Chapter Text
Aang didn’t know what to think of Azula anymore. There were moments when she acted like a totally normal teenager, one that wasn’t thinking about plunging her hand into his chest and ripping out his still beating heart. And then there were moments when she looked at him like that was still an option. But in the moments that she was stable, she was actually really nice. Unsure of herself, but nice. He’d counted how many genuine smiles he’d seen from her and it came up to the stunning number of six. Six smiles. And after she’d given them, her face would falter and she’d wiggle her jaw around, as though the smile had felt weird to her muscles.
He sighed and leaned back on Appa. When she would have a decent conversation with him (which wasn’t often-- most of the time she just brooded in the saddle), he had to be so careful not to say anything that might bring up her walls again. And then eventually he’d say something wrong and she’d close off and he’d feel like slamming the palm of his hand into his forehead, peeved with himself for messing up the progress. But he had to be careful not to do even that, because he was trying to be a good role model, and that would not be a good habit to pass on. He knew where he’d gotten the habit -- Sokka was always doing stuff like that, and so he knew how contagious it was. He had to be so careful.
But she was making progress, he reminded himself. Three chakras open and flowing. The guilt chakra had been the easiest-- maybe she just didn’t have that much guilt, or maybe it was just pure coincidence. Or maybe it was how easily and quickly he’d forgiven her. And shame had been the hardest. In fact, he still wasn’t sure that the shame chakra was open. He’d tried, but even the slightest misstep now could close it right back up again. Actually, it was good that they were going on this one on one field trip right now, because contact with any other members of Team Avatar at the current moment could mess everything up. As much as Aang loved Katara, she could be a little unforgiving and stubborn sometimes-- well, it wasn’t that she was unforgiving, more that she wasn’t nearly as quick to trust as Aang was. She’d be horrified if she knew how much Aang had (intentionally) let down his guard around Azula. And she definitely would be super suspicious and very closed off around Azula, which would be unhealthy for both of them at the current moment.
Sokka on the other hand, would be making a whole ton of terrible jokes and sarcastic comments that Azula most likely wouldn’t get and would be very offended or hurt by, which again, would be a bad idea.
Zuko… just no. Contact with Zuko would be probably the worst thing for Azula right now. And Iroh wouldn’t be any better, because although Iroh would handle the situation better than Zuko, Azula clearly didn’t trust him at all. Too many bad memories.
Toph… actually, Toph would be the only one of the whole group, except maybe Suki, who would be fine around Azula. Meaning, she’d be a total jerk, but since she was like that with everyone, it would be fine. And Toph would probably be the fastest to forgive Azula as well.
Suki would be hard. She was good at acting, so she had that going for her, but Suki was a suspicious person in general, and held everyone at a distance until she really knew she could trust them. And seeing as Azula had already earned Suki’s hate a hundred times over… not good.
Aang sighed again. Thinking about his friends was painful. He didn’t know where they were, or what was going on with them, and it was a constant source of stress for him even in normal circumstances, so now… Shaking his head to keep his imagination at bay (he’d gotten into the habit lately of imagining all the horrible things the Dai Li could be doing to his friends, and the last one had nearly sent him into the Avatar State, thus the early morning meditation), he popped his head up over the saddle edge. Azula was awake, but she was slumped over, head resting on her arms, looking exceptionally bored.
“You look bored,” he observed.
She shot him a look that clearly said that she was, indeed, very bored, and didn’t appreciate him pointing it out.
“I’m bored too,” he added.
Not the slightest change in expression from Azula.
“I wish we had a portable Pai Sho set so I could be crushing you at it right now,” he tried again, a smile playing around his lips.
The corner of Azula’s lip twitched and she forced it back down, looking annoyed. “I’m not so sure you’d be crushing me,” she said haughtily.
“True, true,” he conceded, holding up his hands, palms out to show his defeat. “By some miracle you might beat me.” He grinned wickedly. “But only if I didn’t cheat first.”
Azula took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, clearly trying not to smile. She artfully changed the subject. “What did you do up here when you were traveling around the world with the Water Tribe peasants?”
Aang’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance. She kept calling them that. He suspected it was a force of habit now, although at the beginning she had clearly meant it. Choosing to pretend he didn’t hear it, he answered, “Oh, it was boring then too. It’s always pretty boring.” He folded his arms on the edge of the saddle and rested his head on them. “But we would talk and Sokka would make bad jokes and Katara would mock him for it. And when Toph came, things got really fun because she doesn’t care who she’s making fun of, so she just made fun of all of us the whole time. We got to know each other really well up here. Most of our bonding time happened on Appa. And we had Momo up here with us too, and he’s just a furry bundle of chaos with two really big ears, so that was always exciting. And we had you and Zhao and Zuko chasing us around so that was always cause for some excitement. Whenever things got boring, there would be an unexpected fireball flying at us and things would get really crazy really quickly. And I guess there was always more training to do. I did a lot of my waterbending training up here.”
“So…” Azula’s eyebrows furrowed. “You just talked?”
Aang shrugged. “Yep.”
“Well then.” She straightened up and crossed her legs out in front of her, looking at him expectantly. “What would you like to talk about?”
Aang smiled. She must have been really bored to be actually starting a conversation with him. “You know to have a conversation I’m going to have to ask you questions and you’re going to have to answer them,” he warned her.
She gave him an annoyed look. “Yes, of course I know that.”
“Okay.” He shifted so his head was propped up by one hand, one elbow resting on the edge of the saddle. “What do you like to do for fun?” Passions. Always a good starting point.
Azula’s eyebrows creased together. “Firebending?” she said, stating it like a question and giving him an uncertain look. “I don’t know. There wasn’t a lot of… fun. Growing up.” She looked nervous all of a sudden, as though she thought Aang was going to judge her. He forced his expression to stay completely open, although he was dying to get more information on this.
“Did you play any games with--” he cut himself off before saying Zuko, and quickly changed to-- “Mai and Ty Lee?”
Azula frowned. “Tag. And Ty Lee liked to show us how to do weird acrobatics things. And whatever board games we could find laying around.” Her frown deepened. “But there wasn’t a lot of time for that, and it was… frowned upon.”
Aang couldn’t imagine growing up without a steady stream of fun and messing around. He still liked messing around, and he wasn’t even a little kid anymore. A lot about Azula suddenly made sense to him. She took everything seriously because she didn’t know any better. She didn’t play games or laugh openly because her entire life that wasn’t something she was allowed to do. He had to stop himself from looking sad for her, because he was starting to realize that Azula didn’t like that either.
“Now you ask me a question,” he said, deciding a subject change was a good idea. “That’s fair.”
Azula pursed her lips together, hesitating. “What do I ask you about?”
He shrugged. “Anything. And I’ll answer it truthfully. What do you want to know about me?”
She shifted a little, clearly trying to think of what she wanted to ask him. Finally, she asked, “Which… which element is your favorite? To bend.”
Aang drew back a little in surprise. He’d been expecting something a little more manipulative, something that she’d want to know about Zuko, or her dad, or palace life or something political, not his personal preferences on bending. “Air,” he answered quickly. “Birth elements are usually the favorite of the Avatar. Then after that…” he thought about it for a second. It was between Earth and Water after that-- Fire was too destructive, too dangerous. He liked Earth because it was reliable and straightforward. He told it what to do, and it did it, no questions asked. But he liked Water because it was calm, and soothing. It healed and was slow and thoughtful. He looked back at Azula and saw her giving him an inquisitive look, head tipped to the side.
“Sorry,” he breathed out in a laugh. “I’m trying to decide between earthbending and waterbending. I think…” he considered for one more second. “I think Earth,” he said finally. “But it’s hard.” He laughed again, shaking his head. “Then Water, then Fire.”
“Fire last?” she asked, looking confused and somewhat affronted.
Aang nodded. “I don’t like how easy it is to burn people with fire. It’s too easy to hurt them.”
Azula brushed this off. “Proper breath control will fix that.”
Aang’s eyebrow popped up. He hadn’t expected Azula to understand where he was coming from with this-- in fact he’d expected her to argue. And he certainly hadn’t expected her to come back with advice. “Wait, what do you mean proper breath control?” he asked, launching himself into the saddle and sitting cross legged in the front of it. “Am I doing it wrong?”
She sighed, obviously a little put out by the amateur in front of her. “Well, if you have proper breath control, you’ll be able to control it better. You’ll be able to control it to the point that you could have fire snaking all the way up your body, and you wouldn’t be burned.”
His eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yes.” She clearly didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
“Well, good to know, thanks,” Aang said, picking up on this. “My turn?”
Azula nodded shortly.
Aang was trying to keep his questions light and easy, trying not to hit on anything that might trigger a manic spell. But it was hard, harder than he expected it to be. Everything could be a potential trigger. Eventually he gave up and just asked, “Do you have a favorite food?”
Her eyebrows came together again, and Aang started to regret the question. Favorite food was hard, because there were so many foods to choose from. “Well, let’s narrow it down,” he said, trying to help out. “Favorite thing to eat for breakfast.”
She looked out at the clouds to her right, thinking. “I like having fish for breakfast,” she said slowly after a long time of thought. “And rice.”
Aang jumped on this, relieved to have an answer. “I love rice so much. I think rice might be my favorite food.”
Azula looked startled by this answer, startled to have something in common with him. “Rice is… good,” she said. Then she winced. Aang suddenly felt reminded of Zuko and he had to force himself not to smile. The two of them, Azula and Zuko, were so awkward when their anger was stripped away. When they weren’t angry, they just looked lost and it was… cute. There was no other word for it.
“Rice is good,” Aang agreed, head bobbing up and down. “Okay, your turn.”
Azula paused, pursing her lips together. Aang could tell she had a question in mind, but she wasn’t sure of how to phrase it, so he sat still and patiently waited for her to figure it out. Finally she said hesitantly, “Tell me about this… Gyatso person.”
Both of Aang's eyebrows shot straight up. Another unexpected question from Azula. Very unexpected. She was curious about him on a more personal level now, rather than just on the acquaintance/enemy level, and it was new, and interesting. “Gyatso…” Aang said slowly. “Well, he taught me airbending. He taught me pretty much everything I knew before I got frozen in the iceberg. He was like a mentor to me.” Aang’s eyebrows furrowed together again. “I guess you could say he was like family. I guess… Air Nomads didn’t really have parents, but Gyatso was the closest thing to a father I ever had.” His eyebrows creased further. “I’m not really sure how that works.” He laughed a little. “I’ll probably be a terrible dad when Katara and I have kids because I have no idea how that’s supposed to work.”
It took him a second to realize what he said and then he immediately turned beet red. “I mean if!” he exclaimed, trying to backtrack, waving his hands defensively out in front of him. “ If Katara and I have kids. Because we’re definitely not-- we haven’t-- we haven’t even had… I mean, we’re not even married yet-- I mean, if we’re even going to be married-- which, I mean, I want to get married with her, don’t get me wrong but-- we haven’t talked about kids or-- oh spirits.” He buried his head in his arms, face burning. He was digging a hole for himself to die in at breakneck speed. “I’m just going to stop talking,” he mumbled, head still buried in his arms.
He kept his head hidden behind his arms, miserably wishing he could just disappear off the face of the earth, when he heard a strange sound coming from Azula. He lifted his head just a little to see what was happening, and then drew it slowly out further, staring at her in awe.
Because she was laughing. It wasn’t full, clear laughter-- she was definitely trying to contain it, but it wasn’t maniacal ‘I can’t wait to get my hands around your throat’ laughter either. And it was actually… nice. It was almost completely silent, all shaking shoulders, but every once in a while a little giggling sound would come out, only to be stifled quickly, making it sound kind of like she was humming at a high pitch at weird intervals. Her lips were twisted up but tightly pursed closed, and the corners of her eyes were all crinkled up. She was actually, genuinely laughing.
When she saw him looking curiously at her, she tried to cover her face, and her laughter, with her hand. But Aang had seen it, and there was no going back now. He gave a little chuckle, still amazed that Azula even had the capacity to laugh, even if she was clearly doing it at him.
“Sorry,” she gasped. She took a deep, steadying breath. “I’m sorry,” she said, composed again. “I shouldn’t have laughed.”
Aang shook his head, still staring. “No, no, it’s okay. I mean, I wasn’t trying to be funny but I’m glad you found it… funny. And laughed.” He shook his head again, a small smile drifting across his lips. The Azula he had just seen, the one who laughed and smiled and was able to see the humor in a situation… that was the Azula that Aang wanted to save. That was the reason he was doing this.
“My turn?” he asked, smiling welcomingly at her.
She nodded, back to being completely stoic. But Aang knew now that there was a happy, playful Azula somewhere in there still, and he wasn’t going to forget anytime soon. He was going to bring that Azula to light over and over until she embraced the happier side of her personality, the side she’d managed to keep untainted by her crazy family. And then Azula would be better. Easier to talk to, at the very least.
And Aang was determined.
It took them all day to get to the Southern Water Tribe.
When they did get to the South Pole, it was dusk, and Azula and Aang were both in a torpor. They’d talked for nearly four hours that morning, then they’d eaten lunch, and then they’d talked for another hour, and then Aang, exhausted from his attempts to get Azula to smile, had collapsed back down onto Appa’s head and had lain there in a state of mindless consciousness for a good two hours.
He’d gotten a total of eleven real smiles out of Azula. Five hours of work, for eleven smiles. He wasn’t really sure if that was a fair trade.
When he saw the ice caps of the South Pole approaching, he perked right back up again. There was about to be excitement again. Sneaking around was fun. Sneaking around places he knew like the back of his hand was the most fun, because it came with a certain amount of confidence. It removed the terror of being caught and replaced it with sheer excitement over the fact that he was breaking rules and no one would ever know.
He landed Appa about a mile away from the village, which was more like a town now, with all the renovations they were doing. It was a huge source of pride for Sokka, the progress of the Southern Water Tribe. And, even more amazing was the fact that the Southern Water Tribe had progressed and reformed itself almost single handedly. The Northern Water Tribe had helped a little, but mostly the Southern Water Tribe had handled itself.
Katara, on the other hand, was a little unsure. She shared Aang’s view that too much progress too quickly could cause more harm than good, destroying old, important traditions in the process of making new things. Which was fine when done in moderation. But sometimes Katara (and Aang) worried that the people of this world, this new world beyond the war, were forgetting the important parts of their culture in order to have the newest, fanciest item installed.
But that was beside the point for the moment. Aang brushed these thoughts out of his mind and hopped down from Appa, landing lightly in the snow.
“This is not a village,” Azula told him, poking her head out over the edge of the saddle and looking out at the expanse of snowy flatness around them.
Aang laughed. “No, it’s not. We’re about two kilometers away. We’re going to walk into the village so we can hopefully be incognito.”
Azula blinked at him, looking at him like she’d never seen someone so stupid. “ You can’t be incognito,” she said finally. “You have a literal arrow pointing out who you are. It’s like a giant target.”
“Ahh,” Aang said sagely. “You underestimate my skill here. Don’t worry, we’ll be in and out and no one will even notice.”
Azula gave him an incredulous look, then shrugged and slid down Appa’s side to the ground. “I’m just going to enjoy watching all your hopes and dreams get crushed here, Airbender.”
Aang grinned, feeling pretty sure that she was joking. “You will be sorely disappointed,” he informed her, turning and looking for a good patch of ice to waterbend away. He found one in a moment and pulled out a long stream of water, making a tunnel into the ice.
“You can’t be serious,” Azula said flatly.
“Better grab a cloak from the back,” Aang said, still grinning. “It’s about to get really cold, really fast.”
Azula ran back to Appa and pulled out a long green cloak. She followed Aang into the tunnel, pulling it over herself. “I hate you so much,” she said as Aang closed the tunnel behind them, plunging them into darkness.
“I could use a light,” he said in response.
There was a heavy sigh from behind him and a moment later the ice tunnel filled with orange light.
“Thanks!” Aang said brightly, waterbending away the ice in front of them.
He’d snuck into the Southern Water Tribe enough times that he actually had a tunnel pre-built somewhere around here. He held up a hand for Azula to stop, and performed an earthbending move to jam his fingers into the ice, eyes closed. He could feel a vacancy a little to the right, and he pulled away the ice in that direction. Sure enough, the tunnel opened up into a wider, longer tunnel that led straight to the Southern Water Tribe, and ended directly under Sokka’s house.
“Why,” Azula said, sounding annoyed, “is there a tunnel already here?”
“Well, being the Avatar has some perks,” Aang said, walking down into the tunnel, followed by Azula, “and it also has some… less happy things. Like all the publicity. So if I want to visit Katara or Sokka without all the… hullabaloo… I use this tunnel. Katara made it.” Aang felt his heart warm as he thought about Katara. She was so thoughtful and such a good bender.
Azula was silent. Aang imagined that she understood, being royalty, the necessity of secret passages.
“And how long is this tunnel?” she asked when they’d been walking for about four minutes.
“A kilometer and a half,” Aang said, ignoring the displeasure in her tone. “We’ll be there in like fifteen minutes.”
He was pretty sure he heard Azula swear under her breath, and he smiled quietly to himself. Not because she was so obviously chagrined-- not like some vindictive pleasure, but because her anger seemed to make her more… human. She was acting like an actual person. And he appreciated that.
It took them all of fifteen minutes to make it to the end of the tunnel. Aang paused under the trapdoor that led up to Katara’s house and motioned up to it for Azula. “So, here’s the deal,” he whispered. “No one should be home, but I’m not sure where exactly Hakoda is so we might run into him. We’re just making a quick pit stop for some changes of clothes and to look to see if the Dai Li left us any little gifts. But be really quiet and try to stay away from the front door, okay?”
“Are we staying the night?”
Aang shook his head. As much as he wanted to stay in the house, he knew it wasn’t a good idea. It would be too easy for them to be caught. Going to the house with Azula was in and of itself a huge risk, not only because it was Azula, but also because the Dai Li were probably keeping careful watch over the house and people’s comings and goings from it. And also he was hoping to not be seen by anyone from the Water Tribe and he wasn’t sure how often people visited the house. “Hopefully we’ll be back on Appa before nightfall.”
Azula gave him a determined nod. “In and out.”
He gave her a grim nod back, completely serious for once. “In and out,” he agreed, reaching up and pushing open the trapdoor. He hopped up through the trapdoor, using his airbending to give him a boost, and then leaned over and offered Azula a hand up. After a moment of suspicious hesitation, Azula gave her his hand and he pulled her up through the door. As Azula climbed to her feet again, Aang heard a flurry of movement and a couple chirps. He turned just in time to see Momo, right before the little lemur barreled into him, and he grinned. Momo climbed up his arm, around his neck and then sat, purring a little, on Aang’s right shoulder. “Hi, Momo!” Aang whispered, reaching up with his free arm to scratch Momo under the chin. He’d almost forgotten that he’d left Momo to watch over the house in his absence. “Did the Dai Li come at all? Did they leave anything?”
Momo gave him a little chirp and took off, leading Aang across the room. Aang obediently followed the lemur, feeling fairly certain that the little fuzzball was trying to lead him to something. Momo landed on a little cabinet near the front door and bounced up and down on it, pawing at its wooden surface.
“Oh, thank you, Momo,” Aang said, opening the cabinet to find a letter, neatly rolled up and tied with a string. “You’re the best lemur an Avatar could ask for.”
Momo chirped loudly, and flew around in circles over Aang’s head while Aang tried to quiet him, without avail. Finally giving up, Aang turned to the letter. He untied it and opened it carefully.
Avatar,
Meet us at Whaletail Island. We will wait five days. Don’t try any bending-- We have a hostage.
Cursing silently in his head, Aang handed the letter off to Azula, who had come up behind him. Five days from when? And who was the hostage? Surely not Katara, they wouldn’t be so thoughtless as to bring Katara to an island surrounded by water to a meeting with her boyfriend who happened to be the Avatar . That would be stupid on so many levels. But the time the letter had come was so important, because he needed to know how much time he had to get to Whaletail island. And right now he was starting to panic. What if it had come the day after he left? Then he would already be too late. “When did this come, Momo?” he asked the lemur, not expecting an answer but needing one so desperately.
Momo chirped and flew around a couple more times.
“Two days ago,” Azula said with such certainty that Aang almost instantly believed her.
“Really?” he asked, looking over her shoulder at the letter again. “How can you tell?”
“The paper,” she said, sounding as though she was bored with his stupidity. “You can tell by the cracks in the paper.” She pointed out a couple shallow cracks in the letter, cracks which were so inconspicuous that Aang hadn’t noticed them at all. “They’re from the cold down here, but they aren’t deep enough and there aren’t enough of them to be more than a couple days old. I’d say two days, maybe-- maybe -- three.”
“Well,” Aang said, smiling gratefully at her, “I’m really glad you're here to tell me that.”
Azula rolled her eyes and handed the paper back to Aang. He reread it, frustrated yet again by the lack of information given. “It’s like they’re purposefully trying to keep me in the dark!” he whisper-yelled at Azula angrily. “How hard is it to give a precise location?”
Azula gave him her signature you can’t possibly be this stupid look. “That’s the point, you idiot,” she said (Aang pretended not to hear the derogatory word choice). “They want you in the dark so you don’t try anything.”
“Okay, okay,” he conceded, rolling up the letter again. “But they could at least give me something solid to go off of. I mean, a location isn’t much to work with.”
“Well, what do you want them to say?” Azula said, slipping into sarcasm. “‘Dear Avatar, please come to Whaletail Island unaccompanied. We have fifty Dai Li agents waiting to ambush you on arrival, and we’ll have a Kyoshi Warrior here so we can kill her in front of you if you try going into the Avatar State.’” Azula gave him another you’re a stupid kid look, and then walked off and started looking around Sokka’s house.
Aang might have been offended if he wasn’t so proud of Azula at this moment. She’d used sarcasm effectively . Improvement! That was an improvement right there!
But what she’d said, though, that was interesting. Azula knew the Dai Li better than anybody, except maybe Long Feng. She knew their ups and downs, ins and outs (which was the main reason Aang had brought her -- though he had yet to tell her). And because she knew all this about them, she was in a really good position to predict their movements. Which was a huge advantage for Aang, because it meant he wouldn’t be totally in the dark. He had someone with him who knew the Dai Li’s probable movements before they even made them. A tactical genius.
“So, Azula,” he said tentatively. “You don’t suppose they have all my friends on Whaletail Island?”
“No,” she said in her haughty tone. “Your waterbending friend would destroy them immediately if they were on an island.”
“Well, I’m a waterbender,” Aang said, feeling almost offended that the Dai Li would underestimate him so much. “Aren’t they afraid I’ll waterbend at them on the island too?”
Azula hummed in thought. “Well, probably,” she said after a moment. “But you could pretty much destroy them no matter where they decided to meet up. I’d guess they want you to make you feel powerless, even though you’re surrounded by things you could bend. They want to appear confident that you won’t be able to beat them. The idea is to intimidate you and force you to lose all hope of winning.”
“Great,” Aang said sarcastically, tucking the letter away and holding out his arm for Momo to land.
“It is great,” Azula said, sounding almost enthusiastic. “We can use their confidence against them.”
Aang gave her a confused look as Momo scampered up his arm and curled up around his head. “How?”
“Well, I’m not sure,” she said, frowning. “We’ll have to get the lay of the land before we can make a good plan.”
The lay of the land. Flying over on Appa was asking to get shot down, so they had to think of some way to get on the island and have a look around before confronting the Dai Li. Luckily for Aang, he and Katara had been sneaking around places for almost two years now. They had an abundance of disguises in this house, ones that would probably even fool the Dai Li. And unless Aang was remembering incorrectly, there was a village on Whaletail Island that they could hide out in for a few days. They could wait for the Dai Li to give up on the Avatar ever coming, and then follow the Dai Li back to their secret hideout or whatever, and then storm the place and get everyone out. It would be quiet and would have minimal fighting and minimal injuries. It also, Aang considered for a moment, would be extremely predictable. But whatever.
“Well, I have a plan,” Aang said, raising his hand.
“What is it,” Azula said, pronouncing it more like a statement than a question and frowning at him almost suspiciously.
Aang put his hand down. “We go there in disguise and then wait--”
Faster than he could even react to, Azula darted across the room and slammed a hand across his mouth, toppling him backwards to the ground. Momo dived off of Aang’s head, screeching in alarm. Aang’s eyes glared at Azula over the top of her hand. Her eyes were darting around the room as though reading it. She slowly took her hand away from his mouth and took a few steps back. He opened his mouth to scold her, but before he could, she whisper-yelled, “Shut up! The Dai Li are probably watching the house, remember?”
Aang nodded and closed his mouth again, eyes wide in understanding. She had thought of the same plan he did, but she didn’t want to disclose it currently because if the Dai Li found out their idea, it would be quickly ruined. Climbing back to his feet, he beckoned her over to the corner of the room where the closet with disguises was. He pulled it open and raised his eyebrows, gesturing to the many outfits inside. They were a good mixture of Fire Nation red and Earth Kingdom green. There were also a few yellow items (Katara had pretended to be an Airbender once-- long story) and a select few of Northern Water Tribe style clothing. A grin started across Azula’s face.
“You’re probably the same size as Katara,” Aang whispered, pointing to the left side of the closet, where Katara’s disguises were. “And you could probably fit in Sokka’s Kyoshi Warrior uniform if you wanted.” He pointed at that.
“I can’t believe you have a closet full of clothes to use undercover,” Azula whispered, looking close to laughing again. She pulled out Katara’s old fire nation outfit and looked it up and down before returning it gently into the closet. Aang pulled out one of his many wigs (this one was a horrendous bright green-- he’d accidentally dyed it in an incident in a weaver’s house) and started putting it on while Azula was distracted.
“You never know when you might need a disguise,” he said when the wig was on, and gestured to his head.
Azula looked up and then snorted in amusement. Aang burst out laughing immediately, tears coming to his eyes as he tried to keep it quiet, abs burning with the effort of silence. Azula was laughing too, although yet again she was clearly trying to stop.
“Why do you even have that?” she gasped, reaching up to yank it off his head.
“I told you,” he giggled, batting her hand away and pulling the green wig off himself. “You never know when you--”
“Oh, shut up,” Azula whispered, managing at last to stop laughing and returning her gaze to Katara’s clothes.
Aang allowed himself a small moment of triumph for getting a second laugh from Azula and then pulled out a few of his old Earth Kingdom disguises and looked them over. “So, why don’t we do a mom-son thing--”
“No,” Azula said immediately, pulling out one of Katara’s nicer Earth Kingdom outfits. “You might be able to pull that off with the lower classes, but the Dai Li are elite. They’ll see right through it.”
“But Katara and I--”
“When you were younger and you still looked like you could pass for a four year old we could have done it,” Azula said dismissively. “The most we can hope for now is passing as siblings.”
Aang nodded. Siblings. They could both be orphans looking out for each other. This was something they could easily pull off. “Good enough,” he agreed, pulling out an acceptable green shirt and brown pants. He walked away from Azula as she continued going through Katara’s clothes and started stuffing his new outfit into the bag Sokka had gotten by the Beifong Estate.
The door opened and Aang’s head snapped up. He almost started crying in relief when he saw who it was. Hakoda was framed in the door, looking a little angrier than Aang would have liked, but Hakoda nonetheless. Not Long Feng. Not the Dai Li. Azula was all tensed up behind Aang, evidently very suspicious of the newcomer. Aang ran up to Hakoda and gave him a huge hug because one, he had never been so grateful to see anyone in his life (except Katara after Sozin’s comet), and two, he needed Azula to see that she shouldn’t start lightning bending at Hakoda’s head.
“Chief Hakoda,” he breathed, using his free arm to reach around Hakoda and shut the door gently behind him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Azula shut the trapdoor with her foot. He grinned into Hadoda’s coat. Azula’s situational awareness was incredible.
“Aang, what’s going on?” Hakoda asked immediately, pulling away from Aang and gripping him by the shoulders, looking disapprovingly into his eyes. “Where are Katara and Sokka? I haven’t seen them for a week and they didn’t tell me they were leaving.”
Aang opened his mouth to give Hakoda an excuse (and it would have been a good one-- Toph was teaching the group how to lie without anyone noticing), but Hakoda stopped him before he could. “Don’t lie to me, Aang, I know something’s up.”
Sighing, Aang shut his mouth and led Hakoda away from the door, giving Azula a helpless look. She gave him a this is your fault look and he sighed again.
When they were away from the door, Hakoda pulled a rolled up letter from his pocket and Aang felt his heart die inside of him.
“Avatar,” Hakoda read aloud, giving Aang a significant look. “That’s you, right?”
Aang sat helplessly down on Katara’s bed.
“Avatar,” Hakoda repeated, continuing on. “If you fail to comply with our conditions, as you are nearing doing by leaving the Southern Water Tribe, your friends will pay for your mistakes. We will be watching. Signed Long Feng and the Dai Li. I would assume,” Hakoda said, lifting his eyes from the letter to glare at Aang, “the friends mentioned are Katara and Sokka.”
Swearing silently in his head, Aang nodded miserably. “And the Kyoshi Warriors and Mai.”
“Spirits, Aang,” Hakoda said, crumpling up the letter in his fist. “What kind of a mess have you gotten yourself into this time?”
“A big one,” Aang muttered.
“How big?” Hakoda insisted, sitting down next to Aang on the bed. “What are these conditions you almost violated? Where are my kids?”
“Really big, not telling anyone, and I don’t know,” Aang answered in order, sure Azula would be impressed by his factual responses.
“Who did you tell?”
Aang nodded at Azula who was frowning suspiciously at Hakoda from across the room. “Her.”
Azula straightened up and gave Hakoda the biggest fake smile Aang had ever seen. “Hi, I’m Jin. I’m one of the Kyoshi Warriors -- the only one to not have been taken, actually.” She held up Sokka’s uniform and Aang almost cried again in relief. Azula knew what she was doing when it came to lying and manipulating.
“Jin?” Hakoda said, frowning at her confusedly. Aang felt his heart plummet. Zuko had gone through another break-up with Mai and was now dating a girl named Jin. Which, of course, Azula didn’t know-- so this was just an unhappy coincidence. “Isn’t that who Zuko’s--”
“Different Jin,” Aang said hastily, bringing Hakoda’s attention back to him. “It’s a common name, you know?”
“What can I do to help you get Katara and Sokka back?” Hakoda asked, abruptly returning to the subject at hand.
“I don’t know -- nothing. The best thing you can do is stay out of it.” He shook his head. “They didn’t say anything about you specifically, but it was implied that telling anyone who had a chance against them was asking to get Katara and Sokka killed.”
“But you told her,” Hakoda said, thrusting his chin out at Azula, who gave him a smug look.
“Yeah, I did. But they won’t have expected that.”
Azula gave a sarcastic laugh from the other side of the room. “That’s an understatement,” she said shortly.
“So, what,” Hakoda said, looking helpless and desperate. “I’m just supposed to sit here and wait for you to bring them back to me? Those are my kids, Aang! I’m not going to sit by and watch while the Dai Li do who knows what to--”
“I know, I know, I know!” Aang said, standing up in frustration. “But you can’t get involved or everything’s going to get all messed up! Look, I know what I’m doing, okay? You’re just going to have to trust me.”
Hakoda buried his face in his hands and thought for a moment. Finally, his head emerged from behind his hands and he stood up to face Aang. “I will trust you with this because you’re the Avatar, and I think you might have a better chance than anyone to get them back out,” he said decisively. “But, Aang, you have a week. One week, and then I’m getting involved.”
Aang gave him a grim nod. “One week. Thank you, Hakoda.”
He turned away, checking to see that Azula had finished grabbing the clothes she needed. As he turned, though, Hakoda caught his wrist. Aang looked back to see an expression of desperation in Hakoda’s eyes. “Bring them back to me Aang,” he pleaded. “Whatever it takes.”
Aang turned around more fully, facing Hakoda and looking levelly into his eyes. “I will,” he said, voice low and dangerous. “I will do whatever it takes to bring them back. And if I fail…” Aang’s expression darkened, hardened into something foreign, showing a side of him he didn’t usually let people see, the side of him that was ruthless and terrifying. “If I fail, I will spend every day of the rest of my life hunting down every last Dai Li agent until I have personally wiped the light out of their eyes.” He held Hakoda’s gaze for a full ten seconds. Hakoda gave him a grim nod and Aang turned away again. Azula was looking at him, completely shocked. Aang couldn’t blame her. He didn’t usually say things like that. But he had said it, and he had meant it. He would have said it again. It was true.
That was the scary part. It was true.