#firehonored

tedros feels grateful but homesick : Make yourself at home, okay? This is your place too now.

That  was  the  problem;  he  wasn't  home.  Albion  was  across  the  sea.  Much  too  far  to  go  by  himself.  Tedros  sighed  as  he  sank  into  a  chair.  "I  never  did  thank  you.  For  finding  me.  I  don't  know  what  went  wrong.  The  captain  said  we  were  on  course."  The  shipwreck  weighed  heavily  on  him.  As  far  as  he  knew,  he  was  the  only  one  who  survived.  "So  thank  you,  truly."

︵‿۶ৎ 𝓐‿ "that one, oh that one looks fun !" she tugs on @firehonored's sleeve to get his attention to the stall where humans seem to be shooting from a long stick to earn those .. toys ? "that one over there looks like flounder. oh zuko, can i try getting it ?" thankfully she doesn't need to persuade him long and bounces over to hold the unusual object while he pays, attempting to mirror what others were doing. huh, it doesn't seem that hard, she thinks ── and boy was she wrong ! this gun, she learned the name, keeps slipping off her fingers, followed by a totally missed aim where she nearly hit the poor vendor and shot whatever is inside through the fabric on the roof. ugh, how complicated ! gravity is not a mermaid's friend.

@firehonored ⸻ ᥫ᭡.     ⊹₊♚₊⊹      » " we were kids. we didn't know what we were doing. "

@firehonored is being super rude and poking Sokka with a stick and smiling all innocent like.

Sokka had been completely minding his own business for at least thirty uninterrupted minutes, which, in his opinion, deserved recognition. He sat cross-legged near the fire with a piece of scrap wood balanced in his hands, carefully carving at it with the kind of focus he usually only reserved for food, but then came the poke. A sharp little jab against his shoulder blade. Sokka froze mid-carve, eyes narrowing slowly. Another poke followed immediately after, lighter this time, accompanied by the unmistakable feeling of someone standing there looking way too pleased with themselves.

He turned his head just enough to catch sight of Zuko innocently smiling at him with the stick still extended in one hand.

“…You know,” Sokka slowly drawled, lowering the carving knife into his lap, “most people use words when they want attention.” Another poke. Sokka stared at him in disbelief. “Oh, okay.” He reached over and snatched the stick clean out of Zuko’s hand before immediately poking him back in the forehead with it. “There. See how annoying that is?” Poke. “You’re lucky I’m emotionally mature now.” Poke. “Old me would’ve escalated this.” Poke.

Despite all the complaining, there was already a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, the kind he tried and failed to suppress whenever Zuko did something unexpectedly stupid. “Also, don’t do the innocent smile thing. You look like a turtleduck pretending it didn’t just bite somebody.”

It had been a few years since Katara had last been to the Fire Nation.

She sometimes missed the island nation. For people who were defined by fire, her element was present everywhere. The ocean lapped around the volcanic beaches, rivers and waterfalls were common, and pipes brought water flowing through a lot of the buildings built in the later stages of the Hundred Years War. Also, it was just a beautiful place. When she was a girl she had imagined the Fire Nation to be a volcanic wasteland that fitted the seeming barbarity of the nation but she had been long since proven wrong.

And this "trip" would be an extended one. The old ambassador for the Water Tribes had suddenly wanted to retire and she had agreed to be the temporary replacement until a new ambassador could be found. After all, she and Zuko were friends. She imagined the two of them could muddle through a few months of each other's company until the sister tribes decided on a more permanent solution.

Still, Katara wasn't expecting guards at the dock to meet her. A part of her still thought herself as the girl from the Southern Water Tribe. She didn't need fuss. She didn't need to be escourted around like a princess even if she was the daughter of a chief.

But the guards were not for her.

"Zuko!" She called, waving at him from her vantage point on the deck.