Archive of Our Own

It started with a very small child appearing in the middle of the grass.

The man before her stared. She stared back. Then he said, "…Oh. Hello."

She kept staring, even as he picked her up and held her aloft.

"…You are so small."

When it didn't seem like he was going to lower her, she started squirming. Being dangled in the air by her armpits was not comfortable. The man got the hint and lowered her into his arms, so that her face was level with his.

"Where's your mother?" he asked.

"She's at home," said she, because where else would her mom be? What a weird question to ask.

"…Ah. That explains it."

"'splain's what? Aren't you going to ask my name?"

The man had long black hair and a pale white face. Except one side of it had a big patch of reddish, melted-looking skin on it. "I know your name. You're Katara, right?"

Katara gaped at him. "How do you know my name?!"

"That's…a little hard to explain." His arms tightened as she wiggled. Not because she wanted to get put down, but out of surprise.

"Then—then do you know how old I am?"

"No. Are you…two?"

She held up her hand. "I'm four! Two is for babies!"

"I see."

"I'm not a baby!"

"I believe you." He solemnly nodded. It's good he didn't argue because the other adults Katara knew would still call her a baby. Katara was not a baby because babies are dumb, and she's not dumb.

"You know my name, but I don't know your name. What's your name, mister?"

"My name is Zuko."

Katara squinted at him. "That sounds weird."

"I see." He nodded again. Except one of his eyes was covered by the melted patch, which made it squinty, so wouldn't that make it harder to see out of it? See and see. That made her giggle. He waited for her to stop before continuing, "The reason I know you is because you're in the future."

"What's that?"

"It's um…tomorrow? Kind of? Do you know how old you're going to be after four?"

Katara held up her hand. "Five!"

"Do you know what you're going to do when you're five?"

"Um…I don't know. Maybe, maybe I can go penguin-seal sledding? Maybe I'll be bigger, and—and maybe I can take one home?" She rocked side to side, because that thought was too much to contain. If she had her own penguin-seal then she could go sledding every day!

"Imagine being older than that. As in…a grown up, you know? An adult."

"…Like being really big? Like you?"

"Yeah, like me."

"Well then…I don't know. But—that means I can go on real adventures, right? When I'm grown up, I can make my own stories, right?"

She wiggled even harder, so he knelt and put her down on the grass. "Yes, just like that. Right now, there's another you who's grown up, and that's where you are."

Katara started hopping up and down. "Then, then that means I'm out having adventures, right? I get to go to lots of places, and meet lots of people, and everyone is friends with me, and they think I'm really cool! I get to fight saber-lions and dance with spirits and I'm smart and awesome and I can do everything!"

He gave her a thumbs up. "Correct. That's exactly what you're doing."

Katara squealed and sprinted into a nearby bush. She did not know it was a bush, but she did discover that the big green thing was made up of a lot of little green things that weren't soft at all, so she turned around and ran back to Zuko. "What's your name?" she asked again.

"I'm Zuko."

"Okay." And then she immediately started trying to take off her heavy parka.

Zuko clicked his tongue disapprovingly at her and gathered her up, which did not lessen her struggle. "Alright, alright, let's not do that."

"But it's hot." By then she managed to wrestle out of the coat. He picked it up from the ground as she started on her boots. By the time he made it to the nearest building—the back of the guest palace, apparently—she'd gotten her boots and outer pants off.

"Since it's humid, I think you'll feel better if you get a bath and a change of clothes." He called a passing attendant over to take her to the bathing chambers.

Katara took one look at the attendant's face and latched onto Zuko instead. "No! I don't wanna go!"

"She's just going to help you get a bath. She'll be nice."

"I don't know her! I don't wanna! I'm not going I'm not I'm not I'm not—!"

Other attendants and maids milling about nearby wandered over to the commotion. They were still there by the time Zuko had settled onto a chair with his charge. He asked one of them to fetch someone from the colonies, preferably one used to dealing with children.

The maid who eventually found them wore the robes of the inner palace. She arrived at a scene of several people trying to coo at a bundle flopped over the Fire Lord's shoulder, with said Fire Lord staring vacantly into the distance. She drew closer to the bundle, "Hello, my name's Fen Lan. What's your name?"

The toddler, who'd been busy sniffling angerly into the man's neck, looked up just enough to see Fen Lan's outstretched hand. She blinked at it. "…You're brown."

Fen Lan grinned. "That's right. Just like you."

The girl's tiny hand reached out to press against hers. She studied her face. "But your eye's the wrong color."

"That's because I'm from the Earth Kingdom. Over there people have brownish eyes."

"Oh," she sniffled again. "My name's Katara, nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too. Would you like a bath?"

Katara shrugged and hid her face into the shoulder under her. "I don't know."

Fen Lan glanced over at Zuko. Zuko sighed despairingly. "Oh no, I sure would like to give out some custard rolls, but I can only give them to nice girls who take baths. Oh no, how terrible."

Katara immediately sat up. "I take baths! I'm not stinky!"

Zuko remained unmoved in the face of her offense. He merely raised his (singular) eyebrow. "Alright. Prove it."

Fen Lan held out her hands encouragingly. After some pouting about it, Katara obligingly tilted into her arms and allowed herself to be carried to a new location, with Zuko trailing behind them.

There were bathing chambers in the old nursery. Fen Lan warmed up the water to a gentle heat and helped Katara out of the rest of her clothes. Bath times could be made fun with scented soaps and bubbles, and it wasn't long before Katara was happily playing in the water. During that time, Zuko sat on the far end of the room with his back to them. He'd agreed to stay in Katara's line of sight but didn't go near them.

"Why's he all the way over there?" Katara asked.

Fen Lan busily lathered up her hair. "See, one thing you should know about our Fire Lord—"

"That's not his name. His name's Zuko."

"—one thing you should know about Zuko is that he has a daughter but he didn't do this kind of thing with her."

"He doesn't take baths?"

"He does, but that's different. Normally he's very busy, and he couldn't be around all the time to help out when Izumi was very little. So other people also help take care of her. Things like bathing, changing clothes, feeding, putting her to bed—those are what we do. He spends time with her when he's not busy but he's not used to doing that kind of thing."

"But why's he sitting like that?"

"Well, people don't normally stare at other people when they're not wearing clothes, you know? That would be wrong."

That sounded weird. Naked was naked. There wasn't a right or wrong about it, as far as she knew. But in a way, some of what Fen Lan said made sense. Sometimes Katara's parents were also busy, and if her and her brother weren't playing with the other village children then they'd often be babysat by their grandmother, or cousins or other relatives. Still, not even helping out with bedtime? That sounded like a lot.

Fen Lan was careful about washing all the soaps off of her without it getting in her eyes. She wrapped her up in a big towel and marched them out of the baths.

They found a pair of clothes for her that had apparently belonged to Zuko's daughter when she was as little as Katara. The sleeveless cheongsam was loose and light, and so old that the red color had faded to orange. It ended right below her hips, and the drawstring trousers were a light yellow that puffed out like a slender bell before cinching at her ankles.

For unknown reasons, Zuko made a weird face at her. He called Fen Lan over and asked about something that made her go searching in the closet and come back with a small box. Fen Lan dried Katara's long hair between her hands, making steam rise up, and wove it up into twin buns on top of her head, which she secured with yellow ribbon and hair pins that had bells at their ends. She also secured on two anklets that were very sparkly and covered in even more tiny bells. The completed outfit made Katara look like a chubby cheeked chipmunk-mouse dressed in orange and yellow.

Katara took a step. She jingled. She hopped. She jingled louder. She ran around the room and jingled so loudly that it made her screech with joy, and the only thing that stopped her in her tracks was the sight of Zuko with his hands over his face.

"Why're you doing that? Are you crying? Why's your ear turning red?" she asked, not recognizing the signs of a man desperately resisting the urge to squeeze her until she popped.

Fen Lan swooped in with compliments that distracted her long enough for Zuko to get over his fit and announce that he had some work he needed to do and that she could either come with him or—

Katara launched herself at him and did her best imitation of a barnacle. "…Well, that answers that."

The next room Zuko took her to was big and messy. There were scrolls and paper. There was a giant desk in the middle with chairs in front of it and benches on the sides. Behind the desk was a big window covered in some kind of paper that let in light but not the sight of what was outside.

Katara explored the room while Zuko got to work. Beyond scrolls and paper, there were a lot of knickknacks that caught her interest. She'd collect the ones she could reach and carry to the desk. For the first ones she brought over, she perched them on Zuko's knee and loudly whispered, "Zuko's real busy and he can't play with us. We have to be quiet and play by ourselves. Shhh!"

Then she crawled under the desk and played…something. Something that involved a great deal of whispering and giggling, with occasional trips outside to gather more items. Zuko used one hand to write and left the other hanging at his side, so that every now and then a little face could smush itself against it.

At some point, she tugged on that hand to get his attention. "Zuko?"

"Hm…yes?"

"Earlier, Fen Lan said that Zumi is your daughter—"

"I-zu-mi."

"—that I-zu-mi is your daughter."

"Yes."

"Does that mean you're a papa?"

"Yes."

"Where's her mama?"

"She's traveling the country. Taking care of her own work."

"Where's Izumi, then?"

"She's at boarding school." Zuko's hand couldn't actually stroke her hair, with it being tied up, but it did rest on her head and tilt it side-to-side. "She's a few years older than you. She'll be graduating soon."

"What's she like?"

He gave her a brief smile. "I think she takes after her aunt—my sister. Precocious, determined, gives her best to what she cares about. Sharp as her mother. She likes being right about things, and doesn't enjoy things she thinks are "childish". She'll tell me, 'Father, that is too dramatic. I will not do it,'" Zuko said, his voice taking on a lilting, disapproving edge. His finger tapped a cluster of bells from one of the hairpins on her head, making them jingle. "She grew out of wearing these quickly. She says she wants to be an adult sooner and we coddle her too much, but I wish she'd stay little for longer."

Katara considered the new information. She nodded solemnly. "She sounds like Sokka. He also likes being right about everything and wants to be grown up all the time. But don't worry!" She spun in a circle and struck a pose. "I'll be extra fun for both of us!"

Then she turned on her heel and loudly jingle-jingle-jingled on her way to wage war with the benches. This occupied her long enough for Zuko to get a few more pages done. When the jingling diminished and she returned, it was with something much bigger than a knickknack. "Zuko, look!"

Zuko looked. A pile of fur and feathers squinted lazily back at him. "…Oh, you found one."

"What is she?" He, actually, but Zuko didn't correct it. Katara was too busy gazing wondrously at the creature for it to make much difference.

"That's a bird-cat."

"What kind of bird?"

"Uh…brown." Zuko waved a flippant hand. "Some kind of stray. They get into the palace on occasion." Katara was still gazing wondrously at the bird-cat that had by then started to sag out of her comparatively tiny arms. "If you want to pet it, go sit over there. Be gentle."

She absently nodded and carefully walked to the nearest bench. She placed her precious cargo on it and started whispering, "gentle, gentle" while stroking through its feathers. The bird-cat began to purr.

The peace lasted for as long as it took the doors to open and one of Zuko's ministers to come in with a pinched, impatient face and a pile of scrolls. He bowed to Zuko before placing them on the desk and the two of them got to talking. What that talk was about is not worth mentioning, given that the child in the room didn't pay attention to it. But the activity enticed her enough to wander up to the desk and try to crane her head up high enough to see the top of it. Without a pause in talking, Zuko lifted her onto his lap and kept an arm around her while she stared at the scrolls laid out before them.

"So much work!" she whispered.

"No, I'm almost done." Zuko told her, despite it interrupting the minister mid-explanation.

Katara pointed at the unrolled scrolls. "But that's so much stuff! Don't you have to do all of it?"

"Not necessarily. For every task that needs to be done, there's a minister in charge of taking care of it. There are also administrators and chancellors and other people in charge of the ministers as well. The actual paperwork I get are the ones involved in state affairs, and at most take a morning to do. Largely due to my appointed ministers being very good at their jobs." He nodded to the man before them, who put on a thin smile in return. "If I actually had to do paperwork all day, I would surely go insane. I owe them much."

The man looked very much like he wanted to roll his eyes. "Be that as it may, your Highness, I do think we should at least confirm today's meeting, considering our…guests." His eyes darted to Katara.

"Those guests will be arriving for the midday meal, yes?"

"Correct."

"Hm…" A hand tilted Katara's head up, so that she barely caught sight of the upside down person behind her. The hand gently squished her face. "Schedule the meeting for late afternoon, then."

"Understood. And, aside from that, I do believe it would prudent to send a written confirmation to the outskirts. So that there is no miscommunication, you understand."

Zuko hummed. "…Very well. I will write the letter, and you may have it sent to the Eastern boarder."

"Where's that?" asked Katara.

He pointed at a place on a map and kept one hand supporting her stomach as she got up and leaned over the table to see it. "Here. And the place over here is called Akirakuni."

"Oh. Oh! Um, actually, I know that place."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. I've been there." Katara sat back down and addressed the minister on the other side of the table. "I had to go there because actually they'd found a saber-lion and um, and he was lost and far away from home. He had a big splinter in his foot and it made him really grumpy, so I had to go help him. But actually—a fairy had put it in there, because he'd played a prank and the fairy was mad at him, so I had to talk to her too. And there was a big storm!"

While she talked, Zuko had gotten out a separate piece of paper and started writing on it, not seeming to mind that his charge had gotten up to stand on his legs, or that this made him have to use his hand to brace her middle so she wouldn't topple over. "But we were able to find her, and she was really sparkly and she had big wings. She said okay to taking out the splinter but only because I asked her nicely, and the saber-lion was so grateful he asked if he could marry me, but I said no because now I was a fairy princess and I had to help everyone, but that's okay because they really love me, and the people there named a special day after me and every day there's lots of dancing and we eat lots of fried fish and we don't have to go to bed early—"

The minister sat through that looking increasingly more pinched, and his liege lord continued to calmly write like there wasn't an excited girl wildly gesticulating over his head.

"…And done." Zuko set aside the paint brush and hovered a mildly heated hand over the page, just enough to dry the ink. He slid it across the desk. "Will this suffice?"

The man read over the letter, his earlier attitude shedding from his shoulders. He nodded sharply. "Yes." Then he gathered the scrolls and bowed once more. "I will take my leave. Thank you for seeing me, your Highness."

Zuko nodded back, despite half of his head now being covered by toddler. "Thank you as well. Katara, say thank you."

"Thank you!" she chirped.

Their guest opened his mouth as if to say something, seemed to think better of it, and hurriedly left.

"…He felt kind of like he's mad. Do you think he's mad?" Katara asked.

"No, just grumpy. And he's not married and doesn't have kids, so he's not used to that. I think he spends too much time being stressed," Zuko's fingers tapped her side, which made her wiggle and lean further onto his head. "I'm going to give him a vacation."

Katara didn't reply, being suddenly preoccupied snuffling Zuko's hair. "Why's your hair smell?"

"They put rose-lotus oil in it. It's supposed to be calming."

"Does it work?"

"No."

She started rubbing her head against his. "…I can tell Fen Lan to put some oil in your hair too."

"Really? Is she going to use the same one? Are there different ones? What kind of one would you pick for me?"

Zuko paused mid-desk reorganization. He thought about it. "…Jasmine-lavender."

"Why?"

"…No reason."

"Oh. Okay." Katara went as limp as a noodle. Her body tilted over his shoulder and she started going face-first to the floor—

A hand grabbed her ankle. Wordlessly, Zuko leaned sideways and carefully lowered her to the floor.

The door opened again. An attendant walked briskly into the room with a tray that he wordlessly placed on one of the side tables. Then he bowed and left. Zuko got up with a groan. "If I remember correctly, I believe I promised you some custard rolls earlier."

From the assortment of colorfully arranged foods, Zuko picked up one of the palest and presented it to Katara. It was soft, springy, and warm like a snowball was not. Holding it felt like what holding a cloud must be like, or a puffergull. How was…how was she supposed to eat it? It was too big to fit in her mouth. What if it exploded?

She stared up at Zuko. He picked one for himself and demonstrated a bite. It neither exploded nor poofed into nothing, so Katara took a brave nibble. She took several brave nibbles, then took a sprint around the room with the sudden, overwhelming joy of a newly discovered sweet.

Katara ran back to carefully place the sweet on the bench, then fetched her newly made friends from under the desk and presented the sweet to them. "Look! It's fluffy! And it tastes nice—like milk, except not, but it's also like a cloud, if clouds tasted nice, and you have to eat it like this—"

She made sure each of them tried out a bite, and of course each of them liked it. She also carefully unraveled the sweet to find out its mysteries. The outside of the sweet had many, many little holes in it, but it was still fluffy, and the inside was bright yellow. It was very smooth, and held its shape even when she pinched it between her fingers. It didn't stick, either, and could be rolled into a tiny ball. Naturally, she presented these findings to her friends, but she couldn't do it for all of them because some of them were having personality problems.

Katara patted Zuko's arm until he noticed her. She held up one of her friends. "He's lonely. I think you should hug him."

With one hand occupied with holding food, Zuko took the miniature lionturtle paperweight in his other and put it on his shoulder. "There, there," he intoned, giving it a delicate tap-tap with his fingers.

Katara successfully unwrapped the rest of the filling from her roll's innards and ate it. She considered her friends before presenting another one to Zuko. "He's lonely, too. Hug him."

Zuko obligingly accepted the decorative pai sho piece and placed it on his shoulder, giving that a tap-tap as well.

Katara stuffed the spongy outside into her mouth and watched Zuko finish eating his normally. She bounced on her toes, until he got the hint and gave her a second roll, and this one she ate by taking as big a bite as she could manage. It turned out that the difference between dissecting a roll and eating it was that the second had a more satisfying bite.

When she wordlessly held up her hands for a third, Zuko presented a bowl of miniature spring rolls tightly wrapped in lettuce-mint leaves. "Eat this."

Katara stuck her chubby fingers in the bowl and ate one. "Mh! Bright!" She wiggled with shivers, as if moving would expel the intensity of the taste. "Like sea prunes!"

Despite saying that, she reached into the bowl for more of them. Unlike sea prunes, which were often cold and rubbery, and only eaten by old people, the spring rolls were refreshing and slightly crunchy. The "bright" had been the mint flavor, which had been mistaken for cold. They were also slightly sour, and slightly sweet. The combined sour-sweet had a name, which was "tangy", which Katara didn't know. But for her, it was enough that they were tasty and interesting.

Zuko blinked languidly at her enthusiasm. "…Huh. That was easy." Katara, mouth full, made a questioning noise. His fingers brushed along her forehead, catching on the baby hairs. "I was about to say that eating only sugar for a meal is a punishable offense by law and that those who commit it will be sent to the evil dungeons where they can only eat sticks and leaves."

Despite not knowing half of those words, Katara giggled. "Does that really happen?"

"No, it doesn't. But if we leave food on the tray, then the cook who made this might get upset and you might have to wash all the dishes."

As someone who lived in a place where nothing was wasted, that made sense to her. She nodded. "Okay. What's that?"

"Cherrypeach." Zuko held up a slice. "Eat."

She grabbed his hand and put the food in her mouth. The taste of the cherrypeach slice was apparently enough to make her flail to the ground in wordless joy. When she picked herself up, he held another slice and she once again grabbed his hand and stuck it in her mouth.

"Me too!" Katara snapped, after he let her do this five times. She took one of the cherrypeach slices insistently and was only satisfied when he ate it from her fingers. Her focus lasted through four repetitions of this when a discovery made her point at his scar. "That looks like seal-jerky."

Zuko hummed around his bite. He nodded. "I see. Thank you for telling me. I now know what seal-jerky looks like."

Katara preened, smiling widely up at him. But then another thought arrived. "…Does it taste like seal-jerky?"

"…Interesting question." Zuko held up a finger. He licked it, pressed it to the side of his face, and licked it again. "It tastes like skin."

"Oh. Okay." Katara fed him another slice. "What's a sticksan-lees?"

"…Sticksan…sticks and leaves?"

"Yea."

"I will show you. But first we need to clean our hands."

Zuko fished out a damp cloth from a mysterious location and wiped Katara's face so thoroughly that she sneezed. She would've insisted she do the same for him, but he wiped his own mouth and hands faster than she could ask, which she nearly threw a fit about until he instructed her to deposit her imaginary friends on his desk so that they could later be returned to their homes, and then she was busy tucking them into bed and giving them each a goodnight kiss so they wouldn't be scared.

Despite her being perfectly capable of walking, Zuko picked Katara up and carried her outside. It was as green as when she'd first arrived in it. He showed her what things like "stick", "leaf", and "grass" were, and gave her one of each to hold for as long as she liked.

"But there are other things in a garden. And we're still on the edge of it." He pointed to a weeping ginko. "This is a tree. You can climb it."

With the aid of directions on where to find handholds and footholds, as well as a pair of hands wrapped firmly around her middle and taking the brunt of her weight, Katara successfully climbed her first tree. Dappled sunlight filtered through yellow-green leaves that fluttered like tiny, feathery fans. They were slippery and smooth, especially when rubbed between her fingers.

A hand landed on her head. "Stay right there, okay? I'll come back soon."

"Okaaay," Katara mumbled, busy picking apart the leaf. The hand rocked her head side-to-side, then left.

The tree's leaves grew in long strings that didn't start at the tip of where each branch ended, but sprouted along its sides. They fell to the ground such that entering under the tree's shade had blocked out the rest of the surroundings. Being cradled within its branches felt like being in a separate world. Maybe there was a real, actual world that felt the same way? Perhaps the spirit world? It'd be interesting to find out.

It would also be interesting to explore the garden. A tree was nice, but there was a world out there that Katara wanted to see. Since getting up in the tree had been so easy, then surely getting down would be just as easy, right? There were even long strings to hold onto, so she certainly wouldn't fall down.

Katara grabbed a string and gave it an experimental tug. It took a little more effort than that before it snapped. So she grabbed a fistful of them and started looking for footholds. She hadn't half a memory of where any of them were but Katara was never one to be stopped by lack of information. She confidently put her slippered foot on a convenient knot and started to climb down.

The second knot proved to not be a knot at all, but a slippery groove that her other foot fell out of and suddenly the fistful of strings were the only things holding her up. Katara dropped a short distance as the branches above bent under her weight before they decided to cut their losses and rid themselves of her. She shrieked as she fell again.

But it happened close to the trunk, so the fall turned into a roll, and a pile of discarded leaves made a soft cushion to land in.

Katara gasped, the sunlight flickering overhead. There was that moment of shock that balanced on the knife's edge of either being scared enough to cry or exhilarated enough to laugh. It slipped in the direction of laughter. Katara laughed and kicked her feet until one of her slippers went flying, and then she had to roll over and go looking for it. It was good that the leaves were more green than yellow and the slipper more yellow than green. She even got it on all by herself.

The achievement was one worth showing off, so Katara went running to find her compliments. Beyond the weeping ginko were even more trees. None of them looked like the weeping ginko did. She went to investigate and found a man lying half on the ground and half under a bush. Zuko stood over him dusting his hands.

Katara pointed at the man. "What's he doing?"

"Taking a nap."

"Oh." The ground didn't look as comfy as the one under the weeping ginko. Would it be different under a bush? "Can I take a nap with him?"

With one arm, Zuko scooped her from the ground and briskly walked them away. "No, he has fleas. And we don't have time for that." He pointed straight ahead. "Look over there."

The trees opened up to reveal a large pond. There were gecko-frogs and beetle-hoppers. There were long stalks of deer-tails, and glinting, chittering creatures swimming between them. But most of all, there were dozens and dozens of colorful flowers.

Katara's mouth dropped open. She pointed as well. "Pink!"

"Those are rose-lotuses."

"Can I have one?!" she shrieked.

"Yes."

The news delighted her so immensely that Zuko placed her on the ground so she could sprint to the pond herself. She couldn't reach the nearest rose-lotus without getting into the water, but Zuko could. By applying a tiny pinprick of heat he harvested two and gave them to her.

She chanted "pretty, pretty, pretty" to herself as he carried her a short distance away from the shore, and she graciously allowed him to fasten one of them to her head with one of the hairpins. She sat petting and admiring the other rose lotus before gently placing it on the ground and investigating the other flowers. Many grew in the surrounding bushes, while a few grew on the ground. She flitted between them like a butterbee and returned to Zuko with her treasures. He showed her how to make a flower crown and put it on her head. She tried to make one too, but her fingers kept slipping, so he instead allowed her to place the second flower crown (made by him) on his head.

"Here's something nice you can do." Zuko held one of the long grasses. His fingers plucked at their edges until they came away with tiny seeds. "You can feed these to the turtleducks."

"Can I have more?"

"Sure." At his instruction, Katara brought him more long grass. He harvested enough seeds for her to carefully carry in the bit of hanging part of her cheongsam.

Zuko leaned back on his hands, the sounds of toddler chatter and nature sounds floating around him. He would've lied down, but that had the potential to turn into a nap with devastating consequences, a lesson learnt from bitter experience. The tickling of stray petals from his head did well to keep him somewhat aware, which meant he heard it easily enough when little feet came pattering over to him.

He opened his eyes to Katara hugging a turtleduckling to her chest. "This is my friend."

"Congratulations."

"I think…I think this turtleduck is my best friend. Can I take her home with me?" she asked, an awed, purposeful look on her face.

Zuko sighed and sat up. "But isn't the place you live in cold? Will it be alright?"

"I'll keep her at home! It's warm inside!" She hugged the creature closer. It cheeped at her, poking curiously at her chin.

Sometimes the particularly adventurous ones tried sticking around for more treats. This one clearly didn't know better, and as such its greed had been misinterpreted as affection.

He couldn't tell her that, so instead he applied the tried and tested method of Being Reasonable. "So you'll just keep it inside forever? Wouldn't it want to go outside?"

"I'll—I can put her in my parka! I'll keep her safe!"

"But then wouldn't she miss her family? That sounds sad to me. I think you should put it back."

The words found their mark. Katara's eyes welled with tears. "…But then I'll never see her again."

"And she'll never see her family again. Put it back."

Katara started to cry in earnest. Despite that, she obediently walked back to the pond and put the turtleduckling down. She went back to Zuko and, still crying, held up her arms in silent plea.

He lifted her up and hugged her close, rocking them back and forth as she continued sobbing. It went on for long enough that she melted over his legs. He just continued to rub her back and muttered, "…Yeah, me too. I've been there." Which no one heard on account of a very miserable child wailing her heartbreak to the heavens.

Zuko, being long used to the sound, both internal and external, went into a meditative state that lasted well after the anguished sobs petered off. He hummed inquisitively when she rolled sideways.

"…I think this is the saddest day of my life," Katara hiccuped.

"Don't worry, there will be worse." She shot him a wide-eyed, bewildered look. He'd meant that to be comforting. It dawned on him that perhaps that's not the kind of thing most people find comforting. "You lived through them too. You'll be fine."

"…What do you mean?"

He had a choice here. There were a number of things he could say, advice he could give. But his audience was a very tiny girl whose greatest loss so far was not being allowed to bring a pet home. His thumb brushed the tear trails on her cheek, a thousand different thoughts and decades of knowledge hung suspended overhead.

"…There's something terrible that's going to happen soon. It's going to be very scary, and it'll hurt a lot, and you're allowed to feel that way. But I need you to know that it's not your fault. It's not your fault what adults choose to do. It's not your fault when things happen that you couldn't have known about." His knuckle traced up the bridge of her nose, across one eyebrow, then the other. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for what'll happen."

She scrunched her face up at how the touch tickled. Grabbing his hand, she pressed it against her cheek. "Then what can I do?"

"…Focus on what you care about. Find out what you want to protect, love the people you want to love, and try to live by that instead. Even if there doesn't seem a place for you in the world, that doesn't matter. Become what you cherish most, and the world will follow." Even with his hand pinned, his thumb poked her nose. "You are you. Your thoughts and feelings are your own, and no one can take that away from you. Just because there's pain and grief out there doesn't mean you have to fill yourself with all that too. It's not pain that makes people. It's love."

He tugged his hand out of her grip and placed it on her head, rocking it side-to-side. She hung onto his words with such obvious, innocent trust. For a moment, her older counterpart transposed onto that face and he repressed a snort.

"…Also, if someone tells you to give up your hopes or dreams or something like that, don't listen to them. Have as many hopes and dreams as you can stuff into your little head. Live in a castle in the clouds. Even at my age you seem to run on faith, trust, and fairy fluff. If that's what works then that's what works, so you just keep at it and do whatever."

He let Katara wiggle herself slightly upright. "Did you understand all that?" She nodded. "What did I say then?"

"I should love my favorite people and be happy."

"That's right."

She nodded with determination. "When I meet you for the first time, I'll do my best to be your friend and love you too."

"Absolutely not," he snapped.

At the sudden change in tone, Katara let out a surprised giggle. "Younger me was a goblin. You should put him in the ground." She giggled even more. "No really, I mean it—or actually, here's what you're going to do: when you meet him, he'll have a long tail of hair coming out of his head. As soon as he gets close enough, you need to grab that tail and pull it out of his head."

Katara laughed outright. "That's mean!"

"No no, you're doing him a favor. His hair's tied on too tight. That's why he's so mean all the time." Despite her mirth, Zuko raised his voice slightly louder. "And you don't need worry about hurting him. Even if you kill him, he won't die."

"But people die when you kill them!"

"This one will not. I've tried—or rather, I've been in situations where I should've died but I didn't. Let's see—getting burned, getting stabbed, jumping off ships, jumping off cliffs, crashing into walls, bonking my head a lot, nearly freezing to death—twice? I think? At least twice—drowning, tar pit, lightning strike—" he listed, "—oh, right, and since living here there's also been the assassination attempts. I think I'm immune to most poisons by now."

Zuko hummed, a thought entering his head. "…You know, at this point I wonder what'll kill me. I feel like it'll be interesting." Another thought arrived with it and he made a face. "If I die peacefully in my sleep of old age, I'm going to go up there and complain so much. The spirits won't let me die and that's what takes me out? How boring is that? Ugh."

A tiny pair of hands reached up and held his face. Katara wiggled to sit up straighter, trying to look him in the eyes. "But I don't want you to die. And I don't want to be mean to someone who's going to be my friend. Why do I have to?"

"…Because that boy did a lot of things that hurt you and the people you love and it took him a stupid long time to say sorry."

She looked down, then looked up again hopefully. "Maybe…maybe he just needed someone to be nice to him and show him that's wrong?"

Ha. As if it were that easy. He resisted the urge to pinch his nose bridge. "He already had someone who was nice to him. That person was his uncle, who loved him more than anything and stayed with him the entire time, and it still wasn't good enough."

"But he didn't meet me," said she, with the relentless goodwill of youth. He couldn't help but sigh at it.

"Child, he didn't even see you as a person."

"But I am a person!"

"You are. And there will still be people who will look at you and sit with you and talk to you, and still they will not think that you're a person. They'll give you a personality you don't have, and say you did things you didn't do, because the only thing they see is what they expect to see from someone like you. You try to be nice, they'll think you're spineless as a jellysquid. Try to be firm, they'll think you're an uppity twit who should bow to your betters. Saying out loud that you're a person and you don't deserve this? They'll call you selfish to your face. You could go and find the Avatar right now and people like that are still not going to think that you're a person just because you tried really hard to show them you are."

He gathered her in his arms, despite the futility of that being enough to protect her. "What did I tell you? I told you to focus on the people you love and who love you back. Protect them. Cherish them. Don't go giving chances to people who keep hurting you. Including younger me. If he grows or not is none of your business. He has to do that by himself. One way or another that idiot will sort himself out, and until that day you hit him back twice as hard and make it hurt. Got it?"

Somewhere along the line, the little girl in his arms had grown sober. She seemed to be giving his words a good, hard think, but the conclusions being reached were not happy ones.

In fact, her eyes snapped to his with a sudden, sharp light.

"It's not nice to hurt people. And I don't think you're being nice to you."

Of all things, that's what made her tears well up again.

"Because—because kids are good, and people should try to be good, but you said a lot of mean things about you, and—and that's not nice! We should be nice to each other and believe in each other, and you're not doing that!"

And maybe she meant to say that differently. Maybe she meant to say something else entirely. But thoughts were complicated and words were hard, and to a four year old girl who'd lived in one place her whole life, the pearls of wisdom cast by some bitter old man were not ones that could be understood or swallowed. They did not line up with the lived experiences of being surrounded by a loving family and close-knit community. They felt like an adult mocking a child who was supposed to be her friend someday.

Katara bristled with indignation, that his words to her were one thing but the ones towards himself were another. And despite that, and despite her feelings, he had a big, dopey looking smile on his face for reasons that did not matter because she instinctively knew that he wasn't taking her seriously at all.

(To be faced with someone who'd spent a lot longer being a lot angrier and have one's righteous rage be seen as adorable was truly a devastating experience.)

She tried to smack some sense into him, but he caught her hand and pressed a kiss into it, which made her even angrier. But she'd already been crying, and this was just too much for her. Before she knew it, he'd cuddled her to his shoulder and was shushing her and rubbing her back in a way that didn't help at all, her angry sobs muffled into his neck.

"There, there, I hear you. I understand." He soothed, rocking them side-to-side. "I'm not being fair at all, am I? And you've been trying so hard, haven't you? But here I am acting like this. From now on, I'll listen to you. I will change my ways. And you're so smart and cute, so of course I have to do exactly as you say."

Katara cried, and his hand stroked her head. "…I am smart and, and cute." She hiccuped. "And I'm nice, and—I'm trying really hard!"

"Yes, yes, my brave princess, you've been trying so hard and I'm so proud of you. You've been such a good little noodle."

She sniffled. "…I'm a good noodle."

"You're the goodest noodle."

He held her for as long as it took her sobs to die down. Until they were just small hitches in her chest and his shoulder was damp with tears.

He gently peeled her away so they could be face to face. "But I do mean it. When you meet him, he's going to believe a lot of wrong things and he'll try to fight you. Dearest, look at me." He waited until she did so. "Don't you ever let him hurt you. Don't try to help him when he doesn't want to be helped. If I know that you gave a chance to a boy who's only going to hurt you for it, then my heart will break. Please don't break my heart."

"…Okay."

"And," he held up a finger, "the moment he tries to attack you or one of your friends, as soon he's in reach, you are going to grab him by that tail and yank hard as you can. Promise?"

Katara sniffled. "Okay, promise."

"Atta girl." He lifted her into the air so that her face hovered over his and he kissed one cheek and then the other. "Now, I think that's enough tears for one day. I have an important question for you." Her feet lowered to the ground, though his hands remained on her sides, holding her steady. "We're going to be having some guests stopping by for the midday meal. They're very special guests, and I think when you meet them you'll want to be wearing some special clothes, too."

He held up three fingers. "You have three choices. I can ask someone to find you one my daughter's fancy clothes from when she was younger, or you can wear what you arrived in, or you can wear exactly what you're wearing now. What would you like?"

Katara thought about it. "…I think I want to wear my clothes. Because my clothes are special. I mean," she waved her hands, "I mean that, my Gran gran made me those clothes, and those clothes are made from animals who're spirits now, and they gave their lives so we said thank you, and that makes them very special, you know?"

Zuko nodded. "Understood. Let's go find them."

He picked her up and stood. The walk back to where the buildings seemed a lot shorter than the walk to the gardens, but then again, they were different buildings. And, really, there was a difference between the outer and inner palace. They found a different maid named Jin Yu ("Call me Yuyu!") who took one look at Katara and heaped so many praises on her that she smiled, which Jin Yu took as permission to sweep her up into the air and dance around the room until both of them were breathless with giggles.

Katara got a cup of water to sip from, then her face was properly washed of tears and dried. The clothes she wore were exchanged for her own, and the bells and hairstyle was removed to comb out various bits of leaves, grass, feathers, and browning petals in her hair. The anklets on her feet also had to go. It was a grievous loss, but, as Jin Yu pointed out, it wouldn't be good if they snagged on her clothes. To make up for it she dabbed a drop of rose-lotus oil under Katara's ears and on her wrists.

She also dragged out a pile of furs from the walk-in closet that she heaped on the rug. "See if you like any of those, too. Maybe you'll find something fun in there."

With her parka off for the time being, Katara was happy to go crawling into the furs and explore their strange, new textures. Zuko called Jin Yu over to the door. After some back and forth, he assured her he could handle it from there and gave her leave to attend to her other duties.

If they left soon, then they might be in time to catch their guests right as they arrived. Zuko turned around to deliver the news…

…To a pile of unmoving furs.

Slowly, Zuko wandered closer. He knelt on the ground. Behind his eyes, the heat signatures showed that the room held no other living occupant aside from him. No sign of a little girl. Oh, the furs still retained some residual heat, as did the rug. But the trail did not lead out of the furs. It just…ended.

"Huh." Zuko considered the situation. He stood. "…Huh."

He calmly walked out of the room. Calmly made it out of the inner palace and found the place outside where foreign guests were designated to land on. He didn't run when a large gust of wind scattered the dust from the ground and a giant, familiar shape descended from the sky.

A figure leapt down from the beast before it landed properly. "Hi, Zuko! How are y—" Zuko lunged forward and swept the woman off her feet. "Hey! What happened to you?" She waited a few moments, then started kicking and smacking his shoulder. "Zuko, what happened? And put me down, you dingbat, I want to hug you too—"

"Hi, Katara," he said. He put her down and let her try to squeeze the stuffing out of him too.

Another figure alighted from the flying bison. "Hey, Zuko! Guess what? You're never going to believe this—"

Zuko immediately left her to tackle Aang in a hug, which did not sweep him off his feet on account of Aang being half a head taller. Aang happily returned the hug.

Zuko grabbed him by the shoulders. "I need your help." And then he took Aang's hand and pulled him towards the inner palace, ignoring Katara's annoyed squawking for abandoning her and refusing to answer either of their questions.

The room was as he'd left it. Zuko hovered behind Aang, who knelt before the pile of furs. "…So…anything?"

"…There's definitely a spiritual anomaly."

"Oh. Okay." Zuko weakly sat on the ground. "That would explain it."

"Explain what?" Katara asked, getting down on the ground since everyone was there too. "Could you please finally explain what happened?"

If there hadn't been multiple witnesses to prove the events of that morning, Zuko would've more than likely laid himself facedown on the rug and refused to move. As it was, there was further evidence left behind.

Wordlessly, Zuko dragged over a very small parka. "So, you're never going to believe who I met today…"

Katara's eyes went big as a plate's. "…Is that—"

"I met you. Little Katara. She were four years old." Zuko held his hand up to about shoulder height. "About this big."

Katara went into a startled laughing fit, which got more maniacal the longer it went on. Aang took the parka and cooed over it. Between the two of them, Zuko tried to string together what exactly happened that morning.

"—and now I'm pretty sure she's gone back, but I don't actually know that and I'm trying not to be too worried, except I am. Where could she be? She doesn't even have her coat. Is she okay out there?"

"I think I can check." Aang bundled up the parka and took it with him into the pile of furs. The heaping mound of it might've engulfed a four year old, but they weren't enough to cover Aang. One of his feet remained sticking out of it.

When Katara got over herself, she occupied them both by piling Zuko with questions. Though from the sound of it, his observations were heavily biased, and his actions equally ridiculous.

"—and figured out how to get down by herself. That was so smart."

"…You just left her alone to fall out of a tree."

"What? Was I supposed to take her to the assassins? And she did figure out by herself out to get down. Isn't that smart? And she's just—she was so confident and curious, you know? And so cute. She was just the cutest little kid."

Katara grinned like a piranha-shark. "I am the cutest. And the best."

He paused mid-gushing to stare at her. The warm fuzzies instantly curdled.

"…Somehow, I prefer hearing that from a child than hearing it from you."

She snorted. "What? She had you wrapped around her finger that much?"

"Katara. Katara, you don't understand. She was so cute. I nearly died."

Katara the older laid a hand delicately to her chest and faked a gasp. "Oh wow, have we finally found it? Do we finally have a cure for your immortality?"

Given how long they'd known each other and how that was a national joke, Zuko had no choice but to roll his eyes.

"Ha. If that was enough, then Aang's inherent cuteness would've already done the job."

As if summoned by his name, a muffled voice reached them from within the furs. "I feel like there's depressing talk going on back there. You two better stop it!"

"Okay, sweetie!"

"Whatever you say, Aang."

They continued chatting (and pointedly not bickering) until, eventually, Aang made a triumphant noise and crawled out. "Did it! She has her parka and she's fine."

"Oh, thank goodness. Thank the spirits."

"Thank you Aang." corrected Katara.

"Thank you Aang."

Meanwhile, elsewhen at the south pole, a girl stared wide eyed at where she'd just crawled out of.

Someone stomped indoors. "What happened to you?" asked Sokka's voice.

She continued staring. At her parka, where it'd been placed. At where the long, pale hand had reached out holding it. At the expanse of air where it had supposedly appeared from.

Slowly, she raised her eyes. Then she burst into tears.

Her brother trying to get answers out of her didn't help. Neither did him calling their mother and father inside to comfort her. Eventually, she managed to calm down enough to eat a little and take a nap, and her family marked the incident down as a bizarre, make-believe game she'd played by herself.

Though no one quite paid attention to a faint, lingering smell that soon vanished from her.