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Borealis: A Zutara Story	By : jaded_priceless Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > AU/AR - Alternate Universe/Alternate Reality Views: 34026 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, any historical figures or events, or easily recognizable persons, places or things. I make no profit from this work of fanfiction

Chapter List
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Chapter 306

Katara set the little girl down. She would have loved to let her brother walk down the mountain but she knew if she did she'd never see him again. He would be killed. The terms of her agreement with the Fire Lord were very clear, he would be safe from torture, maiming, permanent harm and death barring any escape attempts. As much as Sokka thought otherwise, this was not the time or place to escape. If Appa had been outside with them, if they had been directly above the stables where she could have easily gotten to them like she was earlier it would have been different. She would have risked it.

She was seriously contemplating taking that chance with Sokka and Appa's lives earlier but Zuko's actions had reminded her she was still too deep inside Fire Nation territory. She was willing to give her life getting them to safety but Appa was still too injured for her to heal and they would have no means of escape. She would have died for nothing. If she was gone there wouldn't be a chance later when Appa was healthy.

As much "freedom" as Sokka had, she knew it was an illusion. Chu-hua kept her brother on a tight leash. Katara was a hunter, she knew the best way to procure the best animal in the herd was by pretending you were part of the herd. Mu and twins were hunters draped in the fur of a pack member. Mu's wife had already been branded for treason. The Zhao twins were working to clear the name of their family after the North Pole failure.

Katara bent down and scooped a handful of snow. She began shaping it, packing the snow into a compact ball then without using her bending launched it her brother. It hit him in the back of the head just like she'd planned.

Sokka kept walking. He didn't turn around until the sixth snowball hit the back of his head. A seventh exploded in his face. An eighth and ninth hit him in the chest. He dodged the tenth. He could see all of the Firebenders except Zuko had taken attack positions around his baby sister. There were flames called to their hands. Zuko stood behind her, his back was to Katara and fire ringed his hands; he stood facing his own people ready to defend her. The twins and Mu had carried the children a safe distance away. Aang was screaming.

Aang was screaming and he didn't even hear what the pitiful, broken Avatar was saying. All he could hear was the rush of blood in his ears as he realized he'd once again turned his back on his little sister while her rapist stood ready to protect her. Sokka lowered his head before bending down and slowly gathering the snow. He took his time patting it between his hands and forming a small ball that he enlarged. Once it reached the size of a fist he lifted his head, wiped his face on shoulder then threw the ball at Katara's chest. It struck slightly left of the center.

He made four more snowballs like that and hit her in the same place as before. He bent to scoop the snow for the fifth one and formed it as he rose. He threw it as he stepped forward. This one Katara dodged. Sokka wished he were still that same ten year old boy who didn't understand his actions made his sister suffer. She had come up with that game two months after the death of their mother. Men in the Southern Water Tribe were taught wild displays emotion were a sign of an unstable mind. Tears were to be kept inside the home unless it was inside the period of mourning, after a birth or during certain festivals.

He was the son of the chief and future leader of their people; he especially could not be seen crying in the streets for his mother when so many children had lost theirs. He was to be an example for the young men just as his father was an example for the men and Katara was an example to the young girls. In public they were to acknowledge their grief and carry on but after the period of mourning, tears were to be saved for inside their home. But he was a ten year old boy. At that age boys spent most of their time learning the skills they needed to prepare for manhood such as hunting, fishing and fighting.

Those things were postponed due their losses. Their food stores had been burned so they had to worry about the immediate food needs of the village and gathering food for winter. There was no time to risk a young boy scattering the fish or scaring away the herd. Only the experienced hunters went out each day in search of food. Those left in the village worked on providing other needs: shelter, weapons, clothes, ship making, caring for the injured. There was no one to teach little boys to be men but the everyday act of survival was a lesson for the girls in how to be women.

Katara was kept so busy cooking, sewing, caring for the injured with Gran-Gran, and babysitting that she didn't have the time to dwell on the loss of their mother until she went back to the strange place that was now their home. Each day Sokka left he had free time he'd never had before. Each day as he wandered what was left of their village the loss seeped deeper into his soul. There were days he couldn't help crying. His father never fussed like some of the other fathers; all Hakoda would do was sigh and say, "When there are things to be done you are my son but if your time is unoccupied you are definitely your mother's. Kya could spend hours walking around the market looking at each little thing as if it was something she'd never seen before and would never see again. I wish you'd remember to how to walk fast when things get so heavy on your heart so you'd be safely home with those who love you to unburdened them."

His little sister had told him that if he couldn't make it home to bend over and hide his tears by making snowballs. Everyone's nose ran when they spent a long time bent over in the cold so no one would think twice if he wiped his face when he stood. If things became too difficult and he needed a hug he could throw a snowball at her. No one would think twice if she pretended to be hurt and he rushed over to comfort her and beg his way out of trouble. All boys threw snowballs at their sisters then became concerned when she threatened to tattle.

Only the two of them would know a snowball to the chest, directly over her heart meant his was hurting so bad it felt as if it would explode. He never thought that a hard packed snowball to the chest was doing anything other than making him feel better. Gran-Gran was taking their measurements for the next set of clothes when heard her gasp then shriek in terror. He rushed in thinking something had happened and he saw the bruises on Katara's chest. She covered for him and told Gran-Gran she had run into one of the few wooden doors left in the village while carrying an empty pot from the healing hut.

It was a flimsy excuse which Gran-Gran didn't believe despite Katara's adamancy. He admitted hitting Katara with snowballs because he wanted to play with her and that he didn't know he'd thrown them hard enough to bruise her. Gran-Gran's anger dissipated after that. She hugged them both and he could see tears in her eyes as she explained this was not the time for playing. They needed to focus on survival and could return to being children once they had gathered enough to survive the winter. Gran-Gran began finding things for him to do after that - small things that needed to be done but were usually handled by the elderly men of the village. As he cut each rope to make fishing nets, warmed the tar to make boats, sharpened weaponry and filed bones into fish hooks he could not help but to remember those who used to do them.

The elderly men had the highest death toll among all of the other demographics; they understood it was their duty to die fighting so the young of their village, the future of their people could live. The elderly women were next; even the lame and blind latched onto soldiers slowing them down so their grandchildren could escape. Next were the mothers, who died protecting the children in their home. The men defending the village had the highest injury and survival rate. Many were injured to the point they could no longer fight as the Fire Nation soldiers pushed past them to destroy their home.

He picked up another wad of snow and hurled it at Katara; it was smaller and lighter designed to fall apart before impact. The hell he experienced on the boat ride over had ended. He was kept occupied and useful since Zhao twins and Mu decided to use him as a source of free labor. He was completely untouched in New Ursa and hadn't been raped until he was reunited with Commander Huang. But even that sick bastard was only one man who enjoyed both fucking and receiving him. Katara had not had one single break from Zuko. She'd had no reprieve from the things he made her do for him. Azula had made him listen to her moan for Zuko but hadn't he also moaned for Commander Huang? Hadn't he done all the things for a Fire Nation man that he was condemning her for?

Katara wiped her tears when the snowball disintegrated before hitting her. Sokka hadn't forgot. After he saw the bruises his snowball had left on her he began making flimsier ones and throwing them when he began upset. He told her he did that as a way to let go of the things that were bothering him but also to remind him there was a time and a place to hold things together and a time and a place to fall apart. Katara threw one at him that fell apart at his feet even thought he was walking closer.

A snowball at the feet was an action to mimic a Water Tribe proverb, "May La bless you with snow beneath your feet so that you do not stumble upon the ice."

Once Sokka got in arm's reach of Katara he began spoke to her in Water Tribe, "I'm sorry."

Katara nodded, "Me too."

She extended her palm, flexed her fingers and her hand was filled with snow, "They would kill me, they would kill you. They'd probably eat Appa. They would remove Aang's tongue and limbs to make sure he couldn't bend again. I knew it on the ocean and I know it here in the snow. I can feel it, Sokka, every drop of water in the ocean and every flake of snow; all of it crying out to be used, begging me to do something. You have no idea what it feels like to be surrounded by your element begging to become your weapon but be unable to do anything without hurting the people you love."

"I can't do what I want to do, what I need to do, without hurting you and Aang. This is something we can do together right under their noses to get back at them," Katara said clenching her fingers and forming the snow into a small spiked ball.

"Yeah we can," Sokka smirked in understanding. Snowball fighting had risen to an art form in the Southern Water Tribe which no one not even their Northern brethren could ever hope to match.

He cocked his head towards Mu and the twins, "I'll show these guys, you show the little girls."

Mu released his nieces once the danger had passed and the Water Tribe siblings walked over. Katara led the little girls off as Sokka bent down in the snow. He felt something wet on his lip where Zuko had hit him before something slimy pushed into his mouth. He spit instinctively to get rid of it and saw a smiling eight year old attached to the finger sliding across his wound again.

Her spit covered tongue was extended from her wet lips. There was blood and fresh pink spit on her finger. She stuck it in her mouth before Mu could grab her hand. "Uncle Mu did you see it? We did the fluid exchange. We're engaged now!"

"Shii-ooshua," Mu caught himself before cursing in front the children. That could be considered a legitimate fluid exchange considering she mixed her spit with Sokka's blood before pushing it in his mouth and then placing her finger covered with his bloody spittle in his own mouth. Quanli, Ty Lee and Eun Lee would each kill him.

He clamped a hand over his niece's mouth, "I promise to have Quanli bake a cake for you, a whole cake that you do not have to share, if you do not ever say that again; especially within your mother's or Aunt Ty Lee's hearing range."

"Really, a whole cake?" she uttered in astonishment.

"Yes, a whole cake, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about the fluid exchange," Mu wheedled.

She nodded eagerly, "I won't tell as long as you promise to tell if they ever try to marry me off to a reaally reeallly old man."

Mu nodded. It was unlikely Eiji would consent to an arranged marriage but Eun Lee was an entirely different matter. She was from a noble family and understood the purpose of daughters. He couldn't do much for Ty Lee as he was still a child and not yet a part of the family but he was now an uncle. By the time arrangements for them were to be made he would be fully established and if necessary he could buy them.

He kissed his niece's forehead and told her to go play with Katara. If Eiji was pressured into a marriage arrangement for these little girls and he couldn't afford the bride price by then he should have enough money saved to follow through with his wife's kill the parents, snatch the kids and live happily in some hole in the Earth Kingdom idea.

He leaned down next to Sokka, "If you mention a word of this to Ty Lee she will kill both of us. My mother-in-law is not a very ambitious woman but she understands how politics work. She also hates Mai's mother. If she were to learn the brother of our crown prince's chosen women did a fluid exchange with my little niece she will ensure the two of you are married. Do you understand what I am saying to you?"

"Loud and clear," Sokka replied with a shudder.

Mu groaned and Sokka winced as the little girl placed her arms around Katara's neck and whispered, "Don't tell anybody, but when me and your brother get married, you're gonna be my big sister."

Sokka clapped the veterinarian on the shoulder, "As loud as she whispers I suppose you should get used to me calling you Uncle Mu."

The veterinarian scooped a handful of snow and smooshed it against Sokka’s face, "Fuck you, Nephew."

"As intrigued as I am by the idea of you two getting it on, some of us would like to learn how to throw snowballs," Zhao 1 intoned as he picked up a handful of snow.
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Borealis: A Zutara Story