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Saltwater burned Zuko's lungs. Every cough scraped at his chest like he'd swallowed a mouthful of embers, and for one terrifying moment he couldn't tell whether he was trying to breathe air or more seawater.
He finally managed to roll onto his side and hack up what felt like half the ocean before collapsing back onto the black sand with a groan.
Every muscle in his body protested the movement. His hair hung in dripping curtains across his face, his robes clung heavily to his skin, and somewhere beneath his shoulder blade a pointed rock had apparently declared a personal vendetta against his spine. He lay there for a long moment, trying to remember exactly how he'd gone from defending the Fire Nation's coastline to washing ashore looking like a drowned shrew-rat.
The answer arrived with the groan of splintering timber and shrieking metal. A shadow drifted across the moon, growing larger until an entire Fire Nation warship sailed across the sky overhead.
Zuko frowned after it. His waterlogged brain needed an embarrassingly long moment to process what he'd just witnessed before the ship disappeared somewhere behind him. The impact rattled the shoreline hard enough to shake the sand beneath his back, and was followed by the unmistakable sound of another explosion echoing across the harbor.
"...Well," he muttered as he pushed himself upright. "That can't be good."
His eyes immediately swept the harbor for Katara, and he winced at the wreckage strewn across the black sand and tangled in the tide. Another ship was already rising from the harbor. Thick ribbons of seawater spiraled around its hull in broad, gleaming coils until the vessel hung suspended beneath the moonlight.
It remained there for only a heartbeat before Katara gave a lazy flick of her wrist. The ribbons tightened instantly, and the entire ship shot sideways through the air, smashing broadside into two others bearing the crimson banners of the Sons of Ozai. Masts snapped like dry branches beneath the force of the collision, lanterns burst apart in showers of sparks, and sailors scrambled over the rails with panicked cries as the sea swallowed the wreckage.
Oddly enough, it never turned on the sailors themselves.
Every man who leapt overboard found himself caught by another current before he could sink. The ocean swept them neatly away from the shattered ships, depositing them sputtering along the shoreline with all the care one might use when relocating particularly annoying crabs before surging back toward the battle. Whatever fury had possessed the Ocean Spirit tonight, it was reserved entirely for the fleet trying to invade the Fire Nation.
At the center of the harbor, Katara moved as though she'd been dancing with the sea her entire life. There wasn't a trace of effort in her movements. The ocean simply... followed.
Water coiled around her body in broad silver ribbons that answered every movement she made. She turned lightly across the surface. One foot skimmed the waves as she pivoted, her arms carving slow circles through the moonlit air while the ocean mirrored her with effortless precision.
Waves climbed when her hands lifted, curled when her wrists rolled, and crashed wherever she directed them, scattering ships with the casual ease of someone sweeping leaves from a path. Every graceful movement carried an impossible amount of power behind it, and watching entire warships obey the smallest motions of her fingertips made Zuko understand, perhaps for the first time, why ancient sailors had worshipped the sea instead of merely fearing it.
Then Katara laughed.
It should have sounded… comforting. Instead, another voice rolled beneath hers. Ancient and impossibly deep, rumbling through the harbor like distant thunder beneath crashing surf.
The two voices blended into something that made the hairs along the back of Zuko's neck stand on end. It wasn't unpleasant. If anything, it was strangely beautiful in the same terrifying way a lightning storm over the ocean was beautiful. It demanded to be witnessed from a very safe distance.
He had watched Katara perform impossible feats before. He had seen her freeze rain in midair, split glaciers apart with walls of ice, bloodbend under the light of a full moon, and stand against masters who should have overwhelmed her by experience alone. Nothing had prepared him for this.
The Ocean Spirit wasn't lending Katara its strength so much as answering her every whim, and together they moved with such perfect harmony that it became impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.
Another rebel ship caught the wind and turned toward open water. Katara's attention shifted almost lazily toward it, as though she'd only just noticed it trying to escape. She raised one hand, palm upward, and slowly curled her fingers.
The ocean answered without hesitation. Water surged beneath the hull, lifting the ship completely free of the harbor until it teetered high above the waves. She tilted her head, studying it for a thoughtful moment before giving the smallest twist of her wrist.
The ship spun through the air, and then crashed straight through another. Wood exploded outward in every direction while both vessels tumbled into a third, disappearing beneath a wall of seawater that erupted high enough to catch the moonlight before collapsing back into the harbor.
He really should have been more alarmed by the fact that his first coherent thought was that she'd never looked more breathtaking.
Something nudged his shoulder. He looked down to find Sokka floating ashore beside him. His lower half was entombed inside a thick block of ice. The tide scooted him further up the beach before abandoning him there, flat on his back and staring toward the moon with the long-suffering expression of a man who had accepted that this sort of thing simply happened to him now.
"...Well," Sokka sighed. "This has certainly been a day."
He reached behind one shoulder and pulled his boomerang free. He wedged the edge beneath the ice surrounding one of his legs and began chipping away.
Thunk.
A chunk of ice slid free and tumbled onto the sand.
Thunk.
Another followed.
Thunk.
Zuko watched him for a moment before glancing back toward the harbor, where Katara's delighted laughter echoed across the water as another wall of seawater folded neatly over the deck of a rebel ship.
"...Need a hand?"
Sokka shrugged nonchalantly. "Nah."
Thunk.
"I've got it."
Thunk.
"I've had years of practice."
Zuko looked back at him. "...Practice?"
Sokka nodded as though they were discussing tomorrow's weather instead of an ancient spirit in possession of his sister’s body laying waste to the Fire Nation's harbor thanks to a splinter cell group’s attempt at a coup d'état.
"Katara used to bury me in snowbanks whenever I got on her nerves."
Thunk.
"I'd dig myself out."
Thunk. Thunk.
"Then I'd go annoy her again."
Another ship disappeared beneath a wave that rose almost lazily from the harbor before slamming down with enough force to send water spraying over the palace walls.
Zuko watched it for a long moment. "...I take it this is an escalation."
"Oh, most definitely,” Sokka nodded. He managed to chip away a few more chunks of ice.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
"But not by as much as you'd think."
Zuko's eyes drifted back toward Katara just as she swept both arms overhead, drawing three immense water whips from the sea. They twisted around one another like living dragons before lashing outward, wrapping around another warship and tearing it effortlessly from the water. A wide, exhilarated grin spread across her face that somehow managed to look entirely like Katara and nothing like her at all.
"...She's smiling."
"Yep," Sokka replied.
Zuko watched another ship tumble through the air before admitting, "...Should I be concerned that I find this incredibly attractive?"
The steady rhythm of Sokka's chipping stopped. He slowly turned his head until Zuko found himself staring into a swirling mixture of disbelief and disgust.
"...Dude... please tell me you didn't just pop a 'why' boner for my sister right now..."
Katara flicked two fingers toward another ship, and the ocean answered instantly, batting it across the harbor with all the casual indifference of someone skipping a stone across a lake.
"In my defense," Zuko said after a thoughtful pause, never taking his eyes off her, "I've always found her unbelievably attractive when she—"
"Ugh! You and your high-class, poetic rhetoric!" Sokka slammed his boomerang against the last of the ice until it finally shattered around his legs. "Just say you think she's sexy when she looks like she could kick your ass!"
"I said I find her attractive!" Zuko shot back.
"Same thing. Just more words." Sokka hauled himself to his feet with a grunt, peeled the hem of his tunic away from his legs, and wrung seawater onto the sand. He tipped his head back toward the night sky and let out a long, suffering sigh.
"...My sister's dating an idiot."
A thunderous crack echoed across the harbor as Katara drew both arms apart. The sea obeyed instantly, rearing into two towering walls that curled around the last ships bearing the crimson banners of the Sons of Ozai before crashing together with enough force to send a plume of water high into the night sky. The Ocean Spirit's laughter rolled beneath Katara's own.
Somewhere in the distance, a man screamed something that sounded suspiciously like, "I surrender!"
The wave ignored him.
Zuko watched another ship disappear beneath the boiling surf before rubbing a weary hand across his face.
"...We need to stop her." He never took his eyes off the harbor. "Before she runs out of actual enemies and the Ocean Spirit decides the next threat is whatever poor sap happens to be standing closest."
Beside him, Sokka followed his gaze across the bay. There weren't many ships left. Most floated in shattered pieces while the handful still intact limped toward open water with whatever sails they still had attached.
"...Yeah," Sokka admitted, grimacing as another sharp crack echoed across the harbor. "I've got a feeling she's not going to pat herself on the back and call it a night."
A familiar rush of wind skimmed over the beach, carrying black sand with it. Zuko looked up just as Aang swept low across the harbor atop his glider, banking sharply around a column of water that burst from the sea before another wave chased after him.
"Katara!" Aang cupped both hands around his mouth as he circled back toward her. "Katara, look at me!"
Katara turned her head just enough to acknowledge him. One glowing blue eye settled on Aang while the other remained fixed on the last of the Sons of Ozai scrambling toward the mouth of the harbor. Water circled her in slow, effortless ribbons, rising and falling with every quiet breath until it almost looked like the sea had settled into the rhythm of her heartbeat.
Beside Zuko, Sokka scratched absently at the back of his neck without taking his eyes off his sister.
"...Well. She's looking at him."
"I noticed," Zuko murmured.
"I didn't say she was listening."
Aang stepped lightly onto what remained of a floating section of dock, keeping both hands open at his sides.
"Katara," he called, his voice softer now. "You don't have to do this."
Katara didn't answer immediately. Her attention drifted past him to one of the last surviving ships clawing desperately toward open water, its crew hauling frantically on the rigging in one final attempt to catch the wind.
"...They're still here."
"THEY ARE," the Ocean Spirit answered beneath her voice.
"I know."
Katara never looked away from the ship. She simply lifted one hand and slowly curled her fingers inward. The ocean answered without hesitation. Water surged beneath the hull, lifting the vessel completely free of the sea until it hung suspended beneath the full moon.
She studied it for only a heartbeat before giving the smallest turn of her wrist.
The ship spun once...
...then slammed broadside into the cliffs.
The crack of splintering timber echoed across the harbor before broken planks and burning debris rained back into the sea. Zuko watched the wreckage settle for another heartbeat before Katara finally turned her attention back to Aang.
"They came here to finish what Ozai started."
"I know," Aang answered without hesitation.
"They burned villages."
"I know."
"They murdered people."
Aang's shoulders sagged, but he never looked away from her. "I know."
Katara frowned. Genuine confusion softened her expression as she searched his face. "And you want me to stop."
"I want you to come back." Aang took one careful step across the floating wreckage, never lowering his hands. "You don't have to carry this by yourself anymore."
The water circling Katara slowed.
For one fragile heartbeat, the currents settled into gentle ripples around her ankles. Even the ancient rumble beneath the Ocean Spirit's voice faded until the only sound Zuko could hear was the surf washing against the shattered docks. He found himself sitting a little straighter without realizing it, and beside him Sokka leaned forward with both hands planted on his knees.
"...Come on," Sokka whispered.
Katara smiled at Aang, and for just a moment she looked almost like herself again. "You always ask me to believe people can change."
"They can," Aang replied.
"They can," Katara agreed with a small nod. "Some of them do."
"SOME OF THEM DO," the Ocean Spirit echoed beneath her voice.
Her smile lingered for another heartbeat before she looked past Aang toward the wreckage drifting across the harbor. "They just never seem to stay changed for very long."
The ocean answered before Aang could. Water rose silently behind Katara, climbing higher and higher until it towered over him. She never looked back at it. She didn't have to. The wave waited behind her, vast and impossibly still, like a predator content to let its prey make the next move.
Aang took another careful step closer. "Katara... this isn't you."
A quiet laugh escaped Katara. "I am me, Aang."
"SHE IS," the Ocean Spirit echoed beneath her voice.
"I spent years talking you down whenever you lost control," Katara continued. "Whenever you got scared. Whenever you got angry. Whenever you convinced yourself the Avatar had to solve everything alone."
Aang managed a small smile as he met her gaze. "You did."
"And now you're trying to return the favor."
"I am."
"...That's sweet."
Katara lifted two fingers and gave them the slightest flick. The waiting wave surged toward Aang, swallowing what remained of the dock just as he burst upward on a cushion of air. He tumbled head over heels through the sky before catching himself halfway across the surf.
Beside Zuko, Sokka tracked Aang's awkward flight before glancing sideways at him. "...Think she's missing on purpose?"
Zuko never looked away from Katara. She wasn't watching the wave anymore. Her attention had already drifted past Aang toward the burning remains of the harbor, as though she were searching for something else that still demanded her attention.
"...I don't think she's trying to hit him," he admitted quietly as a knot tightened in the pit of his stomach. "I think she's waiting until there's nothing else left."
Another ribbon of water peeled away from the currents circling Katara and drifted after Aang. It followed him through the air with almost lazy persistence, forcing him to bank sharply to one side before curling around in front of him again. Every time he slipped free, the water adjusted its course and continued after him without ever quite closing the distance.
Zuko watched Aang duck beneath the next wave, and the pattern finally clicked into place. The water wasn't trying to catch him. It was keeping him busy.
Aang twisted through the air to face her again. "Katara, listen to me!"
She met his eyes for only a heartbeat before looking past him again. She slowly raised one hand toward the last surviving warship limping toward the mouth of the harbor. Smoke poured from its shattered deck while the remaining crew hacked frantically at tangled rigging, desperate to catch enough wind to escape before she noticed them.
Without the slightest change in expression, Katara curled her fingers into a loose fist, and the ocean answered immediately. Water climbed over the sides of the vessel, wrapped itself around the hull, and dragged it beneath the surface. Sailors threw themselves overboard moments before the ship vanished beneath the waves, and the groan of splintering timber rolled across the harbor for several long seconds before the sea finally settled again.
Beside Zuko, Sokka slowly lowered his boomerang as he stared at the empty stretch of water where the last warship had disappeared. "...I think that was the last one."
Zuko nodded almost absently. "...Yeah."
The harbor had gone strangely quiet. Burning wreckage drifted across the moonlit water where the Sons of Ozai fleet had floated only minutes before, the occasional timber groaning as it settled beneath the waves. The currents that had spent the better part of the evening tearing ships apart gradually returned to Katara's side, circling her in broad ribbons that rose and fell with every slow breath she took instead of searching the harbor for another enemy.
Zuko watched the last of the currents gather around Katara, and a knot tightened low in his stomach. "...She's done," he murmured, more to himself than anyone else.
Sokka looked from the empty harbor back to his sister, his brow furrowing as the silence stretched between them. "...Then that's good... right?"
Zuko didn't answer.
Something about the way Katara stood refused to let him relax. She hadn't softened now that the battle was over. If anything, she'd grown still in the way predators often did once the chase ended and they started deciding where to look next. Her attention had drifted away from the burning wreckage entirely and settled on Aang.
Beside him, Sokka followed his gaze.
"...Oh."
Out over the harbor, Aang seemed to notice it at the same moment. His glider dipped beneath his feet as he looked around, finally realizing the waves that had spent the last several minutes chasing him through the sky had vanished.
The water wasn't reaching for him anymore. It circled patiently around Katara instead, rising and falling in slow, deliberate motions that somehow felt far more dangerous than the chaos that had come before.
Aang lowered himself another few feet, keeping both hands open where Katara could see them. "Katara... it's over."
Katara smiled at him.
It was the same gentle smile Zuko had watched her wear a hundred different times whenever she'd talked someone through their fear, their grief, or their anger. Seeing that familiar expression framed by moonlit water while the Ocean Spirit's voice waited beneath her own made his stomach tighten.
"You've always stood between people who wanted to hurt others," Katara said quietly as another ribbon of water drifted lazily around her shoulders.
Aang gave a small nod. "I've tried."
"I know." Katara's smile never wavered. "You've always believed everyone deserved another chance."
"I still do."
"I know you do."
The Ocean Spirit answered only with a low rumble beneath Katara's voice, as though it found no fault in what she'd said.
Katara took another slow step across the surface of the water, and the broad currents surrounding her widened before gradually curling back around Aang. They never touched him, instead quietly closing every open space around him one careful circle at a time.
"You've spent your whole life stepping between people who wanted revenge and the people they blamed," Katara continued. "You've stopped wars, ended feuds, and broken cycles because you believed the world would be better for it."
Aang drifted a little lower, never taking his eyes off her. "I still believe that."
"I know." Katara gave the faintest nod. "You think you're protecting people."
"I am."
Her gaze drifted briefly across the ruined harbor before settling on him again. "The ships are gone. The people who came here to wage war are gone. The Ocean has finished dealing with them."
Aang frowned at the quiet certainty in her voice. "...Then what are you still waiting for?"
Katara studied him for a long moment before slowly shaking her head. "You still think this is about revenge."
"...Isn't it?" Aang asked.
"No," Katara answered softly, and the Ocean Spirit rolled beneath her voice. "BALANCE."
Katara never looked away from Aang as the currents circling him drew just a little tighter. "And now," she said quietly, "the only thing standing between the Ocean... and balance... is you."
Aang barely had time to process her words before the ring of water surrounding him surged inward. He threw up a wall of air on instinct, but it survived only half a heartbeat before a thick tendril of seawater punched straight through it and wrapped around his ankle. His glider lurched violently beneath him as the current ripped him out of the air, dragging him across the surface hard enough for his shoulder to skip off the water.
Twisting onto his back, Aang severed the water around his leg with another burst of air before scrambling to regain control of his glider. "Katara!" he shouted as seawater splashed across his face. "Katara, stop!"
Katara's expression softened just enough for Zuko to wonder whether she'd actually heard him. The currents circling her slowed, the towering waves settling into gentle swells that rolled beneath the moonlight, and for one fragile heartbeat the harbor seemed to hold its breath with him.
Then Katara swept one arm across her body, and the ocean obeyed.
A wave caught Aang broadside before he could react, hurling him through the air with enough force to tear the glider from beneath his feet. He managed one frantic burst of air before another current intercepted him halfway through the tumble, slammed him back into the harbor, and dragged him beneath the surface. A heartbeat later he burst through the water gasping for air, only for another surge to coil around his waist and fling him in the opposite direction as though he weighed nothing at all.
Zuko followed Aang's path across the harbor, his stomach sinking with every violent impact. The Ocean Spirit wasn't lashing out anymore or battering him with blind fury. It tossed the Avatar back and forth with the same deliberate efficiency a leopard seal used when it caught an otter penguin, never letting its prey stay free long enough to catch its breath before dragging it under again.
"...She's not fighting him anymore," Zuko murmured.
Beside him, Sokka watched Aang disappear beneath another crashing wave, his expression tightening with recognition. He'd seen leopard seals do the same thing to otter penguins growing up in the South. "...She's hunting him."
A voice cut across the harbor before either of them could move.
"Would somebody DO SOMETHING?!" Suki shouted from the cliffs overlooking the bay. Several Kyoshi Warriors clustered behind her near the edge of the volcanic rock, all of them watching helplessly as the battle unfolded below.
A short distance away, Toph kept both feet planted against the cliff face, her knees bent as another tremor rippled through the stone beneath her. "I AM!" she shouted without looking away from the harbor as another pulse of water slammed into the shoreline, shaking the cliff hard enough to force her to catch herself with one hand. "DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO EARTHBEND WHEN THE ENTIRE ISLAND WON'T STOP MOVING?!"
Another wave exploded against the rocks, rattling the cliff beneath Toph's feet. She drove one heel back into the stone to steady herself before scowling toward the harbor.
"DAMMIT, SUGAR QUEEN! STOP BREAKING MY FLOOR!"
Out over the water, Aang finally broke through the surface again. He coughed violently as he launched himself skyward on a desperate column of air, sputtering seawater between breaths while he searched for Katara through dripping hair.
"Katara!" he called hoarsely. "Please!"
A whip of water snapped around his wrist before the last word had even left his mouth. It ripped him out of the sky and disappeared beneath the waves with him before the echo of his voice had finished carrying across the harbor.
Beside him, Sokka slowly rubbed both hands over his face before letting them fall limply to his sides. "...Yeah."
He watched Aang finally break through the surface just long enough to gasp for air before grimacing toward Zuko. "We need a new plan."
"...Agreed." Zuko never took his eyes off Katara.
Aang barely managed another breath before three separate currents converged on him at once. One wrapped around his ankle, another coiled around his waist, and the third slammed into his chest hard enough to send him skipping across the harbor like a flat stone. He bounced once... twice... three times before disappearing beneath the waves again.
Sokka watched the last splash settle before dragging a hand down his face. "...Okay. Now we really need a new plan."
Zuko never looked at Aang again. His attention stayed fixed on Katara as she guided every current with the smallest movements of her hands, the Ocean Spirit answering each flick of her wrists and turn of her palms with effortless precision. There wasn't any rage on her face anymore. If anything, she looked almost... serene.
"...She's not doing this because she's angry," he murmured.
Sokka frowned at him. "...What?"
"The Ocean Spirit thinks it's correcting an imbalance."
Another violent splash echoed across the harbor as Aang disappeared beneath the surface yet again. Zuko barely spared him a glance before his eyes returned to Katara. Another ribbon of water peeled away from the currents circling her and slipped after Aang before he'd even broken the surface again.
She never rushed or hesitated. Every current answered the smallest turn of her wrist with the quiet certainty of a soldier obeying an order.
"It's not punishing him," Zuko continued as another current wrapped around Aang's ankle. "It thinks he's standing in the way."
Beside him, Sokka fell strangely quiet. Zuko caught him rubbing thoughtfully at his jaw while another wave skipped Aang twice across the harbor before hurling him back into the air.
"...Wait a second."
Keeping one eye on Katara, Zuko frowned at him. "What?"
Sokka never looked away from his sister. Another wave answered the smallest flick of her fingers before peeling away toward Aang again.
"You said the Spirit's following Katara."
"It is."
"And it's feeding off whatever she's feeling."
"...Looks that way."
Sokka scratched absently at the back of his neck while Aang blasted himself free of another current, only for it to curl back after him.
"So if she's angry about injustice..." He watched another splash erupt across the harbor before finishing his thought. "...maybe we stop trying to reason with the Spirit."
Zuko finally turned enough to study Sokka instead of Katara. "...Go on."
"We reason with Katara."
A short, humorless laugh escaped Zuko as he gestured toward the harbor. "We've been trying that."
"No." Sokka shook his head and pointed toward Aang just as another water whip narrowly missed him. "Aang's trying to reason with Katara."
Zuko followed Sokka's finger. Aang twisted beneath one attack only to get caught around the ankle by the next before another explosion of water hurled him into the moonlit sky.
"And he's losing."
Katara guided another current after Aang with a lazy turn of her wrist. She hadn't looked angry in several minutes. If anything, she looked calmer now than she had while dismantling the Sons of Ozai fleet, watching Aang with the same patient expression she'd worn while explaining a difficult lesson to one of the village children.
"...Your point?"
"My point is..." Sokka frowned toward his sister before another splash drew his attention back to Aang. His eyes widened as the thought finally came together. "...When has talking ever gotten Katara to stop doing something she was absolutely convinced was the right thing to do?"
Zuko opened his mouth to answer, but the words never came. Instead, memories crowded in all at once: Katara arguing with Hakoda, standing toe-to-toe with Earth Kingdom generals twice her age, staring down Fire Nation ministers who underestimated her, and winning more than one argument against him simply because she'd refused to budge. By the time he let out a slow breath, there was only one honest answer left.
"...Never."
Another wave skipped Aang twice across the harbor before flinging him high enough that even Zuko briefly lost sight of him against the moonlight. Beside him, Sokka watched his sister with a grin that looked entirely too pleased for someone standing ankle-deep in seawater.
"Exactly. But you know what has stopped her?" He jabbed a thumb against his own chest. “This guy!”
Zuko turned to stare at him as though the last remaining shreds of Sokka's sanity had finally abandoned ship. "...Excuse me?"
"I've been annoying Katara for twenty-eight years." Sokka shrugged as another plume of water erupted across the harbor. "I'm probably the single greatest expert in the world at making my sister completely lose her train of thought."
Aang finally burst back through the surface just long enough to gasp before another current wrapped around his waist and hurled him somewhere behind a burning warship. Zuko winced.
"...That's... actually true."
Sokka didn't answer right away. He kept watching Katara while another flick of her wrist sent the entire harbor after Aang again, his grin slowly fading into something more thoughtful. "...I think I know how we distract her."
Zuko followed his gaze back toward Katara. Moonlight drifted across the ribbons of water circling her until she looked less like she was bending the ocean and more like the ocean had simply decided to wear her shape. "...I'm listening."
Sokka barked out a laugh and shook his head. "...No you're not."
"What?" Zuko frowned without taking his eyes off Katara. "I'm evaluating the situation."
"The situation has high cheekbones and dimples." Sokka folded his arms with all the confidence of a man who already knew he'd won. "You're absolutely dickmatized by my sister being a powerhouse."
Zuko didn't even bother looking at him. Another lazy sweep of Katara's hand sent a wall of water after Aang with enough force to splinter what remained of a dock, and despite every reasonable instinct screaming otherwise, he found himself smiling. "Like you don't get the same way when Suki kicks your ass."
Sokka opened his mouth with what looked like a devastating rebuttal already loaded, paused, then slowly clicked it shut again. He sighed through his nose, waved the point away like it physically pained him to concede it, and gave a reluctant nod.
"...Touché."
Another splash echoed across the harbor as Aang blasted himself free of one current only for two more to curl after him. Sokka pointed toward Katara before the latest wave had even finished crashing.
"Anyway. The Spirit's feeding off Katara's emotions, right? Every complaint she has, every old frustration, every little thing she's been quietly carrying around in that terrifying brain of hers..." He watched another current answer the smallest turn of her wrist. "...The Spirit hears it and decides she's absolutely right."
Zuko nodded slowly while Katara sent Aang pinwheeling through the air again. "...Go on."
"So, we stop giving her things to be righteous about." Sokka's grin returned with enough confidence that Zuko immediately distrusted it. "We annoy her."
Zuko finally tore his eyes away from Katara. "...Annoy her?"
"We annoy her so much she stops thinking about justice and starts thinking about throttling us." Sokka shrugged like volunteering to become live bait was the most ordinary thing in the world. "I'd bet my last piece of seal jerky that between the two of us we've got more than enough ammunition to make Katara forget all about cosmic balance for thirty seconds."
Another torrent of water chased Aang halfway across the harbor before curling back toward Katara as though disappointed it hadn't caught him. Zuko rubbed a hand down his face while watching the Ocean Spirit answer every subtle movement Katara made with unnerving patience.
"...I swear your genius doesn't just tapdance on the line of insanity. It camps there."
Sokka's grin only widened. "Glad you see the vision."
Before Zuko could question exactly whose vision involved antagonizing the most powerful waterbender on the planet while she was possessed by one of the oldest spirits in existence, Sokka cupped both hands around his mouth and started jogging down the beach.
"HEY, KATARA!"
Another wave ripped Aang out of the air before Katara turned her head just enough to acknowledge her brother. "What?!" she snapped without taking her eyes off the Avatar.
Sokka planted both hands on his hips, somehow managing to look so much like Katara that Zuko briefly wondered if Gran Gran had simply copied and pasted the family personality. "I'M GETTING IMPATIENT!"
Katara blinked and finally glanced his way. "...About what?"
"You've been dating Sparky over there for ten years!"
Another current caught Aang around the ankle before he could escape.
"So?"
"So, stop swallowing my future nieces and nephews and start making me an uncle already!"
For the first time since the Ocean Spirit had wrapped itself around her, Katara's attention snapped completely away from Aang. The current dragging him beneath the surface slackened just enough for him to burst back into the air, coughing violently as he sucked in a desperate breath.
"...WHAT?"
Sokka pointed triumphantly toward her. "Ten years! We're not getting any younger!"
Katara's face flushed the same instant the ocean around her rippled. "SOKKA!"
"What?!" Sokka threw both hands into the air. "It's a perfectly reasonable question!"
"I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING!"
The Ocean Spirit rumbled beneath Katara's voice with complete sincerity. "SHE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING!”
From somewhere high on the cliffs, Suki cupped both hands around her mouth. "You know..." Her voice carried cleanly across the harbor. "Sokka has a point! I'd love to see some golden-eyed little Water Tribe babies!"
Katara whipped around so fast the ribbons of water circling her shoulders sloshed sideways. "SUKI!"
"What?" Suki called back with a perfectly innocent shrug. "They'd be adorable!"
Beside her, Toph's grin spread so wide Zuko could see it even from the beach. She leaned out over the cliff, pointed enthusiastically in a direction that probably wasn't even close to him, and bellowed, "OH, WE'RE DOING THIS? YOU KNOW SHE'S TOO SCARED TO ACCEPT ANY OF SPARKY'S PROPOSALS!"
Every muscle in Zuko's body locked. The beach seemed to collectively remember he existed as heads slowly turned toward him, and even Aang paused long enough between dodging currents to glance over Katara's shoulder.
Above them, Toph jabbed triumphantly into the air. "HE'S PROPOSED 'UNOFFICIALLY' FIVE TIMES!"
"...Toph." Zuko dragged his hand across his face before looking up toward the cliffs. "...How do you know that?"
"I'm blind, not oblivious!" Toph shot back.
Katara's jaw dropped. "TOPH!"
"What?!" Toph planted both hands on her hips, completely unashamed. "You said no to the seashell! You said no to the turtleduck feather! You said no to the carved betrothal comb!"
"THOSE WEREN'T PROPOSALS!" Zuko shouted before he could stop himself. He threw both hands into the air in exasperation. "CAN'T A GUY JUST GIVE HIS GIRLFRIEND GIFTS?!"
Katara's face darkened another impossible shade of crimson, and the ocean answered with her. A wall of seawater roared up the beach so quickly Sokka barely managed to throw himself sideways before it swallowed the stretch of sand he'd been standing on, forcing Zuko to dive after him as the wave hammered into the cliffs hard enough to shake loose chunks of black volcanic rock.
Sand ground against Zuko's shoulder as he rolled onto his back. Beside him, Sokka shoved himself upright, spat a mouthful of seawater onto the beach, and pointed accusingly toward his sister.
"I don't think she's over it!"
"I gathered that!" Zuko snapped as another surge raced around his boots, forcing them both farther inland.
Katara stalked toward them with the Ocean Spirit gliding around her like living moonlight. Every step she took pulled another tide in behind her until seawater swallowed the black sand around her ankles, and when she pointed an accusing finger toward the pair of them, the ocean pointed with her.
"I cannot BELIEVE you two think this is an appropriate conversation!"
"We're family!" Sokka shouted while hopping over another wave that tried to yank his feet out from under him. He windmilled both arms to catch his balance before pointing right back at her. "This is exactly the kind of inappropriate conversation we have!"
Katara pointed an accusing finger at the pair of them, and the ocean pointed with her. "It is NOT!"
"It absolutely IS!" Sokka shouted back as another wall of water barreled toward them.
Zuko dropped low, exhaled a stream of fire through the center of the wave, and carved a steaming tunnel through the rushing water just long enough for him and Sokka to stumble through before it collapsed behind them with a deafening hiss.
The heat rolling off the steam gave him just enough cover to find Aang again. He'd lowered himself from his glider until both feet rested lightly against the water behind Katara, and when their eyes met across the harbor, Zuko answered with the smallest nod he could manage before another wave forced him to dive aside.
Keep coming.
Sokka hit the sand beside him with a grunt, rolled back onto his feet, and rounded on him like the previous thirty seconds had personally offended him. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T PROPOSED TO MY SISTER YET?!"
Zuko nearly lost his footing trying to dodge both Sokka and another incoming wave. "...WHAT?!"
"I LITERALLY HELPED YOU DIVE FOR PEARLS SO YOU COULD MAKE HER A FUCKING NECKLACE!"
The next wave climbed even higher than the last, forcing the two of them to split in opposite directions before it crashed between them and sprayed both with seawater.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO FIND DRAGON BONE TO CARVE A PENDANT?!" Zuko shouted as he vaulted over another surge on a jet of fire. He landed hard enough to skid several feet across the wet sand before another wave chased him back to his feet.
"BESIDES, WE GOT A LITTLE PREOCCUPIED BEFORE I COULD ASK!"
Sokka skidded to a stop. Another wave rushed between them, soaking him from the knees down, but he barely seemed to notice as he stared at Zuko with his mouth hanging open.
Sokka stopped dead. Another wave rushed between them, soaking him from the knees down, but he barely seemed to notice as he stared at Zuko with his mouth hanging open.
"...Before you could ask?" His brow furrowed for half a heartbeat before his eyes widened in horror. "...Wait. Hold on."
He jabbed an accusing finger toward Zuko. "THAT BETTER NOT BE SOME EUPHEMISM FOR BENDING MY BABY SISTER OVER THE DESK AND FUCKING HER POLAR-DOGGY STYLE!"
Zuko's stomach dropped so fast he nearly missed the next wave. He threw both hands into the air before Sokka could invent an even worse interpretation. "WHAT? NO!"
High above them, Toph snorted loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Besides, Snoozles..." She rested her chin on one fist with exaggerated thoughtfulness. "From what I can feel through the floor whenever we visit, they prefer the Agni Kai Wheel!"
Katara's head whipped toward the cliffs. "TOPH!"
Sokka blinked. "...Wait, what?"
Zuko buried his face in one hand. "Can everyone please stop helping?"
"YOU SAID YOU GOT PREOCCUPIED BEFORE YOU COULD ASK!" Sokka shouted over another surge as it crashed between them. “NOW I’M LEARNING IT’S BECAUSE OF SOME FIRE NATION SEX CRAZE CALLED THE AGNI KAI WHEEL!”
"MEANING WE GOT INTERRUPTED!” Zuko yelled back, exasperation finally getting the better of him. Another tide rolled over his boots as he threw an arm toward the ruined harbor. “THE APOCALYPSE, SOKKA!"
"WHICH ONE?!" Sokka demanded.
Zuko swept an exasperated hand across the harbor where burning ships drifted through the surf, half the docks had been reduced to floating splinters, and Katara was currently marching across the water while another wall of seawater gathered behind her.
"...That's fair."
Sokka let the answer hang for a heartbeat before turning toward his sister with the slow, dangerous grin before practically singing. "...Oh, Kataraaaaa."
Katara's eye twitched as another current curled impatiently around her ankles. "...Don't."
Sokka ignored the warning completely. "HE WAS GONNA PROPOSE."
"I said don't," Katara warned as the water circling her ankles tightened.
"HE HAD DINNER PLANNED."
"Sokka."
Sokka pointed accusingly toward the burning harbor behind her, where shattered ships still drifted through the surf. "THE SONS OF OZAI RUINED YOUR PROPOSAL, AND THEN YOU GOT POSSESSED BEFORE HE COULD TRY AGAIN!"
The words rang across the harbor louder than they had any right to. Zuko watched the ribbons of water circling Katara hesitate for the first time all night, and even the Ocean Spirit seemed to falter as she stared at her brother in stunned disbelief.
"...I what?" Katara asked.
Another wall of water erupted from the harbor, sending Zuko and Sokka diving behind the nearest boulder just before it exploded overhead. Water hammered against the stone hard enough to drench them anyway, raining back down in heavy sheets while they scrambled onto opposite sides of the rock.
"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" Sokka shouted around the boulder.
"MY FAULT?!" Zuko barked back.
"YOU'RE THIRTY!" Sokka jabbed a finger over the top of the rock. "THEN ACT LIKE IT!"
"I'M AWARE OF MY AGE!" Zuko shot back just as another impact shuddered through the stone. The top of the boulder sheared clean off with a deafening crack, forcing both of them to throw themselves clear before it crashed down where they'd been hiding.
By the time Zuko pushed himself back onto one knee, Katara had closed the distance. Moonlight shimmered across the water circling her ankles while another tide gathered behind her, and when she pointed toward the pair of them, the ocean surged with her. "I CANNOT BELIEVE WE ARE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS!"
Sokka backpedaled away from the incoming tide without taking his eyes off his sister. "We're only talking about it because YOU HAVEN'T SAID YES YET!"
"I NEVER GOT ASKED!" The words escaped Katara before she could stop them. She clamped her mouth shut so quickly Zuko almost missed it, and the currents circling her ankles slowed while the Ocean Spirit rumbled uncertainly beneath her voice. "...SHE... DID NOT."
Sokka slowly turned his head toward Zuko. "...Buddy."
Zuko already knew exactly where this was going. "...Don't…
"Well, you have approximately five seconds." Sokka looked from the growing wall of water behind Katara back to Zuko with all the urgency of a man who had fully accepted he was about to die. "Either propose, or she's going to drown us."
Zuko looked from the tidal wave...
...to Katara...
...then back to the tidal wave towering over both of them.
He let out a slow breath and started toward her. "...Katara."
Katara looked at him. The Ocean Spirit looked at him. Judging by the weight of the silence settling over the beach, everyone else seemed to be doing the same.
"I forgot all of it." Another step carried him close enough to see uncertainty beginning to creep into Katara's eyes. "So..."
He slipped a hand into the soaked inner pocket of his robe, and icy seawater closed around his fingers.
"...No."
His stomach lurched as he dug deeper, fumbling through drenched fabric until his fingertips finally brushed something solid. Relief washed through him so suddenly he nearly laughed before carefully drawing the necklace into the moonlight.
The pearl caught the light first. Nestled inside a cradle of polished dragon bone, it glowed with soft blues and silvers while carefully carved flames curled backward into stylized ocean waves around it. He'd ruined more pieces of dragon bone than he cared to admit before finally getting the carving right, sanding every edge smooth between council meetings, diplomatic dinners, and late nights buried beneath paperwork until he'd finally made something worthy of her.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth before he realized it had.
"...You're still here."
Katara's gaze dropped to the necklace, and the currents circling her ankles slowed until they barely disturbed the water.
"I..." Zuko rubbed his thumb across the polished dragon bone, feeling every tiny groove he'd carved by hand before a quiet laugh escaped him. "This wasn't supposed to happen on a beach."
A small wave rolled around his boots before slipping quietly back toward the harbor.
His fingers tightened around the necklace as he looked down at it again.
"There were supposed to be lanterns." Zuko shook his head with a crooked smile. "Music. A speech I'd rewritten so many times I could barely remember how the first version started."
"I spent six months carving this because nothing anyone else made ever felt right." His eyes finally lifted to hers before drifting back to the necklace resting across his palms. "I wanted to make you something that had both of us in it."
His thumb traced the polished dragon bone, following grooves he'd carved often enough to know by touch alone. "The dragon bone came from one of Druk's old shed horns." A faint flush crept into his cheeks as he huffed out a quiet laugh. "That... took considerably more negotiating than I expected."
The ruined harbor, the shattered docks, the seawater soaking through his boots, even the impossible patience of the ancient spirit waiting only a few feet away all blurred into the background as he looked back at her. "I dove for the pearl myself."
His smile turned sheepish.
"...Sokka insisted on helping."
"I SAVED YOUR LIFE TWICE!" Sokka shouted from somewhere behind him.
Before Zuko could answer, Sokka jabbed a thumb at his own chest. "You screamed after every clam!"
"THERE WERE EELS!" Zuko shot back over his shoulder before he could stop himself.
The laugh escaped anyway. He shook his head, looked back at Katara, and felt every speech he'd rehearsed over the last six months disappear somewhere between his heart and his mouth.
"So..." He swallowed around the sudden knot in his throat, tightened his grip on the necklace, and held it out to her once more. "This is, without question, the worst possible time I've ever chosen to do anything."
His smile softened as he finally met her eyes.
"...Katara... will you marry me?"
Katara didn't answer. She simply stared at him while the Ocean Spirit stared with her, and the harbor grew so still Zuko could no longer hear the surf against the shore. Her mouth slowly fell open before the corners of it began to tremble.
"...Yes, but—" Katara started.
"AANG?!" she yelped as a blur of orange and cream dropped out of the night sky.
He landed squarely across her back, one arm hooking around her shoulders while his free hand planted firmly against the center of her forehead. "I'm so, so sorry!" Aang shouted, squeezing his eyes shut as brilliant blue light engulfed them.
The Ocean Spirit's roar shook the harbor hard enough for Zuko to feel it in his ribs. Water erupted skyward in a towering column as the translucent form tore free from Katara's body and hung suspended above the harbor for one impossible heartbeat before crashing back into the sea in a curtain of moonlit spray.
Silence settled over the beach so completely Zuko could hear water dripping from the ends of his sleeves.
Katara blinked twice before slowly twisting around to look at the Avatar still clinging awkwardly to her back. "...Why are you on me?"
Aang offered her a helpless smile without letting go. "...Long story."
Katara's gaze drifted past him until it found Zuko again. Her eyes dropped to the necklace still resting in his hands before climbing slowly back to his face as every bit of color she'd lost moments ago came rushing back all at once.
"...Wait." She stared at him for another heartbeat, and when recognition finally settled in, her face turned the exact shade of a fire lily. "...Did you just propose?"
Zuko glanced down at the necklace before meeting her eyes again. "...I think so."
Katara didn't answer immediately. She studied him for another heartbeat before closing the distance between them one slow step at a time. Water sloshed quietly around her boots as she stopped just inside arm's reach, and without breaking eye contact she reached down to gently fold his fingers back around the necklace he'd been holding out to her. Her thumb brushed across his knuckles, lingering there for just a moment.
"...That wasn't fair."
Zuko blinked at her. "...What wasn't?"
"You ask me the biggest question of my life... only for some rebel group to interfere…" A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of Katara's mouth as she glanced toward Aang lingering several paces away looking profoundly guilty. "...and then you let an ancient spirit and the Avatar interrupt me."
A laugh escaped before Zuko could stop it. He rubbed sheepishly at the back of his neck with his free hand. "...In my defense... I really did try to schedule around both."
Katara snorted. "...Hopeless."
She slipped the necklace from his hands before he could protest and turned it over beneath the moonlight. Her thumb wandered across the polished dragon bone, following the carved flames as they curled into stylized waves around the pearl at its center. She looked back up at him, the smile she'd been trying so hard to suppress had finally won.
"...Now… ask me again?”