Chapter Text
When he found the courage to get out on the deck the vast length of the sea wasn't the only thing at the horizon. The grand gates of the northern water tribe could be seen between high white mountains covered in snow and ice And the biting chill of the wind was something he still had to get used to.
He needed to this over with, it’s the only thing running through his mind as he steps out, approaching the edge of the deck where Amihan stood with arms behind her back, she greeted him, muttering a rash comment about the cold under her breath. “we’re arriving in around an hour”, she stated, gaze glued to the horizon, with a hand covering the sunlight as she squinted her eyes. After a moment of silence Zuko could see her wait for him to say something, since he didn’t, she proceeded with “is everything alright?” still not exactly looking at Zuko, even if he could feel it somehow. They’re taking this lightly then, he assumed she’d be more direct.
“I’m fine, Amihan.”
“if you say so” she sighed, or maybe laughed, Zuko really doesn’t want to know.
He likes Amihan, between all the guards he might even say she's his favorite. He's pretty sure she knows that, too, which is why she’s the only one who’ll restlessly tease him in the most annoying ways. He wouldn’t be too eager referring to her as a friend, but something dangerously close to it. Unaware of his internal monologue, Amihan turns, waving at him as she walks off to check on the rest of the crew, leaving Zuko alone with the chill, the icebergs and his mind.
He spent the entire way agonizing, trying to convince himself that, yes, he could do this, and yes, this is totally fine, he’s the one who signed up for this anyway, he’s fine. All he has to do now is, well, actually believe in it. When he told uncle that they shouldn’t let this opportunity go by he had a little more faith in himself. But still, he wanted to feel useful, and with Lu Ten as close to taking the throne, uncle was worried about consolidating the union between nations.
The proposition from the water tribes came in with perfect timing, they offered to settle a commercial trade to strengthen the alliance. It was a great deal, except for the part where it required a member of the royal family’s hand in marriage. Lu Ten clearly wasn’t available, and with Azula still rehabilitating, all there was left was Zuko. He didn’t have any use just laying around anyway, Iroh didn’t agree at first, but he came around after some insistence. Zuko assumed that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, being a prince he knew that it was inevitable, at some point he was going to be forced to marry someone, he imagined if he had a say in it it wouldn’t be so bad.
He clearly didn’t think this through, as usual. What are the chances of everyone immediately despising him because of the fire nation? He couldn’t even blame them for that. The feeling of being useful lasted around 1 hour after they got on board, when he had time to consider what his choices actually entitled, but he didn’t regret it just yet, all he needs is to prove himself, for what? He’s not sure.
By the time they reach the chore, Amihan was already but the deck for the formal announcement, along with her partner Wú, she reaches out to Zuko's shoulder and whispers “the chief is waiting for you in the docks,”
He was given a list with important names, which he spent an unnecessary amount of time memorizing, including the councilmen, members of the royal family and people involved in the trade. He read the whole thing about twenty times just on the ship, he’s pretty much got the names embedded on his forehead at this point. Which is something that doesn't seem to be doing anything for him as he steps out onto the docks and sees the chief alongside a couple of people he suspected to be part of the council. His mind blanked, he stopped in his tracks and his boots sunk a bit into the snow, but he was too nervous to try and readjust himself.
“Chief Arnook” extended his hand for a traditional water tribe hand shake, something he was very glad to ask uncle about before leaving the fire nation.
“Prince Zuko” he wore a polite smile and Zuko quickly added “It’s a pleasure to meet you”. The growing sound of steps behind him meant Amihan and Wú were already behind him again, and he feels momentarily relived from not fucking up this first impression.
The chief then began leading them towards the entrance of the city, welcoming them as they approached closer to the canals, where a relatively large wooden boat waited for them. His tone was warm, which surprised him and he bet the guards, too, even as they hop onto the boat he keeps on his speech about the city and some of the history.
Agna Q'la is beautiful, is what he notices as soon as he begins to actually look around in the boat, sure it takes some energy to keep warm without a decent coat, which, he found was his case a few hours ago. The buildings were made entirely of ice, with some ornaments Zuko assumes were water-bent, the canals and boats also make for a pretty picture that eased Zuko a little bit.
The chief kept showing off important locations as they swam through, giving special attention to a library, the only building made with some sort of wood, at least partly. Zuko tried his hardest to memorize everything, but kept getting distracted by his own astonishment until he noticed how close to the palace and worry got the best of him all over again.
“tomorrow, after you’re all settled, prince Zuko, I’ll have someone give you a proper tour before your lessons start” Arnook told him warmly and Zuko managed to respond with a “I’m looking forward to it.” in a firm tone.
When they were approaching the end of the canals they passed under a long bridge connecting two high towers, he turned his head to look at the water tribe seal on it, but his attention was pulled by the people crossing. It was a bit far, but the boat wasn’t really fast, so he could see them clearly. Two girls, staring right at him, with adorned parkas and beads that set them apart from the other locals, along with them a boy turned to his direction, with pearly white hair almost like the snow that covered the rooftops around them. Zuko must have made a face at that, because the glare he got back from him was far from welcoming or curious. He caught one of the girls pulling his shoulder before he brought his attention back to the chief, cheeks red from embarrassment and cold.
He was too affected to keep focus on the rest of the way, no matter how short it was. He didn’t even say anything, how was he ruining this already? Was all his mind could repeat as they made their way up the staircase to the palace. When they finally reached the gates, Arnook led them to the center of the throne room, where the councilmen gathered around. He had to greet each of them, making a mental note to write down all the names later.
“and my daughter, princess Yue of the northern water tribe” Arnook called as the girl from the bridge came in, along with the other two. Long Brown hair in an elaborated style and thick braids, she was beautiful and smiled at him politely, it really shouldn’t have made his guts churn in all the wrong ways.
“it’s a pleasure to finally meet you” he ran his words on autopilot, realizing he had no idea how to act towards his future fiance. Fire nation and water tribe courting process didn’t exactly overlap much, from what little uncle could supply him with before the trip. He’s supposed to learn all this before the actual engagement for the next months, but it doesn’t make this whole situation any less awkward.
Yue nodded at him softly, hands still in the front pocket of her parka as some of the councilmen began explaining how their meeting would work. He was used to the scheduled encounters and over complicated gifts in the fire nation courting process, but here they seemed to be able to meet with a lot more freedom, but not call attention to the nature of the relationship until the betrothal was formally announced, which Zuko had no idea how long would take. He couldn’t decipher what Yue was thinking, how much she already knew about any of this, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was so much he wasn’t aware of.
“and these are Sokka and Katara of the southern water tribe.” Arnook interrupts the councilmen, turning his attention to the two behind his daughter, “Sokka will be your tutor from tomorrow on, as part of the agreement he’ll teach you about the courting procedures and cultural aspects and along with the council supervise your first hunt. You all should get acquainted tonight, at the banquet.” as the chief supplied him with the information that he was basically going to be in Sokka’s hands for the foreseeable future, terror washed through him, because next to what Zuko supposed to be his sister, Sokka’s glare pierced through him as if he kicked a baby turtle-duck. There was no way he was the only one seeing that, right?
Zuko didn’t want to make this any worse, though. He extended his hand for a traditional water tribe handshake, Sokka stared, eyes widening for a second before taking his forearm firmly, expression locking back to the slightly annoyed frown just as quickly. His hair reflects the lights, even from inside the palace, the hairpiece holding it up has a delicate carving of the moon and the black and white feathers hanging from the front of the fur in his hood set him apart from everyone in the room, it’s safe to assume it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s from the southern tribe, since the girl –Katara— looks fairly similar to the rest of them.
She was also far friendlier, which just meant she was polite enough to greet him with a small smile and mention something about the avatar, which Zuko was, again, not aware was even part of this at all.
“anyway, I’m sure you had a long trip, councilman Timmiak can escort you and your guards to your respective quarters and we’ll leave you to rest,”
Timmiak led them through a long path of hallways until they reached Zuko’s new quarters. Amihan and Wú left with Timmiak after setting down Zuko’s stuff and he was, for the first time in what felt like weeks, by himself. He sighed in relief as he slid down the floor with his back turned to the door, only sparing a moment to take in his surroundings. The room was fairly large, not nearly the same as his own quarters back in the fire nation, but it was a lot cozier. There were a couple of thick white furs sprawled over the bed neatly, and spiral columns on each edge of it. A low table in the center of the room and some shelves and chests for his belongings.
He didn’t feel like getting up, or sleeping, or moving. He just wanted this first day to be over, and maybe to feel like he wasn’t about to ruin all of this in a matter of hours and disappoint uncle more than he already had by coming in the first place. He always knew it’d be like this, marriage without love, it’s pretty much the default to royalty, yeah, he didn’t think he’d have to cross the ocean to get there but in the end, it’s all fundamentally the same. He just wanted to help with something for a change.
So he had to suck it up and do something actually useful until the banquet. Unpacking it is.
By the time someone came to inform him the banquet was about to start, it was already dark. The ceremony was in a huge salon, half engulfed by the palace walls, but with a wide view to the tribe in the front. Four long tables left a square in the center of the room. He arrived with Amihan and Wú, they separated as Zuko approached the Chief’s table, taking his seat and resuming to watch as the place rapidly filled with people.
After a few moments the princess, along with her friends, comes inside. They’re all absorbed in conversation, except for Sokka, who led the way aloof from the chat, as if there was a permanent rain cloud above his head. He also is the first to sit down, right next to Zuko. Well that's just great, why didn’t he take one of the other empty seats? Zuko suppresses a sigh as Yue Katara and a bald boy who could only be the avatar settled, too.
The chief began a speech welcoming them to the tribe, and as he finished a water-bending master emerged from behind the long water tribe flags, along with other men, a presentation began and everyone around them began to settle into either attentive watching or light conversation.
“Zuko?” a voice he didn’t recognize called, “sorry, should I call you prince Zuko? Anyway, I’m Aang” the boy had a hand stretched out across Katara, who was on Zuko’s left side. “hm, just Zuko is fine” Aang smiled and proceeded to explain why he wasn’t here earlier, something about a huge fish on Kyoshi island? Zuko has no clue. It’s nice to talk to someone without having to worry about making a good impression, though, mostly because he’s no doing much of the talking anyway.
Katara joins the chat at some point and he turns back to eat, grabbing the first thing he sees on a bowl, but stopping before It reaches his lips because he made the mistake to look to his right and catch Sokka stuffing 3 of whatever was on the bowl into his mouth. Sokka catches him looking, though he doesn’t falter, instead he keeps staring daggers at Zuko even as he swallows it down, making him turn back uncomfortably and resume eating. Something he regrets as soon as the taste sits on his tongue. He’s sure he’s made a face, he tried to hide it, chewing it as fast as he could and swallowing on the hope the taste will go away, and it doesn’t, instead he begins coughing, silently enough, thank Agni, that only the ones sitting near him could hear.
“are you okay, Do you want some water?” Katara offers, he takes it without a second thought, which, in hindsight was bad, since as soon as he let the cup down and sees Sokka roll his eyes and scoffs “he’s got weak taste buds.”, making him immediately want to shrink in his seat, something that wasn’t really possible considering how low the table was. Instead he ended up choosing something else, a yellowish porridge that was delicious and a great distraction from the fact he just made a fool of himself yet again.
As the night progressed the salon, once considerably filled with people, thinns out. He was getting ready to leave, too. Exhaustion from the long trip finally catching up to him. He looked around and noticed Yue and the others on the side talking to each other, and took it as an opportunity to excuse himself, thanking the chief one last time before heading to his quarters.
He was halfway through the way to his room when he heard the growing sound of steps and someone calling his attention.
“Hey, you!” hey you, really?
“I need to clear something out” Sokka exclaims, his deadpan seemingly the same as the one he held the whole night, he never thought he’d see someone who could frown nearly as much as Mai but here they are. “okay,” he hesitates as he turns to fully face him, confusion clear in his tone.
“I don’t care who you are, how influential your family is, or any of that bullshit, what I do care about is how you’re gonna act while you’re in here, no matter how much you can pretend to be a good person, if you’re not, I’m gonna find out and you’ll regret ever coming up here.” Sokka explains firmly. And if Zuko thought the guy hated his guts, he didn’t need any proof more solid than whatever this was.
The worst part is, he can’t even blame him. He was surprised to see how accepting the people had been regarding his stay. No matter how much the fire nation changed since the end of the war, it was still so fresh, visible scars of the damage they’d caused the world is the reason he’s even here after all. So he expected someone to be at least skeptical about it, what he did not expect was that that person would be the guy he’d be pretty much glued to for months to an end until he can prove himself worthy of the princess hand.
But this? It goes beyond the damage between nations, this feels way too personal, which it’s impossible, because he only met Sokka a few hours ago, and he already didn’t seem so happy to have him there. He just had no idea why, and it was starting to bother him. There was only so much he could take before exploding anyway, and having to spend day after day with him, it was bound to happen sooner or later and Zuko wasn’t exactly famous for his patience.
“why do you hate me so much? Everyone else seems just fine, what did I do to you?” he urges, immediately regretting the decisions, as the comment came out way too accusatory, plus the face Sokka pulled, which seemed like a mix of ‘are you fucking stupid?’ and ‘OK I’m just gonna punch you in the face now’
“are you really that big of an idiot or are you messing with me because there’s no way you’re actually asking me that.” he scoffs, giving Zuko no time to actually answer before walking closer to his direction.
“if you really want to know, then I’ll tell you. I don’t know how you got into this, if it was a choice or not, but the truth is I don’t give a fuck. This isn’t a game, it’s her life. I’m not about to let Yue in the hand’s of a fuck knows who from the nation that just a few years ago was trying to decimate our people. If no one else’s gonna look out for her, I will, and if that means keeping you in line, it’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”, and he might not be pointing a finger directly at Zuko’s chest, but it sure feels like it. Instead, his gaze travels around the room, along with a frustrated sigh, he adds “I’m not trying to dismantle the deal, shit, I don’t even know you. but I don’t trust you either, so I’m warning you to not fuck this up, for your own sake.”
He's too stunned to make up a comeback, even a little touched for all the care he seems to hold for her, if not for the way he basically told Zuko he wants his head on a platter. With a frown, the prince walks off, leaving Zuko alone in the hallway staying perfectly still, eyes wide, slightly parted lips in shock, and all he can think about is... Well shit.