Memories From The Past (Zutara)

21: Healing

Sokka sighed looking over onto the beaches, below him was his father and the rest of his tribe. After a long and stressful ride on Appa with Aang, Sokka's nerves only seemed to double after the boy left. Walking down the hill and towards the camp Sokka immediately started to try and make out the faces. Despite being eleven the last time he saw any of these men they all recognized them. Most of the men had scars, but none looked fresh.

After saying hello to all the warriors again something caught Sokka's attention. His father's tent. Taking a deep breath he walked up to it and entered. Inside Katara was pointing at a map and telling the men about the possible threats that may lurk there. Hakoda was the the head of the map, men sitting around him. All the warriors looked up to see Sokka, Katara had a huge grin on her face, Hakoda was too engrossed in the map to see his son.

"Sokka!" Katara yelled jumping up and hugging her brother. Hakoda was now aware of his son and also hugged him. Pulling away from the hug Hakoda gazed down at his son.

"Hi dad!" The two hugged again as the rest of the warriors exited the tent to give the reunited family some privacy.

Katara sat down on one of the pelts as Hakoda mentioned for Sokka to do the same.

"So Sokka what brings you here to visit?" Katara asked. Sokka looked at his sister and smiled. She was reunited with their father and the happiness that came with it showed.

"Well I needed to make sure Pakku didn't take you to the wrong place."

"You told Pakku to drop me off here?"

Sokka nodded a yes. "But more importantly I'm here to visit dad."

"And how did you find the time for this. Bato told me you were traveling with the Avatar and a Kyoshi warrior." Sokka blushed slightly at the mention of Suki, just an hour earlier she had kissed him when they departed.

"Yes I still am, we are all in Ba Sing Se. But something came up for each of us, so we're taking a break for a week or two."

"Well I'm glad you wanted to spend your time off with the warriors and I." Hakoda smiled patting his son on his back. Katara offered tea she had been brewing to her father and brother.

"Are you kidding me? I missed you all a ton. Especially Katara now that she's not all Fire Nationy." Katara shot a glare at her brother.

"Yes well I'm glad Katara could see both sides too-" Hakoda said, noticing the way Katara's eyes drifted towards the tea. It clearly reminded her of someone, but Hakoda hadn't gained the confidence yet to ask her about her life in the Fire Nation. They mostly spoke about the warriors and the war.

"Also we have a new teammate!" Sokka interrupted. "Toph, she's blind, and an earthbender." Katara choked on the tea she had been drinking. Sokka ignored it and continued on. "But even though she's blind she is still a very talented earthbender. She can sense vibrations through her feet." Katara dropped her tea and left the tent.

"I'm going to go heal some of the warriors." She gave as a lame excuse.

"What was that about?" Sokka turned to his father.

"I'm not sure. I've been too scared to speak to your sister about her life in the Fire Nation. I'm not sure how she will react. Or if she will be angry with me for bringing it up." Sokka nodded.

"I understand, but I think for us to be a true family again we need to break down those walls."

"What do you know about her life before? I assume you know more than I do, you were the first person to see Katara again."

Sokka stared at his lap, debating if he should share this information. It wasn't his to share, it was Katara's. But maybe if their father had some background it would be easier to talk to her. "She was a Fire Nation princess. I'm not sure why, but I think its because she was taken in by a man named Iroh. The current Fire Lord's brother."

Hakoda nodded, already knowing this, but he let his son continue. Right now Sokka didn't need to know that he was a White Lotus member.

"Aang told me that Azula said something about them being close. So the other princess, Azula and her friends were friends with Katara. And Katara was dating Zuko, the banished prince, until we left the North Pole a couple months ago."

"And that's all you know?" Hakoda asked unsatisfied by the information. He had already knew most of it.

"That's all I know," Sokka confirmed.

They didn't see Katara through the rest of the day until late into the night. She returned with water soaking her clothes up to her knees and dried tears on her face.

"Katara, we were worried about you." Katara rose her hand to shush her father.

"I understand I haven't been very open to you dad, and I'm sorry. It's hard to trust people when for my whole life I've been told one thing to find out its wrong." Katara sat down in between her father and brother. Looking into the fire in front of her as another tear rolled down her cheek.

"I'm sorry Katara. If it weren't for me you never would have been taken." Sokka apologized pulling Katara into an awkward side hug.

"It's fine, I'm sure it wasn't actually your fault. I've just been feeling so angry lately. I've been able to push it down for you dad because I know that you were happy to have me back in your life. But Sokka when you brought up earthbenders, it opened everything up again. All the anger I felt with myself for forgetting you guys, my family. Angry for letting Yue get killed because I still couldn't see the truth. And angry at the Fire Nation for taking me in the first place." Hakoda placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"Don't be angry at yourself about your friend. From what Sokka has told me she sacrificed herself to save all of us. Besides if theres anyone to blame about you leaving its me, I'm Chief of this tribe and yet I let them take one of our own, one of my own. But that is all in the past, we can't change what happened. We can only control what will happen." Katara nodded, using her tunic to wipe away her tears.

"It's hard to not look at the past when lately I've been realizing how wrong it all was. Me living in the Fire Nation and believing the lies about my own people. But you're right, me dwelling on the past isn't going to bring mom, Yue, or Lu Ten back. And it certainly isn't going to stop the Fire Nation from taking me." Katara stood up and walked away from the light of the fire, staring up into the stars.

Sokka stood up and walked over to his sister, slinging an arm around her shoulder. "The moon looks lovely tonight."

"I thought you had a thing for Suki, not Yue." Katara joked, cracking a smile.

"Ha ha, very funny. You'll never have a sense of humor as advanced as mine." Katara rolled her eyes and slipped away from her brother's arm. The siblings fell into a comfortable silence staring up at the moon.

"You were right Yue." Katara whispered to herself.

Sokka stared at his sister. "Does she talk to you?" Katara jumped and shivered at the same time.

"You weren't supposed to hear that."

"Then why did you say it out loud?"

"Sokka, if someone whispers something to themselves, and you hear it then you at least do the common courtesy of pretending you didn't hear it!" Katara scolded him.

"Whatever, I asked you a question."

Katara took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Yes I do talk to Yue. I've only had two conversations with her. One of them was tonight. She told me that I needed to stop being so closed off to you and dad and tell you two the truth."

Sokka smiled. "Well I'm glad you did." 

So, I might be wrong, but I think Katara wouldn't have that good of a reaction with Toph. If she hated Zuko for the Fire Nation killing her mom when Zuko himself was a child. Then I see no reason why Katara wouldn't hate Toph for being an earthbender, even if Toph didn't even know she could earthbend when Lu Ten died. Anyway sorry my posting schedule has been all over the place, I appreciate every single one of you who reads this story. Hope you have a great day and I will see you in the next update!