herself if he had slept at all. But that was a concern for another time.

"Sokka?" she prompted.

Her brother just shrugged and crossed the arms.

Before Katara could huff in frustration Toph answered: "Sparky and Twinkletoes are having an argument about whose responsibility this whole thing is. It's stupid."

"It's childish," Suki added.

"It's beside the point," Katara decided.

"Oh, sure, take his side," Aang muttered and it felt like the temperature dropped a few degrees.

Katara had to close her eyes and take a deep breath before continuing. "I am not taking any sides, Aang, I didn't even know what sides there were. But I've been here for three months, I think I know more about this conflict than most people."

"She's got a point," Sokka muttered.

Aang scrunched his nose. "Alright. So, let's hear the story."

She nodded and started telling the same story she had related to Zuko already. Well, mostly. It was a lot more matter-of-factly and less emotional. She didn't even know why she had felt the need to tell Zuko the other story. She didn't even know why she couldn't tell the others the true story. But when she was finished Aang and Zuko had both seemed to have sufficiently calmed down.

"And tonight?" Aang asked. "What happened?"

She frowned. "I'm not even sure. Ask those who have attacked us."

"Katara..." he pleaded.

She rolled her eyes and continued with her report: "It was just past midnight when I heard some unrest in the street. I sent two of the people staying at the hospital-"

"The rebels?"

She gritted her teeth. "The rebels. Anyways, I sent two of them to see what was going on. They returned half an hour later with burns all over their bodies. They had encountered about six guards in the streets, harassing the people in their houses. Ten more set out, I guess they got caught in fights somewhere along the line. I stayed back healing the injured and was just minding my own damn business and then they started attacking the hospital. I went out, stood my ground, Zuko showed up an hour or so later. I guess you all know the rest of the story."

Aang said: "Governor Yozin-"

"Yozin," Zuko interrupted him, "he's no governor anymore."

"Yozin," Aang admitted, "said that some of your rebels were causing unrest. Ignoring the curfew. Attacking the guards."

She quirked an eyebrow. "And you believe that."

"I am obligated to listen to all sides of the conflict."

"Aang, I can't believe you're this gullible! You know the drill; they will say anything they can to make us look like the bad guys."

"I know, Katara, and I also know that that's a two-way street."

"Even if that was true," Zuko chimed in, "Yozin had no right to command the guards. I had stripped him of his offices already. Besides that, he tried to declare he was ready to kill me this morning. He committed high treason."

"You asked me to come here, Zuko. So, I am here, let me do this my way."

"I asked you to come here when I thought this was a petty squabble. Things have changed. This is a Fire Lord problem now, not an Avatar problem."

He snorted. "No, I think this is exactly an Avatar problem! This has gotten out of hand."

"I know, Aang! But there's nothing you can do here. There's no conflict you can resolve because the only possible resolve is removing the cause. There's no gap you can bridge because that gap is far too wide. There's nothing the Avatar can do because what's needed here are politics. And that is a Fire Lord problem."

"Maybe we should try talking to Yozin-"

"Aang, I really don't want to overstep," Sokka said with a sigh, "but I think we're way past that point."

"Well, then why didn't you call me weeks ago, why didn't you-"

"I tried," Zuko said the same time Katara answered: "You know why."

All the eyes shifted to her and Katara looked away. "I'm sorry. I should probably go and see to the wounded." Before anyone could say anything, she bolted.

She found Ni in the town square that bore the evidence of her rampage last night and nearly winced. All that she had built up in the last weeks and months was destroyed and then she wasn't even there to clean up the mess.

Instead Ni had stepped in, relentlessly ordering the poor townspeople around that looked just as exhausted as Katara felt.

"I don't know why you even needed my help," she said in a poor attempt at a joke.

"Katara!" Ni exclaimed and her face lit up as she ran over to hug her. "I was so worried."

"Don't be," she tried to calm her down. "I don't go down that easily."

She smiled. "I didn't expect you to."

Katara tried to smile, too, but it came out as a grimace more likely than not. "How can I help? Any wounded?"

The woman gave her a critical once over. "I think you'd help best if you got some rest. You won't be much help if you're about to keel over."

"I'm fine," she insisted. "Everything's fine now. The Avatar's here after all. And I'd like to take my mind off things."

Her face hardened as she took the hint. "Right. And I guess that went just swimmingly." Katara looked away in an answer. Ni sighed. "Didn't think so. The injured are just two streets in that direction, the only house left standing. Your little earthbender friend didn't take kindly to firebenders hiding in the others."

She nodded and went on her way.

"But don't think I won't be keeping a close eye on you!" Ni called after her, finally drawing a tentative smile from her.

Healing was just what Katara needed now. It was tiring and trying with the hot sunrays boiling her flowing power until nothing was left but fickle steam. Oh, how she hated the days in the Fire Nation where she could barely feel the pull of the moon. But that way she had no other choice than to focus completely on the task before her. That way at least she didn't have to think of Aang and the unpleasant break-up a little over a year ago.

Ni came around when the gruelling heat of the sun just started to let up and brought food and tea Katara took thanking and ate quickly. Some of her rebels had nasty burns that not even Yugoda could heal. Still, she was glad that she had returned to the healing hut and the old master after the war. As much as she loved fighting, loved the feeling of her blood simmering and boiling with the thrill of the battle, the icy fear when a hit was just a bit to close, the war wasn't in need for warriors now. It was, however, in desperate need of healers. And she would never turn her back on people who needed her.

She just turned around a corner to get some bandages for one of the guards to wrap up his frost bites and of course - of course - that was the moment when Aang showed up.

"You should rest," he said.

"You don't have to tell me what to do," she replied stubbornly.

Aang sighed. "Please, Katara. You fought an entire night, slept half a day and spent hours now healing people. You're overexerting yourself."

"I am more than capable than knowing my limits, thank you very much."

"Katara, please," there was an agonised look on his face. "I just want to talk. Please."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was alright. She could be an adult about it. She could handle this conversation. They were bound to have it at some time, after all. "Okay," she said.

"Okay?" he repeated.

"Let's talk." She fixed her with his gaze. "But not here."

"Anywhere's fine by me." He sounded relieved.

She jerked her head towards the door and they stepped outside, where the heat still made the air flicker.

"So," she asked.

It took a while before he answered. "Katara, that was really reckless."

She didn't have to ask what he meant. "I know, you don't have to tell me." He could be talking about anything - coming here, staying, stepping in, stepping up. She knew that he didn't approve.

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because I was selfish, alright Aang? I was selfish and I wanted to prove that I could do something like this on my own. I have done it on my own in the past. I never meant for it to get out of hand."

"I know. I know that you couldn't have left for your life. And I'm sorry, too. For lashing out at Zuko and you, that wasn't right."

"Hm," she said.

"I'm also sorry for how things ended. I get it now. It's better if we're friends. The world needs us as friends. And I do, too. I'd like to be friends with you again, Katara."

She looked up at him smiling. "I'd like to be friends with you again, too, Aang." Then she pulled him into a tight hug.

When she let go, she felt like she had just shucked the weight of Appa off her shoulders. "So," she said and bumped into his side. "How's life?"

"Oh, you know. Calmed a spirit down in the Earth Kingdom. Opened an orphanage in the Southern Air Temple. Rode the unagi."

"Again, Aang? Why on earth would you do that?"

"I lasted almost five minutes this time! That's-"

"Two less than last time?" She shot him a grin and he pouted. Then they both laughed.

They started walking together, swapping stories watching the sun make its way across the sky until it set and it felt like they were really friends again.

"Right," Aang said as they reached the harbour. "I'll be staying with Appa. Good night, Katara."

"Good night, Aang," she answered and stood slightly lost on the quay.

"You're back late," Zuko's voice cut through the humid air of a Fire Nation night from where he stood at the railing of his ship. She hadn't even seen him standing there.

She crossed her arms and quirked and eyebrow. "Well, you're up late."

"Couldn't sleep," he answered as she drew closer. "Too much on my mind."

"Hm," she agreed quietly and stepped on the ship. "Have you slept at all?" she asked leaning on the railing beside him.

"A bit," he deflected her question. "How'd it go with Aang?"

"Alright, I guess. It seems like we're friends again."

"Is that- is that what you want?" he asked tentatively.

Katara sighed and looked up at the stars. "I don't know," she admitted. "I think it was good to get some distance. Maybe we needed that to get to know each other again. Sometimes that's just how it goes."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him avert his gaze. "I guess so," he murmured and she wasn't even sure if she was meant to hear it.

"That's not what I meant," she answered regardless, "that's not- That between us- these four years-" She scrunched her nose, not really sure where she was even getting at. "I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I regret it. And that I'm sorry."

"There's nothing you have to be sorry for," he said quietly and when she turned to look at him there was a hesitant smile dancing around his lips.

"I still am. We lost four years of our... relationship." She closed her eyes, just relishing in his presence. "And... I missed you. I really did." Then she leaned against his side, placing her head on his shoulder.

He hummed lowly. "I missed you, too," he whispered against her hair.

They stood silently like this for a while until Katara moved. "What now?" she asked.

"I brought something to drink," he answered. "If you want."

"Oh, keep talking," she joked.

He didn't. Keep talking, that was. Instead he turned and slid down the railing, laying his cloak out and patting the space beside him in invitation. Katara took the offered seat and the offered bottle and took a deep gulp.

"Did I ever tell you how much I hate your summers?" she asked and bent a trickle of sweat from her brow.

"You haven't." He quirked an eyebrow. "You're welcome to go back to your frozen wasteland any time you like."

She scrunched her nose. "Maybe I will. At least there the stars are right."

He hummed. "I remember. When I first started travelling, I was very confused. No-one had ever told me that the constellations changed."

She snorted in surprise. "You were in the navy."

"Not really but that's beside the point. I wasn't trained for the navy. The first year or so was a living hell while I tried to figure out how navigation worked."

That made her laugh and spit out half of the undoubtedly expensive alcohol they were drinking. "What I'd give to have seen that."

"As if you would've done any better," he grumbled.

"Excuse me? Of course I would have. We're sailors, for the spirits' sake. Our whole history is written in the stars."

"It is?"

She nodded.

"Tell me."

And so, she did. She told him of the polarbear-dog she had always seen at home that guarded the south and her cub that had wandered too far from its mother and got lost in the east. She took his hand to show him where it had left small footsteps in the sky. She told him of the boomerang that had shone brightly in the night sky when Sokka had been born and the penguin-seal and the whale and the sea-snake. She told him of the spirits dancing in the sky in the north and of Tui and La. Of balance and opposites and push and pull while they watched the moon travel across the sky - Yue, she told him, Sokka's first girlfriend who had sacrificed herself after the siege of the north.

"Wait-," he slurred, "he hadn't been joking? His first girlfriend really turned into the moon."

"Of course," she frowned. "How would you make something like that up?"

"You guys have been through some wild shit..."

She scoffed. "Tell me about it."

They were silent for a bit while Zuko drank again. "'S wrong, you know?"

"What is?"

"The moon's not with the sea. He's in love with the sun."

"No, that's not true," she protested. "I just told you. It's the moon and the sea, Tui and La-"

He groaned and covered his face with his hands. "No, don't you see? 'S the moon and the sun. Round and round and round they go, always chasing each other but never touching."

Her face fell. "That's sad."

"Yeah," he looked up at her, "it is."

Katara shrugged and drained the bottle.

"What now?" she asked again.

"Go to sleep? Morning'll come soon."

Her heart felt suddenly very heave. "And when morning comes?"

He shrugged, too. "I'll go back home. I've been away longer than I meant to. And longer than is advisable." He shook the empty bottle. "What about you? Off to the next revolution?"

"I think I've had my fair share of revolutions for some time." Katara sighed. "Still, there's so much to be done here."

"I know," he agreed. "But the fighting has died down. They have food and water. The healers are arriving tomorrow morning. Governor Yozin is on his way to a nice prison and I have appointed an interim governor until I find someone up for the task. Our work here is done."

"But it is not enough!" she protested.

"No, of course not. But the rest will be decided in stuffy council chambers not in dirty town squares."

"I don't want to leave them."

"And I'm not going to. Neither do you have to."

She turned to look at him and furrowed her brow. "What are you saying?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Come back to Caldera with me? Finish what you started?"

She hesitated. She probably shouldn't. She hadn't been home in quite some times and she didn't particularly care for the Fire Nation. Sokka would be taking off come sunrise headed to the South Pole. She could maybe get back to teaching for some time. Build a few houses. That would be fine. But she didn't want to.

Because even though she didn't particularly for the Fire Nation, she happened to care for the Fire Lord. Quite a lot, actually. Probably more than was good for either of them. And so, before she even knew what she was saying, she answered: "When do we leave?"