The chapter begins with Suki and Sokka both out of sorts over trivial issues; Sokka over Hawky's departure, and Suki over a sad part of LATD, which she hints is related to long-lost twins.
This sounds a little silly (if no more than can usually be expected), but I imagine the non-benders do need ways to pass time, with Aang training under Katara, Toph and Zuko.
Aang trains with Zuko, while Toph and Katara watch. Katara watches Aang's training under the pretext of trying to work together and help Aang use his four elements in conjunction, but in reality, Katara wants to see Zuko shirtless. Katara points out that she looks, but does not touch, unless in certain circumstances when she has an excuse.
Aang blasts fire out of his feet, much to Zuko's pleasure, and he wants to take Appa out on a flight, with the air bison getting stir crazy. Zuko's concerned about the risk, but concedes, on the condition that Aang be cautious.
Unfortunately, Aang doesn't make it back in time to practice with Toph, much to her annoyance. Toph complains that Aang doesn't skip his firebending or waterbending lessons, and Zuko points out that he wakes Aang up early so he can't escape. Katara then surmises that the fact that she's a gentler teacher than Zuko or Toph is why Aang's more receptive to her teaching.
It's a bit disappointing that Aang's back to slacking off again, after the author saw fit to allow him to do well at training for once.
Sokka, despite having been lent Momo for a week, is still upset about Hawky's absence. Zuko suggests that giant hammocks are fun, and tries to tell one of Iroh's jokes about hammocks, but botches the delivery, so badly that the rest of the Gaang cannot even laugh politely (it might have been nice if we were told what the joke was, or how Zuko messed it up). Zuko gives up on trying to be funny.
Speaking of hammocks, the boys find one in a storeroom Katara and Suki haven't gotten around to cleaning, and even after bending the dust out of it, have trouble setting it up. They don't make much progress, but it keeps Sokka occupied.
As "team hammock" is still struggling, Aang returns, without any noted reasons for his delay, much to Sokka's annoyance (even though he writes the schedule and is not directly affected by it). With Toph training Aang, and "team hammock" working on the hammock, Suki and Katara freshen up the house. Having gotten rid of the dust, they get flowers and mop the floors.'
Katara goes to work on her room, finding various souvenirs and keepsakes in the closet. She also finds letters, pai sho sets, tea sets, weapons and training tools, books of proverbs and quotes, books on strategy, and a picture of a father and a son- by now, one can guess that this is Iroh's room, the one with the least Ozai vibes. Of course, even if Katara knows that he's Zuko's uncle, she doesn't know his name.
Katara finds a box saying "The personal effects of Lu Ten, deceased with Honors," and Katara realizes that he's the son in the picture. Despite wondering if she's crossing the line from rummaging to snooping, Katara opens the box, finding a dagger, some useless items, some clothes and some letters, one of which is to Zuko.
Almost on cue, Zuko shows up, informing Katara that he's done with the hammocks. Katara's caught off guard, but strikes up a conversation with Zuko regarding his uncle, whose name she learns.
Zuko is shocked to hear that Lu Ten wrote to him, despite knowing of how soldiers write letters to home before campaigns, and wonders why he never gave him the letter. He then concludes that his uncle "got strange" after Lu Ten's death, and put his stuff away, apparently trying to convince himself that Lu Ten was still alive. Katara convinces Zuko to open the letter, but he only gets a few lines into it, before reacting in "sad surprise" and taking off.
Katara, feeling a sense of deja vu from the time it happened with Toph in the recent past, goes to search for Zuko, but the search takes longer than she thinks, and she spends two hours looking. She realizes that the house is large, and she doesn't know his hiding places. She considers stalking him to get them again, but decides against it, and wonders if having him list them would be good.
The search goes into the third hour, but Katara's reluctant to ask the others. She runs into Sokka anyway, who lightly scolds her for not training Aang in waterbending, and throwing off the schedule. Katara wryly notes that it's easy for Sokka, who just sits in the hammock all day. Katara gets to training Aang, and after stepping on a sharp shell, realized she never taught him to heal (Can he even do that? Aang doesn't seem to know how to do advanced forms of bending, such as metalbending, bloodbending or lightningbending, so I have to wonder whether he can do healing, as an offshoot of waterbending).
Aang gets good at healing over time, and Katara decides to have him heal most injuries. Aang's quite enthusiastic about learning healing, especially since it's something of a deviation from the schedule, which he doesn't care for very much.
Aang asks about Katara's disappearing for two hours, and Katara mentions looking for Zuko. Aang asks why, and Katara evasively says she doesn't know, but the truth is that she's worried about him. Aang says that Zuko doesn't want to be found, but Katara doesn't see that as an obstacle. Aang asks Katara why she's stalking Zuko (do I detect a hint of jealousy?) and Katara says it's to protect Aang. It started out that way, but now we know that as her perspective on Zuko has change, so too have her motives.
Aang goes off to play with Appa, and Suki cooks to give Katara the night off. Katara finds Zuko on the back deck, sprawled in one of the hammocks, with the other having Toph and Sokka, and reading Lu Ten's letter. Zuko acts nonchalantly at first, but reveals that he knows Katara was searching for him, and has some idea of how long. Katara makes a mental note to look for him in the mango tree.
Katara's a bit annoyed that he disappeared, and he says he needed some time alone, an understandable desire. Katara settles into the hammock and asks Zuko if he wants to talk, and after saying that it defeats the point of getting away from the others, tentatively promises to talk later. Katara takes that as a yes, to Zuko's chagrin, but he thanks her for helping him find the letter through her habit of going through others' stuff.
Zuko approves of teaching Aang healing so long as he's not Aang's guinea pig, and they talk about how waterbending healing works (Are there other methods of bending healing?). Suki calls Katara to dinner, and Katara, with some difficulty, gets up. However, Zuko's reading the letter, and she still wants to read what it said...
An author's note follows. Apparently, the first part takes place during "The Ember Island Players", when Katara and Toph watch Aang and Zuko's training; Toph has legitimate reasons here, and Katara pretends to have them. But while Katara's still in denial about Zuko, she realizes that she can't be distracted by her crushes with a war going on, and has to do what she can to get Aang ready.
That said, she does have a "stalky relapse" when Zuko reads the letter, and gets defensive when Aang calls her out on it, which seems like a somewhat troubling omen. The author points out that Katara should have taught Aang healing; a good idea, but I have to wonder whether healing requires any sort of specialized training, and whether a non-waterbending specialist like Aang could do it.
Going back to the part about this taking place during Ember Island Players, while this is mostly a blind liveblog, I looked ahead, and noticed that it will be another 9 chapters before we get to the play in Ember Island Players (which is a three-parter), and after that arc is finished, another 12 or so chapters before the Grand Finale. Compare how eight chapters passed between the end of "The Western Air Temple" and "The Boiling Rock", and how another eight passed between the end of "The Boiling Rock" and the start of "The Southern Raiders".
The fic's going to be on Ember Island a long time, and the author will likely make use of that time to slowly build up Zutara and slowly tear down Kataang. This is to be expected, since the fic expands on canon, but it means that the plot sometimes moves very slowly.
The hammocks are said to be like the Avatar-verse's version of IKEA, with difficult to understand instructions (I seem to recall there's also a lot of sticking certain objects in certain receptacles, hence the term IKEA Erotica).But Sokka's logical enough to overcome this, especially since the author notes that hammocks are almost mandatory on tropical islands.
The author mentions in passing that "the wishing beads work", with Katara's wish of having a happy birthday having been granted.
According to the author, Katara hasn't officially met Iroh yet, although she has heard his name, and they haven't had a proper conversation (which is a valid assertion).
Iroh was grieving after losing Lu Ten, and chose to get away from fire nation politics, to a place he enjoyed with Lu Ten. As such, he wasn't in the right frame of mind to give Zuko the letter.
Zuko, after finding the letter, needs a moment. Even after he's had his moment, though, he won't be completely open about his feelings, and Katara won't pry into the letter(having only read Toph's mother's letter out of necessity), although the author promises we'll eventually see its contents. That is one limitation of first person POV, though.
Next time, Sokka gets to read LATD, while Aang is "oppressed" by the Fire Nation.
What I liked
- Exploration of Iroh's grief.
- Nicely showing Zuko in a vulnerable state.
What I didn't like
- Potentially portraying Aang as jealous of Zuko
- Aang slacking off again.
- It seems somewhat implausible that Aang could learn healing.
