Chapter Text
The situation was weird. There was no other way to describe it. First, they fled over the whole world from Zuko, only to meet him again in Ba Sing Se where his sister successfully killed Aang (and had known that she hadn’t been successful. If she wasn’t such a pain in the ass, Sokka would have admired how prepared and thorough she was) and three days ago, the Fire Prince had turned up in their camp, offered his service, burnt Toph’s feet, killed combustion man (who he had sicced on them in the first place, how sick was that) and still was their only chance of Aang learning to firebend in the near future.
Didn’t mean that Sokka was a fan now. Suki and his father and his warriors were all imprisoned or dead in the Fire Nation. Sokka trusted Zuko as far as a throw with his trusty boomerang.
A slight reassurance was Toph’s built-in lie detector. Aang didn’t count. That kid would trust a sabertooth-moose-lion if it accidentally kicked an apple in his direction.
Katara was another extreme. Extreme, but understandable. And effective. Zuko walked on eggshells around her.
On humiliated eggshells, Sokka gloated. The Fire Prince had lost his fire, reducing the jerkbender to jerk. Karma, jerk.
Today was the second day of Aang’s “training”. It was one hour after sunset. Katara was stirring breakfast, Sokka strategically sitting in the circle around the fire to get his serving first. Aang was fooling around with Teo and Toph tortured Haru under the guise of showing him seismic sense. Good times, good times.
Toph bent a sharp pebble in Haru’s hand. Ouch. Katara would have to heal that later. Nothing Haru would object to. Those guys were all drooling behind his sister. Except for Zuko. Sokka patted boomerang. Even if he did, he wouldn’t dare.
The firebender emerged from the dark temple hallways like an eerie hallucination. He raised a brow at Aang juggling a squeaking Teo in the air and walked over to Katara. That guy must have a death wish.
Against all odds, Katara did not immediately impale him with an ice spike for stepping near her. Instead, she smiled at him, following his wary look to Sokka and the others. That familiar expression of resolution appeared on her face. She leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed the jerkbender straight on the mouth.
With a loud thud and an indignant scream, Teo reconnected with the ground. Sokka gaped at the firebender and his sister, who lowered herself and nudged her nose against Zuko’s. That was so not happening. Sokka rubbed his eyes to escape this crappy dream.
Zuko placed a soft, awkward kiss on Katara’s cheek. “Good morning, love. That smells amazing. Thanks for cooking.”
“You’re welcome. How was meditating?”
The jerk beamed back. Since when could Zuko beam? Sokka’s brain must have revisited the jerkbender’s all other surprising facial expressions - humble, happy, thankful, serene, dripping with water, no wait, that wasn’t new - ha! - and then mixed them together into this abomination. Sokka had a great brain, thank you very much, but he did not stand for this hallucination, which left two options: cactus juice. Or (he shuddered) reality.
“Great! I love the view from this temple. We have to visit the Eastern next.”
“Maybe next year when Aang finishes his mastery,” Katara said indulgently. She handed Zuko a bowl of jook. Sokka’s bowl. He was first! No wait, that was not the priority now. Priority was the firebender making moon eyes at Katara and saying, “traditional outfit suits you.”
She giggled. She giggled! Katara didn’t giggle! “Thanks, you, too.”
Zuko tucked on his sleeve. “Don’t know if that really counts as traditional.” He didn’t elaborate further, because Sokka had finally activated his muscles and ripped Zuko away from Katara. “What the hell, man?!”
Sokka’s outburst woke the others out of their stupor. “Stay away from Katara, Zuko!” Aang shouted. “Katara! Why do you allow him to encroach on you like this?”
“And to suck your face, sugar queen.” Toph had not yet entered a fighting stance but at least she was taking this seriously.
Katara and Zuko had the gall to look surprised at the shared outrage and Teo, Haru and the Duke crossing their arms disapprovingly. Zuko squirmed in Sokka’s grip.
“Sokka, let him go,” Katara ordered sternly. Sokka didn’t budge. “No one touches my sister. Especially not someone like you. Capisce?”
Surprise flashed over Zuko’s face and then he deflated. “Message received,” he said flatly.
“What? No!” Katara yelled, “Sokka, you don’t get to treat him like that. Apologise at this instant.”
Sokka turned to frown at her. “I will do nothing like that. Did you forget how you hated him? What he did?”
“But that was a long time ago. I thought you liked him now. You all do.” She sounded close to tears.
Toph spoke up. “No offense, sugar queen, but you hated him the most.”
“That’s ancient history, I told you! You say to remember what he did but don’t you remember everything we’ve been through together?”
“That’s the problem, sis. We do remember exactly.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Leave it be, Katara,” Zuko said, “you can’t change how they feel.”
“No, they like you. Zuko, you know that they like you. You know I do,” she said pleadingly.
“You… like him?” Aang said, stunned, “since when?”
Katara fiddled with her hair. “Since the North Pole battle when he congratulated me on our victory .”
“The North Pole,” Sokka repeated. What?!
Katara pulled Zuko to stand next to her. “We’ve been together since that gig in Ba Sing Se,” she announced nervously.
Toph’s eyebrows shot up. “Could have fooled me.”
Zuko flinched. “Maybe we should have broken the news another way,” he suggested to Katara.
“Damn right, you should have!” Aang exploded, “Katara, I can’t believe you’d betray us like that. You are lucky I can’t go into the avatar state right now, because of his sister. Don’t think I’ll accept you as my teacher now!”
“Okay?” Zuko said questioningly.
“What happened to threatening his life yesterday?” Toph asked. “My feet heard you clear as day.”
Katara blushed. “Your feet heard that?” she asked with a high-pitched voice. When Toph did nothing else but wait for her answer, she relaxed visibly. “That’s nothing to worry about. From time to time, I tend to overreact. We talked it out.”
“You’re lying,” Toph replied.
Katara’s face flushed red. “I meant we sorted it out. No hard feelings.”
The jerkbender snorted. Sokka leveled him with a stare and registered triumphantly how Zuko flinched away.
Katara tried to defuse the tense atmosphere. “I think you are all overreacting. Why don’t we sit down for breakfast and you ask your questions?”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Katara!” Aang shouted, “you betrayed us with our sworn enemy!”
“That’s hyperbolic-”
“Actually, I have a question,” Toph said to Katara, “if you like him that much, why did you object to having him in the camp?”
Katara looked at her confused. “What do you mean? I invited him when we planned this trip and you agreed.”
Silence met her statement. She fiddled with her pocket and fished a silver rectangle out with a triumphant grin. “Got it. Here, Sokka, look. I told all of you in the group chat that I would bring Zuko and you were all thumbs up and ‘great to see him again’. Toph and Suki sent me some private messages implying that they knew we were together. By the way, where’s Suki? Still sleeping?”
“She’s imprisoned, Katara! Also courtesy to your sister,” Sokka spat, then he looked closely at the silver thing. Its surface was a glowing image of green and yellow bubbles with texts and little hearts. Sokka held the thing close to his nose. “Are these fists?”
“That’s a thumbs up, Sokka,” Zuko said condescendingly.
Teo rolled curiously nearer. “What is this thing?”
Zuko stared at him. “... it’s a phone.”
“Huh. Never heard of it.”
Zuko frowned at him, then assessed the group. “You are messing with us,” he stated with a frown. It was not the frown that had haunted Sokka’s dreams while Zuko had hunted Aang. It was more disapproving, the kind Sokka would expect from an exasperated parent.
The same frown appeared on Katara’s face. “Is this a prank? Because I asked you to be nice to Zuko?”
Sokka frowned back, ignoring the silver thing for the moment. “If anyone’s behaving abnormally, then that’s you two. Katara, you hated his guts. You almost washed him down the cliff when he appeared here.”
Zuko nodded. “The last part is true.”
She glared at him. “You tried to kiss me in front of everyone. I told you I wanted things to settle down first.”
Zuko huffed. “They may have received the news better if we hadn’t acted as friends for the first days. Do you see how they are overreacting?”
Sokka held his hands up. “Stop right there. You did not even behave as friends. Zuko, Katara banned you from the camp. Katara, when you weren’t insulting him you were freezing him out.”
Katara bit her lip. “I was that bad?” she asked Zuko apologetically.
He wrapped a comforting arm around her waist. “You were perfectly normal. Better than me.”
Reassured, she leaned her head on Zuko’s shoulder. Aang and Sokka flinched simultaneously, alerting Toph.
“What happened?” she asked.
“They’re cuddling,” Haru explained frostily.
Katara clapped her hands happily. “Okay, now, that you’ve got the first outrage out of your system, how about some breakfast? I promise, Zuko and I will answer your questions. Sokka, I would appreciate it if you would tone that big-brother-energy down.”
Sokka’s stomach grumbled at the mention of breakfast, but still, priorities. He beckoned Aang and Toph over to a corner and, when she obviously did not react, added a silent “Toph!”
“Haru, would you mind chaperoning those two for a bit?” he asked, causing Katara to roll her eyes. “Sokka, we are literally roommates. It’s a little too late for chaperoning.”
Aang turned green. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“Then get the hell away from me, twinkletoes.”
Sokka pinched his nose. “Focus, guys. What’s wrong with them?”
Planting her feet into the ground, Toph said, “for what it’s worth, they are not lying. Except for that one sentence from Katara.”
“Then why are they spouting such nonsense?” Aang lamented. “It’s as if they are-”
“-brainwashed,” they said simultaneously.
They stared at each other, mouth’s agape.
“Shit,” Toph said. Simple and true.
Sokka’s heart ached. His little sister, victim to the Dai Li and brainwashed into believing that she was in love with her sworn enemy. Poor, poor Katara. What had they done to her? He clenched his fists. If he got his hands on a Dai Li agent again…
“What do we do now?” Aang asked, unsettled.
“I don’t know. How did it happen?”
Aang’s face hardened. “It must have been the time they were trapped in this cave. I thought back then that they looked suspiciously comfortable with each other.”
“But that did not stop them from fighting each other moments later, didn’t it? So, what happened in the meantime? Why now?”
“Is there any possibility it happened during the invasion? You said there were Dai Li,” Aang theorised.
Sokka shook his head. “Katara was with Dad the whole time and both of them with the invasion forces. Very, very unlikely.”
Toph cracked her knuckles. “The important question is ‘why’? What do the Dai Li-”
“- or Azula!”
“or Azula gain by making them believe they are a couple?”
Sokka’s eyes narrowed. “Well, it certainly erased her doubts about having Zuko here. Maybe we should kick him out again. He could be a sleeper agent.”
“But he wasn’t lying when he met us here,” Toph pointed out, “remember that I trusted him and Katara didn’t? And he also didn’t do the things Katara accused him of or did I miss the kiss and them being friendly? Let me tell you, they were definitely not on friendly terms until this morning.”
The matter grew more complicated by the second but Sokka would not budge in front of complexity. “It could be layered brainwashing…”
“So accurately tailored and never triggered in all these months?” Sokka was not sure whether Toph meant it or was just playing the devil’s advocate.
Turning his head away from Zuko and Katara who sat uncomfortably next to each other, Aang said, “can we focus on how to reverse it?”
Toph snorted. “Is this the point where you tell us about your healing abilities?”
Aang scowled. “It’s not my fault that the North had these ridiculous gendering policies.”
“Didn’t stop Katara,” Sokka pointed out, the bitterness in his voice also directed at Aang. Sure, he had been only fourteen years back then but Aang could have decided for once to not be satisfied with the easy wins. It was telling that Katara had completed her mastery two years before Aang. In two disciplines and despite the sexist teacher she had had. Sokka was so proud of her.
There was only one solution. “We have to convince her to heal herself.”
“And how do we do that, genius?”
Somehow, Sokka was sure Toph did not mean the title as a compliment. Not yet at least. His plan was genius. Revolting, but genius. “You won’t like it,” he announced, swallowing, “we have to play along with them. Just to point out the inconsistencies with their story,” he added hastily as Aang began to protest.
The young Avatar fumed. “We can’t play along. Have you not seen them? They are kissing each other!”
Right. Sokka shuddered.
“Eh, sugar queen will survive it. Zuko sounds hot. Is he hot?”
“I’m not answering that!” Sokka squeaked.
Toph’s grin was devilish. “I’ll just have to see for myself.”
She walked right over to innocently sitting Zuko and Katara and began poking Zuko. He jerked away, dropping his bowl. “What are you doing, you little gremlin?”
“Just checking if you are hot,” she deadpanned.
“Of course, he’s hot,” Katara said, affronted, “he’s a firebender.”
“You and I both know that’s not what I meant,” Toph smirked.
Katara flushed and Zuko looked pleased. Sokka hated that look. Wordlessly, he filled himself a bowl. Finally devouring his breakfast, he said, “excuse the commotion. Please tell us exactly how you two ended up together.”
~*~
Katara squirmed on her seat. “Well, you know…”
“I think it started a month after we became roommates,” Zuko helped her out.
Sokka grit his teeth. “Roommates.”
The jerk just shrugged. “Yeah. You moved out to be with Suki on Kyoshi and you and Katara first asked Aang to take the lease, but Aang was already booked for his mentoring world tour, and when time became tight, Katara said ‘better an enemy I defeated than a total stranger’.”
“I mean, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to have him there,” Katara took over, “but he was much more agreeable as a roommate than as a rivaling contestant. Quiet and I never had to hound him for doing the dishes or the laundry or anything.”
“Only the spices,” Zuko said with a fond smile, taking her hand.
She scrunched her nose. “Nobody’s perfect.”
“You are close.”
Toph made a belching noise and Zuko blushed. “Anyway, Katara asked to watch me train one day - I still think you only wanted to spy on my moves.”
Katara crossed her arms. “You’re damn right there.”
His smile widened, “and after a week or so she tried to correct my forms and we somehow ended up doing the dance together.”
“Is that a euphemism?”
“Toph!”
Zuko choked on his spit. “No, it’s not.”
Katara glared at Toph. “We developed a very professional freestyle performance.”
“Katara wanted to surprise you with it and us at the festival but - as you know - the organisers had to abort after the lightning incident where the power went out.”
Was that their adaptation of the black sun? Sokka held his head. They were dumping much too much information on him. Why did Zuko pretend that he had been moving to be with Suki and what did he even know about her? Wait, Azula had said that Suki was her favourite prisoner. The ponytail prince must have participated in torturing her. Hate flared in Sokka. The audacity of these jerks to use indomitable Suki for their ploy!
It almost distracted him from the vomit-inducing cuteness Zuko and Katara tried to enact. Dancing. He could work with that. The Fire Nation citizens weren’t allowed to dance and Zuko would be no exception.
Or, he thought, perturbed, was dancing the code word for bending? Did the Dai Li mask their fights with dancing, leading them to believe that their spars had been duets? If so, he had to proceed carefully, Zuko was still dangerous.
Sokka raised a brow. “And then?”
Katara huffed. “Honestly, Sokka, you know that. Haru gave Teo a ride, Suki, Aang and I crammed in your car and Toph waited around for Zuko.”
The jerk smirked. “You can say that my airship had the best accommodations.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“What about Appa?” Aang sounded destitute. Among all the concerning thoughts Katara had expressed, forgetting Appa seemed to hit Aang the most.
Katara tilted her head. “What’s an Appa?”
Aang’s jaw dropped to the ground. He was not the only one from the group. “What’s an Appa? Katara!” He whistled. “Appa, hey! Come here.”
The familiar groan of the sky bison filled the air. As usual, Appa sounded completely fed up with the world. Katara and Zuko froze and exchanged uneasy glances. When Appa’s head flew into the atrium, directly followed by ungracefully landing, both of them flinched away. Katara brought her water up. “What in the seven skies is that?”
Walking over to pat Appa, Aang answered incredulously, “that’s Appa, Katara. We’ve traveled with him for over four years. What’s wrong with you?”
“There’s nothing wrong with her,” Zuko defended her. If he had been anyone else claiming to be Katara’s boyfriend, that statement would have earned him several points in Sokka’s books.
Katara eyed Appa with apprehension. “Is this a sky bison?”
“100 points to Katara,” Aang said snarkily, earning him another frown from Zuko. Surprisingly, Katara reacted with happiness. “Is this your sky bison?”
Aang nodded.
“Congratulations! I’m so proud of you! You should have told me that you completed your mastery early.”
Aang was taken off guard. “Thanks?”
“I mean, the arrows should have tipped me off but I thought it was part of a preparation ritual.”
Zuko bowed his head stiffly. “Congratulations from me, too.”
Sokka watched the scene. “Katara, you don’t remember meeting Appa before?” Hint, hint. How could anyone forget something so vital as Appa? She mentioned the North Pole, her brain must remember how she got there and why they had stayed months in Ba Sing Se.
But Katara tilted her head and stepped curiously closer to pet Appa. “I think I would if I had, Sokka. He’s kinda … smelly. No offence, Aang.”
Toph laughed. “None taken.”
Katara tentatively patted Appa. “Wow, he’s really fluffy.”
Aang perked up. “Try scratching his belly.”
A loud cry returned all of their attention back to Zuko. He stood there, arms comically stretched away from his body which was covered in sky bison saliva. “What in Agni’s name?” he yelled. “Katara, stop laughing and do something,” he pleaded.
With a few handwaves, Katara cleared most of the sticky substance. “You still need a shower.”
“Gladly.” Zuko sounded pissed.
Aang’s good mood vanished. “Why is he still licking you?”
“I don’t know, Aang, your giant bison decided to eat me.”
“That’s a sky bison. Not giant bison,” Aang stressed the semantics.
Zuko rubbed his neck. “I’m sorry, Appa. Please don’t lick me again.”
Katara smiled. “You’re just too sweet.”
Alternating between being flustered and affronted, Zuko decided to hug her tightly, earning him a shriek and a slap. “I said you had to shower!”
Zuko grinned at Aang. “What do I have to do to make Appa lick her, too?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Sokka said, sarcasm oozing from every syllable, “just rescue him after months alone in the wilderness and imprisoned by a brainwashing secret police.”
Zuko squinted at him. “Katara, is he serious?”
“It’s not that important,” she evaded his question. As it seemed she was not eager to bathe via sky bison. “On another note, Sokka, do you know where Suki is? I need to talk to her.”
Pain flashed over Sokka’s face but he quickly suppressed it. The jerkbender already knew too much about her.
“She’s on a walk,” Toph saved him.
“Who-?” Haru began and was immediately silenced by a well-aimed foot from the Duke. As a member of the Freedom Fighters, he knew a secret when he saw one.
“A really long walk. For some privacy away from the group.”
“Huh. I guess I have to wait until she returns.” Katara exchanged a quick glance with Zuko. She tried to act casual but Sokka was watching her with hawk-eyes. Something was up, he knew it.
“Don’t worry about her,” he said with a fake smile, “I’m sure she’ll be back in no time.”