Work Text:
The morning had started off peaceful and quiet. Which in and of itself is a rarity, so they really should have expected the sudden chaos.
Team Avatar had relocated from the open quarry they were camping in after escaping Azula, and had taken up Zuko’s offer to hide out in his family’s old vacation home on Ember Island. The first night there was fine, mostly settling in and cleaning years worth of dust and grime buildup to get the house ready for their stay, but come morning they realized that they had a problem.
“We need food.”
After the world’s most destructive wake up call at the Western Air temple, they had grabbed what they could before fleeing to safety on Appa. This meant that a lot of their carefully organized supplies were abandoned in favor of avoiding falling rocks and explosions.
“It’s too risky.”
Zuko didn’t know why they were having this argument.
The food they had managed to grab, along with whatever wasn’t unloaded from Appa’s saddle at the time, was enough to pull them through for a couple of days but was quickly running out.
They had planned to gut the liberated airship of its provisions (but clearly that wasn’t happening) and since Ember Island was largely populated by people, they would be noticed if any of them were to leave the Royal Residence’s property to hunt and forage in the surrounding forests on a regular basis.
They would have to go to the local market and buy food and any other supplies they were running low on.
It was simple. Far less dangerous than the antics this particular group of children get into on a regular basis. But for some reason, they were still here. Arguing about it in the middle of his family’s living room.
“How is this any riskier than the things that usually happen to us?” asked Toph.
She was lying on her back on the wooden floor, her feet sticking out of the open doorway, with her feet planted firmly on the stone steps. The rest of them were in a loose circle, scattered around the spacious room.
“It’s different!” Sokka insisted. He was probably the most disappointed of them all, that they weren’t able to get a hold of the supplies they had seen in Azula’s airship, “We’re in the Fire Nation!”
“We spent, like, a month leading up to the invasion moving around the Fire Nation.” She pointed out, flicking a pebble that found its way into the building at a nearby tree.
Which they told him about. And coincidentally cleared up some of the rumors he heard back when he was still in the Capital. Malicious River Spirits.
“That was before,” Katara interjected, “They didn’t know where we were after we left Ba Sing Se. They’ll be looking for us now.”
Which, unfortunately, was true. After their location was found, both the active military and domestic forces will be on high alert, looking for where they headed.
They should be on the run; which is why their current location is so perfect.
Their group is expected to flee to unoccupied areas of the Earth Kingdom or at the edges of the Fire Nation archipelago heading towards safe territory—not a ferry ride away from the Fire Nation Capital, to the most popular vacationing spot this side of the caldera.
There is a risk of discovery but patrols here are fewer, for the comfort of the nobles who stay here, and the royal residence’s private property is extensive. As long as they didn’t draw attention to themselves, no one would know anything was the matter. A couple of new faces at the market, at this time of year, is not noteworthy. They would be fine.
If only Zuko could convince the others of that.
“We need food.” Zuko stressed, exasperated with how long this conversation has been going on already.
He didn’t want to get frustrated but could feel his temper rising to the surface. Aang’s addition that he could probably recognize the edible plants in the area, and suggestion to try salvaging the overgrown garden wasn’t helping either.
Logically, he understood why they were being so cautious. They were all pretty unsettled by Azula’s discovery and wanted to be careful from here on out, but necessity says that they need a reliable source of food to live and risk assessment points out that this isn’t more dangerous than breaking into the Boiling Rock, so if they could just send somebody to get some groceries please and thank you —
“How are we supposed to even buy things from the market?” Katara asked annoyed, “Our money is almost gone and we can’t get more—”
“Actually,” Zuko piped up, hesitantly, “I-uh..managed to swipe some from the royal treasury before I left.”
Suki raised an eyebrow from where she was sitting on the couch, “You waited until now to say something about it?”
“I didn’t know how to bring it up.” I forgot.
By the expression on Toph’s face, Zuko could tell that she knew that he wasn’t telling the entire truth. Yes, at first he had been hesitant to tip the dynamic he had with the rest of Team Avatar, but after he just...had other things to focus on.
“Okay, well, that may be covered, but that doesn’t change that it’s still risky.” Katara said, “What if we’re caught?”
“We won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“As long as we don’t draw attention, we will be fine.”
Sokka didn’t look impressed from where he was sitting next to Suki, ”Hate to be the one to tell you, but we’re not exactly great at that.”
Memories of prison barges and bending scrolls came to mind, but Zuko persisted.
“Fine, then I’ll go,” He offered, “I know how to blend in.”
If he could pass as a refugee in the heart of the Earth Kingdom, he could surely keep a low profile amongst his countrymen. With or without a theatre mask, he could be inconspicuous if he wanted to.
Besides, he visited a few months earlier and no one recognized him. Zuko doubts being known as a traitor would make him any more recognizable than their returned banished prince. He’ll just be another face in the crowd.
It would be a good idea to keep an eye out for Chan and Ruon-Jian, however.
Katara was unconvinced.
“It could still be dangerous! What if you get in trouble?”
Fed up, Zuko rocked back on his heel, huffed a breath and spoke at the recently airbent-dusted ceiling.
“If I can swim underneath the Northern Water Tribe, I think I can handle a trip to the marketplace.” Zuko remarked, sarcastically.
There wasn’t a response to that and after a beat too long of nothing but silence, Zuko looked back at his friends. They were staring at him in different stages of perplexed and bewilderment. Stock still and dropped jaws. Even Toph had turned her head to aim an ear in his direction.
“Did I hear that right?” Toph asked the baffled crowd and confused prince, “My feet tell me that you were telling the truth but—are you serious?”
“What?”
“You swam underneath the Northern Water Tribe?!”
The exclamation came from Sokka, who was the first one to recover from the strange stillness that affected the rest of the group.
“Uh...yes?” His reply came out as a question.
“Why would you do that?! When did you do that?! HOW did you do that?!”
Zuko was even more confused than he was before. Surely they remember, they were there. They knocked him out.
“When I was trying to capture Aang,” Zuko started with the simplest question, “I followed you guys to the North Pole.”
“Yes, I remember that,” Sokka replied, tersely, “but how did that lead you to decide that swimming in arctic waters was a good idea?”
“Well, how else was I supposed to get in?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe with the invading fleet? !”
By this point, the others had mostly recovered and were simply following along their conversation in continued silence. Although, by the wide eyed look on their faces, it didn’t seem like it was going to stay that way.
“I was supposed to be dead, I couldn’t have joined the fleet.”
That and the stipulations of his banishment clearly stated that he was the one who was supposed to bring the Avatar back to the Fire Nation in chains, and any aid from other military commanders and their subordinates was prohibited.
(Except for Uncle — I’m retired, nephew — but no one could really stop him from doing what he wanted anyway.)
He was supposed to complete his mission alone.
(He wasn’t supposed to succeed, Zuko can bitterly acknowledge now.)
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
Suki was the one who spoke next.
“Wait.” She said abruptly, “If you did that, then why aren't you frozen at the bottom of the ocean right now. Most people dont react to arctic water very well, much less firebenders.”
“I used my ‘Breath of Fire’.” Zuko explained nervously. He tried not to fidget under the intense stares coming from the others but he was getting tense under the scrutiny.
At least Toph is enjoying this, he thought, spotting the growing grin on her face.
“It helps regulate my temperature and keeps me warm—or at least stops me from freezing.”
“Is that that thing you did at the Boiling Rock? In the cooler?” Sokka asked him. His eyebrows were reaching airbender levels on his forehead.
“Yeah. My Uncle taught me.” Zuko said carefully, “He wanted me to be prepared for anything.”
And he did, because Uncle always knew he needed long before he did, himself. Zuko felt a familiar pang of regret ache in his chest.
“How did you even get inside?” Katara asked this time. Next to her, Aang looked like he was trying and unable to imagine what diving into polar water in the middle of the night felt like.
Zuko wasn’t sure why. He was fairly certain that if he asked, he could get a story of when Aang did something comparable.
“There were tunnels that led under the walls.” Zuko recalled the dark, narrow passages. He could barely see in them and only knew that it was time to resurface when whatever light that could filter through the thick ice lit up the surrounding water, “I swam in them until I reached the inner part of the city.”
“But that would have taken ages to get through.” Katara stated, incredulous. The waterbender looked like she was about to conniption, “How did you even find your way?”
“How did you not die from lack of air?” asked Toph.
“There were turtle-seals.” When his response didn’t clear up the confusion in their eyes, Zuko added, “I followed them through the tunnels. I knew they had to be getting air somewhere, so I swam after them and eventually found myself in a place where I could melt my way to the surface.”
That seemed to help them understand but it didn’t clear up the shock etched into their faces. Really, Zuko thought, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It hadn't been pleasant but he’s fine now, isn’t he?
The group stayed quiet, processing the information that had been presented to them like it was about some mild weather but after a moment Aang spoke up, hesitant.
“Don’t turtle-seals hold their breaths for a long time? How did you manage that?”
“I’m a good swimmer.”
More dumbfounded silence.
“Well,” Sokka reclined back in his seat with a resigned thump, “Is there anything else that you would like to tell us? Anything important about you that we didn't already know?”
Zuko furrowed his brow and thought about it.
What he had done before joining the group was mostly known (when he was chasing them at least, mostly through good-nature mocking around the fireplace) but other than that he didn’t think there was anything about him or his experiences that were all that noteworthy.
“Nothing that I can think of.”
(Collectively, the rest of The Gaang had a feeling that that was an understatement but didn’t want to cross that bridge until they absolutely had to.)
Their discussion about the market was wrapped up quickly after that.
Apparently, a bombshell like ‘I’ve chosen to swim in sub-zero waters to complete another (near) impossible goal’ was enough to push them out of their rut and they were able to agree that regularly going to the marketplace, in pairs, was their best bet and worth the risk.
Sokka drew up a schedule then and there, and chose not to let the revelation of the day affect him too much.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE THE BLUE SPIRIT?!”