Chapter Text
She woke up with a start. She could tell that something was different.
First, she was still alive. Unless she would still be chained in a cell in the afterlife, and well, she certainly hoped not.
Second, she felt healed. Her stomach was not demanding sustenance as it had been; she felt fed...satiated. Her skin was not as grimy as it was, though being held in a cell covered everything in a fine layer of dust and soot.
The only thing that was painful was her hands. As she tried to move her fingers, jolts of agony shot through her. She bit her lip hard with the realization that they'd made sure she wasn't going to be able to bend herself away, now that she was in better shape. The bones in her fingers were shattered.
She noticed someone sitting crouched outside of her cell. She startled back, unable to move far because of her restraints, heart pounding in her chest. It was a guard, and carefully he took his helmet off, tilting his head.
"I thought you were done for."
"Tahoe," Katara croaked, expecting her voice to be far more roughened than it was, "Why?"
"I owe Azula a great deal, and I have never assumed Zuko would be the better choice. It always seemed obvious to me that Azula was who we really needed as a nation. She will be a good Queen, Katara, you have to know that."
"Is it blackmail? Does she have something on you? Tahoe, this isn't the answer," she tried one more time.
Tahoe blinked, shaking his head. "You just don't get it. Zuko has poisoned your favor for her, but Katara, she's so smart. She has the answers, actual answers."
She'll burn the world to the ground, you idiot.
"So why save me, then?" Katara asked with bitterness, "Or did I magically heal?"
"No, no...I brought in a healer. We couldn't have you dying in here before Azula did it her way," he said, but there was no cruelty behind his words. It was a farce; it was what he said to justify to everyone else why he hadn't let Katara become past-tense.
"If you can't be honest," Katara huffed, and Tahoe bit his lip, standing.
"You've always been so kind, Katara. To me...to everyone. Call it a moment of weakness." He rolled his helmet between his palms. "Because I know I'm just delaying the inevitable. But I still…" He chuckled, shrugging. "And before you ask, no, you can't change me to your band of merry justice warriors, who may I add, are all here waiting for death as well. I might not want to see you dead, but my loyalty is to Azula."
Katara stared at him, distressed. "Did you ever really love Aiga? She was over the moon for you," she said, recalling how happy one of her best friends had been every time they met up.
"See, so good. Asking for others, not yourself. Worried about people who likely will survive, since no one can find her." Tahoe grasped the bars, sighing. Katara knew his answer from how he danced around and didn't even reply.
"Don't you have any questions for yourself?" he asked.
"What is there to ask?" Katara asked, glaring at him. "If you're not going to help me... if you're just here to gloat or get your conscience cleared…"
Tahoe frowned, as though hurt by her words. "Look, erm, out of kindness, Azula is going to stage the executions in a few hours from now. I know that you never got closure, and that's shitty. We're moving prisoners to prepare...the big ones will go first. And I think...I think I'm going to walk all the way to the end of the cell hall to get some tea."
Katara blinked at him because unless he was also going to 'oops' drop his key, he wasn't giving her an escape plan. She did not comprehend his hint.
"And I've heard these walls are quite...flimsy, Princess. And I might just take a few extra moments to really, really enjoy my tea. We just got a new shipment of Oolong in from the Earth Nation, and I've been told I simply must try it."
Katara blinked as he left, her mind still swirling with just an alarm bell of confusion...until she heard a groan from the cell next to her. And well, she'd know that voice anywhere.
"Zuko!? Zuko!" she cried, her voice pitching and breaking from the joy of knowing they were so close...just a wall separating them.
"Oh, great dragons," Zuko moaned, "My head…" He sounded woozy. They must have knocked him out to move him to a closer location for...later.
"Zuko, we don't have much time," Katara pressed, but she knew she could not fix the fog in his mind faster, not from here.
"Kat...ara?" Zuko said woozily, and then it was like it all fell into place. "Katara, you're alive, oh thank the spirits," he said, sounding close to tears. "How are you? Are you okay? Katara, just please, keep talking," he begged.
"I'm…" She almost said fine, but how could she be fine? "I'm still here."
"You are, oh, I thought for sure you were already dead."
"Maybe Azula plans to kill us as a pair, just to really dig our hearts out and prove her madness," Katara hissed, knowing that it would be a fate worse than death to have to watch Zuko die in front of her.
"Oh," was all Zuko said, as if it just hit him what was really going on. "At least we're here together now."
"Our guard has stepped away. Just for a second," Katara whispered. "Zuko, we're going to die."
The words hung between them, as solid as the brick walls that held them here. To say it out loud, to Zuko, made it all crash down on her. "No last-second fixes, no brilliant ideas, nothing. They broke my fingers, I can't waterbend," she whispered in a terrible, hushed cry.
"Katara, hey, hey…" Even hours from death, he was trying to comfort her, not focus on himself. Still, even he could not think of much else to say to her, something that would truly put her soul at rest.
"The thought of you dying...Zuko, I can't." Katara let out a sob, body slouching.
"You'll go first, I'll make sure of it," Zuko insisted, "Azula wants to hurt me more anyway."
"You shouldn't have to see that, though." Katara shook her head. There was a large pause across the space.
"I'll do it for your peace," he said.
"Tui," Katara groaned, "We were so foolish. All of us; all the contestants, thinking things like the dresses we were wearing or the meals or the trips were what was important that we missed all of this right under our noses." She gave a dry, dark laugh.
"Azula is scarily manipulative. Not even Mai figured it out," Zuko argued. "And not my father. Despite what Azula claimed, my dad is...was...bright. He wouldn't have made it so far if he wasn't. She got it from him."
Katara wondered how he was dealing with the fact he killed his dad, but there wasn't the time for that right now.
"Still, we dried up our time. Time that we could have been doing anything else, enjoying ourselves. Time we could have been spending together."
"Together?" Zuko said, a flicker of hope in his tone.
Would it be best to tell him now, as they were seconds from death, to give him a happy thought as he left this planet, or would it agonize him to know the truth and have it yanked away before he could ever enjoy it? She wasn't sure, so she settled for silence.
"Hey, at least...we'll spend the rest of our lives together," Zuko murmured to her. "We won't leave each other's side until the end. Few can get such a gift with the one they love."
"It's more an unfortunate side effect of semantics," Katara huffed, "But I appreciate you're trying to be sweet." And, if she had to die, there's no one she'd rather it be with.
"I should have…" Katara began, but everything she could finish, the hundreds of different paths she could have tread all clogged at her lips, and she was so overwhelmed she could not speak any of them. "I should have treasured you more when you were here. You, and Sokka, and my parents, and Suki and Toph and Aang and everyone. I guess I just always thought we'd have so much more time."
"Katara, I don't know exactly how much time we have left, but I don't want to spend it regretting things we didn't do. I don't want that, not at all. So let's not consider all of those ghosts, because we can't change time anyway."
Katara internalized his words, realizing that she would drown herself in pity and self-loathing and remorse before she ever reached the chopping block. If they only had so much time left…
"What should we do instead?"
"I want to kiss you," Zuko laughed. "Not a naughty kiss, but a sweet one. I just want to kiss you," he whispered."What we really can do, though? Talk about the good things. Some pretty great moments have happened, not just bad."
Katara closed up her sorrow and reached for the box in her mind of the rest of the time here; of dancing with her friends, laughing late at night, falling for Zuko and confiding in him, learning so much about herself and her family…
"Yeah, not all bad things, some very good things," she agreed, basking in the warmth of these memories.
"Are you glad you came here?" Zuko asked.
"Of course, a thousand times," Katara had no hesitation in her answer, "I would make that choice over and over again."
There was noise from down the corridor.
"I guess our number is up," Zuko said, trying to inject a joke, but gallows humor was doing nothing for Katara right now.
Katara hummed, trying to keep her tears in, expecting to hear the clanking of chains, the marching of a huge army to keep the pair from escaping, and perhaps even the maniacal laughter of Azula. Instead, she heard none of those things - a few scattered yells, metal hitting the ground, an explosion…
Katara tilted her head. "No, something's not right."
"What do you mean?"
"I-"
Before she could reply, a vibration like an earthquake shook the cells. Katara tried to brace herself the best she could as the walls around her tumbled down, leaving a triumphant Toph standing in the rubble, laughing and throwing her arms to the sky.
"I am Toph! Breaker of cells and chains! Fear me!" Toph cheered herself on.
"Toph! I have never been so glad to see you," Zuko said, and all of a sudden, he couldn't stop laughing. The noise of his glee caused Katara to giggle too, despite the circumstances, and she didn't know if she should cry or not.
"Your timing is impeccable, Toph," Katara agreed.
"Hey you two, need an escape?" Toph asked gleefully, easily separating the metal bars (though the cells around them were basically gone). "Oof! Yo, Giggles! I need help over here!"
Ty Lee jumped, leaping and bounding over the ruins and waving brightly at everyone.
"Oh, you two sure are in a pickle, aren't you!" she said, eyes wide. She went to Zuko first, while Toph helped break Katara's chains and holdings.
"The guards-" Katara argued, looking over at the filled-in hallway.
"Oh, we took care of them," Ty Lee laughed, flipping her shoulder-length hair, and giggling behind her hand. "Easy, actually. I was expecting a bit more of a fight. So embarrassing for them."
"Tahoe, did you see him?" Katara said frantically as Toph broke the metal at her legs, "He's-"
"Dirty and two-sided. Yeah, we know." Toph made a face, and as Katara started to beg the question, she waved her away. "How about later, Sugar Queen?"
"Careful, they broke her fingers," Zuko said to Toph as she started to free Katara's hands. He was staring at Katara with so much warmth, so much relief, that it made everything feel more okay.
"No!" Ty Lee gaped, "Those monsters!"
"Awe, gee," Toph said, choked up, "That's awful. Does it hurt? This okay?" she asked, handling Katara more gingerly than she'd perhaps ever touched anything.
"Get me out of here," Katara ground her teeth, "Even if I cry out."
Breaking the bonds pinched and made her eyes tear up, but it was nowhere near as bad as having them broken as it was. As soon as she was free, Katara stood on wobbly newborn fawn legs. Zuko ripped off part of his pants to create bandages for her hands, held protectively close to her chest.
"We gotta go," Toph said, frowning. "C'mon! It's a rescue mission, not an assassination, though Azula does deserve a good punch-"
"But...but the others," Katara argued, "Everyone that chose Zuko's side. We cannot leave them!"
"Already saved," Ty Lee soothed. "You two were the most heavily protected, so everyone else we got earlier. We're waiting on you two. Let's go," she insisted, pushing them forward.
Katara tripped, but Zuko caught her. She looked up and smiled at him, sighing in relief. Zuko looked back at her, and for a moment, it was just them and-
"Ugg! Can we pause the sexual tension until we get on the bison?" Toph said, walking between them.
Katara stopped. "Did you just say…bison?"
"Appa!" Ty Lee clapped.
"Bless you," Katara said uncertainly.
"No, silly, Appa is a name. It's Aang's flying bison!" Ty Lee giggled, booping Katara's nose.
"It's a bit scary, but he's a pushover," Zuko said fondly. "But let's actually go and meet him before something bad happens."
Toph brought them down to the first floor by making holes in the floors. Zuko made a sharp, annoyed inhaling sound, but clearly swallowed whatever he was about to say.
"What? What?" Toph demanded, "The palace is already destroyed...not pretty from the outside. And it's not yours anymore, it's Azula's. And I don't want anything left for her."
"So you know-" Katara began again.
"Yes, Katara, we're all caught up. No need for exposition," Ty Lee said, "We will explain."
The guards around them were all either completely unmoving or still twitching, thanks to Ty Lee's chi blocking. Katara saw workers; mostly cooks, maids, and handmaids, streaming out of the palace and helping others.
"Let's see how Azula manages anything without any employees except her guards," Aiga said proudly, overseeing the exodus from the Royal Palace.
"Aiga!" Katara cried, "Look at you! Was the escape all the Gray Lotus?"
"We can sure as hell punch things, but none of this would have happened without Aiga getting a hold of some of the workers inside," Toph said. "She sent a hawk with a super-secret message, telling the workers to stay put and keep to the status quo. Good plan too, otherwise there would be a lot of dead workers, I'd reckon. But they knew something else was coming. And now that we're offering for them to leave, basically, no one is sticking around." Toph said, high-fiving Aiga.
"How is everyone getting out?" Zuko asked, his voice sounding like he'd swallowed gravel. "There's so many who denied Azula."
"We have more friends than perhaps we thought. Friends of Rodden are everywhere and certainly willing to help. We of course have to figure out a new location, but.." Ty Lee's forehead crinkled. "It's better than here."
Appa was bigger than Katara expected. He was the size of a stable itself and was groaning and batting away guards. Sokka, Arrluck, and Hahn were already loaded on, and Katara saw the rest of the contents being loaded into a carriage.
"Okay, okay, let's go, we're here!" Toph said, being grasped into the saddle by Sokka.
"Wait, wait? My mother? Lu Ten?" Zuko waved his head around.
"Your mom is already gone; she's with us. And Lu Ten…" Aiga hauled herself up, lip quivering. "He wasn't in his cell. We came late...Azula had already started the executions...we have to assume-"
"Azula already killed him," Zuko said, his shoulders hunching low, wiping his eyes. Ty Lee gave him a sympathetic, lip-quivering frown, but Toph shoved her shoulder.
"Uhm, I think we gotta go, girl! I can't see for shit up here, but I can hear things!" She pointed, and any of the guards that seemed to escape Ty Lee's chi-blocking were running right for them.
"Appa! Yip-yip!" Ty Lee yelled and Appa rose into the sky, soaring high above the clouds until they could see the whole palace, burning and a shell of the once wonderful beacon it was. Zuko pressed his chin against the saddle, watching it vanish below them.
"Where are we going?" Katara asked. It was hard to talk up here; the wind whipped around them and took her voice far away.
"Southern Air Temple! We can't stay here long, but we have time to re-group!" Ty Lee yelled back. "Just sit back, and sleep. You're safe now."
There wasn't much else to do. She couldn't talk with Zuko, not properly. It was hard to even have side-by-side conversations. Hahn was curled at the front into a ball, Arrluck offered Aiga a chest to sleep on, and Sokka and Toph were already curled up in an untangleable ball of limbs.
She looked at Zuko who just patted next to him. Katara let him wrap his arm around her shoulders and she rested on his chest. She could hear his heart beating and reminded herself, no, they were not dead. He was alive and so was she.
This comfort, mixed with the rocking of Appa's flight, eased her to sleep.
XXX
"Wake up!"
Katara yawned to bright, hot sunlight.
"Katara, look at this place!" Sokka said, excited, "It's incredible."
Katara sat up on Appa's saddle to see high white buildings lined with light blue, intermingled with the earth having taken over, crept around the buildings. The nature, the sheer sunlight, the beauty of it...she felt choked up.
Ty Lee jumped off Appa and offered Katara her hand. As she more or less fell off the large mammal, she couldn't help but spin around to just take it in, the wind whipping around her loose hair.
"Are you sure we're safe here?" she asked. It was Zuko who answered.
"It's incredibly difficult to get here, and most of the blimps were destroyed in Zhao's attack, so Azula would have to scramble. Even making one at double pace would take a few moons. Plus, they're likely to look for us in the Fire Nation first, maybe Ember Island. Yes, I think we're safe here for a while."
Katara let out a breath of relief. As soon as they were unloaded, Ty Lee jumped back on.
"Where is she going?" Katara asked.
"There are many refugees to bring up here," Aiga replied. "Everyone we saved, for now, we have to keep here. There's plenty of room, but it will take quite a few trips."
"Oh," Katara said, relieved that no one would be left to fend for themselves. "Why isn't Aang manning Appa?"
Aiga winced. "Err, about that...well, Iroh wants to speak to all of you anyway. And Ursa." She motioned for what looked like the main hall. As soon as they entered, they were greeted by the smell of fresh food and tea. Katara's mouth watered.
"You all must be starving. Please, eat," Iroh said, motioning to the pillows.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Sokka said, tugging Toph over to a seat, "Oh, I'd eat bugs right now I'm so hungry!"
Katara sat.
As she sat, Top came and whispered something to Iroh. He waved a woman over, one Katara recognized as a water-bending healer from the Royal Palace. She had a bowl and motioned for Katara’s cracked fingers. Katara let her work as they all settled, the feeling of bones setting was something familiar to her.
Around the table were a whole group of men and women, older in nature. They were all wearing the same frock.
"The White Lotus." Zuko guessed at the same time Katara realized. There were a few familiar faces; Piandro, Pakku, Iroh, Shen, Ursa, Aunt Wu, Bumi...and so many more. Aiga came and sat proudly next to Iroh, representing the Gray Lotus. She had an air of authority that Katara had never seen before.
"Zuko!" Ursa stood, pulling him into a deep hug. "I worried we would not make it in time."
"Mom, hey, I'm okay. Dad-" His lip quivered, unable to say it. "He...I…"
"Shh, please. Oh, my darling," Ursa looked at him, "You did what you thought was right." Whether or not she mourned for Ozai was hard to say.
"Lu Ten?" Iroh said, all too hopefully.
"By the time we got to his cell, he was gone. I'm sorry, Iroh," Toph said, hanging her head. Iroh's face fell immediately, and it felt like a precious china piece shattering. Katara could see the grief that choked him, carried him down.
"Uncle." Zuko offered himself and Iroh pulled Zuko into a hug too, and for a moment, the Royal Family grieved as one.
"Sit, eat," Piandro said, "And let us talk."
Katara grabbed her food as though she'd never eaten before. She loaded her plate up and tore in like someone who hadn't once spent an entire afternoon memorizing tedious table manners. She saw Zuko take a plate, but set it back down, unable to touch a single thing.
"First, how are you...here? Before us?" Zuko asked, eyes wide.
"I know my own daughter, Zuko," Ursa said in a sad, haggard tone. "And I knew from the way she was looking at you that she was responsible for the things going on. That she was going to do something terrible. And it only confirmed it when that Guardsman, Yaw I believe, tried to knock me out after we left for the safe room. I escaped."
She didn't say how, but Katara knew that Ursa had killed the guard to flee.
"After that, I knew I had to alert the White Lotus and ask for aid. As it turns out, they were already on their way. I wrote to the Water Tribes too, and any official across the Earth Kingdom that I thought might be sympathetic to Zuko, warning them of what was to come."
"That it was Azula all along?" Sokka asked. "Yeah, I get that she's your daughter and all but, she's taken a very long ride on the cuckoo train," Sokka said, swirling a motion next to his head.
Iroh gave a long sigh.
"Look, I know what you're going to say, Uncle, she's my sister and clearly something is mentally wrong and it was my father that caused this, not her fault...and I get that, but you should have seen her. She was high on maniacal power!" Zuko said, shuddering at the memory. Iroh raised an eyebrow, snorting.
"No, she's crazy and she needs to go down. In due time...we need to re-collect, heal people, and be sure of our next moves. We now know we are dealing with a highly intelligent but savage individual," Iroh said to the group.
Katara looked around. "Where is Aang? " she asked. His absence felt like a hole in the group.
"Well, he took some damage against Zhao," Shen said. "Princess, we know you have a vial from the Spirit Pool of healing water. We would not ask unless it was absolutely necessary."
"He won't survive without it?" Katara inhaled hard, glad she kept it around her neck.
"He's awake, but it's hard to say. All I know is he 100% will live with it, and it's much less certain without," Shen said gravely.
Katara gulped; she selfishly wanted to keep it, unsure if she'd need it again. But if it was the Avatar in question…
"Think it over," Pakku said gently. "He will not perish in a day. That is quite the gift, not to be used without good thought."
Katara knew what she would be expected to choose, but all the same was grateful for the illusion of choice.
"Wait, wait, back up?" Arrluk said. "How did you guys know to come to the palace if Fire Lady Ursa said you were already nearly there?"
"It's just Ursa now," Ursa corrected, perhaps a bit sad about the loss of her title, or perhaps relieved.
"I realized it. There was a reason the Equalists wanted me," Aiga said, raising her hand. "I knew that their leader was Azula, but I hadn't realized it. It started with Tahoe; back when he was hired, he talked to me about how quickly he was brought on. He said that Azula pulled him through, expedited, and at the time it seemed like an innocuous comment. He said Azula had big plans, but I thought…" She gave an uncertain laugh. "I don't know, she was planning a grand ball."
"That's how you knew Tahoe was a traitor. I'm sorry, Aiga," Katara said.
Aiga smiled demurely. "My heart is stronger, but thank you. I do not know if it was convenient or if he was assigned, tasked, to me...but either way…And as it was, I realized in reflection how much he adored Azula. Worshipped, even if he tried to hide it. As soon as I figured out that it was Azula behind the Equalists, I knew Tahoe would side with her."
"But it couldn't just have been Tahoe that helped you figure it out," Sokka guessed, rubbing his chin.
"Correct. It was actually a lot. I'm angry I didn't realize it sooner," she pouted.
"You realized it just in time, my dear," Iroh assured.
"C'mon, you gotta tell us now!" Sokka urged like he was listening to one of GranGran's famous bedtime stories.
"Right. Well, I once ran into Azula in one of the tunnels the Equalists came through. This was before the attack. I remember finding it odd she'd be there, and afterward just thought it was a terrible coincidence she'd been in that location. But looking back...it seemed Azula was always in places right before Equalists attacked. I didn't really think until I talked to some other handmaids, and we stitched together a sort of timeline and recurring pattern of Azula being somewhere, and then, magically Equalists arriving through there."
"Never thought to even look at you, huh?" Arrluck laughed, "The Gray Lotus…"
"Exactly. And when she attacked my family, it was a warning. She probably guessed I was...not on her side, and I'm sure she also figured that out from Tahoe. I had no lost love for the princess behind closed doors," Aiga said bitterly. "I don't think anyone was supposed to survive. But my family is much stronger than we seem. One of the guards had a letter he dropped, probably to hide the evidence, informing them of where to raid and to 'leave no survivors', and it was sealed with Azula's signet. Of course, I sort of just thought she was merely a terrible person. Stupid perhaps too, as they didn't manage to burn enough of the letter."
"Well, true," Zuko groaned. "Terrible, not stupid," he corrected. Katara noticed he still wasn't eating. She nudged him meaningfully, and he carefully took a slow chew of food, as though this was something he'd never eaten before.
"And the last bit was that I had a really big fight with Tahoe not long before we left. It was about something stupid, something so trivial, but he told me 'you'd better be nice to me, or I can make you regret it. When she takes over, you'll be sorry.' Immediately, he realized he'd made a mistake, and wouldn't tell me who 'she' was."
"Who did you think?" Katara asked.
"My mind went to Azula immediately, but at that point, I didn't have all the pieces, so I dismissed it. It seemed too...I don't know. I think I knew it wasn't ever Ozai. Even before that comment. Right before I left, I was serving him and I heard his conversations with the Fire Sages. He was…" She looked at Zuko. It seemed she knew what he'd done.
"Just say it," Zuko said with a long sigh. Katara understood the unspoken addition; say what I missed.
"I heard him discussing with the Fire Sages how to eradicate the Equalists. He did truly think it was Airbenders, but equally...he really was concerned for the Fire Nation. He was afraid he wasn't going to be able to stop them, and he didn't know what their endgame was. There was no reason for him to be lying. He called the meeting. I know I could think it was a long game, but I believed his tone. And I was just running it through in my mind, wondering if it wasn't Ozai, then who was it? And then everything about Azula - and Tahoe - made sense."
"She even guessed about Azula calling in to help the Dai Lee," Iroh said proudly, "Quite the brain she has."
"Really?" Katara was so proud of Aiga.
"Yes. I occasionally had to clean out Azula's room. She scared away so many handmaids that we all just took turns. I was cleaning out her chimney and found remnants of a very long conversation with someone. I couldn't read any of it, most of it burned, but there was a symbol that I recognized, but couldn't place. As we were leaving the swamps, and we passed a tree with an announcement and that same sigil, I realized what it was: the symbol of the Dai Lee. There was realistically only one reason for Azula to be in contact with them, and then, everything just came together."
"Wow," Sokka whistled.
"Indeed!" Iroh nodded. "Her insights gave us enough time to gather and make a plan. We figured you all would lose, as good fighters as you are. So we knew it would be a rescue. Without Aiga's realization, I shudder to think that we may have very well have been far too late."
"But we weren't. So now, we have time to rest," Ursa smiled in relief.
"So we wait here, that's our plan?" Zuko asked, frustrated at the lack of action.
"At first we were going to go to the only unclaimed land...the South," Iroh said with a nod to Katara, "But there are too many of us. We will have to re-think. There must be places that, although under Azula's technical rule, are out of the way...like here."
"Right now, you just need to recover. I know it seems hopeless, but do not worry too much about Azula. This is a question for a later day," Ursa encouraged everyone.
"Try impossible," Zuko muttered.
"I believe you all should sleep," Iroh said. "I personally know that sleep on a flying bison is hardly sound, and you are all recovering. I will wake you if there is anything big." He waved someone over. It was a girl wearing reds and oranges and yellows in a sarong; a new Airbender?
The Airbender led everyone through the halls until she paused at two doors. "I have been told to tell you that the three girls are in here, and the three boys in here. Arrluck and Hahn are in a different bunk." She gave a long sigh. "I've also been warned that it is unlikely it will remain separated out," she said, looking at Sokka and Toph, who were always no more than an inch from each other, and then at Zuko and Katara.
"There's only four of us?" Sokka said slowly.
"Aang and Ty," Zuko guessed, to which the airbender beamed. Of course, she would not find that pairing frustrating that they were ignoring their directives.
"Please, recover," she said with a deep bow.
Toph and Sokka had a very long kiss outside the door and Katara decided she would just rather not and dropped her few items on the bed. It was warm, comfortable, and not as moth-bally as she'd thought, so sleep came quickly.
XXX
The moon called to Katara, a sweet, inviting cradle song that reminded her of home. And though they were hundreds of miles from the water this high up, she could feel the push and pull of the waves too, easing her out of bed and grasping a yellow sweater that had been hung for her next to her bunk.
Ty Lee had returned at some point and was doing what looked like an acrobatic move in her sleep. Toph was snoring, her limbs splayed out across every angle and dangling. She mumbled and kicked as she slept, and Katara wondered what she was seeing in her dreams? She made sure to open and close the door with little noise.
The temple was deserted at this time of night. Everyone was sleeping and the world was at rest, at least in this corner of the universe.
And still, the moon called out.
Or, perhaps it was not the moon. Perhaps it was the reincarnation of her soul, telling her to seize the moment because her first thought was wrong. She was not alone.
There, sitting on the ledge and staring out over the vast nothingness of clouds, was Zuko.
"Can I join you?"
Zuko did not seem surprised at her arrival. He smiled, nodding. "Please."
Katara sat, knowing this was the time to speak all those things she couldn't before. They were as alone as they could get in this quiet bubble of time. But she was afraid. As she gathered the courage, Zuko simply reached for her hand and twined their fingers.
That soothed her. It was enough. Enough for a moment to just feel the heat of his skin as they breathed in unison, letting the fresh air wash over them endlessly.
"I love you."
Katara could not look at him and say it. Not the first time; it was easier to say it to the world below her, to not have to look at him, if perhaps for some unknown reason he'd rebuff her. But he just smiled, though she could tell he was shocked but so happy.
It was his silence that encouraged her. It was the reminder that he would always be there for her, and she was safe. Safe with him, safe at the temple, safe from danger, at least for right now.
She turned to him, dragging one leg onto the ledge and underneath her, so she could wedge closer to his body.
"I do, honestly," she whispered. "Love you," she added, as though there was any uncertainty about what she was talking about. "I love you so much that when I thought you were going to die, I didn't know how I would survive without you, Zuko. I'm stubborn, and I'm stupid, and great Agni, I've loved you for ages but have only figured it out recently, but spirits I have."
Zuko leaned in, kissing her. "You already know I love you too."
Katara eased into his spicy scent, pressing her nose to his collarbone and gathering her bravery once again.
"I know the Choice doesn't matter anymore. We have bigger things to worry about, sure. And it might seem stupid of me to ask, but it still matters to me. And I'm sure of it, I truly am." Katara reached out, touching his scar gently, before kissing it. As she pulled back, Zuko kept her hand there, unsure where she was headed, but his heart was open to all of it.
"Prince Zuko, will you marry me?"
END OF BOOK TWO