Liselle: It is redundant, you're right. My beta is busy with exams. Wanna take over? ;)
Goldylokz: Paitence… patience… (ok, approx. 3 more chapters).
Hmm.No & PFS: Sob. Poor Longshot! At least Smellerbee is getting some action (even if it is with the Earth King…) Maybe Ty Lee will have to invite him in with her and Haru… ;)
RonWgirl: Thanks. :D Bumi will be sticking around…
Typewriterman: It's stuck in my head now too!
Ebbie: You know your topic list… the one right at the end… M is for… yeah. The last paragraph in this was what I was going to focus my drabble on for that. :D in case anyone doesn't know: It was masturbate.
There, I said it.
Iroh'sgals: …or on the other hand Smellerbee could be thinking "if I just gag him and close my eyes I can pretend he's Longshot" ;)
If it was Mai though, I think she'd like the chance to… not be alone with him.
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On with the show…
CHAPTER THREE: The Honeymoon Clause
"I'd like to make a toast" the Earth King said, standing up and raising his glass as Smellerbee and Longshot exchanged a mournful look across the table. "To Bosco".
"Bosco?" Half the table piped up in confusion.
"Yes. To Bosco."
The bear in question growled.
"What about your lovely fiancé?" Aang hinted to the King. If he wasn't standing up, Aang would have nudged him to further get the hint.
"Oh? Yes. Her too."
Smellerbee blushed as they toasted to her, Longshot's eyes not leaving her face for a second.
The table was beautifully set up and two young guards stood at the door, surveying the interaction between the table.
"So, Miss Beifong" The King began, sitting down again. "I have heard your parents are quite keen on welcoming Aang into the family?"
Toph knocked her glass forward, the contents spilling out onto the fresh table cloth and leaving a malt stain. "Aang?"
The Earth King just smiled obliviously. "Yes. I was talking with them when they arrived here and they gathered from your description… a powerful bender, someone you'd been on the road with, someone that you spent a lot of time fighting with… that it was the Avatar. I must say they were relieved. They wouldn't have known what to do if you'd decided to be with anyone less than the Avatar…"
These were the type of expectations that Toph had been talking about! (Well… thinking about…) Why couldn't they just respect her way of life? Why couldn't they just understand that she had to do things her own way?
Sure, they didn't like Aang… after the "kidnapping" and everything. But they certainly didn't think that anyone less powerful deserved their little girl.
Toph closed her eyes and imagined what they were going to say when she introduced Zuko:
"A traitor to his Nation!"
"He's too old for her!"
"He was beaten by his own sister for most of his life!"
"He doesn't even deserve to be called Fire Nation royalty!"
"There's no way he deserves OUR little girl!"
She looked across at him, being nuzzled by a bear and being bombarded with bad conversation by Sokka who was relaying ALL the details of his honeymoon that he felt necessary as Zuko's face looked like it was going to drop into his soup bowl.
Her parents would just have to be content with her choice, she thought. But she still felt sick to the stomach and wondered how long she could put off seeing them.
She couldn't think about this much longer because a shadow loomed at the doorway and all of a sudden, though unseen by her, she felt three sets of footsteps arrive. By the sound of everyone else's gasps she assumed that it wasn't a good thing.
"Well, well, well… if it isn't my brother… and friends."
Zuko let out a half-squeal like a pig caught eating out of someone else's trough and then catching his sister's eye, swallowed his chicken hard and began choking on some of the bone.
His face turning a purple color, Sokka whacked him on the back a few times, letting the bear on the other side of him get excited and start to imitate Sokka by giving Zuko a bit more of a pounding that he could bear (no pun intended).
Toph on the other hand, stood up taking action. "How'd you get in?"
Azula ignored the question. "Oh yes, it's my pathetic brother's child girlfriend."
At this, Toph struggled to get at her but was held back by Bumi. "If you're trying to get another feel, old man…" through gritted teeth she turned her anger to him, since she couldn't attack Azula. "Don't think I didn't notice you casually falling on me when we were on the bison."
"What. Is. She. Doing. Here? Katara seethed, meeting Azula's self-confident eyes.
"I invited her of course!" The Earth King replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
The table went up in quite understandable uproar.
"You?" "You did WHAT?" "What?!!" were the not so varied responses from around the group.
"Why?" Katara – the most cool headed of all of them (except possibly for Bumi who was glancing admirably around at the decorative glass windows high in the room) – asked at last.
"Because I have to take a honeymoon and this lovely young lady has already run the Earth Kingdom before…"
"When she stole it from you!" Katara replied angrily.
"But Aang is too busy to run the Earth Kingdom and I thought that I would arrange someone else."
Azula went and sat herself at the table, Mai and Ty Lee who were beside her the entire time, followed and stood behind – one of them looking quite bored and the other waving to Sokka.
"She does have experience" Aang backed up the King's choice a little sheepishly. He knew the king had trouble doing anything by himself, so he wasn't going to embarrass him for trying now.
"Wait a second. Have to take? Nobody is making you leave." Toph said indignantly to the King.
"Actually…" He dug out a large book from a place that nobody could see and started flipping through it. "See. Here." He pointed at a spot in it and passed it on to Sokka, who passed it on to Zuko, who passed it along to Bosco and that's where the passing halted. "Clause 2650. It says that there are "kingly duties" that must be performed once one goes on a honeymoon that can not be avoided."
Longshot's face went red, but it wasn't redder than Smellerbee's who threw the rest of her drink down her throat and had her time to choke, spluttering and making such a commotion that Bumi leant over Katara and rubbed her back for her.
"You're going on a honeymoon because of a clause?" Sokka asked.
"Of course. I do most things because of a clause. I bathe because of clause 241. I watch what I eat because of clause 617. I have counsellors like my wonderful Longshot and Smellerbee because of clause 15." He said as if there was nothing strange about this at all.
"And I'm here to help…" Azula said to finish the discussion about it, looking like a cat that'd just swallowed about 12 mice:
Bloated but content…. Very, very content.
"Hi cutie!" Ty Lee finally said to Sokka… And Zuko's head finally fell into his bowl, although unfortunately the liquid was too thin to drown himself in.
If that wasn't all, just then Bosco, having gotten too excited of the frantic hitting of the boy beside him, decided to disgust and appal all present by a display of his own. Smellerbee, just looked on at the horrified looks of the others. "He usually does that after eating… or when he's bored… or anytime really." She explained.
Mai was the only one smirking. She really did like that bear.
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EXCITING SNEAK PEAKS FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER:
Longerbee:
Don't go. His eyes pled.
"I have to, Longshot. After what happened tonight… someone needs to be in the palace taking care of things."
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Toko:
"Just one duel and then if I win… you'll leave me alone" he suggested. Thinking of the only way he could to fairly get her to go back to her own room.
She jumped on him and held him down. "You're on…" She said, as he struggled to throw her on the floor.
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Kataang:
It was obvious to Aang she was thinking about Jet. This city always reminded him of something different though.
His rebirth. When Katara saved him – it was like she brought him back to life again and he fell in love with her… even more than he'd ever been before.
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Plus the most shippable couple in the entire fic:
(Guess the Oh-So-Obvious/Hints in the last 2 chapters Pairing)
"Yeah…" she began, running her hand smoothly over the bristly fur, "I missed you too." She said quietly enough that no one else could hear.