Rating: T, for now. May go up to M much later, however.
A/N: This is an AU fic, set in the future after the current war. I got the idea for this one shot in particular, and ended up building the universe around it. In short, Zuko's taken the throne of the Fire Nation and, basically, has gone totally off the deep end and become his father's son. I'm gonna put Aang at around 19, and you can judge everyone else's age from there.
This is kind of going to go like Escapades; the universe and war is in my head, and from there I'm going to write out separate – and out of order, er – one shots. I might consider a longer fic far in the future, when I finally finish out Shadows, but for now I'm going to be happy to play around in this world. As usual, the main pairing will be Kataang, but I have some plans, perhaps, for some other couples, so we'll see what happens there.
Mostly, I'm intrigued. I want to see who picks up on the hints I've dropped about previous events and how clear things actually are in the fic.
A big thanks goes to JoJoDancer, who, once I wrote the first half and explained where I was going with it, insisted that I write this. Other thanks go to Sifu Toph for some much needed encouragement.
May I apologize in advance to any big Zuko fans? I swear, it's all in good fun!
Chapter 1 – A Cold and Broken Hallelujah
It was the worst kind of travel weather, and for once, Katara was glad. The night was dark and cold, with the storm clouds blocking out any possible light from the moon and stars. Icy rain poured in a steady rhythm, soaking her feet through almost instantly and dripping from her hood into her eyes. Pulling her cloak tighter, Katara stayed as close as possible to the side of the building, straining her senses to hear past the raucous noise emanating from it to make sure that no one was following her in the shadows that were currently hiding her.
Behind the building was a small alleyway, a muddy, seldom used trail that the lanterns did not reach and that was useful for little else than holding the garbage of the various bar and inn owners. Squinting and concentrating for a moment, Katara could barely make out the dark shadow leaning casually against the back of the abandoned building next to the tavern.
"Have you been trained in the ancient and sacred art?" she asked softly, pitching her voice so that it almost melted into the sounds of the rainstorm.
The shadow tensed before giving a solemn answer. "Yes. I have been trained in the ways of catching penguins."
Katara let out a light laugh, then stepped closer to face Aang.
He held out his hand, allowing a small flame to spring from his palm, momentarily illuminating his eyes and the hollows of his face before Katara reached out and clapped her hand firmly over his, extinguishing the flame. "You should know better than to do stupid things like that at this point," she chided gently.
He moved even closer, allowing one arm to drift lazily around her shoulders. "A firebender is not out of place in the Fire Nation."
"You're not just any firebender," Katara said tightly. "Please tell me you aren't taking stupid risks like that."
"No," he assured her. "Not when I'm that close to the Fire Lord's palace." He paused, looking up into the rainy sky, then remarked, "I don't see why we couldn't meet inside. I mean, there's no one in the building next to us."
"I told you before," Katara murmured, checking again for eavesdroppers or intruders. "We could be ambushed anywhere. We have to meet outside so that you can take off if you have to. It's easier for you to escape into the sky if you don't have to crash through a window or break through a roof first."
"You're forgetting that I wouldn't leave you if that happened."
"Yes you would," she insisted. "You would have to."
Aang gave a resigned sigh, then asked, "How are your brother and Toph?"
While this was going on, Sokka and Toph were pouting in the corner of the tavern, under strict orders from Katara to be silent and not make any trouble while she stepped out to meet Aang. She had attempted to bribe them with drinks, which, naturally, was just making their grumbling louder. Sokka was shuffling a deck of cards, wishing desperately they hadn't left Toph's embossed cards back at the inn, while Toph was flipping chips and keeping two bare feet planted firmly on the tavern's cold stone floor. Both had their hoods pulled up firmly over their eyes, with their backs to the corner. It was a mark of what part of town they were in, that, even with their paranoid behavior, the two of them were still only the third most suspicious characters in the room.
"Hey," Sokka said, holding up a card. "Queen of hearts or jack of clubs?"
"I told you," Toph snapped. "I'm not playing that game with you when I can't prove you're right. And it's a queen of hearts."
"You're wrong."
Toph's leg shifted. "You're lying."
Sokka swore. Toph grinned. "Go buy me a drink."
"No need," a smooth voice interrupted them. "I've got a round for you right here."
Sokka and Toph froze.
"So I left them with a couple of drinks." Katara looked back at the tavern apprehensively. "It doesn't matter. We're going to have to move on from here in a couple days anyway."
"Where are you going to go?" he asked, attempting a casual tone but failing miserably.
"Aang..." she trailed off, looking down at her shoes – the rain was starting to seep in over her ankles and down to her feet - before answering in a low voice, "We've been through this. I can't tell you."
"Why not?" There was a distinct whine in his voice, and Katara felt her heart break a little bit.
"Because," she whispered, "If I tell you where we're going, and something happens to us and you're not there, I don't want you to know. You have to have that hope that we're alive somewhere, no matter what."
"I'm going to assume the worst no matter what."
Katara looked down and away, refusing to make eye contact. He let out a long sigh, then reached for her, taking her chin and forcing her to look at him.
"What other news do you have?"
She bit her lip before she could catch herself, a nervous sign he knew well. "What? What is it?"
"Azula's body was found about a mile north of the rebel camps. Lord Zuko has claimed Mai and Ty Lee as his wives. There is a rumor spreading that Ty Lee is already pregnant, but there's no confirmation for it."
"A mile north of the rebel camps?" Aang breathed, hardly believing her words. "He knows they're camping in the forests?"
"He was just toying with them," Katara choked out. "He knew where they were all along. They've already scattered and spread, and now they have no rendezvous point." She rubbed roughly at her forehead. "Please tell me you're being careful."
"I am." He made a vague attempt to reassure her. "I'm still watching the second passageway - he has guards at the ones Iroh showed us, and I'm not sure if he's leaving the second one open because he truly doesn't know about it or because he wants me to try and sneak in that way."
"Toph swears that tunnel is structurally unsound. I think he wants you to try to get in that way."
"I don't think even he knows what he wants at this point." Aang let out a sigh – his breath forming a small puff in the cold rain – and leaned back against the wall of the abandoned building. "Is there anything else I should know?"
Toph's foot shifted as she focused on the young man who had just joined their table, bearing drinks for both of them. Sokka had remained calm and subtly told Toph to stay quiet by introducing her as his blind-mute companion and himself as her bodyguard. Her frown deepened as she recalled that – she would make him pay later – and watched his heartbeat carefully as the man told them about himself.
He was a refugee from the north who was trying – here his heart picked up, pounding loudly in his chest – to steer clear of both Lord Zuko and the rebellion forces. Her foot slid across the floor, meeting the edge of Sokka's boot and firmly sliding her foot up his leg.
To his credit, Sokka didn't show a reaction, sipping his drink casually as he pointed out that there were rumors about rebels shaking up the town they were currently in.
The man's heart skipped a beat and his legs tensed – Toph tensed along with him – then he smiled and said, equally relaxed, "Yes, I do know."
All Toph saw was one of his hands quickly dropping from the table before Sokka flew out of his seat and struck her hard in the shoulder, forcing her out of her chair and pinning her underneath him to the ground. Above her there was a thump and the twanging and thrumming of a knife striking wood.
She slammed a fist down to the ground, thanking the spirits it was stone, and the floor under the table legs and the man's chair shifted, flipping him back and pinning him momentarily under the table. Sokka finally got up off of her, grabbing her by the back of her cloak and temporarily choking her while he hauled her off the ground. Once she had two feet on the ground she kicked, putting her heel down hard and forcing the man to stumble again just as he was starting to get up.
By now, they had the rest of the bar's attention. They probably would have been okay if they had just stuck to weapons, but she had used her earthbending – no matter how many times Sokka lectured her, it was still instinct, and she couldn't help that – and earthbenders were wanted people in the Fire Nation.
Sokka was now fumbling under his cloak at his belt, a sure sign it was time for her to hightail it out of there.
Katara knew Aang was only listening to her reports from the Earth Kingdom with a half ear, his mind somewhere else entirely.
"So there's been nothing from the Northern Water Tribe?"
She was not surprised at his question. The Northern Water Tribe was currently in charge of the most important of their missions. Her heart wrenched at the thought.
"Hearing nothing is good." Their positions had reversed and now she was trying to reassure him. "It means that they haven't been attacked and that everyone is safe. It means the Fire Lord still doesn't know about her." Her eyes moved away from him and up into the night sky, searching for some break in the clouds to show the moon and some source of comfort.
She startled when she felt his hands at her sides, moving underneath her cloak and skimming up to rest above her elbows and pull her slightly closer to him. "I know that it's good, technically. It's just, I spend weeks and months away, and I want to hear something, anything to know that everything is okay and that she's safe…"
He trailed off, and Katara remembered what he had said about automatically assuming the worst and wondered, vaguely, what horrible things he had imagined alone on nights like this.
"News travels so slowly, especially now when we're split up like this." He interrupted her thoughts, his voice low and mournful and not for the first time Katara found herself cursing stupid Lord Zuko and his inability to keep peace when it was handed to him; cursing him for taking the laughter out of Aang's voice. "If something happened to either one of you and I couldn't find out…"
His grip on her one arm tightened, almost painfully; the other hand had moved from her arm and into the hood of her cloak, wrapping around the back of her neck – knocking the hood partly away from her face - and pulling her forward to meet his lips.
She resisted for a half second – neither one could afford to let their guard down – but it had been so long since she had been with him just to talk, let alone actually kiss him or touch him; and when he finally gave into the urge she could refuse neither him nor herself.
Katara melted into him, deepening the kiss and wrapping her arms around his waist, holding him as closely as she could. It was raining into her hair and running down her neck, and the cold water from his cloak was soaking into her clothes, into her long sleeves and shoulders and chest, but she ignored it, content to be kissing – really, truly, kissing him and not just those little half kisses, those quick pecks on the lips they'd been exchanging - him for the first time in months.
A strange noise filtered through, and it took her a moment to realize it was the squelching sound of two people trying to run through the mud even though they were sinking up to their ankles with each step. She tensed, but Aang was the first to react; hand still gripping her arm, he half dragged her back against the building, back into the shadows, but they were too slow – she knew it, the figures were already rounding the corner, they were going to be caught, it was over, all for the sake of a kiss –
And then one of the figures called out, "Hey Aang!" cheerfully – Toph – while the other one caught Katara at the hood, yanking it the rest of the way down in an attempt to pull her away and announced calmly, "It's time for us to leave," – Sokka – neither one slowing down all the while.
Katara stumbled at Sokka's blow. Aang scrambled to steady her, and they both called out at the same time, "What did you do?!"
Then the front end of the building next to them exploded.
Aang jerked forward, towards the building, as if fighting the instinct to go and help; Katara grabbed his arm and took off after Toph and Sokka.
"I can't even leave you in the corner of a shady bar without you two wreaking havoc," she grumbled at her brother. He failed to reply and the darkness covered any looks he could have thrown at her; instead, she could feel the waves of guilt coming off of him as the four of them ran out of the village, heading for the relative safety the forest and, for the first time in months, a night of finding comfort in each other.
Let me know what you guys think! AUs can either be a lot of fun, or really terrible, so I'm very interested in the reactions.