The Chase: Chapter 4
What?! Two chapters in one day? Well, not much was going on in these two, so I decided to put them together.
Title: The Chase
Characters: Zuko, Katara
Rating: This one might be T+. Zuko drops some f-bombs.
Summary: It didn't matter how much information Ozai was not willing to give up about Ursa, Zuko would find other ways. Three years later, he hoped that finally, maybe, this time, his search could end.
[at ff.net]
------------------
When they met Atem downstairs, she had the sealed letter on the table in front of her, as promised. Zuko and Katara ordered a light dinner, and another green tea for Atem. It was early evening, and they had little to occupy their time before meeting with Inara at their rendezvous point in the forest.
“Tell me,” Zuko began as soon as the waiter went away. “Had you really intended to kill us?”
"Nah. I was probably going to hand over the letter and take the guy’s money. Honestly? It wasn’t really enough to cover the down payment on my regular rates.”
“So why take it?” Katara asked.
Atem looked at Katara suspiciously before answering. “Sometimes I like to splurge.”
Katara let out a short laugh. “Now, there’s one I haven’t heard.”
Zuko pinched her leg under the table. It’s not as if Katara went cavorting around with bounty hunters, so she wouldn’t really know who used their money for what. In fact, the only bounty hunter she’d spent any amount of time with was Jun. He did tell her to look dangerous, though, and it was quite possible she was taking the role seriously.
“What did you do to me?” Atem said without introduction after their food and drinks had been delivered.
“I’m sorry about that,” Katara said, looking at her plate. “I shouldn’t have done that to you.”
"You must care for him deeply if you won’t even let another woman get near him,” Atem said with a smirk, assessing Katara.
“He’s my best friend, and this is a very important mission. For the both of us. And I’m not willing to risk the peace we’ve sacrificed so much for,” Katara said without missing a beat, and staring directly at Atem. She never flinched. “Without him sitting up there, this nation would descend into chaos, and bring the rest of the world with it. Not even the Avatar could probably help us, then.”
As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Katara was right. Sometimes it seemed like the only thing holding the world together was the six of them: Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, and Suki. For better or worse, Aang spent the most time playing peace keeper in the Earth Kingdom. Kuei had only returned to Ba Sing Se about a year ago, and once the veil was lifted after the war, there was no end to the people who were downright pissed at Kuei. First for being a puppet and allowing Long Feng to run their lives with an iron fist, then for running away like a petulant child and staying gone for two years.
The North was steadily retreating from the world, and Arnook was rarely seen outside of the yearly Peace Summit where they came to hash out their differences, reaffirm old treaties, make new ones, and decide which nation gets to govern which territory. The South was often too busy rebuilding, to get deeply involved in international intrigues, though Hakoda did his best not to disappear like Arnook seemed intent on doing. And the Fire Nation? Sometimes Zuko thought the only reason he hadn’t been mobbed was because he was friends with representatives from all the nations, and the Fire Nation managed remain the most powerful of the nations. Even though he was making reparations, all four leaders agreed it would be best to make them in yearly installments rather than risk devastating the world’s economy by having the Fire Nation go bankrupt.
“Pretty grim.”
“If you think so, you don’t get outside the Fire Nation much,” Zuko said, exasperated. “The world is sitting on our shoulders right now, and if we were so inclined, we could crush it in an instant.”
“I’ve got respect for the power you wield, trust me,” Atem said, leaning back in her chair and holding her hands up.
There were times, though, when Zuko would give it all up and go back to being a refugee in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se, working at the teashop with Uncle. He’d even endure the groping because, in many cases, that was far gentler than the beating he took at the hands of some council members.
“Are you going to read it?” Atem asked, nodding toward the letter.
“In private.”
Zuko could see the curiosity was getting to her.
“How is Jun? Haven’t seen her on the circuit lately.”
Zuko shrugged. “Are you asking personally or professionally?”
Atem snorted and sipped more of her tea. “Personally. We ran into each other often when we first started.”
“She’s fine. They’re on vacation.”
They sat in silence for a while, and Zuko looked around to see if those two men who recognized them were still there. He only saw one of the guys, but they weren’t being watched at the moment.
“Have you been hanging around here often?” Zuko asked, and when Atem nodded, he asked about bounty hunter activity in the area.
“There’ve been a lot more people than usual, but they’re not bounty hunters. Not flashy enough, going more for the stealth thing. They usually just sit and wait.”
“For what?” Katara asked.
Atem threw her hands up. “How the hell should I know? Those guys aren’t my type.”
Zuko nodded to the guy in the corner. “He look familiar?” His stomach sank when Atem nodded. “He knows who we are. He and one other were watching us last night. Or this morning. Whatever.”
“That one is most definitely not a bounty hunter,” Atem said. “Chances are, someone wants to keep tabs on you.”
“Ah, shit.” Zuko ran his hands through his hair, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “We can’t get a break, can we?”
“For hire?” Katara asked.
“I don’t think so. If he is, he’s not advertising himself here. Maybe he’s already been bought, but I doubt it. If you’re for hire, you get paid, and his gear looks pretty rough.”
Katara sighed. The sun was starting to set. “We should get going.”
“Just a heads up,” Zuko said casually as he and Katara were leaving. “Within the next few months, you may hear about a bounty for a young man named Gen. He could possibly be wanted for questioning. I hear he’s been stirring up trouble in small Fire Nation towns.”
Atem laughed. “I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”
“Consider it a repayment for the damage my friend did,” Zuko said, jabbing his thumb at Katara. He placed a gold coin on the table next to her. “For dinner and the information.” Atem raised her cup to him.
Back in their room, they checked through their gear one more time. They’d saved a little food, refilled their waterskins, and Katara managed to get her hands on a few medical supplies.
“It’s cute,” Katara said.
“What is?”
"Iroh and Jun.”
“You think that. I’ll try not to think about it at all.”
“Why? Don’t you want your uncle to be happy?”
Zuko crouched on the balls of his feet. “Do you know how we got passage to Ba Sing Se? He flirted with the ticket agent, took her to dinner that night, showed up late the next morning, and then we boarded the boat. Then he told me about it. When I said I didn’t want to hear it, he was all ‘lighten up, nephew,’ and ‘one day you’ll be begging me to tell you this stuff, nephew.’ Even when I was a kid, he’d flirt with any woman. I hear he even flirted with my mom on her wedding day.”
“Oh.”
“I’m glad that he and Jun are having fun,” Zuko said, standing up and stretching his legs. “It’s great for the both of them, and I wish them all the happiness I’ll never have, but I would prefer they keep intimate details of their relationship to themselves, and not think it’s the funniest joke in the world to tell me that shit.”
“You’ll be happy…”
“I’ll do my duty to my country, but there’s only one way I’ll be happy.”
Katara looked away, biting her lip. “You shouldn’t talk like that.”
“We shouldn’t be having this conversation.”
On Ember Island, they had known it would come to this, and they told themselves they were prepared. With the Fire Nation’s pride so wounded, there was no way they’d let their Fire Lord, especially one who came into power the way Zuko did, marry outside the Fire Nation. Spirits forbid she bend another element. That alone would have given half his council heart attacks. So they’d kept quiet, savored the few months they had together, then began seeing other people. They’d promised each other that they would actually try in those relationships; if they failed, it shouldn’t be because they were pining away for each other.
“You never want to have this conversation.”
“Because it always ends badly. I’m not willing to sacrifice you, too.”
“If we can get support-”
“The support we’ll get will be from those who want to push me toward conquest. The Fire Nation is the only one with a bender at the top, and-”
“Let them think that! Since when did you do what they demanded, anyway?” Katara was glaring at him with her arms crossed.
In the end, both of their relationships did fail, though for reasons having nothing to do with pining away and forbidden love. Once Zuko and Mai hit the one-year mark, everything began to change. Nobles and members of the court assumed that their reuniting was the same as an engagement, and began pushing the two toward stability, marriage, and an heir. In truth, they’d spent very little time together. Zuko was always busy sorting out Ozai’s mess and proclaiming him an illiterate bastard for his utter failure to manage the administrative side of running a country. When he tried to get Mai to help, she never wanted to be bothered. Zuko knew she hated court life, and it was unfair to push her further into it, but if they were going to be together, this would be the rest of her life.
That was probably what did it for him. He liked Mai. They were good friends, and had always been good friends. But she liked Zuko, she even liked Prince Zuko, but Fire Lord Zuko? She could never get used to him. Sometimes he would see her in the private gardens, sitting in complete silence, and she would be smiling, genuinely smiling. When he came to her dressed in the mantle and the crown, that smile dropped away. The only way he could get her to smile at him like that would be without the mantle and the crown and the attendants. She only genuinely smiled at him when they were isolated and they were just Mai and Zuko, not Fire Lord and his Lady Consort. Freedom was what she needed, and though it pained him, freedom was what he gave her.
And when they were single, Zuko and Katara were inevitably drawn back to each other.
“Hey. Where’d you go?”
Katara had her hand on his shoulder, looking concerned, anger momentarily forgotten. He shook his head and focused on the White Lotus letter, retrieving it from the dresser where he’d deposited it upon entering the room. Eventually, they would return to the issue of marriage. Zuko felt relatively confident that, given the right support, he could sell a marriage between fire and water to the nation. He just wasn’t sure where the right support would come from, or when it would even be available.
Carefully, he broke the seal on the letter, then began reading. Katara kept a respectful distance so he could read it alone. Zuko shifted from foot to foot as he read the letter twice, and then a third time.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“What is it? Bad news? Good?”
“She said she’d been holding this for weeks, but no one came.” Zuko burned the letter then sat down on the bed heavily, aggressively running his hands through his hair and cursing.
“Does that mean she was supposed to meet people here?”
“If it was this important, why couldn’t they just send it to me at the fucking palace?”
“Do you intend to tell me what the hell that letter said, or should I just start guessing?” Katara snapped, her hands on her hips.
“She was here,” Zuko said, silently pleading with the spirits to have pity on him. “Fuckin Agni, he held her here, and she was still here as of three weeks ago.”
“There’s still a chance,” Katara said running to him and dropping to her knees to take Zuko’s face in her hands. “There’s still a chance she’s here.”
“We’ve got to go in tonight.”
"No. We need to know-”
“There’s no more time for planning!” Zuko stepped over her and started pacing.
“You need to calm down. Zuko, we can’t afford to make any mistakes right now. You need to be calm, and rational, and on your toes. We’ve got company, remember. You don’t want to lead them to her. What if they’re dangerous.”
“Who’d want to hurt her other than Ozai?” he asked. Katara had no answer.
Zuko paced, cursing and pulling at his hair. Katara lunged for him a few times, narrowly missing as he moved out of her reach, then finally throwing her arms around him from behind.
“I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth if that’s what it takes. But we’ll find her.”
“I’m nervous.”
“It’ll go fine.”
“No. About seeing her again.”
Katara rested her forehead against his back. “She’s your mother. She’ll love you.”
“He’s my father. He’s supposed to love me.”
“But she always did.”
Zuko allowed himself a small smile. “We’ve got some time before we have to leave. Meditate with me?”
“Of course.”
As the sun fully descended under the horizon, Zuko and Katara meditated. Zuko tried to rearrange his thoughts. The bad stuff he kept locked away in the back of his mind, as Lieutenant Jee taught him. With each flashback, that door came open, and bad memories flooded him. Zuko focused now on pushing everything back in its proper place. He emptied his mind and body of the anxiety and the fear of meeting her, and the anger of getting the letter so late. Katara was right-there was still a chance. The news did lift one burden from him: he knew that she wasn’t always staying away against her will. Ozai was still after her, and she was still running so she could stay safe.
When Zuko felt the last pull of the sun disappear, he opened his eyes. Katara was watching him and smiling. It was infectious. He smiled, too.
“How long have you been a creepy stalker and watched me meditate?”
“You looked so peaceful.”
They were sitting so that their knees touched, and Katara reached up to touch his scar. Zuko leaned into her touch, still smiling because she was still smiling. Gently, she pulled his face toward her, and she kissed the scar. He could barely feel her lips, but it was the gesture that always mattered between them, never the sensation.
“Come on,” she said. “It’s time to go.”
As they passed the front desk, Zuko told the old woman that he would talk to Hau about the agreement they had, and urge him to keep his side of the bargain if indeed there was a breeched contract. When she questioned how a bounty hunter could make the Fire Lord’s Chief of Staff do anything, Zuko only laughed.
“Hau holds me in the highest regard, I assure you.”
When she went to protest again, Gen shushed his mother, saying that Zuko’s word was good. For Gen, all Zuko had was his That’s Wrong and You Know It, Toph stare. It worked on the blind and the sighted alike. He gave the parlor one last look, and for better or worse, their little stalker was gone.
When they were outside, Katara gave him a playful push. “You like doing this way too much.”
“If I had to change careers, I know what I’d be.”
Title: The Chase
Characters: Zuko, Katara
Rating: This one might be T+. Zuko drops some f-bombs.
Summary: It didn't matter how much information Ozai was not willing to give up about Ursa, Zuko would find other ways. Three years later, he hoped that finally, maybe, this time, his search could end.
[at ff.net]
------------------
When they met Atem downstairs, she had the sealed letter on the table in front of her, as promised. Zuko and Katara ordered a light dinner, and another green tea for Atem. It was early evening, and they had little to occupy their time before meeting with Inara at their rendezvous point in the forest.
“Tell me,” Zuko began as soon as the waiter went away. “Had you really intended to kill us?”
"Nah. I was probably going to hand over the letter and take the guy’s money. Honestly? It wasn’t really enough to cover the down payment on my regular rates.”
“So why take it?” Katara asked.
Atem looked at Katara suspiciously before answering. “Sometimes I like to splurge.”
Katara let out a short laugh. “Now, there’s one I haven’t heard.”
Zuko pinched her leg under the table. It’s not as if Katara went cavorting around with bounty hunters, so she wouldn’t really know who used their money for what. In fact, the only bounty hunter she’d spent any amount of time with was Jun. He did tell her to look dangerous, though, and it was quite possible she was taking the role seriously.
“What did you do to me?” Atem said without introduction after their food and drinks had been delivered.
“I’m sorry about that,” Katara said, looking at her plate. “I shouldn’t have done that to you.”
"You must care for him deeply if you won’t even let another woman get near him,” Atem said with a smirk, assessing Katara.
“He’s my best friend, and this is a very important mission. For the both of us. And I’m not willing to risk the peace we’ve sacrificed so much for,” Katara said without missing a beat, and staring directly at Atem. She never flinched. “Without him sitting up there, this nation would descend into chaos, and bring the rest of the world with it. Not even the Avatar could probably help us, then.”
As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Katara was right. Sometimes it seemed like the only thing holding the world together was the six of them: Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, and Suki. For better or worse, Aang spent the most time playing peace keeper in the Earth Kingdom. Kuei had only returned to Ba Sing Se about a year ago, and once the veil was lifted after the war, there was no end to the people who were downright pissed at Kuei. First for being a puppet and allowing Long Feng to run their lives with an iron fist, then for running away like a petulant child and staying gone for two years.
The North was steadily retreating from the world, and Arnook was rarely seen outside of the yearly Peace Summit where they came to hash out their differences, reaffirm old treaties, make new ones, and decide which nation gets to govern which territory. The South was often too busy rebuilding, to get deeply involved in international intrigues, though Hakoda did his best not to disappear like Arnook seemed intent on doing. And the Fire Nation? Sometimes Zuko thought the only reason he hadn’t been mobbed was because he was friends with representatives from all the nations, and the Fire Nation managed remain the most powerful of the nations. Even though he was making reparations, all four leaders agreed it would be best to make them in yearly installments rather than risk devastating the world’s economy by having the Fire Nation go bankrupt.
“Pretty grim.”
“If you think so, you don’t get outside the Fire Nation much,” Zuko said, exasperated. “The world is sitting on our shoulders right now, and if we were so inclined, we could crush it in an instant.”
“I’ve got respect for the power you wield, trust me,” Atem said, leaning back in her chair and holding her hands up.
There were times, though, when Zuko would give it all up and go back to being a refugee in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se, working at the teashop with Uncle. He’d even endure the groping because, in many cases, that was far gentler than the beating he took at the hands of some council members.
“Are you going to read it?” Atem asked, nodding toward the letter.
“In private.”
Zuko could see the curiosity was getting to her.
“How is Jun? Haven’t seen her on the circuit lately.”
Zuko shrugged. “Are you asking personally or professionally?”
Atem snorted and sipped more of her tea. “Personally. We ran into each other often when we first started.”
“She’s fine. They’re on vacation.”
They sat in silence for a while, and Zuko looked around to see if those two men who recognized them were still there. He only saw one of the guys, but they weren’t being watched at the moment.
“Have you been hanging around here often?” Zuko asked, and when Atem nodded, he asked about bounty hunter activity in the area.
“There’ve been a lot more people than usual, but they’re not bounty hunters. Not flashy enough, going more for the stealth thing. They usually just sit and wait.”
“For what?” Katara asked.
Atem threw her hands up. “How the hell should I know? Those guys aren’t my type.”
Zuko nodded to the guy in the corner. “He look familiar?” His stomach sank when Atem nodded. “He knows who we are. He and one other were watching us last night. Or this morning. Whatever.”
“That one is most definitely not a bounty hunter,” Atem said. “Chances are, someone wants to keep tabs on you.”
“Ah, shit.” Zuko ran his hands through his hair, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “We can’t get a break, can we?”
“For hire?” Katara asked.
“I don’t think so. If he is, he’s not advertising himself here. Maybe he’s already been bought, but I doubt it. If you’re for hire, you get paid, and his gear looks pretty rough.”
Katara sighed. The sun was starting to set. “We should get going.”
“Just a heads up,” Zuko said casually as he and Katara were leaving. “Within the next few months, you may hear about a bounty for a young man named Gen. He could possibly be wanted for questioning. I hear he’s been stirring up trouble in small Fire Nation towns.”
Atem laughed. “I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”
“Consider it a repayment for the damage my friend did,” Zuko said, jabbing his thumb at Katara. He placed a gold coin on the table next to her. “For dinner and the information.” Atem raised her cup to him.
Back in their room, they checked through their gear one more time. They’d saved a little food, refilled their waterskins, and Katara managed to get her hands on a few medical supplies.
“It’s cute,” Katara said.
“What is?”
"Iroh and Jun.”
“You think that. I’ll try not to think about it at all.”
“Why? Don’t you want your uncle to be happy?”
Zuko crouched on the balls of his feet. “Do you know how we got passage to Ba Sing Se? He flirted with the ticket agent, took her to dinner that night, showed up late the next morning, and then we boarded the boat. Then he told me about it. When I said I didn’t want to hear it, he was all ‘lighten up, nephew,’ and ‘one day you’ll be begging me to tell you this stuff, nephew.’ Even when I was a kid, he’d flirt with any woman. I hear he even flirted with my mom on her wedding day.”
“Oh.”
“I’m glad that he and Jun are having fun,” Zuko said, standing up and stretching his legs. “It’s great for the both of them, and I wish them all the happiness I’ll never have, but I would prefer they keep intimate details of their relationship to themselves, and not think it’s the funniest joke in the world to tell me that shit.”
“You’ll be happy…”
“I’ll do my duty to my country, but there’s only one way I’ll be happy.”
Katara looked away, biting her lip. “You shouldn’t talk like that.”
“We shouldn’t be having this conversation.”
On Ember Island, they had known it would come to this, and they told themselves they were prepared. With the Fire Nation’s pride so wounded, there was no way they’d let their Fire Lord, especially one who came into power the way Zuko did, marry outside the Fire Nation. Spirits forbid she bend another element. That alone would have given half his council heart attacks. So they’d kept quiet, savored the few months they had together, then began seeing other people. They’d promised each other that they would actually try in those relationships; if they failed, it shouldn’t be because they were pining away for each other.
“You never want to have this conversation.”
“Because it always ends badly. I’m not willing to sacrifice you, too.”
“If we can get support-”
“The support we’ll get will be from those who want to push me toward conquest. The Fire Nation is the only one with a bender at the top, and-”
“Let them think that! Since when did you do what they demanded, anyway?” Katara was glaring at him with her arms crossed.
In the end, both of their relationships did fail, though for reasons having nothing to do with pining away and forbidden love. Once Zuko and Mai hit the one-year mark, everything began to change. Nobles and members of the court assumed that their reuniting was the same as an engagement, and began pushing the two toward stability, marriage, and an heir. In truth, they’d spent very little time together. Zuko was always busy sorting out Ozai’s mess and proclaiming him an illiterate bastard for his utter failure to manage the administrative side of running a country. When he tried to get Mai to help, she never wanted to be bothered. Zuko knew she hated court life, and it was unfair to push her further into it, but if they were going to be together, this would be the rest of her life.
That was probably what did it for him. He liked Mai. They were good friends, and had always been good friends. But she liked Zuko, she even liked Prince Zuko, but Fire Lord Zuko? She could never get used to him. Sometimes he would see her in the private gardens, sitting in complete silence, and she would be smiling, genuinely smiling. When he came to her dressed in the mantle and the crown, that smile dropped away. The only way he could get her to smile at him like that would be without the mantle and the crown and the attendants. She only genuinely smiled at him when they were isolated and they were just Mai and Zuko, not Fire Lord and his Lady Consort. Freedom was what she needed, and though it pained him, freedom was what he gave her.
And when they were single, Zuko and Katara were inevitably drawn back to each other.
“Hey. Where’d you go?”
Katara had her hand on his shoulder, looking concerned, anger momentarily forgotten. He shook his head and focused on the White Lotus letter, retrieving it from the dresser where he’d deposited it upon entering the room. Eventually, they would return to the issue of marriage. Zuko felt relatively confident that, given the right support, he could sell a marriage between fire and water to the nation. He just wasn’t sure where the right support would come from, or when it would even be available.
Carefully, he broke the seal on the letter, then began reading. Katara kept a respectful distance so he could read it alone. Zuko shifted from foot to foot as he read the letter twice, and then a third time.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“What is it? Bad news? Good?”
“She said she’d been holding this for weeks, but no one came.” Zuko burned the letter then sat down on the bed heavily, aggressively running his hands through his hair and cursing.
“Does that mean she was supposed to meet people here?”
“If it was this important, why couldn’t they just send it to me at the fucking palace?”
“Do you intend to tell me what the hell that letter said, or should I just start guessing?” Katara snapped, her hands on her hips.
“She was here,” Zuko said, silently pleading with the spirits to have pity on him. “Fuckin Agni, he held her here, and she was still here as of three weeks ago.”
“There’s still a chance,” Katara said running to him and dropping to her knees to take Zuko’s face in her hands. “There’s still a chance she’s here.”
“We’ve got to go in tonight.”
"No. We need to know-”
“There’s no more time for planning!” Zuko stepped over her and started pacing.
“You need to calm down. Zuko, we can’t afford to make any mistakes right now. You need to be calm, and rational, and on your toes. We’ve got company, remember. You don’t want to lead them to her. What if they’re dangerous.”
“Who’d want to hurt her other than Ozai?” he asked. Katara had no answer.
Zuko paced, cursing and pulling at his hair. Katara lunged for him a few times, narrowly missing as he moved out of her reach, then finally throwing her arms around him from behind.
“I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth if that’s what it takes. But we’ll find her.”
“I’m nervous.”
“It’ll go fine.”
“No. About seeing her again.”
Katara rested her forehead against his back. “She’s your mother. She’ll love you.”
“He’s my father. He’s supposed to love me.”
“But she always did.”
Zuko allowed himself a small smile. “We’ve got some time before we have to leave. Meditate with me?”
“Of course.”
As the sun fully descended under the horizon, Zuko and Katara meditated. Zuko tried to rearrange his thoughts. The bad stuff he kept locked away in the back of his mind, as Lieutenant Jee taught him. With each flashback, that door came open, and bad memories flooded him. Zuko focused now on pushing everything back in its proper place. He emptied his mind and body of the anxiety and the fear of meeting her, and the anger of getting the letter so late. Katara was right-there was still a chance. The news did lift one burden from him: he knew that she wasn’t always staying away against her will. Ozai was still after her, and she was still running so she could stay safe.
When Zuko felt the last pull of the sun disappear, he opened his eyes. Katara was watching him and smiling. It was infectious. He smiled, too.
“How long have you been a creepy stalker and watched me meditate?”
“You looked so peaceful.”
They were sitting so that their knees touched, and Katara reached up to touch his scar. Zuko leaned into her touch, still smiling because she was still smiling. Gently, she pulled his face toward her, and she kissed the scar. He could barely feel her lips, but it was the gesture that always mattered between them, never the sensation.
“Come on,” she said. “It’s time to go.”
As they passed the front desk, Zuko told the old woman that he would talk to Hau about the agreement they had, and urge him to keep his side of the bargain if indeed there was a breeched contract. When she questioned how a bounty hunter could make the Fire Lord’s Chief of Staff do anything, Zuko only laughed.
“Hau holds me in the highest regard, I assure you.”
When she went to protest again, Gen shushed his mother, saying that Zuko’s word was good. For Gen, all Zuko had was his That’s Wrong and You Know It, Toph stare. It worked on the blind and the sighted alike. He gave the parlor one last look, and for better or worse, their little stalker was gone.
When they were outside, Katara gave him a playful push. “You like doing this way too much.”
“If I had to change careers, I know what I’d be.”