Chapter 3: Flaming Date

Sunlight creeps in through the window near Suki's bed and hits me right on my face. I sit up and look down at Suki, who is sleeping soundly beside me. Yesterday was filled with so many mixed emotions. We spent the rest of the afternoon together, and bought as much fish as we could carry. Then we prepared enough food to feed a small army and feasted on it once it was ready. We talked for hours, the way we would when we normally visited each other. The only thing we wouldn't mention again, was our plan to break up.

Things really were changing for both of us. Suki was playing an even bigger role on her island. She works closely with the island's leaders to make sure that Kyoshi Island won't be forgotten and becomes a part of the technology and trade movements. She was also working closely with Zuko to help him understand the needs of people that aren't from the Fire Nation, but have migrated here in the past few years. I'm just so proud of her, and no matter how much our lives might change, she's still the same Suki. She still laughs at all of my jokes and tucks her hair behind her ear to get a better look at me. I tried to take in all of her habits in so much detail last night, because I know that these memories will be all that I will have for a while.

I reach over her to try to block out the sunlight coming from her window and then ease back into bed. She doesn't even move as I pull her a little close to me. I try to fall asleep again, so that I can hold on to her a little longer.

I drifted off to sleep for about an hour when all of the sudden Suki moves and elbows me in my side. My eyes open instantly and I try to hold back the shout of pain that's rising in my throat. I watch as she moves around and finally sits up and looks at me. She squints her eyes at me and says "You look like you're going to cry."

I let out a painful breath and say "You just elbowed me really hard and woke me up!"

She kisses me on my cheek and tries to apologize. I just sit there for a moment to let the pain pass. When she notices that I didn't say anything, she starts playing with my ponytail.

That's when I start to feel the pain subside "Hey! Don't touch the hair." I try to say seriously.

She smiles "Well now you want to talk."

"I couldn't even talk from how painful your elbows are" I say with a laugh "but don't worry, that pain went away finally."

She kisses me "Good!"

She climbs over me and gets out of bed. Then she starts to pull her hair into a high ponytail like mine and heads to the kitchen. I swing my legs over the bed and get up too.

"It's a good thing I am off today. I have a feeling I would be pretty late otherwise" she says as she goes through some of her drawers.

I nod and walk over to her. Then she hands me a toothbrush and says "I knew I had these somewhere. You can use the bathroom first. I don't mind."

I take the toothbrush in one hand and use the other to pull on her ponytail. She pulls away and smiles at me again. It's like everything is so normal but in the back of my mind I know that this isn't an average morning.

I go to the bathroom and get ready quickly. I wash my face and look into the mirror carefully. I have stubble on my face, my ponytail is still crooked, and I look extremely tired. Well, the only thing I can do right now is fix the hair. I adjust it and step outside to find Suki waiting for me.

I let her step inside the bathroom and then make my way to the kitchen. I pull out the leftover rice and start frying up some more fish for our breakfast, or lunch depending on what time it is. I can only make like three different meals so we're about to have the Sokka special I guess.

I start cutting the fish without paying too much attention. Preparing fish for cooking is like second nature to me. As I'm separating everything I notice that Suki has my letters in stacks on the kitchen window sill. The stack is huge and she even has one of my drawings pushed between the edges of the window to stay in place. I think it was a drawing of her I did a few years back. I never realized that she kept all of my letters.

Suki walks toward me as I turn away from her kitchen window and face the fish in front of me. She takes the parts of the fish we don't eat and puts it in a container. Apparently there are some turtle ducks that she gives this stuff to.

I prepare our food while Suki clears a space for us to eat and starts to clean up a bit. In this moment I start to realize how much I want us to live like a real couple. I try to shake the thought out of my head, and finish cooking a little faster.

We eat and talk about how much fun last night was. Then we finish off our plates and clean everything up again. I start heading to the bed and lay back down with my arms crossed behind my head. I am stuffed and I honestly don't know what will come next.

Suki climbs over me and then lays down next to me again. We both look up at the ceiling and then turn to face one another.

"What do you want to do?" she says softly.

I smile "Let's just have a real date. Take our minds off of everything for a change."

She smiles too "Sounds good to me."

I know it might sound crazy, but we never go on dates. Usually it's not by choice but still. We end up being too exhausted, or busy, to do simple things like go to the beach for the day or walk in the park, or even eat at a restaurant. Our time together is usually spent at our jobs or at Suki's house, where we just catch up and hope that our time doesn't go by too quickly. Now, we have the chance to enjoy ourselves, doing "regular" couple stuff, and I'm going to try to forget that this will be our last time being together.

We leave Suki's house and get hit with the hot sun again. We brought water for the day so even the heat won't stop us from our journey to the beach. People walk around us as we cut through the city and make our way to the docks. I let out a sigh of relief when I see that my boat is still there. Suki tosses the bag of food and water into the boat while I start to pull it back into the water. We work together so seamlessly but I can't make a joke about it without making things a little awkward. Instead, I just help suki step into the boat before I clamber in and steer the boat east, towards Ember Island. It will take us at least an hour to get there but it will be worth it.

Suki starts to talk about her work with Zuko, so naturally I crack jokes about him and she tries her best not to laugh too much.

"I mean, anyone can do an impression of him! When we first met him, it was all "Honor!" and "Uncle!" and "My father will crush your dreams." Now it's more like "Why doesn't everyone want peace?" and "I'm Firelord, not my father!"" I say with my best Zuko voice.

Suki laughs and says "Yeah, you're right and you're not even around him as much as I am. He's come a long way, just like all of us."

I nod and we start to talk about old memories of being on team Avatar. No matter what happens, we still talk about them like it was yesterday. We wonder aloud if we would have ever found each other if it weren't for Aang. We also wish the Sky Bison were still around so that we could have our own. They're the best way to travel.

We arrive at Ember Island and it's perfect. The sand is fine and white, the water is clear, and there are hardly any people around today. We bring the boat ashore and head to the water again to swim with the waves and cool down from the heat. I don't know how we've never managed to do this before. I could stay in this moment forever. Floating in the water with Suki, and food waiting for us when we go back to shore.