(Zutara) Hold it Gently; My Heart Burns For You

The Deserter

Aunt Wu?" Katara knocked gently on the wooden doorframe, hesitating on the threshold of the old woman's shop. Meng had gone home for the day, and Katara was glad for it. She wasn't sure why, but it seemed like the young girl had a problem with how much Katara was coming to talk to her boss.

"Yes, how can I h- Katara? Child, haven't you already come to me, today?" There're too many lines on the aged woman's face to tell if she's confused or irritated.

"Yes, but I realised..." She's not sure how to go on.

Aunt Wu's face softens. "What's troubling you, child?"

"I forgot to ask you something."

"You forget now, child, I know your fortune," the old woman snorts good naturedly. "I can assure you, you forgot nothing."

"That's the thing," Katara presses on, looking at the low candlelight of the fast approaching evening. "It's not my fortune."

Aunt Wu's grey eyebrows disappear into her grey hairline. "You want me to look into someone else's future for you?"

"No!" Katara stammers. She should have thought this through more before coming here. "N-no. Not his future. I couldn't... It would be wrong to know his destiny. He seems to think he does, but he's wrong."

Aunt Wu listens through her rambling thoughts, patient as melting ice caps.

"I just... he's alone now, or he thinks he is. He doesn't understand how much he has. What's been lost is all that consumes him, he wants it back. Yet if he gets it back that means we never would have-" She cuts herself off. "I only know what he was like before and during when I knew him. Now..."

"You want to know if he's okay after." Aunt Wu doesn't need to ask, grey eyes piercing through the encroaching gloom. "I'm sorry, child, but my predictions are just that. I could not tell you what you wish to know, any more than I could tell you what colour his eyes are without ever looking at them."

Gold, Katara thinks glumly, like the rising sun.

~ ~ ~

"What do you think, Katara?"

"What?" Katara looks up from watching her feet make tracks in the ground, blinking as yellows, golds and reds fill her vision.

Zuko? Then she remembers. Aang touched them down in a soft autumn forest to give Appa a break. Auburn and russet leaves cling healthily to their branches, but winter is on its way. Ahead of her, Momo chitters as he clings to the side of a roadside kiosk, pawing at the brightly lit posters.

"Oh, good idea, Aang." She walks towards the kiosk's most brightly lit poster. "This should give us a good idea of what's around here."

Aang beams while Sokka paws hungrily at their shared travel pack, producing nothing but a few measly crumbs. "See if you can find a menu, I'm starving!"

"I bet we'll find something to eat here." Aang comes up next to Katara. His grey eyes trace the words, growing rounder and more excited as he reads. "Fire Day Festival. Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians. This would be a great place for me to study some real firebenders!"

Katara's about to answer when Sokka's voice from the other side of the kiosk cuts her off. "You might want to rethink that idea. Look at this."

Aang is not as worried as he should be when he sees his face on the board. In fact, he's downright ecstatic as he rips it off. "A wanted poster. How daring," he laughs, looking at Katara.