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Katara received a letter from the Fire Nation addressing General Iroh’s passing the same day she left the Southern Water Tribe and took a ship to said Nation.
Katara went running to the castle the moment her ship docked, and pleaded with the castle guards to let her in, proving her credentials as not only a master waterbender but as Fire Lord Zuko’s friend.
Her arrival was abrupt at worst and appreciated at best. The servants in Caldera’s castle led Katara to an empty guest room for her to stay in.
She begged the servants to lead her to Lord Zuko, but they declined each time, insisting that he was in no condition to meet with anyone at the moment.
That’s how Katara found herself wandering the halls of the vast castle alone, looking for Zuko’s room in the endless abyss of the castle.
When she finally came across a door decorated with small murals and various gold linings, she was sure she had found Zuko’s room.
She knocked twice, “Zuko?” She whispered into the large door.
A few moments passed before the door finally cracked open.
“No.”
Katara immediately recognized the voice that came from the other side of the door.
“Princess Azula. I apologize, I was looking for Zuko. I didn’t mean to wake you-“
“You didn’t wake me,” Azula cut Katara off, not caring about what the ladder had to say. Azula opened the door wider, and Katara was surprised at the princess's appearance. Her hair was disheveled and her robes looked like they had been worn for days on end without being washed. She had large eye bags and her shoulders sagged. She was anything but the Azula Katara had grown to appreciate after the hundred-year war.
Azula and Katara had become friends of sorts, exchanging letters now and again. Although Katara and Azula had fought against each other in an Agni Kai, the Princess had learned to respect Katara’s bending and vice versa.
“You look…”
“Terrifying? I’m aware.”
There was a long awkward silence between the two girls.
“May I come in?”
“Sure.” Azula opened the door enough for Katara to walk in.
The room reflected Azula’s appearance perfectly. Clothes were thrown around the room as well as other trinkets that were probably given to her after Iroh’s passing.
Both girls took a seat on Azula’s bed.
Then, with no warning, Azula began to cry. It was a weird cry, a cry she had probably never experienced before. Azula had cried in anger, disgust, hell, even joy, but never greif. Azula placed her head in her hands and hunched over her legs which were firmly stuck to the ground.
Katara took a deep breath and began to rub the princess’s back.
“I wasn’t even that close with him,” she said between cries, “but he always tried to be close to me. Always. It was so annoying.”
Katara didn’t speak, she simply let the younger girl let out her emotions as best as she could.
Once Azula’s cries died down and she was finally coherent again, she spoke.
“Is it wrong that I miss him? I never showed that I so much as liked him. But he was still so good to me and Zuzu.”
“Well, did you love him?”
“Well I mean, family’s family, right? Though that’s a shitty argument to use when you’re from this family. I wouldn’t have loved him if the Fire Nation had won the war, that’s for sure.”
“But the Fire Nation didn’t.”
“So… So I guess I might’ve. He was the only other person besides Zuzu who thought I was capable enough to be better.” She sighed.
“You have every right to grieve. No matter what anyone else says, or what those tiny voices in the back of your head may say.”
Azula sniffled, “thanks.”
“Of course.”
“God, I feel so many emotions right now. I hate it.”
Katara let out a small laugh, “yeah, that’ll happen when you lose a family member.” She thought back to her mother and all of her grief surrounding the woman. She never truly got over her mother’s death, it still haunted her. But she had learned to cope, and that seemed to be enough.
“Zuzu is right down the hall. He has the less fancy door,” Azula pointed in the direction of Zuko’s room from where she was. “He needs all the help he can get.”
“No, I don’t want to leave you alone here. Zuko is no more important than you.”
Azula sighed, “he is right now. He’s doing horrible, Katara. He hasn’t left his room in days, he hasn’t eaten a thing, no one even knows if he’s alive. At least I answer my door, you’re gonna have to kick him down if you want to get in there.”
“Are you sure?” Katara asked, “Because I’ll stay with you as long as you need.”
“I’ll be fine. Some servant will come in here and give me some ice cream to chow down on soon, so I’m set for the night. It was nice letting that out, though. But don’t you dare tell anyone that happened, or I’ll challenge you to another Agni Kai, and I’ll win.”
Katara smiled. “Okay.”
She walked out of the door with a glass of water in case she needed to break the lock on Zuko’s door. Azula had insisted she would need it.
When she came across the door that could only belong to a Fire Lord, she knocked.
No response.
She knocked again.
“Zuko?” She called, a bit louder than when she was at Azula’s door.
Still nothing.
“Zuko, I have water and can easily get through here if I need to.”
Still nothing.
Katara groaned and took the water that was in the cup Azula gave her. She pushed it under the door and onto the other side of the doorknob before freezing it and breaking it. She pushed the door open to be met with a room that looked like a tornado had gone through it. If Azula’s room was bad, this was catastrophic.
Hundreds of pages of paper were scattered across the room, and a bookshelf had even fallen from the side of one of the walls leaving small wooden shards near it. Mountains of who knows what were everywhere. Katara picked up one of the sheets of paper. The paper was funeral information that had been written then crossed out and written over again before being crumpled and thrown onto the ground. She checked the other sheets of paper to see if they were the same. They were. Each page was filled with possible places to hold Iroh’s funeral. The Fire Nation dock, outside near his tea shop, a cathedral. Each one had been exed out and written over with another idea.
Katara continued to scan the room. The only thing Katara couldn’t find was Zuko.
She checked everywhere in the room, but Zuko was nowhere to be seen. Until that is, she caught a glimpse of the palace garden from one of Zuko’s windows. The window overlooked a small pond where a young man seemed to be sitting down, motionless. Katara opened the window and called down.
“Zuko?”
The man’s head snapped up and towards Katara. If the large red scar on the man’s face was anything to go by, it was certainly Zuko.
“Katara?” He stammered out, blinking to make sure she was there.
Katara bender some of the water from the pond to help lower herself onto the garden beneath her.
When she finally reached the ground, she ran to Zuko and engulfed him in a hug.
“I am so, so sorry, Zuko.” She spoke into his ear. He was still sitting on the ground, hunched over the pond, but Katara was on her knees and lowered herself just enough so she was on level with him.
Zuko’s hands slowly made their way around Katara’s back.
“You’re here,” he sighed as he relaxed into her embrace.
“Of course I am.” She responded, hugging him even tighter.
When they finally let go, Katara was able to get a better look at Zuko. His hair was well maintained, which was good, but everything else was terrible. He very clearly hadn’t slept in days, and he wasn’t wearing the crown of the Fire Lord. Had he not spoken or hugged her before, she would have thought he was a corpse.
“What are you doing here?” She asked after a long moment of taking in his figure. Azula was right, he hadn’t eaten since.. well, probably since he got the news.
“I wanted to see the Turtleducks,” he responded as if it were common knowledge. Katara looked back at the pond to see a small family of Turtleducks swimming around. “Uncle and I would often talk while we fed them.”
Katara took in a deep breath at the mention of Iroh.
“Speaking of,” she slowly started, “how have you been?”
“What does it look like?”
Katara let out another sigh. “I mean in words, Zuko. Have you talked to anyone since- since you heard?”
Zuko swallowed, “no.”
Katara moved to sit closer to the older man, now nearing his mid-twenties. “So tell me. Please, how are you feeling?”
“Katara, I’m feeling terrible. Awful, horrible, every other word under the sun. Is that what you want to hear?”
Katara said nothing, she just waited for him to continue.
There was a very long silence before Zuko spoke again, and it was just barely above a mumble.
“I keep on trying to think about what he would tell me in this sort of situation. But I can’t. It’s all… blank. Like I can’t even remember him if he’s not here.”
Katara felt her heart beating in her chest.
“What would be say, Katara? What would he do to make things better?” He spoke louder this time, and he looked into her eyes like he had lost himself, but like when he was sixteen.
“I-“ Katara started, “I don’t know.” She answered as honestly as possible.
“Then why the hell are you even here!?” He yelled as he stood up from beside the pond. Katara followed suit.
“I’m here for you, Zuko,” She explained as calmly as possible, albeit upset about Zuko’s outburst.
“You can’t help me, Katara. No one can. Not unless they can bring him back. And not even your magic northern water tribe water would be able to do that.”
Katara stood just a foot away from Zuko. The hurt in his eyes was beyond what Katara had seen before. He looked so tired, tired of everything.
Zuko wasn’t normally one to let himself go for fear of letting down his nation, but this was different. This was far beyond ‘personal’, this was the person who shaped Zuko to be everything he was. Every piece of Zuko’s identity had been reconstructed with the help of his Uncle while he was out looking for the avatar, and even when he took over as Fire Lord.
There was something so terrifying about losing the one person who knew everything about you, and that fear had come true.
“You’re right,” Katara finally said, “no one can bring him back. No one can even come close. But I know that right now he’s looking down on you from the spirit realm waiting for you to realize that the only direction you can move is forward. You’ve spent too long working to make your life everything it is, both you and your uncle. You can’t throw that away, not now and not ever.” Katara paused, reaching for the right words to say, “We’ll never truly get over his passing, at least I don’t think. I never got over my mother’s, and neither did Sokka. But each time I look at him I see her, and I see her legacy, her love and pride, and it makes me remember to continue.”
Zuko lowered himself back down beside the pond and Katara did too. Slowly, she moved to sit beside him then took his head in her arm and lay it against her shoulder.
“Please sleep,” she pleaded, “we all need you to sleep.”
Zuko didn’t say anything, but he closed his eyes.
Katara looked over at the Turtleducks in the small pond as they swam.
She looked back to Zuko, then the Turtleducks.
Here.
This is where his funeral would be.