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Chapter Text

Last night, Sokka had wanted nothing more than for Katara and Toph to shut up so he could actually get some sleep , but apparently he had done something to anger the universe, because now they were being chased by those three girls from Omashu, none of them had slept a wink, and Katara and Toph were still fighting .

Or, at least, they had been before Toph had almost stormed off and Sokka had barely managed to convince her to stay by imparting a bit of Iroh-wisdom that the old man had once shared. Normally, Sokka would be rather proud of himself, but at the moment the only thing his mind wanted to focus on was the idea of just laying down on the ground and not moving for four days straight.

Of course, the universe still had some anger left, apparently, because even after Sokka, Katara, and Toph had beaten Knife Girl and Girl-Who-Punches-People-And-Makes-Them-Turn-Gooey, his sister, in her infinite wisdom, reminded him that Aang was still fighting Crazy-Blue-Fire-Lady.

Oh, Tui and La, it was times like these that Sokka really wished Iroh was still here. 

Stupid Zhao .

Still, they piled on Appa and set off in the direction that Aang had flown.

The abandoned town was the only interesting thing around for miles, so Sokka would have said they should check there anyway, even if there hadn’t been blue fire in the streets that gave away precisely where the fight was going on.

Katara veered Appa down onto a cliff as Crazy-Blue-Fire-Lady followed Aang into the depths of a crumbling building. Toph earthbent a slab of rock to bring them into the main part of the town and Katara hopped off as the building Aang was in caught fire. A moment later, Sokka’s sister scrambled away Crazy-Blue-Fire-Lady emerged, her eyes flashing, a flame in her palm. Sokka intercepted her and swung his club. She ducked under him and leaped off the front of the house, only to trip as a rock popped up under her foot. 

Toph stomped her foot and shoved her hand forward and Crazy-Blue-Fire-Lady was suddenly covered in slabs of rock up to her neck.

As Aang took a moment to catch his breath and Katara coaxed a bit of water into him, Sokka took a step forward, pointing his club in what he hoped was a menacing way. “Who are you?”

Crazy-Blue-Fire-Lady smirked. “Oh, come now. I’m sure someone mentioned it once… Maybe back in Omashu? You’d have to tell me.”

There was a beat before Katara said, “When we were trading for Bumi… the girl with the knives called you ‘Princess Azula.’”

Sokka didn’t like the gleam in Princess Azula’s eyes.

He heard Toph shifting behind him.

“Why is the Princess of the Fire Nation hunting us?” Sokka asked.

“I was bored,” she shrugged, her smile turning a bit amused. The glint in her eye remained.

“...It’s because of me, isn’t it?”

All eyes turned to Aang. The bags under his eyes were very pronounced, but his gaze looked a bit far away and haunted. He looked up at Azula. “I destroyed Zhao’s entire navy.”

Azula’s eyes hardened but her smile widened just a tad.

“ Stop moving! ”

Sokka turned to Toph. “No one’s moving.”

Toph pointed at Azula. “ She is. She’s moving around, I can feel it!”

Sokka glanced back over at Azula, who seemed to be in the exact same position as she had been. No wiggle room. “You sure?”

“You’re asking me if I don’t trust what my feet are telling me? Yes, I’m sure.”

“Stop doing that,” Katara said, addressing Azula.

“Stop doing what?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what we’re talking about.”

“You mean… stop doing this? ”

Sokka barely had time to cover his face as the rock surrounding Azula suddenly exploded out in a blaze of blue flames. Toph raised a rock wall in front of herself and Sokka while Aang spun his glider to shield himself and Katara.When the rock wall fell, Azula was gone. Toph was turning around, though, and as Sokka wheeled in the other direction he saw Azula shoot a wave of flames at Toph. The earthbender fell back with a yelp and before she could move out of the way or Sokka could pull her to safety, Azula had sent another jet of fire at Toph. There was a cry. Sokka blinked and Toph was holding her feet and cursing like he’d never heard before.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka leaped into action at once. Sokka scooped Toph up as Aang jumped to engage Azula and Katara moved over to try and heal Toph’s feet.

“Stop it, stop it, shit ,” Toph swore, kicking at Katara a bit. “Heal later, fight the nutso firebender now! ”

Katara nodded to Sokka and moved back to help Aang. 

Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to help very much. 

The universe’s apparent anger at them was only stacking up as Azula seemed to notice just how tired they all were and fought with even more aggression and power behind her strikes.

Sokka had no idea how they were going to get out of this one.

Despite all the scenarios he thought up at that moment, though, ribbons were not part of any of them.

Of course, that was what the universe went with.

Azula’s hand raised up, and his wrist was suddenly entangled in a bright red ribbon. It was pulled taut and she fell to the ground.

“Oops,” a new voice said, “Wrong one.”

Sokka and his friends all turned at once in the direction the voice had come from. Standing there, in the middle of the street, was a boy he had never seen before . He had lighter skin than what would have made sense for someone living in the Earth Kingdom towns around here, and wore browns with tints of green. Dark, messy hair framed his face, but Sokka’s gaze was really drawn to the new guy’s left eye, where a scar stretched across half of his face and went all the way back to what looked like his ear.

Tui and La, that must have been painful .

The other end of the ribbon that had wrapped itself around Azula’s wrist was tangled up in the guy’s hand.

“Wrong one?” Sokka managed to ask. “You mean… you didn’t mean to throw a ribbon?”

Ribbon-Guy looked a bit disappointed as he took a small pair of scissors from his waistband and sheared right through the ribbon, leaving some dangling from his hand and the rest dropping to the ground. “No, I didn’t.” He shrugged. “Force of habit, I guess. Anyway-” He turned his gaze up, eyes flickering across each person present- “We should probably go now.”

Sokka was about to ask for answers, but Azula growled from the ground and clenched her fist, so instead he turned to Aang and said, “Appa, please?”

The whistle was blown and the bison descended down just as Azula was starting to get up again. The rocks on the ground had not been a good thing for her, apparently, as she had a few cuts on her face and her hands. Her eyes gleamed.

Sokka clambered onto Appa and leaned down to help the new guy up. They might not know anything about him, but he had helped them, and, either way, they couldn’t just leave him to Azula .

“Oh, I don’t think so-”

Ribbon-Guy glanced back and made eye contact with Azula as Sokka pulled him up and she faltered . Her face fell and something in her gaze cracked as her eyes narrowed just a bit. Her lip trembled slightly as Sokka pulled Ribbon-Guy into the saddle.

“Zuzu?” Azula breathed, furrowing her brow and staring up at Ribbon-Guy.

Ribbon-Guy lost any of the confidence or cheer he had had before as his gaze stayed in the Fire Nation Princess’s. Finally, he cracked a smile and said, “Nice seeing you, LaLa. We should catch up, soon.”

Azula suddenly seemed to remember what was going on again as she snapped out of a funk and sent a plume of fire up toward Katara, sitting with Toph in the back of the saddle. Ribbon-Guy lunged over Sokka and waved his hand to intercept the flames. As the fire disappeared, Toph, her face screwed up in pain, called out, “Hey, Twinkletoes? Get us the hell out of here. ”

They were in the air a moment later and, for some reason, Azula didn’t shoot after them. Instead, she just watched them go quietly, and Sokka wasn’t quite sure if that was better or worse.

After a minute in the sky, Sokka had forgotten about their new guest until Ribbon-Guy laughed out loud, looking down at the land flying by below them while wrapping the dangling ribbon he had cut before back around his wrist. He looked up at the rest of them, then, grinning as he spoke. “So, this is what flying’s like? I’ve had to do it for shows before, but that’s with ropes, so I don’t think that really counts. What do you think about it? Do you always travel like this?”

Sokka exchanged glances with Katara and was about to speak when Aang piped up from the reins, “Yeah, every day. It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”

“I just can’t believe you can see so much from up here. I mean, before three weeks ago, I’d only ever been to three places: Caldera, Shu Jing, and, of course, Ember Island.”

Aang turned back suddenly, his eyes wide. “ You’re from Caldera? ”

Ribbon-Guy nodded, brow furrowing. “Of course I am.”

Aang’s eyes widened even more, his shoulders tensing just a bit.

“Aang, what’s wrong?” Katara asked.

“Caldera is the capital of the Fire Nation,” Aang replied, his voice strained.

Sokka had rounded on Ribbon-Guy in half-a-second, his club raised.

“Explain,” he said.

Ribbon-Guy blinked and then raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“ You’re Fire Nation! ”

“I thought you’d gotten that from when I stopped Azula’s flames.”

“I didn’t-! I wasn’t-!” Sokka sputtered. “It was a stressful situation!”

“You’re telling me. First time I see her in three years and I chuck a ribbon at her?”

“You embarrassed?” Katara asked. “What is she, your girlfriend?”

Ribbon-Guy suddenly looked like he wanted to be sick, but he narrowed his eyes a bit. “Didn’t know the Water Tribe was into incest.”

Toph snorted as Sokka and Katara both reeled back. “What-”

Before Sokka could continue, Toph interrupted him. “She’s his sister, idiot.”

Sokka blinked. “You’re… You’re the Prince of the Fire Nation? ”

Ribbon-Guy shrugged. “Depends on your perspective on things. But, yeah, I suppose I still have the title. Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, at your service.”

Sokka went to speak again, but Toph interrupted him.

“You’re dead.”

Ribbon-Guy (Zuko) blinked and turned to her. “What?”

“You’re dead,” she repeated. 

Zuko looked down at his body and poked himself in the side before looking back up at her. “Well, not when I last checked.”

“My parents are the Beifongs. They get all the reports. You’re dead.”

“Ah,” Zuko nodded. “Yeah, that would be my uncle’s doing. I think it was six months ago, he made up that lie to let me, and I quote, ‘live in peace and love.’” Zuko cracked a smile and shook his head fondly. “I love him, but he needs to work on some of his proverbs.”

“Wait, proverbs?” Aang asked from the front. “You’re… You’re Iroh’s nephew, aren’t you?”

Zuko’s grin returned. “Indeed, I am. I believe he told you I would be coming should he not be able to?”

The group all shook their heads as one. Zuko’s smile fell a bit.

“Oh. Huh. Must’ve… missed that bit…” He shook his head. “Still. I’m here now.”

“And… why are you here?” Katara asked.

Zuko was quiet for a moment before turning to Aang. “Avatar, it would be my honor if you would allow me to teach you firebending.”

Aang blinked before grinning. “Sure! You’ve gotta call me Aang, though.”

Zuko cracked a smile, light dancing in his eye. “I can do that.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Sokka said, raising his hands up. “We’re just gonna accept him , just like that?”

“I’ve gotta learn firebending, Sokka,” Aang said. “I never even started with Iroh. He mentioned that one Jeong Jeong guy, but Katara deemed him a bad idea just from the stories Iroh told. Now, we’ve been handed a golden opportunity. You wanna just let him go?”

Sokka went to respond, but then Zuko spoke and drew all attention to him instead. 

“Your feet are burned!”

“Yeah, no shit,” Toph said, her voice flooded with barely-concealed pain.

“I’m doing the best I can, Toph,” Katara said as she worked on healing the earthbender.

“I can probably help,” Zuko said. “Firebenders have a natural resistance to firebenders, but bad accidents do happen, and we do have a lot of nonbenders, too. Everyone who knows what’s good for them carries at least one container of Kaaru Rose burn cream.” The firebender reached into his bag and pulled out a container. He twisted the top off and moved over to where Toph was. Katara pulled the water off of her feet as he approached.

“Be careful,” Toph said. 

“I will. Ready?”

“ Let’s get this shitshow on the road .”

Zuko dipped his fingers in the cream and applied it to the bottom of Toph’s feet as quickly and carefully as possible. Sokka watched him do it in only thirty seconds flat. 

“Leave your feet elevated, leave that on overnight, we’ll check how it feels in the morning, and then go from there. Hopefully, by then it’ll be healed enough that waterbending healing works for the rest of it.”

As Zuko settled back near Sokka again, they caught each other’s gazes. Sokka realized abruptly that the other was waiting for him to continue arguing about being cautious around him. 

Instead, Sokka asked slowly, “How much of that stuff do you have?”

“Uh…” Zuko checked his bag. “Three containers, but I do have dried Kaaru petals and preserved seeds, so I could theoretically make more if need be.”

Sokka’s gaze lingered on the scar on Zuko’s face involuntarily before he said, “Cool.”

There was a beat of awkward silence before Aang broke it by yelling out, “Introductions!” He patted Appa on the head and murmured something in the bison’s ear before flipping back (stupid airbending) into the saddle with them. Momo landed on his shoulder.

“I’m Aang, I’m the Avatar, and local animal whisperer!” As if on cue, Momo nipped at his head and Aang tossed him a nut from his pocket, satisfying the lemur easily. “That’s Momo, and the guy we’re riding on is Appa, my flying bison and the best friend in the whole world.”

Aang turned and nodded at Katara, who poked Toph in the side.

“Toph Beifong, resident blind earthbending master.”

Sokka watched Zuko as Toph spoke. He didn’t react at all other than nodding along. 

“Uh, I’m Katara. I’m Aang’s waterbending master, I guess. Uh, I once literally fought sexism.”

Zuko sighed wistfully. “I need that story one day.”

Katara nodded sagely. “I would be happy to provide.”

“I’m Sokka. Katara’s brother, local nonbender, and, uh…”

“The best strategist we’ve ever met!” Aang chimed in. Katara nodded in agreement and Sokka felt a swell of warmth in his chest.

Sokka turned to Zuko. “Your turn.”

Zuko’s face was a tad flushed as he nodded. His hand absentmindedly unravelled the ribbon from around his wrist as he cleared his throat and raised a hand awkwardly for a moment before letting it fall. “Er, hi. I’m Zuko. Banished, not-dead Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, here to teach the Avatar, I mean Aang, firebending, and, er, resident Ember Island Player.”

Sokka didn’t know what the last bit meant, but it seemed important to the guy, so he let it be.

“Nice to meet you, Zuko,” Aang grinned as he hopped back to the reins and started bringing Appa down.

“Welcome aboard,” Sokka nodded, patting the guy on the back. 

Zuko gave another small smile and nodded before his gaze slowly fell back on the fields getting closer and closer. As Katara and Toph started talking about sleep (which, yes, Sokka was very excited for ), he watched as the newest member of their group wrapped the ribbon back around his wrist again, as if he didn’t even know it was there.

Chapter Text

Maybe if Aang had gotten more than half-an-hour of sleep in the past two days, he wouldn’t be in this situation.

Here he was, though, staring across an abandoned town at a girl with fire in her eyes and sparks on her fingertips.

His eyes were heavy, his lids drooping, but he did his best to blink the exhaustion away and focus on the teenager in front of him who seemed rather intent on killing him.

“Who are you?” He called. She grinned, her teeth sharper than the knives that her friend had been throwing. Aang’s fingers tightened around his staff and he shifted his feet to improve his bearings just a bit.

Her hand twitched, and Aang could barely move out of the way as she shot a jet of blue flame at him. He just managed to dodge, twirling his staff to do his best to dissipate the fire before he leaped sideways into an abandoned building and out of sight.

The next few minutes were a blur, the girl following him through the crumbling ruins of what must’ve been a once lively town, blue flames turning orange with time behind them as they moved. Old beams collapsed from the weight of their years and the heat of the fire burning through them, clouds of dust rising into the air from each step. Through the haze of both the exhaustion and adrenaline, Aang did his best to slow her down, throwing blasts of air back behind him, floating over crevices so that she thought that there was a floor where there wasn’t, but the girl always seemed to be one step ahead of him.

Honestly, if he didn’t know any better, he would say that she was light enough on her feet to be an airbender herself, if it wasn’t for the way that she left complete and utter destruction in her wake.

A wall crumbled next to him thanks to a well-timed blast from the girl, and Aang let out a yelp as chunks of debris rained down, breaking the floor underneath him and pinned him to the ground a full story below. 

The girl hopped from her perch at the edge of where there had been a floor just a moment earlier, touching down lightly in front of him. Her eyes flashed and her smile made him squirm as she lit a ring of fire around the entire building, the flames reflecting in her eyes and the heat burning against his face. Aang’s mind moved as fast as it could with how tired he was, but he couldn’t see a way out of this.

Suddenly, though, the girl was slapped across the face by a stream of water. She turned, her shoulders tense, and Aang watched as Katara flashed him a smile before letting out a cry of alarm and scrambling to escape the building and get back onto the main street of the town as the girl followed, a bright blue fire growing within her open hand.

Aang forced a blast of air out from his hands, shoving the debris off of him, and dashed through the doorway just as the fire spread to that as well.

His muscles aching and his skull feeling on the verge of a headache, Aang joined his friends at the center of the town where it seemed Toph had done what Toph does best and slapped their problem with a giant rock. The firebender was surrounded with slabs of rock that stopped short right at her neck. 

Aang panted, sweat rolling down his face in barrels, doing his very best to force air back into his lungs as the chase through the town and the exhaustion from the previous night all caught up to him at once. Katara placed a hand on his shoulder and held the opening of a waterskin to his mouth. Aang took in a desperate breath before grabbing the water and drinking a quick swig of it.

He heard Sokka speaking to the girl in the rocks, and apparently not quite getting much out of her. Aang continued to drain the waterskin and eventually handed it back to Katara before turning to listen in on what was happening. 

“-is the Princess of the Fire Nation hunting us?” Sokka’s voice was hard, but still had that lilt to it that it always did when there was something that he didn’t know. Aang wondered if that was just what he sounded like whenever he asked a question. 

“I was bored,” the girl said with a shrug. Her eyes flashed with something more than just fire, now, and her grin sent chills down his spine despite the heat from the sun glaring down from above. 

Aang’s mind stuttered for a moment, thinking about why the Princess of the Fire Nation would be hunting them specifically. Sure, he was the Avatar, but there were surely thousands of others who could be sent after them instead. What slight against the Fire Nation had Aang made that was severe enough that they would send the Princess (of a nation known for having very skilled royals) chasing after him herself?

Then, abruptly, he knew, and Aang felt sick to his stomach.

“...It’s because of me, isn’t it?” Aang asked.

The answer to the question was obvious, but the meaning behind it, not so much, he supposed. He felt all eyes on him, and his exhaustion had never been so prevalent to him than the moment he said, “I destroyed Zhao’s entire navy.” Thinking about it still made him feel bad, remembering what it was like to wield so much power, to hear soldiers below begging for mercy that would come in nothing but the form of death. He remembered seeing men screaming, running for their lives, and not caring .
He hated feeling like that.

The smile on the Princess’s face and the hard look in her eye only made him feel worse. 

- - -

Twinkle Toes’s heartbeat stuttered a bit in his chest. The feeling was fluttery and it annoyed Toph to no end because there was nothing that could really be done about it.

A small kick against the ground from straight ahead and her attention was right back on the ‘Princess Azula’ that she had stuck in place.

“ Stop moving! ” Toph exclaimed, exhaustion blending in with her complete and utter frustration with this entire situation. She felt movement beside her, heard the ruffle of Sokka’s clothes.

“No one’s moving,” he said to her. She wanted nothing more than to whack him upside the head.

“ She is. She’s moving around, I can feel it!” Toph couldn’t quite tell what it was that Azula was doing, but she knew for sure that she didn’t like it. 

“You sure?” Sokka asked, sounding a bit confused and all-too-skeptical. 

“You’re asking me if I don’t trust what my feet are telling me? Yes, I’m sure.” Toph narrowed her eyes in Sokka’s direction and hoped that whatever effect that apparently had on people was not lost on him. 

“Stop doing that,” Katara said from Sokka’s other side. Her stance shifted a bit, and Toph was pleased to sense that it was into a more sturdy position. 

“Stop doing what?” Azula asked, the same amusement there as in Toph’s voice when she teased her friends. She hated the fact that she could recognize that in herself.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what we’re talking about.”

Azula was still moving beneath the rock, shifting her feet and clenching her fists.

“You mean… stop doing this? ”

Abruptly, Azula moved, and the rock surrounding the princess exploded. Toph felt the heat of flames on her face and immediately raised a rock wall in front of her and Sokka, debris and fire smacking against the side of it. She could sense Aang on the other side, spinning his glider in front of himself and Katara, and her nerves settled a bit at knowing that they were fine, as well. 

She lowered the rock wall a moment later as Azula stopped touching the earth, leaping up into the air. She touched down once, to the left, and then another time behind them. Toph wheeled around, but at that moment Azula shot a wave of flames at her. The heat was immense, and Toph fell backward in an effort to avoid getting burned. She released a yelp which quickly turned into a sharp cry as, before she could roll out of the way, there was a searing pain on the bottom of both of her feet. 

Toph rocked forward, grabbing both of her feet in her hands, and released a string of curses. Beneath her fingers, she could already feel blisters starting to form.

Without her hands on the ground, there was nothing Toph could do to see, and so she relied solely on her hearing to figure out what was happening around her but, honestly, she was rather preoccupied at the moment.

“ Shit, this hurts like a fucking bitch, Oma and Shu be damned, what the hell -”

There was the sound of movement to her side, rocks being tossed about on the ground as footsteps fast approached, and suddenly she was lifted up and carried away. The way the steps fell against the ground, the way the weight shifted from what she could tell from being carried, she took a wild guess and assumed it was Sokka who had grabbed her.

Toph kept her feet lifted as high as she could, her knees bent toward the sky, as the last thing she wanted was for them to brush against the ground as she was being carted away. 

She was set down, and she resisted the urge to clutch at her burning feet to instead place her hands on the ground and see what was happening.

Aang was off a little ways away, fending off Azula (and doing badly at it, too, it seemed) while Sokka and Katara kneeled next to her. Katara’s hands moved to where Toph knew her bending water rested at her side, and she squeezed her eyes shut in pain as she did her best to kick Katara away.

“Stop it, stop it, shit ,” Toph swore, the pain coming back tenfold as her burns made contact with the scratchy fabric of Katara’s clothes. “Heal later, fight the nutso firebender now! ”

Priorities, people, priorities , she wanted to say. 

Katara was frozen for a moment, her heart beating a bit faster, before she sprinted off to join the fight against Azula. The princess’s strikes, though, just seemed to be getting stronger. She was moving faster, with enough power that Toph could feel the heat of the flames from where she sat meters away. Aang and Katara were clearly tiring, and there was no way Sokka was going to be much help, and that only seemed to fuel Azula’s strength.

What happened next was a surprise, and Toph blamed solely on the fact that her mind was addled by pain and she couldn’t see as well with her hands. She never would have missed the newcomer normally.

Azula’s hand was raised for another strike, and she abruptly froze. Toph wasn’t sure what had happened, but suddenly she was on the ground, as if yanked to the side by something. 

“Oops,” a new voice said, “Wrong one.”

Toph turned in the direction of the voice immediately, focusing her earthbending as she suddenly noticed the new figure standing off to the side. 

The heartbeat was the first thing she noted, as she usually did. It was surprisingly steady for someone who had just stumbled in on a fight between a bunch of teenagers. The general shape of the figure registered next. They seemed to be taller than Sokka, but just by a bit. It probably meant that they were just a tad older than Sokka was, then. The person’s hand was stretched out, and they were still, as if a bit confused or unsure. Azula’s outstretched arm and the new person’s own matched up with one another. 

Was this new person the reason why Azula fell?

If so, that was hilarious. Toph would have laughed if she didn’t want to scream.

“Wrong one?” Sokka asked, his voice strained. “You mean… you didn’t mean to throw a ribbon?”

A ribbon. All right, so this person had thrown a ribbon, probably pulled Azula over with it, and hadn’t even meant to.

This was shaping up to be a very funny memory, even if at the moment her feet made her want to die.

The new person’s shoulders slumped, and then they reached to their waist before moving their hand in front of them. There was the sound of something shearing off, and Toph felt Azula’s pulled wrist finally go slack. “No, I didn’t,” the new person, a guy, it seemed, said. “Force of habit, I guess. Anyway, we should probably go now.” New-Guy’s head turned toward their little group, as if waiting for them to say something.

Sokka’s weight shifted forward a bit, the way he did when he was about to spout off questions, but a sound came from Azula where she was on the ground a ways away, and her arms began to move under her to support her weight. A growl came from the princess, and Sokka turned to Aang and said, “Appa, please,” instead, which Toph would have to remember to commend him for.

She let out a shaky breath through gritted teeth as Aang blew into his whistle and Appa touched down, making the ground tremble a bit and sending more shocks of pain through her feet. Oma and Shu, she wanted nothing more than to pound a rock into Princess Azula’s face. 

- - -

Aang grabbed Toph under the arms and pulled her onto Appa’s saddle before leaping forward to grab the reins. He turned and was happy to see Sokka leaning down to help Ribbon-Guy up while Katara pulled herself over on the other side and settled in next to Toph.

The princess, who had finally gotten to her feet on the ground below, stared up at them with gleaming eyes and a sharp glare. 

“Oh, I don’t think so-” She began, her words cutting through the air, her hand moving back, a flame forming in her palm. Aang watched as Ribbon-Guy turned back and locked eyes with her, and the Princess of the Fire Nation faltered . Her eyes widened, and then narrowed, something deep in them cracking as her shoulders and face fell as one. She wasn’t glaring, now, but rather squinting at Ribbon-Guy, as if trying to figure out what made him tick. Her breathing seemed to grow shaky if the rise and fall of her shoulders was anything to go off of, and her lip was trembling. 

“Zuzu?” She asked, her voice breathy and just a hint desperate, staring up at Ribbon-Guy as if she was drinking in the sight of him while also not quite believing he was there. Her brow was furrowed, her eyes confused. 

Ribbon-Guy seemed to sober almost immediately. He stared down at the princess through the eye contact before a smile pulled up his lips and he said, “Nice seeing you, LaLa. We should catch up, soon.”

Azula blinked, paused for a moment, and then seemed to drag herself out of her stupor enough that she was able to abruptly move forward and shoot a jet of fire at Katara where she sat next to Toph, leaning against the back of the saddle. 

Aang jerked forward, ready to send a desperate blast of air that would probably be too slow, but Ribbon-Guy beat him too it, vaulting himself over Sokka and waving his hand as he skidded forward in the saddle, the flames disappearing as he did.

Toph called, “Hey, Twinkle Toes? Get us the hell out of here .”

Well, Aang was not one to deny what his friends asked of him. He immediately cried, “ Yip, Yip! ” and they were launched into the air a moment later. Aang turned and looked down at the princess standing on the ground below. She, for some reason, didn’t shoot any more fire at them, electing instead to simply stare up and watch them go, an unreadable expression on her face.

Aang turned away before she could see him watching.

After a minute or two of being in the sky, Aang was reminded of their new guest when he laughed out loud, the sound being lost in the clouds a moment later. Aang glanced back to see Ribbon-Guy, the ends of his dark, messy hair tickling at his chin as he grinned at all of them. “So, this is what flying’s like? I’ve had to do it for shows before, but that’s with ropes, so I don’t think that really counts. What do you think about it? Do you always travel like this?”

Aang felt a bit of tension lift from his shoulders at simply seeing the guy’s excitement. He nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, every day. It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”

He got an excited nod in return as Ribbon-Guy leaned forward to look down at the landscape that they were shooting over below. 

“I just can’t believe you can see so much from up here. I mean, before three weeks ago, I’d only ever been to three places: Caldera, Shu Jing, and, of course, Ember Island,” Ribbon-Guy said.

The tension that had been lifted was back tenfold. Aang felt a chill run down his spine, his eyes wide, and he rounded back to look at Ribbon-Guy, his heart pounding, as he asked, “ You’re from Caldera? ”

Ribbon-Guy nodded, his brow furrowing just a bit. “Of course I am.”

Aang, despite the fear coursing through his veins, couldn’t help but be reminded of Kuzon, who had lived in Caldera so long ago and furrowed his brow almost the exact same way whenever Aang tried to explain the spiritual life of Air Nomads to him. 

His shoulders tense, Aang leaned back just a fraction from Ribbon-Guy (from the Fire Nation Guy ), and Katara glanced at him with concern.

“Aang, what’s wrong?” she asked in the way that she did where there was no way he wouldn’t be able to tell her.

His voice strained, Aang managed to say, “Caldera is the capital of the Fire Nation.”

The effect was immediate. Sokka’s club was in the air, raised to strike Ribbon-Guy the moment he made a wrong move. Ribbon-Guy himself leaned away from the brandished weapon, looking a bit perturbed at the sudden aggression.

“Explain,” Sokka ground out, his tone tight.

An eyebrow raised. “Why?” Ribbon-Guy asked.

“ You’re Fire Nation! ” Sokka exclaimed, as if it was obvious. Well, Aang supposed it was. 

Ribbon-Guy squinted his eyes. “I thought you’d gotten that from when I stopped Azula’s flames.” Azula . So that was the Fire Nation Princess’s name. Azula . Aang would do well to remember that. 

- - -

Finding out all of this information in the air really was really shitty, in Toph’s humble opinion, because up here she couldn’t see a damn thing . The earth was below them, and with that her ability to read people’s heartbeats, their mannerisms, the small movements that made them tick. With a serious conversation like this, that would be an asset.

And yet, here they were.

In the fucking sky .

As Sokka’s words faded out into vague noises of confusion, Fire-Nation-Guy said, “You’re telling me. First time I see her in three years and I chuck a ribbon at her?”

Katara snorted from her position beside Toph. “You embarrassed?” She asked. “What is she, your girlfriend.” For some reason that didn’t sound quite right. Toph felt like she was forgetting something important. 

There was a ruffle in the saddle a few feet away, where Fire-Nation-Guy’s voice had been coming from, as if he was leaning away or leaning forward. “Didn’t know the Water Tribe was into incest.”

There was a beat of silence, and Toph’s mind ran into overdrive. That was what she had been forgetting! The Fire Lord had two children, the younger being a girl, the older being a boy. Fire-Nation-Guy must be the son . 

Toph snorted almost immediately at the Prince of the Fire Nation’s comment.

“What-” Sokka began to say, but Toph deftly cut in.

“She’s his sister, idiot,” she said, and the new noises coming from Sokka were even more annoying than the ones from earlier.

“You’re… You’re the Prince of the Fire Nation? ”

The prince’s clothes shifted as he made some movement, she guessed with his shoulders. “Depends on your perspective on things. But, yeah, I suppose I still have the title. Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, at your service.”

Toph blinked, her thoughts moving quickly again. The name finally made her remember the other piece of definitely very crucial information that she hadn’t been able to recall.

“You’re dead,” she said bluntly. There was no better way to put it, and best not to sugarcoat it. 

“What?” Prince Zuko asked. He sounded as if her words confused him.

“You’re dead,” she repeated. What else was she meant to say? She had heard her parents talking about it months ago when the news broke that the Prince of the Fire Nation had died at sea. 

“Well, not when I last checked,” Prince Zuko (if it really was him) said.

“My parents are the Beifongs,” Toph explained. “They get all the reports. You’re dead.”

“Ah,” the prince said, as if a wave of realization had just washed over him. “Yeah, that would be my uncle’s doing. I think it was six months ago, he made up that lie to let me, and I quote, ‘live in peace and love.’” He chuckled lightly. “I love him, but he needs to work on some of his proverbs.”

Twinkle Toes piped up from the front, confirming some suspicion he had about who Zuko’s uncle was (even though anyone who knew anything about the war would know that his uncle would have to be General Iroh, the Great Dragon of the West, who almost ended the war ina  single siege). 

Toph remembered her friends talking about Aang’s old teacher, a tea-loving old man who was going to teach him firebending after he had mastered water and earth, but who was captured at the Siege of the North before anything could come of that.

Toph hadn’t realized that this funny old man and General Iroh had been one in the same, though.

People really needed to start telling her things. That seemed like very vital information that they had been withholding. 

Toph tuned back in as Sokka was protesting Prince Zuko’s inclusion into the group. She opened her mouth to tell him off (one of her favorite pastimes, if she was being honest), but Aang beat her to it.

“I’ve gotta learn firebending, Sokka,” Aang explained. “I never even started with Iroh. He mentioned that one Jeong Jeong guy, but Katara deemed him a bad idea just from the stories Iroh told. Now, we’ve been handed a golden opportunity. You wanna just let him go?” She had to admit, Twinkle Toes could argue quite well when it came down to it. That gave her a bit of hope for their earthbending lessons in the future.

... Oh, Oma and Shu, she had to teach Aang earthbending soon. Spirits, save her.

Prince Zuko very abruptly changed the conversation topic as he cried, “Your feet are burned!”

“Yeah, no shit,” Toph said, her voice feeling a bit tight. She had been doing her best to distract herself from the pain, but the reminder made her, once more, fully aware of the pulsing ache in both of her feet. She could feel cool water running over her skin, both healthy and not, but it was doing nothing to soothe the pain other than cool them down a bit.

“I’m doing the best I can, Toph,” Katara said, and it took all of Toph’s self-control to not say something snarky in return.

“I can probably help,” Prince Zuko spoke up. “Firebenders have a natural resistance to firebenders, but bad accidents do happen, and we do have a lot of nonbenders, too. Everyone who knows what’s good for them carries at least one container of Kaaru Rose burn cream.” Toph heard what sounded like someone digging through a bag, and then the grind of a container lid being pulled off. The saddle shifted a bit as the prince seemed to move toward Toph and Katara, and a moment later the water was pulled off of her feet.

“Be careful,” Toph said, guessing where Prince Zuko was now positioned.

“I will,” he said, and she was glad to hear that she had guessed right. “Ready?”

Toph grit her teeth, biting down on the edge of her tongue, and said, “ Let’s get this shitshow on the road .”

The process was quick, but definitely was not her favorite feeling in the road. The skin being dragged just a bit as the prince’s fingers slid over her feet, applying the cream, sent shocks of pain up her legs. Just as fast as it began, though, it was over. 

Prince Zuko gave her a few quick instructions that, if Toph didn’t remember, she was sure Katara would, and then the weight shifted again as he moved back to where he was before.

Toph kicked her feet up and leaned back, half against the saddle and half against Katara.

She had to admit, bringing this guy on was seeming like a better and better idea every minute. Her feet were already beginning to feel a bit better.

- - -

Aang sat at the reins, listening as the conversation behind him awkwardly tapered off, and decided it would be best to take matters into his own hands. “Introductions!” He exclaimed. He patte Appa on the head, whispered, “ Keep looking for a good place to land, buddy ,” and then flipped back, propelling himself through the air with his bending just a bit to land in the saddle. Momo flew over and flopped onto his shoulder a moment later.

“I’m Aang, I’m the Avatar, and local animal whisperer!” Momo bit his head almost immediately, and Aang tossed him a nut that he had tucked away. The nipping went away. “That’s Momo, and the guy we’re riding on is Appa, my flying bison and the best friend in the whole world.” Beneath him, Appa rumbled, as if satisfied with Aang’s description.

Aang gave a nod to Katara, and the waterbender poked Toph, who was leaning against her side, in the stomach. 

“Toph Beifong,” Toph said, sounding a bit perturbed at being poked, “Resident blind earthbending master.”

“Uh,” Katara raised her hand, “I’m Katara. I’m Aang’s waterbending master, I guess. Uh, I once literally fought sexism.”

Zuko’s face was serious as he sighed in wonder and said, “I need that story one day.”

“I would be happy to provide,” Katara said, giving her own nod in return. Aang was happy to see that they seemed to be getting along. If he remembered right, the Fire Nation had always been far ahead in gender roles than the Earth Kingdom or Water Tribes, and the Hundred Year War at least hadn’t seemed to have changed that. 

“I’m Sokka,” the Sokka in question spoke up. “Katara’s brother, local nonbender, and, uh…”

Aang immediately added, “The best strategist we’ve ever met!” Katara confirmed his words with a nod, and Sokka’s cheeks flushed just a bit at their words. Aang was rather smug to see that.

“Your turn,” Sokka said, his attention turning to the prince.

Prince Zuko’s hand wound and unwound the ribbon around his wrist, his face a bit red. After a moment, he cleared his throat, raised a hand in what seemed to be a greeting before letting it fall, and then awkwardly said, “Er, hi. I’m Zuko. Banished, not-dead Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, here to teach the Avatar, I mean Aang, firebending, and, er, resident Ember Island Player.”

“Nice to meet you, Zuko,” Aang said, giving his widest grin to the newest member of their chaotic family.

“Welcome aboard,” Sokka confirmed, giving Prince Zuko a pat on the back and making Aang’s heart swell just a bit at the show of acceptance.

Maybe the nations really could live together in harmony, he mused as he settled back in at the reins and glanced back at his friends. Toph was pressed into Katara’s side, the waterbender herself resting her head on Toph’s own, her eyes closed. Sokka, despite the bags under his eyes, was intently studying a map, occasionally looking up as if to compare to the landscape they moved over. Zuko leaned over the side and watched the passing forests below, his mind seemingly far, far away.

... Yeah , Aang thought.

Yeah, they could.